Modern

  • 1911: William Golding is born in Cornwall

    William Golding was born in Newquay, Cornwall, on 19 September 1911. He became one of the best-known British novelists of the post-war period. However, his first novel did not appear until his early forties. Golding wanted to become a writer from childhood. At Oxford he initially studied natural sciences before turning to English literature. He…

  • 1913: Bernard Lovell is born in Gloucestershire

    Bernard Lovell, the physicist who founded the Jodrell Bank Observatory, was born in Gloucestershire on 31 August 1913. Lovell studied physics at the University of Bristol before joining the University of Manchester in 1936. During the Second World War, he worked on radar, experience that became important when he returned to scientific research after the…

  • 1914: Britain declares war on Germany

    On 4 August 1914, Britain declared war on Germany after a British ultimatum concerning Belgian neutrality expired without an acceptable reply. German troops had crossed into Belgium that morning. Germany’s war plan required its armies to move through Belgian territory to attack France from the north. The Belgian government had rejected a German demand for…

  • 1914: The British Expeditionary Force fights at Mons

    The British Expeditionary Force fought its first major engagement of the First World War at Mons, Belgium, on 23 August 1914, less than three weeks after Britain declared war on Germany. The BEF had crossed to France under Field Marshal Sir John French to support the French armies. It was small compared with the forces…

  • 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.…

  • 1915: Edith Cavell Is Executed in Brussels

    British nurse Edith Cavell was executed by a German firing squad in Brussels on 12 October 1915. She had been sentenced to death for helping Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium. Born in Swardeston, Norfolk, in 1865, Cavell trained as a nurse in London. In 1907, she moved to Brussels to direct a nurses’ training…

  • 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.…

  • 1916: Roger Casement is executed for high treason

    On 3 August 1916, Roger Casement was hanged at Pentonville Prison in London for high treason. Five years earlier, he had been knighted for his work as a British consular official. Casement had spent more than twenty years in British government service. In 1903, he investigated conditions in the Congo Free State, which was controlled…

  • 1916: Roald Dahl is born in Llandaff

    Roald Dahl was born in Llandaff, near Cardiff, on 13 September 1916. His parents, Harald and Sofie Dahl, were Norwegian, and Norwegian culture remained part of his family life during his childhood in Wales. Dahl was educated in Britain, including at Repton School, but did not initially pursue a literary career. He joined the Shell…

  • 1917: The Third Battle of Ypres begins

    On 31 July 1917, British and French troops attacked German positions east and north-east of Ypres in Belgium. The assault began the Third Battle of Ypres, later widely known as Passchendaele. British forces had occupied the Ypres Salient since the early part of the First World War. The salient projected into German-held territory and was…

  • 1918: The Battle of Amiens begins

    On 8 August 1918, British Empire and French forces attacked German positions east of Amiens. The offensive began at 4.20 am and achieved one of the largest Allied advances on the Western Front during the First World War. The main attack was made by General Sir Henry Rawlinson’s British Fourth Army, with the Australian and…

  • 1918: John Herivel is born in Belfast

    John Herivel was born in Belfast on 29 August 1918. Twenty-one years later, he arrived at Bletchley Park and devised a way of attacking German Enigma traffic by looking at the people operating the machines. Herivel attended Methodist College Belfast before winning a scholarship to study mathematics at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. One of his…

  • 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…

  • 1919: Donald Pleasence is born in Worksop

    Donald Pleasence was born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, on 5 October 1919. He became a familiar British character actor, working extensively in theatre, television and film. His father was a railway stationmaster, and Pleasence briefly followed him into railway work. He wanted to act and entered repertory theatre before the Second World War. Pleasence initially registered…

  • 1920: Norman Lockyer dies in Devon

    Astronomer Sir Norman Lockyer died in Salcombe Regis, Devon, on 16 August 1920, aged 84. More than half a century earlier, his study of sunlight had helped identify an element that had not yet been found on Earth. Lockyer began his working life as a civil servant at the War Office and pursued astronomy alongside…

  • 1920: Women become full members of Oxford University

    Women became full members of the University of Oxford on 7 October 1920, when the Divinity School held the first formal matriculation ceremony for women. Women had already been studying at Oxford for decades. Lady Margaret Hall and Somerville opened in 1879, followed by other women’s colleges and societies. Women attended lectures and took university…

