Prehistory

250,000 BC First evidence of human Life.

5000 BC Britain becomes an island.

3000 BC Stone-age people arrive, probably from the Iberian peninsula.

2000 BC Stonehenge built.

700 BC Celts arrive from central Europe.

 

Roman occupation (55BC-AD410)

 

55 BC Julius Caesar heads first Roman invasion.

AD 43 Conquest begins under emperor Claudius.

AD 61 Rebellion of Boudicca. Queen of Iceini in East Anglia, crushed.

AD 119 Hadrian's Wall built to keep back Picts and Scots.

 

ANGLO-SAXON& DANISH KINGS (449-1066)

449-550 Arrival of Jutes from Jutland, Angles from south of Denmark and Saxons from Germany. around Hanover.

563 St Columba estab­lishes monastery on is­land of lone. Scotland.

597 St Augustine arrives to convert English and be­comes first Archbishop of Canterbury.

779 King Offa builds dyke to keep out Welsh.

843 Kenneth Mac Alpine unites Picts and Scots.

897 Danish Vikings are defeated at sea by Alfred the Great , generally as being the founder of the British navy.

980-1016 Viking invasions renewed.

1017 Canute, first Danish king, chosen by the Witan (council).

 

The Normans (1066-1154)

 

1066 Conquest of England by William, Duke of Normandy. Authority and parcels of land are given to French speaking Norman barons.

1080-1100 Great monastery and cathedral build­ing begins.

1086 Domesday Book, a complete inventory of Britain, is completed.

1124 David i succeeds to Scottish throne.

1167 Oxford University founded.

 

 

The Plantagenets (1154-1399)

 

1154 Henry II, descendent of Geoffrey of Anjou, inherits the throne, thus starting tire line of Angevin kings. He owned more land in France than ho did in Britain.

1170 Archbishop Thomas Beckel murdered.

1215 Barons force King John to sign Magna Carta.

1265 The first House of Commons.

1277-88English conquest of Wales. Llewellyn ab Gruffydd, the country's last prince, is killed.

1306Robert Bruce crowned King of the Scots.

1348-49The Black Death plague kills nearly half the population.

1337-1453 Hundred Years' War with France.

1350-1550 Gothic perpendicular flourished.

1381 Peasants Revolt.

1387 Chaucer's Canterbury Tales published.

 

Houses of Lancaster and York (1399-1485)

 

1415 Owain Glyndwr. Welsh hero. dies.

1455-85Wars of the Roses between the com petting Houses of York and Lancaster.

1412 St Andrew's Univer­sity founded.

1476 William Caxton sets up Bntain's first printing press.

 

The Tudors (1485-1558)

 

1485 Henry VII, grandson of the Welsh Owaim Tudor, crowned king.

1509 Henry VIII succeeds to the throne.

1534 Papal authority in England abolished.

1535 Henry Vlll becomes Supreme Head of the Church of England.

1536-39 Destruction or closure of 560 monasteries and religious houses.

1536 Act of Union joins England and Wales.

1558 Under Queen Mary. England's last possession on the Continent. Calais, falls to France.

1558 Elizabeth I begins her 45-year reign.

1558 John Knox, Scottish disciple of Calvin, launches First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women.

 

1580 Sir Francis Drake (pictured above] completes Circumnavigation of the world.

1585 William Shakespeare begins his dramatic career in London.

1587Mary Queen of Scots is executed.

1588 The Spanish Armada is defeated.

 

The Stuarts (1603-1714)

 

1603 James VI of Scotland, son of Mary Queen of Scots, is crowed James I of England, uniting the two kingdoms.

1605 Guy Fawkes tries to blow up parliament.

1620 Pilgrim Fathers set sail for America.

1642-49 Civil War between Royalists and republican Roundheads. Many castles and fortified houses razed. Defeated. Charles I is beheaded.

1660 Monarchy reinstated with Charts II.

1665The Great Plague of London.

1666 The Great Fire of London.

1672-1700 St Paul's Cathedral, in London, is built.

1694 Bank of England established.

 

The House of Hanover (1714-1936)

 

1714 George I of Hanover, Germany. is invited to take the throne. He speaks no English and shows very little interest in his new subjects.

1721 Sir Robert Walpole becomes Britain's first prime minister, a new parliamentary concept.

1739 Wesley begins to preach Methodism.

1775 James Watt makes the first steam engine.

1786 Robert Bums dazzles Edinburgh society.

1802 J.M.W. Turner elected to Royal Academy aged 27, the same year John Constable first exhibits at the Academy.

1805 Death of Admiral Lord Nelson at the crucial Battle of Trafalgar.

1807 Abolition of the slave trade.

1815 Duke of Wellington defeats Napoleon Bonaparte at Battle of Waterloo in modern Belgium.

1830 Liverpool to Manchester railway opened.

 

 

The Victorian (1837-1901)

 

1837 Victoria becomes Queen, aged 18. She marries Albert of Saxe-Coburg three years later.

1851 The Great Exhibition held in London.

1853-56 Crimean War against Russia, the first major war to be photographed.

1857 Indian Mutiny results in Britain taking over administration of the East India Company.

1876 The Queen becomes Empress of India.

1890-96 Cecil Rhodes, founder of Rhodesia, becomes prime minister of Cape Colony, south Africa. His ambition is to see British territory extend across the whole continent.

1898-1902 Boer War to settle South Africa between British and Dutch.

 

The Edwardian Era (1901-10)

 

1909 Charles Rennie Mackintosh completes Glasgow School of Art.

1909 Old age pensions introduced.

1909 Bit-riot flies the English Channel.

1914-18 World War I. More than 1 million Britons and Allies die. mainly in northern France.

1918Universal suffrage (except women under 30).

1926 General Strike paralyses the nation.

1927The BBC is founded.

 

The House of Windsor (from 1936)

 

1936 Edward VIM abdicates so that he can marry a divorcee. Mrs Wallis Simpson.

1939-45 World War II. Fewer military casualties than World War I. but many civilians (fie in heavy bombing of ports and cities.

1946 National Health Service established.

1947 Edinburgh Festival begun. Welsh Eisteddfod re-established.

1947 India and Pakistan gain independence.

1951 Festival of Britain.

1953 Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

1961 South Africa leaves Commonwealth because of apartheid policy.

1962 The Beatles enter the pop charts with their first hit. Love Me Do.

1965 Capital punishment is abolished.

1969 Sectarian strife breaks out in Northern Ire­land; troops sent in.

1972Northern Ireland government removed and replaced with direct rule from Westminster.

1973 Britain joins the European Community. 1976 Bill for devolution of Scotland and Wales defeated in parliament.

1979 Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain's first woman prime minister.

1981 Prince of Wales weds Lacy Diana Spencer.

1982 Argentinean troops beaten off the Crown Colony of the Falkland Islands.

1984 IRA bomb aimed at the government in conference at Brighton kills five people.

1990 Tory party sacks Margaret Thatcher.

1994 Britain rejoins the Continent as the first trains start running through the Channel Tunnel.

1996 IRA ends 16-month ceasefire as new talks on Northern Ireland's future are planned.