The Timeline | 11th C | 12th C | 13th C | 14th C | 15th C | 16th C | 17th C | 18th C | 19th C | 20th C
| YEAR |
MONARCH |
POLITICAL EVENTS, CONFLICTS AND PRIME MINISTERS |
SOCIAL HISTORY AND EPIDEMICS |
INVENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES |
NOTABLE EVENTS |
| 1900 | Beatrix Potter's "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" published | First public supply of three phase current | |||
| 1901 | Edward VII | The existence of different human blood types discovered by Karl Landsteiner Satori Kato invents powdered instant coffee |
Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research opens in New York City Australia granted dominion status Census 1st April |
||
| 1902 | Arthur Balfour (Conservative) | Beatrix Potter's "The Tale of Gloucester" published | Marmite first produced in Burton on Trent | Anglo Japanese Alliance treaty, first signed on 30th January | |
| 1903 | Wilbur and Orville Wright make the first manned flight Willem Einthoven invents electrocardiograph King Camp Gillette invents the safety razor |
||||
| 1905 | Henry Campbell-Bannerman (Liberal) | ||||
| 1906 | Diagnostic test for syphilis introduced by German researcher August von Wasserman. | San Francisco earthquake | |||
| 1907 | First mention of a brassiere in Vogue | First successful human blood transfusion using Landsteiner's ABO blood typing technique Skin test for TB introduced by Clemens Von Pirquet. First electric washing machines introduced in the USA (1917 in the UK) |
New Zealand granted dominion status | ||
| 1908 | Herbert H. Asquith (Liberal Coalition) Women's Suffrage bill carried by 179 votes |
"The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame published | First Vacuum cleaners introduced in the USA | Triple Entente between Russia, France and Great Britain signed 4th Olympic Games held in London |
|
| 1909 | Old age pension introduced in Britain Labour Exchange system introduced |
National Committee for Mental Hygiene founded to promote prevention and cure of mental diseases. | Louis Bleriot flies across the English Channel |
||
| 1910 | George V | First large scale production of rayon | |||
| 1911 | National Insurance Act | The founding of the Society of Genealogists |
Census 2nd April | ||
| 1912 | Suffragette newspaper founded by the Pankhursts | First electric refrigerators introduced in the USA (1918 in the UK) | Sinking of the Titanic First Blackpool illuminations |
||
| 1913 | Senghenydd Colliery Disaster | ||||
| 1914 to 1918 | World War One Suffragettes suspended militancy and joined war effort |
Sinking of the Lusitania | |||
| 1915 | Coalition government formed | ||||
| 1916 | David Lloyd George (Liberal - Coalition Government) Battle of the Somme |
||||
| 1917 | Russian Revolution | ||||
| 1918 | Qualification of Women Act | Influenza pandemic | First opportunity for women to vote | ||
| 1919 | Third Afghan War (May-Aug) | Ernest Rutherford splits the atom | Lady Astor becomes the first woman MP | ||
| 1919 | Sex Disqualification Act | Children's Book Week introduced in USA | |||
| 1920 | Married Women's Property Act | Collapse of Farrow's Bank affects thousands of small investors | |||
| 1921 | Edward Mellanby discovers vitamin D | ||||
| 1922 | Andrew Bonar Law (Conservative) | BBC begins radio broadcasts | |||
| 1923 | Stanley Baldwin (Conservative) | 26th April Marriage of Duke of York and Lady Elizabeth | First vaccine for diphtheria Clarence Birdseye perfects technique for freezing food |
Anglo Japanese Alliance treaty terminated | |
| 1924 | First Labour Government formed by James Ramsay MacDonald Stanley Baldwin (Conservative) |
First Greenwich time signal broadcast | Death of Lenin | ||
| 1925 | The Guardianship of Infants Act | ||||
| 1926 | General Strike in support of coalminers "Winnie-the-Pooh" by A A Milne published |
John Logie Baird makes the first public demonstration of television First vaccine for pertussis (whooping cough) |
Formal legal adoption commenced | ||
| 1927 | Princess Elizabeth born April 21st | First vaccine for tuberculosis First vaccine for tetanus |
|||
| 1928 | Representation of the People Act | "House At Pooh Corner" by A A Milne published | Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin | ||
| 1929 | James Ramsay MacDonald (Labour) | The Wall Street Crash Only 4% of rural households had a supply of electricity |
Start of the Great Depression Legal age of marriage with parents' consent raised to 16 |
||
| 1930 | Princess Margaret Rose born | Jacob Schlick's electric razor introduced | Discovery of the planet Pluto | ||
