Timelines Wales (Cymru)
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Lonely Planet: https://www.lonelyplanet.com/wales
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)
589 Mar 1, Saint David (b.~500), Welsh Bishop, died about this time. He was later regarded as a saint and as the patron saint of Wales. The Annales Cambriae has his death at 601, which would move his birth date forward. His mother was Non (also Nonna or Nonnita), according to Christian tradition.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_David)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Non)
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)
1175 William de Braose (1130-1211), a court favorite of King John of England, carried out the Abergavenny Massacre, luring three Welsh princes and other Welsh leaders to their deaths.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_de_Braose,_4th_Lord_of_Bramber)
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)
1210 William de Braose fled Wales disguised as a beggar, to France. His wife and eldest son were captured and left to die in Corfe Castle.
(Econ, 12/20/14, p.34)(http://tinyurl.com/m5t6tvs)
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)
1282 Dec 11, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd (b.~1223), the last prince of an independent Wales, died after he was lured into a trap and killed at the Battle of Orewin Bridge by forces under Edward I.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llywelyn_the_Last)(Econ, 11/24/12, p.63)
1283-1289 Conwy Castle was built by Edward I during his conquest of Wales. It was constructed as part of a wider project to create the walled town of Conwy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conwy_Castle)(SSFC, 1/27/13, p.N6)
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)
1580 In Wales the Plas Mawr house was the first Welsh to be built within the English enclave of Conwy. The town of Conwy was built in the 1280s to give Edward I a toehold in Wales.
(SSFC, 1/8/17, p.F3)
1633 Mar 1, George Herbert (b.1593), Welsh-born priest and poet, died. In 2013 John Drury authored “Music at Midnight: The Life and Poetry of George Herbert."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Herbert)(Econ, 8/31/13, p.72)
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 privateer Sir Henry Morgan (1635-1688) landed at Panama City and attacked the city the following day.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Morgan)
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. It was managed from its earliest years by the Guest family. In 1900 it was purchased by a nuts and bolts company run by Arthur Keen. Shortly afterwards Keen bought Nettlefolds, a maker of screws and fasteners. By 1902 the firm, known as Guest, Keen & Nettlefolds Ltd., was the world's largest producer of nails. In 1986 “Guest Keen and Nettlefolds" became GKN. In 1987 Edgar Jones authored "A History of GKN." Volume 2 was published in 1990. By 2004 GKN PLC had become a major auto parts supplier and had a new aerospace division.
(WSJ, 3/16/04, p.A1,8)(Econ, 6/9/12, p.61)
1771 May 14, Robert Owen (d.1858), English factory owner, socialist, was born in Newtown, Wales.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Owen)
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)
1882 The coal-carrying ship Magdala was lost while sailing from Wales to Indonesia. Wreckage of the ship was believed found on May 19, 2015.
(AP, 5/3/18)
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 in Glamorgan as Richard Jenkins.
(www.richardburton.com/life_25.htm)(Econ, 11/3/12, p.84)
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)
1940 Sep 26, W.H. Davies (b.1871), a Welsh poet, died in England. He had lived the life of a hobo in America and authored “Autobiography of a Supertramp" (1908).
(Econ, 8/31/13, p.14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._H._Davies)
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)
1948 Jul 5, Britain's National Health Service Act went into effect, providing government-financed medical and dental care. Aneurin Bevan, Welsh Labour minister of health, was its political founder. The first NHS patient was treated at Trafford hospital near Manchester.
(AP, 7/5/98)(Econ, 5/7/11, p.62)
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)
1978 The Barnett Formula, devised by Joel Barnett, was introduced as mechanism used by The Treasury in the UK to adjust the amounts of public expenditure allocated to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales automatically to reflect changes in spending levels allocated to public services in England, England and Wales or Great Britain, as appropriate.
(Econ, 10/26/13, p.65)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnett_formula)
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)
1985 Female genital mutilation, intentionally altering or injuring female genital organs for non-medical reasons, was made a crime in England and Wales. The law was extended in 2003 to make it an offence for British nationals or permanent residents to carry out FGM abroad or seek FGM abroad, even where it is legal.
