| |
Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 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
|
| 2 | 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
|
| 3 | 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)
|
| 4 | 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
|
| 5 | 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)
|
| 6 | 1925 | - 1925: Britain returns to gold standard
- 18 Jul 1925: Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf
|
| 7 | 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
|
| 8 | 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
|
| 9 | 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)
|
| 10 | 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
|
| 11 | 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
|
| 12 | 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
|
| 13 | 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
|
| 14 | 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
|
| 15 | 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')
|
| 16 | 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
|
| 17 | 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"
|
| 18 | 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
|
| 19 | 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
|
1920 - 1938 (18 years)
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