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Author Topic: History Guide: United Kingdom 1935-1955  (Read 3464 times)

* Anneka Ivanova

    (03/09/2012 at 00:56)
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References:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/timeline/worldwars_timeline_noflash.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_British_history_(1930%E2%80%931949)
http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Britain-since-the-1930s-Display-Timeline-and-resources-3001281/
http://history1900s.about.com/od/timelines/tp/1930timeline.htm

1935
Prime Minister: Ramsay McDonald (till 7 June) [Labour], Stanley Baldwin (from 7 June) [Conservative]
World Events: Amelia Earhart flies solo from Hawaii to California. T.E. Lawrence dies. Germany issues anti-Jewish Nuremberg laws. Alcoholics Anonymous founded. Kit Kat introduced to Britain.


18 March: Britain protests at Germany's introduction of conscription.
11 April: Italy, France and Britain meet to discuss German rearmament.
6 May: Silver Jubilee celebrations for King George V.
22 May: The government announces plans to triple the size of the Royal Air Force in the next two years.
7 June: Ramsay McDonald resigns due to ill health, Stanley Baldwin becomes PM.
July: First Penguin paperbacks go on sale.
6 November: Maiden flight of the RAF's Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft.

Publications: Three Act Tragedy, Death in the Clouds, Regency Buck.

1936
Prime Minister: Stanley Baldwin [Conservative]
World Events: Olympics in Berlin. Hoover Dam completed. Spanish Civil War begins. Nazi Germany reoccupies the Rhineland. FDR is reelected.


The K6 red telephone box is introduced.
20 January: George V dies, succeeded by Edward VIII.
2 November: the BBC launches the world’s first regular television service.
30 November: Crystal Palace destroyed in a fire.
10 December: Edward VIII abdicates to marry Wallis Simpson.

Publications: The A.B.C. Murders, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, The Oxford Book of Modern Verse.

1937
Prime Minister: Stanley Baldwin (till 28 May), Neville Chamberlain (from 28 May) [Conservative]
World Events: The Hindenberg Disaster. The Golden Gate Bridge opens. Amelia Earhart vanishes. Japan invades China. Batman begins.


The nickel-brass twelve-sided threepence coin is first introduced.
12 May: George VI’s coronation takes place.
28 May: Baldwin retires, Chamberlain becomes PM.
29 December: Éamon De Valera draws up a new constitution for Ireland that makes it a republic in all but name.

Publications: Death on the Nile, The Road to Wigan Pier, The Hobbit, The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism and Capitalism.

1938
Prime Minister: Neville Chamberlain [Conservative]
World Events: Broadcast of ‘The War Of The Worlds’. Annexation of Austria. Night of the Broken Glass. Italy win the 1938 World Cup.


12 February: 10,000 Jewish children between five and seventeen arrive in Britain: the ‘Kindertransport’.
20 February: Anthony Eden resigns as Foreign Secretary over the ‘appeasement’ of Italy.
27 September: RMS Queen Elizabeth is launched.
30 September: The Munich Conference – Chamberlain declares ‘peace for our time’.

Publications: Brighton Rock, The Sword In The Stone, Rebecca.

1939
Prime Minister: Neville Chamberlain [Conservative]
World Events: First commercial flight over the Atlantic. German-Soviet non-aggression pact signed. Helicopter invented. World War Two begins. The birth of nylon stockings.


31 March: Britain guarantees territorial integrity of Poland.
27 April: Military Training Act introduces conscription; men aged 20 and 21 must undertake six months military training.
24 August: Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939 gives full authority to 'defence regulations'. Parliament recalled, Army reservists called up and Civil Defence workers placed on alert.
30 August: Evacuation of children from major UK cities begins.
1 September: Blackout imposed, army officially mobilized.
3 September: Britain declares war on Germany.
1 October: Call-Up Proclamation: All men aged 20–21 must register with the military authorities.
21 October: Registration of men aged 20-23 for National Service begins.

Publications: My Uncle Silas, Mister Johnson, Murder is Easy.

1940
Prime Minister: Neville Chamberlain (till 10 May 1940), Winston Churchill (from 10 May 1940) [Conservative]
World Events: Leon Trotsky assassinated. Tom and Jerry make their debut. Katyn massacre. Germany invades Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France.