  • 1925: Robert Edwards is born

    Robert Geoffrey Edwards was born in Batley, Yorkshire, on 27 September 1925. He became a physiologist whose research helped develop in vitro fertilisation, or IVF. After studying biology at Bangor and completing his doctorate at the University of Edinburgh, Edwards worked at several research institutions before moving to the University of Cambridge in 1963. His…

  • 1925: Margaret Thatcher is born in Grantham

    Margaret Hilda Roberts was born on 13 October 1925 in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Her father, Alfred Roberts, ran a grocery shop and served in local government. She attended Grantham grammar school before studying chemistry at Oxford University. She worked as a chemist, qualified as a barrister and was elected Conservative MP for Finchley in 1959. She…

  • 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,…

  • 1929: Betty Boothroyd is born in Yorkshire

    Betty Boothroyd was born on 8 October 1929 in Dewsbury, Yorkshire. Both her parents worked in the textile industry and were active in the Labour movement. She danced with the Tiller Girls before becoming involved in politics. She later worked for Labour MPs, including Barbara Castle. Boothroyd stood for Parliament four times without success before…

  • 1930: Ted Hughes is born in Yorkshire

    Ted Hughes was born in Mytholmroyd in the West Riding of Yorkshire on 17 August 1930. His full name was Edward James Hughes. He spent his early childhood in the Calder Valley, where animals and the surrounding countryside became important interests. His family later moved to Mexborough in South Yorkshire. After National Service in the…

  • 1930: Sean Connery is born in Edinburgh

    Sean Connery was born in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, on 25 August 1930. More than three decades before he first appeared as James Bond, he was growing up in a working-class district of the city with no obvious route into acting. His father worked as a factory worker and lorry driver, while his mother cleaned. Connery left…

  • 1930: The remaining inhabitants leave St Kilda

    On 29 August 1930, the remaining 36 inhabitants of St Kilda left the islands aboard HMS Harebell. They were not removed against their wishes. Three months earlier, community members had asked the government to help them leave. St Kilda lies more than 40 miles west of the Outer Hebrides, with the main settlement on Hirta.…

  • 1930: William Archibald Spooner dies in Oxford

    William Archibald Spooner died in Oxford on 29 August 1930. He had spent more than 60 years at New College, eventually becoming its Warden; however, his surname survived for a different reason. Spooner entered New College as an undergraduate in 1862. After taking a First in Classics, he became a Fellow and went on to…

  • 1930: Joe Brown is born in Manchester

    Joe Brown was born in Ardwick, Manchester, on 26 September 1930. He became a leading British rock climber and mountaineer in the post-war period. Brown was the youngest of seven children. His father died when he was still an infant, and his mother supported the family through cleaning work and taking in laundry. Brown left…

  • 1930: F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead, dies

    Frederick Edwin Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead, died in London on 30 September 1930, aged 58. A barrister and Conservative politician, he held some of Britain’s highest legal and political offices. Smith entered Parliament as MP for Liverpool Walton in 1906. Known as a formidable advocate and speaker, he rose rapidly during the First World…

  • 1930: Harold Pinter Is Born in London

    Harold Pinter was born on 10 October 1930 in Hackney, East London. His father was a tailor, and Pinter grew up in a Jewish family. He was nine when the Second World War began and was evacuated from London. After returning, he attended Hackney Downs Grammar School, where school productions encouraged his interest in acting.…

  • 1932: Ronald Ross dies in London

    Sir Ronald Ross died at the Ross Institute in London on 16 September 1932, aged 75. The British doctor spent much of his career studying malaria and was best known for establishing mosquitoes’ role in transmitting the disease. Ross joined the Indian Medical Service in 1881. While working in India, he investigated the theory that…

  • 1933: Annie Besant Dies in Adyar

    Annie Besant died at Adyar, near Madras in British India, on 20 September 1933. She was 85. Born Annie Wood in London in 1847, Besant spent much of her adult life involved in political, religious and social causes. In Britain, she became a prominent secularist, supported women’s rights, and campaigned on the conditions faced by…

  • 1934: Diana Wynne Jones is born in London

    Fantasy writer Diana Wynne Jones was born in London on 16 August 1934. She wrote more than 40 books, including Howl’s Moving Castle and the Chrestomanci series, but books were scarce during her childhood. Jones was five when the Second World War began. Her family moved several times before settling in Thaxted, Essex. She later…

