Timeline Wales

Timelines Wales

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Lonely Planet: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/europe/wales/history.htm
Timeline: http://britannia.com/celtic/wales/timeline/
UofL: http://www.louisville.edu/library/ekstrom/govpubs/international/uk/waleshist.html

A division of the United Kingdom in SW Great Britain. In medieval times it was known as Cambria. The native Welsh language is Cymraeg. The patron saint is St. David (Saint Dewi). The national flower is the leek.
(WUD, 1994, p.1605)(WSJ, 6/10/97, p.A16)(SFEC, 7/23/00, Z1 p.2)
Wales contained a third of the entire world's supply of coal.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, p.T4)
Arrows from Welsh longbows pierced armor at 400 yards and ended the age of knights in shining armor.
(SFEC, 5/31/98, Z1 p.8)

510-601    Saint Dewi, Welsh bishop.
    (WUD, 1994, p.369)

700-800    King Offa decreed that an earthen barrier be built along the border between Wales and his kingdom of Mercia. Llwybr Clawdd Offa opened as a hiking trail in 1971.
    (SSFC, 4/7/02, p.C10)

1067        Chepstow Castle was built in Wales to protect a strategic crossing of the River Wye and for the defense of the Wye Valley near the English border by the troops of William the Conqueror.
    (SFEC, 5/25/97, p.T5)(SFEC, 5/10/98, p.T4)

1169        Dec, Owain Gwynedd, ruler of North Wales in the twelfth century, died. He had nineteen children, six of whom were legitimate. Madoc, one of the bastard sons, was born in a castle at Dolwyddelan, a village at the head of the Lledr valley between Betws-y-Coed and Blaenau Ffestiniog. The brothers fought amongst themselves for the right to rule Gwynedd. Madoc, although being brave and adventurous, was a man of peace. He and his brother, Riryd, left the quay on the Afon (River) Ganol at Aber-Kerrik-Gwynan, on the North Wales Coast (now Rhos-on-Sea) in two ships, the Gorn Gwynant and the Pedr Sant. They sailed west, leaving the coast of Ireland 'farre north' and landed in Mobile Bay, in what we now know as Alabama in the USA.
    (www.madoc1170.com/home.htm)

1170        Madoc, a Welsh prince, is reputed to have discovered America. Many believe that he and his followers initially settled in the Georgia/Tennessee/ Kentucky area, eventually moving to the Upper Missouri, where they were assimilated into a tribe of the Mandans. New evidence is also emerging about a small band of Madoc's followers who remained in the Ohio area and are called “White Madoc.”
    (www.madoc1170.com/home.htm)

1200-1250    The Longbow was developed from a Welsh bow that had been used against the English. During the numerous skirmishes with the Welsh, the English had witnessed the power of this weapon. An arrow from this weapon had a maximum range of 400 yards, could penetrate four inches of wood at closer range, and could kill an armored knight at 200 yards. The British would use it to destroy a French army at Crecy in 1346. This would be the world's premiere weapon until the development of cannon (artillery) circa 1450.
    (www.archers.org/default.asp?section=History&page=longbow)

1240        Apr 11, Llywelyn ab Iorwerth the Great, monarch of Wales (1194-1240), died.
    (MC, 4/11/02)

1248        Carreg Cennen, a castle on a hilltop above Trapp, Wales, was built as a Welsh stronghold.
    (SFEC, 5/10/98, p.T4)

1274        Upon Edward‘s succession to the English throne, he demanded Llywelyn ap Gruffydd pay homage to him before he recognized him as Prince of Wales.
    (HNQ, 7/14/00)

1276        Nov 12, Suspicious of the intentions of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, the Prince of Wales, English King Edward I resolved to invade Wales. Edward decided to force Llywelyn ap Gruffydd into submission. Edward was aided by Llywelyn‘s brother Daffydd ap Gruffydd and Prince Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn of Powys—both of whom Llywelyn had expelled for plotting his assassination.
    (HNQ, 7/14/00)(HN, 11/12/00)

1277        King Edward of England invaded Wales. Edward was aided by Llywelyn ap Gruffydd’s brother Daffydd ap Gruffydd and Prince Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn of Powys—both of whom Llywelyn had expelled for plotting his assassination.
    (HN, 2/17/99)(HNQ, 7/14/00)

1278        Carreg Cennen, a castle on a hilltop above Trapp, Wales, fell to English hands.
    (SFEC, 5/10/98, p.T4)

1281        The Caernarfon castle in northern Wales was built by the English and served as a symbol of domination over the Welsh.
    (SFEC, 5/10/98, p.T4)

