|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1900 |
Boer
War (1899 - 1902); Rising in Asante, West Africa; Cook Islands annexed by
NZ |
Labour Party formed |
Boxer
Rebellion; German Naval law; Russian annexation of Manchuria |
|
Freud
publishes his interpretations of Dreams; first Zeppelin built |
|
1901 |
Federated Commonwealth of Australia
formed; Britain gains control over Tonga's external affairs; British
protectorates in Nigeria |
Queen
Victoria dies; Edward VII becomes King |
Roosevelt takes over from assasinated
McKinley |
Picasso's Blue period |
Invention of Vacuum cleaner |
|
1902 |
Treaty of Vereeniging ends Boer War;
Anglo Japanese Alliance; Ashanti territory incorporated into Gold Coast;
|
|
Ibn
Saud captures Riyadh |
Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is
published |
|
|
1903 |
Britain takes Sokoto and ends Fulani
Empire; Great Coronation Durbar in Delhi; Curzon sends an expedition to
Tibet |
Suffragettes established |
Panama secedes from Columbia |
|
First
powered flight by the Wright brothers |
|
1904 |
First
Empire day celebrated |
Entente Cordiale with France |
Russon Japanese War (1904-5) |
Chekhov's Cherry Orchard |
|
|
1905 |
Bengali terrorism begins; British New
Guinea transferred to Australia; Alberta and Saskatchewan become Provinces
in Canada |
|
Revolution in Russia; Maji Maji rebellion
in German East Africa; Norway breaks from Sweden |
Struass' Salome |
Einstein's Special theory of
relativity |
|
1906 |
Muslim league established in India;
Britain and France rule New Hebrides |
Reforming Liberals win election; Campbell
Bannerman PM; First Dreadnought launched |
Cuba
occupied by US; Revolution in Iran |
|
Vitamins discovered by Hopkins; first
sound radio broadcasting |
|
1907 |
NZ
gains Dominion status; |
Anglo
Russian entente |
|
Rudyard
Kipling receives Nobel prize |
|
|
1908 |
Universal adult suffrage in
Australia |
Asquith PM |
Balkan problems; Belgium takes over Congo
Free state |
|
|
|
1909 |
Canberra becomes Australian
capital |
Lloyd
George's battle with House of Lords begins |
Franco German agreement in
Morocco |
|
Ford
Model 'T' |
|
1910 |
Union
of South Africa |
George V King |
Japan
annexes Korea; Portugese revolution |
Palace of Knossos excavated |
Seaplane invented |
|
1911 |
Coronation Durbar at New Delhi (New
Capital) |
Constitutional crisis
resolved |
Chinese revolution, Sun Yat Sen first
President; President Diaz of Mexico overthrown |
|
Rutherford's Nuclear model of atom; First
air mail |
|
1912 |
ANC
forms in South Africa |
Titanic sinks |
Wilson president of US; Balkan wars;
French protectorate of Morocco; Italy conquers Libya |
Jung's Psychology of
Unconscious |
Stainless steel |
|
1913 |
Crisis in Ireland; Ulster volunteers
formed; Land reforms in favour of whites in South Africa |
|
Turkey loses most of European lands; Coup
D'etat in Turkey; Opening of Panama canal |
D.H.
