| 54 BC | Expeditions of Julius Caesar. |
| AD 43 | Invasion of Britain by Emperor Claudius. |
| c.50 | Foundation of London. |
| 61 | Revolt of Boudicca (Boadicea) against the Romans. |
| 122 | Construction of Hadrian’s Wall begun, from the Tyne to the Solway Firth. |
| 409 | End of Roman rule in Britain. |
| c.450 | Jutes settle in Kent. |
| c.477 | Saxons settle in Sussex, Wessex, and Essex. |
| c.495 | Angles settle in Norfolk and Suffolk (East Anglia). |
| 597 | Saint Augustine’s mission arrives in Kent from Rome. |
| 793-795 | Danish raids on Lindisfarne, Jarrow and Iona. |
| 843 | Kenneth MacAlpine engages in first stage of Scottish unification. |
| 867 | Northumbria falls to the Danes. |
| 870 | East Anglia falls to the Danes. |
| 871 | Alfred becomes king of Wessex. |
| 878 | Pence of Edington determines the boundary between the Saxon and Danish-controlled sectors of England. |
| 919 | Norse kingdom of York is founded by Raegnald. |
| 1016 | Cnut becomes king of England. |
| 1017 | Cnut divides England into four earldoms. |
| 1035 | Death of Cnut. |
| 1066 | Duke William of Normandy defeats and kills King Harold and becomes king of England. |
| 1086 | Domesday survey. |
| 1087 | Death of William the Conqueror; accession of his son William II Rufus. |
| 1100 | Death of William II; accession of Henry I. |
| 1106 | Henry I takes Normandy. |
| 1135 | Death of Henry I; accession of Stephen. |
| 1139-1153 | Civil war in England. |
| 1154 | Accession of Henry II. |
| 1169-1172 | English conquest of Ireland begins. |
| 1170 | Murder of Archbishop Thomas à Becket. |
| 1189 | Death of Henry II; accession of Richard I. |
| 1199 | Death of Richard I; accession of John. |
| 1215 | Magna Carta; civil war in England. |
| 1216 | Death of John; accession of Henry III. |
| 1259 | Treaty of Paris between England and France. |
| 1265 | Battle of Evesham; death of Simon de Montfort. |
| 1267 | Henry recognizes Llywelyn ap Gruffydd as Prince of Wales. |
| 1272 | Death of Henry III; accession of Edward I. |
| 1284 | Wales brought under English control. |
| 1291 | Edward I asserts his overlordship over Scotland. |
| 1294 | War with France begins. |
| 1296 | Edward I invades Scotland. |
| 1307 | Death of Edward I; accession of Edward II. |
| 1314 | Scottish victory at Bannockburn under Robert Bruce. |
| 1315-1316 | Great famine. |
| 1321-1322 | Civil war in England. |
| 1337 | The Hundred Years’ War begins. |
| 1346 | English victory over Crecy. |
| 1347 | English capture of Calais. |
| 1348 | First occurrence of the ‘Black Death’ (plague) in England. |
| 1356 | English victory at Poitiers. |
| 1361 | Second major occurrence of the Black Death. |
| 1381 | The Peasants’ Revolt. |
| 1382 | Condemnation of John Wycliffe’s works. |
| 1394-1395 | Richard II’s expedition to Ireland. |
| 1396 | Anglo-French treaty. |
| 1412 | St Andrews University founded in Scotland. |
| 1415 | English victory at Agincourt. |
| 1419-1420 | English conquest of Normandy. |
| 1420 | Anglo-French treaty of Troyes. |
| 1449-1450 | French overrunning of Normady. |
| 1477 | William Caxton’s first printed book in England. |
| 1483 | Death of Richard II at Bosworth; accession of Henry VII. |
| 1509 | Accession of Henry VIII. |
| 1512 | War with France and Scotland. |
| 1528 | War with Spain. |
| 1533 | Henry VIII marries Ann Boleyn; birth of Princess Elizabeth. |
| 1534 | Act of Supremacy; the King becomes Supreme Head of the English Church. |
| 1535 | Execution of Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher. |
| 1536-1543 | Wales joins England under one administration. |
| 1536 | Dissolution of the Monasteries; union of England and Wales. |
| 1543 | War with France. |
| 1547 | Death of Henry VIII; accession of 10-year-old Edward VI. |
| 1549 | First Book of Common Prayer. |
| 1555 | Persecution of Protestants begins under Mary Tudor. |
