Prehistoric Britain |
| 6000 BC |
Britain is connected to the European land mass and is
separated from the continent by melting ice forming the English Channel. |
| 3500 |
Neolithic age begins. |
| 2100 |
Bronze Age begins |
| 1650 |
Trade routes begin to form |
| 1200 |
Small Villages are first formed |
| 550 |
Migration of Celtic people from Southern Europe |
| 500 |
Iron Age begins |
|
Roman Britain |
| 54 |
Julius Caesar enters Britain but later withdraws |
| 43
AD |
Claudius invades and Britain becomes part of the Roman Empire |
| 70 |
Romans conquer Wales and the North |
| 120 |
 Emperor Hadrian builds a wall on the Scottish
Border |
| 140 |
Romans conquer Scotland |
| 254 |
St Alban becomes the 1st Christian martyr |
| 350 |
The Picts and Scots attack the border |
| 410 |
The Romans withdraw from Britain |
|
Anglo-Saxon Britain |
| 440 |
Invasions of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes |
| 450 |
Saxons settle in Kent |
| 556 |
Seven kingdoms are created across Britain |
| 617 |
Northumbria becomes the Supreme Kingdom |
| 730 |
Mercia becomes the Supreme Kingdom and King Offa builds a Dyke
along the Welsh Border |
| 794 |
First invasion by the Vikings |
| 821 |
Wessex becomes the Supreme Kingdom |
| 878 |
King Alfred defeats the Vikings but allows them to settle in
Eastern England |
| 926 |
Eastern England (Danelaw) is conquered by the Saxons |
| 1016 |
King Canute of Denmark captures the English Crown |
| 1042 |
Edward the Confessor becomes King |
|
The Middle Ages |
| 1066 |
William of Normandy defeats Harold at the Battle of Hastings
with a lucky shot and becomes King of England |
| 1086 |
The Domesday Book is compiled to claim taxes from every manor
in England |
| 1170 |
Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas a Becket is murdered by the
knights of Henry II |
| 1215 |
The Magna Carta is signed |
| 1314 |
Scots defeat the English at the battle of Bannockburn |
| 1348 |
The Black Death wipes out half of the European population |
| 1387 |
Geoffrey Chaucer starts
writing the Canterbury Tales |
| 1415 |
English defeat the French at the battle of Agincourt |
| 1453 |
The Hundred Years War against France ends |
|
Tudor Britain |
| 1485 |
The War of the Roses ends at the Battle of Bosworth |
| 1497 |
John Cabot sails from Bristol aboard the 'Matthew' and
discovers North America |
| 1513 |
English defeat the Scots at the Battle of Flodden |
| 1534 |
Henry VIII forms the 'Church of
England' |
| 1535 |
Act of Union with Wales |
| 1536 |
Dissolution of the Monasteries |
| 1559 |
Mary, Queen of Scots lays claim to the English throne |
| 1570 |
Sir Francis Drake sets sail for
his first voyage to the West Indies |
| 1587 |
Queen Elizabeth I executes Mary, Queen of Scots |
| 1588 |
The English defeat the Spanish Armada |
| 1591 |
First performance of a play by William
Shakespeare |
| 1600 |
First British involvement in the Indian continent - East India
Company formed. |
|
Stuart Britain |
| 1603 |
James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England |
| 1605 |
Guy Fawkes is thwarted when he tries to blow up Parliament. |
| 1620 |
The Pilgrim Fathers set sail for New England from Plymouth,
aboard the 'Mayflower' |
| 1642 |
Civil War begins |
| 1660 |
Restoration of the Monarchy under King Charles II |
| 1665 |
The Plague breaks out and up 100,000 people die in London |
| 1666 |
Great Fire of London |
| 1690 |
The English & Dutch defeat the Irish & French at the
Battle of the Boyne |
| 1692 |
William III massacres the Jacobites at Glencoe |
| 1707 |
Act of Union with Scotland |
|
Georgian Britain |
| 1714 |
George of Hanover succeeds Queen Anne to the Throne |
| 1721 |
Sir Robert Walpole becomes the first Prime Minister |
| 1746 |
Bonnie Prince Charlie is defeated at the Battle of Culloden |
| 1757 |
First canal in Britain is completed |
| 1776 |
America declares independence from Britain |
| 1783 |
Steam powered cotton mill invented by Sir Richard Arkwright |
| 1788 |
First convict ships are sent to Australia |
| 1805 |
Lord Nelson defeats Napoleon
at the Battle of Trafalgar |
| 1807 |
Abolition of Slave Trade |
| 1815 |
Duke of Wellington defeats
Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo |
| 1825 |
World's first railway opens between Stockton and Darlington |
|
Victorian Britain |
| 1837 |
Queen Victoria becomes Queen at the age of 18 |
| 1851 |
The Great Exhibition |
| 1856 |
Britain defeats Russia in the Crimean War |
| 1863 |
London Underground opens |
| 1884 |
Telephones introduced |
|
Modern Britain |
| 1902 |
Britain defeats Dutch settlers in Boer War in South Africa |
| 1918 |
Britain defeats Germany in World War I |
| 1936 |
First scheduled television service |
| 1937 |
Sir Frank Whittle invents the
Jet Engine |
| 1945 |
Britain defeats Germany in World War II |
| 1994 |
Channel Tunnel links Britain back to the European continent |
