History Dates

(Dates for monarchs refer to reigns, not lives.)

2675 BC: Construction of step pyramid at Saqqara
2000 BC: Construction of Stonehenge
1600 BC: Hittites destroy Babylon.
1200 BC: Siege of Troy.
753 BC: Legendary founding of Rome by Romulus.
55 BC: Julius Caesar visits Britain.
12 BC: Agriculturally developed Britain exporting corn, hides, cattle, iron, to Roman Empire, all surplus to local requirements.
47: Claudius invades Britain. Native population twice to three times that of the population at the time of William the Conqueror.
50: Founding of London.
61: Boudicca rises against Romans.
122: Construction begins on Hadrian's Wall.
143: Construction begins on Antonine Wall.
409: End of Roman rule.
450: Arrival of Hengest and Horsa in Kent.
500: Battle of Mount Badon.
560: Aethelberht becomes king of Kent.
570-632: Muhammad.
574: Dalriada becomes fully independent
597: St. Augustine arrives in Kent.
633-642: Oswald of Northumbria (killed).
642-655: Penda of Mercia (killed).
664: Synod of Whitby.
685-688: Caedwalla of Wessex (685-688)
716-757: Aethelbald of Mercia
731: Bede completes his Ecclesiastical History
757-796: Offa
865: Landing of Great Danish Army
867: Northumbria falls to Danes
870: East Anglia falls to Danes
871: Danes attack Wessex
871-899: Alfred the Great
874: Mercia falls to Danes
878: """Danes push Alfred's forces into Somerset marshes; Alfred defeats Danes; their leader, Guthrum, is baptized"""
899-924: Edward the Elder
924-939: Aethelstan
939-946: Edmund I (murdered)
946-955: Edred
955-959: Edwy the Fair
959-975: Edgar the Peaceful
975-978: Edward the Martyr (murdered)
978-1016: Aethelred the Unready (978-1013 deposed 1014-1016)
1016-1016: Edmund II (Ironside) (r.1016 Apr-Nov)
1016-1035: Canute
1040-1042: Hardecanute
1042-1066: Edward the Confessor
1066: Harold Godwinson
1066: Harold killed at Battle of Hastings
1066: William defeats Harold at Hastings.
1066-1087: William I (The Conqueror)
1086-1087: Domesday Book compiled.
1087-1100: William II (Rufus)
1100-1135: Henry I
1107: Henry renounces lay investiture of clergy.
1135-1154: Stephen. The last Norman king
1136: Constitutio domus regis: Earliest surviving description of royal household.
1153: Treaty of Westminster, in which it is agreed that Stephen remains king during his lifetime but that Henry will be his adopted heir.
1154: Henry crowned as first undisputed king for over 100 years.
1154-1189: Henry II (Plantagenet)
1162: Becket becomes Archbishop of Canterbury.
1169: Beginning of English conquest of Ireland.
1170: Thomas Becket murdered at Canterbury Cathedral.
1189-1199: Richard I (the Lion Heart)
1190-1192: Richard on crusade.
1193-1194: Richard imprisoned in Germany.
1199-1216: John
1208: Pope Innocent III lays interdict on England and Wales.
1209: John excommunicated.
1214: Interdict lifted.
1215: Magna Carta signed at Runnymede.
1216-1272: Henry III
1220-1260: Amount of sealing wax used by chancery increases nearly tenfold.
1221-1224: First Dominican and Franciscan friars in England.
1240: Death of Llywelyn the Great.
1258: Barons take over royal government.
1259: Treaty of Paris between England and France.
1265: Death of Simon de Montfort, brother-in-law of Henry, at Battle of Evesham.
1272-1307: Edward I
1289: Edward leaves France for England and is last Plantagenet king to hold court at Bordeaux
1295: Franco-Scottish alliance.
1301: Edward's son (Edward II) becomes first ever Prince of Wales.
1307-1327: Edward II (murdered)
1321-1322: Civil war in England.
1327-1377: Edward III
1337: Beginning of Hundred Years War.
1346: Battle of Crecy. Domination of superior Welsh longbow.
1348: Black Death first strikes England. One-third of population dies.
1377-1399: Richard II (deposed)
1381: Peasant Revolt led by Wat Tyler.
1399-1413: Henry IV (Bolingbroke)
1400: Richard II murdered.
