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Alfred QUARTERMAN

Alfred QUARTERMAN

Male 1853 - 1937  (84 years)

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Timeline



 
 
 




   Date  Event(s)
1853 
  • 1853: Vaccination against smallpox made compulsory in Britain
1854 
  • 1854: Cigarettes introduced into Britain
  • 27 Mar 1854: Britain declares war on Russia (Crimean War)
  • 25 Oct 1854: Battle of Balaklava in Crimea (charge of the Light Brigade)
1856 
  • 1856: End of Crimean War
  • 29 Jan 1856: Victoria Cross created by Royal Warrant, backdated to 1854 to recognise acts during the Crimean War (first award ceremony 26 June 1857)
1857 
  • 1857: Work starts on the laying of the Transatlantic cable
1858 
  • 1858: 'The great stink' – smell of the River Thames forced Parliament to stop work
  • 1858: Royal Opera House opens in Covent Garden, London
1859 
  • 1859: Peaceful picketing legalised in Britain
  • 25 Apr 1859: Work started on building the Suez canal (opened 17 Nov 1869)
  • 4 May 1859: Brunel's Royal Albert Bridge opened at Saltash giving rail link between Devon and Cornwall
  • 24 Nov 1859: Charles Darwin publishes "The Origin of Species"
1860 
  • 29 Aug 1860: First tram service in Europe starts in Birkenhead
1861 
  • 25 May 1861: American Civil War begins
1862 
  • 1862: Lincoln issues first legal US paper money (Greenbacks)
  • 20 Apr 1862: First pasteurisation test completed by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard
10 1863 
  • 1863: Football Association founded (UK)
  • 1863: Opening of state institution for criminally insane at Broadmoor, England
  • 10 Jan 1863: First section of the London Underground Railway opens
11 1864 
  • 1864: A man-powered submarine, "Hunley", sank a Federal steam ship, USS Housatonic, at the entrance to Charleston harbour in 1864 – the first recorded successful attack by a submarine on a surface ship
  • 11 Mar 1864: The Great Sheffield Flood – over 250 died when a new dam broke while it was being filled for the first time
  • 20 Aug 1864: Red Cross established – Twelve nations sign the First Geneva Convention
  • 8 Dec 1864: Clifton Suspension Bridge over the River Avon officially opened
12 1865 
  • 1865: Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836-1917) becomes first woman doctor in England [she later became the first woman mayor in England, in Aldeburgh 1908]
  • 1865: First concrete roads built in Britain
  • 14 Apr 1865: End of American Civil War – slavery abolished in USA
  • 14 Apr 1865: Abraham Lincoln assassinated in Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth
  • 5 Jul 1865: William Booth (1829-1912) founds Salvation Army, in London
13 1867 
  • 1 Jul 1867: The British North America Act takes effect, creating the Canadian Confederation
14 1868 
  • 1868: Last convicts landed in Australia (Western Australia)
15 1869 
  • 1869: Ball bearings, celluloid, margarine, and washing machines, all invented
  • 23 Nov 1869: Cutty Sark launched in Dumbarton
16 1870 
  • 1870: GPO takes over the privately-owned Telegraph Companies (nationalised)
  • 1870: Dr Thomas Barnardo opens his first home for destitute children
  • 1870: Water closets come into wide use
  • 1870: Diamonds discovered in Kimberley, South Africa
  • 1 Oct 1870: First British postcard – halfpenny post
17 1871 
  • 27 Mar 1871: First Rugby Football international, England v Scotland, played in Edinburgh
  • 29 Mar 1871: Opening of Royal Albert Hall, London
  • 29 Jun 1871: Trades Unions legalised in Britain, but picketing made illegal
18 1872 
  • 1872: Licensing hours introduced
  • 1872: Penalties introduced for failing to register births, marriages & deaths (Eng & Wales)
