Subscribe now and receive weekly newsletters with educational materials, new courses, interesting posts, popular books, and much more!
Articles
The Churchill Timeline: His Life and Times, 1874-1977
- By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
- | October 9, 2023
- Category: Resources
Timeline of a heroic life
This detailed Timeline provides background details of the major events in Winston Churchill’s life. It will also appear as an appendix in the fifth expanded edition of my quotations book, Churchill by Himself, to be published by Hillsdale College Press and Rosetta Books.
All unnamed references (“enters, leaves, publishes, elected, appointed” etc.) are to Winston Spencer Churchill ( WSC ). Vast thanks are owed to two long-time collaborators to this Timeline: David J. Hatter and Ronald I. Cohen, who have worked on it with me since its first appearance in 2008. This updated version also benefits from suggested entries by Dave Turrell and Andrew Roberts. —RML
Youth, 1874-92
1873
15 August: Jennie Jerome meets Lord Randolph Churchill at Cowes.
1874
15 April: Marriage of Jennie and Randolph at the Chapel of the British Embassy, Paris.
30 November: Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill born at Blenheim Palace.
1876 – 79
Lord Randolph and family live at the Little Lodge, Dublin, as Randolph serves as secretary to his father, the Seventh Duke of Marlborough, appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland by Prime Minister Disraeli.
1880
4 February: John Strange Spencer Churchill born at Phoenix Park, Dublin.
10 April: Churchill family sets up house at 29 St. James’s Place, London.
1882
November: Enters St. George’s School, Ascot.
1884
Summer: Leaves St. George’s and is taught by the Misses Thomson in Brighton.
1885
1 April: Clementine Ogilvy Hozier born in London.
24 June: Lord Randolph Churchill appointed Secretary of State for India.
23 November – 18 December: General election nets Gladstone and the Liberals the most seats but not an overall majority. Gladstone is briefly Prime Minister in February-July 1886.
1886
17 March: Suffers a serious attack of pneumonia.
8 May: Lord Randolph writes The Times opposing Irish Home Rule.
1 July: General election returns Lord Salisbury and the Conservatives to power.
3 August: Lord Randolph Churchill appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons.
20 December: Lord Randolph resigns his posts.
1888
15 March: Takes entrance examination at Harrow.
17 April: Enters Harrow.
1891
3 March: Lady Randolph’s father, Leonard Jerome, dies at Brighton.
1892
December: Leaves Harrow.
Soldier of the Queen 1874-1900
1893
10 January: Jumps, in play, from bridge at Bournemouth; briefly near death.
28 June: Qualifies as cavalry cadet, Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
1 September: Enters Royal Military College.
1894
3 November: First public speech, Empire Music Hall, London: “Ladies of the Empire, I stand for liberty.”
December: Passes out of Sandhurst twentieth in class of 130.
1895
24 January: Lord Randolph Churchill dies in London.
20 February: Gazetted to the Fourth Queen’s Own Hussars.
3 July: Mrs. Everest, his beloved nanny, dies in London.
9 November: First visit to United States, meets Bourke Cockran; spends a week in New York and Tampa, en route to Cuba as a war correspondent.
30 November: Reports on fighting between Spanish and Cubans at Arroyo Blanco, Cuba.
6 December: Granted Spain’s Cross of the Order of Military Merit, his first foreign decoration, for his time with the Spanish army in Cuba.
1896
3 October: Arrives at Bangalore, India. Begins self-education by reading voraciously.
3 November: Meets Pamela Plowden, his first serious romance; they remain lifelong friends.
1897
12 March: Leaves India temporarily.
26 July: First political speech to a meeting of the Primrose League, Claverton Down, Bath.
4 September: Joins the Malakand Field Force on the North-West Frontier.
4 October: Begins writing Savrola and an account of the Malakand operations.
31 December: Sends Lady Randolph the manuscript of his first book.
1898
14 March: Publishes first book, The Story of the Malakand Field Force 1897.
1 June: Awarded the India Medal 1895, his first British decoration.
2 July: Returns to London.
27 July: Departs London for Egypt via Marseilles.
1 September: Meets Kitchener in Egypt.
2 September: Charges with the Twenty-First Lancers at Omdurman, Sudan.
1 December: Returns to India.
1899
April: Resigns from army; returns to London to pursue a political career.
19 June: Robert Ascroft, MP for Oldham, dies, opening a seat for WSC to contest.
6 July: Defeated in his first attempt at Parliament, running as a Conservative, at the Oldham by-election.
2 October: Announces to his mother that his second book, The River War, is complete.
14 October: Sails to South Africa as war correspondent of The Morning Post.
6 November: Publishes The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan.
15 November: Captured by the Boers in an ambush of an armoured train near Chieveley, South Africa.
12 December: Escapes from prison at the State Model School in Pretoria.
21 December: Arrives safely at Lourenço Marques, Portuguese East Africa.
23 December: Arrives at Durban, Natal, to a tumultuous welcome.
1900
1 February: Publishes his only novel, Savrola.
12 February: Participates in his first military action since his escape, at Hussar Hill, Tugela; his brother Jack is shot in the calf during the engagement.
