The Color Purple

The Color Purple Timeline

Year	Historical	Literary	Author
1822	Colony for freed slaves founded in Liberia	Thomas de Quincey, Confessions of an English Opium Eater
1823		Scott's Quentin Durward Hazlitt's Liber Amoris
1824	Combination Acts repealed, thus giving trade unions right to exist	Scott's Redgauntlet
1825	Stockton - Darlington Railway opens	Hazlitt's The Spirit of the Age
1826	Power looms destroyed by unemployed weavers Further attempts at Parliamentary reform defeated
1828	Test and Corporation Acts repealed Duke of Wellington becomes Prime Minister
1829	Catholic Emancipation Act Robert Peel creates metropolitan police force	Carlyle's Signs of the Times
1830	Death of George IV and accession of William IV Earl Grey's Whig reforming government 'Captain Swing' rural riots Opening of Manchester - Liverpool Railway July Revolution in France Greek independence from Ottoman Empire secured	Cobbett's Rural Rides Charles Lyell (Dante Gabriel?s Godfather), Principles of Geology
1831	Wellington resigns as Prime Minister in opposition to Parliamentary reform National Union of the Working Class founded Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction Cholera outbreak in England	Mill's The Spirit of the Age
1832	Parliamentary Reform Act passed Passage of the Great Reform Act Morse invents the telegraph	Chambers' Edinburgh Journal and Penny Magazine (-1837) begin
1833	First Tracts for the Times published Factory Act limits children's working hours and includes provision for education Abolition of Slavey Act	Carlyle's Sartor Resartus (-1834)
1834	New Poor Law British Empire abolishes slavery
1837	Death of William IV and accession of Queen Victoria Brunel, Great Western Railway	Carlyle's The French Revolution Sarah Stickney Ellis, The Women of England: Their Social Duties and Domestic Habits
1838	Anti-Corn Law League founded Chartist petitions published London to Birmingham railway opens People's Charter issued	Letitia Landon dies, Gold Coast
1839	First Factory Inspector's report	Carlyle's Chartism Darwin's The Voyage of the Beagle Ellis' The Women of England:Their Social Duties and Domestic Habits
1840	Penny post begins Queen Victoria marries her cousin Albert, who becomes Prince Consort.
1841	The Tories come to power. Sir Robert Peel becomes Prime Minister Punch begins
1842	Jowett becomes tutor at Balliol College, Oxford Chartist riots. Report on Sanitary Conditions of Labouring Population Mudie's Lending Library opens Illustrated London News begins
1843	Theatre Regulation Act	Thomas Carlyle's Past and Present Ruskin's Modern Painters (vol. 1)
1844	Co-operative Society founded in Rochdale Factory Act (women and children) Expansion of railways across Britain	Disraeli's Coningsby, or The New Generation published
1845	John Henry Newman converts to Catholicism Financial speculation in Railways Onset of the Irish potato famine The first Anglican sisterhood, Park Village, is founded in the Christ Church parish	Disraeli's Sybil, or The Two Nations published E. A. Poe, Tales of Mystery and Imagination
1846	Repeal of Corn Laws Famine in Ireland Whigs come to Power
1847	Railway reaches Dorchester Ten Hours' Factory Act	Disraeli's Tancred
1848	Chartist demonstrations in London following by the collapse of the Chartist movement Democratic Revolutions in Europe. Cholera epidemic Public Health Act Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood founded	Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto Newman's Loss and Gain
1849	Bedford College for Women founded	Charles Kingsley's Alton Locke
1850	Roman Catholic hierarchy established Public Libraries Act	Charles Kingsley, Alton Locke Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
1851	Great Exhibition in London Taylor Mill's The Enfranchisement of Women	Ruskin's Stones of Venice Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe
1853	Cholera epidemic Crimean War	Yonge's Heir of Redclyffe
1854	Onset of Crimean War
1855	Daily Telegraph Repeal of stamp duty on newspapers	Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South
1856	Crimean War ends	Dickens, Little Dorrit