Lawrence's Sons and Lovers |
|
|
1914 |
Imperial troops assembled for war; Egypt
becomes British Protectorate; Cyprus annexed; occupation of German West
African colonies |
Emergency laws implemented |
World
War I (1914-18); Panama canal opens |
|
Zip,
Traffic lights and 35mm camera are all invented |
|
1915 |
Gallipoli landings; Gilbert and Ellice
islands annexed |
Zeppelin
raids |
Japan
imposes 21 demands on China |
|
Einstein's General Theory of
Relativity |
|
1916 |
Mesopotamia campaign; Easter rising in
Dublin; Troops enter Yaounde in Cameroons; Drive Germans out of
Kenya |
Somme; Jutland |
Verdun; Arab revolt against
Ottomans |
Dada
movement |
First
Tank developed |
|
1917 |
Balfour declaration promises Palestine to
the Jews; Capture Baghdad |
Passchendale |
US
enters war; Russian revolution |
Kafka's Metamorphisis; first Jazz
recordings |
|
|
1918 |
Troops take Syria and Palestine;
Rhodesian native congress formed |
Women
get the vote |
Armistice |
Holst's the planets performed |
|
|
1919 |
Amritsar massacre in India; Arab
rebellion in Egypt; IRA formed; German African colonies acquired; ANC
demonstrates against pass laws |
Nancy
Astor the first Woman MP |
Treaty of Versaille; League of Nations
formed; Flu epidemic |
|
Rutherford splits the atom |
|
1920 |
Mahatma Gandhi becomes leader of
Congress; British East Africa becomes Kenya; Palestine becomes British
mandate |
|
Prohibition in US (1920 - 33) Nazis
formed by Hitler |
|
|
|
1921 |
Irish
Civil War (1921 - 24); Australia given mandate over German New
Guinea |
|
Spanish war against Berbers (1921 -
26) |
Charlie Chaplin's The Kid |
Marconi makes first Radio
Broadcast |
|
1922 |
Transjordan and Palestine administered by
Britain; Egyptian Independence |
BBC
founded |
USSR
formed |
Joyce's Ulysses; Tutankhamun's tomb
opened |
|
|
1923 |
Iraq
to be administered by Britain; Rhodesian Self-government |
Baldwin PM; First FA Cup (won by
Bolton) |
German Hyper inflation |
First
'Talkie' Movie |
|
|
1924 |
Northern Rhodesia becomes a
protectorate |
First
Labour victory |
Dawes
plan; Death of Lenin |
|
Insecticide developed |
|
1925 |
Cyprus becomes a colony |
|
Treaty of Locarno |
Eisentstein's Battleship Potemkin;
Mofolo's Chaka |
|
|
1926 |
Imperial conference gives Dominion status
to settler colonies |
General Strike |
|
First
Television | |
|
1927 |
|
|
Stalin comes to power; Lindbergh flies
Atlantic; Chiang Kai Shek establishes in Nanking |
|
|
|
1928 |
Flying Doctor service in
Australia |
Women
over 21 given vote |
Kellogg Briand pact |
Ravel's Bolero; Mickey Mouse |
Discovery of Penicillin; Colour
TV |
|
1929 |
Secretary of State for Dominions
instituted; Uprising of Mau in Samoa |
|
Wall
Street Crash |
|
|
|
1930 |
Nehru's declaration of Indian
Independence; Gandhi's second disobedience campaign; First Round Table
conference between Britain and Indian parties (1930 - 32) |
|
|
Coward's Private lives |
Jet
engine; Pluto discovered |
|
1931 |
Statute of Westminster gives Dominions
control over own parliaments |
Great
Depression; National government formed |
Japanese occupation of
Manchuria |
|
Electron Microscope |
|
1932 |
Ottawa agreement promotes Imperial
trade |
Union
of Fascists formed |
Saudi
Arabia and Iraqi Independence |
London Philharmonic formed |
|
|
1933 |
Australian Antarctic Territory
established; Bodyline Cricket tour of Australia |
|
Nazis
come to power in Germany |
|
Radar |
|
1934 |
Purified National Party advocates
Apharteid in South Africa; Suppression of Ghanese radicals (1934 -
36) |
|
Night
of the Long Knives in Germany; Stalin's purges |
|
Nylon
developed |
|
1935 |
Government of India act allowing limited
local government |
British Council established; Death of
T.E.
