500 Anglo-Saxon conquest Venerable Bede Durham Cathedral, Lindisfarne Coming of Christianity
900 The Danelaw Alfred, Cnut York Anglo-Saxon literature: Beowulf
1066 The Norman Conquest William the Conqueror White Tower, London Domesday Book, rise of serfdom
1170 Battle between king and Church Thomas Becket, Henry II Canterbury Cathedral Expansion of government
1215 Battle between king and barons King John Runnymede First universities
1258 Consultation of barons and townsmen Henry III, Edward I, Simon de Montfort Westminster Abbey Rise of wool trade
1314 Scottish and Welsh wars Robert the Bruce, Llewllyn, Edward I and n Welsh castles Gothic architecture
1415 Agincourt and 100 Years' War Henry V Cinque Ports Chivalric literature: Arthurian legends
1485 Defeat of Yorkists Richard II, Henry VII Bosworth, Tower of London, Bristol Caxton's printing press, Cabot's voyages
1535 Execution of Thomas More Henry VIII, Thomas Cromwell Inns of Court, Hampton Court Break with Rome, Enclosures
1553 Catholic Restoration Philip and Mary, Thomas Cranmer Oxford Tudor architecture
1588 Defeat of Spanish Armada Elizabeth I, Burleigh, Walsingham Tilbury Protestant ascendancy, Elizabethan drama
1611 King James BIble James I, Lancelot Andrews Lambeth Palace King James Bible, Jacobean drama
1649 Execution of Charles I and Cromwellian conquest of Ireland Charles I, Archbishop Laud, Oliver Cromwell Whitehall Palace, Huntingdon Thomas Hobbes, John Milton's poems and tracts
1689 Glorious Revolution and Battle of the Boyne (1690) James II, William III St Paul's Cathedral Royal Society, Newton and Scientific Revolution, John Locke, Christopher Wren
1707 Union of England and Scotland Duke of Marlborough Blenheim Palace Beginnings of Agricultural Revolution (Jethro Tull)
1721 Beginning of Walpole's administration Sir Robert Walpole Houghton Hall John Wesley and Methodism
1763 Treaty of Paris, securing Canada etc. for Crown Elder Pitt, George III British Museum Foundation ofBritish Museum
1769 Spinning Mule: key moment in Industrial Revolution John Watt, Josiah Wedgwood Ironbridge Steam power
1776 Loss of 13 Colonies Lord North, George Washington Boston perhaps too far away... Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations
1805 Battle of Trafalgar Pitt, Nelson, Wellington Portsmouth (the Victory) Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine
1825 Opening of first railway CastIereagh , Cannmg Scicience Museum, York Railway Museum Stephenson's Rocket
1832 Reform Bill and 1833 Abolition of Slavery Wilberforce, Wellington Liverpool Factory Act and workhouses
1838 Chartists, and 1846 Repeal of Corn Laws Peel IndustrIal Manchester or what's left of it Penny Post (1840), Darwin's voyage
1886 Irish Home Rule Bill Gladstone, Disraeli Hughenden Manor, Osborne House Suez Canal under British control
1904 Entente Cordiale Edward VII Buckingham Palace Motorcars
1919 Treaty of Versailles Lloyd George Admiralty Arch and Whitehall, War memorials League ofNations
1931 Statute of Westminster Ramsay Macdonald, Baldwin Art Deco cinemas Dominions released from British control
1940 Churchill as PM Churchill, Eden Chartwell, Cabinet War Rooms Spitfire
1945 Labour landslide Attlee, Bevin Suburban semis Welfare State, 1944 Education Act, UN
1947 Indian independence Gandhi, Mountbatten British Empire and Commonwe alth Museum (Bristol) Large-scale migration from Indian sub-continent
1960 Wind of Change Macmillan As above British withdrawal from Africa
1969 British troops deployed in Ulster O'Neill, Paisley, Taoiseach Lynch National Army Museum Terrorist attacks on mainland
1973 UK joins EEC Heath, Callaghan Brave new architecture Sex Discrimination outlawed 1975
1984 Miners' strike Margaret Thatcher, Scargill Collieries Building of Channel Tunnel
1997 Blair elected to power Tony Blair, Gordon Brown Ideally, Houses of Parliament Internet and globalization