Our Family History

	Date	Event(s)
1	1789	1789: France - French Revolution, Louis XVI, many aristocrats and others executed, France declares war on European monarchies 1789: France - The guillotine is invented. 1789: Great Britain - The French Revolution sounded the death knoll toward elaborate and affected dress and hairdos. The powdered wig and towering women's hair styles passed from fashion. Simpler, more practical clothes emerged. Boys wore the skeleton suit, often with a comfortable open collar, and by the end of the century with plebian long trousers. 1789: USA - Thomas Jefferson brought a pasta making machine back with him when he returned to America after serving as ambassador to France. 1789: Switzerland - Dr. Pierre Ordinaire creates an absinthe elixir 30 Apr 1789: USA - George Washington first president of the United States 1789-1797.
2	1790	1790: Great Britain - Edmund Burke publishes his Reflections on the Revolution in France 1790: Great Britain - Lower-class radicalism increases, Habeas Corpus Act temporarily suspended 1790: USA - The United States issued its first patent to William Pollard of Philadelphia for a machine that roves and spins cotton. 1790: USA - Samuel Slater opens the first U.S. cotton mill in Rhode Island. Thomas Saint in England invents the first cloth-stitching machine. 1790: Great Britain - Marie, Vicomte de Botherel, born. He installed kitchens on buses in Paris suburbs in 1839, the first restaurant cars. 1790: Great Britain - Marie Harel is said to have developed Camembert cheese in Normandy.
3	1791	1791: Great Britain - The Celerifere, an early version of the bicycle, was built by Comte Mede de Sivrac. It was basically a scooter with a high seat 1791: Great Britain - James Boswell publishes his Life of Johnson and Thomas Paine, his Rights of Man 1791: Great Britain - John Barber invents the gas turbine.
4	1792	1792: Italy - Volta discovered he could arrange metals in a series in such a way that chemical energy is converted into electrical energy; that is, two dissimilar metals are submerged in an electrolyte and connected by an circuit and thereby exchange electrons. By 1800, he had invented the so-called voltaic cell, a pile of such metals 'consisting of pairs of silver and zinc disks separated by pieces of moist cardboard' 1792: Great Britain - Coal gas is used for lighting for the first time. Mary Wollstonecraft publishes her Vindication of the Rights of Women 1792: Great Britain - Cartwright invents steam-powered weaving loom 1792: Great Britain - The first ambulance.
5	1793	1793: Great Britain - Economic depression 1793: Great Britain - Speculative 'Canal Bubble' bursts 1793: Great Britain - Board of Agriculture formed to popularise new methods and machinery 1793: Great Britain - Britain becomes foremost world trader during period to 1815 1793: Great Britain - Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin which efficiently separates cotton fibers from the seeds, allowing one person to do a job once done by 50 people. This profoundly changes the economics of raising cotton, revitalizing slavery in the American South. 1 Feb 1793: Great Britain - France declares war on Britain
6	1794	1794: Great Britain - Erasmus Darwin, Charles' grandfather, proposed that 'warm-blooded animals have arisen from one living filament...possessing the faculty of continuing to improve by its own inherent activity, and of delivering those improvements by generation to its posterity.' 1794: Great Britain - Metric system introduced in France 1794: Great Britain - More lower-class radicalism, Habeas Corpus suspended again, instigators charged with treason, in Scotland found guilty and transported 1794: Great Britain - Welshman Philip Vaughan invents ball bearings. 1794: Great Britain - Total of 40,000 British troops die in West Indies in war with France over two year period 1 Jun 1794: Great Britain - Howe defeats French fleet at Ushant
7	1795	1795: Great Britain - The 'Speenhamland' system of outdoor relief is adopted, making wages up to equal the cost of subsistence 1795: Ireland - Near-civil war between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland, erupts in 1798, takes nearly a year to suppress 1795: Great Britain - New Treason and Sedition Act passed 1795: Great Britain - Francois Appert invents the preserving jar for food.
8	1796	1796: Great Britain - Edward Jenner investigated the folk tale that milk maids were immune to small pox, the virus variola major, and in a brief series of experiments confirmed that exposure to cow pox, the virus vaccinia, rendered immunity 1796: Italy - General Napoleon Bonaparte appears on scene, attacks Austrian armies 1796: Ceylon - British conquer Ceylon
9	1797	1797: Europe - All Europe makes peace with France save Britain, sea battle off Cape St. Vincent (off Spanish coast), Jervis and Nelson (then Captain) utterly defeat big French and Spanish fleet 1797: Great Britain - Royal Navy sailors at Spithead and the Nore mutiny over deplorable conditions 1797: USA - John Adams president of the USA 1797-1801. 1797: Great Britain - A British inventor, Henry Maudslay invents the first metal or precision lathe. 1797: Great Britain - Wittemore patents a carding machine. 1797: Great Britain - John Hetherington in London develops the top hat. 1797: Great Britain - Major Dubied purchased the formula for an 'absinthe elixir' and together with his son, Henri-Louis Pernod sets up an absinthe factory in Switzerland.
10	1798	1798: Great Britain - Thomas Robert Malthus, in his Essay on the Principle of Population, contended that population increses by a geometric ratio whereas the means of subsistence increase by an arithmetic ratio. 1798: Great Britain - Introduction of An income tax of ten percent on incomes over 1798: Egypt - Battle of the Nile, Napoleon's Mediterranean fleet smashed 1798: Ireland - Catholic uprising 1798: Great Britain - Wordsworth and Coleridge publish Lyrical Ballads 1798: Great Britain - Franco-American Naval War: United States vs France 1798-1800. 1798: Great Britain - Aloys Senefelder invents lithography. 1798: Great Britain - The first soft drink id invented.
11	1799	1799: Great Britain - Trade Unions are suppressed. Napoleon is appointed First Consul in France 1799: France - Napoleon is appointed First Consul in France 1799: Great Britain - Three-year commercial boom in Britain begins 1799: France - Napoleon becomes President of France; amendments to Treason and Sedition Act 1799: Great Britain - Alessandro Volta invents the battery. 1799: Great Britain - Louis Robert invents the Fourdrinier Machine for sheet paper making. 1799: Great Britain - Deaths among women 1 in 913, children 1 in 115. For the first time London birth rate passes death rate, continues until introduction of water closet deposits effluence in Thames (source of potable water) and typhoid returns 1799: Great Britain - Eliza Acton Born. She wrote the first cookbook for the housewife, rather than for the professional chef. 1799: France - Joseph-Louis Proust, a French chemist, extracted sugar from grapes, and proved it identical to sugar extracted from honey.
12	1800	1800: UK - Act of Union with Ireland unites Parliaments of England and Ireland 1800: UK - Battle of Copenhagen, Napoleon's Danish fleet decimated 1800: Ireland - After Catholic rebellion in Ireland Pitt proposes one Parliament for both countries, but King George refuses, Pitt resigns; Sir Joseph Banks introduces voltaic battery 1800: UK - Sir Joseph Banks introduces voltaic battery 1800: UK - Robert Owen buys mills at New Lanark, turns into successful humane model 1800: France - Frenchman J.M. Jacquard invents the Jacquard Loom. 1800: UK - Over 20 miles of railway tracks laid 1800: UK - Over a ten year period, 30 acres of new docks are built in London, which becomes the greatest port in the world 1800: UK - Over the coming century, approx. 1 million people emigrate from Britain. 50,000 are prisoners transported to Maryland or Botany Bay 1800: USA - William Young in Philadelphia offers shoes made for the left and the right foot.
13	1801	1801: UK - The first British Census is undertaken 1801: UK - Population of England and Wales now 10 million, Great Britain estimated at 11 million, biggest increases in North and West Midlands, London now 1 million plus, Manchester 137,201, Glasgow and Edinburgh 100,000 plus, England has 8 towns larger than 50,000, 6 of them in the North; Lord Dundas travels on Scottish canal in small steamboat - beginning of steamboat travel 1801: UK - Tripolitan War 1801-1805. Barbary Wars: also fought in 1815. United States vs Morocco, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli 1801-1805. 1801: USA - Thomas Jefferson president of the USA 1801-1809.
14	1802	1802: UK - Peace with France is established. Peel introduces the first factory legislation 1802: UK - Ineffective Treaty of Amiens signed with French
15	1803	1803: UK - Beginning of the Napoleonic Wars. Britain declares war on France. Parliament passes the General Enclosure Act, simplifying the process of enclosing common land 1803: UK - Parliament passes the General Enclosure Act, simplifying the process of enclosing common land 1803: UK - Threat of French invasion causes flood of volunteers, army of half a million fielded during period to 1805
16	1804	1804: France - Napoleon crowned Emperor of France 1804: UK - John Dalton establishes atomic theory 1804: UK - Richard Trevithick, an English mining engineer, developed the first steam-powered locomotive. 1804: UK - Freidrich Winzer (Winsor) was the first person to patent gas lighting.
17	1805	1805: UK - Ludolf Christian Treviranus said that spermatozoa were analogous to pollen 21 Oct 1805: UK - Battle of Trafalgar, Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson trounces French and Spanish fleets for Britain, is mortally wounded; John Wilkinson expires, buried in iron coffin
18	1806	1806: Africa - Cape Colony passes under British control 1806: UK - Louis Nicolas Vauquelin and Pierre Jean Robiquet isolated the first amino acid, asparagine' from asparagus. 1806: UK - Sir Humphry Davy discovers sodium, magnesium, potassium, many other metals, and chlorine 23 Jan 1806: UK - Death of Pitt the Younger
19	1807	1807: UK - Trading in slaves made illegal in England by work of Wilberforce 1807: UK - William Bentinck, Duke of Portland Prime Minister to 1809 (Whig) 1807: USA - Robert Fulton ushered in the era of self-propelled ships with his construction of a commercially viable paddle-wheel steamboat
20	1808	1808: Peninsular War to drive the French out of Spain (until 1814) 1808: Portugal - Battle of Vimeiro is a British victory; British casualties less than 40,000 dead
21	1809	1809: UK - Two-year commercial boom in Britain 1809: USA - James Madison president of the USA 1809-1817. 1809: UK - Sir Humphry Davy invents the first electric light - the first arc lamp. 1809: UK - Grain famine each of the years to 1812
22	1810	1810: UK - Final illness of George III begins 1810: Germany - Frederick Koenig invents an improved printing press. 1810: UK - Over the next decade the death rate in England and Wales reaches 21.1 in 1000
23	1811	1811: UK - Depression caused by Orders of Council. 1811: UK - George III's illness leads to his son, the Prince of Wales, becoming Regent 1811: UK - Ned Ludd leads rioters who smash machinery, burn factories, followers known as Luddites 1811: UK - Birth rate falls all over England during the next 20 years
24	1812	1812: France - Georges Cuvier, in Discours sur les r 1812: UK - Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated in the House of Commons by a disgruntled bankrupt 1812: Russia - Napoleon attacks Russia, defeated 1812: London, UK - Cylinder Printing press invented and adopted by The Times 1812: USA - War of 1812: United States vs Great Britain 1812-1815.
