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Windsor Castle catches fire

On November 20, 1992, Windsor Castle, the historic English royal residence and home to Queen Elizabeth II, catches fire. The blaze comes during a particularly difficult year for the royal family.

At around 11:30 in the morning, a fire broke out in the Queen’s Private Chapel at Windsor Castle. From there, it spread to more than 100 rooms, including St. George’s Hall and Brunswick Tower. The blaze took fifteen hours and more than 220 firefighters to extinguish. Staff and soldiers, along with Prince Andrew, Duke of York, worked to remove precious artworks from the castle as the fire spread. Ultimately the fire destroyed only a handful of pieces from the castle’s valuable art collection, though several firefighters were injured. The castle was restored as close to its original condition as possible, with renovation works concluding on the five-year anniversary of the fire, in 1997.

Windsor Castle, which overlooks the River Thames near London, was first built in the 11th century by William the Conqueror. It has served as a royal residence for almost 1,000 years, spanning 39 monarchs, and is the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world.

The fire at Windsor Castle occurred near the end of a year in which the royal family struggled with its public image. Speaking a few days after the fire, Queen Elizabeth acknowledged that 1992 “turned out to be an ‘annus horribilis’“, or horrible year. Prince Charles, Prince Andrew and Princess Anne all announced the ends of their respective marriages.

On top of these royal scandals, the damage to Windsor Castle raised questions about the cost of the British monarchy. Prime Minister John Major suggested that parliament pay for the restoration of the castle, but this provoked a public outcry. Windsor Castle and its contents were too expensive to insure, so the Crown had to pay for the repairs without the help of insurance or funds from parliament. Queen Elizabeth decided to open Buckingham Palace to visitors for the first time in history, and used the admission fees to pay for most of Windsor Castle’s restorations. The price tag of the work totaled nearly 36.5 million pounds over five years.

As a result of increased scrutiny of the Crown and its mysterious finances, Queen Elizabeth announced that she would begin paying taxes on her personal income, although the sovereign is not legally bound to do so. King Charles III has confirmed that he will do the same.

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Big Ben stops at 12:11 pm for 54 minutes

Year: 1997

Month Day: April 30

On April 30, 1997, at exactly 12:11 pm, London’s iconic Big Ben clock stops ticking. For 54 minutes, the most famous clock in the world failed to keep time.

Completed in 1859, Big Ben has a long history of technical issues. The first bell cast for the tower cracked before it could be installed, and the second bell also developed a crack shortly after installation, resulting in silence from the tower until 1862. The bells stopped ringing again during World War I, and the tower was not illuminated at night for the duration of World War II, when most of London was kept dark to make German bombing more raids difficult. Despite the heavy damage that the Blitz inflicted on London, however, the clock stayed within a second and a half of GMT for the duration of the war.

Since then, both extreme heat and the buildup of snow have caused Big Ben to stop ticking. In 1962, snow delayed the bells, causing the capital of Britain to ring in the new year ten minutes later than the rest of the country. The April 1997 stoppage occurred the day before that year’s general election, but the malfunction was probably not a factor in the voting, which Tony Blair’s “New Labour” won in a landslide over incumbent Prime Minister John Major. Big Ben stopped again in May of 2005, on one of the hottest May days ever recorded in London.

READ MORE: How Did Big Ben Get Its Name?

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Princess Diana dies in a car crash

Shortly after midnight on August 31, 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales—affectionately known as “the People’s Princess”—dies in a car crash in Paris. She was 36. Her boyfriend, the Egyptian-born socialite Dodi Fayed, and the driver of the car, Henri Paul, died as well.

Princess Diana was one of the most popular public figures in the world. Her death was met with a massive outpouring of grief. Mourners began visiting Kensington Palace immediately, leaving bouquets at the home where the princess, also known as Lady Di, would never return. Piles of flowers reached some 30 feet from the palace’s gate.

