1938 - 1942 (4 years)
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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1938 | - 1938—1938: Principle of paid holidays established in Britain
- 1938—1938: HMS Rodney first ship to be equipped with radar
- 1938—1938: First practical ball-point pen produced by Hungarian journalist, Lajos Biro
- 12 Mar 1938—12 Mar 1938: Germany invades and annexes Austria
- 3 Jul 1938—3 Jul 1938: 'Mallard' reaches 126 mph (203 km/h); still world record for a steam locomotive
- 27 Sep 1938—27 Sep 1938: Largest ocean liner ever built, Queen Elizabeth launched on Clydebank
- 29 Sep 1938—29 Sep 1938: Chamberlain visits Hitler in Munich - promises 'peace in our time'
- 30 Oct 1938—30 Oct 1938: Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play of HG Wells 'The War of the Worlds', causing panic in the USA
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| 2 | 1939 | - 1939—1939: Germany annexes Czechoslovakia
- 1939—1939: Start of evacuation of women and children from London
- 1939—1939: Coldest winter in Britain since 1894, though this could not be publicised at the time
- 1 Sep 1939—1 Sep 1939: Germany invades Poland
- 3 Sep 1939—3 Sep 1939: Britain and France declare war on Germany
- 6 Sep 1939—6 Sep 1939: First air-raid on Britain
- 11 Sep 1939—11 Sep 1939: British Expeditionary Force (BEF) sent to France
- 14 Oct 1939—14 Oct 1939: HMS Royal Oak sunk in Scapa Flow with loss of 810 lives
- 7 Dec 1939—7 Dec 1939: 'First flight' of Canadian troops sail for Britain - 7,400 men on 5 ships
- 17 Dec 1939—17 Dec 1939: 'Admiral Graf Spee' scuttled outside Montevideo
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| 3 | 1940 | - 1 Apr 1940—1 Apr 1940: BOAC starts operations, replacing Imperial and British Airways Ltd
- 11 May 1940—11 May 1940: National Government formed under Churchill
- 13 May 1940—13 May 1940: Germany invades France
- 27 May 1940—27 May 1940: Start of the evacuation of the British Army at Dunkirk (27 May - 4 Jun)
- 25 Jun 1940—25 Jun 1940: Fall of France to Germany
- 7 Sep 1940—7 Sep 1940: Germany launches bombing blitz on Britain, the first of 57 consecutive nights of
bombing
- 15 Sep 1940—15 Sep 1940: Battle of Britain: massive waves of German air attacks decisively repulsed by the
RAF - Hitler postpones invasion of Britain
- 14 Nov 1940—14 Nov 1940: Coventry heavily bombed and the Cathedral almost completely destroyed
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| 4 | 1941 | - 1941—1941: Britain introduces severe rationing
- 1941—1941: First British jet aircraft flies, based on work of Whittle
- 1941—1941: Bailey invents his portable military bridge
- 1941—1941: First use of antibiotics
- 10 May 1941—10 May 1941: Rudolf Hess flies to Scotland
- 27 May 1941—27 May 1941: 'Bismark' sunk
- 22 Jun 1941—22 Jun 1941: Germany invades Russia (Operation Barbarossa)
- 1 Jul 1941—1 Jul 1941: First Canadian armoured regiments arrive in Britain
- Dec 1941—Dec 1941: Canadian forces given operation role in defending south coast of England
- Dec 1941—Dec 1941: 'Manhattan Project' of nuclear research begins in America
- 7 Dec 1941—7 Dec 1941: Japan attackes US fleet at Pearl Harbour
- 8 Dec 1941—8 Dec 1941: USA enters WWII
- 24 Dec 1941—24 Dec 1941: Hong Kong falls to the Japanese
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| 5 | 1942 | - 1942—1942: Invention of world's first programmable computer by Alan Turing in co-operation with
Max Neumann - used to crack German codes
- 1942—1942: Gilbert Murray founds Oxfam
- 30 May 1942—30 May 1942: Over 1,000 allied bombers raid Cologne
- 4 Jun 1942—4 Jun 1942: Battle of Midway
- 19 Aug 1942—19 Aug 1942: Abortive raid on Dieppe, largely by Canadian troops
- 6 Sep 1942—6 Sep 1942: Germans defeated at Stalingrad
- 3 Oct 1942—3 Oct 1942: First successful launch of V2 rocket in Germany - first man-made object to reach
space
- 23 Oct 1942—23 Oct 1942: Battle of El Alamein - Montgomery defeats Rommel
- 2 Dec 1942—2 Dec 1942: 'Manhattan Project' - a team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first self-sustaining
nuclear chain reaction
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