  • 4 Dec 1872: American ship "Mary Celeste" is found abandoned by the British brig "Dei Gratia" in the Atlantic Ocean
19 1874 
  • 1874: Factory Act introduces 56-hour week
  • 5 Apr 1874: Birkenhead Park opened, said to be the first civic public park in the world – features of it later copied in Central Park, New York
20 1875 
  • 1875: London's main sewage system completed
  • 1 Jan 1875: Midland Railway abolishes Second Class passenger facilities, leaving First Class and Third Class. Other British railway companies followed during the rest of the year. (Third Class was renamed Second Class in 1956)
21 1876 
  • 14 Feb 1876: Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray each file a patent for the telephone – Bell awarded the rights
22 1877 
  • 1877: Edison invents microphone and phonograph
23 1878 
  • 1878: Edison & Swan invent electric lamp
  • 1878: Red Flag Act in Britain limits mechanical road vehicles to 4mph
  • 1878: CID established at New Scotland Yard
24 1879 
  • 18 Sep 1879: Blackpool illuminations switched on for first time
25 1880 
  • 1880: Education Act: schooling compulsory for 5-10 year olds
  • 1880: Mosquito found to be the carrier of malaria
  • 2 Aug 1880: Greenwich Mean Time adopted throughout UK
26 1881 
  • 1881: Postal Orders introduced
  • 1881: Flogging abolished in Army and Royal Navy
  • Sep 1881: Godalming in Surrey became the first town in England to have a public electricity supply installed (but in 1884 it reverted to gas lighting until 1904)
  • 26 Oct 1881: Gunfight at OK Corral
27 1882 
  • 1882: Fourth Eddystone Lighthouse completed
28 1883 
  • 1883: Statue of Liberty presented to USA by France
  • 24 May 1883: Brooklyn Bridge, New York opens (crosses East River)
  • 1 Aug 1883: Parcel post starts in Britain
  • 27 Aug 1883: Eruption of Krakatoa near Java – 30,000 killed by tidal wave
29 1884 
  • 31 May 1884: John Harvey Kellogg patents corn flakes
  • 13 Oct 1884: Greenwich made prime meridian of the world
30 1885 
  • 1885: Carl Benz builds the 'Motorwagen', a single-cylinder motor car
  • 1885: Gottlieb Daimler patents the world's first motorcycle
  • 1885: Eastman makes first coated photographic paper
  • 1885: Canadian Pacific Railway completed
  • Mar 1885: First UK cremation in modern times took place at Woking
  • 5 Sep 1885: The first train runs through the Severn Tunnel
  • 29 Sep 1885: First electric tramcar used at Blackpool
31 1886 
  • 20 Jan 1886: Mersey railway (under Mersey) opened by Prince of Wales
  • May 1886: Pharmacist John Styth Pemberton invents a carbonated beverage later named "Coca-Cola"
  • 29 May 1886: Putney Bridge opens in London
32 1887 
  • 1887: Daimler produces a four-wheeled motor car
33 1888 
  • 1888: Convention of Constantinople guarantees free maritime passage through Suez Canal in war and peace
  • 1888: Jack the Ripper active in east London during the latter half of the year
  • 1888: County Councils set up in Britain
  • 1888: Dunlop invents pneumatic tyre
  • 1888: First box camera – George Eastman registers the trademark Kodak, and receives a patent for his camera which uses roll film
  • 20 Mar 1888: Football League formed
34 1889 
  • 1889: Celluloid film produced
  • 1889: Dock Strike – docker's won their "Docker's Tanner", 6 old pennies
  • 31 Mar 1889: Eiffel Tower completed (to mark centenary of French Revolution)
  • 14 May 1889: Children's charity NSPCC launched in London
  • 3 Jun 1889: Canadian Pacific Railway completed from coast to coast
  • 28 Sep 1889: Length of a metre defined
35 1890 
  • 4 Mar 1890: Forth railway bridge opens – took six years to build
  • 4 Nov 1890: City & South London Railway opens – London's first deep-level tube railway and first major railway in the world to use electric traction
