70 Fun Facts About British History

Which Roman emperor launched the successful invasion of Britain in AD 43?

Caesar had raided in 55 and 54 BC, but Claudius's invasion began the near four-century occupation. He came over himself briefly, reportedly with elephants.

Boudica, who led a revolt against Rome around AD 60, was queen of which tribe?

The Iceni. Boudica's Iceni, based in modern Norfolk, burned Colchester, London and St Albans before Suetonius Paulinus crushed the revolt; her chariot statue stands by Westminster Bridge.

Roughly how long is Hadrian's Wall?

73 miles. Hadrian's Wall ran 80 Roman miles, about 73 modern miles, from Wallsend on the Tyne to Bowness-on-Solway; construction began in AD 122.

In roughly which year did Roman rule in Britain finally end?

AD 410. The conventional end date comes from the Rescript of Honorius, in which the emperor reportedly told the British cities to see to their own defence after the legions had been withdrawn.

The 793 raid marking the start of the Viking Age in Britain hit which Northumbrian monastery?

Lindisfarne. The 793 sack of Lindisfarne's monastery, on a tidal island off Northumberland, shocked Christian Europe; the monks later fled with St Cuthbert's body, which came to rest in Durham Cathedral.

At which 878 battle did Alfred the Great decisively defeat the Vikings, leading to the Danelaw?

Edington. Alfred's victory at Edington in Wiltshire in 878 forced the Viking leader Guthrum to accept baptism, with Alfred as godfather, and to withdraw to East Anglia under the treaty that shaped the Danelaw.

The Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk was excavated in which year?

1939. Self-taught archaeologist Basil Brown uncovered the ship burial in the summer of 1939 at the invitation of landowner Edith Pretty, weeks before the Second World War began; Pretty gave the finds to the British Museum.

Which Danish king ruled England, Denmark and Norway in what historians call the North Sea Empire?

Cnut. Cnut ruled England from 1016, Denmark from 1018 and Norway from 1028; the tale of him commanding the tide is usually told as a rebuke to flattering courtiers.

On what date was the Battle of Hastings fought?

14 October 1066. Harold Godwinson had marched south after beating Harald Hardrada's Norwegians at Stamford Bridge on 25 September, nineteen days earlier; the fighting at Hastings lasted from about 9 am until dusk.

How is Harold II traditionally said to have died at Hastings?

An arrow to the eye. The tradition rests on a Bayeux Tapestry figure shown clutching an arrow in his face beneath the words 'Harold rex interfectus est', and on chroniclers writing decades later.

What kind of artwork is the Bayeux Tapestry, which is technically not a tapestry?

An embroidered cloth. The Bayeux Tapestry is embroidery, stitched in wool thread on linen rather than woven, and runs nearly 70 metres through the story of the Norman Conquest.

William the Conqueror's great survey of England, the Domesday Book, was completed in which year?

1086. Commissioned at Christmas 1085, the Domesday survey was completed in 1086; its nickname came from the sense that its judgments were as final as the Last Judgment.

Which Archbishop of Canterbury was murdered in his own cathedral in December 1170?

Thomas Becket. Four knights killed Becket in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December 1170 after Henry II's outburst against him; his shrine became England's greatest pilgrimage site, the destination in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

King John sealed Magna Carta in June 1215 at which riverside meadow?

Runnymede. John met the barons at Runnymede, a meadow beside the Thames near Windsor, in June 1215; within weeks Pope Innocent III annulled the charter, and only four 1215 copies survive.

At which 1314 battle did Robert the Bruce defeat Edward II's English army?

Bannockburn. Bruce's victory near Stirling on 23–24 June 1314 secured his hold on the Scottish throne, though England did not formally recognise Scottish independence until the 1328 Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton.

The Black Death reached England in June 1348 through which port?

Weymouth. The plague is traditionally said to have landed at Melcombe Regis, now part of Weymouth in Dorset, in June 1348 aboard a ship from Gascony; it went on to kill perhaps half of England's population.

The third poll tax that triggered the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 was set at what flat rate per person?

12 pence. The 1380 poll tax demanded a shilling, 12 pence, from everyone over fifteen, three times the 1377 rate; the revolt ended when Lord Mayor William Walworth stabbed Wat Tyler at Smithfield during a parley with Richard II.

Which day of the calendar gave its name to the 1415 battle where Henry V's archers routed the French?

