Napoleon appoints a commission to prepare a code of civil law, which becomes known as the Code Napoléon
Italian physicist Alessandro Volta describes to the Royal Society in London how his 'pile' of discs can produce electric current
Toussaint L'Ouverture emerges as the leader of Saint-Domingue, ruling without French colonial control
The Library of Congress, the US national library in all but name, is founded in Washington
US president John Adams moves into the newly completed White House, named for its light grey limestone
Welsh industrialist Robert Owen takes charge of a mill at New Lanark and develops it as an experiment in paternalistic socialism
Beethoven seeks medical advice for a very alarming condition, an increasing deafness
Napoleon takes a French army through the Alps before the snows have cleared, and defeats the Austrians at Marengo
Republican Thomas Jefferson and Federalist Aaron Burr have an identical number of Electoral College votes in the US presidential election
Nelson and the Hamiltons visit Haydn, who composes a cantata on the Battle of the Nile for Emma Hamilton to sing
The Act of Union comes into effect, linking Ireland with Britain to form the United Kingdom
The US House of Representatives votes for Jefferson as president, after a dead heat between him and Burr in the Electoral College
Toussaint L'Ouverture invades the neighbouring Spanish colony of Santo Domingo, and becomes ruler of the whole island of Hispaniola
British prime minister William Pitt resigns when George III vetoes Catholic emancipation, but is recalled three years later
Horatio Nelson puts his telescope to his blind eye when the signal is given to withdraw from Copenhagen harbour
Napoleon mends France's fences with Roman Catholicism by agreeing a Concordat with Pope Pius VII
Both France and Britain, engaged against each other in the Napoleonic Wars, take the first census of their populations
The first census of the United Kingdom reveals that the population numbers approximately 9 million
A powerful French force arrives in Saint-Domingue and recovers control of the colony, offering generous terms to the native leaders
Bonaparte Crossing the Alps (in 1800) is the first of several paintings by Jacques-Louis David celebrating the future emperor
The British parliament passes the first Factory Act, limiting a child's working day in a factory to twelve hours
Toussaint L'Ouverture is treacherously arrested and sent to France, where he dies in prison
A steam tug designed by William Symington, the Charlotte Dundas, goes into service on the Forth and Clyde canal
The treaty agreed at Amiens between France and Britain brings a welcome lull after ten years of warfare in Europe
Josephine's daughter, Hortense de Beauharnais, marries Napoleon's brother Louis Bonaparte
At Heiligenstadt, near Vienna, Beethoven writes a letter, to be read only after his death, confronting the tragedy of his inexorable decline into deafness
The Treaty of Amiens restores the Cape of Good Hope to the Netherlands
English journalist William Cobbett launches a weekly newspaper, The Political Register, that he continues till his death in 1835
The Constitution of the Year XII (the twelfth year of the French Revolutionary Calendar) makes Napoleon First Consul for life
Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick drives a steam carriage in London, from Holborn to Paddington and back
The Frankfurt banker Mayer Amschel Rothschild lends 20 million francs to the Danish government
The peace of Amiens comes to an abrupt end when Britain declares war again on France
In Marbury v. Madison, a landmark example of judicial review, the US Supreme Court declares an act of Congress to be unconstitutional
Napoleon assembles an invasion fleet against Britain, where Martello towers are hastily built in preparation
The uprising by Irish nationalist Robert Emmet ends in disaster when he marches on Dublin with only about 100 men
In the Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson buys from Napoleon nearly a million square miles at a knock-down price, doubling the size of the USA
English chemist John Dalton reads a paper describing his Law of Partial Pressure in gases (discovered in 1801)
At the end of his Partial Pressure paper, John Dalton makes brief mention of his radical theory of differing atomic weights
The USS Philadelphia is captured, with its 300 crew, in the first Barbary War between the US and north African pirate states
The independence of Haiti from France is proclaimed by a new native ruler calling himself the emperor Jacques I
Napoleon sends an ill-judged message to royalist opponents when he orders the seizure and execution of the young duke of Enghien
Richard Trevithick runs the first locomotive on rails, pulling heavy weights a distance of 9 miles (15 km) near Merthyr Tydfil in Wales
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set off from St Louis to explore up the Missouri river and west to the coast
Napoleon has himself proclaimed emperor of France by the Senate
The city of Hobart is founded on the southern coast of Tasmania
Beethoven changes the dedication of his third symphony on hearing that his hero, Napoleon, has made himself an emperor
Alexander Hamilton is fatally wounded by a bullet to the head in a duel with his political adversary Aaron Burr
William Blake includes his poem 'Jerusalem' in the Preface to his book Milton
Napoleon crowns himself emperor of the French in a magnificent ceremony in Notre Dame
George Rapp and his followers establish a utopian community in Pennsylvania and call it Harmony
Napoleon has himself crowned king of Italy in the cathedral in Milan
The first barge is pulled by a horse along Thomas Telford's cast-iron aqueduct, high in the air at Pont Cysyllte
With advice from Thomas Daniell, Samuel Pepys Cockerell builds himself a house, Sezincote, with a roof line of fanciful Indian domes
Horatio Nelson dies on the deck of the Victory after winning the battle of Trafalgar
Napoleon enters Vienna and then defeats an Austrian and Russian army at Austerlitz
The first version of Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, is performed in Vienna under the title Leonore
Lord Castlereagh becomes secretary of state for war in William Pitt's government
Lewis and Clark make their way through the Rockies and reach the Pacific
Walter Scott publishes The Lay of the Last Minstrel, the long romantic poem that first brings him fame
French painter Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres moves to Rome and lives there for 18 years
The British recapture the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch
Francis II formally brings to an end the 1000-year-old Holy Roman Empire, to keep it from the clutches of Napoleon
Tecumseh's younger brother, Tenskwatawa, becomes known as the Shawnee Prophet
Napoleon announces that Holland is to be a kingdom, with his 28-year-old brother Louis Bonaparte on the throne
The Carbonari, an Italian group of revolutionaries, make their first appearance in Naples in opposition to French rule
Napoleon merges the majority of the German states into a Confederation of the Rhine with himself as its protector
The Creole militia of Buenos Aires drive out an English force which has captured the city
Lewis and Clark get back to St Louis with a wealth of information about the unopened west of the continent
Napoleon imposes his Continental System, designed to strangle Britain's trade
Karageorge captures Belgrade and wins a limited independence for Serbia within the Ottoman empire
To counteract Napoleon's Continental System, Britain passes orders in council penalizing any vessel trading into French-held ports
English chemist Humphry Davy uses electrolysis to isolate the elements sodium and potassium
Congress sets up the US Coast Survey to map and chart the country's coastline
A Scottish clergyman, Alexander Forsyth, invents the percussion cap to help in his pursuit of wildfowl
Napoleon and the Russian tsar Alexander I meet on a raft at Tilsit and set about carving up Europe
Part of Poland is recovered from Prussia to become the grand duchy of Warsaw, a small state dependent upon Napoleon
Legislation abolishing the slave trade is passed in both Britain and America
Anglo-US tensions are heightened by a clash between the frigates Leopard and Chesapeake off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia
Napoleon launches an invasion of Portugal, increasing the likelihood of a Peninsular War
The Portuguese royal family flees to Brazil on the approach of a French army led by Jean-Andoche Junot
In Phenomenology of Spirit Friedrich Hegel interprets history as the advance of the human mind, often through thesis, antithesis and synthesis
US engineer Robert Fulton launches a steamboat, the Clermont, on New York's Hudson river
George Canning is appointed British foreign secretary in the new administration of the Duke of Portland
English collector Thomas Hope publishes his Greek and Egyptian designs in Household Furniture and Interior Decoration
Thomas Jefferson puts an embargo on US exports, hoping to damage the economy of France and Britain
The British government uses Freetown, in Sierra Leone, as a base in the fight against the slave trade
A French army under Joachim Murat advances on Madrid, causing the Spanish royal family to flee
Napoleon transfers his brother Joseph Bonaparte from the throne of Naples to that of Spain
Napoleon gives the throne of Naples, vacated by his brother Joseph, to Joachim Murat
The German-born US entrepreneur John Jacob Astor establishes the American Fur Company
Louis-Napoleon, the future Napoleon III, is born in Paris, the son of Napoleon's brother Louis and of Josephine's daughter Hortense
Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa set up a permanent base in Indiana, calling it Prophetstown
The French capture of Madrid provokes a British response and the resulting Peninsular War
An uprising in Madrid, brutally put down by the French, is vividly depicted by the Spanish painter Goya
The Portuguese royal family and their entourage arrive in Rio de Janeiro
Russia, after winning much of Finland from Sweden during the previous century, invades again in 1808
A British army under Arthur Wellesley (later duke of Wellington) defeats the French at Vimeiro, near Lisbon
The Shakers define their Millennial laws in the Testimony of Christ's Second Appearing
Beethoven's sixth symphony (the Pastoral) has its first performance in Vienna
Republican candidate James Madison wins the US presidential election, defeating Federalist Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
The British impose the so-called Hottentot Code, protecting Africans at the Cape but also tying them to employers' farms
Klemens von Metternich becomes foreign minister to the Austrian emperor Francis II
The Treaty of Fort Wayne is the climax of seven years in which William Henry Harrison has acquired millions of acres from the American Indians
Washington Irving uses the fictional Dutch scholar Diedrich Knickerbocker as the supposed author of his comic History of New York
With acts of defiance in Sucre, Bolivia becomes the first American province to rebel against the Spanish authorities
Ranjit Singh, maharaja of the Punjab, agrees an eastern boundary between himself and the British in the Treaty of Amritsar
British commander Arthur Wellesley builds the lines of Torres Vedras, to defend the promontory leading south to Lisbon
Napoleon annexes the Papal States and is excommunicated by the pope, Pius VII
French chemist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac shows that when gases combine they do so in simple ratios by volume (later known as his Law of Combining Volumes)
In the Treaty of Hamina (or Fredrikshamn), Sweden cedes Finland to Russia as an autonomous grand duchy
Napoleon, in response to his excommunication, has pope Pius VII arrested and kept in captivity in northern Italy and then France
Napoleon enters Vienna and defeats the Austrians in a battle at nearby Wagram
French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck argues in Zoological Philosophy that creatures can inherit acquired characteristics
Napoleon arranges to have his marriage to Josephine annulled so that he can marry the daughter of an emperor
The Fulani establish a capital at Sokoto, from which they dominate the Hausa kingdoms of northern Nigeria
John Moore dies at Corunna but his army escapes from Spain and gets back to England
Rival British politicians Lord Castlereagh and George Canning fight a duel in which Canning is wounded
Napoleon marries the Austrian archduchess Marie Louise, daughter of the emperor Francis I
The reforming party in Spain become known as the Liberales, in the first political use of the term Liberal
Simón Bolívar, a young officer in Caracas, takes part in a coup which wins control of Venezuela from the Spanish
After a public meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentinians set up an autonomous local government in opposition to Spanish forces
The Spanish Cortes flees from the renewed French invasion and establishes itself in Cadiz
José Gervasio Artigas lays siege to the Spanish forces in Montevideo, beginning Uruguay's long struggle for independence
Walter Scott's poem Lady of the Lake brings tourists in unprecedented numbers to Scotland's Loch Katrine
The citizens of Bogotá expel the local Spanish officials and declare their loyalty to the deposed Ferdinand VII
A French marshal, Jean Bernadotte, is offered the position of crown prince and heir to the Swedish throne
The parish priest of Dolores sparks a rebellion against the Spanish authorities in Mexico with his Grito de Dolores
16-year-old future millionaire Cornelius Vanderbilt begins his career by establishing a ferry service to Manhattan
Chile begins four years of untroubled independence, ruled by a junta introducing liberal reforms
The British king George III, suffering from porphyria, is deemed unfit to govern and his eldest son becomes Prince Regent
Work begins at Cumberland in Maryland on the construction of America's National Road
Marie Louise gives birth to a boy, Napoleon's longed-for heir, to be known as the King of Rome
A 12-year-old Dorset child, Mary Anning, discovers at Lyme Regis a 21ft (6.4m) fossil of an ichthyosaur
All but one of 300 Mameluke guests are assassinated during an entertainment by Muhammad Ali in Cairo
Italian chemist Amedeo Avogadro publishes a hypothesis, about the number of molecules in gases, that becomes known as Avogadro's Law
