British Isles

group of islands in northwest Europe

13 dated entries naming British Isles, drawn from 13 separate years between 598 CE and 1970 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

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6th century

598Missionaries begin to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity throughout much of what will later be the British Isles (approximate date).source

7th century

603Battle of Degsastan: King Æthelfrith of Northumbria defeats the combined forces of the Strathclyde Britons and Scots under Áedán mac Gabráin, establishing the supremacy of the Angles in the northern part of what will become known as the British Isles.source
616Rædwald installs Edwin as king of Northumbria, effectively confirming him as bretwalda. He takes power in his native Deira and in Bernicia. His reign marks the domination of Northumbria as leading Anglo-Saxon state of the British Isles.source

8th century

789The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the first appearance of Vikings in England. The Viking raid on Portland in Dorset is the first of its kind recorded in the British Isles, including Ireland. The reeve of Dorchester (a local high-ranking official) goes to greet them after they land, perhaps accustomed to welcoming Scandinavian merchants. He is killed. Viking attacks increase in intensity over the coming decades.source

9th century

87218 July (traditional date) – Battle of Hafrsfjord: Norse chieftain Harald Fairhair wins a great naval victory at Hafrsfjord, outside Stavanger. He becomes (at age 18) the first king of Norway. Harald's conquests and taxation system lead many Viking chiefs and their followers to emigrate to the British Isles, and (later) to Iceland.source

13th century

1290September – The 7-year-old Margaret, Maid of Norway, queen-designate and heir to the crown of Scotland, dies en route to the British Isles in Orkney, leading to thirteen competitors for the crown of Scotland, a succession crisis.source

14th century

1330December 6 – The British Isles are hit by a great storm, creating large areas of sand dunes on Anglesey.source

17th century

1633St Columb's Cathedral, Derry is completed; the first post-Reformation Anglican cathedral built in the British Isles and the first Protestant cathedral built in Europe.source
1656April 2 – The Treaty of Brussels is signed, creating an alliance between Philip IV of Spain and the exiled Royalists of the British Isles, led by Charles II.source

18th century

1727An old woman known as Janet (Jenny) Horne of Loth, Sutherland becomes the last alleged witch in the British Isles to be executed, when she is burned at the stake in Dornoch, Scotland. (Some sources give the date as June 1722.)source

19th century

184126 July – The proprietors of The Skerries Lighthouse off Anglesey, the last privately owned light in the British Isles, are awarded £444,984 in compensation for its sale to Trinity House.source
185925–26 October – Royal Charter Storm, the most severe storm to hit the British Isles this century. 133 ships are sunk and another ninety badly damaged, with a death toll estimated as up to 800 (including some killed on land); most notably from the steam clipper Royal Charter, driven ashore on the north-east coast of Anglesey on 26 October with around 459 dead and just 39 men surviving.source

20th century

197031 March – Northern Ireland Railways runs the last regular steam-hauled passenger train on a national network in the British Isles, 17.25 Whitehead, County Antrim–Carrickfergus, hauled by Class WT 2-6-4 tank locomotive No. 4.source