A Victorian Timeline
| EVENTS | |
| 1812 | Charles Dickens born. Britain at war with France and United States. |
| 1815 | Napoleon Bonaparte defeated by Wellington at Waterloo. Corn Laws enacted in Britain, preventing entry of cheap grain and keeping farm wages low and bread prices high. |
| 1819 | Birth of Victoria. |
| 1820 | Death of old, mad King George III. The Prince Regent becomes George IV. |
| 1829 | Opening of Liverpool-Manchester Railway, the first railway between two major cities and the beginning of railroad expansion First police force -- the "Bobbies." |
| 1830 | Death of George IV. Ascension of William IV, "Sailor Billy." |
| 1832 | Reform Bill enacted, eliminating rotten boroughs and corruption in Parliament elections and giving votes to £10 householders, thereby extending power to the middle class. |
| 1833 | Slavery abolished in British Empire. |
| 1836 | Dickens writes Pickwick, receives instant fame. |
| 1837 | William IV dies. Victoria ascends throne; Victorian age begins. |
| 1840 | Victoria marries Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who brings to England the first Tannenbaum, or Christmas tree. |
| 1842 | Dickens visits America, returns disillusioned. |
| 1843 | Dickens writes A Christmas Carol. Beginning of music halls. |
| 1846 | Corn Laws repealed. |
| 1847 | Potato famine in Ireland; thousands starve and emigrate. Ten Hours Bill enacted, limiting the work day to 10 hours. |
| 1848 | First Public Health Act in Britain. Gold discovered in California. Europe is rocked by short-lived revolutions; Paris, Berlin, and Vienna run with blood. Louis Napoleon, nephew of the Emperor, becomes President of France. England remains stable, and 1846-1866 is a period of quiet Whig rule. |
| 1851 | Gold discovered in Australia. The Great Exhibition opens near London in the Crystal Palace. |
| 1852 | Dickens begins public readings. Duke of Wellington dies. Louis Napoleon declares himself Emperor Napoleon III; he is not taken seriously. |
| 1854 | Yorkshire mill owner builds "model village" near his factory for his workers. Crimean War begins, Britain versus Russia over Turkey (Charge of the Light Brigade, Florence Nightingale, abysmal hospital conditions with death rate of wounded at 42%). |
| 1857 | Great mutiny in India; British outrage over massacres sends troops to crush vestiges of Indian independence; India ruled by Britain until 1948. Transatlantic Telegraph cable between England and America. |
| 1859 | Charles Darwin publishes Origin of Species to general uproar. |
| 1860 | The Civil War begins in America. Britain is divided between economic sympathy for the South (which supplies cotton to British mills) and moral sympathy for the North (which is battling a slave society). Lincoln is considered a backwoods geek. |
| 1861 | Prince Albert dies; Victoria mourns until her death in 1901. Italy becomes a United Kingdom. Russian serfs are emancipated. |
| 1863 | Lincoln emancipates slaves. |
| 1865 | Founding of the Salvation Army. |
| 1867 | Reform Bill enacted, extending voting rights to most working-class males. |
| 1868 | Dickens ' second trip to America; his readings net him £20,000. |
| 1870 | Charles Dickens dies of a stroke at age 58, having completed 14 major novels. |
| INVENTIONS | |
| 1830 | First railroad and long distance telegraph line within England |
| 1838 | First steamship crosses Atlantic Beginning of Daguerreotypes |
| 1840 | Vulcanized rubber developed |
| 1843 | First Christmas card |
| 1846 | First operation performed under anesthesia in Britain |
| 1847 | First toy rubber balloons First municipal water supply (Manchester) |
| 1850s | Steam-powered ships beginning to overtake sailing ships |
| 1854 | Bessemer process for production of steel |
| 1855 | First safety matches |
| 1858 | First ironclad ship completed |
| 1859 | First asphalt street surface |
| 1860 | First practical internal combustion engine |
| 1862 | Pasteur's work proved connection between bacteria and disease |
| 1866 | Transatlantic telegraph cable |
| 1869 | First bicycle manufacturing plant |
| 1870 | First typewriter |
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WRITERS | ||
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1775-1817
|
Jane Austen | ||
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1816-1855
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Charlotte Bronte | ||
|
1818-1848
|
Emily Bronte | ART | |
|
1788-1824
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George Byron | 1819-1877 | Courbet |
| 1809-1849 | Edgar Allen Poe | 1808-1879 | Daumier |
| 1811-1863 | Wm. M. Thackeray | 1798-1863 | Delacroix |
| Mark Twain | 1835-1910 | 1832-1883 | Dore |
| 1848-1903 | Gauguin | ||
| MUSIC | 1775-1851 | Turner | |
| 1770-1827 | Beethoven | 1853-1890 | Van Gogh |
| 1803-1869 | Berlioz | ||
| 1820-1887 | Jenny Lind | ||
| 1809-1847 | Mendelsohn |
