British History Timeline

Events 1 - 200 of 230

• 1583-08-05 Humphrey Gilbert claims Newfoundland for the British crown, the first English colony in North America and the beginning of the British Empire
• 1601-02-13 Fleet of five British East India Company vessels departs on their 1st voyage from London, led by Sir James John Lancaster commanding the "Red Dragon"; journey takes nearly 16 months

• 1639-08-22 Madras (now Chennai), India, founded by the British East India Company on sliver of land bought from local Nayak rulers

• 1679-07-12 Britain's King Charles II ratifies Habeas Corpus Act allowing prisoners right to be imprisoned to be examined by a court

• 1689-01-22 Prince William of Orange (future King William III of Britain), summons Convention Parliament to discuss ruling jointly with his wife Mary (daughter of exiled King James II)
• 1707-05-01 Acts of Union comes into force, uniting England and Scotland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain
• 1708-01-08 Spanish armada headed by the San Jose and loaded with gold sunk after British squadron attacks off coast of Colombia (rediscovered 2015)

• 1731-04-09 British mariner Robert Jenkins' ear is cut off by Spanish Guarde Costa in the Caribbean, catalyst for a later war between Britain and Spain

• 1746-04-16 Jacobite Rising 1745: Battle of Culloden, the last battle on British soil: Royalist troops under the Duke of Cumberland defeat the Jacobite army of Charles Edward Stuart
• 1756-06-20 Black Hole of Calcutta: 146 British soldiers, Anglo-Indian soldiers and Indian civilians are imprisoned in a small dungeon in Calcutta, India where most die from suffocation and heat exhaustion

• 1763-02-10 Treaty of Paris ends French-Indian War, France surrenders Canada to Great Britain

• 1770-04-28 British Captain James Cook, aboard HMS Endeavour, first lands in Australia at Botany Bay

• 1774-02-22 British House of Lords rules authors do not have perpetual copyright
• 1774-09-05 Twelve of the thirteen American colonies adopt a trade embargo against Great Britain at the first Continental Congress at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• 1775-02-09 British Parliament declares Massachusetts colony in rebellion

• 1776-11-16 British troops capture Fort Washington during American Revolution

• 1778-11-26 British explorer Captain James Cook is the first European to visit Maui in the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii)

• 1783-04-18 American Revolution: George Washington issues General Orders announcing the end of hostilities with Britain, giving thanks to the Almighty, and offering congratulations and authorizing an extra ration of alcohol to the troops to celebrate [1]
• 1783-09-03 Treaty of Paris signed in Paris ends the American Revolutionary War between Great Britain and United States of America
• 1783-11-25 Britain evacuates New York city, its last military position in the United States

• 1784-01-14 US Congress of the Confederation ratifies the Treaty of Paris, signed September 3, 1783, ending the Revolutionary War, and forwards it to Great Britain

• 1795-09-16 British capture Capetown, South Africa, from the Dutch

• 1797-10-11 Battle of Camperdown (Kamperduin): British navy defeats Dutch fleet

• 1812-06-18 War of 1812 begins as US declares war against Britain

• 1813-09-10 American Naval Commander Oliver Hazard Perry defeats the British in Battle of Lake Erie

• 1814-08-24 British forces capture Washington, D.C. and destroy many landmarks (War of 1812)

• 1819-01-28 British colonial officer Stamford Raffles lands in Singapore
• 1819-02-06 Stamford Raffles founds Singapore as a British trading port
• 1825-02-22 Russia and Britain establish the Alaska-Canada boundary

• 1829-12-04 Britain outlaws "suttee" in India, a Hindu practice where a widow burns herself to death on her husband's funeral pyre

• 1834-08-01 Slavery Abolition Act 1833 comes into effect, abolishes slavery throughout the British Empire
• 1839-01-10 First tea from leaves of indigenous plants of Assam, India, arrives in the United Kingdom [date approximate] [1]

• 1840-07-23 Union Act passed by British Parliament, uniting Upper & Lower Canada
• 1841-01-20 China cedes Hong Kong to the British during the First Opium War
• 1842-01-13 Dr. William Brydon, a surgeon in the British Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for (reputedly) being the sole survivor of an army of 16,500 when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad.
• 1842-08-29 Great Britain and China sign Treaty of Nanking, ending the Opium war

• 1848-07-29 Irish Potato Famine: Tipperary Revolt - an unsuccessful nationalist revolt against British rule put down by police
• 1851-08-22 100 Guineas Cup is raced around Isle of Wight; US schooner 'America' beats British cutter 'Aurora' by 24 minutes; first competition for the America's Cup yachting trophy

