1869

• The word “Homosexual” was coined by Karoly Maria Benkert, a Hungarian Physician.

1880

• Marguerite Radclyffe Hall was born later calling herself Radclyffe Hall.
• A well known synonym for gay was ‘earnest' ie. “The Importance of Being Earnest”.
• Charles Brookfield became an informant against Oscar Wilde.

1885

• The Labouchere Amendment in the Criminal Law Amendment Act made sex between men illegal.

1895

• Oscar Wilde was sentenced for homosexuality.

1898

• The Vagrancy Act implemented more anti-gay laws.

1900's

• Edward Carpenter came up with the term “Uranian” for homosexuality taken from Plato's theory of love between men.

1900

• Oscar Wilde died.
• Vesta Tilley, a cross-dressing singer sings “Burlington Bertie”.

1905

• A postcard of a woman in a man's hat, tweed jacket, stiff collar, and bow tie was published.
• Women dressing in men's clothes was well known.

1912

• The Criminal Law Amendment Act implemented more anti-gay laws.

1917

• The book Regiment of Women, about two female teachers and one of their pupils was written by Winifred Ashton under the pseudonym Clemence Dane.

1918

• The word “Homosexual” began to gain currency.
• According to Philip Larkin, “Homosexuality began” between the death of Queen Victoria and Marlene Dietrich's debut on screen.
• Vita Sackville-West and her lover Violet Trefusis went to Hyde Park Corner with Vita successfully passing herself off as a man.

1920's

• Quentin Crisp met friends in the Black Cat Café, which became a meeting place for gay men.
• Marlene Dietrich wore male looking clothes to many parties, and also started a relationship with female writer Gerda Huber.

1920

• Vita Sackville-West and Violet Trefusis eloped together.

1921

• An attempt to legalise Lesbianism was debated in the House of Lords but rejected.

1923

• American actress Tallulah Bankhead arrived in Britain but was mocked for being a lesbian.
• In Paris a lesbian salon had been set up led by Gertrude Stein and her lover Alice B Toklas and their friends Romaine Brooks and Natalie Barney.

1924

• Noel Coward's play The Vortex was released with many references to homosexuality.

1925

• A play called Spring Cleaning was released with a gay character.

1926

• The New York Times used the word “Homosexual” in a book review.
• Congenitalist theory argued that homosexuality was caused by defective breeding.
• Behaviouralists argued that homosexuality was conditioned by childhood events.

1928

• The Well of Loneliness was published, written by Radclyffe Hall. It was called obscene and censored because of its plot about a lesbian invert. The trial created much public debate.

1920-30's

• Lyon 's tea shops were meeting places for gay people and nicknamed the Lilypond.
• Brown suede shoes were considered a sure sign of a gay man, another time it was pink shirts, until these things became fashionable. For lesbian's it was a ring on the little finger.

1930's

• The word “Gay” had become a codeword to describe homosexuality, but at this time was not well known.
• There was a House of Lords debate on decriminalizing homosexuality.
• Robert Aldrich's seminal lesbian film The Killing of Sister George carried a tribute to Tilley's “Burlington Bertie” song.
• Fashion, photography, film and music were all informed by a gay sensibility.
• Noel Coward's song “Mad About the Boy” was sung by a woman and so Terry Gardener dressed up as a woman and performed it on stage to entertain troops in WW2.

1930

• Dietrich moved to Hollywood , her first film was Morocco , a film with cross dressing women and camp men. Dietrich kissed a woman on the lips on screen.

1933

• Garbo starred in Queen Christina about a woman who loved a woman.
• The Noel Coward play Design for Living premiered with a ménage a trios plotline.
• Binkie Beaumont also produced plays with gay subtexts.

1938

• The number of men prosecuted for homosexual offences was 956.

1918-1939

• People asked “is she so” or “is he musical” to see who was gay; this was all part of Polari, a secret language used by gay people.
• The word “Queer” was used for gay men and the word “Sapphist” for lesbians.

1940

• Winston Churchill became Prime Minister.
• American officials tried to weed out gay men from the forces.
• American soldiers would pretend to be gay to get out of the army.
• For the first time ever, men were asked at enlistment if they were gay.
• In Britain Quentin Crisp's exemption papers stated sexual perversion.

1943

• 31% of British engineers were women.

1945

• The American Journal of Psychiatry published a diagnostic test made by Nicolai Giosca that said gay men did not have a gag reflex when a tongue depressor was put down their throat.
• There were more court martial's for ‘indecency between males' than any other offence.

• Homosexual relationships in the forces became well known but not accepted.
• Gender distinctions had become blurred because of women working men's jobs, women were urged to dump their overalls and return to flowery dresses.

• The Denning Committee was set up to deal with the sudden increase in divorce and so formed the Marriage Guidance Council.
• Noel Coward wrote the screenplay for Brief Encounter , a complete turn on pre-war homosexual subtexts, it seemed homosexuality was out of fashion.

1948

• Alfred Kinsey's study: “Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male” stated that 37% of American men had had at least one homosexual experience to the point of orgasm and 4% of males were exclusively homosexual their whole lives.

1993

• The cover of “Vanity Fair” had Kd Lang sitting in a barber's chair being shaved by Cindy Crawford, the most famous super model of the time.
• Drag Queen Ru Paul, and lesbian Kd Lang were used to advertise mainstream cosmetics to women. Their difference was appealing to all women.

1994

• Work was completed on restoring Radclyffe Hall's tomb in Highgate Cemetery .
• The a ge of consent for gay men lowered from 21 to 18.

2003

• The age of consent for gay men was lowered to 16.

2006

• Gay men and lesbians were given the Civil Partnership Bill for legal rights similar to marriage.