| |
Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1869 | - 4 Mar 1869—3 Mar 1877: Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President of the United States
Ulysses S. Grant
|
| 2 | 1874 | |
| 3 | 1875 | |
| 4 | 1876 | - 1876: Netherlands
Mata Hari was born in Leeuwarden on August 7, Margaret Gertrude Zelle
- 14 Feb 1876: Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray each file a patent for the telephone
|
| 5 | 1877 | - 1877: Edison invents microphone and phonograph
- 4 Mar 1877—3 Mar 1881: Rutherford Birchard Hayes, 19th President of the United States
Rutherford Birchard Hayes
|
| 6 | 1878 | - 1878: Edison & Swan invent electric lamp
- 1878: Red Flag Act in Britain limits mechanical road vehicles to 4mph
- 1878: CID established at New Scotland Yard
|
| 7 | 1879 | - 1879: Netherlands
Establishment of the 1st political party : the Anti- Revolutionary Party , led by Abraham Kuyper
- 18 Sep 1879: Blackpool illuminations switched on for first time
|
| 8 | 1880 | - 1880: Education Act: schooling compulsory for 5-10 year olds
- 1880: Mosquito found to be the carrier of malaria
- 23 Apr 1880—9 Jun 1885: William Ewart Gladstone, UK Prime Minister (Liberal)
William Ewart Gladstone
- 2 Aug 1880: Greenwich Mean Time adopted throughout UK
|
| 9 | 1881 | - 1881: Postal Orders introduced
- 1881: Flogging abolished in Army and Royal Navy
- 4 Mar 1881—19 Sep 1881: James Abram Garfield, 20th President of the United States
James Abram Garfield
- Sep 1881: Godalming in Surrey became the first town in England to have a public electricity
supply installed (but in 1884 it reverted to gas lighting until 1904)
- 19 Sep 1881—3 Mar 1885: Chester Alan Arthur, 21st President of the United States
Chester Alan Arthur
- 26 Oct 1881: Gunfight at OK Corral
|
| 10 | 1882 | - 1882: Fourth Eddystone Lighthouse completed
|
| 11 | 1883 | - 1883: Statue of Liberty presented to USA by France
- 24 May 1883: Brooklyn Bridge, New York opens (crosses East River)
- 1 Aug 1883: Parcel post starts in Britain
- 27 Aug 1883: Eruption of Krakatoa near Java
|
| 12 | 1884 | - 31 May 1884: John Harvey Kellogg patents corn flakes
- 13 Oct 1884: Greenwich made prime meridian of the world
|
| 13 | 1885 | - 1885: Carl Benz builds the 'Motorwagen', a single-cylinder motor car
- 1885: Gottlieb Daimler patents the world's first motorcycle
- 1885: Eastman makes first coated photographic paper
- 1885: Canadian Pacific Railway completed
- Mar 1885: First UK cremation in modern times took place at Woking
- 4 Mar 1885—3 Mar 1889: Grover Cleveland, 22nd President of the United States
Grover Cleveland
- 23 Jun 1885—26 Jan 1886: Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, UK Prime Minister (Conservative)
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
- 5 Sep 1885: The first train runs through the Severn Tunnel
- 29 Sep 1885: First electric tramcar used at Blackpool
|
| 14 | 1886 | - 20 Jan 1886: Mersey railway (under Mersey) opened by Prince of Wales
- 1 Feb 1886—20 Jul 1886: William Ewart Gladstone, UK Prime Minister (Liberal)
William Ewart Gladstone
- May 1886: Pharmacist John Styth Pemberton invents a carbonated beverage later named
"Coca-Cola"
- 29 May 1886: Putney Bridge opens in London
- 25 Jul 1886—11 Aug 1892: Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, UK Prime Minister (Conservative)
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
|
| 15 | 1887 | - 1887: Daimler produces a four-wheeled motor car
|
| 16 | 1888 | - 1888: Convention of Constantinople guarantees free maritime passage through Suez
Canal in war and peace
- 1888: Jack the Ripper active in east London during the latter half of the year
- 1888: County Councils set up in Britain
- 1888: Dunlop invents pneumatic tyre
- 1888: First box camera
- 20 Mar 1888: Football League formed
|
| 17 | 1889 | - 1889: Celluloid film produced
- 1889: Dock Strike
- 4 Mar 1889—3 Mar 1893: Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States
Benjamin Harrison
