Over the next 70 days, as we countdown to the #PlatinumJubilee Central Weekend, we’ll be sharing an image a day of The Queen – each representing a year of Her Majesty’s 70-year long reign.
🧵 Follow along our #70for70 countdown
🌎 In 1952, rationing was still in place in the UK for certain commodities following World War Two. Tea rationing ended in this year, though rationing did not end completely until 1954.
🌎 In 1953, British physicist Francis Crick and American biologist James Watson discovered the double-helix structure of human DNA.
🌎 In 1954, Sir Roger Bannister became the first person to run a mile in less than four minutes.
🌍 In 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested when she refused to give up her seat on a bus, becoming a key figure in the USA’s civil rights movement.
🌍 In 1956, Prince Rainier III of Monaco married the American film actress Grace Kelly.
🌍 In 1957, the Sputnik satellite was launched into space – the first man-made object ever to leave the Earth's atmosphere.
🌍 In 1958, Sir Edmund Hillary and his team became the first overland explorers to reach the South Pole since Captain Robert F Scott's expedition in 1912.
🌍 In 1959, the Antarctic Treaty was signed, which guaranteed the peaceful use of the uninhabited continent for scientific purposes and global co-operation.
🌍 In 1960, the Beatles formed in Liverpool and performed their first concert in Hamburg, Germany.
🌍 In 1961, Harper Lee received a Pulitzer Prize for her novel To Kill a Mockingbird.
🌍 In 1962, the first Bond film, Dr. No was released, starring Sean Connery as the first actor to play 007.
🌍 In 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas.
🌍 In 1964, Donald Campbell became the first man to break both the water and land speed records in the same year, reaching 403.1 mph on land in July and 276.33 mph on water in December.
🌍 In 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
🌍 In 1966, Indira Gandhi, only daughter of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, became Prime Minister of India.
🌍 In 1967, the first successful human heart transplant was carried out.
🌎 In 1968, Boeing introduced its 747, the world's first jumbo jet.
🌎In 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the Moon.
🌎 In 1970, the first Glastonbury Festival was held.
🌍 In 1971, the UK switched to decimal currency.
🌍 In 1972, five White House operatives were arrested for breaking into the offices of the Democratic National Committee, marking the start of the Watergate Scandal.
🌍 In 1973, the first phone call on a handheld cellular phone was made.
🌍 In 1974, the 19th Eurovision Song Contest was held in Brighton, with Sweden winning the contest with the song ‘Waterloo’ by pop group ABBA.
🌍 In 1975, the European Space Agency was established, with the UK being one of the ten founding members.
🌍 In 1976, the first commercial Concorde flight takes off from Heathrow Airport to Bahrain.
🌍 In 1977, Elvis Presley died from a heart attack aged 42.
🌍 In 1978, the world’s first human conceived through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) was born.
🌍 In 1979, Margaret Thatcher became the first female British Prime Minister.
🌍 In 1980, the Rubik’s Cube mades its international debut at The British Toy and Hobby Fair, Earl’s Court, London.
🌍 In 1981, the first London Marathon was held.
🌎 In 1982, the Mary Rose, flagship of Henry VIII of England was raised from the seabed in the Solent.
🌎 In 1983, the racehorse Shergar was kidnapped in Ireland, never to be seen again.
🌎 In 1984, the construction of the Thames Barrier in London was officially completed.
🌎 In 1985, the first episode of British soap opera EastEnders was broadcast on BBC One.
🌎 In 1986, Halley’s Comet appeared in the night sky – something that won’t happen again until 2061.
🌎 In 1987, the UK experienced the ‘Great Storm’, with 15 million trees blown down.
🌎 In 1988, Stephen Hawking Published "A Brief History of Time".
🌍 In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell.
🌍 In 1990, Nelson Mandela was freed from prison in South Africa after 27 years.
🌍 In 1991, British scientist Tim Berners-Lee published the first website on the World Wide Web.
🌎 In 1992, Betty Boothroyd was elected as the first woman to be the Speaker of the House of Commons.
🌎 In 1993, the Women’s Royal Naval Service was fully integrated into the Royal Navy, with women allowed to serve on board Navy vessels as full members of the crew for the first time.
🌎 In 1994, the Channel Tunnel opened, connecting England and France.
🌎 In 1995, Steve Fossett became the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a hot air balloon.
🌎 In 1996, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell, Dolly the sheep, was born.
🌎 In 1997, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published.
🌎 In 1998, the Good Friday Agreement between the British and Irish Governments was signed.
🌎 In 1999, the human population of the world surpassed 6 billion.
🌎 In 2000, the world welcomed the new Millennium with spectacular celebrations and without the feared ‘Millennium Bug’.
🌎 In 2001, the free online-encyclopaedia, Wikipedia, was launched.
🌎In 2002, Manchester hosted the 17th Commonwealth Games.
🌎 In 2003, the Human Genome Project was completed, with scientists successfully finishing sequencing about 99% of the human genome.
🌎 In 2004, Timothy the tortoise died. He was the last survivor of the Crimean War, which ended in 1856.
🌎In 2005, Britain's Ellen MacArthur becomes the fastest person to sail solo around the world taking 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes 33 seconds.
🌎 In 2006, the world's longest running music show 'Top of the Pops' was broadcast for the last time.
🌎 In 2007, the hashtag was invented and first used in a tweet by US product designer Chris Messina.
🌎 In 2008, CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was officially inaugurated.
🌎 In 2009, Captain Chesley B. ‘Sully’ Sullenberger made a successful crash landing in the Hudson River, New York, after his plane was struck by a flock of Canada geese shortly after takeoff.
🌎 In 2010, the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai opened and became the world’s tallest building.
🌎 In 2011, the world’s first synthetic organ transplant was successfully completed in Sweden.
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