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Great Britain

island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe

45 dated entries naming Great Britain, drawn from 42 separate years between 325 BCE and 1890 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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4th century BC

  • 325 BCE(around this year) – Pytheas made a voyage of naval exploration to northwestern Europe, reaching Britain and the Baltic Sea, and mentioning Thule as the furthest island to the north in the Atlantic.source

1st century BC

1st century

  • 5AD 5 – Rome acknowledges Cunobelinus, king of the Catuvellauni, as king of Britain.source
  • 8AD 8 – Tincomarus, deposed king of the Atrebates, flees Britain for Rome; Eppillus becomes king.source
  • 40Caligula starts on a campaign to conquer Britain, which fails miserably. He declares himself victorious regardless.source
  • 63According to legend, Joseph of Arimathea goes to Glastonbury on the first Christian mission to Britain.source
  • 71Battle of Stanwick: Quintus Petillius Cerialis, governor of Britain, puts down a revolt by the Brigantes.source

2nd century

  • 115A revolt breaks out in Britain; the garrison at Eboracum (York) is massacred.source
  • 119Hadrian also visits Britain in this year at the request of governor of Britain Quintus Pompeius Falco.source

5th century

  • 428King Vortigern invites a number of Germanic warriors to aid him in consolidating his position in Britain, according to the Historia Brittonum. He hires Saxons who are probably settled in Kent as mercenaries to fight against the Picts and the Scots beyond Hadrian's Wall.source
  • 429Pope Celestine I dispatches two bishops from Gaul, Germanus of Auxerre and Lupus of Troyes to Britain combat the Pelagian heresy.source
  • 435Pelagius, British monk (approximate date)source
  • 437Battle of Wallop: Ambrosius Aurelianus, leader of the Romano-British, defeats the Anglo Saxons under King Vortigern. He is given all the kingdoms of the western side of Britain (according to Historia Brittonum).source
  • 443Period of civil war and famine in Britain, caused by rival kingdoms and Pictish invasions; the situation aggravates tensions between Pelagian and Roman factions. Pro-Roman citizens migrate towards Gaul.source
  • 479Ambrosius Aurelianus, war leader of the Romano-British, is proclaimed king of the Britons (according to Historia Regum Britanniae). He rules probably in the south of Britain, and continues the war against the Anglo-Saxons.source
  • 491Aelle of Sussex besieges and conquers the fortified town Anderitum in southern Britain. He massacres the population, apparently sub-Roman Brythons (according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle).source

6th century

  • 540King Custennin ap Cado is deposed, and returns to Dumnonia in the south-west of Great Britain.source
  • 585Columbanus, Irish missionary, gathers 12 companions for his journey to Britain, probably to the Scottish coast. After a short time, he crosses the English Channel and lands in Brittany (France).source
  • 595June – Pope Gregory I the Great sends a group of Benedictine monks under Augustine of Canterbury on a mission to Britain, to Christianize King Æthelberht, and convert the Kingdom of Kent from native Anglo-Saxon paganism. He carries letters of commendation to bishops, and is accompanied by Frankish interpreters.source
  • 597June 9 – Columba, Irish missionary, dies in Iona (Inner Hebrides) and is buried by his monks in the abbey he has created. He works successfully towards the conversion of northern Britain.source

7th century

  • 604March 12 – Pope Gregory I (the Great) dies at Rome, after a 14-year tenure. He has laid the foundations which claim papal absolutism, pioneered the conversion of Britain to Roman Catholicism and enunciated what will come to be known as the "seven deadly sins". Gregory is succeeded by Sabinian as the 65th pope of the Catholic Church.source
  • 662King Godepert makes war against his brother Perctarit. He seeks the aid of Grimoald I, duke of Benevento, who has him assassinated; his son Raginpert escapes. Grimoald usurps the throne and becomes ruler of the Lombard Kingdom. Perctarit is exiled, and seeks refuge in Gaul and Britain.source
  • 663A brief outbreak of plague hits Britain (approximate date).source
  • 6641 May – A solar eclipse affects areas along a line from Central America, through eastern North America, the North Atlantic, Ireland, Great Britain and Germany.source
  • 666Wilfrid returns to Great Britain, but is shipwrecked in Sussex. When he finally reaches Northumbria, he finds he has been deposed and is forced to retire to Ripon.source
  • 695September 6 – King Wihtred of Kent, who maintains Kentish independence against the growing expansion of Mercia, issues one of the earliest known law codes of Britain.source

