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Harry SMITH

Male 1893 - 1972  (79 years)


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   Date  Event(s)
1893 
  • 1893: Henry Ford's first car
  • 1893: Zip fastener invented
1894 
  • 1894: Picture postcard introduced in Britain
  • 1 Jan 1894: Manchester Ship Canal opens
  • 1 Mar 1894: Blackpool Tower opens
  • 30 Jun 1894: Tower Bridge first opens
  • 2 Aug 1894: Death duties first introduced in Britain
1895 
  • 1895: Sir Henry Wood starts Promenade Concerts in London
  • 12 Jan 1895: The National Trust founded in England
  • 24 May 1895: Henry Irving becomes the first person from the theatre to be knighted
  • 28 May 1895: Oscar Wilde sent to prison
  • 12 Jul 1895: First recorded motor journey of any length (56 miles) in Britain
  • 17 Oct 1895: First people in Britain to be charged with motor offences – John Henry Knight and James Pullinger of Farnham, Surrey
  • Nov 1895: X-rays discovered
1896 
  • 5 Apr 1896: First modern Olympic Games held in Athens
  • 2 Jun 1896: Guglielmo Marconi receives a British patent (later disputed) for the radio
1897 
  • 1897: Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector
1898 
  • 1898: First photograph using artificial light
  • 1898: Zeppelin builds airship
  • 1898: Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company founded
  • 17 Mar 1898: USS Holland launched, the first practical submarine
  • 27 Jun 1898: The first solo circumnavigation of the globe completed at Rhode island by Joshua Slocum in Spray (started from Boston, Mass on Apr 24, 1895)
1899 
  • 6 Mar 1899: Aspirin first marketed by Bayer
  • 11 Oct 1899: Start of Second Boer War
1900 
  • 1900: School leaving age in Britain raised to 14 years
  • 1900: Central Line opens in London: underground is electrified
  • 1900: Escalator shown at Paris exhibition
  • 9 Feb 1900: Davis Cup tennis competition established
  • 27 Feb 1900: Labour Party formed
1901 
  • 1901: Commonwealth of Australia founded
  • 1901: Hubert Cecil Booth patents the vacuum cleaner
  • 22 Jan 1901: Queen Victoria dies – Edward VII king
  • 2 Feb 1901: Queen Victoria's funeral – interred beside Prince Albert in the Frogmore Mausoleum at Windsor Great Park
  • Jun 1901: Denunciation of use of concentration camps by British in Boer War
  • 2 Oct 1901: Britain's first submarine launched
  • 12 Dec 1901: First successful radio transmission across the Atlantic, by Marconi – Morse code from Cornwall to Newfoundland
10 1902 
  • 1902: Balfour's Education Act provides for secondary education
  • 1902: Cremation Act – cremation can only take place at officially recognised establishments, and with two death certificates issued
  • 1902: Marie Curie discovers radioactivity
  • 24 May 1902: Empire Day (later Commonwealth Day) first celebrated
  • 31 May 1902: Treaty of Vereeniging ends Second Boer War
  • 9 Aug 1902: Coronation of Edward VII
11 1903 
  • 1903: Workers' Education Association (WEA) formed in Britain
  • 1903: Women's Social and Political Union formed in Britain by Emmeline Pankhurst
  • 1903: Henry Ford sets up his motor company
  • 14 Dec 1903: First flight of Wilbur & Orville Wright
12 1904 
  • 1904: Leeds University established
  • 8 Apr 1904: France and UK sign the Entente Cordiale
  • 4 May 1904: America takes over construction of the Panama Canal from the French (completed 1914)
13 1905 
  • 1905: The title 'Prime Minister' noted in a royal warrant for the first time – placed the Prime Minister in order of precedence in Britain immediately after the Archbishop of York
  • 1905: Aliens Act in Britain: Home Office controls immigration
  • 1905: Germany lays down the first Dreadnought battleship
  • 11 Apr 1905: Einstein publishes Special Theory of Relativity
14 1906 
  • 1906: Introduction of free school meals for poor children
  • 10 Feb 1906: Launching of HMS Dreadnought, first turbine-driven battleship
  • 15 Mar 1906: Rolls-Royce Ltd registered
  • 26 May 1906: Vauxhall Bridge opened in London
  • 20 Sep 1906: Launching of Cunard's RMS Mauretania on the Tyne
15 1907 
  • 1907: New Zealand becomes a Dominion
  • 1907: Imperial College, London, is established
  • 1907: First airship flies over London
  • 1907: Lumiere develops a process for colour photography
  • Jul 1907: Leo Hendrik Baekeland patents Bakelite, the first plastic invented that held its shape after being heated
  • 1 Aug 1907: Baden-Powell leads the first Scout camp on Brownsea Island
  • 9 Nov 1907: The Cullinan Diamond presented to Edward VII on his birthday
16 1908 
