BRITISH CHRONOLOGY

1547-53 - Reign of Edward VI
1553-58 - Reign of Mary I
1558-1603 - Reign of Elizabeth I
1588 - Defeat of the Spanish Armada
1600 - East India Company created
1603 - James I takes the throne
1615 - Death of William Shakespeare
1625 - Charles I takes the throne
1629 - Charles dissolves Parliament and rules without it till 1640
1642-49 - English Civil War
1649 - The trial and execution of Charles I
1653 - Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector
1658 - Death of Oliver Cromwell
1660 - Charles II issues the Declaration of Breda and is restored
1660 - Samuel Pepys begins his diary
1665(-1666) - The great plague rages
1666 - The Fire of London
1670 - Hudson's Bay Company is incorporated
1672 - Charles II issues the Declaration of Indulgence
1673 - The Test Act is passed
1675 - Wren's St Paul's cathedral is started
1677 - Princess Mary marries William of Orange
1678 - Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress is published
1679 - Habeas Corpus Act is passed
1681(-1685) - Charles II rules without parliament
1681 - Execution of Oliver Plunket, Primate of All Ireland
1685 - James II becomes King
1685 - The Monmouth Rebellion
1686 - The Edict of Nantes (1598) is revoked
1687 - James II dissolves parliament
1687 - James II issues his 1st Declaration of Indulgence
1687 - Newton's Principia is completed
1688 - James II issues his 2nd Declaration of Indulgence
1688 - William of Orange lands in England & James flees abroad
1689 - Reign of William III and Mary II commences
1689 - The Bill of Rights and Toleration Act are passed
1690 - The Irish Jacobites are defeated at the Boyne
1692 - The MacDonalds are massacred at Glencoe
1694 - Death of Queen Mary
1694 - The Bank of England is founded
1695 - The Bank of Scotland is founded
1698 - Savery invents the first steam engine
1701 - Act of Settlement for Hanoverian succession
1702 - Reign of Queen Anne commences
1704 - Marlborough wins at Blenheim
1707 - Act of Union with Scotland is passed
1714 - George I becomes King
1715 - Jacobite Rising
1719 - Jacobite Rising
1719 - Defoe's Robinson Crusoe is published
1720 - South Sea bubble bursts
1722 - Sir Robert Walpole becomes first "Prime Minister"
1726(-1729) - Famine in Ireland
1727 - George II becomes King
1727 - Death of Isaac Newton
1728 - The Irish Catholics are deprived of the vote
1729 - Charles Wesley founds the Oxford Methodists
1730 - The Serpentine laid out in Hyde Park, London
1733 - John Kay invents the flying shuttle
1734 - Death of Rob Roy
1736 - Witchcraft is abolished as a crime
1739 - The Black Watch, the 42nd regiment, is formed
1739 - Charter for Foundling Hospital is granted
1740 - Famine in Ireland
1740 - Arne composes "Rule Brittania"
1742 - Earl of Wilmington becomes P.M.
1742 - Handel's Messiah is performed in Dublin
1743 - Henry Pelham becomes P.M.
1745 - The last Jacobite rebellion breaks out
1746 - The Jacobites are defeated at Culloden
1752 - The Gregorian calendar is introduced
1753 - Hardwicke's Marriage Act is passed
1754 - The Duke of Newcastle becomes P.M.
1755 - Dr. Johnson's Dictionary is published
1756 - The Seven Years' War starts
1758 - Halley's comet returns
1759 - Wolfe's victory at Quebec
1759 - Wedgwood opens the Burslem pottery
1760 - George III becomes King
1761 - The Bridgewater canal is opened
1762 - Earl of Bute becomes Prime Minister
1763 - Grenville becomes Prime Minister
1763 - Seven Years' War ends
1765 - Rockingham becomes Prime Minister
1765 - Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny
1769 - Watt's steam engine and Arkwright's waterframe patented
1770 - Lord North becomes Prime Minister
1773 - Captain Cook reaches the Antarctic
1775 - The American Revolution starts
1776 - The American Declaration of Independence is made
1777 - The British surrender at Saratoga
1778 - Death of Pitt the elder
1779 - Captain Cook is killed in Hawaii
1779 - Crompton produces his "mule"; first iron bridge is completed at Coalbrookdale
1780 - The Gordon riots occur
1780 - The first Epsom Derby is held
1781 - The British surrender at Yorktown
1783 - Pitt the younger becomes P.M.
