5. Dates

BC

6000	Persian Gulf	Palaeolithic man is driven out of this originally fertile area by advancing heat, as in Adam’s Biblical expulsion from the Garden of Eden.
6000	Greece	Early evidence of trading.
5000	Crete	The Minoan civilisation begins.
4000	Babylon	Processional street is created in the city.
4000	Europe	Early glazed pottery appears.
3200	Ireland	Passage grave is constructed at Newgrange.
3000	Crete	Copper, silver and gold in use (Early Minoan period).
3000	England	First wooden building is erected at Stonehenge, complete with encircling ditch and bank.
2815	Egypt	The first pyramid, Zoser’s Step Pyramid, is constructed.
2800	Mesopotamia	The harp is being played.
2700	Gaza	The Great Pyramid is built.
2500	Egypt	Sailing boats are in use.
2500	Britain	Grimes Graves excavations are created in the process of flint mining.
2400	India	The Indus civilisation begins.
2300	Egypt	Nile river is linked to Lake Moeris by canal. The lake is used as water store and may have been known by Joseph during the famine of 1730 BC.
2170	Babylon	River Euphrates is diverted to allow building of a ‘cut and cover’ tunnel, over a mile long, which is to be used by the Queen. The river is eventually returned to its original course.
2200	England	Aubrey holes are created inside the mound of Stonehenge.
2000	Phoenicia	Trading begins.
2000	Crete	Middle Minoan civilisation appears at Knossos.
2000	England	Circles of blue stones are erected at Stonehenge.
2000	Britain	Limestone is burnt to provide quicklime.
1800	India	The Indus civilisation ends.
1800	England	Sarsen stones are added to Stonehenge, which are also ‘mauled’ and polished.
1750	Karnak	Work begins on the Temple of Amon.
1730	Egypt	Famine arrives with the Biblical times of Joseph
1650	China	The first dynasty is established.
1600	Crete	Late Minoan civilisation reaches its zenith at Knossos.
1500	Aegean	Volcanic eruption destroys much of island of Santorini, ancient Thera, and damages the Minoan civilisation.
1500	Europe	First glass vessels.
1480	Asia	Anubis shrine is built at Deir al Bahara, containing prototype Doric order.
1450	Crete	Minoan civilisation ends.
1400	Karnak	Temple of Amon Ra built using stone post and lintel construction.
1400	Aegean	Mycenean Greek rule begins.
1300	Mycenae	Treasury of Atreus is built with ornamental stonework, including ‘Egyptian’ water lily capitals.
1300	Egypt	First Suez canal is constructed.
1200	Middle East	The Iron Age begins.
1200	Aegean	Mycenean Greek rule ends.
1100	Europe	The Bronze Age culture collapses.
1085	Karnak	Temple of Amon is completed.
1000	Eyuk	The bagpipes are played by Hittites
800	Greece	Hellenic civilisation begins, with Ionians on west coast of Turkey and Dorians from the north.
776	Olympia	Olympic Games begin and are staged every four years.
753	Rome	The city is founded (traditional date).
703	Assyria	King Sennacherib builds a 30 mile irrigation canal into city of Ninevah, including the 863 foot long and 28 foot high Jerwan aqueduct, which is lined with concrete.
700	Lydia	Money is issued in the form of coins.
690	Jerusalem	King Hezekiah builds 1,750 foot tunnel into pool of Siloam in the city, fed from the Gihon spring.
687	Samos	Greeks construct water conduits in the form of tunnels.
630	Thermon	Temple of Apollo is built with a tiled roof and a Doric Order: it faces east with the sacrificial altar in front, the priest standing with his back to building whilst the public are kept outside.
600	Italy	The Greeks begin to build their Doric temples at Paestum.
600	Germany	Hallstatt culture appears.
580	Samos	Pythagoras is born: he later used square and cubic numbers, helped Buddha found his religion, and may have created multiplication tables.
551	China	Confucius is born.
550	Britain	Hill forts begin to appear.
550	Ephesus	The Temple of Diana is built in Ionic style.
530	Italy	Pythagoras discovers that octaves (do-do) and fifths (doh-sah) are produced by stopping a string at half and two-thirds length respectively, hence ‘harmonic mean’ and ‘harmonic progression’.
529	Italy	Pythagoras establishes his school at Crotona.
513	Delphi	Temple of Apollo is built, complete with marble facing.
509	Rome	The Etruscans are expelled.
500	Europe	La Téne culture appears.
500	Greece	Classical architecture arrives, which is based on ‘three stones’ (trilithon) of Stonehenge, using columns formed of ‘drums’ joined with bronze dowels set in molten lead, without using mortar.
480	Italy	The Doric temples at Paestum are complete.
480	Athens	An eighty year building programme starts at the Acropolis with the Parthenon, Propylaea and Erechtheon. The Parthenon has a convex stylobate and entablature, with entasis in the columns, which lean inward with axes meeting 1¹⁄2 miles above.
466	Miletus	The city is built on a rectangular grid.
460	Greece	Democritus is born: he later develops the theory of the ‘a - tom’, meaning ‘not divisible’.
429	Bassae	Work starts on Temple of Apollo, with early Corinthian capitals: it’s completed in 400 BC.
406	Greece	Athens is defeated in the Peloponnesian War.
400	Asia	Alexander the Great begins construction of the Babylonia, Thessaly and Crimea canals.
384	Greece	Aristotle is born: he becomes pupil of Plato, proposing ‘elements’ of Earth, Air, Fire and Water.
347	Greece	Plato is dead.
342	Greece	Aristotle tutors Alexander the Great.
335	Greece	Aristotle establishes his own school known as the Lyceum.
334	Persia	Alexander the Great conquers Persia.
323	Babylon	Alexander the Great is dead.
322	Greece	Aristotle dies.
312	Rome	The Via Appia, the first Roman trunk road, is constructed.
312	Rome	The Aqua Appia, the earliest known Roman aqueduct, is built.
306	Greece	The Hellenistic kingdoms are established.
287	Syracuse	Archimedes is born: he later discovers the archimedean screw, which is then used for irrigation.
246	China	The 200-mile Chengkuo canal is opened.
221	China	The country is unified and the first Emperor installed.
212	Syracuse	Archimedes is killed in a siege.
202	Roman Empire	Rome wins Second Punic War with Carthage.
200	Europe	Fortified towns, usually on hills and known as oppida, are created.
200	Roman Empire	Roman classical architecture is established, using lime mortar and mass concrete.
200	Priene	The Council Chamber is constructed: it’s lit by a semicircular window in the form of an early arch.
200	Pergamum	The Altar of Pergamum, known as the ‘seat of Satan’ in Revelation 2:13, is created.
200	Roman Empire	First Pompeiian Style appears, using painted architectural motifs and marble veneers.
170	Miletus	The Bouleuterion is built, containing engaged orders and numerous windows.
170	Alexandria	Ctesibius invents the pneumatic wind gun.
168	Macedonia	The Romans conquer Macedonia.
151	Carthage	The Romans conquer Carthage.
148	Greece	The Romans conquer Greece.
146	Corinth	Corinth is sacked by the Romans.
145	Rome	The Aqua Marcia, the longest Roman aqueduct is built. It’s 50 miles long, with another 57 miles underground, arriving in the city on top of an arcade. On completion of all Rome’s aqueducts there were two arcades, one carrying three aqueducts, the other two. Water was used continuously, otherwise it was used for for cleaning the streets.
133	Pergamum	The Romans conquer Pergamum.
105	Roman Empire	The Romans discover ‘hydraulic cement’ that sets under water.
100	England	Lindow Man dies, apparently as druidic human sacrifice.
100	Pergamum	35-mile water supply completed using 7-inch clay pipes, with two inverted siphons across valleys.
99	Turkey	Water mill is in operation using an undershot wheel.
90	Roman Empire	First Pompeiian Style ends.
80	Roman Empire	Second Pompeiian Style appears, with columns and painted illusions of colonnades.
64	Syria	The Romans conquer Syria.
42	Philippi	Brutus and Cassius are killed by Augustus in the Battle of Philippi.
31	Roman Empire	Anthony and Cleopatra are defeated by Augustus.
30	Egypt	The Romans conquer Egypt.
30	Britain	Romans build the Carr Dyke navigation from corn lands of Cambridgeshire to Lincoln.
15	Roman Empire	Second Pompeiian Style ends.

4	Bethlehem	Christ is born.
6	Rome	Temple of Castor and Pollux is built using standardised Corinthian columns.
30	Jerusalem	Christ is crucified.
40	Rome	Romans build 3¹⁄2-mile overflow tunnel through mountain from Lake Celane to the river.
43	England	Roman troops invade and occupy the country.
43	England	‘Roof’ houses, constructed of tree branches and turf, are in common use.
60	England	Boudicca revolts against the Romans.
63	Rome	Saint Paul is dead.
64	Rome	Rome burns.
66	Israel	Jews rebel against Rome.
68	Rome	Golden House is built for Nero, containing an octagonal room of brick-faced concrete lit by an oculus in the domed ceiling, with surrounding rectangular rooms having top lights. This building is the origin of the ‘grotto’ and ‘grotesque’ in Renaissance architecture.