8 January: Food rationing introduced.
10 May: Winston Churchill becomes PM of coalition government after Chamberlain resigns.
14 May: Recruitment for the LDV (Home Guard) begins.
26 May: Allied troops evacuated from Dunkirk.
9 July: The Battle of Britain begins.
9 August: Birmingham Blitz.
24 August: First air raid on London.
7 September: The beginning of the Blitz: 57 consecutive nights of strategic bombing on London.
14 November: Coventry Blitz.
19 November: Heavy air raids in Central England.
24 November: Bristol Blitz.
22 December: Manchester Blitz.
29 December: Heavy bombing causes the Second Great Fire of London.

Publications: One, Two, Buckle my Shoe, The power and the Glory, Guilty Men.



Written by Scott Cooper.
« Last Edit: 28/04/2017 at 12:32 by Anneka Ivanova »
and if I'm flying solo, at least I'm flying free
to those who ground me, take a message back from me
tell them how I am defying gravity

* Anneka Ivanova

    (22/04/2014 at 22:09)
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1941
Prime Minister: Winston Churchill [Coalition]
World Events: Japanese Attack Pearl Harbor, Jeep Invented, Mount Rushmore Completed, Nazi Rudolf Hess Flies to Britain on a Peace Mission, Siege of Leningrad


1 February: Air Training Corps formed
15 April: 1,000 people are killed in the Belfast Blitz
18 April: Heaviest air-raid of the year on London
2–8 May: The 'May Week Raids'; sustained heavy bombing on Merseyside result in over 1,700 deaths and well over 1,000 injuries
20 May: German troops invade Crete, driving the Allies out of the Eastern Mediterranean
24 May: HMS 'Hood' sunk by the German battleship 'Bismarck'
1 June: Clothes rationing introduced
12 August: Anglo-American alliance is sealed with the Atlantic Charter
15 August: Josef Jakobs becomes the last person executed at the Tower of London
5 December: Britain declares war on Finland, Hungary and Romania

Publications: The Case for African Freedom,  Evil Under the Sun, The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon

1942
Prime Minister: Winston Churchill [Coalition]
World Events: Anne Frank Goes Into Hiding, The Bataan Death March, Battle of Midway, Japanese-Americans Held in Camps, Manhattan Project Begins, T-shirt Introduced


10 January: The last German bombs of the war are dropped on Liverpool
26 January: First American troops arrive in Europe, landing in Belfast
7 February: Soap rationing introduced
15 February: British colony of Singapore surrenders to Japanese forces
11 March: Sir Stafford Cripps goes to India to offer post-war self-government
April: Women's Timber Corps set up
30 May: Start of the RAF's 'thousand bomber raids' on German cities
11 August: Traffic admitted onto the new Waterloo Bridge across the River Thames in London
19 August: 'Dieppe Raid' ends in disaster for the Allies
25 August: Prince George, Duke of Kent, brother of George VI, is killed in an air crash
23 October - 4 November: Decisive British victory over German forces at Battle of El Alamein, Egypt
25 October: The milk ration is cut to two and a half pints a week
November: 'Beveridge Report' lays the foundations for the Welfare State

Publications: Five on a Treasure Island, The Body in the Library, Five Little Pigs, The Screwtape Letters

1943
Prime Minister: Winston Churchill [Coalition]
World Events: French Resistance Leader Jean Moulin Killed, Grave of Katyn Forest Massacre Found, Warsaw Ghetto Uprising


1 January: Utility furniture first becomes available
13 May: Axis siege of the island of Malta is lifted
16 May: 'Dambusters Raid' by the RAF breaches two dams in the Ruhr valley
19 May: Winston Churchill addresses a joint session of the United States Congress
23 May: Germany calls off the Battle of the Atlantic
10 July: First Allied troops land in Europe as invasion of Sicily begins
December: Construction of prototype Mark I Colossus computer, the world's first totally electronic programmable computing device

Publications: The Small Back Room, Perelandra, An Outline of European Architecture,  Mystery at Witchend

1944
Prime Minister: Winston Churchill [Coalition]
World Events: The Summer Olympics, scheduled for London, are not held due to World War II, Ballpoint Pens Go On Sale, First German V1 and V2 Rockets Fired, Hitler Escapes Assassination Attempt


January: Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Service officially formed
10 March: Lifting of prohibition on married women working as teachers
May: Butler Act creates free secondary education
18 May: Allies win the Battle of Monte Cassino after five months of fighting
6 June: Allied forces land in Normandy on D-Day, starting the liberation of France
13 June: The first V-1 Flying Bomb attack on London takes place
22 June: Allies defeat the Japanese at the battles of Imphal and Kohima
25 September: Allied forces are defeated at the Battle of Arnhem

