19 January – Silvertown explosion: a blast at a munitions factory in London kills 73 and injures over 400. The resulting fire causes over £2M-worth of damage.[3]
March – establishment of the Imperial War Cabinet, a body composed of the chief British ministers and the prime ministers of the Dominions (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa) to set policy.
7 June – World War I: Battle of Messines in Flanders opens with the British Army detonating 19 ammonalmines under the German lines, killing 10,000 in the deadliest deliberate non-nuclear man-made explosion in history, which can be heard in London.
13 June
World War I: daylight bombing raid on London by fixed-wing aircraft: 162 killed.[7]
1–7 July – first National Baby Week, a campaign for improved infant health.
9 July – HMS Vanguard is blown apart by an internal explosion at her moorings in Scapa Flow, Orkney, killing an estimated 843 crew with no survivors.[10]
December: British troops on parade at Jaffa Gate after the capture of Jerusalem and occupation of southern Palestine
31 July–10 November – World War I: Battle of Passchendaele ("Third Battle of Ypres"): Allied offensive in Flanders.
July – first Cottingley Fairies photographs taken, apparently depicting fairies; a hoax not admitted by the child creators until 1981
1 August – Women's Forestry Service under Miss Rosamond Crowdy instituted under the Timber Supply Department of the Board of Trade.
2 August – Squadron Commander E. H. Dunning becomes the first pilot to land his aircraft on a ship[11] when he lands his Sopwith Pup on HMS Furious in Scapa Flow but is killed five days later during another landing on the ship.
21 August – most provisions of Corn Production Act 1917 come into force. This guarantees minimum prices for wheat and oats and specifies a minimum wage for agricultural workers.
5 October – Sir Arthur Lee donates the country house Chequers (in Buckinghamshire) to the nation;[4] it is to be used as an official country residence for the Prime Minister, the first recognition in law that such an office exists.
19 October – World War I: Last major German Zeppelin raids: 11 airships spread across the country, killing 36 people, but 5 of the craft are lost on their return.
November – World War I: Some British troops are moved to the Italian Front.
Announced 12 November 1918; presented 1 June 1920 – Charles Glover Barkla wins the 1917 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his discovery of the characteristic Röntgen radiation of the elements."[17]
^Weinreb, Ben; Hibbert, Christopher (1995). The London Encyclopaedia. Macmillan. p. 288. ISBN 0-333-57688-8.
^ a b c dPenguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
^"Women's organisations". The Long, Long Trail. Archived from the original on 19 October 2010. Retrieved 21 October 2010.
^"On This Day – 5 April 1917". firstworldwar.com. 2009. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
^ a b cCastle, Ian (2010). London 1917–18: the bomber blitz. Oxford: Osprey. ISBN 978-1-84603-682-8.
^"No. 30250". The London Gazette (2nd supplement). 24 August 1917. pp. 7791–7999. Statutes of the Order of the British Empire 24 August 1917.
^"Order of the British Empire". The Official Website of the British Monarchy. Retrieved 21 August 2012.
^Flett, Brian (11 July 2002). "Research puts Vanguard loss at 843". The Orcadian. Archived from the original on 27 October 2010. Retrieved 17 June 2010.
^"HMS Furious 1917". 2006. Archived from the original on 28 June 2006.
^Like almost all of Owen's poetry, these remain unpublished until 1920, after his death in action.
^"The White Lund Explosions October 1–4th, 1917". Heaton with Oxcliffe Parish Council. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
^"History of the Women's Royal Naval Service". Association of WRENS. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 21 October 2010.
^Cooper, Charlie (24 June 2014). "Britons are forced to tighten their belts". The Independent. London. p. 17. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
^Brewerton, Emma (12 December 2016). "Ernest Rutherford". New Zealand History. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
^Charles Glover Barkla The Nobel Prize in Physics 1917
^"Oldest living Olympian Bill Lucas dies aged 101". Mid Sussex Times. 4 April 2018. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
^Collins, Michael (8 May 2008). "Professor Graham Higman: Leading group theorist". The Independent. Obituaries. Retrieved 14 October 2008.
^Prasad, Raekha (11 May 2007). "Obituary: Laurie Baker". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
^"Leslie Shepard". The Independent. 14 September 2004. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
^Pamela Rose obituary
^Vaughan, Paul (23 September 2004). "Mears [née Loudon], Eleanor Cowie [Ellen Cowie] (1917–1992), medical practitioner and campaigner". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/47178. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^Grigg, John (2002) [1985]. Lloyd George: From Peace To War 1912-16. Penguin. p. 436. ISBN 0-140-28426-5.