- 31 Mar 1889: Eiffel Tower completed (to mark centenary of French Revolution)
- 14 May 1889: Children's charity NSPCC launched in London
- 3 Jun 1889: Canadian Pacific Railway completed from coast to coast
- 28 Sep 1889: Length of a metre defined
|
| 18 | 1890 | - 1890: Netherlands
King William III dies . Queen Emma becomes regent
- 1890: Netherlands
Birth of Princess Wilhelmina
- 4 Mar 1890: Forth railway bridge opens
- 4 Nov 1890: City & South London Railway opens
|
| 19 | 1891 | - 1891: Primary education made free and compulsory
- 18 Mar 1891: First telephone link between London & Paris
- 4 May 1891: Fictional date when Sherlock Holmes throws Moriarty over Reichenbach Falls, then disappears for 3 years! (published in 1893)
- 24 Aug 1891: Thomas Edison patents the motion picture camera
|
| 20 | 1892 | - 1892: Electric oven invented
- 1892: Shop Hours Act
- 15 Aug 1892—2 Mar 1894: William Ewart Gladstone, UK Prime Minister (Liberal)
William Ewart Gladstone
- 6 Oct 1892: Alfred Lord Tennyson dies, aged 83, at his house Aldworth, near Haslemere
|
| 21 | 1893 | - 1893: Henry Ford's first car
- 1893: Zip fastener invented
- 4 Mar 1893—3 Mar 1897: Grover Cleveland, 24th President of the United States
Grover Cleveland
|
| 22 | 1894 | - 1894: Picture postcard introduced in Britain
- 1 Jan 1894: Manchester Ship Canal opens
- 1 Mar 1894: Blackpool Tower opens
- 5 Mar 1894—25 Jun 1895: Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, UK Prime Minister (Liberal)
Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery
- 30 Jun 1894: Tower Bridge first opens
- 2 Aug 1894: Death duties first introduced in Britain
|
| 23 | 1895 | - 1895: Sir Henry Wood starts Promenade Concerts in London
- 12 Jan 1895: The National Trust founded in England
- 24 May 1895: Henry Irving becomes the first person from the theatre to be knighted
- 28 May 1895: Oscar Wilde sent to prison
- 25 Jun 1895—11 Jul 1902: Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, UK Prime Minister (Conservative)
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
- 12 Jul 1895: First recorded motor journey of any length (56 miles) in Britain
- 17 Oct 1895: First people in Britain to be charged with motor offences
- Nov 1895: X-rays discovered
|
| 24 | 1896 | - 1896: Netherlands
In 1896, the Hague photographer Adolphe Zimmermans was the first who drove a car on Dutch roads
- 5 Apr 1896: First modern Olympic Games held in Athens
- 2 Jun 1896: Guglielmo Marconi receives a British patent (later disputed) for the radio
|
| 25 | 1897 | - 1897: Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector
- 4 Mar 1897—24 Sep 1901: William McKinley, 25th President of the United States
William McKinley
|
| 26 | 1898 | - 1898: First photograph using artificial light
- 1898: Zeppelin builds airship
- 1898: Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company founded
- 1898: Netherlands
Inauguration of Queen Wilhelmina in Amsterdam.
- 17 Mar 1898: USS Holland launched, the first practical submarine
- 25 Apr 1898: Spanish-American War
- 27 Jun 1898: The first solo circumnavigation of the globe completed at Rhode island by
Joshua Slocum in Spray (started from Boston, Mass on Apr 24, 1895)
|
| 27 | 1899 | |
| 28 | 1900 | - 1900: School leaving age in Britain raised to 14 years
- 1900: Central Line opens in London: underground is electrified
- 1900: Escalator shown at Paris exhibition
- 9 Feb 1900: Davis Cup tennis competition established
- 27 Feb 1900: Labour Party formed
|
| 29 | 1901 | - 1901: Commonwealth of Australia founded
- 1901: Hubert Cecil Booth patents the vacuum cleaner
- 1901: Netherlands
Queen Wilhelmina marries Prince Henry , Duke of Mecklenburg
- 22 Jan 1901: Queen Victoria dies
- 2 Feb 1901: Queen Victoria's funeral
- Jun 1901: Denunciation of use of concentration camps by British in Boer War
- 14 Sep 1901—3 Mar 1909: Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States
Theodore Roosevelt
- 2 Oct 1901: Britain's first submarine launched
