Timeline: CRAFT, Phebe: Byrne and Asimov Genealogy and Family Histories

	Date	Event(s)
1	1710	1710: A Tory ministry is formed, under Harley, with the impeachment of Dr. Sacheverell and the fall of the Whig government
2	1713	1713: The Treaty of Utrecht is signed by Britain and France, thus concluding the War of the Spanish Succession
3	1714	1714: Death of Queen Anne at Kensington Palace. She is succeeded by her distant cousin, the Elector George of Hanover, as King George I. A new parliament is elected with a strong Whig majority, led by Charles Townshend and Robert Walpole
4	1715	1715: Thomas Fairchild produced the first artificial hybrid plant 1715: The Jacobite Rebellion begins in Scotland with the aim of overthrowing the Hanovarian succession and placing the "Old Pretender" - James II's son - on the throne. The rebellion is easily defeated
5	1716	1716: The Septennial Act sets General Elections to be held every seven years
6	1717	1717: Townshend is dismissed from government by George I, causing Walpole to resign. The Whig party is split. Convocation is suspended
7	1719	1719: South Sea Bubble bursts, leaving many investors ruined after speculating with stock of the 'South Sea Company'
8	1721	1721: Sir Robert Walpole Prime Minister to 1742 (Whig) 1721: Sir Robert Walpole returns to government as First Lord of the Treasury. He remains in office until 1742 and effectively becomes Britain's first Prime Minister
9	1722	1722: First written reference to Stilton cheese in William Stukeley?s Itinerarium Curiosum, letter V 1722: Death of the Duke of Marlborough. The Jacobite 'Atterbury Plot' is hatched
10	1726	1726: First circulating library in Britain opens in Edinburgh. Jonathan Swift publishes his 'Gulliver's Travels'
11	1727	1727: Death of Sir Isaac Newton and of King George I (in Hanover). The latter is succeeded by his son as King George II 1727: The Gentleman's Magazine', first modern magazine, published
12	1728	1728: Pierre Fauchard, in 'The Surgeon Dentist', described preventive measures to keep teeth healthy as well as inventing the word 'dentist.'
13	1729	1729: Alexander Pope publishes his ' Dunciad'
14	1730	1730: A split occurs between Walpole and Townshend
15	1732	1732: A royal charter is granted for the founding of Georgia in America
16	1733	1733: The 'Excise Crisis' occurs and Walpole is forced to abandon his plans to reorganise the customs and excise
17	1736	1736: John Harrison finished building and tested at sea what proved to be the first accurate chronometer for timing longitude
18	1737	1737: Death of King George II's wife, Queen Caroline
19	1738	1738: John and Charles Wesley start the Methodist movement in Britain
20	1739	1739: Britain goes to war with Spain in the 'War of Jenkins' Ear'. The cause: Captain Jenkins' ear was claimed to have been cut off during a Naval Skirmish
21	1740	1740: Commencement of the War of Austrian Succession in Europe
22	1742	1742: Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington Prime Minister until 1743 (Whig) 1742: Beginning with a bull calf from the cow 'Silver' and two cows, 'Pidgeon' and 'Mottle' (inherited from his father's estate), Benjamin Tomkins is credited with founding the Hereford breed. 1742: Walpole resigns as Prime Minister
23	1743	1743: Henry Pelham Prime Minister until 1754 (Whig) 1743: George II leads British troops into battle at Dettingen in Bavaria
24	1744	1744: Ministry of Pelham
25	1745	1745: Jacobite Rebellion in Scotland led by 'Bonnie Prince Charlie'. There is a Scottish victory at Prestonpans
26	1746	1746: The Duke of Cumberland crushes the Scottish Jacobites at the Battle of Culloden
27	1747	1747: Yorkshire pudding mentioned in recipes
28	1748	1748: The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle brings the War of Austrian Succession to a close
29	1750	1750: The grapefruit was first described by Griffith Hughes as the "forbidden fruit" of Barbados
30	1751	1751: Benjamin Franklin published 'Experiments and Observations on Electricity' after several years of experiments done with several friends. In this book Franklin suggested an experiment to prove that lightning is a large-scale electrical discharge, a task which later he took upon himself, using a kite. This led to the invention of the lightning rod. 1751: Death of Frederick, Prince of Wales. His son, Prince George, becomes heir to the throne
31	1752	1752: James Lind called attention to the value of fresh fruit in the prevention of scurvy 1752: Ren? Antoine Ferchault de R?aumur showed by experiment that gastric juice liquifies meat. 1752: Adoption of the Gregorian Calendar in Britain
32	1753	1753: Parliament passes the Jewish Naturalization Bill
33	1754	1754: The ministry of Newcastle
34	1755	1755: Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language published
35	1756	1756: Mayonnaise invented to commemorate a victory at the start of the Seven Years War, the successful seige of English-held St. Philip's Castle 1756: Britain, allied with Prussia, declares war against France and her allies, Austria and Russia. The Seven Years' War begins
36	1757	1757: The Pitt-Newcastle ministry. Robert Clive wins the Battle of Plassey and secures the Indian province of Bengal for Britain. William Pitt becomes Prime Minister
37	1759	1759: Wolfe captures Quebec and expels the French from Canada
38	1760	1760: Death of King George II. He is succeeded by his grandson as George III
39	1761	1761: Laurence Sterne publishes his 'Tristram Shandy'
40	1762	1762: John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, 'created' the Sandwich. This Englishman was said to have been fond of gambling and, during a 24 hour gambling streak, he instructed a cook to prepare his food in such a way that it would not interfere with his game. The cook presented him with sliced meat between two pieces of toast. Perfect! This meal required no utensils and could be eaten with one hand, leaving the other free to continue the game. 1762: The Earl of Bute is appointed Prime Minister. He becomes very unpopular and employs a bodyguard 1762: Acad?mie Francaise recognises term 'millionaire'
41	1763	1763: Peace of Paris ends the Seven Years' War. Grenville ministry.
42	1764	1764: James Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny
43	1765	1765: Rockingham ministry. The American Stamp Act raises taxes in the colonies in an attempt to make their defence self-financing 1765: Earliest known children's pop-up book
44	1766	1766: Chatham ministry. Repeal of the American Stamp Act
45	1768	1768: Grafton ministry. The Middlesex Election Crisis occurs
46	1769	1769: James Watt patented a new type of steam engine with a separate condensing chamber and an air pump to bring steam into the chamber and equipped it with a simple 'governor' for safety: if the engine started to go too fast, the power would be automatically cut back. He coined the term 'horsepower' and later loaned his name to the unit of power, or work, done per unit of time 1769: Captain James Cook's first voyage to explore the Pacific begins
47	1770	1770: Lord North begins service as Prime Minister. The Falkland Island Crisis occurs. Edmund Burke publishes his 'Thoughts on the Present Discontents' 1770: James Cook documents the location of Australia 1770: Gum pencil eraser invented
48	1771	1771: The Encyclopedia Britannica is first published
49	1773	1773: American colonists protest at the East India Company's monopoly over tea exports to the colonies, at the so-called 'Boston Tea Party'. The World's first cast-iron bridge is constructed over the River Severn at Coalbrookdale
50	1774	1774: Franz Anton Mesmer began the psychotherapeutic practive of hypnotism, which he called 'animal magnetism' and conceived it to be an actual fluid. Apparently he had some success with psychosomatic illnesses. Part of his technique seems to have been used earlier by exorcists. 1774: Parliament passes the Coercive Acts in retaliation for the 'Boston Tea Party'
51	1775	1775: American War of Independence begins when colonists fight British troops at Lexington.
