United Kingdom: Timeline
[1920] [1921] [1922] [1923] [1924] [1925] [1926] [1927] [1928] [1929] [1930]
10 Jan. The steamer Treveal is wrecked in the English Channel. 35 people lose their lives.
11 Feb. The Council of the League of Nations meets for the first time in London.
17 Feb. The Metropolitan Police are told that their horses will be replaced by cars.
23 Feb. War Secretary Winston Churchill announces that conscripts will be replaced by a volunteer army of 220,000 men.
10 Mar. The Ulster Unionist Council accepts the Government's plan for an Ulster Parliament.
17 Mar. Queen Alexandra unveils a monument to Nurse Edith Cavell in London.
27 Mar. Troytown wins the Grand National.
31 Mar. Parliament passes the Home Rule Act, but Unionist leader Sir Edward Carson warns that it will lead to disaster.
24 Apr. Aston Villa beat Huddersfield 1-0 in the first FA Cup Final since 1915.
10 May. Forty Irish prisoners on hunger strike at Wormwood Scrubs are released.
17 May. Sinn Fein supporters engage in pitched street battles with Unionists in Londonderry.
18 May. Women lecturers are given equal status to their male colleagues at Oxford University.
21 May. The Government proposes a car tax of £1 per horsepower.
30 May. At least twenty people drown in serious floods in Lincolnshire.
2 Jun. Spion Kop wins the Derby.
9 Jun. King George V opens the Imperial War Museum at Crystal Palace.
20 Jun. Five die in severe rioting in Ulster.
24 Jun. Troops are sent to reinforce the Londonderry garrison.
3 Jul. Bill Tilden is the first American to win Wimbledon. French player Suzanne Lenglen takes the ladies' title for the second time.
5 Jul. A new airmail service starts from London to Amsterdam.
13 Jul. London County Council bans foreigners from almost all council jobs.
16 Jul. The Great War with Austria is officially declared over.
23 Jul. Fourteen die and one hundred are injured in fierce rioting in Belfast.
24 Jul. Mr F Courtney wins an air race at an average speed of 153.5 mph.
31 Jul. The Communist Party of Great Britain is founded in London..
1 Aug. The first Congress of the Communist Party of Great Britain opens.
2 Aug. The Government introduces a new bill to restore order in Ireland which allows for suspension of jury trials.
3 Aug. There are Catholic riots in Belfast in protest at the British military presence.
9 Aug. The Labour Party says it will call for a general strike if Britain declares war on Russia.
18 Aug. The first night bus services are introduced in London.
29 Aug. Eleven die and forty are injured in street battles in Belfast.
22 Sep. The Metropolitan Police forms the Flying Squad.
7 Oct. The first one hundred women are admitted to study for full degrees at Oxford University.
10 Oct. It is announced that compulsory hand signals are to be introduced for all drivers.
16 Oct. The miners go on strike.
20 Oct. Sylvia Pankhurst is charged with sedition after calling upon workers to loot the London Docks.
25 Oct. The Emergency Powers Bill to counter the miners' strike has its second reading in the House of Commons.
25 Oct. Tomas MacSwiney, jailed Lord Mayor of Cork, dies in London after a 78-day hunger strike.
28 Oct. Sylvia Pankhurst is jailed for six months.
3 Nov. The miners' strike ends after only a small majority vote to continue.
10 Nov. The body of the Unknown Soldier arrives from France for burial in Westminster Abbey.
5 Dec. The Scots vote against prohibition.
23 Dec. Jewish leaders in London launch a £25 million appeal for Palestine.
23 Dec. The Irish Partition Act receives Royal Assent.
3 Jan. The airships R.36 and R.37 are completed.
14 Jan. Unemployment stands at 927,000.
20 Jan. The Royal Navy submarine K.5 sinks in the English Channel with the loss of 56 lives.
26 Jan. Seventeen people are killed when two passenger trains collide in Montgomeryshire.
12 Feb. Winston Churchill is appointed Colonial Secretary.
16 Feb. Unemployment now stands at over one million. The Government announces an increase in unemployment benefit.
11 Mar. Queen Mary becomes the first woman to be awarded an (honorary) degree from Oxford University.
16 Mar. Britain signs a trade agreement with Soviet Russia.
17 Mar. Andrew Bonar Law, the Conservative leader, resigns due to ill-health.
17 Mar. Dr Marie Stopes opens Britain's first birth control clinic in Holloway, London.
21 Mar. Austen Chamberlain replaces Bonar Law as Conservative leader.
26 Mar. Shaun Spadah wins the Grand National.
31 Mar. A state of emergency is declared after another coal strike is called.
3 Apr. Coal rationing begins.
13 Apr. Lloyds Bank takes over Fox, Fowler and Co, the last provincial English bank to issue its own banknotes.
15 Apr. The national strike, due to be declared by the 'Triple Alliance', is called off.
23 Apr. Tottenham Hotspur beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0 in the FA Cup Final.
26 Apr. Police patrol London on motorcycles for the first time.
4 May. Sinn Feiners murder a police inspector in Glasgow.
7 May. Crown Prince Hirohito of Japan arrives on an official visit.
22 May. The USA beats Britain 9 rounds to 3 in the first golf international between the two countries.
24 May. In general elections for the new Northern Ireland Parliament, Ulster Unionists win 40 out of 52 seats.
1 Jun. Humourist wins the Derby. For the first time the result is broadcast live by wireless.
6 Jun. King George V opens Southwark Bridge in London.
7 Jun. The new Northern Ireland Parliament assembles.
10 Jun. Unemployment reaches 2.2 million.
12 Jun. Sunday postal collection and delivery ends.
15 Jun. Two million workers are currently involved in pay disputes.
22 Jun. King George V opens the first Northern Ireland Parliament.
24 Jun. The world's largest airship, the R.38, makes its maiden flight at Bedford.
25 Jun. Rainfall ends a 100-day drought.
28 Jun. The coal strike ends.
2 Jul. Bill Tilden and Suzanne Lenglen retain their Wimbledon titles.
7 Jul. General Jan Smuts meets King George V to discuss the Irish situation.
12 Jul. Sinn Fein leader Eamon De Valera arrives in London for talks.
18 Jul. Ulster Unionist negotiators walk out of the truce talks in London.
19 Aug. Unemployment falls to 1,640,600.
24 Aug. The airship ZR II explodes at Hull, killing 43 people.
30 Aug. England beat Australia, for the first time this year, in the final cricket Test.
9 Sep. Charlie Chaplin visits London and is met by thousands.
23 Sep. The second female MP enters Parliament.
8 Oct. The steamer Rowan sinks off the coast of Scotland. 36 people lose their lives.
11 Oct. The Irish Treaty Conference opens in London.
21 Nov. Troops are sent to restore order after rioting breaks out in East Belfast.
22 Nov. At least ten people die in widespread shootings in Belfast.
30 Nov. Sir Basil Thompson retires after forty years as the head of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch.
