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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1923 | - 1923—1923: Roads in Great Britain classified with A and B numbers
- 1923—1923: Hubble shows there are galaxies beyond the Milky Way
- 1923—1923: First American broadcasts heard in Britain
- 1 January 1923—1 January 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 February 1923—16 February 1923: Howard Carter unsealed the burial chamber of Tutankhamun
- 28 April 1923—28 April 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 September 1923—28 September 1923: First publication of Radio Times
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| 2 | 1924 | - 4 January 1924—4 January 1924: First Labour government in Britain, headed by Ramsay MacDonald
- 5 February 1924—5 February 1924: Hourly Greenwich Time Signals from the Royal Greenwich Observatory were
first broadcast by the BBC
- 31 March 1924—31 March 1924: British Imperial Airways begins operations (formed by merger of four British
airline companies - became BOAC in 1940)
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| 3 | 1925 | - 1925—1925: Britain returns to gold standard
- 18 July 1925—18 July 1925: Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf
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| 4 | 1926 | - 1926—1926: First public demonstration of television (TV) by John Logie Baird
- 1926—1926: Adoption of children is legalised in Britain
- 1926—1926: Kodak produces 16mm movie film
- 1926—1926: Walt Disney arrives in Hollywood
- 21 April 1926—21 April 1926: Princess Elizabeth born
- 3 May 1926—3 May 1926: General Strike begins. Lasts until May 12 (mine workers for 6 months more)
- 31 October 1926—31 October 1926: Death of Harry Houdini
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| 5 | 1927 | - 1927—1927: Release of the first 'talkie' film (The Jazz Singer)
- 7 January 1927—7 January 1927: First transatlantic telephone call - New York City to London
- 22 January 1927—22 January 1927: First football broadcast by BBC (Arsenal v Sheffield United at Highbury)
- 1 May 1927—1 May 1927: First cooked meals on a scheduled flight introduced by Imperial Airways from
London to Paris
- 20 May 1927—20 May 1927: Lindbergh makes solo flight across the Atlantic, in 33? hours
- 31 May 1927—31 May 1927: Last Ford Model T rolls off assembly line
- 24 July 1927—24 July 1927: The Menin Gate war memorial unveiled at Ypres
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| 6 | 1928 | - 1928—1928: Women over 21 get vote in Britain - same qualification for both sexes
- 26 April 1928—26 April 1928: Madame Tussauds opens in London
- 15 September 1928—15 September 1928: Sir Alexander Fleming accidentally discovers penicillin (results published 1929)
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| 7 | 1929 | - 1929—1929: Abolition of Poor Law system in Britain
- 1929—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—1929: BBC begins experimental TV transmissions
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| 8 | 1930 | - 1930—1930: First Nazis elected to the German Reichstag
- 1930—1930: Youth Hostel Association (YHA) founded in Britain
- 30 January 1930—30 January 1930: Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany
- 31 January 1930—31 January 1930: 3M begins marketing Scotch Tape
- 6 March 1930—6 March 1930: Clarence Birdseye first marketed frozen peas
- 5 October 1930—5 October 1930: R101 airship disaster - British abandons airship construction
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| 9 | 1931 | - 1931—1931: Statute of Westminster: British Dominions become independent sovereign states
- 1931—1931: Collapse of the German banking system; 3,000 banks there close
- 14 April 1931—14 April 1931: Highway Code first issued
- 26 April 1931—26 April 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 October 1931—21 October 1931: National Government formed to deal with economic crisis - Britain comes off
gold standard
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| 10 | 1932 | - 1932—1932: Great Hunger March of unemployed to London
- 1932—1932: Moseley founds British Union of Fascists
- 1932—1932: Cockroft and Walton accelerate particles to disintegrate an atomic nucleus
- 1932—1932: Sir Thomas Beecham established the London Philharmonic Orchestra
- 21 May 1932—21 May 1932: Amelia Earhart first solo nonstop flight across Atlantic by a female pilot
- 3 October 1932—3 October 1932: Iraq gains independence from Britain
- 3 October 1932—3 October 1932: 'The Times' introduces 'Times New Roman' typeface
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| 11 | 1933 | - 1933—1933: ICI scientists discover polythene
- 1933—1933: Only 6 pennies minted in Britain this year
- 12 November 1933—12 November 1933: First known photos of the 'Loch Ness Monster' taken
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| 12 | 1934 | - 1934—1934: Hitler becomes Fuehrer of Germany
- 18 July 1934—18 July 1934: King George V opens Mersey Tunnel
- 26 September 1934—26 September 1934: RMS Queen Mary launched
- 30 November 1934—30 November 1934: First time a steam locomotive travels at 100 mph ('Flying Scotsman')
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| 13 | 1935 | - 1935—1935: London adopts a 'Green Belt' scheme
- 1935—1935: Land speed record of 301.13 mph by Malcolm Campbell
- 28 February 1935—28 February 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 March 1935—12 March 1935: Hore-Belisha introduces pedestrian crossings and speed limits for built-up areas
in Britain
- 1 June 1935—1 June 1935: Voluntary driving tests introduced in UK
- 30 July 1935—30 July 1935: Penguin paperbacks launched
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| 14 | 1936 | - 1936—1936: Jet engine first tested
- 20 January 1936—20 January 1936: George V dies
- 5 May 1936—5 May 1936: First flight of a Spitfire
- 24 July 1936—24 July 1936: 'Speaking clock' service starts in UK
- 2 November 1936—2 November 1936: British Broadcasting Corporation initiates the BBC Television Service, world's
