Back to the Into The 21st Century calendar
This year, 2019, is the first time we will be writing history that happened after our site existed.. Therefore, for this and
subsequent years we will just upload a summary of the major events that occurred that year.
For most of 2019, Britain was obsessed with Brexit and the major events that went on can be found in updates we have added to our info about the year
2016. This can be found here
It was a bad/good year for the Royal Family. In January the Duke of Edinburgh, husband of the Queen, was involved in a road accident with another
vehicle. No-one was seriously hurt but shortly after the Duke gave up his driving licence. He was 97 at the time of the accident. On 6 May 2019 the Duchess of
Sussex, wife of Prince Harry, the Queen's grandson, gave birth to a son. He was named Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. If you're interested he was born at
5.26 in the morning; if you're not, it makes no difference to the time he was born but you shouldn't have read the last bit. Then in November the Queen's second
son, Andrew, gave a television interview about his friendship with a convicted criminal. The interview seemed to make matters worse and shortly afterwards Prince
Andrew announced he would be stepping back from Royal duties.
There were some rather sad statistics announced in 2019 which seem to argue that life is not getting better as time goes on. Knife crime was at its
highest level since records began in 1946 with the number of fatal stabbings in 2018 being the most ever. It is difficult to understand why this might be. Knives
are not new, we have always been able to buy them so why is it happening. Are we becoming a more violent society? I wonder what you think.
Another “highest since records began” statistic was released. This said that 726 homeless people died in England and Wales in 2018, an increase of
22% since 2017 and the highest increase since records began. You could ask whether a modern society like ours should have any homeless people at all let alone
finding out how many of those have died. Finally, it seems that we may not actually be living longer. The expectation of how long we will live is actually going
down.
But the big story of the year, the big worry of the year, was climate
change. We talked about it last year but this year it really became the top news
and much of the debate was led by young people. This makes total sense to me. It is young people who will have to live with the disaster which will undoubtedly
happen if action is not taken. Old people, like me (and if the previous paragraph is correct I may not be living as long as I thought (and hoped) , will probably
not be around then. However that doesn't mean we shouldn't do something. It is even more important that we all do something.
Figures have shown for over 30 years that our climate is changing. It is getting hotter. Much of it is caused by the way we live. Certain things the
older generation have done has caused this. The motor car is a big polluter. We didn't know this when it was invented but we do now. Aeroplanes are the same. The
use of fossil fuels to produce energy is bad. Even what we eat causes problems.
In early 2019 thousands of school children in Britain went on strike as part of a global campaign for action on climate change. This idea was started
by one Swedish school girl called Greta Thunberg who, in August 2018, decided not to go to school for one day each week because she had read about climate change,
seen the figures and was horrified that no one was seemingly talking about it, let alone doing anything. Her actions both brought the matter to a wider audience
and inspired others to take action too. To Greta, as I understand it, it was ridiculous that we knew we were destroying our climate and hence our planet but were
doing nothing. In one very clever speech she said that “some people say that we are not doing enough to fight climate change. But that is not true because to “not
do enough” you have to do something, And the truth is we are basically doing nothing”.
If anyone was in any doubt about the planet getting warmer then there was evidence throughout the year. The highest ever February temperature of 21.2ºC
was recorded at Kew Gardens in London. There were various huge wildfires reported, the biggest being at Saddleworth Moor in West Yorkshire. Easter Monday was the
highest on record too but this is when you need to be a bit careful with statistics. Easter Monday was on April 21st, the latest date it can be so it wasn't
completely surprising that it was the hottest.
June had some of the highest temperature for 40 years and on 25 July, in Cambridge, the United Kingdom had its hottest ever temperature with a reading
of 38.7ºC. August Bank Holiday also had its highest temperatures on record.
And it wasn't only school children who protested. In April, demonstrations by the climate change activist group Extinction Rebellion caused disruption
in central London, blocking roads and resulting in over 1,000 arrests, with 53 people charged for various offences. On 20 September, some of the largest climate
change protests ever seen were held in towns and cities across the UK as part of a worldwide day of strikes and protests, led by young people and adults, to
demand action on carbon emissions.
The British government did announce some measures to try to stop climate change. In March it was announced that from 2025 new houses would be banned
from having gas heating. On 20 June the Prime Minister Theresa May announced a new legally binding target to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050,
making the United Kingdom the first major industrialised nation to propose this goal. However saying you will do something in 30 years time and actually doing
it are a long way apart.
Slightly changing the subject, but not much, in June 2019 the Isle of Wight was awarded Biosphere Reserve status by UNESCO, the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. You can read more about biospheres here.
We finish with a sad first for the modern world as this year saw the first fatal collision involving an e-scooter. I have to point out that till I
wrote this and looked it up, I had no idea what an e-scooter was. Now I do and I also know to stand out of the way if I see one of these approaching just as I
do with mobility scooters. When I was born it was cars, buses and horses to look out for. How the world has changed in those seventy years.
There are of course many other events which happened in this year, just like there have been in every other year since human came back to England
after the last Ice Age. I have just picked out the ones I thought were significant. 2020 is next. Can we wait. Well, luckily while we do we won't have to pay to
use the toilets at either Liverpool Street or King's Cross Station in London as charges were abolished this year.
Forward to 2020AD
