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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1752 | - 3 Sep 1752—3 Sep 1752: Julian Calendar dropped and Gregorian Calendar adopted in England and
Scotland, making this Sep 14
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| 2 | 1754 | - 1754—1754: Hardwicke Act (1753): Banns to be called, and Printed Marriage Register forms to be
used - Quakers & Jews exempt
|
| 3 | 1755 | - 1755—1755: Publication of Dictionary of the English Language' by Dr Samuel Johnson
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| 4 | 1762 | - 1762—1762: Cigars introduced into Britain from Cuba
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| 5 | 1764 | - 1764—1764: James Hargeaves invents the Spinning Jenny (but destroyed 1768)
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| 6 | 1767 | - 1767—1767: Newcomen's steam pumping engine perfected by James Watt
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| 7 | 1768 | - 6 Dec 1768—6 Dec 1768: The first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica' published in Edinburgh by
William Smellie
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| 8 | 1769 | - 1769—1769: Arkwright invents water frame (textile production)
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| 9 | 1770 | - 28 Apr 1770—28 Apr 1770: Capt James Cook lands in Australia (Botany Bay) ? Aug 21: formally claims
Australia for Britain
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| 10 | 1776 | - 4 Jul 1776—4 Jul 1776: American Declaration of Independence
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| 11 | 1779 | - 1779—1779: First iron bridge built, over the Severn by John Wilkinson
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| 12 | 1782 | - 1782—1782: James Watt patents his steam engine
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| 13 | 1783 | - 3 Nov 1783—3 Nov 1783: Last public execution at Tyburn in London (John Austin, a highwayman)
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| 14 | 1784 | - 2 Aug 1784—2 Aug 1784: First mail coaches in England (4pm Bristol / 8am London)
|
| 15 | 1789 | - 28 Apr 1789—28 Apr 1789: Mutiny on HMS Bounty - Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors are set adrift
and the rebel crew ends up on Pitcairn Island
|
| 16 | 1791 | - 4 Dec 1791—4 Dec 1791: First publication of The Observer - world's oldest Sunday newspaper
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| 17 | 1793 | - 11 Feb 1793—11 Feb 1793: Britain declares war on France (1793-1802)
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| 18 | 1795 | - 1795—1795: Consumption of lime juice made compulsory in Royal Navy
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| 19 | 1796 | - 14 May 1796—14 May 1796: Dr Edward Jenner gave first vaccination for smallpox in England
|
| 20 | 1800 | - 1800—1800: Electric light first produced by Sir Humphrey Davy
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| 21 | 1801 | - 24 Dec 1801—24 Dec 1801: Richard Trevithick built the first self-propelled passenger carrying road loco
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| 22 | 1803 | - 23 Jul 1803—23 Jul 1803: First public railway opens (Surrey Iron Railway, 9 miles from Wandsworth to
Croydon, horse-drawn)
|
| 23 | 1804 | - 21 Feb 1804—21 Feb 1804: Richard Trevithick runs his railway engine on the Penydarren Railway (9.5 miles
from Pen-y-Darren to Abercynon in South Wales) this hauled a train with 10 tons of
iron and 70 passengers. It was commemorated by the Royal Mint in 2004 in the form of
A ?2 coin.
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| 24 | 1805 | - 21 Oct 1805—21 Oct 1805: Admiral Nelson's victory at Trafalgar
|
| 25 | 1812 | - Oct 1812—Oct 1812: Napoleon retreats from Moscow with catastrophic losses
|
| 26 | 1815 | - 1815—1815: Davy develops the safety lamp for miners
- 18 Jun 1815—18 Jun 1815: The Battle of Waterloo: Napoleon defeated and exiled to St. Helena
|
| 27 | 1823 | - 1823—1823: New laws concerning marriage by license ? 'very troublesome' according to some the Act was repealed all in a hurry at the beginning of the next session
|
| 28 | 1830 | - 15 Sep 1830—15 Sep 1830: George Stephenson's Liverpool & Manchester Railway opened by the Duke of
Wellington ? first mail carried by rail, and first death on the railway as William Huskisson, a
leading politician, is run over!