27 February: Labour Party founded in London.
28 February: Enters Ladysmith with a relief column.
16 May: Publishes London to Ladysmith via Pretoria.
5 June: Enters Pretoria with victorious British troops as a Lieutenant in the South Africa Light Horse.
4 July: Embarks for England aboard the Dunnottar Castle; arrives Southampton on 20th.
1 October: Elected Conservative Member of Parliament for Oldham, Lancashire.
12 October: Publishes Ian Hamilton’s March.
30 October: British lecture tour, “The War as I Saw It,” begins in London.
1 December: Sails from Liverpool to New York to begin a lecture tour of North America.
10 December: Meets Governor Theodore Roosevelt, the Vice President-elect, in Albany.
11 December: First lecture, Philadelphia.
23 December: Takes train from Boston to Montreal, to deliver speeches in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto.
31 December: Earnings from journalism total £2000, highest of any contemporary writer.
Conservative Rebel 1901-04
1901
22 January: Queen Victoria dies while WSC is in Winnipeg.
31 January: Final North American lecture, Carnegie Hall, New York.
2 February: Embarks for England.
14 February: Takes his seat in the House of Commons.
18 February: Maiden Speech, House of Commons.
13 May: Attacks his Government’s Army Estimates, saying that a European war could be “a cruel, heartrending struggle.”
1902
31 May: Treaty of Vereeniging ends Boer War.
27 September: First visit as a guest of the Royal Family at Balmoral.
10 October: Proposes a coalition between the Conservatives and Liberals.
1903
20 April: Publishes Mr. Brodrick’s Army, a collection of speeches against the Army Estimates.
1904
19 February: Addresses inaugural meeting of the Free Trade League in Manchester.
March: First meeting with Clementine Hozier at a London ball. WSC is tongue-tied and Clementine unimpressed; they will not meet again for four years.
22 April: Loses his place in a speech on the Trade Disputes Bill and has to sit down. Never again does he speak without notes.
31 May: Breaks with the Conservatives, taking his seat with the opposition Liberals.
8 June: Delivers his first address as a Liberal from the Opposition benches.
Liberal Reformer, 1905-10
1905
31 October: Signs agreement with Macmillan for publication of Lord Randolph Churchill, with an advance of £8000.
13 December: Appointment announced as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies in the Liberal Government of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman.
1906
2 January: Publishes Lord Randolph Churchill (two volumes).
12 January-8 February: Liberal Party triumphs in the general election.
13 January: Elected Liberal MP for Manchester North-West.
March: Publishes speech volume For Free Trade.
1907
1 May: Sworn in as a member of the Privy Council.
2 October: Begins an official tour of British East Africa, returning January 1908.
22 October: Clementine Churchill breaks her engagement to Lionel Earle.
1908
5 April: H.H. Asquith succeeds Campbell-Bannerman as Prime Minister.
12 April: Becomes President of the Board of Trade; at Salisbury Hall, meets Clementine Hozier for the second time.
24 April: Defeated in Manchester North-West by-election, then required by his appointment to a new Cabinet office. Seeks another constituency.
9 May: Elected Member of Parliament for Dundee.
11 August: Proposes to Clementine Hozier at the Temple of Diana, Blenheim.
12 September: Marries Clementine at the Church of St. Margaret’s, Westminster.
December: Publishes My African Journey.
1909
11 July: Birth of first child, Diana (“the Cream-gold Kitten” or “PK=Puppy Kitten”).
12 September: Guest of Kaiser Wilhelm II at German Army manoeuvres.
26 November: Publishes speech volume Liberalism and the Social Problem.
December: House of Lords vetoes the Liberals’ budget, necessitating a general election.
December (or January 1910): Publishes The People’s Rights.
1910
22 January: Re-elected MP for Dundee; Liberals win election with a narrow majority.
14 February: Becomes Secretary of State for the Home Department.
8 November: Halts dispatch of troops to quell the Welsh coal mine strike at Tonypandy.
The Coming of War, 1911-13
1911
3 January: Battle of Sidney Street; photographed observing the police attack on London anarchists, causing complaints about his being present.
28 May: Birth of only son, Randolph Frederick Edward (“The Chumbolly”).
July: German gunboat Panther anchors off Agadir, provoking possible war with France.
13 August: Writes cabinet paper, “Military Aspects of the Continental Problem”, accurately predicting the opening phase of the Great War.
