War & Conflict

  • 685: Battle of Dun Nechtain checks Northumbrian power

    On 20 May 685, a Pictish force led by Bridei defeated a Northumbrian army led by King Ecgfrith at the Battle of Dun Nechtain, also known as Nechtansmere. Ecgfrith was killed in the fighting. That made the battle more than a failed expedition. Northumbria was one of the strongest kingdoms in northern Britain, and Ecgfrith’s…

  • 1066: Harald Hardrada wins the Battle of Fulford

    On 20 September 1066, a Norwegian army led by King Harald Hardrada defeated the English earls Edwin of Mercia and Morcar of Northumbria at Fulford, just outside York. The battle came during the struggle for the English crown after Edward the Confessor died in January. Harold Godwinson became king, but both Harald Hardrada and William,…

  • 1066: Harold Defeats the Norwegian Invasion at Stamford Bridge

    King Harold II defeated a Norwegian invasion of England at the Battle of Stamford Bridge on 25 September 1066. The Norwegian king Harald Hardrada and Harold’s brother Tostig Godwinson were both killed. The invasion followed Edward the Confessor’s death in January 1066. Harold Godwinson became king, but his claim to the English throne was challenged.…

  • 1066: William, Duke of Normandy, lands at Pevensey

    On 28 September 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, landed with his invasion force at Pevensey in Sussex. The arrival began the Norman invasion of England that would lead to the Battle of Hastings little more than two weeks later. William had spent months assembling men, horses, ships and supplies, but crossing the Channel depended on…

  • 1066: William Defeats Harold at the Battle of Hastings

    On 14 October 1066, King Harold II’s English army fought William, Duke of Normandy’s invading forces, near Hastings. By the end of the day, Harold was dead, and William had won the battle that opened the way for the Norman conquest of England. Harold became king in January after Edward the Confessor died. William claimed…

  • 1216: Prince Louis lands in Kent to challenge King John

    On 21 May 1216, Prince Louis of France landed at Thanet in Kent with an army. He came into a kingdom already broken by civil war. Less than a year earlier, King John had agreed to Magna Carta at Runnymede. The agreement had not restored peace. John rejected the limits placed on him, the rebel…

  • 1217: Second Battle of Lincoln helps secure Henry III’s cause

    On 20 May 1217, royalist forces relieved Lincoln Castle and defeated a French-backed rebel army during the First Barons’ War. The battle came two years after Magna Carta, but England was still unsettled. King John had died in 1216, leaving his nine-year-old son, Henry III, as king. That changed the war. The quarrel over John’s…

  • 1297: The Scots win the Battle of Stirling Bridge

    On 11 September 1297, a Scottish army commanded by William Wallace and Andrew Moray defeated English forces at the Battle of Stirling Bridge. The English army had assembled south of the River Forth. To reach the Scots, positioned on higher ground near Abbey Craig, its soldiers had to cross a narrow wooden bridge. The ground…

  • 1298: Edward I defeats William Wallace at Falkirk

    On 22 July 1298, an English army led by Edward I defeated William Wallace’s Scottish forces near Falkirk. It was Edward’s largest military success in Scotland, but it did not end the war. Wallace had become Guardian of Scotland after the Scottish victory at Stirling Bridge in September 1297. The English army there had attempted…

  • 1337: Philip VI confiscates Guyenne from Edward III

    On 24 May 1337, Philip VI of France declared Edward III’s lands in Guyenne forfeit. The act was legal in form, but political in effect. Edward was king of England, yet he held land in south-west France as Duke of Aquitaine. For that land, he owed duties to the French king. The arrangement left him…

  • 1346: Edward III wins the Battle of Crécy

    Edward III’s English army defeated a larger French force under Philip VI at the Battle of Crécy on 26 August 1346. It was the first major land battle of the Hundred Years’ War and allowed Edward to continue north and besiege Calais. Edward had landed in Normandy in July and led his army across northern…