  • 1908: Coal Mines Regulation Act in Britain limits men to an eight hour day
  • 1908: Separate courts for juveniles established in Britain
  • 1908: Lord Baden-Powell starts the Boy Scout movement
  • 1 Jul 1908: SOS became effective as an international signal of distress
  • 12 Aug 1908: First 'Model T' Ford made
17 1909 
  • 1909: Beveridge Report prompts creation of labour Exchanges
  • 1909: Peary reaches the north pole
  • 1909: First commercial manufacture of Bakelite – start of the plastic age
  • 1 Jan 1909: Old Age Pensions Act came into force
  • 16 Jan 1909: Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole
  • 15 Mar 1909: Selfridges department store opens in London
  • 25 Jul 1909: Bleriot flies across the Channel (36 minutes, Calais to Dover)
18 1910 
  • 1910: Railway strike and coal strikes in Britain
  • 1910: Constitutional crisis in Britain
  • 1910: Dr Crippen caught by radio telegraphy; hanged 23 Nov at Pentonville
  • 1910: Madame Curie isolates radium
  • 1910: Halley's comet reappears
  • 1910: Tango becomes popular in North America and Europe
  • 6 May 1910: Edward VII dies – George V becomes King
19 1911 
  • 1911: Parliament Act in Britain reduces the power of the House of Lords
  • 1911: British MPs receive a salary
  • 1911: First British Official Secrets Act
  • 1911: Rutherford: theory of atomic structures
  • 1911: Strikes by seamen, dock and transport workers (1911-1912)
  • 2 Apr 1911: Census: Population - England and Wales: 36 Million; Scotland: 4.6 Million; N Ireland: 1.25 Million
  • 22 Jun 1911: Coronation of George V
  • 14 Dec 1911: National Insurance introduced in Britain
20 1912 
  • 1912: Irish Home Rule crisis grows in Britain
  • 1912: Britain nationalises the telephone system
  • 1912: Discovery of the 'Piltdown Man' – hoax, exposed in 1953
  • 18 Jan 1912: Captain Scott's last expedition – he and his team reach the south pole on Jan 18th; all die on the way back, their bodies found in November
  • 14 Apr 1912: The 'unsinkable' Titanic sinks on maiden voyage – loss of 1,513 lives
  • 13 May 1912: Royal Flying Corps (later the RAF) founded in Britain
21 1913 
  • 1913: Third Irish Home Rule Bill rejected by House of Lords – threat of civil war in Ireland – formation of Ulster Volunteers to oppose Home Rule
  • 1913: Suffragette demonstrations in London – Mrs Pankhurst imprisoned
  • 1913: Trade Union Act in Britain establishes the right to use Union funds for political purposes
  • 1913: Invention of stainless steel by Harry Brearley of Sheffield
  • 1913: Geiger invents his counter to measure radioactivity
  • 4 Jun 1913: Emily Davison, a suffragette, runs out in front of the king's horse, Anmer, at the Epsom Derby and dies
22 1914 
  • 1914: Irish Home Rule Act provides for a separate Parliament in Ireland; the position of Ulster to be decided after the War
  • 1914: Chaplin and De Mille make their first films
  • 28 Jun 1914: Archduke Ferdinand assassinated in Sarajevo
  • 4 Aug 1914: Britain declares war on Germany, citing Belgian neutrality as reason
  • 5 Aug 1914: British cableship Telconia cut through all five of Germany's undersea telegraph links to the outside world
  • 15 Aug 1914: Panama Canal opened, the Canal cement boat 'Ancon' making the first official transit (plans for a grand opening were cancelled due to the start of WW1)
  • Oct 1914: Battle of Ypres – beginning of trench warfare on western front
  • 27 Nov 1914: First policewoman goes on duty in Britain
  • 16 Dec 1914: German battleships bombard Hartlepool and Scarborough
23 1915 
  • 1915: Junkers construct first fighter aeroplane
  • 1915: First automatic telephone exchange in Britain
  • 19 Jan 1915: First Zeppelin air raid on England, over East Anglia – four killed
  • Feb 1915: Submarine blockade of Britain starts
  • Apr 1915: Second Battle of Ypres – poison gas used for first time
  • 25 Apr 1915: Gallipoli campaign starts (declared ANZAC Day in 1916)
  • 7 May 1915: RMS Lusitania sunk by German submarine off coast of Ireland – 1,198 died
  • 16 May 1915: First meeting of a British WI (Women's Institute) took place in Llanfairpwll (aka Llanfair PG), Anglesey
24 1916 
  • 1916: Compulsory military service introduced in Britain
  • Feb 1916: Battle of Verdun – appalling losses on both sides, stalemate continues
  • 24 Apr 1916: Easter Rising in Ireland – after the leaders are executed, public opinion backs independence
  • 21 May 1916: First use of Daylight Saving Time in UK
  • 31 May 1916: Battle of Jutland – only major naval battle between the British and German fleets
