Life in the UK Test - UK History Timeline

timeline.md

Time	Events
50 million years ago	The Giant’s Causeway was formed. Located on the north-east coast of Northern Ireland, the Giant’s Causeway is a land formation of columns made from volcanic lava.
Stone Age
8,000 BC	(10,000 years ago): Britain became permanently separated from the continent by the Channel
4,000 BC	(about 6,000 years ago): The first farmers arrived in Britain. The ancestors of these first farmers probably came from south-east Europe.
Bronze Age
2,000 BC	People lived in roundhouses, make metal tools, dead are buried in tombs called round barrows
Iron Age
700 BC	First coin minted, Maiden Castle
The Romans
55 BC	Roman Julius Caesar tried (failed) to invade Britain
43	Roman Emperor Claudius successfully invaded (most of) Britain
60	Boudicca fought against Roman
122	Emperor Hadrian built Hadrian's Wall
3rd and 4th centuries	The first Christian communities began to appear in Britain
410	The Roman army left Britain to defend other parts of the Roman Empire and never returned.
The Anglo-Saxons
by 600	Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were established in Britain (mainly in England)
The Vikings
789	The Vikings came from Denmark and Norway. They first visited Britain in to raid coastal towns and take away goods and slaves. Then, they began to stay and form their own communities in the east of England and Scotland.
The Middle Ages	(or the medieval period) 1066 - 1485
1066	The Norman Conquest led by William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy, defeated Harold Godwinson, the Saxon King of England, at the Battle of Hastings (last time England was successfully invaded). Harold was killed in the battle.
	William became king of England
	Start of the Westminster Abbey as the coronation church
	The Tower of London was first built by William the Conqueror after he became king
	Start of the “middle ages”
By 1200	The English ruled an area of Ireland known as the Pale, around Dublin. Some of the important lords in other parts of Ireland accepted the authority of the English king.
1215	Magna Carta (which means the Great Charter) signed by King John (forced by noblemen)
1284	King Edward I introduced the Statute of Rhuddlan, which annexed Wales to the Crown of England. Huge castles, including Conwy and Caenarvon, were built to maintain this power.
1314	The Scottish, led by Robert the Bruce, defeated the English at the battle of Bannockburn. Scotland remained unconquered by the English.
1334	Start of "100 years war"
1348	Black Death (a form of plague) comes to Britain.
By 1400	In England, official documents were being written in English, and English had become the preferred language of the royal court and Parliament.
	Geoffrey Chaucer wrote Canterbury Tales. A series of poems in English about a group of people going to Canterbury on a pilgrimage. The people decided to tell each other stories on the journey, and the poems describe the travellers and some of the stories they told.
1415	Battle of Agincourt: one of the most famous battles of the Hundred Years War. King Henry V’s vastly outnumbered English army defeated the French.
1450s	End of "100 years war"
1455	A civil war, called the Wars of the Roses, between the supporters of House of Lancaster (red rose) and the House of York (white rose), was begun to decide who should be king of England
1485	The Wars of the Roses ended with the Battle of the Bosworth Field.
	Henry Tudor, the leader of the House of Lancaster, became King Henry VII after defeating King Richard III (was killed in the battle) of the House of York at the Battle of Bosworth Field.
	Henry then married King Richard’s niece, Elizabeth of York, and united the two families.
	Henry was the first king of the House of Tudor. The symbol of the House of Tudor was a red rose with a white rose inside it as a sign that the Houses of York and Lancaster were now allies.
	End of the “middle ages”
The Tudors and Stuarts
1509, 21 April	King Henry VIII became king of England. Got 6 wives
During the reign of Henry VIII	Wales became formally united with England by the Act for the Government of Wales.
	Ditched Roman Catholic and established the Church of England, The King has the power to appoint bishops and order people how to worship
	King Henry VIII got 6 wives
1547, 28 January	Henry VIII died. He was succeeded by his son King Edward VI
1560	The predominantly Protestant Scottish Parliament abolished the authority of the Pope in Scotland and Roman Catholic religious services became illegal. A Protestant Church of Scotland with an elected leadership was established but, unlike in England, this was not a state Church.
	Mary Queen of Scots (Catholic) flees to England → imprisoned for 20 years then executed
1588	English Sir Francis Drake defeat Spanish Armada (a large fleet of invading ships), which had been sent by Spain to conquer England and restore Catholicism.
	Queen Elizabeth I became one of the most popular monarchs in English history after this.
16th century	Protestant ideas gradually gained strength in England, Wales and Scotland. In Ireland, however, attempts by the English to impose Protestantism (alongside efforts to introduce the English system of laws about the inheritance of land) led to rebellion from the Irish chieftains, and much brutal fighting followed.