  • 1403: Henry IV Defeats Hotspur at the Battle of Shrewsbury

    On 21 July 1403, King Henry IV defeated a rebel army led by Henry ‘Hotspur’ Percy in fields north of Shrewsbury. Hotspur was killed during the fighting, and the most serious immediate challenge to Henry’s rule collapsed with him. The two men had once been allies. The powerful Percy family supported Henry Bolingbroke when he…

  • 1420: Treaty of Troyes makes Henry V heir to France

    On 21 May 1420, Henry V of England and Charles VI of France agreed on the Treaty of Troyes. The treaty made Henry regent of France and heir to the French throne. He was also to marry Charles’s daughter, Catherine of Valois. On paper, it was an extraordinary settlement. Henry had turned military success into…

  • 1431: Joan of Arc is executed at Rouen

    On 30 May 1431, Joan of Arc was executed at Rouen. Rouen was under English control at the time, and the execution took place during the later stages of the Hundred Years’ War. Joan had been captured the year before and put through a trial process that served English political interests as well as church…

  • 1455: First Battle of St Albans opens the Wars of the Roses

    On 22 May 1455, a Yorkist force defeated the royal army at St Albans. Henry VI was captured. Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, was killed. The battle was small beside later fighting in the Wars of the Roses, but its consequences were serious. It showed that the king’s government could no longer contain the rivalries…

  • 1485: Richard III is killed at the Battle of Bosworth

    Richard III was killed at the Battle of Bosworth on 22 August 1485 while defending his crown against Henry Tudor. His death ended his two-year reign and more than three centuries of Plantagenet rule in England. Henry had landed at Milford Haven in Wales on 7 August after years in exile. His claim to the…

  • 1513: England defeats Scotland at the Battle of Flodden

    On 9 September 1513, an English army defeated the invading Scots at the Battle of Flodden near Branxton in Northumberland. King James IV of Scotland was killed along with many of the leading men of his kingdom. James had invaded England in support of Scotland’s alliance with France. Henry VIII was campaigning in France, fighting…

  • 1642: Charles I raises his royal standard at Nottingham

    Charles I raised his royal standard at Nottingham on 22 August 1642, calling on his supporters to join him against Parliament. The ceremony is conventionally treated as the formal beginning of the First English Civil War. The dispute had already moved beyond ordinary disagreement between the king and Parliament. In January, Charles had entered the…

  • 1642: Royalists Defeat Parliamentarian Cavalry at Powick Bridge

    Royalist and Parliamentarian cavalry fought south of Worcester on 23 September 1642 in one of the first military encounters between the main field armies of the English Civil War. The immediate issue was a Royalist convoy. Sir John Byron was taking money and silver plate from Oxford towards King Charles I’s army at Shrewsbury when…

  • 1645: Parliament Defeats the Royalists at Rowton Heath

    Parliamentarian forces defeated a Royalist army outside Chester at the Battle of Rowton Heath on 24 September 1645, ending Charles I’s attempt to relieve the besieged city. The King had come to Chester after learning that Parliamentarian forces were threatening one of the Royalists’ remaining important strongholds. Charles entered the city on 23 September with…

  • 1694: Lord George Murray is born near Perth

    Lord George Murray was born at Huntingtower Castle near Perth on 4 October 1694. A younger son of John Murray, first Duke of Atholl, he became one of the principal military commanders of the 1745 Jacobite rising. Murray gained military experience early, serving in the British Army in Flanders. He then joined two of his…

  • 1706: Marlborough wins at Ramillies

    On 23 May 1706, the Duke of Marlborough led Allied forces to victory over the French at Ramillies during the War of the Spanish Succession. The war had begun over the Spanish inheritance, but it had become a wider struggle over power in Europe. England, the Dutch Republic and their allies sought to prevent Bourbon…

  • 1745: Jacobites defeat Government forces at Prestonpans

    On 21 September 1745, the Jacobite army led by Charles Edward Stuart defeated Government forces under Sir John Cope at the Battle of Prestonpans, east of Edinburgh. It was the first major battle of the 1745 Jacobite Rising and gave the rebellion an early military victory. Charles had landed in Scotland in July and gathered…