Publications: Fair Stood the Wind for France, Death Comes as the End, The Razor's Edge, English Social History: a survey of six centuries from Chaucer to Queen Victoria

1945
Prime Minister: Winston Churchill [Coalition] (until 27 July), Clement Attlee, [Labour]
World Events: FDR Dies, First Computer Built (ENIAC), Hitler Commits Suicide, Microwave Oven Invented, Slinky Toy Hits Shelves, U.S. Drops Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki


4 February: Allied leaders shape the post-war world at the Yalta Conference
15 April: British troops liberate the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen, Germany
8 May: Britain celebrates the end of war on Victory in Europe Day
23 May: Churchill forms a 'caretaker' Conservative administration, pending an election, officially ending the wartime Coalition government
15 June: Parliament passes the Family Allowances Act to provide payments to families with children
17 July: Potsdam Conference – the three main Allied leaders begin their final summit of the war
26 July: Labour wins the general election by a landslide
15 August: Victory over Japan Day marks the end of World War Two
16 August: In the House of Commons, Leader of the Opposition Winston Churchill speaks of an "Iron Curtain" descending across Europe
2 October: Piccadilly Circus tube station becomes the first to be lit by fluorescent light
24 October: United Nations comes into existence with Britain as a founder member
31 December: Britain receives its first shipment of bananas since the beginning of the war

Publications: Sparkling Cyanide, Animal Farm,  History of Western Philosophy,  Brideshead Revisited


For more information, check out this, this, and this website.
and if I'm flying solo, at least I'm flying free
to those who ground me, take a message back from me
tell them how I am defying gravity

* Anneka Ivanova

    (04/01/2016 at 20:51)
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1946
Prime Minister: Clement Attlee [Labour]
World Events: Bikinis introduced, Dr. Spock's The Common Book of Baby and Child Care Is Published, Jews Are Massacred in the Post-Holocaust Kielce Pogrom in Poland, Nuclear Testing at Bikini Atoll Begins, UNICEF Is Founded, Las Vegas Begins Its Transformation With the Building of the Flamingo Hotel


1 January: The first international flight from London Heathrow Airport, to Buenos Aires
14 February: The Bank of England is nationalised
15 February: American dance craze, the Jitterbug, sweeps Britain
21 February: Alan Rickman, English actor, is born
5 March: Winston Churchill delivers his "Iron Curtain" speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, United States
4 May: First-class cricket returns, having been suspended during the War
31 May: London Heathrow Airport opened fully for civilian use
7 June: Television broadcasting by the BBC, suspended during World War II, resumes
8 June: A victory parade is held in London to celebrate the end of World War II
27 June: Government imposes bread rationing
31 August: League football returns, having been suspended during World War II
29 September: BBC Third Programme begins broadcasting

Publications: Thomas the Tank Engine, The Hollow, Westwood, How to be an Alien, The Anatomy of the Village

1947
Prime Minister: Clement Attlee [Labour]
World Events: Chuck Yeager Breaks the Sound Barrier, Dead Sea Scrolls Discovered, Jackie Robinson Joins the Dodgers, Marshall Plan, Polaroid Cameras Invented


2 January: British coins cease to include any silver content
10 February: Major cuts in power supply due to shortage of fuel under severe winter conditions are imposed in England and Wales (The BBC Television Service is temporarily suspended until 11 March)
14 March: Thames flood and other widespread flooding as the exceptionally harsh winter ends in a thaw
1 April: Raising of school leaving age to 15
18 April: In the largest non-nuclear single explosive detonation in history, the Royal Navy sets off 6,800 tonnes of surplus ammunition in an attempt to destroy Heligoland, Germany
15 June: Restrictions on foreign travel imposed during World War II lifted
10 July: The Princess Elizabeth (now Elizabeth II) announces her engagement to Lt Philip Mountbatten
September: The University of Cambridge votes to allow women to become full students
16 November: The British Army begins to withdraw troops from Palestine
19 November: Philip Mountbatten created Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich, with the style His Royal Highness
20 November: The Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth II), daughter of George VI marries The Duke of Edinburgh at Westminster Abbey, London (The service is watched by an estimated 400,000 television viewers and is the oldest surviving telerecording in Britain)
25 November: New Zealand ratifies the Statute of Westminster and thus becomes independent of legislative control by the United Kingdom
6 December: Women are admitted to full membership of the University of Cambridge

