2013 anniversaries

There are some important anniversaries that will be celebrated this year, from the centenary of the birth of Benjamin Britten to 100 years of the Chelsea Flower Show. We round up some dates for the diary.

The Queen at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2011
The Queen at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2011

24 January The Royal Philharmonic Society celebrates its 200th anniversary

28 January 200 years since Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was published

19 March 200th anniversary of the birth of David Livingstone, Scotland’s most famous explorer and missionary

21 March 600 years since Henry V became King of England (crowned April)VB21972481

22 March The Beatles’ debut album Please Please Me was recorded at Abbey Road Studios 50 years ago

8 April 175th anniversary of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s steamship the SS Great Western beginning its maiden voyage from Bristol to New York

9 April 175th anniversary of the National Gallery in London opening at its present site in Trafalgar Square

9 April 600th anniversary of the crowning of Henry V

13 April 60 years since Ian Fleming published his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale

16 April Queen Elizabeth II launched the Royal Yacht Britannia in Scotland 60 years ago

29 April The Queen announces that Buckingham Palace will open to the public for the first time 20 years ago

19 May The Isle of Iona celebrates the 1,450th anniversary of the death of St Columba, who brought Christianity to Scotland

21 100 years of the Chelsea Flower Show

25 May 300th anniversary of the birth of John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, British Prime Minister (1762–63)

2 June 60 years since The Queen’s Coronation

11 June 20 years since some 80,000 people attended a concert at Wembley Stadium in honour of Nelson Mandela, who turned 70 on that day

15 June The first episode of historical sitcom Blackadder is broadcast on BBC One 30 years ago

4 June 100 years since Emily Davison, a suffragette, stepped in front of the King’s horse at the Derby, sustaining injuries from which she died four days later

26 June First woman magistrate appointed, Miss Emily Dawson, in London 100 years ago

Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria

28 June 175th anniversary of the coronation of Queen Victoria at the age of 18

29 June 400th anniversary of the original Globe Theatre in London, built and owned by Shakespeare’s company of players, being destroyed by fire. It was rebuilt in June 1614

23 July 150th anniversary of Alexandra Park in north London being opened to the public

30 July 250th anniversary of the birth of Samuel Rogers, British poet and patron of the arts

1 August 175th anniversary of slavery being abolished in most of the British Empire

8 August 50th anniversary of the Great Train Robbery in Ledburn, Buckinghamshire. £2.6 million was stolen in one of the UK’s most infamous robberies

13 August 125th anniversary of the birth of John Logie Baird, Scottish engineer who invented the first practical television system

13 August 100th anniversary of the first production of stainless steel in the UK by Harry Brearley

28 August 600th anniversary of the founding of the University of St Andrews

31 August The first of Jack the Ripper’s confirmed victims, Mary Ann Nichols is murdered 100 years ago

7 Sept The Largs Viking Festival will commemorate the 750th anniversary of the Battle of Largs

9 Sept 500th anniversary of the Battle of Flodden Field during the War of the League of Cambrai in Northumberland; the English defeated the Scottish invaders

26 Sept 125th anniversary of the birth of T. S. Eliot, American-born British poet, playwright and literary critic

26 Sept Concorde makes its first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in record-breaking time 40 years ago

29 Sept The University of East Anglia is established in Norwich, England 50 years ago

October 50 years since the National Theatre Company opened at the Old Vic with its first production of Hamlet starring Peter O’Toole and Michael Redgrave

Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten

5 November 100th anniversary of the birth of Vivien Leigh, award-winning Indian-born British stage and film actress

12 November Hugh Gray takes the first known photos of the Loch Ness Monster 80 years ago

22 November 100 years since the composer Benjamin Britten was born

23 November 50th anniversary of the screening of the first episode of Doctor Who

21 December 100th anniversary of the first crossword puzzle being published, in the New York World newspaper. It was invented by British-born Arthur Wynne, who call it a ‘Word-Cross Puzzle’

31 December The chimes of Big Ben are broadcast on radio for the first time by the BBC 90 years ago