  • 1758: Horatio Nelson is born in Norfolk

    Horatio Nelson was born in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, on 29 September 1758. He was the son of the Reverend Edmund Nelson, rector of the parish, and his wife Catherine, and was one of eleven children. Nelson’s connection with the Royal Navy came through his mother’s family. His uncle, Maurice Suckling, a naval officer, helped him…

  • 1759: James Wolfe dies at the Battle of Quebec

    Major-General James Wolfe died on 13 September 1759 after being mortally wounded during the Battle of Quebec. Wolfe commanded the British force sent to capture the French-held city during the Seven Years’ War. During the night of 12–13 September, his troops landed west of Quebec and climbed a steep path to reach the Heights of…

  • 1760: British forces complete victory at Restigouche

    On 8 July 1760, British forces completed their victory at the Battle of Restigouche. The battle was fought on the Restigouche River, between what is now Quebec and New Brunswick, and formed part of the Seven Years’ War. France had lost Quebec to British forces in 1759, but the war in Canada was not over.…

  • 1794: The Royal Navy wins the Glorious First of June

    On 1 June 1794, the Royal Navy fought the French fleet in the Atlantic at the battle later known in Britain as the Glorious First of June. Britain and Revolutionary France were at war. The fighting at sea was not only about ships and honour. It was also about supplies. France needed food, and a…

  • 1809: First prisoners arrive at Dartmoor Prison

    On 24 May 1809, around 2,500 French prisoners of war arrived at Dartmoor Prison. The prison had been built during the Napoleonic Wars, when Britain needed secure places to hold men captured in the long war with France. Dartmoor did not begin as the civilian prison it later became. Its first purpose was military: large-scale…

  • 1812: Wellington enters Madrid

    Arthur Wellesley, Earl of Wellington, entered Madrid on 12 August 1812 with the Allied army. Joseph Bonaparte had abandoned the Spanish capital after the French defeat at Salamanca three weeks earlier. On 22 July, Wellington’s British, Portuguese and Spanish forces had defeated Marshal Marmont’s army at Salamanca. The victory disrupted the French position in central…

  • 1813: HMS Shannon captures USS Chesapeake

    On 1 June 1813, HMS Shannon captured USS Chesapeake off Boston during the War of 1812. The action came at a difficult point for British naval pride. The Royal Navy was still the stronger sea force, but American frigates had already won several single-ship actions. Those defeats challenged Britain’s claim to naval superiority. Shannon’s capture…

  • 1814: British forces capture Washington and burn public buildings

    British troops defeated an American force at Bladensburg on 24 August 1814 and entered Washington later that day. That evening they began burning public buildings in the United States’ capital, including the Capitol and the President’s House. Britain and the United States had been at war since 1812. For much of the conflict, Britain’s war…

  • 1815: Napoleon Surrenders Aboard HMS Bellerophon

    On 15 July 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte boarded HMS Bellerophon off Rochefort and placed himself in the hands of Captain Frederick Maitland. Napoleon had been defeated at Waterloo on 18 June. He returned to Paris, abdicated for a second time and travelled towards the French Atlantic coast. He hoped to sail to the United States, beyond…

  • 1852: The Duke of Wellington dies at Walmer Castle

    The Duke of Wellington died at Walmer Castle in Kent on 14 September 1852. He was 83. Wellington was staying at the castle as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, an office he had held since 1829. That morning, his valet found him unable to rise from the small campaign bed in his room. He…

  • 1896: Britain defeats Zanzibar in a war lasting less than an hour

    British warships opened fire on the Sultan of Zanzibar’s palace shortly after 9.00 a.m. on 27 August 1896. Roughly 40 minutes later, the firing had stopped. The Anglo-Zanzibar War is generally described as the shortest recorded war. Its brevity reflected an overwhelming military imbalance. The dispute began two days earlier. Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini died…

  • 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.…

  • 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…

  • 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: 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…