1603	Elizabeth I dies childless, James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England, also became King of England, Wales and Ireland
Elizabethan period	(Elizabeth I’s time)
	It is remembered for the richness of its poetry and drama, especially the plays and poems of William Shakespeare.
	English settlers first began to colonise the eastern coast of America. This colonisation, particularly by people who disagreed with the religious views of the next two kings, greatly increased in the next century.
	Queen Elizabeth I was a Protestant.
	A time of growing patriotism: a feeling of pride in being English. English explorers sought new trade routes and tried to expand British trade into the Spanish colonies in the Americas.
1605	A group of Catholics led by Guy Fawkes failed in their plan to kill the Protestant king with a bomb in the Houses of Parliament. This is the origin of the Bonfire Night celebration on the 5th November, when people in Great Britain set off fireworks at home or in special displays.
1606	First union flag created. The Welsh dragon (the official Welsh flag) (either The cross of St David, patron saint of Wales) does not appear on the Union Flag because, when the first Union Flag was created in 1606 from the flags of Scotland and England, the Principality of Wales was already untied with England.
1640	King Charles I recalls parliament to ask it for money (After ruling without Parliament’s approval for 11 years)
1641	The revolt in Ireland began
1642	A civil war between the king and Parliament began. The country split into those who supported the king (King Charles I) (the Cavaliers) and those who supported Parliament (Cromwell) (the Roundheads).
1646	King Charles I’s army was defeated at the Battles of Marston Moor and Naseby, civil war ends
1649	King Charles I executed by beheading, Oliver Cromwell becomes “Lord Protector”, leader of republic
	Oliver Cromwell brutally suppresses Irish rebellion
1656	The first Jews to come to Britain since the Middle Ages settled in London
1660, May	Parliament invited King Charles II to come back from exile in the Netherlands
	“The Restoration”: Charles II instated as king
1665	a major outbreak of plague in London. Thousands of people died, especially in poorer areas.
1666	A great fire destroyed much of London, including many churches and St Paul’s Cathedral. London was rebuilt with a new St Paul’s, which was designed by a famous architect, Sir Christopher Wren. Samuel Pepys wrote about these events in a diary which was later published and is still read today.
1679	The Habeas Corpus Act became law. This was a very important piece of legislation which remains relevant today. The Act guaranteed that no one could be held prisoner unlawfully. Every prisoner has a right to a court hearing. Habeas corpus is Latin for ‘you must present the person in court’.
1680 - 1720	Many refugees called Huguenots came from France, they were Protestants being persecuted
1685	Charles II dies, Catholic King James II becomes King in England, Wales and Ireland and King James VII of Scotland
1688	Important Protestants in England asked King William III(William of Orange), the Protestant ruler of the Netherlands, to invade England and proclaim himself King William III
	King William III attempted to invade England and King James II just fled and King William III became King. This is the Glorious Revolution
1689	The Bill of Rights confirmed the rights of Parliament and the limits of the king’s power. Parliament took control of who could be monarch and declared that the king or queen must be a Protestant. This marks the beginning of constitutional monarchy
1690	William defeated James II at the battle of the Boyne in Ireland
1695	Newspapers allowed to operate without government license
Before the 18th century	few ideas about politics, philosophy and science were developed, called the “Enlightenment”.
1707	The Act of Union, known as the Treaty of Union in Scotland, was agreed, creating the Kingdom of Great Britain
1714	Queen Anne died. Parliament chose a German, George I, to be the next king, because he was Anne’s nearest Protestant relative.
1721	Sir Robert Walpole became the first Prime Minister in British history
1742	End of Sir Robert Walpole position as a Prime Minister
1745	Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) attempts to invade & become king, supported by Scottish clans
1745	There was another attempt to put a Stuart king back on the throne in place of George I’s son, George II
1746	Charles Edward Stuart was defeated by George II’s army at the Battle of Culloden, and escaped back to Europe. Clans lose a lot of power
By the 1760s	Substantial colonies in North America
1776	13 American states declare their independence
1783	Britain recognised the American colonies’ independence
1789	France (Napoleon) declares war on Britain
	There was a revolution in France
Late 1700s	Tagriculture was the biggest source of employment in Britain.
18th century	The Quakers set up the first formal anti-slavery group
1801	Ireland became unified with England, Scotland and Wales after the Act of Union of 1800.
1805	Britain wins Battle of Trafalgar against combined French and Spanish fleets (Nelson dies)
1807	It became illegal to trade slaves in British ships or from British ports
1815	The French Wars ended with the defeat of the Emperor Napoleon by the Duke of Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo. 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. The act also abolished the old pocket and rotten boroughs and more parliamentary seats were given to the towns and cities.