68	Rome	Nero is dead.
70	Jerusalem	Romans destroy the Temple and the Jews are dispersed.
79	Italy	Vesuvius erupts, destroying Pompeii and Herculaneum.
79	Rome	Forum of Vespasian is built, celebrating the Roman capture of Jerusalem. It contains the Ark of the Covenant and the Seven-branched Candlestick.
99	Tivoli	Temple of Vesta is complete.
80	Rome	Colosseum is constructed, using round arches, three orders, and brick-faced cast concrete sub-structure.
81	Rome	Arch of Titus is built, the first to have Composite capitals.
86	Athens	The city is sacked by the Romans.
98	Egypt	Trajan reopens the Egyptian canal linking the Mediterranean Sea near Port Said to Lake Timsah, the Bitter Lakes and the Red Sea.
99	France	The Pont du Gard, a 25-mile aqueduct built to convey water into Nîmes is complete. It crosses the river Gardon on a single arch that’s 49 metres high.
99	Rome	Translation of the New Testament from ‘simple Greek’ to Latin is complete.
100	Roman Empire	The term ‘New Testament’ is in use and many apocryphal books begin to appear.
105	China	Paper is manufactured.
127	England	Hadrian’s Wall is built of concrete faced with stone.
128	Rome	The Pantheon is built, with a 142 foot dome, equal in height and width, with an oculus at the top and 20 foot thick walls.
134	Tivoli	Hadrian’s villa is complete.
199	Spain	The Segovia aqueduct, consisting of 128 arches, 30 metres high, is complete. It’s still used for town water supply today (1986).
212	Roman Empire	Edict of Caracalla gives Roman citizenship to all free people of Europe.
300	Roman Empire	The Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament, is complete.
306	Yugoslavia	Diocletian’s Palace is built at Split: an early instance of where arches spring from capitals and the architrave is bent to form an arch.
313	Roman Empire	Constantine’s Edict of Toleration is declared, in which Christianity is legalised.
313	Rome	The Lateran Basilica is built of brick-faced concrete.
316	Rome	Constantine becomes Emperor: the ‘divine viceroy’.
320	Egypt	Pachom’s monastic community is established and the monastic habit is worn.
324	Roman Empire	Constantine reunifies the Empire.
325	Roman Empire	First Ecumenical Council upholds the doctrine of Arios, in which the Son is said to be un-created but subordinate to the Father, and adopts the Creed.
330	Byzantium	Also known as Constantinople or Istanbul, this city is made the new capital of the Empire.
333	Rome	The Shrine of the Martyred Apostle is created at St Peter’s.
340	Rome	The Church of Saint Costanza is built, containing a domed space and a circular passage, indicating the first signs of the new Byzantine style.
387	Egypt	5,000 monks are established at the Pavou community.
392	Rome	Emperor Theodosius overthrows the pagans.
394	Olympia	The last Olympic Games takes place.
402	Ravenna	This city becomes the new capital of the Western Empire.
407	Roman Empire	The Empire withdraws to Italy.
432	Ireland	Saint Patrick begins his mission.
439	Africa	Carthage falls to the Vandals.
450	Roman Empire	The Empire is rapidly declining.
455	Rome	The city falls to Vandals coming from Africa and the south.
456	Italy	The country is conquered by Ostrogothics from the north.
460	Rome	The Virgin Mary is elevated by the Church.
500	England	Cruck timber frame houses appear and continue to be constructed until 1600.
500	Roman Empire	The use of church icons increases.
525	Rome	Dionysios invents the ‘AD’ system of dating, but it isn’t adopted by the Greeks.
526	Byzantine Empire	Theodoric dies.
527	Byzantine Empire	Justinian rules the Eastern Empire and retakes Italy. Byzantine or Early Christian architecture appears.
529	Athens	Justinian closes the pagan ‘neo-Platonic’ Academy of Athens and the city is in decline.
529	Byzantine Empire	Justinian issues the codex of Roman law.
530	Italy	St Benedict, the educated monk, establishes his monastery at Monte Cassino.
537	Constantinople	Church of Hagia Sophia is built, including a 180 foot dome over a square space, supported on pendentives rising from piers. The semi-domes are the same size as the main dome.
540s	Byzantine Empire	Bubonic plague from the Far East cuts the Empire’s population by a third.
546	Rome	The city, besieged by Totila and left empty, is abandoned by the Eastern Empire, with Ravenna effectively becoming the capital.
548	Ravenna	Church of Saint Vitale is built in octagonal form.
553	Byzantine Empire	The Fifth Ecumenical Council and Justinian worsens divisions between the Eastern and Western parts of the Empire.
554	Byzantine Empire	The Empire retakes control of Africa, Sicily, Italy and Spain.
563	Byzantine Empire	St Columba launches his mission to the Picts.
565	Constantinople	Justinian dies and the cult of the Virgin Mary develops.
569	Milan	Lombards capture the city.
572	Byzantine Empire	Exarchates, which provide military control, begin to appear in Africa and northern Italy.
590	Rome	Gregory becomes Pope.
591	Byzantine Empire	Peace is established between the Empire and Persia.
597	Kent	St Augustine lands at Thanet.
600	Britain	Saxons are using stone bedded in mortar for building.
600	Persia	Windmills are built with rotating vanes on a vertical post.
602	Constantinople	A coup by the half-barbarian Phokus results in him becoming the new Emperor.
605	China	Grand Canal of China is built.
607	Rome	Papal primacy confirmed: the Pantheon later becomes a church.
610	Byzantine Empire	The Empire evolves from Roman to medieval, with civil government replaced by the military.
610	Byzantine Empire	Emperor Phokus is overthrown.
617	Byzantine Empire	Ancient cities in Europe and elsewhere begin to turn into medieval fortified towns.
618	China	The T’ang Dynasty begins and remains an influence for the next 1,300 years.
626	Constantinople	Icons are venerated and used as a ‘defence’ during siege of the city.
627	Byzantine Empire	The Empire defeats Persia.
638	Jerusalem	Arabs capture the city.
642	Alexander	Arabs take the city.
649	Cyprus	Arabs take the island.
649	Rome	Pope Martin appointed without the Emperor’s authority whilst Synod denounces the ‘one will’ theology as heresy
664	Whitby	The Synod of Whitby establishes that Roman ritual supersedes that of the Celts.
678	Constantinople	Arab attacks cease.
680	Byzantine Empire	The Sixth Ecumenical Council, in which the Eastern doctrine of ‘one will’ is rejected by both East and West.
692	Jerusalem	Dome of the Rock is complete and used as an Islamic temple.
698	Carthage	Arabs take the city.
700	England	Anglo-Saxons are established.
711	Spain	Arabs attacks, with expansion of Islam at its zenith.
717	Constantinople	The city is under siege by the Arabs.
721	Byzantine Empire	Arabs issue orders to destroy Christian art.
726	Aegean	A volcanic eruption and tidal wave occurs, which seems to encourage the iconoclasts.
730	Asia Minor	Final emergence of iconoclasts.
731	England	Bede encourages use of the ‘AD’ dating system.
731	Rome	Iconoclasm is condemned.
733	Poitiers.	Franks halt the Arab advance.
740s	Constantinople	The city is devastated by bubonic plague.
740	Constantinople	The Arab attacks end.
744	Roman Empire	Frankish leader Charlemagne conquers the Western Empire.
750	Asia	The Arabs are divided by the Abbasid revolt.
750	Britain	Lindisfarne manuscript is created.
751	Ravenna	The city falls to the Lombards.
754	Roman Empire	The Council of Hiereia establishes the iconoclasts.
760s	Baghdad	This city replaces Damascus as the Arab capital.
