Life in the United Kingdom (3rd edition)

History Dates

When	What	Details
10,000yrs	Britain separated	from the continent
6,000yrs	First farmers	come to Britain from South-East Europe
4,000yrs	Bronze Age	then becomes Iron Age
410	Romans end	Roman army(arrived in 43) leaves and never returns
789	Vikings	came from Norway and Denmark, defeated by King Alfred the Great
1066	Norman Conquest	William (Duke of Normandy) the Conqueror wins Battle of Hastings and invades Britain
1215	Magna Carta	The King is subject to the Law
1284	Statute of Rhuddlan	Kind Edward I annexes Wales
1314	Battle of Bannockburn	Robert the Bruce (scots) wins
1348	Black Death	kills 1/3 of population. After which new class "the gentry" appeared, owners of large areas of land
1415	Battle of Agincourt	Henry V wins during the 100 years war against France
1455	start of civil war	houses Lanacaster (red rose) and York (white rose)
1485	End War of the Roses	Battle of Bosworth, Lancaster wins over York, Henry VII Tudor king, end of Middle Ages, start of the Reformation
1560	Scottish abolish the Pope
1588	Spanish Armada	Elizabeth I defeats spanish invasion to convert to Catholicism
1603	James I	End of the Tudor period, James VI of Scotland becomes king
1605	Guy Fawkes	with catholics tries to bomb the Parliament to kill the protestant king on 5th of November
1642	Civil war	after Charles I asked Parliament for money, Cavaliers(king) and Roundheads(parliament)
1646	End of Civil war	Battle of Marston Moor (also Battle of Naseby) where the king's army is defeated
1649	Britain republic	after Charles I is executed
1656	fist Jews in England	since the Middle Ages
1658	Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell dies
1660	Charles II comes back to be king	(he hid in an oak tree after defeated in Battle of Dunbar in Worcester), ends of 11 years of republic, The Restoration
1665	Plague
1666	Great Fire
1679	Habeas Corpus	you must present the person in court
1685	James II	was James VII of Scotland, becomes king after Charles II dies
1689	Glorious Revolution	William of Orange invades England
1690	Battle of Byone	James flees to France with Jacobites supporters
1689	Bill of Rights	more control on the King, constitutional monarchy
1695	Newspaper	can operate without government licence
1707	Act of Union	Kingdom of Great Britain is created joining Scotland
1714	King George I	a german is king, because of his poor english elects Robert Walpole as first Prime Minister
1745-46	Bonnie Prince Charlie	tries to get the throne with scots' help but looses at the battle of Culloden, after which Highland Cleareances
1776	American colonies independence	13 colonies declare independence from UK
1783	Britain recognise independence
1789	Revolution in France	Napoleon starts war
1801	Ireland unifies with UK	Union Flag
1805	Battle of Trafalgar	Britain navy defeats spanish and france with admiral Nelson
1815	Battle of Waterloo	Duke of Wellington defeats Napoleon
1833	Emancipation Act
1837	Queen Victoria	at the age of 18 will rule for 64 years Victorian age
1840	Punch Magazine	satirical magazine
1846	Abolishment of Corn Laws
1851	Great Exhibition	in Hyde Park, Crystal Palace
1853-56	Crimean Wars	Britain, France and Turkey fight Russia
1861	Ireland famine
1899-902	Boer Wars	South Africa with Netherlands
1896	first public screening of movies
1902	Motor-car racing in the UK started
1914-18	WW1	assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand
1918	end of the WW1 on 11th of November, also women can vote at the age of 30
1922	Ireland becomes 2 countries / BBC radio	6 protestant countries the rest is Irish Free State
1928	women can vote at the same age of men, 21
1929	Great Depression
1930s	Touring Machine
1932	invention of TV	by scotsman John Logie Baird
1935	invention of Radar	by Sir Robert Watson-Watt
1936	BBC first TV service
1939	WW2	Germany invades Poland
1940	Battle of Britain	aerial battle to fight "The Blitz" of german bombing UK
1940-44	The Dunkirk Spirit	evacuation of British and French troops as France falls, rescuing 300,000 people
1944	D-Day	Allies in Normandy to attack Germans
1945	end of WW2	German defeat, atom bomb in Japan
1945	Labour Government	Clement Attlee is PM, nationalisation of industries and strong welfare
1947	colonies independent	Britain give independence to 9 countries, including India, Pakistan and Ceylon(Sri Lanka)
1948	NHS	by minister Aneurin (Nye) Bevan
1949	Republic of Ireland
1951-64	Conservative Government	probably in this period Beveridge report (Social Insurance and Allied Services) and Butler with free secondary education
1957	EEC	European Economic Community
1959	Margaret Thatcher	is MP, becomes leader of opposition in 1975
1969	The Troubles	in Northen Ireland, , 3000 people died those years, women and men can vote at 18
1972	Northen Ireland parliament was suspended
1973	UK joins EEC
1990	WWW	Sir Tim Berners-Lee
1990	UK wars	help liberate from Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and Former Republic of Yugoslavia
1997	Tony Blair	Labour government, creates Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly
1999	Scottish Parliament. Hereditary peers lost automatic right to attend the House of Lords, they now elect a few of their memebers.
2009	Britain leaves Iraq
2010	no party won the election	Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties formed a coalition led by David Cameron