25 October: Becomes First Lord of the Admiralty.
1912
January: His three naval programmes for 1912-14 offer “the greatest addition in power and cost ever made to the Royal Navy.”
30 April: Urges a unified Ireland comprising both Catholics and Protestants.
1913
26 March: Warns Parliament of the danger of bombing by airships.
17 July: Urges Britain to become energy-independent.
15 November; Urges taxation of land, infuriating Conservatives.
The Fleet Was Ready, 1914-15
1914
17 June: Secures oil supply for Royal Navy through Anglo-Persian Oil Company.
28 June: Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo.
31 July: Cabinet debate on Irish Home Rule interrupted by Austrian ultimatum to Serbia.
1 August: Orders mobilization of the fleet.
4 August: Great Britain declares war on Germany; issues order to the Royal Navy: “Commence hostilities against Germany.”
3-6 October: Organizes the defence of Antwerp.
7 October: Birth of second daughter, Sarah (“The Mule”).
30 October: Appoints Lord Fisher First Sea Lord, replacing Prince Louis of Battenberg.
1 November: British Pacific squadron defeated in the Battle of Coronel, off Chile.
8 December: Royal Navy victorious in the Battle of the Falkland Islands.
1915
3 January: Proposes naval and military attack on the Dardanelles, supported by Lord Fisher and Lord Kitchener.
18 March: Franco-British naval attack on the Dardanelles ends after losses to mines.
22-23 April: Second Battle of Ypres sees first use of poison gas by Germans.
15 May: Lord Fisher resigns in protest over Dardanelles action.
26 May: Resigns as First Lord of the Admiralty.
27 May: Becomes Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, a sinecure position of little import.
2 July: Begins a lifetime hobby of oil painting at Hoe Farm, Surrey.
1 August: Royal Naval Air Service, his creation, placed under Royal Navy.
11 November: Resigns from Cabinet, prepares to join troops on Western Front.
19 November: Attached Second Battalion, Grenadier Guards in France; after training, commands 6th Battalion, The Royal Scots Fusiliers.
Armageddon, 1916-18
1916
7 March: Returns to London having remained MP for Dundee while in the field.
7 May: Returns permanently to Parliament.
31 May-1 June: Battle of Jutland; both sides claim victory but little damage occurs.
1 July-19 November; Battle of the Somme produces 57,000 British casualties, 20,000 dead.
6 December: David Lloyd George succeeds H.H. Asquith as Prime Minister.
1917
8 February: Purchases Lullenden, first country home, East Grinstead, Sussex, for £6000.
6 April: United States enters the Great War, declares war on Germany.
9-12 April: Canadians triumph at Vimy Ridge.
June-November: Battles of Passchendaele (Third Ypres) kill hundreds of thousands.
18 July: Becomes Minister of Munitions in Lloyd George’s coalition Government.
30 July: Wins by-election at Dundee, required by his ministerial appointment.
2 November: Balfour Declaration promises a Jewish national home in Palestine.
1918
29 January: At Gray’s Inn, meets Franklin Roosevelt, then Assistant Navy Secretary, for the first time. FDR later recalls, “he behaved like a stinker.”
9 February: Treaty of Brest-Litovsk takes Russia out of the war against Germany.
1 April: Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service merge to form Royal Air Force.
15 July-6 August: Second Battle of the Marne, Germany’s last offensive.
11 November: Armistice Day signals the end of the First World War.
15 November: Birth of third daughter, Marigold (“The Duckadilly”).
14 December: Re-elected Member for Dundee, although results only announced on the 29th.
Aftershocks, 1919-24
1919
9 January: Becomes Secretary of State for War and Secretary of State for Air. Parliament rescinds the rule for Cabinet ministers to seek re-election following their appointment.
28 June: Peace Treaty signed at Versailles.
16 July: Receives United States Distinguished Service Medal, his only American decoration, for his work as Minister of Munitions.
18 July: Survives plane crash; gives up flying at his wife’s request.
30 September: Sells Lullenden to General Sir Ian Hamilton.
1920
16 January: League of Nations convenes at Geneva.
25 March: Black and Tans arrive in Ireland.
11 November: Government of Ireland Act effectively divides Catholic and Protestant Ireland.
1921
26 January: Inherits Garron Towers estate in Ireland following the death of a cousin in a train crash; financial horizons considerably enhanced.
14 February: Becomes Secretary of State for the Colonies.
March: Convenes Cairo Conference to settle the borders of the Middle East; appoints T. E. Lawrence chief adviser on Middle Eastern affairs. Visits Alexandria, Cairo, Gaza and Jerusalem.
1 April: Resigns as Air Minister.
29 June: Lady Randolph Churchill dies in London.
23 August: Marigold Churchill dies of septicaemia of the throat in Broadstairs, Kent.
6 December: Helps negotiate the Anglo-Irish Treaty creating the Irish Free State, signed in London by David Lloyd George, Michael Collins and Arthur Griffiths.
