•(477): First invasion of England by Saxons, under Aelle.
•(495): Second Saxon invasion to England, under Cerdic.
•(537): Death of King Arthur.
•(565): Introduction of Christianity to Britain by Saint Columba.
•(597): Saint Augustine established the first Catholic mission in England, at Canterbury.
•(664): Synod of Whitby confirmed Catholicism as the state religion.
•(871): Alfred (the Great) became King of Wessex; he led Anglo-Saxon revolt against Scandinavian invaders.
•(878): Battle of Edington.
•(973): Edgar of Wessex proclaimed first King of all England.
•(1040): Macbeth became King of Scotland on the death of Duncan.
•(1045): King Edward married the daughter of the English baron Godwin.
•(1066): Death of Edward the Confessor. Harold, the Queen's brother proclaimed King.
•(1086): Publication of The Domesday Book, by William Conqueror.3
•(1087): William I died; succeeded as King of England by his second son, William II (the first son, Robert, became Duke of Normandy).
•(1095): Beginning of the "Crusades".
•(1100): Accession of King Henry I.
•(1189): Accession of King Richard I "The Lionheart".
•(1210): English colonization of Ireland began.
•(1286): Death of the Scottish King Alexander III.
•(1306): Robert I "The Bruce", declared King of Scotland.
•(1314): Battle of Bannockburn; English forces destroyed, and Scottish independence reasserted.
•(1339): English invaded France.
•(1348): Bubonic plague- "The Black Death"- strikes England.
•(1362): The English Language becomes the official language of The Law Courts.
•(1371): Death of Scottish King David II; replaced by Robert II.
•(1377): Death of English King Edward III.
•(1380): First translation of The Christian Bible into English by John Wycliffe.
•(1399): King Richard II deposed and replaced by John of Gaunt's son, a Lancastrian, Henry "Bolingbroke", who was declared King Henry IV.
•(1415): Battle of Agincourt.
•(1420): Henry V married Princess Catherine, daughter of The French King Charles VI.
•(1422): Deaths of Henry V and Charles VI.
•(1431): The French heroine Jeanne d'Arc "Joan of Arc" was burned to death, not for her political activities but because of her alleged offences against the doctrinal law down by The Roman Catholic Church.
•(1440): Invention of printing in Europe.
•(1453): End of The Hundred Years' War between England and France.
•(1455): Beginning of "The War of Roses".
•(1476): William Caxton, who served an apprenticeship in Holland, established the first printing press in England, at Westminster.
•(1483): Death of King Edward IV.

The Renaissance

•(1485): The Battle of Bosworth Field, the end of the Wars of Roses; death of King Richard.
•(1488): Accession of King James IV of Scotland; he later married Henry VII's daughter, Margret.
•(1490s): The great decade of discovery.
*Christopher Columbus discovered American continent.
*Vasco De Gama sailed around Africa to India, on behalf of Portugal.
*John Cabot sailed from Bristol to the north-eastern shores of America.
•(1509): Accession of King Henry VIII, second son of Henry VII.
•(1513): Niccolo Machiavelli, a Florentine political philosopher, published his major work, The Prince. His philosophy acknowledged the use of questionable political expediency - a "reign of terror" even - to achieve just results, and he was considered "evil" in England.
•(1521): The German religious reformer Martin Luther was excommunicated by The Pope. In the same year, King Henry VIII was granted the title "Defender of the Faith".
•(1526): A printed version of The New Testament of The Christian Bible, translated by William Tyndale.
•(1534): Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish monk, founded the Catholic Society of Jesus "The Jesuits". With the "Act of Supremacy", Henry VIII declared himself the supreme head of a non-conformist (Protestant) Christian church in England.
•(1538): Pope Paul III excommunicated King Henry VIII from the Roman Catholic church.
•(1538): the licensing of books was first introduced, as the monasteries and their libraries continued to be destroyed.
•(1539): the Great Bible, based on the works of two expatriates (Tyndale and Coverdale), published in England.
•(1547): Death of King Henry VIII.
•(1558): Elizabeth I (daughter of Henry VIII and Anna Boleyn) became Queen.
•(1563): Beginning of The Catholic "Counter-Reformation" in Germany.
•(1578): Opining of The Theatre, London's first.
•(1594): Foundation of The Bank of England.
•(1603): Elizabeth "The Virgin Queen" died. James VI of Scotland became James I "of Great Britain".
•(1611): Publication of The King James or Authorised Version of The Bible.
•(1618): Beginning of The Thirty Years' War, initially a religious conflict.
•(1625): Charles I became King on the death of his father James I.
•(1638): The War OF The Bishops, Scotland resisted the northward spread of The Church of England.
•(1642): Parliament closed down all theatres.
•(1642-48): English Civil War. Government forces (Cavaliers' loyal to King Charles I), opposed parliamentary forces (Roundheads) led by Oliver Cromwell. Scotland joined on the side of Parliament, and the king was finally arrested.
•(1648): Peace of Westphalia ended The Thirty Years' War in Europe.
•(1649): King Charles I tried and executed. Cromwell became the leader of a republican Britain known as "The Commonwealth".
•(1658): Death of Oliver Cromwell.
•(1660): The Commonwealth collapsed because of weak leadership; the son of Charles I was recalled from France ( The Restoration) and became King Charles II.