Diana and Dodi—who had been vacationing in the French Riviera—arrived in Paris earlier the previous day. They left the Ritz Paris just after midnight, intending to go to Dodi’s apartment on the Rue Arsène Houssaye. As soon as they departed the hotel, a swarm of paparazzi on motorcycles began aggressively tailing their car. About three minutes later, the driver lost control and crashed into a pillar at the entrance of the Pont de l’Alma tunnel.

Dodi and the driver were pronounced dead at the scene. Diana was taken to the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital and declared dead at 6:00 am. (A fourth passenger, Diana’s bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, was seriously injured but survived.) Diana’s former husband Prince Charles, as well as her sisters and other members of the Royal Family, arrived in Paris that morning. Diana’s body was then taken back to London.

Like much of her life, her death was a full-blown media sensation, and the subject of many conspiracy theories. At first, the paparazzi hounding the car were blamed for the crash, but later it was revealed that the driver was under the influence of alcohol and prescription drugs. A formal investigation concluded the paparazzi did not cause the collision.

Diana’s funeral in London, on September 6, was watched by over 2 billion people. She was survived by her two sons, Prince William, who was 15 at the time, and Prince Harry, who was 12.

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Prince George, first child of Prince William and Kate Middleton, is born

Year: 2013

Month Day: July 22

Weighing in at a healthy 8 pounds, 6 ounces, the first child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (more informally known as Prince William and Kate Middleton), is born on July 22, 2013, at St. Mary’s Hospital in London, England.

The new prince’s birth had been a highly anticipated event, with reporters camping out outside the hospital to get the first glimpse of the new arrival. Though the official birth announcement came, according to tradition, via a statement posted on a gilded easel outside Buckingham Palace, the Duke and Duchess put a more modern spin on things by appearing outside the hospital to introduce their baby to the world.

Two days later, the royal family announced his full name: His Royal Highness Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge. His first name paid tribute to his great-great-great grandfather, King George V, as well as his great-great grandfather, King George VI. Alexander was seen as a possible nod to his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II (who was christened Elizabeth Alexandra Mary), or to Queen Victoria, whose full name was Alexandrina Victoria. Louis was thought to honor his great-great-uncle, Louis Mountbatten, who played matchmaker to the queen and her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and was very close to Prince Charles.

Prince George entered the world as third in the line of succession to the British throne. His paternal grandfather, Prince Charles of Wales, stands to inherit the crown from his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, while Prince William, Charles’s elder son with Princess Diana, is second in line. George’s birth marked the first time in more than 100 years—since Queen Victoria’s reign—that three generations of direct heirs were alive at the same time.

According to one estimate, between royal baby-themed goods and party supplies, Brits likely spent some £240 million (roughly $300 million) celebrating Prince George’s arrival. His birth kicked off a royal baby boom: His younger sister, Princess Charlotte, arrived in 2015, followed by a younger brother, Prince Louis, in 2018. In 2019, George’s uncle, Prince Harry, and his wife, Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, welcomed their first child, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.

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Edward VIII abdicates

Updated:: Dec 9, 2019
Original:: Dec 11, 2018

Year: 1936

Month Day: December 11

After ruling for less than one year, Edward VIII becomes the first English monarch to voluntarily abdicate the throne. He chose to abdicate after the British government, public, and the Church of England condemned his decision to marry the American divorcée Wallis Warfield Simpson. On the evening of December 11, he gave a radio address in which he explained, “I have found it impossible to carry on the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge the duties of king, as I would wish to do, without the help and support of the woman I love.” On December 12, his younger brother, the duke of York, was proclaimed King George VI.

Edward, born in 1894, was the eldest son of King George V, who became the British sovereign in 1910. Still unmarried as he approached his 40th birthday, he socialized with the fashionable London society of the day. By 1934, he had fallen deeply in love with American socialite Wallis Warfield Simpson, who was married to Ernest Simpson, an English-American businessman who lived with Mrs. Simpson near London. Wallis, who was born in Pennsylvania, had previously married and divorced a U.S. Navy pilot. The royal family disapproved of Edward’s married mistress, but by 1936 the prince was intent on marrying Mrs. Simpson. Before he could discuss this intention with his father, George V died, in January 1936, and Edward was proclaimed king.

