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 March 2016
Note: This page lists ALL anniversaries, not just the key dates.
For that more useful list, click here.
| Anniversary | Details |
| 48th | Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968 further reduces right of entry for citizens from the British Commonwealth to the U.K. (1st Mar 1968) |
| 388th | Writs issued in February by Charles I of England mandate that every county in England (not just seaport towns) pay ship tax by this date (1st Mar 1628) |
| 70th | The Bank of England is nationalised. (1st Mar 1946) |
| -2nd | Former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, is suspended from the Labour Party indefinitely, amid claims of anti-semitism. (1st Mar 2018) |
| 94th | The British Civil Aviation Authority is established. (1st Mar 1922) |
| 133rd | District Line trains start calling at Hayes & Harlington station (1st Mar 1883) |
| 49th | The Queen Elizabeth Hall was opened in London. (1st Mar 1967) |
| 89th | An underground gas and coal dust explosion at Marine Colliery, Cwm, Monmouthshire, kills 52. (1st Mar 1927) |
| 98th | Imperial German Navy U-boat SM U-19 sinks HMS Calgarian off Rathlin Island, Ireland, with the loss of 49 lives. (1st Mar 1918) |
| 11th | The New Forest in Hampshire becomes England's twelfth national park. (1st Mar 2005) |
| 10th | The Senedd, debating chamber of the National Assembly for Wales on Cardiff Bay, designed by Richard Rogers is opened by the Queen. (1st Mar 2006) |
| -6th | 22 Russo-Ukrainian crisis: Following criticism of the response to Ukrainian refugees, Johnson extends the government's visa scheme to allow potentially 200,000 people to stay in the UK. (1st Mar 2022) |
| 299th | The Loves of Mars and Venus is the first ballet performed in England. (2nd Mar 1717) |
| 219th | The Bank of England issues the first one-pound and two-pound banknotes. (2nd Mar 1797) |
| 208th | The inaugural meeting of the Wernerian Natural History Society, a former Scottish learned society, is held in Edinburgh. (2nd Mar 1808) |
| 134th | Queen Victoria narrowly escapes an assassination attempt by Roderick McLean in Windsor. (2nd Mar 1882) |
| 6th | Jon Venables, one of the two boys (then aged 11) found guilty of murdering Merseyside toddler James Bulger in 1993, was recalled to prison after breaching terms of his life licence. Venables, at the time, 28, spent eight years in custody before being paroled along with Robert Thompson in 2001. (2nd Mar 2010) |
| 48th | coal mining in the Black Country, which played a big part in the Industrial Revolution, ends after some 300 years with the closure of Baggeridge Colliery near Sedgley. (2nd Mar 1968) |
| 11th | Microsoft founder Bill Gates receives an honorary knighthood for contributions to enterprise in the UK and efforts to reduce world poverty. (2nd Mar 2005) |
| 732nd | The Statute of Rhuddlan incorporates the Principality of Wales into England. (3rd Mar 1284) |
| 159th | Second Opium War: France and the United Kingdom declare war on China. (3rd Mar 1857) |
| 73rd | World War II: In London, England, 173 people are killed in a crush while trying to enter an air-raid shelter at Bethnal Green tube station. (3rd Mar 1943) |
| 43rd | Two IRA bombs exploded in London, killing one person and injuring 250 others. Ten people were arrested hours later at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of being involved in the bombings. (3rd Mar 1973) |
| 1st | Disgraced entertainer Rolf Harris is stripped of his British honours. (3rd Mar 2015) |
| 4th | A meteor is seen over most of the United Kingdom at about 21:40 GMT. (3rd Mar 2012) |
| -6th | 22 Russo-Ukrainian crisis: Russia Today is removed from all broadcast platforms in the UK as part of a Europe-wide crackdown on Russian propaganda. (3rd Mar 2022) |
| -6th | 22 Russo-Ukrainian crisis: The UK announces sanctions against two more Russian oligarchs, Alisher Usmanov and Igor Shuvalov, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (3rd Mar 2022) |
| -5th | Murder of Sarah Everard: a London woman is kidnapped, raped and strangled by a police officer. (3rd Mar 2021) |
| -5th | Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak delivers his first budget since the pandemic began in which he commits an extra £65bn to "protect the jobs and livelihoods of the British people", including an extension to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme until the end of September, but warns that future tax increases are needed to stop "irresponsible" mounting debt as it is confirmed government borrowing is expected to reach a peacetime record of £335bn in 2021. (3rd Mar 2021) |
| 555th | Wars of the Roses in England: Lancastrian King Henry VI is deposed by his Yorkist cousin, who then becomes King Edward IV. (4th Mar 1461) |
| 351st | King Charles II declares war on the Netherlands marking the start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. (4th Mar 1665) |
| 341st | John Flamsteed is appointed the first Astronomer Royal of England. (4th Mar 1675) |
| 134th | Britain's first electric trams run in east London. (4th Mar 1882) |