|
| 29 | 1834 | - 18 Mar 1834—18 Mar 1834: 'Tolpuddle Martyrs' transported (to Australia) for Trades Union activities
- 1 May 1834—1 May 1834: Slavery abolished in British possessions
|
| 30 | 1836 | - 1836—1836: First Potato famine in Ireland
|
| 31 | 1837 | - 1 Jul 1837—1 Jul 1837: Compulsory registration of Births, Marriages & Deaths in England & Wales -
Registration Districts were formed covering several parishes; initially they had the same
boundaries as the Poor Law boundaries set up in 1834
|
| 32 | 1840 | - 10 Jan 1840—10 Jan 1840: Uniform Penny Postage introduced nationally
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| 33 | 1841 | - 6 Jun 1841—6 Jun 1841: June 6: First full census in Britain in which all names were recorded (Population 18.5M)
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| 34 | 1843 | - 1843—1843: First Christmas card in England
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| 35 | 1851 | - 1 May 1851—1 May 1851: Great exhibition of the works of industry of all nations ('Crystal Palace' exhibition) opened in Hyde Park
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| 36 | 1853 | - 1853—1853: Vaccination against smallpox made compulsory in Britain
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| 37 | 1854 | - 1854—1854: Cigarettes introduced into Britain
- 25 Oct 1854—25 Oct 1854: Battle of Balaklava in Crimea (charge of the Light Brigade)
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| 38 | 1859 | - 24 Nov 1859—24 Nov 1859: Charles Darwin publishes 'The Origin of Species'
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| 39 | 1862 | - 20 Apr 1862—20 Apr 1862: First pasteurisation test completed by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard
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| 40 | 1863 | - 10 Jan 1863—10 Jan 1863: First section of the London Underground Railway opens
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| 41 | 1865 | - 14 Apr 1865—14 Apr 1865: End of American Civil War - slavery abolished in USA
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| 42 | 1868 | - 1868—1868: Last convicts landed in Australia (Western Australia)
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| 43 | 1869 | - 1869—1869: Ball bearings, celluloid, margarine, and washing machines, all invented
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| 44 | 1870 | - 1870—1870: Water closets come into wide use
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| 45 | 1872 | - 1872—1872: Penalties introduced for failing to register births, marriages & deaths (Eng & Wales)
|
| 46 | 1874 | - 5 Apr 1874—5 Apr 1874: Birkenhead Park opened, said to be the first civic public park in the world - features of it later copied in Central Park, New York
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| 47 | 1876 | - 14 Feb 1876—14 Feb 1876: Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray each file a patent for the telephone - Bell awarded the rights
|
| 48 | 1878 | - 1878—1878: Edison & Swan invent electric lamp
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| 49 | 1880 | - 1880—1880: Education Act: schooling compulsory for 5-10 year olds
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| 50 | 1883 | - 27 Aug 1883—27 Aug 1883: Eruption of Krakatoa near Java - 30,000 killed by tidal wave
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| 51 | 1884 | - 13 Oct 1884—13 Oct 1884: Greenwich made prime meridian of the world
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| 52 | 1885 | - Mar 1885—Mar 1885: First UK cremation in modern times took place at Woking
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| 53 | 1887 | - 1887—1887: Daimler produces a four-wheeled motor car
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| 54 | 1888 | - 20 Mar 1888—20 Mar 1888: Football League formed
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| 55 | 1889 | - 3 Jun 1889—3 Jun 1889: Canadian Pacific Railway completed from coast to coast
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| 56 | 1891 | - 1891—1891: Primary education made free and compulsory
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| 57 | 1893 | - 1893—1893: Zip fastener invented
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| 58 | 1895 | - Nov 1895—Nov 1895: X-rays discovered
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| 59 | 1897 | - 1897—1897: Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector
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| 60 | 1900 | - 1900—1900: School leaving age in Britain raised to 14 years
|
| 61 | 1901 | - 1901—1901: Hubert Cecil Booth patents the vacuum cleaner
- 12 Dec 1901—12 Dec 1901: First successful radio transmission across the Atlantic, by Marconi - Morse
