I often wonder what significant anniversaries are due at some point in the future as some of them might be of interest as triggers for blog posts or visits somewhere. However, it is often difficult to find out quickly what events have significant anniversaries - hence this section on the website.
By "significant anniversaries", I mean dates that are not, for example, the 73rd anniversary of something, but the 50th, 100th, 200th etc.
It should help to flag up interesting events.
Anniversaries during February 2022
Note: This page lists ALL anniversaries, not just the key dates.
For that more useful list, click here.
| Anniversary | Details |
| 695th | Teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer. (1st Feb 1327) |
| 313th | Alexander Selkirk is rescued after being shipwrecked on a desert island, inspiring the book Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. (1st Feb 1709) |
| 229th | French Revolutionary Wars: France declares war on the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. (1st Feb 1793) |
| 138th | The first volume (A to Ant) of the Oxford English Dictionary is published. (1st Feb 1884) |
| 98th | The United Kingdom recognizes the USSR. (1st Feb 1924) |
| 561st | Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Mortimer's Cross is fought in Herefordshire, England. (1st Feb 1461) |
| 70th | The first TV detector van is commissioned in Britain. (1st Feb 1952) |
| 100th | Formal handing over of Beggars Bush Barracks takes place in Dublin, marking the first act of British military withdrawal from Ireland. (1st Feb 1922) |
| 6th | Scientists are given the go-ahead by regulators to genetically modify human embryos which were to be destroyed in seven days. (1st Feb 2016) |
| 208th | The last of the Frost Fairs starts on London's River Thames. It lasts four days. (1st Feb 1814) |
| 107th | Photographs required in British passports for the first time. (1st Feb 1915) |
| 10th | Ash dieback fungus first found in the British Isles. (1st Feb 2012) |
| 65th | Norwich City Council becomes the first British local authority to install a computer (an Elliott 405). (1st Feb 1957) |
| 305th | As part of the treaty between France and Britain, James Stuart leaves France and seeks refuge with the Pope. (1st Feb 1717) |
| 3rd | A 37-year-old mother who mutilated her three-year-old daughter becomes the first person in the UK to be found guilty of female genital mutilation (FGM). (1st Feb 2019) |
| 15th | Downing Street officials revealed that Tony Blair had been interviewed as a witness by police on 26 January in connection with the Cash-for-honours allegations. (1st Feb 2007) |
| 13th | Three day state visit of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao begins; pro-Tibet protestors staged a demonstration outside the Chinese embassy in London. (1st Feb 2009) |
| 1st | The government orders an extra 40 million doses of VLA2001, a vaccine from French biotech company Valneva SE, for availability later in the year and into 2022. (1st Feb 2021) |
| 1st | Door-to-door testing is launched, in an attempt to contain the spread of a new South African variant of the virus (later known as the Beta variant), after cases are found in Hertfordshire, Surrey, Kent, Walsall, Sefton and three London boroughs. (1st Feb 2021) |
| 1st | Online retailer ASOS acquires the Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge brands for £330m, but does not retain any of the brands' 70 stores, putting 2,500 jobs at risk. (1st Feb 2021) |
| 121st | Funeral of Queen Victoria. (2nd Feb 1901) |
| 50th | The British embassy in Dublin is destroyed in protest at Bloody Sunday. (2nd Feb 1972) |
| 4th | Finsbury Park Mosque attacker Darren Osborne, who drove a van into a group of Muslims, is jailed for life, with a minimum term of 43 years. (2nd Feb 2018) |
| 7th | London's population hits a record high of 8,600,000 which it hasn't seen since the beginning of the Second World War in 1939, and is forecast to reach 11,000,000 people by 2050. (2nd Feb 2015) |
| 105th | Bread rationing introduced. (2nd Feb 1917) |
| 0th | COVID-19 in the UK: 534 coronavirus-related deaths are reported, the highest daily figure since February 2021. (2nd Feb 2022) |
| 0th | The government publishes a white paper on its "levelling up" strategy, which aims to reduce the gap between rich and poor parts of the country by 2030. This includes a 40% increase in research and development spending for the North, Midlands, South West, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. (2nd Feb 2022) |
| 12th | The Birmingham based confectionery giant Cadbury was taken over by American rival Kraft Foods in an £11.5 billion deal. (2nd Feb 2010) |
| 17th | Robert Kilroy-Silk officially launches the Veritas political party, on an anti-immigration platform, after quitting the Eurosceptic UK Independence Party following a failed leadership bid. (2nd Feb 2005) |
| 13th | Contractors at the Sellafield and Heysham nuclear plants walk out in the ongoing unofficial strike action over foreign workers. (2nd Feb 2009) |
| 1st | Captain Sir Tom Moore, who raised over £32m for NHS Charities Together, dies at the age of 100 after contracting COVID-19. (2nd Feb 2021) |
| 488th | The Irish rebel Silken Thomas is executed by the order of Henry VIII in London, England. (3rd Feb 1534) |
| 62nd | British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan speaks of the "a wind of change" of increasing national consciousness blowing through colonial Africa, signalling that his Government is likely to support decolonisation. (3rd Feb 1960) |
| 6th | The High Court gives permission for Lord Lucan to be declared dead, and for a death certificate to be issued 42 years after his disappearance. (3rd Feb 2016) |