St Crispin's Day. Agincourt was fought on 25 October 1415, the feast of Saints Crispin and Crispinian; Shakespeare's 'band of brothers' speech in Henry V is the St Crispin's Day speech, and longbowmen made up most of Henry's army.

In the Wars of the Roses, which side was symbolised by the red rose?

House of Lancaster. The red rose of Lancaster set against York's white gave the wars their later name; Henry VII, the Lancastrian heir, combined both into the Tudor rose after marrying Elizabeth of York in 1486.

Richard III, killed at Bosworth in 1485, was found in 2012 buried under what in Leicester?

A car park. Archaeologists found the skeleton under a Leicester city council car park in September 2012; DNA from Michael Ibsen, a descendant of Richard's sister Anne, confirmed the identification in February 2013.

What did workmen find in a box under a Tower of London staircase in 1674?

Two small skeletons. Workmen demolishing a staircase by the White Tower found two children's skeletons in 1674; Charles II had them reburied in Westminster Abbey, and whether they are Edward V and his brother has never been proven.

How many times did Henry VIII marry?

Six. Henry married Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived; only Jane Seymour gave him a legitimate son.

What title did Henry VIII take under the Acts of Supremacy after his break with Rome?

Supreme Head of the Church of England. The 1534 Act of Supremacy declared Henry 'the only Supreme Head in earth of the Church of England'; the pope had earlier named him Defender of the Faith for attacking Luther.

At which castle was Mary, Queen of Scots beheaded in 1587?

Fotheringhay. Mary was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire on 8 February 1587 after eighteen and a half years as Elizabeth's prisoner; her son James inherited Elizabeth's throne in 1603.

In which year did the Spanish Armada sail against England?

1588. The Armada sailed in May 1588; fireships scattered it off Calais in August, and the wind drove it around Scotland and Ireland, where many ships were wrecked.

Where did Elizabeth I deliver her famous speech to the troops in August 1588?

Tilbury. Elizabeth addressed the army camped at Tilbury in Essex on 9 August 1588, declaring she had 'the heart and stomach of a king'; by then the Armada had already been driven off.

How many barrels of gunpowder was Guy Fawkes guarding when he was found under the House of Lords in 1605?

36. Fawkes was found with 36 barrels of gunpowder in a cellar beneath the House of Lords late on 4 November 1605 after the anonymous Monteagle letter tipped off the authorities.

How many years did Charles I rule without calling a Parliament, in the so-called Personal Rule?

Eleven. Charles governed without Parliament from 1629 to 1640, funding the Personal Rule with devices such as Ship Money until war with the Scots forced him to summon one; civil war followed in 1642.

Charles I was executed in January 1649 outside which London building?

The Banqueting House, Whitehall. Charles stepped onto the scaffold from a window of the Banqueting House on 30 January 1649, beneath the Rubens ceiling he had commissioned; he reportedly wore two shirts so as not to shiver.

What title did Oliver Cromwell hold from December 1653 until his death?

Lord Protector. Cromwell was installed as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth on 16 December 1653 and held the office until his death in September 1658; after the Restoration his corpse was hanged at Tyburn.

Charles II entered London to restore the monarchy on 29 May 1660, which was also what?

His thirtieth birthday. Charles was born on 29 May 1630, so his entry into London in 1660 fell on his thirtieth birthday; the date was later kept as Oak Apple Day, recalling the Boscobel oak he hid in after Worcester.

The Great Plague of 1665 killed roughly what share of London's population?

A quarter. The 1665 plague killed about 100,000 Londoners in eighteen months, close to a quarter of the city's population; Samuel Pepys stayed in the city and recorded the outbreak in his diary.

The Great Fire of London in 1666 began in a bakery on which street?

Pudding Lane. Thomas Farriner's bakery in Pudding Lane caught fire shortly after midnight on 2 September 1666; the Monument, 202 feet tall, stands 202 feet from the spot.

In the Glorious Revolution, William of Orange landed with an army in which English county in 1688?

Devon. William landed at Brixham in Torbay, Devon, on 5 November 1688; James II fled to France within weeks, and Parliament declared the throne vacant.

The Acts of Union creating the Kingdom of Great Britain took effect on 1 May of which year?

1707. The Acts of Union took effect on 1 May 1707, merging the English and Scottish parliaments; the two kingdoms had shared a monarch since 1603, and Ireland joined the union in 1801.

Culloden in 1746, which crushed the Jacobite rising, is remembered as the last what?