The new king proved popular with his subjects, and his coronation was scheduled for May 1937. His affair with Mrs. Simpson was reported in American and continental European newspapers, but due to a gentlemen’s agreement between the British press and the government, the affair was kept out of British newspapers. On October 27, 1936, Mrs. Simpson obtained a preliminary decree of divorce, presumably with the intent of marrying the king, which precipitated a major scandal. To the Church of England and most British politicians, an American woman twice divorced was unacceptable as a prospective British queen. Winston Churchill, then a Conservative backbencher, was the only notable politician to support Edward.

Despite the seemingly united front against him, Edward could not be dissuaded. He proposed a morganatic marriage, in which Wallis would be granted no rights of rank or property, but on December 2, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin rejected the suggestion as impractical. The next day, the scandal broke on the front pages of British newspapers and was discussed openly in Parliament. With no resolution possible, the king renounced the throne on December 10. The next day, Parliament approved the abdication instrument, and Edward VIII’s reign came to an end. The new king, George VI, made his older brother the duke of Windsor. On June 3, 1937, the duke of Windsor and Wallis Warfield married at the Château de Cande in France’s Loire Valley.

For the next two years, the duke and duchess lived primarily in France but visited other European countries, including Germany, where the duke was honored by Nazi officials in October 1937 and met with Adolf Hitler. After the outbreak of World War II, the duke accepted a position as liaison officer with the French. In June 1940, France fell to the Nazis, and Edward and Wallis went to Spain. During this period, the Nazis concocted a scheme to kidnap Edward with the intention of returning him to the British throne as a puppet king. George VI, like his prime minister, Winston Churchill, was adamantly opposed to any peace with Nazi Germany. Unaware of the Nazi kidnapping plot but conscious of Edward’s pre-war Nazi sympathies, Churchill hastily offered Edward the governorship of the Bahamas in the West Indies. The duke and duchess set sail from Lisbon on August 1, 1940, narrowly escaping a Nazi SS team sent to seize them.

In 1945, the duke resigned his post, and the couple moved back to France. They lived mainly in Paris, and Edward made a few visits to England, such as to attend the funerals of King George VI in 1952 and his mother, Queen Mary, in 1953. It was not until 1967 that the duke and duchess were invited by the royal family to attend an official public ceremony, the unveiling of a plaque dedicated to Queen Mary. Edward died in Paris in 1972 but was buried at Frogmore, on the grounds of Windsor Castle. In 1986, Wallis died and was buried at his side.

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Irish Free State declared

The Irish Free State, comprising four-fifths of Ireland, is declared, ending a five-year Irish struggle for independence from Britain. Like other autonomous nations of the former British Empire, Ireland was to remain part of the British Commonwealth, symbolically subject to the king. The Irish Free State later severed ties with Britain and was renamed Eire, and is now called the Republic of Ireland.

English rule over the island of Ireland dates back to the 12th century, and Queen Elizabeth I of England encouraged the large-scale immigration of Scottish Protestants in the 16th century. During ensuing centuries, a series of rebellions by Irish Catholics were put down as the Anglo-Irish minority extended their domination over the Catholic majority. Under absentee landlords, the Irish population was reduced to a subsistence diet based on potatoes, and when the Potato Famine struck the country in the 1840s, one million people starved to death while nearly two million more fled to the United States.

A movement for Irish home rule gained momentum in the late 19th century, and in 1916 Irish nationalists launched the Easter Rising against British rule in Dublin. The rebellion was crushed, but widespread agitation for independence continued. In 1919, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) launched a widespread and effective guerrilla campaign against British forces. In 1921, a cease-fire was declared, and in January 1922 a faction of Irish nationalists signed a peace treaty with Britain, calling for the partition of Ireland, with the south becoming autonomous and the six northern counties of the island remaining in the United Kingdom.