25	1813	1813: UK - Canned food was invented for the British Navy by Peter Durand. The cans were made of solid iron and usually weighed more than the food inside them 1813: UK - Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is published. 1813: India - The monopolies of the East India Company are abolished 1813: Portugal - British victory at Battle of Vittorio 1813: UK - 2300 power looms in use, by 1833 - 100,000 1813: USA - Creek War: United States vs Creek Indians 1813-1814.
26	1814	1814: France - Napoleon abdicates, exiled to Isle of Elba 1814: UK - George Stephenson designs a steam locomotive. 1814: UK - Joseph von Fraunhofer invents the spectrocope for the chemical analysis of glowing objects. 1814: UK - The first plastic surgery is performed
27	1815	1815: Europe - Peace is established in Europe at the Congress of Vienna. 1815: UK - The Corn Laws are passed by Parliament to protect British agriculture from cheap imports 1815: UK - Start of two-year commercial boom in Britain 1815: UK - England has now 2600 miles of canals, 500 in Scotland and Ireland; China clippers take 109 days to sail 15000 miles from Canton to English Channel; Britain's population estimated at 13 million; Britain imports 82 million pounds of raw cotton, by 1860 1000 million pounds; coal output 16 million tons (30 miillion by 1835, 50 million by 1848) 1815: UK - Sir Humphry Davy invents the miner's lamp. 1815: UK - Over the next fifteen years, five new states are founded along Mississippi Valley, mostly due to people fleeing Depression; more go to Canada, as many as 20,000 some years, frequently Scots Mar 1815: Elba, France - Napoleon escapes, leads French in war once more 18 Jun 1815: Belgium - Duke of Wellington trounces the French at Waterloo with timely help of Blucher (Prussia)
28	1816	1816: UK - Violation of game laws can result in seven years transportation
29	1817	1817: UK - Economic slump in Britain leads to the 'Blanketeers' March' and other disturbances 1817: USA - James Monroe president of the USA 1817-1825.
30	1818	1818: UK - Mary Shelley publishes her Frankenstein 1818: India - Britain defeats Maratha, now effective ruler of India
31	1819	1819: UK - Troops intervene at a mass political reform meeting in Manchester, killing and wounding four hundred people at the 'Peterloo Massacre' 1819: UK - Singapore founded as free trade port 1819: UK - Samuel Fahnestock patents a 'soda fountain'
32	1820	1820: UK - A radical plot to murder the Cabinet, known as the Cato Street Conspiracy, fails 1820: UK - Trial of Queen Caroline, in which George IV attempts to divorce her for adultery 1820: UK - Death of George III, blind and insane 1820: UK - London's population estimated at 1,274,000 1820: UK - Government finances scheme to send out 6,000 settlers to Cape in South Africa 1820: UK - George IV, ruler of England to 1830. House of Hanover: Eldest son of George III, Prince Regent, from Feb 1811.
33	1821	1821: UK - Queen Caroline is excluded from the coronation 1821: UK - Start of two years of famine in Ireland 1821: UK - Michael Faraday invents electric motor and generator
34	1822	1822: France - First prototype Espresso machine 1822: Ireland - Famine in Ireland prompts migration to US and Canada
35	1823	1823: UK - The Royal Academy of Music is established in London. 1823: UK - The British Museum is extended and extensively rebuilt to house an expanding collection 1823: UK - Mackintosh (raincoat) invented by Charles Mackintosh of Scotland.
36	1824	1824: UK - The National Gallery is established 1824: UK - Commercial boom in Britain 1824: UK - Professor Michael Faraday invents the first toy balloon. 1824: UK - Englishman Joseph Aspdin patents Portland cement, the modern building material.
37	1825	1825: UK - Nash reconstructs Buckingham Palace. 1825: UK - Trade Unions are legalized. 1825: UK - Commercial depression in Britain 1825: UK - The world's first railway service, the Stockton and Darlington Railway opens 1825: USA - John Quincy Adams president of the USA 1825-1829. 1825: UK - William Sturgeon invented the electromagnet. 1825: Settlement of Canada, Australia and New Zealand begins in earnest over the next 25 years
38	1826	1826: France - One of the first print references to fondue written by Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin in his Physiologie du Gout 1826: France - Physicist Joseph Niepce makes the first known photograph, View from a Window at Gras, via a heliograph process on a metal plate.
39	1827	1827: UK - Printing press can now print 4-5000 copies/hour, 11.5 million copies of newspapers pour over Britain 1827: UK - Charles Wheatstone invents the microphone. 1827: UK - John Walker invents modern matches.
40	1828	1828: UK - The Duke of Wellington becomes British Prime Minister
41	1829	1829: UK - Parliament passes the Catholic Relief Act, ending most restrictions on Catholic Civil Rights. They are allowed to own property and run for public office, including parliament 1829: UK - Sir Robert Peel founds the Metropolitan Police Force, constables become known as bobbies 1829: USA - Andrew Jackson president of the USA to 1837. 1829: USA - William Austin Burt patents a typographer, a predecessor to the typewriter. 1829: France - Louis Braille invents braille printing.
42	1830	1830: UK - Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. 1830: UK - First major cholera epidemic in Britain starts and lasts two years. 1830: Australia - Free migrants to Australia = 1500, by 1841 = 32,000 1830: UK - Starving field labourers in southern counties riot for higher wages, 19 hanged, 481 deported to Australia 1830: France - B. Thimonnier invents a sewing machine. 1830: UK - William IV, ruler of England to 1837. House of Hanover: 3rd son of George III, married Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen. 1830: UK - Royal Commission finds that mail coach average speed is 9 miles per hour 26 Jun 1830: UK - Death of George IV
43	1831	1831: UK - Michael Faraday, in the first in a series of Experimental Researches in Electricity, discovered the means of producing electricity from magnetism, i.e., electromagnetic induction, the generation of an electric field by a changing magnetic field. This is the principle of the dynamo 1831: UK - Swing Riots' in rural areas against the mechanization of agricultural activities. 1831: UK - The new London Bridge is opened over the River Thames 1831: UK - Population of England and Wales now 14 million 1831: UK - American, Cyrus H. McCormick invents the first commercially successful reaper.
44	1832	1832: UK - The first or Great Reform Act is passed. This climax of a period of political reform extends the vote to a further 500,000 people and redistributes Parliamentary seats on a more equitable basis 1832: UK - Cholera Act 1832: UK - House-breaking, sheep-stealing and forgery removed from list of capital crimes in England 1832: UK - Commission created to look into inhumanity of transporting prisoners to Australia, another in 1837, transportation to New South Wales finally stops in 1840 1832: USA - Texas Revolutionary War: Texas vs Mexico 1832-1836. 1832: UK - Age of Coal and Iron or The Railway Age, dooms canals and stage coaches during period to 1867. Leaders are mostly Quakers of Midlands and North: Peases, Croppers, Sturges
45	1833	1833: UK - Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Empire. 1833: UK - Parliament passes the Factory Act, prohibiting children aged less than nine from working in factories, and reducing the working hours of women and older children 1833: UK - Start of the Oxford Movement in the Anglican Church
46	1834	1834: UK - Charles Babbage designed a programmable mechanical calculating machine, or 'analytical engine,' that could carry out arithmetic operations specified on punch cards and choose the sequence of operations. Although the design was never built, Augusta Ada Byron wrote programs to demonstrate its potential power. 1834: UK - Robert Owen founds the Grand National Consolidated Trade Union. The government acts against 'illegal oaths' in such unionism, resulting in the Tolpuddle Martyrs being transported to Australia 1834: London, UK - Fire destroys the Palace of Westminster 1834: UK - New Poor Law Act, object to make life in the workhouse far worse than in fields and factories 1834: USA - Jacob Perkins invents an early refrigerator (really an ether ice machine). 1834: USA - Henry Blair patents a corn planter, he is the second black person to receive a U.S. patent.
47	1835	1835: UK - Parliament passes the Municipal Reform Act, requiring members of town councils to be elected by ratepayers and councils to publish their financial accounts 1835: UK - Commercial boom. 'Little' railway mania across Britain starts and continues into 1836 1835: UK - Englishman Francis Pettit Smith invents the propeller. 1835: UK - Solymon Merrick patents the wrench. 1835: UK - Charles Babbage invents a mechanical calculator.
48	1836	1836: UK - William Lovett founds London Working Men's Association, beginning of Chartism 1836: USA - Samuel Colt invented the first revolver. 1836: South Africa - Boers leave British South Africa in search of independence on Great Trek (to 1840)
49	1837	1837: UK - Charles Dickens publishes Oliver Twist, drawing attention to Britain's poor. 1837: UK - Death of William IV 1837: USA - Martin van Buren president of the USA 1837-1841. 1837: UK - English schoolmaster Rowland Hill invents the postage stamp. 1837: UK - Victoria I, ruler of England to 1901. House of Hanover: Daughter of Edward, 4th son of George III Jul 1837: UK - Births, deaths and marriages must be registered by law
50	1838	1838: UK - The Anti-Corn Law League is established. Publication of the People's Charter. The start of Chartism
51	1839	1839: USA - First use of OK in print (in Boston Morning Post) 1839: UK - William Henry Fox-Talbot produces photographs from negatives 1839: France - Louis Daguerre and J.N. Niepce co-invent Daguerreotype photography. 1839: UK - Kirkpatrick Macmillan invents a bicycle. 1839: USA - Charles Goodyear invents rubber vulcanization. 1839: UK - Welshman Sir William Robert Grove conceives of the first hydrogen fuel cell. 1839: USA - Thaddeus Fairbanks invents platform scales. 1839: UK - First railway timetable published by Quaker Bradshaw 1839: China - The Opium Wars until 1842, Britain forces China to take European goods
52	1840	1840: UK - Victoria I marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. 1840: UK - There are reckoned to be 107 accountants in London 1840: New Zealand - New Zealand annexed 1840: UK - Englishman John Herschel invents the blueprint. 1840: Australia - During period to 1853 convicts are still sent to Tasmania at the rate of about 4,000 per year 1840: UK - Queen Victoria begins dressing the princes in kilts and sailor suits.
53	1841	1841: UK - The first British Census recording the names of the populace is undertaken. 1841: UK - The Tories come to power. Sir Robert Peel becomes Prime Minister 1841: USA - William Henry Harrison president of the USA. He succumbed to pneumonia in 1841. 1841: USA - John Tyler president of the USA to 1845. He is the first vice president to succeed to the presidency due to death of a president. 1841: UK - Samuel Slocum patents the stapler.