Publications: Under the Volcano, Whisky Galore, The Theory and Practice of Gamesmanship: Or, The Art of Winning Games Without Actually Cheating

1948
Prime Minister: Clement Attlee [Labour]
World Events: Berlin Airlift, "Big Bang" Theory Formulated, Gandhi Assassinated, State of Israel Founded


1 January: British Railways created when the government nationalizes the railway industry.
4 January: Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
12 January: The London Co-operative Society opens Britain's first supermarket, in Manor Park, London
24 April: Manchester United F.C. defeat Blackpool 4–2 in the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium to claim their first major trophy for 37 years
5 July: The National Health Service begins functioning, giving the right to universal healthcare, free at point of use
25 July: End of Post-War bread rationing
29 July–14 August: Olympic Games held in London. (Great Britain and Northern Ireland win 3 gold, 14 silver and 6 bronze medals at the event, which is televised by the BBC)
October: The Hoover Company open a new factory for the mass production of washing machines at Merthyr Tydfil
14 November: Princess Elizabeth gives birth to a son
15 December: The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh's one-month-old son (later The Prince of Wales) is christened His Royal Highness Charles Philip Arthur George of Edinburgh

Publications: Taken at the Flood, The Gathering Storm, Notes Towards the Definition of Culture,  Ape and Essence, The Loved One

1949
Prime Minister: Clement Attlee [Labour]
World Events: China Becomes Communist, First Non-Stop Flight Around the World, NATO Established, Soviet Union Has Atomic Bomb


1 January: Peacetime conscription in the United Kingdom is regularised under the National Service Act 1947 (Men aged 18–26 in England, Scotland and Wales are obliged to serve full-time in the armed forces for 18 months)
15 March: Post-War rationing of clothes ends
6 May: EDSAC, the first practicable stored-program computer, runs its first program at Cambridge University
10 May: First self-service launderette opens, in Queensway
24 April: Wartime rationing of sweets and chocolate ends, but is re-instituted shortly thereafter as shortages return
27 July: Maiden flight of the British-built de Havilland Comet, the world's first passenger jet, at Hatfield, Hertfordshire
30 September: The Berlin Airlift comes to an end, during which 17 American and 7 British planes have crashed delivering supplies to Soviet blockaded Berlin

Publications: Little Noddy Goes to Toyland, Crooked House, The Third Man,  Love in a Cold Climate, Nineteen Eighty-Four

1950
Prime Minister: Clement Attlee, [Labour]
World Events: First Modern Credit Card Introduced, First Organ Transplant, First "Peanuts" Cartoon Strip, Korean War Begins, Senator Joseph McCarthy Begins Communist Witch Hunt, U.S. President Truman Orders Construction of Hydrogen Bomb


26 January: India becomes a republic, severing ties with the United Kingdom
24 February: Clement Attlee wins the general election, giving Labour a second term in government after their election triumph in 1945
6 March–8 March: The World Figure Skating Championships are held in London
8 March: Carmaker Rover tests a revolutionary new turbine-powered concept car
13 May: First Grand Prix held at Silverstone
26 May: Motor fuel rationing comes to an end after 11 years
24 June: World Cup opens in Brazil with the England national football team competing for the first time
15 August: The Princess Elizabeth gives birth to her and her husband, The Duke of Edinburgh's second child and only daughter.
29 August: The Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh's 14-day-old daughter is named as Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise. She was then known as Princess Anne of Edinburgh
9 September: Post-War soap rationing ends
26 October: The rebuilt House of Commons, following its destruction by bombing in World War II, is used for the first time
25 December: The Stone of Scone, the traditional coronation stone of Scottish monarchs, English monarchs and more recently British monarchs, is stolen from London's Westminster Abbey by a group of four Scottish students

Publications: A Murder is Announced, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, Scenes from Provincial Life,  Helena, Kate Hannigan


For more information, check out this, and this website.
and if I'm flying solo, at least I'm flying free
to those who ground me, take a message back from me
tell them how I am defying gravity

* Anneka Ivanova

    (28/04/2017 at 12:31)
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1951
Prime Minister: Clement Attlee [Labour]; Winston Churchill [Conservative]
World Events: Color television introduced, South Africans Forced to Carry ID Cards Identifying Race, Truman Signs Peace Treaty With Japan, Officially Ending WWII, Winston Churchill Again Prime Minister of Great Britain