  • 5 Jun 1916: Sinking of HMS Hampshire and death of Kitchener
  • 3 Aug 1916: Sir Roger Casement hanged at Pentonville Prison for treason
  • 15 Sep 1916: First use of tanks in battle, but of limited effect (Battle of the Somme 1 July to 18 Nov: over 1 million casualties)
  • 7 Dec 1916: Lloyd-George becomes British Prime Minister of the coalition government
25 1917 
  • 1917: Battle of Cambrai – first use of massed tanks, but effect more psychological than actual
  • 1917: Ministry of Labour is established in Britain
  • Feb 1917: February revolution in Russia; Tsar Nicholas abdicates
  • 16 Apr 1917: Lenin returns to Russia after exile
  • 17 Apr 1917: USA declares war on Germany
  • 26 May 1917: George V changes surname from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor (Royal proclamation on 17 July)
  • Jul 1917: Battle of Passchendaele – little gained by either side (Jul-Nov)
  • 7 Nov 1917: 'October' Revolution in Russia – Bolsheviks overthrow provisional government; Lenin becomes Chief Commissar
  • 6 Dec 1917: Halifax (Nova Scotia) Explosion, one of the world's largest artificial non-nuclear explosions to date: a ship loaded with wartime explosives blew up after a collision, obliterating buildings and structures within two square kilometres of the explosion
  • 9 Dec 1917: British forces capture Jerusalem
26 1918 
  • 1918: Vote for women over 30, men over 21 (except peers, lunatics and felons)
  • 1918: War of Independence in Ireland
  • 18 Jan 1918: Bentley Motors founded
  • 8 Mar 1918: Start of world-wide 'flu pandemic
  • Jul 1918: Second Battle of the Marne: last major German offensive in WW1 (Jul-Aug)
  • 1 Oct 1918: Arab forces under Lawrence of Arabia capture Damascus
  • 11 Nov 1918: Armistice signed
  • Dec 1918: First woman elected to House of Commons, Countess Markiewicz as a Sinn Féin member refused to take her seat
27 1919 
  • 1919: Britain adopts a 48-hour working week
  • 1919: Sir Ernest Rutherford publishes account of splitting the atom
  • 15 Jun 1919: Alcock and Brown complete first nonstop flight across the Atlantic
  • 28 Jun 1919: Treaty of Versailles signed
28 1920 
  • 1920: Regular cross-channel air service starts
  • 1920: Marconi opens a radio broadcasting station in Britain
  • 1920: Thompson patents his machine gun (Tommy gun)
  • Feb 1920: First roadside petrol filling station in UK – opened by the Automobile Association at Aldermaston on the Bath Road
29 1921 
  • 1921: Railway Act in Britain amalgamates companies – only four remained
  • 1921: Insulin discovery announced
  • 1921: First birth control clinic
  • 19 Jun 1921: Census: Population - England and Wales: 37.9 Million; Scotland: 4.9 Million; N Ireland: 1.25 Million
  • 6 Dec 1921: Anglo-Irish Treaty signed in London, leading to the formation of the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland
30 1922 
  • 1922: Law of Property Act – the manorial system effectively ended
  • 1 Jun 1922: Royal Ulster Constabulary founded
  • Oct 1922: BBC established as a monopoly, and begins transmissions in November (2LO in London on 14 Nov; 5IT in Birmingham and 2ZY in Manchester on 15 Nov)
31 1923 
  • 1923: Roads in Great Britain classified with A and B numbers
  • 1923: Hubble shows there are galaxies beyond the Milky Way
  • 1923: First American broadcasts heard in Britain
  • 1 Jan 1923: The majority of the railway companies in Great Britain grouped into four main companies, the Big Four: LNER, GWR, SR, LMSR – lasted until nationalisation in 1948
  • 16 Feb 1923: Howard Carter unsealed the burial chamber of Tutankhamun
  • 28 Apr 1923: First Wembley cup final (West Ham 0, Bolton 2) – "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles," popular song of the time, became the West Ham anthem
  • 28 Sep 1923: First publication of Radio Times
32 1924 
  • 4 Jan 1924: First Labour government in Britain, headed by Ramsay MacDonald
  • 5 Feb 1924: Hourly Greenwich Time Signals from the Royal Greenwich Observatory were first broadcast by the BBC
  • 31 Mar 1924: British Imperial Airways begins operations (formed by merger of four British airline companies – became BOAC in 1940)
33 1925 
  • 1925: Britain returns to gold standard
  • 18 Jul 1925: Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf
34 1926 
  • 1926: First public demonstration of television (TV) by John Logie Baird
  • 1926: Adoption of children is legalised in Britain
  • 1926: Kodak produces 16mm movie film
  • 1926: Walt Disney arrives in Hollywood
  • 21 Apr 1926: Princess Elizabeth born