1857	Railway extended to Weymouth Indian Mutiny Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act	Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary Hughes' Tom Brown's School days Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh
1858		Ballantyne's Coral Island English Woman's Journal begins George Eliot, Scenes of Clerical Life
1859	Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species published Rise of movement for Home Rule in Ireland	Smiles' Self Help published Mill's On Liberty
1860		Cornhill Magazine begins
1861	Death of Prince Consort American Civil War begins	Dickens, Great Expectations Beeton's Book of Household Management Wood's East Lynne
1862		Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret
1863	The Oxford Declaration published	Kingsley's The Water Babies
1864		John Henry Newman's Apologia Pro Vita Sua
1865	American Civil War ends Women's Suffrage Campaign Transatlantic cable laid Joseph Lister establishes antiseptic surgery Completion of St. Pancras' railway station Slavery is abolished in the USA	Matthew Arnold's Essays in Criticism
1866	Cholera epidemic Former slaves granted citizenship and equal rights in America Ku Klux Klan founded	Swinburne's Poems and Ballads (dedicated to Rossetti) published
1867	Second Reform Act Fenian Rising in Ireland	Marx's Das Kapital published George Eliot's Felix Holt, the Radical
1868	Gladstone becomes Prime Minister
1869	Opening of Suez Canal Mill's The Subjection of Women	Arnold's Culture and Anarchy Blackmore's Lorna Doone
1870	Education Act: free education in new board schools First Married Women's Property Act	Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Poems
1871	Trade Union Act Darwin's The Descent of Man
1872		MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin
1873		Mill's Autobiography Pater's Studies in the Renaissance
1875		Gilbert & Sullivan's Trial by Jury
1876	Invention of telephone by Alexander Graham Bell Queen Victorian proclaimed Empress of India
1878	Gramophones first produced by Thomas Edison Newman made Cardinal Revolutions in Europe	Hardy's Return of the Native published Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore
1879	Electric lightbulb invented	George Meredith's The Egoist published
1880	(-1881) First Boer War, also known as the Transvaal War	Hardy's The Trumpet Major is published
1881	First Anglo-Boer War	Hardy's A Laodicean published Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ballads and Sonnets Uncle Remus series, J C Harris
1882	First commercial production of electricity Married Women's Property Act, enables women to buy, own and sell property and to keep their own earnings
1883	Fabian Society founded	Nietzsche, Also Sprach Zarathrustra
1884		Ruskin's Storm Cloud of the Nineteenth-Century Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
1885		Haggard's King Solomon's Mines
1887	Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee celebrating 50 years of her reign	Haggard's Allan Quartermain
1888	Jack the Ripper murders five women in London Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society	Arnold's Essays in Criticism (Second Series)
1889	Newman dies	Death of Gerard Manley Hopkins
1890	First underground railway in London Sir James Frazer's The Golden Bough (first two vols; complete 13 vols., -1915) First of the Jim Crow laws passed to segregate blacks from whites in the South Southern states pass series of laws to restrict black voting rights	William Morris' News from Nowhere Emily Dickinson, Poems
1891	William Morris, Kelmscott Press	Gissing's New Grub Street
1892	Daimlers sell their first motor car
1893	Independent Labour Party formed
1895	Oscar Wilde arrested and imprisoned for homosexuality
1897	Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee
1899	( - 1902) Second Boer War Irish Literary Theatre founded	Ibsen's When We Dead Awaken Pinero's Trelawney of the 'Wells' Symons' The Symbolist Movement in literature Wells' Tales of Space and Time
1900	Most children under eleven attending elementary school Daily Express founded Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams
1901	Queen Victoria dies. Edward VII king First transatlantic radio communication by Marconi	Wells' The First Men in the Moon