| 126th | The longest bridge in Great Britain, the Forth Rail Bridge in Scotland, measuring 1,710 feet (520 m) long, is opened by the Prince of Wales, who later becomes King Edward VII. (4th Mar 1890) |
| 40th | The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention is formally dissolved in Northern Ireland resulting in direct rule of Northern Ireland from London by the British parliament. (4th Mar 1976) |
| -2nd | Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia are poisoned with a publicly unidentified nerve agent in Salisbury. They are brought to hospital in critical condition, along with a police officer who was first on the scene. Counter-terrorism police investigate amid speculation the Kremlin was behind the incident. (4th Mar 2018) |
| 42nd | Ted Heath failed to convince the Liberals to form a coalition and announced his resignation as prime minister, paving the way for Harold Wilson to become prime minister for the second time as Labour formed a minority government. (4th Mar 1974) |
| 1st | The stepbrother of sixteen-year-old Becky Watts, a schoolgirl reported missing two weeks previously, is charged with her murder after body parts are found at a house in Barton Hill, Bristol. (4th Mar 2015) |
| 41st | Actor Charlie Chaplin, 85, was knighted by the Queen. (4th Mar 1975) |
| 69th | Treaty of Dunkirk (coming into effect 8 September) signed with France providing for mutual assistance in the event of attack. (4th Mar 1947) |
| 73rd | "Exercise Spartan", a major rehearsal for next year's Allied Invasion of Normandy, is staged across southern England. (4th Mar 1943) |
| -6th | 22 Russo-Ukrainian crisis: Two large tankers containing Russian gas, the Boris Vilkitsky and Fedor Litke, are prevented from unloading their cargos at the Grain LNG Terminal in Kent and are forced to go elsewhere. Similar action is undertaken by dockworkers at a Merseyside refinery who refuse to unload Russian oil. (4th Mar 2022) |
| -5th | Amazon launches its first cashierless grocery store in the UK, which uses camera vision and sensors to automate the shopping process. (4th Mar 2021) |
| 520th | King Henry VII of England issues letters patent to John Cabot and his sons, authorising them to explore unknown lands. (5th Mar 1496) |
| 192nd | First Burmese War: The British officially declare war on Burma. (5th Mar 1824) |
| 166th | The Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait between the Isle of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales is opened. (5th Mar 1850) |
| 73rd | First flight of Gloster Meteor jet aircraft in the United Kingdom. (5th Mar 1943) |
| 70th | Winston Churchill uses the phrase "Iron Curtain" in his speech at Westminster College, Missouri. (5th Mar 1946) |
| -2nd | The sale of energy drinks to under-sixteens is banned by most UK supermarkets due to high levels of sugar and caffeine. (5th Mar 2018) |
| 49th | Polly Toynbee reveals the existence of the "Harry" letters that allege the secret funding of Amnesty International by the British government. (5th Mar 1967) |
| 7th | The Bank of England reduces the base interest rate to 0.5%, its lowest ever level. It also announces plans to begin quantitative easing by injecting £75 billion into the British economy. (5th Mar 2009) |
| -5th | A proposal to give NHS workers a 1% payrise is described by the government as "what is affordable" given the public finances, while unions and others strongly criticise the amount and call for strike action. (5th Mar 2021) |
| 89th | 1000 people a week die from an influenza epidemic. (6th Mar 1927) |
| 7th | Police launch an investigation after a protester throws green custard at the Business and Enterprise Secretary, Lord Mandleson, in protest at the government's decision to approve the construction of a third runway at Heathrow Airport. (6th Mar 2009) |
| 189th | Ellen Turner is abducted by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, a future politician in colonial New Zealand. (7th Mar 1827) |
| 3rd | Closure of Daw Mill colliery following a major fire, the last mine in the Warwickshire Coalfield. (7th Mar 2013) |
| 399th | Francis Bacon appointed Lord High Chancellor. (7th Mar 1617) |
| 10th | The President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, makes a state visit to the UK. (7th Mar 2006) |
| -5th | Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, appear in a TV interview with Oprah Winfrey, in which the Duchess reveals her suicidal thoughts, accusations of racism by an unnamed family member, and other concerns about the Royal Family. (7th Mar 2021) |
| 361st | John Casor becomes the first legally-recognized slave in England's North American colonies. (8th Mar 1655) |
| 314th | Anne Stuart, sister of Mary II, becomes Queen regnant of England, Scotland, and Ireland. (8th Mar 1702) |
| 38th | The first radio episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, is transmitted on BBC Radio 4. (8th Mar 1978) |
| 15th | The wreckage of Donald Campbell's speedboat Bluebird K7 is raised from the bottom of Coniston Water in Cumbria, 34 years after Campbell was killed in an attempt to break the world water speed record. (8th Mar 2001) |