7 Dec. British and Irish negotiators sign an agreement giving independence to the Irish Free State.
16 Dec. Parliament ratifies the Irish Treaty.
4 Jan. Two die and five wounded when the Army opens fire on demonstrators in Belfast
5 Jan. Explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton dies of a heart attack, aged 47.
12 Jan. The Government announces an amnesty for all Irish political prisoners.
13 Jan. In the last week, 804 deaths from influenza have been reported in England and Wales.
14 Jan. In a meeting in London, Lloyd George and new French Premier Poincaré agree to end the Allied Supreme Council.
20 Jan. The National Liberal Council is formed in London with Lloyd George as president and Winston Churchill as vice-president.
21 Jan. The Dail Eireann, the provisional Irish parliament, approves the treaty with Britain that sets up the Irish Free State.
1 Feb. An alarming 117 outbreaks of foot and mouth disease have now been reported throughout the country.
7 Feb. 8,500 cattle, 1,000 sheep and 2,500 pigs will soon be slaughtered as 477 outbreaks of foot and mouth disease are reported.
17 Feb. MPs approve the Irish Free State Bill, which sets up a boundary commission for the two parts of Ireland.
25 Feb. The 'Geddes Axe' plan to chop £87 million off public spending programmes is introduced.
28 Feb. Princess Mary, the only daughter of George V and Queen Mary, marries Viscount Lascelles.
1 Mar. The Civil Aviation Authority is established.
6 Mar. Wealthy heiress Edwina Ashley announces her engagement to Lord Louis Mountbatten.
8 Mar. The Scilly Isles are swept by 108 mph winds as a hurricane sweeps the English coast.
21 Mar. Queen Mary opens Waterloo station in London.
22 Mar. Two members of the 'B' Specials are gunned down in Belfast, while another is found dead in County Tyrone.
24 Mar. H Kershaw's Music Hall wins the Grand National, one of only three of the 32 runners to finish.
31 Mar. The Irish Free State (Agreement) Act receives Royal Assent.
6 Apr. Labour suffers heavy defeats in the elections to the London Boards of Guardians.
29 Apr. Hudderfield Town beat Preston North End in the FA Cup Final.
1 May. The Budget cuts 1s off income tax and 4d off a pound of tea and lowers post and telephone charges.
3 May. A Wolseley 10 establishes fourteen new motor speed records.
10 May. The National Conference of Labour Women calls for the state to subsidise motherhood.
10 May. Dr Ivy Williams becomes the first woman to be called to the English Bar.
22 May. William Twaddell MP is killed by a bomb in a Belfast street.
22 May. The highest May temperatures for over fifty years are recorded in London, 88ºF in the shade.
25 May. Airmen Macmillan, Blake and Broome leave Croydon in an attempt to fly around the world.
29 May. Liberal MP Horatio Bottomley is sentenced to seven years' penal servitude for fraud.
31 May. Captain Cuttle wins the Derby.
5 Jun. Margaret Davies is elected the first woman president of the Co-operative Congress.
12 Jun. George Leigh Mallory and two companions climb to within 3,200 ft of the summit of Mount Everest, setting a new record.
22 Jun. Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson is gunned down by the IRA near his home in Belgravia.
23 Jun. The Metropolitan Police arrest twenty men in connection with Wilson's murder.
26 Jun. The King opens Wimbledon at its new home in Queen's Road.
12 Jul. Suzanne Lenglen retains her ladies' singles title at Wimbledon. Gerald Patterson of Australia wins the men's title.
13 Jul. Bank lending rates are cut to 3%, the lowest rate since 1914.
17 Jul. King George V opens County Hall in London, the new home for London County Council.
18 Jul. Joseph O'Sullivan and Reginald Dunn are sentenced to death for the murder of Sir Henry Wilson.
18 Jul. Lord Louis Mountbatten marries Edwina Ashley.
3 Aug. The Government decides to provide five hundred aircraft for home defence.
14 Aug. Newspaper magnate Lord Northcliffe dies.
18 Sep. The Government sends Lord Curzon for urgent talks with the French on the Aegean crisis.
29 Sep. The 'Chanak Crisis'. Turkish troops threaten a British garrison.
30 Sep. A telephone toll exchange system is inaugurated in London.
30 Sep. Labour leaders denounce the Government's policy in the Near East.
6 Oct. Music hall star Marie Lloyd dies.
11 Oct. Britain signs a treaty of alliance with Iraq in London.
14 Oct. The last turf is laid at the Imperial Stadium at Wembley.
18 Oct. The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) is formed.
19 Oct. Lloyd George resigns. Andrew Bonar Law forms a new Conservative Government.
23 Oct. Andrew Bonar Law is re-elected leader of the Conservative Party.
25 Oct. Chocolate manufacturer George Cadbury dies.
26 Oct. Parliament is dissolved and a general election called.
2 Nov. Labour loses heavily in London borough council elections.
9 Nov. Sir William Horwood, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, is poisoned by arsenic-laced chocolates. He survives.
15 Nov. The BBC inaugurates the first regular radio news broadcasts in the world.
16 Nov. The Conservatives win the general election with a majority of 75 seats. The Liberal Party collapses. Labour becomes the Official Opposition for the first time. Churchill loses his seat.
21 Nov. Ramsay MacDonald is elected new leader of the Labour Party.
5 Dec. The Irish Constitution Act, creating the Irish Free State, receives Royal Assent.
6 Dec. King George V proclaims the existence of the Irish Free State.
10 Dec. Frances Aston wins the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Sir Archibald Hill wins the Nobel Prize for Medicine (jointly with Otto Meyerhof of Germany).
11 Dec. Frederick Bywaters and Edith Thompson are found guilty of the murder of Edith's husband Percy.
14 Dec. John Reith becomes General Manager of the BBC.
9 Jan. Writer Katherine Mansfield dies in France of tuberculosis, aged 34.
15 Jan. The engagement of Prince Albert, Duke of York, and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon is announced.
28 Feb. Parliament passes an act ruling that husbands are no longer deemed to have coerced wives who commit offences in their presence.