- 12 Dec 1901: First successful radio transmission across the Atlantic, by Marconi
|
| 30 | 1902 | - 1902: Balfour's Education Act provides for secondary education
- 1902: Cremation Act
- 1902: Marie Curie discovers radioactivity
- 24 May 1902: Empire Day (later Commonwealth Day) first celebrated
- 31 May 1902: Treaty of Vereeniging ends Second Boer War
- 11 Jul 1902—5 Dec 1905: Arthur James Balfour, UK Prime Minister (Conservative)
Arthur James Balfour
- 9 Aug 1902: Coronation of Edward VII
|
| 31 | 1903 | - 1903: Workers' Education Association (WEA) formed in Britain
- 1903: Women's Social and Political Union formed in Britain by Emmeline Pankhurst
- 1903: Henry Ford sets up his motor company
- 14 Dec 1903: First flight of Wilbur & Orville Wright
|
| 32 | 1904 | - 1904: Leeds University established
- 8 Apr 1904: France and UK sign the Entente Cordiale
- 4 May 1904: America takes over construction of the Panama Canal from the French
(completed 1914)
|
| 33 | 1905 | - 1905: The title 'Prime Minister' noted in a royal warrant for the first time
- 1905: Aliens Act in Britain: Home Office controls immigration
- 1905: Germany lays down the first Dreadnought battleship
- 11 Apr 1905: Einstein publishes Special Theory of Relativity
- 5 Dec 1905—7 Apr 1908: Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, UK Prime Minister (Liberal)
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
|
| 34 | 1906 | - 1906: Introduction of free school meals for poor children
- 10 Feb 1906: Launching of HMS Dreadnought, first turbine-driven battleship
- 15 Mar 1906: Rolls-Royce Ltd registered
- 26 May 1906: Vauxhall Bridge opened in London
- 20 Sep 1906: Launching of Cunard's RMS Mauretania on the Tyne
|
| 35 | 1907 | - 1907: New Zealand becomes a Dominion
- 1907: Imperial College, London, is established
- 1907: First airship flies over London
- 1907: Lumiere develops a process for colour photography
- Jul 1907: Leo Hendrik Baekeland patents Bakelite, the first plastic invented that held its
shape after being heated
- 1 Aug 1907: Baden-Powell leads the first Scout camp on Brownsea Island
- 9 Nov 1907: The Cullinan Diamond presented to Edward VII on his birthday
|
| 36 | 1908 | - 1908: Coal Mines Regulation Act in Britain limits men to an eight hour day
- 1908: Separate courts for juveniles established in Britain
- 1908: Lord Baden-Powell starts the Boy Scout movement
- 7 Apr 1908—7 Dec 1916: Herbert Henry Asquith, UK Prime Minister (Liberal)
Herbert Henry Asquith
- 1 Jul 1908: SOS became effective as an international signal of distress
- 12 Aug 1908: First 'Model T' Ford made
|
| 37 | 1909 | - 1909: Beveridge Report prompts creation of labour Exchanges
- 1909: Peary reaches the north pole
- 1909: First commercial manufacture of Bakelite
- 1909: Netherlands
Princess Juliana born
- 1 Jan 1909: Old Age Pensions Act came into force
- 16 Jan 1909: Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole
- 4 Mar 1909—3 Mar 1913: William Howard Taft, 27th President of the United States
William Howard Taft
- 15 Mar 1909: Selfridges department store opens in London
- 25 Jul 1909: Bleriot flies across the Channel (36 minutes, Calais to Dover)
|
| 38 | 1910 | - 1910: Railway strike and coal strikes in Britain
- 1910: Constitutional crisis in Britain
- 1910: Dr Crippen caught by radio telegraphy; hanged 23 Nov at Pentonville
- 1910: Madame Curie isolates radium
- 1910: Halley's comet reappears
- 1910: Tango becomes popular in North America and Europe
- 6 May 1910: Edward VII dies
|
| 39 | 1911 | - 1911: Parliament Act in Britain reduces the power of the House of Lords
- 1911: British MPs receive a salary
- 1911: First British Official Secrets Act
- 1911: Rutherford: theory of atomic structures
- 1911: Strikes by seamen, dock and transport workers (1911-1912)
- 2 Apr 1911: Census: Population - England and Wales: 36 Million; Scotland: 4.6 Million; N Ireland: 1.25 Million
- 22 Jun 1911: Coronation of George V
