The Pilgrims (or Pilgrim Fathers), a group of 102 English settlers, sail in the Mayflower to the new world

John Winthrop, appointed governor of the new Massachusetts Bay Company, sails from England with 700 settlers

Joseph Banks tells a committee of the House of Commons that the east coast of Australia is suitable for the transportation of convicted felons

The First Fleet (eleven ships carrying about 750 convicts) leaves Portsmouth for Australia

The India Act places India under the direct control of the British government, ending the rule of the East India Company

The chaotic government finances of Egypt are placed under joint French and British control

India becomes the 'jewel in the crown' of Queen Victoria when Benjamin Disraeli secures for her the title Empress of India

Stanley agrees to work for Leopold II in opening up the Congo river to commerce

The British empire is first described as a 'Commonwealth of Nations', by Lord Rosebery speaking in Australia

A gathering of leaders from the British empire holds a colonial conference in London to coincide with Queen Victoria's jubilee

Britain cedes the tiny island of Heligoland to Germany in return for vast areas of Africa

The Falkland Islands, by now occupied by some 2000 settlers, become a British colony

The Balfour Report, by former UK prime minister A.J. Balfour, suggests the way forward for the British Commonwealth of Nations

Winston Churchill, in a speech in Fulton, Missouri, expresses the harsh truth that an iron curtain has descended across Europe