1 January:  Production run of the series The Archers begins on the BBC Light Programme
30 January: Phil Collins, musician and producer, is born
20 February: Gordon Brown, future Prime Minister, is born
21 February: An English Electric Canberra becomes the first jet to make an unrefuelled Transatlantic flight, taking 4 hours 37 minutes from RAF Aldergrove in Northern Ireland to Gander in Newfoundland
26 February: Film noir Pool of London is released, the first British film with a major role for a black actor, Bermuda-born Earl Cameron
17 April: The Peak District is established as the first of the national parks of England and Wales
22–25 April: Korean War - Battle of the Imjin River: The 29th Infantry Brigade of the British Army serving with the United Nations put up brave but ultimately unsuccessful resistance to the Chinese advance, with 141 UN troops killed
28 April: Newcastle United wins the FA Cup for the fourth time with a 2–0 win over Blackpool at Wembley Stadium
3 May: George VI opens the Festival of Britain in London
28 May: First broadcast of The Goon Show radio series
17 July: New Port Talbot Steelworks opened at Margam, South Wales
15 August: The first Miss World beauty pageant is held as part of the Festival of Britain
23 September: George VI has an operation to remove part of his lung
31 October: Zebra crossings, a type of pedestrian crossing, introduced for the first time
20 November: More than 1,000 families of British servicemen begin to move out of the Suez Canal Zone of Egypt after a shooting, which claimed the lives of five British soldiers as well as nine Egyptian civilians

Publications: They Came to Baghdad, Prince Caspian, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes,First English Workbook, The Good Food Guide

1952
Prime Minister: Winston Churchill [Conservative]
World Events: Car Seat Belts Introduced, The Great Smog of 1952, Jacques Cousteau Discovers Ancient Greek Ship, Polio Vaccine Created


10 January: An Aer Lingus Douglas DC-3 aircraft on a London–Dublin flight crashes in Wales due to vertical draft in the mountains of Snowdonia, killing twenty passengers and the three crew
30 January:British troops remain in Korea, where they have spent the last 18 months, after a breakdown of talks that were aimed at ending the Korean War
6 February: George VI dies at Sandringham House aged 56. It is revealed that he had been suffering from lung cancer. He is succeeded by his 25-year-old daughter, The Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh
8 February: Queen Elizabeth II proclaimed Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland at St James's Palace
15 February: The funeral of King George VI takes place at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. His body has been lying in state in Westminster Hall since 11 February
21 February: Compulsory identity cards, issued during World War II, abandoned
11 March: Douglas Adams, author, is born
7 June: Liam Neeson, Northern Irish actor, is born
5 July: The last of the original trams runs in London; the citizens of London turn out in force to say farewell
19 July–3 August: Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the Olympics in Helsinki and win 1 gold, 2 silver and 8 bronze medals
5 October: Tea rationing ends, after thirteen years, as announced by the government two days earlier
28 October: Billy Hughes, Welsh-descended Prime Minister of Australia, dies
November – Royal College of General Practitioners established
4–9 December: Great Smog blankets London, causing transport chaos and, it is believed, around 4,000 deaths
25 December: The Queen makes her first Christmas speech to the Commonwealth

Publications: Love for Lydia,  Mrs McGinty's Dead, They Do It with Mirrors, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Borrowers, Men at Arms

1953
Prime Minister: Winston Churchill [Conservative]
World Events: DNA Discovered, Hillary and Norgay Climb Mt. Everest, Joseph Stalin Dies, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Executed for Espionage


31 January/1 February: The North Sea flood of 1953 kills hundreds of people on the east coast of Britain
5 February: The rationing of sweets, introduced during World War II, ends
28 February: James D. Watson and Francis Crick announce that they have discovered the structure of the DNA molecule
24 March: Queen Mary, consort of the late George V dies in her sleep at Marlborough House
24 March: The 10 Rillington Place murders are uncovered in London
31 March: The funeral of Queen Mary takes place at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
13 April: Ian Fleming publishes his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale
24 April: Winston Churchill receives a knighthood from the Queen
6 May: Tony Blair, future Prime Minister, is born
2 June: Public holiday! The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II takes place at Westminster Abbey
23 June: Prime minister Winston Churchill, 78, suffers a stroke at a dinner for the Italian prime minister Alcide De Gasperi (On 27 June the public is told that he is suffering from fatigue)
30 June: First roll-on/roll-off ferry crossing of the English Channel, Dover–Boulogne
15 July: John Christie is hanged at Pentonville Prison, where a crowd of some 200 people stand to wait for the notice of execution to be posted
26 September: End of post-War sugar rationing
December: Matchbox toy vehicles are introduced by Lesney Products of London