52	1776	1776: Adam Smith, in 'The Wealth of Nations', advanced the idea that businesses survive through successful trading in pursuit of their self-interest, and that the resulting equilibrium was not by design. 1776: On 4 JUL, the American Congress passes their Declaration of Independence from Britain. Edward Gibbons' publishes his 'Decline and Fall'
53	1778	1778: Cook explores Hawaiian Islands. He fails to locate Northwest Passage from Alaskan side and is killed in Hawaii the following year
54	1779	1779: The rise of Wyvill's Association Movement
55	1780	1780: The Gordon Riots develop from a procession to petition parliament against the Catholic Relief Act
56	1781	1781: Frederick William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus by its movement, although at the time he supposed it to be a comet 1781: The Americans obtain a great victory of British troops at the surrender of Yorktown
57	1782	1782: End of Lord North's time as Prime Minister. He is succeeded by Rockingham in his second ministry. Ireland obtains short-lived parliament
58	1783	1783: William Bentinck, Duke of Portland Prime minister (Whig) 1783: Joseph Michel Montgolfier and Jacques ?tienne Montgolfier invented the first practical hot air balloon. 1783: Shelburne's ministry, followed by that of William Pitt the Younger. Britain recognises American independence at the Peace of Versailles. Fox-North coalition established
59	1784	1784: Parliament passes the East India Act 1784: First edition of 'The Times' newspaper
60	1785	1785: Pitt's motion for Parliamentary Reform is defeated
61	1786	1786: The Eden commercial treaty with France is drawn up
62	1788	1788: George III suffers his first attack of 'madness' (caused by porphyria)
63	1789	1789: Outbreak of the French Revolution
64	1790	1790: Edmund Burke publishes his 'Reflections on the Revolution in France'
65	1791	1791: The 'Celerifere', an early version of the bicycle, was built around by Comte Mede de Sivrac. It was basically a scooter with a high seat 1791: James Boswell publishes his 'Life of Johnson' an Thomas Paine, his 'Rights of Man'
66	1792	1792: Volta discovered he could arrange metals in a series in such a way that chemical energy is converted into electrical energy; that is, two dissimilar metals are submerged in an electrolyte and connected by an circuit and thereby exchange electrons. By 1800, he had invented the so-called voltaic cell, a pile of such metals "consisting of pairs of silver and zinc disks separated by pieces of moist cardboard" 1792: Coal gas is used for lighting for the first time. Mary Wollstonecraft publishes her 'Vindication of the Rights of Women'
67	1793	1793: Outbreak of War between Britain and France. The voluntary Board of Agriculture is set up. Commercial depression throughout Britain 1793: Speculative 'Canal Bubble' in UK bursts
68	1794	1794: Erasmus Darwin, Charles' grandfather, proposed that "warm-blooded animals have arisen from one living filament...possessing the faculty of continuing to improve by its own inherent activity, and of delivering those improvements by generation to its posterity." 1794: Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin 1794: Metric system introduced in France
69	1795	1795: The 'Speenhamland' system of outdoor relief is adopted, making wages up to equal the cost of subsistence
70	1796	1796: Edward Jenner investigated the folk tale that milk maids were immune to small pox, the virus variola major, and in a brief series of experiments confirmed that exposure to cow pox, the virus vaccinia, rendered immunity
71	1798	1798: Thomas Robert Malthus, in his Essay on the Principle of Population, contended that population increses by a geometric ratio whereas the means of subsistence increase by an arithmetic ratio. 1798: Introduction of a tax of ten percent on incomes over ?200.
72	1799	1799: Trade Unions are suppressed. Napoleon is appointed First Consul in France 1799: Three-year commercial boom in Britain begins
73	1800	1800: Act of Union with Ireland unites Parliaments of England and Ireland
74	1801	1801: Close of Pitt the Younger's Ministry. The first British Census is undertaken
75	1802	1802: Peace with France is established. Peel introduces the first factory legislation
76	1803	1803: Beginning of the Napoleonic Wars. Britain declares war on France. Parliament passes the General Enclosure Act, simplifying the process of enclosing common land
77	1805	1805: Ludolf Christian Treviranus said that spermatozoa were analogous to pollen 1805: Nelson destroys the French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar, but is killed in the process
78	1806	1806: Louis Nicolas Vauquelin and Pierre Jean Robiquet isolated the first amino acid, 'asparagine,' from asparagus.
79	1807	1807: William Bentinck, Duke of Portland Prime Minister to 1809 (Whig) 1807: Robert Fulton ushered in the era of self-propelled ships with his construction of a commercially viable paddle-wheel steamboat
80	1808	1808: Peninsular War to drive the French out of Spain (until 1814)
81	1809	1809: Two-year commercial boom in Britain
82	1810	1810: Final illness of George III begins
83	1811	1811: Depression caused by Orders of Council. There are Luddite disturbances in Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. The King's illness leads to his son, the Prince of Wales, becoming Regent
84	1812	1812: Georges Cuvier, in 'Discours sur les r?volutions de la surface du globe', maintained the stratigraphic succession proved that fossils occur in the chronological order of creation: fish, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals. 1812: Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated in the House of Commons by a disgruntled bankrupt
85	1813	1813: Canned food was invented for the British Navy by Peter Durand. The cans were made of solid iron and usually weighed more than the food inside them 1813: Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' is published. The monopolies of the East India Company are abolished 1813: Can opener invented
86	1815	1815: The defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo marks the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Peace is established in Europe at the Congress of Vienna. The Corn Laws are passed by Parliament to protect British agriculture from cheap imports 1815: Start of two-year commercial boom in Britain
87	1817	1817: Economic slimp in Britain leads to the 'Blanketeers' March' and other disturbances
88	1818	1818: Death of the King's wife, Queen Caroline. Mary Shelley's publishes her 'Frankenstein'
89	1819	1819: Troops intervene at a mass political reform meeting in Manchester, killing and wounding four hundred people at the 'Peterloo Massacre'
90	1820	1820: Death of the blind and deranged King George III. He is succeeded by his son, the Prince Regent, who becomes King George IV. A radical plot to murder the Cabinet, known as the Cato Street Conspiracy, fails. Trial of Queen Caroline, in which George IV attempts to divorce her for adultery
91	1821	1821: Jean Fran?ois Champollion, employing the Rosetta Stone, established the principles for deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics. 1821: Queen Caroline is excluded from the coronation 1821: Start of two years of famine in Ireland
92	1822	1822: First prototype Espresso machine (France)
93	1823	1823: The Royal Academy of Music is established in London. The British Museum is extended and extensively rebuilt to house an expanding collection
94	1824	1824: The National Gallery is established. Commercial boom in Britain
95	1825	1825: Nash reconstructs Buckingham Palace. The World's first railway service, the Stockton and Darlington Railway opens. Trade Unions are legalized. Commercial depression in Britain
96	1826	1826: One of the first print references to fondue written by Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin in his 'Physiologie du Gout' 1826: French physicist Joseph Niepce makes the first known photograph, "View from a Window at Gras," via a "heliograph" process on a metal plate.
97	1828	1828: The Duke of Wellington becomes British Prime Minister
98	1829	1829: The Metropolitan Police Force is set up by Robert Peel. Parliament passes the Catholic Relief Act, ending most restrictions on Catholic Civil Rights. They are allowed to own property and run for public office, including parliament
99	1830	1830: Death of King George IV at Windsor. He is succeeded by his brother, William IV. Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Rise of the Whigs, under Grey 1830: First major cholera epidemic in Britain starts and lasts two years.
