From Queen Victoria to Queen Elizabeth II Timeline

Queen Victoria ( 1837 - 1901 ) 1837 - Victoria succeeds her uncle, William IV 1838 - Publication of People’s Charter. Start of Chartism. 1839 - First Afghan War. British Forces capture the fortress of Ghazi in Afghanistan. 1839 - - 42 First Opium War. Britain gains Hong Kong. 1840 - Victoria marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. 1840 - The Penny Post is introduced. First postage stamp is the Penny Black. 1840 - First colonist settlement in New Zealand 1841 - Sir Robert Peel becomes Prime Minister 1842 - End of First Opium War. Britain gains Hong Kong 1843 - Launch of SS Great Britain the worlds first all metal ship. 1844 - Railway building mania starts. 5,000 miles of track are built in Britain by 1846 1845 - - 1849 Irish Potato Famine kills more than a million people. Many emigrate to America. 1846 - Repeal of the Corn Laws 1848 - Major Chartist demonstration in London. 1848 - Pre-Raphaelite movement begins 1849 - Harrods store in London is opened 1851 - Great Exhibition takes place in Hyde Park. Its success is largely due to Prince Albert. 1852 - Death of the Duke of Wellington 1853 - Vaccination against smallpox made compulsory. 1853 - Victoria uses chloroform during the birth of Prince Leopold. 1854 - -1856 Crimean War fought by Britain and France against Russia. 1854 - Charge of the Light Brigade 1854 - 10,000 die of cholera from contaminated water in London. 1856 - The Victoria Cross is instituted for military bravery. 1856 - David Livingstone discovers the Victoria Falls 1857 - -1858 Indian Mutiny against British rule. 1858 - Isambard Kingdom Brunel launches The Great Eastern, the largest ship in the world and the first with a double iron hull. 1858 - First trans-Atlantic telegraph service 1859 - Publication of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of the Species. 1861 - Prince Albert dies of typhoid 1861 - - 65 Civil War in America. Southern states unsuccessfully seek to involve Britain which has sufficient cotton from Egypt and India, but needs the Union North's grain. 1863 - The world's first underground railway is opened in London 1863 - Edward, Prince of Wales, marries Alexandra of Denmark 1863 - The Salvation Army is founded. 1863 - The Football Association is founded. 1865 - Slavery is ended in America with Northern Union victory in the American Civil War 1867 - The Second Reform Bill doubles the franchise vote to two million. 1867 - Canada becomes the first independent dominion in the Empire. 1867 - Karl Marx publishes the first volume of Das Kapital 1868 - Gladstone becomes Prime Minister for the first time. 1869 - The Irish Church is disestablished. 1870 - First Education Act. Primary education becomes compulsory. 1870 - Death of Charles Dickens 1871 - Trade Unions are legalized 1872 - Secret voting is introduced for elections. 1872 - Henry Stanley finds David Livingstone who had been missing in Africa. 1874 - Disraeli becomes Prime Minister for the second time. 1875 - Suez Canal shares purchased for Britain. 1875 - Thomas Moy demonstrates his Aerial Steamer the worlds first flying machine at Crystal Palace, London 1876 - Victoria becomes Empress of India. 1876 - Scots Alexander Graham Bell demonstrates the telephone 1878 - Second Afghan War. British defend the Kyber Pass. 1878 - William Booths Christian movement adopts the name The Salvation Army 1879 - Tay Bridge disaster 1879 - Zulu war, British troops massacred at Isandlwana and Rorkes Drft 1880 - Gladstone succeeds Disraeli as Prime Minister 1880 - - 1881 First conflict with Boers in South Africa 1883 - British occupy Egypt 1884 - Third Reform Act all adult males given the vote. 1884 - Greenwich Meridian and Mean Time adopted 1886 - First Irish Home Rule Bill fails to pass House of of Commons. Gladstone resigns as Prime Minister. 1887 - Victoria celebrates her Golden Jubilee. She has ruled for 50 years. 1887 - Independent Labour Party is founded. 1891 - Free schooling is introduced. 11 years later school attendance becomes compulsory for all children. 1893 - Second Irish Home Rule Bill fails to pass the House of Lords. 1897 - Victoria celebrates her Diamond Jubilee. 1897 - Marconi demonstrates wireless transmission across the Bristol Channel 1899 - -1902 Boer War in South Africa. Siege of Mafeking 1900 - Labour party founded 1901 - Queen Victoria dies, aged 81.