  • 1934: The Gresford Colliery Disaster Kills 266

    An explosion tore through the Dennis section of Gresford Colliery, near Wrexham, at about 2 a.m. on 22 September 1934. It started an underground fire and trapped hundreds of men. Six escaped from the affected workings. Most did not. The Friday night shift was particularly busy. Wrexham were due to play Tranmere Rovers on Saturday…

  • 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…

  • 1936: The Jarrow Crusade begins its march to London

    Two hundred unemployed men left Jarrow for London on 5 October 1936, beginning a march intended to bring the town’s unemployment crisis directly to Parliament. Jarrow had been badly affected by the decline of its heavy industries. Palmer’s shipyard, once the town’s main employer, had closed, while other industrial employment had also disappeared. The marchers…

  • 1937: Bobby Charlton Is Born in Ashington

    Robert ‘Bobby’ Charlton was born on 11 October 1937 in Ashington, Northumberland. His father was a coal miner, and his older brother Jack also became an England international. Charlton was spotted playing for East Northumberland Schools and joined Manchester United as a schoolboy in 1953. He turned professional in 1954 and made his first-team debut…

  • 1939: Britain’s mass evacuation begins

    Britain’s mass evacuation of children and other vulnerable civilians began on 1 September 1939, the day Germany invaded Poland and two days before Britain declared war. The government had prepared for the possibility that war would bring rapid bombing of British cities. Its evacuation scheme was intended to move people considered particularly vulnerable from densely…

  • 1939: Arthur Rackham Dies in Surrey

    Arthur Rackham, one of the best-known English book illustrators of the early twentieth century, died at Limpsfield, Surrey, on 6 September 1939. He was 71. Born in London in 1867, Rackham worked as an illustrator before becoming closely associated with the illustrated gift books of the period, sometimes called the Golden Age of British book…

  • 1939: HMS Courageous is sunk by U-29

    On 17 September 1939, the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-29 while conducting an anti-submarine patrol in the Western Approaches. Britain had been at war with Germany for only two weeks. The Royal Navy was using aircraft carriers and their aircraft to search large areas of sea…

  • 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,…

  • 1940: Royal Navy attacks the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir

    On 3 July 1940, the Royal Navy opened fire on French warships at Mers-el-Kébir in Algeria. Britain and France had fought as allies against Germany, but France had signed an armistice less than two weeks earlier. The French Navy was one of the largest in the world. Its modern battleships could alter the balance of…

  • 1940: The Battle of Britain officially begins

    On 10 July 1940, the Battle of Britain officially began with concentrated German attacks on shipping in the English Channel. Air fighting and attacks on convoys had already taken place, but 10 July became the recognised starting date of the main campaign. Britain’s position had changed sharply during the previous two months. German forces had…

  • 1940: Hitler Orders Preparations to Invade Britain

    On 16 July 1940, Adolf Hitler issued Directive No. 16, ordering preparations for a possible German invasion of Britain. The operation was given the codename Sea Lion. France had agreed an armistice with Germany the previous month. British forces had withdrawn from Dunkirk, but the British government had refused to seek peace. Germany controlled much…

  • 1940: The Battle of Britain reaches its ‘Hardest Day’

    On 18 August 1940, the Luftwaffe launched major attacks against RAF airfields and radar installations in southern England. The fighting became known as the ‘Hardest Day’ of the Battle of Britain because of the losses both sides suffered. The Germans aimed to damage Fighter Command’s ability to defend British airspace. Targets included Kenley, Biggin Hill,…

  • 1940: The Blitz Begins with a Major Attack on London

    On 7 September 1940, the German Luftwaffe launched a major attack on London, beginning the sustained bombing campaign known as the Blitz. On a Saturday afternoon, a large force of German aircraft approached the capital. Around 350 bombers, escorted by roughly 600 fighters, took part. The Port of London, the docks and the industrial districts…

  • 1940: German bombs strike Buckingham Palace

    Buckingham Palace was bombed on 13 September 1940, less than a week after the sustained German bombing of London known as the Blitz began. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth were inside the Palace when the attack started. The King recorded the incident in his diary that day. He and the Queen heard an aircraft…