36 1891 
  • 1891: Primary education made free and compulsory
  • 18 Mar 1891: First telephone link between London & Paris
  • 4 May 1891: Fictional date when Sherlock Holmes throws Moriarty over Reichenbach Falls, then disappears for 3 years! (published in 1893)
  • 24 Aug 1891: Thomas Edison patents the motion picture camera
37 1892 
  • 1892: Electric oven invented
  • 1892: Shop Hours Act – limit 74 hours per week for under-18's
  • 6 Oct 1892: Alfred Lord Tennyson dies, aged 83, at his house Aldworth, near Haslemere
38 1893 
  • 1893: Henry Ford's first car
  • 1893: Zip fastener invented
39 1894 
  • 1894: Picture postcard introduced in Britain
  • 1 Jan 1894: Manchester Ship Canal opens
  • 1 Mar 1894: Blackpool Tower opens
  • 30 Jun 1894: Tower Bridge first opens
  • 2 Aug 1894: Death duties first introduced in Britain
40 1895 
  • 1895: Sir Henry Wood starts Promenade Concerts in London
  • 12 Jan 1895: The National Trust founded in England
  • 24 May 1895: Henry Irving becomes the first person from the theatre to be knighted
  • 28 May 1895: Oscar Wilde sent to prison
  • 12 Jul 1895: First recorded motor journey of any length (56 miles) in Britain
  • 17 Oct 1895: First people in Britain to be charged with motor offences – John Henry Knight and James Pullinger of Farnham, Surrey
  • Nov 1895: X-rays discovered
41 1896 
  • 5 Apr 1896: First modern Olympic Games held in Athens
  • 2 Jun 1896: Guglielmo Marconi receives a British patent (later disputed) for the radio
42 1897 
  • 1897: Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector
43 1898 
  • 1898: First photograph using artificial light
  • 1898: Zeppelin builds airship
  • 1898: Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company founded
  • 17 Mar 1898: USS Holland launched, the first practical submarine
  • 27 Jun 1898: The first solo circumnavigation of the globe completed at Rhode island by Joshua Slocum in Spray (started from Boston, Mass on Apr 24, 1895)
44 1899 
  • 6 Mar 1899: Aspirin first marketed by Bayer
  • 11 Oct 1899: Start of Second Boer War
45 1900 
  • 1900: School leaving age in Britain raised to 14 years
  • 1900: Central Line opens in London: underground is electrified
  • 1900: Escalator shown at Paris exhibition
  • 9 Feb 1900: Davis Cup tennis competition established
  • 27 Feb 1900: Labour Party formed
46 1901 
  • 1901: Commonwealth of Australia founded
  • 1901: Hubert Cecil Booth patents the vacuum cleaner
  • 22 Jan 1901: Queen Victoria dies – Edward VII king
  • 2 Feb 1901: Queen Victoria's funeral – interred beside Prince Albert in the Frogmore Mausoleum at Windsor Great Park
  • Jun 1901: Denunciation of use of concentration camps by British in Boer War
  • 2 Oct 1901: Britain's first submarine launched
  • 12 Dec 1901: First successful radio transmission across the Atlantic, by Marconi – Morse code from Cornwall to Newfoundland
47 1902 
  • 1902: Balfour's Education Act provides for secondary education
  • 1902: Cremation Act – cremation can only take place at officially recognised establishments, and with two death certificates issued
  • 1902: Marie Curie discovers radioactivity
  • 24 May 1902: Empire Day (later Commonwealth Day) first celebrated
  • 31 May 1902: Treaty of Vereeniging ends Second Boer War
  • 9 Aug 1902: Coronation of Edward VII
48 1903 
  • 1903: Workers' Education Association (WEA) formed in Britain
  • 1903: Women's Social and Political Union formed in Britain by Emmeline Pankhurst
  • 1903: Henry Ford sets up his motor company
  • 14 Dec 1903: First flight of Wilbur & Orville Wright
49 1904 
  • 1904: Leeds University established
  • 8 Apr 1904: France and UK sign the Entente Cordiale