1902	Balfour Education Act establishes state system of secondary schools Second Boer War ends	Bennett's Anna of the Five towns Mare's Songs of Childhood Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles Kipling's Just So Stories
1903	Wilbur and Orville Wright make first powered flight New York-London news service begins using wireless telegraphy Emmeline Pankhurst founds the Women's Social and Political Union	Butler's The Way of All Flesh James' The Ambassadors The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. du Bois
1904	Entente Cordiale settles colonial differences between UK and France Offset printing invented Abbey Theatre, Dublin, founded Freud's The Psychopathology of Everyday Life	Hardy's The Dynasts, Part I published J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan first performed on stage James' The Golden Bowl
1905	Start of suffragette agitation and first suffragettes imprisoned Einstein's special theory of relativity Freud's Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality	Doyle's The Return of Sherlock Holmes Wells' Kipps
1906	Liberal landslide in general election; 29 Labour MPs elected and Labour Party constituted	Mare's Poems
1907	Pablo Picasso introduces cubism
1908	Old Age Pensions Act introduces state pensions for the over-seventies Ford's first Model T car sold in Britain Pathe's first regular newsreel First aeroplane flight in Britain	Edmund Gosse's Father & Son published Bennett's The Old Wives' Tale Wells' The War in the Air
1909	North Pole reached by Robert Peary (US) NAACP founded	Galsworthy's Strife Pound's Personae
1910	Edward VII dies. George V becomes king South Wales Miners' strike First post-impressionist exhibition in London First feature-length films Freud's On Psychoanalysis Collapse of cotton farming due to boll weevil damage	Galsworthy's Justice Wells' The History of Mr Polly
1911	Ford Model T assembly plant opened in Manchester Beatrice and Webb's Poverty Der Blaue Reiter group of expressionist artists formed in Munich Frazer's The Golden Bough (11 vols.-1915; first two vols., 1890) Roald Amundsen reaches South Pole Suffragette riots in London	Wells' The New Machiavelli
1912	First Post-Impressionism Exhibition in London Titanic sinks Widespread strikes in Britain Women's Franchise Bill rejected by the House of Commons; suffragettes riot in London Some 400 cinemas in London; establishment of British Board of Film Censors	Bridges' Poetical Works Mare's The Listeners Georgian Poetry, ed. Edward Marsh Pound's Ripostes Mann's Death in Venice
1913	Suffragette Emily Davies dies after throwing herself under the King's horse at the Derby Freud's Totem and Taboo; also Interpretation of Dreams Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring 'Cat and Mouse' Act House of Commons passes Irish Home Rule Bill but rejected by the House of Lords Suffragette deonstrations	Marcel Proust publishes first of the seven volumes of A la recherche du temps perdu (Remembrance of Things Past) (last volume, 1927)
1914	August: Great War breaks out (to November 1918) Irish Home Rule Act passed but later suspended because of war World War One - although segregated, black soldiers enlisted to fight in US armed forces	Pound's Des Imagistes
1915	War intensifies with huge losses Zeppelin attacks on London Sinking of Lusitania Einstein's general theory of relativity Second Battle of Ypres	Brooke's 1914 and Other Poems Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps Kafka's Metamorphosis Maugham's Of Human Bondage Some's Imagist Poets: An Anthology, ed. Amy Lowell (further Imagist anthologies followed in 1916 and 1917) Ford Maddox Ford's The Good Soldier
1916	Easter Rising, Dublin Conscription introduced Battle of the Somme Theories of shell-shock develop Jung's Psychology of the Unconscious Battle of Verdun Lloyd George becomes Prime Minister The Great Migration to the north begins (US)	Brighouse's Hobson's Choice Wells' Mr Britling Sees it Through
1917	USA enters war Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) Russian Revolution (March) Freud's Introduction to Psychoanalysis Abdication of Czar Nicholas II Russian Revolution (October)
