History — the Central Line

Ride it end to end: every stop is a fact that has appeared in the exams. Cues sit on the platform between stops.

Early Britain

Stone AgeFirst people were hunter-gatherers

6,000 yrsFirst farmers arrive, ancestors from south-east Europe

Iron AgeFirst coins minted in Britain, some inscribed with names of Iron Age kings

55 BCJulius Caesar leads the first (failed) Roman invasion

AD 43Emperor Claudius invades successfully; Boudicca, queen of the Iceni, fights the Romans

c. 122Emperor Hadrian builds a wall to keep out the Picts — forts Housesteads & Vindolanda

AD 410Romans leave; Jutes, Angles and Saxons invade from northern Europe

~600sSt Augustine spreads Christianity — first Archbishop of Canterbury

800sAnglo-Saxon kingdoms unite under Alfred the Great, who defeats the Vikings

Invader order = C-C-A-S-V-N: Caesar, Claudius, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Normans. Caesar failed, Claudius nailed it.

Middle Ages

1066Norman Conquest — last successful invasion. William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy, France) beats Harold at Hastings; recorded in the Bayeux Tapestry

after 1066Domesday Book — William’s survey of towns, people and animals. Nobles speak Norman French, peasants Anglo-Saxon → the two merge into English

1215Magna Carta — even the king is subject to the law; restricted his power to collect taxes and change laws

1314Robert the Bruce beats the English at Bannockburn — Scotland stays unconquered

1348Black Death (a plague) kills one third of England (similar in Scotland & Wales)

1400sHundred Years War with France (actually 116 years); serfs = peasants farming a small patch of their lord’s land

1455Wars of the Roses: House of Lancaster vs House of York

1400sChaucer writes The Canterbury Tales — poems about a pilgrimage; William Caxton first to print books in England

Dates that spell themselves: Magna Carta = 12:15 on the clock. Bannockburn = 13-14 counting up. Black Death = 1348 (“fourth-eighth of the people gone — worse: a third”).

Tudors & Stuarts

1530sHenry VIII founds the Church of England because the Pope refused his divorce from Catherine of Aragon; the movement against the Pope’s authority = the Reformation

1536Anne Boleyn executed at the Tower of London

1560Scotland’s Parliament establishes a Protestant Church of Scotland (Presbyterian, elected leadership, not a state church)

1558–1603Elizabeth I — daughter of Henry VIII, a Protestant who balanced Catholic and Protestant views; under her, settlers begin to colonise America’s east coast

1588English defeat the Spanish Armada — sent by Spain to restore Catholicism

1587Mary, Queen of Scots — a Catholic, Elizabeth’s cousin — executed after 20 years in prison, accused of plotting

1603James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England; his English Bible = the King James / Authorised Version

1642Civil War: king’s Cavaliers vs Parliament’s Roundheads. Charles I believed in the Divine Right of Kings and tried to rule without Parliament

1645Charles I defeated at Marston Moor and Naseby

1649Charles I executed → England becomes a republic (“the Commonwealth”); Oliver Cromwell = Lord Protector (until 1658); Puritans were strict Protestants

1660Charles II restored from exile in the Netherlands — had escaped by hiding in an oak tree

1666Great Fire of London destroys St Paul’s — rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren

1679Habeas Corpus Act — every prisoner has a right to a court hearing

1688Glorious Revolution — Protestants invite William of Orange to take the throne, unresisted

1689Bill of Rights — confirms the rights of Parliament and limits of the king’s power (NOT votes!) → start of constitutional monarchy

1690William defeats James II at the Battle of the Boyne (Ireland)

1680–1720Huguenot refugees arrive from France

Charles I lost his head; Charles II hid in a tree. Fire of London: 1666 — “the devil’s number burned the city.” Stuart drumbeat: 42 war · 49 axe · 60 return · 66 fire · 79 habeas · 88 glorious · 89 bill · 90 Boyne.

Georgians & the Empire

1721–42Sir Robert Walpole — the first Prime Minister

1745Bonnie Prince Charlie (Charles Edward Stuart) raises an army of Highland clansmen; earlier the MacDonalds of Glencoe were killed for not taking the oath; landlords later destroy crofts in the Highland Clearances

1700sThe Enlightenment — new ideas in politics, philosophy, science: Adam Smith → economics, David Hume → philosophy

1700sIndustrial Revolution — driven by steam power; manufacturing becomes the biggest employer; canals built to link factories to towns and ports; Britain in conflict with France over trade; captain James Cook maps Australia

177613 North American colonies declare independence over taxation (“no taxation without representation”)

1805Battle of Trafalgar — Admiral Nelson commands the fleet and is killed

1815Battle of Waterloo — the Duke of Wellington defeats Napoleon; the last battle between Britain and France

Nelson at sea ’05, Wellington on land ’15 — the sailor comes first, and only the soldier survives.

Victorians

1833Emancipation Act abolishes slavery across the Empire; William Wilberforce — a politician (MP) and abolitionist

1846Corn Laws repealed — free trade by abolishing import taxes

1847Factories Act — women & children limited to 10 hours a day

1851Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, inside the Crystal Palace

1853–56Crimean War — Britain + Turkey + France vs Russia; first war extensively covered by the media; Florence Nightingale — a nurse, founder of modern nursing

1840sIrish potato famine — a million die; the Fenians want complete Irish independence

1800sIsambard Kingdom Brunel builds the Great Western Railway (first major railway, from Paddington)

1899–1902Boer War in South Africa — the Boers were settlers from the Netherlands

Victorian reforms go 33 → 46 → 47 → 51: free the people, free the trade, free the workers, show it off (Emancipation, Corn Laws, Factories Act, Great Exhibition).

20th century

1913–21Home Rule promised for Ireland, postponed by WWI; Ireland becomes a republic in 1949

1914Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand triggers WWI — which ends at 11am, 11 November 1918

1918Women over 30 get the vote — recognising their WWI war effort. Campaign led by the suffragettes under Emmeline Pankhurst

1928Women vote at 21, same as men

1930sGreat Depression hits heavy industry — especially shipbuilding

1939Germany invades Poland → WWII. Winston Churchill becomes wartime PM (voted greatest Briton, 2002)

1940Dunkirk: 300,000+ men rescued by small boats. Battle of Britain: an aerial battle won by the RAF

1944Butler Act — free secondary education (England & Wales)

1945Labour wins; Clement Attlee PM; the United Nations set up after WWII

1969Voting age lowered to 18

1979–90Margaret Thatcher — first woman PM and longest-serving of the 20th century; succeeded by John Major (NI peace process)

1997Tony Blair (Labour) — introduces the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly

2010Coalition: Conservatives + Liberal Democrats, David Cameron PM

Votes for women: years up, ages down — 1918/age 30 → 1928/age 21 → 1969/age 18.

Inventors & scientists

1687Isaac Newton — gravity (Principia Mathematica)

1920sJohn Logie Baird (Scot) — television

1930sFrank Whittle — jet engine · Robert Watson-Watt — radar · Alan Turing — the Turing machine

1930sErnest Rutherford — first to split the atom (Manchester → Cambridge)

1953Francis Crick — structure of DNA (Nobel Prize)

1960sBritain + France develop Concorde, the only supersonic airliner

1990Tim Berners-Lee — the World Wide Web

Sound-alikes: jets whistle → Whittle. Radar runs on watts → Watson-Watt. Baird aired TV. DNA clicks → Crick.

Test yourself: free practice questions on history. In Until It Sticks every question you miss links back to its card here. Start free.