  • 3 May 1926: General Strike begins. Lasts until May 12 (mine workers for 6 months more)
  • 31 Oct 1926: Death of Harry Houdini
35 1927 
  • 1927: Release of the first 'talkie' film (The Jazz Singer)
  • 7 Jan 1927: First transatlantic telephone call – New York City to London
  • 22 Jan 1927: First football broadcast by BBC (Arsenal v Sheffield United at Highbury)
  • 1 May 1927: First cooked meals on a scheduled flight introduced by Imperial Airways from London to Paris
  • 20 May 1927: Lindbergh makes solo flight across the Atlantic, in 33½ hours
  • 31 May 1927: Last Ford Model T rolls off assembly line
  • 24 Jul 1927: The Menin Gate war memorial unveiled at Ypres
36 1928 
  • 1928: Women over 21 get vote in Britain – same qualification for both sexes
  • 26 Apr 1928: Madame Tussauds opens in London
  • 15 Sep 1928: Sir Alexander Fleming accidentally discovers penicillin (results published 1929)
37 1929 
  • 1929: Abolition of Poor Law system in Britain
  • 1929: Minimum age for a marriage in Britain (which had been 14 for a boy and 12 for a girl) now 16 for both sexes, with parental consent (or a licence) needed for anyone under 21
  • 1929: BBC begins experimental TV transmissions
38 1930 
  • 1930: First Nazis elected to the German Reichstag
  • 1930: Youth Hostel Association (YHA) founded in Britain
  • 30 Jan 1930: Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany
  • 31 Jan 1930: 3M begins marketing Scotch Tape
  • 6 Mar 1930: Clarence Birdseye first marketed frozen peas
  • 5 Oct 1930: R101 airship disaster – British abandons airship construction
39 1931 
  • 1931: Statute of Westminster: British Dominions become independent sovereign states
  • 1931: Collapse of the German banking system; 3,000 banks there close
  • 14 Apr 1931: Highway Code first issued
  • 26 Apr 1931: Census: Population - England and Wales; 40 Million; Scotland: 4.8 Million; N Ireland: 1.24 Million (Unfortunately, the census was destroyed by fire in WW2)
  • 21 Oct 1931: National Government formed to deal with economic crisis – Britain comes off gold standard
40 1932 
  • 1932: Great Hunger March of unemployed to London
  • 1932: Moseley founds British Union of Fascists
  • 1932: Cockroft and Walton accelerate particles to disintegrate an atomic nucleus
  • 1932: Sir Thomas Beecham established the London Philharmonic Orchestra
  • 21 May 1932: Amelia Earhart first solo nonstop flight across Atlantic by a female pilot
  • 3 Oct 1932: Iraq gains independence from Britain
  • 3 Oct 1932: 'The Times' introduces 'Times New Roman' typeface
41 1933 
  • 1933: ICI scientists discover polythene
  • 1933: Only 6 pennies minted in Britain this year
  • 12 Nov 1933: First known photos of the 'Loch Ness Monster' taken
42 1934 
  • 1934: Hitler becomes Fuehrer of Germany
  • 18 Jul 1934: King George V opens Mersey Tunnel
  • 26 Sep 1934: RMS Queen Mary launched
  • 30 Nov 1934: First time a steam locomotive travels at 100 mph ('Flying Scotsman')
43 1935 
  • 1935: London adopts a 'Green Belt' scheme
  • 1935: Land speed record of 301.13 mph by Malcolm Campbell
  • 28 Feb 1935: Nylon first produced by Gerard J. Berchet of Wallace Carothers' research group at DuPont (there is no evidence to the widely-supposed story that the name derives from New York-London)
  • 12 Mar 1935: Hore-Belisha introduces pedestrian crossings and speed limits for built-up areas in Britain
  • 1 Jun 1935: Voluntary driving tests introduced in UK
  • 30 Jul 1935: Penguin paperbacks launched
44 1936 
  • 1936: Jet engine first tested
  • 20 Jan 1936: George V dies
  • 5 May 1936: First flight of a Spitfire
  • 24 Jul 1936: 'Speaking clock' service starts in UK
  • 2 Nov 1936: British Broadcasting Corporation initiates the BBC Television Service, world's first public TV transmission
  • 30 Nov 1936: Crystal Palace destroyed by fire
  • 5 Dec 1936: Edward VIII abdicates (announced Dec 10) – popular carol that Christmas: "Hark the Herald Angels sing, Mrs Simpson's got our King"
45 1937 
  • 1937: '999' emergency telephone call facility starts in London
  • 1937: Billy Butlin opens his first holiday camp
  • 12 Apr 1937: Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft
  • 12 May 1937: Coronation of King George VI
  • 28 May 1937: Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister – policy of appeasement towards Hitler
  • 3 Jun 1937: Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson
  • 4 Dec 1937: 'The Dandy' first published
46 1938 
  • 1938: Principle of paid holidays established in Britain
  • 1938: HMS Rodney first ship to be equipped with radar