2 Mar. The House of Commons passes the Matrimonial Causes Bill, allowing a wife to petition for divorce on the grounds of adultery.
7 Mar. Neville Chamberlain is appointed minister of health.
23 Mar. Sergeant Murphy wins the Grand National.
26 Mar. Fifteen thousand Norfolk farmhands go on strike for higher wages.
27 Mar. A telegraphic link is established between Britain and Afghanistan.
21 Apr. The Norfolk farmhands' strike ends.
26 Apr. The Duke of York and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon are married.
28 Apr. Bolton Wanderers beat West Ham United 2-0 in the first FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium. Overcrowding almost causes a disaster, narrowly averted by PC George Storey mounted on Billie, who push back the crowd. 'The White Horse of Wembley' and his rider become famous.
2 May. The BBC opens its new wireless studios at Savoy Hill.
8 May. Batsman Jack Hobbs makes his hundredth century in first-class cricket.
18 May. Bonar Law is reported to be ill.
21 May. Bonar Law resigns and Stanley Baldwin becomes Prime Minister.
1 Jun. Actress Mrs Hilton Philipson becomes the third woman elected to Parliament.
6 Jun. Papyrus wins the Derby, the third successive win for jockey Steve Donoghue.
8 Jun. The House of Lords passes the Matrimonial Causes Bill.
26 Jun. The Government announces the increase of the number of RAF home air defence squadrons from 18 to 52.
7 Jul. Suzanne Lenglen successfully defends her Wimbledon ladies' singles title once more. William Johnson wins the men's title.
13 Jul. The House of Commons passes the Liquor Bill, forbidding the sale of alcohol to persons under the age of eighteen.
18 Jul. The Matrimonial Causes Act receives Royal Assent.
31 Jul. The Liquor Act receives Royal Assent.
12 Aug. Argentine Enrique Tirbocchi swims the English Channel in a record 16 hours 33 minutes.
21 Aug. The London dock strike ends after seven weeks.
27 Aug. Neville Chamberlain becomes chancellor of the Exchequer.
6 Sep. London's new 'super cinema', the Tivoli, opens in the Strand.
1 Oct. The Broadcasting Committee recommends a ten shilling wireless licence.
8 Oct. Sir Edward Hulton sells the Evening Standard, the Daily Sketch, the Sunday Herald and other titles to Lords Rothermere and Beaverbrook for £6 million.
16 Oct. The Government announces plans to spend £50 million on unemployment relief.
21 Oct. President Tomas Masaryk of Czechoslovakia arrives on an official visit.
30 Oct. Bonar Law dies of cancer.
6 Nov. Stanley Baldwin calls a snap general election.
25 Nov. The first transatlantic wireless broadcast is made.
6 Dec. The general election is held.
11 Dec. Provisional results from the general election show a hung parliament, as the Conservatives have no overall majority. Eight women have been elected. Stanley Baldwin announces that the Government will soon resign.
13 Dec. Lord Alfred Douglas is sentenced to six months imprisonment for libelling Winston Churchill.
14 Dec. 73,500 animals have been slaughtered as a result of the latest outbreak of foot and mouth disease.
17 Dec. Agreement is reached on the formation of the Imperial Air Transport Company.
21 Dec. The final general election results confirm a hung Parliament.
10 Jan. The Royal Navy submarine L.34 sinks off Weymouth with the loss of all 43 hands.
22 Jan. Ramsay MacDonald forms the first Labour Government.
29 Jan. The rail strike ends after eight days.
1 Feb. The Labour Government recognises the USSR.
4 Feb. Petrol prices rise by 4½d to 2s a gallon.
5 Feb. The Greenwich time pips are broadcast for the first time on BBC radio.
7 Feb. Mrs Helena Normanton becomes the first woman barrister to appear at the Old Bailey.
16 Feb. Every British port is paralysed by a national dock strike.
20 Mar. Winston Churchill loses the Abbey by-election.
29 Mar. Composer Sir Charles Villiers Stanford dies.
31 Mar. Imperial Airways, Britain's first national airline, is formed.
1 Apr. Work on the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley is halted by a strike.
3 Apr. The British Empire Exhibition strike ends.
4 Apr. The BBC begins broadcasting radio programmes for schools.
23 Apr. The king opens the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley.
24 Apr. Britain recognises the new Greek Republic.
24 Apr. The Harwich to Zeebrugge boat train is inaugurated.
26 Apr. Newcastle United beat Aston Villa 2-0 in the FA Cup Final.
30 Apr. An air service between Liverpool and Belfast is inaugurated.
4 May. Children's author Edith Nesbit, best known for The Railway Children, dies.
4 May. Sir Edward Elgar is appointed master of the king's musick.
6 May. The Northern Irish Government refuses to join a boundary commission with the Free State.
26 May. The king and queen of Italy arrive on an official visit.
27 May. Inventor H Grindell-Matthews refuses a government offer of £1,000 to demonstrate the effectiveness of his 'death ray'.
2 Jun. The first wireless conversation between Britain and Australia is held.
4 Jun. Sansovino wins the Derby.
13 Jun. The London Underground strike ends after a week.
19 Jun. George Leigh Mallory and Andrew Irvine are lost on Mount Everest.
23 Jun. Wimbledon opens for the first time with a seeding system.
29 Jun. The prince of Wales announces that he will begin looking for a bride.
2 Jul. The Government rejects the idea of a Channel tunnel.
5 Jul. Jean Borotra becomes the first Frenchman to win the singles champion at Wimbledon. Britain's Kitty McKane wins the ladies' title. Illness forces Suzanne Lenglen to withdraw during the fourth round.
16 Jul. A ten nation conference on the Dawes proposals begins in London.
30 Jul. The Paris Olympics close. Britain has won nine gold medals.
2 Aug. The Allies agree to the Dawes Plan for German reparations.
2 Aug. A huge Boy Scout Jamboree is held at Wembley.
3 Aug. Novelist Joseph Conrad dies.
6 Aug. The Government concludes a trade agreement with the USSR.
20 Aug. An agreement is reached to allow three thousand British families to emigrate to Canada.
25 Aug. The Mauretania sets a new record for crossing the Atlantic.
5 Sep. The TUC Conference at Hull votes to take industrial action to prevent war if necessary.
8 Sep. British troops land in Shanghai as civil war rages.
7 Oct. The Labour Party bans communists from joining.
9 Oct. The Conservatives and Liberals combine to carry a vote of censure against the Labour Government. Ramsay MacDonald calls a general election.
