Timeline of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II
A lot has changed since Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne in 1952. Below you can find some of the famous people, events and scientific discoveries from almost 70 years of history. How many do you know? Are there any more you can add? Which do you think are the most important?
Important events
1953 - Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first men to climb Everest
1954 - Roger Bannister ran a mile in under four minutes
1955 - Commercial television was first broadcast in the UK
Science and technology
1952 - The first flight of the de Havilland Comet, the world's first commercial jet airliner.
1953 - Francis Crick and James Watson analyse the data recorded by Rosalind Franklin to discover the structure of DNA.
1959 - The first Hovercraft trip across the English Channel.
Important events
1966 - England wins the world cup
1969 - Humans first landed on the moon
1969 - Prince Charles, now His Majesty King Charles III, the oldest child of Queen Elizabeth II becomes Prince of Wales
Science and technology
1960 - First kidney transplant in the UK
1966 - The first hand held pocket calculator was invented
1966 - Ralph Baer started work on the first ever video games console
Important events
1971 - United Kingdom and Ireland started using decimal coins
1977 - The first Star Wars movie was released in cinemas
1977 - Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her 25th Jubilee
Science and technology
1971 - Ray Tomlinson sends the very first email
1973 - The first mobile phone was demonstrated by Motorola
1976 - The Super Proton Synchrotron at European Council for Nuclear Research (CERN) first turned on
Important events
1984 - Coal miners went on strike to stop mining closures and the loss of their jobs
1986 - An accident occured at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant spreading radiation over a wide area
1989 - The Berlin Wall that divided communist East Germany from West Germany began to be pulled down by citizens of the city
Science and technology
1981 - NASA began its Space Shuttle programme with the launch of the shuttle Columbia
1982 - The first compact discs (CDs) are sold
1984 - The first Apple computer was launched
Important events
1992 - The European Union is created when the Maastricht Treaty is signed
1995 - The Channel Tunnel was opened to passengers
1997 - Scotland votes for devolution and creates its own Parliament
Science and technology
1990 - Tim Berners-Lee writes the first web browser
1996 - The first mammal, Dolly the sheep, was cloned
1998 - Construction of the International Space Station began
Important events
2001 - Wikipedia is launched
2002 - Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her Golden Jubilee
2004 - Facebook founded by Harvard university student Mark Zuckerberg
Science and technology
2003 - Scientists map the human genome, the entire genetic code of human DNA
2007 - The first iPhone was released
2008 - Astrophysicists studying the universe confirm its age at 13.7 billion years
Important events
2012 - The Summer Olympics and Paralympics take place in London
2013 - Three black female activists started using the social media hashtag #BlackLivesMatter
2019 - The Covid-19 virus is first reported in Wuhan, China
Science and technology
2012 - The Mars Science Laboratory mission's Curiosity rover lands on Mars
2012 - SpaceX sent its first commercial spacecraft to dock with the ISS
2012 - Scientists discover the Higgs Boson particle the key to resolving the origin of mass
Important events
2020 - The United Kingdom goes into lockdown to contain COVID-19 pandemic
2021 - World leaders mark Earth Day by hosting a virtual summit on climate change
2021 - The Summer Olympics and Paralympics take place in Tokyo
Science and technology
2020 - A UK grandmother became the first person in the world, outside of laboratory trial, to be given a Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine
2020 - NASA successfully launched its Mars 2020 rover mission to search for signs of ancient life
2021 - SpaceX sent the first commercial spacecraft to deliver astronauts to the International Space Station