|
1
May
|
1707 |
The Union
between England and Scotland is proclaimed. |
|
2
May. |
1611 |
The Authorized
Version of the Bible (King James Version) was first published, and
became the standard English language Bible. |
|
3
May. |
1841 |
New Zealand was
declared a British colony. |
|
4
May. |
1471 |
The Battle of
Tewkesbury, the last battle in the Wars of the Roses, took place; Edward
IV's Yorkists defeated the Lancastrians. |
|
5
May. |
1821 |
Napoleon Bonaparte
"the Little Corporal", died in exile on the remote
British island of St. Helena. He was 51. |
 |
|
6
May. |
1954 |
Roger Bannister was the
first man to run a mile in under 4 minutes, at the Iffley Road
Sports Ground, Oxford, England. |
|
7
May. |
1945 |
Nazi Germany surrendered to
the Allies at Rheims and the war in Europe ended. |
|
8
May. |
1429 |
The French warrior maiden,
Joan of Arc, led the Dauphin's troops to victory over the English
laying siege to Orleans. |
|
9
May. |
1887 |
Buffalo Bill's Wild West
Show opens in London. |
|
10
May. |
1940 |
Promising his
people nothing but "blood, toil, tears and sweat",
Winston Churchill replaces Neville Chamberlain as British Prime
Minister. Churchill is to form an all-party war government as
German troops storm Europe. |
|
11
May. |
973 |
Edgar the
Peaceful was crowned at Bath as King of all England; he then went
to Chester, where eight Scottish and Welsh kings rowed him on the
River Dee. |
|
12
May. |
1926 |
Britain's
Trades Union Congress called off the General Strike that had
brought the nation to a standstill for nine days. Workers across
the country had downed tools in support of miners, protesting a
wage cut. |
|
13
May. |
1607 |
Riots took
place in Northamptonshire and other Midland counties of England in
protest at widespread enclosure of common land. |
|
| 14
May. |
1080 |
Walcher, Bishop of Durham and Earl of
Northumberland was murdered; William
(the Conqueror) consequently ravaged the area; he also invaded
Scotland and built the castle at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. |
| 15
May. |
1567 |
Mary
Queen of Scots married Bothwell in Edinburgh. |
|
16
May. |
1943 |
RAF Lancaster bombers
caused chaos to Nazi German industry by destroying two huge dams.
Dr Barnes Wallis's bouncing bombs skimmed the surface of the water
to reach their targets. |
|
17
May. |
1900 |
The siege of
the British garrison at Mafeking by Boer forces was broken.
Commander of the garrison, Colonel Robert Baden-Powell and his
forces had held firm for 217 days. |
|
18
May. |
1803 |
Bored with
nobody to fight for almost a year, Britain abandons the Treaty of
Amiens and declares war on France, again! |
|
19
May. |
1536 |
Anne
Boleyn, King Henry VIII's second wife, was beheaded in London.
She was 29. The charges brought against her included incest with
her brother and no less than four counts of adultery. |
|
20
May. |
1191 |
English King
Richard I 'the Lion Heart' conquered Cyprus on his way to join
the Crusaders at Acre in north west Israel. |
|
21
May. |
1894 |
The official
opening of the Manchester Ship Canal by Queen
Victoria. |
|
22
May. |
1455 |
In the first
battle of the Wars of the Roses, Richard of York and the Nevilles
attacked the court at St Albans, capturing Henry VI and killing
Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset. |
|
23
May. |
878 |
The Saxon King
Alfred defeated the Danes at Edington, Wiltshire; as part of the
peace agreement, the Danish King, Guthrum, accepted Christianity. |
|
24
May. |
1809 |
Dartmoor prison
in Devon is opened to house French prisoners of war. |
|
25
May. |
1768 |
Captain James
Cook set sail on his first voyage of discovery in his ship the Endeavour,
on which he explored the Society Islands and charted the coasts of
New Zealand and West Australia (–June 1771). |
|
26
May. |
735 |
The Venerable
Bede, English monk, scholar, historian and writer, died having
just completed his translation of St. John into Anglo-Saxon. |
 |
|
27
May. |
1657 |
Lord Protector Oliver
Cromwell refuses parliament's offer of the title King of
England. |
|
28
May. |
1759 |
Birthday of William Pitt
(the Younger), English statesman who became the youngest ever
British prime minister at the age of 24. |
|
29
May. |
1660 |
Charles Stuart entered
London to become King Charles II, restoring England's monarchy
following Oliver Cromwell's commonwealth. |
|
30
May. |
1536 |
Eleven days
after he had his wife Anne Boleyn beheaded, King
Henry VIII marries Jane Seymour, former lady-in-waiting to
Anne. |
|
31 May. |
1902 |
The Peace of
Vereeniging ended the Boer War, in which 450,000 British troops
had fought against 80,000 Boers. |