Файл: Great Britain_0816044740.pdf

ment takes place in the River Plate (where the Graf Spee is scuttled), and major fighting is in eastern Europe. There is no sign of battle in the west until 1940.

1940

Food rationing begins in Britain (February). German invasion of Denmark and Norway

(April 8).

British troops land briefly in Norway (April 15– May 2).

Germany invades Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France; Neville Chamberlain resigns and is replaced as prime minister by Winston Churchill (May 10).

British and French forces are cut off and evacuated from Dunkirk (May 17–June 4); 335,000 men are saved by a fleet of over 700 boats.

Italy declares war on Britain (June 10). France surrenders (June 22).

Germany occupies the Channel Islands (July 1). British forces attack the French fleet at Oran

(July).

Battle of Britain: the Luftwaffe launch air raids against RAF installations, then switch to population centers (August).

The “Blitz” of London causes heavy damage, but Germans lose nearly twice the number of aircraft as the RAF (August–September). Bombing of major cities continues through the winter.

German U-boats blockade Britain, heavy losses of merchant ships.

British troops land in Greece (October).

1941

British forces in North Africa raid Tobruk, capture Benghazi (January–February).

Royal navy destroys Italian fleet off the coast of Greece (March).

United States enacts Lend-Lease (March). Standard rate of income tax raised to 50 percent

(April).

British troops evacuate Greece, retreat from General Rommel’s advance in North Africa (May).

German bombs destroy the House of Commons (May).

Germany invades the Soviet Union (June). Anglo-Russian alliance (July).

Churchill meets President Roosevelt in Placentia Bay; they sign the Atlantic Charter, a statement of joint principles for international peace (August).

British invade Libya (November).

Japan attacks Pearl Harbor; Britain declares war on Japan, Germany and Italy declare war on the United States (December).

1942

Battle of the Atlantic sees mounting losses of merchant ships.

Japanese capture Singapore (February) and Rangoon (March).

India rejects terms for independence, remains neutral (April).

British launch 1,000-bomber raid on Cologne (May).

Raid on Dieppe (August).

Generals Alexander and Montgomery take commands in Middle East (August).

British victory at El Alamein; British and United States forces land in North Africa (November).

Beveridge Report on Social Insurance and Allied Services published (December).

1943

Churchill and Roosevelt meet at Casablanca, adopt policy of unconditional surrender (January).

British troops take Tripoli (April), German and Italian forces surrender in North Africa (May).

Allied invasion of Sicily (July) and Italy (September). Italy surrenders.

Foreign ministers of Britain, Russia, and the United States agree to form a postwar international organization (October).

Churchill, Rooosevelt, and Stalin meet at Teheran (November–December).

1944

Allies enter Rome (June). Landing in Normandy (June).

Germans launch V-1 bombs on Britain (June); large-scale evacuation necessary.

Bretton Woods agreement on postwar economic order (July).

Butler Education Act passed, promising secondary education for all (August).

Allied armies enter Paris (August).

Allies capture Brussels and Antwerp (September).

Churchill and Roosevelt meet at Quebec, and Churchill travels to Moscow to meet with Stalin (October).

1945

Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin meet at Yalta to plan postwar European settlement (February).

Bombing of Dresden kills an estimated 100,000 civilians (February).

British troops cross the Rhine (March).

British troops liberate the Belsen concentration camp (April).

British capture Rangoon (May). Germany surrenders (May).

Labour leaves the coalition; Churchill forms “caretaker” government.

United Nations Charter published (June). General election produces Labour landslide: 393

seats to the Conservatives’ 213 and 12 for the Liberals (July). Clement Attlee becomes prime minister.

Potsdam Conference (July–August).

Atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; Japan surrenders (August).

Lend-Lease terminated (October).

1946

Labour introduces programs of expanded social services and nationalization: Bank of England nationalized (March); cable and wireless; coal industry (July); National Health Service (November).

Churchill’s “Iron curtain” speech (Fulton, Missouri; March).

Jewish terrorists attack British headquarters in Jerusalem (July).

Bread rationing; loans from the United States (July).

Trade Disputes Act repealed.

New Towns Act.

Arts Council founded.

1947

National Coal Board takes over (January); fuel crisis and strikes threaten the economy (February).

U.S. secretary of state Marshall suggests U.S. aid to Europe (June).

Sterling made convertible (July).