| -5th | Millions of children return to school in England, after two months of distance education, as the first stage in easing the national lockdown. (8th Mar 2021) |
| -5th | The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) approves a gene therapy, Zolgensma, for babies with severe spinal muscular atrophy. At £1.79m, the drug is reportedly one of the most expensive to ever be granted use by the NHS. (8th Mar 2021) |
| 91st | Pink's War: The first Royal Air Force operation conducted independently of the British Army or Royal Navy begins. (9th Mar 1925) |
| 70th | Bolton Wanderers stadium disaster at Burnden Park, Bolton, England, 33 killed and hundreds injured (9th Mar 1946) |
| 177th | The Anti-Corn Law League is organised. (9th Mar 1839) |
| 1st | Thendara Satisfaction, an Irish setter who competed at this year's Crufts, dies after being supposedly poisoned at the Birmingham show. Organisers of the event say sabotage will not be tolerated, after rumours that various other dogs were also poisoned this year. (9th Mar 2015) |
| 387th | Charles I of England dissolves the Parliament, beginning the eleven-year period known as the Personal Rule. (10th Mar 1629) |
| 42nd | Ten miners died in a methane gas explosion at Golborne Colliery near Wigan, Lancashire. (10th Mar 1974) |
| 72nd | Lifting of prohibition on married women working as teachers. (10th Mar 1944) |
| 1st | TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson is suspended from Top Gear, one of the BBC's most popular and profitable shows, after a "fracas" with a producer. The remainder of the series will be scrapped, the BBC says. (10th Mar 2015) |
| 110th | Official opening of the Bakerloo Line on the London Underground (10th Mar 1906) |
| 51st | Goldie, a London Zoo golden eagle, is recaptured after 13 days of freedom. (10th Mar 1965) |
| 71st | Sixty-seven German prisoners of war tunnel their way out of Island Farm Camp 198 at Bridgend, the biggest escape attempt by German POWs in the UK during the War. (10th Mar 1945) |
| 199th | The Blanketeers march from Manchester to London. (10th Mar 1817) |
| -6th | 22 Russo-Ukrainian crisis: Billionaire Roman Abramovich and six other Russian oligarchs are sanctioned by the government over their links to the Kremlin. Chelsea F.C. is left unable to sell tickets for football games, unable to buy or sell players on the transfer market, and unable to operate its merchandise shop. (10th Mar 2022) |
| -5th | The government commissions a feasibility study for a bridge or tunnel connection between Scotland and Northern Ireland. (10th Mar 2021) |
| -5th | Police searching for a missing 33-year-old woman, Sarah Everard, discover human remains in Kent woodland. A serving Met Police officer is arrested on suspicion of her kidnap and murder. Two days later, police confirm the body is that of Ms Everard. (10th Mar 2021) |
| 314th | The Daily Courant, England's first national daily newspaper is published for the first time. (11th Mar 1702) |
| 308th | Queen Anne withholds Royal Assent from the Scottish Militia Bill, the last time a British monarch vetoes legislation. (11th Mar 1708) |
| 152nd | The Great Sheffield Flood: The largest man-made disaster ever to befall England kills over 250 people in Sheffield. (11th Mar 1864) |
| 144th | Construction of the Seven Sisters Colliery, South Wales, begins; located on one of the richest coal sources in Britain. (11th Mar 1872) |
| 1st | The government announces the first NHS patients to be diagnosed through genome sequencing. (11th Mar 2015) |
| 5th | Light aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal (1981), flagship of the Royal Navy, was decommissioned, as part of the naval restructuring portion of the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review. (11th Mar 2011) |
| 14th | BBC 6 Music, the first new BBC Radio station in decades, is launched. (11th Mar 2002) |
| 11th | The Prevention of Terrorism Act receives the Royal Assent. This permits the Home Secretary to make control orders restricting the liberty of named individuals. (11th Mar 2005) |
| 9th | The Ariane 5 rocket carrying the new generation Skynet 5 military satellite system is launched successfully from Kourou in French Guiana at 22:03 GMT. (11th Mar 2007) |
| 148th | Henry O'Farrell attempts to assassinate Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh. (12th Mar 1868) |
| 135th | Andrew Watson makes his Scotland debut as the world's first black international football player and captain. (12th Mar 1881) |
| 66th | The Llandow air disaster occurs near Sigingstone, Wales, in which 80 people die when their aircraft crashed, making it the world's deadliest air disaster at the time. (12th Mar 1950) |
| 81st | Speed limit in built-up areas reduced to 30mph (12th Mar 1935) |
| 48th | Mauritius achieves independence from British Rule. (12th Mar 1968) |
| 235th | William Herschel discovers Uranus. (13th Mar 1781) |
| -2nd | Russian exile Nikolai Glushkov is found dead at his London home. Police launch a murder investigation three days later. (13th Mar 2018) |
| -3rd | Chancellor Philip Hammond says that gas heating for new houses will be banned by 2025, although gas hobs will still be allowed. (13th Mar 2019) |