History facts

• By the middle of the 15th century the last Welsh rebellions had been defeated. English laws and the English language were introduced.
• Between 1680 and 1720 many refugees called Huguenots came from France. They were Protestants and had been persecuted for their religion. Many were educated and skilled and worked as scientists, in banking, or in weaving or other crafts.
• In the 1830s and 1840s, a group called the Chartists campaigned for reform. They wanted six changes:
  • for every man to have the vote
  • elections every year
  • for all regions to be equal in the electoral system
  • secret ballots
  • for any man to be able to stand as an MP
  • for MPs to be paid
• During the Middle Ages, the English kings also fought a number of wars abroad. Many knights took part in the Crusades, in which European Christians fought for control of the Holy Land. English kings also fought a long war with France, called the Hundred Years War (even though it actually lasted 116 years).

Important People

Name	What	Period
William (Duke of Normandy)	Defeats saxon King Harold, Doomsday Book	1066
King John	Magna Carta	1215
Kind Edward I	Statute of Rhuddlan	1284
Robert The Bruce	defeats english Battle of Bannockburn	1314
King Henry V	beats French in Battle of Agincourt	1415
Henry Tudor VII	wins War of the Roses	1485
Henry VIII	6 wives (Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, Catherine Perr)	1509-47
Edward VI	strongly protestant, "Book of Common Prayer"	-
Bloody Mary	daughter of Catherine of Aragon
Elizabeth I	daughter of Anne Boleyn, defeats Spanish Armada, promotes patriotism	-1603
Sir Francis Drake	big role defeating the Spanish Armada, his Golden Hind is one of the first to circumnavigate earth	-
William Shakespeare	born in Stratford-upon-Avon was a playwright and actor and wrote poems and plays	1564-1616
Mary Stuart	a week old when she became queen, went to England and remain in prison for 20 years and then executed	-
James I	of England Wales and Ireland, was VI of Scotland	-
Charles I	starts Civil War with Parliament loses and gets executed	-
Oliver Cromwell	Lord Protector during 11 years of Republic	-1658
Charles II	comes back to be king, interested in science forms Royal Society	-1685
Sir Edmund Halley	member of Royal Society, predicts the return of the Halley's Comet	-
Isaac Newton	studied at Cambridge, work on Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica	1643-1727
James II	brother of CharlesII he is VII of Scotland, favour Catholics	-
William of Orange	husband of Mary elder of the King, invades England defeats James that flees to France, Bills of Rights	-
George I	a german becomes king	1714-
Robert Walpole	first prime minister under George I	1721-42
Charles Edward Stuart	Prince Bonnie Charlie grandson of James II tries to get back the throne from George II but loses	-
Robert Burns	scottish poet writes Auld Lang Syne (sang for new year)	1759-96