India Independence Act provides for partition into India and Pakistan; power is rapidly transferred by August.

Rail and road transport and electricity nationalized (August).

1948

British Railways organized (January). Burma becomes independent (January).

Ceylon becomes a self-governing dominion (February).

Organization for European Economic Cooperation formed (April).

Marshall Plan aid is approved (April).

British mandate in Palestine terminated; state of Israel proclaimed (May).

Berlin airlift provides supplies to the city when it is blockaded by Russian occupation troops (July).

Bread rationing ends (July).

National Health Service begins operation (November).

Republic of Ireland Act (Dublin) (December).

1949

End of clothing rationing (March).

North Atlantic Treaty Organization established (April).

Republic of Ireland formally leaves the Commonwealth; Commonwealth prime ministers accept the membership of republics, India being the first (April).

Gas industry is nationalized (May).

Council of Europe inaugural meeting (May). Sterling devalued (£1 = $2.80) (September). Parliament act reduces the veto power of the

House of Lords, legislation may only be sus-

pended for one year instead of two (November).

Iron and steel nationalization passed (November).

1950

General election gives Labour a reduced majority with 315 seats to 298 for the Conservatives and 9 for the Liberals (February).

Petrol rationing ends (May). Schumann Plan (May).

North Korean troops invade South Korea; the United Nations authorizes intervention (June). British troops enter action (September).

Soap rationing ends (September).

Stone of Scone taken from Westminster Abbey by Scottish nationalists (December).

1951

Government begins rearmament program (January).

Iron and Steel nationalization takes effect (January).

Festival of Britain (July–September).

Stone of Scone returned to Westminster (August). British atom bomb testing begins (October). British troops seize the Suez Canal (October). General election won by the Conservatives

(321) over Labour (298) and Liberals (9). Winston Churchill becomes prime minister (October).

General Certificate of Education introduced (England and Wales).

1952

George VI dies; Queen Elizabeth II succeeds to the throne (February).

First British atom bomb detonated in the Pacific (October).

State of Emergency in Kenya (October). Mau Mau rebels challenge British rule.

1953

Rationing of sweets ends (February). Amnesty for wartime deserters (February).

Iron and Steel industry denationalized (March). Road transport denationalized (April).

Sir Edmund Hillary climbs Mt. Everest (May).

Coronation of Elizabeth II is the first to be televised (June).

Korean armistice (July).

Sugar rationing ends (September).

Florence Horsbrugh (minister of education) becomes first Conservative female cabinet minister.

1954

Nuclear breeder reactor begins operation at Harwell (February).

Geneva Conference on Indo-China (April). All food rationing ends (July).

Agreement to withdraw all British troops from the Suez Canal zone (July).

Formation of the Independent Television Authority (August).

South-East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) formed (September).

Western European Union formed (September). The United Kingdom associates with the European Coal and Steel Community (formed in

1951) (December).

1955

Government announces plan to produce hydrogen bombs (February).

HMS Ark Royal is launched; it is Britain’s largest aircraft carrier (February).

The United Kingdom joins Baghdad Pact (April). Sir Winston Churchill resigns; he is replaced as prime minister by Sir Anthony Eden (April). General election brings a majority for the Con-

servatives (344–277) (May).

Summit Conference at Geneva (Britain, United States, France, and the Soviet Union) (July).

The city of London is declared a “smokeless zone” in order to reduce air pollution (October).

State of Emergency in Cyprus (November). Hugh Gaitskell succeeds Clement Attlee as leader

of the Labour Party (December).

1956

The House of Commons rejects a motion to abolish the death penalty (February).

White Paper on full employment (March). British troops withdraw from Suez (June).

Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal (July). Declaration against nationalization (Britain,

France, United States) (August). Anglo-French invasion of the Suez (October),

opposed by the United States, United Nations; fighting ends (November).

British plan for European Free Trade Area (October).

1957

Eden retires, is replaced as prime minister by Harold Macmillan (January).

Macmillan meets Eisenhower in Bermuda (March).

Treaty of Rome establishes the Common Market (European Economic Community) [EEC] (March).

Gold Coast becomes independent Ghana (March). National Service to end in 1960 (April).

British H-Bomb tested in the Pacific (May). Independence for the Federation of Malaya

(July).

Council on Prices, Productivity and Incomes (August).

Wolfenden Report recommends legalization of homosexual acts between adults in private (September).