(AFP, 3/21/14)
1993 The Welsh Language Act established a Board having the function of promoting and facilitating the use of the Welsh language.
(www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1993/38/introduction)
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)
2010 Feb 25, Prosecutors in England and Wales received fresh guidelines on assisted suicide that reduce the likelihood of people facing criminal charges for helping ailing loved ones to die.
(AFP, 2/25/10)
2011 Jun 2, In Britain an explosion at a Chevron oil refinery in Pembroke, Wales, killed for contractors.
(SFC, 6/3/11, p.A2)
2011 Sep 15, In Britain’s south Wales a mine flooded at the Gleision Colliery near Swansea. 4 miners died after being trapped by the flooding.
(AFP, 9/16/11)
2012 Jan 7, British developers said they are planning to create a luxury holiday resort in rural Wales designed specifically for Chinese tourists, with the aim of bringing 20,000 to the country each year.
(AFP, 1/7/12)
2012 Jul 25, The Olympics kicked off with a women's football match between Britain and New Zealand in Cardiff. The match in the Welsh capital comes two days before the July 27 opening ceremony at the main London stadium but marks the competitive sporting debut for the Games.
(Reuters, 7/25/12)
2012 Nov 27, British police found the body of an elderly woman in a flooded home in the Welsh city of St. Asaph. Sustained wet weather kept many areas of Britain under water.
(SFC, 11/28/12, p.A2)
2013 Mar 10, Welsh-born Princess Lilian (b.1915) died in her Stockholm home. Lilian Davies met Sweden's Prince Bertil (d.1997) in 1943, but his obligations to the throne and her status as a divorced commoner prevented them from making their love public. In 1976 the new king finally gave them approval to marry.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Jul 13, British reservists Lance Corporals Craig Roberts and Edward Maher and Corporal James Dunsby, died after an arduous march in rugged terrain on the Brecon Beacons, a remote area of central Wales on one of the hottest days of the year. On March 2, 2016, British health and safety officials said they would give the Ministry of Defense (MoD) a "Crown Censure" over the deaths during the test for the elite Special Air Service (SAS).
(AP, 3/2/16)
2013 Sep 25, British police said they have arrested three more people as part of a long-running investigation into a suspected slavery ring in Wales, bringing the total number of arrests to seven.
(AP, 9/25/13)
2014 Jan 10, A new analysis of British census figures said almost one in 10 babies and toddlers in England and Wales are Muslim, illustrating the growth of the minority community.
(AFP, 1/10/14)
2014 Mar 12, Stephen Power (29) from Cardiff in Wales was reported to be one of the first trauma patients in the world to have a procedure in which 3D printing was used at every stage.
(AFP, 3/12/14)
2014 Mar 29, Gay couples across England and Wales said "I do" as a law authorizing same-sex marriage came into effect at midnight, the final stage in a long fight for equality.
(AFP, 3/29/14)
2014 Sep 4, NATO leaders converged in Wales for a high-stakes summit also focused on the crisis in Ukraine and next steps in Afghanistan.
(AP, 9/4/14)
2014 Sep 5, NATO leaders meeting in Wales approved plans to create a rapid response force headquartered in Eastern Europe that could quickly mobilize if an alliance country in the region were to come under attack.
(AP, 9/5/14)
2014 Nov 6, In Wales Cerys Marie Yemm (22) died from injuries at Sirhowy Arms Hotel, a homeless hostel in Argoed, near Blackwood. Her suspected attacker died after he was Tasered by police when they arrived following a report a man was attacking a woman at the hotel. The BBC reported that Yemm was "murdered in an act of cannibalism", and had been in a relationship with the suspect Matthew Williams (34).
(AFP, 11/7/14)
2015 Jan 14, In Wales Zack Davies struck Sarandev Bhambra (24), a Sikh trainee dentist, with a foot-long blade in a supermarket in Mold. Bhambra suffered “life-changing" injuries. On June 25 Davies was convicted of attempted murder.