  • 1938: First practical ball-point pen produced by Hungarian journalist, Lajos Biro
  • 12 Mar 1938: Germany invades and annexes Austria
  • 3 Jul 1938: 'Mallard' reaches 126 mph (203 km/h); still world record for a steam locomotive
  • 27 Sep 1938: Largest ocean liner ever built, Queen Elizabeth launched on Clydebank
  • 29 Sep 1938: Chamberlain visits Hitler in Munich – promises 'peace in our time'
  • 30 Oct 1938: Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play of HG Wells 'The War of the Worlds', causing panic in the USA
47 1939 
  • 1939: Germany annexes Czechoslovakia
  • 1939: Start of evacuation of women and children from London
  • 1939: Coldest winter in Britain since 1894, though this could not be publicised at the time
  • 1 Sep 1939: Germany invades Poland
  • 3 Sep 1939: Britain and France declare war on Germany
  • 6 Sep 1939: First air-raid on Britain
  • 11 Sep 1939: British Expeditionary Force (BEF) sent to France
  • 14 Oct 1939: HMS Royal Oak sunk in Scapa Flow with loss of 810 lives
  • 7 Dec 1939: 'First flight' of Canadian troops sail for Britain – 7,400 men on 5 ships
  • 17 Dec 1939: 'Admiral Graf Spee' scuttled outside Montevideo
48 1940 
  • 1 Apr 1940: BOAC starts operations, replacing Imperial and British Airways Ltd
  • 11 May 1940: National Government formed under Churchill
  • 13 May 1940: Germany invades France
  • 27 May 1940: Start of the evacuation of the British Army at Dunkirk (27 May - 4 Jun)
  • 25 Jun 1940: Fall of France to Germany
  • 7 Sep 1940: Germany launches bombing blitz on Britain, the first of 57 consecutive nights of bombing
  • 15 Sep 1940: Battle of Britain: massive waves of German air attacks decisively repulsed by the RAF – Hitler postpones invasion of Britain
  • 14 Nov 1940: Coventry heavily bombed and the Cathedral almost completely destroyed
49 1941 
  • 1941: Britain introduces severe rationing
  • 1941: First British jet aircraft flies, based on work of Whittle
  • 1941: Bailey invents his portable military bridge
  • 1941: First use of antibiotics
  • 10 May 1941: Rudolf Hess flies to Scotland
  • 27 May 1941: 'Bismark' sunk
  • 22 Jun 1941: Germany invades Russia (Operation Barbarossa)
  • 1 Jul 1941: First Canadian armoured regiments arrive in Britain
  • Dec 1941: Canadian forces given operation role in defending south coast of England
  • Dec 1941: 'Manhattan Project' of nuclear research begins in America
  • 7 Dec 1941: Japan attackes US fleet at Pearl Harbour
  • 8 Dec 1941: USA enters WWII
  • 24 Dec 1941: Hong Kong falls to the Japanese
50 1942 
  • 1942: Invention of world's first programmable computer by Alan Turing in co-operation with Max Neumann – used to crack German codes
  • 1942: Gilbert Murray founds Oxfam
  • 30 May 1942: Over 1,000 allied bombers raid Cologne
  • 4 Jun 1942: Battle of Midway
  • 19 Aug 1942: Abortive raid on Dieppe, largely by Canadian troops
  • 6 Sep 1942: Germans defeated at Stalingrad
  • 3 Oct 1942: First successful launch of V2 rocket in Germany – first man-made object to reach space
  • 23 Oct 1942: Battle of El Alamein – Montgomery defeats Rommel
  • 2 Dec 1942: 'Manhattan Project' – a team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction
51 1943 
  • 1943: Round-the-clock bombing of Germany begins
  • 16 May 1943: 'Dam Buster' raids on Ruhr dams by RAF
  • 24 Jul 1943: Allies invade Italy – Benito Mussolini resigns as Italian Dictator, 24 July
52 1944 
  • 6 Apr 1944: PAYE income tax begins
  • 4 Jun 1944: Allies enter Rome
  • 6 Jun 1944: D-Day invasion of Normandy
  • 12 Jun 1944: First V1 flying bombs hit London
  • 8 Sep 1944: First V2 rocket bombs hit London
  • 11 Sep 1944: Allies enter Germany
  • 16 Dec 1944: Battle of the Bulge: German counter-offensive
53 1945 
  • 4 Feb 1945: Yalta Conference between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin
  • 29 Mar 1945: Last V1 flying bomb attack
  • 25 Apr 1945: Berlin surrounded by Russian troops
  • 30 Apr 1945: Hitler commits suicide
  • 8 May 1945: VE Day (Victory in Europe)
  • 9 May 1945: Channel Islands liberated
  • 26 Jun 1945: UN Charter signed in San Francisco
  • 16 Jul 1945: First ever atomic bomb exploded in a test in New Mexico (although there were other forms of atomic device before that, such as the Pile at Stagg Field, first critical on 2nd Dec 1942)
  • 26 Jul 1945: Labour win UK General Election – Churchill out of office
  • 29 Jul 1945: BBC Light Programme starts
  • 6 Aug 1945: Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
  • 9 Aug 1945: Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki
  • 15 Aug 1945: VJ Day (Victory in Japan)
