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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1900 | |
| 2 | 1901 | |
| 3 | 1902 | |
| 4 | 1903 | - 1903: USA - Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright achieved flight in a manned, gasoline power-driven, heavier-than-air flying machine at Kitty Hawk.
- 1903: UK - First Silent Movie, The Great Train Robbery
- 1903: India - Plague strikes
- 1903: Ireland - Irish land purchase bill, Wyndham's Act, permits Irish to buy land from landlords with
- 1903: UK - Liverpool University, Sheffield University and Leeds University founded
- 1903: UK - Balfour's Licensing Act reduces number of houses selling alcohol
- 1903: UK - Trade depression - unemployment results; Act sets up local committees to find employment, voluntary contributions give small stipend to unemployed
- 1903: UK - Act of Parliament secures highly privileged immunity for trades unions; Labour Party formed
- 1903: UK - Free school meals for poor children, Children's Act deals with cruelty to children, prohibits imprisonment of children under 14
- 1903: UK - 72 British ships have Marconi's radio, 1912 - 450, 1914 - 879
- 1903: UK - Beginning of Old Age Pension scheme
- 1903: UK - Trade depression - unemployment results; William Beveridge publishes Unemployment, a Problem of Industry, which prompts creation of Labour Exchanges
- 1903: Europe - Louis Bleriot flies across the English Channel
- 1903: UK - Edward Binney and Harold Smith co-invent crayons.
- 1903: UK - Bottle-making machinery invented by Michael J. Owens.
- 1903: UK - Mary Anderson invents windshield wipers.
- 1903: USA - William Coolidge invents ductile tungsten used in lightbulbs.
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| 5 | 1904 | |
| 6 | 1905 | |
| 7 | 1906 | |
| 8 | 1907 | |
| 9 | 1908 | |
| 10 | 1909 | |
| 11 | 1910 | - 1910: UK - Georges Claude discovered that electricity conducted through a tube of the rare inert gas, neon, gives a bright red glow and that other gases gave off other colors, e.g., argon gives blue, helium gives yellow and white, etc.
- 1910: UK - First live opera broadcast
- 1910: UK - Halley's Comet Makes an Appearance
- 1910: UK - The Tango Catches On
- 1910: South Africa - Formation of Union of South Africa
- 1910: UK - Death of Edward VII
- 1910: UK - Population of England/Wales 36,070, Scotland - 4,761, N. Ireland - 1,251
- 1910: UK - Contributory National Insurance Scheme introduced by David Lloyd George, provides medical care, maternity benefits and sick pay
- 1910: UK - Parliament Act reduces House of Lords' veto to delaying power; House of Commons begins to pay members a stipend
- 1910: UK - There are 146,000 female clerical workers in England, up from 22,000 in 1891, 7,000 in 1881, and 19 in 1851
- 1910: USA - Thomas Edison demonstrated the first talking motion picture.
- 1910: UK - Infant mortality now 110 per 1000 live births, declines steadily to 24.4 in 1956; emigration reaches about 464,000/year; divorces average 823/year, go to 3,619/year in 1920-1922, 7,955/year in 1939 (latter rise because willful desertion, cruelty and incurable insanity added to causes in 1937)
- 1910: UK - Strikes of seaman, dock and transport workers, general railway strike for higher wages during period to 1912
- 20 Jan 1910: UK - George V, ruler of England to 1936. House of Windsor (name adopted Jul 17, 1917): 2nd son of Edward VII, married Princess Mary of Teck.
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| 12 | 1911 | |
| 13 | 1912 | - 1912: North Sea - The Sinking of the Titanic: 1,515 people lose their lives.
- 1912: UK - Parachutes Invented
- 1912: UK - Piltdown Man, the 'Missing Link,' Discovered but later revealed as a fraud
- 1912: SOS Accepted as Universal Distress Signal
- 1912: UK - Motorized movie cameras invented, and replaced hand-cranked cameras.
- 1912: UK - The first tank patented by Australian inventor De La Mole.
- 1912: USA - Clarence Crane created Life Savers candy
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| 14 | 1913 | - 1913: USA - Leo Baekeland invented a plastic laminate, known as Bakelite, and later as Formica
- 1913: Detroit, MI, USA - First assembly line introduced in Ford automobile factory
- 1913: New York, NY, USA - The Armory Show, an international display of some 1600 works of modern art, and one of the more important U.S. art exhibitions ever held, opens at the 69th-regiment armory. It arouses public curiosity, generates sensational news coverage, and helps change the direction of American art
- 1913: USA - Personal Income Tax introduced
- 1913: Washington, DC, USA - Woodrow Wilson president 1913-1921.