| 1570 | Papal bull excommunicating Queen Elizabeth I. |
| 1580 | Sir Francis drake becomes the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world. |
| 1587 | War with Spain. |
| 1588 | Defeat of the Spanish Armada. |
| 1603 | James VI of Scotland succeeds to the throne as James I of England. |
| 1605 | Gunpowder Plot of Guy Fawkes. |
| 1607 | Settlement of Virginia in North America. |
| 1609 | Rebellion of the Northern Earls in Ireland; beginnings of the Planting of Ulster by Scotts and English Protestants. |
| 1611 | Publications of Authorized Version of the Bible. |
| 1620 | Pilgrim Fathers sail to New England. |
| 1624-1630 | War with Spain. |
| 1626-1629 | War with France. |
| 1629 | Charles I dissolves Parliament. |
| 1640 | Long Parliament summoned. |
| 1642-1649 | Civil War between Royalists (‘Cavaliers’) and Parliamentarians (‘Roundheads’). |
| 1646 | Presbyterian Church established in Scotland. |
| 1649 | Trial and execution of Charles I; England becomes a Republic (‘Commonwealth’). |
| 1649-1653 | The ‘Rump’ Parliament. |
| 1649-1650 | Oliver Cromwell ‘pacifies’ Ireland. |
| 1650-1652 | Oliver Cromwell conquers Scotland. |
| 1653 | Cromwell dissolves the ‘Rump’ Parliament and becomes Lord Protector. |
| 1655-1660 | War with Spain. |
| 1658 | Cromwell dies and is succeeded by his son Richard. |
| 1659 | Richard is overthrown by the army. |
| 1660 | Charles II is restored. |
| 1662 | The Royal Society is established. |
| 1665 | The Great Plague. |
| 1666 | The Great Fire of London. |
| 1679-1681 | The emergence of Whig and Tory parties. |
| 1688 | ‘Glorious Revolution’: William of Orange invades; James II escapes to France; accession of William III. |
| 1689 | Bill of Rights settles succession to the throne and declares illegal various grievances. |
| 1690 | James II defeated by William III in Ireland (Battle of the Boyne). |
| 1694 | Bank of England is founded. |
| 1701 | The War of Spanish Succession begins. |
| 1702 | British capture Gibraltar from spain. |
| 1704 | Malborough defeats the French at the Battle of Blenheim. |
| 1707 | Union of England and Scotland. |
| 1713 | Peace Treaty of Utrecht concludes the War of Spanish Succession. |
| 1715 | Jacobite rebellion in Scotland under Earl of Mar. |
| 1720 | South Sea Bubble: many investors ruined after speculation in the stock of the South Sea Company. |
| 1721 | Walpole ministry. |
| 1738 | John Wesley begins the Methodist movement. |
| 1745 | Prince Charles Edward leads a second Jacobite rising in Scotland and is finally defeated at Culloden. |
| 1756 | Seven Years’ War: Britain allied with Frederick the Great of Prussia against France, Austria and Russia. |
| 1757 | Battle of Plassey: British victory of Bengal over the French in India. |
| 1759 | Capture of Quebec: British victory over the French in Canada. |
| c.1760s-1830s | Industrial Revolution. |
| 1763 | Peace of Paris concludes Seven Years’ War. |
| 1769 | James Watt’s steam engine patented. |
| 1773 | Boston Tea Party: American colonists protest against the East India Company’s monopoly of tea exports to America. |
| 1776 | Declaration of American Independence; Adam Smith publishes Wealth of Nations. |
| 1783 | Peace of Versailles recognizes independence of American colonies. |
| 1796 | Vaccination against smallpox introduced. |
| 1801 | Union with Ireland. |
| 1802 | Prime minister Peel introduces first factory legislation. |
| 1803 | War with France. |
| 1805 | Battle of Trafalgar: Nelson defeats the French and Spanish fleets. |
| 1811 | ‘Luddite’ disturbances in Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. |
| 1813 | East India Company’s monopoly abolished. |
| 1815 | Battle of Waterloo: defeat of Napoleon. Congress of Vienna; peace in Europe. Corn Law passed setting the price of corn at 80s. per quarter. |
