The Modern Era 1901-1960

1901 -Edward VII becomes King after his mother Victoria dies. -Beatrix Potter publishes The Tale of Peter Rabbit. -Ruyard Kipling’s experience in India is published with his novel Kim. -Robert Falcon Scott journeys out on the Discovery for his first trip to the Antartic.

1902 -W.B. Yeats forms a group of writers and directors in starting the Irish National theatre Society. -Joseph Conrad publishes his stories including Heart of darkness.

1910 -Edward VII dies in London. -George V takes over the throne. -H.G. Wells publishes a novel, The History of Mr. Polly, about the escape from drab everyday existence. -Ruyard Kipling’s If is published which is his most famous poem among the British.

1911 -Rupert Brooke publishes Poems, the only collection to appear before his early death in WWI. -The Titanic is launched.

1913 -English geologist Arthur Holmes publishes The Age of the Earth, showing evidence that the earth is at leats 1.6 billion yrs. old. -D.H. Lawrence publishes a semi-autobiographical novel about the Morel family, Sons and Lovers

1915 -Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham is published. -The British passenger liner Lusitania is sunk by a U-boat, with the loss of 1000 civilian lives. -Virginia Woolf publishes her first novel: The Voyage Out. -John Buchan’s Thirty-Nine Steps is published. -Rupert Brooke’s 1914 and Other Poems is published a few months after his death.

1920 -Agatha Christie’s first book: The Mysterious Affairs at Styles is published.

1922 -John Galsworthy publishes his novels about the Forsyte family as a joint collection under the title The Forsyte Saga. 1925 -Virginia Woolfe’s Mrs. Dalloway is published.

1926 -Pooh Bear will become a household name. A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh is published. -A general strike starts in Britain due to the miners strike, which is called off after 9 dyas.

1927 -To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolfe is published.

1933 -H.G. Wells publishes The Shape of Things to Come, a novel in which he accurately predicts a renewal of world war. -In Down and Out in Paris and London English author George Orwell writes a sympathetic account of the people he meets on hard times.

1935 -Hitler informs Britain and France that he is building up the German army. -George V dies and his son Edward VIII takes the throne.

1936 -Edward VIII has to choose between the throne of England his love: Wallis Simpson an American divorcee. -Edward VIII chooses Wallis and his brother George VI takes the throne.

1939 -Britain and France receiving no answer form Hitler on his plan to attack Poland declare war on Germany.

1945 -Nancy Mitford’s first novel the Pursuit of Love is a success. -Allies celebrate victory over Japan and the end of the war. George Orwell’s Animal Farm.

1950 -The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis is published. -The Medical Research Council in Britain produces a report, by Austin Hill and Richard Doll, linking smoking and lung cancer.

1952 -George VI dies and his oldest daughter Elizabeth II takes the throne.

1953 -James Bond makes his debut in Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale. -Molecular biologists Francis Crick and James Watson announce their discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA. 1954 -Lord of the Flies by William Golding is published.

1955 -The third and final volume of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein.