1066 5 Jan Edward the Confessor dies

1066 6 Jan Harold crowned King of England

1066 14 Oct William Duke of Normandy, defeats Harold of England at Battle of Hastings

1066 25 Dec William the Conquerer crowned king of England

1070 Work starts on Canterbury Cathedral

1078 work starts on tower of London

1085 25 Dec Domesday book commisioned

1120 25 Nov The white ship sinks

1135 London Bridge destroyed by flames.

1154 19 Dec Henry II Crowned at Westminster Abbey

1154 Work starts on York minster

1162 3 June Thomas Becket made Archbishop of Canterbury

1169 1 May Normans invade Ireland

1170 29 Dec Thomas A Becket murdered by King Henry II's knights

1170 population of London exceeds 30 thousand

1189 6 Jul Henry II dies

1192 20 Dec Richard the lionheard captured while on crusade

1199 6 Apr Richard I dies.

1212 12 Jul First Great Fire of London

1214 20 Jun Oxford University Chartered

1215 15 Jun King John pressured into signing the Magna Carta by Stephen Langton and some of the Barons.

1216 12 Oct King John loses the Crown Jewels

1264 14 May Battle of Lewes

1265 20 Jan First English Parliment Held

1282 11 Dec Welsh independance dies with Llywelyn

1284 Peterhouse, first college of Cambridge University, founded in England

1337 Edward III of England claims French throne - 100 Years War (1337 - 1453) begins

1348-1351 The Black Death

1381 Peasants' Revolt in England led by Wat Tyler

1415 English beat French at the battle of ashincour

1453 End of 100 Years War; English expelled from all France except Calais

1455-1485 War of the Roses

1485 Henry VII becomes first Tudor king of England and Wales after defeat of last Plantagenet king Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth

1497 John Cabot sales from Bristol on the 'Matthew' discovering North America

1500 Black-lead pencils used in England

1534 Henry VIII of England breaks with Rome; makes himself head of English church

1536-1539 Dissolution of the monasteries

1558 Reign of Elizabeth I of England begins

1564-1616 Life of English playwright, William Shakespeare

1577-1580 Vice Admiral Sir Francis Drake circumnavigates the world

1585–1604 Anglo–Spanish War

1587 Mary, Queen of Scots executed

1588 English fleet, under Howard of Effingham Lord High Admiral, defeats Spanish Armada off south coast of England

1591 first William Shakespeare play performed

1600 east India company formed

1603 Elizabeth I dies without an heir.

1605 Plot to blow up the houses of parliment fails (The Gunpowder Plot)

1606 union jack flag adopted by Britian

1620 the pilgrim fathers set sail on mayflower for new England from Plymouth

1628 Petition of Right, England; parliament curtails king's powers

1629-1640 King Charles I disolves parliament

1642–1646 First English Civil War

1648-1649 Second English Civil War

1649 King Charles I of England and Scotland executed

1653 Cromwell proclaimed Lord Protector

1660 Restoration of monarchy under King Charles II

1664-1665 great plague kills many in London and elsewhere in England

1665-1666 The Great Plague

1666 Sep 2-5 The Great Fire of London

1667 Jun Dutch raid on the Medway

1678 Imaginary "popish Plot" to overthrow Charles II of England invented by Titus Oates

1679 Habeas Corpus Act in England ensures no imprisonment without court appearance first

1688 Revolution in England against James II brings William of Orange to the throne

1689 English bill of rights. Monarch and govt to rule in unison. Catholics barred from throne.

1700 Agricultural Revolution begins in Britain; later spreads across Europe

1707 Act of Union unites England and Scotland

1714 George of Hanover, Germany sucseeds Queen Anne to the throne

1715 First Jacobite rising in Britain attempts to restore exiled Stuart dynasty to throne

1720 South Sea Bubble collapses

1721-1742 Robert Walpole is first and longest-serving British prime minister

1722 Slavery ruled to be illegal in England (though not in other parts of the British Empire)

1745-1746 Second Jacobite rising in Britain led by Bonnie Prince Charlie attempts but fails to restore exiled Stuart dynasty to British throne

1756-1763 Seven Years War; Prussia and Britain versus France, Austria, and Russia

1757 First canal in britain completed

1776 America declares independence from the British

1788 First convict ship sent to Australia

1796 Edward Jenner invents vaccination against small pox

1801 First census. Population of Britian reaches 8 million

1801 Ireland becomes part of the United Kingdom

1804 Richard Trevithick invents the first steam locomotive

1805 21 October British under Lord Nelson win the Battle of Trafalgar

1807 25 March Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was passed by Parliament, after much work by William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson 

1812 First tin cans produced in England for preserving food

1815 The Duke of Wellington defeats Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo

1825 First railway in the world opens - Stockton to Darlington.

1832 First Great Reform Bill gives more men the vote in Britain

1832 First cholera epidemic

1834 Poor law sets up workhouses where people without homes or jobs can work for food and accommodation.

1837 Queen Victoria comes to the throne

1839 William Fox Talbot invents the positive/negative photographic process

1840 Penny postage stamp introduced in Britain; postage stamps transform postal systems

1842 Mines act ended child labour

1848 Second cholera epidemic

1851 The Great Exhibition in England

1853-1856 Crimean War: Russia fights Turkey, Britain, France, and Sardinia

1853 Third cholera epidemic

1861 The first colour photograph is produced by James Clerk Maxwell

1861 14 December Death of Queen Victoria's husband Albert, Prince Consort

1863 London underground opens

1863 The Football Association is founded

1866 Fourth cholera epidemic

1867 Disraeli introduces Second Reform Bill in Britain

1868-1874 Gladstone is British prime minister for first time

1868 Joseph Lister discovers disinfectant

1868 Last public hanging

1870 Education act. School made available

1874-1910 Disraeli's second and last government in Britain

1876 Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone

1880-1881 First Boer War

1882 Tottenham Hotspur Football Club is founded

1888 July London Bryant & May match girls strike

1889 14 August London Dock Strike begins

1891 Free education for every child

1899-1902 Second Boer War

1904 'Entente Cordiale' between Britain and France

1906 Liberal government comes to power in Britain; many reforms

1908 Summer Olympics in London

1914-1918 First World War

1915 Germans start submarine campaign to blockade British Isles

1916 Battle of Jutland between British and German fleets; stalemate

1916 Easter Rising against British government in Ireland

1920 Republic of Ireland gains independence from Britian

1924 First British Labour party victory at a general election

1926 In Britain, John Logie Baird invents the television

1931 Statute of Westminster makes dominions of British empire self-governing

1937 Sir Frank Whittle invents the jet engine

1939-1945 Second World War

1940 British scientists develop radar

1944 Summer Olympics in London, cancelled because of the war

1948 Summer Olympics held in London

1949 Britain recognizes the independence of Ireland

1951 Sir Winston Churchill forms his first peacetime government in England

1953 Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II

1966 30 July England beat West Germany 4–2 in the final of the World Cup on home soil

1973 Britain joins the european community

1979 Britain elects first female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher

1982 Falklands War with Argentina

1991 First Gulf War

1991 Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web

1994 Channel Tunnel opens

2001 7 October War in Afghanistan starts

2003 Second Gulf War

2012 Summer Olmpics held in London