Percy Bysshe Shelley is expelled from Oxford university for circulating a pamphlet with the title The Necessity of Atheism
English author Jane Austen publishes her first work in print, Sense and Sensibility, at her own expense
Masked Luddites smash machinery in night raids on factories in Nottingham
John Jacob Astor establishes Astoria, a settlement on the Pacific coast to develop his fur trade with China
The citizens of Bogotá declare the independence of the province of Colombia
The colonists of Paraguay throw out their Spanish governor and declare independence
An American army attacks and destroys Tecumseh's base at Prophetstown
French scientist Georges Cuvier introduces scientific palaeontology with his Research on the Fossil Bones of Quadrupeds
Lord Castlereagh becomes British foreign secretary in Spencer Perceval's governmen
Britain's first primary school is established by Robert Owen at New Lanark in Scotland
The British prime minister, Spencer Perceval, is assassinated in the lobby of the House of Commons by John Bellingham
After the death of Perceval, Lord Liverpool begins a 15-year spell as Britain's prime minister
Napoleon launches an attack on his ally, the Russian tsar Alexander I, with an army of more than 600,000 men
The French author Stendhal serves in the French army during the invasion of Russia
Damage to US trade by British orders in council prompts war (the War of 1812) between the two nations
The Spanish authorities recover control of Venezuela, ending the region's first brief spell of independence
The Spanish Cortes in Cadiz produces a strikingly liberal new constitution for Spain
The British capture Detroit in an early engagement of the War of 1812
The US frigate Constitution, affectionately known as 'Old Ironsides', wins successes against British warships in the Atlantic
The Russian army under Marshal Kutuzov confronts the advancing French at Borodino, and though defeated makes a successful withdrawal
After victory at Borodino, Napoleon enters Moscow to find the city abandoned and burning
The first two cantos are published of Byron's largely autobiographical poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bringing him immediate fame
Napoleon begins the retreat from Moscow, in arctic conditions and harried by guerrilla attacks
Napoleon arrives back in Paris ahead of the remains of his army, after losing half a million men in the Russian campaign
William Hedley's Puffing Billy, the first steam locomotive running on smooth rails, goes to work at Wylam colliery
Simon Bolívar publishes the Manisfesto de Cartagena, calling on the citizens of New Granada to unite and expel the Spaniards
The king of Prussia, Frederick William III, changes sides and declares war on France
American forces push north into Canada and enter York (the modern Toronto), burning the parliament buildings and archives
The Turks recapture Belgrade and sell thousands of Serb women and children into slavery
Wellington defeats Napoleon's brother Joseph at Vitoria, and captures his valuable baggage train
Quaker philanthropist Elizabeth Fry, appalled by the condition of female prisoners in London's Newgate gaol, begins campaigning on their behalf
In a treaty with Russia and Prussia at Reichenbach, Austria agrees to declare war on Franc
Bolívar defeats the Spanish forces in Venezuela and is welcomed in Caracas as the Liberator
The nickname Uncle Sam, supposedly based on the initials US, has its first recorded use in an issue of the Troy Post
American warships win a victory over the British on Lake Erie, strengthening the US presence in the Great Lakes
Rebels meeting for a conference in Chilpancingo proclaim a short-lived Mexican independence
The head of the house of Orange becomes, for the first time, the sovereign prince of the Netherlands
Tecumseh is killed fighting for the British against General Harrison east of Detroit in the Battle of the Thames
Wellington crosses the Bidassoa river in the north of Spain, bringing an enemy army on to French soil for the first time in twenty years
The allies inflict a heavy defeat on Napoleon at Leipzig, in the so-called Battle of the Nations
Pride and Prejudice, based on a youthful work of 1797 called First Impressions, is the second of Jane Austen's novels to be published
Denmark cedes Norway to Sweden, in the Treaty of Kiel, following Bernadotte's successful Danish campaign
José San Martín becomes commander of the patriot army of Argentina, replacing Manuel Belgrano
A cold February freezes the Thames and makes possible the last of London's famous frost fairs
The Russian emperor and the Prussian king take a salute in the Champs Elysées after the allies capture Paris
Francia becomes dictator of Paraguay and for the next 26 years seals his nation off from the rest of the world
Napoleon abdicates at Fontainebleau and the French senate invites Louis XVIII to return to reclaim his throne
English engineer George Stephenson builds his first locomotive, the Blucher, and runs it at the Killingworth colliery
The crowned heads of Europe and their representatives gather in Vienna to tidy up the post-Napoleonic continent
Ferdinand VII, restored to Spain, imposes a reactionary regime and persecutes his liberal opponents
Beethoven's Mass in D (the Missa Solemnis) has its first performance in Vienna, though still incomplete
The final version of Beethoven's opera Fidelio has its premiere in Vienna
Napoleon's first empress, Josephine, dies near Paris
Napoleon goes into exile on the island of Elba, which he immediately treats as a miniature state in need of improvement
The Spanish recapture Caracas, after which Bolívar moves southwest to advance on Bogotá, now held again by the Spanish
Spanish forces at Rancagua defeat a Chilean army commanded by Bernardo O'Higgins, who escapes across the Andes into Argentina
Bolívar recaptures Bogotá from the recently returned Spanish troops
Robert Peel, chief secretary for Ireland, introduces a police force soon known as the 'Peelers'
The Jesuit Order is restored by Pius VII on his return to Rome
The Times, England's oldest daily newspaper, becomes the first to print on a steam press
British forces enter Washington, burning the Capitol and the president's new house
US lawyer Francis Scott Key writes The Star-Spangled Banner after seeing the British bombard Fort McHenry
The Rappists establish a second American community, this time in Indiana, calling it New Harmony
Britain and the United States sign the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812
English chemist Humphry Davy invents a safety lamp that shields the naked flame and prevents explosions in mines
American volunteers under Andrew Jackson defeat British regulars near New Orleans, two weeks after peace has been agreed at Ghent
Napoleon slips away from Elba with a fleet of small vessels and lands on the coast of France
Napoleon reaches Paris, already accompanied by an enthusiastic regiment that has joined him on his journey north
Scottish engineer John McAdam builds the first macadamized road, in the Bristol region of southwest England
Brazil is given equal standing with Portugal, forming together the Kingdom of Portugal and Brazil
The English and Prussian generals Wellington and Blücher defeat Napoleon in a closely fought battle at Waterloo
The first news of the victory at Waterloo is given to the British government by a private citizen, Nathan Mayer Rothschild
The rulers of Russia, Prussia and Austria form a Holy Alliance to preserve their concept of a Christian Europe
The congress of Vienna establishes a Confederation of the German States, now reduced in number to thirty-five
Napoleon, held on a British warship off Torquay and hoping now to live in Britain, becomes an instant tourist attraction
Poland becomes a kingdom of very limited independence, since the Russian tsar Alexander I is to be its king
The congress of Vienna leaves the Cape of Good Hope in British hands
The Spanish suppress the independence movement in Mexico with the capture and execution of its leader, Jose Maria Morelos
The Spanish recover Bogotá yet again and Bolívar flees into exile in Jamaica
Wellington is presented with a twice-life-size nude marble statue, by Canova, of his vanquished enemy Napoleon
English architect John Nash designs the exotic Royal Pavilion in Brighton for the Prince Regent
Jacques-Louis David, unmistakably identified as Napoleon's painter, is banished from France after the fall of the emperor and moves to Brussels
Napoleon is sent to a more secure place of exile, the rocky Atlantic island of St Helena
London's first iron bridge is completed at Vauxhall
Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville has its premiere in Rome
Robert Finley, a US anti-slavery campaigner, founds the American Colonization Society to settle freed slaves in Africa
Shaka wins control of the Zulu and begins to build them into a formidable military machine
René Laënnec, reluctant to press his ear to the chest of a young female patient, finds a solution in the stethoscope
The independence of Argentina is formally proclaimed, dropping any pretence of remaining loyal to the Spanish king
The British establish Bathurst (now Banjul) at the mouth of the Gambia as a base against the slave trade
Republican candidate James Monroe wins the US presidential election by a wide margin
US poet William Cullen Bryant publishes Thanatopsis, written seven years previously at the age of 16
San Martín and O'Higgins lead an army through the Andes into Chile and capture Santiago
An informal financial market on Wall Street is transformed into the New York Stock and Exchange Board
O'Higgins is elected the 'supreme director' of independent Chile after San Martín declines the post
British officers, hoping to shoot a tiger, come across the forgotten Buddhist caves of Ajanta
German physicist Joseph von Fraunhofer observes and draws dark lines in the solar spectrum
Bolívar returns to Venezuela and builds up an army of liberation in a remote region up the Orinoco
Bernardo O'Higgins introduces liberal reforms in Chile, reducing the privileges of aristocracy and church
On the death of Princess Charlotte, not one of seven princes has an heir to succeed to the British throne in the next generation
Andrew Jackson, attacking settlements in Spanish Florida, launches the first of three wars against the Seminole Indians
Percy Bysshe Shelley publishes probably his best-known poem, the sonnet Ozymandias
The 49th parallel is agreed as the frontier between the USA and Canada
The first Reform congregation within Judaism is established in Germany, in the Hamburg Temple
A leader of the Ismaili sect is granted, by the shah of Persia, the hereditary title of Aga Khan
The king of Prussia, Frederick William III, makes a bid for German leadership by turning his extensive lands into a custom-free zone (Zollverein)
Thomas Cochrane arrives in Valparaiso to take command of the Chilean navy
In The World as Will and Idea Schopenhauer develops the bleakest possible view of the effects of the human will
Two of Jane Austen's novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, are published in the year after her death
Mary Shelley publishes Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, a Gothic tale about giving life to an artificial man
The Sikh maharajah of the Punjab, Ranjit Singh, conquers Kashmir, beginning a century and a half of Sikh dominance in the region
William Cobbett brings back to England the bones of Thomas Paine, who died in the USA in 1809
Spain sells Florida to the USA for $5 million, in return for the waiving of any American claim to Texas
McCulloch v. Maryland defines the tax relationship between the US government and the states
Magistrates order troops to fire on a crowd in Manchester, in what becomes known as the Peterloo massacre
Bolívar marches his army across the Andes, captures Bogotá and proclaims the republic of Gran Colombia
Byron begins publication in parts of his longest poem, Don Juan an epic satirical comment on contemporary life
The United Kingdom formally adopts the gold standard for its currency, after using it on a de facto basis since 1717
John Rennie completes a cast-iron bridge with the world's longest span, crossing the Thames at Vauxhall
Walter Scott publishes Ivanhoe, a tale of love, tournaments and sieges at the time of the crusades
J.M.W. Turner makes the first of several visits to Venice, and discovers a rich seam of inspiration
The British king George III dies after 59 years on the throne – a longer reign than any of his predecessors
On the death of his father, George III, the Prince Regent succeeds to the British throne as George IV
Washington Irving tells the story of the long sleep of Rip Van Winkle in his Sketch Book
The Eastern Question, concerning Turkey's ability to control its vast empire, becomes a persistent nineteenth-century theme
French physicist André Marie Ampère begins his researches into the links between electricity and magnetism
English poet John Keats publishes Ode to a Nightingale, inspired by the bird's song in his Hampstead garden
The Missouri Compromise, admitting Maine and Missouri to the union, keeps the balance between 'free' and 'slave' states in the US senate
A second liberal revolution in Spain ends with Ferdinand VII a prisoner of the Cortes in Cadiz
English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley publishes Ode to the West Wind, written mainly in a wood near Florence
7-year-old Henry Wadsworth Longfellow has a poem published in a newspaper in his home town of Portland, Maine
The newly independent republic of Argentina takes possession of Las Islas Malvinas (the Falklands)
The first big influx of British settlers, numbering some 5000, arrives at Cape Town in South Africa
Russian poet Alexander Pushkin publishes his first long poem, Ruslan and Ludmilla
The first of the truces is made which will lead to the Trucial States, now known as the United Arab Emirates
French painter Théodore Géricault begins a two-year visit to Britain
English painter John Constable acquires a house in Hampstead, a region of London that features frequently in his work
An Egyptian army makes its camp at Khartoum, subsequently the capital of an Egyptian province in the Sudan
The 22-year-old Portuguese prince, Dom Pedro, is made regent of Brazil
An uprising in Greece against Turkish rule is followed by the massacre of several thousand Muslims
English author Thomas De Quincey publishes his autobiographical Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
