History of the United Kingdom/Timelines

(Sources: 1700-1899 Norman Davies: The Isles, A History", Appendix 42, Macmillan 1999.          Key Dates of Parliament'', House of Commons, 2008.[]

0 to 500 BCE

 * Celtic immigration

0 to 400AD

 * Roman occupation

401 to 800

 * Saxon Britain
 * Saint Augustine (597-

801 to 1000

 * Danish invasions
 * Alfred the Great, King of Wessex (871-899)

11th century

 * Norman Conquest
 * Feudal system.
 * Domesday Book (1086)

12th century

 * Norman invasion of Ireland

13th century

 * Magna Carta(1215) - the founding principles of the British constitution.
 * Model Parliament" (1295) - summoned by Edward I and generally regarded as the first representative assembly.

15th century
1413   Henry V (1413-22)

1415   Agincourt

1422   Henry VI (1422-61)

1461   Edward IV (1461-83)

1483   Richard III (1483-85)

1485   Henry VII (1485-1509)

16th century
1509   Henry VIII (1509-47)

1547    Edward VI (1547-53)

1553    Mary I (1553-58)

1558   Elizabeth I (1559-1603)

1559   The Armada

17th century
1603   James I (1603-25).

1625   Charles I (1625-49)

1642    Charles I enters the Commons to arrest dissidents and the Speaker replies:
 * "May it please Your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see, nor tongue to speak in this place, but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here, and I humbly beg Your Majesty's pardon that I cannot give any other answer than this to what Your Majesty is pleased to demand of me".

1643-46 Civil War.

1660   Restoration. Charles II (1660-85)

1673   Test Act. Catholics excluded from office.

1685    James II (1685-88)       Monmouth Rebellion.

1688   "The Glorious Revolution" and Bill of Rights  - limited the power of the king over Parliament.

1689    William and Mary.

1694    The Bank of England

18th century
1707   Act of Union - with Scotland.

1713   Treaty of Utrecht.

1714     Hanoverian succession. George I (1714-27)

1727   Geoge II (1727-1760)

1715   First Jacobite Rising

1739-48   War of Jenkins Ear - with Spain.

1744-8 War of the Austrian Succession.

1745   Second Jacobite Rising - "the '45"

1746   Battle of Culloden.

1756-63 Seven Years War - acquisition of India and Canada.

1760   George III (1760-1820).

1775-81 War of American Independence - the creation of the United States of America.

1787    Kingdom of Ireland granted autonomy.

1789-1815 French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars.

19th century
1801   Act of Union - with Ireland.

1805   Battle of Trafalgar.

1815   Battle of Waterloo.

1820   George IV (1820-30).

1830   William IV (1830-37).

1832    Reform Act Raised the  proportion of adult English males entitled to vote to 20 per cent.

1837     Queen Victoria (1837-1901)/

1845-50 Irish Famine.

1846   Repeal of Corn Laws.

1833-36 Crimean War.

1857-58 Indian Mutiny.

1874   Disraeli's First Conservative Government (1874-80).

1880   Gladstone's Liberal Government.

1898   Battle of Omdurman

1899-1902 Boer War.

20th century
1902-05 Balfour's Conservative Government.

1902   Edward VII (1902-10).

1905-08 Campbell-Bannerman's Liberal Government.

1908-1915 Asquith's Liberal Government (Lloyd George Chancellor of the Exchequer)

1911    George V (1911-36). Lloyd George's National Insurance Bill.

1914-18    First World War.

1915-16 Asquith's Coalition Government.

The inter-war years
1918    Representation of the People Act - gave the vote to men over 21 and women over 30 - increasing the electorate from 8 million to 21 million.

1919   Treaty of Versailles.

1919-23 Lloyd George's Coalition Governments.

1920   Ireland gets Home Rule.

1922-23 Bonar Law's Conservative Government.

1923-24 Baldwin's First Conservative Government

1924    Macdonald's First Labour Government.

1924-29 Baldwin's Second Conservative Government.

1926   General Strike. Baird's television system.

1928    Fleming discovers penicillin

1929-31 Macdonald's Second Labour Government.

1931   Britain leaves the gold standard.

1931-35 Macdonald's National Government.

1935-37 Baldwin's National Government.

1936   Abdication of Edward VII.

1937   George VI (1937-52}

1937-40 Chamberlain's Conservative Government.

1938   Munich Pact with Germany.

1939-45   Second World War

1940-45 Churchill's Wartime Coalition Government.

Post-war Britain
1945   Churchill's  First Conservative Government.

1945-51 Atlee's Labour Government

1948    National Health Service.

1951-55 Churchill's Second Conservative Government.

1953   Elizabeth II. Crick and Watson establish the structure of DNA.

1955-57 Eden's Conservative Government.

1956   Suez war.

1957-63 MacMillan Prime Minister of Conservative Government.

1963-70 Home Prime Minister of Conservative Government.

1970       Heath Prime Minister of Conservative Government.

1973   Britain joins the European Community. European Communities Act makes EC law enforceable in the UK.

1979-1990 Thatcher's Conservative Governments.

1986    Single European Act - introduced Qualified Majority Voting to most European Union decisions.

1982    Falklands war. 1990    Major's Conservative Government