Richard Arkwright	efficient running factories	1731-92
James Watt	Steam power	1736-819
Sake Dean Mahomet	first Curry House in London and Shampooing (Indian head massage)	1759-1851
Admiral Nelson	wins Battle of Trafalgar Square but dies in it	1805
Queen Victoria	Victorian period, biggest empire	1837-1901
Isambard Kingdom Brunel	engineer started Great Western Railways and built bridges	1806-59
Florence Nightingale	nurse in Crimean Wars started nursery school in London	1820-1910
Emmeline Pakhurst	suffragettes, movement for right to vote to women, in 1918 women of 30 could vote and go to parliament, in1928 women could vote at 21 like men	1858-928
Rudyard Kipling	write poems about India and UK, British Empire is a force for good, wrote The Jungle Book	1865-1936
Winston Churchill	Conservative MP and then PM during the war, lost general election in 1945, but returned as PM in 1951	1874-1965
Alexander Fleming	discovers penicillin nobel prize in 1945	1881-1955
Clement Attlee	PM of Labour government after war, nationalisation of industries and strong welfare	1883-1967
William Beveridge	Social insurance and Allied Services, The Beveridge Report	1879-1963
R. A. Butler	The Butler Act, free secondary education	1902-82
Dylan Thomas	welsh poet, Under Milk Woodand Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night	1914-53
John Logie Baird	scotsman to develop TV in 1920 and first broadcast London to Glasgow in 1932	1888-1946
Sir Rober Watson-Watt	develops radar 1935	1892-1973
Sir Bernard Lovell	astronomy discoveries and build a radio telescope at Jodrell Bank	1913-2012
Alan Turing	Turing Machine	1912-54
John Macleod	co-discoverer of insulin to treat diabetes	1876-1935
Francis Crick	one of those awarded the Nobel prize for the discovery of the structure of the DNA molecule, in 1953 London and Cambridge universities	1916-2014
Sir Frank Whittle	developed jet engine in 1930	1907-96
Sir Christopher Cockerell	invented hovercraft 1950s
James Goodfellow	invented cash-dispensing ATM (automatic-teller machine)	1937-
Sir Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe	invented IVS (in-vitro fertilisation)
Sir Ian Wilmot and Keith Campbell	led the team the achieved cloning of sheep Dolly	1944-,1954-2012
Sir Peter Mansfield	co-inventor of MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanner	1933-
Sir Tim Berners-Lee	invented World Wide Web in 1990	1955-
Mary Peters	from Manchester won a pentathlon Olympic medal in 1972, supports Northen Ireland	1939-
Margaret Thatcher	Conservative MP in 1959, became first woman PM in 1979, worked close with Ronald Regan and helped end Cold War	1925-2013
Roald Dahl	born in Wales from Norwegians wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and George's Marvellous Medicine	1916-90
James Cook	maps the coast of Australia
George and Robert Stephenson	pioneered the railway engine
St Columba	founded a monastery in the island of Iona off the coast of Scotland