The British government imposes a merger on two great squabbling enterprises in Canada, the North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company
Napoleon dies on St Helena, after six years of captivity
The merged Hudson's Bay Company now administers a territory stretching from the Great Lakes to the Pacific
English poet John Keats dies in Rome at the age of twenty-five
English radical William Cobbett begins his journeys round England, published in 1830 as Rural Rides
The Spy, a romance set in the American Revolution, establishes the reputation of US author James Fenimore Cooper
French physicist Augustin Jean Fresnel publishes the theory that light is a transverse wave, thus explaining polarization effects
Carl Maria von Weber's opera Der Freischutz has its premiere in Berlin
San Martín enters Lima and proclaims Peruvian independence with himself as 'Protector'
Bolívar defeats the Spanish at Carabobo and liberates, for the second time, his native city of Caracas
English author William Hazlitt publishes Table Talk, a two-volume collection that includes most of his best-known essays
A reactionary movement led by Agustín de Iturbide wins new and lasting independence for Mexico
During his coronation George IV has the doors of Westminster Abbey closed against his queen, Caroline
The Shaker settlements, now widespread in the US, form The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing
The spoken language of the Cherokee Indians is captured in written form – an achievement traditionally attributed to Sequoyah
The Saturday Evening Post is launched in Philadelphia as a weekly to provide light Sunday reading
The Sante Fe Trail, from Missouri to New Mexico, is opened up by the US trader William Becknell
The Cortes in Lisbon passes a liberal constitution which they persuade the king, John VI, to accept
The American Colonization Society buys the area later known as Liberia to settle freed slaves
Stephen Austin begins the process of American settlement in the Mexican province of Texas
Egyptian hieroglyphs are deciphered by French Egyptologist Jean François Champollion, using the Rosetta stone
George Canning becomes the British foreign secretary for the second time, in Lord Liverpool's government
After defeating the Spanish at Pichincha, Antonio José de Sucre enters Quito and liberates Ecuador
Agustin de Iturbide declares himself emperor of the new nation of Mexico, as Agustin I
George IV wears a tartan kilt when visiting Edinburgh, and launches a new craze for Highland dress
French physicist Augustin Jean Fresnel develops a more efficient form of lens for use in lighthouses
Mzilikazi, after a quarrel with Shaka, leads the Ndebele people to new territories west of Natal
Walter Scott begins to transform Abbotsford into a romantic house that he refers to as his 'conundrum castle'
Percy Bysshe Shelley drowns when sailing in the gulf of Spezia, in northwest Italy, at the age of 29
The two liberators, Bolívar and San Martín, meet in Guayaquil for a conference
After failing to agree with Bolívar at Guayaquil, San Martín resigns his post as Protector of Peru
The Portuguese regent, Dom Pedro, proclaims the independence of Brazil and three months later is crowned emperor, as Pedro I
The first shipload of freed slaves reaches Cape Mesurado (in the region soon called Liberia) from the USA
Austrian composer Franz Schubert begins, but never completes, the great work now known as his 'Unfinished' symphony (no 8.in B minor)
Bernardo O'Higgins, Chile's first liberal reformer, is so unpopular that he has to resign
Lord Byron arrives in Greece to support the cause of Greek independence
Guatemala declares independence following the example of neighbouring Mexico
Daniel O'Connell organizes Catholic Associations throughout Ireland, funded by the members' penny subscriptions
12-year-old Hungarian pianist Franz Liszt wins a reputation as a virtuoso performer
Austrian composer Franz Schubert writes the song cycle Die Schöne Müllerin ('The beautiful miller's wife')
A Rugby schoolboy, William Webb Ellis, picks up the football and runs with it in rugby union's founding myth
A heavenly being appears to Joseph Smith in New York state – an event which launches the Mormon church
James Fenimore Cooper's The Pioneers introduces Natty Bumppo, frontiersman known for his 'leather stockings'
An American poem, A Visit from St Nicholas, describes in every detail the modern Santa Claus
With the help of an army from France, the Spanish king Ferdinand VII is freed from confinement and restored to his throne
Bolívar arrives in Lima to be granted command of the army and dictatorial powers in the republic of Peru
US president James Monroe warns European nations against interfering in America, in the policy which becomes known as the Monroe Doctrine
The Portuguese prince Dom Miguel briefly topples his father, John VI, from the throne
The Republican party in the USA splits into National Republicans and Democratic Republicans
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is set up within the US War Department
The Combination Acts of 1799 and 1800, outlawing trade unions in Britain, are repealed
Lord Byron dies of a fever in Greece, in Missolonghi, at the age of thirty-six
Beethoven's ninth symphony (the Choral, because of its finale, setting Schiller's Ode to Joy) has its first performance in Vienna
Italian composer Gioacchino Rossini moves to Paris, where he becomes director of the Théatre Italien
The reactionary Charles X succeeds to the throne of France on the death of his brother Louis XVIII
Leading only one half of the ruling Republican party, John Quincy Adams wins the US presidential election
After the surrender of the Spanish army to Antonio José de Sucre at Ayacucho, Peru is finally liberated
12-year-old Charles Dickens works in London in Warren's boot-blacking factory
The Joint-Stock Companies Act introduces regulations to protect investors in Britain
With a victory at Tumusla Antonio José de Sucre liberates Upper Peru (the future Bolivia), the last Spanish stronghold in continental America
Juan Antonio Lavalleja leads a band of Thirty-three Immortals in Uruguay's fight for independence from Brazil
Italian author Alessandro Manzoni begins publication (completed 1827) of his novel I Promessi Sposi ('The Betrothed')
The elderly Francisco de Goya becomes the first great artist to attempt lithography
Upper Peru declares independence as the republic of Bolivia, in honour of Simón Bolívar
Franz Schubert composes his 'Great' C major symphony (previously often attributed to 1828)
Active (later called Locomotion) is the engine on the first passenger railway, between Stockton and Darlington
Work begins on the 363-mile Erie Canal that will link the Hudson River to Lake Erie
The English socialist Robert Owen purchases New Harmony from the Rappists, to test his utopian theories in a new context
A December uprising in St Petersburg ends when troops fire on the crowd, but the 'Decembrists' become revolutionary martyrs
Pedro I, emperor of Brazil, inherits the throne of Portugal (as Pedro IV) but continues to rule from Brazil
Bolívar attempts to create a pan-American gathering in the Congress of Panama
17-year-old Felix Mendelssohn composes an overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, amplified with huge success eighteen years later
Carl Maria von Weber's opera Oberon has its premiere (in London, at Covent Garden)
In James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans, Natty Bumppo sides with a Mohican chief
Scottish engineer Thomas Telford completes two suspension bridges in Wales, at Conwy and over the Menai Strait
The Turkish governor of Algiers, flicking at the French consul with his fly whisk, finds that he has provoked a French blockade and eventually invasion
Lavalleja defeats a Brazilian army at Ituzaingó, in the decisive battle for Uruguayan independence
George Canning becomes the British prime minister, but dies five months later
Britain, France and Russia, supporting Greek independence, defeat the Turkish and Egyptian fleets at Navarino
German physicist Georg Simon Ohm formulates his law about the proportionality of current flowing in an electric conductor
With Kaaterskill Falls 26-year-old Thomas Cole pioneers a heroic tradition in US landscape painting
London's first suspension bridge opens at Hammersmith
English artist Samuel Palmer moves to Shoreham, in Kent, for the most inspired years of his career
The Duke of Wellington becomes British prime minister, heading the Tory government at a time when reform is urgently needed
Dom Miguel swears allegiance to his brother, the Portuguese king Pedro IV, and becomes regent
Shaka is murdered by his half-brother Dingaan, who becomes leader of the Zulu in his place
Dom Miguel betrays his allegiance to his brother Pedro IV and usurps the Portuguese throne in a bloodless coup
After little more than two years of quarrelsome existence, Robert Owen's community at New Harmony comes to an end
Conservative 'bigwigs' and liberal 'novices' emerge as Chile's two main political parties
Connecticut lexicographer Noah Webster publishes the definitive 2-volume scholarly edition of his American Dictionary of the English Language
Irish nationalist Daniel O'Connell wins a sensational by-election victory to join the Westminster parliament
The independence of Uruguay is agreed in the Treaty of Montevideo between Brazil and Argentina
The Cherokees adopt an American-style constitution and publish the first American-Indian newspaper
Adult white males now have the vote in almost all the states of the USA
Andrew Jackson, elected president of the USA, introduces the era known as Jacksonian democracy
William Burke and William Hare murder 16 victims and sell their bodies to the Edinburgh Medical School for anatomical study
The Emancipation Act, enabling Daniel O'Connell to take his seat at Westminster, at last removes the restrictions on Catholics in UK public life
After a century of neglect, the 20-year-old Felix Mendelssohn conducts an influential revival in Berlin of J.S. Bach's St Matthew Passion
James Stirling explores up the Swan River in western Australia to find a site for the settlement which he names Perth
The Metropolitan Police, set up in London by Robert Peel, become known as 'bobbies' from his first name
20-year-old Edgar Allan Poe publishes Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems
The state government of Georgia declares that it is illegal for the Cherokees to hold political assemblies
Gioacchino Rossini's opera William Tell has its premiere in Paris
German composer Felix Mendelssohn visits the Hebrides and see's Fingal's Cave, later the theme of his Hebrides Overture
Oxford and Cambridge compete against each other in the first university boat race, held at Henley
The locomotive Rocket, built by George and Robert Stephenson, defeats two rivals in the Rainhill trials, near Liverpool
William IV succeeds his brother George IV as the British king
Oliver Wendell Holmes' poem 'Old Ironsides' prompts a public response that saves the frigate from the scrapyard
Richard Lander and his brother John explore the lower reaches of the Niger, proving that the great river is navigable
Earl Grey becomes British prime minister at the head of a Whig government committed to reform
Hokusai begins to publish his famous colour-printed views of Mount Fuji
Bolívar resigns as president of Gran Colombia shortly before dying of tuberculosis
Sucre is assassinated on his journey home to Quito from a congress in Bogotá
A revolution erupts in Paris in July and sweeps Charles X from the throne
Louis-Philippe, the Citizen King, is welcomed in Paris in a new role – as 'king of the French, by the will of the people'
Milosh Obrenovich wins recognition for an autonomous Serbia, with himself as prince
A French army invades Algeria, beginning the process which brings the region within the French empire
Congress passes the Indian Removal Act, to push the American Indian tribes west of the Mississippi
French author Stendhal publishes his novel Le Rouge et Le Noir ('The Red and the Black')
The Book of Mormon, translated from miraculously discovered holy tablets, is published by their finder Joseph Smith
Diego Portales begins a 30-year spell as Chile's conservative dictator
Panama becomes part of the newly independent republic of Colombia
George Stephenson's railway between Liverpool and Manchester opens, with passengers pulled by eight locomotives based on Rocket
The Symphonie fantastique by French composer Hector Berlioz has its premiere in Paris
Victor Hugo's romantic drama Hernani provokes a riot in the Paris audience on the first night
The death of the last infant cousin senior to her in the royal succession makes Victoria heir to the British throne
A network of undercover abolitionists in the southern states of America help slaves escape to freedom in the north
Old London Bridge is demolished after more than six centuries, ending the chance of frost fairs on the Thames
Old Sarum, the most notorious of Britain's rotten boroughs, has just seven voters but returns two members to parliament
Mameluke power ends with their suppression in Baghdad, following a massacre in Cairo twenty years earlier
Italian nationalist Giuseppe Mazzini founds Young Italy, an organization to promote insurrection
The last surviving Aborigines of Tasmania are moved by the British to a small island where they soon die out
The first Whig Reform Bill is carried in the British House of Commons by a single vote
Victor Hugo publishes his novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, in which the hunchback, Quasimodo, is obsessed with Esmeralda
Pedro I abdicates in Brazil and returns to Europe to recover his Portuguese throne (as Pedro IV)
Samuel Francis Smith's patriotic hymn America is sung for the first time on July 4 in Boston
Oliver Wendell Holmes' poem The Last Leaf is inspired by an aged survivor of the Boston Tea Party
Nat Turner leads a revolt by fellow slaves in Southampton County, Virginia, killing 59 whites and provoking more repressive legislation
Evangelical preacher Charles Grandison Finney leads a new wave of revivalism in the northeastern states
Russian poet Alexander Pushkin publishes a grand historical drama, Boris Godunov
HMS Beagle sails from Plymouth to survey the coasts of the southern hemisphere, with Charles Darwin as the expedition's naturalist
The USA suffers the first of several cholera epidemics, spanning the sixty years to 1892