22 Oct. The Ministry of Health bans preservatives from many foodstuffs.
24 Oct. The Foreign Office publishes the Zinoviev Letter, allegedly from Moscow, urging revolution in Britain.
26 Oct. The Soviet Government denounces the Zinoviev Letter as a hoax.
29 Oct. Author Frances Hodgson Burnett dies.
31 Oct. The Conservatives win a massive general election victory. H H Asquith, the Liberal leader and former prime minister, loses his seat.
3 Nov. Thirteen people die in a train crash at Blackpool.
6 Nov. Stanley Baldwin becomes Prime Minister. Winston Churchill, returned to Parliament as a Conservative, becomes chancellor of the Exchequer.
21 Nov. Foreign Secretary Austen Chamberlain repudiates the previous Government's Anglo-Soviet treaty.
1 Dec. Britain signs a commercial treaty with Germany.
24 Dec. Eight people die in Britain's worst air crash to date, when an Imperial Airways aeroplane crashes at Croydon Aerodrome shortly after take-off.
3 Jan. New Zealand player Cyril Brownlie is sent off during a rugby match between the All Blacks and England at Twickenham, the first time this has happened in an international match.
18 Feb. England win the fourth cricket Test at Melbourne, their first win against Australia since 1912.
11 Mar. No No Nanette premieres in London.
13 Mar. MPs approve the Summer Time Bill, making daylight saving permanent.
18 Mar. Two floors of Madame Tussaud's wax museum are destroyed by fire.
19 Mar. The Government announces the construction of a huge new naval base at Singapore.
20 Mar. Lord Curzon, former viceroy of India and foreign secretary, dies.
27 Mar. Double Chance wins the Grand National.
28 Mar. Cambridge win the Boat Race after Oxford sink.
31 Mar. Attempts to rescue 35 men trapped in a flooded mine at Scotswood-on-Tyne, Northumberland, are abandoned.
8 Apr. The Colonial Office announces a joint scheme with the Australian Government to encourage Britons to emmigrate to Australia.
25 Apr. Sheffield United beat Cardiff City 1-0 in the FA Cup Final.
28 Apr. Britain goes back on the Gold Standard.
9 May. The king opens the second season of the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley.
13 May. The Gold Bullion Standard Act confirms Britain's return to the Gold Standard.
14 May. Sir H Rider Haggard, author of King Solomon's Mines, dies.
22 May. Field Marshal Sir John French, 1st Earl of Ypres, first commander of the BEF, dies.
23 May. Press baron Sir Edward Hulton dies.
27 May. Manna wins the Derby.
28 May. The home secretary orders all known subversives to be prevented from entering the country.
30 May. The king opens the rebuilt Great West Road in London.
2 Jun. The National Council of Public Morals refuses to approve contraceptives.
8 Jun. P Holmes of Yorkshire scores 315 not out at Lords, breaking a record set in 1820.
9 Jun. Hay Fever opens in London, Noel Coward's third play to premiere this year.
11 Jun. A London gem dealer is thrown out of an aeroplane, the first known aerial murder.
29 Jun. The king opens the new Canadian High Commission in Trafalgar Square.
4 Jul. F L Barnard wins the King's Cup for an air race around Britain.
6 Jul. Suzanne Lenglen wins her sixth Wimbledon title. Frenchman René Lacoste is the men's champion.
16 Jul. Scientists claim that they have successfully innoculated animals against cancer.
24 Jul. Patricia Cheeseman becomes the first patient to be successfully treated for diabetes at Guy's Hospital.
25 Jul. The bishop of Durham is forced to flee in a motorboat from an abusive crowd at the Miners' Gala.
30 Jul. Mine owners give in to miners' demands for a shorter week and higher wages after the Treasury agrees to subsidise their losses. This ends a month-long crisis in the coal industry.
31 Jul. The Food Council, set up to monitor food prices, meets for the first time.
18 Aug. Surrey batsman Jack Hobbs surpasses W G Grace's record of 126 career centuries and also sets a record of fourteen centuries in a single season.
9 Sep. The TUC votes against the amalgamation of all British trade unions.
29 Sep. The Labour Party Conference rejects a proposal for closer links with the British Communist Party.
29 Sep. It is announced that white lines will be painted on British roads in an attempt to reduce accidents.
8 Oct. Opera singer Nellie Melba announces her retirement.
13 Oct. The six-week seamen's strike ends.
14 Oct. Police raid the headquarters of the British Communist Party in London.
19 Oct. Imperial Airways takes delivery of its first Handley Page Hampdens.
19 Oct. The first autogyro undergoes trials at Farnborough.
31 Oct. The British Empire Exhibition closes.
2 Nov. Twenty are feared dead after a dam bursts and floods Dolgarrog Power Station in North Wales.
12 Nov. The Royal Navy submarine monitor M.1 is lost in the English Channel with the loss of all 68 hands.
19 Nov. Queen Alexandra suffers a heart attack at Sandringham.
20 Nov. Queen Alexandra dies.
20 Nov. The Criminal Justice Bill includes provision for up to four months' imprisonment for drunk driving.
25 Nov. Twelve communists are jailed for sedition.
1 Dec. The Government survives a vote of censure concerning the communist trials.
3 Dec. The pre-1921 border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State remains unchanged after an agreement is signed by the British and Irish Governments.
3 Dec. John Reith, managing director of the BBC, calls for a removal of the prohibition on news broadcasting before 7pm.
10 Dec. George Bernard Shaw is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Foreign secretary Austen Chamberlain shares the Peace Prize with Charles Dawes of the USA.
5 Jan. The first widows' pensions are paid out at post offices.
15 Jan. The formation of a new board is announced to co-ordinate electricity supplies by linking them into a national 'grid'. Prime minister Stanley Baldwin says that he expects electricity consumption to double in the next fifteen years.
25 Jan. Surgeon Sir Berkeley Moynihan states that cancer of the tongue is caused partly by smoking, the first claim that smoking is linked to cancer.
27 Jan. The first moving pictures are transmitted by wireless. Inventor John Logie Baird demonstrates his 'television' by sending images of ventriloquist's dolls to a cathode ray tube by wireless.
9 Feb. Severe flooding occurs in the London suburbs after eighteen days of continuous rain.
20 Feb. The Food Council says that it should be illegal to sell food that is under weight or measure.
1 Mar. The Government officially recognises Ibn Saud as king of the Hejaz.
5 Mar. Four paintings by Constable are stolen from the Royal Academy.
6 Mar. The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-on-Avon burns to the ground.
12 Mar. A bill creating the Central Electricity Board is published.
13 Mar. Pilot Alan Cobham is welcomed back into Croydon aerodrome as he completes his sixteen thousand mile flight from London to Cape Town and back.