Nuclear power plant at Windscale has serious fire and leak of radioactivity (October).

1958

Britain and the United States agree to build nuclear bases in Britain; Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament formed (February); antinuclear protest march is staged from London to Aldermaston (April).

State of emergency declared in Aden (May). Clean Air Act (June).

Life Peerages Act allows creation of nonhereditary peers. (July).

Race riots in Nottingham and in Notting Hill, London (August–September).

British trawlers ignore Iceland’s 12-mile territorial waters limit (September).

Jodrell Bank radiotelescope begins operation (October).

First female peers sit in the House of Lords (October).

Thalidomide found to be the source of birth deformities (December).

First Motorway section opened (December).

1959

Britain recognizes the regime of Fidel Castro in Cuba (January).

Agreement between Britain, Greece, and Turkey on independence for Cyprus (February).

Macmillan visits Moscow (February). Hovercraft goes into service (May).

Radcliffe Report on the monetary system (August). General election produces a majority of 100 for

the Conservatives (October).

European Free Trade Association is organized (November).

1960

Macmillan visits South Africa, makes his “Winds of Change” speech in Parliament in Capetown (February).

Beeching Commission prepares reorganization of British Rail.

Somaliland becomes independent (June). British rule in Cyprus ends (August). Nigeria becomes independent (October).

Penguin Books tried and acquitted for publishing Lady Chatterley’s Lover under the obscenity law (October–November).

HMS Dreadnought, Britain’s first nuclear-pow- ered submarine, launched (October). Plans announced for U.S. Polaris submarines to be based in the Firth of Clyde (November).

1961

Prescription charges in the National Health Service (February).

Geneva talks on ending nuclear weapons testing between Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union (March).

South Africa decides to leave the Commonwealth (March).

Under the Betting and Gaming Act, authorized betting shops open (May).

British troops sent to Kuwait at the request of that government (July).

Britain to apply for EEC membership (July). National Economic Development Council estab-

lished (July).

Geneva conference fails; Russia resumes testing (August).

Independence for Tanganyika is granted (December).

Macmillan meets with President Kennedy in Bermuda (December).

1962

Consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral (May).

National Incomes Commission established (July). Commonwealth Immigration Act (July). Jamaica, Trinidad, and Tobago become indepen-

dent (August).

Britain and France agree to develop the Concorde supersonic airliner (November).

Macmillan and Kennedy meet at Nassau; the United States offers Polaris missiles for use on British submarines (December).

1963

Britain is denied entry into the EEC (January). Nyasaland becomes independent (February). Harold Wilson is elected leader of Labour Party

after the death of Hugh Gaitskell (February). Terence O’Neill becomes prime minister of

Northern Ireland (March).

Beeching report on British railways published (March).

Peerage Act allows peers to renounce titles (July).

Partial nuclear test ban treaty (Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union) (August).

Macmillan retires; Sir Alec Douglas-Home becomes prime minister (October).

Robbins Report on Higher Education recommends rapid expansion of facilities and enrollment (October).

Kenya and Zanzibar become independent (December).

1964

Malta becomes independent (September). Northern Rhodesia becomes independent and is

renamed Zambia (September).

Forth Road Bridge opened in Scotland. At 3,300 feet, it is the longest suspension bridge in Europe (September).

Licenses granted for North Sea oil drilling (September).

General election results in a five-seat majority for Labour. Harold Wilson becomes prime minister (October).

Government imposes 15 percent import surcharge (October).

Ban is implemented on the sale of arms to South Africa because of its policy of apartheid (November).

International Monetary Fund loan of £500 million. The Trade Union Congress and employers sign a statement of intent on productivity, prices, and incomes (December).

1965

National health prescription charges abolished (January).

British rail announces plans to cut the network in half (February).

The Gambia is granted independence (February). Prices and Incomes Board is set up (March). Britain gets another £700 million from the IMF

(May).

Sir Alec Douglas-Home resigns as Conservative Party leader. Edward Heath is chosen as his successor (August).

Oil is discovered in the North Sea (September). Provisional abolition of the death penalty

(November).

Race Relations Act (November).

Rhodesia makes unilateral declaration of independence (November).

Rent control act (December). Miniskirt invented by Mary Quant.

1966

Trade ban against Rhodesia (January).

Nelson monument in Dublin is blown up (March).