Restoration to Romanticism

•(1665): The Great Plague: London's population decimated.
•(1672): Third Anglo-Dutch War.
•(1685): Death of Charles II.
•(1689):
*The Declaration of Rights.
*The philosopher John Locke published his Two Treatises.
•(1713): End of the major European war (of Spanish Succession) with The Treaty of Utrecht.
•(1770): The so-called "Age of Reason" – a term often applied to the whole of the eighteenth century- reached it's height.
•(1775): The invention of the steam-engine by the Scotsman James Watt.
•(1776): The American Declaration of Independence. Britain was at war with America from 1775 to 1783 when independence was recognized.

The Romantic Period

•(1789): The French Revolution.
•(1804): Napoleon Bonaparte, an army general became Emperor of France.
•(1812-14): Second War of American Independence.
•(1814): Invention of the railway locomotive by George Stephenson.
•(1815): Congress of Vienna, at the end of the wars against France (the Napoleonic wars). Britain emerged as the most powerful nation in Europe.
•(1819): The Peterloo Massacre; a workers' uprising in Manchester was brutally suppressed, with many casualties.

The Nineteenth Century

•(1832): The First Reform Bill; voting rights were extended for the first time to men who were not landowners, and most of the privileged seats in Parliament (the rotten boroughs) were abolished.
•(1833): Slavery abolished in Britain colonies.
•(1833): First Factory Act improved workers' conditions and made factory inspections compulsory.
•(1833): Poor Laws provided accommodation in workhouses for the destitute, but with forced labour.
•(1837): Victoria became Queen.
•(1847): Publication of The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
•(1848): The Year of Revolution in Europe.
•(1857): The Indian Mutiny, Britain's colonial presence was challenged for the first time.
•(1859): Publication of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin.
•(1861): Death of Prince Albert. Queen Victoria remained a widow until her death in 1901.
•(1861-65): The American Civil War.
•(1867): Karl Marx published. In England, Das Kapital, which was a principal text of socialist ideology for over a century.
•(1867): The Second Reform Bill; the right to vote in parliamentary elections was gradually being expanded in Britain, (a Third Bill was passed in 1884).
•(1870): Political union in Italy.
•(1871): Political union in Germany.
•(1877): In order to boost the flagging popularity of the monarchy, Queen Victoria is declared Empress of India by Conservative Prime Minister Disraeli, reinforcing Britain's colonial ambitions.
•(1898): Marxist politics introduced in Russia, with the establishment by Lenin and others of the Russian Socialist Democratic Workers' Party.
•(1899): Establishment in Dublin of The Irish National Theatre.