The 19th century

In 1801, the Acts of Union created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (Britain and Ireland).

In 1802, the Health and Morals of Apprentices Act limited working hours for pauper children in mills, the first British factory legislation (Great Britain).

In 1803, the Louisiana Purchase doubled the territory of the United States (North America).

In 1804, John Dalton set out his atomic theory, and Richard Trevithick ran the first steam locomotive on rails (England).

In 1805, the Battle of Trafalgar established British naval dominance (Europe).

In 1806, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved after more than eight centuries (Central Europe).

In 1807, the Slave Trade Act abolished the Atlantic slave trade in the British Empire (British Empire).

In 1808, the United States prohibited the importation of enslaved people, the earliest date the Constitution had permitted (United States).

In 1809, Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born on the same day (England and United States).

In 1810, independence movements began across Spanish America, in Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina and Colombia within months of one another (Latin America).

In 1811, Luddites began breaking textile machinery in Nottinghamshire, in protest at the terms of mechanisation rather than at machines as such (England).

In 1812, Napoleon's invasion of Russia ended in the destruction of the Grande Armée during the winter retreat (Russia).

In 1813, Jane Austen published Pride and Prejudice (England).

In 1814, The Times was printed on a steam-powered press, multiplying the number of copies an hour a newspaper could produce (England).

In 1815, the Battle of Waterloo ended the Napoleonic Wars, and Tambora erupted, causing a global climate shock.

In 1816, the 'year without a summer' followed the Tambora eruption, causing crop failure across the northern hemisphere.

In 1817, David Ricardo set out comparative advantage, the argument that trade can benefit both sides even when one is better at everything (England).

In 1818, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was published (England).

In 1819, the Peterloo Massacre in Manchester galvanised the movement for parliamentary reform (England).

In 1820, Hans Christian Ørsted showed that electric current deflects a compass needle, linking electricity and magnetism (Denmark).

In 1821, Michael Faraday demonstrated electromagnetic rotation, the principle of the electric motor (England).

In 1822, Champollion announced the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs using the Rosetta Stone (France).

In 1823, Charles Macintosh patented rubberised waterproof cloth, and his name became the garment (Scotland).

In 1824, Joseph Aspdin patented Portland cement, the binder in nearly all modern concrete (England).

In 1825, the Stockton and Darlington Railway opened, the first public steam railway (England).

In 1826, Nicéphore Niépce made the earliest surviving photograph, an eight-hour exposure from a window (France).

In 1827, Robert Brown described the random motion of pollen grains in water, later explained by Einstein as evidence of molecules (Scotland).

In 1828, Noah Webster's American Dictionary standardised the spellings that still separate American from British English (United States).

In 1829, Stephenson's Rocket won the Rainhill Trials, setting the pattern for the steam locomotive (England).

In 1830, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened, the first intercity passenger railway (England).

In 1831, Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction, and Darwin sailed on the Beagle (England).

In 1832, the Great Reform Act redistributed British parliamentary seats and widened the franchise, though to about one adult man in five (Great Britain).

In 1833, the Slavery Abolition Act abolished slavery across most of the British Empire (British Empire).

In 1834, Charles Babbage began designing the Analytical Engine, a general-purpose mechanical computer never built in his lifetime (England).

In 1835, Hans Christian Andersen published his first collection of fairy tales (Denmark).

In 1836, Samuel Colt patented the revolving-cylinder firearm (United States).

In 1837, the electric telegraph was patented in Britain and the United States (Britain and North America).

In 1838, the first regular transatlantic steamship crossings began, cutting the passage from weeks under sail to about fifteen days (Atlantic).

In 1839, photographic processes were announced by Daguerre and Talbot (Europe).

In 1840, the Penny Black, the first adhesive postage stamp, was issued (Britain).

In 1841, Thomas Cook ran his first excursion, from Leicester to Loughborough, generally taken as the start of package travel (England).

In 1842, Christian Doppler described the effect that bears his name (Austria).

In 1843, Ada Lovelace published notes on the Analytical Engine containing what is often called the first published algorithm for a machine (England).

In 1844, the first long-distance telegraph message was sent between Washington and Baltimore (North America).

In 1845, potato blight triggered the Great Famine in Ireland (Ireland).

In 1846, Neptune was found within a degree of where Le Verrier's calculations said it would be, a planet predicted before it was seen (Prussia).

In 1847, Ignaz Semmelweis showed that handwashing sharply reduced deaths from childbed fever, and was disbelieved for decades (Austria).

In 1848, revolutions swept Europe, and Marx and Engels published The Communist Manifesto (Europe).