100	1831	1831: Faraday , in the first in a series of Experimental Researches in Electricity, discovered the means of producing electricity from magnetism, i.e., electromagnetic induction, the generation of an electric field by a changing magnetic field. This is the principle of the dynamo 1831: Swing' Riots in rural areas against the mechanization of agricultural activities. The new London Bridge is opened over the River Thames
101	1832	1832: The first or great Reform Act is passed. This climax of a period of political reform extends the vote to a further 500,000 people and redistributes Parliamentary seats on a more equitable basis
102	1833	1833: Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Empire. Parliament passes the Factory Act, prohibiting children aged less than nine from working in factories, and reducing the working hours of women and older children. Start of the Oxford Movement in the Anglican Church
103	1834	1834: Charles Babbage designed a programmable mechanical calculating machine, or 'analytical engine,' that could carry out arithmetic operations specified on punch cards and choose the sequence of operations. Although the design was never built, Augusta Ada Byron wrote programs to demonstrate its potential power. 1834: Parliament passes the Poor Law Act, establishing workhouses for the poor. Robert Owen founds the Grand National Consolidated Trade Union. The government acts against 'illegal oaths' in such unionism, rsulting in the Tolpuddle Martyrs being transported to Australia. Fire destroys the Palace of Westminster
104	1835	1835: Parliament passes the Municipal Reform Act, requiring members of town councils to be elected by ratepayers and councils to publish their financial accounts 1835: Commercial boom with 'little' railway mania across Britain starts and continues into 1836
105	1837	1837: Death of King William IV at Windsor. He is succeeded by his niece, Victoria. Births, deaths and marriages must be registered by law. Charles Dickens publishes 'Oliver Twist,' drawing attention to Britain's poor.
106	1838	1838: The Anti-Corn Law League is established. Publication of the People's Charter. The start of Chartism
107	1839	1839: Chartist Riots take place 1839: First use of 'OK' in print? (in Boston Morning Post) 1839: Fox Talbot produces photographs from negatives
108	1840	1840: Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The penny post is instituted 1840: There are reckoned to be 107 accountants in London
109	1841	1841: The first British Census recording the names of the populace is undertaken. The Tories come to power. Sir Robert Peel becomes Prime Minister
110	1842	1842: First Christmas card 1842: First UK public telegraph lines, from Paddington to Slough and Gosport to London
111	1843	1843: Alexander Bain (1818-1903) invented an early fax machine
112	1844	1844: Charles Darwin wrote, but didn't publish, an essay presaging the theory of the origin of species. 1844: Samuel Finley Breese Morse demonstrates a telegraph, using a code of his own invention 1844: Parliament passes the Bank Charter Act. Foundation of the Rochdale Co-Operative Society and the Royal Commission on the Health of Towns 1844: Two years of railway mania begins across Britain. Massive investment and speculation leads to the laying of 5,000 miles of track
113	1845	1845: Irish Potato Famine kills more than a million people in two years 1845: Engels publishes 'The Condition of the Working Class in England' 1845: There are reckoned to be 210 accountants in London
114	1846	1846: End of Sir Robert Peel's Ministry. Whigs come to Power. Repeal of the Corn Laws
115	1847	1847: Flourens discovered the anesthetic properties of chloroform 1847: Levi Strauss invents denim jeans
116	1848	1848: Major Chartist demonstration in London. Revolutions in Europe. Parliament passes the Public Health Act 1848: Karl Marx publishes 'The Communist Manifesto' and 'Das Kapital'
117	1849	1849: Howe patents the safety-pin
118	1850	1850: American Joel Houghton invented the first dishwasher. He made it out of wood, and gave it a hand-turned wheel that splashed water on the dishes inside. It didn't really work, but it did get the first "dishwasher" patent 1850: First machine-made paper bag
119	1851	1851: The Great Exhibition is staged in Hyde Park. Thanks to Prince Albert, it is a great success 1851: Patent for Singer sewing machine issued
120	1852	1852: Death of the Duke of Wellington. Derby's first minority Conservative government. Aberdeen's coalition government is established
121	1853	1853: Potato crisps invented by a cook named George Crum. 1853: Florence Nightingale first recommended the regimen of cleanliness which dramatically reduced the death rate in hospitals 1853: Vaccination against smallpox is made compulsory. Queen Victoria uses chloroform during birth of Prince Leopold. Gladstone presents his first budget
122	1854	1854: The Northcote-Trevelyan civil service report is published; and The Crimean War begins, as Britain and France attempt to defend European interests in the Middle East against Russia
123	1855	1855: John Snow, investigating London's piped water supply, showed graphically that cholera could be transmitted by water from a particular pump. 1855: End of Aberdeen's coalition government. Palmerston's first government comes to power 1855: Yale lock invented
124	1856	1856: Crimean War comes to an end. The Victoria Cross is instituted for military bravery
125	1857	1857: Cyrus Field made his first attempt at laying a trans-Atlantic telegraph cable. In 1866, his fourth attempt was successful. 1857: The Second Opium War opens China to European trade. The Indian Mutiny erupts against British Rule on the sub-continent
126	1858	1858: Derby establishes his second minority government. Parliament passes the India Act 1858: Eraser fitted to end of pencil
127	1859	1859: Darwin in 'On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life', asserted all life had a common ancestor and that the origin of species was natural selection 1859: End of Derby's second minority government. Palmerston brings his second Liberal government to power. 1859: Smiles' 'Self-Help' published
128	1860	1860: Joseph Wilson Swan invented the light bulb, an incandescent lamp using a carbon filament. 1860: Gladstone's budget and the Anglo-French Cobden Treaty codifies and extends the principles of free trade
129	1861	1861: Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis published his deduction that childbirth fever was transmitted on the hands of doctors during their examinations 1861: Death of Prince Albert, Prince Consort
130	1862	1862: Pasteur published the 'germ theory:': Infection is caused by self-replicating microorganisms, and that attenuated viral cultures granted immunity. These beneficent antigens he named 'vaccines' in honor of Jenner and his vaccinia virus 1862: Parliament passes the Limited Liability Act in order to provide vital stimulus to accumulation of capital in shares
131	1863	1863: Edward, Prince of Wales, marries Princess Alexandra of Denmark. The Salvation Army is founded
132	1865	1865: Lister, using carbolic acid as antiseptic and sterilizing his instrument, proved the efficacy of antiseptic surgery 1865: Death of Palmerston. Russell establishes his second Liberal government 1865: Lewis Carroll publishes 'Alice's Adventure in Wonderland'
