Some idea of chronology and periodization would be good, but exact dates are not necessary (so you should know that Nationalisation was government policy in the period 1945-1951, but not necessarily just what year the Electricity Act or the Gas Act was passed).
Some key dates are already available here and here.
Other dates it would probably be best to know are:
1936: Coronation of George VI
1937-39: attempts to “appease” Hitler
1939-45: Britain at war with Germany
1947: partition and independence of India and Pakistan
1948: beginnings of mass immigration from the Caribbean
1953: Coronation of Elizabeth II
1956: Suez Crisis
1960: Winds of Change speech; Penguin edition of “Lady Chatterley’s Lover”
1962: Polaris missiles
1963: The Beatles’ first album
1967: devaluation of sterling
1968: Rivers of Blood speech
1969: Army sent to Northern Ireland
1973: Britain joins the E.E.C.
1973-74: 3-day week
1976: sterling crisis (IMF loan)
1982: Falklands War
1986: deregulation of London stock exchange
1988: publication of Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses”
1992: Britain leaves the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM)
Legislative acts that it might help to be able to date are:
- Education Act 1944 (universal free secondary education)
- National Insurance Act 1946 (compulsory national social insurance)
- National Health Service Act 1946 (universal health care free at the point of delivery)
- Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946 (first step towards bringing key industries into public ownership)
- British Nationality Act 1948 (right of settlement for citizens of Empire and Commonwealth)
- Obscene Publications Act 1959 (“public interest” clause for literature, art and science)
- Education Act 1962 (student grants)
- Sexual Offences Act 1967 (decriminalizes homosexual activity; recriminalizes street prostitution)
- Commonwealth Immigrant Act 1968 (restricts right of settlement)
- Race Relations Act 1968 (outlaws racial discrimination in employment and services)
- Telecommunications Act 1984 (beginning of privatisation of publicly owned companies)
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