| 233rd | Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger introduces a Regency Bill to Parliament so that the Prince of Wales may act as regent for his father George III during a period of mental illness, but the King recovers before the Bill becomes law. (3rd Feb 1789) |
| 0th | The 2022 Southend West by-election, following the murder of Sir David Amess, is won by the Conservative candidate, Anna Firth. The by-election is not contested by the major opposition parties out of respect for Amess. (3rd Feb 2022) |
| 0th | Paul Givan resigns as First Minister of Northern Ireland in protest over Brexit checks in the Irish Sea, which are part of the Northern Ireland protocol. (3rd Feb 2022) |
| 0th | Munira Mirza resigns as Director of the Number 10 Policy Unit, saying it was in protest at Johnson's comments about Keir Starmer being responsible for the failure to prosecute serial sex offender Jimmy Savile. Three other senior aides resign hours later (3rd Feb 2022) |
| 0th | The Bank of England raises the interest rate from 0.25 to 0.5%, in a bid to restrain inflation. (3rd Feb 2022) |
| 0th | Ofgem announces a lifting of the energy price cap from £1,277 to £1,971, an increase of 54%. The regulator estimates that nearly 18 million households in England, Wales and Scotland will pay an average of £693 extra a year for gas and electricity. (3rd Feb 2022) |
| 18th | Foreign Secretary Jack Straw announces an independent inquiry, to be chaired by Lord Butler, to examine the reliability of intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. (3rd Feb 2004) |
| 48th | M62 coach bombing: The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) explodes a bomb on a bus carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel in Yorkshire, England. Nine soldiers and three civilians are killed. (4th Feb 1974) |
| 7th | Home Secretary Theresa May appoints New Zealand judge Lowell Goddard to lead a new statutory inquiry into historical child sexual abuse. (4th Feb 2015) |
| 9th | Former government Minister Chris Huhne pleads guilty to perverting the course of justice over claims he caused his ex-wife to accept speeding points he had incurred. He also announces his intention to resign his House of Commons seat. (4th Feb 2013) |
| 0th | Peer Nazir Ahmed is jailed for sexual offences against children. (4th Feb 2022) |
| 95th | At Pendine Sands, Sir Malcolm Campbell sets a new world land speed record covering the Flying Kilometre in a mean average of 174mph and the Flying Mile in 174mph driving the Napier-Campbell Blue Bird, the last time this record will be attained on British soil. (4th Feb 1927) |
| 74th | Ceylon (later renamed Sri Lanka) becomes independent within the British Commonwealth. (4th Feb 1948) |
| 3rd | The wreckage of the PA-46 Malibu that was carrying footballer Emiliano Sala and pilot David Ibbotson is found underwater and a body is seen within it. (4th Feb 2019) |
| 1st | Three people are killed, including an alleged assailant in a road crash, after an attack at the University Hospital Crosshouse and a related stabbing nearby in Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, Scotland. Police Scotland say the incidents are thought to be connected but not terror-related. (4th Feb 2021) |
| 122nd | The United States and the United Kingdom sign a treaty for the Panama Canal (5th Feb 1900) |
| 98th | The Royal Greenwich Observatory begins broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal or the "BBC pips". (5th Feb 1924) |
| 69th | The rationing of sweets, introduced during World War II, ends. (5th Feb 1953) |
| 7th | Former pop star Gary Glitter is found guilty of sexually abusing three young girls between 1975 and 1980. (5th Feb 2015) |
| 8th | Part of the South Devon Railway sea wall carrying the railway line linking London with the west of England is washed away by a powerful storm that has hit the UK overnight. Thousands of homes are also left without electricity. Prime Minister David Cameron announces that an extra £100 million will be spent on dealing with the aftermath of the floods that have hit the UK. (5th Feb 2014) |
| 9th | The House of Commons votes 400 to 175 in favour of a vote on the bill to legalise same-sex marriage in England and Wales. (5th Feb 2013) |
| 75th | The Minister of Food, John Strachey, announces the £25 million Tanganyika groundnut scheme. (5th Feb 1947) |
| 12th | After a long period of negotiations, the political parties of Northern Ireland, including the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein, reached an agreement to allow for the devolution of policing and justice powers. (5th Feb 2010) |
| 3rd | HMV is acquired out of administration by Canadian retailer Sunrise Records, safeguarding the future of nearly 1,500 staff. (5th Feb 2019) |
| 1st | One man is killed and ten people are injured after five stabbing incidents take place in the space of two hours in the London Borough of Croydon. Metropolitan Police describe the stabbings as "needless and abhorrent" and say extra police officers will be deployed across south London. (5th Feb 2021) |
| 373rd | The claimant King Charles II of England and Scotland is declared King of Great Britain, by the Parliament of Scotland. This move was not followed by the Parliament of England nor the Parliament of Ireland. (6th Feb 1649) |
| 337th | James II of England and VII of Scotland becomes King upon the death of his brother Charles II. (6th Feb 1685) |
| 80th | World War II: The United Kingdom declares war on Thailand. (6th Feb 1942) |
| 70th | Elizabeth II becomes the first queen regnant of the UK and the Commonwealth Realms since Queen Victoria upon the death of her father, George VI. At the exact moment of succession, she was in a treehouse at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya. (6th Feb 1952) |
| 5th | The Queen commemorates her Sapphire Jubilee. (6th Feb 2017) |