Civil war broke out even before the declaration of the Irish Free State on December 6, 1922, and ended with the victory of the Irish Free State over the Irish Republican forces in 1923. A constitution adopted by the Irish people in 1937 declared Ireland to be “a sovereign, independent, democratic state,” and the Irish Free State was renamed Eire. Eire remained neutral during World War II, and in 1949 the Republic of Ireland Act severed the last remaining link with the Commonwealth.

Conflicts persisted over Northern Ireland, however, and the IRA, outlawed in the south, went underground to try to regain the northern counties still ruled by Britain. Violence between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland escalated in the early 1970s, and to date the fighting has claimed more than 3,000 lives.

READ MORE: IRA Timeline

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Grenfell Tower fire kills 72 in London

Year: 2017

Month Day: June 14

Shortly before 1:00 A.M. on June 14, 2017, a fire tears through West London’s 24-story Grenfell tower. 72 people died, scores were injured and hundreds were left homeless in Britain’s deadliest fire in more than a century.

The fire started in a Hotpoint brand fridge-freezer in a fourth-floor apartment. The flames traveled from the kitchen and up the exterior side of the building, which was filled with 300 low-income residents. From there, the flames moved fast, engulfing the other sides of the building as well. Firefighters soon arrived, but the fire quickly reached the top floor. By 2 A.M., the fire was declared a “major incident.”

Because residents followed Grenfell’s “stay-put” fire policy, the death toll surged. Unsuspecting victims had been led to believe that their building was designed to contain a fire inside an apartment until it could be put out. So even as smoke filled the building’s single narrow stairwell, many residents heeded instructions to stay in their apartments, while others moved to higher floors, believing the blaze would be contained below them. Some ignored the policy and evacuated the building anyway. As the blaze spread around the sides of the building, it eventually made its way back inside several apartments. At 2:47 building officials abandoned the stay-put policy, telling residents to try and leave, if possible; but for many, it was too late. By 4:30, the flames completely engulfed the tower. Upward of 200 firefighters and 40 fire engines responded, but the fire took more than 24 hours to finally burn out.

As rescue workers underwent the grisly recovery of victims’ remains, and the death count was still being tallied,Londoners angry over what they called , Prime Minister Theresa May’s “flimsy” response to the tragedy protested, demanding more help for survivors. People were insulted that May had met with firefighters before victims. To quell the rising frustration, the British government promised to allocate more money to support and get them into new housing as quickly as possible.

For many, it wasn’t enough—especially those who saw the tragedy as totally avoidable. Documents obtained by BBC revealed that the cladding—or siding—on the building was extremely flammable, and that the council overseeing the building chose it to save money on a refurbishment. (They saved £293,000). Similar buildings subsequently had their cladding tested and failed, too. A public inquiry followed, and days later, the officials responsible for managing the Grenfell tower resigned.

A BBC investigation also found that the fire department was not even properly trained or equipped to fight the blaze. Challenges such as low water pressure and radio problems hindered their efforts, while equipment—like a tall ladder—was either lacking or had not arrived before the fire.

One year later, the remains of the tower were illuminated to mark the anniversary of the disaster.

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Terrorists attack London Bridge

Year: 2017

Month Day: June 03

During one horrific 8-minute period on June 3, 2017, eight people were killed as a band of terrorists drove a van through a pedestrian walkway on the London Bridge. The men then exited, armed with pink steak knives, and proceeded to slash and stab people in a nearby market.

The attack was the third to take place in London in 2017.

Just minutes before 10 pm a van filled with three attackers inconspicuously crossed the London Bridge twice. When it reached the end of the bridge the second time, the van made a U-turn, mounting the pavement and mowing down pedestrians.

At the end of the bridge, the terrorists crashed into a nearby pub, where they exited with knives taped to their wrists and fake bombs strapped to their bodies. The men ran from the vehicle, slashing and stabbing through the Borough Market as they screamed “This is for Allah.” They randomly entered bars and restaurants, stabbing whoever came into their path. People tried to fight them off, throwing crates, chairs and glasses, but in the end, 48 people were injured.

