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Einstein Produces theory of relativity
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LIberals form a government under Henry Campbell Bannerman
This Liberal government led to a smashing success at the polls in January 1906. Armed with an overall majority, the Liberals embarked on a programme of social reform. -
Royal Navy launches the first 'Dreadnought' class battleship
HMS 'Dreadnought', the first of a new class of 'all big-gun' battleships, was launched at Portsmouth. It was by far the most powerful battleship afloat, and raised the stakes in the Anglo-German naval arms race. -
Britain and Russia agree an entente on 'spheres of influence' in Asia
The two countries agreed spheres of influence in Asia, so freeing Britain from its worries about a Russian invasion of India. But an agreement to resolve imperial disputes took on the appearance of a European pact. -
Olympic Games open at White City in London
The 1908 games were originally to be held in Rome, but were reassigned to London at short notice and held at the purpose-built White City stadium. -
Parlement aproves old age pensions
New legislation gave a weekly means-tested pension of a maximum of five shillings to all those aged over 70. Only about half a million people received the pension, and thus the significance of the legislation lay as much in the fact that it established a principle as in its immediate benefits. -
House of Lords rejects the 'People's Budget'
In rejecting Chancellor David Lloyd George's budget, the Conservative-dominated House of Lords broke the parliamentary convention that the upper house should not overturn a financial bill. This ensured that House of Lords reform was one of the issues at stake in the next general election. -
Edward VII dies and is succeeded by George V
Both Edward VII, who died in 1910, and his son, George V, ensured that the monarchy was more active than it had been in the latter years of Victoria's reign, but they exercised their influence discreetly. Edward's funeral brought together the royalty of Europe - many of them his relations - for the last time before war broke out in 1914. -
Liberals retain power in the second general election of the 1910
After the general election in February, efforts to broker a deal on parliamentary reform failed, and the Liberals went back to the polls at the end of the year. They and the Conservatives each secured 272 seats, and, with Labour supporting the Liberals, the Irish Nationalists held the balance of power. -
House of Lords loses its power of veto over legislation
The Liberals finally forced through House of Lords reform, which had been on the cards for two years. The reforms meant that the Lords could not veto legislation that had passed the House of Commons in three successive sessions, and that parliament itself would be dissolved after five years, not seven. In separate legislation, pay for members of parliament was introduced. -
'Titanic' sinks with the loss of 1,503 lives
The White Star liner 'Titanic' was the largest vessel in the world at the time of her launch. Her builders and owners claimed that she was 'practically unsinkable', but on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York she collided with an iceberg and sank within hours, with the loss of 1,503 lives. 'Titanic' could carry over 3,500 people, but was equipped with only enough lifeboats to save 1,178, a fact that contributed to the massive loss of life. -
Suffragette Emily Davison is killed by the king's horse
Emily Wilding Davison was severely injured when she threw herself in front of the king's horse at the Derby, and died in hospital a few days later. The militancy of her organisation, the Women's Social and Political Union, proved counter-productive to the cause of women's rights, but the more moderate National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies also had little to show for its efforts through negotiation. -
Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated in Sarajevo
The heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb terrorist, in Sarajevo. The Austro-Hungarian government blamed Serbia and used the killing as a pretext for war. For most Britons this was an remote and insignificant event, but the conflict would escalate sharply, drawing in the 'Great Powers' and ultimately resulting in the outbreak of World War One. -
Britain declares war on Germeny
When Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia in July, Serbia's ally Russia mobilised its army. Austria-Hungary's ally, Germany, in turn declared war on Russia. Russia's alliance with France now threatened Germany with war on two fronts. Germany acted to quickly neutralise France by a well-planned surprise invasion through neutral Belgium - the 'Schlieffen Plan'. Britain, as guarantor of Belgian neutrality, told Germany to withdraw. The ultimatum expired on 4 August and Britain duly declared war. -
Herbert Asquith forms a coalition government
Liberal Prime Minister Herbert Asquith formed a coalition government following the 'Shell Crisis', which was sparked press reports of shell shortages at the front. The principal beneficiaries of this coalition in terms of the top jobs remained the Liberals rather than the Conservatives. -
Battle of the somme begins wiht british and french attack
The Allies planned a series of coordinated offensives for 1916. On the Western Front, the French and British attacked astride the river Somme, where their two armies met. On 1 July, the British army suffered its worst casualties in a single day - 57,470 men, of whom nearly 20,000 were killed. The battle continued until 18 November 1916. -
