The
Assembly Government is also responsible for over
National Assembly for Wales
50 public bodies which discharge functions in
Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru
these areas in Wales.
Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3NQ and Cardiff Bay,
Executive Agencies
Cardiff CF99 1NA
Cadw: Welsh Historic Monuments
Tel: 029 2082 5111
Wales European Funding Office
Website: www.wales.gov.uk
www.cymru.gov.uk
487
Appendix B Significant dates in UK history
55 and 54 BC: Julius Caesar’s expeditions to Britain
1411: St Andrews University founded, the first
university in Scotland
AD 43: Roman conquest begins under Claudius
122–38: Hadrian’s Wall built
1455–87: Wars of the Roses between Yorkists and
Lancastrians
c.409: Roman army withdraws from Britain
1477: first book to be printed in England, by William
450s onwards: foundation of the Anglo-Saxon
Caxton
kingdoms
1534–40: English Reformation; Henry VIII breaks with
597: arrival of St Augustine to preach Christianity to
the Papacy
the Anglo-Saxons
664: Synod of Whitby opts for Roman Catholic rather
1536–42: Acts of Union integrate England and Wales
than Celtic church
administratively and legally and give Wales
representation in Parliament
789–95: first Viking raids
1547–53: Protestantism becomes official religion in
832–60: Scots and Picts merge under Kenneth
England under Edward VI
Macalpin to form what is to become the kingdom of
Scotland
1553–58: Catholic reaction under Mary I
860s: Danes overrun East Anglia, Northumbria and
1558: loss of Calais, last English possession in France
eastern Mercia
1588: defeat of Spanish Armada
871–99: reign of Alfred the Great in Wessex
1558–1603: reign of Elizabeth I; moderate
1066: William the Conqueror defeats Harold
Protestantism established
Godwinson at Hastings and takes the throne
1086: Domesday Book completed: a survey of English
c.1590–c.1613: plays of Shakespeare written
landholdings undertaken on the orders of William I
1603: union of the crowns of Scotland and England
1215: King John signs Magna Carta to protect feudal
under James VI of Scotland
rights against royal abuse
1642–51: civil wars between King and Parliament
13th century: first Oxford and Cambridge colleges
founded
1649: execution of Charles I
1301: Edward of Caernarvon (later Edward II) created
1653–58: Oliver Cromwell rules as Lord Protector
Prince of Wales
1660: monarchy restored under Charles II
1314: Battle of Bannockburn ensures survival of
separate Scottish kingdom
1660: founding of the Royal Society for the Promotion
of Natural Knowledge
1337: Hundred Years War between England and France
begins
1663: John Milton finishes Paradise Lost
1348–49: Black Death (bubonic plague) wipes out a
1665: the Great Plague, the last major epidemic of
third of England’s population
plague in England
1381: Peasants’ Revolt in England, the most significant
1666: the Great Fire of London
popular rebellion in English history
c.1387–c.1394: Geoffrey Chaucer writes The
1686: Isaac Newton sets out his laws of motion and
Canterbury Tales
the idea of universal gravitation
1400–c.1406: Owain Glynd ˆwr (Owen Glendower)
1688: Glorious Revolution; accession of William and
leads the last major Welsh revolt against English rule
Mary
488
Appendices
Appendix B
1707: Acts of Union unite the English and Scottish
1926: John Logie Baird gives the first practical
Parliaments
demonstration of television
1721–42: Robert Walpole, first British Prime Minister
1928: voting age for women reduced to 21, on equal
terms with men
1745–46: Bonnie Prince Charlie’s failed attempt to
retake the British throne for the Stuarts
1928: Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
c.1760s–c.1830s: Industrial Revolution
1936: Jarrow Crusade, the most famous of the hunger
marches in the 1930s
1761: opening of the Bridgewater Canal ushers in
Canal Age
1939–45: Second World War
1775–83: American War of Independence leads to loss
1943: Max Newman, Donald Michie, Tommy Flowers
of the Thirteen Colonies
and Alan Turing build the first electronic computer,
Colossus I, which was used for breaking enemy
1801: Act of Union unites Great Britain and Ireland
communications codes in the Second World War
1805: Battle of Trafalgar, the decisive naval battle of
1947: independence for India and Pakistan: Britain
the Napoleonic Wars
begins to dismantle its imperial structure
1815: Battle of Waterloo, the final defeat of Napoleon
1948: the National Health Service comes into
1825: opening of the Stockton and Darlington
operation, offering free medical care to the whole
Railway, the world’s first passenger railway
population
1829: Catholic emancipation
1952: accession of Elizabeth II