Napoleon's son, known now as the Duke of Reichstadt, dies of tuberculosis in Vienna
English scientist Michael Faraday reports his discovery of the first law of electrolysis, to be followed a year later by the second
The full text of Goethe's Faust, Parts 1 and 2, is published a few months after the poet's death
English mathematician Charles Babbage builds a sophisticated calculating machine, which he calls a 'difference engine'
The Göta canal is completed, enabling ships to cross Scandinavia from the North Sea to the Baltic
Gaetano Donizetti's opera L'elisir d'amore has its premiere in Milan
Robert Schumann's first published composition is Papillons ('Butterflies'), twelve short dance pieces for piano
English author Frances Trollope ruffles transatlantic feathers with her Domestic Manners of the Americans, based on a 3-year stay
After several rejections by Britain's House of Lords, the Reform Bill finally passes and receives royal assent
Greece wins independence from the Turks, with the 17-year-old Otto of Bavaria as king
Mendelssohn's concert overture The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave) has its premiere in London's Covent Garden
The paddle steamer Alburkah becomes the first ocean-going iron ship, completing the journey from England to the Niger
French painter Eugène Delacroix begins a five-month visit to north Africa, with profound effects on his future art
French painter Eugène Delacroix begins a five-month visit to north Africa, with profound effects on his future art
20-year-old English artist Edward Lear publishes Family of the Psittacidae, a collection of his paintings of parrots
27-year-old Isambard Kingdom Brunel wins his first major appointment, as chief engineer to the Great Western railway
30-year-old Robert Stephenson is appointed chief engineer to the London and Birmingham railway
Britain ejects the Argentinians from the Falklands and begins the process of settlement with British farmers
Civil war breaks out in Spain between supporters of Ferdinand VII's three-year-old daughter, Isabella II, and of his brother Don Carlos
Antonio López de Santa Anna begins the first of five spells as president of Mexico
Under the leadership of William Lloyd Garrison a society is formed in the USA calling for the immediate abolition of slavery
Benjamin Henry Day establishes a new penny daily in New York, the Sun, which lasts until 1966
Alexander Pushkin publishes a novel in verse, Eugene Onegin
Hector Berlioz marries an Irish actress, Harriet Smithson, with whom he has been obsessed since seeing her play Ophelia and Juliet in 1827
The first long-distance US railway, in South Carolina, carries its first passengers
The Tories in Britain adopt a reassuring name for an uncertain future – Conservatives
Six farm labourers, from Tolpuddle in Dorset, are transported for seven years to Australia for administering unlawful oaths in the forming of a union
Pedro IV removes his usurping brother Dom Miguel from the Portuguese throne and restores it to his daughter, Maria II
The opponents of US president Andrew Jackson, mockingly called King Andrew, become known as the Whig party
Lord Melbourne becomes Britain's prime minister, at the head of the same Whig administration after the resignation of Earl Grey
Alexander Pushkin publishes his best-known short story, The Queen of Spades
Prime minister Lord Melbourne has difficulties in holding his government together and is dismissed by William IV
William IV invites the Tory leader Robert Peel to form a government in place of the Whigs
In London a great fire destroys most of the Palace of Westminster, including the two houses of parliament
American novelist William Gilmore Simms publishes Guy Rivers, the first of his series known as the Border Romances
Work begins on the suspension bridge over the river Avon, at Clifton, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel
English architect and designer Augustus Welby Pugin plays a major part in the second stage of the Gothic Revival
French zoologist Félix Dujardin identifies protoplasm, the viscous translucent substance common to all forms of life
Election results in Britain mean that Robert Peel is unable to form a Tory government, and Lord Melbourne returns as Britain's prime minister
Melbourne, founded by settlers from Tasmania, develops as the centre of a sheep-rearing community
Juan Manuel de Rosas becomes dictator of Argentina and imposes a brutally repressive conservative regime
Fox Talbot exposes the first photographic negatives, among them a view looking out through an oriel window in Lacock Abbey
French author Honoré de Balzac publishes Le Père Goriot, one of the key novels that he later includes in La Comédie Humaine
The New York Sun gains new readers with a convincing report that astronomer John Herschel has observed men and animals on the moon
Alexis de Tocqueville publishes in French the first two volumes of his extremely influential study Democracy in America
Gaetano Donizetti's opera Lucia di Lammermoor has its premiere in Naples
A school of landscape painting emerges in New York, with emphasis on the scenery of the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains
The Partisan, set in South Carolina, launches the series of novels by William Gilmore Simms known as the Revolutionary Romances
English artist Edward Lear begins a series of travels, sketching around the Mediterranean and in the Middle East
Charles Barry wins the competition to design the new Houses of Parliament
The inhabitants of the Mexican province of Texas declare their independence as a new republic
200 Texans, among them Davy Crockett, hold out for twelve days in San Antonio before being killed in the Alamo by a Mexican army
Hendrik Potgieter sets off with some 200 Boers and their cattle at the start of the Great Trek to the north
Sarah and Angelina Grimké join the abolitionist crusade, each publishing a powerful anti-slavery pamphlet in the same year
24-year-old Charles Dickens begins monthly publication of his first work of fiction, Pickwick Papers (published in book form in 1837)
A site is selected for Adelaide and emigration begins from Britain to south Australia
The Inspector General, a farce by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol satirising Russian offialdom, has tsar Nicholas I in the audience for the premiere
Sam Houston destroys a Mexican army near the San Jacinto river, completing the seizure of Texas from Mexico
The Tolpuddle Martyrs are brought back to England from Australia after public protest leads to their sentences being remitted
The Portuguese ban the shipping of slaves from the coast of Angola
Hendrik Potgieter and the Boers, protected by a laager at Vegkop, hold off an attack by a large force of Ndebele tribesmen
American professor William Holmes McGuffey writes the first of his immensely popular school reading books
HMS Beagle reaches Falmouth, in Cornwall, after a voyage of five years, and Charles Darwin brings with him a valuable collection of specimens
In his essay, Nature, Ralph Waldo Emerson sets out the fundamentals of the philosophy of Transcendentalism
Martin van Buren, previously vice-president to Andrew Jackson, wins the US presidential election on the Democratic ticket
Louis Agassiz builds a hut on the Aar glacier in Switzerland and succeeds in recording gradual movement of the ice
The 18-year-old Victoria comes to the throne in Britain, beginning the long Victorian era
Alexander Pushkin dies from a stomach wound received in a duel with his brother-in-law, Georges d'Anthès
After a victory at Vegkop, Boers massacre the inhabitants of a dozen Ndebele villages in secret dawn raids
Piet Retief emerges as the new leader of the Great Trek, replacing Potgieter
Work begins on Charles Barry's spectacular design for London's new Houses of Parliament
The Whig party in Britain begin referring to themselves as Liberals
Potgieter defeats the Ndebele at the Marico river and drives them north of the Limpopo
Piet Retief reaches a provisional agreement with Dingaan, the Zulu leader, for a Boer settlement in southern Natal
In The American Scholar Ralph Waldo Emerson urges his student audience to heed their own intellectuals rather than those of Europe
Oberlin College in Ohio becomes the first in the USA to enrol women as degree students
Rebellions in Canada reveal widespread discontent with the British administration, particularly among the French settlers
Zanzibar becomes the main place of residence of the sultan of Oman
Hector Berlioz's requiem mass, the Grande messe des morts, has its first performance in Paris
The first trains run between London and Birmingham on the railway designed by Robert Stephenson
Charles Dickens' first novel, Oliver Twist, begins monthly publication (in book form, 1838)
An Irish packet steamer, the Sirius, becomes the first steamship to cross the Atlantic, completing the journey to New York in 19 days
Brunel's Great Western, a wooden paddle-steamer, arrives in New York the day after the Sirius, with the record for an Atlantic crossing already reduced to 15 days
US inventor Samuel Morse gives the first public demonstration, in Philadelphia, of his electric telegraph
During a ceremony to celebrate their treaty with Dingaan, Piet Retief and his Boer companions are overpowered and killed
Dingaan's warriors massacre Boer families in a series of dawn raids near the Bloukrans river
Five American Indian tribes are forcibly escorted to a new Indian Territory west of the Mississippi in the process that becomes known as the Great Removal
The Central American Federation splits into Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica
The London Prize Ring rules disallow kicking, gouging, head-butting and biting in the sport of boxing
John James Audubon completes publication of the 435 plates forming his 4-volume Birds of America
The People's Charter, with its six political demands, launches the Chartist movement in England
J.M.W. Turner paints an icon of British art, The Fighting Téméraire
Civil war breaks out in Uruguay between the Reds and the Whites, followers respectively of Rivera and Oribe
The river Ncome becomes known as the Blood River after thousands of Zulu die attacking Andries Pretorius and the Boers
Seven Manchester merchants and mill-owners found the Anti-Corn Law League
US naval officer Charles Wilkes leads a four-year exploration of the Antarctic and Pacific, proving on the way that Antarctica is a continent
In his Divinity School Address, delivered at Harvard, Ralph Waldo Emerson criticizes formal religion and gives priority to personal spiritual experience
US author Nathaniel Hawthorne publishes Fanshawe, his first novel, at his own expense
British forces capture Hong Kong, which is subsequently ceded to Britain by China at the end of the first Opium War in 1842
The British seize the strategic port of Aden and administer it as a province annexed to India
Edgar Allan Poe publishes a characteristically gothic tale, The Fall of the House of Usher
Mutiny by slaves on a Spanish vessel leads two years later to a significant abolitionist victory in the Amistad case
A British army invades Afghanistan and installs a puppet ruler, Shuja Shah, as the Afghan amir
Abd-el-Kader proclaims a holy war against the French in Algeria and begins a military campaign that will last for eight years
Joseph Smith and the Mormons create the thriving town of Nauvoo in Illinois on the Mississippi
Andries Pretorius sets up the Boer republic of Natalia, with its capital at Pietermaritzburg
Lord Durham produces his Report on the Affairs of British North America, proposing reforms in the administration of Canada
British troops invade China after the Chinese authorities seize and destroy the opium stocks of British merchants in Canton
Polish composer Frédéric Chopin completes his Preludes under difficult conditions in Majorca
In the Bedchamber Crisis, Queen Victoria shows steely determination in refusing to dismiss politically committed ladies of her bedchamber
The French painter Gustave Courbet moves from his native town of Ornans to Paris
With Boer help, Mpande removes his brother Dingaan from the Zulu throne and takes his place
Swiss scientist Louis Agassiz argues, in his Study on Glaciers, that much of Europe was recently in the grip of an ice age
Napoleon's remains are brought to Paris for burial in Les Invalides, as the Napoleonic legend grows
Robert Schumann composes the song cycle Frauenliebe und -Leben ('Woman's Love and Life')
Queen Victoria gives Kew Gardens to the nation, as a botanic garden of scientific importance
Muhammad Ali, officially viceroy for the Turkish sultan, establishes his own ruling dynasty on the throne of Egypt
Rowland Hill introduces in Britain the world's first postage stamps - the Penny Black and Two Pence Blue
Victoria marries Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and soon, with nine children, they provide the very image of the ideal Victorian family
The first issue of the quarterly magazine The Dial is issued by the Transcendentalists meeting at Ralph Waldo Emerson's home
Robert Schumann marries the pianist Clara Wieck, daughter of his first teacher
The 14-year-old Dom Pedro, son of Pedro I, becomes emperor of Brazil as Pedro II
William Henry Harrison wins the US presidential election as the Whig candidate, but dies 30 days after taking office
US lawyer Richard Henry Dana has immediate popular success with Two Years Before the Mast, his account of his time as a merchant seaman
Herman Melville goes to sea on the whaler Acushnet and spends more than a year in the south Pacific
The Straits Convention, agreed between the European powers and Turkey, is a concerted attempt to prop up the Ottoman empire
Robert Peel replaces Lord Melbourne as prime minister after a Conservative victory in the British general election
August Dupin solves the case in Edgar Allan Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue, considered to be the first example of a detective story
Fox Talbot patents the 'calotype', introducing the negative-positive process that becomes standard in photography
Brook Farm, the most famous of the Charles Fourier phalanxes, is established at Dedham near Boston
Horace Greeley founds and edits the New-York Tribune, which will survive for more than a century (till 1966)
On the sudden death of US president William Henry Harrison, from pneumonia, he is succeeded in the office by his vice-president John Tyler
With a teetotallers' rail trip for 570 people, Thomas Cook introduces the notion of the package tour