| 1819 | Peterloo massacre in Manchester. |
| 1825 | Stockton-Darlington railway opened. Trade Union legalized. |
| 1828 | Nonconformists allowed to hold public offices. |
| 1829 | Roman Catholics are given vote and allowed to hold public offices; organization of the police force by Robert Peele. |
| 1832 | First Reform Act extends franchise and restructures representation in Parliament. |
| 1833 | First government grant for education. |
| 1834 | Slavery is abolished in the British Empire. Parish workhouses instituted. |
| 1837 | Accession of Queen Victoria. |
| 1838 | People’s Charter demands fundamental political reform. |
| 1840 | Penny post is instituted. |
| 1844 | Rochdale Co-operative Society is founded. Royal Commission on Health of Towns. Potato famine begins in Ireland. |
| 1844-1845 | Railway mania. 5,000 miles of tract laid. |
| 1846 | Corn Law abolished. |
| 1847 | Chloroform is first used as an anaesthetic. |
| 1848 | Chartism finally collapses. Public Health Act. |
| 1851 | Great Exhibition is held in London at the Crystal Palace. |
| 1854 | Working Men’s College founded in London. The Crimean War, in which Britain and France are engaged with Russia, and with Florence Nightingale comes to public prominence. |
| 1856 | Bessemer’s new, and cheaper, steel making process is introduced. |
| 1857 | Matrimonial Causes Act, setting up divorce courts allowing men to obtain divorce on the grounds of the adultery of the wife. |
| 1858 | Indian Mutiny suppressed. |
| 1859 | The Society for promoting the Employment of Women formed. Publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. |
| 1862 | Limited Liability Act provides vital stimulus to accumulation of capital shares. |
| 1864 | First national Trade Union Conference is held. |
| 1865 | Irish Fenian movement founded against British rule. |
| 1867 | Second Reform Act increases suffrage. |
| 1868 | Trades Union Congress meets for the first time. |
| 1869 | Labour Representation League founded. Irish Church disestablished. |
| 1870 | Forster’s Education Act extends the provision of elementary education. Married Women’s Property Act extends the rights of women in marriage. |
| 1872 | Ballot Act creates secret voting. |
| 1874 | First Trade Union Members of Parliament elected. Disraeli’s second Conservative government. |
| 1875 | Disraeli buys Suez Canal shares, gaining a controlling interest for Britain. Agricultural depression deepens. |
| 1876 | Queen Victoria proclaimed Empress of India. |
| 1878 | Women are admitted to degree courses at the University of London. |
| 1879 | British-Zulu war in Africa. |
| 1880 | Mundella’s Education Act introduces compulsory schooling for children between the ages of five and thirteen. |
| 1884 | Third Reform Act extends suffrage to virtually all adult males. A series of explosions in London caused by Fenians. |
| 1886 | Gladstone’s third Liberal government fails to enact first Home Rule Bill for Ireland: Liberal Party splits. |
| 1892 | Three Independent Socialists elected as MPs. |
| 1893 | Second Home Rule Bill rejected by Lords; election of the first socialist M.P., Keir Hardie. |
| 1897 | National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies founded. |
| 1899 | Boer war in South Africa begins. |
| 1900 | Labour Party founded. |
| 1901 | Death of Queen Victoria. |
| 1902 | Boer War ends. |
| 1904 | Anglo-French Entente. |
| 1906 | Labour Party wins fifty-three seats in the General Election. |
| 1908 | Old Age Pension introduced. |
| 1909 | Campaign for female suffrage intensifies. |
| 1911 | The physicist Rutherford propounds a new theory of the atom. Parliament curtails power of the House of lords; establishes five-yearly elections. |
| 1914 | The Great War (First World War) breaks out. |
| 1915-1916 | Dardanelles expedition, ending in British withdrawal from Gallipoli. |
