360
United Kingdom
Everything about United Kingdom on 360n60: 21 history, 72 dates in history, 1 future, 6 people. Each told in 60 words.
History · 21
- History · 6 May 1994
The Channel Tunnel opens between Britain and France
On 6 May 1994, Queen Elizabeth II and French President François Mitterrand opened the Channel Tunnel, linking Britain and France by rail under the sea. About 50 km long, with about 38 km under the seabed, it has the longest undersea section of any tunnel. Eurostar trains now link London and Paris in about two and a quarter hours.
- History · March 1989
Tim Berners-Lee proposes the World Wide Web
In March 1989, the British scientist Tim Berners-Lee, working at CERN in Switzerland, proposed a system for sharing information using linked documents. It became the World Wide Web. The first website went online in 1991, and in 1993 CERN made the technology free for all, letting the web grow to billions of users.
- History · 29 May 1953
Hillary and Tenzing reach the summit of Everest
At about 11:30 on 29 May 1953, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa mountaineer from Nepal, became the first people known to stand on the summit of Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain. They were part of a British expedition led by John Hunt. The news reached London on the day of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation.
- History · September 1928
Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
In September 1928, the Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming noticed that mould growing on a laboratory dish had killed the bacteria around it. He named the substance penicillin. In the 1940s, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain turned it into a medicine, the first widely used antibiotic, saving millions of lives.
- History · 12 December 1901
Marconi receives the first radio signal across the Atlantic
On 12 December 1901, at Signal Hill in Newfoundland, Guglielmo Marconi heard three faint clicks through his earphone: the Morse code letter S, sent by radio from Poldhu in Cornwall, England, about 3,500 km away. It showed that radio waves could cross an ocean, and it began the age of long-distance wireless communication.
- History · 10 January 1863
The world's first underground railway opens in London
On 10 January 1863, the Metropolitan Railway opened between Paddington and Farringdon in London, the world's first underground railway. Steam trains ran through shallow tunnels dug under the streets, and about 38,000 passengers rode on the first day. Cities around the world followed, and metro systems now carry tens of billions of journeys a year.
- History · 26 October 1863
The Football Association is founded and football's rules are written
On 26 October 1863, representatives of London football clubs met at the Freemasons' Tavern to found the Football Association and agree a single set of rules. Their 'Laws of the Game' separated association football, or soccer, from rugby, which allowed carrying the ball. Football became the world's most popular sport, played and watched by billions.
- History · 1 May 1851
The Great Exhibition opens in London's Crystal Palace
On 1 May 1851, the Great Exhibition opened in the Crystal Palace in London's Hyde Park. The huge glass and iron hall held more than 100,000 exhibits from around the world, from steam engines to diamonds. About six million visitors came, and it inspired the world's fairs and expos that followed, including Expo 2030 in Riyadh.
- History · 6 May 1840
The Penny Black, the first postage stamp, comes into use
On 6 May 1840, the Penny Black became valid for postage in Britain, the world's first adhesive postage stamp. It showed the young Queen Victoria and paid for a letter anywhere in the country for one penny. The idea, from the reformer Rowland Hill, made sending letters cheap and simple, and other countries soon copied it.
- History · 29 August 1831
Faraday discovers how to make electricity from magnetism
On 29 August 1831, Michael Faraday showed in London that a changing magnetic field can create an electric current. This discovery, electromagnetic induction, is the principle behind every power-station generator and transformer today. Within weeks he built the first electric generator, a copper disc spinning between the poles of a magnet.
- History · 27 September 1825
The first public steam railway opens
On 27 September 1825, the Stockton and Darlington Railway opened in north-east England. George Stephenson's Locomotion No. 1 pulled a train of coal wagons and passengers, becoming the first public railway to use steam locomotives. Within decades, railways crossed continents and transformed travel and trade.
- History · 21 February 1804
Trevithick's engine makes the first railway locomotive journey
On 21 February 1804, a steam engine built by the Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick hauled 10 tons of iron, five wagons and about 70 men along a tramway at the Penydarren ironworks in Wales. It was the first journey by a steam locomotive on rails, covering almost 16 km in about four hours.