1413-1422: Henry V
1415: Battle of Agincourt.
1422-1471: "Henry VI (r.1422-1461; deposed, then 1470-71)"
1461-1483: "Edward IV (r.1461-1470; also 1471-1483)"
1470-1471: "Henry VI (r.1470-71; previously 1422-1461, then deposed)."
1471-1483: "Edward IV (r.1471-1483; also 1461-1470)"
1477: William Caxton's first printed publication.
1483: Edward V (r.1483 Apr.-June)
1483: Richard seizes throne from his nephew Edward V and imprisons EV and his brother Richard in the Tower. They are later found, murdered.
1483-1485: Richard III
1485: RIII defeated and killed at Battle of Bosworth.
1485-1509: Henry VII
1492: Columbus arrives in the Americas.
1497: "Standardisation of weights and measures; The Venetian John Cabot returns from his voyage of discovery of the abundant fisheries of Newfoundland."
1509-1547: Henry VIII
1521: Luther (1483-1546) nails his Theses to door of Wittenburg church and has papal ban pronounced on him at Diet of Worms.
1528: Captain William Hawkins involved in peaceful ivory trade with the Negroes of the Guinea coast.
1534: Lutheran Bible published.
1535: Coverdale Bible published. Thomas More executed.
1547-1553: Edward VI
1552: Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer.
1553: Lady Jane Grey (r.1553 for 9 days)
1553-1558: Mary
1558-1603: Elizabeth I
1563-1564: 33,000 tons of coal shipped from Newcastle to London.
1564: Birth of Shakespeare.
1578: Sir John Hawkins put in charge of reformation of the Royal Navy, and designs the new fighting vessels that make revolutionary changes to naval battles.
1580: Sir Francis Drake completes three-year circumnavigation of the globe in the Golden Hind.
1588: I have the heart and stomach of a man? - Elizabeth's speech to her army.
1592: Production of Shakespeare's first plays.
1593: The dramatist Marlowe arrested on charges of atheism.
1597-1598: 163,000 tons of coal shipped from Newcastle to London.
1600: William Adams reaches Japan and assists the Japanese in founding a navy.
1600: A total of 259 books published
1603-1625: James I
1605: Gunpowder Plot.
1611: Publication of ?Authorized Version? of the Bible.
1612: Shakespeare's last complete play produced. (The Tempest).
1616: "Death of Shakespeare; William Harvey expounds his theory of circulation of the blood to the College of Physicians, refuting the Elizabethan theory of the body being made up of humours (a theory exploited in Shakespeare's ?The Tempest? four years earlier)."
1625-1649: Charles I (executed)
1628: Harvey's treaty on circulation of blood finally published (see 1616).
1632: ?Histriomatrix?, the Puritan pamphleteer William Prynne's treatise against stage plays published.
1649-1658: Cromwell, Oliver (1649-1658 republic (1653-1658 - Lord Protectorship))
1658-1659: Cromwell, Richard (Lord Protector 1658-1659)
1658-1695: Henry Purcell
1660: First condoms (English invention) and dildoes (Italian) available, indicating 'new morality'.
1660: Maypole dancing, one of the most popular of rural customs, reappears after Interregnum.
1660: About 25% of women stay single.
1660-1685: Charles II
1661: Bodies of leaders of Commonwealth exhumed to be hanged again at Tyburn.
1665: Great Plague.
1666: Great Fire.
1673: Dissenters and Catholics excluded from public office.
1680-1783: Britain exports over 2,000,000 slaves to her colonies.
1685-1688: James II
1689: Toleration Act allows all Nonconformists except Unitarians - but not Catholics - freedom of worship.
1689-1694: Mary II
1689-1702: William III
1694: Bank of England founded.
1698: Czar Peter the Great visits England.
1700-1800: 3036 Enclosure Acts passed.
1701: James II dies in exile.
1702-1714: Anne
1702-1735: England's first daily newspaper, and included news items translated from foreign newspapers.
1703-1791: John Wesley, co-founder with his brother of the Methodist denomination.
1705: Buckingham Palace built.
1710: Average weight of a sheep sold at market 38lbs (see 1795).
1710: Handel arrives from Hanover.
1712: Pope's The Rape of the Lock.
1714: Population of England around 5.5m, at which it stays till mid-century.
1714-1727: George I
1716-1783: Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, landscape gardener.