133	1866	1866: Gregor Mendel, in "Versuche ?ber Pflantenhybriden," interpreted heredity in terms of a pairing of dominant and/or recessive unit characters; that is, ones that could in practice be treated as indivisible and independent particles 1866: Alfred Nobel patented dynamite 1866: Russell and Gladstone fail to have their moderate Reform Bill passed in parliament. Derby takes power in his third minority Conservative government
134	1867	1867: Karl Marx, in Das Kapital, maintained the value, or exchange relation, of commodities is characterized by its alienation from its use-value, and thus its value as the product of human labor, which the capitalist treats as a variable and against which he accounts his surplus. 1867: Derby and Disraeli's Second Reform Bill doubles the franchise to two million. Canada becomes the first independent dominion in the British Empire under the Dominion of Canada Act
135	1868	1868: Disraeli succeeds Derby as Prime Minister. Gladstone becomes Prime Minister for the first time
136	1869	1869: George M. Beard distinguished 'neurasthenia,' a nervous disease of men, from hysteria, a women's disease, as, in an earlier time, men's 'hypochondriasis' had been distinguished from women's ' vapeurs.' Subforms of neurasthenia came to be called phobias. 1869: The Irish Church is disestablished. The Suez Canal is opened
137	1870	1870: Primary education becomes compulsory in Britain through the Forster-Ripon English Elementary Education Act. Parliament also passes the Women's Property Act, extending the rights of married women, and the Irish Land Act 1870: First British postcard devised by Anthony Trollope 1870: Wheeler introduces toilet paper roll in US 1870: Inauguration of London to Calcutta telegraph line, first electronic link between Europe and India
138	1871	1871: Trade Unions are legalized
139	1872	1872: Secret voting is introduced for elections. Parliament passes the Scottish Education Act
140	1873	1873: Gladstone's government resigns after the defeat of their Irish Universities Bill. Disraeli declines to take up office instead 1873: Parmalee invents automatic fire sprinklers
141	1874	1874: Disraeli becomes Conservative Prime Minister for the second time
142	1875	1875: Disraeli purchases a controlling interest for Britain in the Suez Canal. Agricultural depression increases 1875: Parliament passes R.A. Cross's Conservative social reforms
143	1876	1876: Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. 1876: Nikolas August Otto designed the first four-stroke piston engine 1876: Queen Victoria becomes Empress of India. The massacre of Christians in Turkish Bulgaria leads to anti-Turkish campaigns in Britain, led by Gladstone
144	1877	1877: Confederation of British and Boer states established in South Africa
145	1878	1878: The Congress of Berlin is held. Disraeli announces 'peace with honour' 1878: Edweard Muybridge photographs horse in motion
146	1879	1879: A trade depression emerges in Britain. The Zulu War is fought in South Africa. The British are defeated at Isandhlwana, but are victorious at Ulundi 1879: Gladstone's Midlothian campaign denounces imperialism in South Africa and Afghanistan
147	1880	1880: Gladstone establishes his second Liberal government 1880: The first Anglo-Boer War begins
148	1881	1881: Savoy Theatre introduces electric lighting 1881: Parliament passes the Irish Land and Coercion Acts 1881: Death of Billy the Kid
149	1882	1882: Britain occupies Egypt. A triple alliance is established between Germany, Austria and Italy 1882: Standard Oil controls 95% of the U.S. oil refining capacity 1882: Stillwell invents brown paper bag
150	1884	1884: Freud published a paper in which he found cocaine, an alkaloid in coca, effective against fatigue and neurasthenia. 1884: Hilaire de Chardonnet invented the first artificial textile, which was made from cellulose. It was later named rayon 1884: Parliament passes the third Reform Act which further extends the franchise
151	1885	1885: Death of General Gordon at Khartoum. Burma is annexed. Salisbury succeeds Gladstone with his first minority Conservative government. Parliament passes the Redistribution Act
152	1886	1886: Gladstone's third Liberal government fails to pass its first Irish Home Rule Bill through the House of Commons. Gladstone resigns as Prime Minister. Split in the Liberal Party. Salisbury establishes his second Conservative-Liberal-Unionist government. The Royal Niger Company is chartered. Gold is discovered in the Transvaal 1886: Statue of Liberty erected in New York Harbour 1886: Coca-Cola syrup invented
153	1887	1887: Emile Berliner patents the gramophone 1887: Queen Victoria celebrates her Golden Jubilee. The Independent Labour Party is founded. The British East Africa Company is chartered 1887: UK telegraph companies control 107,000 miles of submarine cable 1887: There are estimated to be 5,400 cash registers in US (increases to 16,900 in 1890)
154	1888	1888: Celluloid photographic film introduced 1888: The County Councils' Act establishes representative county based authorities 1888: Kodak box camera 1888: Coin-operated public telephone
155	1889	1889: London Dockers' Strike. The British South Africa Company is chartered 1889: The Eiffel Tower, designed by French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, is completed for the Paris Exposition. 1889: First Official Secrets Act in UK
156	1892	1892: Leon Bouly invents cinematographic film camera 1892: Gladstone forms his fourth Liberal government
157	1893	1893: Whitcomb L. Judson invented the zip to help a friend with a stiff back who could not bend over to do up his shoes 1893: Second Irish Home Rule Bill fails to pass the House of Lords 1893: New Zealand becomes the first nation to grant women the right to vote 1893: Car number plates introduced in France
158	1894	1894: Rosebery takes power with his minority Liberal government
159	1895	1895: Oscar Wilde jailed 1895: Wilhelm Conrad R?ntgen, using a Crookes' tube, observed a new form of penetrating radiation, which he named X-rays 1895: Guglielmo Marconi sent longwave wireless telegraphic, or radio, signals over a distance of more than a mile 1895: Salisbury forms his third Unionist ministry 1895: Kellogg's Corn Flakes go on sale
160	1896	1896: Freud suggested analyzing childhood conflicts in the study of neuroses. He also devised a psychoanalytic technique called 'free association' which allows emotionally-charged, repressed material to be consciously recognized 1896: The British conquest of the Sudan begins 1896: Lightner Witmer establishes at the University of Pennsylvania a clinic of psychology, the first psychological clinic in America and perhaps in the world
161	1897	1897: Queen Victoria celebrates her Diamond Jubilee 1897: Telephone penetration in US is 7 per 1,000 people
162	1898	1898: Christopher Latham Sholes patented the typewriter. His QWERTY keyboard is still with us today. 1898: British rule over Sudan fully established. German Naval expansion begins 1898: Campbell's soups first appear with red and white labels, colors suggested by Cornell University's football uniforms.