- History · 14 May 1796
Edward Jenner tests the first vaccine
On 14 May 1796, the English doctor Edward Jenner infected a boy with mild cowpox and later showed he was protected from smallpox. It was the first vaccine. Vaccination spread worldwide, and in 1980 smallpox, which had killed hundreds of millions of people, became the first human disease ever eradicated.
- History · 13 March 1781
William Herschel discovers Uranus
On 13 March 1781, the musician and amateur astronomer William Herschel spotted a faint disc through his home-made telescope in Bath, England. It was a new planet, Uranus, the first discovered with a telescope and the first unknown to ancient astronomers. It doubled the known size of the solar system.
- History · 4 July 1776
The United States declares independence
On 4 July 1776, representatives of thirteen American colonies adopted the Declaration of Independence, announcing their separation from Britain and the birth of the United States. Largely written by Thomas Jefferson, it stated that all men are created equal with rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Americans celebrate the date as Independence Day.
- History · 5 January 1769
James Watt patents his improved steam engine
In January 1769, the Scottish engineer James Watt patented a steam engine with a separate condenser. It used far less coal than earlier engines, and with his partner Matthew Boulton, Watt built engines that powered mines, mills and factories. His work drove the Industrial Revolution, and the unit of power, the watt, honours him.
- History · December 1768
The first Encyclopaedia Britannica begins to appear
In December 1768, the first part of the Encyclopaedia Britannica was published in Edinburgh, Scotland, sold in weekly instalments. The full first edition, in three volumes, was finished in 1771. It became the best-known reference work in the English language, and after more than 240 years in print it moved online in 2012.
- History · 1761–1762
Harrison's sea clock solves the longitude problem
In 1761 and 1762, John Harrison's fourth sea clock, H4, sailed from England to Jamaica and lost only about five seconds over the voyage. Accurate time at sea let sailors calculate their longitude, their position east or west, for the first time. Harrison, a self-taught carpenter and clockmaker, had worked on the problem for decades.
- History · 2 July 1698
Thomas Savery patents a steam pump to drain mines
On 2 July 1698, the English engineer Thomas Savery received a patent for a machine that used steam to pump water out of mines, which he called 'the Miner's Friend'. It was one of the first practical uses of steam power. Improved by Thomas Newcomen and later James Watt, steam engines went on to power the Industrial Revolution.
- History · 22 June 1675
The Royal Observatory is founded at Greenwich
On 22 June 1675, King Charles II of England signed a warrant to build an observatory at Greenwich, near London, to chart the stars and help sailors find their longitude at sea. John Flamsteed became the first Astronomer Royal. Two centuries later, the line through Greenwich became the world's Prime Meridian, longitude zero.
- History · 2–6 September 1666
The Great Fire of London
In September 1666, a fire that began in a bakery on Pudding Lane burned for four days and destroyed most of the City of London, including more than 13,000 houses and St Paul's Cathedral. London was rebuilt in brick and stone, and the disaster led to new building rules and the growth of fire insurance.
On this day · 72
- On this day · 12 March 1989
Tim Berners-Lee proposes the World Wide Web
In March 1989, the British scientist Tim Berners-Lee, working at CERN near Geneva, wrote a proposal for linking documents across computers. His manager called it 'vague but exciting'. It became the World Wide Web, and 12 March is celebrated as the web's birthday.
- On this day · 13 July 1985
Live Aid concerts raise money for famine relief
On 13 July 1985, the Live Aid concerts were held at Wembley Stadium in London and in Philadelphia, organised by the musicians Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to help people facing famine in Ethiopia. Broadcast to an estimated 1.5 billion viewers, they raised tens of millions of pounds.
- On this day · 12 June 1979
A pedal-powered plane flies across the English Channel
On 12 June 1979, the cyclist Bryan Allen pedalled the Gossamer Albatross, a very light aircraft with a propeller driven by bicycle pedals, from England to France. The 36 km flight took almost three hours and won a prize for the first human-powered crossing of the Channel.
- On this day · 21 January 1976
Concorde begins passenger flights
On 21 January 1976, British Airways and Air France began the first supersonic passenger flights with Concorde, from London to Bahrain and from Paris to Rio de Janeiro via Dakar. Concorde flew at twice the speed of sound and crossed the Atlantic in about three and a half hours. It retired in 2003.
