Devon has been inhabitted by man very early in prehistoric times. After the departure of the Romans it was eventually conquered by the invading Saxons and became part of the Saxon kingdom of Wessex.
| circa 75 | | Roman legions leave Exeter; civil settlement of Isca Dumnoniorum established
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| circa 150 | | Exter fortified with a rampart |
| circa 475 | | Inscribed memorial stones erected by Dumnonians from c.450 to c.650 |
| 550 | | Constantine ruling in Dumnonia |
| circa 675 | | Exeter area becomes part of kingdom of Wessex |
| 682 | | Centwine of Wessex drives Britons in flight as far as the sea |
| circa 700 | | The Saxons reach the Bristol Channel cutting of the Celts of Cornwall from the Celts of Wales |
| 705 | | The Saxons under King Ine renew their westward advance into Devon and Cornwall |
| 710 | | The Saxons occupy Exeter in Devon |
| circa 710 | | King Ina of the Wessex attempts to destroy the Celtic kingdom of Dumnonia |
| 722 | | Roderic, King of the Britons in Wales and Cornwall, repels Adelred, King of Wessex |
| 722 | | Saxons defeated at the battle of Hehil, probably near Jacobstowe |
| 739 | | Minster founded at Crediton |
| circa 780 | | Saxons reach the river Tamar |
| 787 | | Viking Danes visit the coasts of Wessex |
| 807 | | Viking Danes form alliance alliance with the Cornish against the Saxons |
| 825 | | Egbert, king of Wessex, repels the Vikings in North Cornwall and returns to route the Mercians at the battle of Ellendune (modern Wroughton, Swindon) assuring the predominance of Wessex
The Cornish defeated by Ecgberht at Gafulford (modern Galford on the River Lew in West Devon)
He also conquered Kent, Sussex and Essex
Check out Nether Wroughton
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| 838 | | Egbert of Wessex wins a spectacular victory over the Danish/Cornish allies at Hingston Down (now in Cornwall)
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| 851 | | Devon first recorded as Defnascir in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle when Danes defeated at Wicganbeorg |
| 876 | | Danes occupy Exeter |
| 893 | | Danes attack Exeter and north Devon |
| 974 | | Foundation of the Benedictine abbey at Tavistock |
| 1003 | | Exeter sacked by the Danes (ASC) |
| circa 1050 | | Diocese of Cornwall combined with Devon, with see at Exeter
See of Crediton transferred to Exeter |
| 1068 | | Exeter beseiged by the Normans |
| 1068 | | Building of Rougemont Castle |
| 1086 | | Compilation of the Exon Domesday
Abut 20,000 out of an estimated Devonshire population of 70,000 acounted for in the survey |
| 1136.Jul | | Exeter beseiged by King Stephen and Baldwin de redvers exiled |
| 1147 | | Departure of the Second Crusade from Dartmouth |
| 1156 | | Earliest record of tin mining in Devon |
| 1190 | | Departure of the Third Crusade from Dartmouth |
| 1196 | | Foundation of Torre Abbey |
| 1205 | | First mayor of Exeter recorded
Winchester, the former capital of Wessex, was the only provincial city to already have a mayor |
| 1211 | | First recorded mention of Plymouth |
| 1303 | | First recorded mayor of Barnstaple |
| 1315 | | Bad weather causes total failure of the harvest in Cornwall |
| 1346 | | Devonshire ports provide 88 ships for the Crecy and Calais campaigns |
| 1348 | | Black Death reaches Devon killing about one third of the population of the county |
| 1403 | | Plymouth burnt by Breton (Spain) raiders |
| circa 1460 | | Stone bridge built at Bideford, Devon |
| 1496 | | Devon rebels against taxation |
| 1497 | | Perkin Warbeck beseiges Exeter |
| 1525 | | Publication of Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, printed at Tavistock - the first record of printing in Devon |
| 1536 | | Dissolution of the monasteries commenes in Devon with the priories of Barstaple, Cornworthy, Exter, Frithelstock and Pilton |