In 1849, the California Gold Rush drew about 300,000 people west, transforming the territory into a state within a year (United States).

In 1850, Rudolf Clausius stated the second law of thermodynamics, that heat does not spontaneously flow from a colder body to a hotter one (Prussia).

In 1851, the Great Exhibition opened at the Crystal Palace in London (Britain).

In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom's Cabin (United States).

In 1853, Elisha Otis demonstrated a safety brake for lifts, the invention that made tall buildings practical (United States).

In 1854, John Snow traced a cholera outbreak to a Soho water pump, a founding study of epidemiology (England).

In 1855, Henry Bessemer patented a process for making steel cheaply in bulk by blowing air through molten iron (England).

In 1856, the first recognised Neanderthal remains were found in the Neander valley (Prussia).

In 1857, the Indian Rebellion led to the end of East India Company rule (South Asia).

In 1858, the 'Great Stink' in London prompted the construction of a modern sewer system (England).

In 1859, Darwin published On the Origin of Species (England).

In 1860, the Oxford evolution debate was held at the new University Museum, months after Darwin's Origin appeared (England).

In 1861, the American Civil War began (North America).

In 1862, the ironclads Monitor and Virginia fought at Hampton Roads, ending the era of wooden warships in a single afternoon (United States).

In 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation declared enslaved people in Confederate territory free, and the first underground railway opened in London (North America and Britain).

In 1864, the first Geneva Convention established protection for the wounded and for those treating them (Switzerland).

In 1865, the American Civil War ended and Abraham Lincoln was assassinated (North America).

In 1866, the first lasting transatlantic telegraph cable was completed (Atlantic).

In 1867, Karl Marx published the first volume of Das Kapital; Lister published his results on antiseptic surgery (Europe).

In 1868, the Meiji Restoration returned formal power to the emperor and began Japan's rapid industrialisation (Japan).

In 1869, Mendeleev published the periodic table, and the Suez Canal opened (Europe and Egypt).

In 1870, the Elementary Education Act began compulsory schooling in England and Wales (Great Britain).

In 1871, the German Empire was proclaimed at Versailles, unifying the German states under Prussia (Europe).

In 1872, the first international football match was played, between Scotland and England, and finished goalless (Scotland).

In 1873, James Clerk Maxwell published his Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, unifying the two and predicting radio waves (Scotland).

In 1874, the first Impressionist exhibition was held in Paris, and took its name from a dismissive review (France).

In 1875, the Metre Convention was signed, creating the international system that became the SI (France).

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone (North America).

In 1877, Edison recorded and played back sound on a phonograph, and the first Wimbledon championship was played (United States and England).

In 1878, the first commercial telephone exchange opened in New Haven, with twenty-one subscribers (United States).

In 1879, Edison demonstrated a practical incandescent lamp (North America).

In 1880, an international conference in Washington proposed Greenwich as the prime meridian, adopted four years later (United States).

In 1881, the Michelson experiment found no sign of the ether, a null result that later underpinned relativity (Prussia).

In 1882, Edison's Pearl Street station began supplying electricity to paying customers in Manhattan (United States).

In 1883, Krakatoa erupted, was heard nearly 5,000 kilometres away, and lowered global temperatures for years (Indonesia).

In 1884, the first fascicle of what became the Oxford English Dictionary was published, forty-four years before completion (England).

In 1885, Karl Benz built the first practical petrol-driven motor car (Germany).

In 1886, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York Harbor (North America).

In 1887, the Michelson–Morley experiment found no evidence of the luminiferous aether (North America).

In 1888, the pneumatic tyre was patented by John Boyd Dunlop (Ireland).

In 1889, the Eiffel Tower opened for the Paris Exposition (France).

In 1890, Hollerith's punched-card tabulator processed the US census in a fraction of the time hand counting had taken (United States).

In 1891, basketball was invented at Springfield, Massachusetts, using peach baskets nailed to a balcony (United States).

In 1892, the penalty kick was introduced to football, and Ellis Island opened as an immigration station (Great Britain and United States).

In 1893, New Zealand became the first self-governing country to grant women the vote (New Zealand).

In 1894, the International Olympic Committee was founded in Paris, two years before the first modern Games (France).

In 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays, and the Lumière brothers held the first public film screening (Europe).

In 1896, the first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens (Greece).

In 1897, J. J. Thomson identified the electron (England).

In 1898, Marie and Pierre Curie isolated polonium and radium (France).

In 1899, aspirin was registered as a trademark by Bayer (Germany).

In 1900, Max Planck introduced the quantum hypothesis, and Freud published The Interpretation of Dreams (Europe).