Life-in-the-UK-timeline-leadership

### Timeline of UK leadership/events

- 796 AD King Alfred the Great against Vikings
- 1066 AD William the Conqueror, defeats Saxon king Harold, "Norman Conquest"
- 1215 King John is forced to sign "Magna Carta" (king cannot amend laws, or take decisions without consulting noblemen/parliament)
- 1284 King Edward I (Statute of Rhuddlan annex Wales into Crown of England)
- 1314 Scottish King "Robert the Bruce" defeats the English at the "Battle of Bannockburn"
- 1415 King Henry V defeats the French in "Battle of Agincourt"
- 1485 Henry Tudor defeat King Richard III in "War of Roses", and became "King Henry VII"
- 1509-1547 Henry III (6 wives) (called "King of Ireland")
- ... Edward VI (Henry VIII's son, died at 15 years old after 6 years of king)
- ... Mary (Henry VIII's daughter, died early after as well)
- 1558-1603 Queen Elizabeth I (queen from 1558 until her death on 24 March 1603)
    + William Shakespeare 1564-1616
- 1603-1625 King James VI of Scotland became King, renamed to King James I of England
    + believed in the ‘Divine Right of Kings’
- 1625-1649 Charles I (son of James I)
    + believed in the ‘Divine Right of Kings’
    + 11 years without parliament
    + executed after the civil war by parliament (1649)
    + Civil War: 1642-1645
- 1649-1658 Oliver Cromwell
    + leader of the England republic (no king/queen for few years)
    + Charles II was chosen by Scottish but he lost against Cromwell and escaped to Europe
    + after he died in 1658, Richard (his son), became Lord Protector in his place but was not able to control the country
- 1660-1685 Charles II
    + In May 1660, Parliament invited Charles II to come back from exile in the Netherlands
    + 1665 London plague, 1666 London fire
    + 1679, "The Habeas Corpus Act" became law (everyone has a right for court)
- 1685-1688 James II
    + he was going against parliament
    + James II’s elder daughter, Mary, was married to her cousin William "Prince of Orange", the Protestant ruler of the Netherlands
    + In 1688, important Protestants in England asked William to invade England and proclaim himself king
    + "Glorious Revolution"
        * The laws passed after the Glorious Revolution are the beginning of what is called ‘constitutional monarchy’
    + James’ supporters became known as Jacobites.
- 1689 The Bill of Rights
    + confirmed the rights of Parliament and the limits of the king’s power
- 1689-1702 William II/William III
    + Some constituencies were controlled by a single wealthy family. These were called ‘pocket boroughs’. 
    + Other constituencies had hardly any voters and were called ‘rotten boroughs’
- 1702-1714 Queen Anne (daughter of William/Mary)
- 1714-1727 George I (German)
    + Put by Parliament
    + Failed attempt to be overthrown by James II's son
    + Sir Robert Walpole, who was the first Prime Minister from 1721 to 1742.
- 1727 George II (son of George I)
    + failed attempt to be overthrown by Charles II's son, but lost in Battle of Culloden in 1746
- 18th century "The Enlightenment"
- 18th/19th century "The Industrial Revolution"
    + In 1807, it became illegal to trade slaves in British ships or from British ports
    + In 1833 the Emancipation Act abolished slavery throughout the British Empire
- 1801, Ireland became unified with England, Scotland and Wales after the Act of Union of 1800.
    + the first Union Flag was created in 1606
- 1805 Battle of Trafalgar
    + Britain’s navy defeated combined French and Spanish fleets. Admiral Nelson was in charge of the British fleet at Trafalgar and was killed in the battle. Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square, London, is a monument to him. His ship, HMS Victory, can be visited in Portsmouth
- 1815 Battle of Waterloo
    + the French Wars ended with the defeat of the Emperor Napoleon by the Duke of Wellington
    + Wellington was known as the Iron Duke and later became Prime Minister
- 1832 The Reform Act of 1832 had greatly increased the number of people with the right to vote
- 1837-1901 (64 years) Queen Victoria
    + 400M+ people in British Empire (India, Australia, Africa)
    + 1853-1856, Britain fought with Turkey and France against Russia in the Crimean War
        * Queen Victoria introduced the Victoria Cross medal during this war
    + Acts of Parliament in 1870 and 1882 gave wives the right to keep their own earnings and property
    + The Boer War of 1899 to 1902 (South Africa)
- 1858–1928 Emmeline Pankhurst
    + Women’s Franchise League in 1889
    + In 1903 she helped found the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU)
    + In 1918, women over the age of 30 were given voting rights (after WW1)
    + in 1928, women were given the right to vote at the age of 21, the same as men
- 1914–1918 First World War
    + Britain was part of the Allied Powers, which included (amongst others) France, Russia, Japan, Belgium, Serbia – and later, Greece, Italy, Romania and the United States.
    + The First World War ended at 11.00 am on 11th November 1918 with victory for Britain and its allies
- 1921-1922 a peace treaty was signed and in 1922 Ireland became two countries.
    + 1949 Ireland became a republic
- 1922 BBC started radio broadcasts
- 1928 Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin, and researches influenza ("flu")
    + Prize in Medicine in 1945
- 1936 BBC world’s first regular television service
- 1939 Hitler invades Poland (WW2 starts)
    + Axis powers: fascist Germany and Italy and the Empire of Japan
- 1940 Winston Churchil
    + "The Battle of Britain", in the summer of 1940 Royal Air Force avoided the Germand invasion initially
    + "The Blitz", German air force was able to continue bombing London and other British cities at night-time
    + 2002 was voted the greatest Briton of all time
- 1945 Clement Atlee
    + 1948, Aneurin (Nye) Bevan, the Minister for Health, led the establishment of the National Health Service (NHS) 
    + workers condition and health state
- 1951 Winston Churchil
- 1951-1964 Conservative government
- 1953 The structure of the DNA molecule was discovered (Francis Crick)
- 1960s
    + Swinging Sixties
    + Beatles and The Rolling Stones
    + growth in British fashion, cinema and popular music
    + Britain and France developed the world’s only supersonic commercial airliner, Concorde, first flight in 1969, passengers in 1976, stopped in 2003
- 1979-1990 Margaret Thatcher
    + First woman PM
- 1990-1997 Conservative...
- 1997-2010 Tony Blair + Labour...
    + Scottish Parliament and a Welsh Assembly
    + Good Friday Agreement signed in 1998
    + British combat troops left Iraq in 2009
- 2010 David Cameron
    + The Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties formed a coalition and the leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron, became Prime Minister.