163	1899	1899: British disasters in South Africa 1899: Boer War begins in South Africa and lasts three years
164	1900	1900: Salisbury wins the 'Khaki' election. The Labour Representation Committee is formed. Parliament passes the Commonwealth of Australia Act 1900: Max Planck proposes quantum theory 1900: There are reckoned to be 6,000 accountants in England 1900: Australia Becomes a Commonwealth 1900: Boxer Rebellion in China 1900: Italy's King Assassinated 1900: Kodak Introduces $1 Brownie Cameras 1900: Max Planck Formulates Quantum Theory 1900: Sigmund Freud Publishes The Interpretation of Dreams
165	1901	1901: Willis H. Carrier invented the industrial air conditioner 1901: Vacuum Cleaner invented by Hubert Cecil Booth 1901: Death of Queen Victoria. She is succeeded by her son, Prince Albert, as King Edward VII 1901: Marconi sends wireless message from Cornwall to Newfoundland 1901: First Nobel Prizes Awarded 1901: First Trans-Atlantic Radio Signal 1901: U.S. President McKinley Assassinated
166	1902	1902: Invention of the Teddy Bear 1902: Boer War Ends 1902: Mount Pel?e Erupts 1902: The Teddy Bear is Introduced
167	1903	1903: Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright achieved flight in a manned, gasoline power-driven, heavier-than-air flying machine. 1903: First Flight at Kitty Hawk 1903: First Message to Travel Around the World 1903: First Silent Movie, The Great Train Robbery 1903: Plague in India
168	1904	1904: First telephone answering machine 1904: Beatrix Potter's 'The Tale of Benjamin Bunny' is published 1904: First Popular American Film 1904: Ground Broken on Panama Canal 1904: New York City Subway Opens 1904: Russo-Japanese War Begins 1904: Trans-Siberian Railway Completed
169	1905	1905: Einstein evolved the Special Theory of relativity. 1905: Aliens Act in Britain tries to control immigration 1905: Bloody Sunday - Russian Revolution of 1905 1905: Einstein Proposes His Theory of Relativity 1905: Freud Publishes His Theory of Sexuality
170	1906	1906: Finland First European Country to Give Women the Right to Vote 1906: Kellogg's Starts Selling Corn Flakes 1906: San Francisco Earthquake 1906: Upton Sinclair Writes The Jungle
171	1907	1907: Electric washing machine - The Thor - on sale 1907: Ten Rules of War Established at the Second Hague Peace Conference 1907: First Electric Washing Machine 1907: Picasso Introduces Cubism 1907: Typhoid Mary Captured for the First Time
172	1908	1908: Henry Ford created the Model T automobile 1908: Electric iron and toaster patented 1908: Earthquake in Italy Kills 150,000 1908: Ford Introduces the Model-T 1908: Three Year-Old Pu Yi Becomes Emperor of China 1908: Turks Revolt in the Ottoman Empire
173	1909	1909: French Engineer Louis Bleriot is first to cross the English Channel in an airplane 1909: Pianos reach maximum market penetration in UK households at one per ten people 1909: 800 million postcards sold in England 1909: Japan's Prince Ito is Assassinated 1909: Plastic Is Invented 1909: Robert Peary Becomes the First to Reach the North Pole
174	1910	1910: Georges Claude discovered that electricity conducted through a tube of the rare inert gas, neon, gives a bright red glow and that other gases gave off other colors, e.g., argon gives blue, helium gives yellow and white, etc. 1910: First live opera broadcast 1910: Halley's Comet Makes an Appearance 1910: The Tango Catches On
175	1911	1911: British National Insurance Act lays foundation for health and unemployment insurance 1911: The Chinese Revolution 1911: Ernest Rutherford Discovers the Structure of an Atom 1911: Greenwich Mean Time Adopted 1911: The Incan City of Machu Picchu Discovered 1911: Mona Lisa Is Stolen 1911: Roald Amundsen Reaches the South Pole 1911: Standard Oil Company Broken Up 1911: Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Catches on Fire
176	1912	1912: The Sinking of the Titanic 1,515 people lose their lives. 1912: Parachutes Invented 1912: Piltdown Man, the 'Missing Link,' Discovered (Fraud) 1912: SOS Accepted as Universal Distress Signal 1912: The Titanic Sinks
177	1913	1913: Leo Baekeland invented a plastic laminate, known as Bakelite, and later as 'formica'. 1913: First assembly line introduced in Ford automobile factory 1913: The "Armory Show," an international display of some 1600 works of modern art, and one of the more important U.S. art exhibitions ever held, opens at the 69th-regiment armory in New York City; it arouses public curiosity, generates sensational news coverage, and helps change the direction of American art 1913: First Crossword Puzzle 1913: Henry Ford Creates Assembly Line 1913: Personal Income Tax Introduced in U.S.
178	1914	1914: First World War starts 1914: Archduke Ferdinand Assassinated 1914: Battle of the Marne 1914: Charlie Chaplin First Appeared as the Little Tramp 1914: First Traffic Light 1914: Panama Canal Officially Opened 1914: World War I Begins
179	1915	1915: Armenian Genocide 1915: D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation Released 1915: Germans Use Poison Gas as a Weapon 1915: Lusitania Sunk by German U-Boat 1915: Second Battle of Ypres
180	1916	1916: Navy employs animal trainer 'Captain' Joseph Woodward's music hall sea lions for U-boat sabotage. 1916: Coca-Cola adopts a distinctive bottle which identifies the company internationally 1916: Battle of the Somme 1916: Battle of Verdun 1916: Easter Rising in Ireland 1916: First Self-Service Grocery Store Opens in U.S.
181	1917	1917: Bolshevik revolution in Russia installs a new government headed by V.I. Lennin 1917: French artist Marcel Duchamp submits a porcelain urinal, signed "R. Mutt" and titled "Fountain," to the New York Independents Exhibition; it is rejected. 1917: First Pulitzer Prizes Awarded 1917: Mata Hari Executed for Being a Spy 1917: Russian Revolution 1917: U.S. Enters World War I
182	1918	1918: Influenza Epidemic 1918: Russian Czar Nicholas II and His Family are Killed
183	1919	1919: Eddington and Frank W. Dyson measured the bending of starlight by the gravitational pull of the sun, thus confirming Einstein's general theory of relativity 1919: Prohibition Begins in the U.S. 1919: Treaty of Versailles Ends World War I
184	1920	1920: Bubonic Plague in India 1920: League of Nations Established
185	1921	1921: Stage debut of John Gielgud 1921: Extreme Inflation in Germany 1921: Irish Free State Proclaimed 1921: Lie Detector Invented
186	1922	1922: BBC launched as limited company 1922: Kemal Atat?rk Founds Modern Turkey 1922: Tomb of King Tut Discovered 1922: Michael Collins Killed in Ambush 1922: Mussolini Marches on Rome 1922: The Reader's Digest Published
187	1923	1923: Electrolux produced the first electric refrigerator 1923: Kodak introduces home movie equipment 1923: Charleston Dance Becomes Popular 1923: Hitler Jailed After Failed Coup 1923: Ruhr Occupied by French and Belgian Forces 1923: Talking Movies Invented 1923: Teapot Dome Scandal
188	1924	1924: First Olympic Winter Games 1924: Leopold and Loeb Murder a Neighbor Out of Boredom 1924: V.I. Lenin Dies
189	1925	1925: Flapper Dresses in Style 1925: Hitler Publishes 'Mein Kampf'
190	1926	1926: General Strike in UK 1926: The first automatic traffic light was installed in Wolverhampton, England. It remained in service until 1968 1926: A.A. Milne Publishes Winnie-the-Pooh 1926: Houdini Dies After Being Punched 1926: Robert Goddard Fires His First Liquid-Fuel Rocket 1926: A Woman Swims the English Channel
191	1927	1927: The Jazz Singer - first film talking movie released 1927: Philo Farnsworth and John Logie Baird demonstrate television 1927: Babe Ruth Makes Home-Run Record 1927: BBC Founded 1927: The First Talking Movie, The Jazz Singer 1927: Lindbergh Flies Solo Across the Atlantic
192	1928	1928: George Eastman devises a process for color photography; it leads to the first successful three-color roll film available to amateur photographers when it appears in 1935 as Kodachrome (for slides) and as Kodacolor (for prints) in 1942. 1928: First Mickey Mouse cartoon 1928: Bubble Gum Invented 1928: First 'Mickey Mouse' Cartoon 1928: First Oxford English Dictionary Published 1928: Kellogg-Briand Treaty Outlaws War 1928: Penicillin Discovered
193	1929	1929: First UK television broadcast 1929: Frank Whittle, combining the concepts of rocket propulsion and gas turbines, invented jet propulsion. Independently, Hans von Ohain put together the same combination in 1933 1929: Dr. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin 1929: Byrd and Bennett Fly Over South Pole 1929: Car Radio Invented 1929: First Academy Awards 1929: New York Stock Market Crashes 1929: St. Valentine's Day Massacre
194	1930	1930: Gandhi's Salt March 1930: Pluto Discovered 1930: Sliced Bread Available 1930: Stalin Begins Collectivizing Agriculture in the U.S.S.R.