1784 - The India Act is passed
1787 - Edmund Cartwright patents his power loom
1788 - George III's insanity causes the regency crisis
1792 - Tom Paine's "Rights of Man" completed
1792 - The French Revolutionary War breaks out
1795 - The Speenhamland system introduced
1796 - Jenner's cowpox vaccination tested
1797 - Nore & Spithead mutinies
1797 - Battle of Cape St. Vincent
1798 - Irish rebellion is crushed
1798 - Nelson victory at Aboukir Bay
1799 - Income tax is levied
1799 - Napoleon comes to power
1801 - Addington becomes P.M.
1802 - West India docks completed
1803 - Napoleonic War begins
1804 - Pitt the younger, P.M. again
1805 - Battle of Trafalgar
1806 - East India docks completed
1807 - Slave trade abolished
1807 - Portland Prime Minister
1808 - Peninsular War begins
1809 - Spencer Perceval P.M.
1810 - George III becomes insane
1812 - Spencer Perceval assassinated
1812 - Lord Liverpool Prime Minister
1813 - Regent Street built in London
1814 - Gas lighting in Westminster
1815 - Battle of Waterloo
1816 - Riots at Spa Fields
1819 - Factory Act passed
1819 - Peterloo massacre
1820 - George IV becomes King
1827 - Canning then Goderich P.M.
1828 - Wellington Prime Minister
1830 - William IV becomes King
1830 - Lord Grey Prime Minister
1831 - Cholera epidemic
1832 - 1st Reform Act passed
1834 - Melbourne then Peel P.M.
1834 - Tolpuddle martyrs transported
1834 - Houses of Parliament burned down
1837 - Victoria becomes Queen
1840 - Penny post introduced
1840 - Victoria marries Albert
1841 - Peel Prime Minister
1844 - 1st telegraph line in England
1845 - Irish famine starts
1846 - Corn laws repealed
1846 - Russell Prime Minister
1848 - Cholera epidemic
1851 - Great Exhibition held
1854 - Crimean War breaks out
1856 - Crimean War ends
1864 - Albert Memorial built
1866 - Atlantic cable laid
1867 - 1st bicycle produced
1867 - 2nd Reform Act passed
1868 - TUC founded
1869 - Cutty Sark launched
1870 - Charles Dickens dies
1870 - 1st Dr. Barnado's home
1871 - Stanley meets Livingstone
1871 - Bank holidays introduced
1874 - Disraeli Prime Minister
1878 - Salvation Army named
1880 - 1st Boer War starts
1880 - Gladstone Prime Minister
1883 - "Treasure Island" published
1884 - 3rd Reform Act passed
1885 - Salisbury Prime Minister
1888 - Jack the Ripper murders
1889 - London dock strike
1892 - Gladstone Prime Minister
1894 - Rosebery Prime Minister
1895 - Westminster Cathedral begun
1895 - Oscar Wilde tried
1896 - "Daily Mail" is launched
1897 - Victoria's Diamond Jubilee
1898 - Death of Gladstone
1899 - 2nd Boer War starts
1900 - Labour Party formed
1900 - "Daily Express" launched
1901 - Edward VII becomes King
1905 - 1st motor buses in London
1905 - Campbell-Bannerman P.M.
1908 - Asquith Prime Minister
1910 - George V becomes King
1912 - Scott reaches South Pole
1914 - Irish Home Rule Act passed
1914 - World War 1 breaks out
1916 - Lloyd George Prime Minister
1918 - World War 1 ends
1918 - R.A.F. formed
1919 - Lady Astor 1st woman M.P.
1919 - I.R.A. formed
1920 - Black & Tans to Ireland
1921 - Irish Free State created
1922 - Bonar Law Prime Minister
1924 - Britain's 1st Labour Government
1928 - Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act
1936 - Edward VIII abdicates
1936 - George VI becomes King
1939 - Outbreak of WW2
1945 - End of WW2