| 1549 | | Appointment of John Lord Russell as the first
Lord-Lieutenant of Devon |
| 1549.Jun.09 | | First English Book of Common Prayer
Causing the Prayerbook Rebellion |
| 1564 | | Work starts on the Exter Ship Canal - the first canal in England with locks |
| 1575 | | Christopher Saxton produces the first county map of Devon |
| 1580.Sep.26 | | Sir Francis Drake sails into Plymouth on the Golden Hinde ending its three-year voyage circumnavigating the Earth
He set off in 1577 |
| 1587 | | Remigius Hogenberg produces the first engraved plan of Exter (after John Hooker) |
| 1588.Jul.20 | | Spanish Armada sighted off Plymouth |
| 1599 | | Tiverton clotheir Peter Blundell founds Blundells School |
| 1603 | | Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, created Earl of Devonshire |
| 1606 | | Death of the Earl of Devonshire (b.1563)
The title became extinct |
| 1618 | | William, Baron Cavendish, created Earl of Devonshire for his services in Ireland |
| 1620.Sep.06 | | The Pilgrim Fathers set sail for
America (New England) from Plymouth in the Mayflower |
| 1628 | | New Plymouth colony founded in America by Sir Ferdinando Gorges |
| 1629 | | Poet Robert Herrick appointed to the living of Dean Prior in Devon |
| 1643.Sep.05 | | Articles of surrender signed and Royalists take control of Exeter following a seige |
| 1645 | | Exeter beseiged by Parliamentarian forces |
| 1646.Jan | | John Fairfax captures Dartmouth |
| 1682 | | First Quaker Meeting House in Devon built at Spiceland nr. Uffculme
Built 9 years before the Act of Toleration, 7 of the trustees were imprisoned at Exeter goal |
| 1682.Aug.14 | | Three Bideford women tried for witchcraft at Exeter convicted and sentenced to death |
| 1685 | | The Devonshire Regiment raised |
| 1685.Sep.14 | | Rebels of the Monmouth rebellion tried at Exeter |
| 1688.Jun.30 | | Seven Bishops objecting to the reading of James II\\\'s Declaration of Indulgence charged with sedititious libel before the Kings Bench |
| 1688.Nov.05 | | Prince William of Orange lands at Brixham to take the English throne |
| 1688.Nov.11 | | Prince William of Orange enters Exeter amidst public jubilation |
| 1689 | | Royal Naval Dockyard established at Devonport |
| 1690 | | French ships bombard Teignmouth |
| 1694 | | The first Duke of Devonshire created |
| 1698 | | Samuel Darker sets up first permanent printing press in Exeter |
| 1698 | | Thomas Newcomen of Dartmouth invents the atmospheric steam pumping engine |
| 1723 | | Birth of the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds at Plympton |
| 1731 | | Great fire of Tiverton |
| 1741.Aug.27 | | Laying of the foundation stone of the Devon and Exeter Hospital |
| 1743.Aug.14 | | 460 houses destroyed by fire at Crediton |
| 1753 | | Establishment of the first turnpike trust in Devon - Exeter, Honiton and Axminster |
| 1755 | | Thomas Whitty begins carpet manufacture at Axminster |
| 1759 | | John Smeaton completes the third lighthouse on Eddystone Rock |
| 1761 | | A nonconformist academy established in Exeter |
| 1768 | | William Cookworthy obtains an English patent for \'Making porcelain from Moorstone, Growan and Growan Clay\'
He established the first British porcelain factory at Plymouth |
| 1782.Jul.29 | | Rebecca Downing burned at Exeter for poisoning her master
|
| 1792 | | Erection of fashionable houses on The Beacon in Exmouth |
| 1793.Jan.11 | | Effigy of the radical Tom Paine burned in Exeter |
| 1801 | | First national census in England to count manpower for the Napoleonic Wars
Parish overseers and clergy responsible for collecting the data. Populations; Devon, 340,308 |
| 1803 | | Landscaping of the Lawns at Dawlish begins |
| 1806 | | Dartmoor Prison constructed at Princetown to house French prisoners of war |
| 1812 | | Rennie begins construction of the breakwater at Plymouth |