David Lloyd George becomes prime minister
Prime Minister Herbert Asquith opposed the creation of a smaller war committee to run the war effort on a daily basis. His Liberal colleague and Minister for Munitions David Lloyd George, with the support of the Conservatives, used the split to force Asquith out and replace him as prime minister. Lloyd George set up a war cabinet whose members were freed from other cabinet duties. -
Germans declare unrestricted submarine warfare and america Joins the war effot
By sinking all merchant ships, regardless of nationality, the Germans hoped to starve the British into submission in six months. They failed and the campaign prompted the United States, the principal neutral power, to declare war on Germany on 6 April 1917. -
Balfour declaration gives british support to jewish homeland of palastine
In a letter to a leading member of the British Jewish community, Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour stated the British government's support for a Jewish national home in Palestine, the first such declaration by a world power. It is believed that similar promises were made to the Arabs prior to the publication of the Balfour Declaration in correspondence between Sir Arthur Henry McMahon, British high commissioner in Egypt, and the Hashemite Hussein Ibn Ali, the Sharif of Mecca. -
Limited number of women are given the vote for the first time
The Representation of the People Act enfranchised all men over the age of 21, and propertied women over 30. The electorate increased to 21 million, of which 8 million were women, but it excluded working class women who mostly failed the property qualification. -
Massive flu epidemic reaches britain
The 1918-1919 'Spanish flu' epidemic killed more than 200,000 people in Britain and up to 50 million worldwide. Despite its name, the virus seems to have originated in the United States, but quickly spread around the world, infecting up to 30% of the world's population. -
WW1 ends when Germany signs armistice
By September 1918, Germany was exhausted and saw no prospect of victory. The Allies' terms became progressively harsher as they pressed their advantage on the Western Front, both to ensure the removal of Kaiser Wilhelm II as head of state and to guard against the future renewal of hostilities by Germany. Despite onerous terms, Germany eventually capitulated and signed an armistice that brought the fighting on the Western Front to a halt at 11am on 11 November 1918. -
David Lloyd georges coalition wins post war ellection
This was the first election in which women voted. The results were Conservative and Coalition Liberals 509, Labour 72, Independent Liberals (former Liberal Prime Minister Herbert Asquith's followers) 36, others 27. Although 73 members of Sinn Fein were elected, who included among their number Britain's first woman member of parliament Countess Constance Markievicz, they refused to take their seats. -
British soldiers kill hundreds of indian civilians in Amritsar
A large crowd attending a Sikh religious festival in defiance of British martial law was fired on without warning by troops under the command of Brigadier General Reginald Dyer. More than 300 people were killed. The 'Amritsar Massacre' crystallised growing Indian discontent with British rule, which was only heightened when Dyer faced no other punishment than an official censure. Led by Mohandas Gandhi, the Indian Congress Party now became a nationwide movement committed to independence. -
Britain withdraw soldiers from the russian civil war
In 1918, a British force had been sent to Archangel in Russia to prevent Allied stores falling into Bolshevik or German hands and to take pressure off the Western Front after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk had taken Russia out of World War One. The evacuation of Murmansk in 1919, and the evacuation of Archangel two weeks previously, ended the British attempt to intervene on the anti-Bolshevik ('White Russian') side in the civil war in northern Russia. -
Lady Astor becomes first woman to take her seat in parliament
American-born Nancy Astor was not the first British woman member of parliament (MP), but she was the first one to take her seat. Constance Markievicz became the first woman MP in 1918, but as a member of Sinn Fein she had refused to take her seat. -
Women at oxford university are allowed to recive degrees
Academic halls for women were first established at Oxford in the 19th century, but although women had been able to attend degree level courses, they could not receive degrees until 1920. -
Unimployment reaches a post war high of 2.5 million
Prime Minister David Lloyd George had promised 'a land fit for heroes' following World War One, but after a short post-war boom, demobilised soldiers found it increasingly difficult to get work. Deprivation was widespread and industrial relations deteriorated. War debts to the United States and non-payment of European allies' war debts meant the government could not pay for many planned reforms. The 1922 Geddes Report recommended heavy cuts in education, public health and workers' benefits. -
David Lloyd George resigns as prime minister after his war time coalition breaks up
The wartime coalition of Conservatives and David Lloyd George's Liberals won the 1918 general election and began the work of national recovery after World War One. But in 1922, Tory backbenchers overruled their own party leader and voted to leave the coalition, resuming independence as Conservatives. They were disgusted by Lloyd George's Anglo-Irish Treaty and fearful he was about to go to war with Turkey. With his government fatally compromised, Lloyd George resigned. -