1719: Defoe's Robinson Crusoe published.
1719: d'Urfey's Wit and Mirth, or Pills to purge Melancholy published
1721-1742: Sir Robert Walpole 1st PM.
1726: Swift's Gulliver's Travels.
1727-1760: George II
1728: First performance of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera.
1733: John Kay invents flying shuttle
1738: Wesley's ?conversion? and thereby the birth of methodism.
1739: Dick Turpin the legendary highwayman hanged for horse-stealing.
1741: Handel's Messiah composed.
1741-1743: Earl of Wilmington 2nd PM.
1743-1754: Henry Pelham becomes 3rd PM.
1745: Lieden accumulator used for creating electric charges as curative.
1746: Battle of Culloden
1748: End of War of Austrian Succession celebrated with fireworks display in London, accompanied by Handel's Fireworks music.
1752: Adoption of Gregorian Calendar.
1753: William Hogarth publishes his essay on aesthetics, The Analysis of Beauty.
1753: Jewish Naturalization Bill.
1754: Thomas Chippendale publishes The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director.
1754-1756: Duke of Newcastle 4th PM.
1755: Dr. Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language published.
1756: War declared against France. 7 Years War begins.
1756-1757: Duke of Devonshire 5th PM.
1757-1762: Duke of Newcastle 6th PM.
1759-1796: Robert Burns
1760-1820: George III
1762: "George III buys Buckingham Palace for £28,000"
1762-1763: Earl of Bute 7th PM.
1763: End of Seven Years War.
1763-1765: George Grenville 8th PM.
1764: Dating agency set up in London.
1764-1772: Major construction links all the navigable rivers with a canal system.
1765: Founding of the Royal Society of Artists.
1765-1766: Marquess of Rockingham 9th PM.
1766-1768: Earl of Chatham 10th PM.
1767: The Manchester canal connects Manchester with Liverpool.
1768-1770: Duke of Grafton 11th PM.
1769: Birth of Napoleon Bonaparte.
1769: James Watt's steam engine patented.
1770: Captain James Cook visits Australia, birth of Beethoven, Hargreave's 'Spinning Jenny' invented.
1770-1782: Lord North 12th PM.
1773: Boston Tea Party.
1776: Declaration of American Independence.
1779: Crompton's 'mule' invented.
1780: Boswell contracts venereal disease in Edinburgh from a black prostitute.
1782: Marquess of Rockingham 13th PM (March).
1782-1783: Earl of Shelburne 14th PM (July).
1783: Duke of Portland 15th PM (April).
1783: Britain recognizes independent status of the USA. As a result, no more convicts are transported to the American ex-colonies.
1783-1801: William Pitt the Younger 16th PM.
1785: Jan 1st: First edition of 'The Times' - then under the name of 'The Daily Universal Register'.
1785: Pitt's Budget.
1785: Warren Hastings recalled from India to England to face charges of corruption, of which he is acquitted.
1787: The 'First Fleet' of prison ships sent to found colony in New South Wales, Australia (previously convicts had been sent to America).
1789: Storming of the Bastille.
1789: Jeremy Bentham: Introduction to Principles of Morals and Legislation: 'It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong'.
1790: Edmund Burke publishes Reflections on the Revolution in France, giving rise in part to Paine's publication the following year.
1791: Tom Paine: The Rights of Man, dedicated to George Washington, sells in 200,000 copies.
1792: King Louis of France in prison.
1792: The moderate reformer Christopher Wyvill attacks Paine: As Mr. Paine...backs.
1792: Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Women is published.
1792: The London Corresponding Society is formed. Founder and first secretary is Thomas Hardy (not the author!).
1793: Bonaparte captures Toulon from English.
1793: Dissenters and Catholics can vote but not sit in Parliament.
1793: Wars with France begin
1795: Speenhamland relief for the poorest paid, making up wages to subsistence.
1795: War breaks out with France.
1796: Introduction of smallpox vaccine.
1797: Mutinies at Spithead and the Nore.
1798: "10% income tax introduced for those earning more than £200p.a."
1799: Buonaparte becomes First Consul after a coup.
1799: Combination Laws outlaw trades unions as revolutionary societies.
1801: Jan 1: Irish parliament was absorbed into the British Parliament to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1801: General Enclosure Act
1801-1804: Henry Addington 17th PM.