54	1842	1842: UK - First Christmas card 1842: UK - First UK public telegraph lines, from Paddington to Slough and Gosport to London 1842: UK - Lord Shaftesbury's Mines Act forbids underground work for women and children under 10 1842: China - Hong Kong annexed 1842: UK - Joseph Dart builds the first grain elevator.
55	1843	1843: UK - Alexander Bain (1818-1903) invented an early fax machine 1843: UK - About 2000 miles of railway lines now laid
56	1844	1844: UK - Charles Darwin wrote, but didn't publish, an essay presaging the theory of the origin of species. 1844: USA - Samuel Finley Breese Morse demonstrates a telegraph, using a code of his own invention 1844: UK - Parliament passes the Bank Charter Act 1844: Yorkshire, UK - Foundation of the Rochdale Co-Operative Society - Chartist and Owenite workers of Rochdale open Rochdale Pioneers Store (cooperative) in Toad (T'owd) Lane 1844: UK - Royal Commission on the Health of Towns 1844: UK - Two years of railway mania begins across Britain. Massive investment and speculation leads to the laying of 5,000 miles of track 1844: UK - Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children founded 1844: UK - Englishman John Mercer invents mercerized cotton. 1844: UK - Ten Hours Bill limited working hours for women and youths in textile business to 10 hours/day, passes thanks to Lord Shaftesbury's efforts during period to 1847
57	1845	1845: Ireland - Irish Potato Famine kills more than a million people in two years 1845: UK - Frederick Engels publishes The Condition of the Working Class in England 1845: UK - There are reckoned to be 210 accountants in London 1845: UK - General Enclosure Act, further enclosure prohibited 1845: USA - James Polk president of the USA to 1849. 1845: USA - American Elias Howe invents a sewing machine. 1845: UK - Robert William Thomson patents the first vulcanised rubber pneumatic tyre. 1845: India - Conquest of Punjab and Kashmir (to 1849)
58	1846	1846: UK - Repeal of the Corn Laws, Britain moves towards complete free trade 1846: UK - Electric Telegraph Company formed, 17 offices by 1854 1846: USA - Mexican-American War 1846-1848. 1846: USA - Dr. William Morton, a Massachusetts dentist, is the first to use anesthesia for tooth extraction.
59	1847	1847: UK - Flourens discovered the anesthetic properties of chloroform 1847: USA - Levi Strauss invents denim jeans 1847: UK - Hungarian Ignaz Semmelweis invents antisceptics.
60	1848	1848: UK - Major Chartist demonstration in London. 1848: UK - Parliament passes the Public Health Act 1848: UK - Karl Marx publishes The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital 1848: UK - 5000 miles of railway tracks now laid, 2000 of which were equipped with telegraph wires; Britain now produces about half of world's pig iron, trebles output within 30 years 1848: UK - Queen's College for Women founded
61	1849	1849: USA - Zachary Taylor president of the USA 1849-1850. Zachary Taylor died while in office. 1849: UK - Walter Hunt invents the safety pin.
62	1850	1850: USA - American Joel Houghton invented the first dishwasher. He made it out of wood, and gave it a hand-turned wheel that splashed water on the dishes inside. It didn't really work, but it did get the first 'dishwasher' patent 1850: UK - First machine-made paper bag 1850: UK - Mines Inspectorate created, helps protect adult male mine workers 1850: USA - Millard Fillmore president of the USA 1850-1853. Vice president under Zachary Taylor, he was sworn in as president after Taylor's death.
63	1851	1851: UK - The Great Exhibition is staged in Hyde Park. Thanks to Prince Albert, it is a great success 1851: UK - Window tax abolished 1851: USA - Patent for sewing machine issued to Isaac Singer 1851: UK - British Census shows 10,736,000 females, 8,155,000 of whom were aged 10 and older, largest occupational group domestic service workers, 905,000, 145,000 washerwomen, 55,000 charwomen (cleaners), 272,000 in cotton industry, 113,000 in woolen industry, 140,000 in lace, hosiery and linen 1851: Europe - First submarine cable, Dover to Calais 1851: London, UK - Reuters opens news agency 1851: Africa - Livingstone's explorations begin 1851: Australia - Population of Australia rises from 405,000 in 1851 to 1,168,000 in 1861 Sep 1851: Melbourne, Australia - Gold fever - 19,000 immigrants land in one month, for the whole year 94,664, seven times as many as 1851
64	1852	1852: UK - Death of the Duke of Wellington 1852: UK - Derby's first minority Conservative government 1852: UK - Aberdeen's coalition government is established
65	1853	1853: UK - Potato crisps invented by a cook named George Crum. 1853: Crimea - Florence Nightingale first recommended the regimen of cleanliness which dramatically reduced the death rate in hospitals 1853: UK - Vaccination against smallpox is made compulsory 1853: UK - Queen Victoria uses chloroform during birth of Prince Leopold 1853: UK - William Gladstone presents his first budget 1853: UK - Franklin Pierce president of the USA 1853-1857.
66	1854	1854: UK - The Northcote-Trevelyan civil service report is published 1854: UK - John Tyndall demonstrates the principles of fiber optics. 1854: UK - Crimean War begins, as Britain and France attempt to defend European interests in the Middle East against Russia
67	1855	1855: UK - John Snow, investigating London's piped water supply, showed graphically that cholera could be transmitted by water from a particular pump. 1855: UK - Palmerston's first government comes to power
68	1856	1856: Crimea - Crimean War comes to an end. 1856: UK - The Victoria Cross is instituted for military bravery 1856: UK - Every county and borough required to employ police force 1856: UK - Marriage and Divorce Act permits any man to divorce his wife on grounds of adultery, permits woman same but has to also show cruelty or desertion; beforehand, a special Act of Parliament was required for divorce 1856: UK - Britons panicked by false rumours of Napoleon III's designs on Britain 1856: UK - John Stuart Mill publishes Liberty 1856: Great novels: Dickens, Dumas, Flaubert, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy 1856: France - Louis Pasteur invents pasteurisation. 1856: New Zealand - Population of New Zealand rises from less than 60,000 to 350,000 in the period to 1878
69	1857	1857: Atlantic - Cyrus Field made his first attempt at laying a trans-Atlantic telegraph cable. In 1866, his fourth attempt was successful. 1857: China - The Second Opium War opens China to European trade. 1857: India - The Indian Mutiny erupts against British Rule on the sub-continent 1857: USA - James Buchanan president of the USA 1857-1861. 1857: USA - George Pullman invents the Pullman Sleeping Car for train travel.
70	1858	1858: UK - Derby establishes his second minority government 1858: UK - Parliament passes the India Act 1858: UK - Eraser fitted to end of pencil 1858: UK - Jean Lenoir invents an internal combustion engine. 1858: UK - Hamilton Smith patents the rotary washing machine.
71	1859	1859: UK - Charles Darwin's book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life asserts that all life had a common ancestor and that the origin of species was natural selection 1859: UK - Palmerston brings his second Liberal government to power. 1859: UK - Samuel Smiles' Self-Help published
72	1860	1860: UK - Joseph Wilson Swan invented the light bulb, an incandescent lamp using a carbon filament. 1860: UK - Gladstone's budget and the Anglo-French Cobden Treaty codifies and extends the principles of free trade
73	1861	1861: UK - Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis published his deduction that childbirth fever was transmitted on the hands of doctors during their examinations 1861: UK - Death of Prince Albert, Prince Consort 1861: Australia - Women first given vote 1861: USA - Abraham Lincoln president of the USA 1861-1865. 1861: USA - Elisha Otis patents elevator safety brakes, creating a safer elevator. 1861: USA - Linus Yale invents the Yale lock or cylinder lock. 1861: USA - American Civil War (to 1865)
74	1862	1862: France - Louis Pasteur published the germ theory: infection is caused by self-replicating microorganisms, and that attenuated viral cultures granted immunity. These beneficent antigens he named vaccines in honor of Edward Jenner and his vaccinia virus 1862: UK - Parliament passes the Limited Liability Act in order to provide vital stimulus to accumulation of capital in shares 1862: UK - Alexander Parkes invents the first man-made plastic, Parkesine. 1862: UK - Dr. Richard Gatling patents the machine gun.
75	1863	1863: UK - Edward, Prince of Wales, marries Princess Alexandra of Denmark. 1863: UK - The Salvation Army is founded 1863: UK - First underground railway opens in London
76	1864	1864: UK - Chimney-sweeper's Act, due in part to Charles Kinglsey's Water Babies 1864: UK - Great Battle of Berkhamstead Common saves common land, Epping Forest also saved 1864: UK - Reform Bill, working men given franchise 1864: Canada - First independent dominion in the British Empire under the Dominion of Canada Act 1864: UK - Judge declares trades unions illegal
77	1865	1865: Finland - Nokia corporation established as a forest industry enterprise by mining engineer Fredrik Idestam 1865: UK - Lister, using carbolic acid as antiseptic and sterilizing his instrument, proved the efficacy of antiseptic surgery 1865: UK - Death of Palmerston. Russell establishes his second Liberal government 1865: UK - Lewis Carroll publishes Alice's Adventure in Wonderland 1865: UK - Andrew Johnson president of the USA 1865-1869. Vice president under Abraham Lincoln, he was sworn in as president upon Lincoln's death. 14 Apr 1865: USA - Abraham Lincoln shot by John Wilkes Booth and dies the next day.
78	1866	1866: UK - Gregor Mendel, in Versuche 1866: UK - Alfred Nobel patented dynamite 1866: UK - Russell and Gladstone fail to have their moderate Reform Bill passed in parliament. Derby takes power in his third minority Conservative government 1866: UK - Englishman Robert Whitehead invents a torpedo. 1866: UK - J. Osterhoudt patents the tin can with a key opener.
79	1867	1867: UK - Derby and Benjamin Disraeli's Second Reform Bill doubles the franchise to two million. 1867: UK - Christopher Scholes invents the first practical and modern typewriter.
80	1868	1868: UK - Benjamin Disraeli succeeds Derby as Prime Minister. William Gladstone becomes Prime Minister for the first time 1868: UK - J P Knight invents traffic lights. 1868: USA - George Westinghouse invents air brakes. 1868: UK - Robert Mushet invents tungsten steel.
81	1869	1869: UK - George M. Beard distinguished neurasthenia, a nervous disease of men, from hysteria, a women's disease, as, in an earlier time, men's hypochondriasis had been distinguished from women's vapeurs. Subforms of neurasthenia came to be called phobias. 1869: Ireland - The Irish Church is disestablished. 1869: Egypt - The Suez Canal is opened 1869: UK - Women obtain municipal franchise 1869: USA - Ulysses Grant president of the USA 1869-1877.
