Unemployment in Britain rises above 1M for first time since before WW2

Birmingham pub bombings by the IRA

Lord Lucan disappears

Flixborough disaster: explosion at chemical plant kills 28 people

New counties formed in Britain after re-organisation of some county boundaries

Miners strike and oil crisis precipitate 'three-day week' (till 9 Mar 1974) to conserve power

Marriage of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips in Westminster Abbey

Concorde makes its first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in record-breaking time

VAT introduced in Britain

Modern London Bridge opened by the Queen

Britain enters EEC Common Market (with Ireland and Denmark)

Duke of Windsor (ex-King Edward VIII) dies in Paris

'Bloody Sunday' in Derry, Northern Ireland

Britain imposes direct rule in Northern Ireland

Strict anti-hijack measures introduced internationally, especially at airports

Dutch Elm disease devastates trees across UK

Domestic video cassette recorders introduced

Parliament votes to join Common Market (joined 1973)

UK launches its first (and only) satellite, Prospero

Internment without trial introduced in N Ireland

Decimalisation of coinage in UK and Republic of Ireland

Open University starts

Banking and Financial Dealings Act - replaced the Bank Holidays Act of 1871

Sunday becomes the seventh day in the week as UK adopts decision of the International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) to call Monday the first day

'Greenpeace' founded

Rolls-Royce declared bankrupt

Ten shilling note (50p after decimalisation) goes out of circulation in Britain

First Glastonbury Festival held

Damages awarded to Thalidomide victims

Edward Heath becomes Prime Minister

Decimal postage stamps first issued for sale in Britain

Boeing 747 (Jumbo jet) goes into service

50p coin introduced in Britain (reduced in size 1998)

First episode of 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' recorded

Civil disturbances in Ulster - Britain sends troops to support civil authorities

Halfpenny ceases to be legal tender in Britain

Maiden voyage of liner Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2)

Voting age lowered from 21 to 18

Victoria Line tube opens in London

Maiden flight of 'Concorde', at Toulouse

Beginning of disturbances in N Ireland

Two-tier postal rate starts in Britain

Last steam passenger train service ran in Britain (Carlisle- Liverpool)

Manchester United first English club to win the European Cup

Issue of 5p and 10p decimal coins in Britain

Enoch Powell 'Rivers of Blood' speech on immigration

London Bridge sold (and eventually moved to Arizona) - modern London Bridge, built around it as it was demolished, was opened in Mar 1973

British Standard Time introduced - Summer Time became permanent but arguments prevailed and Britain reverted to GMT in October 1971

Introduction of majority verdicts in English courts

BBC Radios 1 2 3 & 4 open first record played on Radio 1 was the controversial 'Flowers in the Rain' by 'The Move'

'Queen Mary' arrives Southampton at end of her last transatlantic voyage

'QE2' launched on Clydebank

Offshore pirate radio stations declared illegal by the UK

First colour TV in Britain

First withdrawal from a cash dispenser (ATM) in Britain - at Enfield branch of Barclays

Francis Chichester arrives in Plymouth after solo circumnavigation in Gipsy Moth IV (he was knighted 7th July at Greenwich by the queen using the sword with which Elizabeth I had knighted Sir Francis Drake four centuries earlier

'Torrey Canyon' oil tanker runs aground off Lands End first major oil spill

Donald Campbell dies attempting to break his world water speed record on Conniston Water - his body and Bluebird recovered in 2002

First Christmas stamps issued in Britain

Aberfan disaster - slag heap slip kills 144, incl. 116 children

First Severn road bridge opens

World Cup won by England at Wembley (4-2 in extra time v West Germany)

'The Times' begins to print news on its front page in place of classified Advertisements

Australia converts from ? to $

70mph speed limit introduced on British roads

Death penalty for murder suspended in Britain for five-year trial period, then abolished 18 Dec 1969

Post Office Tower operational in London

TV cigarette advertising banned in Britain

Winston Churchill dies

First US raids against North Vietnam

Britain enacts first Race Relations Act

Forth road bridge opens

'Match of the Day' starts on BBC2

BBC2 TV launched

First Greater London Council (GLC) election

First 'Top of the Pops' on BBC TV

First episode of 'Dr Who' on BBC TV

Dartford Tunnel opens

Fylingdales (Yorks) early warning system operational

'Great Train Robbery' on Glasgow to London mail train

Minimum prison age raised to 17

Beeching Report on British Railways (the 'Beeching Axe')

