2012 Olympic Games

The Olympic Games are considered the world's foremost sports competition with more than 200 nations participating. The Olympic Games are held every four years, with the Summer and Winter Games alternating by occurring every four years but two years apart. Their creation was inspired by the ancient Olympic Games, which were held in Olympia, Greece, from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894. The IOC is the governing body of the Olympic Movement, with the Olympic Charter defining its structure and authority. In the 2012 London hosts the Olympic Games for the third time.

2005 London bombings

The 7 July 2005 London bombings (often referred to as 7/7) were a series of coordinated suicide attacks in central London, which targeted civilians using the public transport system during the morning rush hour. The United Kingdom's worst terrorist incident since the 1988 Lockerbie bombing as well as the country's first ever suicide attack. Four Islamist men detonated four bombs - three in quick succession aboard London Underground trains across the city and, later, a fourth on a double-decker bus in Tavistock Square. As well as the four bombers, 52 civilians were killed and over 700 more were injured in the attacks. The 7 July attacks occurred one day after London had won its bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games, which had highlighted the city's multicultural reputation.

1965 Death of Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (1874 – 1965) was a British politician, the only British Prime Minister to have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and was the first person to be made an honorary citizen of the United States. He was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer, and an artist. Upon his death, Elizabeth II granted him the honour of a state funeral, which saw one of the largest assemblies of world statesmen in history.

1948 National Health Service

The National Health Service (NHS) is the publicly funded healthcare system for England. It is the largest and the oldest single-payer healthcare system in the world. Primarily funded through the general taxation system, the system provides healthcare to every legal resident in the United Kingdom, with most services free at the point of use. In practice, "free at the point of use" normally means that anyone legitimately fully registered with the system can access the full breadth of critical and non-critical medical care without any out-of-pocket payment. Since 1948, patients have been charged for some services such as eye tests, dental care, prescriptions, and aspects of long-term care. However, these charges are often lower than equivalent services provided by a private health care provider.

1939 World War II

The Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The world war is generally said to have begun on 1 September 1939 with the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people, from more than 30 different countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust, the Three Alls Policy, the strategic bombing of enemy industrial and/or population centers, and the first use of nuclear weapons in combat, it resulted in an estimated 50 million to 85 million fatalities. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history. 

1914 World War I

The First World War, was a global war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. From the time of its occurrence until the approach of World War II, it was called simply the World War or the Great War. The war drew in all the world's economic great powers, which were assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies (based on the Triple Entente of the United Kingdom, France and the Russian Empire) and the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. Although Italy had also been a member of the Triple Alliance alongside Germany and Austria-Hungary, it did not join the Central Powers. More than 9 million combatants were killed. It was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, paving the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. 

1896 Daily Mail

The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. It was Britain's first daily newspaper aimed at the newly literate "lower-middle class market resulting from mass education, combining a low retail price with plenty of competitions, prizes and promotional gimmicks", and the first British paper to sell a million copies a day. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982. Scottish and Irish editions of the daily paper were launched in 1947 and 2006 respectively. It was at the outset a newspaper for women, the first to provide features especially for them, and as of the second-half of 2013 had a 54.77% female readership.

1863 The first underground train

The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world. London contains four World Heritage Sites: the Tower of London; Kew Gardens; the site comprising the Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey, and St Margaret's Church; and the historic settlement of Greenwich (in which the Royal Observatory, Greenwich marks the Prime Meridian, 0° longitude, and GMT). Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. London is home to numerous museums, galleries, libraries, sporting events and other cultural institutions, including the British Museum, National Gallery, Tate Modern, British Library and 40 West End theatres.

1846 Corn Laws

The Corn Laws were trade laws designed to protect cereal producers in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland against competition from less expensive foreign imports between 1815 and 1846. To ensure that British landowners reaped all the financial profits from farming, the corn laws imposed steep import duties, making it too expensive for anyone to import grain from other countries, even when the people of Great Britain and Ireland needed the food. The Corn Laws enhanced the profits and political power associated with land ownership. Their abolition saw a significant increase of free trade.

1834 New Poor Law

The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 (PLAA), known widely as the New Poor Law, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the Whig government of Earl Grey that reformed the country's poverty relief system (excepting Scotland, which reformed its poor law in 1845). The PLAA curbed the cost of poor relief, and led to the creation of workhouses. The law arose out of a wider drive for Poor Law reform, and completely replaced earlier legislation based on the Poor Law of 1601. The importance of the Poor Law declined with the rise of the welfare state in the 20th century. In 1948, the PLAA was repealed by the National Assistance Act 1948, which created the National Assistance Board to act as a residual relief agency.