| 58th | The British and French governments agree a deal for the construction of a Channel Tunnel. The twin-tunneled rail link is expected to take five years to build. (6th Feb 1964) |
| 7th | The Investigatory Powers Tribunal rules that GCHQ breached human rights laws by failing to disclose shared full details of information it shared with the United States that was garnered from data from mass internet surveillance. (6th Feb 2015) |
| 0th | The Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II marks the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne as Queen of the United Kingdom. (6th Feb 2022) |
| 10th | Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her Diamond Jubilee, marking sixty years on the throne; only the second British monarch to do so. (6th Feb 2012) |
| 55th | Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin arrived in the UK for an eight-day visit. (6th Feb 1967) |
| 64th | the Manchester United F.C. team plane flying back from a European Cup tie in Belgrade crashes on take-off after refuelling at Munich Airport in West Germany. 21 of the 44 people on board are killed. Seven of them are Manchester United players. (6th Feb 1958) |
| 104th | Representation of the People Act gives women the vote provided they are over 30 and are (or are married to) a local government elector. It also removes most property qualifications, giving all adult (over-21) male resident householders the vote, and requires elections to be restricted to a single day. (6th Feb 1918) |
| 721st | Edward of Caernarvon (later King Edward II of England) becomes the first English Prince of Wales. (7th Feb 1301) |
| 115th | The Mud March is the first large procession organized by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). (7th Feb 1907) |
| 4th | Jon Venables, one of the killers of toddler James Bulger, is jailed for possessing child abuse images for a second time. (7th Feb 2018) |
| 80th | Soap rationing introduced. (7th Feb 1942) |
| 77th | Prime Minister Winston Churchill attends the Yalta Conference. (7th Feb 1945) |
| 0th | Footage emerges of West Ham United player Kurt Zouma kicking and punching his pet cat. Essex Police announce they are liaising with the RSPCA and "urgent enquiries are ongoing". (7th Feb 2022) |
| 0th | The football associations of the four nations of the United Kingdom and Ireland announce they have agreed not to bid for the 2030 World Cup, and will instead attempt a joint bid to host Euro 2028. (7th Feb 2022) |
| 55th | The British National Front was founded by A. K. Chesterton (by merger of the British National Party and League of Empire Loyalists). (7th Feb 1967) |
| 3rd | A body is recovered from the wreckage of the PA-46 Malibu which vanished over the English Channel on 21 January. Dorset Police later identify it as that of Emiliano Sala. (7th Feb 2019) |
| 17th | Ellen MacArthur attains the solo around the world sailing record, returning to Falmouth the following day. (7th Feb 2005) |
| 435th | Mary, Queen of Scots, is executed on suspicion of having been involved in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I. (8th Feb 1587) |
| 421st | Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, rebels against Queen Elizabeth I - the revolt is quickly crushed. (8th Feb 1601) |
| 167th | The Devil's Footprints mysteriously appear in southern Devon. (8th Feb 1855) |
| 143rd | The England cricket team led by Lord Harris is attacked during a riot during a match in Sydney. (8th Feb 1879) |
| 62nd | Queen Elizabeth II issues an Order-in-Council, stating that she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor, and that her descendants will take the name "Mountbatten-Windsor". (8th Feb 1960) |
| 4th | NHS hospitals in England record their worst ever A&E performance, with only 77.1% of patients treated within four hours in January, far short of the 95% target. (8th Feb 2018) |
| 94th | John Logie Baird broadcasts a transatlantic television signal from London to Hartsdale, New York. (8th Feb 1928) |
| 6th | Storm Imogen hits Britain, causing thousands of power outages and structural damage across the country, along with disruption for many commuters. (8th Feb 2016) |
| 8th | Rail links to South West England are cut off as fresh storms hit the area. (8th Feb 2014) |
| 0th | Health Secretary Sajid Javid sets out the government's plans to reduce the NHS backlog resulting from the pandemic, including new facilities paid for by an extra £8bn of investment over the next three years. (8th Feb 2022) |
| 0th | Johnson implements a cabinet reshuffle, which includes Jacob Rees-Mogg becoming Minister of State for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency, with Mark Spencer replacing him as Leader of the House. (8th Feb 2022) |
| 467th | Bishop of Gloucester John Hooper is burned at the stake. (9th Feb 1555) |
| 4th | An investigation by the Times newspaper finds that Oxfam covered up the use of prostitutes by senior aid workers. (9th Feb 2018) |
| 0th | The biggest breakthrough in fusion energy since 1997 is reported by Oxford's JET lab, with 59 megajoules produced over five seconds (11 megawatts of power), more than double the previous record. (9th Feb 2022) |
| 0th | The UK's terror threat level is lowered from severe to substantial, meaning a terror attack on British soil is considered "likely". (9th Feb 2022) |
| 0th | Ian Stewart, already convicted for the murder of children's author Helen Bailey, is sentenced to a whole-life order for the killing of his previous wife, Diane Stewart, six years earlier. (9th Feb 2022) |
| 11th | Project Merlin, an agreement on aspects of banking activity in the United Kingdom, was agreed between the coalition government and the country's four major high street banks. (9th Feb 2011) |
| 20th | Princess Margaret, the Queen's younger sister, dies after suffering a stroke aged 71. (9th Feb 2002) |
| 16th | The Government announces that the Child Support Agency is to be abolished. (9th Feb 2006) |
| 1st | COVID-19 in the UK: The government announces tough new measures for travellers. UK and Irish residents returning from 33 red list countries will be charged £1,750 to quarantine in a government-sanctioned hotel for 10 days, with fines of up to £10,000 for those who fail to do so. A prison sentence of up to 10 years is to be introduced for those who lie on their passenger locator forms about visiting a red list country. (9th Feb 2021) |
| 1st | Cumbria County Council suspends plans for Woodhouse Colliery, the UK's first deep coal mine since 1987, following strong criticism over its environmental damage and carbon emissions. (9th Feb 2021) |
| 716th | In front of the high altar of Greyfriars Church in Dumfries, Robert the Bruce murders John Comyn, his leading political rival, sparking revolution in the Scottish Wars of Independence (10th Feb 1306) |
| 667th | The St. Scholastica's Day riot breaks out in Oxford, England, leaving 63 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead in two days. (10th Feb 1355) |
| 455th | An explosion destroys the Kirk o' Field house in Edinburgh, Scotland. The second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, Lord Darnley is found strangled, in what many believe to be an assassination. (10th Feb 1567) |
| 259th | French and Indian War: The 1763 Treaty of Paris ends the war and France cedes Quebec to Great Britain. (10th Feb 1763) |
| 182nd | Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. (10th Feb 1840) |
| 159th | The fire extinguisher is patented. (10th Feb 1863) |
| 116th | HMS Dreadnought is launched. (10th Feb 1906) |
| 109th | News reaches London of the failure of Capt. Scott's 1912 Polar expedition. (10th Feb 1913) |
| 78th | PAYE (Pay as you earn) system of tax collection introduced. (10th Feb 1944) |
| 0th | Cressida Dick stands down as Met police commissioner after losing the confidence of Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, hours after stating she had no intention of resigning. (10th Feb 2022) |
| 0th | Foreign Secretary Liz Truss meets her Russian counterpart in Moscow, Sergey Lavrov. Her visit, the first by a UK foreign secretary in four years, sees her urge Russia to "respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine". (10th Feb 2022) |
| 75th | Major cuts in power supply due to shortage of fuel under severe winter conditions are imposed in England and Wales. BBC TV is shut-down until 11 March. (10th Feb 1947) |
| 17th | Clarence House announces that The Prince of Wales is to marry Camilla Parker Bowles on Friday 8 April in a civil ceremony at Windsor Castle. She will be styled "HRH The Duchess of Cornwall", and (it is stated at this time) if the Prince becomes king, "HRH The Princess Consort". (10th Feb 2005) |
| 1st | David Wilson is sentenced to 25 years imprisonment for 96 sex offences against 51 boys, which he committed between May 2016 and April 2020. (10th Feb 2021) |
| 491st | Henry VIII of England is recognized as supreme head of the Church of England. (11th Feb 1531) |
| 196th | University College London is founded under the name University of London. (11th Feb 1826) |
| 84th | BBC Television produces the world's first ever science fiction television program, an adaptation of a section of the Karel Capek play R.U.R., that coined the term "robot" (11th Feb 1938) |
| 58th | Southampton is granted the status of city, the first such designation of the current Queen's reign. (11th Feb 1964) |
| 0th | The Foreign Office advises UK nationals to leave Ukraine. (11th Feb 2022) |
| 0th | The UK records its fastest economic growth since 1941, with new figures showing a 7.5% rise in GDP during 2021. However, this follows the collapse of 9.4% during 2020. (11th Feb 2022) |
| 47th | Margaret Thatcher defeats Edward Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election to become the party's first female leader. (11th Feb 1975) |
| 155th | Abortive Fenian attempt to seize Chester Castle. (11th Feb 1867) |
| 593rd | English forces under Sir John Fastolf defend a supply convoy carrying rations to the army besieging Orleans from attack by the Comte de Clermont and Sir John Stewart of Darnley in the Battle of Rouvray. (12th Feb 1429) |
| 468th | A year after claiming the throne of England for nine days, Lady Jane Grey is beheaded for treason. (12th Feb 1554) |
| 333rd | The Convention Parliament declares that the flight to France in 1688 by James II, the last Roman Catholic British monarch, constitutes an abdication. (12th Feb 1689) |
| 289th | Englishman James Oglethorpe founds Georgia, the 13th colony of the Thirteen Colonies, and its first city at Savannah (known as Georgia Day). (12th Feb 1733) |
| 94th | An underground explosion at Haig Pit, Whitehaven, in the Cumberland Coalfield, kills thirteen miners undertaking clearance after an earlier fatal accident. (12th Feb 1928) |
| 6th | After many years as print newspapers, it is announced that the UK newspapers The Independent and the Independent on Sunday will cease to print and become online-only at the end of March. Its stablemate, the i, will be sold to Johnston Press. (12th Feb 2016) |
| 48th | BBC1 first aired the children's television series Bagpuss, made by Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate's Smallfilms in stop motion animation. (12th Feb 1974) |
| 68th | The UK's Atomic Energy Authority is founded. (12th Feb 1954) |
| 68th | British Medical Committee report suggests the existence of a link between smoking and lung cancer. (12th Feb 1954) |
| 208th | A fire destroys the Custom House, London. (12th Feb 1814) |
| 94th | Heavy hailstorms kill eleven in England. (12th Feb 1928) |
| 94th | Malta becomes a British dominion. (12th Feb 1928) |