1922
3 June: Palestine White paper proposes a Jewish National Home in Palestine.
15 September: Birth of fourth daughter, Mary.
24 September: Buys Chartwell Manor near Westerham, Kent for £5000.
18 October: Operated on for appendicitis; Clementine campaigns in his stead in Dundee.
19 October: Leaves Colonial Office as Lloyd George resigns following the withdrawal of Conservatives from his Coalition government.
16 November: Defeated at Dundee in the general election; out of Parliament for the first time in twenty-two years (except for a brief spell between defeat at Manchester North-West and election in Dundee in 1908).
1923
6 April: Publishes The World Crisis, volume I.
October: Publishes The World Crisis, volume II.
6 December: Running as a Liberal Free-Trader, defeated in the West Leicester by-election.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1924-28
1924
19 March: Running as an independent anti-Socialist, defeated narrowly in the Abbey Division of Westminster by-election.
29 October: Elected as a Constitutionalist for Epping in the general election; he will hold this seat, and the derivative seat for Woodford from 1945 through his retirement in 1964.
7 November: Becomes Chancellor of the Exchequer in Stanley Baldwin’s Conservative government.
1925
28 April: Proposes first budget, including a return to the gold standard.
October: Officially rejoins Conservative Party.
1 December: Locarno Treaty signed by France, Germany and Belgium, guaranteed by Britain and Italy; Germany promises to join the League of Nations in 1926.
1926
3 April: Receives his first honorary degree (LL.D.) at Queen’s University, Belfast.
3 May: General Strike called by Trades Union Council.
5-13 May: Edits a government strike paper, The British Gazette.
10 May: Reviled by the strikers, works behind the scenes for an equitable settlement.
13 May: General Strike ends, WSC having edited The British Gazette from 5 to 13 May.
1927
8 January: Plays his last game of polo at Wembley.
15 January: Visits Mussolini in Rome, secures payment of Italian war debt to Britain.
7 March: Publishes The World Crisis 1916–1918 in two parts.
April: Begins bricklaying at Chartwell, claiming to be able to lay “200 bricks and 2000 words a day.”
1928
5 March: Disputes rating reform with Minister of Health Neville Chamberlain.
5 July: Successfully proposes extension of the Ten Year Rule (basing military budget on the assumption of no major war within ten years).
12 August: Neville Chamberlain writes: “There is too deep a difference between our natures for me to feel at home with him or to regard him with affection. He is a brilliant wayward child who compels admiration but who wears out his guardians with the constant strain he puts on them.”
27 August: Kellogg-Briand Pact renouncing war signed by sixty-five nations including Germany, Italy and Japan.
22 September: Joins Amalgamated Union of Building Trade Workers as a bricklayer.
Political Wilderness, 1929-33
1929
7 March: Publishes The Aftermath, vol. IV of The World Crisis.
30 May: Baldwin government defeated in general election; Labour’s Ramsay MacDonald, with Liberal support, will succeed Baldwin as Prime Minister.
4 June: Resigns as Chancellor of the Exchequer, beginning his “Wilderness Years.”
27 June: Elected Chancellor of Bristol University, a position held until his death in 1965.
3 August: Embarks on North American holiday tour with son Randolph, brother Jack and nephew Johnnie.
9 August: Arrives in Canada, traveling cross-country toward British Columbia.
7 September: Arrives in Washington state, USA
9 September: Arrives northern California and tours Napa Valley wine country.
13 September: Hosted by William Randolph Hearst at San Simeon.
22 September: Lands 188-pound marlin off Catalina Island on the Hearst yacht.
24 September: Meets Charlie Chaplin in Hollywood, departs for Yosemite the next day.
29 October: In New York during “Black Tuesday,” the New York Stock Market Crash.
30 October: Embarks for England, arriving 5 November.
1930
18 October: Tells Prince Otto von Bismarck that “Hitler and his followers [will] seize the first opportunity to resort to armed force.”
20 October: Publishes his autobiography, My Early Life: A Roving Commission (A Roving Commission in USA).
1931
January: Resigns from the Conservative Business Committee or Shadow Cabinet over policy disagreements, chiefly over self-government for India.
27 May: Publishes speech volume India.
24 August: Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald resigns, then forms a Coalition government with Conservatives and Liberals and himself as premier.
18 September: Japan begins the invasion of Manchuria.
10 November: Publishes The Eastern Front, fifth and final volume of The World Crisis.
5 December: Embarks for New York to begin a lecture tour, arriving on the 11th.
13 December: Knocked down and almost killed by car on Fifth Avenue.
31 December: Departs with Clementine for Nassau to recuperate.
1932
22 January: Winston and Clementine leave Nassau for New York.
28 January: Resumes lecture tour at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, before an audience of 2000.
February-March: Lectures in Hartford, Springfield, St. Louis, Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit, Chicago, New York, Atlanta and other cities.