20 Mar. For the first time since the competition was started, Scotland beats England for rugby's Calcutta Cup.
22 Mar. A one-way traffic system is introduced at London's Hyde Park Corner.
24 Mar. The Miners' Federation of Great Britain announces that it will not accept the Royal Commission on the Coal Industry's recommendations that the general level of wages must be cut and the 1924 minimum wage agreement abolished.
24 Mar. A national appeal is launched by the leaders of the three political parties, together with novelist Thomas Hardy, to replace the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. A sum of £250,000 is asked for.
26 Mar. A C Schwartz's Jack Horner wins the Grand National.
29 Mar. The Post Office introduces cash-on-delivery parcel post.
17 Apr. Twenty thousand members of the Women's Guild of the Empire demonstrate in London for an end to strikes and lockouts.
19 Apr. Actor Sir Squire Bancroft dies.
21 Apr. The Duchess of York gives birth to her first child, Princess Elizabeth.
24 Apr. Manchester City are beaten 1-0 by Bolton Wanderers in the FA Cup Final.
26 Apr. A one-way traffic scheme is launched in London's Trafalgar Square with great success.
30 Apr. A national coal stoppage begins with the end of the nine month government coal subsidy.
30 Apr. Huddersfield Town become the first team to win three successive Football League titles.
1 May. The miners go on strike. The TUC calls a general strike of essential services in sympathy.
3 May. The first general strike in British history begins.
8 May. The first issue of the British Gazette appears under the editorship of chancellor of the Exchequer, Winston Churchill.
10 May. Talks begin to end the General Strike.
12 May. The TUC call off the General Strike.
20 May. The miners reject the prime minister's terms for ending the coal dispute, despite the TUC having called off the General Strike.
2 Jun. The Derby is won by Lord Woolavington's Coronach.
8 Jun. Soprano Dame Nellie Melba gives her farewell performance at London's Covent Garden.
12 Jun. The Government protests to the USSR over gifts of money to striking British workers.
24 Jun. Papers from the 1925 raids on the Communist Party are published which include, among other things, Russian ideas for inducing strike chaos.
2 Jul. The Government announces that it is to import large quantities of food as the coal strike enters its third month.
3 Jul. At Wimbledon, Jean Borotra beats American Howard Kinsey in the men's singles final. Kitty Godfree (née McKane) beats Lili Alverez of Spain to take her second ladies' singles title. Kitty and her husband, Leslie Godfree, also win the mixed doubles title, the only married couple ever to do so.
7 Jul. Rudyard Kipling is awarded a gold medal by the Royal Society of Literature.
8 Jul. The Coal Mines Act receives Royal Assent. It allows longer working hours but only one in five miners will receive less pay.
24 Jul. Britain's first greyhound racing track opens at Belle Vue in Manchester.
27 Jul. A circular traffic system comes into operation at London's Picadilly Circus.
3 Aug. The first traffic lights in London come into use at Picadilly Circus.
8 Aug. The Southern Railway announces that steam engines will soon be replaced on their lines by newer electric trains powered by a third rail.
13 Aug. Government figures show that three million tons of coal have been imported since the beginning of the miners' strike.
18 Aug. The miners reopen negotiations with the Government to end the strike.
18 Aug. England beat Australia at the Oval to regain the Ashes for the first time in fourteen years.
24 Aug. Riots break out amongst striking coal miners.
31 Aug. Lancashire win the country cricket championships for the first time since 1904.
9 Sep. The TUC conference is adjourned due to disruption after a motion to give financial aid to the miners.
13 Sep. The Northern Line extension from Clapham Common to Morden opens. The 17-mile tube from Morden to East Finchley via Bank is the world's longest tunnel.
2 Oct. A French airliner bursts into flames over Kent, killing seven passengers.
5 Oct. A quarter of a million striking miners return to work.
14 Oct. Ex-prime minister H H Asquith, the Earl of Oxford and Asquith, resigns as leader of the Liberal Party.
15 Oct. Forty-seven people are hurt when police and striking Welsh miners clash at the Glencymmer Colliery near Port Talbot.
19 Oct. The Imperial Conference opens in London.
22 Oct. The Motor Show opens at the Olympia in London.
1 Nov. A new betting tx comes into force.
2 Nov. The formation of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) is announced.
3 Nov. Bookmakers strike at Windsor in protest over the new betting tax.
9 Nov. 15.4 million tons of coal have now been imported since the beginning of the miners' strikes. The industry has lost £300 million.
20 Nov. It is announced by the Imperial Conference that Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Newfoundland will become self-governing Dominions. They will have equal status to Britain within the British Commonwealth of Nations. The title of the king is now "George V, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India".
2 Dec. Stanley Baldwin ends the emergency powers taken up during the General Strike.
3 Dec. Novelist Agatha Christie disappears from her home.
9 Dec. Coal restrictions, in force during the miners' strike, come to an end.
14 Dec. Agatha Christie is located in a hotel in Harrogate. The author has no recollection of how she came to be in Yorkshire.
21 Dec. Oswald Mosley wins the Smethwick by-election for Labour after a rowdy campaign.
27 Dec. Imperial Airways announces the first scheduled air service to India, to start in the new year.
1 Jan. The British Broadcasting Company is renamed the British Broadcasting Corporation.
1 Jan. According to the Bankers' Clearing House, cheques are becoming increasingly popular as a method of payment.
21 Jan. The number of telephones in use throughout the county is now estimated to be half a million.
29 Jan. The Park Lane Hotel opens as the first hotel in the country to boast a private bathroom for each bedroom.
31 Jan. A British Army Division of 12,000 men is placed under orders to sail to China in order to defend British subjects in Shanghai.
4 Feb. Malcolm Campbell claims the world land speed record in his car Bluebird, achieving a speed of 174.224 mph.
12 Feb. Ten vessels collide and three sink during heavy fog in the English Channel.
14 Feb. A train crash in Hull results in the deaths of ten people.
23 Feb. The British Government announces that it is sending a warship to protect British interests in Nicaragua as unrest continues there.
26 Feb. Influenza is currently claiming the lives of one thousand people a week.
28 Feb. Floods and gales hit the country, causing havoc and widespread disruption.
1 Mar. 53 miners are feared dead in a firedamp explosion in a pit at Ebbw Vale in Wales. Officials state that 150 men are currently trapped.