- 1913: UK - The crossword puzzle was invented by Arthur Wynne.
- 1913: USA - The Merck Chemical Company patented what is now known as ecstasy.
- 1913: USA - Mary Phelps Jacob invents the bra
- 1913: USA - Gideon Sundback invents the modern zipper.
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| 15 | 1914 | - 1914: UK - Battle of the Marne
- 1914: USA - Charlie Chaplin First Appeared as the Little Tramp
- 1914: UK - First Traffic Light
- 1914: Panama - Panama Canal Officially Opened
- 1914: Egypt - Britain proclaims protectorate over Egypt
- 1914: France - Stunning British casualty figures come from Loos -60,000; in on the Somme, 60,000 in one day; total for 5-month offensive - 400,000; Germans use poison gas at Ypres
- 1914: Ireland - Easter Monday Irish rebellion, Irish Volunteers (later Irish Republican Army) proclaim Irish Republic; German submarine lands Sir Roger Casement who is arrested, German ship with rifles intercepted off Irish coast, Casement executed; Sinn Fein and Ulster cannot agree on partition
- 1914: France - Passchendaele, British advance of 5 miles costs 400,000 casualties
- 1914: UK - Balfour Declaration promises Jews home in Palestine
- 1914: UK - First use of massed tanks (Battle of Cambrai)
- 1914: UK - King George V adopts Windsor as Royal Family's English surname in place of family's German name
- 1914: USA - Garrett A. Morgan invents the Morgan gas mask
- 4 Aug 1914: World War I begins and lasts until 1918, because Germany violates a treaty to respect neutrality of Belgium; Turkey enters war on Germany's side
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| 16 | 1915 | |
| 17 | 1916 | |
| 18 | 1917 | |
| 19 | 1918 | - 1918: UK - Influenza Epidemic
- 1918: Russia - Czar Nicholas II and his family are killed
- 1918: UK - Summer:Great Influenza Epidemic begins, reaches height end of year, new outbreak first quarter of 1919: England and Wales lose 150,000 (15,000 in London alone)
- 1918: UK - Final casualties for World War I - almost 1 million British Empire men killed, about 3 million maimed (744,000 killed are from UK)
- 1918: UK - Women over 30 given the vote (complete voting equality with men comes in 1928), all men over 21 (except peers, lunatics and felons) given vote
- 1918: UK - Consumer purchasing power now about 1/3 of what it was in 1914
- 1918: USA - Charles Jung invented fortune cookies.
- 1918: UK - Police strikes this year and the next
- 9 Nov 1918: Europe - Kaiser abdicates, peace signed two days later at Treaty of Versailles, ending World War I
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| 20 | 1919 | |
| 21 | 1920 | - 1920: India - Bubonic Plague strikes
- 1920: UK - League of Nations Established
- 1920: UK - Population of England/Wales - 37,887, Scotland - 4,882, N.Ireland - 1,258
- 1920: UK - Economic slump, 2,170,000 unemployed
- 1920: Palestine - Serious clashes between Jews and Arabs
- 1920: USA - US restricts immigration
- 1920: Ireland - Southern Irish parliament passes Government of Ireland Act, civil war effectively ends (until 1968)
- 1920: UK - Lloyd George sells honours in return for party contributions, partly responsible for downfall of Coalition government
- 1920: Egypt - Britain recognizes Egyptian independence
- 1920: UK - British Broadcasting Company (BBC) begins transmission of speech over air to public
- 1920: Italy - Benito Mussolini becomes fascist dictator
- 1920: UK - First football cup final at Wembley
- 1920: UK - Greyhound racing becomes popular
- 1920: UK - Radio and cinema begin growth (by 1929, 3,000 cinemas in Britain)
- 1920: UK - Convictions for drunkenness fall from 189,000 in 1913 to 53,000 in 1930
- 1920: France - Tuberculosis vaccine developed
- 1920: UK - The tommy gun patented by John T Thompson.