1802: Peace with France.
1803: War with France.
1804-1806: William Pitt re-elected as 18th PM.
1805: Trafalgar: Spanish and French fleets defeated.
1806-1807: William Wyndham Grenville 19th PM.
1807: Official end of slavery in British Empire.
1807-1809: Duke of Portland 20th PM.
1809: Tom Paine dies in exile in the United States.
1809-1812: Spenser Perceval 21st PM.
1811: Luddites smash machines in Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire.
1811: Prince of Wales, the future George IV, becomes Regent as a result of his father's attacks of madness.
1812-1827: Earl of Liverpool 22nd PM.
1815: Battle of Waterloo.
1815: Victory over France
1818: Dr. Bowdler's 'family edition' of Shakespeare published: to bowdlerize.
1819: Peterloo massacre.
1820-1830: George IV
1821: Death of Bonaparte.
1821: First edition of 'The Manchester Guardian'.
1821-1823: Famine in Ireland.
1825: First Steam Railway (Stockwell-Darlington).
1825: Trades Unions legalized.
1827: George Canning 23rd PM.
1827-1828: Viscount Goderich 24th PM.
1828: First edition of The Spectator.
1828: Founding of Metropolitan Police Force.
1828-1830: Duke of Wellington 25th PM.
1829: Catholics again allowed to hold public office.
1830: Labourers' revolt
1830-1832: Cholera epidemic.
1830-1834: Earl Grey 26th PM.
1830-1837: William IV
1831: Riots in rural areas against mechanization in agriculture.
1832: Great Reform Bill brings clamour for reform to parliamentary level. Franchise expanded and changing make-up of Parliament.
1833: Factory Act limiting child labour.
1834: July: Viscount Melbourne 27th PM.
1834: Abolition of slavery in British Empire.
1834: Tolpuddle martyrs transported to Australia.
1834: November: Duke of Wellington re-elected as 28th PM.
1834-1835: December: Sir Robert Peel 29th PM.
1835-1841: Viscount Melbourne 30th PM.
1836: Dickens' first novel published.
1837-1901: Victoria
1838: Anti-Corn Law League.
1839: Chartist riots.
1840: Institution of penny post.
1841: First edition of Punch.
1841-1846: Sir Robert Peel 31st PM.
1844: First cheap day railway ticket to Brighton from London.
1844-1850: Famines in Ireland.
1846-1852: Lord John Russell 32nd PM.
1850: Average wage 9s 6d
1851: Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace becomes the world's first 'Expo'.
1851: "Census: total population 17,927,609: C of E attendance 5,292,551; RC attendance 383,630; Protestant Dissenters 4,536,265; stay-at-homes 5.25m."
1851: The Common Lodging House Act attempts to reduce the number of poor brothels.
1852: February: Earl of Derby 33rd PM.
1852-1855: Earl of Aberdeen 34th PM.
1854-1856: Crimean War against Russia.
1855: First edition of The Daily Telegraph, the first London paper to be sold for one penny.
1855-1858: Viscount Palmerston 35th PM.
1856: County and Borough Police Act makes maintenance of police forces obligatory.
1857: First secular divorce courts set up as a result of the Matrimonial Causes Act.
1857: Transportation abolished
1857-1858: Second Opium War: China becomes open to European trade.
1858: Indian Mutiny.
1858-1859: Earl of Derby 36th PM.
1859: Publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species.
1859-1865: Viscount Palmerston re-elected as 37th PM.
1861: "Death of Albert; Victoria becomes a recluse."
1863: London Underground, the world's first, starts to run.
1865-1866: Earl Russell 38th PM.
1866-1868: Earl of Derby 39th PM.
1867: National Society for Women's Suffrage formed.
1868: February: Benjamin Disraeli 40th PM.
1868-1874: William Ewart Gladstone 41st PM.
1869: Mahatma Ghandi born.
1870: Girton College (for women) opened at Cambridge.
1870: First Women's Property Act.
1870: Death of Dickens.
1871: Bank Holiday Act.
1874: Great lockout from workplaces
1874: Average wage 14s
1874-1880: Benjamin Disraeli re-elected as 42nd PM.
1876: Alexander Graham Bell patents telephone.
1876: Samuel Pimsoll's Merchant Shipping Act, which embodied safety measures in the form of the Plimsoll Mark, designating the maximum loading capacity of any given ship.