- 14 Dec 1911: National Insurance introduced in Britain
|
| 40 | 1912 | - 1912: Irish Home Rule crisis grows in Britain
- 1912: Britain nationalises the telephone system
- 1912: Discovery of the 'Piltdown Man'
- 18 Jan 1912: Captain Scott's last expedition
- 14 Apr 1912: The 'unsinkable' Titanic sinks on maiden voyage
- 13 May 1912: Royal Flying Corps (later the RAF) founded in Britain
|
| 41 | 1913 | - 1913: Third Irish Home Rule Bill rejected by House of Lords
- 1913: Suffragette demonstrations in London
- 1913: Trade Union Act in Britain establishes the right to use Union funds for political
purposes
- 1913: Invention of stainless steel by Harry Brearley of Sheffield
- 1913: Geiger invents his counter to measure radioactivity
- 4 Mar 1913—3 Mar 1921: Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States
Woodrow Wilson
- 4 Jun 1913: Emily Davison, a suffragette, runs out in front of the king's horse, Anmer, at the
Epsom Derby and dies
|
| 42 | 1914 | - 1914: Irish Home Rule Act provides for a separate Parliament in Ireland; the position of Ulster
to be decided after the War
- 1914: Chaplin and De Mille make their first films
- 28 Jun 1914: Archduke Ferdinand assassinated in Sarajevo
- 4 Aug 1914: Britain declares war on Germany, citing Belgian neutrality as reason
- 5 Aug 1914: British cableship Telconia cut through all five of Germany's undersea telegraph
links to the outside world
- 15 Aug 1914: Panama Canal opened, the Canal cement boat 'Ancon' making the first official
transit (plans for a grand opening were cancelled due to the start of WW1)
- Oct 1914: Battle of Ypres
- 27 Nov 1914: First policewoman goes on duty in Britain
- 16 Dec 1914: German battleships bombard Hartlepool and Scarborough
|
| 43 | 1915 | - 1915: Junkers construct first fighter aeroplane
- 1915: First automatic telephone exchange in Britain
- 19 Jan 1915: First Zeppelin air raid on England, over East Anglia
- Feb 1915: Submarine blockade of Britain starts
- Apr 1915: Second Battle of Ypres
- 25 Apr 1915: Gallipoli campaign starts (declared ANZAC Day in 1916)
- 7 May 1915: RMS Lusitania sunk by German submarine off coast of Ireland
- 16 May 1915: First meeting of a British WI (Women's Institute) took place in Llanfairpwll
(aka Llanfair PG), Anglesey
|
| 44 | 1916 | - 1916: Compulsory military service introduced in Britain
- Feb 1916: Battle of Verdun
- 24 Apr 1916: Easter Rising in Ireland
- 21 May 1916: First use of Daylight Saving Time in UK
- 31 May 1916: Battle of Jutland
- 5 Jun 1916: Sinking of HMS Hampshire and death of Kitchener
- 3 Aug 1916: Sir Roger Casement hanged at Pentonville Prison for treason
- 15 Sep 1916: First use of tanks in battle, but of limited effect (Battle of the Somme 1 July to 18 Nov: over 1 million casualties)
- 7 Dec 1916: Lloyd-George becomes British Prime Minister of the coalition government
- 7 Dec 1916—19 Oct 1922: David Lloyd George, UK Prime Minister (Liberal)
David Lloyd George
|
| 45 | 1917 | - 1917: Battle of Cambrai
- 1917: Ministry of Labour is established in Britain
- Feb 1917: February revolution in Russia; Tsar Nicholas abdicates
- 6 Apr 1917: World War I
- 16 Apr 1917: Lenin returns to Russia after exile
- 17 Apr 1917: USA declares war on Germany
- 26 May 1917: George V changes surname from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor (Royal
proclamation on 17 July)
- Jul 1917: Battle of Passchendaele
- 7 Nov 1917: 'October' Revolution in Russia
- 6 Dec 1917: Halifax (Nova Scotia) Explosion, one of the world's largest artificial non-nuclear
explosions to date: a ship loaded with wartime explosives blew up after a collision,
obliterating buildings and structures within two square kilometres of the explosion
- 9 Dec 1917: British forces capture Jerusalem
|
| 46 | 1918 | - 1918: Vote for women over 30, men over 21 (except peers, lunatics and felons)
- 1918: War of Independence in Ireland
- 1918: Epidemic
The Spanish flu caused over 20 million deaths worldwide
- 18 Jan 1918: Bentley Motors founded