1301        Feb 7, Edward of Caernarion (later Edward II) became the 1st Prince of Wales.
    (MC, 2/7/02)

1330        Jun 15, Edward the Black Prince, the eldest son of Edward III and Prince of Wales (1343-1376), was born. He was the first Duke created in England, the Duke of Cornwall.
    (HN, 6/15/99)(MC, 6/15/02)

c1359-c1460    Owain Glyndwr (Owen Glendower), leader of a bloody revolt against Henry IV in 1400. The event was marked by a comet.
    (SFEC, 6/22/97, p.D2)

1376        Jun 8, Edward, "Black Prince" of Wales (46), son of King Edward of England, died.
    (MC, 6/8/02)

c1400        Owain Glyndwr (Owen Glendower) led the warriors of Gwynned, Wales, in a bloody revolt against the English. The event was marked by a comet.
    (SFEC, 6/22/97, p.D2)

1404        Owain Glyndwr (Owen Glendower) convened a parliament in Macchynlleth, Wales.
    (SFEC, 6/22/97, p.D2)

1457        Jan 28, Henry VII, 1st Tudor king of England (1485-1509), was born in Pembroke Castle, Wales.
    (www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/henry_vii_king.shtml)

1471        May 4, The Yorkists defeated the Lancastrians in the Battle of Tewkesbury between the English House of Lancaster and House of York. King Edward IV routed the forces of ex-queen Margaret. The Lancastrian forces were led by Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset. Edward, the 17-year-old prince of Wales, was killed at the battle of Tewkesbury.
    (MH, 12/96)(HN, 5/4/99)(www.britainexpress.com/History/battles/tewkesbury.htm)

1498        May, John Cabot began his 2nd transatlantic voyage. Richard Ameryk (1445-1503), a wealthy Welsh merchant, was the chief investor in Cabot's second transatlantic voyage. Five ships set sail for Newfoundland, but en route one ship was forced to return after being damaged in a storm. The rest were never heard from again. A theory, not widely held, suggests the Americas are named after his surname.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cabot)(Econ, 9/22/07, p.23)

1536        Although English conquest of Wales took place under the 1284 Statute of Rhuddlan, a formal Union did not occur until 1536, shortly after which Welsh law, which continued to be used in Wales after the conquest, was fully replaced by English law under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542. There was another Act of Union in 1542.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wales)(SFC, 7/23/97, p.A10)

1649        Feb 5, The Prince of Wales became king Charles II. Charles II (18), while living in exile at the Hague, was recently informed that his father was beheaded at Whitehall on Jan 30.
    (WSJ, 2/28/00, p.A36)(MC, 2/5/02)

1671        Jan 27, Welsh pirate Sir Henry Morgan (1635-1688) landed at Panama City.
    (WUD, 1994 p.931)(MC, 1/27/02)

1706        Pi, the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet, was 1st used as a mathematical symbol by William Jones of Wales. Pi represents the approximate ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter.
    (SFEC, 3/14/99, p.C5)(WSJ, 3/15/05, p.B1)

1707        May 1, Effective on this day Scotland and England, which already included Wales, were united by an act of Parliament to form Great Britain.
    (WSJ, 4/16/97, p.A13)(AP, 5/1/07)

1722        Feb 10, Black Bart (b.1682), Welsh pirate, died. He raided shipping off the Americas and West Africa between 1719 and 1722.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartholomew_Roberts)

1742-1803    Thomas Jones, Welsh landscapist. He traveled to Italy in 1776 and spent 7 years there filling sketchbooks. He later authored his "Memoirs."
    (Econ, 7/12/03, p.77)

1755        Jul 5, Sarah Siddons (d.1831), actress, was born at the Leg of Mutton Inn in Wales. She rose to fame as a protegee of Richard Brinsley Sheridan at the Drury Lane Theater and gained fame playing Lady Macbeth in Macbeth.
    (HN, 7/5/98)(WSJ, 7/27/99, p.A21)

1759        A group of 9 English merchants launched a new ironworks in Dowlais, Wales, using the regions abundant coal. By 1902 the firm, known as Guest, Keen & Nettlefolds Ltd., was the world's largest producer of nails. By 2004 GKN PLC had become a major auto parts supplier and had a new aerospace division. In 1987 Edgar Jones authored "A History of GKN." Volume 2 was published in 1990.
    (WSJ, 3/16/04, p.A1,8)

1797        Feb 22, The last invasion of Britain took place when some 1,400 Frenchmen landed at Fishguard, in Wales.
    (HN, 2/22/99)