  • 1940: John Lennon Was Born in Liverpool

    John Winston Lennon was born on 9 October 1940 at Liverpool Maternity Hospital in Oxford Street. His parents were Julia and Alfred Lennon, a merchant seaman. Britain was at war with Germany. After his parents separated, Lennon moved in with his aunt Mimi and uncle George Smith at Mendips in Woolton, Liverpool. His mother remained…

  • 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…

  • 1942: RAF Bomber Command launches Operation Millennium

    On the night of 30–31 May 1942, RAF Bomber Command launched Operation Millennium against Cologne. The raid was planned as a mass attack. Air Chief Marshal Arthur Harris wanted to send more than 1,000 aircraft over Germany in a single night. To reach that number, Bomber Command used front-line bombers, training aircraft and crews drawn…

  • 1942: Valentine Baker Dies Testing the Martin-Baker MB3

    On 12 September 1942, Captain Valentine Baker was killed while test-flying the Martin-Baker MB3, an experimental British fighter, from RAF Wing in Buckinghamshire. Baker was more than the aircraft’s test pilot. He founded the Martin-Baker Aircraft Company with engineer James Martin in the 1930s and tested the aircraft they developed. The MB3 was being developed…

  • 1944: Tom Leonard is born in Glasgow

    Tom Leonard was born in Glasgow on 22 August 1944. He became one of the Scottish writers most closely associated with putting the sound of Glasgow speech directly onto the printed page. His father was a train driver from Dublin, and his mother was of Irish descent and came from Saltcoats. Leonard grew up in…

  • 1944: The First V-2 Rocket Strikes London

    At about 6.43 p.m. on 8 September 1944, a German V-2 rocket struck Staveley Road in Chiswick, west London. It was the first V-2 to fall on British soil. Three people were killed. Three-year-old Rosemary Clarke was in her family’s house at number 1 Staveley Road. Ada Harrison, aged 68, lived at number 3. Sapper…

  • 1945: Heinrich Himmler dies in British custody

    Heinrich Himmler killed himself in British custody on 23 May 1945 after his identity had been confirmed. Germany had surrendered earlier that month, but the end of the war in Europe did not bring an orderly end to Nazi power. Allied forces were dealing with prisoners, fugitives, displaced people and the remains of a collapsed…

  • 1945: Britain marks VJ Day as the war against Japan ends

    Britain marked Victory over Japan Day on 15 August 1945 after Japan accepted the Allied terms for surrender. Three months after VE Day ended the war in Europe, the fighting of the Second World War was finally coming to an end. For British and Commonwealth forces serving in Asia, the war had continued after Germany’s…

  • 1945: *Animal Farm* is published in Britain

    George Orwell’s Animal Farm was published in Britain by Secker & Warburg on 17 August 1945. The first printing consisted of 4,500 copies. Getting that far had taken Orwell through a series of rejections in which politics mattered as much as publishing judgement. Orwell wrote most of Animal Farm during 1943 and 1944. He called…

  • 1946: Barry Gibb is born

    Barry Gibb was born in Douglas, Isle of Man, on 1 September 1946. He became the eldest of the three brothers who formed the Bee Gees, as well as a successful songwriter and performer. The Gibb family later lived in Manchester before emigrating to Australia. Barry and his younger twin brothers, Robin and Maurice, performed…

  • 1947: The Indian Independence Act Receives Royal Assent

    On 18 July 1947, the Indian Independence Act received Royal Assent. It provided for British India to be divided into the independent dominions of India and Pakistan in August. The legislation passed through Parliament under a compressed timetable. Prime Minister Clement Attlee had announced in February that British rule would end no later than June…

  • 1947: Pakistan celebrates independence as British rule ends

    Pakistan celebrated its independence on 14 August 1947 as British rule over the Indian subcontinent came to an end. The new country was created through the partition of British India during the final weeks of Britain’s withdrawal. After the Second World War, Clement Attlee’s Labour government accepted that British rule in India would end. The…

  • 1947: Willy Russell is born in Whiston

    Willy Russell was born at Whiston, Lancashire, on 23 August 1947. He grew up in the Liverpool area and left school at 15, long before he wrote Educating Rita, Shirley Valentine and Blood Brothers. Russell trained as a women’s hairdresser and eventually ran his own salon. He also wrote songs and performed on the local…