195	1931	1931: Al Capone Imprisoned for Income Tax Evasion 1931: Auguste Piccard Reaches Stratosphere 1931: Christ Monument Built on Rio de Janeiro Hilltop 1931: Empire State Building Completed 1931: U.S. Officially Gets National Anthem
196	1932	1932: Air Conditioning Invented 1932: Amelia Earhardt First Woman to Fly Solo Across the Atlantic 1932: Scientists Split the Atom 1932: Zippo Lighters Introduced
197	1933	1933: First Mars bar 1933: Singing telegrams introduced 1933: Adolf Hitler Becomes Chancellor of Germany 1933: FDR Launches New Deal 1933: First Nazi Concentration Camp Established 1933: Loch Ness Monster First Spotted 1933: Prohibition Ends in the U.S. 1933: Wiley Post Flies Around the World in 8 1/2 Days
198	1934	1934: Konrad Zuse built a series of computers, Z1 through Z4, utilizing binary arithmetic and stored programs. Along the way he invented the first programming language and began to analyze methods by which a computer could play chess 1934: The first comic books appear on newsstands, beginning in the United States. 1934: Bonnie and Clyde Killed by Police 1934: Cheeseburger Created 1934: The Dust Bowl 1934: Mao Zedong Begins the Long March 1934: Parker Brothers Sells the Game 'Monopoly'
199	1935	1935: First 'Kit Kat' sold in UK 1935: Alcoholics Anonymous Founded 1935: Germany Issues the Anti-Jewish Nuremberg Laws 1935: John Maynard Keynes Suggests New Economic Theory
200	1936	1936: BBC starts regular TV broadcasts 1936: Carnegie Publishes 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' 1936: King Edward VIII Abdicates 1936: Nazi Olympics in Berlin 1936: Spanish Civil War Begins
201	1937	1937: German planes, aiding insurgents in the Spanish Civil War, bomb the historic Basque town of Guernica in Northern Spain, killing women and children and inflaming world opinion against facism. 1937: Hindenburg airship crash broadcast coast to coast in US 1937: Amelia Earhart Vanishes 1937: Golden Gate Bridge Opened 1937: The Hindenberg Disaster 1937: Japan Invades China
202	1938	1938: UK's first weekly radio comedy series, Band Wagon 1938: Biro brothers invent ballpoint pen 1938: Broadcast of 'The War of the Worlds' Causes Panic 1938: Chamberlain Announces 'Peace in Our Time' 1938: Extinct Fish Found 1938: Hitler Annexes Austria 1938: The Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht)
203	1939	1939: Second World War starts 1939: First Commercial Flight Over the Atlantic 1939: German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact Signed 1939: Helicopter Invented 1939: Refugees on the St. Louis Refused Entry Everywhere 1939: World War II Begins
204	1940	1940: London Blitz 1940: Igor Sikorsky invented the heliocopter 1940: Disney's 'Fantasia' 1940: Battle of Britain 1940: Leon Trotsky Assassinated 1940: Nylons on the Market 1940: Stone Age Cave Paintings Found in France
205	1941	1941: Japanese Attack Pearl Harbor 1941: Jeep Invented 1941: Manhattan Project Begins 1941: Mount Rushmore Completed 1941: Nazi Rudolf Hess Flies to Britain on a Peace Mission 1941: Siege of Leningrad
206	1942	1942: Battle of Midway 1942: Battle of Stalingrad 1942: Japanese-Americans Held in Camps 1942: Nazis Raze Town in Retaliation for Reinhard Heydrich's Death 1942: T-shirt Introduced
207	1943	1943: Autism identified 1943: French Resistance Leader Jean Moulin Killed 1943: Italy Joins the Allies 1943: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
208	1944	1944: Ballpoint Pens Go On Sale 1944: D-Day 1944: First German V1 and V2 Rockets Fired 1944: Hitler Escapes Assassination Attempt
209	1945	1945: Second World War ends 1945: The Atomic Age begins with atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending World War II 1945: Allied troops liberate Nazi death camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau (January 26), Buchenwald (April 11), and Dachau (April 24), providing the world with the first photographic evidence of the horrific atrocities committed there 1945: First Computer Built 1945: Germans Surrender 1945: Hitler Commits Suicide 1945: Microwave Oven Invented 1945: United Nations Founded 1945: U.S. Drops Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
210	1946	1946: ENIAC computer makes 5,000 additions in one second 1946: Bikinis Introduced 1946: Dr. Spock Publishes 'The Common Book of Baby and Child Care' 1946: Juan Per?n Becomes President of Argentina 1946: Nuremberg Trials 1946: Winston Churchill Gives His 'Iron Curtain' Speech
211	1947	1947: Invention of transistor 1947: Chuck Yeager Breaks the Sound Barrier 1947: Dead Sea Scrolls Discovered 1947: Jewish Refugees Aboard the Exodus Turned Back by British 1947: Marshall Plan 1947: Polaroid Cameras Invented
212	1948	1948: Life magazine makes American painter Jackson Pollock an overnight celebrity by devoting a three-page spread with color photographs to him and his paintings under the headline, "Jackson Pollock: Is He the Greatest Living Painter in the United States?"; Abstract Expressionism becomes a subject of widespread popular ridicule. 1948: Berlin Airlift 1948: Berlin Airlift 1948: Big Bang Theory Formulated 1948: Gandhi Assassinated 1948: Policy of Apartheid Begun 1948: State of Israel Founded
213	1949	1949: Mao proclaims Peoples Republic of China 1949: China Becomes Communist 1949: First Non-Stop Flight Around the World 1949: George Orwell Publishes Nineteen Eight-Four 1949: NATO Established 1949: Soviet Union Has Atomic Bomb
214	1950	1950: UK's longest running soap, The Archers, first airs on BBC Midlands Home Service 1950: First Modern Credit Card Introduced 1950: First Organ Transplant 1950: First Peanuts Cartoon Strip 1950: Korean War Begins 1950: Senator Joseph McCarthy Begins Communist Witch Hunt 1950: U.S. President Truman Orders Construction of Hydrogen Bomb 26 May 1950: 26 MAY: UK drivers cheer end of fuel rations Long queues have appeared at garages this evening and motorists have torn their ration books into confetti after the government announced an end to petrol rationing. The Minister of Fuel, Noel Baker, told the House of Commons rationing would be abolished because two American companies had agreed a deal to supply oil in return for buying British goods. "This is indeed VP [Victory for Petrol] day for the motor users' campaign," said a spokesman for three motoring organisations - the RAC, AA and Royal Scottish Automobile Club. "The effect on the industrial, commercial and community life will be electric. Ration books now become as obsolete as the man with the red flag."
215	1951	1951: The word 'brainwashing' is coined 1951: Color TV Introduced 1951: South Africans Forced to Carry ID Cards Identifying Race 1951: Truman Signs Peace Treaty With Japan, Officially Ending WWII 1951: Winston Churchill Again Prime Minister of Great Britain
216	1952	1952: The Mousetrap opens Nov 25 1952: Car Seat Belts Introduced 1952: Jacques Cousteau Discovers Ancient Greek Ship 1952: Polio Vaccine Created 1952: Princess Elizabeth Becomes Queen at Age 25
217	1953	1953: Waiting for Godot debuts in Paris 1953: DNA Discovered 1953: Hillary and Norgay Climb Mt. Everest 1953: Joseph Stalin Dies 1953: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Executed for Espionage
218	1954	1954: Raymond Kroc buys McDonald's franchise rights and begins the global proliferation of golden arches. 1954: Britain Sponsors an Expedition to Search for the Abominable Snowman 1954: First Atomic Submarine Launched 1954: Report Says Cigarettes Cause Cancer 1954: Roger Bannister Breaks the Four-Minute Mile 1954: Segregation Ruled Illegal in U.S.