| 1931 | James Ramsay MacDonald (National Labour - National Government) | ||||
| 1932 | BBC World Service begins | ||||
| 1933 | Adolf Hitler, Chancellor and Head of state of Germany (Dictator) to 1945 | Manfred Sakel discovers insulin shock therapy | |||
| 1935 | Stanley Baldwin (Conservative - National Government) | Driving test introduced in England | Bra cup sizes introduced in USA First Penguin book published |
||
| 1936 | Edward VIII January to December Windsor George VI |
|
First vaccine for yellow fever | Maiden voyage of the liner the Queen Mary World's first television service launched in Britain |
Olympic Games Berlin Germany |
| 1937 | Neville Chamberlain (Conservative - National Government) | First vaccine for typhus | Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson | ||
| 1939 to 1945 | World War Two | Dupont begin producing nylon | |||
| 1940 | Winston Churchill (Conservative - Coalition Government) | Radar developed by British scientists | |||
| 1943 | Colossus, the first programmable computer, operational at Bletchley Park | ||||
| 1945 | Clement Attlee (Labour) | First vaccine for influenza | Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki | ||
| 1947 | Notably severe winter in UK | India and Pakistan granted independence | |||
| 1948 | The National Health Service comes into effect on the 5th of July 1948 Berlin Blockade and Air Lift |
||||
| 1950 | John Hopps invented the first cardiac pacemaker | ||||
| 1950 to 1953 | Korean War | ||||
| 1951 | Winston Churchill (Conservative) | Festival of Britain | |||
| 1952 | Elizabeth II | USA tests the first hydrogen bomb | Jonas Salk invented polio vaccine | ||
| 1953 | Paracetamol first marketed | ||||
| 1954 | Rationing finally ends | ||||
| 1955 | Sir Anthony Eden (Conservative) | Contraceptive pill invented by Gregor Pincus | |||
| 1956 | Suez Crisis | ||||
| 1957 | Harold Macmillan (Conservative) | First space satellite launched | |||
| 1959 |
Vietnam War to 1975 | ||||
| 1960 | Cyprus gains independence from the UK | ||||
| 1961 | First manned space flight by Yuri Gagarin | Creation of Berlin Wall | |||
| 1962 | First oral polio vaccine (as an alternative to the injected vaccine) | U.S. Congress passes legislation creating Medicare and Medicaid. | |||
| 1963 | Sir Alec Douglas-Home (Conservative) Assassination of President John F Kennedy in the USA |
Very severe winter | |||
| 1964 | Harold Wilson (Labour) | First vaccine for measles | |||
| 1965 | U.S. Congress passes law requiring label on cigarette packages: "Warning: Cigarette Smoking may be Hazardous to your Health." | ||||
| 1966 | Decimal currency and dollars in Australia | ||||
| 1967 | First vaccine for mumps. | South African heart surgeon Dr. Christiaan Barnard performs the first human heart transplant. | |||
| 1968 | USSR invades Czechoslovakia | Martin Luther King assassinated | |||
| 1969 | Apollo 11 moonlanding - first man on the moon | ||||
| 1970 | Edward Heath (Conservative) | First vaccine for rubella. | |||
| 1971 | Introduction of decimal currency in the UK | ||||
| 1973 | CAT scan invented by Godfrey Hounsfield and Allan Cormack | ||||
| 1974 | Harold Wilson (Labour) | First vaccine for chicken pox. | |||
| 1975 |
Adoptees gain the right to apply for their original birth certificates | ||||
| 1976 | James Callaghan (Labour) | ||||
| 1977 | First vaccine for pneumonia | ||||
| 1978 | First test-tube baby is born in the U.K. | ||||
| 1979 | Margaret Thatcher (Conservative) | Ultrasound scan invented by Ian Donald | |||
| 1980 | W.H.O. (World Health Organization) announces smallpox is eradicated. | ||||
| 1981 | First vaccine for hepatitis B. IBM Personal Computer released |
||||
| 1982 | Falklands War | ||||
| 1983 | HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is identified. | ||||
| 1984 | Leprosy vaccine made | ||||
| 1986 | Nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, Ukraine | ||||
| 1989 | Tim Berners-Lee develops the World Wide Web | Fall of the Berlin Wall Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia |
|||
| 1990 | Nelson Mandela released from prison John Major (Conservative) |
Reunification of Germany | |||
| 1991 | Break-up of Soviet Union | ||||
| 1996 | Written theory section of driving test introduced in the UK. | ||||
| 1997 | Tony Blair (Labour) |
1900 First public supply of three phase current introduced in Newcastle.
1907 First electric washing machines introduced in the USA (1917 in the UK).
1908 First Vacuum cleaners introduced in the USA.
1912 First electric refrigerators introduced in the USA (1918 in the UK).
1929 Only 4% of rural households had a supply of electricity.