(http://tinyurl.com/oc5besx)(SFC, 6/26/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 2, Motorists in England and Wales faced tougher penalties for driving under the influence of drugs as new laws took effect. Drivers will be prosecuted if they are caught exceeding new legal limits for eight illegal drugs and eight prescription drugs.
(AFP, 3/2/15)
2015 Aug 2, A small town in north Wales appointed its first resident jester for over 700 years, naming him in an elaborate medieval ceremony. Russel Erwood was officially dubbed Erwyd le Fol (French for 'fool') during an event in the main square in Conwy.
(AFP, 8/3/15)
2015 Oct 1, A smoking ban went into effect in Emngland and Wales against people in vehicles with children.
(SFC, 10/2/15, p.A2)
2017 May 4, Electoral contests were held for local councils in Scotland, Wales and many parts of England, as well as mayoral competitions in several cities. PM Theresa May's Conservatives scored big gains in the local elections.
(AP, 5/5/17)
2017 Sep 20, Two men were arrested in Newport, Wales, over last week's London Underground terror attack at Parsons Green station in which 30 people were injured. A 25-year-old man was arrested in the same city a day earlier bringing the total number of people in custody to five.
(AFP, 9/20/17)
2017 Nov 7, Carl Sargeant (49), a Welsh politician who resigned from his post in the Welsh government last week after allegations of misconduct, died suddenly. Sargeant, a member of the Labour Party, was one of a number of political figures caught up in a sexual harassment scandal roiling British politics.
(AP, 11/7/17)
2018 Mar 2, Welsh teen Lloyd Gunton (17) was sentenced to at least 11 years in prison after being convicted of plotting an Islamic State-inspired attack on various targets including a Justin Bieber concert last June 17.
(AP, 3/3/18)
2019 Jan 17, Japan-based Hitachi said it has suspended work on a major new nuclear power station, the Horizon Project, located in Wylfa, on the Welsh island of Anglesey, because it had been unable to agree on financing with the UK government. Hitachi said it will also suspend work on another site located in England.
(AP, 1/17/19)
2019 Jan 21, Cardiff City's new soccer star Emiliano Sala (28) was on board a light aircraft that disappeared en route to the Welsh capital for his club debut.
(Reuters, 1/22/19)
2019 Dec 31, In England and Wales a new rule took effect allowing heterosexual couples to choose civil partnerships instead of marriage.
(SFC, 1/1/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 18, Wales closed its schools due to the coronavirus pandemic. Scotland and Wales soon followed.
(Econ, 3/21/20, p.17)
2020 Mar 25, Britain’s Prince Charles (71) of Wales became the latest high-profile infection of a pandemic that has infiltrated all walks of life and paralyzed a continent.
(AP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 31, The death toll in England from the coronavirus outbreak rose 29% to 1,651. Scotland said 60 people had died. Wales said 69 people had died.
(Reuters, 3/31/20)
2020 Oct 14, Wales announced that it intended to ban people living in areas with high rates of COVID-19 infections in the rest of the United Kingdom from entering the country, in a bid to prevent the spread of the disease.
(Reuters, 10/14/20)
2020 Oct 19, Wales said it would impose a 2-week sharp "firebreak" lockdown from Oct. 23 in which everybody apart from essential workers would have to stay at home.
(Reuters, 10/19/20)
2020 Oct 24, A police force in England says it will try to stop people from leaving Wales, which has started a 17-day lockdown to slow a surging rate of coronavirus infections.
(AP, 10/24/20)
2020 Nov 20, Jan Morris, British author, journalist and transgender movement leader, died in Wales. A procedure in 1972 permanently altered her body. Her books included the best-selling memoir "Conundrum" (1974).
(SSFC, 11/22/20, p.C7)(Econ., 11/28/20, p.82)
2020 Nov 23, It was reported that Wales-based DST Innovations plans to build a new facility in West Virginia that is expected to create 1,000 new manufacturing and technology jobs.
(AP, 11/23/20)
2021 May 6, UK government figures showed that alcohol-related deaths in England and Wales jumped by a fifth last year to reach their highest level in two decades.