| 1st | The number of people who have been infected by the COVID virus since the start of the pandemic exceeds four million. (12th Feb 2021) |
| 1st | The ONS reports that the UK economy shrank by 9.9% during 2020, its largest annual contraction since the Great Frost of 1709. (12th Feb 2021) |
| 480th | Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England, is executed for adultery. (13th Feb 1542) |
| 333rd | William and Mary are proclaimed co-rulers of England. (13th Feb 1689) |
| 330th | Massacre of Glencoe: About 78 Macdonalds at Glen Coe, Scotland are killed early in the morning for not promptly pledging allegiance to the new king, William of Orange. (13th Feb 1692) |
| 77th | World War II: Royal Air Force bombers are dispatched to Dresden, Germany to attack the city with a massive aerial bombardment. (13th Feb 1945) |
| 134th | The first issue of the Financial Times goes on sale. (originally launched on 9 January by Horatio Bottomley as the London Financial Guide). (13th Feb 1888) |
| 77th | RAF Bomber Command begins the Dresden, Germany, resulting in a lethal firestorm which kills tens of thousands of civilians. (13th Feb 1945) |
| 207th | The Cambridge Union Society, one of the oldest debating societies in the world, founded at the University of Cambridge. (13th Feb 1815) |
| 44th | Anna Ford becomes the first female newsreader on ITN. (13th Feb 1978) |
| 79th | Nuffield Foundation established by William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield. (13th Feb 1943) |
| 154th | the War Office sanctions the formation of what will become the Army Post Office Corps. (13th Feb 1868) |
| 466th | Thomas Cranmer is declared a heretic. (14th Feb 1556) |
| 243rd | James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii. (14th Feb 1779) |
| 225th | French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Cape St. Vincent - John Jervis and Horatio Nelson lead the British Royal Navy to victory over a Spanish fleet in action near Gibraltar. (14th Feb 1797) |
| 170th | Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, the first hospital providing in-patient beds specifically for children in the English-speaking world, is founded in London. (14th Feb 1852) |
| 76th | The Bank of England is nationalized. (14th Feb 1946) |
| 91st | First edition of the Highway Code published in Great Britain. (14th Feb 1931) |
| 59th | The Labour Party elects 46-year-old Harold Wilson as its new leader, and Leader of the Opposition. (14th Feb 1963) |
| 0th | An inquiry begins into the Post Office scandal, the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British legal history. (14th Feb 2022) |
| 54th | Northampton, the county town of Northamptonshire, is designated as a New town, with the Wilson government hoping to double its size and population by 1980. (14th Feb 1968) |
| 116th | The British Labour Party is organised. (15th Feb 1906) |
| 70th | King George VI is buried in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. (15th Feb 1952) |
| 51st | The decimalisation of British coinage is completed on Decimal Day. (15th Feb 1971) |
| 0th | Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre reach an out-of-court settlement over her civil sex assault claim. (15th Feb 2022) |
| 107th | Queen's Park station on the London Underground Bakerloo Line opens. (15th Feb 1915) |
| 3rd | Thousands of school pupils around the UK go on strike as part of a global campaign for action on climate change. (15th Feb 2019) |
| 19th | In London, more than 2,000,000 people demonstrate against the Iraq War, the largest demonstration in UK history. (15th Feb 2003) |
| 17th | The European Court of Human Rights deciding about the so-called McLibel case rules in favour of environmental campaigners Helen Steel and David Morris and their claim that their trial was unfair. The pair said their human rights were violated when their criticism of McDonald's was ruled libel. The case has taken fifteen years. (15th Feb 2005) |
| 376th | Battle of Torrington, Devon - the last major battle of the first English Civil War. (16th Feb 1646) |
| 280th | Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, becomes British Prime Minister. (16th Feb 1742) |
| 156th | Spencer Compton Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington becomes British Secretary of State for War. (16th Feb 1866) |
| 99th | Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. (16th Feb 1923) |
| 65th | The "Toddlers' Truce", a controversial television close down between 6.00pm and 7.00pm is abolished in the United Kingdom. (16th Feb 1957) |
| 6th | BBC Three becomes the first UK television network to become online only, having broadcast for its final night after 13 years as a television channel. (16th Feb 2016) |
| 0th | Inflation increases to 5.5% according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures. (16th Feb 2022) |
| 3rd | Flybmi ceases operations and files for administration, blaming Brexit as the main cause of its collapse. (16th Feb 2019) |
| 44th | inflation has fallen to 9.9% - the first time since 1973 that it has been in single figures. (17th Feb 1978) |
| 4th | UKIP members vote to sack party leader Henry Bolton after controversy over racist text messages sent by his partner. (17th Feb 2018) |
| 133rd | Royal Society for the Protection of Birds founded in Manchester, originally as "The Plumage League" to campaign against the use of plumage in women's clothing. (17th Feb 1889) |
| 10th | Rupert Murdoch announces that a Sunday edition of The Sun newspaper, The Sun on Sunday, will be launched "very soon", effectively replacing the News of the World which was axed last summer due to the phone hacking scandal. Its launch is confirmed on 19 February for the following weekend. (17th Feb 2012) |