- On this day · 7 June 1975
The first Cricket World Cup begins
On 7 June 1975, the first Cricket World Cup began in England, with eight teams playing one-day matches of 60 overs per side. In the final at Lord's, the West Indies beat Australia. The tournament has become one of the most watched sporting events, especially in South Asia.
- On this day · 22 January 1970
The Boeing 747 jumbo jet enters service
On 22 January 1970, Pan Am flew the first passenger service of the Boeing 747 from New York to London. The 'jumbo jet' could carry about 400 passengers, more than twice as many as earlier jets. Lower fares followed, and air travel opened up to millions of people.
- On this day · 30 January 1969
The Beatles play their last live concert, on a rooftop
On 30 January 1969, the Beatles played an unannounced concert on the roof of their Apple Corps office in London. Crowds gathered in the streets below until police asked them to turn down the volume. It was the band's last public performance, lasting about 42 minutes.
- On this day · 27 June 1967
The world's first cash machine opens
On 27 June 1967, the first cash machine was opened at a Barclays bank branch in Enfield, north London. Customers used special paper vouchers instead of cards. ATMs spread worldwide, letting people withdraw money at any hour. There are now millions of them.
- On this day · 25 September 1956
The first transatlantic telephone cable opens
On 25 September 1956, TAT-1, the first telephone cable under the Atlantic, opened between Scotland and Newfoundland. It could carry 36 calls at once, far clearer than radio. Today, fibre-optic cables under the oceans carry almost all international internet traffic.
- On this day · 17 October 1956
Calder Hall nuclear power station opens
On 17 October 1956, Queen Elizabeth II opened Calder Hall in northwest England, the first nuclear power station to deliver electricity to a national grid on a commercial scale. It ran for almost 47 years. Nuclear power now provides about a tenth of the world's electricity.
- On this day · 6 May 1954
Roger Bannister runs the first four-minute mile
On 6 May 1954, the British medical student Roger Bannister became the first person to run a mile in under four minutes, at a track in Oxford, timing 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. Many had thought it impossible. His record lasted just 46 days.
- On this day · 28 February 1953
Watson and Crick work out the structure of DNA
On 28 February 1953, in Cambridge, James Watson and Francis Crick worked out the double helix structure of DNA, using X-ray images made by Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins. The twisted ladder showed how living things copy and pass on genetic information. Their paper appeared in April.
- On this day · 2 June 1953
The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II is televised
On 2 June 1953, Queen Elizabeth II was crowned at Westminster Abbey in London. For the first time, a coronation was broadcast on television, and millions of people bought or borrowed sets to watch. The same day, news arrived that Everest had been climbed.
- On this day · 2 May 1952
The first jet airliner passenger service
On 2 May 1952, a de Havilland Comet of the British airline BOAC took off from London for Johannesburg, the world's first scheduled passenger service by jet airliner. Jets flew higher, faster and more smoothly than propeller planes, and soon transformed long-distance travel.
- On this day · 25 November 1952
The Mousetrap opens in London
On 25 November 1952, Agatha Christie's murder mystery play The Mousetrap opened in London's West End. It has run ever since, apart from a pause during the pandemic, making it the longest-running play in the world. Audiences are asked to keep the ending secret.
- On this day · 5 December 1952
The Great Smog of London begins
On 5 December 1952, cold, still weather trapped smoke from coal fires over London, creating a thick, poisonous smog that lasted five days. Thousands of people died from its effects. The disaster led to Britain's Clean Air Act of 1956, an important early law against air pollution.
- On this day · 8 June 1949
George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is published
On 8 June 1949, George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four was published in London. It imagined a future in which 'Big Brother' watches everyone and the truth is constantly rewritten. Words from the book, such as 'Big Brother' and 'doublethink', entered everyday language.
- On this day · 21 June 1948
The Manchester Baby runs the first stored program
On 21 June 1948, the Manchester Baby, an experimental computer at the University of Manchester, ran the first program stored in a computer's own electronic memory. Earlier machines had to be rewired for each new task. Almost every computer since works on the same principle.
- On this day · 16 November 1945
UNESCO is founded
On 16 November 1945, 37 countries signed the constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, in London. It works to promote education, science and culture, and it keeps the World Heritage List, which protects places such as the Great Wall of China, Machu Picchu and the Pyramids of Giza.