(AP, 5/6/21)
Return to home
Lonely Planet: https://www.lonelyplanet.com/wales
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)
589 Mar 1, Saint David (b.~500), Welsh Bishop, died about this time. He was later regarded as a saint and as the patron saint of Wales. The Annales Cambriae has his death at 601, which would move his birth date forward. His mother was Non (also Nonna or Nonnita), according to Christian tradition.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_David)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Non)
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)
1175 William de Braose (1130-1211), a court favorite of King John of England, carried out the Abergavenny Massacre, luring three Welsh princes and other Welsh leaders to their deaths.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_de_Braose,_4th_Lord_of_Bramber)
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)
1210 William de Braose fled Wales disguised as a beggar, to France. His wife and eldest son were captured and left to die in Corfe Castle.
(Econ, 12/20/14, p.34)(http://tinyurl.com/m5t6tvs)
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)
1282 Dec 11, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd (b.~1223), the last prince of an independent Wales, died after he was lured into a trap and killed at the Battle of Orewin Bridge by forces under Edward I.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llywelyn_the_Last)(Econ, 11/24/12, p.63)
1283-1289 Conwy Castle was built by Edward I during his conquest of Wales. It was constructed as part of a wider project to create the walled town of Conwy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conwy_Castle)(SSFC, 1/27/13, p.N6)
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)
1580 In Wales the Plas Mawr house was the first Welsh to be built within the English enclave of Conwy. The town of Conwy was built in the 1280s to give Edward I a toehold in Wales.
(SSFC, 1/8/17, p.F3)
1633 Mar 1, George Herbert (b.1593), Welsh-born priest and poet, died. In 2013 John Drury authored “Music at Midnight: The Life and Poetry of George Herbert."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Herbert)(Econ, 8/31/13, p.72)
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 privateer Sir Henry Morgan (1635-1688) landed at Panama City and attacked the city the following day.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Morgan)
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. It was managed from its earliest years by the Guest family. In 1900 it was purchased by a nuts and bolts company run by Arthur Keen. Shortly afterwards Keen bought Nettlefolds, a maker of screws and fasteners. By 1902 the firm, known as Guest, Keen & Nettlefolds Ltd., was the world's largest producer of nails. In 1986 “Guest Keen and Nettlefolds" became GKN. In 1987 Edgar Jones authored "A History of GKN." Volume 2 was published in 1990. By 2004 GKN PLC had become a major auto parts supplier and had a new aerospace division.
(WSJ, 3/16/04, p.A1,8)(Econ, 6/9/12, p.61)
1771 May 14, Robert Owen (d.1858), English factory owner, socialist, was born in Newtown, Wales.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Owen)
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)
1882 The coal-carrying ship Magdala was lost while sailing from Wales to Indonesia. Wreckage of the ship was believed found on May 19, 2015.
(AP, 5/3/18)
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 in Glamorgan as Richard Jenkins.
(www.richardburton.com/life_25.htm)(Econ, 11/3/12, p.84)
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)
1940 Sep 26, W.H. Davies (b.1871), a Welsh poet, died in England. He had lived the life of a hobo in America and authored “Autobiography of a Supertramp" (1908).
(Econ, 8/31/13, p.14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._H._Davies)
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)
1948 Jul 5, Britain's National Health Service Act went into effect, providing government-financed medical and dental care. Aneurin Bevan, Welsh Labour minister of health, was its political founder. The first NHS patient was treated at Trafford hospital near Manchester.
(AP, 7/5/98)(Econ, 5/7/11, p.62)
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)
1978 The Barnett Formula, devised by Joel Barnett, was introduced as mechanism used by The Treasury in the UK to adjust the amounts of public expenditure allocated to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales automatically to reflect changes in spending levels allocated to public services in England, England and Wales or Great Britain, as appropriate.
(Econ, 10/26/13, p.65)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnett_formula)
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)
1985 Female genital mutilation, intentionally altering or injuring female genital organs for non-medical reasons, was made a crime in England and Wales. The law was extended in 2003 to make it an offence for British nationals or permanent residents to carry out FGM abroad or seek FGM abroad, even where it is legal.