1918	End of the Great War: Armistice, 11 November Rutherford splits atom Representation of the People Act (4th Reform Bill) gives the vote to all men over twenty-one and women over thirty Stopes' Married Love; Parenthood Fisher Education Act raises school-leaving age to fourteen Influenza pandemic, kills over 20 million people world-wide by 1920 Execution of Czar Nicholas II Vote given to all men over twenty-one and women over thirty	Joyce's Exiles Thomas' Last Poems
1919	Treaty of Versailles Anglo-Irish War begins Nancy Astor becomes first woman MP Flu pandemic Peace conference at Versailles	Maugham's The Moon and Sixpence
1920	Partition of Ireland League of Nations founded (precursor of the United Nations) Oxford admits women to degrees (1880 at London University) Jung's Psychological Types	Christie's The Mysterious Affair at Styles Mansfield's Bliss Strachey's Eminent Victorians Hardy's Collected Poems
1921	Economic slump Marie Stopes opens first birth-control clinic in London Irish Free State formed	Huxley's Crome Yellow Pirandello Six Characters in Search of an Author
1922	Unemployment stands at 2 million: first of many 'hunger marches' organised by the NUWM throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Irish Civil War breaks out (ends 1923) Mussolini comes to power in Italy Radio broadcasting begins; British Broadcasting Company formed Frazer's The Golden Bough (one-volume abridged edn) Establishment of the USSR	Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga Mansfield's The Garden Party Richards' Principles of Literary Criticism
1923	Matrimonial Causes Act (allows women to sue for divorce on same grounds as men, including adultery)	Sitwell's Façade published Cummings' Tulips and Chimneys Huxley's Antic Hay Cane, Jean Toomer (Harlem Renaissance author)
1924	Paris Exhibition First Labour government in Britain under Ramsay MacDonald (January) Housing Act provides for subsidised public housing (generates over half a million new homes by 1932) Freud's The Ego and the Id Ramsay Macdonald forms first Labour government
1925	Pensions Act provides pensions at sixty-five	Coward's Hay Fever Hemingway's In Our Time
1926	General Strike Television first demonstrated by John Logie Baird; British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) established	T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom
1927	Trade Disputes Act makes general strikes illegal Charles Lindbergh, first solo transatlantic flight German financial and economic crisis Rise of Stalin in USSR	Graves and Riding's A Survey of Modernist Poetry
1928	Universal suffrage for men and women Minimum voting age for women in Britain reduced to twenty-one from thirty years Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin (fully exploited from 1940) First films with sound in Britain	Blunden's Undertones of War Huxley's Point Counter Point Isherwood's All the Conspirators
1929	General election returns minority Labour government; Margaret Bondfield becomes first woman Cabinet member Wall Street Crash and start of international economic depression Margaret Bondfield becomes first woman Cabinet member	Graves' Goodbye to All That Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms Priestley's The Good Companions Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front (film version, 1930)
1930	Jet engine invented 11th May: Amy Johnson becomes the first woman to complete a solo flight from England to Australia The Great Depression Nazis begin rise to power in Germany Foundation of the Nation of Islam (black national separatist organisation)	Blunden's Collected Poems Coward's Private Lives Faulkner's As I Lay Dying Maugham's Cakes and Ale
1931		Woolf's The Waves
1932	Hunger marches in Britain British Union of Fascists formed	Huxley's Brave New World Eliot's Sweeney Agonistes
1933	Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany	Auden's The Dance of Death Orwell's Down and Out in London and Paris
1934	British Union of Fascists addressed by Oswald Mosley Adolf Hitler becomes Führer	John Masefield becomes Poet Laureate James' The Art of the Novel Pound's Make it New Priestley's English Journey
1935	Radar & nylon invented Italy invades Ethiopia	Launch of first Penguin paperbacks
