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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1909 | - 1909—1909: Beveridge Report prompts creation of labour Exchanges
- 1909—1909: Peary reaches the north pole
- 1909—1909: First commercial manufacture of Bakelite - start of the plastic age
- 1 Jan 1909—1 Jan 1909: Old Age Pensions Act came into force
- 16 Jan 1909—16 Jan 1909: Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole
- 15 Mar 1909—15 Mar 1909: Selfridges department store opens in London
- 25 Jul 1909—25 Jul 1909: Bleriot flies across the Channel (36 minutes, Calais to Dover)
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| 2 | 1910 | - 1910—1910: Railway strike and coal strikes in Britain
- 1910—1910: Constitutional crisis in Britain
- 1910—1910: Dr Crippen caught by radio telegraphy; hanged 23 Nov at Pentonville
- 1910—1910: Madame Curie isolates radium
- 1910—1910: Halley's comet reappears
- 1910—1910: Tango becomes popular in North America and Europe
- 6 May 1910—6 May 1910: Edward VII dies - George V becomes King
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| 3 | 1911 | - 1911—1911: Parliament Act in Britain reduces the power of the House of Lords
- 1911—1911: British MPs receive a salary
- 1911—1911: First British Official Secrets Act
- 1911—1911: Rutherford: theory of atomic structures
- 1911—1911: Strikes by seamen, dock and transport workers (1911-1912)
- 2 Apr 1911—2 Apr 1911: Census: Population - England and Wales: 36 Million; Scotland: 4.6 Million; N Ireland: 1.25 Million
- 22 Jun 1911—22 Jun 1911: Coronation of George V
- 14 Dec 1911—14 Dec 1911: National Insurance introduced in Britain
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| 4 | 1912 | - 1912—1912: Irish Home Rule crisis grows in Britain
- 1912—1912: Britain nationalises the telephone system
- 1912—1912: Discovery of the 'Piltdown Man' - hoax, exposed in 1953
- 18 Jan 1912—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—14 Apr 1912: The 'unsinkable' Titanic sinks on maiden voyage - loss of 1,513 lives
- 13 May 1912—13 May 1912: Royal Flying Corps (later the RAF) founded in Britain
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| 5 | 1913 | - 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—1913: Suffragette demonstrations in London - Mrs Pankhurst imprisoned
- 1913—1913: Trade Union Act in Britain establishes the right to use Union funds for political
purposes
- 1913—1913: Invention of stainless steel by Harry Brearley of Sheffield
- 1913—1913: Geiger invents his counter to measure radioactivity
- 4 Jun 1913—4 Jun 1913: Emily Davison, a suffragette, runs out in front of the king's horse, Anmer, at the
Epsom Derby and dies
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| 6 | 1914 | - 1914—1914: Irish Home Rule Act provides for a separate Parliament in Ireland; the position of Ulster
to be decided after the War
- 1914—1914: Chaplin and De Mille make their first films
- 28 Jun 1914—28 Jun 1914: Archduke Ferdinand assassinated in Sarajevo
- 4 Aug 1914—4 Aug 1914: Britain declares war on Germany, citing Belgian neutrality as reason
- 5 Aug 1914—5 Aug 1914: British cableship Telconia cut through all five of Germany's undersea telegraph
links to the outside world
- 15 Aug 1914—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—Oct 1914: Battle of Ypres - beginning of trench warfare on western front
- 27 Nov 1914—27 Nov 1914: First policewoman goes on duty in Britain
- 16 Dec 1914—16 Dec 1914: German battleships bombard Hartlepool and Scarborough
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| 7 | 1915 | - 1915—1915: Junkers construct first fighter aeroplane
- 1915—1915: First automatic telephone exchange in Britain
- 19 Jan 1915—19 Jan 1915: First Zeppelin air raid on England, over East Anglia - four killed
- Feb 1915—Feb 1915: Submarine blockade of Britain starts
- Apr 1915—Apr 1915: Second Battle of Ypres - poison gas used for first time