1811        Feb 5, George, Prince of Wales, was named the Prince Regent due to the insanity of his father, Britain's King George III. George Augustus Frederick became prince regent after his father, George III, slipped permanently into dementia. In 1999 Saul David published "The Prince of Pleasure: The Prince of Wales and the Making of the Regency."
    (WSJ, 3/26/99, p.W10)(AP, 2/5/08)

1820        Jan 20, George III of England died and was succeeded by his son George IV (1762-1830), who as Prince of Wales had been regent for 9 years during his father’s insanity.
    (WUD, 1994, p.1678)

1841        Jan 28, Henry Morton Stanley was born and christened John Rowland to an unwed and impoverished mother in Wales. A leading explorer and colonizer of Africa, Stanley is best known for locating the missing British missionary and explorer David Livingstone in Central Africa in 1871. He was on assignment for the New York Herald and immortalized the moment he found Livingstone on November 11, 1871, with the words: "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" Stanley, who was adopted as a youth by Louisiana cotton merchant Henry Hope Stanley, served in both the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War and became an American citizen in the 1860s. Stanley resumed his British citizenship in 1892, served in Parliament from 1895-1900, was knighted in 1899 and died in London on May 10, 1904.
    (HNQ, 6/4/98)

1852        Lady Charlotte Guest took over the helm of Dowlais Iron Co. in Wales after her husband died. [see 1759]
    (SFC, 2/16/04, p.A1)

1865        In Argentina 153 settlers from Wales arrived on the ship Mimosa and founded the coastal city of Puerto Madryn, named after Sir Parry Madryn, a nobleman who assisted them.
    (SFEC, 5/9/99, Z1 p.6)

1866        The sailing ship Coya, a Welsh coal ship with passengers, wrecked near Pescadero, California.
    (SFC, 8/10/02, p.A13)

1867        May 13, Frank Brangwyn, painter, muralist, cartoonist (Willam Morris), was born in Wales.
    (MC, 5/13/02)

1867        The sailing ship Hellespont, a Welsh coal ship with passengers, wrecked near Pescadero, California.
    (SFC, 8/10/02, p.A13)

1871        Jul 3, William Henry Davies, Welsh poet, was born.
    (HN, 7/3/01)

1877        Henry Morton Stanley, a Welsh-born American explorer, emerged from the forests of Africa near the mouth of the Congo River. He had traced the river to its source. In 1878 he authored “Through the Dark Continent.”
    (SFEC, 9/27/98, BR p.1)(WSJ, 11/3/07, p.W8)

1883        The Treorchy Men’s Choir was established in the Rhondda Valley of Wales to keep miners out of trouble.
    (SFEC, 5/10/98, p.T5)

1886        Henry Stanley (1841-1904), Welsh-born journalist, led the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition to "rescue" Emin Pasha, the governor of Equatoria in the southern Sudan.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Morton_Stanley)

1888        Aug 15, The British soldier T.E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia for his military exploits against the Turks in World War I, was born in Tremadoc, Wales.
    (AP, 8/15/97)(HN, 8/15/98)

1900-1976     Richard Hughes, Welsh author and dramatist: "Middle age snuffs out more talent than ever wars or sudden deaths do."
    (AP, 8/1/98)

1902        Arthur Keen created Guest, Keen & Nettlefolds Ltd., after acquiring Dowlais Iron in Wales and Nettlefolds. The company became the world's largest producer of nails, nuts and bolts.
    (WSJ, 3/16/04, p.A8)

1905        Nov 26, George Emlyn Williams, Welsh actor and playwright (portrayed Charles Dickens), was born.
    (MC, 11/26/01)

1913        Oct 14, An explosion in a coal mine in Cardiff, Wales, killed 439.
    (MC, 10/14/01)

1913        Nearly 58 million tons of coal came up from the mines and South Wales produced one third of the world's coal exports. At its peak over 250,000 men were employed in the coal industry of South Wales.
    (SFEC, 5/10/98, p.T4)(www.cwmtillery.com/industry.htm)

1914        Oct 27, Dylan Thomas, British poet and author whose works included “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog,” was born in Swansea, Wales.
    (AP, 10/27/97)(HN, 10/27/98)

1916         Sep 13, Roald Dahl (d.1990), son of Norwegian immigrants, was born in Llandaff, Wales. He is best known for his children’s books such as "James and the Giant Peach."
    (www.bbc.co.uk/arts/books/author/dahl)

1916-1922    David Lloyd George of Wales served as the Prime Minister of Britain.
    (SFEC, 5/10/98, p.T4)