1936	Death of George V Accession, then abdication of Edward VIII Spanish Civil war begins Jarrow March of the unemployed Accession of George VI	Huxley's Eyeless in Gaza Orwell's Keep the Aspidistra Flying Thomas' 25 Poems
1937	British policy of appeasement towards Italy and Germany Mass Observation Project starts	Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier Priestley's Time and the Conway's Woolf's The Years Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
1938	Munich agreement with Hitler Supreme Court rules Missouri must provide access to public schooling for blacks as well as whites	Waugh's Scoop Day-Lewis' Overtures to a Death Greene's Brighton Rock
1939	End of Spanish Civil War Start of the Second World War Evacuation of children from London	Thomas' Twenty-Six Poems Eliot's The Family Reunion Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin Joyce's Finnegan's wake Orwell's Coming up for Air Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath
1940	Churchill becomes Prime Minister Evacuation of British forces from Dunkirk Start of the Blitz	Thomas' Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog Greene's The Power and the Glory
1941	Japanese bomb Pearl Harbour USA declares war on Germany and Italy	Coward's Blithe Spirit Eliot's Little Gidding
1942	US involvement in Second World War
1944	D-Day Landings in Normandy Butler Education Act	Eliot's Four Quartets	Alice Walker born in Eatonton, Georgia
1945	Yalta Conference Death of Hitler USA drops nuclear bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrenders End of Second World War Clement Atlee becomes Labour Prime Minister	Mitford's The Pursuit of Love Orwell's Animal Farm Waugh's Brideshead Revisited Priestley's An Inspector Calls
1947	Independence of India and Pakistan The UK school leaving age is raised to 15 Princess Elizabeth – later Queen – marries the Duke of Edinburgh	Compton-Burnett's Manservant and Maidservant The Diary of Anne Frank is published The Maids, Jean Genet All My Sons, Arthur Miller A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
1948	British Citizenship Act gives Commonwealth citizens subject status Policy of apartheid started in South Africa State of Israel founded	Waugh's Brideshead Revisited Leavis' The Great Tradition
1949		Orwell's 1984 Miller's Death of a Salesman The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir
1950	Korean War begins	Greene's The Third Man Lessing's The Grass is Singing
1951	Festival of Britain Churchill becomes Conservative Prime Minister Spies Burgess and Maclean defect to USSR	Larkin's Poems Manning's School for Love
1952	George VI dies Accession of Elizabeth II Britain produces an atomic bomb	Christie's The Mousetrap Rattigan's The Deep Blue Sea Thomas' Collected Poems
1953	Death of Stalin Coronation of Elizabeth II Ascent of Everest	Hartley's The Go-Between Fleming's Casino Royale Miller's The Crucible
1954	End of post-war food rationing US Supreme Court declares racially segregated education is unconstitutional	Amis' Lucky Jim Rattigan's Separate Tables Golding's Lord of the Flies Thomas' Under Milk Wood
1955	Rosa Parks, Civil Rights activist in USA, refuses to give up her seat on a bus	Beckett's Waiting for Godot
1956	Suez Crisis Russian invasion of Hungary Rosa Parks defies bus segregation in Montgomery Alabama	Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings Osborne's Look Back in Anger Wilson's Anglo-Saxon Attitudes Beckett, Waiting for Godot
1957	Wolfenden Report on Prostitution and Homosexuality Independence of Ghana Obscene Publications Act Martin Luther King elected President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference	Larkin's A Girl in Winter Hughes' The Hawk in the Rain Murdoch's The Sandcastle MacInnes' City of Spades Naipaul's The Mystic Masseur Osborne's The Entertainer
1958	Notting Hill race riots Aden state of emergency CND founded	Achebe's Things Fall Apart Pinter's The Birthday Party Delaney's A Taste of Honey Bates' The Darling Buds of May Murdoch's The Bell Silitoe's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning Betjeman's Collected Poems
1959	First section of M1 motorway opened State of emergency in Kenya	Wesker's Roots Lee's Cider with Rosie Braithwaite's To Sir with Love Waterhouse's Billy Liar Arden's Serjeant Musgrave's Dance Silitoe's The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansbury
1960	John F. Kennedy wins US election CND demonstrations in Trafalgar Square Penguin wins the right to publish D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover	Banks' The L Shaped Room Lessing's In Pursuit of the English Pinter's The Caretaker Barstow's A Kind of Loving Plath's The Colossus
1961	Commonwealth Immigrants Act restricts right to settle in UK Structure of DNA discovered Building of Berlin Wall	Osborne's Luther Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Naipaul's A House for Mr Biswas	Walker begins college in Atlanta, Georgia
1962	End of national military service Jamaica, Trinidad and Uganda become independent from UK	Burgess' A Clockwork Orange Al Alvarez (ed), The New Poetry Carson's Silent Spring Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing Albee, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1963	US President John F. Kennedy assassinated Kenya becomes independent Martin Luther King makes his 'I have a dream' speech	1960-1963 Wilson Harris publishes The Guyana Quartet Plath's The Bell Jar Theatre Workshop, Oh! What a Lovely War Dunn's Up the Junction	Transfers to Sarah Lawrence College in New York
1964	Beatles become popular Labour PM, Harold Wilson Harlem race riots in USA Martin Luther King awarded Nobel Peace Prize Nelson Mandela sentenced to life in prison US Congress passes the Civil Rights Act banning segregation	Orton's Entertaining Mr Sloane Larkin's The Whitsun Weddings
1965	Vietnam war escalates Abolition of the death penalty (UK) Rhodesia declares independence from UK Race riots across America	Osborne's A Patriot for Me Pinter's The Homecoming Plath's Ariel Bond's Saved Manning's The Balkan Trilogy	Graduates and wins writing scholarship
1966	England wins the World Cup Guyana becomes independent from UK Television drama Cathy Come Home highlights homelessness in UK In China, Mao Zedong launches his Cultural Revolution	Orton's Loot Fowles' The Magus Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead Jubilee, Margaret Walker The Concubine, Elechi Amadi
1967	Legalisation of abortion (UK) Homosexuality decriminalized (UK) First heart transplant Gough, Patten, Henri, The Mersey Sound	Carter's The Magic Toyshop Dunn's Poor Cow	Marries Civil Rights lawyer Mervyn Levanthal Publishes first short story
1968	National Front formed (UK) Race Relations Bill declares race discrimination illegal in the UK Student uprising in Paris Martin Luther King assassinated USA passes Civil Rights Bill Enoch Powell makes 'Rivers of Blood' speech in Birmingham National Front formed (UK)	Hines' A Kestrel for a Knave Bond's Early Morning End of theatre censorship in Britain When Rain Clouds Gather, Bessie Head	Publishes first collection of poetry
1969	'Winter of Discontent' Americans land on the moon Start of Northern Ireland ‘troubles’	Fowles, The French Lieutenant’s Woman Greene, Travels with my Aunt	Birth of daughter, Rebecca
1970	Formation of Women’s Liberation Movement in UK Equal Pay Act, UK	Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye Ted Hughes, Crow	First novel: The Third Life of Grange Copeland
1971	Decimalisation of UK currency Anti Vietnam war demonstrations	Bond's Lear
1972	Terrorist attack at Munich Olympic Games Equal Opportunity Act extends 'affirmative action' to colleges and universities in USA	Drabble, The Needle’s Eye Stoppard, Jumpers
1973	Abortion legalised in USA USA pulls out of Vietnam Britain enters EEC	Alan Ayckbourn, The Norman Conquests Sula, Toni Morrison Martin Amis, The Rachel Papers Greene, The Honorary Consul	Love & Trouble short stories
1974	President Richard Nixon resigns	Larkin, High Windows Murdoch, The Sacred and Profane Love Machine	Langston Hughes - poet biography
1975	End of Vietnam war Sex Discrimination Bill (UK) North Sea oil comes on line	Griffiths' Comedians Bradbury's The History Man Jhabvala's Heat and Dust Scott's The Raj Quartet Lodge's Changing Places Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time
1976	Notting Hill (race) riots Advent of punk rock UK Race Relations Act strengthens anti-discrimination laws	Edgar's Destiny	Divorced from husband