82	1870	1870: UK - Primary education becomes compulsory in Britain through the Forster-Ripon English Elementary Education Act (but poor children still roam streets after school). The Act means labourers, spouses and children of succeeding generations can read and write; women permitted to sit on school boards 1870: UK - Parliament passes the Women's Property Act, extending the rights of married women, and the Irish Land Act 1870: UK - First British postcard devised by Anthony Trollope 1870: USA - Wheeler introduces toilet paper roll 1870: Inauguration of London to Calcutta telegraph line, first electronic link between Europe and India 1870: UK - Volume of Britain's external trade equals France, Germany and Italy combined, 3-4 times greater than US; agricultural wages reach height not surpassed for many years 1870: UK - Religious tests abolished for academic posts, patronage abolished for all public offices, competitive exams introduced for Civil Service 1870: Europe - Prussia defeats France in the Franco Prussian War.
83	1871	1871: UK - Trade Unions are legalized
84	1872	1872: UK - Secret voting is introduced for elections 1872: UK - Parliament passes the Scottish Education Act 1872: USA - A.M. Ward issues the first mail-order catalog. 1872: UK - J.S. Risdon patents the metal windmill. 1872: UK - Period to 1896 sees three economic slumps and two recoveries, said to be due to imported foodstuffs from US depressing Britain's agricultural business 1872: USA - Levi Strauss discovered rugged trousers for miners made out of sturdy brown canvas. Once this resource was exhausted, he turned to denim, which he dyed blue to become what is known now as blue jeans
85	1873	1873: UK - William Gladstone's government resigns after the defeat of their Irish Universities Bill. Benjamin Disraeli declines to take up office instead 1873: UK - Parmalee invents automatic fire sprinklers 1873: UK - Joseph Glidden invents barbed wire. 1873: UK - The Great Depression lasts until 1896
86	1874	1874: UK - Benjamin Disraeli becomes Conservative Prime Minister for the second time 1874: USA - American, C. Goodyear, Jr. invents the shoe welt stitcher.
87	1875	1875: UK - Benjamin Disraeli purchases a controlling interest for Britain in the Suez Canal. 1875: UK - Parliament passes R.A. Cross's Conservative social reforms 1875: UK - Collapse of British agriculture due to cheap grain from US, wheat acreage falls by nearly a million acres
88	1876	1876: USA - Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. 1876: Germany - Nikolas August Otto designed the first four-stroke piston engine 1876: UK - Queen Victoria becomes Empress of India. 1876: Bulgaria - The massacre of Christians in Turkish Bulgaria leads to anti-Turkish campaigns in Britain, led by William Gladstone 1876: UK - Melville Bissell patents the carpet sweeper.
89	1877	1877: South Africa - Confederation of British and Boer states established 1877: USA - Rutherford Hayes president of the USA 1877-1881. 1877: USA - Thomas Edison invents the cylinder phonograph or tin foil phonograph. 1877: UK - Eadweard Muybridge invents the first moving pictures.
90	1878	1878: Berlin, Germany - The Congress of Berlin is held. Benjamin Disraeli announces peace with honour
91	1879	1879: South Africa - The Zulu War is fought. The British are defeated at Isandhlwana, but are victorious at Ulundi 1879: Midlothian, Scotland - Gladstone's Midlothian campaign denounces imperialism in South Africa and Afghanistan 1879: Afghanistan - Second Afghan War gives Britain control
92	1880	1880: UK - William Gladstone establishes his second Liberal government 1880: South Africa - The first Anglo-Boer War begins 1880: UK - British forests now decimated except for bits of the New Forest and the Forest of Dean. 1880: UK - Number of agricultural labourers reduced by about 100,000 in last 10 years 1880: UK - Englishman John Milne invents the modern seismograph. 1880: UK - The British Perforated Paper Company invents a form of toilet paper.
93	1881	1881: London, UK - Savoy Theatre introduces electric lighting 1881: London, UK - Parliament passes the Irish Land Act and the Coercion Act 1881: USA - Death of Billy the Kid 1881: USA - James Garfield president of the USA 1881. Garfield was wounded by an assassin's bullet on 3 Jul 1881 and dies 19 Sep 1881. 1881: UK - David Houston patents the roll film for cameras. 1881: USA - Alexander Graham Bell invents the first crude metal detector. 1881: UK - Edward Leveaux patents the automatic player piano. 19 Sep 1881: USA - Chester A. Arthur president of the USA 1881-1885. Vice president under James Garfield, he is sworn in as president upon the death of Garfield.
94	1882	1882: Europe - A triple alliance is established between Germany, Austria and Italy 1882: USA - Standard Oil controls 95% of oil refining capacity 1882: UK - Stillwell invents brown paper bag 1882: Egypt - Revolt leading to British occupation
95	1884	1884: Vienna, Austria - Sigmund Freud published a paper in which he found cocaine, an alkaloid in coca, effective against fatigue and neurasthenia. 1884: UK - Hilaire de Chardonnet invented the first artificial textile, which was made from cellulose. It was later named rayon 1884: UK - Parliament passes the third Reform Act which further extends the franchise 1884: UK - Fabian Society forms, rejects Marxian theory, embraces Ricardian theory (socialist) 1884: One-third of world's shipping is British, including 4/5 of world's steamships 1884: Burma - Britain annexes Upper Burma 1884: Africa - Britain and Germany partition East Africa 1884: UK - Excess of births over deaths in England is 13.3, in Germany 10.8, and France 1.4. 1884: USA - James Ritty invents the first working, mechanical cash register. 1884: UK - Charles Parson patents the steam turbine. 1884: USA - Lewis Edson Waterman invents the first practical fountain pen. 1884: USA - George Eastman patents paper-strip photographic film.
96	1885	1885: Mesopotamia - Death of General Gordon at Khartoum. 1885: USA - Grover Cleveland president of the USA 1885-1889. 1885: Germany - Karl Benz invents the first practical automobile to be powered by an internal combustion engine. 1885: USA - Harim Maxim invents a machine gun. 1885: Germany - Gottlieb Daimler invents the first gas-engined motorcycle.
97	1886	1886: UK - Gladstone's third Liberal government fails to pass its first Irish Home Rule Bill through the House of Commons. Gladstone resigns as Prime Minister. Split in the Liberal Party. Salisbury establishes his second Conservative-Liberal-Unionist government. 1886: UK - The Royal Niger Company is chartered 1886: South Africa - Gold is discovered in the Transvaal 1886: New York, NY, USA - Statue of Liberty erected in New York Harbour 1886: UK - Local Government Act establishes County Councils as administrative organs of country life, replace Justices of Peace who are preserved as magistrates, creates London County Council (does not cover City); women are included with men in electorate of newly- established County Councils 1886: UK - British South Africa Company, formed by Yorkshireman Cecil Rhodes, colonization of Rhodesia begins 1886: UK - Great Dock Strike of London dockers, led by John Burns and Tom Mann 1886: USA - John Pemberton invents Coca Cola. 1886: USA - Josephine Cochrane invents the dishwasher. 1886: UK - 3,992,880 migrants leave UK for US, 2,235,671 leave UK for British North America during period to 1927
98	1887	1887: Germany - Emile Berliner patents the gramophone 1887: UK - Queen Victoria celebrates her Golden Jubilee 1887: UK - The Independent Labour Party is founded 1887: UK - The British East Africa Company is chartered 1887: UK - Telegraph companies control 107,000 miles of submarine cable 1887: USA - There are estimated to be 5,400 cash registers in US (increases to 16,900 in 1890) 1887: Germany - Heinrich Hertz discovers radio waves. 1887: UK - F.E. Muller and Adolph Fick invent the first wearable contact lenses.
99	1888	1888: UK - Celluloid photographic film introduced 1888: UK - The County Councils' Act establishes representative county based authorities 1888: USA - Kodak box camera 1888: UK - Coin-operated public telephone invented 1888: UK - John Boyd Dunlop patents a commercially successful pneumatic tyre. 1888: USA - Nikola Tesla invents the AC motor and transformer. 1888: USA - Marvin Stone patents the spiral winding process to manufacture the first paper drinking straws.
100	1889	1889: UK - The British South Africa Company is chartered 1889: Paris, France - The Eiffel Tower, designed by French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, is completed for the Paris Exposition. 1889: UK - First Official Secrets Act in UK 1889: USA - Benjamin Harrison president of the USA 1889-1893. 1889: UK - Sir James Dewar and Sir Frederick Abel co-invent Cordite - a type of smokeless gunpowder. 1889: UK - Joshua Pusey invents the matchbook.
101	1890	1890: UK - Starting this decade, women's clothing becomes less voluminous, lawn tennis takes place of croquet as means of meeting opposite sex, bicycle becomes fashionable
102	1891	1891: UK - University of Wales founded; Act permits women to enter medical or other faculty on same terms as men 1891: USA - Jesse W. Reno invents the escalator. 1891: UK - Agricultural depression to 1899 as cheaper frozen meat from Australia, New Zealand and South America floods into Britain, cheaper grain comes in from North America
103	1892	1892: France - Leon Bouly invents cinematographic film camera 1892: UK - William Gladstone forms his fourth Liberal government 1892: UK - Sir James Dewar invents the Dewar flask or vacuum flask. 1892: Germany - Rudolf Diesel invents the diesel-fueled internal combustion engine.
104	1893	1893: USA - Whitcomb L. Judson invented the zip to help a friend with a stiff back who could not bend over to do up his shoes 1893: UK - Second Irish Home Rule Bill fails to pass the House of Lords 1893: New Zealand - First nation to grant women the right to vote 1893: France - Car number plates introduced 1893: USA - Grover Cleveland president of the USA 1893-1897.
105	1894	1894: UK - Rosebery takes power with his minority Liberal government
106	1895	1895: UK - Oscar Wilde jailed for homosexuality 1895: UK - Guglielmo Marconi sent longwave wireless telegraphic, or radio, signals over a distance of more than a mile 1895: UK - Salisbury forms his third Unionist ministry 1895: USA - Kellogg's Corn Flakes go on sale 1895: France - Lumiere Brothers invent a portable motion-picture camera, film processing unit and projector called the Cinematographe. The Lumiere Brothers using their Cinematographe are the first to present a projected motion picture to an audience of more that one person.
107	1896	1896: Vienna, Austria - Sigmund Freud suggested analyzing childhood conflicts in the study of neuroses. He also devised a psychoanalytic technique called free association which allows emotionally-charged, repressed material to be consciously recognized 1896: Sudan - British conquest of the Sudan begins 1896: USA - Lightner Witmer establishes at the University of Pennsylvania a clinic of psychology, the first psychological clinic in America and perhaps in the world 1896: UK - Items considered luxuries in 1837 are now common comforts; food, clothing, bedding, furniture, are all far more abundant; gas and oil lighting being replaced by electricity; seaside holidays no longer rare 1896: UK - Howard publishes Garden Cities of Tomorrow, forerunner of modern city planning 1896: York, UK - Seebohm Rowntree (of chocolate fame) studies poor, determines poverty due to inadequate wages, not shiftlessness 1896: USA - American, H. O'Sullivan invents the rubber heel.