  • 1948: The National Health Service begins operating

    On 5 July 1948, the National Health Service began operating across England and Wales. For the first time, most healthcare was available without direct payment when treatment was needed. The NHS was created under the National Health Service Act 1946 and introduced by the Minister of Health, Aneurin Bevan. It brought together voluntary hospitals, municipal…

  • 1948: The first Stoke Mandeville Games are held

    On 29 July 1948, sixteen injured servicemen and women took part in a wheelchair archery competition at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire. The event became known as the first Stoke Mandeville Games. It was held on the day the London Olympic Games opened at Wembley. The connection was deliberate. Dr Ludwig Guttmann wanted competitive sport…

  • 1948: The British Nationality Act receives Royal Assent

    On 30 July 1948, the British Nationality Act received Royal Assent. It created citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies and reorganised a nationality system developed across the British Empire. Before the Act, British nationality rested mainly on the status of British subject. The category covered people connected with Britain, its colonies and the self-governing…

  • 1948: Gerry Adams is born in Belfast

    Gerry Adams was born in Belfast on 6 October 1948. He grew up in a family with strong Irish republican roots. He became involved in republican politics at a young age. Adams was interned in 1971 as the Troubles intensified. He was released the following year to take part in talks in London between republican…

  • 1949: Britain becomes a founding member of NATO

    Britain became a founding member of NATO on 4 April 1949, when the North Atlantic Treaty was signed in Washington. On paper, it was a diplomatic agreement between twelve states. In practice, it marked something Britain had to accept. The country had won the war, but it could no longer expect to defend its interests…

  • 1952: Britain tests its first atomic weapon

    Britain tested its first atomic weapon on 3 October 1952, detonating a device during Operation Hurricane at the Montebello Islands off Western Australia. The explosion had an estimated yield of about 25 kilotons. It made Britain the third country, after the United States and the Soviet Union, to develop and test a nuclear weapon. Britain…

  • 1953: Hillary and Tenzing reach Everest’s summit

    Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Everest on 29 May 1953. They were part of a British expedition led by John Hunt. Hillary was from New Zealand. Tenzing Norgay was a Sherpa climber with long experience on Himalayan expeditions. Their final climb followed weeks of preparation. Camps had been set up, supplies…

  • 1953: Elizabeth II is crowned at Westminster Abbey

    Elizabeth II was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953. She had been queen since 6 February 1952, when George VI died. Still, the coronation gave the reign its formal public and religious shape. The coronation followed a ceremony that had developed over many centuries. It was held at the Abbey, where English and…

  • 1954: Food rationing ends in Britain

    On 4 July 1954, food rationing ended in Britain. Meat came off ration at midnight, bringing an end to the last major food restriction left from the wartime and post-war years. Food rationing had begun in January 1940, a few months after the start of the Second World War. Britain depended heavily on imported food,…

  • 1955: Ruth Ellis is executed at Holloway Prison

    Ruth Ellis was hanged at Holloway Prison on 13 July 1955. She was the last woman executed in Britain. Ellis had been convicted of murdering her partner, racing driver David Blakely. On 10 April 1955, she waited outside the Magdala public house in Hampstead and shot him several times. She did not deny the killing.…

  • 1956: Egypt nationalises the Suez Canal Company

    On 26 July 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser announced that Egypt was nationalising the Suez Canal Company. Egyptian officials immediately began taking control of its offices and operations. The canal crossed Egyptian territory but was operated by a company dominated by British and French interests. It provided a short shipping route between the Mediterranean…

  • 1958: Ralph Vaughan Williams dies in London

    Ralph Vaughan Williams died at his home in Hanover Terrace, London, on 26 August 1958. He was 85 and remained an active composer almost to the end of his life. Only four months earlier, on 2 April, his Ninth Symphony had received its first performance. Malcolm Sargent conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The work did…

  • 1961: Amnesty International begins with ‘The Forgotten Prisoners’

    On 28 May 1961, Peter Benenson’s article ‘The Forgotten Prisoners’ appeared in The Observer. The appeal helped begin Amnesty International. Benenson was a British lawyer. His article focused on people jailed for their beliefs, politics or religion, provided they had not used or advocated violence. He called them ‘prisoners of conscience’, a phrase that gave…

  • 1962: Coventry Cathedral is consecrated

    The new Coventry Cathedral was consecrated on 25 May 1962, more than twenty years after the old cathedral had been destroyed in the bombing of November 1940. The old building was not simply cleared away. Its ruins were left beside the new cathedral, keeping the evidence of war in view. That choice gave Coventry a…