France vetoes Britain's entry into EEC

Cold weather forces cancellation of most football matches (only 4 English First Division matches in the month) - the first 'pools panel' created

Cuba missile crisis - brink of nuclear war

First TV transmission between US and Europe (Telstar) - first live broadcast on 23 Jul

First passenger-carrying hovercraft enters service, along the North Wales Coast from Moreton to Rhyl

First nuclear generated electricity to supplied National Grid (from Berkeley Glos)

Consecration of new Coventry Cathedral (old destroyed in WW2 blitz)

Britain passes Commonwealth Immigrants Act to control immigration

Thalidomide withdrawn after it causes deformities in babies

Britain and France agree to construct 'Concorde'

Betting shops legal in Britain

New English Bible (New Testament) published

Black & White ?5 notes cease to be legal tender

Farthing ceases to be legal tender in UK

Penguin Books found not guilty of obscenity in the 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' case

HMS 'Dreadnought' nuclear submarine launched

MoT tests on motor vehicles introduced

Echo I, the first (passive) communications satellite, launched

Francis Chichester arrives in New York aboard Gypsy Moth II (took 40 days), winning the first single-handed transatlantic yacht race which he co-founded

Last steam locomotive of British Railways named

New ?1 notes issued by Bank of England

First section of M1 motorway opened

Postcodes introduced in Britain

BMC Mini car launched

Empire Day becomes Commonwealth Day

Vanguard 2 satellite launched - first to measure cloud-cover distribution

'The Day The Music Died' - plane crash kills Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper

Inauguration of Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) in Britain (completed in 1979)

Preston by-pass opens - UK's first stretch of motorway

Prince Charles' Investiture as 'Prince of Wales'

Velcro trade mark registered

Easter: First anti-nuclear protest march to Aldermaston (emergence of CND)

Computers begin to be used in research, industry and commerce

USA begins to produce Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs)

Queen's first Christmas TV broadcast

Lewisham rail disaster - 90 killed as two trains collide in thick fog and a viaduct collapses on top of them

Treaty of Rome to create European Economic Community (EEC) of six countries: France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg - became operational Jan 1958

Britain explodes her first hydrogen bomb, at Christmas Island

Post-Suez petrol rationing ends

Harold Macmillan becomes Prime Minister

Britain introduces parking meters

Helvetica typeface developed (in Switzerland)

Britain and France invade Suez

3rd class travel abolished on British Railways (renamed 'Third Class' as 'Second Class', which had been abolished in 1875 leaving just First and Third Class)

Premium Bonds first launched - first prizes drawn on 1 Jun 1957

Radiotelephony spelling alphabet introduced (Alpha, Bravo, etc)

Britain constructs world's first large-scale nuclear power station in Cumberland

Commercial TV starts in Britain

Jul 27: Allied occupation of Austria (after WW2) ends

'Mole' self-grip wrench patented by Thomas Coughtrie of Mole & Sons

First atomic powered sumbmarine USS Nautilus commissioned

BBC broadcasts its first television news bulletin

Food rationing officially ends in Britain

First sub 4 minute mile (Roger Bannister, 3 mins 59.4 secs)

First comprehensive school opens in London

Routemaster bus starts operating in London

First transistor radios sold

Sugar rationing ends in Britain (after nearly 14 years)

Coronation of Elizabeth II

Francis Crick and James D Watson publish the double helix structure of DNA

Winston Churchill knighted

Jonas Salk announces his polio vaccine

Death of Stalin

Sweet rationing ends in Britain

Said to be the biggest civil catastrophe in Britain in the 20th century - severe storm and high tides caused the loss of hundreds of lives - - effects travelled from the west coast of Scotland round to the south-east coast of England [The Netherlands were even worse affected with over a thousand deaths]

Great smog hits London

Agatha Christie's 'The Mousetrap' opens in London

The first H-bomb ever ('Mike') was exploded by the USA - the mushroom cloud was 8 miles across and 27 miles high. The canopy was 100 miles wide. Radioactive mud fell out of the sky followed by heavy rain. 80 million tons of earth was vaporised.