767	Byzantine Empire	Empire of the East apparently abandons the West.
768	Rome	Gaul Pepin III replaces Gallican liturgy by the Roman version.
769	Roman Empire	Roman and Frankish bishops support an iconophile doctrine at the Lateran Synod.
787	Roman Empire	Seventh Ecumenical Council, and the Eastern and Western churches become iconophile.
789	Roman Empire	Charlemagne imposes the Benedictine rule on all monks.
793	Britain	Viking attacks begin.
794	Roman Empire	The Synod of Frankfurt separates the Eastern (Greek Orthodox) and Western (Latin Catholic) churches, while Frankish bishops denounce iconophile Rome
800	Aachen	The Palatine chapel for Charlemagne is complete and built in a bold Romanesque style.
800	Rome	Charlemagne is crowned Holy Roman Emperor, thereby beginning the Carolingian dynasty.
814	Rome	Charlemagne is dead and the Empire divided.
815	Eastern Empire	An iconoclast revival occurs.
842	Eastern Empire	Iconoclasm comes to an end.
843	Europe	The Empire finally divides, with France and Germany forming into individual states.
850	Ireland	The Book of Kells is created.
868	China	First dated book is printed.
900	Ireland	Defensive round towers appear.
950	Europe	Emphasis on architectural decoration begins.
962	Rome	Otto I is crowned as the 1st Saxon Emperor and the Ottonian Empire is established in Germany and northern Italy.
981	Cluny	The first Abbey Church is built, complete with twin bell towers at the west end.
988	Spain	Great Mosque at Cordoba is complete, containing domes of eight arches, also known as squinches.
1000	Bradford-on-Avon	The Church of St Lawrence is built.
1020	Greece	The Holy Luke Katholikon is built at Styris, complete with cloisonné facing.
1037	France	Normans are using thick or double-shell walls.
1056	Europe	The Ottonian Empire ends.
1063	Pisa	Work on the Cathedral, featuring arcades, begins.
1063	Venice	St Mark’s Church is started, in the form of a Byzantine quincunx, with five domes.
1080s	Europe	Early use of the groin vault.
1080	Greece	Church of Dormition at Daphni is complete and incorporates Byzantine mosaics.
1093	Durham	Work on the Cathedral begins: it has rib vaults, with chevron and zigzag ornament.
1097	London	Tower of London’ s White Tower is built with 12 foot thick walls.
1098	Europe	Cistercian order is founded with emphasis on austerity.
1099	Jerusalem	First Crusade takes the city.
1100s	Britain	Sculpture is used as ornament.
1100	Britain	Jettied timber frame houses are constructed and continue to be built until 1500.
1100	Cluny	The second Abbey Church is built.
1100	England	There are 99 English castles, which have allegiance to the town, not the country.
1100	Europe	Windmills are in common use.
1100	Italy	The merchant cities of Verona, Florence, Venice, Pisa and Genoa begin to ascend.
1130	Cluny	Third Abbey Church is built: it’s large, of Gothic proportions and has pointed arches.
1134	Chatres	Construction of the Cathedral begins.
1140	Paris	St-Denis Abbey Church is built in a vertical and skeletal Gothic style with a rose window and twin towers.
1174	Canterbury	Work begins on the Gothic Cathedral.
1176	London	Construction of a stone version of London Bridge begins.
1190	River Lea	First improvements are made to the river navigation.
1192	Lincoln	Cathedral rebuilding begins, producing an influential design containing tierceron ribs.
1200	Britain	Early English Gothic begins: this style uses pointed arches, lancet windows and undercut mouldings, as well as flying buttresses with pinnacles used as counterweights.
1200	Europe	The wood plane, as used by the Romans, is rediscovered.
1204	Constantinople	Venetians lead Crusaders in sack of the city.
1212	London	Thatch is prohibited for roofing.
1221	Waltham Abbey	Water is conveyed by means of elm trunks, which are used as pipes and placed beneath the River Lea.
1234	Bruges	To the north, a prototype ‘pound lock’ is created on the waterway.
1235	Reims	Building of the Cathedral begins: it has bar tracery and two-light windows that are topped by an oculus.
1245	London	Construction of Westminster Abbey begins, incorporating French features.
1256	Baltic	Conference of Baltic ports takes place, later becoming the Hanseatic League.
1258	Milan	The 30-mile Naviglio Grande canal is opened.
1261	Byzantine Empire	The Paleologue Dynasty begins.
1265	Pisa	Baptistry with arcading is built.
1271	Pisa	The Leaning Tower is complete: it has six storeys of marble arcades.
1290	Britain	Decorated Gothic reaches its maturity: there are more outlines, larger clerestorey windows, tracery and ogee curves.
1300	Britain	Drill braces with four bends are used.
1315	Salonica	Church of the Holy Apostles is built, complete with coloured patterning in the facade.
1330	Britain	Perpendicular Gothic appears, providing vast windows between piers and surfaces uninterrupted from floor to ceiling.
1338	Britain	Hundred Years War with France begins.
1348	Europe	The Black Death arrives.
1349	Ely	Cathedral is built with small chapel containing fan vaulting.
1357	Gloucester	Cathedral cloisters are complete, incorporating vaulting with a 3.65 metre span.
1381	England	Wat Tyler launches his Peasants’ Revolt.
1390s	London	Westminster Hall is built and features a hammer beam roof.
1391	Spain	The Alhambra fortified palace is constructed at Granada
1392	Ely	The Octagon is created in the Cathedral roof.
1400	Britain	Perpendicular Gothic spreads.
1400	Germany	The Hanseatic League on the northern coast reaches the peak of its commercial power.
1421	Florence	New Classical buildings appear.
1424	England	Act of Parliament passed to improve the River Lea navigation.
1436	Florence	Brunelleshi completes his dome for the Cathedral: this uses a pointed profile to reduce thrust and incorporates two layers of herringbone bricks and masonry, which are reinforced with iron chains, as well as rings of stone.
1440	Oxford	Queen’s College is built.
1450	Rimini	Leon Battista Alberti uses Roman triumphal arch on a Christian church.
1453	Constantinople	Paleologue Dynasty of the Byzantine Empire ends and the Turks enter the city.
1454	Mainz	A Papal indulgence is printed using movable type.
1469	Spain	The country is unified under Ferdinand and Isabella.
1472	Eastern Empire	Sophia, niece of the last emperor, marries Moscow’s Ivan the Great, eventually becoming grandmother of Ivan the Terrible.
1476	Westminster	Caxton sets up his printing press.
1492	America	The New World is discovered.
1492	Spain	The Moors are expelled by Ferdinand and Isabella.
1495	World	Vasco da Gama opens the sea route to India.
1497	Milan	Canal ‘pound locks’ are designed by Leonardo da Vinci.
1500s	Atlantic	Numbered ‘ballast’ stones are sent from Portugal for the construction of buildings in Brazil.
1500	Britain	The ‘box frame’ form of house construction appears, continues until around 1800 and then returns in the 1980s.
1500	Britain	The sheep population exceeds humans by a ratio of 3:1.
1500	Britain	Cast iron and spinning wheels are now commonplace.
1500	Europe	Flying and smoothing wood planes are in use.
1500	Europe	Great banking houses are now established, including Fuggers of Augsberg, the Medici, the Bardi and the Peruzzi.
1500	France	Classical style buildings appear.
1515	Cambridge	King’s College Chapel is complete.
1517	Europe	The Reformation begins.
1519	Roman Empire	Charles I of Spain is on the throne.
1527	Rome	City sacked by mercenaries of Emperor Charles V.
1536	Britain	Henry VIII dissolves smaller monasteries.
1540	Europe	Jesuit order is formed by St Ignatius of Loyola.
1540	France	Chateaux of Fountainbleau is built.
1542	Rome	The Inquisition is reintroduced.
1545	England	Council of Trent begins issuing its decrees, continuing until 1563.
1546	Paris	The Louvre Square Court is begun, marking the establishment of French Classicism.
1549	Britain	Order issued to remove images from churches.
1552	London	Old Somerset House, the first fully classical building, is complete.
1560	France	Wars of Religion begin.
1560	Moscow	St Basil’s Cathedral is built.
1560	Waltham Abbey	The first pound lock on the River Lea is opened, on a now disused channel.
1563	Exeter	The Ship canal is open.
1567	France	L’Orme‘ produces his first volume of architecture but dies before publishing his theory of Divine Proportion, which is based on the Go-given dimensions of Old Testament buildings.
1570	Italy	Palladio publishes ‘The Four Books of Architecture’.
1570	Vicenza	Villa Rotunda is complete.
1577	World	Drake sails around the world.
1580s	England	Little Morton Hall is built.
1580s	England	Burghley House, a prodigy house, is complete.
1580	Wiltshire	Longleat House is constructed.
1590	Plymouth	12-mile water-feeder canal is built from Dartmoor’s River Meavey.
1596	Derbyshire	Hardwick Hall is constructed.
1598	France	Wars of Religion end.
1600s	England	The Classical style arrives.