11 March: Embarks for England.
13 May: First speech warning of German rearmament.
September: In Munich, willing to meet with Hitler, who decides against it.
8 November: Franklin Roosevelt elected U.S. President.
10 November: Publishes Thoughts and Adventures (Amid These Storms in USA). Negotiates a £20,000 advance from Cassell for A History of the English-Speaking Peoples.
Locust Years, 1933-36
1933
30 January: Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany.
14 March: First speech in the House warning of the need to rebuild Britain’s air defences.
6 October: Publishes Marlborough: His Life and Times, volume I; four volumes will be published through 1938.
10 October: Tells James Roosevelt: “I wish to be Prime Minister and in close and daily communication by telephone with the President of the United States.”
1934
26 January: Germany and Poland sign non-aggression pact.
7 February: Argues in Parliament for maintenance of fleet strength and creation of “shadow factories” quickly convertible to war production.
2 August: Following Hindenburg’s death Hitler proclaims himself Chancellor and Führer of Germany.
22 October: Publishes second volume of Marlborough.
1935
19 May: Mourns death of T.E. Lawrence in a motorcycle accident near his cottage, Clouds Hill, Dorset.
7 June: Stanley Baldwin succeeds Ramsay MacDonald as prime minister of the national (coalition) government.
18 June: Anglo-German Naval Agreement allows Germany up to 35% of British naval strength; that limit is soon exceeded.
July: Joins Committee of Imperial Defence.
16 September: Diana Churchill marries Duncan Sandys.
3 October: Mussolini invades Abyssinia.
14 November: Re-elected in general election, along with larger Conservative majority; not asked to join the Baldwin government.
December: Hoare-Laval Pact partitions Abyssinia, granting Mussolini some of the spoils of his invasion.
1936
20 January: King George V dies, succeeded by his son Edward VIII.
7 March: Hitler reoccupies the Rhineland.
17 July: Spanish Civil War begins.
23 October: Publishes third volume of Marlborough.
7 December: Abdication Crisis. Shouted down and ruled out of order in the Commons pleading on behalf of Edward VIII.
12 November: Pronounces government as “decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.”
10 December: Edward VIII abdicates in favour of his brother who becomes George VI.
24 December: Sarah Churchill marries Vic Oliver.
Gathering Storm, 1937-39
1937
12 May: Coronation of King George VI.
28 May: Prime Minister Baldwin retires, succeeded by Neville Chamberlain.
28 May: Warns German Ambassador von Ribbentrop, “do not underrate England.”
17 June: J.E.C. Welldon, former Head Master at Harrow and a good friend for half a century, dies.
4 October: Publishes Great Contemporaries.
1938
20 February: Eden resigns as Foreign Secretary.
10 April: Austria votes for Anschluss, the union of Germany and Austria.
24 June: Publishes Arms and the Covenant, (While England Slept in USA), speeches during the Appeasement years.
2 September: Publishes fourth and final volume of Marlborough.
23 September: With German troops massed on her border, Czechoslovakia mobilises.
30 September: Munich agreement cedes Sudetenland portions of Czechoslovakia to Germany.
9-10 November: Reichkristallnacht pogrom against Jews in Germany.
1939
15 March: German troops enter Prague, Hitler proclaims the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the end of Czechoslovakia.
21 March: Lithuania cedes Memel to Germany.
31 March: Britain guarantees Poland’s independence.
27 June: Publishes Step by Step, a collection of fortnightly articles on foreign affairs from the Evening Standard, Daily Telegraph and Morning Post between March 1936 and May 1938.
15-25 August: Visits Rhine front.
24 August: German—Soviet Non-Aggression Pact signed.
1 September: Hitler invades Poland.
3 September: Becomes First Lord of the Admiralty as Britain and France declare war on Germany.
17 December: German battleship Graf Spee, cornered by Royal Navy in Montevideo, scuttles herself.
“Nothing Surpasses 1940”
1940
15 January: Soviet Union invades Finland.
12 March: Finland surrenders.
20 March: French Premier Daladier resigns, succeeded by Paul Reynaud.
9 April: Germany invades Denmark and Norway.
2 May: British withdraw from Trondheim, Norway.
10 May: Germany invades Luxembourg, Holland and Belgium, sweeping toward France.
10 May: Becomes Prime Minister and Minister of Defence; forms Coalition government.
13 May: First speech as Prime Minister: “Blood, toil, tears and sweat.”
15 May: Asks Roosevelt for the loan of fifty destroyers. Guderian’s panzers break through French lines at Sedan. Holland surrenders.