| 19th | The London congestion charge, a fee levied on motorists travelling within designated parts of central London, comes into operation. (17th Feb 2003) |
| 544th | George, Duke of Clarence, convicted of treason against his older brother Edward IV of England, is executed in private at the Tower of London. (18th Feb 1478) |
| 385th | Eighty Years' War: Off the coast of Cornwall, England, a Spanish fleet intercepts an important Anglo-Dutch merchant convoy of 44 vessels escorted by 6 warships, destroying or capturing 20 of them. (18th Feb 1637) |
| 0th | Storm Eunice becomes one of the most powerful storms to hit the UK in decades, which includes the fastest wind gusts ever recorded in England, blowing at 122 miles per hour (196km/h) on the Isle of Wight. Millions of people are urged to avoid travel and to stay indoors, with red weather alerts extended to southern and eastern England, and for the first time London. Three people are killed, and widespread damage is reported, which includes the iconic O2 Arena rooftop being partially blown away. (18th Feb 2022) |
| 604th | Hundred Years' War: English capture Falaise. (18th Feb 1418) |
| 13th | The Yorkshire Ripper is released from Broadmoor Hospital to face a life sentence, for killing 13 women and attempting to kill 7 more, after doctors claim he has been treated for schizophrenia. (18th Feb 2009) |
| 348th | England and the Netherlands sign the Treaty of Westminster, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. A provision of the agreement transfers the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam to England, and it is renamed New York. (19th Feb 1674) |
| 203rd | British explorer William Smith discovers the South Shetland Islands, and claims them in the name of King George III. (19th Feb 1819) |
| 21st | Foot and mouth crisis begins. (19th Feb 2001) |
| 20th | Ford ends 90 years of British car production with the loss of more than 2,000 jobs after the last Fiesta was made at their factory in Dagenham. However, the plant will be retained for the production of engines and gearboxes, and Ford will continue to make commercial vehicles at their plant in Southampton. (19th Feb 2002) |
| 1st | The Duke and Duchess of Sussex confirm they will not return as working members of the Royal Family. (19th Feb 2021) |
| 1st | The Supreme Court rules that Uber drivers must be treated as workers, rather than self-employed, and should therefore be entitled to minimum wage and holiday pay. (19th Feb 2021) |
| 1st | The High Court rules that Matt Hancock "acted unlawfully by failing to comply with the Transparency Policy" and "breached his legal obligation to publish Contract Award Notices within 30 days" when awarding contracts during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hancock explained the delay in publishing the contracts as being on average "just after a fortnight late", and reasoned it was "because my team were working seven days a week, often 18 hours a day, to get hold of the equipment that was saving lives". (19th Feb 2021) |
| 1st | COVID-19 in the UK: Boris Johnson pledges to donate most of the UK's surplus vaccine supply to poorer countries. (19th Feb 2021) |
| 550th | Orkney and Shetland are pawned by Norway to Scotland in lieu of a dowry for Margaret of Denmark. (20th Feb 1472) |
| 475th | Edward VI of England is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey. (20th Feb 1547) |
| 58th | BBC Two launches with a power cut because of the fire at Battersea Power Station. (20th Feb 1964) |
| 6th | David Cameron announces that Britain will hold a referendum on the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union on 23 June. (20th Feb 2016) |
| 108th | The Fethard-on-Sea life-boat capsizes on service off the County Wexford coast: nine crew are lost. (20th Feb 1914) |
| 0th | COVID-19 in the UK: The Queen tests positive for COVID-19. Buckingham Palace says she has "mild cold-like symptoms" but expects to continue "light duties" at Windsor over the coming week. (20th Feb 2022) |
| 8th | A 4.1 magnitude earthquake is recorded under the Bristol Channel. (20th Feb 2014) |
| 44th | severe blizzards hit the south west of England. (20th Feb 1978) |
| 64th | the government announces plans to close the 300-year-old dockyards at Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey, which would result in more than 2,500 workers losing their jobs. (20th Feb 1958) |
| 3rd | Home Secretary Sajid Javid confirms the intention to strip Shamima Begum, a teenager who left the UK to join Islamic State in Syria in 2015, of her UK citizenship. (20th Feb 2019) |
| 20th | Andrew Aston, a 29-year-old Birmingham cocaine addict, is sentenced to 26 concurrent terms of Life imprisonment - officially the longest prison sentence imposed on any criminal in England and Wales - for murdering two elderly people in robberies and attacking 24 others. (20th Feb 2002) |
| 218th | The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Wales. (21st Feb 1804) |
| 70th | The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolishes identity cards in the UK to "set the people free". (21st Feb 1952) |
| 4th | The National Farmers Union elects Minette Batters, the first female president in its 110-year history. (21st Feb 2018) |
| 58th | £10 banknotes are issued for the first time since the Second World War. (21st Feb 1964) |
| 208th | The "Great Stock Exchange Fraud" in London based on rumours about the then-ongoing Napoleonic Wars. (21st Feb 1814) |
| 0th | COVID-19 in the UK: The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) recommends an additional booster dose be offered to all adults over-75 and the most vulnerable over-12s in the spring. (21st Feb 2022) |
| 0th | Storm Franklin becomes the third major storm to hit the UK in less than a week, bringing strong winds and widespread flooding. (21st Feb 2022) |