1600	World	Chartered companies of Britain and Holland begin world competition.
1602	Holland	The Dutch East India Company is founded.
1610	Pisa	Galileo finds that all weights dropped from the Tower of Pisa land at the same time and the swaying lamps in Pisa Cathedral lead him to discover the pendulum.
1612	Herts	Hatfield House is built.
1613	Herts	The New River is constructed, supplying London with spring water from Amwell and Chadwell, and also from the River Lea at a later date.
1616	Greenwich	Work begins on the Queen’s House by Inigo Jones.
1618	Germany	Thirty Years War begins.
1620	England	The structure of Stonehenge is surveyed by Inigo Jones.
1622	London	The Banqueting House is built by Inigo Jones.
1624	America	A wooden house is sent in kit form from England to America.
1633	Rome	St Peter’s baldachino is built by Bernini.
1638	London	St Paul’s church in Covent Garden is created by Inigo Jones.
1642	England	Isaac Newton is born: he later discovered gravity from the falling apple, as well as working out calculus, the binomial theorem, laws of motion and the colours created by a refracting prism (Richard Of York Gained Battles In Vain).
1642	England	Civil War breaks out.
1642	France	The 34-mile Briare canal, which crosses watershed using 41 locks, is complete.
1648	Germany	The Thirty Years War ends.
1648	England	Second Civil War breaks out.
1660	England	The monarchy is restored.
1661	Paris	Gardens by Le Nôtre are created at Vaux-le-Vicomte.
1662	France	Work begins on Versailles, with gardens by Le Nôtre.
1665	London	The Great Plague hits the city.
1666	Britain	The Plague comes to an end.
1666	London	The Great Fire of London destroys much of the city.
1673	Holland	Huygens constructs the first pendulum clock.
1675	Britain	700 miles of navigable river are in use for conveying sea coal, timber, stone and grain.
1675	London	Wren begins work on St Paul’s Cathedral.
1681	France	Languedoc Canal is built, complete with three aqueducts.
1681	France	The Canal du Midi is constructed, requiring 119 locks over 148 miles and a 500 ft tunnel, the latter excavated by means of gunpowder.
1683	Vienna	The Relief of Vienna provides victory over the invading Turks.
1688	England	The ‘Glorious Revolution’ puts James I to flight.
1690	Holland	Huygens publishes his ‘Treaty on Light’, introducing the concept of the ‘ether’.
1694	England	Bank of England is established.
1695	Britain	English Baroque period begins.
1699	England	Vanbrugh starts Castle Howard.
1699	Hungary	Turkish domination ends.
1700	Britain	Warehouses are created with thick walls and wooden beams.
1700	Britain	Wrought iron rods and beams are used in industrial buildings.
1700	Britain	The Industrial Revolution begins.
1707	Britain	Act of Parliament to prevent fire: no overhanging eaves are permitted, there must be 18-inch parapets above the roof and no timber can be within five inches of flues or less than four inches from the front face of an outside wall.
1707	England	Vanbrugh begins Blenheim Palace.
1709	Shropshire	Abraham Darby succeeds at iron smelting, bringing the Sussex iron industry to an end.
1710	London	St Paul’s Cathedral is complete.
1713	London	New developments proceed, such as Regent Street to Hyde Park, Hanover Square, George Street and Burlington House.
1713	Shropshire	Coalbrookdale iron smelting industry is established.
1714	Britain	UK population stands at around 5¹⁄2 million, with 500,000 in London and 50,000 in towns such as Bristol or Norwich.
1714	Europe	Cut glass is developed and used in chandeliers.
1715	Britain	Colen Campbell publishes ‘Vitruvius Britannicus’.
1716	Britain	Giacomo Leone publishes ‘The Architecture of A Palladio’.
1716	Greenwich	The Baroque ensemble of the Royal Hospital is completed by Wren.
1718	Balkans	Turkish domination comes to an end.
1720s	London	More new developments completed, including Bond Street, Conduit Street, Brook Street, Grosvenor and the Cavendish-Harley Estates.
1720	England	Vanbrugh starts on Seaton Delaval.
1720	France	Grand Prix de Rome competition is inaugurated.
1725	Britain	The ‘theatrical’ Blenheim Palace by Vanbrugh and Hawksmoor is complete.
1725	Britain	English Baroque period ends.
1725	London	Chiswick House is completed by Kent and Burlington.
1726	Britain	Castle Howard is built by Vanbrugh.
1732	Britain	James Gibbs publishes ‘Rules for Drawing Several Parts of Architecture’.
1733	Britain	Kay invents the flying shuttle.
1734	Norfolk	Work starts on Holkham Hall.
1740	Sheffield	Steel is produced using the ‘crucible process’ developed by Benjamin Huntsman.
1742	America	Benjamin Franklin heats houses by passing air around a box containing a stove.
1742	Sweden	Celsius invents his ‘Centigrade’ scale of temperature.
1743	Italy	The first architectural book by Piranesi appears.
1750s	London	The Portman Estate is built beyond Marylebone Lane.
1750	Britain	Mid Georgian period begins, with Roman and Greek styles becoming popular at the same time as the Gothic Revival.
1751	Britain	The Society of Antiquaries is established, reacting to the appeal of Arcadia.
1752	America	Benjamin Franklin conducts his ‘lightning’ experiment.
1752	Britain	New Style calendar is adopted.
1753	Britain	Robert Wood publishes ‘Ruins of Palmyra’.
1753	Britain	Doctor Russell advocates sea bathing for health.
1754	Britain	The journey from London to Manchester takes four and a half days.
1755	Britain	The first Canal Act, for the Weaver Navigation, is passed.
1757	Britain	Robert Wood publishes ‘Ruins of Balbec’.
1757	England	Sankey Canal, later known as the Saint Helen’s Canal, is opened.
1758	Leeds	Middleton Colliery Wagonway is in use.
1759	Herts	First Act of Parliament passed for work on the Stort Navigation.
1760s	Britain	Adam brothers begin work on Lowther Village.
1762	Britain	Nicholas Revert and James Stuart publish ‘Antiquities of Athens’.
1764	Britain	Arkwright invents his spinning jenny.
1764	Britain	Hargreave introduces his spinning jenny.
1764	London	There are 23,000 deaths in this year, 35% of which are children under two years old.
1765	Britain	The Bridgewater Canal opens.
1765	Britain	HMS Victory is launched, its construction requiring 2,000 oak trees.
1766	Britain	The Grand Trunk Canal opens, providing a route from the River Trent to the Humber.
1766	Hertfordshire	Smeaton surveys the River Lea for improvements to the navigation.
1766	Hertfordshire	Stort Navigation Second Act is passed.
1767	Hertfordshire	Edmonton, Hackney and Enfield Cuts Act for works on River Lea is passed.
1769	Britain	Arkwright introduces his water frame.
1769	Etruria	Josiah Wedgewood opens the new works.
1769	Britain	Watt completes his improvements to the Newcomen steam engine.
1770s	Scarborough	Smollet sees bathing machines in use.
1770	Britain	Late Georgian period begins, with Etruscan style becoming popular.
1770	Britain	Hargreave’s spinning jenny is patented.
1773	Britain	Robert and James Adam publish ‘Works in Architecture’.
1774	Britain	Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen and says ‘atoms must a little swerve’.
1774	Britain	Buildings Act defines six ‘Rates’ of housing and encourages the use of stucco.
1774	London	Manchester Square is developed.
1775	Birmingham	Watt and Boulton work together at the Soho Engineering Works.
1776	Britain	‘The Wealth of Nations’ is published by Adam Smith
1776	Britain	Priestley publishes his report on electricity.
1776	Edinburgh	New Town plans are produced by Craig.
1779	Britain	Compton’s spinning mule is in use.
1780s	Britain	The Industrial Revolution is in full swing.
1780	Britain	Mid Georgian period ends.
1780	Britain	Thomas Telford works as a stonemason.
1780	France	Cointeraux builds a house using mass concrete.
1783	Lyon	Marquis de Jouffray operates a 180-ton paddle-wheel steam boat on the River Saône.
1784	Britain	Henry Cort ‘puddles’ iron to create wrought iron.
1784	Britain	Brick Tax is introduced and ‘mathematical tiles’ are used to avoid it.
1784	Britain	Mail coaches are in operation.
1784	Britain	Watt heats his workshop by steam.
1785	Britain	Cartwright’s power loom appears.
1785	Britain	The English Channel is crossed by balloon.
1788	Britain	The journey from London to Manchester takes two and a half days.
1789	France	French Revolution breaks out.
1789	Wellington	Church is built with cast iron columns for gallery and roof.
1790s	Britain	The canal boom ends, with most of the canal network completed.