108	1897	1897: UK - Queen Victoria celebrates her Diamond Jubilee 1897: USA - Telephone penetration in US is 7 per 1,000 people 1897: USA - William McKinley president of the USA 1897-1901. William McKinley dies in Buffalo, NY, 1901.
109	1898	1898: UK - Christopher Latham Sholes patented the typewriter. His QWERTY keyboard is still with us today. 1898: Sudan - British rule over Sudan fully established 1898: USA - Campbell's soups first appear with red and white labels, colors suggested by Cornell University's football uniforms. 1898: USA - Spanish-American War: United States vs Spain 1898. 1898: UK - Edwin Prescott patents the roller coaster.
110	1899	1899: Germany - German Naval expansion begins 1899: South Africa - Boer War begins and lasts three years, sparked when Englishman dies in Boer police custody. Scandalous British concentration camps cause many deaths of woman and children 1899: Australia - Unification of Australia as Commonwealth 1899: UK - Judges again declare trade unions illegal 1899: UK - J.S. Thurman patents the motor-driven vacuum cleaner. 1899: UK - I.R. Johnson patents the bicycle frame. 1899: UK - Education is now compulsory to age 12. 1 in 8 receives education after age 14
111	1900	1900: UK - Salisbury wins the Khaki election. The Labour Representation Committee is formed 1900: UK - Max Planck proposes quantum theory 1900: UK - There are reckoned to be 6,000 accountants in England 1900: China - Boxer Rebellion 1900: Italy - King Assassinated 1900: USA - Kodak Introduces $1 Brownie Cameras 1900: Vienna, Austria - Sigmund Freud Publishes The Interpretation of Dreams 1900: UK - Birmingham University founded 1900: Germany - The zeppelin invented by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. 1900: USA - Charles Seeberger redesigned Jesse Reno's escalator and invented the modern escalator.
112	1901	1901: USA - Willis H. Carrier invented the industrial air conditioner 1901: UK - Vacuum Cleaner invented by Hubert Cecil Booth 1901: Atlantic - Guglielmo Marconi sends wireless message from Cornwall to Newfoundland, a distance of over 2,000 miles 1901: Stockholm, Sweden - First Nobel Prizes Awarded 1901: USA - Theodore Roosevelt president of the USA 1901-1909. Vice president under William McKinley, he is sworn in as president upon death of McKinley. 1901: USA - King Camp Gillette invents the double-edged safety razor. 1901: UK - Edward VII, ruler of England to 1910. House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha: Eldest son of Queen Victoria, married Alexandra, Princess of Denmark. 22 Jan 1901: UK - Death of Queen Victoria, aged 81, over 63 years as Queen
113	1902	1902: UK - Invention of the Teddy Bear 1902: South Africa - Boer War Ends 1902: UK - Education Act provides for secondary education 1902: France - French physicist George Claude invents neon light.
114	1903	1903: USA - Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright achieved flight in a manned, gasoline power-driven, heavier-than-air flying machine at Kitty Hawk. 1903: UK - First Silent Movie, The Great Train Robbery 1903: India - Plague strikes 1903: Ireland - Irish land purchase bill, Wyndham's Act, permits Irish to buy land from landlords with 1903: UK - Liverpool University, Sheffield University and Leeds University founded 1903: UK - Balfour's Licensing Act reduces number of houses selling alcohol 1903: UK - Trade depression - unemployment results; Act sets up local committees to find employment, voluntary contributions give small stipend to unemployed 1903: UK - Act of Parliament secures highly privileged immunity for trades unions; Labour Party formed 1903: UK - Free school meals for poor children, Children's Act deals with cruelty to children, prohibits imprisonment of children under 14 1903: UK - 72 British ships have Marconi's radio, 1912 - 450, 1914 - 879 1903: UK - Beginning of Old Age Pension scheme 1903: UK - Trade depression - unemployment results; William Beveridge publishes Unemployment, a Problem of Industry, which prompts creation of Labour Exchanges 1903: Europe - Louis Bleriot flies across the English Channel 1903: UK - Edward Binney and Harold Smith co-invent crayons. 1903: UK - Bottle-making machinery invented by Michael J. Owens. 1903: UK - Mary Anderson invents windshield wipers. 1903: USA - William Coolidge invents ductile tungsten used in lightbulbs.
115	1904	1904: UK - First telephone answering machine 1904: UK - Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Benjamin Bunny is published 1904: Panama - Ground Broken on the Panama Canal 1904: New York, NY, USA - New York City Subway Opens 1904: Russia - Russo-Japanese War Begins 1904: Russia - Trans-Siberian Railway Completed 1904: UK - Teabags invented by Thomas Suillivan. 1904: UK - Benjamin Holt invents a tractor.
116	1905	1905: Berne, Switzerland - Albert Einstein evolved the Special Theory of relativity. 1905: UK - Aliens Act in Britain tries to control immigration 1905: Russia - Bloody Sunday - Russian Revolution of 1905 1905: Vienna, Austria - Sigmund Freud Publishes His Theory of Sexuality
117	1906	1906: Finland - First European Country to Give Women the Right to Vote 1906: San Francisco, USA - San Francisco Earthquake 1906: USA - Upton Sinclair Writes The Jungle 1906: USA - William Kellogg invents Cornflakes.
118	1907	1907: UK - Electric washing machine - The Thor - goes on sale 1907: Netherlands - Ten Rules of War Established at the Second Hague Peace Conference 1907: Spain - Picasso Introduces Cubism 1907: UK - Typhoid Mary Captured for the First Time 1907: France - Colour photography invented by Auguste Lumiere and Louis Lumiere. 1907: UK - The very first piloted helicopter was invented by Paul Cornu.
119	1908	1908: USA - Henry Ford created the Model T automobile 1908: UK - Electric iron and toaster patented 1908: UK - Earthquake in Italy Kills 150,000 1908: China - Three Year-Old Pu Yi Becomes Emperor of China 1908: Turkey - Revolt in the Ottoman Empire 1908: USA - The gyrocompass invented by Elmer A. Sperry. 1908: USA - Cellophane invented by Jacques E. Brandenberger. 1908: UK - J W Geiger and W M 1908: UK - Fritz Haber invents the Haber Process for making artificial nitrates.
120	1909	1909: UK - Pianos reach maximum market penetration in UK households at one per ten people 1909: UK - 800 million postcards sold in England 1909: Japan - Prince Ito is Assassinated 1909: UK - Plastic Is Invented 1909: Arctic - Robert Peary Becomes the First to Reach the North Pole 1909: USA - William Taft president of the USA 1909-1913. 1909: UK - Instant coffee invented by G. Washington.
121	1910	1910: UK - Georges Claude discovered that electricity conducted through a tube of the rare inert gas, neon, gives a bright red glow and that other gases gave off other colors, e.g., argon gives blue, helium gives yellow and white, etc. 1910: UK - First live opera broadcast 1910: UK - Halley's Comet Makes an Appearance 1910: UK - The Tango Catches On 1910: South Africa - Formation of Union of South Africa 1910: UK - Death of Edward VII 1910: UK - Population of England/Wales 36,070, Scotland - 4,761, N. Ireland - 1,251 1910: UK - Contributory National Insurance Scheme introduced by David Lloyd George, provides medical care, maternity benefits and sick pay 1910: UK - Parliament Act reduces House of Lords' veto to delaying power; House of Commons begins to pay members a stipend 1910: UK - There are 146,000 female clerical workers in England, up from 22,000 in 1891, 7,000 in 1881, and 19 in 1851 1910: USA - Thomas Edison demonstrated the first talking motion picture. 1910: UK - Infant mortality now 110 per 1000 live births, declines steadily to 24.4 in 1956; emigration reaches about 464,000/year; divorces average 823/year, go to 3,619/year in 1920-1922, 7,955/year in 1939 (latter rise because willful desertion, cruelty and incurable insanity added to causes in 1937) 1910: UK - Strikes of seaman, dock and transport workers, general railway strike for higher wages during period to 1912 20 Jan 1910: UK - George V, ruler of England to 1936. House of Windsor (name adopted Jul 17, 1917): 2nd son of Edward VII, married Princess Mary of Teck.
122	1911	1911: China - The Chinese Revolution 1911: UK - Ernest Rutherford Discovers the Structure of an Atom 1911: UK - Greenwich Mean Time Adopted 1911: Peru - The Incan City of Machu Picchu Discovered 1911: Paris, France - Mona Lisa Is Stolen 1911: Antarctica - Roald Amundsen Reaches the South Pole 1911: USA - Standard Oil Company Broken Up 1911: USA - Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Catches on Fire 1911: USA - Charles Franklin Kettering invents the first automobile electrical ignition system
123	1912	1912: North Sea - The Sinking of the Titanic: 1,515 people lose their lives. 1912: UK - Parachutes Invented 1912: UK - Piltdown Man, the 'Missing Link,' Discovered but later revealed as a fraud 1912: SOS Accepted as Universal Distress Signal 1912: UK - Motorized movie cameras invented, and replaced hand-cranked cameras. 1912: UK - The first tank patented by Australian inventor De La Mole. 1912: USA - Clarence Crane created Life Savers candy
124	1913	1913: USA - Leo Baekeland invented a plastic laminate, known as Bakelite, and later as Formica 1913: Detroit, MI, USA - First assembly line introduced in Ford automobile factory 1913: New York, NY, USA - The Armory Show, an international display of some 1600 works of modern art, and one of the more important U.S. art exhibitions ever held, opens at the 69th-regiment armory. It arouses public curiosity, generates sensational news coverage, and helps change the direction of American art 1913: USA - Personal Income Tax introduced 1913: Washington, DC, USA - Woodrow Wilson president 1913-1921. 1913: UK - The crossword puzzle was invented by Arthur Wynne. 1913: USA - The Merck Chemical Company patented what is now known as ecstasy. 1913: USA - Mary Phelps Jacob invents the bra 1913: USA - Gideon Sundback invents the modern zipper.