code from Cornwall to Newfoundland
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| 62 | 1902 | - 1902—1902: Marie Curie discovers radioactivity
|
| 63 | 1906 | - 1906—1906: Introduction of free school meals for poor children
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| 64 | 1907 | - 1907—1907: First airship flies over London
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| 65 | 1908 | - 1 Jul 1908—1 Jul 1908: SOS became effective as an international signal of distress
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| 66 | 1909 | - 25 Jul 1909—25 Jul 1909: Bleriot flies across the Channel (36 minutes, Calais to Dover)
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| 67 | 1912 | - 14 Apr 1912—14 Apr 1912: The 'unsinkable' Titanic sinks on maiden voyage - loss of 1,513 lives
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| 68 | 1914 | - 4 Aug 1914—4 Aug 1914: Britain declares war on Germany, citing Belgian neutrality as reason
|
| 69 | 1917 | - 7 Nov 1917—7 Nov 1917: 'October' Revolution in Russia - Bolsheviks overthrow provisional government;
Lenin becomes Chief Commissar
|
| 70 | 1918 | - 1918—1918: Vote for women over 30, men over 21 (except peers, lunatics and felons)
- 8 Mar 1918—8 Mar 1918: Start of world-wide 'flu pandemic
|
| 71 | 1923 | - 16 Feb 1923—16 Feb 1923: Howard Carter unsealed the burial chamber of Tutankhamun
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| 72 | 1926 | - 1926—1926: Adoption of children is legalised in Britain
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| 73 | 1927 | - 1927—1927: Release of the first 'talkie' film (The Jazz Singer)
|
| 74 | 1928 | - 1928—1928: Women over 21 get vote in Britain - same qualification for both sexes
- 15 Sep 1928—15 Sep 1928: Sir Alexander Fleming accidentally discovers penicillin (results published 1929)
|
| 75 | 1929 | - 1929—1929: Minimum age for a marriage in Britain (which had been 14 for a boy and 12 for a girl)
now 16 for both sexes, with parental consent (or a licence) needed for anyone under 21
|
| 76 | 1934 | - 1934—1934: Hitler becomes Fuehrer of Germany
- 18 Jul 1934—18 Jul 1934: King George V opens Mersey Tunnel
|
| 77 | 1936 | - 5 May 1936—5 May 1936: First flight of a Spitfire
|
| 78 | 1938 | - 30 Oct 1938—30 Oct 1938: Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play of HG Wells 'The War of the Worlds', causing panic in the USA
|
| 79 | 1939 | - 3 Sep 1939—3 Sep 1939: Britain and France declare war on Germany
|
| 80 | 1940 | - 15 Sep 1940—15 Sep 1940: Battle of Britain: massive waves of German air attacks decisively repulsed by the
RAF - Hitler postpones invasion of Britain
|
| 81 | 1941 | - 1941—1941: First use of antibiotics
|
| 82 | 1942 | - 6 Sep 1942—6 Sep 1942: Germans defeated at Stalingrad
|
| 83 | 1944 | - 6 Jun 1944—6 Jun 1944: D-Day invasion of Normandy
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| 84 | 1945 | - 8 May 1945—8 May 1945: VE Day (Victory in Europe). Atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
|
| 85 | 1947 | - 1 Apr 1947—1 Apr 1947: School leaving age raised to 15 in Britain
|
| 86 | 1948 | - 5 Jul 1948—5 Jul 1948: National Health Service (NHS) begins in Britain
|
| 87 | 1952 | - 2 May 1952—2 May 1952: First commercial jet airliner service launched, by BOACComet between London
and Johannesburg
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| 88 | 1953 | - 25 Apr 1953—25 Apr 1953: Francis Crick and James D Watson publish the double helix structure of DNA
|
| 89 | 1954 | - 3 Jul 1954—3 Jul 1954: Food rationing officially ends in Britain
|
| 90 | 1955 | - 22 Sep 1955—22 Sep 1955: Commercial TV starts in Britain
|
| 91 | 1957 | - 25 May 1957—25 May 1957: Treaty of Rome to create European Economic Community (EEC) of six
countries: France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg - became
operational Jan 1958
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| 92 | 1959 | - 1 Nov 1959—1 Nov 1959: First section of M1 motorway opened
|
| 93 | 1962 | - 24 Oct 1962—24 Oct 1962: Cuba missile crisis - brink of nuclear war
|
| 94 | 1966 | - 30 Jul 1966—30 Jul 1966: World Cup won by England at Wembley (4-2 in extra time v West Germany)
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| 95 | 1968 | - 29 May 1968—29 May 1968: Manchester United first English club to win the European Cup
|
| 96 | 1969 | - 17 Apr 1969—17 Apr 1969: Voting age lowered from 21 to 18
|
| 97 | 1971 | - 15 Feb 1971—15 Feb 1971: Decimalisation of coinage in UK and Republic of Ireland
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| 98 | 1973 | - 1 Jan 1973—1 Jan 1973: Britain enters EEC Common Market (with Ireland and Denmark)
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