- 8 Mar 1918: Start of world-wide 'flu pandemic
- Jul 1918: Second Battle of the Marne: last major German offensive in WW1 (Jul-Aug)
- 1 Oct 1918: Arab forces under Lawrence of Arabia capture Damascus
- 11 Nov 1918: Armistice signed
- Dec 1918: First woman elected to House of Commons, Countess Markiewicz as a Sinn F
|
| 47 | 1919 | - 1919: Britain adopts a 48-hour working week
- 1919: Sir Ernest Rutherford publishes account of splitting the atom
- 15 Jun 1919: Alcock and Brown complete first nonstop flight across the Atlantic
- 28 Jun 1919: Treaty of Versailles signed
|
| 48 | 1920 | - 1920: Regular cross-channel air service starts
- 1920: Marconi opens a radio broadcasting station in Britain
- 1920: Thompson patents his machine gun (Tommy gun)
- Feb 1920: First roadside petrol filling station in UK
|
| 49 | 1921 | - 1921: Railway Act in Britain amalgamates companies
- 1921: Insulin discovery announced
- 1921: First birth control clinic
- 4 Mar 1921—2 Aug 1923: Warren Gamaliel Harding, 29th President of the United States
Warren Gamaliel Harding
- 19 Jun 1921: Census: Population - England and Wales: 37.9 Million; Scotland: 4.9 Million; N Ireland: 1.25 Million
- 6 Dec 1921: Anglo-Irish Treaty signed in London, leading to the formation of the Irish Free
State and Northern Ireland
|
| 50 | 1922 | - 1922: Law of Property Act
- 1 Jun 1922: Royal Ulster Constabulary founded
- Oct 1922: BBC established as a monopoly, and begins transmissions in November (2LO in
London on 14 Nov; 5IT in Birmingham and 2ZY in Manchester on 15 Nov)
- 23 Oct 1922—20 May 1923: Andrew Bonar Law, UK Prime Minister (Conservative)
Andrew Bonar Law
|
| 51 | 1923 | - 1923: Roads in Great Britain classified with A and B numbers
- 1923: Hubble shows there are galaxies beyond the Milky Way
- 1923: First American broadcasts heard in Britain
- 1923: Netherlands
Queen Wilhelmina celebrates its 25th jubilee
- 1 Jan 1923: The majority of the railway companies in Great Britain grouped into four main
companies, the Big Four: LNER, GWR, SR, LMSR
- 16 Feb 1923: Howard Carter unsealed the burial chamber of Tutankhamun
- 28 Apr 1923: First Wembley cup final (West Ham 0, Bolton 2)
- 23 May 1923—16 Jan 1924: Stanley Baldwin, UK Prime Minister (Conservative)
Stanley Baldwin
- 2 Aug 1923—3 Mar 1929: Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States
Calvin Coolidge
- 28 Sep 1923: First publication of Radio Times
|
| 52 | 1924 | - 4 Jan 1924: First Labour government in Britain, headed by Ramsay MacDonald
- 22 Jan 1924—4 Nov 1924: James Ramsay MacDonald, UK Prime Minister (Labour)
James Ramsay MacDonald
- 5 Feb 1924: Hourly Greenwich Time Signals from the Royal Greenwich Observatory were
first broadcast by the BBC
- 31 Mar 1924: British Imperial Airways begins operations (formed by merger of four British
airline companies
- 4 Nov 1924—5 Jun 1929: Stanley Baldwin, UK Prime Minister (Conservative)
Stanley Baldwin
|
| 53 | 1925 | - 1925: Britain returns to gold standard
- 18 Jul 1925: Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf
|
| 54 | 1926 | - 1926: First public demonstration of television (TV) by John Logie Baird
- 1926: Adoption of children is legalised in Britain
- 1926: Kodak produces 16mm movie film
- 1926: Walt Disney arrives in Hollywood
- 21 Apr 1926: Princess Elizabeth born
- 3 May 1926: General Strike begins. Lasts until May 12 (mine workers for 6 months more)
- 31 Oct 1926: Death of Harry Houdini
|
| 55 | 1927 | - 1927: Release of the first 'talkie' film (The Jazz Singer)
- 7 Jan 1927: First transatlantic telephone call
- 22 Jan 1927: First football broadcast by BBC (Arsenal v Sheffield United at Highbury)
- 1 May 1927: First cooked meals on a scheduled flight introduced by Imperial Airways from
London to Paris
- 20 May 1927: Lindbergh makes solo flight across the Atlantic, in 33
- 31 May 1927: Last Ford Model T rolls off assembly line
- 24 Jul 1927: The Menin Gate war memorial unveiled at Ypres
|
1876 - 1927 (50 years)
