Penguin paperbacks launched

Voluntary driving tests introduced in UK

Hore-Belisha introduces pedestrian crossings and speed limits for built-up areas in Britain

Nylon first produced by Gerard J. Berchet of Wallace Carothers' research group at DuPont (there is no evidence to the widely-supposed story that the name derives from New York-London)

London adopts a 'Green Belt' scheme

Land speed record of 301.13 mph by Malcolm Campbell

First time a steam locomotive travels at 100 mph ('Flying Scotsman')

RMS Queen Mary launched

King George V opens Mersey Tunnel

Hitler becomes Fuehrer of Germany

First known photos of the 'Loch Ness Monster' taken

ICI scientists discover polythene

Only 6 pennies minted in Britain this year

Iraq gains independence from Britain

'The Times' introduces 'Times New Roman' typeface

Amelia Earhart first solo nonstop flight across Atlantic by a female pilot

Great Hunger March of unemployed to London

Moseley founds British Union of Fascists

Cockroft and Walton accelerate particles to disintegrate an atomic nucleus

Sir Thomas Beecham established the London Philharmonic Orchestra

National Government formed to deal with economic crisis - Britain comes off gold standard

Census: Population - England and Wales; 40 Million; Scotland: 4.8 Million; N Ireland: 1.24 Million (Unfortunately, the census was destroyed by fire in WW2)

Highway Code first issued

Statute of Westminster: British Dominions become independent sovereign states

Collapse of the German banking system; 3,000 banks there close

R101 airship disaster - British abandons airship construction

Clarence Birdseye first marketed frozen peas

3M begins marketing Scotch Tape

Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany

First Nazis elected to the German Reichstag

Youth Hostel Association (YHA) founded in Britain

Abolition of Poor Law system in Britain

Minimum age for a marriage in Britain (which had been 14 for a boy and 12 for a girl) now 16 for both sexes, with parental consent (or a licence) needed for anyone under 21

BBC begins experimental TV transmissions

Sir Alexander Fleming accidentally discovers penicillin (results published 1929)

Madame Tussauds opens in London

Women over 21 get vote in Britain - same qualification for both sexes

The Menin Gate war memorial unveiled at Ypres

Last Ford Model T rolls off assembly line

Lindbergh makes solo flight across the Atlantic, in 33? hours

First cooked meals on a scheduled flight introduced by Imperial Airways from London to Paris

First football broadcast by BBC (Arsenal v Sheffield United at Highbury)

First transatlantic telephone call - New York City to London

Release of the first 'talkie' film (The Jazz Singer)

Death of Harry Houdini

General Strike begins. Lasts until May 12 (mine workers for 6 months more)

Princess Elizabeth born

First public demonstration of television (TV) by John Logie Baird

Adoption of children is legalised in Britain

Kodak produces 16mm movie film

Walt Disney arrives in Hollywood

Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf

Britain returns to gold standard

British Imperial Airways begins operations (formed by merger of four British airline companies - became BOAC in 1940)

Hourly Greenwich Time Signals from the Royal Greenwich Observatory were first broadcast by the BBC

First Labour government in Britain, headed by Ramsay MacDonald

First publication of Radio Times

First Wembley cup final (West Ham 0, Bolton 2) - 'I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles ' popular song of the time became the West Ham anthem

Howard Carter unsealed the burial chamber of Tutankhamun

Roads in Great Britain classified with A and B numbers

Hubble shows there are galaxies beyond the Milky Way

First American broadcasts heard in Britain

The majority of the railway companies in Great Britain grouped into four main companies, the Big Four: LNER, GWR, SR, LMSR - lasted until nationalisation in 1948

BBC established as a monopoly, and begins transmissions in November (2LO in London on 14 Nov; 5IT in Birmingham and 2ZY in Manchester on 15 Nov)

Royal Ulster Constabulary founded

Law of Property Act - the manorial system effectively ended

Anglo-Irish Treaty signed in London, leading to the formation of the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland

Census: Population - England and Wales: 37.9 Million; Scotland: 4.9 Million; N Ireland: 1.25 Million

Railway Act in Britain amalgamates companies - only four remained

Insulin discovery announced

First birth control clinic

First roadside petrol filling station in UK - opened by the Automobile Association at Aldermaston on the Bath Road

Regular cross-channel air service starts

Marconi opens a radio broadcasting station in Britain

Thompson patents his machine gun (Tommy gun)

Treaty of Versailles signed

Alcock and Brown complete first nonstop flight across the Atlantic

Britain adopts a 48-hour working week

Sir Ernest Rutherford publishes account of splitting the atom

First woman elected to House of Commons, Countess Markiewicz as a Sinn Fein member refused to take her seat

Armistice signed

Arab forces under Lawrence of Arabia capture Damascus

Second Battle of the Marne: last major German offensive in WW1 (Jul-Aug)

Start of world-wide 'flu pandemic

Bentley Motors founded

Vote for women over 30, men over 21 (except peers, lunatics and felons)

War of Independence in Ireland

British forces capture Jerusalem

Halifax (Nova Scotia) Explosion, one of the world's largest artificial non-nuclear explosions to date: a ship loaded with wartime explosives blew up after a collision, obliterating buildings and structures within two square kilometres of the explosion

'October' Revolution in Russia - Bolsheviks overthrow provisional government; Lenin becomes Chief Commissar

Battle of Passchendaele - little gained by either side (Jul-Nov)

George V changes surname from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor (Royal proclamation on 17 July)

USA declares war on Germany

Lenin returns to Russia after exile

February revolution in Russia; Tsar Nicholas abdicates

Battle of Cambrai - first use of massed tanks, but effect more psychological than actual

Ministry of Labour is established in Britain

Lloyd-George becomes British Prime Minister of the coalition government

First use of tanks in battle, but of limited effect (Battle of the Somme 1 July to 18 Nov: over 1 million casualties)

Sir Roger Casement hanged at Pentonville Prison for treason

Sinking of HMS Hampshire and death of Kitchener

Battle of Jutland - only major naval battle between the British and German fleets

First use of Daylight Saving Time in UK

Easter Rising in Ireland - after the leaders are executed, public opinion backs independence

Battle of Verdun - appalling losses on both sides, stalemate continues

Compulsory military service introduced in Britain

Junkers construct first fighter aeroplane

First automatic telephone exchange in Britain