  • 1962: Jamaica becomes independent from Britain

    On 6 August 1962, Jamaica became independent from Britain. The British government ceased to have responsibility for governing the island, and a new Jamaican constitution came into force. British rule had begun in 1655, when English forces took Jamaica from Spain. The island later became a Crown colony, governed through institutions in which political power…

  • 1963: Britain signs the Partial Test Ban Treaty

    On 5 August 1963, Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union signed a treaty in Moscow banning nuclear explosions in the atmosphere, outer space and underwater. The signatories were British Foreign Secretary Alec Douglas-Home, United States Secretary of State Dean Rusk and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko. The agreement became commonly known as the…

  • 1964: Britain carries out its last executions

    At 8 a.m. on 13 August 1964, Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans were hanged at separate prisons in Liverpool and Manchester. They became the last people executed in Britain, although there had been no decision that morning to end capital punishment. Allen was executed at Walton Prison in Liverpool and Evans at Strangeways Prison in…

  • 1964: Labour Wins the General Election

    On 15 October 1964, voters in the United Kingdom went to the polls in a general election that ended 13 years of Conservative government. Labour, led by Harold Wilson, won 317 of the 630 seats in the House of Commons. The Conservatives, led by Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home, took 304 and the Liberals nine.…

  • 1965: Harold Wilson opens the Post Office Tower

    Prime Minister Harold Wilson opened the Post Office Tower in central London on 8 October 1965. At 620 feet high, including its mast, it was Britain’s tallest building. Wilson marked the opening by calling the Lord Mayor of Birmingham using the tower’s new microwave equipment. The General Post Office had built the tower to increase…

  • 1967: Beatles manager Brian Epstein dies in London

    Brian Epstein was found dead at his home in Chapel Street, London, on 27 August 1967. He was 32 and had managed the Beatles throughout their rise from a Liverpool club group to one of the world’s most successful musical acts. His death was accidental. An inquest found that Epstein had died after taking an…

  • 1967: Former Prime Minister Clement Attlee dies

    Clement Attlee died of pneumonia at Westminster Hospital in London on 8 October 1967, aged 84. He had served as Britain’s Labour Prime Minister from 1945 to 1951 and remained party leader until 1955. Labour defeated Winston Churchill’s Conservatives in the July 1945 general election, and Attlee became Prime Minister. His government established the National…

  • 1973: J. R. R. Tolkien dies in Bournemouth

    J. R. R. Tolkien died on 2 September 1973 while visiting friends in Bournemouth. He was 81 and had returned to Oxford the previous year after the death of his wife Edith. Tolkien was internationally known as the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. However, fiction occupied only part of his…

  • 1973: W. H. Auden Dies in Vienna

    W. H. Auden died in Vienna on 29 September 1973, aged 66. He read his poetry in the city shortly before his death and stayed overnight before returning to Oxford. Born Wystan Hugh Auden in York in 1907, he studied at Christ Church, Oxford. His 1930 collection Poemsestablished him as one of the leading English…

  • 1978: Louise Brown is born after IVF treatment

    Louise Brown was born at Oldham and District General Hospital at 11.47 p.m. on 25 July 1978. She was the first child born after being conceived through in vitro fertilisation. Her mother, Lesley Brown, had been unable to conceive because her Fallopian tubes were blocked. This prevented an egg from travelling towards the womb and…

  • 1978: Robert Shaw dies in County Mayo

    Robert Shaw died in County Mayo, Ireland, on 28 August 1978, aged 51. He suffered a heart attack while travelling from Castlebar towards his home at Tourmakeady. Shaw became ill during the journey and stopped the car. After getting out, he collapsed beside the road. He was taken to Castlebar General Hospital, where he was…

  • 1978: Keith Moon dies in London

    Keith Moon, drummer with The Who, died in London on 7 September 1978 after an accidental overdose of Heminevrin. He was 32. The prescription drug had been given to Moon to help combat his alcoholism. His drinking had become an increasingly serious problem during the 1970s, affecting his health and his work with the band.…

  • 1981: James Parkes dies

    James Parkes died on 10 August 1981, aged 84. An Anglican clergyman, historian and campaigner, he had spent much of his working life investigating antisemitism and relations between Christianity and Judaism. Parkes had served in the British Army during the First World War and was ordained in the Church of England in 1926. His subsequent…