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Ballads and Other Poems includes 'The Village Blacksmith' and 'The Wreck of the Hesperus'
US social reformer Catherine Beecher publishes an influential book to empower women, Treatise on Domestic Economy
Britain sends four naval ships up the river Niger to make anti-slavery treaties with local kings
Robert Peel's Conservative administration reintroduces income tax in Britain, at a fixed level of approximately 3%
Lord Shaftesbury's Mines Act makes it illegal for boys under 13, and women and girls of any age, to be employed underground in Britain
The British abandon Kabul, losing most of the garrison force in the withdrawal to India and bringing to an end the first Anglo-Afghan war
The young Friedrich Engels is sent from Germany to manage the family cotton-spinning factory in Manchester
The success of the opera Nabucco, premiered in Milan, is a turning point in the fortunes of Giuseppe Verdi
Irish nationalist Daniel O'Connell pioneers mass political demonstrations, which become known as 'monster meetings'
Edwin Pearce Christy launches the Virginia Minstrels, later to become America's most popular minstrel show under the name Christy's Minstrels
English poet Robert Browning publishes a vivid narrative poem about the terrible revenge of The Pied Piper of Hamelin
Austrian physicist Christian Doppler explains the acoustic effect now known by his name
The publication of the first part of the satirical novel Dead Souls, by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, proves a sensation in Russia
US showman P.T. Barnum draws huge crowds to the New York premises where his attractions include 'General Tom Thumb', a 4-year-old midget
Honoré de Balzac begins publication of a collected edition of his fiction under the title La Comédie Humaine
English author Thomas Babington Macaulay publishes a collection of stirring ballads, Lays of Ancient Rome
US secretary of state Daniel Webster and British negotiator Lord Ashburton resolve US-Canadian boundary disputes
The First Opium War ends with the island of Hong Kong, and extensive new trading rights, ceded to Britain in the Treaty of Nanking
The Brunel engineers, father and son, finish an 18-year project tunnelling under the Thames between Wapping and Rotherhithe
The Flying Dutchman is the first of Richard Wagner's major operas to be staged, with its premiere in Dresden
The British take control of the existing Boer republic and proclaim Natal a British protectorate
Edgar Allan Poe publishes The Pit and the Pendulum, a cliff-hanging tale of terror at the hands of the Spanish Inquisition
Henry Cole commissions 1000 copies of the world's first Christmas card, designed for him by John Calcott Horsley
The Great Migration across the north American continent to the Pacific establishes the Oregon Trail
The statue of Nelson, by E.H. Baily, is placed on top of its column in Trafalgar Square
Isambard Kingdom Brunel launches the Great Britain, the first iron steamship designed for the transatlantic passenger trade
Mendelssohn's overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, amplified now with incidental music, is greeted as a masterpiece at a performance of the play in Potsdam
William Hickling Prescott brings the Conquistadors dramatically to life in his 3-volume History of the Conquest of Mexico
Swiss naturalist Louis Agassiz completes his pioneering Poissons Fossiles ('Fossil Fish'), classifying more than 1500 categories
Daniel O'Connell is convicted of seditious conspiracy and is sentenced to prison
Ebenezer Scrooge mends his ways just in time in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol
The first great entrepreneur of the railway age, George Hudson, becomes known as the Railway King
The Mormon leader, Joseph Smith, and his brother are killed by an armed mob in Nauvoo
The Hungarian diet decrees that Magyar, rather than German, is to be the official language of the kingdom
Daniel O'Connell is acquitted on appeal and released from prison
In his novel Coningsby Benjamin Disraeli develops the theme of Conservatism uniting 'two nations', the rich and the poor
The Russian tsar, Nicholas I, calls Turkey 'the sick man of Europe'
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels meet in Paris and become life-long friends
James Polk pledges in his presidential campaign to include the self-proclaimed republic of Texas in the USA
The Young Men's Christian Association is founded in London by British drapery assistant George Williams
The other half of Hispaniola joins Haiti in declaring independence, as the Dominican Republic
Samuel Morse and his assistant Alfred Vail complete the first telegraph line, between New York and Baltimore
Democratic candidate James Polk is elected president of the USA, defeating the Whig Henry Clay
Edgar Allan Poe publishes The Raven and Other Poems
New Yorker Alexander Cartwright devises the set of rules that become the basis of the modern game of baseball
British archaeologist Henry Layard, in his first month of digging in Iraq, discovers the Assyrian city of Nimrud
English naval officer John Franklin sets off with two ships, Erebus and Terror, to search for the Northwest Passage
A blight destroys the potato crop in Ireland and causes what becomes known as the Great Famine
Henry David Thoreau moves into a hut that he has built for himself in the woods at Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts
The expansionist slogan 'Manifest Destiny' is coined by journalist John L. O'Sullivan to emphasize the right of the USA to extend west to the Pacific
With his emphasis on the subjective experience of human Existenz, the Danish philosopher Kierkegaard plants the seed of existentialism
Escaped slave Frederick Douglass publishes the first of three volumes of autobiography
US author Margaret Fuller publishes Woman in the Nineteenth Century, an early and thoughtful feminist study of women's place in society
The first Anglo-Sikh war breaks out between Sikh forces in the Punjab and encroaching forces of Britain's East India Company
Friedrich Engels, after running a textile factory in Manchester, publishes The Condition of the Working Class in England
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert follow the German custom of a family Christmas tree, immediately making it popular in Britain
The first Anglo-Sikh war ends with the Treaty of Lahore, by which Jammu and Kashmir are ceded to the British
The self-contained metal cartridge, with a percussion cap in its base, is patented by a Paris gunsmith named Houiller
British prime minister Robert Peel carries a bill to repeal the Corn Laws, splitting his own party in the process
Francis Parkman travels west into dangerous territory in Wyoming, an adventure he later describes in The Oregon Trail
The Irish, fleeing from the potato famine at home, become the main group of immigrants to the USA
The minority of Conservatives supporting Peel become a separate faction, henceforth known as the Peelites
Edward Lear publishes his Book of Nonsense, consisting of limericks illustrated with his own cartoons
The Oregon Treaty establishes the border between Canada and the USA along the 49th parallel to the Pacific
President Polk sends a US army into Texas, provoking the Mexican-American War
With his Conservative party split, Peel's government falls and Lord John Russell becomes British prime minister at the head of a Whig administration
Brigham Young leads the migration of Mormons west up the Missouri from Illinois
Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah has its premiere in England, in the city of Birmingham
After marrying secretly, the English poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett go abroad to live in Florence
The US Congress establishes the Smithsonian Institution with a bequest to the nation by Englishman James Smithson
A dentist in Boston, William Morton, uses ether as an anaesthetic while surgeon John Collins Warren removes a tumour in a patient's neck
Landlords in Scotland begin to clear crofters from Highland estates so as to provide pasture for sheep
Members of the Donner Party, on the trail to California, survive by eating human flesh when trapped by snow in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada
The three Brontë sisters jointly publish a volume of their poems and sell just two copies
Brigham Young selects the site of Salt Lake City as the place for Mormon settlement
A new Factory Act is passed in Britain, limiting the working day of women and children to a maximum of ten hours
English author William Makepeace Thackeray begins publication of his novel Vanity Fair in monthly parts (book form 1848)
Camillo Benso di Cavour founds a newspaper in north Italy and calls it Il Risorgimento ('The Resurgence')
At a congress in London Engels persuades a group of radical Germans to adopt the name Communist League
Charlotte becomes the first of the Brontë sisters to have a novel published — Jane Eyre
Pretorius leads the last Boer families out of Natal and over the Drakensberg to the high veld
Don Pacifico's house in Athens is burnt by an anti-Semitic crowd, provoking an international incident
Liberia wins independence and international recognition as a republic
English mathematician George Boole describes Boolean algebra in his pamphlet Mathematical Analysis of Logic
Ralph Waldo Emerson publishes his first collection of poems, many of which have appeared first in The Dial
William Hickling Prescott follows his great work on Mexico with a 2-volume History of the Conquest of Peru
Napoleon's widow, the empress Marie Louise, now the duchess of Parma, dies in Parma
Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights follows just two months after her sister Charlotte's Jane Eyre
Another uprising in Vienna causes the emperor Ferdinand I to flee for safety to Innsbruck
With Wisconsin admitted as the 30th state, the western boundary of the USA now runs from Lake Superior to the Rio Grande
Martial law is imposed in Prague after a demonstration by radical Czech students following a Pan-Slav congress
Scottish obstetrician James Simpson uses anaesthetic (ether, and later in the year chloroform) to ease difficulty in childbirth
Gold is found on the property of John Sutter, at Coloma on the Sacramento river in California, and news of it launches the first gold rush
An uprising in Sicily in January starts off Europe's 'year of revolutions
A treaty signed in Guadalupe-Hidalgo, ending the Mexican-American War, gives the US six new states
Two New York girls, Maggie and Katie Fox, claim to be in touch with the spirit of a murdered man, thus launching the modern cult of spiritualism
The Prussian army is the first to adopt a breech-loading rifle, the 'needle-gun' developed by gunsmith Johann Nikolaus von Dreyse
A revolution in Paris in February removes Louis-Philippe and introduces France's second republic
The Wilmot Proviso is defeated in the US Senate, heightening north-south tensions on the issue of slavery
The Communist Manifesto, by Marx and Engels, is published in Paris with the ringing slogan: 'Workers of the world, unite!'
An uprising in Vienna leads to the resignation, on the following day, of the long-serving chancellor Klemens von Metternich
Harry Smith annexes for Britain the land between the Orange and Vaal rivers, calling it the Orange River Sovereignty
English caricaturist George Cruikshank publishes The Drunkard's Children in support of the developing Temperance movement
Honoré de Balzac completes publication of La Comédie Humaine, a 17-volume collected edition of his numerous novels and stories
Honoré de Balzac completes publication of La Comédie Humaine, a 17-volume collected edition of his numerous novels and stories
US feminists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organize a convention on women's rights in Seneca Falls, New York
Suppression of unrest in Hungary provokes a third violent uprising in Vienna and another flight by Ferdinand I, this time to Olomouc
Louis Napoleon is elected the first president of France's new Second Republic
Oh! Susannah is in the first published collection of popular songs by Stephen Collins Foster
English art students Rossetti, Holman Hunt and Millais form the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
A utopian community dedicated to the sharing of both property and sexual favours is established by John Humphrey Noyes near Oneida, New York
The prime minister of the papal states, Pellegrino Rossi, is assassinated in Rome
The second Anglo-Sikh war begins when a British army invades the Punjab to suppress a local uprising
An uprising in Rome causes Pope Pius IX to flee for safety to a coastal fortress at Gaeta
In a three-cornered US presidential election Whig candidate Zachary Taylor defeats Democrat Lewis Cass and the Free-Soil party's Martin van Buren
18-year-old Francis Joseph becomes emperor of Austria when his uncle, Ferdinand I, abdicates at the end of a year of unrest
Branwell, Emily and Anne Brontë die within a period of eight months
The Habsburgs recover power in both Austria and Hungary
Prince Albert is the driving force behind the plans for a Great Exhibition in London
A new Roman republic is proclaimed, with veteran agitator Giuseppe Mazzini in the leading role
Charles Dickens begins the publication in monthly numbers of David Copperfield, his own favourite among his novels
A British victory at the Battle of Gujarat effectively ends the second Anglo-Sikh war, and is followed by annexation of the Punjab
Giuseppe Garibaldi arrives from exile in South America to defend the new Roman republic against a French army
Delegates of the German states offer the imperial crown of a united Germany to Frederick William IV, the king of Prussia, who rejects it
Francis Parkman's The Oregon Trail, already serialized in 1847, is published in book form
Nationalist leader Lajos Kossuth announces the independence of Hungary and the deposition of the Habsburg dynasty
An anti-British mob attacks the New York theatre where William Macready is appearing as Macbeth, leaving 22 dead and many injured
Scottish painter David Roberts completes publication of his 6-volume The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt & Nubia
The gold rush to California gathers pace during 1849, causing the prospectors to become known as 'forty-niners'
In Vienna the younger Johann Strauss succeeds his father as the Waltz King
Pope Pius IX returns to Rome under the protection of French troops, with his enthusiasm for any form of change much reduced.