1833	the Emancipation Act abolished slavery throughout the British Empire. The Royal Navy stopped slave ships from other countries, freed the slaves and punished the slave traders.
1837	Queen Victoria became queen of the UK at the age of 18
1839	Chartists signed petition to demand votes for the working class and people without property. Unsuccessful but the legacy helped another Reform Act in 1867
1846	Repealing of the Corn Laws.
1847	The number of hours that women and children could work was limited by law to 10 hour per day
1851	The Great Exhibition opened in Hyde Park in the Crystal Palace
1853 - 1856	Crimean War: Britain fought against Russia with Turkey and France
	First war to be extensively covered by the media
	Queen Victoria introduced the Victorian Cross medal during this war to honour acts of valour by soldiers
1853 - 1913	As many as 13 million British citizen left the country to settle overseas
1860	Florence Nightingale established the Nightingale Training School for nurses
	She is regarded as the founder of modern nursing
1867	Another Reform Act was enacted; creating more urban seats in Parliament and reduced the amount of property that people needed to vote. The majority of men still did not have the right to vote and no women could vote.
1870, 1882	Acts of Parliament gave wives the right to keep their own earnings and property
1870 - 1914	Around 120,000 Russian and Polish Jews came to Britain to escape persecution.
1872	The first tennis club was founded in Leamington Spa
1889	Emmeline Pankhurst set up the Women's Franchise League, which fought for votes for married women.
1895	The National Trust was founded by three volunteers.
1896	Films were first shown publicly in the UK and film screenings very quickly became popular.
1899 - 1902	Boer War: British vs South Africa - caused public sympathy for Boers and questions about the empire's colonisation emerged
18th and 19th century	The period of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, a rapid development of industry
19th century	British industry led the world, produced more than half of the world's iron, coal and cotton cloth
	In Ireland, a million people died from disease and starvation due to crop failure in the middle of the century, 1.5 million left Ireland. This caused the Irish Nationalist movement, favouring complete independence or "Home Rule" (having its own parliament.
Early 20th century	MP get a salary
	Policies to help unemployed, old-age, schools: Era of Optimism
1901	End of Queen Victoria’s reign, almost 64 years
1902	Motor-car racing started in the UK. There is a long history of motor sport in the UK, for both cars and motor cycles. The UK continues to be a world leader in the development and manufacture of motor-sport technology.
1907	Rudyard Kipling was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature
1913	The British government promised “Home Rule” for Ireland
1914, 28 June	Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated. This set off a chain of events leading to the First World War (1914-1918, 4 years).
1916, July	The British attack of the Somme, resulted in about 60,000 British casualties on the first day alone.
1916	Uprising (the Easter Rising) against the British in Dublin; The leaders of the uprising were executed under military law. War broke out between Britain and Ireland
1918, 11th November	The First World War ended at 11.00 am with victory for Britain and its allies.
1918	Women over the age of 30 can vote and stand for Parliament
1920	The Cenotaph, the centre piece to the Remembrance Day service, was unveiled
1920s	Many people’s living conditions in the UK got better.
	The television was developed by John Logie Baird
1921	A peace treaty was signed between the British government and the Irish Nationalists (led to Ireland's divison)
1922	A Northern Ireland Parliament was established in 1922, when Ireland was divided, but it was abolished in 1972, shortly after the Troubles (people supported Ireland to remain British) broke out in 1969.
	The BBC started radio broadcasts
1923	R A Butler became a Conservative MP
1927	The BBC started organising the Proms
1928	Women were given the right to vote at the age of 21, the same as men
1929	The world entered the “Great Depression”
1933	Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany.
1935	The first successful radar test took place.
1936	The BBC began the world’s first regular television service
1939	Adolf Hitler invaded Poland. Britain and France declared war on Germany
	Mary Peters, a talented athlete, was born
	Sir Jackie Stewart, a Scottish former racing driver who won the Formula 1 world championship three times, was born
1930s	British film studios flourished.
1940	German forces defeated allied troops and advanced through France.
	Winston Churchill became Prime Minister.
