| • 1847: British Museum founded | • 1848: Marx & Engels write Communist Manifesto | • 1851: Great Exhibition opens in Hyde Park | • 1854: Start of Crimean War | • 1859: Darwin's Origin of Species published | • 1861: American Civil War begins | • 1865: Salvation Army founded | • 1869: Suez Canal opened | • 1871: Trades Unions legalised | • 1872: Secret ballots introduced for elections | • 1873: Dr Livingstone dies | • 1876: Bell invents telephone | • 1878: Electric light bulb invented | • 1881: Pasteur invents innoculation | • 1884: Fabian Society founded | • 1887: Queen Victoria's Jubilee | • 1894: Manchester Ship Canal opened | • 1899: Boer War starts | • 1901: Queen Victoria dies | • 1903: 1st aeroplane flight by Wright Bros. | • 1909: Introduction of Old Age Pension | • 1912: Sinking of the Titanic | • 1914: Start of 1st World War | • 1916: Battle of the Somme | • 1918: End of 1st World War | • 1919: 1st trans-atlantic flight | • 1920: League of Nations founded | • 1921: The FA bans women's football | • 1922: Irish Free State founded | • 1924: Lenin dies | • 1925: Introduction of the chocolate digestive | • 1926: General Strike | • 1928: Women get the vote | • 1934: Hitler assumes power in Germany | • 1936: Regular BBC TV broadcasts begin | • 1939: Start of 2nd World War | • 1940: Dunkirk evacuation | • 1941: Japanese attack Pearl Harbour | • 1944: "D-Day" landings in France | • 1945: End of 2nd World War | • 1946: USA tests atom bomb at Bikini Island | • 1947: Sound Barrier broken | • 1948: NHS founded | • 1950: Korean War starts | • 1950: Netherbury village connected to mains water | • 1951: Suez "Crisis" | • 1953: Queen Elizabeth II crowned | • 1953: Whitecross connected to mains water | • 1954: Bannister runs 1st 4 minute mile | • 1955: ITV starts broadcasting | • 1957: 1st dog in space | • 1958: Gatwick Airport opened | • 1959: M1, the 1st motoway, opened | • 1961: 1st man in space | • 1963: US President Kennedy assassinated | • 1965: Post Office Tower opened | • 1966: England win World Cup |