24 May: Germans reach Calais, backing British and French forces to the sea.
26 May-4 June: Dunkirk evacuation saves 338,226 soldiers, British, French and allied.
28 May: Convinces Cabinet to fight on. Belgium surrenders.
4 June: Tells Parliament: “We shall never surrender.”
10 June: Italy declares war on France and Britain.
16 June: On fourth visit to France as Prime Minister, offers Anglo-French Union, which is declined.
14-21 June: Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania occupied by the Soviet Union.
22 June: France signs armistice.
4 July: Orders bombardment of French fleet at Oran.
10 July: Battle of Britain begins, with up to 1000 civilian casualties per night.
20 August: Praises the RAF: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
2 September: Roosevelt agrees to loan fifty destroyers in exchange for bases in British possessions in Newfoundland, Bermuda and the West Indies.
7 September: London Blitz begins.
15 September: Hitler postpones “Operation Sea Lion,” the invasion of Britain.
27 September: German-Italian-Japanese Axis formed.
5 October: First telephone conversation between Churchill and Roosevelt.
9 November: Neville Chamberlain dies.
14 November: Coventry Cathedral destroyed by bombing.
15 December: Lord Halifax named Ambassador to America, replaced as Foreign Secretary by Anthony Eden.
Britain Can Take It, 1941
1941
6 February: Into Battle, (Blood Sweat and Tears in USA and Canada), a best-selling collection of war speeches.
7 March: Sends British troops to Greece, which is overwhelmed by German forces.
11 March: American Lend-Lease Act approved by Congress.
10 May: House of Commons bombed in the last major raid of London Blitz.
20 May: Britain invades Crete, taking 12,000 casualties.
27 May: Royal Navy sinks German battleship Bismarck.
22 June: Assures support of Russia after Germany invades Soviet Union.
July: Replaces Wavell with Auchinleck as commander in North Africa.
10 August: Meets with Roosevelt at Argentia Bay, Newfoundland.
12 August: Signs Atlantic Charter communiqué with Roosevelt.
23 September: Appointed Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.
7 December: Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, Malaya, Hong Kong and the Dutch East Indies.
8 December: United States declares war on Germany.
10 December: Japan sinks HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse off Malaya.
11 December: Germany and Italy declare war on United States.
22 December-14 January: In America and Canada for allied conferences.
26 December: First speech to joint session of Congress brings down the house saying of the enemy, “What kind of people do they think we are?”
30 December: Speaks to Canadian Parliament: “Some chicken! Some neck!”
Turning the Tide, 1942-43
1942
27 January: Calls for and wins a vote of confidence, 464 to 1.
14 February: Singapore surrenders to the Japanese.
17 June: Flies to Washington for planning with Roosevelt and military staffs.
21 June: Tobruk falls to Rommel in North Africa.
1-27 July: First Battle of Alamein. Auchinleck halts German Afrika Korps drive 66 miles short of Alexandria.
2 July: Defeats Parliamentary vote of no confidence, 475 to 25.
2 August: Flies to Cairo to replace Auchinleck with Montgomery in North Africa.
9 August: Battle of Stalingrad begins.
12 August: Flies to Moscow for first personal meeting with Stalin.
24 September: Publishes speech volume The Unrelenting Struggle.
23 October-5 November: Second Battle of Alamein ends with British triumphant.
December: Allies crack German Enigma code.
1943
14-24 January: Confers with Roosevelt and Anglo-American military commanders at Casablanca.
30 January: Flies to Adana for meeting with Turkish President Inönü.
2 February: Germans surrender at Stalingrad.
5 May: Leaves London for Washington.
19 May: Second speech to joint session of Congress.
30 May: Confers with Eisenhower and other commanders in North Africa.
10 July: Allied invasion of Sicily begins.
29 July: Publishes speech volume The End of the Beginning
14 August: First Quebec Conference begins.
12 September: Allied invasion of South Italy.
22-26 November: Confers with Roosevelt at Cairo.
28 November-1 December: Confers with Roosevelt and Stalin at Teheran.
11 December: Flies to Tunis, contracts pneumonia.
Victory and Defeat, 1944-45
1944
22 January: Anglo-Americans land at Anzio, Italy.
7-10 April: Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler escape Auschwitz and prepare the first report to the Allies on the death camp.
5 June: Rome falls to Allies.
6 June: D-Day, the Allied invasion of France.
12 June: Visits Normandy beachheads.
13-14 June: First V1 flying bomb lands on England.
20 June: Visits American sector of the front at Cherbourg.
29 June: Publishes speech volume Onwards to Victory.
1-22 July: Bretton Woods monetary conference creates International Monetary Fund and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
20 July: Hitler survives bomb plot.
21-22 July: Visits Montgomery’s headquarters near Caen.