Sport

Name	Achievement
Sir Roger Bannister	first men to rin a 1 mile in less than 4 minutes
Sir Jackie Stewart	scottish racing driver won Formula 1 3 times
Bobby Moore	captain the English football team winning the 1966 world cup
Sir Ian Botham	capitan of English Cricket team and winner of cricket records
Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean	won gold medal in ice dancing at Olympics in 1984
Sir Steve Redgrave	won gold medals in rowing in 5 consecutive Olympics
Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson	wheelchair records, 11 gold medals
Dame Kelly Holmes	won 2 gold medals for running in 2004 Olympics
Dame Ellen MacArthur	yachtswoman fastest person to sail around the world in 2014
Sir Chris Hoy	Scottish cyclist that won 6 gold and 1 silver Olympic medals and 11 world championships
David Weir	Paralympian with wheelchair has won 6 gold medals and London marathon 6 times
Sir Bradley Wiggings	cyclist, first briton to win the tour de france in 2012, won 7 olympic medals including golds in 2004,2008 and 2012
Mo Farah	won gold medals in 2012 Olympics , first briton to win a medal in 10,000 metres
Jessica Ennis	won 2012 Olympic heptathlon
Andy Murray	Scottish tennis player won men's singles in US open in 2012, he won gold and silver medals at the Olympics
Ellie Simmonds	Paralympian won gold medals for swimming at 2008 and 2012 Paralympic Games, was the youngest member at the 2008 Games
Sir Francis Chichester	first person to sail single-handed around the world in 1966/67
Sir Robin Knox-Johnston	first person to sail single-handed around the world without stopping
Damon Hill	won the Formula 1 World Championship
Lewis Hamilton	won the Formula 1 World Championship
Jensen Button	won the Formula 1 World Championship

Sport facts

• The UK has hosted the Olympic Games on three occasions: 1908, 1948 and 2012
• There are 5 ski resorts in Scotland

Music

Name	Achievement
Henry Purcell	organist at Westminster wrote church music and operas
George Frederick Handel	german that became english, composer for George I, also wrote an oratorio Messiah to be sung by choirs usually at Easter
Gustav Holst	composer, wrote The Planets
Sir Edward Elgar	Pomp And Circumstance Marches, March N1, played the last night at the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Ralph Vaughan Williams	wrote music for orchestras an choirs, influenced by traditional English folk music
Sir William Walton	wrote music for George VI and Elizabeth II, wrote from films scores to opera, best known for Facade that became a ballet and Belshazzar's Feast, intended to be sung by a large choir
Benjamin Britten	operas, Peter Grimes and Billy Budd, A young Person's Guide to the Orchestra

Art

Name	Achievement
Thomas Gainsborough	portrait painter, people in country or gardens
David Allan	Scottish painter, made The origin of Painting
Joseph Turner	landscape painter
John Constable	landscape painter
The Pre-Raphaelites	group of artists detailed pictures on religious or literary themes in bright colours, the group included Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Sir John Millais
Sir John Lavery	Northern Irish portrait painter, painted the Royal Family
Henry Moore	English sculptor , large bronze abstract sculptures
John Petts	welsh artist known for engravings and stained glass
Lucian Freud	German born British artist best know for his portraits
David Hockney	important contributor to the Pop Art movement of the 1960s

Architecture

Name	Achievement
William the Conqueror	ordered to build the Tower of London
Sir Christopher Wren	St Paul's Cathedral
Robert Adam	Scottish architect Dumfries House in Scotland, influences the Royal Crescent in Bath
Sir Edwin Lutyens	designed New Delhi, responsible for the memorial Cenotaph in Whitehall
Sir Norman Foster	modern British architect
Lord (Richard) Rogers	modern British architect
Dame Zaha Hadid	modern British architect
Lancelot 'Capability' Brown	designed country houses lands
Gertrude Jekyll	worked with Lutyens to design colourful gardens

Fashion and Design

Name	Achievement
Thomas Chippendale	designed forniture in the 18th century
Clarice Cliff	designed Art Deco ceramics
Sir Terence Conran	a 20th century interior designer
Mary Quant	leading fashion designer
Alexander McQueen	leading fashion designer
Vivienne Westwood	leading fashion designer