4 Mar. The price of a 4lb loaf drops to 9d.
11 Mar. The Government puts a bill before Parliament to institute a quota of British films to be shown at all cinemas - 12.5 per cent next year rising to 25 per cent in stages.
15 Mar. Petrol prices drop to 1/4½ a gallon.
25 Mar. The first Grand National broadcast on Radio is won by Mrs M Partridge's Sprig.
26 Mar. The Gaumont-British Film Corporation is founded with a capital of £2,500,000. It follows the announcement ten days ago of the foundation of British Incorporated Pictures.
29 Mar. Major Henry Segrave sets a new world land speed record of 203.841 mph.
4 Apr. The Trades Disputes Bill is introduced. The bill outlaws sympathy strikes and compulsory political levies.
7 Apr. Foreign secretary Sir Austen Chamberlain announces that Britain will not be drawn into the civil war in China.
11 Apr. In the Budget, Churchill states that the miners' strike cost the country £150 million. Wine, film and tobacco duties are increased.
13 Apr. Baldwin announces the Government's plans to give the vote to all women over the age of 21.
19 Apr. Teachers across the country call for the school leaving age to be raised from 14 to 16.
21 Apr. King George V officially opens the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff.
23 Apr. Cardiff City wins the FA Cup 1-0 after the Arsenal keeper scores an own goal.
30 Apr. The International Tobacco Exhibition opens in London as surgeons state that there is no risk of cancer from tobacco.
10 May. Plans are unveiled for the rebuilding of the Waterloo and Lambeth Bridges across the Thames in London. A two-deck bridge at Charing Cross is also proposed.
12 May. The Metropolitan Police raid the offices of the USSR trade delegation, Arcos. One Soviet official is caught burning documents.
16 May. French President Gaston Doumergue arrives on a state visit.
16 May. Labour MPs storm out of the House of Commons after the Government uses the guillotine rule to stop a filibuster against legislation to clip trade union wings. The reforms are in response to last year's General Strike, which crippled much of the British economy.
21 May. News and cricket scores are broadcast on short wave radio to Australia, India, New Zealand and South Africa. The BBC hopes to soon set up a full world radio service.
21 May. The Southern Railway introduces the nation's first employee shareholding scheme.
24 May. The Government severs diplomatic relations with the USSR after accusing the Soviet mission in London of espionage and organising subversion. Soviet diplomats are given ten days to leave the country. British officials are recalled from Moscow.
1 Jun. Mr F Curzon's Call Boy wins the Derby.
3 Jun. Soviet diplomats leave from London Victoria Station as sympathisers, including Labour MPs, sing The Red Flag.
7 Jun. The Co-operative Congress votes to merge with the Labour Party.
19 Jun. Twenty thousand people take part in the Festival of Youth at Crystal Palace.
23 Jun. The Trades Disputes Bill is passed with much protest from the Labour Party.
24 Jun. A large site in Bloomsbury is purchased by the University of London for £525,000.
26 Jun. Communists and Fascists clash in London's Hyde Park.
29 Jun. A total eclipse of the sun is seen in Britain for the first time in two hundred years.
4 Jul. King Faud of Eqypt arrives on a state visit.
5 Jul. At Wimbledon, Frenchman Henri Cochet beats his fellow-countryman Jean Borotra in the men's singles, while Helen Wills of the USA beats Lili Alverez for the ladies' singles title.
15 Jul. Twenty Player's Navy Cut cigarettes cost 11½d.
18 Jul. In Edinburgh, the British Medical Association expresses its concerns at the threat of a possible state medical service.
1 Aug. The bank holiday is the wettest for many years.
4 Aug. Experimental new signs are soon to be erected on the crossings at Trafaglar Square and along Oxford Street between Marble Arch and Tottenham Court Road. The crossings will be marked with white lines painted on the carriageway and the words 'Look Left' or 'Look Right' in an attempt to cut pedestrian deaths on the roads.
13 Aug. Petrol is cut to its lowest price since 1902, at 1/1 a gallon.
15 Aug. New motor regulations are brought in limiting the length of cars to 27'6".
16 Aug. Wembley Stadium is sold for greyhound racing.
24 Aug. Twelve die in a train crash at Sevenoaks in Kent.
24 Aug. The average price of a seven-bedroom house in London's Holland Park is £1,750.
7 Sep. A six-wheeled bus goes on trial in London.
8 Sep. In Edinburgh, the TUC votes to sever links with Soviet trades unions.
10 Sep. The expert view at the Hairdressing and Allied Trades Exhibition in London is that long hair for women and beards and moustaches for men are now out of date. Women, encouraged by 'scientific' assurances that they will not go bald, are encouraged to have a more fashionable bob.
13 Sep. New government figures show that the birth rate in 1926 was the lowest the country has seen since 1860.
24 Sep. This summer has been the worst since 1879 with 80 percent more rain than normal.
13 Oct. The first horse race solely for women jockeys takes place at Newmarket.
16 Oct. Mona Maclennan, who claimed she swam the English Channel in a record 13 hours 12 mins, admits it was a hoax.
24 Oct. It is suggested that London's buses, tube and trams should be united under one management, according to a report from the Ministry of Transport. The bus profits can be used to keep the tube fares down and help expand the underground network.
28 Oct. Road Fund figures show that in 1926 there were 1,729,000 motor vehicle licences, compared to 127,248 horse drawn licences. The gross revenue from these licences for the year was £19,032,000. There is now one motor vehicle for every 26 people.
28 Oct. Fifty are reported dead and four hundred are left homeless as storms ravage Lancashire.
1 Nov. The late Lord Iveagh leaves his Kenwood House and its priceless art collection to the nation.
3 Nov. Lieutenant-General Sir Archibald Montgomery-Massingberd predicts that there will be war again with Germany within twenty years, as there will by then be ninety million Germans with no space for expansion.
8 Nov. A survey shows that people now drink more tea and coffee and less beer than they did during the Great War.
13 Nov. The first automatic telephone exchange in Britain is installed in Holborn in London.
15 Nov. According to the Public Morals Committee, easy access to contraceptives "produces poorer hereditary stock".
19 Nov. Two hundred unemployed Welsh miners complete their 180 mile march from Wales to London.
22 Nov. Prime minister Stanley Baldwin refuses to meet the Welsh miners.
24 Nov. Comedian Sir Harry Lauder is given the freedom of the city of Edinburgh.
25 Nov. The House of Commons sets up the India Commission to travel to India to study the working of the Constitution granted by Great Britain after the war.
