And in the rest of the world . . .

1878 Microphone was invented by American inventor David Edward Hughes.

1879 Sadlers Wells Theatre in London was reconstructed. The first steel merchant ship was built. The first electric light bulb was produced.

1880 The typhoid fever bacillus was first described by Eberth.

1881 Electric light was first used domestically in Britain, with the opening of the first British electricity power station at Godalming, Surrey.

1882 Tuberculosis bacillus was discovered by German bacteriologist Robert Koch.

1883 The Inland Parcel Post began in Britain.

1884 A high-speed driving electric generator, a steam turbine, was invited by Sir Charles Parsons. Cocaine was first used as an anaesthetic. Edward Butler built the first three-wheeled model of a motor-cycle.

1885 Thee gas mantle was introduced. The safety cycle was invented.

1886 The first motor-cycle was built.

1887 German lens maker F E Muller made the first contact lenses.

1888 Radio signals were first detected. Scottish Labour Party was formed.

1889 Installation of the first electric lift. The first four-wheel automobile (howseless carriage) is trialled.

1890 The first commercial electric railway, the City and South London Railway, was opened.

1891 The first electrified tramway was opened in Leeds.

1892 First automatic telephone switchboardf

1893 The world's first elevated railway was opened at Liverpool. The first cinema projector was constructed.

1894 Cinematograph was invented.

1895 Wireless telegraphy was brought into being. The safety razor is invented.

1896 First modern Olympic Games held in Athens.

1897 Electrons were discovered by Sir Joseph John Thomson.

1898 The first 'modern' typewriter - an Underwood machine was built by F X Wagner. Kodak folding cameras were marketed by American inventor George Eastman.

1899 Start of Boer War (until 1902).

1900 Foundation of the Labour P. The first two-wheeled motorcycle was built in Paris.

1901 The hormone adrenaline was isolated by the Japanese scientist Jokichi Takamine.

1902 Marie Curie isolated radium.

1903 Year of the first aeroplane flight by the Wright brothers.

1904 Silicones are discovered.

1905 Procaine was first used as an anaesthetic by Einhorn. A scale for the intelligence quotient test was devised by Binet and Simon.

1906 The Labour Party changed its name from the Labour Representation Committee. The Trans-Siberian railway was completed. Colour films were shown for the first time.

1907 Colour photography was invented by the Frenchman Joseph Nicephore Niecpe.

1908 The first cancer associated virus agent was discovered by Ellerman and Bang. Teabags were first introduced into America, but did not catch on until the mid-Sixties.

1909 Mary Pickford becomes the first film star. English Channel is crossed by plane.

1910 Halley's Comet observed.

1911 The first news films were introduced by the French photographer Charles Pathe. The English Folk Dance Society was founded by Cecil James Sharp.

1912 Sinking of the Titanic.

1913 Bohr's theory of atomic structure formulated.

1914 Start of World War One (until 1918).

1915 Einstein's puts forward general theory of relativity

1916 Irish revolt is suppressed.

1917 Tanks first appeared in warfare.

1918 The Labour party adopted its constitution. Women granted the vote.

1919 The first motor scooter was invented by Greville Bradshaw.

1920 The year of the first tape recorder.

1921 Insulin was isolated by the Canadian scientists Sir Frederick Grant Banting and Charles Herbert Best.

1922 The tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered. Irish Free State proclaimed.

1923 Hubble (later honoured by telescope-naming) calculates distance to star nebula.

1924 First use of insecticides.

1925 The first electronic recording of sound was introduced by Maxfield and Harrison.

1926 Television was first demonstrated by the Scot John Logie Baird.

1927 Colour television was publicly demonstrated in Glasgow. In May Charles Augustus Lindbergh undertook the first successful non-stop solo transatlantic flight.

1928 Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin.

1929 The British Broadcasting Company made the first experimental broadcast. Margaret Bondfield became the first British woman Minister.