125	1914	1914: UK - Battle of the Marne 1914: USA - Charlie Chaplin First Appeared as the Little Tramp 1914: UK - First Traffic Light 1914: Panama - Panama Canal Officially Opened 1914: Egypt - Britain proclaims protectorate over Egypt 1914: France - Stunning British casualty figures come from Loos -60,000; in on the Somme, 60,000 in one day; total for 5-month offensive - 400,000; Germans use poison gas at Ypres 1914: Ireland - Easter Monday Irish rebellion, Irish Volunteers (later Irish Republican Army) proclaim Irish Republic; German submarine lands Sir Roger Casement who is arrested, German ship with rifles intercepted off Irish coast, Casement executed; Sinn Fein and Ulster cannot agree on partition 1914: France - Passchendaele, British advance of 5 miles costs 400,000 casualties 1914: UK - Balfour Declaration promises Jews home in Palestine 1914: UK - First use of massed tanks (Battle of Cambrai) 1914: UK - King George V adopts Windsor as Royal Family's English surname in place of family's German name 1914: USA - Garrett A. Morgan invents the Morgan gas mask 4 Aug 1914: World War I begins and lasts until 1918, because Germany violates a treaty to respect neutrality of Belgium; Turkey enters war on Germany's side
126	1915	1915: Armenia - Armenian Genocide 1915: USA - D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation is Released 1915: UK - Lusitania Sunk by German U-Boat 1915: Ypres, France - Second Battle of Ypres 1915: New York, NY, USA - Eugene Sullivan and William Taylor co-invent Pyrex
127	1916	1916: UK - Navy employs animal trainer 'Captain' Joseph Woodward's music hall sea lions for U-boat sabotage. 1916: USA - Coca-Cola adopts a distinctive bottle which identifies the company internationally 1916: France - Battle of the Somme 1916: Verdun, France - Battle of Verdun 1916: Ireland - Easter Rising 1916: USA - First Self-Service Grocery Store Opens 1916: UK - Radio tuners invented that received different stations. 1916: UK - Stainless steel invented by Henry Brearly.
128	1917	1917: Russia - Bolshevik revolution installs a new government headed by V.I. Lennin 1917: New York, NY, USA - French artist Marcel Duchamp submits a porcelain urinal, signed 'R. Mutt' and titled Fountain, to the New York Independents Exhibition; it is rejected. 1917: UK - First Pulitzer Prizes Awarded 1917: Germany - Mata Hari Executed for Being a Spy Apr 1917: USA - The United States joined World War I on the side of the Triple Entente
129	1918	1918: UK - Influenza Epidemic 1918: Russia - Czar Nicholas II and his family are killed 1918: UK - Summer:Great Influenza Epidemic begins, reaches height end of year, new outbreak first quarter of 1919: England and Wales lose 150,000 (15,000 in London alone) 1918: UK - Final casualties for World War I - almost 1 million British Empire men killed, about 3 million maimed (744,000 killed are from UK) 1918: UK - Women over 30 given the vote (complete voting equality with men comes in 1928), all men over 21 (except peers, lunatics and felons) given vote 1918: UK - Consumer purchasing power now about 1/3 of what it was in 1914 1918: USA - Charles Jung invented fortune cookies. 1918: UK - Police strikes this year and the next 9 Nov 1918: Europe - Kaiser abdicates, peace signed two days later at Treaty of Versailles, ending World War I
130	1919	1919: UK - Eddington and Frank W. Dyson measured the bending of starlight by the gravitational pull of the sun, thus confirming Einstein's general theory of relativity 1919: USA - Prohibition Begins in the U.S. 1919: Ireland - Irish Republican Army begins terrorist campaign against police ('Black and Tans') and their families 1919: London, UK - First woman in House of Commons, Viscountess Astor 1919: Ireland - Alcock and Brown arrive after flying across the Atlantic 1919: UK - Strikes and riots in Glasgow for 40- hour week; National Industrial Conference convenes, trades union representatives resign in disgust 1919: Europe - Regular air service commences across the English Channel 1919: UK - Post-war boom collapses, unemployment problem, 1920 Act provides small payment under National Insurance Scheme 1919: UK - Most war-time rationing ends 1919: UK - One-week railway strike - Emergency Powers Act passed to give government war-time powers to deal with threats from 'Triple Alliance' of miners, railwaymen and dockers, re high prices, shortage of housing 1919: UK - The pop-up toaster invented by Charles Strite. 1919: UK - Short-wave radio invented. 1919: UK - The arc welder invented. 1919: UK - Runaway inflation; Coal Mines Act (1919) and Mining Industry Act (1920) create 7-hour day for miners plus minor reforms Jun 1919: UK - Sir Ernest Rutherford publishes account of splitting atom
131	1920	1920: India - Bubonic Plague strikes 1920: UK - League of Nations Established 1920: UK - Population of England/Wales - 37,887, Scotland - 4,882, N.Ireland - 1,258 1920: UK - Economic slump, 2,170,000 unemployed 1920: Palestine - Serious clashes between Jews and Arabs 1920: USA - US restricts immigration 1920: Ireland - Southern Irish parliament passes Government of Ireland Act, civil war effectively ends (until 1968) 1920: UK - Lloyd George sells honours in return for party contributions, partly responsible for downfall of Coalition government 1920: Egypt - Britain recognizes Egyptian independence 1920: UK - British Broadcasting Company (BBC) begins transmission of speech over air to public 1920: Italy - Benito Mussolini becomes fascist dictator 1920: UK - First football cup final at Wembley 1920: UK - Greyhound racing becomes popular 1920: UK - Radio and cinema begin growth (by 1929, 3,000 cinemas in Britain) 1920: UK - Convictions for drunkenness fall from 189,000 in 1913 to 53,000 in 1930 1920: France - Tuberculosis vaccine developed 1920: UK - The tommy gun patented by John T Thompson. 1920: USA - The Band-Aid invented by Earle Dickson 1920: Ireland - Irish Republican Army begins Civil War with raids on police barracks and income tax offices all over Ireland 1920: UK - Communist Party of Great Britain founded; affiliation with Labour Party rebuffed = schism between communism and socialism 1920: UK - Population of Great Britain has grown by 5 per cent, emigration overseas declines from 256,000 in 1923 (post-war peak) to 92,000 in 1930 and many return to offset those leaving; British population gravitates to south and away from depressed areas of South Wales and northern England, Greater London is now over 8 million Dec 1920: Ireland - New Government of Ireland Act proposes partition of Ireland into Ulster (north) and Irish Free State (south), each to have its own government
132	1921	1921: UK - Stage debut of John Gielgud 1921: Germany - Extreme Inflation sets in 1921: Ireland - Irish Free State Proclaimed 1921: Washington, DC, USA - Warren Harding president in 1921. He dies of an embolism in San Francisco. He had taken ill on 31 Jul 1921 1921: Washington, DC, USA - Calvin Coolidge president 1921-1929. Vice president under Warren Harding, he was sworn in as president the day after Harding dies. 1921: UK - The first robot is built. 1921: CA, USA - John Larson, a University of California medical student, invented the modern lie detector (polygraph), used by police since 1924.
133	1922	1922: London, UK - BBC launched as limited company 1922: Turkey - Michael Collins Killed in Ambush 1922: Rome Italy - Benito Mussolini Marches on Rome 1922: USA - The Reader's Digest is first published 1922: UK - Insulin invented by Sir Frederick Grant Banting 1922: USA - The first 3-D movie (spectacles with one red and one green lens) is released. Nov 1922: Thebes, Egypt - Tomb of Tun-ankh-amen discovered
134	1923	1923: USA - Electrolux produced the first electric refrigerator 1923: USA - Kodak introduces home movie equipment 1923: UK - Charleston Dance Becomes Popular 1923: Germany - Adolf Hitler Jailed After Failed Coup 1923: Ruhr, Germany - Ruhr Occupied by French and Belgian Forces 1923: USA - Teapot Dome Scandal 1923: USA - Garrett A. Morgan invents a traffic signal 1923: USA - Early television or iconoscope invented by Vladimir Kosma Zworykin. 1923: UK - John Harwood invented the self-winding watch. 1923: UK - Clarence Birdseye invents frozen food.