	The British won the crucial aerial battle against the Germans, called “the Battle of Britain”
1940s	Roald Dahl began to publish books and short stories
1941	German invasion of the Soviet Union
	The United States entered the war when the Japanese bombed its naval base at Pearl Harbour
	The Beveridge Report was commissioned
	R A Butler became responsible for education
1942	Publication of the report Social Insurance and Allied Services, known as the Beveridge Report
1944	Allied forced landed in Normandy on the 6th of June (D-Day)
	Introduction of the Education Act, often called “The Butler Act”
1945	The Allies comprehensively defeated Germany
	The war against Japan ended
	Winston Churchill lost the General Election
	The British people elected a labour government
	Clement Attlee became Prime Minister
1947	Independence was granted to nine countries, including India, Pakistan and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka)
1948	Aneurin Bevan, the Minister for Health, led the establishment of the National Health Service (NHS)
	People from the West Indies were invited to come to Britain and work
1949	The Irish Free State became a republic
1950 - 1959
1950	The UK was one of the first countries to sign the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
1950s	Period of economic recovery and increasing prosperity for working people
1951 - 1964	Britain had a Conservative government
1951	Winston Churchill returned as Prime Minister
1952	The Mousetrap, a murder-mystery play by Dame Agatha Christie, has been running in the West End since 1952
	Start of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign
1953	The structure of the DNA molecule was discovered through work at British universities in London and Cambridge
1954	Sir Roger Bannister became the first man in the world to run a mile under four minutes
1957	The European Economic Community (EEC) was formed by six western European countries (West Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands).
1959	Margaret Thatcher was elected as a Conservative MP
1960	Harold Macmillan, PM of the time, made the "wind of change" speech about decolonisation
1960s	James Goodfellow invented the cash-dispensing ATM
1964	Winston Churchill stood down
1966/67	Sir Francis Chichester was the first person to sail single-handed around the world
1967	The first ATM was put into use by Barclays Bank in Enfield, north London
1968	The Man Booker Prize for Fiction has been awarded since 1968
1969	The Concorde, the world’s only supersonic commercial airliner, first flew. Developed by Britain and France.
	Monty Python introduced a new type of progressive comedy
	The Troubles broke out in Northern Ireland.
	the voting age was reduced to 18 for men and women.
1960s	a time of technological progress (e.g. Concorde, a supersonic comercial airliner)
	"the Swinging Sixties" - growth in fashion, cinema, pop music. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones
Early 1970s	Britain admitted 28,000 people of Indian origin who had been forced to leave Uganda
1970	Margaret Thatcher became a cabinet minister as the Secretary of State for Education and Science
1970s	Period of serious unrest in Northern Ireland
1972	The Northern Ireland Parliament was abolished
	Mary Peters won an Olympic gold medal in the pentathlon
1973	The UK joined the European Economic Community
1975	Margaret Thatcher was elected as Leader of the Conservative Party and so became Leader of the Opposition
1976	The Concorde, the world’s only supersonic passenger aircraft, began carrying passengers
1978	The world’s first “test-tube baby” was born in Oldham, Lancashire
1979	Margaret Thatcher became the first woman Prime Minister of the UK
1980 - 1989
1984	Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean won gold medals for ice dancing at the Olympic Games.
	The Turner Prize, celebrating contemporary art, was established
1990	Iraqi invasion of Kuwait
1990, 25 December	Information was successfully transferred via the web for the first time
1993	The European Union formed. The EEC became a part of the European Union.
1990s	Britain played a leading role in coalition forces involved in the liberation of Kuwait
1996	Sir Ian Wilmot and Keith Campbell lead a team which was the first to succeed in cloning a mammal, Dolly the sheep
1997	The Labour Party led by Tony Blair was elected
1998	The Good Friday Agreement was signed
1999	The Northern Ireland Assembly was elected
	Creation of the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Parliament
2000 - 2009
2000	Mary Peters was made a Dame of the British Empire in recognition of her work
	Since 2000, British armed forces have been engaged in the global fight against international terrorism and against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction
2002	The Northern Ireland Assembly was suspended
2003	The Concorde, the world’s only supersonic passenger aircraft, was retired from service.
2006	The Welsh Assembly building was opened
2007	The Northern Ireland Assembly was reinstated.
	Gordon Brown took over as Prime Minister.
2008	Forced Marriage Protection Orders were introduced for England, Wales and Northern Ireland under the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007.
2009	British combat troops left Iraq
2010, May	For the first time in the UK since February 1974, no political party won an overall majority in the General Election. The Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties formed a coalition and the leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron, became Prime Minister.
2011	The National Assembly for Wales has been able to pass laws in 20areas without the agreement of the UK Parliament.
	Protection Orders for forced marriages were introduced in Scotland.
2012	Bradley Wiggins became the first Briton to win the Tour de France.
	Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee (60 years as Queen).
	The public elected Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in England and Wales
2020, 31 January	The UK formally left the European Union.

Mostly sourced this timeline from: https://github.com/g2384/Life-In-The-UK/blob/main/Timeline.md