Pitched battle fought on British soil. Culloden, fought near Inverness on 16 April 1746, is regarded as the last pitched battle on British soil; it was over in under an hour, and Bonnie Prince Charlie escaped to France.

Which Lancashire weaver invented the spinning jenny in 1764?

James Hargreaves. Hargreaves, a weaver from Stanhill near Blackburn, built the first spinning jenny around 1764; Samuel Crompton later crossed it with Arkwright's water frame to make the spinning mule, named for being a hybrid.

Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar in 1805, on which he was fatally shot, was which ship?

HMS Victory. Nelson was shot by a musketeer from the French Redoutable on Victory's quarterdeck and died below decks shortly before the battle ended; the ship is preserved in dry dock at Portsmouth.

Which Prussian field marshal's army arrived to help Wellington defeat Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815?

Blücher. Gebhard von Blücher's Prussian army reached the battlefield on the afternoon of 18 June 1815, two days after its defeat at Ligny, and its arrival on Napoleon's right flank sealed his last battle.

The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 ended slavery across the British Empire by what method?

Compensated emancipation. The Act freed the enslaved from 1 August 1834 and voted £20 million in compensation to slave-owners, not the enslaved, across the Caribbean, the Cape and Mauritius; most freed people first served an 'apprenticeship'.

How long did Queen Victoria reign?

Her 63 years and 216 days stood as the record until Elizabeth II passed it in 2015. She was eighteen when she came to the throne in 1837.

Who designed the Crystal Palace that housed the Great Exhibition of 1851?

Joseph Paxton. Paxton, head gardener at Chatsworth, drew on his experience of building glasshouses for the Duke of Devonshire; his iron-and-glass design went from sketch to opening in under a year, on 1 May 1851.

Florence Nightingale's famous nursing work in the Crimean War was done at a military hospital in which place?

Scutari is modern Üsküdar in Istanbul, across the Bosporus from the old city. Her night rounds earned her the nickname 'The Lady with the Lamp'.

The 'canonical five' Jack the Ripper murders took place in which London district in 1888?

Whitechapel. The canonical five victims, from Mary Ann Nichols in August 1888 to Mary Jane Kelly in November, were killed in or around Whitechapel; the police 'Whitechapel murders' file ran to eleven killings by 1891.

Emmeline Pankhurst founded the militant Women's Social and Political Union in which year?

1903. Pankhurst founded the WSPU at her Manchester home in October 1903 under the motto 'Deeds, not words'; its members became the 'suffragettes', a name the Daily Mail coined in 1906 as a jibe.

Suffragette Emily Davison died after stepping in front of the king's horse at which 1913 race?

The Epsom Derby. On 4 June 1913 Davison ducked under the rails at Tattenham Corner and was struck by George V's horse Anmer; she died of her injuries four days later.

How many casualties did the British Army suffer on the first day of the Somme, 1 July 1916?

57,470. The British Army recorded 57,470 casualties on 1 July 1916, of whom 19,240 were killed, its worst day ever; the battle dragged on until November for an advance of a few miles.

Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 in order to marry which American divorcee?

Wallis Simpson. Edward gave up the throne on 11 December 1936 to marry the twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson; he had reigned under a year and was never crowned, and his brother became George VI.

What was the codename of the Dunkirk evacuation of May and June 1940?

Operation Dynamo. Named for the dynamo room at Dover Castle where it was planned, the evacuation lifted more than 338,000 Allied soldiers off the beaches between 26 May and 4 June 1940 using over 800 vessels.

From 7 September 1940, London was bombed by the Luftwaffe on how many of the following 57 nights?

56. From 7 September 1940 London was bombed on 56 of the next 57 nights; the Blitz lasted until May 1941, and at its peak 177,000 people sheltered in Underground stations in a single night.

Which Labour health minister drove the creation of the National Health Service after the 1945 election?

The service launched on 5 July 1948. Bevan famously said he had won over the doctors by stuffing their mouths with gold.

Winston Churchill won which award in 1953?

The Nobel Prize in Literature. Churchill won the 1953 Nobel Prize in Literature, cited for his mastery of historical and biographical description and for his oratory, while serving his second term as prime minister.

How many days did the Falklands War of 1982 last?

Argentina invaded on 2 April and surrendered on 14 June. Margaret Thatcher's popularity soared and she won a landslide the next year.

A journalist from which country gave Margaret Thatcher the nickname 'the Iron Lady'?

