Biography:Regularly regarded as one of the greatest British prime ministers, Churchill led Britain to victory against the Axis Powers during World War II, and served a second term in office from 1951 to 1955.
Prior to being Prime Minister, Churchill served in several high offices, including Ministries of Defence, Munitions, Air, War and Chancellor of the Exchequer. As First Lord of the Admiralty during World War I, he conceived and executed the disastrous Gallipoli Campaign which caused his temporary departure from government.
When Neville Chamberlain resigned after the outbreak of World War II, Churchill was asked by the King to form the next government. During the war, he became famous for his rallying speeches, including 'we shall fight on the beaches' and 'this was their finest hour'. As the war progressed, Churchill was crucial in boosting British morale and inspiring resistance to Nazi Germany.
After Germany's defeat in 1945, he was voted out of office the same year despite being recognized as a great wartime leader. He was replaced by Clement Attlee. Churchill remained Leader of the Opposition and became prime minister again in 1951, before resigning on health grounds in 1955. Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Churchill was also the first honorary citizen of the United States; his funeral in 1965 attracted one of the largest assemblages of world statesmen ever seen.
Born:November 30, 1874 Birthplace:Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England Star Sign:Sagittarius
1899-10-14 Morning Post reporter Winston Churchill departs to South Africa
1899-10-30 British Morning Post reporter Winston Churchill reaches Capetown
1899-11-15 Morning Post reporter Winston Churchill captured by Boers in Natal
1901-02-18 Winston Churchill makes his maiden speech in the British House of Commons.
1911-01-03 The Siege of Sidney Street: fire fight breaks out in London's East End between Latvian gang and Police, who request army back-up. First Siege caught on camera by Pathé News with Winston Churchill observing
1914-07-26 First Lord of the Admiralty (British Minister of Navy) Winston Churchill orders British fleet to remain in state of readiness as threat of war in Europe grows
1914-07-28 First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill orders British Grand Fleet to Scapa Flow
1921-02-12 Winston Churchill becomes British Minister of Colonies
1934-11-28 Winston Churchill tells British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin not to under estimate German air power
1938-09-21 British politician Winston Churchill condemns Germany's Adolf Hitler's annexation of Czechoslovakia
1939-09-14 First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill visits British naval base Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands
1939-10-01 Winston Churchill calls Russia a "riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma"
1939-10-30 German U boat fails attack of English battleship Nelson with Winston Churchill, Dudley Pound & Charles Forbes aboard
1940-05-07 British House of Commons begins its Norway Debate on the conduct of the war after Germany invaded Norway - will lead to Winston Churchill becoming Prime Minister
1940-05-10 Winston Churchill succeeds Neville Chamberlain as British Prime Minister at the head of a coalition government
1940-05-13 Winston Churchill says "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat" in his first speech as Prime Minister to British House of Commons
1940-05-16 British Premier Winston Churchill returns to London from Paris
1940-05-22 UK Premier Winston Churchill flies to Paris to decide with General Maxime Weygand a strategy to save the city
1940-05-31 Winston Churchill flies to Paris to meet with French Marshal Philippe Pétain who announces he is willing to make a separate peace with Germany
1940-06-04 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivers his famous "We shall fight on the seas and oceans" speech to the UK House of Commons
1940-06-11 British Premier Winston Churchill flies to Orleans
1940-06-18 Winston Churchill gives his "this was their finest hour" speech to the House of Commons urging perseverance in the war after the Dunkirk evacuation and the fall of France
1940-08-20 British PM Churchill says of Royal Air Force, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few"
1940-09-15 UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill visits Royal Air Force 11th Fighter Group on what would be the fiercest day of the Battle of Britain
1941-04-03 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill warns Soviet leader Joseph Stalin that a German invasion is imminent
1941-07-19 British PM Winston Churchill launches his "V for Victory" campaign
1941-08-04 Winston Churchill departs on Prince of Wales to US
1941-08-09 Winston Churchill reaches Newfoundland for talks with FDR
1941-08-14 US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issue the joint declaration that later becomes known as the Atlantic Charter
1941-08-30 Winston Churchill approves a nuclear program (Tube Alloys), first national leader to do so
1941-12-14 Premier Winston Churchill travels to US on board HMS Duke of York
1941-12-22 Winston Churchill arrives in Washington, D.C. for a wartime conference
1941-12-26 Winston Churchill becomes first British Prime Minister to address a joint meeting of the US Congress, warning that Axis would "stop at nothing"
1941-12-30 In an emotional speech to the Canadian Parliament Winston Churchill states Britain will never surrender to "Hitler and his Nazi gang" and that "they have asked for total war. Let us make sure they get it". Afterwards Yousef Karsh captures him in his famous photograph, "The Roaring Lion".
1942-01-04 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill & US Army Chief of Staff General Marshall fly to Florida
1942-06-21 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British PM Winston Churchill arrive at Hyde Park for the hastily convened Second Washington Conference
1942-06-25 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill travels from US to London
1942-08-04 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Cairo, Egypt
1942-08-12 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Moscow for a conference with Joseph Stalin and US representative W. Averrell Harriman
1942-08-16 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill travels back to Cairo from Moscow
1942-08-19 -20] Winston Churchill visits Field Marshal Montgomery's headquarter in Burg-al-Arab
1942-08-23 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill flies back to London from Cairo, Egypt
1943-01-13 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Casablanca, French Morocco for a conference of Allied forces in World War II
1943-01-14 World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt travels from Miami to Morocco to meet with Winston Churchill, becoming the first American president to travel overseas by airplane
1943-01-14 World War II: Casablanca Conference begins between Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and other Allied representatives
1943-02-16 British premier Winston Churchill contracts pneumonia
1943-05-12 British premier Winston Churchill arrives in USA
1943-05-29 Algiers Allied Planning Conference between Winston Churchill, George Marshall and General Dwight D. Eisenhower finalizes the plan for the Italian Campaign
1943-08-04 British premier Winston Churchill travels on the Queen Mary to Canada
1944-07-21 British premier Winston Churchill flies to France, meets Montgomery
1944-08-11 British premier Winston Churchill arrives in Italy
1944-08-12 Winston Churchill and Tito meet in Naples
1944-08-14 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives at Corsica
1944-09-05 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill travels to Scotland
1944-09-12 Second Quebec Conference: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and the Combined Chiefs of Staff meet in Quebec City, Canada to discuss Allied occupation zones, the Morgenthau Plan, U.S. Lend-Lease aid to Britain and the role of the Royal Navy
1944-09-17 British Premier Winston Churchill travels to US
1944-10-09 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Russia for talks with Joseph Stalin
1944-10-19 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill flies back to London from Moscow
1945-01-03 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill visits France
1945-02-03 WWII: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Yalta, Crimea, Soviet Union for the "Big Three" Yalta Conference
1953-10-09 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill aproves Guyanese Constitution
1955-04-05Anthony Eden succeeds Winston Churchill as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1963-04-09 Winston Churchill becomes 1st honorary US citizen
1965-01-30 State funeral for Winston Churchill at St Paul's Cathedral in London; at the time, the world's largest-ever state funeral
2022-03-08 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy invokes Winston Churchill speaking virtually to the UK parliament "We will not fail. We will fight till the end"
Boris Johnson
Clement Attlee
David Cameron
Henry Pelham
Margaret Thatcher
William Gladstone