King Edward VII ( 1901 - 1910 ) 1901 - Edward VII becomes King on the death of his mother, Queen Victoria. 1901 - Australia is granted dominion status. 1902 - Arthur Balfour becomes Prime Minister. 1902 - First trans-Atlantic radio transmission 1902 - Edward VII institutes the Order of Merit. 1902 - Empire Day is celebrated for the first time. 1902 - Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories published. 1903 - Wilbur and Orville Wright of the US make the first manned and controlled aircraft flight. 1903 - The Women’s Social and Political Union, demanding votes for women, is founded by Emmeline Pankhurst. 1904 - Britain and France sign the Entente Cordiale, settling outstanding territorial disputes. 1904 - Sigmund Freud publishes Psychopathology of Everyday Life. 1904 - Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie is published. 1905 - Motor buses are first used in London. 1906 - Construction of HMS Dreadnought 1907 - Edward VII visits his cousin Tzar Nicholas II of Russia 1907 - Taxi-cabs are legally recognized in Britain for the first time. 1907 - Baden-Powell takes the first ever group of boy scouts on holiday to Brownsea island, Dorset. 1907 - Parliament rejects Channel Tunnel scheme. 1907 - New Zealand is granted dominion status. 1908 - Production of Ford motor cars begins. 1908 - Publication of The Wind in the WilIows by Kenneth Grahame 1908 - The fourth Olympic Games are held in London. 1908 - Herbert Henry Asquith becomes Prime Minister. 1908 - The Triple Entente is signed between Russia, France, and Britain. 1908 - The Children’s Act establishes separate juvenile courts to try children. 1908 - Old Age Pensions established in Britain for all over 70 years old with an income of less than ten shillings per week. 1909 - The People’s Budget is introduced by Lloyd George 1909 - The Women’s Suffrage movement becomes more militant in their fight for votes for women. 1909 - Introduction of Labour Exchanges 1909 - French airman, Louis Blériot, makes the first cross-Channel flight from Calais to Dover. 1909 - First rugby match to be played Twickenham takes place. 1909 - First Boy Scout Rally is held at Crystal Palace, London. 1910 - Constitutional Crisis is caused by the House of Commons’ attempt to curb the power of the House of Lords. 1910 - Edward dies of pneumonia at Buckingham Palace.
King George V ( 1910 - 1936 ) 1910 - George V becomes King and Emperor of India on the death of his father, Edward VII. 1911 - Parliament Act ensures the sovereignty of the House of Commons. 1911 - National Insurance Act provides sickness and unemployment benefits. 1912 - The luxury passenger ship S.S. Titanic sinks on her maiden voyage, drowning more than 1,500 people. 1913 - Suffragette Emily Wilding Davison throws herself under the Kings horse at the Epsom Derby 1914 - Anglican Church in Wales is disestablished. 1914 - The heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire is assassinated. Outbreak of World War I. 1914 - Battles of Mons, the Marne, and Ypres. 1915 - Second Battle of Ypres. Allied Gallipoli expedition fails to remove Turkey from the war. 1916 - Battle of the Somme. Naval Battle of Jutland between British and German fleets. 1916 - Easter Rising in Dublin in support of Irish independence. 1916 - David Lloyd George replaces Asquith as Prime Minister. 1917 - Battle of Passchendale. 1917 - Russian Revolution. Czar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra (cousin of George V) and their royal family are shot in Ekaterinburg. 1918 - Kaiser Wilhelm II (cousin of George V) abdicates as Germany faces defeat in World War I. 1918 - The end of World War I. Armistice signed on 11 November. 1918 - Reform Act gives votes to women over 30. 1918 - General Election produces landslide victory for Sinn Fein MPs in Ireland, who refuse to take their seats in Westminster and form their own DalI parliament in Dublin. 1919 - Lady Astor becomes the first woman MP to take her seat in the House of Commons 1919 - Third Afghan War. Afghanistan gains independence from Britain 1919 - A flu-pandemic (known as Spanish Flu) rages around the world killing over 50 million people. 1919 - -1921 Ireland partitioned into the Free State and the province of Northern Ireland. 