[1938] Timeline, Part 1: What Happened in Our Time

Here's the first part of the timeline for 1938: A Very British Civil War (reference Edward VIII Cocktail Bar forum thread), including the important events in the prior decades, which had a lot of effects on the current conflict.
 
The Great War:
1914 - 1918: The Great War. 1.1 million soldiers in the British Imperial Forces die over the course of the war.

Interwar period:
1918 - 1921: Economic output falls in the United Kingdom by 25%

1918, August 30: 12,000 men of the London Metropolitan Police Force strike for better pay, pensions and pension rights for widows. 

1919, mid-year: A series of police strikes occur all over England. The Police Act of 1919 establishes the Police Federation, a union separate from trade unions.

1922: Hunger marches to London, organized by the National Unemployed Workers' Movement. These marches are repeated in 1928, 1930, 1932, 1934 and 1936.

1926, May 3 - 13: In an unsuccessful attempt to get the government involved, the Trades Union Congress called a  General Strike which lasted 10 days to protect wages.

1929: Unemployment at 1 million.

1929, October 29: The Stock Market Crash in the United States of America heralds the beginning of the Great Depression, sending aftershocks throughout the world. In Britain, it is known as the Great Slump. Almost overnight, demand for British products dried up.

1930: Unemployment increases to 2.5 million (nearly 20% of the workforce).

1931, September 15 - 16: Royal Navy sailors mutiny at Invergordon, Scotland, over reduction in pay.

1932, October: Sir Oswald Mosley forms the British Union of Fascists (BUF).

1936: Farmers refuse to pay tithes to the Church of England in what was known as the Tithe War.

1936, July 17: The Spanish Civil War starts when General Franco leads fascist rebels against the  Second Spanish Republic after the election of leftist President Manuel Azaña.

1936, September: Volunteers leave for Spain.

1936, October: 200 protesters march from Jarrow to London, over 300 miles, to petition Parliament about unemployment and poverty.

1936, October 4: A riot breaks out between the police protecting the BUF and 100,000 anti-fascist protesters in an event known as The Battle of Cable Street.

1936, November 16: The King meets with Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin to discuss the King's desire to marry double-divorcee Wallis Simpson. Baldwin informs the king that the government will resign en masse if he marries her. Baldwin's view is held by the other Commonwealth countries.