- On this day · 13 May 1940
Churchill offers 'blood, toil, tears and sweat'
On 13 May 1940, three days after becoming British Prime Minister in the Second World War, Winston Churchill told Parliament: 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.' It was the first of several famous wartime speeches that rallied the British people.
- On this day · 3 July 1938
Mallard sets the world speed record for steam
On 3 July 1938, the British steam locomotive Mallard reached 203 km/h on a slight downhill stretch near Grantham, England. It remains the fastest speed ever recorded by a steam locomotive. Mallard is preserved at the National Railway Museum in York.
- On this day · 2 November 1936
The BBC starts the world's first regular high-definition TV service
On 2 November 1936, the BBC began a regular television service from Alexandra Palace in London, described as the world's first regular 'high-definition' service. Only a few hundred homes had sets. The service paused during the Second World War and resumed in 1946.
- On this day · 26 February 1935
Radar is demonstrated in Britain
On 26 February 1935, the Scottish scientist Robert Watson-Watt and his assistant Arnold Wilkins showed that radio waves bouncing off an aircraft could reveal its position, near Daventry in England. Radar was rapidly developed and became vital in the Second World War. Today it guides aircraft and ships and helps forecast weather.
- On this day · 27 February 1932
James Chadwick reports the neutron
On 27 February 1932, the journal Nature published a letter from the British physicist James Chadwick reporting the 'possible existence of a neutron', a particle with no electric charge inside the atom's nucleus. The discovery transformed nuclear physics, and Chadwick won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1935.
- On this day · 28 September 1928
Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
On 28 September 1928, the Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming noticed that a mould growing on a dish in his London laboratory had killed the bacteria around it. It produced penicillin, the first antibiotic. Mass-produced in the 1940s, it has saved millions of lives.
- On this day · 7 January 1927
The first transatlantic telephone call
On 7 January 1927, the first commercial telephone service across the Atlantic opened, linking New York and London by radio. A three-minute call cost about $75, a huge sum at the time. Undersea telephone cables followed in 1956, and calls between continents became part of everyday life.
- On this day · 26 January 1926
John Logie Baird demonstrates television
On 26 January 1926, the Scottish inventor John Logie Baird showed moving television pictures to members of the Royal Institution in his workshop in London. The images were small and flickering, but recognisable faces could be seen. Within a decade, regular television broadcasts had begun.
- On this day · 5 February 1924
The BBC broadcasts its time signal 'pips' for the first time
On 5 February 1924, the BBC first broadcast the six short beeps of the Greenwich Time Signal, sent from the Royal Observatory. The final pip marks the exact start of the hour. Listeners used them to set their clocks, and the pips are still heard on BBC radio today.
- On this day · 18 October 1922
The British Broadcasting Company is formed
On 18 October 1922, the British Broadcasting Company was formed by radio manufacturers. It began daily radio broadcasts in November and became the publicly funded British Broadcasting Corporation, the BBC, in 1927. It is now one of the world's largest broadcasters.
- On this day · 13 September 1916
Roald Dahl is born
On 13 September 1916, the writer Roald Dahl was born in Llandaff, Wales, to Norwegian parents. A wartime fighter pilot, he later wrote much-loved children's books, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda and The BFG, which have sold hundreds of millions of copies.
- On this day · 13 August 1913
Stainless steel is first made
On 13 August 1913, the metallurgist Harry Brearley cast a steel containing chromium in Sheffield, England, while looking for a metal for gun barrels. He noticed it did not rust. Stainless steel is now used in cutlery, sinks, surgical tools and buildings around the world.
- On this day · 8 February 1910
The Boy Scouts of America is founded
On 8 February 1910, the Boy Scouts of America was incorporated, inspired by Robert Baden-Powell's scouting movement in Britain. Scouting taught young people outdoor skills, first aid and community service. The world scouting movement today has tens of millions of members in more than 170 countries.
- On this day · 12 December 1901
Marconi receives the first transatlantic radio signal
On 12 December 1901, at Signal Hill in Newfoundland, Guglielmo Marconi heard three faint clicks, the Morse code letter 'S', sent by radio from Poldhu in Cornwall, England, about 3,500 kilometres away. It proved that radio waves could cross the ocean.
- On this day · 27 March 1899
Marconi sends a radio message across the English Channel
On 27 March 1899, Guglielmo Marconi sent the first wireless message across the English Channel, from Wimereux in France to South Foreland in England, about 50 km. Less than three years later, he received a signal across the Atlantic.