135	1924	1924: UK - First Olympic Winter Games 1924: USSR - V.I. Lenin Dies 1924: UK - First Labour government headed by Ramsay MacDonald 1924: UK - The dynamic loudspeaker invented by Rice and Kellogg. 1924: UK - Notebooks with spiral bindings invented. Aug 1924: UK - Housing Act to produce 2.5 million houses by 1939 becomes law 4 Nov 1924: London, UK - Government falls due to purported link with Communists in Russia, known as Red Letter scare, Stanley Baldwin forms new government
136	1925	1925: UK - Flapper Dresses in Style 1925: Germany - Adolf Hitler Publishes Mein Kampf 1925: UK - Infants' Custody Act, women finally secure same rights as men with regard to custody of children
137	1926	1926: UK - General Strike paralyses transport, mining and many other areas of the economy 1926: Wolverhampton, UK - The first automatic traffic light was installed. It remained in service until 1968 1926: UK - A.A. Milne Publishes Winnie-the-Pooh 1926: UK - Houdini Dies After Being Punched 1926: USA - Robert Goddard Fires His First Liquid-Fuel Rocket 1926: A Woman Swims the English Channel 1926: UK - Imperial Conference sets stage for colonies and dominions to become Commonwealth of Nations
138	1927	1927: USA - The Jazz Singer - first film talking movie released 1927: London, UK - John Logie Baird demonstrates electro-mechanical television system 1927: USA - Babe Ruth Makes Home-Run Record 1927: Atlantic - Charles Lindbergh Flies Solo Across the Atlantic 1927: London, UK - Trade Disputes and Trade Union Act makes sympathetic striking illegal and prohibits political use of Union funds 1927: UK - JWA Morrison invents the first quartz crystal watch. 1927: USA - Philo Taylor Farnsworth invents a complete electronic TV system. 1927: USA - Technicolor invented. 1927: UK - Erik Rotheim patents an aerosol can. 1927: UK - Philip Drinker invents the iron lung. 4 Jun 1927: London, UK - Stanley Baldwin resigns, Ramsay MacDonald forms another Labour government, includes first female Cabinet Minister, Margaret Bondfield, Minister of Labour
139	1928	1928: Los Angeles, USA - First Mickey Mouse cartoon 1928: Oxford, UK - First Oxford English Dictionary Published 1928: UK - Kellogg-Briand Treaty Outlaws War 1928: London, UK - Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin. 1928: USA - Bubble gum invented by Walter E. Diemer. 1928: UK - Jacob Schick patented the electric shaver. 1928: UK - Long, critical illness of George V this year and the next
140	1929	1929: UK - Economic upturn this year and the next 1929: UK - First UK television broadcast 1929: UK - Frank Whittle, combining the concepts of rocket propulsion and gas turbines, invented jet propulsion. Independently, Hans von Ohain put together the same combination in 1933 1929: Antarctica - Byrd and Bennett Fly Over South Pole 1929: USA - First Academy Awards 1929: USA - New York Stock Market Crashes 1929: USA - St. Valentine's Day Massacre 1929: UK - Further serious clashes between Jews and Arabs in Palestine 1929: USA - Herbert Hoover president 1929-1933. 1929: USA - Paul Galvin invents the car radio. 1929: USA - Yo-Yo re-invented as an American fad. 1929: UK - Great Depression (to 1932), British segment hits worst in 1931, when unemployment surges quickly to more than 3.25 million in 1931, then more slowly to a high of 3.75 million in September 1932
141	1930	1930: UK - Gandhi's Salt March 1930: USA - Clyde Tombaugh discovers planet Pluto 1930: UK - Sliced Bread Available 1930: USSR - Stalin Begins Collectivizing Agriculture 1930: UK - Sir Oswald Mosely, former Conservative MP and now Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, resigns and forms New Party (Fascist) 1930: USA - Scotch tape patented by 3M engineer Richard G. Drew. 1930: Boston, MA, USA - The differential analyzer, an analog computer, is invented by Vannevar Bush at MIT
142	1931	1931: UK - Housing Act passes, provides subsidies for slum clearance 1931: USA - Al Capone Imprisoned for Income Tax Evasion 1931: UK - Auguste Piccard Reaches Stratosphere 1931: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - Christ Monument Built on Hilltop 1931: New York, NY, USA - Empire State Building Completed 1931: USA - First official US National Anthem 1931: UK - Census shows British professional workers now number .75 million (8 per cent); up from 80,000 in 1921 Census: population: England/Wales - 39,952, Scotland - 4,842, N. Ireland - 1,243 1931: USA - Harold Edgerton invented stop-action photography. 1931: Germany - Germans Max Knott and Ernst Ruska co-invent the electron microscope. 24 Aug 1931: UK - Resignation of Labour government accepted by King, asks Ramsay MacDonald to form National Government (Coalition) to deal with economic crisis 21 Oct 1931: UK - General Election, vote for National Government overwhelming, more votes for Conservatives, Liberal party in disarray
143	1932	1932: UK - Agricultural Marketing Act passed, regulates quality of produce 1932: USA - Air Conditioning Invented 1932: Amelia Earhardt First Woman to Fly Solo Across the Atlantic 1932: Cambridge, UK - Scientists Split the Atom 1932: USA - Zippo Lighters Introduced 1932: Ireland - De Valera succeeds Cosgrave as Prime Minister of Irish Free State, ousts British Governor-General, abolishes senate, alters law re citizenship to distinguish Irish nationality from British, but still claims Commonwealth membership 1932: USA - Polaroid photography invented by Edwin Herbert Land. 1932: UK - Unemployment falls from 3 million to below 2 million in July 1935; production rises, but imports steady, exports decline; new industries booming - chemicals, rayon, cars, radio, cost of living falls Sep 1932: UK - 6-7 million living on 'dole', worse in Tyne and Tees and Welsh valleys
144	1933	1933: UK - First Mars bar 1933: USA - Singing telegrams introduced 1933: Germany - Adolf Hitler Becomes Chancellor of Germany 1933: Germany - First Nazi Concentration Camp Established 1933: Loch Ness, Scotland - Loch Ness Monster First Spotted 1933: USA - Prohibition Ends 1933: Wiley Post Flies Around the World in 8.5 Days 1933: UK - Special Areas Act passes, designed to encourage workers to move to more prosperous Midlands or expanding light industries of South, not very effective 1933: USA - Franklin Roosevelt president 1933-1945, Launches New Deal. 1933: USA - Frequency modulation (FM radio) invented by Edwin Howard Armstrong. 1933: UK - Stereo records invented. Feb 1933: Oxford, UK - Oxford Union Society passes its famous motion This House will in no circumstances fight for its King and Country. Peace societies become popular
145	1934	1934: UK - Communist and Fascist disorders, especially in London's East End, cause Incitement to Disaffection (1934) and Public Order Acts (1936), extending police powers, suppressing wearing of political uniforms and limiting holding of provocative processions 1934: Munich, Germany - Konrad Zuse built a series of computers, Z1 through Z4, utilizing binary arithmetic and stored programs. Along the way he invented the first programming language and began to analyze methods by which a computer could play chess 1934: USA - The first comic books appear on newsstands 1934: USA - Bonnie and Clyde Killed by Police 1934: USA - Cheeseburger Created 1934: USA - The Dust Bowl 1934: China - Mao Zedong Begins the Long March 1934: UK - Parker Brothers Sells the Game Monopoly 1934: UK - Charles Darrow claims he invented the game Monopoly 1934: UK - Joseph Begun invents the first tape recorder for broadcasting - first magnetic recording.
146	1935	1935: USA - First successful three-color roll film available to amateur photographers as Kodachrome, for slides, this year, and as Kodacolor (for prints) in 1942. 1935: UK - First Kit Kat sold 1935: USA - Alcoholics Anonymous Founded 1935: Germany - Anti-Jewish Nuremberg Laws issued 1935: UK - John Maynard Keynes Suggests New Economic Theory 1935: USA - Wallace Carothers and DuPont Labs invent nylon 1935: USA - The first canned beer made.
147	1936	1936: UK - Edward VIII, ruler of England 1936. House of Windsor (name adopted Jul 17, 1917): Eldest son of George V. 1936: UK - BBC starts regular TV broadcasts 1936: USA - Dale Carnegie Publishes How to Win Friends and Influence People 1936: Germany - Nazi Olympics in Berlin 1936: Spain - Spanish Civil War Begins. Germany and Italy help rebels against government, Soviet Union aids government, as do International Brigade with volunteers from European countries and US during period to 1939 1936: UK - Arabs attack Jews and British troops and police, riots, strikes, outbursts of great violence, Jews attack Arabs and British, disorder continues through beginning of World War II 1936: USA - Bell Labs invents the voice recognition machine. 1936: USA - Samuel Colt patents the Colt revolver. 1936: Germany - Hitler and Mussolini make Rome-Berlin Axis agreement to conduct aggression together, followed by German agreement with Japan which Italy signs later 20 Jan 1936: UK - Death of King George V 12 May 1936: UK - George VI, ruler of England 1936-1952. House of Windsor (name adopted Jul 17, 1917): 2nd son of George V, Duke of York; married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. 16 Nov 1936: UK - Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin learns Edward VIII wants to marry twice-divorced Mrs.Simpson and will abdicate if necessary, public storm breaks on 2- 3 December, King abdicates on 5 December, announces 10 December, Abdication Act rushes through 11 December; Duke of York (father of Queen Elizabeth II) becomes George VI
148	1937	1937: Guernica, Spain - German planes, aiding insurgents in the Spanish Civil War, bomb the historic Basque town of Guernica in Northern Spain, killing women and children and inflaming world opinion against facism. 1937: USA - Hindenburg airship crash - broadcast coast to coast in US 1937: UK - Aviator Amelia Earhart Vanishes 1937: San Francisco, CA, USA - Golden Gate Bridge Opened 1937: USA - Chester F. Carlson invents the photocopier. May 1937: Ireland - Irish Free State becomes republic of Eire, Northern Ireland remains part of United Kingdom 27 May 1937: UK - Joseph Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister Jul 1937: China - Japan suddenly attacks China, by end of year Japanese have captured Shanghai and Nanking
149	1938	1938: UK - UK's first weekly radio comedy series, Band Wagon 1938: USA - Broadcast of The War of the Worlds Causes Panic 1938: UK - Neville Chamberlain Announces Peace in Our Time 1938: UK - Extinct Fish Found 1938: Germany - Kristallnacht - The Night of Broken Glass 1938: UK - The ballpoint pen invented by Ladislo Biro. 1938: UK - Roy J. Plunkett invented tetrafluoroethylene polymers (Teflon) 1938: USA - Nescafe or freeze-dried coffee invented. 12 Mar 1938: Austria - Hitler annexes Austria; Neville Chamberlain decides not to help Czechoslovakia or French, who have treaty obligations to Czechs, Hitler tells Chamberlain if he can have Czechoslovakia he will not annex other countries, Chamberlain falls for it
150	1939	1939: UK - First Commercial Flight Over the Atlantic 1939: Europe - German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact Signed 1939: UK - Refugees on the St. Louis Refused Entry Everywhere 1939: Europe - World War II begins. Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan vs. Major Allied Powers: Great Britain, France, and Russia. 1939-1945. 1939: USA - Igor Sikorsky invents the first successful helicopter. Sep 1939: UK - UK declares war on Germany
151	1940	1940: London, UK - London Blitz 1940: USA - Disney's Fantasia 1940: UK - Battle of Britain 1940: USSR - Leon Trotsky Assassinated 1940: USA - Nylon Stockings on the Market 1940: France - Stone Age Cave Paintings Found 1940: USA - Peter Goldmark invents modern colour television system. 1940: UK - Karl Pabst invents the jeep.
152	1941	1941: USA - Japanese Attack Pearl Harbor 1941: USA - Manhattan Project Begins 1941: USA - Mount Rushmore Completed 1941: UK - Nazi Rudolf Hess Flies to Britain on a Peace Mission 1941: Leningrad, USSR - Siege of Leningrad
153	1942	1942: USA - Battle of Midway 1942: Stalingrad, USSR - Battle of Stalingrad 1942: USA - Japanese-Americans Held in Camps 1942: UK - Nazis Raze Town in Retaliation for Reinhard Heydrich's Death 1942: USA - T-shirt Introduced 1942: USA - John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry built an electronic digital computer.
154	1943	1943: USA - Autism identified 1943: France - French Resistance Leader Jean Moulin Killed 1943: Italy - Italy Joins the Allies 1943: Poland - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 1943: USA - Richard James invents the slinky. 1943: USA - James Wright invents silly putty. 1943: USA - Swiss chemist, Albert Hofmann discovered the hallucinogenic properties of LSD. 1943: UK - Emile Gagnan and Jacques Cousteau invent the aqualung.
155	1944	1944: France - D-Day landings 1944: France - First German V1 and V2 Rockets Fired 1944: Berlin, Germany - Hitler Escapes Assassination Attempt 1944: USA - The kidney dialysis machine invented by Willem Kolff. 1944: USA - Synthetic cortisone invented by Percy Lavon Julian.
156	1945	1945: Germany - Allied troops liberate Nazi death camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau (January 26), Buchenwald (April 11), and Dachau (April 24), providing the world with the first photographic evidence of the horrific atrocities committed there 1945: Berlin, Germany - Hitler Commits Suicide 1945: Germany - Germans Surrender 1945: USA - United Nations Founded 1945: Japan - The Atomic Age begins with atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending World War II 1945: USA - Harry Truman president of the USA 1945-1953.