1920        Oct 31, Dick Francis, jockey and detective writer (Whip Hand, High Stakes), was born in Wales.
    (MC, 10/31/01)

1922        Feb 16, Geraint Evans, Welsh opera baritone (Knaben Wunderhorn, Falstaff), was born.
    (MC, 2/16/02)

1925        Nov 10, Richard Burton, Welsh actor famous for his roles in “The Spy who Came in From the Cold” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” was born.
    (HN, 11/10/98)

1925        William Randolph Hearst purchased the St. Donat's Castle in Wales along with 111 acres for £130,000.
    (SFEM, 10/24/99, p.22)

1927        Feb 8, Stanley Baker, actor (Concrete Jungle, Zorro, Zulu), was born in Ferndale, Wales.
    (MC, 2/8/02)

1928        Jun 17, Amelia Earhart embarked on a trans-Atlantic flight from Newfoundland to Wales with pilots Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon, becoming the first woman to make the trip as a passenger.
    (ON, 12/07, p.9)(AP, 6/17/08)

1928        Jun 18, Aviator Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean as she completed a flight from Newfoundland to Wales in about 21 hours as a passenger.
    (AP, 6/18/97)(HN, 6/18/98)(HNQ, 3/8/02)

1928        Jul 26, Bernice Rubens, Welsh novelist and filmmaker, was born.
    (HN, 7/26/01)

1933        Mar 29, The front page of the New York Evening Post said "Famine Grips Russia — Millions Dying." The report was by Welsh journalist Gareth Jones who had recently sneaked into Ukraine, at the height of a famine engineered by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. Jones was killed by bandits in 1935 while covering Japan's expansion into China. In 2009 the diaries of Jones were put on display for the first time in London.
    (AP, 11/13/09)

1936        Nov 7, Gwyneth Jones, soprano (Die Walkure, Isolde), was born, Pontnewyndd, Wales.
    (MC, 11/7/01)

1937        Dec 31, Anthony Hopkins, actor (Elephant Man, QB VII, Magic, Bounty, Silence of the Lambs), was born in Wales.
    (MC, 12/31/01)

1939        Mar 8, Robert Tear, tenor (Welsh Nat’l Opera 1970), was born in Barry, Wales.
    (MC, 3/8/02)

1939        Jul 17, Spencer Davis, vocalist (Spencer Davis Group-Gimme Some Lovin), was born in Wales.
    (MC, 7/17/02)

1940        Jun 7, Tom Jones, singer (What's New Pussycat), was born in Pontypridd, Wales.
    (SC, 6/7/02)

1941        Apr 13, Margaret Price, soprano (Pamlina-Die Zauberflote), was born in Tredegar, Wales.
    (MC, 4/13/02)

1941        The film “How Green Was My Valley” starred Roddy McDowall and was directed by John Ford. It won an Oscar for best picture. It was about a Welsh mining family.
    (SFEC, 3/23/97, DB p.39)(SFEC, 10/4/98, p.B10)(SFC, 10/9/98, p.C12)

1947        Dec 15, Arthur Machen (b.1863), Welsh author of classic horror stories, died.
    (WSJ, 10/30/07, p.D6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Machen)

1950        Feb 20, Welsh author-poet Dylan Thomas arrived in NYC for his 1st US poetry reading tour.
    (www.swansea.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=2488&articleaction=print)

1953        Nov 9, Welsh author-poet Dylan Thomas died in New York at age 39 during his poetry-reading blitz of the US.
    (SFEC, 5/25/97, p.T5)(AP, 11/9/97)

1956        Jan Morris, Welsh essayist and travel writer, authored her book “Coast to Coast” based on traveling around America in the early 1950s.
    (SSFC, 4/28/02, p.C3)

1961        Oct 31, Augustus Edwin John (b.1878), Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher, died. For a short time around 1910, he was an important exponent of Post-Impressionism in England. In 1974 Michael Holroyd authored the biography: “Augustus John.”
    (WSJ, 1/21/07, p.P9)

1966        Oct 21, More than 140 people, mostly children, were killed when a coal waste landslide engulfed a school and several houses in Aberfan, Wales.
    (AP, 10/21/08)

1969        Jul 1, Britain's Prince Charles was invested as the Prince of Wales.
    (AP, 7/1/99)

1971        Philip Jones Griffiths (1936-2008, Welsh photographer, published "Vietnam Inc," a collection of black-and-white photos from his 3 years there as a freelancer.
    (SSFM, 4/20/03, p.A15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Jones_Griffiths)