| 105th | Elder Dempster Line troopship SS Mendi is accidentally rammed by SS Darro off the Isle of Wight, killing 646, mainly members of the South African Native Labour Corps. (21st Feb 1917) |
| 17th | The Royal Navy announces that it will allow same-sex couples to live in family quarters if they are in registered partnership. (21st Feb 2005) |
| 14th | A jury at Ipswich Crown Court found Steve Wright, 49, guilty of murdering five prostitutes during late 2006. (21st Feb 2008) |
| 651st | Robert II becomes King of Scotland, beginning the Stuart dynasty. (22nd Feb 1371) |
| 225th | The Last Invasion of Britain begins near Fishguard, Wales. (22nd Feb 1797) |
| 118th | The United Kingdom sells a meteorological station on the South Orkney Islands to Argentina, the islands are subsequently claimed by the United Kingdom in 1908. (22nd Feb 1904) |
| 50th | The Official Irish Republican Army detonates a car bomb at Aldershot barracks, killing seven and injuring nineteen others. (22nd Feb 1972) |
| 4th | The 2018 UK higher education strike began at sixty-four UK universities over proposed changes to the USS pension scheme. (22nd Feb 2018) |
| 5th | Cressida Dick is appointed Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, becoming the first woman to hold the position in the force's 188-year history. (22nd Feb 2017) |
| 45th | David Owen, 38, becomes the youngest post-Second World War Foreign Secretary, succeeding the late Anthony Crosland, who died 3 days earlier. (22nd Feb 1977) |
| 13th | TV personality, Jade Goody and her boyfriend, Jack Tweed, are married at Down Hall, Essex. Goody, 27, has been suffering from cervical cancer for six months and was told earlier this month that she may only have weeks to live after the cancer spread to her bowel, liver and groin. Tweed is free on license following imprisonment for assault. (22nd Feb 2009) |
| 1st | COVID-19 in the UK: Boris Johnson unveils a four-step plan for ending lockdown restrictions in England by 21 June. Subject to four tests on vaccines, hospitalisations and deaths, infection rates and new variants being met (22nd Feb 2021) |
| 283rd | Richard Palmer is identified at York Castle, by his former schoolteacher, as the outlaw Dick Turpin. (23rd Feb 1739) |
| 202nd | Cato Street Conspiracy: A plot to murder all the British cabinet ministers is exposed. (23rd Feb 1820) |
| 176th | John Henry Newman leaves the Church of England and is received into the Roman Catholic Church. (23rd Feb 1846) |
| 60th | Twelve European countries form the European Space Agency. (23rd Feb 1962) |
| 5th | Britain is hit by winds of up to 94 mph from Storm Doris, causing travel disruption and a number of casualties. (23rd Feb 2017) |
| 9th | UK loses top AAA credit rating for first time since 1978 after being downgraded by the ratings agency Moody's (23rd Feb 2013) |
| 3rd | Roy Hodgson becomes the oldest man to manage in the Premier League, at the age of 71 years and 198 days. (23rd Feb 2019) |
| 15th | Grayrigg rail crash: A Virgin Trains Pendolino train derails in Cumbria, killing one person and injuring dozens more. (23rd Feb 2007) |
| 13th | Binyam Mohammed, a British national suspected of involvement in terrorist activities, is returned to the United Kingdom after being held at Guantanamo Bay Detention Centre for more than four years. Mohammed alleges that he was subject to extraordinary rendition and that UK agents were complicit in his torture. (23rd Feb 2009) |
| 719th | Battle of Roslin, of the First War of Scottish Independence. (24th Feb 1303) |
| 311th | The London première of Rinaldo by George Frideric Handel, the first Italian opera written for the London stage. (24th Feb 1711) |
| 213th | London's Drury Lane Theatre burns to the ground, leaving owner Richard Brinsley Sheridan destitute. (24th Feb 1809) |
| 105th | World War I: The U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom is given the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany pledges to ensure the return of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona to Mexico if Mexico declares war on the United States. (24th Feb 1917) |
| 0th | The FTSE 100 and other markets around the world fall sharply, amid concerns over Russia and Ukraine. Oil prices exceed $100 a barrel for the first time since 2014. (24th Feb 2022) |
| 1st | COVID-19 in the UK: Nicola Sturgeon unveils the Scottish Government's "cautious" approach to ending lockdown restrictions in Scotland, which includes a phased return for primary and secondary school pupils from 15 March. (24th Feb 2021) |
| 452nd | Pope Pius V excommunicates Queen Elizabeth I of England. (25th Feb 1570) |
| 225th | Colonel William Tate and his force of 1000-1500 soldiers surrender after the Last Invasion of Britain. (25th Feb 1797) |
| 0th | All British airlines are banned by Russia from landing at its airports and from crossing its airspace, in response to the previous day's banning of Aeroflot from landing in Britain. (25th Feb 2022) |
| 83rd | First Anderson shelter built in London (25th Feb 1939) |
| 8th | A suspect in the 1982 IRA Hyde Park bombing will not face trial after a judge ruled he cannot be prosecuted because he was mistakenly given an official assurance that he would not face trial. Some 182 letters have been issued as part of the Northern Ireland peace process. (25th Feb 2014) |
| 9th | Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Britain's most senior Roman Catholic cleric, resigns as the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh due to allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour towards priests in the 1980s. (25th Feb 2013) |
| 55th | Britain's second Polaris nuclear submarine, HMS Renown, was launched at Birkenhead. (25th Feb 1967) |
| 64th | Bertrand Russell launches the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, initiated at a meeting called by Canon John Collins on 15 January. (25th Feb 1958) |