| 10th | Six men taking part in a clinical trial for a new anti-inflammatory drug TGN1412 are placed in intensive care, some in a life-threatening condition, after suffering adverse side-effects. (13th Mar 2006) |
| -5th | Police are criticised for their heavy-handed approach at a vigil in south London to mourn Sarah Everard, during which four arrests are made. (13th Mar 2021) |
| 259th | Admiral Sir John Byng is executed by firing squad aboard HMS Monarch for breach of the Articles of War. (14th Mar 1757) |
| 131st | The Mikado a light opera by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, had its first public performance in London. (14th Mar 1885) |
| 74th | Orvan Hess and John Bumstead became the first in the world to successfully treat a patient, Anne Miller, using penicillin. (14th Mar 1942) |
| 71st | World War II - The R.A.F. first operational use of the Grand Slam bomb, Bielefeld, Germany. (14th Mar 1945) |
| 4th | It is announced that the towns of Chelmsford, Perth and St Asaph are being granted city status to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. (14th Mar 2012) |
| 69th | Thames flood and other widespread flooding as the exceptionally harsh winter ends in a thaw. (14th Mar 1947) |
| 9th | The government won the support of the House of Commons to update the Trident missile system. There was a significant revolt within the Labour Party with two PPSs Stephen Pound and Chris Ruane resigning. (14th Mar 2007) |
| 8th | Michael Donovan, 39, from Batley Carr, West Yorkshire, is arrested for the kidnap of the 9-year-old, Shannon Matthews. (14th Mar 2008) |
| -6th | The Criminal Bar Association (CBA) in England and Wales voted to undertake industrial action protesting against stagnant fees with 94 percent of criminal barristers in favour. (14th Mar 2022) |
| 344th | Charles II of England issues the Royal Declaration of Indulgence. (15th Mar 1672) |
| -2nd | The Space Industry Act 2018 becomes law, giving UK spaceports the legal framework to function. (15th Mar 2018) |
| 84th | First broadcast from the newly opened BBC Broadcasting House. (15th Mar 1932) |
| 204th | Luddites attack wool processing factory of Frank Vickerman in West Yorkshire. (15th Mar 1812) |
| 201st | Corn Laws passed by Parliament (15th Mar 1815) |
| 39th | British Leyland managers announce intention to dismiss 40,000 toolmakers who have gone on strike at the company's Longbridge plant in Birmingham, action which is costing the state-owned carmaker more than £10 million a week. (15th Mar 1977) |
| 149th | 'Conference of Trades' first meets; later forming the nucleus of the Trades Union Congress. (15th Mar 1867) |
| 826th | Massacre of Jews at Clifford's Tower, York. (16th Mar 1190) |
| 694th | The Battle of Boroughbridge took place in the Despenser Wars. (16th Mar 1322) |
| 356th | The Long Parliament dissolved. (16th Mar 1660) |
| 144th | The Wanderers F.C. won the first FA Cup, the oldest football competition in the world, beating Royal Engineers A.F.C. 1-0 at The Oval in Kennington, London. (16th Mar 1872) |
| 104th | Lawrence Oates, an ill member of Robert Falcon Scott's South Pole expedition, left the tent to die, saying: "I am just going outside and may be some time." (16th Mar 1912) |
| 76th | First person killed in a German bombing raid on the UK in World War II during a raid on Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, James Isbister. (16th Mar 1940) |
| 40th | British Prime Minister Harold Wilson resigned, citing personal reasons. (16th Mar 1976) |
| 679th | Edward, the Black Prince is made Duke of Cornwall, the first Duchy in England. (16th Mar 1337) |
| 149th | First publication of an article by Joseph Lister outlining the discovery of antiseptic surgery, in The Lancet. (16th Mar 1867) |
| -6th | Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, detained by Iran in 2016, is freed and allowed to return to the UK. (16th Mar 2022) |
| 37th | The Penmanshiel Tunnel collapses during engineering works, killing two workers. (17th Mar 1979) |
| 43rd | Elizabeth II opened the new London Bridge. (17th Mar 1973) |
| 399th | Sir Walter Ralegh leaves on a second expedition to the Orinoco River in search of El Dorado. (17th Mar 1617) |
| 48th | A demonstration in London's Grosvenor Square against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War leads to violence - 91 police injured, 200 demonstrators arrested. (17th Mar 1968) |
| 68th | Britain signs the Treaty of Brussels with Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. (17th Mar 1948) |
| 73rd | last church service in the village of Derwent, Derbyshire, before it is demolished (together with Ashopton) for construction of Ladybower Reservoir. (17th Mar 1943) |
| 248th | William Cookworthy of Plymouth is granted a patent for the manufacture of true porcelain. (17th Mar 1768) |
| 15th | Eden Project opens to the public near St Austell, Cornwall; conceived by Tim Smit with design by Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners. (17th Mar 2001) |
| 9th | The rebuilt Wembley Stadium opened to the public for the first time, more than six years after its predecessor was closed. (17th Mar 2007) |