The Soviet Union. The Soviet army newspaper Red Star called her 'the Iron Lady' in January 1976 after a speech attacking Moscow; intended as an insult, the name was one she happily adopted.

The Good Friday Agreement, which ended most Troubles violence, was signed on 10 April of which year?

1998. The Belfast or Good Friday Agreement was signed on 10 April 1998 and approved by referendums on both sides of the Irish border on 22 May 1998.

At what time and date did the United Kingdom formally leave the European Union?

11 pm, 31 January 2020. The UK left at 11 pm GMT on 31 January 2020, midnight in Brussels; an eleven-month transition period followed until the trade deal took effect on 1 January 2021.

Which 1120 shipwreck killed Henry I's heir William Adelin and set up the succession crisis?

The White Ship. The White Ship sank off Barfleur in November 1120, drowning William Adelin; Henry made his barons swear to accept his daughter Matilda, but they backed Stephen when Henry died in 1135.

The 12th-century civil war between Stephen and Matilda is known by what name?

The Anarchy. The civil war of 1135–53 between Stephen and Matilda is known as the Anarchy, when nobles threw up unlicensed 'adulterine' castles; it ended with the Treaty of Wallingford recognising Matilda's son Henry as heir.

In which year did Edward I expel the Jews from England?

1290. Edward I's Edict of Expulsion of 18 July 1290 ordered all Jews out of England; the 1275 Statute of the Jewry had already banned them from money-lending, and they were not readmitted until 1656.

Which nation signed an alliance with England in 1373 that is claimed as the world's oldest still in force?

Portugal. The Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373, sealed in London under Edward III, was reinforced by the 1386 Treaty of Windsor and is claimed as the world's oldest alliance still in force.

Roughly how many English people may have died in the Great Famine of 1315–1317?

Half a million. Estimates suggest the Great Famine of 1315–17 killed up to half a million people in England, more than 10 per cent of the population, three decades before the Black Death.

Which Welsh prince declared himself Prince of Wales in 1400 in the last major Welsh rising against English rule?

Owain Glyndŵr. Glyndŵr was proclaimed Prince of Wales by his supporters on 16 September 1400; the revolt peaked in 1405 and faded after Harlech Castle fell to the future Henry V's forces in 1409.

In the South Sea Bubble of 1720, the company's share price rose from £130 to roughly what before it collapsed?

£1,000. South Sea shares climbed from about £130 in January 1720 to more than £1,000 by August before collapsing; Robert Walpole's handling of the scandal launched the career that made him de facto first prime minister.

In reaction to the 1819 Peterloo Massacre, Lord Liverpool's government passed which repressive laws?

The Six Acts. Passed in December 1819, the Six Acts banned military-style drilling, outlawed public meetings of more than 50 people without permission and extended stamp duty to radical newspapers.

In which year did the Chartists issue the People's Charter demanding manhood suffrage and secret ballots?

1838. The People's Charter was published in May 1838 by the London Working Men's Association, with William Lovett as its main drafter, channelling anger that the 1832 Reform Act had left working men without the vote.

Whose famous wartime report laid out the plan for a universal welfare state and NHS?

William Beveridge. The 1942 Beveridge Report proposed a universal welfare state to fight the 'five giants' of want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness; all major parties endorsed it, and Attlee's government largely enacted it after 1945.

Roughly what fraction of the British economy did the Attlee government nationalise?

One fifth. The Attlee government took about 20 per cent of the economy into public ownership, beginning with the Bank of England, coal and civil aviation in 1946 and ending with iron and steel in 1951.

Which French president vetoed Britain's applications to join the Common Market in 1963 and 1967?

Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle vetoed Britain's EEC applications in January 1963 and November 1967; Britain finally joined in 1973 under Edward Heath and voted to stay in the 1975 referendum.

The 1997 Scottish devolution referendum was held on the 700th anniversary of which battle?

Stirling Bridge. The referendum was held on 11 September 1997, exactly 700 years after William Wallace's victory at Stirling Bridge on 11 September 1297; Scots voted overwhelmingly yes, and Wales narrowly approved its Assembly a week later.

By what margin did Scotland vote to remain in the UK in the 2014 independence referendum?

55% to 45%. On 18 September 2014 Scotland voted 55.3 per cent to 44.7 per cent to stay in the UK; Alex Salmond resigned as First Minister and Nicola Sturgeon succeeded him.