TRACING THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN FROM 1901-2012…

1900

1901-10
1903
Reign of King Edward
The Women’s Social and Political Union is
VII
formed to campaign for women’s
suffrage. Emmeline and Christabel
Pankhurst soon become the most
prominent members.

1904
Britain and France sign the Entente
Cordiale, ending centuries of sporadic 1906
conflict and paving the way to future The first Dreadnought class battleship is
diplomatic and military co-operation launched at Portsmouth. The most
powerful battleship afloat, it raises  the
bar in the Anglo-German naval arms race

1908
The Olympic
Games are held
in London.
1907
Parliament
The Anglo-Russian Entente is formed
approves the
introduction of means-tested old age
pensions of up to five shillings a week for
people over 70 years old

1910

1911
1910-36 The Parliament Act means the House of
Reign of King George Lords cannot veto legislation passed by
V the House of Commons in three
successive sessions; it also establishes
five-yearly parliamentary elections

1912
The White Liner
1912 Titanic sinks on
The Ulster Volunteer Force is formed in her maiden
opposition to Liberal proposals for Home voyage from
Rule for Ireland for the third time Southampton to
New York with
the loss of more than 1500 lives

1913
Suffragette Emily 1916
Davidson is killed after Irish Nationalists of the Easter Rising seize
throwing herself in key buildings in Dublin, but the rising is
front of the King’s crushed
horse at the Derby
 1914-18
The First World War – Major battles and
casualties include Ypres (1914, 1915),the
Somme, during which the British
employed tanks for the first time (1916),
Jutland (1916) and Passchendaele
(1917).Other key dates include the
German U-boat sinking of the
Lusitania (1915), Zeppelin raids on British
cities(from 1915), conscription (from
1916), entry into the war of the USA
(1917), and Armistice on the Western
Front 11am, 11 November 1918

1919
The Treaty of Versailles
establishes peace in
1918 Europe. Lady Astor
The Royal Air Force is formed becomes the first
woman to sit as a
British MP. Sinn Fein sets up the Dail
Eireann (Irish Constituent Assembly) in
Dublin proclaiming Ireland’s
independence; the British government
outlaws the assembly, sparking a two-year
war with the IRA

1920

1920 1922
Women at Oxford University are allowed James Joyce’s Ulysses and T S Eliot’s The
to receive degrees Waste Land are published

1926
Scottish
1924
inventor
Ramsay MacDonald
and
becomes Britain’s first
engineer John Logie Baird gives the first
Labour prime minister,
public demonstration of television,
but the party loses the
leading to the historic trans-Atlantic
election to the
transmissions of television from London
Conservatives later in
to New York in 1928. The General Strike
the year
following cuts in the coal-
mining industry lasts just nine days

1928
Women over the age of 21 are given the 1929
vote. The first “talkies” (films with audible The Wall Street Crash in America sparks
dialogue) are shown in Britain. Alexander the Great Depression
Fleming discovers penicillin

1930

1932 1934
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is Scottish Nationalist Party is formed to
 published campaign for an independent Scotland

1935
1936-52
The first Penguin
Reign of King George VI
paperbacks bring quality
contemporary writing to
the masses at affordable
prices

1936
Edward VIII becomes 1938
King but abdicates. Men The Munich
from Jarrow, Tyne and Agreement and
Wear, march to London infamous claim
to petition Parliament by Prime
for a new steel works Minister Neville Chamberlain that he
following the closure of the local returned having achieved “Peace for our
shipyard in an area of mass time”
unemployment and poverty

1939
Britain declares war on Germany after the
invasion of Poland. The Second World War
continues until 1945: key episodes include
the evacuation of Allied troops from
Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain (1940);
entry of the Soviet Union and USA into
the war (1941); the D-Day invasion of
France; and surrender of Germany and
then Japan (1945)

1948
1942 Britain hosts the
The Beveridge Report lays the Olympic Games in
foundations for the Welfare State, London, dubbed the
including the creation of the National Austerity Games
Health Service in 1948 because rationing is still
in force

1947
India becomes independent from Britain
and is partitioned

1950

1952
1951 Reign of Queen Elizabeth II
The Festival of Britain seeks to lift spirits begins
and sustain post-war confidence

1956 1966
 Anglo-French invasion of Egypt after England wins the football World Cup
Egypt’s decision to nationalise the Suez
Canal Company, but the forces withdraw
in the face of international pressure.
John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger is
produced in London

1969
Concorde,
the world’s 1971
first Decimalised currency replaces pounds,
supersonic shillings and pence
airliner developed by Britain and France,
makes its maiden flight

1979
1981
Conservative Margaret
Prince Charles, heir to the British throne,
Thatcher becomes
marries Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul’s
Britain’s first
Cathedral
woman prime minister

1988
1989
The Social Democratic
Tim Berners-Lee invents the World Wide
Party (founded 1981)
Web, while working at CERN the European
merges with the Liberal
Particle Physics Laboratory in Switzerland.
Party to form the Social and Liberal
The first successful communication
Democratic Party, later known as the
follows in 1990
Liberal Democrats

1990

1994 1997
The Channel Tunnel linking London and Britain hands
Paris is officially opened – the first land Hong Kong
link between Britain and Europe since back to China,
the last Ice Age ending more than 150 years of British rule.

2000

2011
2012
Prince William, second in line to the
Britain celebrates the Queen’s Diamond
throne, marries Kate Middleton at
Jubilee and hosts the Olympics in London
Westminster Abbey

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