George Edward Thornton

Male 1900 - 1913  (12 years)

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Timeline



 
 
 




   Date  Event(s)
1899 
  • 11 Oct 1899—31 May 1902:
    SA - The Second Anglo-Boer War.
1900 
  • 1900—1900:
    School leaving age in Britain raised to 14 years
  • 1900—1900:
    Central Line opens in London: underground is electrified
  • 1900—1900:
    Escalator shown at Paris exhibition
  • 6 Jan 1900—1900:
    SA - Boers attack Ladysmith.
  • 23 Jan 1900—24 Jan 1900:
    SA - Battle of Spion Kop.
  • 5 Feb 1900—1900:
    SA - Battle of Vaal Krantz.
  • 9 Feb 1900—9 Feb 1900:
    Davis Cup tennis competition established
  • 15 Feb 1900—1900:
    SA - Relief of Kimberley.
  • 27 Feb 1900—27 Feb 1900:
    Labour Party formed
  • 28 Feb 1900—1900:
    SA - Ladysmith relieved.
  • 7 Mar 1900—1900:
    SA - Battle of Poplar Grove.
  • 13 Mar 1900—1900:
    SA - Bloemfontein captured.
  • 11 Jun 1900—1900:
    SA - Battle of Diamond Hill. Burning of farms (scorched earth) policy authorised in July / August. Amalgamation of Union and Castle Steamship Lines.
1901 
  • 1901—1901:
    Commonwealth of Australia founded
  • 1901—1901:
    Hubert Cecil Booth patents the vacuum cleaner
  • 1901—1901:
    SA - Bubonic plague in Cape Town.
  • 1901—1902:
    SA - 200 teachers arrive from England to teach in the British concentration camps, followed by 100 teachers from Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
  • 22 Jan 1901—22 Jan 1901:
    Queen Victoria dies - Edward VII king
  • 2 Feb 1901—2 Feb 1901:
    Queen Victoria's funeral - interred beside Prince Albert in the Frogmore Mausoleum at Windsor Great Park
  • Jun 1901—Jun 1901:
    Denunciation of use of concentration camps by British in Boer War
  • 2 Oct 1901—2 Oct 1901:
    Britain's first submarine launched
  • 12 Dec 1901—12 Dec 1901:
    First successful radio transmission across the Atlantic, by Marconi - Morse code from Cornwall to Newfoundland
1902 
  • 1902—1902:
    Balfour's Education Act provides for secondary education
  • 1902—1902:
    Cremation Act - cremation can only take place at officially recognised establishments, and with two death certificates issued
  • 1902—1902:
    Marie Curie discovers radioactivity
  • 31 Feb 1902—1902:
    SA - Peace of Vereeniging signed, ending Anglo-Boer War.
  • 24 May 1902—24 May 1902:
    Empire Day (later Commonwealth Day) first celebrated
  • 31 May 1902—31 May 1902:
    Treaty of Vereeniging ends Second Boer War
  • 9 Aug 1902—9 Aug 1902:
    Coronation of Edward VII
1903 
  • 1903—1903:
    Workers' Education Association (WEA) formed in Britain
  • 1903—1903:
    Women's Social and Political Union formed in Britain by Emmeline Pankhurst
  • 1903—1903:
    Henry Ford sets up his motor company
  • 14 Dec 1903—14 Dec 1903:
    First flight of Wilbur & Orville Wright
1904 
  • 1904—1904:
    Leeds University established
  • 1904—1904:
    SA - Chinese labourers recruited for the Transvaal mines.
  • 8 Apr 1904—8 Apr 1904:
    France and UK sign the Entente Cordiale
  • 4 May 1904—4 May 1904:
    America takes over construction of the Panama Canal from the French (completed 1914)
1905 
  • 1905—1905:
    The title 'Prime Minister' noted in a royal warrant for the first time - placed the Prime Minister in order of precedence in Britain immediately after the Archbishop of York
  • 1905—1905:
    Aliens Act in Britain: Home Office controls immigration
  • 1905—1905:
    Germany lays down the first Dreadnought battleship
  • 11 Apr 1905—11 Apr 1905:
    Einstein publishes Special Theory of Relativity
1906 
  • 1906—1906:
    Introduction of free school meals for poor children
  • 10 Feb 1906—10 Feb 1906:
    Launching of HMS Dreadnought, first turbine-driven battleship
  • 15 Mar 1906—15 Mar 1906:
    Rolls-Royce Ltd registered
  • 26 May 1906—26 May 1906:
    Vauxhall Bridge opened in London
  • 20 Sep 1906—20 Sep 1906:
    Launching of Cunard's RMS Mauretania on the Tyne
1907 
  • 1907—1907:
    New Zealand becomes a Dominion
  • 1907—1907:
    Imperial College, London, is established
  • 1907—1907:
    First airship flies over London
  • 1907—1907:
    Lumiere develops a process for colour photography
  • 1907—1907:
    SA - Asiatic Registration Act passed in Transvaal, Indians oppose it.