  • 4 May 1904: America takes over construction of the Panama Canal from the French (completed 1914)
50 1905 
  • 1905: The title 'Prime Minister' noted in a royal warrant for the first time – placed the Prime Minister in order of precedence in Britain immediately after the Archbishop of York
  • 1905: Aliens Act in Britain: Home Office controls immigration
  • 1905: Germany lays down the first Dreadnought battleship
  • 11 Apr 1905: Einstein publishes Special Theory of Relativity
51 1906 
  • 1906: Introduction of free school meals for poor children
  • 10 Feb 1906: Launching of HMS Dreadnought, first turbine-driven battleship
  • 15 Mar 1906: Rolls-Royce Ltd registered
  • 26 May 1906: Vauxhall Bridge opened in London
  • 20 Sep 1906: Launching of Cunard's RMS Mauretania on the Tyne
52 1907 
  • 1907: New Zealand becomes a Dominion
  • 1907: Imperial College, London, is established
  • 1907: First airship flies over London
  • 1907: Lumiere develops a process for colour photography
  • Jul 1907: Leo Hendrik Baekeland patents Bakelite, the first plastic invented that held its shape after being heated
  • 1 Aug 1907: Baden-Powell leads the first Scout camp on Brownsea Island
  • 9 Nov 1907: The Cullinan Diamond presented to Edward VII on his birthday
53 1908 
  • 1908: Coal Mines Regulation Act in Britain limits men to an eight hour day
  • 1908: Separate courts for juveniles established in Britain
  • 1908: Lord Baden-Powell starts the Boy Scout movement
  • 1 Jul 1908: SOS became effective as an international signal of distress
  • 12 Aug 1908: First 'Model T' Ford made
54 1909 
  • 1909: Beveridge Report prompts creation of labour Exchanges
  • 1909: Peary reaches the north pole
  • 1909: First commercial manufacture of Bakelite – start of the plastic age
  • 1 Jan 1909: Old Age Pensions Act came into force
  • 16 Jan 1909: Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole
  • 15 Mar 1909: Selfridges department store opens in London
  • 25 Jul 1909: Bleriot flies across the Channel (36 minutes, Calais to Dover)
55 1910 
  • 1910: Railway strike and coal strikes in Britain
  • 1910: Constitutional crisis in Britain
  • 1910: Dr Crippen caught by radio telegraphy; hanged 23 Nov at Pentonville
  • 1910: Madame Curie isolates radium
  • 1910: Halley's comet reappears
  • 1910: Tango becomes popular in North America and Europe
  • 6 May 1910: Edward VII dies – George V becomes King
56 1911 
  • 1911: Parliament Act in Britain reduces the power of the House of Lords
  • 1911: British MPs receive a salary
  • 1911: First British Official Secrets Act
  • 1911: Rutherford: theory of atomic structures
  • 1911: Strikes by seamen, dock and transport workers (1911-1912)
  • 2 Apr 1911: Census: Population - England and Wales: 36 Million; Scotland: 4.6 Million; N Ireland: 1.25 Million
  • 22 Jun 1911: Coronation of George V
  • 14 Dec 1911: National Insurance introduced in Britain
57 1912 
  • 1912: Irish Home Rule crisis grows in Britain
  • 1912: Britain nationalises the telephone system
  • 1912: Discovery of the 'Piltdown Man' – hoax, exposed in 1953
  • 18 Jan 1912: Captain Scott's last expedition – he and his team reach the south pole on Jan 18th; all die on the way back, their bodies found in November
  • 14 Apr 1912: The 'unsinkable' Titanic sinks on maiden voyage – loss of 1,513 lives
  • 13 May 1912: Royal Flying Corps (later the RAF) founded in Britain
58 1913 
  • 1913: Third Irish Home Rule Bill rejected by House of Lords – threat of civil war in Ireland – formation of Ulster Volunteers to oppose Home Rule
  • 1913: Suffragette demonstrations in London – Mrs Pankhurst imprisoned
  • 1913: Trade Union Act in Britain establishes the right to use Union funds for political purposes