Lawrence |
Italian invasion of Ethiopia |
|
|
|
1936 |
Restriction of representation of Black
South Africans |
Abdication of Edward VIII, George VI
King |
Spanish Civil War (1936 - 39);
Reoccupation of Rhineland |
Dali's Premonition of Civil War;
Prokoviev's Peter and the Wolf |
Helicopter |
|
1937 |
Arab
Jewish conflict in Palestine |
Chamberlain PM |
Japanese invasion of China (1937 -
45) |
Picasso's Guernica; Orwell's Road to
Wigan Pier |
Photocopier |
|
1938 |
IRA bombings in England |
Munich peace accords |
German Anschluss of Austria |
|
|
|
1939 |
Mobilisation of Dominion and Imperial
forces |
|
World
War II breaks out' Nazi Soviet Pact |
Gone
with the Wind |
DDT
insecticide developed |
|
1940 |
|
Blitz; Churchill PM; Evacuation of
British forces from Dunkirk |
Fall
of France, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark and Norway to Germans |
|
|
|
1941 |
Fall
of Hong Kong; Ethiopia captured by Commonwealth troops; |
Atlantic Charter |
Invasion of USSR; Lend Lease; Pearl
Harbour |
Wells' Citizen Kane |
Aerosol can |
|
1942 |
Fall
of Singapore, Malaya and Burma; Dieppe raid |
Beveridge report |
Midway; El Alamein |
|
Fermi
builds Nuclear reactor |
|
1943 |
Commonwealth troops invade
Italy |
|
Battle of Kursk |
|
Aqualung by Cousteau and
Gagnan |
|
1944 |
Burma
recaptured; |
Education Act |
D - Day |
|
|
|
1945 |
Pan-African conference |
|
Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki; End of War; United Nations formed |
Britten's Peter Grimes |
|
|
1946 |
Transjordan becomes independent; Sarawak
ceded; North Borneo becomes a colony |
National Health Service
started |
Cold
War begins |
Sartre's Existensialism and
Humanism |
Development of Computers |
|
1947 |
Indian Independence; partition of India
and Pakistan |
|
Marshall plan and Truman
Doctrine |
First
Edinburgh Festival |
Transistor invented |
|
1948 |
Afrikaner National Party win power in
South Africa; Ceylon and Burma become Independent; Communist insurgency in
Malaya; Israel created |
|
Berlin airlift |
|
LP's
invented |
|
1949 |
Ireland leaves the Commonwealth;
Newfoundland and Labrador join Canada |
|
Nato
created; China becomes Communist |
Orwell's 1984 |
|
|
1950 |
|
|
Korean war (1950 - 53); Schumann
plan |
|
First
Kidney transplant |
|
1951 |
Cyprus bids for Independence |
Churchill PM; Festival of
Britain |
ANZUS
pact in Pacific |
|
|
|
1952 |
Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya (1952 -
59) |
Queen
Elizabeth; Britain's first atomic bomb |
|
Beckett's waiting for Godot |
|
|
1953 |
Federation of Rhodesia and
Nyasaland |
|
Death
of Stalin; McCarthy era in US; Mount Everest climbed |
|
DNA
unravelled |
|
1954 |
Withdrawal from Sudan; troops removed
from Egypt |
|
Dien
Bien Phu forces French out of Vietnam; Algerian crisis begins |
|
Fortran developed; first oral
contraceptives |
|
1955 |
EOKA
terrorist campaign in Cyprus |
Eden
PM |
Warsaw Pact signed |
|
Hovercraft |
|
1956 |
Suez
crisis |
|
Castro and Guevara land in Cuba;
Hungarian revolt |
|
Videotape |
|
1957 |
Gold
Coast becomes independent Ghana; Malay states become
independent |
Macmillan PM |
EEC
formed |
Keruoac's On the road |
Soviet Sputnik flight |
|
1958 |
West
Indies Federation formed |
|
China's Great Leap Forward |
Presley joins the army |
Silicon chip |
|
1959 |
Cyprus joins Commonwealth |
North
Sea gas discovered |
Antarctic treaty |
|
Integrated circuits developed |
|
1960 |
British Somaliland and Nigeria become
Independent; end of Malayan emergency |
|
OPEC
formed; Belgian Congo gains independence |
Lady
Chatterley's lover ban removed after loss of court case |
Lasers developed |
|
1961 |
Sierra Leone, Tanganyika and British
Cameroons become independent; South Africa leaves Commonwealth; Saudis
take over defence of Kuwait from Britain |
|
Berlin wall erected; Bay of
pigs |
Britten's War requiem |
Yuri
Gagarin becomes first man in space |
|
1962 |
Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda and
Western Samoa all become independent |
Commonwealth immigrants act |
Cuban
missile crisis |
The
Beatles |
Communications Satellites |
|
1963 |
Kenya
and Zanzibar become independent |
Profumo
affair |
Kennedy
assassination |
Hitchcock's The Birds |
Cassette tape recorder |
|
1964 |
Northern Rhodesia becomes Zambia;
Nyasaland becomes independent Malawi; Malta becomes
independent |
Wilson PM |
Brezhnev ousts Krushchev |
|
Word
Processor |
|
1965 |
Southern Rhodesia declares unilateral
independence (UDI) |
|
US
forces to Vietnam; Indo Pakistan war |
Miniskirts |
|
|
1966 |
Botswana, Lesotho and Gambia all gain
independence |
England wins World Cup |
Cultural revolution in China |
|
|
|
1967 |
Aden
independence |
|
Six
day war; Biafran war (1967 - 70) |
|
Satellite navigation |
|
1968 |
Mauritius and Swaziland gain
Independence |
|
Tet
in Vietnam; Czechoslovakia invaded by Warpac |
|
|
|
1969 |
Ulster troubles |
Open
University |
|
Woodstock |
First
man on the moon; Concorde |
|
1970 |
Fiji
and Tongan Independence |
|
|
|
Floppy disk |
|
1971 |
N.