- 1920: USA - The Band-Aid invented by Earle Dickson
- 1920: Ireland - Irish Republican Army begins Civil War with raids on police barracks and income tax offices all over Ireland
- 1920: UK - Communist Party of Great Britain founded; affiliation with Labour Party rebuffed = schism between communism and socialism
- 1920: UK - Population of Great Britain has grown by 5 per cent, emigration overseas declines from 256,000 in 1923 (post-war peak) to 92,000 in 1930 and many return to offset those leaving; British population gravitates to south and away from depressed areas of South Wales and northern England, Greater London is now over 8 million
- Dec 1920: Ireland - New Government of Ireland Act proposes partition of Ireland into Ulster (north) and Irish Free State (south), each to have its own government
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| 22 | 1921 | |
| 23 | 1922 | |
| 24 | 1923 | |
| 25 | 1924 | |
| 26 | 1925 | |
| 27 | 1926 | |
| 28 | 1927 | |
| 29 | 1928 | |
| 30 | 1929 | |
| 31 | 1930 | |
| 32 | 1931 | - 1931: UK - Housing Act passes, provides subsidies for slum clearance
- 1931: USA - Al Capone Imprisoned for Income Tax Evasion
- 1931: UK - Auguste Piccard Reaches Stratosphere
- 1931: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - Christ Monument Built on Hilltop
- 1931: New York, NY, USA - Empire State Building Completed
- 1931: USA - First official US National Anthem
- 1931: UK - Census shows British professional workers now number .75 million (8 per cent); up from 80,000 in 1921 Census: population: England/Wales - 39,952, Scotland - 4,842, N. Ireland - 1,243
- 1931: USA - Harold Edgerton invented stop-action photography.
- 1931: Germany - Germans Max Knott and Ernst Ruska co-invent the electron microscope.
- 24 Aug 1931: UK - Resignation of Labour government accepted by King, asks Ramsay MacDonald to form National Government (Coalition) to deal with economic crisis
- 21 Oct 1931: UK - General Election, vote for National Government overwhelming, more votes for Conservatives, Liberal party in disarray
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| 33 | 1932 | - 1932: UK - Agricultural Marketing Act passed, regulates quality of produce
- 1932: USA - Air Conditioning Invented
- 1932: Amelia Earhardt First Woman to Fly Solo Across the Atlantic
- 1932: Cambridge, UK - Scientists Split the Atom
- 1932: USA - Zippo Lighters Introduced
- 1932: Ireland - De Valera succeeds Cosgrave as Prime Minister of Irish Free State, ousts British Governor-General, abolishes senate, alters law re citizenship to distinguish Irish nationality from British, but still claims Commonwealth membership
- 1932: USA - Polaroid photography invented by Edwin Herbert Land.
- 1932: UK - Unemployment falls from 3 million to below 2 million in July 1935; production rises, but imports steady, exports decline; new industries booming - chemicals, rayon, cars, radio, cost of living falls
- Sep 1932: UK - 6-7 million living on 'dole', worse in Tyne and Tees and Welsh valleys
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| 34 | 1933 | |
| 35 | 1934 | |
| 36 | 1935 | |
| 37 | 1936 | - 1936: UK - Edward VIII, ruler of England 1936. House of Windsor (name adopted Jul 17, 1917): Eldest son of George V.
- 1936: UK - BBC starts regular TV broadcasts
- 1936: USA - Dale Carnegie Publishes How to Win Friends and Influence People
- 1936: Germany - Nazi Olympics in Berlin
- 1936: Spain - Spanish Civil War Begins. Germany and Italy help rebels against government, Soviet Union aids government, as do International Brigade with volunteers from European countries and US during period to 1939
- 1936: UK - Arabs attack Jews and British troops and police, riots, strikes, outbursts of great violence, Jews attack Arabs and British, disorder continues through beginning of World War II
- 1936: USA - Bell Labs invents the voice recognition machine.
- 1936: USA - Samuel Colt patents the Colt revolver.
- 1936: Germany - Hitler and Mussolini make Rome-Berlin Axis agreement to conduct aggression together, followed by German agreement with Japan which Italy signs later
- 20 Jan 1936: UK - Death of King George V
- 12 May 1936: UK - George VI, ruler of England 1936-1952. House of Windsor (name adopted Jul 17, 1917): 2nd son of George V, Duke of York; married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.
- 16 Nov 1936: UK - Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin learns Edward VIII wants to marry twice-divorced Mrs.Simpson and will abdicate if necessary, public storm breaks on 2- 3 December, King abdicates on 5 December, announces 10 December, Abdication Act rushes through 11 December; Duke of York (father of Queen Elizabeth II) becomes George VI
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| 38 | 1937 | |
| 39 | 1938 | |
| 40 | 1939 | |
| 41 | 1940 | |
1900 - 1940 (39 years)