onserative Stanley Brown becomes prime minister
Conservative Stanley Baldwin became prime minister, with Neville Chamberlain as chancellor of the exchequer, after Andrew Bonar Law resigned due to ill health. Baldwin proposed to abandon free trade, hoping that tariff reform would help to beat unemployment - an unpopular measure. Following the elections of December 1923, the reunited Liberals joined Labour to extinguish tariff reform by a vote of no confidence. Baldwin resigned. -
Ramsay Macdonald becomes first Labor Prime minister
After the vote of no confidence that saw Stanley Baldwin resign as prime minister, the leader of the largest opposition party, Ramsay Macdonald, was called on to form a minority Labour government. Labour was unable to realise its more radical ambitions because of its reliance on Liberal support. This helped Macdonald allay fears that a party representing the working class must be revolutionary, but disappointed many supporters on the left. -
Conservatives win landslide victory in the ellection
In February 1924, the Labour government formally recognised the Soviet Union, despite nervousness about Communist ambitions. In October, MI5 intercepted an apparently seditious letter from a Soviet official to British communists. Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald agreed to the suppression of the 'Zinoviev letter', but it was leaked just before the election. Stanley Baldwin's Conservatives won by a landslide. Labour's share of the vote actually increased, but the Liberals were totally eclipsed. -
Chancellor Winston churchhill returns britain to the Goldern state
In his first budget as chancellor of the exchequer, Winston Churchill returned Britain to its pre-1914 monetary system, whereby sterling was fixed at a price reflecting the country's gold reserves. The move resulted in massive deflation and overvaluing of the pound. This made British manufacturing industries uncompetitive, which in turn exacerbated the massive economic problems Britain was to face in the 1930s. -
Plaid Cymru is formed to dessminate the knowlage of welsh language and culture
Although the party was initially formed to promote Welsh language and culture, by the 1930s it had a political agenda and was determined that Wales should achieve independent status as a dominion. -
John Logie Baird gives the first public demonstration of television
John Logie Baird, a Scottish engineer and inventor, gave a demonstration of a machine for the transmission of pictures, which he called 'television'. Around 50 scientists assembled in his attic workshop in London to witness the event. It was not until after the World War Two that televisions became widely available. -
general strike is declared after ministers reject the samuel report
The Samuel Report sought to rationalise the British coal industry, whose coal had become too expensive, through pay cuts and increased hours. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) ordered a general strike. Well-organised government emergency measures and the lack of widespread public support for the strikers meant it was called off after nine days. -
British broadcastin Co-operation is created
A group of radio manufacturers, including radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi, set up the British Broadcasting Company in 1922. In 1927 the company was granted a Royal Charter, becoming the British Broadcasting Corporation under John Reith. Reith's mission was improve Britain through broadcasting, and he famously instructed the corporation to 'inform, educate and entertain'. -
All women over the age of 21 get the right to vote
The fifth Reform Act brought in by the Conservative government altered the 1918 Representation of the People Act, which had only allowed women over 30 who owned property to be enfranchised. The new act gave women the vote on the same terms as men. -
Alexander Flemming Discovers penicilin
While working at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London, Alexander Fleming noticed that a mould growing on a dish had stopped bacteria developing. Howard Florey and Ernst Chain developed penicillin further so it could be used as a drug, but it was not until World War Two that it began to be mass produced. -
Labour wins general election and Ramsay Macdondal becomes prime minister
Ramsay Macdonald headed the first Labour government with a clear majority. It lasted for two years. Labour won 287 seats, the Conservatives 262 and the Liberals 59. Macdonald's administration coincided with the Great Depression, a global economic slump triggered by the Wall Street Crash. Unemployment jumped by one million in 1930, and in some industrial towns reached 75%. -
The wall street crash sparked the great depression
The crash of the American Wall Street financial markets in 1929 crippled the economies of the US and Europe, resulting in the Great Depression. In Britain, unemployment had peaked just below three million by 1932. It was only with rearmament in the period immediately before the outbreak of World War Two that the worst of the Depression could be said to be over. -
Round table disscussion opens india in london
Three of these conferences took place from 1930-1933, the last of which failed to include any Indian members. The collapse of the Round Table talks led to further mass non-cooperation in India. A new Government of India Act was passed in 1935, granting Indians an elected assembly and extending the powers of the eleven provincial assemblies. -
Prime minister Ramsay macdonald resigns in a row over bugets
Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald asked a commission, headed by Sir George May, to investigate Britain's dire economic situation. The May Committee recommended slashing government expenditure, including unemployment benefit. Macdonald agreed, but the measures were voted down by his cabinet colleagues. He offered his resignation to the king, George V, but was instead persuaded to lead a 'national government' coalition, which included Conservatives and Liberals, but only three Labour ministers. -
National government coalition wins general election but labour supports plummets
Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald called a general election to seek legitimacy for his 'national government' coalition. He was returned to power with 556 pro-national government MPs, of which 471 were Conservatives. The Labour Party expelled Macdonald for what was perceived as treachery. The new national government forced through the measures that Macdonald's Labour colleagues had vehemently opposed. -
Oswold mosely forms british union of fascists
Oswald Mosley, formerly a Conservative and then Labour member of parliament, modelled his party along Italian fascist lines. The party never became part of the political mainstream and was banned in 1940. Moseley was interned during the war and twice attempted unsuccessfully to return to parliament in post-war Britain. He died in 1980. -
Iraq joins league of nations after british mandate ends
raq became independent under King Faisal, who died in 1933. Its strategic importance and oil reserves ensured that Britain maintained a military presence there. During World War Two the British occupied Iraq, as the pro-Axis government intended to cut oil supplies and British access between Egypt and India. -
Gresford mine disaster kills 266 men in North wales
This explosion, which killed 266 men, was one of the worst disasters in British mining history. Two hundred children were left fatherless in an area of North Wales where a 40% unemployment rate had already caused widespread poverty. -
Conservative Stanley Baldwin becomes prime minister for the third time
Stanley Baldwin became prime minister after Ramsay Macdonald resigned due to ill health. The 'power behind the throne' during Macdonald's premiership, Baldwin remained prime minister until 28 May 1937, when he was succeeded by Neville Chamberlain. -
First penguin paperbacks go on sale bringing british literature to the masses
Publisher Allen Lane felt there was a need for cheap, easily available editions of quality contemporary writing. The first ten Penguins included works by Ernest Hemingway and Agatha Christie. They cost just sixpence, the same price as a packet of cigarettes, and were available in traditional bookshops, but also in railway stations and tobacconists. Three million Penguin paperbacks were sold within a year. It was a revolution in publishing that massively widened public access to literature. -
George V dies and is succeeded by edward VIII
As Prince of Wales, Edward had visited many parts of the country hit by the prolonged economic depression. These visits, his apparently genuine concern for the underprivileged and his official overseas tours on behalf of his father made him popular in Britain and abroad. But his choice of bride would spark a constitutional crisis. He had fallen in love with a married American woman, Wallis Simpson. When she obtained a divorce in October 1936, it opened the way for her to marry Edward. -
Edward VIII abdicates in order to marry wallace simpson
Edward VIII wished to marry American Wallis Simpson. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin advised him that the British people would not accept her because she was a divorcee. Faced with losing the woman he loved, Edward chose instead to abdicate. On 11 December, he broadcast his decision to the nation. He married Wallace Simpson in France in June 1937. They became the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Baldwin was widely credited with averting a constitutional crisis that could have ended the monarchy. -
George VI is Crowned King
Edward VIII's younger brother, the Duke of York, was crowned George VI. He and his wife Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother), became inspirational figures for Britain during World War Two. The monarch visited his armies on several battle fronts and founded the George Cross for 'acts of the greatest heroism or of the most conspicuous courage in circumstances of extreme danger'. -
First refugee children from the Kindertransport arive in britain
A total of 10,000 Jewish children between the ages of five and 17 were sent from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia to Britain between December 1938 and the outbreak of war in September 1939. Many were given homes by British families, or lived in hostels. Very few of them saw their parents again. -
Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden resigns over the 'appeasement' of Italy
With overt militarism on the rise across Europe, Britain persisted with its policy of 'appeasement' - making concessions to avoid provoking a wider scale war. Notably, Britain had not intervened in the brutal Spanish Civil War in order to avoid antagonising Italy. The decision of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to recognise the king of Italy as emperor of Ethiopia following the Italians' unprovoked invasion was a concession too far for Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, who resigned. -
Britain Ally Poland in the fight against Adolf Hitlers germany