End of tea rationing in Britain

DH110 crashes at Farnborough Air Show, 26 killed

Lynmouth (North Devon) flood disaster

Last tram runs in London (Woolwich to New Cross)

First commercial jet airliner service launched, by BOACComet between London and Johannesburg

Identity Cards abolished in Britain

King George VI dies

Contraceptive pill invented

Britain explodes her first atomic bomb, in Australia

Radioactive carbon used for dating prehistoric objects

Bonn Convention: Britain, France and USA end their occupation of West Germany

Electricity first produced by nuclear power, from Experimental Breeder Reactor

First Goon Show broadcast

Festival of Britain and Royal Festival Hall open on South Bank, London

The Peak District becomes the Britain's first National Park

Soap rationing ends in Britain

'Andy Pandy' first seen on BBC TV

Petrol rationing ends in Britain

Points rationing ends in Britain

Twelve nations sign The North Atlantic Treaty creating NATO

Clothes rationing ends in Britain

Maiden flight of the Bristol Brabazon (broken up in 1953 for scrap)

De Haviland produces the Comet - first jet airliner

London Olympics begin

National Health Service (NHS) begins in Britain

British Citizenship Act : all Commonwealth citizens qualify for British passports

Transistor radio invented

Long-playing record (LP) invented by Goldmark

British Railways nationalised

Marriage of Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth II) and Philip Mountbatten in Westminster Abbey

British military occupation ends in Iraq

School leaving age raised to 15 in Britain

International Monetary Fund begins financial operations

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) founded

Most severe winter in Britain for 53 years at start of the year - heavy snow and much flooding later

First British nuclear reactor developed

Coal Mines nationalised

Bank of England nationalised

Transition to National Health Service starts in Britain (came into being 5th July 1948)

Alistair Cooke starts his regular 'Letter from America' on BBC radio - until 2004

First civillian flight from Heathrow Airport

UNESCO founded

United Nations Organisation comes into existence

Japanese surrender signed aboard USS Missouri

VJ Day (Victory in Japan)

Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki

Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima

BBC Light Programme starts

Labour win UK General Election - Churchill out of office

First ever atomic bomb exploded in a test in New Mexico (although there were other forms of atomic device before that, such as the Pile at Stagg Field, first critical on 2nd Dec 1942)

UN Charter signed in San Francisco

Channel Islands liberated

VE Day (Victory in Europe)

Hitler commits suicide

Berlin surrounded by Russian troops

Last V1 flying bomb attack

Yalta Conference between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin

Battle of the Bulge: German counter-offensive

Allies enter Germany

First V2 rocket bombs hit London

First V1 flying bombs hit London

D-Day invasion of Normandy

Allies enter Rome

PAYE income tax begins

Allies invade Italy - Benito Mussolini resigns as Italian Dictator, 24 July

'Dam Buster' raids on Ruhr dams by RAF

Round-the-clock bombing of Germany begins

'Manhattan Project' - a team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction

Battle of El Alamein - Montgomery defeats Rommel

First successful launch of V2 rocket in Germany - first man-made object to reach space

Germans defeated at Stalingrad

Abortive raid on Dieppe, largely by Canadian troops

Battle of Midway

Over 1,000 allied bombers raid Cologne

Invention of world's first programmable computer by Alan Turing in co-operation with Max Neumann - used to crack German codes

Gilbert Murray founds Oxfam

Hong Kong falls to the Japanese

USA enters WWII

Japan attackes US fleet at Pearl Harbour

Canadian forces given operation role in defending south coast of England

'Manhattan Project' of nuclear research begins in America

First Canadian armoured regiments arrive in Britain

Germany invades Russia (Operation Barbarossa)

'Bismark' sunk

Rudolf Hess flies to Scotland

Britain introduces severe rationing

First British jet aircraft flies, based on work of Whittle

Bailey invents his portable military bridge

First use of antibiotics

Coventry heavily bombed and the Cathedral almost completely destroyed

Battle of Britain: massive waves of German air attacks decisively repulsed by the RAF - Hitler postpones invasion of Britain

Germany launches bombing blitz on Britain, the first of 57 consecutive nights of bombing

Fall of France to Germany

Start of the evacuation of the British Army at Dunkirk (27 May - 4 Jun)

Germany invades France

National Government formed under Churchill

BOAC starts operations, replacing Imperial and British Airways Ltd

'Admiral Graf Spee' scuttled outside Montevideo

'First flight' of Canadian troops sail for Britain - 7,400 men on 5 ships

HMS Royal Oak sunk in Scapa Flow with loss of 810 lives

British Expeditionary Force (BEF) sent to France

First air-raid on Britain

Britain and France declare war on Germany

Germany invades Poland

Germany annexes Czechoslovakia

Start of evacuation of women and children from London

Coldest winter in Britain since 1894, though this could not be publicised at the time

Principle of paid holidays established in Britain

HMS Rodney first ship to be equipped with radar

First practical ball-point pen produced by Hungarian journalist, Lajos Biro