- On this day · 26 May 1897
Bram Stoker's Dracula is published
On 26 May 1897, the Irish writer Bram Stoker's novel Dracula was published in London. Told through letters and diary entries, the story of a vampire count was a modest success at first. It went on to inspire hundreds of films, plays and books.
- On this day · 12 January 1895
Britain's National Trust is founded
On 12 January 1895, the National Trust was founded in Britain by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to protect places of natural beauty and historic interest for everyone. Today it cares for hundreds of historic houses, gardens and nature reserves, and long stretches of coastline.
- On this day · 4 March 1890
Scotland's Forth Bridge opens
On 4 March 1890, the Forth Bridge opened, carrying the railway across the Firth of Forth near Edinburgh. Its giant red steel cantilevers made it one of the great engineering feats of its age, and the longest single-span bridge in the world at the time. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- On this day · 1 February 1884
The first part of the Oxford English Dictionary appears
On 1 February 1884, the first instalment of what became the Oxford English Dictionary was published, covering words from 'A' to 'Ant'. The editors had asked the public to send in examples of words in use. The full dictionary took until 1928 to finish, and it is still being updated online.
- On this day · 13 October 1884
Greenwich is chosen as the Prime Meridian
On 13 October 1884, delegates from 25 countries at the International Meridian Conference in Washington voted to make the meridian through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, London, longitude zero. The world's time zones are still counted from it.
- On this day · 9 July 1877
The first Wimbledon tennis championship begins
On 9 July 1877, the first lawn tennis championship began at the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon, London, with 22 men taking part. Spencer Gore won the final. Wimbledon is now the oldest and one of the most famous tennis tournaments in the world.
- On this day · 30 November 1872
The first international football match
On 30 November 1872, Scotland and England played the first official international football match, in Glasgow. About 4,000 spectators watched a 0–0 draw. Today, international football is the world's most popular sport, and the FIFA World Cup is watched by billions of people.
- On this day · 10 November 1871
'Dr Livingstone, I presume?'
On 10 November 1871, by the most common account, the journalist Henry Morton Stanley found the Scottish explorer David Livingstone at Ujiji, on Lake Tanganyika, after Livingstone had not been heard from for years. Stanley's greeting, 'Dr Livingstone, I presume?', became one of the most famous lines in the history of exploration.
- On this day · 1 July 1867
Canada becomes a self-governing dominion
On 1 July 1867, the British North America Act came into force, uniting the colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick into a new self-governing country, the Dominion of Canada. Other provinces joined later. Canadians celebrate the date every year as Canada Day.
- On this day · 8 December 1864
The Clifton Suspension Bridge opens
On 8 December 1864, the Clifton Suspension Bridge opened across the Avon Gorge in Bristol, England. It was based on a design by the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who died before it was finished. Still in daily use, it is one of the most famous bridges of the 19th century.
- On this day · 10 January 1863
The world's first underground railway opens in London
On 10 January 1863, the Metropolitan Railway opened between Paddington and Farringdon in London, the first underground railway in the world. Steam trains ran through shallow tunnels, and about 38,000 passengers rode on the first day. The London Underground now has 11 lines and about 270 stations.
- On this day · 26 October 1863
The Football Association is founded
On 26 October 1863, representatives of football clubs met at the Freemasons' Tavern in London to found the Football Association and agree a common set of rules. Their rules became the basis of association football, or soccer, now the world's most popular sport.
- On this day · 31 May 1859
The Big Ben clock starts keeping time
On 31 May 1859, the Great Clock in the tower of the Palace of Westminster in London began keeping time. Its great bell, nicknamed Big Ben, first rang out in July. Famous for its accuracy, the clock is still adjusted by adding or removing old pennies on its pendulum.
- On this day · 1 May 1851
The Great Exhibition opens in London
On 1 May 1851, the Great Exhibition opened in the Crystal Palace, a vast building of iron and glass in London's Hyde Park. More than 100,000 exhibits from around the world showed off new machines, inventions and crafts. About six million visitors came, and it inspired world's fairs and expos ever since.