This guarantee formally ended the policy of appeasement, and the British government reluctantly began to prepare for war. Conscription was introduced for the first time in peacetime on 27 April, with little protest. On 23 August, the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact put paid to British hopes of a Russian ally. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain warned Adolf Hitler that Britain would support Poland if it was attacked by Germany. -
Britain declare war on germany inresponds to their invasion of poland
On 1 September, German forces invaded Poland. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain still hoped to avoid declaring war on Germany, but a threatened revolt in the cabinet and strong public feeling that Hitler should be confronted forced him to honour the Anglo-Polish Treaty. Britain was at war with Germany for the second time in 25 years. -
Winston Churchill becomes prime minister of the coaltiton government
Following the disastrous Norwegian campaign, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain faced heavy criticism at home. By early May, Chamberlain had lost the confidence of the House of Commons. Labour ministers refused to serve in a national coalition with Chamberlain as leader, so he resigned. Churchill became prime minister on 10 May, the same day Germany invaded Holland and Belgium. -
Battle of Britain begins with heavy raids from german Luftwaffe
In July 1940, German leader Adolf Hitler ordered preparations for Operation Sealion - the invasion of Britain. The Luftwaffe (German air force) first had to destroy the Royal Air Force. Vastly outnumbered, the RAF nonetheless consistently inflicted heavy losses on the German squadrons, thanks to excellent aircraft, determined pilots and radar technology. On 17 September, two days after the Luftwaffe sustained its heaviest single day of losses, Hitler postponed the invasion. -
The Blitz begind with a daylight raid from the german luftwaffe
German bombing raids had already targeted Liverpool and Birmingham during August, but on 7 September the 'Blitz' intensified as 950 aircraft attacked London. It was the start of 57 consecutive nights of heavy bombing. The raid caused some 300 civilian deaths and a further 1,300 serious injuries. By the end of the Blitz, around 30,000 Londoners had been killed with another 50,000 injured. -
The first American troops arrive in Befast
America entered the war on the Allied side in December 1941, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and subsequent German declaration of war on the United States. Millions of men and thousands of planes and tanks were deployed to Britain, which became a base for American airmen flying bombing raids over Europe, a staging post for American troops on their way to fight in North Africa, and crucially the launching point for the D-Day invasions that began the liberation of Western Europe. -
Beveridge report lays foundations for the welfare state
Sir William Beveridge's report gave a summary of principles aimed at banishing poverty from Britain, including a system of social security that would be operated by the government, and would come into effect when war ended. Beveridge argued that the war gave Britain a unique opportunity to make revolutionary changes. Beveridge's recommendations for the creation of a Welfare State were implemented by Clement Attlee after the war, including the creation of the National Health Service in 1948. -
RAF breach two dams by the river Ruhr
This Royal Air Force raid by 19 Lancasters utilised a 'bouncing bomb', developed by British scientist Barnes Wallis, in an attempt to destroy three major dams supplying water and power to the important German industrial region of the Ruhr. Two of the dams were breached, but 53 of the 133 aircrew were killed. Severe flooding killed over 1,000 people, but the damage to the Ruhr's industrial capability was relatively minor. Nonetheless, the raids were a major propaganda victory. -
Butler act makes secondary education free
RA Butler, the progressive Conservative chancellor of the exchequer, created universal free secondary education to the age of 15, something people had campaigned for since the 19th century. There were three types of schools - grammar, secondary modern and technical, entrance to which was determined by the '11 plus' examination. -
D'Day
The invasion of Europe - the largest amphibious invasion in history - succeeded in landing 150,000 troops on the beaches of Normandy on the first day, through a massive combined operation requiring hundreds of ships and total air superiority. Behind the lines, Allied paratroops seized key strategic targets, while the French resistance sabotaged rail and communication links. By the end of D-Day, five beachheads were secured, and the Allies had a foothold in France. -
British troops liberate bergen belsen
The liberation of Bergen-Belsen brought the horrors of Nazi genocide home to the British public when film and photographs of the camp appeared in British newspapers and cinemas. Conditions at Bergen-Belsen were so desperate that more than 10,000 prisoners died in the weeks after the liberation of the camp, despite the best efforts of the Allies to keep them alive. Millions were murdered to satisfy Nazi theories about racial-biological purity, at least six million of whom were Jews. -
The end of world war two
The office ending to world war two altered the political alignment and social structure of the world. The United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers: the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, and France allbecame the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