1790s	Britain	Fireproof factories are created using iron.
1790s	Britain	New roads are built by Telford and ‘Blind Jack’ Knaresborough.
1790	Britain	Canal lock keeper’s houses are made from a kit of iron plates.
1790	Paris	Theatre is rebuilt using wrought iron trusses.
1791	Britain	Hoyle patent is introduced for steam pipe heating.
1792	England	Francis Sandys completes Ickworth House, complete with its domed rotunda.
1792	London	First trade union is formed and is known as the London Corresponding Society.
1792	Redruth	William Murdoch lights his house using gas.
1792	Shrewsbury	St Chad’s Church is constructed of cast iron columns in two tiers.
1794	London	New housing appears at Brunswick Square, the north side Bloomsbury Square and at Burton Street and Burton Crescent.
1795	Poland	The country is partitioned.
1796	Chirk	Canal aqueduct is built by Telford using bricks but with a bottom of iron plates.
1796	Shrewsbury	Bage’s Mill is built using cast iron columns and beams.
1800	Britain	Late Georgian period ends.
1800	Britain	Parliament passes the Act for the Union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
1800	Longdon-on-Tern	Aqueduct is made by Telford in the form of a cast iron trough.
1801	Manchester	The population of this city is only 72,275.
1801	Middlesbrough	This town consists of just 4 houses.
1802	Britain	The First Factory Act is passed.
1803	Britain	The Elgin Marbles arrive.
1803	France	Académie des Beaux-Arts is founded by Napoleon.
1804	Glasgow	Houldsworth Textile Mill is heated by steam in hollow iron columns.
1805	France	Bonaparte becomes Emperor.
1805	Pontcysyllte	Canal aqueduct by Telford is in the form of an iron trough on masonry piers.
1805	Trafalgar	Nelson is killed at the point of victory against the French.
1806	Manchester	Parts of the city are lit by gas.
1807	America	Robert Fulton’s steam passenger boat covers the 150 miles of Hudson river between New York and Albany in 32 hours.
1807	Lincolnshire	Boston gets the first wrought iron bridge.
1807	London	South side of Pall Mall is lit by gas.
1809	Rome	German art students establish the Nazarene community, which is based on Gothic and medieval ideals, as were the later Pre-Raphaelites.
1811	Blaise Hamlet	Nash builds his picturesque village.
1811	England	Telford supervises completion of 3¹⁄2-mile Standedge tunnel on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal.
1811	London	Marylebone Park reverts to the Crown, allowing Nash to plan central London.
1812	Britain	The Gas, Light and Coke Company receives its charter.
1812	Leeds	Middleton Colliery Wagonway uses a steam engine with rack and pinion drive.
1812	Moscow	The city is on fire.
1814	Britain	‘Puffing Billy’ steam engine is in action.
1814	Isle of Wight	Ryde ferry pier is constructed.
1815	Europe	War with Napoleon ends.
1815	Britain	No building is considered complete without Greek columns.
1815	Westminster	26 miles of gas main is in use.
1816	Britain	Greenhouses are heated using hot water.
1816	-	Schinkel creates Egyptian-style stage sets.
1818	Britain	Dodd brings out a patent for using iron bars in concrete as reinforcing.
1818	Britain	Institution of Civil Engineers is established.
1819	Atlantic	A ship called the Savannah makes the crossing, partially assisted by steam power.
1819	France	Ecole des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts) is established.
1820s	Britain	There are now 2,500 miles of English canals and another 500 miles in Scotland and Ireland.
1820s	Britain	Large T and L section iron beams become available.
1820s	Britain	William Fairbairn builds four iron ships.
1820s	Britain	A wooden house is sent in kit form to Saint Helena.
1820	Brighton	Nash completes his Royal Pavilion, with its exposed internal ironwork.
1820	Britain	Birkinshaw introduces an improved method for rolling wrought iron rails for use in railways.
1820	Britain	Telford is made the first President of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
1822	Scotland	Telford completes his Caledonian Canal.
1823	Brighton	The Chain Pier is constructed.
1823	London	Paxton is working at Chiswick House.
1824	Margate	Pier is built to serve boats.
1825	Britain	Stockton and Darlington Railway is complete.
1825	Germany	Nazarenes return to their own country to establish the German School of Art.
1825	London	Isambard Kingdom Brunel directs work on the Thames Tunnel.
1825	Wales	Telford completes Menai Bridge, using iron bars in the concrete abutments.
1826	Britain	Joint Stock Banks established and the banking system is reformed.
1826	Chatsworth	Paxton is at work on the estate.
1826	London	St Katherine’s Dock is built.
1826	Wales	Telford construct the Conway Bridge.
1827	Atlantic	A ship called the Curaçac makes the first all-steam crossing.
1830s	Britain	Cholera outbreaks occur.
1830	Britain	Gothic Revival begins to reach its peak.
1830	Britain	Liverpool and Manchester Railway is in service.
1831	Bristol	Work begins on Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Clifton suspension bridge.
1831	France	Glycerine is removed from candles by chemists.
1832	Britain	Michael Faraday discovers the relationship between electric current and magnetism.
1832	Herne Bay	Telford constructs 3,600 foot wooden pier, but it’s ruined by marine worms in seven years.
1832	Hove	Wilds creates the ‘Athaeum’, an iron and glass house, which then promptly collapses.
1835	Britain	The Municipal Corporations Act establishes local government.
1835	London	New Houses of Parliament are designed.
1836	Chatsworth	Paxton and Burton create 84-metre Great Conservatory, complete with wooden sash bars.
1836	Menai Straits	Telford finishes the Menai Suspension Bridge.
1837	Britain	Queen Victoria takes the throne.
1837	Britain	Sir John Soane dies.
1837	Britain	Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s ship, the PS Great Western, is launched.
1837	London	Work begins on the new Houses of Parliament.
1838	Britain	London and Birmingham Railway is complete.
1838	London	The National Gallery is opened.
1839	Belfast	Lanyon and Turner create the Palm House.
1839	Britain	The Penny Post is introduced.
1840	Britain	Barry creates Grimson Park.
1840	Britain	60,000 people are rehoused over the next forty years to clear slum dwellings.
1840	London	Burton lays out Trafalgar Square.
1841	Britain	Isambard Kingdom Brunel completes the Great Western Railway between London and Bristol.
1841	Britain	The Metropolitan Association for Improving Conditions of the Industrious Classes is set up.
1841	Glasgow	A wrought iron girder bridge is constructed.
1843	Britain	A kit-form iron palace is sent to King Eyambo in Africa.
1843	Britain	Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s SS Great Britain is launched.
1843	France	Hennébique uses hooks and stirrups in reinforced concrete.
1843	London	Marc Brunel‘s Thames Tunnel is complete.
1844	Britain	Fox and Barret take out patent for iron beams in a lime concrete floor.
1844	Britain	The Shaftesbury Society is established.
1844	London	Fowler becomes engineer to the London Metropolitan Railway.
1847	Britain	James Prescott Joule discovers the Principle of the Conservation of Energy.
1847	Britain	Large I section beams are available.
1847	Britain	Legislation is passed concerning public sewers.
1847	Britain	The Ten Hours Act sets the maximum length of a working day.
1847	London	Euston station’s Great Hall is designed by P C Hardwick.
1847	London	The British Museum is opened.
1847	Scotland	The Tay Bridge collapses, causing a train to fall into the water, with great loss of life.
1848	Britain	The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood is established.
1848	France	Revolution leads to Emperor Napoleon III taking the throne.
1848	Kew	Palm House, built by Burton and Turner, is 19 metres high and 32 metre wide, with heating pipes provided under grilles.
1848	London	City of London Sewers Act requires coffins in vaults to be of lead or lead-lined and airtight.
1849	Britain	Ruskin publishes his ‘Seven Lamps of Architecture’.
1849	Chatsworth	Paxton’s Lily House is finished, with hollow beams as gutters and columns as drains.
1849	Liverpool	Lime Street station is built using galvanised corrugated iron.
1850	Britain	4,500 miles of canal are in use.
1850	Britain	Brick Tax is abolished.
1850	Menai Straits	Stephenson’s Rail bridge is complete.
1850	Paris	Bibliothèque Ste-Geneviève by Labrouste, the French leader of the Rationalist school, is created using internal cast iron arches.
