Letteratura inglese II - Timeline English History

Priestly isolates oxygen.

1774 Accession of Louis XVI of France.

American Revolution begins.

1775 Watt's first efficient steam engine.

Adam Smith, .

The Wealth of Nations

1776 American colonies declare their independence.

1778 Rousseau and Voltaire die.

1779 First steam powered mills. Crompton invents spinning "mule."

1781 Cornwallis surrenders to Washington at Yorktown, Va.

1782 Lord North resigns; full Parliamentary government restored.

1783 Peace treaty signed in Paris between Great Britain and the United States.

1785 Cartwright builds power loom.

1786 Coal gas first used for lighting.

1787 Warren Hastings impeached.

1788 Bonnie Prince Charlie dies in France.

Bastille falls; French Revolution begins.

1789 Bentham, (see utilitarianism).

Introduction to the Principles of Morals

Paine,

1791-2 The Rights of Man.

1792 Reign of Terror in France.

Louis XVI executed in France. England and France at war.

1793 Godwin, .

Political Justice

1794 Execution of Robespierre ends the Reign of Terror.

1796 Invasion of England threatened.

Battle of the Nile.

1798 Malthus, .

Essay on . . . Population

1799 Napoleon named First Consul of France.

1801 Union of Great Britain and Ireland.

1804 Napoleon declared Emperor.

1805 Battle of Trafalgar.

1809 Napoleon captures Vienna.

1811 Prince of Wales named Regent to act for George III, now insane.

1811-1 Luddite riots in the North and the Midlands. Laborers attack factories and break up the

2 machines which they fear will replace them.

1812 Napoleon invades Russia.

1812-1 War of 1812 between England and the United States.

4 Treaty of Ghent ends Anglo-U.S. War.

1814 England and allies invade France.

Napoleon exiled to Elba.

Napoleon escapes Elba; begins the "Hundred Days."

1815 Battle of Waterloo; Napoleon exiled to St. Helena in the South Atlantic.

Corn Laws passed.

David Ricardo, .

1817 Principles of Political Economy

1819 Peterloo Massacre of Corn Law protestors.

1820 George III dies; succeeded by Prince Regent as George IV. Cato Street Conspiracy

1821 Napoleon dies.

1822 Classical Tripos established at Cambridge.

1823 London Mechanics Institute founded.

1827 Thomas Arnold appointed to Rugby.

Catholic Emancipation Act.

1829 Peel establishes the Metropolitan Police.

George IV dies; his brother William IV succeeds.

1830 Manchester - Liverpool Railway (first in England).

First Reform Bill: adds £10/year householders to the voting rolls and reapportions

1832 Parliamentary representation much more fairly, doing away with most "rotten" and "pocket"

boroughs. Adds 217,000 voters to an electorate of 435,000.

Slavery abolished throughout the British Empire.

1833 Factory Act.

New Poor Law.

1834 Houses of Parliament burn down.

Late First of the Parliamentary "Blue Books"—facts and figures about England compiled by the

1830s Royal Commissioners.

1836-4 Chartist movement.

8

1837 William IV dies; succeeded by his niece, Victoria.

1838 Regular Atlantic steamship service begins.

1839 Anti-Corn-Law League founded.

Queen Victoria marries her cousin Albert, who becomes Prince Consort.

Penny post started.

1840 S.F.B. Morse invents the telegraph.

Grammar Schools Act.

Chartist Riots.

1842 Copyright Act.

Potato Failure in Europe; starvation in Ireland. Corn Laws (which had kept up the price of

1845-6 grain) repealed.

Revolutions in Europe.

1848 Queen's College (for women) founded in London.

1849 Gold discovered in California and Australia.

1850 Telegraph cable laid under English Channel.

Great Exhibition ("Crystal Palace").

1851 Population of United Kingdom at 21 million.

1853-6 Crimean War.

Livingston discovers Victoria Falls.

1855 Civil Service Commissioners appointed.

1857-8 The Mutiny (India).

1858 First Atlantic cable laid.

1860 Garibaldi takes Naples; unification of Italy.

1861 Albert dies; Victoria retires into mourning.

1861-5 American Civil War.

1862 Bismarck becomes Prussian premier.

1864 Geneva Convention establishes Red Cross.

Italy defeated by Austria.

1866 Telegraph cable laid under the Atlantic.

Second Reform Bill: enfranchises many workingmen; adds 938,000 to an electorate of

1,057,000 in England and Wales. (Disraeli's legislation)

1867 South African diamond fields discovered.

Fenian rising in Ireland.

Suez Canal opened.

1869 Union Pacific Railway completed in U.S.

Forster's Elementary Education Act establishes School Boards.

1870 Vatican Council (establishes the infallibility of the Pope).

1870-1 Franco-Prussian War.

University Tests Act removes religious tests at Oxford and Cambridge.

Trade unions legalized.

1871 Newcastle engineers strike for a nine-hour day.

Germany unified.

1873 Population of the United Kingdom at 26 million (France 36 million).

Victoria named Empress of India.

1876 Edison invents the phonograph.

Compulsory school attendance in Great Britain.

1877 Transvaal annexed.

Somerville and Lady Margaret Colleges (for women) founded at Oxford.

1879 Zulu war.

1880 War with Transvaal.

1881 Cambridge Tripos exams opened to women.

Triple Alliance (Germany, Italy, and Austria).

1882 Married Women's Property Act enables women to buy, own, and sell property, and to keep

their own earnings.

"Oom Paul" Kruger named president of the South African Republic.

1883 Fabian Society founded.

Mahdi Rebellion in the Sudan.

Third Reform Act and Redistribution Act extend vote to agricultural workers; electorate

1884-5 tripled.