1940 in the United Kingdom

[edit] Events

February 16 - Royal Navy destroyer HMS Cossack pursues German freighter Altmark into Jossingfjord in southwestern Norway, resulting in freedom for 290 British sailors and seamen held as prisoners.
April 9 - The British campaign in Norway is commences following the German invasion of Denmark and Norway.
April 12 - British troop occupy the Faroe Islands, following the invasion of Denmark, to avert a possible German occupation of the islands.
May 10 - Neville Chamberlain resigns as Prime Minister, and is later replaced by Winston Churchill
May 13 - Winston Churchill, makes his famous "I have nothing to offer you but blood, toil, tears, and sweat." to the House of Commons
May 14- Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and her government arrive in London following the German invasion of France and the Low Countries
May 14 - Recruitment begins for a home defense force - the Local Defence Volunteers, later known as the Home Guard.
May 22- Parliament passes the Emergency Powers Act 1940 giving the government full control over all persons and property.
May 26 to June 4 - The Dunkirk evacuation of British Expeditionary Force takes place. 300,000 troops are evacuated from France to England.

St Paul's Cathedral, London rises above the flames during the Blitz.

June 9 - The British Commandos are created.
June 10 - Italy declares war on France and the United Kingdom.
June 18 - Churchill makes his Battle of Britain speech to the House of Commons, "...the Battle of France is over. The Battle of Britain is about to begin."
June 30 - German forces land in Guernsey marking the start of the 5-year Occupation of the Channel Islands
July 9- The Battle of Britain begins
July 19 - Adolf Hitler makes peace appeal to the UK in an address to the Reichstag. Lord Halifax, British foreign minister, flatly rejects peace terms in a broadcast reply on July 22.
August 20 - Churchill] pays tribute to the Royal Air Force: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
August 24- First aid raid on London takes place.
September 7 - The Blitz begins. This will be the first of 57 consecutive nights of strategic bombing on London.
October 31 - The Battle of Britain ends
November 11 - Battle of Taranto - The Royal Navy launches the first aircraft carrier strike in history, on the Italian fleet at Taranto.
November 14 - Coventry is destroyed by 500 German Luftwaffe bombers (150,000 fire bombs, 503 tons of high explosives, 130 parachute mines leveled 60,000 of the city's 75,000 buildings; 568 people were killed).