1825 Stockton and Darlington Railway

The world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, its first line connected collieries near Shildon with Stockton-on-Tees and Darlington. Passengers were carried in coaches drawn by horses until carriages hauled by steam locomotives were introduced in 1833. The Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) was a railway company that operated in north-east England from 1825 to 1863. The S&DR was involved in the building of the East Coast Main Line between York and Darlington, but its main expansion was at Middlesbrough Docks and west into Weardale and east to Redcar. The company was taken over by the North Eastern Railway in 1863, transferring 200 route miles (320 km) of line and about 160 locomotives, but continued to operate independently as the Darlington Section until 1876. Much of the original route is now served by the Tees Valley Line, operated by Northern Rail.

1819 Peterloo Massacre

The Peterloo Massacre (or Battle of Peterloo) occurred at St Peter's Field, Manchester, England, when cavalry charged into a crowd of 60,000–80,000 that had gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation. Cavalry charged into the crowd with sabres drawn, and in the ensuing confusion, 15 people were killed and 400–700 were injured. The massacre was given the name Peterloo in an ironic comparison to the Battle of Waterloo, which had taken place four years earlier. The Peterloo Massacre is called one of the defining moments of its age. It also led directly to the foundation of The Manchester Guardian (now The Guardian), but had little other effect on the pace of reform.

1807 Slave Trade Act

The Slave Trade Act 1807 or the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act 1807, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed on 25 March 1807, with the title of "An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade". The act abolished the slave trade in the British Empire, and also encouraged British action to press other European nations to abolish their slaves trades; but it did not abolish slavery itself, not until 26 years later. Slavery on English soil was unsupported in English law and that position was confirmed in Somersett's Case in 1772, but it remained legal in most of the British Empire until the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. The original act is in the Parliamentary Archives.

1779 The world's first iron bridge

The Ironbridge Gorge is a deep gorge formed by the River Severn in Shropshire, England. Originally called the Severn Gorge, the gorge now takes its name from its famous Iron Bridge, the first iron bridge of its kind in the world, and a monument to the industry that began there. The bridge was built to link the industrial town of Broseley with the smaller mining town of Madeley and the growing industrial centre of Coalbrookdale. It was formed during the last ice age when the output from the previously north flowing river became trapped in a lake (Lake Lapworth) created when the Irish Sea ice sheet dammed the river. The level of the lake rose until it was able to flow over the hills to the south. This flow eroded a path through the hills forming the gorge and permanently diverting the Severn southwards. 

1755 A Dictionary of the English Language

A Dictionary of the English Language, sometimes published as Johnson's Dictionary, is among the most influential dictionaries in the history of the English language. It was written by Samuel Johnson and published on 15 April 1755. Johnson took nearly nine years to complete the work; for the sum of 1,500 guineas (£1,575), equivalent to about £210,000 as of 2014. Until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary 173 years later, Johnson's was viewed as the pre-eminent English dictionary. His work was translated into French and German. In 1777, when Ferdinando Bottarelli published a pocket dictionary of Italian, French and English (the three languages side by side), his authorities for the French and Italian words were the works of the French and Italian academies: for the English he used Johnson.

1707 The Kingdom of Great Britain came into being

The Kingdom of Great Britain was a sovereign state in north-west Europe that existed from 1707 to 1800. The state came into being with the union of the kingdoms of Scotland and England (which included Wales).  It did not include Ireland, which remained a separate realm under the newly created British crown. A single parliament and government, based at Westminster, controlled the new kingdom. In 1801, the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

1701 The Act of Settlement

The Act of Settlement is an Act of the Parliament of England. Anyone who becomes a Roman Catholic, or who marries a Roman Catholic, becomes disqualified to inherit the throne under the Act of Settlement. England and Scotland had shared a monarch since 1603, but had remained separately governed countries. English pressure on Scotland to accept the Act of Settlement led to the parliamentary union of the two countries in 1707. Along with the Bill of Rights 1689, the Act of Settlement remains today one of the main constitutional laws governing the succession not only to the throne of the United Kingdom, but also to those of the other Commonwealth realms, whether by assumption or by patriation. The original documents are currently situated in the Lower Saxon State Archives Hanover, Germany.