| 1918 | The Great War finally ends after immense destruction and loss of life. Limited female franchise granted in Britain. |
| 1922 | Creation of the Irish Free State, following the treaty concluded with Sinn Fein in December 1921. |
| 1924 | Macdonald’s first Labour government. Conservatives return to office under Prime minister Baldwin. |
| 1925 | Plaid Cymru, the welsh nationalist party founded. |
| 1926 | General Strike (3-12 May). |
| 1929 | General election: MacDonald leads the second Labour government. |
| 1935 | Government of India Act. |
| 1937 | Neville Chamberlain succeeds Baldwin as Conservative Prime Minister. |
| 1938 | Chamberlain meets Hitler in Munich. Abdication of Edward VIII. |
| 1939 | British Empire declares war on Germany (3 September). |
| 1940 | Winston Churchill succeeds Chamberlain as Prime Minister. |
| 1942 | Montgomery’s victory at El Alamein, North Africa. |
| 1943 | Anglo-American armies invade Italy. |
| 1944 | D-day invasion of France. Butler Education Act provides for free state education, compulsory to age 15. |
| 1945 | End of war in Europe (8 May). General election; massive Labour victory; Attlee becomes Prime Minister. |
| 1946 | National Health Service established. |
| 1947 | Coal and other industries nationalized; end of British rule in India. |
| 1948 | Establishment of the National Health Service and Welfare State. |
| 1949 | NATO founded. |
| 1953 | Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. |
| 1956 | Anglo-French invasion of Suez is followed by withdrawal. |
| 1957 | National Service (compulsory military service) abolished. |
| 1959 | Conservatives win with large majority. |
| 1960 | Government announces bid to join the Common Market. |
| 1963 | Profumo scandal. Philby is identified as the third Soviet spy in the Burgess and Maclean affair of 1951. |
| 1964 | Labour under Harold Wilson win narrow majority. |
| 1965 | Capital punishment abolished in Britain. |
| 1966 | General election; Labour win with much larger majority. |
| 1967 | Devaluation of the pound. Legalisation of abortion and homosexuality. |
| 1969 | British troops are sent into Northern Ireland. |
| 1970 | Conservatives under Edward Heath returned to office. |
| 1971 | Decimal currency replaces pounds, shillings, pence, and farthing. |
| 1972 | Prime Minister Heath announces direct rule in Northern Ireland. Stormont abolished. School-leaving age raised to 16. |
| 1973 | Britain enters European Common Market. |
| 1975 | Britain begins to exploit North Sea oil. |
| 1976 | Economic crisis; Britain obtains help from the International Monetary Fund. Callaghan becomes Prime Minister after Wilson’s resignation. |
| 1977 | Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. |
| 1978 | ‘Winter of Discontent’: strikes and shutdowns all over Britain. |
| 1979 | Conservatives under Mrs Thatcher elected. |
| 1981 | Social Democratic Party founded. |
| 1982 | Britain defeats Argentina in war over the Falkland Islands. |
| 1983 | General election; Mrs Thatcher’s Conservative government is returned with massive majority. |
| 1984 | Miners’ strike lasts a year. |
| 1986 | Channel Tunnel treaty signed. |
| 1987 | General election; Mrs Thatcher’s Conservative government again returned with a majority of over 100. |
| 1990 | Mrs Thatcher succeeded as Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party by John Major. |
| 1992 | Britain signs the Maastricht Treaty on European Union. |
| 1993 | The single European market takes effect. |
| 1994 | Labour Party under the new leader, Tony Blair, abandons its commitment to public ownership of major utilities. Opening of the Channel Tunnel between Britain and France. |
| 1997 | Labour Party elected to power under Tony Blair with a massive majority. |
List of Events in American History
WereVerse Universe Baby!
Dr. Hugh Fox III 