  • 2 Sep 1945: Japanese surrender signed aboard USS Missouri
  • 24 Oct 1945: United Nations Organisation comes into existence
  • 4 Nov 1945: UNESCO founded
54 1946 
  • 1946: Transition to National Health Service starts in Britain (came into being 5th July 1948)
  • 1946: Alistair Cooke starts his regular 'Letter from America' on BBC radio – until 2004
  • 1 Jan 1946: First civillian flight from Heathrow Airport
  • 1 Mar 1946: Bank of England nationalised
55 1947 
  • 1947: Most severe winter in Britain for 53 years at start of the year – heavy snow and much flooding later
  • 1947: First British nuclear reactor developed
  • 1 Jan 1947: Coal Mines nationalised
  • 23 Feb 1947: International Organization for Standardization (ISO) founded
  • 1 Mar 1947: International Monetary Fund begins financial operations
  • 1 Apr 1947: School leaving age raised to 15 in Britain
  • 26 Oct 1947: British military occupation ends in Iraq
  • 20 Nov 1947: Marriage of Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth II) and Philip Mountbatten in Westminster Abbey
56 1948 
  • 1948: British Citizenship Act : all Commonwealth citizens qualify for British passports
  • 1948: Transistor radio invented
  • 1948: Long-playing record (LP) invented by Goldmark
  • 1 Jan 1948: British Railways nationalised
  • 5 Jul 1948: National Health Service (NHS) begins in Britain
  • 29 Jul 1948: London Olympics begin
57 1949 
  • 1949: Maiden flight of the Bristol Brabazon (broken up in 1953 for scrap)
  • 1949: De Haviland produces the Comet – first jet airliner
  • 15 Mar 1949: Clothes rationing ends in Britain
  • 4 Apr 1949: Twelve nations sign The North Atlantic Treaty creating NATO
58 1950 
  • 19 May 1950: Points rationing ends in Britain
  • 26 May 1950: Petrol rationing ends in Britain
  • 11 Jul 1950: 'Andy Pandy' first seen on BBC TV
  • 9 Sep 1950: Soap rationing ends in Britain
  • 28 Dec 1950: The Peak District becomes the Britain's first National Park
59 1951 
  • 3 May 1951: Festival of Britain and Royal Festival Hall open on South Bank, London
  • 28 May 1951: First Goon Show broadcast
  • 20 Dec 1951: Electricity first produced by nuclear power, from Experimental Breeder Reactor
60 1952 
  • 1952: Contraceptive pill invented
  • 1952: Britain explodes her first atomic bomb, in Australia
  • 1952: Radioactive carbon used for dating prehistoric objects
  • 1952: Bonn Convention: Britain, France and USA end their occupation of West Germany
  • 6 Feb 1952: King George VI dies
  • 21 Feb 1952: Identity Cards abolished in Britain
  • 2 May 1952: First commercial jet airliner service launched, by BOACComet between London and Johannesburg
  • 5 Jul 1952: Last tram runs in London (Woolwich to New Cross)
  • 16 Aug 1952: Lynmouth (North Devon) flood disaster
  • 6 Sep 1952: DH110 crashes at Farnborough Air Show, 26 killed
  • 3 Oct 1952: End of tea rationing in Britain
  • 1 Nov 1952: The first H-bomb ever ('Mike') was exploded by the USA – the mushroom cloud was 8 miles across and 27 miles high. The canopy was 100 miles wide. Radioactive mud fell out of the sky followed by heavy rain. 80 million tons of earth was vaporised.
  • 25 Nov 1952: Agatha Christie's 'The Mousetrap' opens in London
  • 4 Dec 1952: Great smog hits London
61 1953 
  • 31 Jan 1953: Said to be the biggest civil catastrophe in Britain in the 20th century – severe storm and high tides caused the loss of hundreds of lives –- effects travelled from the west coast of Scotland round to the south-east coast of England [The Netherlands were even worse affected with over a thousand deaths]
  • 5 Feb 1953: Sweet rationing ends in Britain
  • 5 Mar 1953: Death of Stalin
  • 26 Mar 1953: Jonas Salk announces his polio vaccine
  • 24 Apr 1953: Winston Churchill knighted
  • 25 Apr 1953: Francis Crick and James D Watson publish the double helix structure of DNA
  • 2 Jun 1953: Coronation of Elizabeth II
  • 26 Sep 1953: Sugar rationing ends in Britain (after nearly 14 years)
62 1954 
  • 1954: First comprehensive school opens in London
  • 1954: Routemaster bus starts operating in London
  • 1954: First transistor radios sold
  • 6 May 1954: First sub 4 minute mile (Roger Bannister, 3 mins 59.4 secs)
  • 3 Jul 1954: Food rationing officially ends in Britain
  • 5 Jul 1954: BBC broadcasts its first television news bulletin
  • 30 Sep 1954: First atomic powered sumbmarine USS Nautilus commissioned
63 1955 
  • 1955: 'Mole' self-grip wrench patented by Thomas Coughtrie of Mole & Sons
  • 27 Jul 1955: Jul 27: Allied occupation of Austria (after WW2) ends