1666 Great Fire of London

The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of the English city of London, from Sunday, 2 September to Wednesday, 5 September 1666. It is estimated to have destroyed the homes of 70,000 of the City's 80,000 inhabitants. The death toll is unknown, as only six verified deaths were recorded. The reason is that the deaths of poor and middle-class people were not recorded. On Tuesday, the fire spread over most of the City, destroying St. Paul's Cathedral and leaping the River Fleet to threaten Charles II's court at Whitehall, while coordinated firefighting efforts were simultaneously mobilizing. The battle to quench the fire is considered to have been won by two factors: the strong east winds died down, and the Tower of London garrison used gunpowder to create effective firebreaks to halt further spread eastward.

1653 The Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell (1599 – 1658) was an English military and political leader and later Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.  After undergoing a religious conversion in the 1630s, he became an independent puritan. He was elected Member of Parliament for Huntingdon in 1628 and for Cambridge in the Short (1640) and Long (1640–49) Parliaments. He entered the English Civil War on the side of the "Roundheads" or Parliamentarians. Cromwell was one of the signatories of King Charles I's death warrant in 1649, and, as a member of the Rump Parliament (1649–53), he dominated the short-lived Commonwealth of England. Cromwell is one of the most controversial figures in the history of the British Isles.

1642 The English Civil War began

The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians ("Roundheads") and Royalists ("Cavaliers") in the Kingdom of England. The overall outcome of the war was: the execution of Charles I; the exile of his son, Charles II; and the replacement of English monarchy with, at first, the Commonwealth of England (1649–53) and then the Protectorate (1653–59) under Oliver Cromwell's personal rule. The monopoly of the Church of England on Christian worship in England ended with the victors consolidating the established Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. The first (1642–46) and second (1648–49) wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third (1649–51) saw fighting between supporters of King Charles II and supporters of the Rump Parliament. The war ended with the Parliamentarian victory at the Battle of Worcester in 1651.

1603 King James VI of Scotland becoming James I of England

James VI and I (1566 – 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 1567 (age of thirteen months) and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns in 1603 until his death. The kingdoms of Scotland and England were individual sovereign states, with their own parliaments, judiciary, and laws, though both were ruled by James in personal union. In 1603, he succeeded the last Tudor monarch of England and Ireland, Elizabeth I, who died without issue. He continued to reign in all three kingdoms for 22 years, a period known as the Jacobean era after him, until his death in 1625 at the age of 58. After the Union of the Crowns, he based himself in England from 1603, only returning to Scotland once in 1617, and styled himself "King of Great Britain and Ireland".

1588 The Spanish Armada was destroyed

The Spanish Armada (Spanish: Grande y Felicísima Armada or Armada Invencible, literally "Great and Most Fortunate Navy" or "Invincible Fleet") was a Spanish fleet of 130 ships that sailed from A Coruña in August 1588 under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia with the purpose of escorting an army from Flanders to invade England. The Armada chose not to attack the English fleet at Plymouth, then failed to establish a temporary anchorage in the Solent, after one Spanish ship had been captured by Francis Drake in the English Channel, and finally dropped anchor off Calais. The strategic aim was to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I of England and the Tudor establishment of Protestantism in England, with the expectation that this would put a stop to English interference in the Spanish Netherlands. 

1535 Thomas More

Sir Thomas More (1478 – 1535), known to Roman Catholics as Saint Thomas More, was an important councillor to Henry VIII and Lord Chancellor from 1529 to 1532. More opposed the Protestant Reformation, in particular the theology of Martin Luther and William Tyndale. More also wrote Utopia (1516), about the political system of an ideal and imaginary island nation. More later opposed the King's separation from the Catholic Churchand refused to accept him as Supreme Head of the Church of England. Tried for treason, More was convicted on perjured testimony and beheaded. Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared More the "heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians". Since 1980, the Church of England has remembered More liturgically as a Reformation martyr. In 2002, he was placed at number 37 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.

1529 King Henry VIII declared himself head of the church in England

Henry VIII (1491 – 1547) was King of England from 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later assumed the Kingship, of Ireland, and continued the nominal claim by English monarchs to the Kingdom of France. Henry was the second monarch of the Tudor dynasty, succeeding his father, Henry VII. Besides his six marriages, Henry VIII is known for his role in the separation of the Church of England from the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. Henry's struggles with Rome led to the separation of the Church of England from papal authority, the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and his own establishment as the Supreme Head of the Church of England. He was succeeded by his son Edward VI.

1513 Battle of Flodden

The Battle of Flodden or Flodden Field was a conflict between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland. The battle was fought in the county of Northumberland in northern England, between an invading Scots army under King James IV and an English army commanded by the Earl of Surrey. This conflict began when James IV, King of Scots declared war on England to honour the Auld Alliance with France by diverting Henry VIII's English troops from their campaign against the French king Louis XII. Henry VIII had also opened old wounds by claiming to be the overlord of Scotland, which angered the Scots and the King. It was an English victory. In terms of troop numbers, it was the largest battle fought between the two Kingdoms. James IV was killed in the battle, becoming the last monarch from the British Isles to suffer such a death.