The Habsburgs recover power in both Austria and Hungary
Expelled from Germany after the year of revolutions, Marx makes his home in tolerant London
Vancouver Island is given the status of a British crown colony, to be followed by British Columbia in 1858
Dante Gabriel Rossetti depicts his sister Christina in The Girlhood of Mary Virgin
Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky undergoes a mock execution, after being sentenced to death for revolutionary activities against tsar Nicholas I
Fyodor Dostoevsky begins four years of hard labour in Siberia for revolutionary activities
Queen Victoria knights her favourite painter of animals, Edwin Landseer
The Scottish missionary David Livingstone is profoundly shocked by what he sees of the slave trade at the heart of Africa
The British government buys the Danish fortresses on the Gold Coast, including Christiansborg castle in Accra
British foreign secretary Lord Palmerston sends a naval squadron to seize Greek ships in the Don Pacifico case
The brothers James and John Harper launch in New York Harper's Monthly Magazine, still published today
As many as 50,000 US pioneers travel west this year on the Oregon Trail
Alfred Tennyson's elegy for a friend, In Memoriam, captures perfectly the Victorian mood of heightened sensibility
British engineer Robert Stephenson completes a box-girder railway bridge over the Menai Strait, between Anglesey and mainland Wales
California is admitted to the union just two years after being acquired from Mexico
The slave trade, but not slavery itself, is banned in Washington and the district of Columbia
Brazil, historically the world's second largest importer of slaves from Africa, finally bans the slave trade
US president Zachary Taylor dies after a short illness and is succeeded by his vice-president, Millard Fillmore
The US Congress passes the Compromise of 1850, designed to defuse the growing crisis over slavery
The Fugitive Slave Act, concerned with the arrest of runaway slaves, is the most contentious part of the Compromise of 1850
Nathaniel Hawthorne publishes his novel The Scarlet Letter, in which Hester Prynne is forced to wear the letter A for Adultress
US Secretary of State John Clayton and British ambassador Henry Bulwer come to an agreement about the building of a canal between the Atlantic and Pacific
Escaped slave Harriet Tubman makes the first of many dangerous journeys back into Maryland to bring other slaves into freedom
Jenny Lind, the 'Swedish Nightingale', has a great success touring the USA in a show presented by P.T. Barnum
A rebellion against the Qing dynasty, led by Christian convert Hong Xiuquan, breaks out in southern China
Allan Pinkerton retires from the Chicago police force and forms the Pinkerton National Detective Agency
English cartoonist John Tenniel begins a 50-year career drawing for the satirical magazine Punch
An American clergyman, L.L. Langstroth, discovers the 'bee space', which becomes a standard feature of the modern beehive
Samson Raphael Hirsch becomes rabbi of a synagogue in Frankfurt, where he develops the theme of neo-Orthodoxy
Thomas Cubitt completes Osborne House, designed as a quiet retreat for Victoria and Albert on the Isle of Wight
Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto, based on a play by Victor Hugo, is a huge success at its premiere in Venice
English photographer Frederick Scott Archer publishes the details of his collodion process, a marked improvement on the earlier calotype negative
German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz invents the ophthalmoscope, making it possible for a doctor to examine the inside of a patient's eye
English textile magnate Titus Salt begins to build Saltaire as a model industrial village for his workers
Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace, built in London in six months, is the world's first example of prefabricated architecture
French physicist Léon Foucault demonstrates the rotation of the earth by means of a long pendulum suspended in the Pantheon in Paris
The Australian gold rush begins with the discovery of gold fields at Ballarat and a few months later at Bendigo
The Great Exhibition attracts six million visitors to London's new Crystal Palace in a period of only six months
The first American branch of the Young Men's Christian Association is established in Boston
The New York Times is founded by Henry Jarvis Raymond as a conservative daily with an emphasis on accuracy
US author Nathaniel Hawthorne bases his novel The House of the Seven Gables on a curse invoked against his own family
Richard Wagner writes an anti-Semitic tract, Jewishness in Music
Herman Melville publishes Moby Dick; or, The Whale, a novel based on his own 18-month experience on a whaler in 1841-2
A journalist in the Terre Haute Express gives a piece of advice, 'Go west, young man', that chimes perfectly with the US pioneer spirit
The president of France, Louis Napoleon, stages a coup d'état, rounding up his political opponents during a long December night
The citizens of the US are scandalized to discover that the Mormons practise polygamy
Lord John Russell's Whig administration collapses, and Lord Derby follows him as a Conservative prime minister at the head of a coalition government
Queen Victoria opens the new Houses of Parliament, designed by Charles Barry and Augustus Welby Pugin
The Crystal Palace is dismantled in Hyde Park, to be re-erected south of the river Thames at Sydenham
France demands that Turkey should end Russia's exclusive control of the Christian Holy Places in the Ottoman empire
In the four years since the discovery of gold, the population of California has leapt from 14,000 to 250,000
Scottish physicist William Thomson formulates the second law of thermodynamics, concerning the transfer of heat within a closed system
Scottish physicist William Thomson formulates the second law of thermodynamics, concerning the transfer of heat within a closed system
Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes a massively successful antislavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, that sells 300,000 copies in its first year
US entrepreneur Cornelius Vanderbilt conveys passengers across the American continent through Nicaragua by steamship and horse and carriage
In an Argentinian civil war, Urquiza defeats the dictator Rosas and is subsequently elected president (in 1854)
Russia insists that her exclusive rights over the Holy Places are enshrined in the treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji
Democratic candidate Franklin Pierce wins the US presidential election, defeating his Whig opponent Winfield Scott
Louis Napoleon, asking the French people to approve his elevation to emperor as Napoleon III, receives a resounding yes in the plebiscite
Lord Aberdeen, leader of the 'Peelite' minority of the Conservative party, forms a new coalition government with the Liberals
London physician Peter Mark Roget publishes his dictionary of synonyms, the Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases
Russia occupies two Ottoman principalities, Moldavia and Wallachia, on the west coast of the Black Sea
Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore is a success at its premiere in Rome
David Livingstone makes a heroic six-month journey from the Zambezi river to the west coast of Africa
The Taiping rebels capture the Chinese city of Nanjing and make it their capital
Hormuzd Rassam discovers the magnificent lion-hunt reliefs in the palace of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh
Just six weeks after the success of Il Trovatore, Giuseppe Verdi's opera La Traviata is a disaster at its premiere in Venice
In a worsening diplomatic crisis, Russia puts her Black Sea fleet in a state of alert at Sebastopol
France and Britain despatch their fleets to the Dardanelles, in readiness to go through the Straits to the Black Sea
Antoinette Brown becomes the first female to be ordained a minister in the USA, in the First Congregational Church in South Butler, NY
In the expectation of British and French support, the Ottoman sultan declares war on Russia - launching the Crimean War
In the expectation of British and French support, the Ottoman sultan declares war on Russia - launching the Crimean War
The hypodermic syringe with a plunger is simultaneously developed in France and in Scotland
British and French warships move up through the Straits and enter the Black Sea in support of Turkey
Robert Schumann throws himself into the Rhine, in an attempt to commit suicide, and spends the last two years of his life in an asylum
An anti-slavery movement, formed in the USA to oppose the Kansas-Nebraska Act, adopts a resonant name, calling itself the Republican party
US inventor Elisha Otis dramatically demonstrates his new safety elevator, cutting the rope suspending his platform in New York's Crystal Palace
US inventor Elisha Otis dramatically demonstrates his new safety elevator, cutting the rope suspending his platform in New York's Crystal Palace
The Boers establish the Orange Free State as an independent republic, with its own custom-built constitution
Commodore Matthew Perry, commanding a powerful US fleet, persuades the Japanese to open their country to western trade – ending their period of isolation
The controversial Kansas-Nebraska Act passes into law, enabling citizens of these territories to decide whether or not to allow slavery
US minister to Mexico James Gadsden secures a treaty by which the USA purchases from Mexico much of southern Arizona
Austrian monk Gregor Mendel begins his study of pea plants in the garden of the Abbey of St Thomas in Brno
William Baikie, on an expedition up the Niger, protects his men from malaria by administering quinine
Ferdinand de Lesseps is granted the concession to construct a canal from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea
Australian gold diggers, angered by the requirement to purchase a licence, make a defiant stand at the Eureka stockade
English physician John Snow proves that cholera is spread by infected water (from a pump in London's Broad Street)
Britain and France enter the war between Turkey and Russia, on the Turkish side
A London editor decides to send a reporter, William Howard Russell ('Russell of The Times'), to the Crimean front
Thoreau publishes an account of his two years of self-sufficient transcendentalism in his hut at Walden Pond
British and French troops land at Sebastopol, to besiege the port, and win a limited victory over the Russians at the river Alma
Florence Nightingale, responding to reports of horrors in the Crimea, sets sail with a party of twenty-eight nurses
An inconclusive battle at Balaklava includes the Charge of the Light Brigade, with British cavalry recklessly led towards Russian guns
An inconclusive engagement at Inkerman means that the allies in the Crimea have to dig in for the winter besieging Sebastopol
Within six weeks of the Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimea, Tennyson publishes a poem finding heroism in the disaster
Pope Pius IX issues a papal bull declaring that the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary is to be an article of faith for Catholics
Jamaican-born nurse Mary Seacole sets up her own 'British Hotel' in the Crimea to provide food and nursing for soldiers in need
Roger Fenton travels out from England to the Crimea – the world's first war photographer
Lord Palmerston heads the coalition government in Britain after Lord Aberdeen loses a vote of confidence on his conduct of the Crimean War
Holman Hunt's The Scapegoat combines realism and symbolism in an extreme example of Pre-Raphaelite characteristics
The Panama Railroad company completes a line between the Atlantic and the Pacific, providing America's first transcontinental link
The first edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass is published anonymously, at his own expense, and contains just 12 poems
David Livingstone, moving down the Zambezi, comes upon the Victoria Falls
John Everett Millais marries Effie Gray, previously the wife of John Ruskin
English artist William Simpson sends sketches from the Crimea which achieve rapid circulation in Britain as tinted lithographs
Liberal leaders Juan Alvarez and Ignacio Comonfort launch a political programme in Mexico that becomes know simply as 'the Reform'
The Christian Socialism of F.D. Maurice and others is mocked by its opponents as 'muscular Christianity'
An Ethiopian baron usurps the throne and proclaims himself emperor, as Theodore II
Longfellow publishes his American Indian epic, The Song of Hiawatha, in an irresistibly catchy metre
The Christmas issue of the Illustrated London News includes chromolithographs, introducing the era of colour journalism
After a siege of nearly a year the Russians abandon Sebastopol, but the Turkish alliance is too exhausted to pursue the conflict
Tennyson publishes a long narrative poem, Maud, a section of which ('Come into the garden, Maud') becomes famous as a song
English author Anthony Trollope publishes The Warden, the first in his series of six Barsetshire novels
The treaty of Paris ends the Crimean War, limiting Russia's special powers in relation to Turkey
The first Neanderthal man to be discovered is unearthed by quarry workers in the Neander valley, near Düsseldorf
Abolitionist John Brown presides over the lynching of five pro-slavery men at Pottawatomie in Kansas
An American adventurer, William Walker, wins control of the government in Nicaragua and for a year rules as president
Victoria and Albert complete their fairy-tale castle at Balmoral, adding greatly to the nation's romantic view of Scotland
Gustave Flaubert publishes Madame Bovary, a novel of frustrated romanticism in a provincial French context
English chemist William Henry Perkin accidentally creates the first synthetic die, aniline purple (now known as mauve)
An incident aboard the Arrow, flying a British flag, gives the British the pretext to launch the Second Opium War
Democrat candidate James Buchanan wins the US presidential election, defeating Republican John C Frémont
The Haughwout Store, a five-storey building in New York, installs the first Otis safety elevator
David Livingstone urges upon a Cambridge audience the high ideal of taking 'commerce and Christianity' into Africa
Russian exile Alexander Herzen, publishes in London a radical newspaper called Kolokol (The Bell)
Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke set off from Bagamoyo in their search for the source of the Nile
An ultra-reactionary Supreme Court judgement in the Dred Scott case heightens US tensions over slavery
French chemist Louis Pasteur proves the existence of micro-organisms by showing that a liquid will only ferment if exposed to contamination from the air
Animal fat on a new issue of cartridges sparks off the Indian Mutiny, also know as the First War of Indian Independence
The Boers of the southern Transvaal declare independence as the South African Republic
Charles Baudelaire publishes his first and extremely influential collection of poems, Les Fleurs du Mal
In Tom Brown's Schooldays Thomas Hughes depicts the often brutal aspects of an English public school
After being besieged for five months in Lucknow, the remnants of the British garrison finally escape
Acts of exceptional valour in the Crimean War are rewarded with a new medal, the Victoria Cross, made from the metal of captured Russian guns
Palmerston's government collapses and Lord Derby heads another Conservative minority administration
Conservatives seize Mexico City at the start of a civil war against the Liberal government
John O'Mahony, an Irish emigrant to the USA, founds the Fenian Brotherhood as a secret organization supporting the Irish republican cause
Burton and Speke reach Lake Tanganyika at Ujiji, a place later famous for the meeting between Livingstone and Stanley
Lucknow is retaken by the British, nearly a year after it fell to the rebels