10 Dec. The first greyhound races are held at Wembley Stadium.
25 Dec. Britain experiences a white Christmas as freezing blizzards sweep the country.
31 Dec. Food supplies are air-dropped into villages cut off by snow.
5 Jan. 466,000 people over the age of 65 receive their first state pensions of 10 shillings per week.
6 Jan. Fourteen people are drowned in their basement homes when the Thames bursts its banks. Hundreds are made homeless. The Tower of London's moat is once again filled with water and twelve Landseer paintings are damaged at the Tate Gallery.
7 Jan. Flood waters from the Thames cut off the capital's telephone lines.
10 Jan. According to dressmakers, long skirts are coming back into fashion.
11 Jan. Author Thomas Hardy dies.
18 Jan. Three Britons are sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for spying for the USSR.
19 Jan. New figures show that 1927 had the lowest birth rate on record.
27 Jan. It is announced that extensive plans are underway to expand London's telephone network by building 52 new exchanges and converting 73 exchanges to the automatic principle. The expanded system will provide support for over half a million users.
29 Jan. Field Marshal Earl Haig dies.
5 Feb. The Medical Research Council says that vitamin D can be reproduced artificially.
10 Feb. The Chained Swan pub, the first building to be built after the Great Fire of London, is demolished.
12 Feb. Eleven are killed as gales sweep the nation.
15 Feb. The Oxford English Dictionary is completed after seventy years' work and total costs of £300,000.
15 Feb. Former prime minister Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, dies.
11 Mar. Blizzards sweep Britain. Temperatures in London sink to 16°F (-9°C).
19 Mar. The Industrial Fatigue Research Board says that a cup of tea aids a worker's efficiency.
21 Mar. Foreign secretary Sir Austen Chamberlain states that expediency, not prejudice, forbids the recruitment of women as diplomats.
23 Mar. The Grand National is won by Mr H S Kenyon's Tipperary Tim.
29 Mar. The House of Commons passes the Equal Franchise Bill to give the vote to all women aged 21 or over.
2 Apr. The BBC unveils plans to produce programmes debating controversial political issues.
3 Apr. The manuscript of Alice in Wonderland is sold at auction to a US bidder for £15,400.
13 Apr. The London Zoo takes in a 100-year-old Chilean Tortoise.
21 Apr. Blackburn Rovers take the FA Cup after defeating Huddersfield Town 1-0 in the final.
30 Apr. The Flying Scotsman service is inaugurated, running a daily train service each way between Edinburgh and London. Speeds of over 70 miles per hour will be achieved over the 392 mile journey.
7 May. MPs give an unopposed third reading to the Equal Franchise Bill.
13 May. The bill to allow the Bank of England to print notes for £1 and 10s passes its second reading.
16 May. Britain's longest road bridge, the Royal Tweed Bridge, is opened by the prince of Wales.
19 May. Britain gives its backing to the Kellogg-Briand plan to outlaw war. The plan has been drawn up by the United States and France.
24 May. Piccadilly Circus Tube station in London is to get eleven escalators, the largest number in any station in the world.
6 Jun. The Derby is won by Sir Hugo Cunliffe-Owen's Felstead.
13 Jun. Harrods buys the retailer D H Evans.
14 Jun. Women's rights activist Emmeline Pankhurst dies.
15 Jun. The Flying Scotsman narrowly beats an aeroplane in a race from London to Edinburgh.
18 Jun. Amelia Earhart lands in South Wales after becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.
7 Jul. René Lacoste beats Henri Cochet in the men's singles final at Wimbledon. Helen Wills wins the ladies' singles title after defeating Lili Alvarez.
10 Jul. The House of Lords rejects the Rabbits Bill, allowing for their destruction, for fear that it will mean a shortage for shooting.
25 Jul. A new world record is set by Captain de Havilland after he reaches 21,500 feet in his Gipsy Moth biplane.
31 Jul. A government committee says that smallpox can be eradicated from the world by systematic vaccination.
1 Aug. Morris Motors launch their latest model, the Morris Minor.
10 Aug. British people are the greatest smokers in the world. In 1924, 77,458,000 pounds of tobacco were smoked. The average tobacco consumption now stands at 3.4 lbs per person.
17 Aug. Captain Wedgwood Benn, a Liberal MP for 21 years, is elected Labour MP for Aberdeen in a by-election.
5 Sep. New figures show that on average three people a day died on the roads in London between April and June of this year.
7 Sep. It is announced that an automatic gear box for the motor car will be on show at next month's Motor Show.
11 Sep. Professor Hill of Glasgow University claims that it will soon be possible to produce living cells artificially.
16 Sep. The shipyards in Glasgow see the launch of the P&O liner Viceroy of India, the world's first liner to have oil-fired electric turbines.
24 Sep. Labour MP Sir Oswald Mosley says that his title does not mean a thing and is not worth giving up.
30 Sep. Professor Alexander Fleming accidentally discovers penicillin when a mould forms in a sample dish that kills the contained bacteria.
1 Oct. The Elastoplast sticking plaster is first produced in Hull.
9 Oct. According to motor traders, any person in Britain who earns at least £400 a year can afford a car.
9 Oct. After a series of tests, the BBC rejects plans for a trial television service.
10 Oct. The king opens the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle. The bridge is a marvel of modern engineering and contains Britains largest steel arch.
12 Oct. The Corporation of London rejects plans for a new bridge over the River Thames at St Paul's.
13 Oct. After the death of Dowager Empress Marie of Russia, Queen Alexandra's sister, ten days of official mourning are announced.
25 Oct. The first all-talking film, Edgar Wallace's The Terror, gets its world premier in London.
15 Nov. According to the director-general of roads, London's Hyde Park corner is the world's busiest traffic junction.
22 Nov. King George V is confined to bed with a congested lung. Queen Mary assumes his duties.
22 Nov. The first £1 and 10s notes come into circulation.
23 Nov. Royal doctors use one of the new X-ray machines on King George V.
27 Nov. The BBC unveils it's plans to build a new builing in Portland Place at an estimated costs of £500,000.
29 Nov. On average, fourteen Britons are killed on the roads every day and over 148,575 are injured every year.
2 Dec. The king's condition grows worse. He has reportedly been put on oxygen during the night.
4 Dec. A Council of State is appointed to act in the king's place as his condition deteriorates.
10 Dec. Piccadilly Circus Tube station opens.
12 Dec. A press release from the palace states that the king's condition has greatly improved following an operation on his lung.