219	1955	1955: ITV formed 1955: Disneyland Opens 1955: James Dean Dies in Car Accident 1955: McDonald's Corporation Founded 1955: Rosa Parks Refuses to Give Up Her Seat on a Bus 1955: Warsaw Pact Signed
220	1956	1956: Eurovision Song Contest starts 1956: Elvis Gyrates on Ed Sullivan's Show 1956: Grace Kelly Marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco 1956: Hungarian Revolution 1956: Khrushchev Denounces Stalin 1956: Suez Crisis 1956: T.V. Remote Control Invented 1956: Velcro Introduced
221	1957	1957: The Space Age begins as the Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1 - the first satellite 1957: Dr. Seuss Publishes 'The Cat in the Hat' 1957: European Economic Community Established 1957: Soviet Satellite Sputnik Launches Space Age 1957: Laika Becomes the First Living Animal to Orbit Space
222	1958	1958: UNIMATE is first industrial robot 1958: Boris Pasternak Refuses Nobel Prize 1958: Chinese Leader Mao Zedong Launches the 'Great Leap Forward' 1958: Hope Diamond is Donated to the Smithsonian 1958: Hula Hoops Become Popular 1958: Lego Toy Bricks First Introduced 1958: NASA Founded
223	1959	1959: Beyond the Fringe' debuts in Edinburgh 1959: Castro Becomes Dictator of Cuba 1959: International Treaty Makes Antarctica Scientific Preserve 1959: Kitchen Debate Between Nixon and Khrushchev 1959: The Sound of Music Opens on Broadway 1959: U.S. Quiz Shows Found to be Fixed
224	1960	1960: Launch of 'Coronation Street' 1960: Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho Released 1960: Brazil's Capital Moves to Brand New City 1960: Lasers Invented
225	1961	1961: Adolf Eichmann on Trial for Role in Holocaust 1961: Bay of Pigs Invasion 1961: Berlin Wall Built 1961: Peace Corps Founded 1961: Soviets Launch First Man in Space
226	1962	1962: Movie Actress Marilyn Monroe dies of an overdose of sleeping pills. 1962: Andy Warhol Exhibits His Campbell's Soup Can 1962: Cuban Missile Crisis 1962: First Person Killed Trying to Cross the Berlin Wall 1962: Marilyn Monroe Found Dead 1962: Rachel Carson Publishes 'Silent Spring'
227	1963	1963: U.S. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas. 1963: Betty Friedan Publishes 'The Feminine Mystique' 1963: JFK Assassinated 1963: Martin Luther King Jr. Makes His 'I Have a Dream' Speech
228	1964	1964: Beatles Become Popular in U.S. 1964: Cassius Clay (a.k.a. Muhammad Ali) Becomes World Heavyweight Champion 1964: Civil Rights Act Passes in U.S. 1964: Hasbro Launches GI Joe Action Figure 1964: Nelson Mandela Sentenced to Life in Prison
229	1965	1965: The United States begins air raids in Vietnam, committing 190,000 U.S. troops there by year's end. 1965: Cigarette ads banned on UK television 1965: Japan's Bullet Train Opens 1965: Los Angeles Riots 1965: U.S. Sends Troops to Vietnam
230	1966	1966: Private theatre clubs lose immunity from censorship 1966: World Cup won by England at Wembley (4-2 in extra time v West Germany) 1966: Aberfan disaster - slag heap slip kills 144, incl. 116 children 1966: Black Panther Party Established 1966: Mao Zedong Launches the Cultural Revolution 1966: Mass Draft Protests in U.S. 1966: Star Trek T.V. Series Airs
231	1967	1967: Three US astronauts killed in fire during launch pad test 1967: First colour TV in Britain 1967: First human heart transplant in South Africa by Christiaan Barnard 1967: Che Guevara Killed 1967: First Heart Transplant 1967: Six-Day War in the Middle East 1967: Stalin's Daughter Defects 1967: Three U.S. Astronauts Killed During Simulated Launch
232	1968	1968: Student riots in Paris 1968: Severe flooding in England 1968: Pope encyclical condemns all artificial forms of birth control 1968: Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated 1968: Prague Spring 1968: Robert F. Kennedy Assassinated 1968: Tet Offensive
233	1969	1969: John Lennon returns OBE due to government's support of Vietnam War 1969: America lands man on the Moon 1969: Voting age lowered from 21 to 18 in UK 1969: ARPANET, the Precursor of the Internet, Created 1969: Charles Manson and 'Family' Arrested 1969: Neil Armstrong Becomes the First Man on the Moon 1969: Rock-and-Roll Concert at Woodstock 1969: Yasser Arafat Becomes Leader of the PLO
234	1970	1970: Damages awarded to Thalidomide victims 1970: American Soldiers Accused of Murdering Entire Town of Vietnamese Civilians 1970: Aswan High Dam Completed 1970: Beatles Break Up 1970: Computer Floppy Disks Introduced 1970: Palestinian Group Hijacks Five Planes 1970: Protesting Students at Kent State Shot
235	1971	1971: Intel builds the microprocessor, "a computer on a chip" 1971: Decimalisation of coinage in Britain 1971: Bomb explodes in London's Post Office tower 1971: London Bridge sold to the U.S. 1971: United Kingdom Changes to Decimal System for Currency 1971: VCRs Introduced
236	1972	1972: First handheld calculator, from Texas Instruments 1972: Power workers strike crisis 1972: Miners call off crippling coal strike 1972: MAS*H T.V. Shows Premiers 1972: Mark Spitz Wins Seven Gold Medals 1972: Pocket Calculators Introduced 1972: Terrorists Attack at the Olympic Games in Munich 1972: Watergate Scandal Begins
237	1973	1973: The Internet was originally set up by the U.S. Department of Defense 1973: Britain enters EEC Common Market with Ireland and Denmark 1973: Miners strike and oil crisis precipitate 'three-day week' until Mar 1974 to conserve power 1973: Paul Getty Kidnapped 1973: Sears Tower Built 1973: U.S. Pulls Out of Vietnam 1973: U.S. Vice President Resigns
238	1974	1974: OPEC oil shock 1974: President Nixon resigns over Watergate scandal 1974: Halie Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, Deposed 1974: Mikhail Baryshnikov Defects 1974: Terracotta Army Discovered in China 1974: U.S. President Nixon Resigns
239	1975	1975: End of Vietnam war 1975: Equal Pay Act and Sex Discrimination Act come into force in UK 1975: Arthur Ashe First Black Man to Win Wimbledon 1975: Civil War in Lebanon 1975: Microsoft Founded 1975: Pol Pot Becomes the Communist Dictator of Cambodia
240	1976	1976: First Apple computer 1976: Viking Lander lands on Mars 1976: NASA's Viking Lander lands on Mars, starts looking for alien life 1976: Long hot summer in UK. Parliament introduces Drought Act 1976: Nadia Comaneci Given Seven Perfect Tens 1976: North and South Vietnam Join to Form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam 1976: Tangshan Earthquake Kills Over 240,000