• 1854-03-28 Great Britain and France declare war on Russia, expanding the Crimean War

• 1854-10-17 French and British forces bombard Sevastopol for the first time during the Crimean War
• 1854-10-23 English newspaper "The Times" gives precise British positions in Crimea during Crimean War
• 1856-01-29 Victoria Cross established to acknowledge valour in the face of the enemy (United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries)

• 1857-03-03 Second Opium War: France and the United Kingdom declare war on China

• 1858-08-02 Government of India transferred from East India Company to the British Crown

• 1860-12-29 The first British seagoing iron-clad warship, HMS Warrior is launched
• 1863-07-12 In New Zealand, British forces invade the Waikato, home of the Māori King Movement, beginning a new phase of the New Zealand Wars between the colonial government and allied Māori tribes on one side and Māori on the other

• 1867-03-08 British North America Act is passed in the House of Commons, serves as Canada's constitution for more than 100 years

• 1869-10-05 A strong hurricane known as the Saxby Gale devastates the Bay of Fundy region in Maritime Canada. Incredibly British naval officer Stephen Martin Saxby predicted the storm 10 months earlier in December 1868 via astronomy.
• 1873-02-20 British Naval Officer John Moresby is the first European to discover Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, claims it for the United Kingdom
• 1873-06-05 Sultan Bargash bin Said under British pressure closes the infamous slave market of Zanzibar in modern day Tanzania
• 1875-04-17 Modern Snooker invented by Sir Neville Chamberlain, a bored British officer in Jabalpur, India
• 1877-07-11 Kate Edger becomes New Zealand’s first woman graduate and first woman in the British Empire to earn a Bachelor of Arts
• 1878-09-25 British physician Dr. Charles Drysdale warns against the use of tobacco in a letter to The Times newspaper in one of the earliest public health announcements on the dangers of smoking

• 1885-02-26 Berlin Conference gives Congo to Belgium and Nigeria to Great Britain

• 1896-08-27 Britain defeats Zanzibar in a 38-minute war (9:02 AM-9:40 AM). Shortest recorded war in history.

• 1899-10-30 Battle of Ladysmith, Natal: Boers defeat the British, leading to the Siege of Ladysmith
• 1900-08-08 1st International Lawn Tennis Challenge (precursor to Davis Cup) begins at Longwood Cricket Club in Massachusetts, won 3-0 by US over British Isles
• 1900-08-09 1st International Lawn Tennis Challenge, Boston, MA: Dwight Davis & Holcombe Ward beat Ernest Black & Herbert Roper Barrett 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to give US an unassailable 3-0 lead over British Isles
• 1900-09-03 With a proclamation by General Lord Roberts, Britain annexes the Boer Republic of South Africa
• 1900-10-04 In a final confrontation, around 4,000 Ashantis are defeated by the British in the Gold Coast (Ghana)
• 1900-10-16 Great Britain and Germany sign the Anglo-German Treaty, agreeing to maintain territorial integrity of China and support 'open door' policy called for by US Secretary of State
• 1901-09-26 Great Britain annexes the Ashanti Kingdom and places it under the governor of the Gold Coast (Ghana)
• 1902-01-30 Britain and Japan sign a treaty after months of negotiating which commits each country to supporting an independent China and Korea, although it acknowledges Japan's 'special interest' in Korea
• 1902-05-31 Boer War Ends; Treaty of Unity signed, Britain annexes Transvaal
• 1903-03-13 Fall of the Sokoto Caliphate in Northern Nigeria, the British claim supremacy on over 500,000 square miles
• 1906-02-10 British battleship HMS Dreadnought launches after only 100 days, renders all other capital ships obsolete with its revolutionary design
• 1906-03-24 "Census of the British Empire" shows Great Britain rules 1/5th of the world
• 1908-05-26 At Masjed Soleyman (مسجد سليمان) in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East is made, rights acquired by the United Kingdom

• 1913-01-16 British House of Commons accepts Home Rule for Ireland (but the Great War gets in the way of it happening)
• 1913-07-12 150,000 Ulstermen gather and resolve to resist Irish Home Rule by force of arms; since the British Liberals have promised the Irish nationalists Home Rule, civil war appears imminent
• 1914-05-25 British House of Commons passes the Irish Home Rule Bill
• 1914-09-09 First fully mechanized unit in the British Army created - the Canadian Automobile Machine Gun Brigade (WWI)
• 1915-10-08 Battle of Loos on WWI Western Front ends, German forces contain British attack (85,000 casualties)