11 August: Flies to Naples for talks with Tito; visits Italian front.
15 August: Allied invasion of the south of France.
21 August-7 October: Dumbarton Oaks Conference drafts charter of United Nations.
24 August: Liberation of Paris.
9 September: First V2 rocket lands on London.
12 September: Begins visit to Quebec, Hyde Park and Washington including Second Quebec Conference.
9 October: With Stalin in Moscow, makes “percentages” agreement about spheres of influence in Eastern Europe.
7 November: Roosevelt re-elected President for his fourth term.
11 November: Celebrates Armistice Day in Paris.
5 December: Orders British troops to Greece.
16 December: Battle of the Bulge, Hitler’s last offensive, begins in the Ardennes.
25 December: Flies to Athens to mediate and settle Greek civil war.
1945
25 January: Relief of Bastogne ends Battle of the Bulge.
30 January-2 February: Confers with Roosevelt at Malta.
4-12 February: Confers with Roosevelt and Stalin at Yalta.
16-17 February: In Cairo and Fayoum, meets King Saud and other Middle East leaders.
25 March: Crosses Rhine two days after Allied Armies.
12 April: President Roosevelt dies in Warm Springs, Georgia.
28 April: Mussolini executed by Italian partisans.
30 April: Hitler commits suicide in Berlin.
8 May: V-E Day. Germany surrenders.
23 May: Forms Conservative caretaker Government following break-up of the Coalition.
4 June: Delivers “Gestapo” speech warning of perils of a Labour victory.
5 July: Polling Day in Britain; results delayed while service votes accumulate from overseas.
7-15 July: Holidays with Clementine and Mary at Hendaye, France.
16 July: First test explosion of atomic bomb, Alamogordo, New Mexico.
17-25 July: Confers with Truman and Stalin at Potsdam.
26 July: Returns to London for election results; resigns as Prime Minister following defeat of Conservatives in general election; becomes Leader of the Opposition.
6 August: Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
9 August: Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki.
15 August: V-J Day. Japan surrenders.
Renewed Warnings, 1946-50
1946
8 January: Invested with the Order of Merit by King George VI.
31 January: Warns of “squalid warfare with terrorists.”
5 March: Delivers “Iron Curtain” speech at Fulton, Missouri.
27 June: Publishes speech volume Victory.
22 August: Publishes Secret Session Speeches.
19 September: At Zürich, urges Franco-German rapprochement.
14 October: Al Smith memorial dinner, London
November: Chartwell is purchased by Churchill’s friends led by Lord Camrose, who donate it to the National Trust, providing that the Churchills may reside there for the rest of their lives.
5 November: Deplores half a million deaths from sectarian vioilence in India.
1947
11 February: Mary Churchill marries Christopher Soames.
23 February: Brother John Strange Spencer-Churchill dies.
1948
16 January: Inducted into the Society of the Cincinnati; forebear Reuben Murray fought with Washington.
21 June: Publishes The Gathering Storm, volume I of The Second World War; five more volumes follow through 1954.
8 May: Urges European unity at Conference of Europe, The Hague.
24 June: Berlin Airlift begins as Soviets blockade West Berlin.
19 August: Publishes The Sinews of Peace, the first of five volumes of post-war speeches published through 1961.
2 November: Harry Truman elected President of the U.S.
December: Publishes Painting as a Pastime, his 1921–22 essay, for the first time in volume form.
1949
29 March: Publishes Their Finest Hour, vol. 2 of the war memoirs.
31 March: Tells M.I.T. Mid-Century Conference that “the world was divided into peoples that owned the governments and governments that owned the peoples.”
May: Acquires the thoroughbred Colonist II, first venture into horse-racing.
12 May: Soviets lift Berlin blockade; Allies end Berlin Airlift.
August: Visiting Beaverbrook in the south of France, has his first stroke, which is kept secret.
1950
3 February: Publishes speech volume Europe Unite.
23 February: Labour narrowly wins general election.
24 April: Publishes The Grand Alliance, vol. 3 of the war memoirs; the Cassell edition follows.
25 June: Korean War begins.
27 November: Publishes The Hinge of Fate, vol. 4 of the war memoirs; the Cassell edition follows.
Prime Minister Again, 1951-55
1951
12 September: Attlee government warns that a new election is needed in October.
1 October 1951: Publishes speech volume In the Balance.
26 October: Becomes Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, following Conservative victory in the general election.
23 November: Publishes Closing the Ring, vol. 5 of the war memoirs; the Cassell edition follows.
1952
17 January: Third and final speech to the U.S. Congress.
6 February: King George VI dies in London.
1 March: Hands over office of Minister of Defence to Field Marshal Alexander.
14 August: Niece Clarissa marries Anthony Eden.
3 September: Publishes the first of three volumes of The War Speeches, collecting speeches from individual volumes of wartime speech volumes.