- 25 Apr 1915—25 Apr 1915: Gallipoli campaign starts (declared ANZAC Day in 1916)
- 7 May 1915—7 May 1915: RMS Lusitania sunk by German submarine off coast of Ireland - 1,198 died
- 16 May 1915—16 May 1915: First meeting of a British WI (Women's Institute) took place in Llanfairpwll
(aka Llanfair PG), Anglesey
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| 8 | 1916 | - 1916—1916: Compulsory military service introduced in Britain
- Feb 1916—Feb 1916: Battle of Verdun - appalling losses on both sides, stalemate continues
- 24 Apr 1916—24 Apr 1916: Easter Rising in Ireland - after the leaders are executed, public opinion backs
independence
- 21 May 1916—21 May 1916: First use of Daylight Saving Time in UK
- 31 May 1916—31 May 1916: Battle of Jutland - only major naval battle between the British and
German fleets
- 5 Jun 1916—5 Jun 1916: Sinking of HMS Hampshire and death of Kitchener
- 3 Aug 1916—3 Aug 1916: Sir Roger Casement hanged at Pentonville Prison for treason
- 15 Sep 1916—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—7 Dec 1916: Lloyd-George becomes British Prime Minister of the coalition government
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| 9 | 1917 | - 1917—1917: Battle of Cambrai - first use of massed tanks, but effect more psychological than actual
- 1917—1917: Ministry of Labour is established in Britain
- Feb 1917—Feb 1917: February revolution in Russia; Tsar Nicholas abdicates
- 16 Apr 1917—16 Apr 1917: Lenin returns to Russia after exile
- 17 Apr 1917—17 Apr 1917: USA declares war on Germany
- 26 May 1917—26 May 1917: George V changes surname from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor (Royal
proclamation on 17 July)
- Jul 1917—Jul 1917: Battle of Passchendaele - little gained by either side (Jul-Nov)
- 7 Nov 1917—7 Nov 1917: 'October' Revolution in Russia - Bolsheviks overthrow provisional government;
Lenin becomes Chief Commissar
- 6 Dec 1917—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—9 Dec 1917: British forces capture Jerusalem
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| 10 | 1918 | - 1918—1918: Vote for women over 30, men over 21 (except peers, lunatics and felons)
- 1918—1918: War of Independence in Ireland
- 18 Jan 1918—18 Jan 1918: Bentley Motors founded
- 8 Mar 1918—8 Mar 1918: Start of world-wide 'flu pandemic
- Jul 1918—Jul 1918: Second Battle of the Marne: last major German offensive in WW1 (Jul-Aug)
- 1 Oct 1918—1 Oct 1918: Arab forces under Lawrence of Arabia capture Damascus
- 11 Nov 1918—11 Nov 1918: Armistice signed
- Dec 1918—Dec 1918: First woman elected to House of Commons, Countess Markiewicz as a Sinn Fein
member refused to take her seat
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| 11 | 1919 | - 1919—1919: Britain adopts a 48-hour working week
- 1919—1919: Sir Ernest Rutherford publishes account of splitting the atom
- 15 Jun 1919—15 Jun 1919: Alcock and Brown complete first nonstop flight across the Atlantic
- 28 Jun 1919—28 Jun 1919: Treaty of Versailles signed
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| 12 | 1920 | - 1920—1920: Regular cross-channel air service starts
- 1920—1920: Marconi opens a radio broadcasting station in Britain
- 1920—1920: Thompson patents his machine gun (Tommy gun)
- Feb 1920—Feb 1920: First roadside petrol filling station in UK - opened by the Automobile Association
at Aldermaston on the Bath Road
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| 13 | 1921 | - 1921—1921: Railway Act in Britain amalgamates companies - only four remained
- 1921—1921: Insulin discovery announced
- 1921—1921: First birth control clinic
- 19 Jun 1921—19 Jun 1921: Census: Population - England and Wales: 37.9 Million; Scotland: 4.9 Million; N Ireland: 1.25 Million
- 6 Dec 1921—6 Dec 1921: Anglo-Irish Treaty signed in London, leading to the formation of the Irish Free
State and Northern Ireland
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English
1909 - 1921 (12 years) 