  • 22 Sep 1955: Commercial TV starts in Britain
64 1956 
  • 1956: Britain constructs world's first large-scale nuclear power station in Cumberland
  • 1 Mar 1956: Radiotelephony spelling alphabet introduced (Alpha, Bravo, etc)
  • 17 Apr 1956: Premium Bonds first launched – first prizes drawn on 1 Jun 1957
  • 3 Jun 1956: 3rd class travel abolished on British Railways (renamed 'Third Class' as 'Second Class', which had been abolished in 1875 leaving just First and Third Class)
  • 31 Oct 1956: Britain and France invade Suez
65 1957 
  • 1957: Britain introduces parking meters
  • 1957: Helvetica typeface developed (in Switzerland)
  • 11 Jan 1957: Harold Macmillan becomes Prime Minister
  • 14 May 1957: Post-Suez petrol rationing ends
  • 15 May 1957: Britain explodes her first hydrogen bomb, at Christmas Island
  • 25 May 1957: Treaty of Rome to create European Economic Community (EEC) of six countries: France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg – became operational Jan 1958
  • 4 Dec 1957: Lewisham rail disaster – 90 killed as two trains collide in thick fog and a viaduct collapses on top of them
  • 25 Dec 1957: Queen's first Christmas TV broadcast
66 1958 
  • 1958: Easter: First anti-nuclear protest march to Aldermaston (emergence of CND)
  • 1958: Computers begin to be used in research, industry and commerce
  • 1958: USA begins to produce Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs)
  • 13 May 1958: Velcro trade mark registered
  • 26 Jul 1958: Prince Charles' Investiture as "Prince of Wales"
  • 5 Dec 1958: Inauguration of Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) in Britain (completed in 1979)
  • 5 Dec 1958: Preston by-pass opens – UK's first stretch of motorway
67 1959 
  • 3 Feb 1959: 'The Day The Music Died' – plane crash kills Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper
  • 17 Feb 1959: Vanguard 2 satellite launched – first to measure cloud-cover distribution
  • 24 May 1959: Empire Day becomes Commonwealth Day
  • Aug 1959: BMC Mini car launched
  • 3 Oct 1959: Postcodes introduced in Britain
  • 1 Nov 1959: First section of M1 motorway opened
68 1960 
  • 17 Mar 1960: New £1 notes issued by Bank of England
  • 18 Mar 1960: Last steam locomotive of British Railways named
  • 21 Jul 1960: Francis Chichester arrives in New York aboard Gypsy Moth II (took 40 days), winning the first single-handed transatlantic yacht race which he co-founded
  • 12 Aug 1960: Echo I, the first (passive) communications satellite, launched
  • 12 Sep 1960: MoT tests on motor vehicles introduced
  • 1 Oct 1960: HMS "Dreadnought" nuclear submarine launched
  • 2 Nov 1960: Penguin Books found not guilty of obscenity in the "Lady Chatterley's Lover" case
69 1961 
  • 1 Jan 1961: Farthing ceases to be legal tender in UK
  • 13 Mar 1961: Black & White £5 notes cease to be legal tender
  • 14 Mar 1961: New English Bible (New Testament) published
  • 1 May 1961: Betting shops legal in Britain
70 1962 
  • 1962: Britain passes Commonwealth Immigrants Act to control immigration
  • 1962: Thalidomide withdrawn after it causes deformities in babies
  • 1962: Britain and France agree to construct "Concorde"
  • 25 May 1962: Consecration of new Coventry Cathedral (old destroyed in WW2 blitz)
  • 15 Jun 1962: First nuclear generated electricity to supplied National Grid (from Berkeley, Glos)
  • Jul 1962: First passenger-carrying hovercraft enters service, along the North Wales Coast from Moreton to Rhyl
  • 10 Jul 1962: First TV transmission between US and Europe (Telstar) – first live broadcast on 23 Jul
  • 24 Oct 1962: Cuba missile crisis – brink of nuclear war
71 1963 
  • 1963: France vetoes Britain's entry into EEC
  • Jan 1963: Cold weather forces cancellation of most football matches (only 4 English First Division matches in the month) – the first 'pools panel' created
  • 27 Mar 1963: Beeching Report on British Railways (the 'Beeching Axe')
  • 1 Aug 1963: Minimum prison age raised to 17
  • 8 Aug 1963: 'Great Train Robbery' on Glasgow to London mail train
  • 17 Sep 1963: Fylingdales (Yorks) early warning system operational
  • 18 Nov 1963: Dartford Tunnel opens
  • 23 Nov 1963: First episode of "Dr Who" on BBC TV
72 1964 
  • 1 Jan 1964: First 'Top of the Pops' on BBC TV
  • 9 Apr 1964: First Greater London Council (GLC) election
  • 21 Apr 1964: BBC2 TV launched
  • 22 Aug 1964: "Match of the Day" starts on BBC2
  • 4 Sep 1964: Forth road bridge opens
73 1965 
  • 1965: Britain enacts first Race Relations Act
  • 7 Feb 1965: First US raids against North Vietnam
