The Times Great Events

COPYRIGHT

Published by Times Books

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First edition 2020

© This compilation Times Newspapers Ltd 2020

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Acknowledgements

Cover image © MSSA / Shutterstock

Our thanks and acknowledgements go to Lily Cox, Joanne Lovey and Robin Ashton at News Syndication and, in particular, at The Times, Ian Brunskill and, at HarperCollins, Jethro Lennox, Lauren Murray, Kevin Robbins, Louise Robb and Lauren Reid.

We’d also like to thank Alan Copps for all his help and expertise.

eBook Edition © October 2020

ISBN 9780008419455

Version 2020-09-18

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

Georgian Times

The Fall of the Bastille

The Battle of Trafalgar

The Abolition of Slavery

The Assassination of Spencer Perceval

The Battle of Waterloo

Peterloo

An Early Railway Accident

The Age of Victoria

The Coronation of Queen Victoria

The Treaty of Waitangi

Revolution in Vienna

The Great Exhibition

The Charge of the Light Brigade

The Outbreak of the Indian Mutiny

Big Ben Nears Completion

The Death of Prince Albert

The Underground Railway

Gettysburg

The Road Hill House Murder

The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

The Opening of the Suez Canal

The First Test Cricket Series

The Relief of Khartoum

The Murder of Mary Jane Kelly

The Dedication of the Eiffel Tower

The Trials of Oscar Wilde

The Diamond Jubilee

The Funeral of Queen Victoria

The Edwardian Era

The General Election of 1906

The End of the Dreyfus Affair

The Olympic Marathon

The Messina Earthquake

Louis Blériot Flies the Channel

The Arrest of Dr Crippen

The Last Emperor of China

The Titanic Sinks

Disaster at the South Pole

The Great War

Archduke Franz Ferdinand Assassinated in Sarajevo

War Declared

The Easter Rising

The First Day of the Somme

The Russian Revolution

The Execution of the Romanovs

The End of the Great War

Spanish Influenza

Women Vote for the First Time

Lady Astor Takes Her Seat

The Twenties and Thirties

Prohibition

Tutankhamun’s Tomb

The Death of Lenin

John Logie Baird Demonstrates Television

The General Strike

Lindbergh Flies the Atlantic

The Wall Street Crash

Gandhi’s Salt March

Telephone Links the World

Hitler Becomes Chancellor of Germany

Bonnie and Clyde

The Flying Scotsman

Spain

The Jarrow March

The Abdication Crisis

The Hindenburg Disaster

The Fall of Nanking

The Second World War

War Declared

The Norway Debate

The Battle of Britain

The Blitz

Pearl Harbour

Alamein

D-Day

The Liberation of Bayeux

Hitler Dead

Victory Celebrated

Hiroshima Inferno

From Austerity to Astronauts

India Gains Independence

The Berlin Airlift

The Olympic Games in London

The People’s Republic of China Proclaimed

Festival of Britain

The Korean War

Everest Conquered

The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II

The Four-Minute Mile

The Missing Diplomats

The Hungarian Uprising

Suez

The Munich Air Disaster

The First Motorway

Marilyn Monroe

The Cuban Missile Crisis

The Assassination of President Kennedy

Beatlemania

The Death of Winston Churchill

Abolition of the Death Penalty

The World Cup

Aberfan

Paris ’68

Prague Spring

Concorde’s Maiden Flight

The Moon Landings

The Seventies and Eighties

Decimal Day

Bloody Sunday

Munich Massacre

Britain Joins the EEC

Nixon Resigns

Saigon Falls

Elvis Presley Dies

Star Wars

The Test-Tube Baby

The Election of Pope John Paul II

The Worst of Times

Independence for Zimbabwe

The SAS Storm the Iranian Embassy

The Death of John Lennon

The Brixton Riots

The Shooting of Pope John Paul II

The Headingley Test

The Royal Wedding

The Falklands War

The Miners’ Strike

The Brighton Bomb

Live Aid

The Challenger Disaster

Chernobyl

Wapping

The Lockerbie Bombing

Tiananmen Square

The Fall of the Berlin Wall

Modern Times

Nelson Mandela

The Fall of Margaret Thatcher

Desert Storm

The First Briton in Space

Black Wednesday

History in a Handshake

The Channel Tunnel

OJ Simpson Acquitted

Peace in Bosnia

Tony Blair Leads Labour to Power

Hong Kong Handover

The Death of Diana, Princess of Wales

The Good Friday Agreement

The Millennium

September 11

The Death of the Queen Mother

The Fall of Saddam Hussein

July 7 Attacks

The Financial Crisis

The Inauguration of Barack Obama

Coalition

The Royal Wedding

The Death of Colonel Gaddafi

The London Olympics

Andy Murray Wins Wimbledon

Brexit

Grenfell

Coronavirus

George Floyd

Index

About the Publisher

INTRODUCTION

The urge to know what is happening beyond the horizon is as old as humankind. There were printed newssheets circulating in Venice by the sixteenth century, and newspapers well-established in Britain by the early eighteenth. Yet it was The Times which, almost from its founding in 1785, redefined what newspapers should report and, accordingly, what news was.

Britain was unusual in having a press not controlled by the state, but its journalism hitherto had often been merely gossipy, or polemical, or interested purely in politics, or just parochial. The approach of The Times was more professional, reflecting the growing size of the mercantile class and its need to be informed.