| Some Key Events — 16th to 20th Century. | |
|---|---|
| c. 1500 | Renaissance in Britain. |
| 1536-40 | Dissolution of the Monasteries. |
| 1553 | Accession of Jane Grey. Accession of Queen Mary I. |
| 1558 | Accession of Queen Elizabeth I. |
| 1587 | Execution of Mary Queen of Scots. |
| 1588 | Defeat of the Spanish Armada. |
| 1603 | Accession of James I. |
| 1605 | Gunpower Plot. |
| 1618-48 | Europe's ‘Thirty Years War’. |
| 1625 | Accession of Charles I. |
| 1642 | Beginning of the English War. |
| 1649 | Regicide of Charles I. |
| 1649-60 | Rule of Cromwell & the Commonwealth. |
| 1660 | Accession of Charles II. |
| 1666 | Great Fire of London. |
| 1688 | Accession of the Dutch Protestant William & Mary ’the Glorious Revolution’. |
| 1690 | Foundation of the Bank of England. |
| 1702 | Accession of Queen Anne. |
| 1707 | Signing of the ‘Act of Union’: the two Kingdoms of England & Scotland united as Great Britain. |
| 1712 | Last execution for witchcraft. First Steam Engine. |
| 1714 | Accession of King George I. |
| 1723 | First workhouses open. |
| 1727 | Accession of King George II. |
| 1739 | Hanging of Dick Turpin at York. |
| 1746 | Battle of Culloden. |
| 1750 | Beginning of the Industrial Revolution. |
| 1760 | Accession of King George III. |
| 1762 | First serious criticisms of the slave trade. |
| 1770 | Discovery of Australia by James Cook. |
| 1775-83 | American War of Independence. |
| 1779 | Riots against machinery. |
| 1793-1815 | Napoleonic Wars. |
| 1799 | Income tax introduced. |
| 1801 | First British Census. |
| 1805 | Battle of Trafalgar. |
| 1807 | Abolition of the slave trade. |
| 1830 | Accession of William IV. |
| 1837 | Accession of Queen Victoria. |
| 1840 | Queen Victoria married her cousin Albert. |
| 1851 | Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace (six million tickets sold). |
| 1853-56 | Crimean War. |
| 1859 | Charles Darwin published ‘Origin of Species’. |
| 1861 | Prince Albert died of typhoid fever aged forty-two. |
| 1861-65 | American Civil War. |
| 1867 | Disraeli introduced a law allowing all tax payers to vote. |
| 1868 | Last shipment of convicts to Australia. |
| 1879 | Electric light bulb invented by Thomas Edison. |
| 1885 | First automobile built by Karl Benz. |
| 1888 | Jack the Ripper terrorized London. |
| 1899-1902 | Boer War. |
| 1901 | Queen Victoria died. Accession of Edward VII |
| 1910 | Accession of George V. |
| 1914-18 | World War I. |
| 1929 | Wall Street Crash. |
| 1936 | Accession of George VI. |
| 1939-45 | World War II. |
| 1952 | Accession of Quenn Elizabeth II. |
| 1982 | Falklands Conflict. |
| 1991 | Gulf War. |