1930 The gas turbine is invented.

1931 Completion of Empire State Building in New York.

1932 The BBC made the first experimental television programme broadcast.

1933 Hitler becomes German Chancellor.

1934 First motorway (autobahn) is opened in germany

1935 Alcoholics Anonymous was founded.

1936 BBC launches television service.

1937 First helicopter is built.

1938 The Women's Voluntary Service was founded by Lady Reading. The ballpoimnt pen is invented.

1939 Start of Second World War until (1945).

1940 First successful helicopter flight in USA.

1941 The National Fire Service was formed, only to be dissolved in 1948.

1942 Discovery of plutonium.

1943 LSD is discovered.

1944 A white paper was published for the start of the National Health Service and this came into effect in 1948.

1945 Detonation of first atomic bomb.

1946 First fully electronic computer built.

1947 First supersonic flight.

1948 Israel comes into existence.

1949 Apartheid programme starts in South Africa.

1950 Korean War begins (and lasts until 1953).

1951 Colour televison is introduced in the USA

1952 First hydrogen bomb is exploded.

1953 The first Russian hydrogen bomb was exploded over the Pacific Ocean.

1954 French war in Algeria (until 1962).

1955 This year saw the start of commercial television.

1956 First transmission of colour television from Alexandra Palace, London.

1957 First sputnik launched by USSR.

1958 The first moon rocket was launched by the Russians on October 11.

1959 Micro-chip is manufactured.

1960 Second moon rocket was launched by Russians.

1961 Yuri Gagarin is first man in space.

1962 John Glenn orbits earth in spacecraft

1963 Valentina Tereshkova is first woman in space.

1964 Beatlemania sweeps North America.

1965 First astronaut walks in space.

1966 Laser beams were invented in America. England win World Soccer Cup.

1967 First heart transplant in South Africa.

1968 Czechoslovakia invaded by Warsaw Pact countries.

1969 American Neil Armstrong became the first man ever to land on the moon.

1970 Russian spacecraft lands on Venus.

1971 Founding of Greenpeace.

1972 Israeli competitors murdered at Munich Olympics.

1973 Watergate scandal.

1974 Mrs Margaret Thatcher became the first woman leader of the Conservatives.

1975 First live broadcast of Parliament

1976 The Queen opens the National Theatre in London

1977 Singing legend Elvis Presley and silent film star Charlie Chaplin die.

1978 First test-tube baby born.

1980 Beatles star John Lennon is shot dead.

1981 Prince Charles and Lady Diana marry.

1982 Prince William is born.

1983 £25 million gold heist at Heathrow airport - Britain's largest robbery - takes place. British drivers ordered to belt-up.

1984 O Levels are replaced by GCSEs

1985 An Air India jet crashes killing 329 people. A three-year-old boy becomes the youngest heart and lung transplant patient.

1986 Prince Andrew marries Sarah Ferguson

1987 193 people die in a ferry disaster in the Belgium port of Zeebrugge.

1988 A Pan Am flight explodes over Lockerbie killing 259 people.

1989 96 Liverpool soccer fans die in the Hillsborough disaster in Sheffield.

1990 Huge protests against the introduction of poll tax. Thatcher quits as Prime Minister.

1991 Operation Desert Storm signals the start of the Gulf War.

1992 Church of England votes in favour of women priests.

1993 Johnson gets life ban from athletics. Oil tanker runs aground off the coast of Shetland.

1995 A gruesome discovery in Cromwell Street, Gloucester, sees Fred and Rosemary West accused of committing 12 murders.

1996 Central Manchester hit by huge IRA bomb.

1997 Diana Princess of Wales dies in car crash in Paris. Mother Teresa dies.

1998 Dozens die in Omagh bombing - the worst parliamentary bombing in Northern Ireland to date.

1999 31 die in Paddington rail crash when one train passes through a red signal.

2000 Britains worse serial killer doctor Harold Shipman is accused of committing as many as 260 murders.

2001 9/11 - al-Qaeda terrorists attack Wolrd Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington killing over 3,000 people. President George Bush declares war on terror.

2002 A total of 190 people, from around 24 countries are killed by a terrorist bomb in a Bali nightclub.

2003 The United States of America and Great Britain declare war on Iraq as part of the war against terrorism. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is overthrown.