Brunel dies just before the maiden voyage of his gigantic final project, the luxury liner The Great Eastern
Napoleon III and Cavour hatch a secret plan at Plombièes to tempt Austria into war in north Italy, and agree how to divide up the spoils
The end of the Indian Mutiny is followed by brutal British retaliation
Abraham Lincoln comes to national prominence through his debates on slavery with Stephen Douglas, his rival for an Illinois seat in the Senate
The India Act places India under the direct control of the British government, ending the rule of the East India Company
Charles Darwin is alarmed to receive in his morning post a paper by Alfred Russell Wallace, outlining very much his own theory of evolution
The Treaty of Tientsin, ending the Second Opium War, gives European powers new rights to intervene in Chinese affairs
Under the Treaty of Aigun, Russia wins from China the valuable Pacific coastline down to Vladivostok
Lionel Nathan Rothschild becomes the first Jew to sit in Britain's House of Commons, taking his oath on the Old Testament
Oliver Wendell Holmes' book The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table is the first in a breakfast-table series
Longfellow uses a romantic story of early New England for his narrative poem The Courtship of Miles Standish
The stench in central London, rising from the polluted Thames in a hot summer, creates what becomes known as the Great Stink
US entrepreneur Cyrus W. Field succeeds in laying a telegraph cable across the Atlantic, but it fails after only a month
An Irish branch of the US Fenians is established as the Irish Republican Brotherhood
Napoleon III sends forces to capture the port of Da Nang, beginning the French colonization of Vietnam
The last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah II, is deposed by the British and exiled to Rangoon, in Burma
Speke reaches Lake Victoria and guesses that it is probably the source of the Nile
Hector Berlioz completes his 4-hour opera The Trojans (not performed as a complete work until 1890)
Amos Barton' and two other stories are published together, as Scenes of Clerical Life, under the pseudonym George Eliot
Joseph Bazalgette is given the task of providing London with a desperately needed new system of sewers
John Brown is captured leading a group of abolitionists to seize arms from the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry
Charles Darwin puts forward the theory of evolution in On the Origin of Species, the result of 20 years' research
A French and Piedmontese army liberates Milan from Austrian rule
The opera Faust, by French composer Charles Gounod, has its premiere in Paris
Liberal leader Lord Palmerston returns to office as the British prime minister after the collapse of Derby's coalition government
The principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia merge as a single new entity, to be called Romania
A 13-ton bell is installed above London's Houses of Parliament, soon giving its name (Big Ben) to both the clock and the clock-tower
French and Piedmontese forces defeat the Austrians decisively at Solferino, in a battle involving appalling casualties
Frozen remains and a document are finally found to reveal the fate of the Franklin expedition of 1845 to the Northwest Passage
Edwin L. Drake strikes oil in Pennsylvania, leading to several local oil rushes
French author Stendhal publishes his novel La Chartreuse de Parme ('The Charterhouse of Parma')
In On Liberty John Stuart Mill makes the classic liberal case for the priority of the freedom of the individual
Samuel Smiles provides an inspiring ideal of Victorian enterprise in Self-Help, a manual for ambitious young men
Tennyson publishes the first part of Idylls of the King, a series of linked poems about Britain's mythical king Arthur
Abolitionist John Brown is convicted of treason at Harper's Ferry and is hanged
Charles Dickens publishes his French Revolution novel, A Tale of Two Cities
Edward FitzGerald publishes The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, romantic translations of the work of the Persian poet
US artist James McNeill Whistler settles in London, which he makes his home for the rest of his life
Garibaldi crosses from Sicily to the mainland and by September is in Naples
The treaty of Turin brings much of north Italy under the control of Cavour (for the kingdom of Sardinia), who in return cedes Savoy and Nice to France
Mail is carried by horse relay from Missouri to California, travelling 2000 miles in ten days in the service known as the Pony Express
German chemist Robert Wilhelm Bunsen and technician Peter Desdega perfect the non-luminous gas burner for use in the laboratory
Garibaldi lands at Marsala in Sicily in May with his thousand Redshirts, and wins control of the island for the king in waiting, Victor Emmanuel II
Lincoln becomes the Republican presidential candidate, benefiting from a Democratic party split on the issue of slavery
German immigrants arriving in the USA now outnumber even the Irish
Florence Nightingale opens a training school for nurses in St Thomas's Hospital, establishing nursing as a profession
US adventurer William Walker, thrown out of Nicaragua in 1857, is executed in Honduras
British and French forces occupy Beijing and burn the imperial summer palace, at the end of the Second Opium War
Republican contender Abraham Lincoln is elected US president with only 39% of the popular vote and no electoral votes in eleven southern states
South Carolina becomes the first southern state to secede from the Union in response to Lincoln's election
Charles Dickens begins serial publication of his novel "Great Expectations" (in book form 1861)
George Eliot publishes The Mill on the Floss, her novel about the childhood of Maggie and Tom Tulliver
The Liberals recover Mexico City and elect Benito Juarez as president
Seven southern states, meeting in Montgomery, Alabama, agree to form the Confederate States of America
The seven members of the newly formed Confederacy elect Jefferson Davis as their provisional president
Lagos, on the coast of Nigeria, is annexed as a British colony when the royal family prove unable or unwilling to end the slave trade
Victor Emmanuel II is proclaimed king of a united Italy, with only Rome and Venetia remaining outside his realm
After four years of consultation, Alexander II issues a decree freeing Russia's millions of serfs
English chemist and physicist William Crookes isolates a new element, thallium
Richmond, the state capital of Virginia, becomes the capital of the Southern Confederacy
Shots are fired against the Federal military garrison in Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbour, launching the American Civil War
Chinese immigrants to Australia are the victims of violent racial attacks at Lambing Flat
An official National Eisteddfod is held for the first time in Wales, in Aberdare
Mathew Brady sends teams of photographers to the various battle fronts to ensure a thorough photographic record of the American Civil War
Benito Juarez, president of a bankrupt Mexico, suspends interest payment on the nation's foreign debt
The first battle of the American Civil War, fought near Manassas and the Bull Run Creek, is a clear Confederate victory
At Pavón the provincial troops of Buenos Aires defeat the Argentinian national army, emphatically demonstrating the power of their city
Longfellow's narrative poem Paul Revere's Ride dramatizes a turning point at the start of the American Revolution
Prince Albert dies of typhoid, plunging Victoria into forty years of widowhood and deep mourning
Hungarian physician Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis publishes his discovery that deaths from puerperal fever can be dramatically reduced by a strict hand-washing routine
Mrs Henry Wood publishes her first novel, East Lynne, which becomes the basis of the most popular of all Victorian melodramas
A joint French, Spanish and British force lands in Mexico and captures Veracruz, ostensibly to collect the interest on European debts
The Monitor and the Merrimack fight all morning off the Virginia coast, in history's first clash between ironclad ships
Julia Ward Howe publishes The Battle Hymn of the Republic, inspired by a visit to Union troops in the American Civil War
A two-day engagement at Shiloh is the first Civil War battle to bring massive casualties, with more than 23,000 dead, wounded or missing
Louis Pasteur uses heat to destroy the micro-organisms in liquid food, in the process that becomes known as pasteurization
In a surprise raid, Union forces sail up the Mississippi estuary to capture New Orleans
Victor Hugo publishes his novel Les Misérables, an immensely complex story about the adventures of ex-convict Jean Valjean
Richard Burton, visiting Dahomey, provides reports of the kingdom's celebrated Amazons preparing for war
Speke and Grant find the Ripon Falls, over which the headwater of the Nile flows from Lake Tanganyika
George B. McClellan brings a Union army within a few miles of Richmond, but withdraws after the Seven Days Battle against Robert E. Lee
Oxford mathematician Lewis Carroll tells 10-year-old Alice Liddell, on a boat trip, a story about her own adventures in Wonderland
Swiss humanitarian Henri Dunant publishes A Memory of Solferino, proposing an international agency to cope with the battlefield casualties he has witnessed
John McDouall Stuart reaches the north coast of Australia at Van Diemen's Gulf seven months after setting off from Adelaide
The Homestead Act grants 160 acres in the west of the USA to any family farming them for five years
Otto von Bismarck declares Blut und Eisen (blood and iron) to be the only policy by which Prussia can become strong
Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee defeat a Union army in the second battle of Bull Run or Manassas
The Federal victory at Antietam comes at a cost of more than 22,000 casualties in a single day
Lincoln declares in his Emancipation Proclamation that all slaves in any state opposing the Union government 'are and henceforward shall be free'
Dostoevsky publishes Notes from the House of the Dead, a semi-autobiographical novel about life in a Siberian labour camp
Unpublished American poet Emily Dickinson writes more than 300 poems within the year
The bones of Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills are brought back to Melbourne after the heroic failure of their attempt to cross Australia
St Mary's hospital opens in Rochester, Minnesota, soon to be known as the Mayo Clinic from the three Drs Mayo who run it
It is discovered in the US that wood pulp can be used to make paper, and the Boston Weekly Journal is the first to use the new substance
British officer Charles Gordon leads untrained auxiliaries against the Taiping rebels in China, becoming known as Chinese Gordon
Samuel Clemens uses the pseudonym Mark Twain for the first time on an article in Virginia City's Territorial Enterprise
British architect George Gilbert Scott designs a memorial for Prince Albert in Kensington Gardens
Mobs of women destroy shops in Richmond, Virginia, in protest at food prices inflated by the war
The French capture Mexico City and President Juarez flees to the north
The three-day Battle of Gettysburg, inconclusive but more damaging to the Confederates, brings casualties on both sides of more than 50,000
After a six-week siege the city of Vicksburg surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant, bringing the entire Mississippi under Union control
Four days of riots in New York greet Lincoln's new conscription or draft laws, with exemptions for the rich
France establishes a protectorate over Cambodia
English author Charles Kingsley publishes an improving fantasy for young children, The Water-Babies
Henri Dunant and others establish the Red Cross in Geneva, as a direct result of the battlefield casualties Dunant has witnessed at Solferino in 1859
The Seventh-day Adventists become an organized church, with a first General Conference in Battle Creek, Michigan
President Lincoln, in honouring the Union dead at Gettysburg, captures in three minutes the essence of American democracy
The Metropolitan Railway, the world's first to go underground, opens in London using steam trains between Paddington and Farringdon Street
48-year-old Julia Margaret Cameron is given a camera by her daughter, in the Isle of Wight, and decides to concentrate on portraits
The Marylebone Cricket Club, arbiter of cricket, finally rules that overarm bowling is legitimate
Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman become Lincoln's two leading generals in the final thrust of the Civil War
Prussia and Austria combine forces to seize Schleswig-Holstein, but soon fall out
The island of Corfu is ceded by Britain to the kingdom of Greece
Grant moves south in a hard-fought campaign to pin down Lee's Confederate army at Petersburg, near Richmond
The French arrange for the coronation of the Austrian archduke Maximilian as emperor of Mexico
The First International is established in London, with Karl Marx soon emerging as the association's leader
Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell presents to the Royal Society his discoveries in the field of electromagnetics, now known collectively as Maxwell's Equations
The first Geneva Convention establishes standards for the treatment of the wounded in war
The Federal government confiscates the Arlington estate of Confederate general Robert E. Lee and turns it into a war cemetery
Imperial Chinese troops and Gordon's auxiliaries take Nanjing, the rebel capital, finally bringing to an end the Taiping rebellion
Pope Pius IX includes socialism, civil marriage and secular education among eighty modern errors listed in his Syllabus
William Tecumseh Sherman captures Atlanta, the first important southern city to fall into Union hands
Dostoevsky publishes Notes from Underground, the bitter memories of a retired civil servant that is often described as the first existentialist novel
President Lincoln is re-elected for a second term, thanks largely to recent Union successes on the Civil War battlefields
William T. Sherman reaches the coast and captures Savannah, after his violently destructive 'march to the sea'
Gregor Mendel reads a paper to the Natural History Society in Brno describing his discoveries in the field of genetics
The Confederate government abandons Richmond, and Lee begins a retreat to the west
Lincoln visits the Confederate capital at Richmond and is greeted by a jubilant crowd of freed black slaves
Lee surrenders to Grant at the Appomattox Court House, and is offered conciliatory terms
English surgeon Joseph Lister introduces the era of antiseptic surgery, with the use of carbolic acid in the operating theatre
Samuel Clemens, writing under the pseudonym Mark Twain, has immediate success with The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
On a visit to a Washington theatre, Lincoln is assassinated in his box by John Wilkes Booth
Vice-president Andrew Johnson, a Democrat, becomes president on the death of Republican Abraham Lincoln
Lewis Carroll publishes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, a development of the story he had told Alice Liddell three years earlier
Richard Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde has its premiere in the Munich court theatre
The Paraguayan dictator Francisco Solano López starts a war against Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay which eventually kills more than half his population
The southern states pass new Black Codes, designed to limit the freedom granted to African-Americans by the victorious north
A committee to campaign for women's suffrage is formed in Manchester, the first of many in Britain
Leo Tolstoy publishes the first volume of his epic novel War and Peace, following the lives of several aristocratic families during the Napoleonic wars