241	1977	1977: The Centre National d'Art et de la Culture Georges-Pompidou (Pompidou Centre or "Beaubourg"), a Hi-Tech metal-framework building designed by Richard Rogers, is completed in Paris and proves immensely popular. 1977: UK road speed limits set at 70mph for dual roads; 60mph single 1977: Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her Silver Jubilee 1977: 'Star Wars' fever invades Britain as thousands flock to cinemas to watch the long-awaited sci-fi blockbuster 1977: Elvis Found Dead 1977: Miniseries Roots Airs 1977: South African Anti-Apartheid Leader Steve Biko Tortured to Death 1977: Star Wars Movie Released
242	1978	1978: World's first 'test tube' baby, Louise Browne born in Oldham 1978: Writer and broadcaster Georgi Markov dies after an assassin stabs him with a poisoned umbrella at a London bus stop. 1978: Pope John Paul II elected by cardinals: first non-Italian for 450 years 1978: First Test-Tube Baby Born 1978: John Paul II Becomes Pope 1978: Jonestown Massacre
243	1979	1979: Margaret Thatcher Prime Minister to 1990 (Conservative) 1979: Public sector strike paralyses UK 1979: Margaret Thatcher becomes first woman UK Prime Minister 1979: Ayatollah Khomeini Returns as Leader of Iran 1979: Iran Takes American Hostages in Tehran 1979: Margaret Thatcher First Woman Prime Minister of Great Britain 1979: Mother Theresa Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 1979: Nuclear Accident at Three Mile Island 1979: Sony Introduces the Walkman
244	1980	1980: Arthur Fry, a chemist for 3M, invented the Post-It note 1980: Failed U.S. Rescue Attempt to Save Hostages in Tehran 1980: John Lennon Assassinated 1980: Mount St. Helens Erupts 1980: Rubik's Cube Popular 1980: Ted Turner Establishes CNN 1980: Failed U.S. Rescue Attempt to Save Hostages in Tehran
245	1981	1981: First US Space Shuttle (Columbia) launched 1981: Worst April blizzards of 20th century in Britain 1981: Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer 1981: Assassination Attempt on the Pope 1981: Assassination Attempt on U.S. President Reagan 1981: Millions Watch Royal Wedding on T.V. 1981: New Plague Identified as AIDS 1981: Pac-Man is Extremely Popular 1981: Personal Computers (PC) Introduced by IBM
246	1982	1982: Argentina invades Falkland Islands 1982: Unemployment reaches 3 million in Britain 1982: Women's peace protests against cruise missiles begin at Greenham Common 1982: E.T. Movie Released 1982: Falkland Islands Invaded by Argentina 1982: King Henry VIII's Ship the Mary Rose Raised After 437 Years 1982: Reverend Sun Myung Moon Marries 2,075 Couples at Madison Square Garden
247	1983	1983: Margaret Thatcher wins landslide second term election victory, taking 397 seats to Labour's 209 1983: ?1 coin goes into circulation in Britain 1983: Reagan Announces Defense Plan Called Star Wars 1983: Soviets Shoot Down a Korean Airliner
248	1984	1984: Miners' strike in UK - High Court orders sequestration of NUM assets 1984: Huge Poison Gas Leak in Bhopal, India 1984: Indira Gandhi, India's Prime Minister, Killed by Two Bodyguards
249	1985	1985: BBC launches 'EastEnders' as soap rival to 'Coronation Street' 1985: Famine in Ethiopia 1985: Hole in the Ozone Layer Discovered 1985: Mikhail Gorbachev Calls for Glasnost and Perestroika 1985: Wreck of the Titanic Found
250	1986	1986: US bombing of Libya 1986: Chernobyl nuclear accident in USSR 1986: LiveAid, the biggest music event staged to date 1986: Seven dead in 'Challenger' space shuttle disaster 1986: Challenger Space Shuttle Explodes 1986: Chernobyl Nuclear Accident 1986: Ferdinand Marcos Flees the Philippines 1986: Iran-Contra Scandal Unfolds 1986: U.S. Bombs Libya 1986: U.S.S.R. Launches Mir Space Station
251	1987	1987: Margaret Thatcher wins record third term as UK prime minister 1987: DNA First Used to Convict Criminals 1987: Klaus Barbie, the Nazi Butcher of Lyons, Sentenced to Life in Prison 1987: New York Stock Exchange Suffers Huge Drop on 'Black Monday' 1987: West German Pilot Lands Unchallenged in Russia's Red Square
252	1988	1988: Pan Am Flight 103 Is Bombed Over Lockerbie 1988: U.S. Shoots Down Iranian Airliner
253	1989	1989: Berlin Wall Falls 1989: Exxon Valdez Spills Millions of Gallons of Oil on Coastline 1989: Students Massacred in China's Tiananmen Square
254	1990	1990: John Major Prime Minister to 1997 (Conservative) 1990: Iraq invades Kuwait, triggering first gulf war 1990: Violence flares in London Poll Tax demonstration 1990: Margaret Thatcher quits as UK prime minister 1990: Leading anti-apartheid campaigner Nelson Mandela freed from prison in South Africa after 27 years 1990: Hubble Telescope Launched Into Space 1990: Lech Walesa Becomes First President of Poland 1990: Nelson Mandela Freed
255	1991	1991: Bronze Age Man Found Frozen in Glacier 1991: Collapse of the Soviet Union 1991: Operation Desert Storm 1991: South Africa Repeals Apartheid Laws
256	1992	1992: Official End of the Cold War
257	1993	1993: Cult Compound in Waco, Texas Raided 1993: Use of the Internet Grows Exponentially 1993: World Trade Center Bombed
258	1994	1994: Channel Tunnel Opens, Connecting Britain and France 1994: Lorena Bobbit Takes Brutal Revenge 1994: Nelson Mandela Elected President of South Africa 1994: O.J. Simpson Arrested for Double Murder 1994: Rwandan Genocide Begins
259	1995	1995: Ebola Virus Spreads in Zaire 1995: Gas Attack in Tokyo Subway 1995: Yitzhak Rabin Assassinated
260	1996	1996: Mad Cow Disease Hits Britain 1996: Two Royal Divorces
261	1997	1997: UK General Election: Labour routs Tories and Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister 1997: Hale-Bopp Comet Visible 1997: Hong Kong Returned to China 1997: Pathfinder Sends Back Images of Mars 1997: Princess Diana Dies in Car Crash 1997: Scientists Clone Sheep
262	1998	1998: India and Pakistan Test Nuclear Weapons 1998: Titanic Most Successful Movie Ever 1998: U.S. President Clinton Impeached 1998: Viagra on the Market
263	1999	1999: The Euro the New European Currency 1999: Fear of Y2K Bug 1999: Killing Spree at Columbine High School 1999: NATO Attacks Serbia 1999: Panama Canal Returns to Panama
264	2000	2000: Fuel protests paralyse Britain for seven days 2000: World celebrates New Millennium: UK opens unpopular dome visitor attraction at Greenwich
265	2001	2001: 11 SEP attacks on US 2001: Outbreak of Foot & Mouth disease in UK. Millions of animals slaughtered and burned across the nation 2001: General Election - Labour returned to power in UK
266	2002	2002: The Queen Mother Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon dies, aged 101 years
267	2005	2005: UK General election returns Labour to power for third term under Tony Blair

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