1485 Battle of Bosworth

The Battle of Bosworth Field was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the Houses of Lancaster and York that raged across England in the latter half of the 15th century. Fought on 22 August 1485, the battle was won by the Lancastrians. Their leader Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, by his victory became the first English monarch of the Tudor dynasty. His opponent, Richard III, the last king of the House of York, was killed in the battle. Historians consider Bosworth Field to mark the end of the Plantagenet dynasty, making it a defining moment of English and Welsh history. The House of Plantagenet was a royal dynasty that came to prominence in the High Middle Ages and lasted until the end of the Late Middle Ages. Within that period, some historians identify four distinct Royal Houses: Angevins, Plantagenet, Lancaster and York.

1356 Battle of Poitiers

The Hundred Years' War, a series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 (116 years), pitted the Kingdom of England against the Valois Capetians for control of the French throne. The Battle of Poitiers was a major battle of the Hundred Years' War between England and France. The battle occurred near Poitiers, France. Preceded by the Battle of Crécy in 1346, and followed by the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, it was the second of the three great English victories of the war. Edward, Prince of Wales (later known as the Black Prince), the eldest son of King Edward III, began a great chevauchée in 1356. A chevauchée (French: ​[ʃəvoʃe], "promenade" or "horse charge", depending on context) was a raiding method of medieval warfare for weakening the enemy, focusing mainly on wreaking havoc, burning and pillaging enemy territory.

1348 The Black Death arrived in England

The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people and peaking in Europe in the years 1348–50. The plague reduced the world population from an estimated 450 million down to 350–375 million in the 14th century. The Black Death is thought to have originated in the arid plains of central Asia, where it then travelled along the Silk Road, reaching the Crimea by 1346. From there, it was most likely carried by Oriental rat fleas living on the black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships. Spreading throughout the Mediterranean and Europe, the Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60% of Europe's total population.

1305 William Wallace

Sir William Wallace (died 23 August 1305) was a Scottish landowner who became one of the main leaders during the Wars of Scottish Independence. Along with Andrew Moray, Wallace defeated an English army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297, and was appointed Guardian of Scotland, serving until his defeat at the Battle of Falkirk in 1298. In August 1305 Wallace was captured in Robroyston near Glasgow and handed over to King Edward I of England, who had him hanged, drawn, and quartered for high treason and crimes against English civilians. Since his death, Wallace has obtained an iconic status far beyond his homeland. Wallace is also the subject of literary works by Sir Walter Scott and Jane Porter and of the 1995 Academy Award-winning film Braveheart.

1279 The Statute of Mortmain was issued

The Statutes of Mortmain were two enactments, in 1279 and 1290, by King Edward I of England aimed at preserving the kingdom's revenues by preventing land from passing into the possession of the Church. Possession of property by a corporation such as the church was known as mortmain. The Statutes of Mortmain were meant to re-establish the prohibition against donating land to the Church for purposes of avoiding feudal services which had been hinted at in the Magna Carta in 1215 and specifically defined in the Great Charter of 1217. John of England died shortly after Magna Carta was signed. Henry III of England, the son of John, did not enforce these proscriptions. It was finally brought to a close when Henry VIII of England disbanded the monasteries and confiscated Church lands.

1237 The Treaty of York was signed

The Treaty of York was an agreement between Henry III of England and Alexander II of Scotland, signed at York. It detailed the future status of several feudal properties and addressed other issues between the two kings, and indirectly marked the end of Scotland's attempts to extend its frontier southward. The Papal legate Otho was already in England at Henry's request to attend a Synod in London in November 1237, and had been informed by Henry of the September meeting at York, which he attended. A papal legate – from the Latin, authentic Roman title Legatus – is a personal representative of the pope to foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic Church. He is empowered on matters of Catholic Faith and for the settlement of ecclesiastical matters.

1215 The Magna Carta was signed

Magna Carta was the first document imposed upon a King of England by a group of his subjects, the feudal barons, in an attempt to limit his powers by law and protect their rights. It was sealed under oath by King John at Runnymede, on the bank of the River Thames near Windsor, England. Magna Carta, also called Magna Carta Libertatum or The Great Charter of the Liberties of England, latin for Great Charter, is an Angevin charter originally issued in Latin. The House of Anjou, usually referred to simply as the Angevins, was a noble family of Frankish origin that emerged as the rulers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of England in the 12th century.