| -6th | The Bank of England raises the interest rate from 0.5 to 0.75%, in a further bid to restrain inflation. (17th Mar 2022) |
| -6th | P&O Ferries abruptly suspends its services and makes 800 employees redundant in a video call, saying they are to be replaced by cheaper agency staff. The move prompts outrage from trade unions, as well as MPs on both sides of the House, as the government announces it will review its contracts with the company. (17th Mar 2022) |
| 250th | The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act. (18th Mar 1766) |
| 182nd | Six farm labourers from Tolpuddle, Dorset, England are sentenced to be transported to Australia for forming a trade union. (18th Mar 1834) |
| 49th | The supertanker Torrey Canyon runs aground off the Cornish coast. (18th Mar 1967) |
| 227th | Catherine Murphy, a counterfeiter, becomes the last woman in Britain to suffer a sentence of death by burning. (18th Mar 1789) |
| 3rd | The final BBC news bulletins are transmitted from Television Centre, after 43 years of occupying the building, as the corporation moves its entire news operation to Broadcasting House in central London. (18th Mar 2013) |
| -3rd | The Speaker, John Bercow, quoting a parliamentary rule dating back to 1604, declares that a third "meaningful vote" on the Brexit deal cannot proceed unless it contains substantial changes. Ministers warn of a "constitutional crisis", with just eleven days until the UK is due to leave the EU. (18th Mar 2019) |
| 15th | Claire Marsh (aged 18) becomes the youngest woman in Britain to be convicted of rape after pinning down a woman who was raped by a pair of teenagers in west London. She is sentenced to seven years in prison, while her accomplices (aged 15 and 18) are jailed for five years. (18th Mar 2001) |
| 7th | Sean Hodgson, who has served 27 years in prison since being convicted of murder in 1982, is acquitted at the Court of Appeal in London. (18th Mar 2009) |
| 95th | One of the biggest engagements of the war takes place at Crossbarry, County Cork. About 100 Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteers escape an attempt by over 1,300 British forces to encircle them. (19th Mar 1921) |
| 47th | The 385 metres (1,263 ft) tall TV-mast at Emley Moor, United Kingdom, collapses due to ice build-up. (19th Mar 1969) |
| -2nd | Channel 4 airs a documentary about Cambridge Analytica, the data analysis company that worked on the successful Leave.EU campaign advocating British withdrawal from the EU, and for Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. Undercover reporters, talking to executives from the firm, discover the use of bribes, honey traps, fake news campaigns and operations with ex-spies to swing election campaigns around the world. An emergency court order is requested to raid the Cambridge Analytica offices. (19th Mar 2018) |
| 104th | Minimum wage introduced for miners after strike threats. (19th Mar 1912) |
| 52nd | The government announces plans to build three new towns in South East England to act as overspill for overpopulated London. One of these is centred around the village of Milton Keynes in north Buckinghamshire (19th Mar 1964) |
| 5th | Operation Unified Protector: British, French and American military initiated air strikes in Libya following United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973. (19th Mar 2011) |
| 39th | The last Rover P6 rolls off the production line after 14 years. (19th Mar 1977) |
| 58th | official opening by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh of the London Planetarium, the first planetarium in Britain. (19th Mar 1958) |
| 400th | Sir Walter Raleigh is freed from the Tower of London after 13 years of imprisonment. (20th Mar 1616) |
| 42nd | Ian Ball attempts, but fails, to kidnap Her Royal Highness Princess Anne and her husband Captain Mark Phillips in The Mall, outside Buckingham Palace, London. (20th Mar 1974) |
| -1st | The Government announces that it will invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty on 29 March. (20th Mar 2017) |
| 102nd | British Army officers stationed at the Curragh Camp in Ireland resign their commissions rather than be ordered to resist action by Unionist Ulster Volunteers if the Irish Home Rule Bill is passed. The government backs down and they are reinstated. (20th Mar 1914) |
| 603rd | Henry V becomes King of England. (21st Mar 1413) |
| 460th | In Oxford, Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer is burned at the stake. (21st Mar 1556) |
| 59th | Homicide Act amends the common law offence of murder in English law by introducing the partial defences of diminished responsibility and suicide pact, reforming the partial defence of provocation, and largely abolishing the doctrine of constructive malice; it also restricted the application of the death penalty. (21st Mar 1957) |
| 6th | The Times newspaper exposes a number of Labour Party politicians offering to use their positions to lobby for fictitious businesses in the 2010 cash for influence scandal. (21st Mar 2010) |
| 12th | Architect Zaha Hadid becomes the first female recipient of the Pritzker Prize. (21st Mar 2004) |
