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Victoria Comes to Throne
On William IV's death in 1837, she became Queen at the age of 18. -
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Victorian Era
The Victorian era was one of massive changes, including industrial, social, philosophical, and technological transformations. Below are ten important moments in the period that every Anglophile should know about. -
Queen Victoria
They first met in 1836, when Albert and his brother came to stay in England. she found their company delightful, but although she admired Albert, and was aware that it was hoped they might marry one day, she was not at that time thinking of matrimony. They married in February 1840. -
Irish Potato Famine
It began with a group of microorganisms that wiped out most of the potato crop on which two-fifths of the Irish population relied, the blight of this staple crop was responsible for approximately one million deaths and mass emigration. -
The Mines Act
Ashley excluded all women and girls and all boys under the age of 10 from underground coal mine employment, in which he had found boys aged 4 or 5 years. While serving as a member of the short-lived General Board of Health he insisted that the government sponsor new low-cost housing projects for urban workers and carefully inspect housing that already existed. -
Third Reform Act
Third Reform Act of 1884–85 extended the vote to agricultural workers, tripled the electorate and prepared the way for universal male suffrage. -
10 Hour Factory Act
The Ten Hours Act was made to ensure that women and children only worked up to 10 hours a day in factories. This would now make their maximum schedule 10 hours of work on each weekday, Saturdays 8 hours, and off Sundays. -
Communist Manifesto
Written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, proclaiming that the workers should be the ones in charge. The Communist Manifesto gave rise to the Communist Party that eventually toppled the Russian Czarist government and sparked the Cold War in the 20th Century. -
Crimean War
The war kicked off in earnest when Russian military victories against the Ottoman Empire caused Europe to realize that Russia could soon control all of the Black Sea. This brought France and Britain into the war on the side of the Ottomans, leading to fierce fighting until a defeated Russia sued for peace. Several important events to British history took place because of the war. -
Newspaper stamp tax abolished
These radical publishers refused to pay stamp-duty on their
newspapers, this resulted in fines and periods of imprisonment. It was estimated at the time that the circulation of leading six unstamped newspapers had now reached 200,000. -
Government of Indian Comes to the Crown
British power transferred to the East India Company, the merchant company’s residual powers were vested in the secretary of state for India, a minister of Great Britain’s cabinet, who would preside over the Indian Office. -
First Underground Railway
A railway was built beneath the city's streets to avoid the buses and streetcars, people flocked to use it even if the smoke of it made the trains smelly and dirty. -
cafe Royal
In 1863, a French wine merchant called Daniel Nicholas Thévenon and his wife Celestine arrived in England in a bid to escape the clutches of creditors in Paris. So began a story that grew out of bankruptcy and culminated in the creation of Café Royal, a London legend. -
Married Women's Act
The stark and simple truth was that when a woman married she virtually became invisible as far as the law was concerned. A woman merely became an addition to the property owned by her husband. What that meant in reality, was that all a wife’s possessions, her wealth and her property were controlled by her husband -
Jack Ripper
The mutilated body of Mary Ann Nichols was found in Whitechapel, London. Her death has been attributed to the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper and was part of a series of eleven murders that took place between 3 April 1888 and 13 February 1891. Despite the mundane nature of crime against women, they have emerged particularly because of their cruelty. Nine of the eleven women murdered are certain to have been prostitutes -
Kelmscott Press
Morris transformed his life-long interest in book design into action after attending a lecture on printing, his vision for the Kelmscott Press grew out of an admiration for the design and traditional craftsmanship of manuscripts from the Middle Ages and early printed books. -
Education Act
The act made provisions for the public financing of elementary schools in England and Wales. A grant fee of 10 shillings per year for each attending child between three and 15 years of age had to be paid by the Parliament to every public school in England and Wales. -
Safety Bycicle
The 'Safety Bicycle' was built. It was much easier to ride than earlier models, with both wheels the same size and a chain. This finally gave ordinary people the freedom to travel. -
Speed Limit Increases
The Locomotive Act of 1865, better known as “the Red Flag Act.”is forced early drivers (in the 1890s) to jump through bizarre hoops, or simply give up and use a horse. The 1896 Locomotives on Highways Act removed some restrictions of the 1865 act, it raised the speed limit to somewhere around 14 mph. -
Victoria dies
The death of Queen Victoria on January 22, 1901, ends an era in which most of her British subjects know no other monarch. Her 63-year reign, the longest in British history, saw the growth of an empire on which the sun never set. Victoria restored dignity to the English monarchy and ensured its survival as a ceremonial political institution. -
Police Enforced
A series of riots in northern towns such as Wigan and Blackburn in 1853 caused much public concern about the inadequacy of local policing, the Police Act also established a central inspectorate of constabulary to report regularly to the Home Secretary on the efficiency of each police force. -
Matrimonial Causes Act
An Act to consolidate certain enactments relating to matrimonial proceedings, maintenance agreements, and declarations of legitimacy, validity of marriage and British nationality, with amendments to give effect to recommendations of the Law Commission.