1877: Phonograph patented by Thomas Edison.
1878: Red Flag Act restricts road speeds to 4mph in the country and 2mph in towns, and requires an attendant to walk at least six yards ahead of the vehicle, carrying a red flag.
1880-1885: William Ewart Gladstone re-elected as 43rd PM.
1882: Second Women's Property Act.
1882: Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria and Italy.
1882: Britain occupies Egypt.
1885: Joseph Arch (1826-1919) elected Liberal MP (defeated in 1886, re-elected 1892, retires 1900
1885: Criminal Law Amendment Act
1885-1886: Marquess of Salisbury 44th PM.
1886: February: William Ewart Gladstone re-elected as 45th PM.
1886-1892: Marquess of Salisbury re-elected as 46th PM.
1891: Invention of zip-fastener by Whitcomb Judson.
1891: Gandhi called to the bar.
1892-1894: William Ewart Gladstone 47th PM.
1893: Gandhi arrives in South Africa and fights apartheid as young lawyer.
1894-1895: Earl of Rosebery 48th PM.
1895-1902: Marquess of Salibury re-elected as 49th PM.
1900: 26% of population of York live in slums (see 1936).
1901: Britain's Australian colonies become the Commonwealth of Australia.
1901: 2m. trade union members (see 1913).
1901-1910: Edward VII (r.1901-10)
1902-1905: Arthur James Balfour 50th PM.
1903: Women's Social and Political Union formed and directed by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia.
1904: Manufacture of first two-sided record.
1904: Anglo-French Entente.
1905-1908: Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman 51st PM.
1906: 29 Labour MPs make coalition with Liberals to ensure their return to government.
1906: Formation of the Eastern Counties Agricultural Labourers' and Small Holders' Union (present-day farm workers' union)
1907: Free school meals introduced.
1907: The National Trust, in 1995 Britain's third largest landowner, founded with 'inalienable rights' over its land.
1907: The world's first purpose-built cinema opened in Colne, Lancashire.
1907: Anglo-Russian Entente.
1908-1916: Herbert Henry Asquith 52nd PM.
1909: Employment exchanges, the brainchild of Churchill, opened.
1910-1936: George V (r. 1910-36)
1911: "Liberal administration tries to abolish House of Lords; it succeeds in clipping its powers."
1911-1912: Miners and railwaymen go on strikes.
1913: 4.1m. trade union members (see 1901).
1914-1918: First World War.
1916: Easter Uprising in Ireland.
1916-1922: David Lloyd George 53rd PM.
1918: 4,814,600 women in employment.
1918: British Women over 30 and all men over 21 gain right to vote in Fourth Franchise Bill.
1919: Membership of trade unions exceeds 8,000,000.
1922: Irish Free State founded out of the 26 Catholic counties. Six Protestant counties form Ulster
1922-1923: Andrew Bonar Law 54th PM.
1923-1924: Stanley Baldwin 55th PM.
1924: January: James Ramsay MacDonald 56th PM.
1924-1929: Stanley Baldwin 57th PM.
1925: Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party, formed.
1926: General Strike.
1928: The National Party of Scotland formed.
1929-1935: James Ramsay MacDonald re-elected as 58th PM.
1935-1937: Stanley Baldwinre-elected as 59th PM.
1936: 11.7% of population of York live in slums.
1936: Edward VIII (r.Jan.-Dec 1936)
1936: Edward abdicates in order to marry Mrs. Simpson. He lives the rest of his life in exile, but is allowed the title Duke of Windsor.
1936-1952: George VI
1937-1940: Neville Chamberlain 60th PM. Chamberlain tried hard to avoid the issue of war with Germany.
1939-1945: Second World War.
1940-1945: Winston Churchill 61st PM.
1945: Benjamin Britten's first opera, Peter Grimes, produced.
1945-1951: Clement Attlee 62nd PM.
1947: India gains independent status.
1948: Gandhi assassinated.
1951: Labour government organize Festival of Britain. The bombed south bank of London becomes the home of the Festival Hall, the Tate Gallery, and subsequently other cultural venues such as the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Olivier Theatre.
1951-1955: Winston Churchill re-elected as 63rd PM.
1952: Elizabeth II (1952-)
1954-1972: Vietnamese War.
1955-1957: Sir Anthony Eden 64th PM.