1977        Apr 1, Richard Booth proclaimed Hay-on-Wye, Wales, an independent kingdom with himself as king and his horse as prime minister. The Oxford graduate had purchased the 80-year-old Hay Castle and opened a 2nd hand bookstore in the town in 1961.
    (SSFC, 5/25/03, p.C8)(Econ, 12/24/05, p.84)(SFC, 5/10/07, p.E3)

1980        In Wales the Big Pit coal works at Blaenafon was shut down. In 1983 it reopened as a colliery museum.
    (SFEC, 5/10/98, p.T5)(http://tinyurl.com/3csn6y)

1982        Jun 21, Prince William, eldest son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, was born.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_William_of_Wales)

1984        Sep 15, Henry Charles Albert David, Prince of Wales, 3rd in British succession, was born.
    (www.princeofwales.gov.uk)

1996        Feb 15, The Sea Empress grounded off of Wales and spilled 18 million gallons (72,000 tons) of oil.
    (SFC, 11/20/02, p.A14)(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/uk_news/55393.stm)

1997        Sep 18, In Wales voters narrowly approved a referendum for partial self-government with 50.3% of the vote in which only 50% of the voters took part.
    (SFC, 9/19/97, p.A12)

1999        Apr 6, In Wales the 2.2 million voters were to elect a 60-member assembly. It would be responsible for distributing a $13 million grant from London. Labor took 28 of 60 seats, the nationalist Plaid Cymru took 17, the Conservatives got 9 and the Liberal Democrats got 6.
    (SFEC, 5/2/99, p.A28)(SFC, 5/8/99, p.A10)

1999        Charlotte Church (14), Welsh singer, made $10 million singing Classical Lite music.
    (WSJ, 3/9/00, p.A24)

2001        Nov 24, Mathew Hardman (17) killed widow Mabel Leyshon (90) at her home in the north Wales town of Llanfairpwll. Prosecutors later said he wanted to be a vampire. In 2002 Hardman was convicted of fatally stabbing Leyshon, cutting out her heart and drinking her blood.
    (AP, 8/2/02)

2004        Nov 18, Britain outlawed fox hunting in England and Wales as elected legislators used the 1949 Parliament Act to win a dramatic standoff with the House of Lords to ban the popular country sport.
    (AP, 11/18/04)(SFC, 11/19/04, p.A2)

2005        Feb 7, In England and Wales new laws came into effect that allow pubs, clubs and other drinking venues to apply to stay open 24 hours a day.
    (AP, 2/7/05)

2005        Sep 1, Turkey insisted that it has fulfilled conditions for EU membership, as foreign ministers of the 25-nation group started meeting in Wales to assess the predominantly Muslim nation's efforts to join the bloc.
    (AP, 9/2/05)

2005        Nov 23, In Britain and Wales the early pub closing times, that had governed drinking in Britain since their introduction during World War I, were set to end at midnight. The laws had required most pubs to close at 11 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 10:30 p.m. on Sundays. New rules allowed pubs, bars, shops, restaurants and clubs to apply to open any hours they like, although each license must be approved by local authorities.
    (AP, 11/23/05)

2006        Jan 8, A car ploughed into a group of 12 cyclists in North Wales, killing four and leaving four others seriously injured.
    (AFP, 1/8/06)

2006        May 19, Freddie Garrity (69), lead singer of the 1960s British pop band Freddie and the Dreamers, died in Wales.
    (AP, 5/19/07)

2007        May 25, British authorities said 4 people in north Wales have tested positive for a mild strain of bird flu, linked to the H7N2 low pathogenic avian influenza found in chickens.
    (AP, 5/25/07)

2007        Jul 26, A bull named Shambo was taken away from a Hindu monastery at Skanda Vale, Wales, ending a long and public battle between Hindus who revere bulls and authorities who said he must be killed because he had tested positive for tuberculosis.
    (AP, 7/28/07)

2007        Nov 4, Welshman Joe Calzaghe confirmed his status as boxing's best super-middleweight by unanimously outpointing Denmark's Mikkel Kessler in a triple world title fight at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
    (AFP, 11/4/07)

2008        Feb 19, The body of a teenage girl was found hanging in the woods of a Welsh village, and authorities said it was the 17th young suicide in just over a year near one town in South Wales.
    (AP, 2/20/08)

2008        Aug 10, Welshwoman Nicole Cooke handed Britain their first gold of the Beijing Olympic Games when she won the women's cycling road race.
    (AP, 8/10/08)

2008        Nov 20, The European Union formally recognized Welsh, which dates back to the 6th century, as a minority tongue. It became an official tongue in Wales in 1993, 450 years after British rulers gave it the boot in favor of English.
    (AP, 11/20/08)

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