1851	Dover	First working submarine telegraphic cable is laid to Calais.
1851	London	Great Exhibition is shown in Paxton’s prefabricated Crystal Palace.
1851	Manchester	The city’s population reaches 203,000.
1852	Britain	The railway network is virtually complete.
1852	London	Bunning completes the Coal Exchange in the City as well as Holloway Prison.
1853	Britain	Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s PS Great Eastern is launched.
1853	Great Yarmouth	One of the first ‘pleasure piers’ opens.
1853	Margate	Jetty is created using cast iron ‘screw piles’ that are driven into the beach using capstans.
1854	Paddington	Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s New Station is opened.
1854	Sydenham	The expanded Crystal Palace is moved to its new site.
1855	Britain	World’s first postal train runs between London and Bristol.
1855	London	Bunning creates the Caledonian cattle market.
1856	London	City of London Cemetery opened at Manor Park to end overcrowding of City graveyards.
1857	America	Otis invents the elevator.
1857	London	The PS Great Western is broken up.
1858	France	Coignet establishes patent for using iron rods in a concrete floor.
1859	Britain	James Clerk Maxwell publishes his ‘Kinetic Theory of Gases’.
1859	America	First chain store opens its doors.
1859	America	Oil is discovered in Pennsylvania
1859	Britain	Charles Darwin publishes ‘The Origin of Species’.
1859	Britain	Isambard Kingdom Brunel dies.
1859	Bromley	Webb completes The Red House with contributions by William Morris, Burne-Jones, Madox Brown, Arthur Hughes, Faulkner (and sisters), Webb and Swinburne
1859	Saltash	Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Royal Albert Bridge is completed after his death.
1860s	World	Forced air ventilation using steam and gas engines is introduced.
1860s	Sydenham	The Crystal Palace High Level station is opened to to Ludgate Hill via the LC＆DR, also known as the London, Smash ‘em and Turnover.
1860	Belgium	Etienne Lenoir develops the internal combustion engine.
1860	Britain	Karl Marx begins ‘Das Kapital’.
1860	Europe	Hot water heating systems appear.
1860	Southport	Pier is completed, using hollow iron piles, each with a serrated base, that are driven into the sand by forcing water into the column. This ‘jetting’ process takes 20 to 30 minutes to sink a pile by 15 to 20 feet.
1861	Britain	The firm of Morris, Marshall and Faulkner is founded
1861	Italy	Separate states free themselves from Austria to form one nation.
1862	America	The country is crossed by railway.
1862	Britain	Peabody Trust is established.
1863	Britain	12 metre iron beams, as well as plates 5 metres by 2¹⁄2 metres by 112 mm are available.
1863	Britain	The Improved Industrial Dwellings Company is set up.
1863	Egypt	Sweet Water canal is completed, supplying fresh water alongside the course of the projected Suez canal.
1864	Bristol	Brunel’s Clifton Suspension Bridge opens.
1864	Britain	A second Railway Mania begins but is followed by a crash four years later.
1865	Austria	Mendel presents his paper on chromosomes.
1865	London	Bazalgette completes interception of sewage from the River Thames, complete with pumping stations at Crossness and Abbey Mills.
1866	Brighton	E Birch builds the West Pier.
1866	London	Four million tons of coal are used in the city.
1866	Sweden	Nobel discovers a ‘safe’ explosive using nitroglycerine in gun cotton.
1866	Sydenham	Fire destroys the North Transept of the Crystal Palace but it’s not rebuilt.
1867	France	F Coignet and J Monier experiment with reinforced concrete.
1867	Liverpool	‘The Octagon’ house in Grove St is ventilated using convection from the kitchen fire.
1868	Herts	River Lea Conservation Board is established.
1868	Paris	Labrouste creates the main reading room of Bibliothèque Nationale of iron arches and domes.
1869	Britain	The Cutty Sark tea clipper is launched.
1870s	World	Germany and US overtake Britain’s steel production.
1870	-	Sturtevant creates patent for heating by means of blowing air over hot pipes.
1870	France	Napoleon falls from power, bringing the Second Empire to an end.
1870	Italy	Rome becomes the country’s new capital.
1870	Paris	Remodelling of the city is complete.
1870	Saltaire	The model town is finished, with 820 houses in a grid pattern, an institute, church and mill.
1871	Chicago	Fire causes extensive damage and a need for rapid rebuilding.
1871	Kelmscott	William Morris leases Kelmscott Manor.
1873	Britain	Maxwell publishes his ‘Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism’, in which he shows that light and electricity are the same thing.
1873	Britain	Webb builds ‘Jolwyns’.
1873	New York	A fireproof reinforced concrete house called ‘Chester’ is created.
1875	Britain	Morris and Company is established and the original company members are paid off.
1875	New York	Tribune Building is complete, rising to 260 ft, using a grid of stone piers and windows.
1875	Northwich	Anderton Boat Lift opens: it links the Trent and Mersey Canal to the River Weaver, is designed by Edward Leader Williams and uses a unique hydraulic mechanism.
1875	Paris	Garnier completes Opéra building, the Beaux-Arts ideal.
1876	Britain	Webb builds Rounton Grange.
1878	Britain	Webb creates Smeaton Manor.
1879	America	Edison develops electric light.
1880s	World	Art Nouveau appears.
1880s	Britain	Preservation Societies are established.
1880s	Britain	Voysey is creating wallpaper and textiles.
1880s	Chicago	Skyscrapers begin to appear as a solution to the disastrous city fire.
1880s	Herts	Pollution controls are introduced on the River Lea.
1880	America	Cooling of Madison Square Theatre is achieved by passing air over blocks of ice.
1880	Liverpool	Work begins on the Anglican Cathedral by G G Scott, which isn’t completed until 1960.
1881	Middlesbrough	The population reaches 60,000.
1882	Britain	Ancient Monuments Protection Act is passed.
1882	Britain	Metropolitan and Public Gardens Association is formed.
1883	Brussels	Poelaert builds the Palace of Justice, a huge neo-Baroque building.
1884	Greenwich	Greenwich Meridian is recognised as the Prime Meridian.
1885	Britain	Housing the Working Classes Act is designed to create council housing.
1886	Germany	Daimler introduces a four-wheeled car.
1886	World	The use of aluminium is developed.
1887	Britain	Queen Victoria celebrates her Jubilee.
1887	Britain	The Channel Tunnel Company Ltd is formed by former rivals.
1887	Falklands	Brunel’s ship the SS Great Britain arrives at Port Stanley and remains there for 50 years.
1888	Germany	Heinrich Hertz discovers radio waves and that they travel at the speed of light.
1888	Port Sunlight	Work begins on this model town with its eclectic architecture.
1889	Paris	The Paris Exhibition (or Exposition) includes Eiffel Tower at 984 feet (300 metres) and the huge hall of The Palace of Machines.
1889	Britain	Voysey creates Tudor style vernacular houses.
1890	Britain	The Gothic Revival ends.
1890	Britain	Shaw switches from Dutch, William and Mary or Queen Anne styles to Classical.
1890	Chicago	A 16-storey building is constructed.
1891	Britain	The National Trust is set up.
1891	Britain	Webb builds ‘Clouds’.
1891	London	Voysey builds his Studio House at West Kensington using pebble-dash, broad eaves, sloping buttresses and unmoulded windows.
1892	Britain	The Great Western railway runs its last broad-gauge train.
1892	Britain	Webb builds ‘Standen’.
1892	Brussels	Horta’s Tassel House is built in Art Nouveau style.
1893	Britain	National Society for Checking Abuse of Public Advertising is established.
1893	World	Art Nouveau reaches its zenith: ‘the asymmetrical flaming shape derived from nature, and handled with a certain wilfulness or bravado, and the refusal to accept any ties with the past’.
1894	Britain	‘Country Life’ is first published.
1894	Manchester	The Ship Canal opens.
1894	World	Oliver Lodge uses a coherer to receive Morse Code radio messages.
1895	Britain	Michelin introduces the pneumatic tyre.
1895	London	Boundary Street Estate is built at Shoreditch in a five-storey ‘Arts and Crafts’ style.
1895	World	Alexander Popov uses a coherer to detect lightning flashes.
1896	Brighton	Chain Pier is destroyed in a storm.
1896	Britain	Guglielmo Marconi demonstrates his radio equipment.
1896	Glasgow	Mackintosh builds his School of Art.
1896	Kelmscott	Death of William Morris and his funeral at Kelmscott church, with Edward Burne-Jones saying: ‘There were no kings there - the king was being buried and there were no others left’.
1896	World	The Olympic Games are restarted.
1897	Glasgow	Mackintosh builds the Glasgow School of Art.
1897	Surrey	Lutyens creates Tigbourne Court, with its massing, rusticated stonework and smooth banding.
1898	Britain	Oliver Lodge takes out a patent for the ‘Moving Coil Loudspeaker’, which awaits the arrival of electronics to drive it.