  • 1913: Invention of stainless steel by Harry Brearley of Sheffield
  • 1913: Geiger invents his counter to measure radioactivity
  • 4 Jun 1913: Emily Davison, a suffragette, runs out in front of the king's horse, Anmer, at the Epsom Derby and dies
59 1914 
  • 1914: Irish Home Rule Act provides for a separate Parliament in Ireland; the position of Ulster to be decided after the War
  • 1914: Chaplin and De Mille make their first films
  • 28 Jun 1914: Archduke Ferdinand assassinated in Sarajevo
  • 4 Aug 1914: Britain declares war on Germany, citing Belgian neutrality as reason
  • 5 Aug 1914: British cableship Telconia cut through all five of Germany's undersea telegraph links to the outside world
  • 15 Aug 1914: Panama Canal opened, the Canal cement boat 'Ancon' making the first official transit (plans for a grand opening were cancelled due to the start of WW1)
  • Oct 1914: Battle of Ypres – beginning of trench warfare on western front
  • 27 Nov 1914: First policewoman goes on duty in Britain
  • 16 Dec 1914: German battleships bombard Hartlepool and Scarborough
60 1915 
  • 1915: Junkers construct first fighter aeroplane
  • 1915: First automatic telephone exchange in Britain
  • 19 Jan 1915: First Zeppelin air raid on England, over East Anglia – four killed
  • Feb 1915: Submarine blockade of Britain starts
  • Apr 1915: Second Battle of Ypres – poison gas used for first time
  • 25 Apr 1915: Gallipoli campaign starts (declared ANZAC Day in 1916)
  • 7 May 1915: RMS Lusitania sunk by German submarine off coast of Ireland – 1,198 died
  • 16 May 1915: First meeting of a British WI (Women's Institute) took place in Llanfairpwll (aka Llanfair PG), Anglesey
61 1916 
  • 1916: Compulsory military service introduced in Britain
  • Feb 1916: Battle of Verdun – appalling losses on both sides, stalemate continues
  • 24 Apr 1916: Easter Rising in Ireland – after the leaders are executed, public opinion backs independence
  • 21 May 1916: First use of Daylight Saving Time in UK
  • 31 May 1916: Battle of Jutland – only major naval battle between the British and German fleets
  • 5 Jun 1916: Sinking of HMS Hampshire and death of Kitchener
  • 3 Aug 1916: Sir Roger Casement hanged at Pentonville Prison for treason
  • 15 Sep 1916: First use of tanks in battle, but of limited effect (Battle of the Somme 1 July to 18 Nov: over 1 million casualties)
  • 7 Dec 1916: Lloyd-George becomes British Prime Minister of the coalition government
62 1917 
  • 1917: Battle of Cambrai – first use of massed tanks, but effect more psychological than actual
  • 1917: Ministry of Labour is established in Britain
  • Feb 1917: February revolution in Russia; Tsar Nicholas abdicates
  • 16 Apr 1917: Lenin returns to Russia after exile
  • 17 Apr 1917: USA declares war on Germany
  • 26 May 1917: George V changes surname from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor (Royal proclamation on 17 July)
  • Jul 1917: Battle of Passchendaele – little gained by either side (Jul-Nov)
  • 7 Nov 1917: 'October' Revolution in Russia – Bolsheviks overthrow provisional government; Lenin becomes Chief Commissar
  • 6 Dec 1917: Halifax (Nova Scotia) Explosion, one of the world's largest artificial non-nuclear explosions to date: a ship loaded with wartime explosives blew up after a collision, obliterating buildings and structures within two square kilometres of the explosion
  • 9 Dec 1917: British forces capture Jerusalem
63 1918 
  • 1918: Vote for women over 30, men over 21 (except peers, lunatics and felons)
  • 1918: War of Independence in Ireland
  • 18 Jan 1918: Bentley Motors founded
  • 8 Mar 1918: Start of world-wide 'flu pandemic