1920 - Marconi opens first radio broadcasting station in Britain 1920 - A flu epidemic rages around the world killing more than 20 million people. 1920 - First Labour government formed by Ramsay MacDonald. 1922 - The British Broadcasting Company starts radio transmissions 1923 - Prince Albert (later George VI) marries Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon 1924 - Ramsay MacDonald becomes Prime Minister 1926 - General Strike fails to reverse wage cuts and imposition of longer hours. 1926 - John Logie Baird demonstrates world's first television in London 1927 - British Broadcasting Corporation founded by Royal Charter 1928 - All women over the age of 21 get the vote. 1928 - George V falls seriously ill with blood poisoning of the lung. 1928 - Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin 1929 - Beginning of the Great Depression which lasted almost 10 years 1931 - The Statute of Westminster recognizes independence of. the dominions. 1931 - Great Depression leads to the formation of a national government of all three political parties under the leadership of Ramsay MacDonald. 1932 - George V makes the first annual Christmas broadcast on radio. 1935 - George V celebrates his Silver Jubilee. 1935 - Robert Watson-Watt demonstrates Radar 1935 - Stanley Baldwin replaces Ramsay MacDonald asprime minister 1936 - George V dies at Sandringham.
King Edward VIII ( 1936 ) 1936 - Edward VIII succeeds his father, George V, as King on 20 January. 1936 - Outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. 1936 - Germany, under Adolf Hitler, reoccupies the demilitarized left bank of the Rhine. 1936 - Britain begins to rearm as political tension increases in Europe and the prospect of military conflict in the region becomes more evident. 1936 - Fire destroys Crystal Palace, once the home of the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park but now located in Sydenham, south London. 1936 - J.M. Keynes publishes his book General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money an internationally influential study of modern economics. 1936 - Maiden voyage of luxury ocean liner the Queen Mary takes place. 1936 - Jarrow crusade of unemployed marches to London 1936 - The BBC inaugurates the world’s first television service at Alexandra Palace in London. 1936 - On 10 December Edward signs the Instrument of Abdication over his wish to marry Mrs Wallace Simpson. Witnessed by all his brothers, it is a simple declaration of his intent to renounce the throne for himself and all his descendants. He is subsequently created Duke of Windsor.
King George VI ( 1936 - 1952 ) 1936 - George VI accedes to the throne upon the abdication of his brother, Edward VIII 1936 - Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signs agreement with Adolf Hitler at Munich in an attempt to stop outbreak of war in Europe 1938 - Nazi Germany annexes Austria 1937 - Frank Whittle invents the jet engine 1939 - Germany invades Poland. Outbreak of World War II. 1940 - Retreating British troops evacuated from beaches of Dunkirk as Germans advance. 1940 - Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister. 1940 - Battle of Britain fought in the skies over England between the RAF and German Luftwaffe. 1940 - German bombers blitz London, Coventry and other major cities 1941 - Hitler invades the Soviet Union 1941 - America enters the War after Japanese air raid on US fleet at Pearl Harbour. 1942 - Fall of Singapore to the Japanese 1942 - British victory at El Alamein. 1944 - D-Day landings in Normandy as the Allies begin to push the German forces back across Europe. 1944 - Battle of Arnhem airborne landings 1945 - The defeat of Germany marks the end of World War II in Europe. 1945 - Japan surrenders, after US drops atomic bombs on two cities. 1946 - Start of the 'Cold War'. Churchill speaks of the 'Iron Curtain' separating Western Europe from the Communist Eastern block 1947 - India granted independence. Pakistan declared a separate nation. 1947 - Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) marries Philip Mountbatten 1948 - National Health Service establishes free medical treatment. 1948 - Mahatma Ghandi is assassinated 1949 - Berlin Airlift relieves the Soviet blockade of Berlin 1950 - -1953 Korean War 1951 - Winston Churchill becomes British Prime Minister again. 1952 - George VI dies.