Literature

Name	Achievement
Sir William Golding	novelist, Nobel prize
Seamus Heaney	poet, Nobel prize
Harold Pinter	playwright, Nobel prize
Agatha Christie	wrote detective stories
Ian Fleming	stories that introduce James Bond 2003
J.R.R. Tolkien	The Lord of the Rings the country's best loved novel
Jane Austen	English novelist. Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility
Charles Dickens	wrote very famous novels like Oliver Twist and Great Expectations
Robert Luis Stevenson	books like Treasure Island, Kidnapped and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Thomas Hardy	author and poet, known for Far from the Madding Crowd and Jude the Obscure
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle	Scottish doctor and writer best know for stories about Sherlock Holmes
Evelyn Waugh	wrote satirical novels including Decline and Fall and Scoop, Brideshead Revisited
Sir Kingsley Amis	English novelist and poet, wrote more than 20 novels, Lucky Jim
Graham Greene	wrote novels influenced by religious beliefs, The Heart of the Matter, The Honorary Consul, Brighton Rock, Our Man in Havana
J K Rowling	wrote Harry Potter series
Ian McEwan	winner of Man Booker Prize for Fiction, best fiction novel in the Commonwealth Ireland or Zimbabwe
Hilary Mantel	winner of Man Booker Prize for Fiction, best fiction novel in the Commonwealth Ireland or Zimbabwe
Julian Barnes	winner of Man Booker Prize for Fiction, best fiction novel in the Commonwealth Ireland or Zimbabwe
-	BeoWulf Anglo-Saxon poem
Caucher	Canterbury Tales
John Milton	protestant poems inspired by religious views, Paradise is Lost
William Shakespeare	playwright and actor and wrote poems and plays (sonnets, poems of 14 lines)
William Wordsworth	poet inspired by nature, The Daffodils
Sir Walter Scott	poems inspired by Scotland
Robert Browning	Home Thoughts from Abroad
Lord Byron	She Walks in Beauty
William Blake	The Tyger
Wilfred Owen	Anthem for Doomed Youth, also wrote about his experiences during the war
Sigfried Sassoon	wrote about his experiences during the war
John Barbour	scottish poet

Literature Facts

• in 2003 JRR Tolkien's Lords of the Rings is voted country's most loved novel

Cinema

Name	Achievement
Colin Firth	Oscar winner
Sir Anthony Hopkins	Oscar winner
Dame Judi Dench	Oscar winner
Kate Winslet	Oscar winner
Tilda Swinton	Oscar winner
Sir Alfred Hitchcock	famous director, The 39 steps
David Lean	directed Brief encounter and Lawrence of Arabia
Carol Reed	directed The Third Man
Frank Launder	directed The Bells of St Trinian's
Ken Russel	directed Women in Love
Nicolas Roeg	Don't Look Now
Hugh Hudson	directed Chariots of FIre
Roland Joffe	directed The Killing Fields
Mike Newell	directed Four Weddings and a Funeral
Kevin MacDonald	directed Touching the void
Nik Park	Wallace and Gromit animated movies

Cinema facts

• Recent British actors to have won Oscars include Colin Firth, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Dame Judi Dench, Kate Winslet and Tilda Swinton.
• British studios flourished in the 1930s. The 1950s and 1960s were a high point for British comedies, including Passport to Pimlico, The Ladykillers and, later, the *Carry On *films.

Religion

Proportion	Religion	Details
70%	Christian
4%	Muslim	Eid al-Fitr(end of Ramadan) and Eid ul Adha(remembers that prophet Ibrahim was willing to sacrifice his son) are festivals celebrated by Islam
2%	Hindu	celebrates Diwali
1%	Sikh	Vaisakhi festival celebrated on 14th of April, also celebrates Diwali
0.5%	Jews/Buddhist	Hannuka is a Jew celebration in November or December and lasts 8 days
2%	Other
21%	No religion

Religion facts

• Protestant Christian groups are: Baptists Methodists, Presbyterians(Scotland) and Quakers
• The Curch of England is known as the Episcopal Curch in USA and Scotland

Countries characteristics

Country	Population	Day	Saint	Flower	Food
Wales	5%	1st March	St David	Daffodil	welsh cakes (flour dried fruits and spices)
North Ireland	<3%	17th March	St Patrick	Shamrock	Ulster fry (bacon, eggs, sausage, black pudding, white pudding, tomatoes, mushrooms, soda bread and potato bread)
England	84%	23rd April	St George	Rose	roast beef (served with potatoes, vegetables), Yorkshire puddings, fish and chips, fish and chips
Scotland	8%	30th November	St Andrew	Thisle	haggis (sheep's stomach stuffed with offal, suet, onions and oatmeal)