(AFP, 3/21/14)
1993 The Welsh Language Act established a Board having the function of promoting and facilitating the use of the Welsh language.
(www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1993/38/introduction)
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)
2010 Feb 25, Prosecutors in England and Wales received fresh guidelines on assisted suicide that reduce the likelihood of people facing criminal charges for helping ailing loved ones to die.
(AFP, 2/25/10)
2011 Jun 2, In Britain an explosion at a Chevron oil refinery in Pembroke, Wales, killed for contractors.
(SFC, 6/3/11, p.A2)
2011 Sep 15, In Britain’s south Wales a mine flooded at the Gleision Colliery near Swansea. 4 miners died after being trapped by the flooding.
(AFP, 9/16/11)
2012 Jan 7, British developers said they are planning to create a luxury holiday resort in rural Wales designed specifically for Chinese tourists, with the aim of bringing 20,000 to the country each year.
(AFP, 1/7/12)
2012 Jul 25, The Olympics kicked off with a women's football match between Britain and New Zealand in Cardiff. The match in the Welsh capital comes two days before the July 27 opening ceremony at the main London stadium but marks the competitive sporting debut for the Games.
(Reuters, 7/25/12)
2012 Nov 27, British police found the body of an elderly woman in a flooded home in the Welsh city of St. Asaph. Sustained wet weather kept many areas of Britain under water.
(SFC, 11/28/12, p.A2)
2013 Mar 10, Welsh-born Princess Lilian (b.1915) died in her Stockholm home. Lilian Davies met Sweden's Prince Bertil (d.1997) in 1943, but his obligations to the throne and her status as a divorced commoner prevented them from making their love public. In 1976 the new king finally gave them approval to marry.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Jul 13, British reservists Lance Corporals Craig Roberts and Edward Maher and Corporal James Dunsby, died after an arduous march in rugged terrain on the Brecon Beacons, a remote area of central Wales on one of the hottest days of the year. On March 2, 2016, British health and safety officials said they would give the Ministry of Defense (MoD) a "Crown Censure" over the deaths during the test for the elite Special Air Service (SAS).
(AP, 3/2/16)
2013 Sep 25, British police said they have arrested three more people as part of a long-running investigation into a suspected slavery ring in Wales, bringing the total number of arrests to seven.
(AP, 9/25/13)
2014 Jan 10, A new analysis of British census figures said almost one in 10 babies and toddlers in England and Wales are Muslim, illustrating the growth of the minority community.
(AFP, 1/10/14)
2014 Mar 12, Stephen Power (29) from Cardiff in Wales was reported to be one of the first trauma patients in the world to have a procedure in which 3D printing was used at every stage.
(AFP, 3/12/14)
2014 Mar 29, Gay couples across England and Wales said "I do" as a law authorizing same-sex marriage came into effect at midnight, the final stage in a long fight for equality.
(AFP, 3/29/14)
2014 Sep 4, NATO leaders converged in Wales for a high-stakes summit also focused on the crisis in Ukraine and next steps in Afghanistan.
(AP, 9/4/14)
2014 Sep 5, NATO leaders meeting in Wales approved plans to create a rapid response force headquartered in Eastern Europe that could quickly mobilize if an alliance country in the region were to come under attack.
(AP, 9/5/14)
2014 Nov 6, In Wales Cerys Marie Yemm (22) died from injuries at Sirhowy Arms Hotel, a homeless hostel in Argoed, near Blackwood. Her suspected attacker died after he was Tasered by police when they arrived following a report a man was attacking a woman at the hotel. The BBC reported that Yemm was "murdered in an act of cannibalism", and had been in a relationship with the suspect Matthew Williams (34).
(AFP, 11/7/14)
2015 Jan 14, In Wales Zack Davies struck Sarandev Bhambra (24), a Sikh trainee dentist, with a foot-long blade in a supermarket in Mold. Bhambra suffered “life-changing" injuries. On June 25 Davies was convicted of attempted murder.
