FAST FACTS
- OFFICIAL NAME: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- FORM OF GOVERNMENT: Parliamentary democracy within a constitutional monarchy
- CAPITAL: London
- POPULATION: 67,879,000
- OFFICIAL LANGUAGES: English; both English and Scots Gaelic in Scotland; both English and Welsh in Wales
- MONEY: Pound sterling
- AREA: 93,630 square miles (242,500 square kilometers)
- MAJOR RIVERS: Thames, Severn, Trent, Mersey
TIMELINE
Some key dates in modern British history:
1815 - Role in defeating Napoleon’s French Empire leads to Britain becoming pre-eminent imperial power.
1830s - Electoral reform acts begin steady move towards primacy of House of Commons and universal suffrage.
1840s - British industrial power harnessing technological change and boosts free trade and investment worldwide, reaching its peak in the second half of the 19th century.
1880s - Devolved government for Ireland becomes a major political issue, splitting Liberal Party and reviving a violent Irish separatist movement.
1914-18 - World War One.
1916 - Nationalists stage Easter Rising, seizing the General Post Office in Dublin and proclaiming an independent Irish republic. The rising is crushed by the British who execute its leaders.
1919 - Led by Éamon De Valera, the nationalist movement Sinn Féin (“We Ourselves’) sets up a Dublin assembly, the Dáil Éireann, which again proclaims Irish independence. A guerrilla campaign by the Irish Republican Army, or IRA, against British forces begins with heavy casualties on both sides.
1921 - Anglo-Irish Treaty establishes the Irish Free State, partitioned from Northern Ireland which remains part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
1924 - First UK government led by the Labour party under Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald.
1931 - Economic crisis. Millions are unemployed. National Government coalition formed.
1936 - King Edward VIII abdicates over relationship with an American divorcee, Wallis Simpson.
1939 - Germany invades Poland. UK declares war on Germany.
1940 - Winston Churchill becomes prime minister.
1944 - Allied troops invade France from Britain on D-Day (6th June) and begin to fight their way towards Germany.
1945 - Germany surrenders. Labour leader Clement Atlee is elected prime minister to replace Winston Churchill. The new Labour government introduces the welfare state.
1945 - The UK becomes a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
1948 - National Health Service is established.
1949 - The UK is one of the founder members of Nato.
1956 - UK intervenes in Suez Canal Zone, but withdraws under pressure from the US.
1961 - UK application to join European Economic Community vetoed by French President Charles de Gaulle.
1960s - Decolonisation of former British-controlled territories gathers pace.
1969 - British troops are sent to help quell communal unrest in Northern Ireland, which marks the start of The Troubles, triggered by the disputed status of Northern Ireland within the UK and a rising sense of injustice among large sections of the Catholic population. More than 3,000 people are killed between 1969-98.
1973 - The UK joins the European Economic Community, which is endorsed in a referendum two years later.
1979 - Conservative Margaret Thatcher begins move towards deregulation of economy.
1982 - Argentina invades the Falklands Islands in the South Atlantic. The UK dispatches a task force, which re-takes them.
1984 - The IRA attempts to assassinate Margaret Thatcher in her hotel in Brighton. Several killed and injured by a bomb blast, but the prime minister escapes unhurt.
1997 - Referendums in Scotland and Wales back the creation of separate assemblies, which are inaugurated in 1999.
1998 - Good Friday Agreement on a political settlement for Northern Ireland is approved by voters in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
2012 - Britain hosts the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.
2014 - Voters in Scotland reject independence in a referendum, with 55% opting to remain part of the UK and 45% favouring independence.
2016 - UK votes to leave the European Union.
2020 - Britain formally leaves the European Union.
source BBC
