1066 5 Jan Edward the Confessor dies
1066 6 Jan Harold crowned King of England
1066 14 Oct William Duke of Normandy, defeats Harold of England at Battle of Hastings
1066 25 Dec William the Conquerer crowned king of England
1070 Work starts on Canterbury Cathedral
1078 work starts on tower of London
1085 25 Dec Domesday book commisioned
1120 25 Nov The white ship sinks
1135 London Bridge destroyed by flames.
1154 19 Dec Henry II Crowned at Westminster Abbey
1154 Work starts on York minster
1162 3 June Thomas Becket made Archbishop of Canterbury
1169 1 May Normans invade Ireland
1170 29 Dec Thomas A Becket murdered by King Henry II's knights
1170 population of London exceeds 30 thousand
1189 6 Jul Henry II dies
1192 20 Dec Richard the lionheard captured while on crusade
1199 6 Apr Richard I dies.
1212 12 Jul First Great Fire of London
1214 20 Jun Oxford University Chartered
1215 15 Jun King John pressured into signing the Magna Carta by Stephen Langton and some of the Barons.
1216 12 Oct King John loses the Crown Jewels
1264 14 May Battle of Lewes
1265 20 Jan First English Parliment Held
1282 11 Dec Welsh independance dies with Llywelyn
1284 Peterhouse, first college of Cambridge University, founded in England
1337 Edward III of England claims French throne - 100 Years War (1337 - 1453) begins
1348-1351 The Black Death
1381 Peasants' Revolt in England led by Wat Tyler
1415 English beat French at the battle of ashincour
1453 End of 100 Years War; English expelled from all France except Calais
1455-1485 War of the Roses
1485 Henry VII becomes first Tudor king of England and Wales after defeat of last Plantagenet king Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth
1497 John Cabot sales from Bristol on the 'Matthew' discovering North America
1500 Black-lead pencils used in England
1534 Henry VIII of England breaks with Rome; makes himself head of English church
1536-1539 Dissolution of the monasteries
1558 Reign of Elizabeth I of England begins
1564-1616 Life of English playwright, William Shakespeare
1577-1580 Vice Admiral Sir Francis Drake circumnavigates the world
1585–1604 Anglo–Spanish War
1587 Mary, Queen of Scots executed
1588 English fleet, under Howard of Effingham Lord High Admiral, defeats Spanish Armada off south coast of England
1591 first William Shakespeare play performed
1600 east India company formed
1603 Elizabeth I dies without an heir.
1605 Plot to blow up the houses of parliment fails (The Gunpowder Plot)
1606 union jack flag adopted by Britian
1620 the pilgrim fathers set sail on mayflower for new England from Plymouth
1628 Petition of Right, England; parliament curtails king's powers
1629-1640 King Charles I disolves parliament
1642–1646 First English Civil War
1648-1649 Second English Civil War
1649 King Charles I of England and Scotland executed
1653 Cromwell proclaimed Lord Protector
1660 Restoration of monarchy under King Charles II
1664-1665 great plague kills many in London and elsewhere in England
1665-1666 The Great Plague
1666 Sep 2-5 The Great Fire of London
1667 Jun Dutch raid on the Medway
1678 Imaginary "popish Plot" to overthrow Charles II of England invented by Titus Oates
1679 Habeas Corpus Act in England ensures no imprisonment without court appearance first
1688 Revolution in England against James II brings William of Orange to the throne
1689 English bill of rights. Monarch and govt to rule in unison. Catholics barred from throne.
1700 Agricultural Revolution begins in Britain; later spreads across Europe
1707 Act of Union unites England and Scotland
1714 George of Hanover, Germany sucseeds Queen Anne to the throne
1715 First Jacobite rising in Britain attempts to restore exiled Stuart dynasty to throne
1720 South Sea Bubble collapses
1721-1742 Robert Walpole is first and longest-serving British prime minister
1722 Slavery ruled to be illegal in England (though not in other parts of the British Empire)
1745-1746 Second Jacobite rising in Britain led by Bonnie Prince Charlie attempts but fails to restore exiled Stuart dynasty to British throne
1756-1763 Seven Years War; Prussia and Britain versus France, Austria, and Russia
1757 First canal in britain completed
1776 America declares independence from the British
1788 First convict ship sent to Australia
1796 Edward Jenner invents vaccination against small pox
1801 First census. Population of Britian reaches 8 million
1801 Ireland becomes part of the United Kingdom
1804 Richard Trevithick invents the first steam locomotive
1805 21 October British under Lord Nelson win the Battle of Trafalgar
1807 25 March Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was passed by Parliament, after much work by William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson 
1812 First tin cans produced in England for preserving food
1815 The Duke of Wellington defeats Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo
1825 First railway in the world opens - Stockton to Darlington.
1832 First Great Reform Bill gives more men the vote in Britain
1832 First cholera epidemic
1834 Poor law sets up workhouses where people without homes or jobs can work for food and accommodation.
1837 Queen Victoria comes to the throne
1839 William Fox Talbot invents the positive/negative photographic process
1840 Penny postage stamp introduced in Britain; postage stamps transform postal systems
1842 Mines act ended child labour
1848 Second cholera epidemic
1851 The Great Exhibition in England
1853-1856 Crimean War: Russia fights Turkey, Britain, France, and Sardinia
1853 Third cholera epidemic
1861 The first colour photograph is produced by James Clerk Maxwell
1861 14 December Death of Queen Victoria's husband Albert, Prince Consort
1863 London underground opens
1863 The Football Association is founded
1866 Fourth cholera epidemic
1867 Disraeli introduces Second Reform Bill in Britain
1868-1874 Gladstone is British prime minister for first time
1868 Joseph Lister discovers disinfectant
1868 Last public hanging
1870 Education act. School made available
1874-1910 Disraeli's second and last government in Britain
1876 Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone
1880-1881 First Boer War
1882 Tottenham Hotspur Football Club is founded
1888 July London Bryant & May match girls strike
1889 14 August London Dock Strike begins
1891 Free education for every child
1899-1902 Second Boer War
1904 'Entente Cordiale' between Britain and France
1906 Liberal government comes to power in Britain; many reforms
1908 Summer Olympics in London
1914-1918 First World War
1915 Germans start submarine campaign to blockade British Isles
1916 Battle of Jutland between British and German fleets; stalemate
1916 Easter Rising against British government in Ireland
1920 Republic of Ireland gains independence from Britian
1924 First British Labour party victory at a general election
1926 In Britain, John Logie Baird invents the television
1931 Statute of Westminster makes dominions of British empire self-governing
1937 Sir Frank Whittle invents the jet engine
1939-1945 Second World War
1940 British scientists develop radar
1944 Summer Olympics in London, cancelled because of the war
1948 Summer Olympics held in London
1949 Britain recognizes the independence of Ireland
1951 Sir Winston Churchill forms his first peacetime government in England
1953 Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
1966 30 July England beat West Germany 4–2 in the final of the World Cup on home soil
1973 Britain joins the european community
1979 Britain elects first female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher
1982 Falklands War with Argentina
1991 First Gulf War
1991 Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web
1994 Channel Tunnel opens
2001 7 October War in Afghanistan starts
2003 Second Gulf War
2012 Summer Olmpics held in London
