1874
April: Randolph Churchill marries Jenny Jerome in Paris.
November: Winston Churchill is born.
1880
February: Brother John (‘Jack’) Churchill is born.
1886
August: Randolph Churchill is appointed as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
December: Randolph Churchill resigns.
1888
April: Churchill is accepted at Harrow public school.
1894
December: Churchill qualifies at Sandhurst.
1895
January: Randolph Churchill dies.
February: Churchill joins the 4th Queen’s Own Hussars.
November–December: Churchill travels to the US and then the Cuban War.
1896
October: Churchill is posted to Bangalore, India.
1897
July–August: Churchill joins a military expedition to the NW Frontier Province.
1898
Churchill travels to the Sudan and participates in the Battle of Omdurman; he also publishes his first book: The Story of the Malakand Field Force.
1899
May: Churchill resigns from the army.
July: He fights and loses the Oldham by-election for the Conservative Party.
October: He leaves Britain as a journalist, to cover the second Boer War.
November: Churchill is captured by the Boers and subsequently escapes.
1900
January–February: Churchill joins Sir Redvers Buller’s expedition to Ladysmith and Pretoria.
October: the ‘Khaki’ election is won by the Conservatives; Churchill wins the seat of Oldham.
1901
February: maiden speech in the House of Commons.
1904
May: Churchill ‘crosses the floor’ to join the Liberal Party; he also meets Clementine Hozier at a dance.
1905
Campbell-Bannerman forms a minority Liberal government.
1906
February: General election, won by the Liberals; Churchill wins Manchester Northwest for the Liberal Party. He is appointed Under Secretary of State for the Colonies.
1908
April: Churchill is appointed to the Cabinet as President of the Board of Trade; he loses the subsequent by-election in Manchester Northwest; he wins a by-election in Dundee.
March: Churchill meets Clementine Hozier for the second time. They are married in September.
1909
July: Daughter Diana is born.
1910
Two general elections are held, prompted by a constitutional crisis concerning the House of Lords. Hung parliaments result and Liberal minority governments are formed under Asquith.
February: Churchill becomes Home Secretary.
1911
May: Son Randolph is born.
October: Churchill becomes First Lord of the Admiralty.
1914
August: Beginning of the First World War.
October: Churchill witnesses the unsuccessful defence of Antwerp by naval infantry. His second daughter Sarah is born.
1915
April: The Gallipoli campaign begins.
May: A Conservative-Liberal coalition is formed. Churchill is demoted to Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
1916
January–May: Churchill serves on the Western Front.
December: Lloyd George becomes Prime Minister.
1917
July: Churchill is appointed Minister of Munitions.
1918
November: End of First World War; Marigold, Churchill’s fourth child, is born.
December: General election – the Liberal-Conservative coalition remains in office. Churchill becomes Minister for War and Minister for the Air.
1920
March: The ‘Black and Tans’ deployed in Ireland.
June: Churchill chairs the Cabinet’s Irish Committee.
1921
February: Appointed Secretary of State for the Colonies.
June: Churchill’s mother dies.
August: Daughter Marigold dies.
December: The Anglo-Irish Treaty is signed.
1922
September: Mary Churchill – their fifth child – is born.
November: General election; the Conservatives win under Andrew Bonar Law. Law later resigns in favour of Stanley Baldwin. Churchill loses his parliamentary seat.
The family move to Chartwell.
1923
December: General election; a Conservative minority government results; Churchill stands as a ‘Free Trade Liberal’ – but again, loses.
1924
March: Churchill fights and loses another by-election.
October: General election, won by Stanley Baldwin’s Conservative Party. Churchill wins his Epping seat for the first time – effectively as a Conservative. He is appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer.
1925
Churchill takes Britain back on to the Gold Standard.
1926
May: General Strike.
1929
May: General election – Ramsay MacDonald forms a minority Labour government.
July–November: Churchill travels across Canada and the USA by train.
October: The Wall Street Crash.
1931
October: General election – Ramsay MacDonald forms a National government (coalition).
Churchill publishes the final volume of his History of the First World War.
1935
November: General election – the National government re-elected under Baldwin, a Conservative.
1936
December: The abdication crisis.
1937
May: Neville Chamberlain takes over from Baldwin as Prime Minister.
1938
The final volume of Churchill’s biography of the Duke of Marlborough is published.
September: The Munich Crisis.
1939
March: Germany invades the remainder of Czechoslovakia.
September: Britain and France declare war on Germany.
1940
April: The Norwegian Campaign.
May: Hitler invades the Low Countries; Churchill is appointed Prime Minister.
June: British Forces are evacuated from Dunkirk, France.
August–September: The Battle of Britain.
1941
March: Lend-Lease agreement between Britain and the USA takes effect.
May: Britain is defeated in Greece.
June: Germany invades Russia.
December: Japan attacks the USA at Pearl Harbor.
1942
February: The fall of Singapore.
June: The fall of Tobruk.
1943
January: The Casablanca Conference.
August: The Quebec Conference.
September: The fall of Mussolini and peace with Italy.
November: The Cairo Conference; the Tehran Conference.
1944
June: The Allied invasion of France.
September: The Second Quebec Conference.
1945
February: The Yalta Conference.
May: Germany is defeated; Churchill forms a Conservative caretaker government; an election is called.
July: Churchill loses the 1945 election to Attlee’s Labour Party.
July–August: The Potsdam Conference.
September: Japan surrenders.
1946
March: Churchill gives the Iron Curtain speech at Fulton, Missouri.
1947
February: Churchill’s brother Jack dies.
1950
February: General election – Labour win by a slim majority.
June: The Korean War begins; Attlee’s government sends troops.
1951
October: General election – Churchill is returned to office with a slim majority.
1953
Churchill is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
June: Churchill has a serious stroke, which is covered up by his colleagues.
1954
The final volume of the History of the Second World War is published.
1955
April: Churchill resigns the premiership; Eden becomes Prime Minister.
May: General election – Eden increases the Conservative majority.
1956
November: Suez Crisis.
1957
January: Eden resigns and retires; Macmillan becomes Prime Minister.
1958
The final volume of History of the English-Speaking Peoples is published.
1959
October: General election – the Conservatives win under Macmillan.
1963
October: Churchill’s daughter Diana commits suicide.
1964
October: General election – Labour wins under Wilson; Churchill finally retires from Parliament.
1965
Churchill dies following a stroke.