  • Jul 1907—Jul 1907:
    Leo Hendrik Baekeland patents Bakelite, the first plastic invented that held its shape after being heated
  • 1 Aug 1907—1 Aug 1907:
    Baden-Powell leads the first Scout camp on Brownsea Island
  • 9 Nov 1907—9 Nov 1907:
    The Cullinan Diamond presented to Edward VII on his birthday
10 1908 
  • 1908—1908:
    Coal Mines Regulation Act in Britain limits men to an eight hour day
  • 1908—1908:
    Separate courts for juveniles established in Britain
  • 1908—1908:
    Lord Baden-Powell starts the Boy Scout movement
  • 1908—1908:
    SA - Second Asiatic Registration Act passed in Transvaal, beginning of passive resistance campaigns.
  • 1 Jul 1908—1 Jul 1908:
    SOS became effective as an international signal of distress
  • 12 Aug 1908—12 Aug 1908:
    First 'Model T' Ford made
11 1909 
  • 1909—1909:
    Beveridge Report prompts creation of labour Exchanges
  • 1909—1909:
    Peary reaches the north pole
  • 1909—1909:
    First commercial manufacture of Bakelite - start of the plastic age
  • 1909—1909:
    SA - S.S. Waratah lost between Durban and Cape Town.
  • 1 Jan 1909—1 Jan 1909:
    Old Age Pensions Act came into force
  • 16 Jan 1909—16 Jan 1909:
    Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole
  • 15 Mar 1909—15 Mar 1909:
    Selfridges department store opens in London
  • 25 Jul 1909—25 Jul 1909:
    Bleriot flies across the Channel (36 minutes, Calais to Dover)
12 1910 
  • 1910—1910:
    Railway strike and coal strikes in Britain
  • 1910—1910:
    Constitutional crisis in Britain
  • 1910—1910:
    Dr Crippen caught by radio telegraphy; hanged 23 Nov at Pentonville
  • 1910—1910:
    Madame Curie isolates radium
  • 1910—1910:
    Halley's comet reappears
  • 1910—1910:
    Tango becomes popular in North America and Europe
  • 1910—1910:
    SA - Laying of foundation stone of Union Buildings in Pretoria.
  • 1910—1910:
    SA - Union of South Africa established
  • 6 May 1910—6 May 1910:
    Edward VII dies - George V becomes King
  • 31 May 1910—1910:
    SA - Union of South Africa established by joining the British colonies and the Boer republics
13 1911 
  • 1911—1911:
    Parliament Act in Britain reduces the power of the House of Lords
  • 1911—1911:
    British MPs receive a salary
  • 1911—1911:
    First British Official Secrets Act
  • 1911—1911:
    Rutherford: theory of atomic structures
  • 1911—1911:
    Strikes by seamen, dock and transport workers (1911-1912)
  • 2 Apr 1911—2 Apr 1911:
    Census: Population - England and Wales: 36 Million; Scotland: 4.6 Million; N Ireland: 1.25 Million
  • 17 May 1911—1911:
    SA - Census of population taken.
  • 22 Jun 1911—22 Jun 1911:
    Coronation of George V
  • 14 Dec 1911—14 Dec 1911:
    National Insurance introduced in Britain
14 1912 
  • 1912—1912:
    Irish Home Rule crisis grows in Britain
  • 1912—1912:
    Britain nationalises the telephone system
  • 1912—1912:
    Discovery of the 'Piltdown Man' - hoax, exposed in 1953
  • 1912—1912:
    The Titanic sinks
  • 18 Jan 1912—18 Jan 1912:
    Captain Scott's last expedition - he and his team reach the south pole on Jan 18th; all die on the way back, their bodies found in November
  • 14 Apr 1912—14 Apr 1912:
    The 'unsinkable' Titanic sinks on maiden voyage - loss of 1,513 lives
  • 13 May 1912—13 May 1912:
    Royal Flying Corps (later the RAF) founded in Britain
15 1913 
  • 1913—1913:
    Third Irish Home Rule Bill rejected by House of Lords - threat of civil war in Ireland - formation of Ulster Volunteers to oppose Home Rule
  • 1913—1913:
    Suffragette demonstrations in London - Mrs Pankhurst imprisoned
  • 1913—1913:
    Trade Union Act in Britain establishes the right to use Union funds for political purposes
  • 1913—1913:
    Invention of stainless steel by Harry Brearley of Sheffield
  • 1913—1913:
    Geiger invents his counter to measure radioactivity
  • 1913—1913:
    SA - Miners' strikes and riots on Witwatersrand. Indian riots in Natal. March of Natal Indians into Transvaal. Natives Land Act restricts black ownership of land.
  • 4 Jun 1913—4 Jun 1913:
    Emily Davison, a suffragette, runs out in front of the king's horse, Anmer, at the Epsom Derby and dies


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