Name: United Kingdom Continent: Europe Population: 59,600,000 Religion: Anglican 27 million, Roman Catholic 9 million, Muslim 1 million, Presbyterian 800,000, Methodist 760,000, Sikh 400,000, Hindu 350,000, Jewish 300,000 (1991 est.)

Great Britain, the dominant industrial and maritime power of the 19th century, played a leading role in developing parliamentary democracy and in advancing literature and science. At its zenith, the British Empire stretched over one-fourth of the earth's surface. The first half of the 20th century saw the UK's strength seriously depleted in two World Wars. The second half witnessed the dismantling of the Empire and the UK rebuilding itself into a modern and prosperous European nation. As one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council, a founding member of NATO, and of the Commonwealth, the UK pursues a global approach to foreign policy; it currently is weighing the degree of its integration with continental Europe. A member of the EU, it chose to remain outside the European Monetary Union for the time being. Constitutional reform is also a significant issue in the UK. The Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, and the Northern Ireland Assembly were established in 1999. Information from the CIA World Fact Book

Timeline of Events Date Event 825   825 King Egbert of Wessex conquers Kent, Sussex, and Essex; Wessex becomes dominant power in England 1052   1052 Construction on Westminster Abby begins 1078   1078 Construction on the Tower of London begins 1087 9 September 1087 William the Conqueror of England dies; William II succeeds to English throne 1209   1209 Foundation of Cambridge University 1215   1215 King John of England and English barons sign the Magna Carta 1534   1534 Henry VIII destroys English monasteries 1535   1535 Sir Thomas More executed 1564   1564 Shakespeare born 1576   1576 First theatre in England built 1622   1622 James I dissolves Parliament 1666 2 September 1666 Great Fire of London is started 1707 1 May 1707 Act of Union between Scotland and England creates Kingdom of Great Britain 1710   1710 English conquer French colony at Nova Scotia 1763   1763 French and Indian War ends 1780  March 1780 Battle of Charleston 1781 6 October 1781 American and French forces trap British army of Cornwallis at Yorktown 1796   1796 British conquer Ceylon 1801 1 January 1801 Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland creates the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 1802 25 March 1802 Treaty of Amiens 1805 21 October 1805 Admiral Horatio Nelson defeats French fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar to maintain naval supremacy 1806   1806 British acquire Cape Colony 1807   1807 Slave trade abolished in the British Empire 1811   1811 Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen 1812 18 June 1812 War of 1812 begins with U.S. declaration of war on the United Kingdom 1815 18 February 1815 The War of 1812 ends with the Treaty of Ghent, reaffirming prewar status quo between the United States and United Kingdom 1816   1816 Emma by Jane Austen 1818   1818 Don Juan by Lord Byron   1818 John Keats's Romantic epic Endymion 1819   1819 James Watt dies 1820   1820 Florence Nightingale born 1828   1828 Catholics allowed to hold office in England 1830   1830 Emily Dickinson born 1831   1831 H.M.S. Beagle sails with Charles Darwin 1832   1832 English Reform Act   1832 Lewis Carroll born 1834   1834 Thomas Malthus dies 1838   1838 Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens 1840   1840 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert marry   1840 Britain annexes New Zealand 1841   1841 Britain claims Hong Kong 1842   1842 First Opium War between China and Britain 1847 16 October 1847 English novelist Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre 1850   1850 Robert Lewis Stevenson born  December 1850 Taiping Rebellion in China; Up to 30 million Chinese die in civil war between Qing government and Hong Xiuquan's Heavenly Kingdom 1854   1854 The Charge of the Light Brigade by Lord Tennyson 21 October 1854 Florence Nightingale sent by British government to investigate medical conditions in army hospitals during the Crimean War 1856   1856 George Bernard Shaw born 1859   1859 Liberal philosopher John Stuart Mill's On Liberty   1859 A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens   1859 On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin 1861   1861 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens 13 May 1861 Great Britain declares its neutrality in the American Civil War 1868   1868 Diamonds discovered in South Africa 1871   1871 The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin 1873   1873 John Stuart Mill dies 1881   1881 Sudan, War for the begins   1881 British forces defeat rebel Egyptian army at the Battle of Tel el-Kebir, marking the beginning of British military occupation of Egypt 1888   1888 Jack the Ripper active in London; Commits series of brutal murders 1890 20 June 1890 Publication of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray 1895   1895 The Time Machine by H. G. Wells 1898   1898 H. G. Wells' science fiction novel The War of the Worlds 10 July 1898 British and French resolve the Fashoda Incident over colonial boundaries in Africa, confirming British control over Sudan; Seen as important precursor to the Entente Cordiale 1899   1899 Second Boer War begins 1901 1 January 1901 Australia unified as a Dominion of the British Empire 1912 13 May 1912 The Royal Flying Corps is organized in Great Britain with naval and military wings and a central flying school. 1918 27 May 1918 German Army begins the Great March Offensive and drives the Allied army back 40 miles before losing momentum 1919 28 June 1919 Treaty of Versailles is signed in Paris 1920 25 April 1920 Mesopotamia becomes a British mandated territory under Article 22 of the League of Nations 1938 30 September 1938 Hitler, Chamberlain, Daladier, and Mussolini sign the Munich Agreement, which transfers the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia to Germany 1940 12 September 1940 Italian Tenth Army commanded by Marshal Rodolpho Graziani invades Egypt 1941 11 March 1941 The US Congress passes the Lend-Lease Bill which will provide billions of dollars of war materials to the Allied powers 1943 10 June 1943 The Combined Bomber Offensive launches Operation Pointblank, a strategic bombing campaign against German industry and civilian morale 1944 17 September 1944 Allied armored and airborne forces fail to secure Rhine crossing in Operation Market-Garden 16 December 1944 Battle of the Bulge (Ardennes) begins 1950   1950 George Bernard Shaw dies 1954   1954 William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies 1963 12 December 1963 Kenya becomes independent from Great Britain; Jomo Kenyatta's Kenya African National Union (KANU) party forms the first independent government 1971  August 1971 Bahrain declares its independence from Britain 1996 5 July 1996 Dolly the sheep is born, becoming the first cloned mammal Go here for timeline sources.