  • 7 Apr 1965: Winston Churchill dies
  • 1 Aug 1965: TV cigarette advertising banned in Britain
  • 8 Oct 1965: Post Office Tower operational in London
  • 28 Oct 1965: Death penalty for murder suspended in Britain for five-year trial period, then abolished 18 Dec 1969
  • 22 Dec 1965: 70mph speed limit introduced on British roads
74 1966 
  • 14 Feb 1966: Australia converts from £ to $
  • 3 May 1966: "The Times" begins to print news on its front page in place of classified advertisements
  • 30 Jul 1966: World Cup won by England at Wembley (4-2 in extra time v West Germany)
  • 8 Sep 1966: First Severn road bridge opens
  • 21 Oct 1966: Aberfan disaster – slag heap slip kills 144, incl. 116 children
  • 1 Dec 1966: First Christmas stamps issued in Britain
75 1967 
  • 4 Jan 1967: Donald Campbell dies attempting to break his world water speed record on Conniston Water – his body and Bluebird recovered in 2002
  • 18 Mar 1967: "Torrey Canyon" oil tanker runs aground off Lands End – first major oil spill
  • 28 May 1967: Francis Chichester arrives in Plymouth after solo circumnavigation in Gipsy Moth IV (he was knighted 7th July at Greenwich by the queen using the sword with which Elizabeth I had knighted Sir Francis Drake four centuries earlier
  • 27 Jun 1967: First withdrawal from a cash dispenser (ATM) in Britain – at Enfield branch of Barclays
  • 1 Jul 1967: First colour TV in Britain
  • 14 Aug 1967: Offshore pirate radio stations declared illegal by the UK
  • 20 Sep 1967: "QE2" launched on Clydebank
  • 27 Sep 1967: "Queen Mary" arrives Southampton at end of her last transatlantic voyage
  • 30 Sep 1967: BBC Radios 1, 2, 3 & 4 open – first record played on Radio 1 was the controversial "Flowers in the Rain" by 'The Move'
  • 5 Oct 1967: Introduction of majority verdicts in English courts
76 1968 
  • 18 Feb 1968: British Standard Time introduced – Summer Time became permanent but arguments prevailed and Britain reverted to GMT in October 1971
  • 18 Apr 1968: London Bridge sold (and eventually moved to Arizona) – modern London Bridge, built around it as it was demolished, was opened in Mar 1973
  • 20 Apr 1968: Enoch Powell 'Rivers of Blood' speech on immigration
  • 23 Apr 1968: Issue of 5p and 10p decimal coins in Britain
  • 29 May 1968: Manchester United first English club to win the European Cup
  • 11 Aug 1968: Last steam passenger train service ran in Britain (Carlisle–Liverpool)
  • 16 Sep 1968: Two-tier postal rate starts in Britain
  • 5 Oct 1968: Beginning of disturbances in N Ireland
77 1969 
  • 2 Mar 1969: Maiden flight of 'Concorde', at Toulouse
  • 7 Mar 1969: Victoria Line tube opens in London
  • 17 Apr 1969: Voting age lowered from 21 to 18
  • 2 May 1969: Maiden voyage of liner Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2)
  • 31 Jul 1969: Halfpenny ceases to be legal tender in Britain
  • 14 Aug 1969: Civil disturbances in Ulster – Britain sends troops to support civil authorities
  • 7 Sep 1969: First episode of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" recorded
  • 14 Oct 1969: 50p coin introduced in Britain (reduced in size 1998)
78 1970 
  • 1970: Boeing 747 (Jumbo jet) goes into service
  • 17 Jun 1970: Decimal postage stamps first issued for sale in Britain
  • 19 Jun 1970: Edward Heath becomes Prime Minister
  • 30 Jul 1970: Damages awarded to Thalidomide victims
  • 19 Sep 1970: First Glastonbury Festival held
  • 20 Nov 1970: Ten shilling note (50p after decimalisation) goes out of circulation in Britain
79 1971 
  • 1971: Banking and Financial Dealings Act – replaced the Bank Holidays Act of 1871
  • 1971: Sunday becomes the seventh day in the week as UK adopts decision of the International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) to call Monday the first day
  • 1971: 'Greenpeace' founded
  • 1971: Rolls-Royce declared bankrupt
  • 3 Jan 1971: Open University starts
  • 15 Feb 1971: Decimalisation of coinage in UK and Republic of Ireland
  • 9 Aug 1971: Internment without trial introduced in N Ireland
  • 28 Oct 1971: Parliament votes to join Common Market (joined 1973)
  • 28 Oct 1971: UK launches its first (and only) satellite, Prospero
80 1972 
  • 1972: Britain imposes direct rule in Northern Ireland
  • 1972: Strict anti-hijack measures introduced internationally, especially at airports
  • 1972: Dutch Elm disease devastates trees across UK
  • 1972: Domestic video cassette recorders introduced
  • 30 Jan 1972: 'Bloody Sunday' in Derry, Northern Ireland
  • 28 May 1972: Duke of Windsor (ex-King Edward VIII) dies in Paris