• 1917-06-19 The British Royal Family, which has had strong German ties since George I, renounces its German names and titles and adopts the name of Windsor

• 1917-11-20 1st successful tank use in battle, at the Battle of Cambrai in World War I as Britain uses the new technology to break through German lines

• 1920-03-10 Home Rule Act passed by the British Parliament, dividing Ireland into two parts; it is rejected by the southern counties, where the Ango-Irish war continues for a year
• 1920-03-31 British parliament accepts Irish Home Rule law
• 1920-04-25 San Remo conference establishes three League of Nations mandates: a French mandate for Syria, and British mandates for Mesopotamia and Palestine with effect to the terms of the Balfour Declaration
• 1922-02-21 Britain declares Egypt a sovereign state
• 1922-10-18 British Broadcasting Company (BBC) founded, later called British Broadcasting Corporation

• 1922-12-24 BBC broadcasts first British radio play "The Truth about Father Christmas"

• 1932-12-19 British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) begins transmitting overseas

• 1939-09-03 World War II: Britain declares war on Germany after invasion of Poland. France follows 6 hours later quickly joined by Australia, New Zealand, South Africa & Canada

• 1940-05-13 Winston Churchill says "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat" in his first speech as Prime Minister to British House of Commons

• 1940-06-04 British complete the "Miracle of Dunkirk" by evacuating 338,226 allied troops from France via a flotilla of over 800 vessels including Royal Navy destroyers, merchant marine boats, fishing boats, pleasure craft and even lifeboats

• 1940-08-18 Battle of Britain: The air battle known as "The Hardest Day" occurs; Luftwaffe lose approximately 69 aircraft and the RAF lose 68 in one of the largest ever air battles
• 1940-08-20 British PM Churchill says of Royal Air Force, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few"
• 1940-09-07 Beginning of the Blitz as the German Luftwaffe bomb London for the 1st of 57 consecutive nights losing 41 bombers as the Nazis prepare to invade Britain
• 1940-09-15 Battle of Britain Day: climax of the Battle of Britain, tide begins to turn as the Royal Air Force repulses a major Luftwaffe attack, losing 29 aircraft to the Germans' 57-61

• 1941-05-24 German battleship Bismarck sinks the British battle cruiser HMS Hood; 1,416 die, 3 survive
• 1941-07-19 British PM Winston Churchill launches his "V for Victory" campaign
• 1941-12-08 US and Britain declare war on Japan, US enters World War II
• 1942-08-19 World War II: Over 4,000 Canadian and British soldiers killed, wounded or captured raiding Dieppe, France
• 1942-10-23 During WWII, Britain launches major offensive at El Alamein, Egypt

• 1943-04-05 Chinese steward Poon Lim is found off the coast of Brazil by a Brazilian fisherman family after being adrift for 133 days, after British ship SS Benlomond was torpedoed by a German U-boat
• 1947-08-14 Pakistan gains independence from Great Britain

• 1948-07-15 Alcoholic Anonymous founded in Britain
• 1956-06-13 The last British troops leave the Suez Canal Zone in Egypt
• 1956-11-05 Britain and France land airborne forces at Port Said in Egypt, escalating the Suez Crisis

• 1959-07-31 Cliff Richard and the Shadows have their 1st British No. 1 single with "Living' Doll" (biggest British single of 1959)

• 1960-12-09 1st broadcast of "Coronation Street" on British ITV
• 1963-02-16 Beatles top British rock charts with "Please, Please Me"
• 1963-07-22 Sarawak achieves independence from British colonial rule

• 1968-04-23 First decimal coins issued in Britain, the 5 and 10 new pence, replacing the shilling and two-shilling pieces

• 1969-08-14 British Army deploys on the streets of Northern Ireland, marking the beginning of Operation Banner
• 1972-01-30 Bloody Sunday: 27 unarmed civilians are shot (14 are killed) by the British Army during a civil rights march in Derry, Northern Ireland; this is the highest death toll from a single shooting incident during 'the Troubles'

• 1972-03-30 Northern Ireland's Government and Parliament dissolved by the British Government and 'direct rule' from Westminster is introduced
• 1973-03-08 The Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) undertakes its first operation in Great Britain, planting four car bombs in London. Ten members of PIRA are later arrested at Heathrow Airport while trying to leave the country.

• Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next

• Ada Lovelace
• Alan Sugar
• Alan Turing
• Aldous Huxley
• Alec Guinness
• Alec Issigonis