8th century

  • 736King Æthelbald of Mercia is described in the Ismere Diploma as ruler (bretwalda) of the Mercians, and all the provinces in southern England. He is also named "Rex Britanniae" (king of Britain).source

9th century

  • 875Bretons begin to flee the land, seeking the relative security of Britain. Vikings loot the Abbey of Saint-Melaine at Rennes (approximate date).source

10th century

  • 1000In Great Britain, a unified Kingdom of England had developed out of the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.source

13th century

  • 1275September 11 – 1275 British earthquake: An earthquake strikes the south of Great Britain. The epicentre is unknown, although it may have been in the Portsmouth-Chichester area on the south coast of England or in Glamorgan, Wales.source

18th century

  • 1703October 23 – Hannah Twynnoy, a 24-year-old barmaid in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, becomes the first person to be killed in Great Britain by a tiger. While working at the White Lion Inn, where a group of wild animals is on exhibit, she is mauled after bothering the tiger.source
  • 1713December 9 – As part of the agreements made at Utrecht to end the War of the Spanish Succession, Great Britain and Spain sign a treaty of commerce and navigation.source
  • 1727December 8 – For the first time since the union of England and Scotland into Great Britain, the Royal Bank of Scotland, which still retains the right to print currency, issues its first pound note, printing paper currency for twenty shillings. The Scottish pound note continues to be printed until 2001 and the smallest denomination now is a five pound note.source
  • 1728June 14 – The Congress of Soissons opens at the French town of Soissons to negotiate a treaty between Great Britain and Spain. The treaty, which is concluded on November 9, 1729, recognizes the Spanish royal family's rule of parts of Italy, and Britain's possession of Gibraltar and Menorca.source
  • 1729November 9 – The Treaty of Seville is signed between Great Britain, France, Spain and the Dutch Republic.source
  • 1731March 16 – The Treaty of Vienna is signed between the Holy Roman Empire, Great Britain, the Dutch Republic and Spain.source
  • 1737June 21 – In Britain, the Theatrical Licensing Act requires plays to be submitted to the Lord Chamberlain for censorship.source
  • 1747April 9 – The Scottish Jacobite Lord Lovat is beheaded at Tower Hill, London, for high treason. He was the last person in Britain to be beheaded, although beheading would not be formally abolished until more than 200 years later.source
  • 1747August 15 – Great Britain, Russia and the Dutch Republic sign the Convention of Saint Petersburg (1747).source
  • 1747July 2 – War of the Austrian Succession – Battle of Lauffeld: France defeats the combined armies of Hanover, Great Britain and the Netherlands.source
  • 1750October 5 – Treaty of Madrid: Spain and Great Britain sign a treaty temporarily eliminating their hostility over their colonies in North and South America. In addition to both sides dropping their claims for damages against each other, Spain agrees to pay the South Sea Company £100,000 for damage claims.source

19th century

  • 1839October 9 – James Oatley, British-born colonial Australian watch and clock maker (b. 1769)source
  • 1870June 23 –The first message by electric telegraph using the Great Britain to India submarine cable is sent from London.source
  • 1870June 8 – The final splice on the first telegraph submarine cable between Great Britain and India is made.source
  • 1890March 4 – The Forth Bridge, the longest bridge in Great Britain, on the Firth of Forth in Scotland, is opened to rail traffic.source

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