British History

Timeline created by VidyaP in History

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Event Date:	Event Title:	Event Description:
01/01/1215	Magna Carta Issued	Limited power of the king, led to the rule of constitutional law
01/01/1832	Reform Act passed	Redistributed power on basis of population
01/01/1867	Reform Act	Gave urban working class males in England and Wales the right to vote
11/21/1911	Suffragettes Storm Parliament	Suffragettes storm Parliament in London and when arrested chose to go to jail.
05/04/1926	Coal Strike	Strike arising from disputes in the coal industry. Miners try to get better working conditions.
10/28/1929	Stock Market Crash	UK market crashes 4 days after the US crash
02/15/1942	Percival Surrenders in Singapore	Surrender of 80,000 troops, the largest in British history. Called Black Sunday.
11/08/1942	Operation Torch Begins	Allied invasion of Northern Africa.
01/01/1948	Nationality Act	Created the status of "Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies" (CUKC) as the national citizenship of U.K. and all its colonies
09/26/1969	Votes at 18	The voting age at which men and women could vote is lowered from 21 to 18.
09/26/1979	Margaret Thatcher becomes first female Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain's first female prime minister and serves three consecutive terms in office. She plays one of the dominant political figures of 20th century Britain.
09/26/1997	Labour wins the general election, with Tony Blair as prime minister	Blair becomes leader of the Labour Party in 1994 after sudden death of John Smith. Blair continued the modernization of the party begun by Smith. Voters responded to 'New Labour' in the 1997 election, giving the party a huge majority of 179 seats.
05/10/2007	Tony Blair steps down	Blair asks Labour's National Executive Committee to seek a new party leader and announces he will step down as Prime Minister of the UK on June 27th.
01/01/2010	Coalition govt formed between Conservative Party and Liberal Democrats	With David Cameron as Prime Minister Coalition's aim is to introduce widespread reform, and a program of budget cuts in public spending as a response to the large budget deficit
Timespan Dates:	Timespan Title:	Timespan Description:
01/01/1532 to 01/01/1536	Henry VIII excommunicated. Act of Supremacy	Act of Supremacy declared Henry VIII Head of Church of England
01/01/1600 to 01/01/1800	Imperialism/Colonial Mercantilism	1612- The East India Company est. 1st permanent factory in Bengal 1628- The Petition of Right 1689- "Bill of Rights" helped to establish the constitutional monarchy and political order that Britain has today. 1707- England and Scotland unite 1775-1783- American Revolution 1783- Treaty of Versailles: Britain accepts American independence but retains W.Indies and Canadian colonies 1806- Britain acquires Cape Colony and Boer population
09/26/1642 to 09/26/1660	Charles I rejects Parliament's 19 Propositions--> Civil War (Cavaliers vs. Roundheads), Cromwell suppresses Catholic rebellion, Charles II proclaimed king
01/01/1688 to 01/01/1689	Glorious Revolution, Bill of Rights, Toleration Act	Glorious Revolution = bloodless ousting of James II, William and Mary ascend to the throne Toleration Act- (1689)= granted freedom of worship to Protestant dissenters like Quakers, Presbyterians, and Baptists (but NOT Catholics or Unitarians)
01/01/1701 to 01/01/1720	Act of Settlement passed. Anne becomes Queen	Act of Settlement said that if William III and Queen Anne died w/o heirs, the succession to the throne would pass to Sophia
09/26/1945 to 09/26/1970	Labour Party,	1) The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after which it formed a majority government under Clement Attlee. Labour was also in government from 1964 to 1970 under Harold Wilson. 2) 1958- More changes to the House of Lords: Life Peers are introduced. For the first time, women were appointed to the House of Lords. The Life Peerages Act changed the law so that membership of the House of Lords was not based on birth alone. 3) 1969- The voting age was lowered from 21 to 18.