timeline By donee17 Mar 5, 1712 1712 – Thomas Newcomen built the first steam engine Mar 5, 1771 1771 – The first cotton spinning factory was opened Mar 5, 1779 1779 – The first steam powered mill began operation Mar 5, 1781 1761 – Britain’s first canal was opened Mar 5, 1782 1782 – Matthew Boulton and James Watt patented the first rotary steam engine Mar 5, 1801 1801 – Richard Trevithick demonstrated the first steam locomotive Mar 5, 1811 1811 – The ‘Luddites’ began to destroy machines Mar 5, 1825 1825 – Britain’s first passenger steam railway was opened Mar 5, 1831 1831 – The first great cholera epidemic Mar 5, 1833 1833 – Slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire Mar 5, 1834 1834 – Henry Fox Talbot produced the first photograph Mar 5, 1878 1876 – Telephone invented Mar 5, 1879 1879 – Thomas Edison invents the lightbulb Mar 5, 1880 1880 – Compulsory education for all children is introduced Mar 5, 1883 1883 – First skyscraper was built in Chicago Mar 5, 1885 1885 – Karl Benz invented the first automobile Mar 5, 1888 1888 – Heinrich Hertz produced radio waves Mar 5, 1889 1889 – Wireless radio invented Mar 5, 1903 1903 – Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first powered flight Mar 5, 1914 1914 – Outbreak of World War I