1898	Britain	‘Tomorrow’ is published by Ebenezer Howard.
1898	Britain	Voysey builds Broadleys by Lake Windermere with its plain bay windows.
1898	Britain	Marconi transmits 60 miles across the sea.
1899	Brighton	The Brighton Marine Palace and Pier (BMPP) opens.
1899	Britain	‘Garden Cities of Tomorrow’ is published by Ebenezer Howard.
1899	Britain	Garden Cities Association established, later the Town and Country Planning Association.
1899	Britain	Great Central Railway is complete but no dividend is ever paid.
1899	Britain	Marconi transmits across the English Channel.
1900	America	Kitty Hawk flying machines are under development.
1900	Birmingham	Lethaby creates the Eagle Insurance building.
1900	Manchester	The city’s population now exceeds 600,000.
1900	World	Hennébique has completed 100 reinforced concrete bridges in the previous 20 years.
1900	World	US and German industry expands, and there is ‘sabre rattling’ by Kaiser Wilhelm II.
1900	World	Zeppelin airships in use.
1901	Britain	Queen Victoria is dead.
1901	Britain	Marconi transmits across the Atlantic.
1901	Paris	Lavirotte completes Avenue Rapp flats in a weirdly organic Art Nouveau style.
1901	Scotland	Mackintosh completes the Windyhill house at Kilmacolm.
1902	Berkshire	Lutyens completes Deanery Garden.
1902	England	Lethaby completes Brockhampton church.
1902	Paris	Flats are built of reinforced concrete.
1902	Surrey	Voysey builds Vodin House at Pyrford Common with a plain arched entrance.
1902	Sussex	Lutyens completes Little Thakeham.
1902	Turin	The Exhibition of Decorative Arts includes interiors by Mackintosh.
1903	America	First flight of the Wright brothers from Kitty Hawk.
1903	Belfast	Royal Victoria Hospital is complete, with air fed to each room and humidity control provided using ropes sprayed with water.
1903	Westminster	Millbank Estate is built in the form of 17 blocks, each of five storeys.
1904	America	40% of the economy is now in the hands of 300 companies.
1904	America	Olds invents the assembly line.
1904	Britain	John Ambrose Fleming discovers the thermionic valve.
1904	Britain	Wireless Telegraphy Act puts radio under control of the Postmaster General.
1904	Letchworth	Work begins on Parker and Unwin’s Letchworth Garden City.
1904	Scotland	Mackintosh completes Hill House at Helensburgh.
1905	Britain	Housing trusts rehouse a total of 123,000 people.
1905	Glasgow	Mackintosh builds the Scotland Street School.
1905	World	Art Nouveau is in decline.
1906	Britain	Dunwoody takes out patent for a crystal radio detector that uses a fragment of galena.
1906	Buffalo	Lloyd Wright builds Larkin office building without windows but with corner air vents.
1906	Norfolk	Home Place by E S Prior is built with zigzag brickwork.
1906	World	Conduit Weathermaster humidity control system is developed.
1907	America	Dee Le Forest invents the triode thermionic valve for amplifying electrical signals.
1907	Berlin	Behrens builds his ‘Modernist’ AEG Factory.
1907	Germany	The Deutscher Werkbund is founded by Hermann Muthesius.
1907	London	Hammersmith Public Baths are built using reinforced concrete.
1907	London	Work begins on Selfridge’s, constructed over a steel frame with decorative columns and in the Beaux-Arts style.
1907	London	Parker and Unwin begin work on Hampstead Garden Suburb.
1908	New York	The first reinforced concrete sky-scraper is complete.
1909	America	Ford begins to make his Model T car.
1909	Britain	Marconi is awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.
1909	Britain	An Act of Parliament is passed concerning reinforced concrete.
1909	Britain	Blériot crosses the Channel by aeroplane.
1909	Britain	The Town Planning Act is passed.
1909	Italy	Over the next five years Sant’Elia puts forward his ideas on Futurism and his design for a multi-layered city.
1910	Leeds	A six-storey office block is built of reinforced concrete.
1910	London	Hampstead Garden Suburb is finished, complete with square incorporating two churches, as created by Lutyens.
1910	London	Grafton Galleries show the first ‘Post-Impressionist’ exhibition by the Bloomsbury Group.
1910	World	Large buildings begin to employ fan-forced ventilation.
1911	Germany	Gropius’s Fagus Factory employs glass and steel over cantilevered floors, bringing to birth the International Style.
1911	Glasgow	Mackintosh builds his Tea Rooms for Miss Cranston.
1911	Vienna	The Steinerhaus, a house of reinforced concrete, is created by Loos.
1911	World	Expressionist paintings by Matisse and Van Gogh follow the principles of ‘will to form’ and Nietzsche’s ‘Superman’.
1912	Atlantic	Titanic sinks but the use of radio messages saves 700 lives.
1912	London	Baker Street Station offices are built using reinforced concrete.
1912	London	London County Council (LCC) creates the Old Oak Estate.
1913	Denmark	Bohr presents his model of the atom.
1913	Leipzig	Schmitz creates Leipzig Memorial using terrifying ‘brute force’ Expressionism.
1913	London	Roger Fry founds the Omega Workshops.
1913	New York	G Gilbert’s Woolworth Building is complete; the first true skyscraper, with 42 floors and reaching 760 feet (232 metres).
1914	Cologne	Werkbund Exhibition features The Glass House, which has a glass brick and iron staircase, a prismatic dome and walls of glass bricks.
1914	Britain	Jane Morris dies aged 74 and is buried next to William Morris
1914	Britain	The Town Planning Institute is established.
1914	France	Corbusier introduces his system for reinforced concrete houses, in which the slabs are held apart by columns.
1914	World	World War I begins.
1917	Holland	Cubism founds De Stijl: ‘where comfort has yielded to geometry’.
1918	Britain	Tudor Walters Report proposes housing density of 30 houses per hectare, each of two storeys with a back and front garden. This results in the suburban sprawl of the 1920s and 1930s.
1918	Britain	Four million homes are built from now until the outbreak of World War II in 1939.
1918	World	World War I ends.
1919	Chelmsford	Marconi’s system is used for experimental radio broadcasts.
1919	Germany	Gropius establishes the Wiemer Art School.
1920s	-	Expressionism reaches its zenith.
1920	Britain	The General Post Office provides licensing for radio amateurs.
1920	Paris	Corbusier exhibits his ideas for redeveloping the city at the Paris Exposition.
1920	Sydenham	The Crystal Palace reopens and is later used as temporary War Museum.
1921	London	LCC creates the Roehampton Cottage Estate.
1922	France	Corbusier introduces his Citrohan type houses, consisting of white boxes built on stilts with split levels and roof patios.
1922	Germany	Kandinsky and Klee arrive at the Bauhaus.
1922	Italy	Mussolini becomes dictator.
1922	Los Angeles	Full mechanical air conditioning is used in a theatre.
1923	London	Lutyens’ Britannic (later Lutyens) House, near Finsbury Circus and Moorgate, is complete.
1924	Utrecht	Rietveld builds the first house in the International Modern Movement style.
1925	Germany	Gropius builds and sets up the Bauhaus School at Dessau.
1925	Paris	Paris Exhibition sees the arrival of Art Deco and is a long-term influence.
1926	Britain	The Great Strike brings the country to a halt.
1926	Britain	John Logie Baird demonstrates his 30-line television system.
1926	Yorkshire	Lutyens builds Gledstone Hall.
1927	America	Ford produce the 15 millionth Model T Ford, also known as the ‘Tin Lizzie’.
1928	Germany	Gropius is replaced at the Bauhaus by Mies Van de Rohe.
1928	Texas	An air-conditioned office block is built in San Antonia.
1929	America	Wall Street crash begins a world slide into economic depression.
1929	Britain	The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) is established, later to become the British Broadcasting Corporation.
1929	Britain	BBC transmits television images using the Baird system.
1929	London	‘Georgian Classical’ estate is created in Kensington’s China Walk.
1930s	Europe	Political instability with the rise of Hitler and Mussolini, as well as the Spanish Civil War.
