27 April: Olympic Games opens at White City in London
They featured 22 nations, 110 events and more than 2,000 athletes.

27 October: Parliament approves old age pensions
New legislation gave a weekly means-tested pension of a maximum of five shillings to all those aged over 70.

6 May: Edward VII dies and is succeeded by George V

December 191: National Insurance Act
A contributory scheme of health insurance is introduced for those in employment, which provided payment for medical treatment.

15 April: 'Titanic' sinks with the loss of 1,503 lives

First World War
4 August 1914: Britain declares war on Germany in response to the invasion of Belgium
Compulsory military service and food rationing introduced

11 November: World War One ends when Germany signs an armistice
that brought the fighting on the Western Front to a halt at 11am on 11 November 1918.

1 December 1919 Lady Astor becomes the first woman to take her seat in parliament

23 December Exclusion of women from many jobs is made illegal
Women could now become magistrates, solicitors and barristers.

Women at Oxford University are allowed to receive degrees
Although women had been able to attend degree level courses, they could not receive degrees until 1920.

26 January: John Logie Baird gives the first public demonstration of television. It was not until after the World War Two that televisions became widely available.

1 January: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is created

7 May: All women over the age of 21 get the vote

September: The first 'talkie' (film with dialogue) is shown in Britain
Cinema-going was immensely popular during the 1920s and 1930s and virtually every town, suburb and major housing development had at least one cinema.

30 September: Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin

20 January: George V dies and is succeeded by Edward VIII

5 October: Jarrow men march 300 miles to London to highlight poverty and mass unemployment (as high as 70%) in the north east of England

10 December: Edward VIII abdicates in order to marry Wallace Simpson
Edward VIII wished to marry American Wallis Simpson. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin advised him that the British people would not accept her because she was a divorcee. Faced with losing the woman he loved, Edward chose instead to abdicate. On 11 December, he broadcast his decision to the nation. He married Wallace Simpson in France in June 1937. They became the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

12 May 1937 George VI, Edward VIII's younger brother, the Duke of York, is crowned king

29 December: New constitution makes Ireland a republic in all but name

The Second World War

3 September 1939: Britain declares war on Germany in response to the invasion of Poland

10 May: Winston Churchill becomes prime minister of the coalition government

May: Butler Act creates free secondary education to the age of 15

8 May: Britain celebrates the end of war on Victory in Europe Day

15 August: Victory over Japan Day marks the end of World War Two

15 August: India gains independence from Britain

Post-war immigration from the Commonwealth begins

29 July: Olympic Games open at Wembley Stadium in London
Fifty nine nations took part, but the defeated powers of Germany and Japan were excluded.

18 April: Republic of Ireland comes into being

6 February: Elizabeth II succeeds her father, George VI

25 April: Watson and Crick publish their discovery of the structure of DNA

22 September: Commercial television starts with the first ITV broadcast

17 October: Britain switches on its first nuclear power station - Calder Hall

6 March: Ghana becomes the first British colony in Africa to gain independence

5 December: The first Motorway, the M6 Preston bypass, opens.

12 July: Comprehensive education system is introduced

8 November: Death penalty is abolished
The death sentence for treason and piracy with violence remained on the statue books until 1998 when they were abolished by the Crime and Disorder Act.

2 March: Concorde, the world's first supersonic airliner, makes its maiden flight

15 February: Decimalised currency replaces 'pounds, shillings and pence'

25 July: World's first test-tube baby is born in Oldham

12 March: 12-month 'Miners' Strike' over pit closures begins

Tim Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web

6 May: Channel Tunnel opens, linking London and Paris by rail

1 July: Britain hands Hong Kong back to China, after more than 150 years of British rule