| 1814 | | Prophetess Joanna Southcott of Devon claims to be pregnant with Shiloh, the second Messiah |
| 1815 | | Napoleon moored off Plymouth before sailing to exile on St Helena |
| 1816 | | Establishment of the lace manufactory in Tiverton by John Heathcoat |
| 1823.Jul.19 | | First cholera case reported in Exeter - the ensuing epedemic killed 440 people |
| 1824.Jan.01 | | Plymouth Dock renamed Devonport |
| 1839.Dec.25 | | 3 million tons of soil slip into the sea near Axmouth |
| 1844.May.01 | | Opening of the Bristol to Exeter Railway - the first steam locomotive arrives at Exeter |
| 1848 | | The railway reaches Torquay |
| 1849.Apr.02 | | Completion of The South Devon Railway to Plymouth |
| 1855 | | Publication of Charles Kingsley\'s novel Westward Ho! |
| 1855.Oct.20 | | Opening of the North Devon Railway from Bideford to Barnstaple
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| 1860.Jan.03 | | Publication of Devon\'s 1st newspaper, the Western Morning News |
| 1862 | | First meeting of the Devonshire Association |
| 1863 | | Devonshire copper productionpeaks at 41,513 tons |
| 1869.May.06 | | Public Libraries Act adopted at a public meeting in Exeter, Devon |
| 1872 | | Formation of the Devon County Agricultural Association |
| 1874 | | Building of the Meldon Viaduct, Devon to carry express steam London Waterloo to Plymouth over the West Okement Valley (120 ft below) |
| 1884 | | John Babbacombe Lee unsuccessfully hanged three times for the murder of Mrs Keyes
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| 1887.Sep.05 | | Theatre Royal, Exeter destroyed by fire with the loss of 160 lives |
| 1889.Jan.16 | | First county council elections held |
| 1889.Jan.24 | | Meeting of the provisional Devon County Council |
| 1892.May.20 | | Last of Brunel\'s broad guage railways converted to standard guage over the weekend (Devon) |
| 1892.Aug.15 | | Torquay granted a royal charter for incorporation as a municipal borough |
| 1904 | | Motor cars first registered in Exeter |
| 1905 | | The Royal Naval College built at Dartmouth |
| 1914 | | The Three Towns, Plymouth, Devonport and Stonehouse amalgamated to form the modern Plymouth |
| 1914.Aug.04 | | BRITAIN DECLARES WAR ON GERMANY
The
USA declared its neutrality |
| 1918.Nov.11 | | Armistice signed by Germany |
| 1922 | | University College of the South West of England established |
| 1925 | | the Elimhirsts acquire the Dartington Estate |
| 1926 | | Devon County Council granted a coat of arms |
| 1931 | | First female county councillor elected in Devon |
| 1941.Mar.20 | | The Plymouth blitz at its worst; 336 civilians killed on the 20th and 21st |
| 1942.May.04 | | 10,000 incendiary bombs dropped on Exeter |
| 1943 | | Evacuation of South Hams in Devon for invasion exercises |
| 1951.Oct.30 | | Dartmoor designated a national park |
| 1952.Aug.15 | | 9 inches of rainfall creates a 20-foot wave in Lynmouth, Devon. 34 people are killed
DCC time-line gives the number of fead as 31 |
| 1955 | | University of Exeter recieves a royal charter |
| 1961 | | Opening of the Tamar Bridge carrying the A38 from Plymouth in Devon to Saltash in Cornwall |
| 1974 | | Local government reorganisation abolishes county boroughs in Devon |
| 1977 | | M5 motorway reaches Exeter |
| 1987 | | North Devon linkroad opens |
| 1992 | | University of Plymouth recieves a royal charter |
| 1996 | | First cybercafe in the south west opens in Exeter |
| 1998 | | Local government reorganisation; Plymouth and Torbay in Devon become unitary authorities |
| 2001 | | Foot and mouth epidemic in Devon |
| 2003.Oct.14 | | BAE Systems (employing 590 in Plymouth) announces the loss of 280 jobs at its site in Southway in Plymouth because of a downturn in its military business |
| 2003.Oct.16 | | DML (which runs Devonport Dockyard) announces it has submitted a bid to buy Devon shipyard Appledore Shipbuilders |