Queen Elizabeth II ( 1952 - ) 1952 - Elizabeth accedes to the throne on the death of her father, George VI. 1952 - World's first jet airliner passenger service inaugurated by BOAC in Comet I aircraft 1953 - Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climb Mount Everest just before Coronation Day 1953 - Francis Crick and James Watson unravel the mystery of DNA 1953 - - 1954 Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip embark on a 6 month world tour including Australia and New Zealand 1955 - Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister and is succeeded by Anthony Eden. 1955 - Laws restricting the burning of coal and establishing smokeless zones bring an end to London's notorious fogs 1956 - Anglo-French forces invade Egypt after the nationalization of the Suez Canal. 1957 - Harold Macmillan becomes Prime Minister 1957 - The Gold Coast becomes independent as Ghana, the first British colony in Africa to receive its independence. 1957 - Queen Elizabeth addresses the United Nations and opens the 23rd Canadian Parliament 1959 - Oil is discovered in the North Sea. 1959 - Queen Elizabeth tours Canada and the United States 1960 - Harold Macmillan becomes Prime Minister makes 'winds of change' speech in South Africa. 1960 - Union of South Africa withdraws from the Commonwealth. 1963 - Alec Douglas-Hume replaces Harold Macmillan as the Prime Minister. 1963 - The Beatles release their first LP. 1964 - Labour government of Harold Wilson takes office 1966 - Aberfan disaster leaves 116 children dead 1969 - Prince Charles is invested as Prince of Wales. 1969 - Troubles break out in the North of Ireland 1970 - Edward Heath becomes Prime Minister. 1971 - Decimal currency is introduced. 1973 - Britain joins the European Community. 1974 - Miners strike brings down Heath Government. Harold Wilson returns as Prime Minister. 1976 - Concorde begins first supersonic trans-Atlantic flights 1977 - Celebration of the Silver Jubilee of the Queens accession 1978 - The world's first test-tube baby is delivered in Oldham, Greater Manchester 1979 - Margaret Thatcher succeeds James Callaghan, becoming Britain’s first woman Prime Minister. 1981 - Prince Charles marries Lady Diana Spencer in St. Paul’s Cathedral. 1982 - Unemployment in Britain tops three million. 1982 - Britain goes to war with Argentina over control of the Falkland Islands 1984 - Miners strike again but is defeated by Thatcher. 1986 - Queen Elizabeth II celebrates 60th birthday. 1988 - PanAm flight 103 bombed and crashes on Lockerbie killing 270 1989 - Poll tax is introduced amid widespread protest. 1989 - Fall of the Berlin Wall. End of the 'Cold War'. 1990 - Margaret Thatcher resigns as Prime Minister after 11 years and is succeeded by John Major. 1991 - The Allied forces liberate Kuwait during the Gulf War. 1992 - Princess Anne and Mark Phillips divorce. Windsor castle suffers severe fire damage. 1993 - European Parliament comes into force 1994 - Opening of the Channel Tunnel between England and France 1996 - Both the Prince and Princess of Wales, and the Duke and Duchess of York divorce. 1997 - Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister and ends 18 years of Conservative government. 1997 - Hong Kong reverts to China after 155 years of British rule. 1997 - Diana Princess of Wales dies in Paris car crash 1998 - Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland 1998 - Scotland and Wales vote for their own Assemblies 1999 - Edward, Earl of Wessex, marries Sophie Rhys-Jones. 2000 - Queen Mother celebrates her 100th birthday. 2001 - Twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York destroyed by Islamic terrorists. 2001 - - present. Fourth Afghan War. British and Allied troops in Afghanistan. 2002 - Queen Elizabeth II marks Golden Jubilee of 50 years of rule. Deaths of Queen Mother and Princess Margaret. 2003 - British and US forces invade Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein 2005 - Prince Charles marries his second wife Camilla Parker-Bowles and she is given the title Duchess of Cornwall 2006 - Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her 80th birthday. 2007 - Tony Blair resigns as Prime Minister 2007 - Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip celebrate 60 years of marriage 2007 - Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest ever reigning British monarch 2008 - World wide banking crisis. Government has to bail out two major British banks 2009 - Parliamentary integrity damaged by expenses scandal 2010 - David Cameron becomes Prime Minister