| -6th | COVID-19 vaccination in the UK: A spring booster program begins in England, offering a fourth vaccine dose for over 75s and the most vulnerable. (21st Mar 2022) |
| -6th | At the Old Bailey, the trial begins of Ali Harbi Ali, 26, accused of murdering Conservative MP Sir David Amess in October 2021. (21st Mar 2022) |
| -6th | Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe holds her first press conference, with husband Richard Ratcliffe and their MP, Tulip Siddiq, at Westminster. Siddiq calls for an inquiry by the foreign affairs committee into why her release took so long. (21st Mar 2022) |
| -5th | Demonstrators attack police in Bristol during "Kill the Bill" protests against the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. (21st Mar 2021) |
| -5th | Census 2021 is conducted in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The population of England and Wales is recorded as 59,597,300, a rise of 6.3% over the previous decade. (21st Mar 2021) |
| 251st | The British Parliament passes the Stamp Act that introduces a tax to be levied directly on its American colonies. (22nd Mar 1765) |
| 128th | In England, The Football League, the world's oldest professional Association Football league, is founded. (22nd Mar 1888) |
| 62nd | Closed since 1939, the London bullion market reopens. (22nd Mar 1954) |
| -1st | Four people die and at least forty others are injured in what is treated as a terrorist attack in London, when a car driver, later identified as Khalid Masood, ploughs through pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before stabbing PC Keith Palmer to death at the Palace of Westminster. Police later shoot Masood dead. In response, the Houses of Parliament are placed in lockdown for four hours, as is the London Eye and Whitehall, and the devolved Scottish Parliament suspends a debate on a second Scottish independence referendum. (22nd Mar 2017) |
| 251st | Parliament passes the Stamp Act which is the first direct tax levied on the American colonies. (22nd Mar 1765) |
| 14th | A woman known as "Miss B", who was left quadriplegic last year as a result of a burst blood vessel in her neck, is granted the right to die by the High Court. (22nd Mar 2002) |
| 7th | Jade Goody, the reality TV star, dies at her home in Essex after a seven-month battle against cancer. (22nd Mar 2009) |
| -5th | An independent inquiry finds that Nicola Sturgeon did not mislead Scottish Parliament over her involvement in the Alex Salmond scandal, and she is cleared of breaching the ministerial code. (22nd Mar 2021) |
| 308th | James Francis Edward Stuart lands at the Firth of Forth. (23rd Mar 1708) |
| 3rd | A blizzard which brings the heaviest March snow for 50+ years hits the north of England. (23rd Mar 2013) |
| 98th | in London at the Wood Green Empire, Chung Ling Soo (William E Robinson, US-born magician) dies during his trick where he was supposed to "catch" two separate bullets - one of them perforates his lung. He dies the following morning in hospital. (23rd Mar 1918) |
| -3rd | Hundreds of thousands of protesters flock to London for the second People's Vote march, asking the UK Government for a second referendum on leaving the EU and to permanently revoke Article 50. (23rd Mar 2019) |
| 10th | 2005-2006 Christian Peacemaker hostage crisis: British peacemaker, Norman Kember, and three Canadians rescued by SAS troops. (23rd Mar 2006) |
| 9th | Fifteen Royal Navy servicemen operating in disputed waters were seized by Iranian authorities after inspecting a ship suspected of smuggling. (23rd Mar 2007) |
| -6th | Inflation rises again, up from 5.5% the previous month to 6.2%. (23rd Mar 2022) |
| -5th | COVID-19 in the UK: A minute's silence is held across the UK to remember the 126,172 people who have died from the virus since the beginning of lockdown exactly a year ago. (23rd Mar 2021) |
| 413th | James VI of Scotland also becomes James I of England. (24th Mar 1603) |
| 309th | The Acts of Union 1707 is signed, officially uniting the Kingdoms of England and Scotland to create the Kingdom of Great Britain. (24th Mar 1707) |
| 285th | Naturalization of Hieronimus de Salis Parliamentary Act is passed. (24th Mar 1731) |
| 251st | The UK passes the Quartering Act that requires the Thirteen Colonies to house British troops. (24th Mar 1765) |
| 138th | The British frigate HMS Eurydice sinks, killing more than 300. (24th Mar 1878) |
| 44th | The United Kingdom imposes direct rule over Northern Ireland. (24th Mar 1972) |
| 63rd | The 10 Rillington Place murders are uncovered. (24th Mar 1953) |
| 1st | UK inflation fell to zero percent in February, the lowest level since records began, according to official figures. (24th Mar 2015) |
| 58th | work on the M1, Britain's first full length motorway, begins. The first stretch of the motorway, due to open next year, will run from London to the Warwickshire-Northamptonshire border. During the 1960s, the remainder of the motorway will be built to give London an unbroken motorway link with Leeds some 200 miles away. (24th Mar 1958) |
| 11th | The Constitutional Reform Act receives Royal Assent. This provides for the creation of a Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. (24th Mar 2005) |
| -6th | The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 is repealed after the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act receives royal assent, meaning that the Prime Minister will again be able to request the monarch to dissolve Parliament and call an early election, with 25 working days' notice. (24th Mar 2022) |
| 173rd | Marc Isambard Brunel's Thames Tunnel, the first tunnel under the River Thames, is opened. (25th Mar 1843) |
| 817th | Richard I is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting France, leading to his death on April 6. (25th Mar 1199) |
| 710th | Robert the Bruce becomes King of Scotland. (25th Mar 1306) |
| 432nd | Sir Walter Raleigh is granted a patent to colonize Virginia. (25th Mar 1584) |
| 214th | The Treaty of Amiens is signed as a "Definitive Treaty of Peace" between France and the United Kingdom. (25th Mar 1802) |
| 209th | The Slave Trade Act becomes law, abolishing the slave trade in the British Empire. (25th Mar 1807) |
| 209th | The Swansea and Mumbles Railway, then known as the Oystermouth Railway, becomes the first passenger carrying railway in the world. (25th Mar 1807) |
| 205th | Percy Bysshe Shelley is expelled from the University of Oxford for publishing the pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism. (25th Mar 1811) |
| -2nd | The first scheduled direct flight from Australia to the UK. Qantas Flight QF9 from Perth lands at London's Heathrow Airport after a seventeen-hour flight and 9,009 miles in the air. (25th Mar 2018) |
| 41st | A large National Front rally in London protested against European integration. (25th Mar 1975) |
| -5th | COVID-19 in the UK: MPs vote by 484 to 76 to extend emergency COVID-19 powers for another six months. (25th Mar 2021) |
| -5th | Demonstrations take place outside Batley Grammar School after a cartoon of Muhammad is shown in class during a discussion about press freedom and religious extremism. (25th Mar 2021) |
| 532nd | William Caxton prints his translation of Aesop's Fables. (26th Mar 1484) |
| 177th | The first Henley Royal Regatta is held. (26th Mar 1839) |
| 99th | World War I: First Battle of Gaza - British troops are halted after 17,000 Turks block their advance. (26th Mar 1917) |
| 82nd | The driving test is introduced in the United Kingdom. (26th Mar 1934) |
| 40th | Queen Elizabeth II sends the first royal email, from the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment. (26th Mar 1976) |
| 44th | The UK's last trolleybus system, in Bradford, closes. (26th Mar 1972) |
| 43rd | Women were admitted into the London Stock Exchange for the first time. (26th Mar 1973) |
| 1st | Order of succession to the British throne changed to absolute primogeniture. (26th Mar 2015) |
| 11th | Doctor Who is revived as a TV series by the BBC, having been discontinued in December 1989, starring former Cracker actor Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and pop star Billie Piper as his assistant Rose Tyler. (26th Mar 2005) |
| 710th | Robert the Bruce is crowned King of Scotland at Scone. (27th Mar 1306) |
| 391st | Charles I becomes King of England, Scotland and Ireland as well as claiming the title King of France. (27th Mar 1625) |
| 234th | Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham becomes Prime Minister of the UK (27th Mar 1782) |
| 162nd | Crimean War: The United Kingdom declares war on Russia. (27th Mar 1854) |
| 145th | The first international rugby football match, England v. Scotland, is played in Edinburgh at Raeburn Place. (27th Mar 1871) |
| 135th | Rioting takes place in Basingstoke in protest against the daily vociferous promotion of rigid Temperance by the Salvation Army. (27th Mar 1881) |
| 53rd | Beeching Axe: Dr. Richard Beeching issues a report calling for huge cuts to the United Kingdom's rail network. (27th Mar 1963) |
| 303rd | First Treaty of Utrecht between Britain and Spain. Spain cedes Gibraltar and Minorca. (27th Mar 1713) |
| 109th | Marylebone station on the London Underground's Bakerloo Line opens. (27th Mar 1907) |
| 71st | The last V-2 rocket attack on the UK takes place, with one fatality, in Orpington. (27th Mar 1945) |
| 73rd | Royal Navy escort carrier HMS Dasher (D37) is destroyed by an accidental explosion in the Firth of Clyde, killing 379 of the crew of 528. (27th Mar 1943) |
| -5th | COVID-19 in the UK: The death toll from the virus exceeds 150,000. (27th Mar 2021) |
| 37th | The British House of Commons passes a vote of no confidence against James Callaghan's government, precipitating a general election. (28th Mar 1979) |
| -1st | The new twelve-sided £1 coin is released. (28th Mar 2017) |
| 103rd | The Morris Oxford 2-seater car goes on sale. (28th Mar 1913) |
| 52nd | Pirate radio station Radio Caroline begins broadcasting. (28th Mar 1964) |
| 91st | Last motor race on public roads in the UK. (28th Mar 1925) |
| 99th | The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps founded. (28th Mar 1917) |
| 10th | Royal Regiment of Scotland created. (28th Mar 2006) |
