Explore | Timeline

Suicide bombers kill 52 people on London's transport system

Civil partnerships give same-sex couples legal rights

Islamic terrorists crash aircraft on targets in New York and Washington

Labour wins the general election, with Tony Blair as Prime Minister

Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a car crash in Paris

First women priests are ordained by the Church of England

Channel Tunnel opens, linking London and Paris by rail

12-month 'Miners' Strike' over pit closures begins

IRA bombers strike at the Conservative conference in Brighton

Argentina invades the British territory of the Falkland Islands

Racial tensions spark riots in Brixton and other areas

Conservative Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain's first female Prime Minister

IRA kill the Queen's cousin Lord Mountbatten

Strikes paralyse Britain during the so-called 'Winter of Discontent'

World's first test-tube baby is born in Oldham

Britain joins the European Economic Community

Decimalised currency replaces 'pounds, shillings and pence'

Concorde, the world's first supersonic airliner, makes its maiden flight

Enoch Powell makes the controversial "Rivers of Blood" speech

Abortion and homosexuality are legalised in Britain

Beatles release 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'

England win the World Cup beating West Germany 4-2 in extra time

The death penalty is, with exceptions for treason, abolished in Britain

Comprehensive education system is initiated

The Great Train Robbery

Penguin Books are acquitted of obscenity charges following their publication of D.H.Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover

Munich air crash in which 23 people die including eight Manchester United FC players

Motorway system opens with the M6 Preston bypass

Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb

The Suez Crisis

Worsening pollution prompts the passing of the Clean Air Act

Britain switches on its first nuclear power station

Commercial television starts with the first ITV broadcast

Food rationing end in Britain

Coronation of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Watson and Crick publish their discovery of the structure of DNA

December smog in London kills more than 2000 people

The General Election sees a Labour government returned with a majority of only 5 seats

George Orwell's novel 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' is published

National Health Service is established

India gains independence from Britain

First American troops arrive in Europe, landing in Belfast

Food rationing introduced in Britain

The Battle of Britain

World War II

George VI is crowned King

Edward VIII abdicates in order to marry Wallace Simpson

Oswald Mosley founds the British Union of Fascists

All women over the age of 21 get the vote

Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin

The first 'talkie' (film with dialogue) is shown in Britain

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is created

General Strike

John Logie Baird gives the first public demonstration of television

'Plaid Cymru' formed to disseminate knowledge of the Welsh language

Irish Free State established

Irish Civil War breaks out

James Joyce, Ulysses; T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

Lady Astor becomes the first woman to take her seat in parliament

Massive flu epidemic reaches Britain

All men over 21 and women over 30 enfranchised

Easter Rising in Dublin

Conscription is introduced in Britain

First British use of poison gas, at Loos, France

The "Great War" (World War I)

Suffragette Emily Davison is killed by the King's horse

'Titanic' sinks with the loss of 1,503 lives

National Insurance Act provides cover against sickness and unemployment

Edward VII dies and is succeeded by George V

Parliament approves old-age pensions

Olympic Games open at White City in London

Entente Cordiale (England and France)

Victoria dies; Edward Prince of Wales succeeds

Boer war

U.S. equals the U.K.'s industrial output

Death duties are introduced

London dock workers and match girls strike for 6d./hour

Bloody Sunday

Sir William Armstrong's home becomes the first to use electric light

Education becomes compulsory for children under ten

Population of the United Kingdom at 26 million (France 36 million)

Voting by secret ballot is introduced

Joseph Lister writes on antiseptics in 'The Lancet'

Albert dies; Victoria retires into mourning

Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" is published

Crimean War

The Great Exhibition

Telegraph cable laid under English Channel

Potato failure in Europe; famine in Ireland. Corn Laws (which had kept up the price of grain) repealed

Income tax is introduced for the first time during peace time

Queen Victoria marries her cousin Albert, who becomes Prince Consort

S.F.B. Morse invents the telegraph

Penny post started

Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist is published

Victoria comes to the throne after the death of William IV