Publications: After the Funeral,  A Pocket Full of Rye,  Casino Royale, The Silver Chair, The Kraken Wakes

1954
Prime Minister: Winston Churchill [Conservative]
World Events: Britain Sponsors an Expedition to Search for the Abominable Snowman,First Atomic Submarine Launched, Jonas Salk's Polio Vaccine Given to Children in Massive Trial, Report Says Cigarettes Cause Cancer, Segregation Ruled Illegal in U.S.


10 January: A British Overseas Airways Corporation de Havilland Comet jet airliner on BOAC Flight 781 from Singapore to London crashes in the Mediterranean Sea following fatigue failure, killing all 35 on board
12 February: United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority founded.
12 February: British Medical Committee report suggests the existence of a link between smoking and lung cancer
2 April: BBC Television broadcasts the opening episode of The Grove Family, the first British TV soap opera
3 April: Oxford wins the 100th Boat Race
6 May: Roger Bannister becomes the first person to break the four-minute mile, at the Iffley Road Track of the University of Oxford
29 May: Diane Leather becomes the first woman to break the five-minute mile, at the Alexander Sports Ground in Birmingham
6 June: J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings first published (first volumes)
7 June: Alan Turing, mathematician, logician and cryptographer, dies
4 July: Fourteen years of rationing during and following World War II comes to an end when meat officially comes off ration
19 October: Britain agrees to end its military occupation of the Suez Canal
3 November: BBC Television broadcasts the opening episode of Fabian of the Yard, the first British TV police procedural
30 November: Winston Churchill becomes the first (and as of 2017 the only) British Prime Minister to reach his 80th birthday while still in office

Publications: Destination Unknown,  Live and Let Die, Lord of the Flies,  The Horse and His Boy, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers

1955
Prime Minister: Winston Churchill [Conservative], Anthony Eden [Conservative]
World Events: Disneyland Opens,James Dean Dies in Car Accident, Montgomery Bus Boycott Begins, Emmett Till Murdered,Ray Kroc Opens His First McDonald's, Rosa Parks Refuses to Give Up Her Seat on a Bus, Warsaw Pact Signed


1 January: The U.K's first atomic bomber unit, No. 138 Squadron RAF, is formed, flying Vickers Valiants from RAF Gaydon in Warwickshire
6 January: Rowan Atkinson, comedian and actor, is born
23 January: Sutton Coldfield rail crash: an express train takes a sharp curve too fast and derails at Sutton Coldfield railway station: 17 killed, 43 injured
24 February: A big freeze across Britain results in more than 70 roads being blocked with snow, and in some parts of the country rail services have been cancelled for several days. The Royal Air Force works to deliver food and medical supplies to the worst affected areas
5 April: Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister due to ill-health at the age of 80
6 April: Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden is named as the new Prime Minister
21 April: National newspapers published for the first time after a month-long strike by maintenance workers
4–6 May: A severe gale strips topsoil across Norfolk
27 May: Anthony Eden wins the general election for the Conservative Party with a majority of 31 seats
29 May: Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF) calls a strike which continues until 14 June, leading to a state of emergency being declared on 31 May
Summer: Heat wave and associated drought
13 July: Ruth Ellis becomes the last woman to be hanged in the UK, at HM Prison Holloway, for shooting dead a lover, David Blakely, outside a pub in Hampstead
27 August: Guinness Book of Records first published
22 September: The Independent Television Authority's first ITV franchise begins broadcasting the UK's first commercial television in London ending the 18-year monopoly of the BBC
31 October: Princess Margaret announces that she does not intend to marry Group Captain Peter Townsend
7 December: Clement Attlee resigns as leader of the Labour Party after twenty years
14 December: Hugh Gaitskell becomes leader of the Labour Party
20 December: Cardiff becomes the official capital of Wales

Publications: Brothers in Law, Hickory Dickory Dock, Moonraker, The Genius and the Goddess, The Magician's Nephew, The Return of the King, Officers and Gentlemen


For more information, check out this and this website.
and if I'm flying solo, at least I'm flying free
to those who ground me, take a message back from me
tell them how I am defying gravity

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