By 10:15 all three terrorists had been killed by authorities.

The terrorists were found to be Khuram Shazad Butt, 27, a British citizen born in Pakistan who is believed to have been the leader of the attack; Rachid Redouane, 30, who said he was Moroccan and Libyan; and Youssef Zaghba, 22, a Moroccan-Italian man. The men are reported to have had large amounts of steroids in their system.

2017 was one of the most intense periods for terrorist attacks in England. Arrests for terrorism-linked offenses rose to a record 379 in the 12 months leading up to the attacks, an increase of 67% from the year before.

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Ireland legalizes same-sex marriage

Year: 2015

Month Day: May 23

On May 23, 2015 thousands of LGBTQ activists celebrated as Ireland became the first country to legalize same-sex marriage through referendum.

The referendum passed with 62% of voters (1.2 million people) voting yes. The vote attracted a large turnout, with 60.5% of eligible voters—and an unprecedented amount of young people—making their way to the polls. Support was overwhelming. All but one of the 43 parliamentary constituencies voted in favor, and approval was never really in doubt.

When the polls closed, Dublin Castle, a major Irish government complex, became a sea of color and bodies, as roughly 2,000 activists gathered to celebrate. The crowd cheered, rainbow flags were waved, tears were shed and couples kissed, as Ireland hit a pivotal point in its history.

The journey had been slow. After all, Ireland, a traditionally conservative Catholic country, only decriminalized homosexuality in 1993. Campaigning for the referendum began almost immediately after the date for the vote was announced on February 19 of that year. For the first time, social media played a role in influencing people. Both sides deployed TV ads, billboards and pamphlets encouraging people to go to the polls to fight for their side. On the day of the vote, people used #hometovote to remind and encourage young Irish people living abroad to come home in time to vote. Thousands returned, and tickets from London to Ireland were sold out the night before.

Many politicians welcomed the result. Minister for Health Leo Varadkar publicly revealed he was gay for the first time during the campaign and called the win a “historical day.” The Minister for Equality Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said the win made him proud to be Irish.

The Catholic Church, however, was not as happy with the decision. Archbishop Eamon Martin said the church felt a sense of “bereavement” after the referendum passed, and Cardinal Pietro Parolin called it a “defeat for humanity.”

Ireland’s first same-sex marriage happened on November 17, 2015, almost six months after the vote. The couple, Richard Dowling and Cormac Gollogly, both 35, had been together for 12 years when they were finally allowed to be legally married.

Same-sex marriage is now legal in more than 25 nations and all 50 American states.

READ MORE: Gay Rights

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Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII, is executed

Year: 1536

Month Day: May 19

On May 19, 1536, Anne Boleyn, the infamous second wife of King Henry VIII, is executed on charges including adultery, incest and conspiracy against the king.

Catherine of Aragon

King Henry had become enamored of Anne Boleyn in the mid-1520s, when she returned from serving in the French court and became a lady-in-waiting to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.

Dark-haired, with an olive complexion and a long, elegant neck, Anne was not said to be a great beauty, but she clearly captivated the king. As Catherine had failed to produce a male heir, Henry transferred his hopes for the future continuation of his royal line to Anne, and set about getting a divorce or annulment so he could marry her.

For six years, while his advisers worked on what became known as “the King’s great matter,” Henry and Anne courted first discreetly, then openly—angering Catherine and her powerful allies, including her nephew, Emperor Charles V.

In 1532, the savvy and ruthless Thomas Cromwell won control of the king’s council and engineered a daring revolution—a break with the Catholic Church, and Henry’s installation as supreme head of the Church of England. Many unhappy Britons blamed Anne, whose sympathies lay with England’s Protestant reformers even before the Church’s steadfast opposition turned her against it.

Jane Seymour

At Queen Anne’s coronation in June 1533, she was nearly six months pregnant, and in September she gave birth to a girl, Elizabeth, rather than the much-longed-for male heir. She later had two stillborn children, and suffered a miscarriage in January 1536; the fetus appeared to be male.