Ireland Internment policy: Bahrain and Qatar become
independent |
Decimalisation of currency |
|
|
|
|
1972 |
Asians expelled from Uganda; |
|
Bangladesh leaves Pakistan;
Detente |
|
Home
video games |
|
1973 |
Bahamas become Independent |
Britain
joins European Community |
Oil
Shock |
|
Skylab |
|
1974 |
Grenada Independent; IRA bombing of
mainland |
Three
day week |
Watergate; Cyprus invaded by
Turkey |
|
|
|
1975 |
Papua
New Guinea gains Independence |
IMF
assists Britain |
End
of Vietnam war; Khmer Rouge take over Cambodia |
|
Altair 8800 is the first personal
computer |
|
1976 |
Seychelles Independent |
Callaghan PM |
Death
of Mao Zedong |
|
|
|
1977 |
|
|
Deng
Xiaoping leads China |
Pompidou center opens in
Paris |
|
|
1978 |
Dominica Independent |
|
Camp
David Accords |
|
First
test tube baby; First Apple computer |
|
1979 |
Rhodesian settlement reached; Gilbert
Islands becomes Independent Kiribati |
Thatcher PM |
USSR
invades Afghanistan; Shah if Iran overthrown |
Arts |
Sciences |
|
1980 |
New
Hebrides becomes Independent Vanunu; Zimbabwean Independence |
|
Iran Iray war (1980 - 8) |
Golding's Rites of passage |
Smallpox officially
eliminated |
|
1981 |
Belize independent |
SDP
formed from split in Labour |
Sadat
assassinated in Egypt |
|
Space
shuttle Columbia; first reports of AIDS |
|
1982 |
Falkland war |
|
Israel invades Lebanon |
|
CD's
on sale |
|
1983 |
Grenada invaded by US |
US
Cruise missiles installed |
|
Attenborough's Gandhi |
|
|
1984 |
Brunei Independent; Hong Kong handover
agreement reached |
Miners' strike |
|
|
Genetic fingerprinting |
|
1985 |
Britain isolated in Commonwealth over
South African sanctions |
Anglo-Irish agreement |
|
Live
Aid |
Desk
Top Publishing |
|
1986 |
|
Peak
Unemployment of 3.5m |
US
bombing of Libya |
|
Chernobyl |
|
1987 |
Fiji
leaves Commonwealth |
|
Stock
Market crisis |
|
|
|
1988 |
|
Liberal Democrats formed |
|
Rushdie's Satanic Verses |
Hawking's Brief History of
Time |
|
1989 |
|
|
Berlin Wall crumbles; Tiananmen square
|
|
|
|
1990 |
South
West Africa becomes Independent Namibia |
Poll
Tax riots |
Nelson Mandela freed; Iraq invades
Kuwait |
|
|
|
1991 |
|
|
Gulf
War |
|
|
|
1992 |
|
|
Break
up of Yugoslavia |
|
|
|
1993 |
|
|
Palestinian
Israeli peace accords |
|
|
|
1994 |
|
|
Multi
racial elections in South Africa |
|
|
|
1995 |
Nigeria suspended from
Commonwealth |
|
Rabin
assassinated |
|
|
|
1996 |
South
Africa rejoins Commonwealth |
|
|
|
Rise
and rise of the Internet |
|
1997 |
Hong
Kong handed back to Chinese |
Blair
PM |
|
|
Mars
landing |
