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Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and ultimately to...
Timeline of Events
1721
4.4.1721
Sir Robert Walpole enters office as the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom under King George I.
1742
2.16.1742
Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, becomes British Prime Minister.
1743
2.14.1743
Henry Pelham becomes British Prime Minister.
1782
3.27.1782
Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
1830
11.22.1830
Charles Grey, (2nd Earl Grey), became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
1908
4.7.1908
H. H. Asquith of the Liberal Party takes office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, succeeding Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
1924
1.22.1924
Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
1943
5.19.1943
World War II: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt set Monday, May 1, 1944 as the date for the Normandy landings ("D-Day"). It would later be delayed over a month due to bad weather.
6.1.1943
British Overseas Airways Corporation Flight 777 is shot down over the Bay of Biscay by German Junkers Ju 88s, killing actor Leslie Howard and leading to speculation the downing was an attempt to kill British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
1945
7.16.1945
World War II: the leaders of the three Allied nations, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill, President of the United States Harry S Truman and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, meet in the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.
1947
7.10.1947
Muhammad Ali Jinnah is recommended as the first Governor-General of Pakistan by British Prime Minister Clement Attlee.
1955
4.5.1955
Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom amid indications of failing health.
1960
2.3.1960
British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan speaks of the "a wind of change" of increasing national consciousness blowing through colonial Africa, signalling that his Government was likely to support decolonisation.
1974
12.22.1974
The house of former British Prime Minister Ted Heath is attacked by members of the Provisional IRA.
1976
3.16.1976
British Prime Minister Harold Wilson resigns, citing personal reasons.
1978
9.7.1978
British Prime Minister James Callaghan announces that he will not call a general election for October, considered to be a major political blunder (see Winter of Discontent, United Kingdom general election, 1979)
1979
5.4.1979
Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
1984
10.12.1984
Brighton hotel bombing: The Provisional Irish Republican Army attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet. Thatcher escapes but the bomb kills five people and wounds 31.
1985
11.15.1985
The Anglo-Irish Agreement is signed at Hillsborough Castle by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald.
1987
7.29.1987
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President of France François Mitterrand sign the agreement to build a tunnel under the English Channel (Eurotunnel).
1990
11.22.1990
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher withdraws from the Conservative Party leadership election, confirming the end of her premiership.
1993
12.15.1993
History of Northern Ireland: The Downing Street Declaration is issued by British Prime Minister John Major and Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds.
1994
7.21.1994
Tony Blair is declared the winner of the leadership election of the British Labour Party, paving the way for him to become Prime Minister after the 1997 general election.
1998
11.26.1998
Tony Blair becomes the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to address the Republic of Ireland's parliament.