| 3rd | A temperature of 20.3C (68.5F) is reported in Trawsgoed, Ceredigion, the UK's highest on record for the month of February. (25th Feb 2019) |
| 13th | Prime Minister's Questions is suspended by the Speaker Michael Martin following a request from Prime Minister Gordon Brown as a mark of respect following the death of the six-year-old son of the Leader of the Opposition David Cameron. It is the first time that PMQs has been suspended since the death of the then Labour Party leader John Smith in 1994. (25th Feb 2009) |
| 113th | Kinemacolor, the first successful color motion picture process, is first shown to the general public at the Palace Theatre in London. (26th Feb 1909) |
| 108th | HMHS Britannic, sister to the RMS Titanic, is launched at Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast. (26th Feb 1914) |
| 87th | Robert Watson-Watt carries out a demonstration near Daventry which leads directly to the development of RADAR. (26th Feb 1935) |
| 70th | Winston Churchill announces that the United Kingdom has an atomic bomb. (26th Feb 1952) |
| 0th | Chelsea F.C.'s Russian owner Roman Abramovich says he is "giving trustees of Chelsea's charitable foundation the stewardship and care" of the club. (26th Feb 2022) |
| 78th | World War II: Last heavy air-raids on London. (26th Feb 1944) |
| 7th | The masked Islamic State militant known as "Jihadi John", responsible for the beheadings of numerous Western hostages, is named as Mohammed Emwazi from West London. (26th Feb 2015) |
| 87th | Robert Watson-Watt first demonstrates the use of radar. (26th Feb 1935) |
| 1st | Begum v Home Secretary: The Supreme Court unanimously rules that Shamima Begum, who left the UK for Syria to join the Islamic State terrorist group and has been stripped of her British citizenship, can lawfully be prevented on security grounds from returning to the UK to appeal her case. (26th Feb 2021) |
| 462nd | The Treaty of Berwick, which would expel the French from Scotland, is signed by England and the Congregation of Scotland. (27th Feb 1560) |
| 210th | Poet Lord Byron gives his first address as a member of the House of Lords, in defense of Luddite violence against Industrialism in his home county of Nottinghamshire. (27th Feb 1812) |
| 122nd | The British Labour Party is founded. (27th Feb 1900) |
| 4th | Heavy snow causes disruption across much of the UK. Over subsequent days the Met Office issues the first ever red snow warning for Scotland,South-West England and South Wales, meaning the weather poses a potential risk to life. With ten severe weather warnings in place, the Army is called in to help rescue hundreds of stranded motorists. Several people are reported to have died in circumstances related to the freezing conditions. As temperatures later begin rising and ice thaws, the Environment Agency issues weather warnings due to flooding, mainly in the South-West and North-East England. (27th Feb 2018) |
| 0th | Thousands of people gather in cities across the UK to show their support for Ukraine. (27th Feb 2022) |
| 48th | Enoch Powell announces his resignation from the Conservative Party, in protest against Edward Heath's decision to take Britain into the EEC. (27th Feb 1974) |
| 83rd | Borley Rectory, a reputed haunted house, destroyed by fire. (27th Feb 1939) |
| 154th | Benjamin Disraeli succeeds the Earl of Derby as Prime Minister following Derby's resignation due to ill-health. (27th Feb 1868) |
| 19th | Rowan Williams enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury. (27th Feb 2003) |
| 14th | An earthquake with an epicentre in Lincolnshire was felt across most of Britain, with several buildings suffering substantial damage. (27th Feb 2008) |
| 0th | BP announces it will offload its 19.75% stake in Russian state-owned oil firm Rosneft after Russia's "act of aggression in Ukraine". (27th Feb 2022) |
| 0th | The FA announces that the England national football team will not play against Russia (at any level, age, men or women) for the foreseeable future. (27th Feb 2022) |
| 384th | The Scottish National Covenant is signed in Edinburgh. (28th Feb 1638) |
| 100th | The United Kingdom ends its protectorate over Egypt through a Unilateral Declaration of Independence. (28th Feb 1922) |
| 47th | A major tube train crash at Moorgate station, London kills 43 people. (28th Feb 1975) |
| 4th | An earthquake of magnitude 3.2 and depth of 4km hits Mosser, Cumbria. It was felt in Grasmere, Kendal, Cockermouth and Keswick and was the second earthquake to hit the United Kingdom within two weeks. (28th Feb 2018) |
| 69th | James D. Watson and Francis Crick announce that they have discovered the structure of the DNA molecule. (28th Feb 1953) |
| 48th | The general election resulted in the first hung parliament since 1929, with the Conservative government having 297 seats - four fewer than Labour, who have 301 - and the largest number of votes. (28th Feb 1974) |
| 47th | A major tube train crash at Moorgate station, London, killed 43 people. (28th Feb 1975) |
| 64th | the Victorian Society, the pressure group for Victorian architecture, holds its first meeting. (28th Feb 1958) |
| 0th | The media regulator Ofcom launches 15 separate investigations into the Russian state owned television news channel RT UK for its coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (28th Feb 2022) |
| 1st | Winchcombe meteorite: Fragments of a rare carbonaceous chondrite meteorite, the first known in Britain, fall at Winchcombe in the Cotswolds. (28th Feb 2021) |
| 226th | The Jay Treaty between the United States and Great Britain comes into force, facilitating ten years of peaceful trade between the two nations. (29th Feb 1796) |
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