Numbers

Period	Population
1600	> 4 mil
1700	5 mil
1801	8 mil
1851	20 mil
1901	40 mil
1951	50 mil
1998	57 mil
2005	< 60 mil
2010	> 62 mil

Places

Name	Characteristic
Vinolandia	part of Hadrian Wall
Housesteads	part of Hadrian Wall
Bodant Gardens	Wales
Millennium Stadium	Cardiff
Maiden Castle	Dorset
York Minster	has windows of stained glass about Bible and Christian saints

General Facts

• 15 national parks in the UK
• It takes about 1 hour to donate blood
• MOT for cars older than 3 years
• Mothering Sunday (or Mother’s Day) is the Sunday three weeks before Easter.
• The Queen is the ceremonial head of the Commonwealth, which currently has 54 member states.
• The UN has 190 member states
• The currency in the UK is the pound sterling (symbol £). There are 100 pence in a pound. The denominations (values) of currency are:
  • coins: 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1 and £2
  • notes: £5, £10, £20, £50.
• Some of the principles included in the European Convention on Human Rights are:
  • right to life
  • prohibition of torture
  • prohibition of slavery and forced labour
  • right to liberty and security
  • right to a fair trial
  • freedom of thought, conscience and religion
  • freedom of expression (speech).
• The chairperson of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is the Moderator, who is appointed for one year only and often speaks on behalf of that Church.
• Big Ben is the nickname for the great bell of the clock at the Houses of Parliament in London. Many people call the clock Big Ben as well. The clock is over 150 years old and is a popular tourist attraction. The clock tower is named ‘Elizabeth Tower’ in honour of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012.
• Serious civil cases are dealt in the High Court in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and for Scotland, in the Court of Session in Edinburgh

National Anthem

Starts with:

God save our gracious Queen!

Long Live our noble Queen!

God save the Queen!

Send her victorious,

Happy and glorious,

Long to reign over us,

God save the Queen!

Government

Devolved administrations

Name	Creation	Members	NMembers	Details
National Assembly of Wales		Assembly members (AMs)	60	elections every 4 years, building is Senedd
Scottish Parliament	1999	members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs), elected via proportional representation	129
Northern Ireland Parliament	1922			abolished in 1972
Northern Ireland Assembly	1998	members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) meet in the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont, Belfast	108

Government and politics facts

• When you arrive at the polling station, the staff will ask for your name and address. In Northern Ireland you will also have to show photographic identification. You will then get your ballot paper, which you take to a polling booth to fill in privately
• The Prime Minister appoints about 20 senior MPs to become ministers in charge of departments:
  • Chancellor of the Exchequer – responsible for the economy
  • Home Secretary – responsible for crime, policing and immigration
  • Foreign Secretary – responsible for managing relationships with foreign countries
  • other ministers (called ‘Secretaries of State’) responsible for subjects such as education, health and defence.
• The House of Lords can suggest amendments or propose new laws, which are then discussed by MPs. It checks laws that have been passed by the House of Commons to ensure they are fit for purpose. It also holds the government to account to make sure that it is working in the best interests of the people.
• Since 1958, the Prime Minister has had the power to nominate peers just for their own lifetime. These are called life peers. They have usually had an important career in politics, business, law or another profession. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister.
• Since 1999, hereditary peers have lost the automatic right to attend the House of Lords. The Reform Act of 1832 had greatly increased the number of people with the right to vote. The Act also abolished the old pocket and rotten boroughs and more parliamentary seats were given to the towns and cities.
• MPs have a number of different responsibilities. They:
  • represent everyone in their constituency
  • help to create new laws
  • scrutinise and comment on what the government is doing
  • debate important national issues
• As well as getting the right to vote, people on the electoral register are randomly selected to serve on a jury. Anyone who is on the electoral register and is aged 18 to 70 can be asked to do this.
• In November 2012, the public elected Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in England and Wales.