1 November: Successful test of U.S. hydrogen bomb.
4 November: Dwight Eisenhower elected President of the U.S.
1953
5-9 January: Visits President-elect Eisenhower in New York and President Truman in Washington.
5 March: Joseph Stalin dies in Moscow.
24 April: Becomes Knight of the Garter and, therefore, “Sir Winston Churchill.”
2 June: Attends Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
23 June: Experiences his second stroke, again kept secret from public.
25 June: Publishes speech volume Stemming the Tide.
27 July: Armistice ends the Korean War.
30 November: Publishes Triumph and Tragedy, sixth and final volume of war memoirs.
4-8 December: Confers in Bermuda with Eisenhower and Laniel.
10 December: Rousing speech at Margate party conference confirms his recovery from a stroke. Awarded Nobel Prize for Literature, accepted at the ceremony in Oslo by his wife.
1954
14 June: Invested as Knight of the Garter.
30 November: Attends celebrations of his eightieth birthday at Westminster Hall. Given a painting he hated, he describes it as “a fine example of modern art.” His wife later destroys it.
1955
1 March: Last political speech to Parliament: “Never flinch, never weary, never despair.,”
28 March: Last speech in the Commons memorializes Lloyd George.
5 April: Resigns as Prime Minister.
26 May: Re-elected MP for Woodford in general election, won by Eden and the Conservatives with a 68-seat majority. Resumes work on A History of the English-Speaking Peoples.
Publishing in Retirement, 1956-59
1956
6 February: Dines aboard the Onassis yacht Christina for the first time.
23 April: Publishes The Birth of Britain, first volume of A History of the English-Speaking Peoples [HESP], and a new edition of Savrola.
26 July: Egypt’s Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal.
5 November: Suez Crisis; British and French troops land in Egypt.
6 November: Eisenhower re-elected U.S. President; lacking support from the United States, a cease-fire is announced in Suez on 6 November.
26 November: Publishes The New World, vol. 2 of HESP.
1957
9 January: Anthony Eden resigns as Prime Minister, succeeded by Harold Macmillan.
14 October: Publishes The Age of Revolution, vol. 3 of HESP. Sells Chartwell Farm and Bardogs Farm.
1958
14 March: Publishes The Great Democracies, fourth and final volume of HESP.
1 June: Charles de Gaulle becomes French Premier.
12 September: Celebrates golden wedding anniversary at Lord Beaverbrook’s villa in the south of France.
22 September: First cruise on Onassis yacht Christina.
6 November: Receives the Order of Liberation from de Gaulle in Paris.
1959
7 January-17 February: Last visit to Marrakesh, Morocco.
8 January: De Gaulle becomes President of the new Fifth Republic.
5 February: Publishes an abridged one-volume edition of The Second World War with an Epilogue on 1945–57, his last original writing.
8 October: Re-elected MP for Woodford, his last term as MP. Macmillan and the Conservatives win a majority of over 100 seats.
Tranquil Waters, 1960-77
1960
21 March: Welcomed in Barbados aboard Christina.
14 July: Visits Tito at Split, arriving on Christina.
8 November: Sends congratulations to John F. Kennedy, just elected U.S. President.
1961
9 March: Departs on Christina for Caribbean cruise from Antilles to Bahamas.
12 April: In New York aboard Christina; invited to visit Kennedy, he regretfully declines owing to health, and flies home.
27 April: Publishes The Unwritten Alliance, his last volume of speeches.
29 June: Receives the Most Refulgent Order of the Star of Nepal First Class from the Nepalese ambassador.
1962
9 April: Departs Monte Carlo on the last of seven cruises aboard Christina.
14 April: In Libya aboard Christina, informed of his last decoration, the Grand Sash of the High Order of Sayyid Mohammed bin Ali el Senoussi.
28 June: Falls and breaks a hip in Monte Carlo, flies home to hospital. (“I want to die in England.”)
1963
9 April 9: Declared an honorary citizen of the United States by President Kennedy.
19 October: Diana Churchill dies in London.
22 November: Watches in tears coverage of assassination of President Kennedy.
1964
28 July: Presented with unprecedented vote of thanks by House of Commons upon his retirement from Parliament.
15 October: In the first general election since 1895 without Churchill as a candidate. Labour Party led by Harold Wilson wins a small majority.
30 November: Celebrates ninetieth birthday, London.
1965
24 January: Dies in his bedroom at Hyde Park Gate.
30 January: Buried in St. Martin’s churchyard in Bladon, Oxfordshire.
1977
12 December: Lady Clementine Spencer-Churchill dies in London at 92, to be buried with her husband in St. Martin’s churchyard, Bladon, Oxfordshire.