Modern

  • 1915: Quintinshill rail disaster kills more than 200 people

    On 22 May 1915, a troop train carrying men of the 1/7th Battalion Royal Scots crashed near Quintinshill Junction, near Gretna. A second collision and fire followed. The disaster killed 230 people and became Britain’s worst railway accident. The men on the troop train were part of Britain’s war effort. They were being moved by…

  • 1915: HMS Princess Irene explodes off Sheerness

    HMS Princess Irene exploded off Sheerness on 27 May 1915 while being loaded with mines. The ship was destroyed and sank. The disaster killed 352 people. Princess Irene had been a Canadian Pacific passenger liner before the Admiralty took her into service during the First World War. She was being used as an auxiliary minelayer.…

  • 1916: The Battle of Jutland begins

    On 31 May 1916, the Battle of Jutland began in the North Sea. The Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet met Germany’s High Seas Fleet in the largest naval battle of the First World War. Britain depended on sea power. The Royal Navy kept Germany contained and maintained the blockade meant to weaken the German war effort.…

  • 1919: Eddington’s eclipse observations support Einstein’s theory

    On 29 May 1919, British-led teams observed a total solar eclipse from Príncipe, off the west coast of Africa, and Sobral in Brazil. The eclipse gave astronomers a rare chance to photograph stars close to the Sun. The test came from Einstein’s general theory of relativity. His theory predicted that the Sun’s gravity would bend…

  • 1929: Peter Higgs is born in Newcastle upon Tyne

    Peter Higgs was born in Newcastle upon Tyne on 29 May 1929. His name later became attached to one of the best-known ideas in modern physics. Still, the story began with theoretical work that was not public in any ordinary sense. Higgs studied physics and became closely linked with the University of Edinburgh. In 1964,…

  • 1935: The compulsory driving test begins in Great Britain

    The compulsory driving test began in Great Britain on 1 June 1935. It came as motor traffic was becoming a normal part of British life. Roads carried cars, buses, lorries, bicycles, pedestrians and older forms of traffic. More vehicles meant more risk, and road safety became a public concern rather than a private worry. The…

  • 1940: Operation Dynamo begins at Dunkirk

    Operation Dynamo began on 26 May 1940 because the British Expeditionary Force and other Allied troops were running out of ground to hold. The German advance through France and Belgium had pushed Allied forces back towards the Channel. Dunkirk became one of the few remaining exits. The operation would later be remembered as a rescue,…

  • 1941: HMS Hood is sunk by Bismarck

    On 24 May 1941, HMS Hood was sunk during the Battle of the Denmark Strait. Hood was one of the Royal Navy’s best-known ships. It had been launched during the First World War and had spent years as a public symbol of British sea power. By 1941, it was more than a warship in service.…

  • 1941: Bismarck is lost after Royal Navy pursuit

    Bismarck was lost on 27 May 1941 after a Royal Navy pursuit across the Atlantic. Three days earlier, the German battleship had sunk HMS Hood during the Battle of the Denmark Strait. Only three men from Hood survived. That loss gave the pursuit public force, but the problem was also practical. Bismarck was still at…

  • 1941: The Allied evacuation from Crete is completed

    By 1 June 1941, the Allied evacuation from Crete was complete. The battle had begun with a German airborne invasion in May. British, Australian, New Zealand, and Greek troops fought on the island, but the Allied position collapsed. Once Crete could no longer be held, the aim changed. It was no longer possible to win…