By that time, Anne’s relationship with Henry had soured, and he had his eye on her lady-in-waiting, the demure Jane Seymour.

After Anne’s latest miscarriage, and the death of Catherine that same month, rumors began flying that Henry wanted to get rid of Anne so he could marry Jane. (Had he attempted to annul his second marriage while Catherine was still alive, it would have raised speculation that his first marriage was valid after all.)

Henry had apparently convinced himself that Anne had seduced him by witchcraft, and also told Cromwell (Anne’s former ally, now her rival for power in Henry’s court) that he wanted to take steps towards repairing relations with Emperor Charles.

Arrest and Imprisonment

Seeing Anne’s weak position, her many enemies jumped at the chance to bring about the downfall of “the Concubine,” and launched an investigation that compiled evidence against her.

After Mark Smeaton, a court musician, confessed (possibly under torture) that he had committed adultery with the queen, the drama was set in motion at the May Day celebration at the king’s riverside palace at Greenwich.

King Henry left suddenly in the middle of the day’s jousting tournament, which featured Anne’s brother George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford, and Sir Henry Norris, one of the king’s closest friends and a royal officer in his household. He gave no explanation for his departure to Queen Anne, whom he would never see again.

In quick succession, Norris and Rochford were both arrested on charges of adultery with the queen (incest, in Rochford’s case) and plotting with her against her husband. Sir Frances Weston and Sir William Brereton were arrested in the following days on similar charges, while Queen Anne herself was taken into custody at Greenwich on May 2.

Duke of Norfolk

Led before the investigators (chief among them her own uncle, the Duke of Norfolk) to hear the charges of “evil behavior” against her, she was subsequently imprisoned in the Tower of London.

The trial of Smeaton, Weston, Brereton and Norris took place in Westminster Hall on May 12. At the conclusion of the trial, the court sentenced all four men to be hanged, drawn and quartered. Three days later, Anne and her brother, Lord Rochford, went on trial in the Great Hall of the Tower of London.

The Duke of Norfolk presided over the trial as lord high steward, representing the king. The most damning evidence against Rochford was the testimony of his own jealous wife, who claimed “undue familiarity” between him and his sister.

Trial of Anne Boleyn

As for Anne, most historians agree she was almost certainly not guilty of the charges against her. She never admitted to any wrongdoing, the evidence against her was weak and it seems highly unlikely she would have endangered her position by adultery or conspiring to harm the king, whose favor she depended upon so greatly.

Still, Anne and Rochford were found guilty as charged, and Norfolk pronounced the sentence: Both were to be burnt or executed according to the king’s wishes.

On May 17, the five condemned men were executed on Tower Hill, but Henry showed mercy to his queen, calling in the “hangman of Calais” so that she could be beheaded with the sword rather than the axe.

Anne Boleyn Execution

On the morning of May 19, a small crowd gathered on Tower Green as Anne Boleyn—clad in a dark grey gown and ermine mantle, her hair covered by a headdress over a white linen coif—approached her final fate.

After begging to be allowed to address the crowd, Anne spoke simply: “Masters, I here humbly submit me to the law as the law hath judged me, and as for mine offences, I here accuse no man. God knoweth them; I remit them to God, beseeching Him to have mercy on my soul.” Finally, she asked Jesus Christ to “save my sovereign and master the King, the most godly, noble and gentle Prince that is, and long to reign over you.”

With a swift blow from the executioner’s sword, Anne Boleyn was dead. Less than 24 hours later, Henry was formally betrothed to Jane Seymour; they married some 10 days after the execution.

While Queen Jane did give birth to the long-awaited son, who would succeed Henry as King Edward VI at the tender age of nine, it would be his daughter with Anne Boleyn who would go on to rule England for more than 40 years as the most celebrated Tudor monarch: Queen Elizabeth I.

Sources

Antonia Fraser, The Wives of Henry VIII (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992).
Alison Weir, The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn (New York: Ballantine Books, 2010).

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