May

1 May 1707 — England and Scotland unite, forming Great Britain, through the Act of Union 1707.

2 May 1952 — The first jet airliner set off from London to Johannesburg. (Aviation law, anyone?)

3 May 1788 — First daily evening newspaper, the Star and Evening Advertiser, was published in London. (You could work on your commercial awareness in the evening too😅).

4 May 1896 — Daily Mail is published, marking ‘the birth of modern journalism’.

5 May 1964 — The Council of Europe declared 5th May as Europe Day, celebrating peace and unity in Europe.

6 May 1966 — The ‘Moors Murderers’ are found guilty. As the death penalty was abolished six months earlier, the judge passed the only sentence he could — life imprisonment.

7 May 1928 — Voting age for women was reduced from 30 to 21 through the Equal Franchise Act 1928

8 May 1559 — The Act of Supremacy was passed, through which Queen Elizabeth I became the ‘Supreme Governor’ of the Church of England.

9 May 1960 — Birth Control Pill goes on the market. (Think abortion law, sexual revolution, HIV)

10 May 1773 — The Tea Act is passed, granting the British East India Company a monopoly on the North American tea trade(!)

11 May 1812 — The first and only assassination of a Prime Minister of Britain. Spencer Percival was allegedly mistaken for someone else and killed in the House of Commons.

12 May 1969 — Minimum voting age in Britain was lowered from 21 to 18 through the Representation of the People Act 1969

13 May 1787 — The first fleet of ships carrying convicts to the new penal colony of Australia left England. The Criminal Law Act 1776 suspended the transportation of convicts to America as it under revolution, so they switched to Australia.

14 May 2013 — R v Stuart Hazell is decided, sentencing Stuart Hazell to 38 years in prison for the murder of Tia Sharp, a 12 year old.

15 May 1536 — Trial of Anne Boleyn is held. She is accused of incest, sleeping with four men and plotting to kill her husband, King Henry VIII. (Why relevant? Well, the guy changed the law AND established his own church so that he could marry her three years prior)

16 May 1983 — London starts using experimental wheel clamps for illegally parked vehicles. Read the debate here.

17 May 1536 — George Boleyn, brother of Anne Boleyn and alleged lover, and her four other alleged sexual partners were executed.

18 May 1812 — John Bellingham was found guilty and sentenced to death for the assassination of the British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval.

19 May 1536 — Anne Boleyn is beheaded in London, three years after the law was changed and a church was formed so that King Henry VIII could marry her.

20 May 1993 — Britain ratified the Maastricht Treaty, which allowed for greater cooperation between members of the European Union.

21 May 1840 — William Hobson, Lieutenant-Governor proclaimed British sovereignty over all of New Zealand.

22 May 1840 — Britain ended the practice of sending convicts to the penal colony of Australia ( see 13 May )

23 May 1533 — In an attempt that annoyed the Pope, the English Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer declared Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon to be void and his marriage to Anne Boleyn, to be legal. The result was a break with the church in Rome despite Henry’s title as ‘Protector of the Faith’.

24 May 1689 — The Toleration Act is passed, granting freedom of worship to Nonconformists and granted them their own places of worship.

25 May 1871 — House of Commons passed the Bank Holiday Act, creating public holidays on Whit Monday, Easter Monday and Christmas Day.

26 May 1798 — Income Tax was introduced in Britain — a 10% tax on all incomes over £200 a year.  A year later this was dropped to £60.

27 May 1679 — Habeas Corpus Act is passed, which makes it illegal to hold anyone in prison without a trial.

28 May 1842 — Britain’s first public library is opened on Frederick Street, in Salford.

29 May 1871 — Whit Monday became the first official Bank Holiday in Britain (see 25 May)

30 May 1536 — Eleven days after he beheaded his second wife, Anne Boleyn, King Henry VIII marries Jane Seymour.

31 May 1859 — The clock in the tower of the Houses of Parliament was started. Big Ben will sound for the first time ever 2 months later on 11 July.