1956: Britain and France invade Suez Canal area.
1957: National service intake reduced to 70,000.
1957-1963: Harold Macmillan 65th PM.
1958: Life peers created to try to balance party representation in House of Lords.
1959: Final abolition of national service.
1960: Cuba nationalizes American-owned sugar plantations and enters full diplomatic relations with the USSR.
1961: South Africa becomes independent and leaves Commonwealth.
1961: New Testament of New English Bible published (OT and Apocrypha in 1970).
1961: Penguin Books wins legal battle when it is prosecuted under the obscenity laws for publishing Lady Chatterley's Lover.
1961: Suicide ceases to be a crime.
1962: Private Eye founded.
1963: First Beatles single released.
1963-1964: Sir Alec Douglas-Home 66th PM.
1964: Nelson Mandela imprisoned.
1964: "Mods and Rockers riot at seaside resorts such as Brighton - still a """"druggie"""" centre."
1964: Communist Party of Great Britain has 34,300 members. (see 1980).
1964-1970: Harold Wilson 67th PM.
1965: Death of Winston Churchill.
1965: Capital Punishment abolished.
1966: Aberfan disaster (this is the spelling given in the reference below). The mudslide occurred at about 09.15 on Friday 21 October, 1966. A total of 144 people died, including 111 children, nearly all of them from Pantglas Junior School. (The Fed: A History of the South Wales Miners Federation).
1966: England wins the World Cup against Germany.
1966: First visit of the Maharishi to the UK.
1966: First Welsh Nationalist elected to Parliament.
1967: Winifred Ewing, Scottish Nationalist, elected to Parliament.
1967: Homosexual acts between consenting adults decriminalized.
1967: Film version of Ulysses banned (lifted in 2000).
1968: Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia.
1968: Commonwealth Immigration Act limits immigration to those with 'patrial ties' with existing British residents, breaking up African and Asian families.
1969: British troops mobilized in Northern Ireland.
1969: Woodstock Festival in the USA.
1969: Legalization of 'no-fault divorce'.
1969: First landing on the moon.
1969: Vote given to all adults over 18 (instead of 21).
1970: Old Testament and Apocrypha of New English Bible published. (NT in 1961)
1970-1974: Edward Heath 68th PM.
1971: CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) founded.
1971: Friends of the Earth founded in Britain. (In the USA in 1969.)
1972: 30th January: Bloody Sunday
1972: March: Heath abolishes Ulster Parliament.
1972: Minimum wage for agricultural workers GBP16.20
1974-1976: Harold Wilson re-elected as 69th PM.
1976-1979: James Callaghan unelected 70th PM.
1977: Beer averages as 3% of an average household's spending budget.
1979-1990: Margaret Thatcher becomes 71st PM.
1980: Membership of Communist Party of Great Britain drops to 20,600. (see 1964)
1981: Sept 4. 36 Welsh women march to Greenham Common to demonstrate against the placement of US Cruise nuclear missiles there.
1982: Falklands War.
1982: 3m (12%) unemployed.
1983: Thatcher wins elections again, largely as a result of post-Falklands War euphoria.
1987: Third Thatcherite victory, reflecting apparent (but unreal) economic improvement.
1989: Community charge - 'poll tax' - introduced in Scotland.
1990: Community charge - 'poll tax' - introduced in England and Wales.
1990: Thatcher resigns after Heseltine and Hurd speak out against her while she is in Paris.
1990-1997: John Major 72nd PM.
1991: Gulf War.
1994: First opportunity for black South Africans to vote.
1997: Tony Blair and New Labour enjoy sweeping victory over Tories, who lose all their seats in Scotland and Wales. L=419, C=165, LibDem=46, Official Unionists=10, SNP=6, Plaid Cymru=4, SDLP=3, Democratic Unionists=2
1999: Channel Tunnel (Chunnel) opened.
2000: Women of Greenham Common disband. (See 1981)
2000: Controversial minimum wage, introduced by New Labour, fixed at �3.70, and employees are informed through the medium of TV commercials that they should not accept less.
2000: A third rail disaster in three years raises serious questions as to the efficiency of a privatized national rail system.
2000: The first premier of the new Scottish Parliament, Donald Dewer, is buried on October 19th.
2000: 10% of British population still without bank accounts of any kind.
2000: 1967 ban on film version of Ulysses lifted.