  • Jul 1918: Second Battle of the Marne: last major German offensive in WW1 (Jul-Aug)
  • 1 Oct 1918: Arab forces under Lawrence of Arabia capture Damascus
  • 11 Nov 1918: Armistice signed
  • Dec 1918: First woman elected to House of Commons, Countess Markiewicz as a Sinn Féin member refused to take her seat
64 1919 
  • 1919: Britain adopts a 48-hour working week
  • 1919: Sir Ernest Rutherford publishes account of splitting the atom
  • 15 Jun 1919: Alcock and Brown complete first nonstop flight across the Atlantic
  • 28 Jun 1919: Treaty of Versailles signed
65 1920 
  • 1920: Regular cross-channel air service starts
  • 1920: Marconi opens a radio broadcasting station in Britain
  • 1920: Thompson patents his machine gun (Tommy gun)
  • Feb 1920: First roadside petrol filling station in UK – opened by the Automobile Association at Aldermaston on the Bath Road
66 1921 
  • 1921: Railway Act in Britain amalgamates companies – only four remained
  • 1921: Insulin discovery announced
  • 1921: First birth control clinic
  • 19 Jun 1921: Census: Population - England and Wales: 37.9 Million; Scotland: 4.9 Million; N Ireland: 1.25 Million
  • 6 Dec 1921: Anglo-Irish Treaty signed in London, leading to the formation of the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland
67 1922 
  • 1922: Law of Property Act – the manorial system effectively ended
  • 1 Jun 1922: Royal Ulster Constabulary founded
  • Oct 1922: BBC established as a monopoly, and begins transmissions in November (2LO in London on 14 Nov; 5IT in Birmingham and 2ZY in Manchester on 15 Nov)
68 1923 
  • 1923: Roads in Great Britain classified with A and B numbers
  • 1923: Hubble shows there are galaxies beyond the Milky Way
  • 1923: First American broadcasts heard in Britain
  • 1 Jan 1923: The majority of the railway companies in Great Britain grouped into four main companies, the Big Four: LNER, GWR, SR, LMSR – lasted until nationalisation in 1948
  • 16 Feb 1923: Howard Carter unsealed the burial chamber of Tutankhamun
  • 28 Apr 1923: First Wembley cup final (West Ham 0, Bolton 2) – "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles," popular song of the time, became the West Ham anthem
  • 28 Sep 1923: First publication of Radio Times
69 1924 
  • 4 Jan 1924: First Labour government in Britain, headed by Ramsay MacDonald
  • 5 Feb 1924: Hourly Greenwich Time Signals from the Royal Greenwich Observatory were first broadcast by the BBC
  • 31 Mar 1924: British Imperial Airways begins operations (formed by merger of four British airline companies – became BOAC in 1940)
70 1925 
  • 1925: Britain returns to gold standard
  • 18 Jul 1925: Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf
71 1926 
  • 1926: First public demonstration of television (TV) by John Logie Baird
  • 1926: Adoption of children is legalised in Britain
  • 1926: Kodak produces 16mm movie film
  • 1926: Walt Disney arrives in Hollywood
  • 21 Apr 1926: Princess Elizabeth born
  • 3 May 1926: General Strike begins. Lasts until May 12 (mine workers for 6 months more)
  • 31 Oct 1926: Death of Harry Houdini
72 1927 
  • 1927: Release of the first 'talkie' film (The Jazz Singer)
  • 7 Jan 1927: First transatlantic telephone call – New York City to London
  • 22 Jan 1927: First football broadcast by BBC (Arsenal v Sheffield United at Highbury)
  • 1 May 1927: First cooked meals on a scheduled flight introduced by Imperial Airways from London to Paris
  • 20 May 1927: Lindbergh makes solo flight across the Atlantic, in 33½ hours
  • 31 May 1927: Last Ford Model T rolls off assembly line
  • 24 Jul 1927: The Menin Gate war memorial unveiled at Ypres
73 1928 
  • 1928: Women over 21 get vote in Britain – same qualification for both sexes