Palmerston dies in office, and is succeeded as leader of the Liberal government in Britain by his foreign secretary, Earl Russell
The Plains Indians are threatened by settlers pressing west, building railways and slaughtering buffalo
The Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution prohibits slavery or any 'involuntary servitude' in the USA
The first branch of the Ku Klux Klan is founded at Pulaski, in Tennessee, on Christmas Eve
A pressure group for penal reform in Britain is named after the great prison reformer John Howard
A Civil Rights Act is passed by the US Congress, guaranteeing the legal rights of African-Americans
The Fourteenth Amendment to the US constitution (not ratified till 1868) assures equal rights as citizens to all born or naturalized in the USA
Prussia invades its neighbouring German states and launches the Seven Weeks' War
The Prussians achieve the first blitzkrieg in their Seven Weeks' War defeat of the Austrians
Walt Whitman laments the assassinated President Lincoln in his poem 'O Captain! My Captain!', published in Sequel to Drum-Taps
Russell's government falls, and Lord Derby returns for the third time, but again briefly, as Britain's prime minister
The terms of the treaty of Prague, ending the Seven Weeks War, make plain the transfer of German leadership from Austria to Prussia
US painter Winslow Homer makes his name with the exhibition of a Civil War subject, Prisoners from the Front
Austrian rule ends in the Venetian territories, which now join the new kingdom of Italy
Austrian rule ends in the Venetian territories, which now join the new kingdom of Italy
Recovery from serious injury convinces Mary Baker Eddy that sickness and health are spiritually based, and provides her with the impulse to found Christian Science
Algernon Swinburne scandalizes Victorian Britain with his first collection, Poems and Ballads
The Argentine Rural Society is founded as the exclusive preserve of Argentina's oligarchy
Dostoevsky publishes Crime and Punishment, a novel narrated by Raskolnikov, a St Petersburg student and murderer
Napoleon III withdraws French troops from Mexico, leaving the emperor Maximilian in a dangerous situation
Britain's new Reform Act extends the franchise to working men in British towns
Secretary of state William Seward negotiates a price of $7.2 million for the purchase of Alaska from Russia, in a deal that some consider 'Seward's Folly'
Britain's new Reform Act extends the franchise to working men in British towns
The British North America Act, acknowledging the fears of French Catholics in Canada, guarantees the rights of "dissentient schools"
The US Congress passes Reconstruction Acts, dividing the defeated South into military districts and insisting on elections by universal male suffrage
Francis Joseph, emperor of Austria, is also crowned king of Hungary – to become ruler of the 'dual monarchy' of Austria-Hungary
Maximilian, the emperor of Mexico, and two of his generals are shot after being surrounded and captured at Querétaro
French author Paul Verlaine wins a reputation with his first published collection, Poémes saturniens ('Saturnine Poems')
The first volume of Das Kapital is completed by Marx in London and is published in Hamburg
The world's first croquet tournament takes place in Evesham and is won by Walter Jones-Whitmore
The invention of barbed wire is patented in the USA by Lucien Smith, designed to fence in cattle but also a protection for the wheat fields of the Midwest plains
Four former colonies (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec) unite to form the new nation of Canada with Ottawa as the capital
The Canadian nation is called the Dominion of Canada – the first example of 'dominion status'
Oliver Hudson Kelley founds the Grange as a social organization to benefit US farmers
A revival of the Prussian Zollverein, or customs union, includes all the German states except Austria
The Queensberry rules, named after the Marquess of Queensberry, introduce padded gloves in boxing, and rounds of three minutes
Modest Mussorgsky composes his orchestral work St John's Night on the Bare Mountain, based on a story by Gogol
William Cody earns his nickname Buffalo Bill by killing thousands of the animals to feed construction workers on the Union Pacific Railroad
Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel patents dynamite, making the volatile explosive nitroglycerine safer by combining it with kieselguhr
The first collection of 'Negro Spirituals' is published in book form in the US as Slave Songs of the United States
Benjamin Disraeli becomes British prime minister for the first time, at the head of a Conservative government, but only for a few months
Britain annexes Basutoland (now Lesotho), the kingdom of the Sotho leader Moshoeshoe
US president Andrew Johnson escapes impeachment (for dismissing his secretary of war) by a single vote
Executions take place in public for the last time in London, being moved from outside Newgate Gaol to inside the prison
An uprising against Spanish rule in Cuba sparks off a Ten Years' War
An uprising against Spanish rule in Cuba sparks off a Ten Years' War
Richard Wagner's opera The Mastersingers of Nuremberg has its premiere in Munich
US author Louisa May Alcott begins serial publication of her book for children, Little Women (in book form 1869)
US author Louisa May Alcott begins serial publication of her book for children, Little Women (in book form 1869)
Dostoevsky publishes The Idiot, a novel about the simple-minded and truthful Prince Myshkin
An armed uprising against Spanish rule takes place in the town of Lares in Puerto Rico, becoming known as the Grito de Lares ('Cry of Lares')
Liberal leader William Ewart Gladstone becomes British prime minister, for the first of four times, and remains in office for six years
George Custer leads federal troops in the massacre of more than 100 American Indians, on an official reservation beside the Washita river
Civil War hero Ulysses S. Grant wins the US presidential election, as the Republican candidate against Democrat Horatio Seymour
Johannes Brahms' German Requiem, setting passages from Luther's translation of the Bible, has its first complete performance in Leipzig
The Fifteenth Amendment to the US Constitution (ratified in 1870) makes it illegal to deny the right to vote on racial grounds
Dmitry Mendeleyev reads to the Russian Chemical Society in St Petersburg his formulation of the periodic table
Cincinnati, Ohio, fielding the first baseball team in which every member is a hired professional, wins every match of the year
English author Matthew Arnold publishes Culture and Anarchy, an influential collection of essays about contemporary society
British prime minister William Gladstone introduces a bill to disestablish the Anglican church in Ireland
The Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads meet at Promontory Summit in Utah, completing the first transcontinental line
The territory of the Hudson's Bay Company is transferred to the new state of Canada
Britain, France and Italy take joint control of the finances of a bankrupt Tunisia
The proprietor of the New York Herald gives Henry Morton Stanley a very concise commission – 'Find Livingstone'
Das Rheingold, with its premiere in Munich, is the first part of Richard Wagner's Ring cycle to be staged
British explorer Samuel Baker annexes the southern Sudan, or Equatoria, on behalf of the khedive of Egypt
Thousands of distinguished guests assemble at Port Said for the opening of the Suez Canal
The most famous of the three-masted tea-clippers, the Cutty Sark is launched at Dumbarton for service to and from China
Young French artists Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir paint together in the open air at La Grenouillère, developing the Impressionist style
French part-time painter Henri Rousseau becomes known as Douanier ('customs officer') Rousseau because of his paid employment
John D. Rockefeller and his partners establish the Standard Oil Company of Ohio
Coppélia, with choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon to music by Delibes, has its premiere at the Paris Opera
Otto von Bismarck adjusts the Prussian king's telegram from Ems in a way calculated to provoke the French
Pope Pius IX, rapidly losing temporal authority, declares a new dogma – that the pope, when speaking from the throne, is infallible on matters of faith or morals
The Turkish sultan finally allows the Christians of Bulgaria to have their own Orthodox patriarch
With public opinion in France outraged by the Ems telegram, the French government declares war on Prussia
16-year-old Arthur Rimbaud sends some of his poems to Paul Verlaine, already an established poet
Adelaide and Darwin are linked across the entire Australian continent by the Overland Telegraph Line
The Red River rebellion in Winnipeg (1869) prompts the creation of Manitoba as a province of Canada
French artist Claude Monet, fleeing from the Franco-Prussian War, arrives in London
Isaac Butt, an Irish MP at Westminster, founds the Home Rule association
Napoleon III is among 83,000 French prisoners captured by the Germans at Sedan in the Franco-Prussian war
A French government of national defence deposes Napoleon III and proclaims the third French republic
The all-round English cricketer W.G. Grace begins a 28-year career as captain of Gloucestershire
Bret Harte's comic ballad Plain Language from Truthful James acquires a popular alternative title, The Heathen Chinee
Richard Wagner marries Cosima, the daughter of the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt
As the result of a plebiscite, Rome and the remaining papal states are included in the kingdom of Italy
Rome becomes the capital city of the entire Italian peninsula, for the first time since the Roman empire
US anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan inaugurates kinship studies with his massive Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family
Civil War veterans in the USA establish the National Rifle Association to promote marksmanship
The Prussian king, William I, is proclaimed emperor of a united Germany in the palace at Versailles
Troops of the new German empire march through Paris in a victory parade at the end of the Franco-Prussian war
The Afghan philosopher Jamal al-Din, moving to Cairo, urges drastic and violent measures against western influence
An uprising results in the Paris Commune, followed by the siege of the city by French government forces
18-year-old English entrepreneur Cecil Rhodes, on a temporary visit to South Africa, arrives in the new diamond town of Kimberley
The Paris communards are overwhelmed in a battle at the Père Lachaise cemetery, which is followed by brutal reprisals
US president Ulysses S. Grant uses the new Civil Rights Act to suppress the violent Ku Klux Klan in southern states
Whistler paints his mother and calls the picture Arrangement in Grey and Black
A fire in Chicago destroys a third of the city, to be followed by an extremely rapid and successful period of reconstruction
British Columbia agrees to join the Canadian confederation on the promise of a transcontinental railway
French author émile Zola publishes The Fortune of the Rougons, the first in a 20-novel series that he calls Les Rougon-Macquart
Stanley, finding Livingstone at Ujiji, greets him with four words which become famous – 'Dr Livingstone, I presume'
Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida, is commissioned for the Cairo opera house, part of the process of Egypt becoming westernized
Italian US immigrant Antonio Meucci files a patent in New York for the invention of the telephone
George Eliot publishes Middlemarch, in which Dorothea makes a disastrous marriage to the pedantic Edward Casaubon
Whistler begins to paint his Nocturnes, a revolutionary series of night-time images on the river Thames
English actor Henry Irving plays what becomes one of his most famous parts, that of Mathias in the melodrama The Bells
The Ballot Act adds to the British electoral system the essential element of secrecy in voting
The US Congress establishes Yellowstone, with its famous geysers, as the world's first national park
The Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin splits the International Congress into rival camps at its meeting in the Hague
The Missouri, Kansas and Texas railroad cuts through the territory reserved for American Indians, bringing hordes of 'boomers'
Pragmatism emerges as a philosophical approach in meetings of the Metaphysical Club in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cetshwayo becomes king of Zululand, on the death of his father Mpande
Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud move together to Brussels, and then to London, where they live a dissolute bohemian existence
Lewis Carroll publishes Through the Looking Glass, a second story of Alice's adventures
The Gilded Age, by Charles Dudley Warner and Mark Twain, provides the familiar name for life in the US towards the end of the nineteenth century
The British consul in Zanzibar persuades the sultan to end the island's notorious slave trade
San Francisco merchant Levi Strauss receives a patent for denim jeans, soon to be known as Levi's
Prince Edward Island joins the Canadian confederation, completing the first batch of Canada's provinces
Conservative leader Benjamin Disraeli, at the age of 70, begins a 6-year term of office as Britain's prime minister
Major Walter Wingfield secures a patent for Sphairistike, a game he has developed at his home in Wales, from which lawn tennis evolves
The southern region of present-day Ghana becomes a British colony, to be known as the Gold Coast
Stanley sets off from Bagamoyo, intending to resume the exploration of central Africa where Livingstone left off
English author Thomas Hardy has his first success with his novel Far from the Madding Crowd
The return to Spain of Isabella's son, as Alfonso XII, offers an end to forty years of royal feuding
Charles Stewart Parnell takes his seat in the House of Commons at Westminster and immediately adds zest to the campaign for Home Rule
William Crookes invents the radiometer, in which light causes four vanes to rotate in a bulb containing gas at low pressure
Congress passes a Civil Rights Act outlawing segregation in the USA on public transport and in hotels and restaurants
Andrew Carnegie's new steel mill near Pittsburgh prospers through automation, new technology and non-union labour
Slavery is finally made illegal in the Portuguese empire
An agreement is signed between France and Britain to cooperate in the construction of a tunnel beneath the Channel
An outbreak of measles in Fiji, brought to the islands by British visitors, kills a quarter of the population
Alexander Graham Bell makes the first practical use of his telephone, summoning his assistant from another room with the words 'Mr Watson, come here. I want to see you.'
Turkish irregular soldiers, the ferocious bashibazouks, massacre some 15,000 Bulgarian civilians
George Custer leads a US cavalry attack on the Sioux at the Little Bighorn river, with disastrous results
Henry James moves to London, which remains his home for the next 22 years
The US inventor Thomas Edison opens an experimental laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey, calling it his 'invention factory'
Scottish missionaries establish Blantyre (named after Livingstone's birthplace) as a centre from which to fight slavery
Alexander Graham Bell demonstrates his new invention, the telephone, at the US Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia
Susan B. Anthony presents a Woman's Declaration of Rights at the US centennial Fourth of July celebrations
After a failed bank hold-up in Northfield, Minnesota, the whole of the James gang is killed except Jesse and his brother Frank
Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes defeats Democrat Samuel J. Tilden in a US presidential election of which the result is strongly disputed