Welcome to British Isles Friday! British Isles Friday is a weekly event for sharing all things British and Irish — reviews, photos, opinions, trip reports, guides, links, resources, personal stories, interviews, and research posts. Join us each Friday to link your British and Irish themed content and to see what others have to share. The link list is at the bottom of this post. Pour a cup of tea or lift a pint and join our link party!

Last week, I shared what I did on my Very British Christmas. Tina listed books that she learned about while reading two British novels.

Happy New Year!

I enjoy posting around anniversaries. I’m sharing some British-related anniversaries of 2025 for two reasons:

1. I thought it would be a fun first post of the year.
2. I hoped others might want to join in the fun.

Here are some of the events we can observe in 2025.

In 1775, 250 years ago, the American colonies were still British but there were many events that led up to the Declaration of Independence in 1776. To the extent that I learned anything about these activities, they were taught as American History. I wonder what I will learn if I examine some of them from a different perspective, as British History.

February

250th. 9 February 1775. The Parliament of Great Britain declares the Massachusetts Bay colony to be in rebellion.

75th. 20 February 1950. The Blue Lamp film is released by Ealing Studios, introducing PC George Dixon and drawing the highest audiences in the UK for the year.

March

250th. 23 March 1775. Patrick Henry delivers his “Give me Liberty, or give me Death!” speech after the Royal Governor disbanded the Virginia House of Burgesses.

April

250th. 18-19 April 1775. Paul Revere’s Ride precedes the next day’s Battles of Lexington and Concord.

May

250th. 10 May 1775. The Second Continental Congress meets.

75th. 29 May 1950. First episode of The Archers, the world’s longest-running radio soap opera.

June

250th. 17 June 1775. The Battle of Bunker Hill.

July

250th. 5 July 1775. The Continental Congress sends the Olive Branch Petition to King George III.

250th. 30 July 1775. James Cook completes the first eastabout global circumnavigation with the ship HMS Resolution.

Resolution and Adventure with fishing craft in Matavai Bay by William Hodges, painted 1776, shows the two ships at anchor in Tahiti in August 1773.

August

200th. 18 August 1825. The Panic of 1825 begins in England. This is considered the first modern stock market crash.

150th. 25 August 1875. Captain Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim the English Channel.

250th. 29 August 1775. The Independence Hurricane causes damage from South Carolina to Nova Scotia, killing over 4000 people in several days.

October

75th. October 1950. The paper by Alan Turing that proposed the Turing Test is published.

75th. 16 October 1950. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis is published.

250th. 23 October 1775. Stephen Sayre was arrested for the “Sayre Plot” to abduct King George III.

50th. 31 October 1975. Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” is released.

November

December

250th. 16 December 1775. Jane Austen is born.

75th. 25 December 1950. The Stone of Scone is stolen from Westminster Abbey by four Scottish students.

Do any of these anniversaries inspire blog post ideas for you?