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William Wordsworth becomes poet laureate
With the death in 1843 of Robert Southey, Wordsworth became the Poet Laureate. He initially refused the honour, saying he was too old, but accepted when Prime Minister Robert Peel assured him "you shall have nothing required of you" (he became the only laureate to write no official poetry). -
Alfred, Lord Tennyson becomes poet laureate
William Wordsworth died, and on the 19th of November 1850 Queen Victoria appointed Tennyson poet laureate. The salary connected with the post was very small, but it had a secondary value in greatly stimulating the sale of his books, which was his main source of income. -
Japan opens trade to the West
On March 31 1854 representatives of Japan and the United States signed a historic treaty. A United States naval officer, Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, negotiated tirelessly for several months with Japanese officials to achieve the goal of opening the doors of trade with Japan. -
The U.S. Civil War begins
In the early morning of April 12, 1861, that the American Civil War officially began. This skirmish at Charleston’s Fort Sumter, then one of only two forts in the Southern states that had seceded still under federal jurisdiction, was brief and ended on April 14 with the an evacuation of federal troops and rebel Confederate victory. -
In France, Victor Hugo publishes Les Miserables
Les Misérables is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century. In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its original French title, which can be translated from the French as The Miserables, The Wretched, The Miserable Ones, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, or The Victims. -
Mohandas K. Gandhi is born in India
Born on October 2, 1869, in Porbandar, India, Mahatma Gandhi studied law and came to advocate for the rights of Indians, both at home and in South Africa. Gandhi became a leader of India's independence movement, organizing boycotts against British institutions in peaceful forms of civil disobedience. -
Thomas Edison invents the incandescent lamp
In 1879, using lower current electricity, a small carbonized filament, and an improved vacuum inside the globe, he was able to produce a reliable, long-lasting source of light. The idea of electric lighting was not new, and a number of people had worked on, and even developed forms of electric lighting. -
Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn appears
The book is noted for its colorful description of people and places along the Mississippi River. Satirizing a Southern antebellum society that had ceased to exist about twenty years before the work was published, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an often scathing look at entrenched attitudes, particularly racism. -
L. Frank Baum publishes The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children’s book written in 1900 by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W.W. Denslow. It was originally published by the George M. Hill company in Chicago, and has since been reprinted countless times, sometimes under the name The Wizard of Oz. -
Queen Victoria dies
Queen Victoria was the longest reigning British monarch in history, ruling the United Kingdom from 1837 to 1901. Her death on January 22, 1901 at age 81 was mourned around the world and signaled an end to the Victorian Era. For months, Queen Victoria's health had been failing. She had lost her appetite and started looking frail and thin. She would tire more easily and would often have bouts of confusion.