12 Dec. The House of Lords approves a bill to make driving tests compulsory.
1 Jan. New figures show there are now 1.6 million telephones in use in Great Britain, 3.6 per 100 people.
3 Jan. The BBC and conductor Sir Thomas Beecham agree to form a permanent orchestra.
30 Jan. The prince of Wales tours mining districts in Northern England, expressing sympathy for the low wages and poor living conditions.
4 Feb. Britain's first area of 'green belt' land is approved, a five-mile stretch near Hendon.
5 Feb. Eamon de Valera is arrested in Belfast for entering Northern Ireland.
8 Feb. Eamon de Valera is sentenced to one month's imprisonment for illegal entry into Northern Ireland.
13 Feb. The Salvation Army elects Commander Higgins to take over from General Bramwell Booth, who is suffering from a nervous disease.
6 Mar. Eamon de Valera is released from prison a day early and sent back to Dublin.
14 Mar. The Food Council says that milk should cost 7d a quart in winter and 6d a quart in summer.
17 Mar. The king goes outside for a walk for the first time since his recent illness.
22 Mar. The Grand National is won by Mrs M Gemmell's Gregalach.
23 Mar. The centenary Boat Race is won by Cambridge. Each university has now won forty races.
30 Mar. A 5,000-mile airmail service is opened serving India, Eqypt, Palestine and Iraq.
10 Apr. Figures show that the birth rate in 1927 was only 85 per cent of the death rate, the lowest rate ever.
14 Apr. The first delivery of 15,000 airmail letters from India arrives at Croydon aerodrome.
15 Apr. Sir James Barrie donates the copyright fee for Peter Pan to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children.
15 Apr. Churchill's Budget abolishes the 325-year-old tea duty, cutting 4d off a pound of tea.
22 Apr. Flights begin from Britain's first municipal airport at Chat Moss, Manchester.
27 Apr. Bolton Wanderers defeat Portsmouth 2-0 to win the FA Cup Final.
30 Apr. Britain finally decides to ratify the 1925 League of Nations protocol banning the use of all poisonous gases in warfare.
10 May. The king disolves Parliament, thereby starting the general election campaigns.
21 May. Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, dies having fulfilled all of his three ambitions in life: to win the Derby, to marry the richest heiress in England and to become prime minister.
29 May. Approval is given for an experimental set of traffic lights to be erected in London's Oxford Street.
31 May. The general election ends in a stalemate. Labour wins 288 seats, the Conservatives 260 and the Liberals 59. It is up to the Liberal Party to decide if the Tories stay in office or whether to put the Labour Party in. Thirteen women MPs are elected.
2 Jun. Eighteen countries, including Britain, sign a new international shipping safety convention.
4 Jun. Prime minister Stanley Baldwin tenders his resignation to King George V after deciding to give the Government to the Labour Party without a fight.
5 Jun. Mr W Barnett's Trigo wins the Derby at Epsom.
7 Jun. Ramsay MacDonald announces the composition of Britain's second Labour Government
8 Jun. Prime minister Ramsay MacDonald makes his first radio broadcast on the need to reduce the number of unemployed.
16 Jun. General William Bramwell Booth, leader of the Salvation Army, dies.
17 Jun. Seventeen passengers die when an Imperial Airways aeroplane crashes into the English Channel on its way to Zurich.
2 Jul. The king opens Parliament.
4 Jul. The Government announces plans to increase unemployment benefit.
6 Jul. At Wimbledon, Helen Wills beats fellow American Helen Jacobs for the ladies' singles title and Henri Cochet defeats fellow Frenchman Jean Borotra for the men's singles title.
9 Jul. Two Royal Navy submarines, H.47 and L.12, collided in the Irish Sea. The H.47 sinks in 50 fathoms of water, while the L.12 is able to limp back to Milford Haven. 24 men die in the collision.
11 Jul. The British Government refuses asylum to Leon Trotsky.
15 Jul. Britain invites the USSR to discuss reopening diplomatic relations.
29 Jul. The foreign secretary meets with a Soviet representative for talks on restoring ties between Britain and the USSR.
31 Jul. Attorney-general Sir William Jowitt, a former Liberal MP, is returned as Labour MP for Preston.
1 Aug. Dairy producers put the price of milk up to 7d a quart.
6 Aug. Britain and Eqypt agree on a draft treaty concerning the withdrawal of British troops, except from the Suez Canal.
10 Aug. Scotland Yard detectives are issued with high-performance cars with mobile radios.
21 Aug. Flying Officer Waghorn reaches a record 350 mph in the new Supermarine Rolls-Royce S.6 seaplane.
26 Aug. The Ministry of Health predicts that by 1950 two thirds of the population will be middle aged or elderly.
4 Sep. The Baird Company agrees to make experimental television broadcasts using BBC transmitters.
7 Sep. Britain wins the Schneider Trophy aircraft race.
13 Sep. It is announced that traffic lights, now in use in 21 towns, will be standardised, with red signalling stop, green go and amber denoting a coming change.
19 Sep. According to the Home Office, Britons now consume 60 per cent less alcohol than they did in 1914.
27 Sep. Britain and the USSR agree to restore relations.
1 Oct. Coal prices increase by 1/2 a ton. The best coal now costs 53s a ton.
2 Oct. A committee is formed to consider the establishment of National Parks in Britain.
14 Oct. The United Kingdom's new airship, R.101, makes her maiden flight over the capital.
16 Oct. The Government says that an additional half million people, mainly widows, will receive state pensions.
25 Oct. The Cabinet give the go-ahead for a bid to undo the last Conservative Government's union curbing legislation.
26 Oct. London Transport announces that in future all buses will be red, as trials with yellow and red buses have proved unpopular.
28 Oct. The London Stock Exchange feels the first shock waves from Wall Street. Shares fall rapidly.
28 Oct. Mrs T W Evans becomes the first woman to give birth on a plane.
1 Nov. Petrol prices fall to 1/7 a gallon.
7 Nov. The Government warns it will ban any new coaches capable of 60 mph.
30 Nov. The Road Traffic Bill is published. It will raise the speed limit, but establish a fitness test for drivers.
2 Dec. Britain's first 22 public telephone boxes come into use in London.
5 Dec. Nineteen people drown at sea and seven are killed on land as a 94 mph hurricane sweeps the nation.
31 Dec. Sixty-nine children die when a fire breaks out in a cinema in Paisley, Scotland.