1977	Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee is celebrated Strikes by firefighters and riots against Far Right groups take place across the UK Public Works Employment Act - 10% of contractors to be from minorities First Virago Press publication First recognised AIDS death, New York	Dennis Potter, Brimstone and Treacle Our Sister Killjoy, Ama Aidoo Stoppard, Professional Foul
1978	The first 'test tube' baby	Murdoch's The Sea, The Sea Weldon's Praxis McEwan's The Cement Garden Hare's Plenty
1979	Conservative party wins General Election (first female British Prime Minister) 'Winter of Discontent' Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran flees Iran with his family	Churchill's Cloud Nine Naipaul's A Bend in the River
1980	Start of civil war in El Salvador Mount St Helens volcano erupts in Washington State, USA AIDS epidemic starts to spread
1981	Wedding of Prince Charles and Diana Riots in London, Bristol, Liverpool and Manchester Reverend Sun Myung Moon marries 2075 couples in mass wedding in Madison Square Garden Falklands War Women’s anti-nuclear Greenham Common protests First CD players	Rushdie's Midnight's Children The Women of Brewster Place, Gloria Naylor Churchill, Top Girls	You Can’t Keep a Good Woman Down
1982	Reverend Sun Myung Moon marries 2075 couples in mass wedding in Madison Square Garden
1983	US cruise missiles stationed in UK	Swift, Waterland Weldon, The Life and Loves of a She-Devil	In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens Becomes first black woman to win Pulitzer Prize
1984	Miner's Strike (UK) IRA attempt to assassinate PM Margaret Thatcher Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, is assassinated by her bodyguards	Ted Hughes becomes Poet Laureate Carter's Nights at the Circus Amis' Money Ballard's Empire of the Sun Barnes' Flaubert's Parrot
1985	Live Aid concerts for Ethiopian famine relief	Ackroyd, Hawksmoor Brenton & Hare, Pravda Winterson, Oranges are Not the Only Fruit	Co-founds Wild Tree Press
1986	Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster in Ukraine
1987	Conservatives win General Election Race riots (UK) The Great Storm devastates southern UK IRA bomb, Enniskillen Stock market crash	Morrison's Beloved Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger Ian McEwan, The Child in Time Beloved, Toni Morrison Ackroyd, Chatterton Churchill, Serious Money
1988	Death threats against Salman Rushdie PanAm flight 103 destroyed by bomb over Lockerbie	Rushdie's Satanic Verses Hawking's A Brief History of Time
1989	Revolutions in Eastern Europe lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall Exxon Valdez oil tanker spills millions of gallons of oil off Alaskan coast Protesting students massacred in Tiananmen Square, Beijing	Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day Gwendolen, Buchi Emechera Winterson, Sexing the Cherry
1990	Nelson Mandela freed from imprisonment in South Africa Germany re-unified	Kureishi's The Buddha of Suburbia Byatt's Possession
1991	Collapse of Soviet Union South Africa repeals apartheid laws
1992		Jazz, Toni Morrison Hornby, Fever Pitch	Possessing the Secret of Joy
1993	Murder of Stephen Lawrence Nelson Mandela becomes President of South Africa UK National Lottery starts First female Anglican priests ordained	D'Aguiar's British Subjects	Warrior Marks
1994	Nelson Mandela elected President of South Africa
1996	Islamist fundamentalist group, the Taliban, takes power in Afghanistan
1997	Hong Kong returned by Britain to Chinese rule
1998		Hughes, Birthday Letters Motion, Selected Poems 1976-97	By The Light of My Father's Smile
2000	Millennium celebrations Ishiguro, When we were Orphans	Zadie Smith, White Teeth	The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart
2001	September 11th - destruction of World Trade Center towers in New York by terrorists flying planes into them	McEwan's Atonement
2003	Invasion of Iraq by USA and Britain
2004	Exploration of Mars by space probe Devastating Tsunami around Indian Ocean	Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty Alan Bennett, The History Boys Seamus Heaney, Beacons of Bealtaine	Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart

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