- On this day · 10 October 1846
Triton, Neptune's largest moon, is discovered
On 10 October 1846, just 17 days after the planet Neptune was discovered, the English astronomer William Lassell found its largest moon, Triton. Triton orbits backwards, against Neptune's spin, and has geysers of nitrogen, seen by Voyager 2 in 1989.
- On this day · 17 March 1845
The rubber band is patented
On 17 March 1845, Stephen Perry of the London company Messrs Perry and Co was granted a patent for rubber bands, made from vulcanised rubber. Cheap and simple, they became one of the most widely used everyday objects in offices, homes and post rooms.
- On this day · 19 July 1843
Brunel's SS Great Britain is launched
On 19 July 1843, the SS Great Britain, designed by the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was floated out in Bristol. It was the first large ocean-going ship with an iron hull and a screw propeller, the design almost all ships use today. Restored, it is now a museum in Bristol.
- On this day · 29 August 1831
Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction
On 29 August 1831, Michael Faraday showed in London that a changing magnetic field can create an electric current. This discovery, electromagnetic induction, is the principle behind every power-station generator and transformer today.
- On this day · 27 December 1831
Darwin sets sail on HMS Beagle
On 27 December 1831, HMS Beagle left Plymouth, England, with the 22-year-old naturalist Charles Darwin aboard. The voyage around the world lasted almost five years. Darwin's observations, including in the Galápagos Islands, later shaped his theory of evolution by natural selection.
- On this day · 15 September 1830
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway opens
On 15 September 1830, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened, the first intercity railway with timetabled passenger trains pulled entirely by steam locomotives. Its success, shown by George Stephenson's Rocket, set off a railway boom in Britain and around the world.
- On this day · 10 June 1829
The first Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race
On 10 June 1829, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge raced each other in rowing boats on the River Thames at Henley for the first time. Oxford won. The Boat Race became an annual event on the Thames in London and is one of the world's oldest sporting contests.
- On this day · 27 September 1825
The Stockton and Darlington Railway opens
On 27 September 1825, the Stockton and Darlington Railway opened in northeast England, the first public railway to use steam locomotives. George Stephenson's engine Locomotion No. 1 pulled the first train, carrying coal and hundreds of passengers.
- On this day · 18 June 1815
The Battle of Waterloo
On 18 June 1815, near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, British-led and Prussian armies defeated the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. His defeat ended more than two decades of war in Europe. Napoleon was exiled to the remote island of Saint Helena, where he died in 1821.
- On this day · 28 January 1813
Pride and Prejudice is published
On 28 January 1813, Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice was published in London, without her name on it. The witty story of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy became one of the best-loved novels in the English language, read and filmed around the world.
- On this day · 12 February 1809
Charles Darwin is born
On 12 February 1809, Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, England. His voyage around the world on HMS Beagle led him to the theory of evolution by natural selection, published in 1859 in On the Origin of Species. It became the foundation of modern biology.
- On this day · 25 March 1807
The first fare-paying railway passengers
On 25 March 1807, the Swansea and Mumbles Railway in Wales began carrying fare-paying passengers in a horse-drawn carriage on rails. It was the first passenger railway service in the world. The line later used steam and electric trains and ran until 1960.
- On this day · 21 February 1804
The first railway journey by a steam locomotive
On 21 February 1804, Richard Trevithick's steam engine hauled 10 tons of iron, five wagons and about 70 men along a tramway at the Penydarren ironworks in Wales. It was the first journey by a steam locomotive on rails, and a first step towards the railway age.
- On this day · 20 March 1800
Volta describes the first battery
On 20 March 1800, Alessandro Volta described his 'pile' of zinc and copper discs in a letter to the Royal Society in London. It was the first battery, giving a steady electric current for the first time. The volt, the unit of electric potential, is named after him.
- On this day · 14 May 1796
Edward Jenner gives the first vaccination
On 14 May 1796, the English doctor Edward Jenner inoculated eight-year-old James Phipps with material from a cowpox sore. When later exposed to smallpox, the boy did not fall ill. Jenner's discovery was the first vaccine, and led eventually to the eradication of smallpox.
- On this day · 13 March 1781
William Herschel discovers Uranus
On 13 March 1781, the musician and astronomer William Herschel spotted a faint disc through his home-made telescope in Bath, England. He first thought it was a comet. It proved to be a new planet, Uranus, the first discovered with a telescope, doubling the known size of the solar system.