  • 1982: HMS Coventry and Atlantic Conveyor are lost in the Falklands War

    On 25 May 1982, HMS Coventry was sunk during the Falklands War after being hit by Argentine bombs. The same day, Atlantic Conveyor was struck by Exocet missiles and was later lost. The two attacks belonged to the same phase of the campaign. British troops had landed around San Carlos, on East Falkland, and the…

  • 1982: The Mary Rose Is Raised from the Solent

    On 11 October 1982, divers raised the surviving hull of the Mary Rose from the Solent near Portsmouth, 437 years after the ship sank. The recovery followed years of searching, excavation and planning. The Mary Rose served in Henry VIII’s fleet. She sank on 19 July 1545 during the Battle of the Solent, when English…

  • 1983: Amy Winehouse is born in London

    Amy Jade Winehouse was born in London on 14 September 1983. Raised in north London, she developed an interest in music at a young age and began performing professionally as a teenager. She released her first album, Frank, in 2003. It established Winehouse as a distinctive British singer-songwriter and was nominated for the Mercury Prize.…

  • 1984: IRA Bomb Explodes at Brighton’s Grand Hotel

    At approximately 2.54 a.m. on 12 October 1984, a Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb exploded at the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and several Cabinet ministers were staying there during the Conservative Party conference. The explosion destroyed part of the building and caused several floors to collapse. Five people died as a…

  • 1984: Radio Astronomer Sir Martin Ryle Dies in Cambridge

    Sir Martin Ryle died in Cambridge on 14 October 1984, aged 66. His development of radio telescopes and observational techniques made him a leading figure in British astronomy. Ryle was born in Brighton in 1918 and studied physics at the University of Oxford. During the Second World War, he worked on radar countermeasures at the…

  • 1986: Nicholas Kaldor dies

    Nicholas Kaldor died at Papworth Hospital near Cambridge on 30 September 1986, aged 78. The Hungarian-born economist had spent most of his career in Britain and became influential in both academic economics and government policy. Born in Budapest in 1908, Kaldor came to Britain to study at the London School of Economics. He later taught…

  • 1988: Piper Alpha explodes in the North Sea

    On 6 July 1988, the Piper Alpha oil and gas platform exploded in the North Sea. The disaster killed 167 men and became the deadliest offshore oil and gas accident. Piper Alpha stood in the UK sector of the North Sea, north-east of Aberdeen. It was operated by Occidental Petroleum and had become a major…

  • 1995: Former Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home Dies in Berwickshire

    Former British Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home died at the Hirsel, his family home in Berwickshire, on 9 October 1995, aged 92. Douglas-Home served as Prime Minister from October 1963 to October 1964, succeeding Harold Macmillan. At the time of his appointment, he was the 14th Earl of Home and sat in the House of Lords.…

  • 1998: Northern Ireland approves the Good Friday Agreement

    On 22 May 1998, voters in Northern Ireland approved the Belfast Agreement, better known as the Good Friday Agreement. The agreement had been signed the previous month. The referendum gave it democratic force. The vote came after decades of violence, failed political efforts and mistrust. The Troubles had left Northern Ireland with bombings, shootings, funerals,…

  • 1999: A total solar eclipse crosses Cornwall

    On 11 August 1999, a total solar eclipse crossed Cornwall and part of South Devon. At about 11.12 a.m. British Summer Time, the Moon completely covered the Sun along a narrow path across the South West. Elsewhere in Britain, the eclipse was partial. It was the first total solar eclipse visible from mainland Britain since…

  • 2004: Maurice Wilkins dies in London

    Maurice Wilkins died in London on 5 October 2004, aged 87. The British biophysicist played an important experimental role in research that established DNA’s double-helix structure. Wilkins was born in New Zealand in 1916 but moved to England with his family as a child. He studied physics at Cambridge and Birmingham, worked on radar research…

  • 2006: Malcolm Arnold Dies in Norwich

    Sir Malcolm Arnold died in Norwich on 23 September 2006, aged 84. His career had taken him from the trumpet section of the London Philharmonic Orchestra to orchestral, concert and film composition. Born in Northampton in 1921, Arnold studied at the Royal College of Music before joining the London Philharmonic Orchestra as a trumpeter in…