  • 26 Apr 1928: Madame Tussauds opens in London
  • 15 Sep 1928: Sir Alexander Fleming accidentally discovers penicillin (results published 1929)
74 1929 
  • 1929: Abolition of Poor Law system in Britain
  • 1929: Minimum age for a marriage in Britain (which had been 14 for a boy and 12 for a girl) now 16 for both sexes, with parental consent (or a licence) needed for anyone under 21
  • 1929: BBC begins experimental TV transmissions
75 1930 
  • 1930: First Nazis elected to the German Reichstag
  • 1930: Youth Hostel Association (YHA) founded in Britain
  • 30 Jan 1930: Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany
  • 31 Jan 1930: 3M begins marketing Scotch Tape
  • 6 Mar 1930: Clarence Birdseye first marketed frozen peas
  • 5 Oct 1930: R101 airship disaster – British abandons airship construction
76 1931 
  • 1931: Statute of Westminster: British Dominions become independent sovereign states
  • 1931: Collapse of the German banking system; 3,000 banks there close
  • 14 Apr 1931: Highway Code first issued
  • 26 Apr 1931: Census: Population - England and Wales; 40 Million; Scotland: 4.8 Million; N Ireland: 1.24 Million (Unfortunately, the census was destroyed by fire in WW2)
  • 21 Oct 1931: National Government formed to deal with economic crisis – Britain comes off gold standard
77 1932 
  • 1932: Great Hunger March of unemployed to London
  • 1932: Moseley founds British Union of Fascists
  • 1932: Cockroft and Walton accelerate particles to disintegrate an atomic nucleus
  • 1932: Sir Thomas Beecham established the London Philharmonic Orchestra
  • 21 May 1932: Amelia Earhart first solo nonstop flight across Atlantic by a female pilot
  • 3 Oct 1932: Iraq gains independence from Britain
  • 3 Oct 1932: 'The Times' introduces 'Times New Roman' typeface
78 1933 
  • 1933: ICI scientists discover polythene
  • 1933: Only 6 pennies minted in Britain this year
  • 12 Nov 1933: First known photos of the 'Loch Ness Monster' taken
79 1934 
  • 1934: Hitler becomes Fuehrer of Germany
  • 18 Jul 1934: King George V opens Mersey Tunnel
  • 26 Sep 1934: RMS Queen Mary launched
  • 30 Nov 1934: First time a steam locomotive travels at 100 mph ('Flying Scotsman')
80 1935 
  • 1935: London adopts a 'Green Belt' scheme
  • 1935: Land speed record of 301.13 mph by Malcolm Campbell
  • 28 Feb 1935: Nylon first produced by Gerard J. Berchet of Wallace Carothers' research group at DuPont (there is no evidence to the widely-supposed story that the name derives from New York-London)
  • 12 Mar 1935: Hore-Belisha introduces pedestrian crossings and speed limits for built-up areas in Britain
  • 1 Jun 1935: Voluntary driving tests introduced in UK
  • 30 Jul 1935: Penguin paperbacks launched
81 1936 
  • 1936: Jet engine first tested
  • 20 Jan 1936: George V dies
  • 5 May 1936: First flight of a Spitfire
  • 24 Jul 1936: 'Speaking clock' service starts in UK
  • 2 Nov 1936: British Broadcasting Corporation initiates the BBC Television Service, world's first public TV transmission
  • 30 Nov 1936: Crystal Palace destroyed by fire
  • 5 Dec 1936: Edward VIII abdicates (announced Dec 10) – popular carol that Christmas: "Hark the Herald Angels sing, Mrs Simpson's got our King"
82 1937 
  • 1937: '999' emergency telephone call facility starts in London
  • 1937: Billy Butlin opens his first holiday camp
  • 12 Apr 1937: Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft
  • 12 May 1937: Coronation of King George VI
  • 28 May 1937: Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister – policy of appeasement towards Hitler
  • 3 Jun 1937: Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson
  • 4 Dec 1937: 'The Dandy' first published