| 8th | London Heathrow Terminal 5 opened at Heathrow Airport to British Airways with many problems with the IT system, coupled with insufficient testing and staff training, which caused over 500 flights to be cancelled. (28th Mar 2008) |
| 555th | Wars of the Roses: Battle of Towton - Edward of York defeats Queen Margaret to become King Edward IV of England. (29th Mar 1461) |
| 167th | The UK annexes the Punjab. (29th Mar 1849) |
| 149th | Queen Victoria gives Royal Assent to the British North America Act which establishes the Dominion of Canada on July 1. (29th Mar 1867) |
| 145th | The Royal Albert Hall is opened by Queen Victoria. (29th Mar 1871) |
| 74th | The Bombing of Lübeck in World War II is the first major success for the RAF Bomber Command against Germany and a German city. (29th Mar 1942) |
| 71st | World War II: Last day of V-1 flying bomb attacks on England. (29th Mar 1945) |
| -1st | The United Kingdom invokes Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, beginning the formal EU withdrawal process. (29th Mar 2017) |
| 42nd | The government re-established direct rule over Northern Ireland after declaring a state of emergency. (29th Mar 1974) |
| 152nd | Britain voluntarily cedes control of the United States of the Ionian Islands to the Kingdom of Greece with effect from 2 May. (29th Mar 1864) |
| 2nd | The first gay weddings take place in England and Wales following a change in the law in 2013 allowing same-sex marriage. (29th Mar 2014) |
| 61st | Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen calls a strike which continues until 14 June, leading to a state of emergency being declared on 31 May. (29th Mar 1955) |
| 71st | The last V-1 flying bomb attack on the UK takes place. The last enemy action of any kind on British soil occurs when one strikes Datchworth in Hertfordshire. (29th Mar 1945) |
| 14th | Coal mining in Scotland, which has a history stretching back more than 800 years, comes to an end with the closure of Longannet coal mine in Fife after it floods and the owners go into liquidation, putting more than 500 people out of work. (29th Mar 2002) |
| 7th | It emerges that Home Secretary Jacqui Smith submitted an expenses claim for a TV package which included pornographic films watched by her husband. (29th Mar 2009) |
| -6th | Partygate: The Met Police announces that 20 fixed penalty notices will be issued as part of the inquiry into Downing Street parties that allegedly breached Covid rules, but declines to say who the notices are being sent to or which events they relate. (29th Mar 2022) |
| -5th | Tokamak Energy announces first plasma with its newly upgraded prototype fusion reactor, the ST40. (29th Mar 2021) |
| 720th | Edward I sacks Berwick-upon-Tweed, during armed conflict between Scotland and England. (30th Mar 1296) |
| 160th | The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Crimean War. (30th Mar 1856) |
| 37th | Airey Neave, a British Member of Parliament, is killed by a car bomb as he leaves the Palace of Westminster. The Irish National Liberation Army claims responsibility. (30th Mar 1979) |
| 0th | British steel maker Tata Steel reports that it will sell off its British operations in a move to save money, leaving many thousands of jobs at risk, including those at the large Port Talbot steelworks in Wales. (30th Mar 2016) |
| 52nd | Violent disturbances between Mods and Rockers at Clacton beach. (30th Mar 1964) |
| 38th | Conservative Party recruit advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi to revamp their image. (30th Mar 1978) |
| 14th | Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, dies aged 101 at Royal Lodge, Windsor. (30th Mar 2002) |
| -6th | A report by maternity expert Donna Ockenden into practices at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust finds catastrophic failings that led to hundreds of baby and mother deaths over two decades. Health Secretary Sajid Javid tells the Commons that an active police investigation, Operation Lincoln, is looking at 600 cases. (30th Mar 2022) |
| -6th | Jamie Wallis comes out as the UK's first openly transgender MP. (30th Mar 2022) |
| -5th | 2021 Northern Ireland riots begin. (30th Mar 2021) |
| 299th | A sermon on "The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ" by Benjamin Hoadly, the Bishop of Bangor, provokes the Bangorian Controversy. (31st Mar 1717) |
| 131st | The United Kingdom establishes a protectorate over Bechuanaland. (31st Mar 1885) |
| 106th | Six North Staffordshire Pottery towns federate to form modern Stoke-on-Trent. (31st Mar 1910) |
| 37th | The last British soldier leaves the Maltese Islands. Malta declares its Freedom Day (Jum il-Helsien). (31st Mar 1979) |
| 77th | Britain pledges support to Poland in the event of an invasion. (31st Mar 1939) |
| 5th | HMS Caroline (1914) was decommissioned in Belfast. (31st Mar 2011) |
| 49th | At the London Astoria, Jimi Hendrix set fire to his guitar on stage for the first time. He was taken to hospital suffering burns to his hands. (31st Mar 1967) |
| -6th | COVID-19 in the UK: The provision of free lateral flow tests comes to an end in England. (31st Mar 2022) |
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