(http://tinyurl.com/oc5besx)(SFC, 6/26/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 2, Motorists in England and Wales faced tougher penalties for driving under the influence of drugs as new laws took effect. Drivers will be prosecuted if they are caught exceeding new legal limits for eight illegal drugs and eight prescription drugs.
(AFP, 3/2/15)
2015 Aug 2, A small town in north Wales appointed its first resident jester for over 700 years, naming him in an elaborate medieval ceremony. Russel Erwood was officially dubbed Erwyd le Fol (French for 'fool') during an event in the main square in Conwy.
(AFP, 8/3/15)
2015 Oct 1, A smoking ban went into effect in Emngland and Wales against people in vehicles with children.
(SFC, 10/2/15, p.A2)
2017 May 4, Electoral contests were held for local councils in Scotland, Wales and many parts of England, as well as mayoral competitions in several cities. PM Theresa May's Conservatives scored big gains in the local elections.
(AP, 5/5/17)
2017 Sep 20, Two men were arrested in Newport, Wales, over last week's London Underground terror attack at Parsons Green station in which 30 people were injured. A 25-year-old man was arrested in the same city a day earlier bringing the total number of people in custody to five.
(AFP, 9/20/17)
2017 Nov 7, Carl Sargeant (49), a Welsh politician who resigned from his post in the Welsh government last week after allegations of misconduct, died suddenly. Sargeant, a member of the Labour Party, was one of a number of political figures caught up in a sexual harassment scandal roiling British politics.
(AP, 11/7/17)
2018 Mar 2, Welsh teen Lloyd Gunton (17) was sentenced to at least 11 years in prison after being convicted of plotting an Islamic State-inspired attack on various targets including a Justin Bieber concert last June 17.
(AP, 3/3/18)
2019 Jan 17, Japan-based Hitachi said it has suspended work on a major new nuclear power station, the Horizon Project, located in Wylfa, on the Welsh island of Anglesey, because it had been unable to agree on financing with the UK government. Hitachi said it will also suspend work on another site located in England.
(AP, 1/17/19)
2019 Jan 21, Cardiff City's new soccer star Emiliano Sala (28) was on board a light aircraft that disappeared en route to the Welsh capital for his club debut.
(Reuters, 1/22/19)
2019 Dec 31, In England and Wales a new rule took effect allowing heterosexual couples to choose civil partnerships instead of marriage.
(SFC, 1/1/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 18, Wales closed its schools due to the coronavirus pandemic. Scotland and Wales soon followed.
(Econ, 3/21/20, p.17)
2020 Mar 25, Britain’s Prince Charles (71) of Wales became the latest high-profile infection of a pandemic that has infiltrated all walks of life and paralyzed a continent.
(AP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 31, The death toll in England from the coronavirus outbreak rose 29% to 1,651. Scotland said 60 people had died. Wales said 69 people had died.
(Reuters, 3/31/20)
2020 Oct 14, Wales announced that it intended to ban people living in areas with high rates of COVID-19 infections in the rest of the United Kingdom from entering the country, in a bid to prevent the spread of the disease.
(Reuters, 10/14/20)
2020 Oct 19, Wales said it would impose a 2-week sharp "firebreak" lockdown from Oct. 23 in which everybody apart from essential workers would have to stay at home.
(Reuters, 10/19/20)
2020 Oct 24, A police force in England says it will try to stop people from leaving Wales, which has started a 17-day lockdown to slow a surging rate of coronavirus infections.
(AP, 10/24/20)
2020 Nov 20, Jan Morris, British author, journalist and transgender movement leader, died in Wales. A procedure in 1972 permanently altered her body. Her books included the best-selling memoir "Conundrum" (1974).
(SSFC, 11/22/20, p.C7)(Econ., 11/28/20, p.82)
2020 Nov 23, It was reported that Wales-based DST Innovations plans to build a new facility in West Virginia that is expected to create 1,000 new manufacturing and technology jobs.
(AP, 11/23/20)
2021 May 6, UK government figures showed that alcohol-related deaths in England and Wales jumped by a fifth last year to reach their highest level in two decades.
(AP, 5/6/21)
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