- On this day · 17 January 1773
Cook's ships are the first to cross the Antarctic Circle
On 17 January 1773, the ships of the British navigator James Cook, HMS Resolution and HMS Adventure, became the first known vessels to cross the Antarctic Circle. Blocked by ice, Cook never sighted Antarctica itself, but his voyage showed that any southern continent lay far to the south.
- On this day · 16 December 1773
The Boston Tea Party
On 16 December 1773, American colonists in Boston boarded three ships and threw 342 chests of British tea into the harbour, protesting against a tax imposed by the British Parliament. The protest became a step on the road to the American Revolution and independence in 1776.
- On this day · 5 January 1769
James Watt patents his improved steam engine
On 5 January 1769, the Scottish engineer James Watt received a patent for a separate condenser, which made steam engines far more efficient. His engines went on to power factories, mines and mills, and helped drive the Industrial Revolution. The unit of power, the watt, is named after him.
- On this day · 14 September 1752
Britain changes its calendar and skips 11 days
In 1752, Britain and its colonies switched to the Gregorian calendar used by much of Europe. To catch up, 2 September was followed directly by 14 September 1752, so 11 days were skipped. The change meant the calendar matched the seasons more accurately.
- On this day · 11 March 1702
The first daily newspaper in English is published
On 11 March 1702, The Daily Courant appeared in London, the first daily newspaper in the English language. It was a single sheet with news, mostly from abroad. The founder promised to report facts without adding comments, and let readers judge for themselves.
- On this day · 5 July 1687
Isaac Newton's Principia is published
On 5 July 1687, Isaac Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, known as the Principia, was published in London. It set out his laws of motion and universal gravitation, explaining why apples fall and planets orbit the Sun. It is one of the most important science books ever written.
- On this day · 22 June 1675
King Charles II founds the Royal Observatory, Greenwich
On 22 June 1675, King Charles II signed a warrant to build an observatory at Greenwich, near London, to chart the stars and help sailors find their longitude. In 1884, the line through Greenwich was chosen as the Prime Meridian, longitude zero.
- On this day · 2 September 1666
The Great Fire of London begins
In the early hours of 2 September 1666, a fire broke out in a bakery on Pudding Lane in London. Fanned by strong winds, it burned for four days and destroyed about 13,000 houses and old St Paul's Cathedral. The city was rebuilt in brick and stone.
Future · 1
People · 6
- Inventor of the World Wide Web · born 1955
Tim Berners-Lee
Tim Berners-Lee is a British computer scientist who invented the World Wide Web. Working at CERN near Geneva, he proposed it in March 1989 and created the first web browser, web server and website by the end of 1990. He and CERN made the web free for everyone to use, which helped it grow to more than a billion websites.
- Doctor and scientist · 1881–1955
Alexander Fleming
Alexander Fleming was a Scottish doctor and scientist who discovered penicillin, the first antibiotic, in 1928. Returning to his London laboratory after a holiday, he noticed that a mould had killed the bacteria growing around it. Mass-produced in the 1940s by a team in Oxford, penicillin has saved millions of lives. He shared the 1945 Nobel Prize.
- Nurse and statistician · 1820–1910
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale was a British nurse who founded modern nursing. In military hospitals during the Crimean War in the 1850s, she cut deaths by insisting on cleanliness, fresh air and good food, and became known as 'the Lady with the Lamp'. She used pioneering charts to persuade officials, and founded a nursing school in London in 1860.
- Naturalist · 1809–1882
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin was an English naturalist whose theory of evolution by natural selection explained how living things change over generations. His ideas grew from a five-year voyage around the world on HMS Beagle, including a visit to the Galápagos Islands. He published On the Origin of Species in 1859. It became the foundation of modern biology.
- Scientist · 1791–1867
Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday was an English scientist, the son of a blacksmith, who left school at 13. In 1831 he discovered electromagnetic induction, the principle behind every electric generator and transformer, and built the first generator. He also made the first electric motor, and his popular Christmas Lectures for young people at the Royal Institution still continue today.
- Physicist and mathematician · 1643–1727
Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton was an English scientist who explained gravity and the laws of motion. His book Principia, published in 1687, showed that the same force that makes an apple fall keeps the Moon in orbit. He also split white light into colours with a prism, built the first practical reflecting telescope and helped invent calculus.