1930	France	R Maillart introduces beam-less concrete floor slabs that are placed on ‘mushroom’ columns.
1930	New York	The 1,000 foot Chrysler Building is finished, complete with ‘telescoping’ aluminium top.
1930	World	The International Modern Movement arrives, along with controversy.
1931	New Delhi	Lutyens completes Viceroy’s House and Mogul Garden.
1931	New York	Empire State Building is constructed.
1932	Devon	Lutyens completes Castle Drogo.
1932	France	At Thiepval, near Arras, Lutyens creates his Memorial to the Missing of the Somme.
1932	Germany	The Modern Movement is banned.
1932	Luton	G G Scott creates Saint Andrew’s Church using special thin bricks.
1933	France	Corbusier produces his manifesto, known as the ‘Athens Charter’.
1933	France	Corbusier publishes ‘The Radiant City’.
1933	Germany	National Socialism appears and the Bauhaus is closed.
1934	London	G G Scott finishes Battersea Power Station, with fluted chimneys to hint at Classicism
1935	Britain	The housing boom comes to an end.
1935	Britain	Jenny Morris, daughter of William Morris, is dead.
1936	Britain	1 October: the BBC broadcasts its first scheduled TV broadcast.
1936	Paris	Corbusier constructs houses using concrete beams, with exposed brick for internal walls.
1936	Sydenham	30 November: the Crystal Palace is destroyed by fire.
1937	America	Steel production now equals the total produced by France, Germany, Italy, Britain and Japan.
1937	Britain	The BBC begins regular television transmissions.
1937	Falklands	Brunel’s SS Great Britain is towed to Sparrow Cove and beached.
1937	London	Lutyens completes Midland Bank at Poultry, where each stone course is set ⅛ inch further back and one-inch recessions are used at levels where the rustication is discontinued.
1937	Paris	Paris Exposition features Corbusier’s Pavillion, which carries a Communist and radical slogan: ‘a new era has begun, an era of solidarity’.
1938	Britain	The Green Belts are introduced around cities.
1938	Britain	May Morris dies, causing Morris and Company to shut down.
1939	World	World War II begins.
1941	Liverpool	Lutyens creates the crypt for the Roman Catholic Cathedral.
1942	Chicago	2 December, 3:25 pm: the control rods are lifted from the world’s first nuclear reactor.
1942	Germany	3 October: the first V2 rocket is launched by Wernher Von Braun.
1944	Britain	Experimental colour television transmissions begin.
1945	Britain	Two million homes have been damaged or destroyed in the war.
1945	Europe	The Iron Curtain is created, dividing Europe between Western and Russian influences.
1945	Hiroshima	Monday, 6 August: an atom bomb equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT is dropped on Hiroshima: ‘no cause for alarm’, ‘We have spent $2,000,000,000 on the greatest scientific gamble in history and won’.
1945	London	89,000 LCC homes have been damaged by the war and only 2,500 are beyond repair, but the LCC aims to build 100,000 new properties.
1945	Nagasaki	8 August: The world’s second atom bomb is dropped.
1945	World	World War II ends.
1946	Britain	200,000 families are rehoused and 40,000 prefabs are built.
1947	Britain	The First National Radio Exhibition takes place.
1947	Britain	Coal mines are nationalised.
1948	Britain	Bank of England, electricity and the railways are nationalised. The British Transport Commission is established.
1948	Britain	The Welfare State appears with the National Health Service and Family Allowance.
1948	Britain	14 New Towns are planned, with 200,000 houses to be built annually.
1949	Britain	The gas industry is nationalised.
1950s	Britain	CLASP grid-based system is used for prefabricated schools.
1950s	Japan	The ‘economic miracle’ begins.
1950s	World	Fluorescent lighting is introduced, reducing heat generation and electricity costs.
1950s	World	Russians and Americans compete in outer space.
1950	New York	New UN Building is finished, complete with humidity control.
1951	Hunstanton	Smithson completes school in a ‘New Brutalist’ style, using steel and pre-cast concrete, but it’s impossible to maintain.
1952	Heathrow	1.25 million people pass through the airport in this year.
1952	London	The Festival of Britain is visited by eight million people.
1952	Marseilles	Corbusier completes his Unité d’Habitation, which is based on ‘socialist principles’, accommodating 1600 people as well as shops. It’s crudely finished, as the concrete is moulded using rough timber planks.
1953	Britain	42% of people still travel by bus.
1953	New York	UN Secretariat Building is completed, featuring glass curtain walls.
1955	London	The city becomes a ‘smokeless zone’.
1956	America	Nobel prize is given to Shockley, Bratten and Bardeen, the joint inventors of the transistor.
1956	Atlantic	New submarine telegraphic cable is in use.
1956	Britain	First nuclear reactor at Calder Hall power station is in service.
1956	London	LCC Brookland Park Estate at Blackheath is built of five-storey blocks and houses.
1958	Europe	The Common Market emerges.
1960	Liverpool	G G Scott’s Anglican Cathedral is completed after 80 years.
1960s	Britain	Mechanical services now take 33% of the cost of a building.
1960s	World	Currency crises bring financial instability.
1960s	World	Multinational companies are established.
1960s	World	New Brutalism, the creation of buildings using raw or un-faced concrete, is favoured.
1964	Leicester	Stirling completes his much-acclaimed University Engineering Building, built of hard red brick in a ‘neo-Constructivism’ or ‘pseudo-functionalist’ form. Despite the praise, it has structural problems and suffers from damp.
1967	Dover	21,000 lorries pass through the port in this year.
1967	London	Lasdun completes National Theatre on the South Bank in a heavy concrete Brutalist form.
1970	Falklands	Brunel’s SS Great Britain is towed back on a pontoon from Falkland Islands to Avonmouth. Then onwards to Bristol under Brunel’s Clifton suspension bridge on her ‘own bottom’.
1970s	Britain	2,600 miles of canals are still operational with another 1,900 miles out of use.
1970s	Chicago	The Sears Tower is completed, reaching a height of 1,450 feet.
1970s	Heathrow	32 million people pass through the airport each year.
1970s	London	The Greater London Council (GLC) creates buildings that are lower and closer together.
1970s	New York	World Trade Towers are built to a height of 1,350 feet.
1970s	World	High Tech architecture becomes popular, with ‘services’ highlighted by silver, scarlet and royal blue paintwork.
1970s	World	Architecture sees the return of half-circular arches, pitched roofs, decoration and mouldings.
1971	London	The Channel Tunnel Company Ltd of 1887 continues to trade on the Stock Exchange and is renamed Channel Tunnel Investments.
1971	London	Old houses are updated in Portchester Square.
1972	Paris	Piano and Rogers begin their Pompidou Centre, in which exposed working parts of the building are painted in bright colours.
1973	Europe	Britain, Denmark and Ireland join the Common Market.
1973	Sydney	Utzon creates the Sydney Opera House, using reinforced concrete shells over ‘Aztec’ terraces and showing a move towards ‘organic’ architecture.
1977	Norwich	Norman Foster creates the Sainsbury Centre at the University of East Anglia in High-Tech Modern Style: ‘a well-serviced metal-clad barn’.
1979	London	Richard Rogers begins on the Lloyds Building: ‘expressed structure and exposed services as an ornamental order’.
1980s	Britain	Councils now house a total of 18 million people.
1980s	Britain	Some tower blocks are demolished after less than 20 years.
1980s	Britain	Mechanical services now take 50% of building costs.
1980s	Britain	Old houses are being refurbished throughout the country.
1980	Britain	18,000 parish churches still survive, of which half are listed, 2,000 Grade A, whilst more than a million small Georgian homes survive.
1980	Venice	‘Presence of the Past’ exhibition indicates the start of Post-Modernism, with work by Venturi, Moore, Bofil and Krier.
1981	Dover	510,000 lorries pass through the port in this year.
1982	Britain	There are 40,470 hectares (ha) of underused land, located on 11,000 different sites.
1983	Britain	500,000 buildings are now listed.
1983	Britain	The Green Belt now consists of 4½ million acres in 15 areas, of which 1.2 million acres encircle London.
1983	Britain	Only 8% of passengers now travel by bus.
1983	Britain	Road traffic increases by 4%. 86% of all goods and 98% of consumer goods go by road.
1983	Heathrow	294 million people pass through the airport in this year.
1986	Britain	Government sets up the Urban Development Corporations.
1991	London	Canary Wharf Tower in Docklands, as designed by Cesar Pelli, is completed.
1991	Stansted	Norman Foster completes airport building in High-Tech style: ‘elegant column trees on an expansive grid’.
1998	Kuala Lumpur	Cesar Pell completes tapered Petronas Towers with Islamic-inspired polygonal plans.
2000	Britain	3,000 miles of canals are now operational.
2001	New York	11 September: Twin towers of the World Trade Center are destroyed by terrorists.
2001	Britain	200 miles of waterways are reopened, including the Huddersfield Narrow, Rochdale, the Forth and Clyde and the Union Canals.

5. Dates

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