Modern Timeline

By dgarrett

  • India gains independence from Britain

    India gains independence from Britain
    India was regarded as the most valuable British imperial possession. World War Two forced Britain to realise that it could not maintain a global empire and the British agreed to Indian self-government.
  • Period: to

    British troops arrive to support US forces in the Korean War

    British troops were sent to help the US-led United Nations force repel the Communist invasion of South Korea by North Korea.

  • George Orwell published Such, Such Were the Joys

    George Orwell published Such, Such Were the Joys

  • The coronation of Elizabeth II

    The coronation of Elizabeth II

  • Ghana becomes first British colony in Africa to gain independence

    The British colony of Gold Coast gained its independence, with Nkrumah as its first leader, following election victories for Nkrumah's nationalist Convention People's Party.

  • Doris Lessing Published The Golden Book

    Doris Lessing Published The Golden Book

  • New Universities opens and Students get State Support

    New Universities opens and Students get State Support
    The Robbins Report on Higher Education (1963) was followed by the state-funded growth of universities. Government support was seen as necessary, not least in order to change the social composition of the student body.

  • Death Penalty was Abolished

    Death Penalty was Abolished

  • Abortion and Homosexuality was legalized

    Abortion and Homosexuality was legalized

  • British army kills 14 in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on Bloody Sunday

    British army kills 14 in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on Bloody Sunday
    British troops opened fire on a crowd of civil rights protestors in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, killing 13 civilians and injuring a further 17. The crowd of between 7,000 and 10,000 people had been marching in protest at the policy of detention without trial. The sequence of events on 'Bloody Sunday' remains highly controversial, with accusations that senior IRA figures were present on the day and shot at British troops.

  • IRA kill the Queen's cousin Lord Mountbatten

    Queen Elizabeth II's cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten, one of his teenage grandsons and two others were killed by a bomb on his boat in county Sligo, Ireland.

  • Humber Bridge opens, the longest single-span bridge in the world

    The Humber Bridge was built between 1972 and 1980. At the time, it was the longest single-span bridge in the world at nearly 2,200m.