first public TV transmission
- 30 November 1936—30 November 1936: Crystal Palace destroyed by fire
- 5 December 1936—5 December 1936: Edward VIII abdicates (announced Dec 10) - popular carol that Christmas:
'Hark the Herald Angels sing Mrs Simpson's got our King'
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| 15 | 1937 | - 1937—1937: '999' emergency telephone call facility starts in London
- 1937—1937: Billy Butlin opens his first holiday camp
- 12 April 1937—12 April 1937: Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft
- 12 May 1937—12 May 1937: Coronation of King George VI
- 28 May 1937—28 May 1937: Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister - policy of appeasement towards
Hitler
- 3 June 1937—3 June 1937: Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson
- 4 December 1937—4 December 1937: 'The Dandy' first published
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| 16 | 1938 | - 1938—1938: Principle of paid holidays established in Britain
- 1938—1938: HMS Rodney first ship to be equipped with radar
- 1938—1938: First practical ball-point pen produced by Hungarian journalist, Lajos Biro
- 12 March 1938—12 March 1938: Germany invades and annexes Austria
- 3 July 1938—3 July 1938: 'Mallard' reaches 126 mph (203 km/h); still world record for a steam locomotive
- 27 September 1938—27 September 1938: Largest ocean liner ever built, Queen Elizabeth launched on Clydebank
- 29 September 1938—29 September 1938: Chamberlain visits Hitler in Munich - promises 'peace in our time'
- 30 October 1938—30 October 1938: Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play of HG Wells 'The War of the Worlds', causing panic in the USA
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| 17 | 1939 | - 1939—1939: Germany annexes Czechoslovakia
- 1939—1939: Start of evacuation of women and children from London
- 1939—1939: Coldest winter in Britain since 1894, though this could not be publicised at the time
- 1 September 1939—1 September 1939: Germany invades Poland
- 3 September 1939—3 September 1939: Britain and France declare war on Germany
- 6 September 1939—6 September 1939: First air-raid on Britain
- 11 September 1939—11 September 1939: British Expeditionary Force (BEF) sent to France
- 14 October 1939—14 October 1939: HMS Royal Oak sunk in Scapa Flow with loss of 810 lives
- 7 December 1939—7 December 1939: 'First flight' of Canadian troops sail for Britain - 7,400 men on 5 ships
- 17 December 1939—17 December 1939: 'Admiral Graf Spee' scuttled outside Montevideo
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| 18 | 1940 | - 1 April 1940—1 April 1940: BOAC starts operations, replacing Imperial and British Airways Ltd
- 11 May 1940—11 May 1940: National Government formed under Churchill
- 13 May 1940—13 May 1940: Germany invades France
- 27 May 1940—27 May 1940: Start of the evacuation of the British Army at Dunkirk (27 May - 4 Jun)
- 25 June 1940—25 June 1940: Fall of France to Germany
- 7 September 1940—7 September 1940: Germany launches bombing blitz on Britain, the first of 57 consecutive nights of
bombing
- 15 September 1940—15 September 1940: Battle of Britain: massive waves of German air attacks decisively repulsed by the
RAF - Hitler postpones invasion of Britain
- 14 November 1940—14 November 1940: Coventry heavily bombed and the Cathedral almost completely destroyed
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| 19 | 1941 | - 1941—1941: Britain introduces severe rationing
- 1941—1941: First British jet aircraft flies, based on work of Whittle
- 1941—1941: Bailey invents his portable military bridge
- 1941—1941: First use of antibiotics
- 10 May 1941—10 May 1941: Rudolf Hess flies to Scotland
- 27 May 1941—27 May 1941: 'Bismark' sunk
- 22 June 1941—22 June 1941: Germany invades Russia (Operation Barbarossa)
- 1 July 1941—1 July 1941: First Canadian armoured regiments arrive in Britain
- December 1941—December 1941: Canadian forces given operation role in defending south coast of England
- December 1941—December 1941: 'Manhattan Project' of nuclear research begins in America
- 7 December 1941—7 December 1941: Japan attackes US fleet at Pearl Harbour
- 8 December 1941—8 December 1941: USA enters WWII
- 24 December 1941—24 December 1941: Hong Kong falls to the Japanese
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| 20 | 1942 | - 1942—1942: Invention of world's first programmable computer by Alan Turing in co-operation with
Max Neumann - used to crack German codes
- 1942—1942: Gilbert Murray founds Oxfam
- 30 May 1942—30 May 1942: Over 1,000 allied bombers raid Cologne
- 4 June 1942—4 June 1942: Battle of Midway
- 19 August 1942—19 August 1942: Abortive raid on Dieppe, largely by Canadian troops
- 6 September 1942—6 September 1942: Germans defeated at Stalingrad
- 3 October 1942—3 October 1942: First successful launch of V2 rocket in Germany - first man-made object to reach
space
- 23 October 1942—23 October 1942: Battle of El Alamein - Montgomery defeats Rommel
- 2 December 1942—2 December 1942: 'Manhattan Project' - a team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first self-sustaining
nuclear chain reaction
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| 21 | 1943 | - 1943—1943: Round-the-clock bombing of Germany begins
- 16 May 1943—16 May 1943: 'Dam Buster' raids on Ruhr dams by RAF
- 24 July 1943—24 July 1943: Allies invade Italy - Benito Mussolini resigns as Italian Dictator, 24 July
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| 22 | 1944 | - 6 April 1944—6 April 1944: PAYE income tax begins
- 4 June 1944—4 June 1944: Allies enter Rome
- 6 June 1944—6 June 1944: D-Day invasion of Normandy
- 12 June 1944—12 June 1944: First V1 flying bombs hit London
- 8 September 1944—8 September 1944: First V2 rocket bombs hit London
- 11 September 1944—11 September 1944: Allies enter Germany
- 16 December 1944—16 December 1944: Battle of the Bulge: German counter-offensive
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1923 - 1944 (20 years) 
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