157	1946	1946: USA - ENIAC computer makes 5,000 additions in one second 1946: USA - Bikinis Introduced 1946: UK - Dr. Spock Publishes The Common Book of Baby and Child Care 1946: Argentina - Nazi War crime Trials 1946: UK - Winston Churchill Gives His Iron Curtain Speech 1946: UK - The microwave oven invented by Percy Spencer.
158	1947	1947: USA - Chuck Yeager Breaks the Sound Barrier 1947: Egypt - Dead Sea Scrolls Discovered 1947: UK - Jewish Refugees Aboard the Exodus Turned Back by British 1947: USA - Marshall Plan 1947: UK - British/Hungarian scientist, Dennis Gabor, developed holography 1947: USA - Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley invent the transistor. 1947: USA - Earl Silas Tupper patented the Tupperware seal.
159	1948	1948: USA - Life magazine makes painter Jackson Pollock an overnight celebrity by devoting a three-page spread with color photographs to him and his paintings under the headline, Jackson Pollock: Is He the Greatest Living Painter in the United States?; Abstract Expressionism becomes a subject of widespread popular ridicule. 1948: Berlin, Germany - Berlin Airlift 1948: UK - Big Bang Theory Formulated 1948: India - Gandhi Assassinated 1948: South Africa - Policy of Apartheid Begun 1948: Israel - State of Israel Founded 1948: USA - The Frisbee 1948: USA - Velcro 1948: USA - Robert Hope-Jones invented the Wurlitzer jukebox
160	1949	1949: China - Mao Zedong proclaims Peoples Republic of China - China Becomes Communist 1949: First Non-Stop Flight Around the World 1949: UK - George Orwell Publishes Nineteen Eighty-Four 1949: USA - NATO Established 1949: USSR - Soviet Union Has Atomic Bomb 1949: USA - Cake mix invented.
161	1950	1950: UK - UK's longest running soap, The Archers, first airs on BBC Midlands Home Service 1950: USA - First Modern Credit Card Introduced 1950: UK - First Organ Transplant 1950: USA - First Peanuts Cartoon Strip 1950: Korea - Korean War Begins: United States (as part of the United Nations) and South Korea vs. North Korea and Communist China 1950-1953. 1950: USA - Senator Joseph McCarthy Begins Communist Witch Hunt 1950: USA - President Truman Orders Construction of Hydrogen Bomb 1950: USA - The first credit card (Diners) invented by Ralph Schneider. 26 May 1950: UK - Drivers cheer end of fuel rations.
162	1951	1951: USA - The word brainwashing is coined 1951: USA - Color TV Introduced 1951: South Africa - Citizens Forced to Carry ID Cards Identifying Race 1951: USA - Truman Signs Peace Treaty With Japan, Officially Ending World War II 1951: UK - Winston Churchill Again Prime Minister 1951: UK - Super glue invented. 1951: USA - Power steering invented by Francis W. Davis. 1951: USA - Charles Ginsburg invented the first videotape recorder (VTR).
163	1952	1952: UK - Car Seat Belts Introduced 1952: UK - Jacques Cousteau Discovers Ancient Greek Ship 1952: UK - Polio Vaccine Created 1952: UK - Mr. Potato Head patented. 1952: USA - The first patent for bar code (US Patent #2,612,994) issued to inventors Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver. 1952: USA - The first diet soft drink, the No-Cal Beverage, a ginger ale sold by Kirsch. 1952: USA - Edward Teller and team build the hydrogen bomb. 6 Feb 1952: UK - Elizabeth II, ruler of England 1952-present. House of Windsor (name adopted Jul 17, 1917): Elder daughter of George VI 25 Nov 1952: London, UK - The Mousetrap opens. It will become the world's longest-running play
164	1953	1953: Paris, France - Waiting for Godot debuts 1953: Cambridge, UK - DNA Discovered 1953: UK - Hillary and Norgay Climb Mount Everest 1953: USSR - Joseph Stalin Dies 1953: USA - Dwight Eisenhower president 1953-1961. 1953: UK - Radial tyres invented. 1953: USA - The first musical synthesizer invented by RCA. 1953: USA - Transistor radio invented by Texas Instruments.
165	1954	1954: USA - Raymond Kroc buys McDonald's franchise rights and begins the global proliferation of the golden arches. 1954: UK - Britain Sponsors an Expedition to Search for the Abominable Snowman 1954: USA - First Atomic Submarine Launched 1954: UK - Report Says Cigarettes Cause Cancer 1954: UK - Roger Bannister Breaks the Four-Minute Mile 1954: USA - Segregation Ruled Illegal 1954: UK - Oral contraceptives invented. 1954: UK - The first non-stick pan produced. 1954: UK - The solar cell invented by Chaplin, Fuller and Pearson.
166	1955	1955: UK - ITV formed 1955: USA - Disneyland Opens 1955: USA - James Dean Dies in Car Accident 1955: USA - Rosa Parks Refuses to Give Up Her Seat on a Bus 1955: UK - Warsaw Pact Signed 1955: UK - Optic fiber invented.
167	1956	1956: UK - Eurovision Song Contest starts 1956: USA - Elvis Gyrates on Ed Sullivan's TV Show 1956: Monaco - Grace Kelly Marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco 1956: Hungary - Hungarian Revolution 1956: USSR - Khrushchev Denounces Stalin 1956: UK - Suez Crisis - Britain, Israel and France invade Egypt 1956: UK - TV Remote Control Invented 1956: UK - The first computer hard disk used. 1956: UK - The hovercraft invented by Christopher Cockerell. 1956: USA - Bette Nesmith Graham invented Mistake Out, later renamed Liquid Paper, to paint over mistakes made with a typewriter.
168	1957	1957: USSR - The Space Age begins with the launch of Sputnik 1 - the first satellite 1957: USA - Dr. Seuss Publishes The Cat in the Hat 1957: Europe - European Economic Community Established 1957: USSR - Laika Becomes the First Living Animal in Space 1957: USA - Fortran (computer language) invented.
169	1958	1958: USA - UNIMATE is first industrial robot 1958: UK - Boris Pasternak Refuses Nobel Prize 1958: China - Mao Zedong Launches the Great Leap Forward 1958: USA - Hope Diamond is Donated to the Smithsonian 1958: UK - Lego Toy Bricks First Introduced 1958: USA - NASA Founded 1958: UK - The modem is invented. 1958: USA - Gordon Gould invents the laser. 1958: USA - The Hula Hoop is invented by Richard Knerr and Arthur 'Spud' Melin. 1958: CA, USA - The integrated circuit is invented by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce.
170	1959	1959: Edinburgh, Scotland - Beyond the Fringe debuts 1959: Cuba - Fidel Castro Becomes Dictator 1959: Antarctica - International Treaty Makes Antarctica Scientific Preserve 1959: UK - Kitchen Debate Between Nixon and Khrushchev 1959: USA - The Sound of Music Opens on Broadway 1959: USA - U.S. Quiz Shows Found to be Fixed 1959: UK - The internal pacemaker invented by Wilson Greatbatch. 1959: UK - Barbie Doll invented.
171	1960	1960: Vietnam - Vietnam War Begins 1960: USA - The halogen lamp invented 21 Apr 1960: Brazil - Capital moved to a brand new city called Bras 16 Jun 1960: USA - Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho Released 9 Dec 1960: UK - Launch of Coronation Street
172	1961	1961: Hague, Netherlands - Adolf Eichmann on Trial for Role in Holocaust 1961: Cuba - Bay of Pigs Invasion 1961: Berlin, Germany - Berlin Wall Built 1961: USA - Peace Corps Founded 1961: Baikonaur, USSR - Yuri Gagarin is First Man in Space 1961: USA - John F. Kennedy president 1961-1963. 1961: UK - Valium invented. 1961: UK - Non-dairy creamer invented.
173	1962	1962: USA - Movie Actress Marilyn Monroe dies of an overdose of sleeping pills. 1962: New York, NY, USA - Andy Warhol Exhibits His Campbell's Soup Can 1962: Cuba - Cuban Missile Crisis 1962: Berlin, Germany - First Person Killed Trying to Cross the Berlin Wall 1962: USA - Rachel Carson Publishes Silent Spring 1962: USA - The audio cassette invented. 1962: Japan - The fiber-tip pen invented by Yukio Horie. 1962: USA - Spacewar, the first computer video game invented. 1962: USA - Dow Corp invents silicone breast implants.
174	1963	1963: USA - Betty Friedan Publishes The Feminine Mystique 1963: USA - Martin Luther King Jr. Makes His I Have a Dream Speech 1963: USA - Lyndon B. Johnson president 1963-1969. Vice president under John F. Kennedy, he is sworn in as president aboard Air Force One upon death of Kennedy. 1963: UK - The first videodisc invented. 22 Nov 1963: Dallas, TX, USA - President John F. Kennedy is assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald
175	1964	1964: USA - The Beatles Become Popular 1964: UK - Cassius Clay (a.k.a. Muhammad Ali) Becomes World Heavyweight Champion 1964: USA - Civil Rights Act Passes 1964: USA - Hasbro Launches GI Joe Action Figure 1964: South Africa - Nelson Mandela Sentenced to Life in Prison 1964: UK - Acrylic paint invented. 1964: UK - Permanent-press fabric invented. 1964: USA - BASIC (an early computer language) is invented by John George Kemeny and Tom Kurtz.
176	1965	1965: Vietnam - The United States begins air raids in Vietnam, committing 190,000 U.S. troops there by year's end. 1965: UK - Cigarette ads banned 1965: Japan - Bullet Train Opens 1965: Los Angeles, CA, USA - Los Angeles Riots 1965: UK - Astroturf invented. 1965: UK - Soft contact lenses invented. 1965: USA - NutraSweet invented. 1965: USA - The compact disk invented by James Russell.
177	1966	1966: UK - Private theatre clubs lose immunity from censorship 1966: London, UK - World Cup won by England at Wembley (4-2 in extra time v West Germany) 1966: Aberfan, Wales - Aberfan disaster - slag heap slip kills 144, incl. 116 children 1966: USA - Black Panther Party Established 1966: China - Mao Zedong Launches the Cultural Revolution 1966: USA - Mass Draft Protests 1966: USA - Star Trek TV Series Airs 1966: UK - Electronic Fuel injection for cars invented.
178	1967	1967: FL, USA - Three astronauts killed in fire during launch pad test 1967: UK - First colour TV in Britain 1967: South Africa - First human heart transplant by Christiaan Barnard 1967: Cuba - Che Guevara Killed 1967: Middle East - Six-Day War 1967: USSR - Stalin's Daughter Defects 1967: USA - The first handheld calculator invented. 1967: Paris, France - Student riots
179	1968	1968: UK - Severe flooding 1968: Rome, Italy - Pope's encyclical condemns all artificial forms of birth control 1968: USA - Martin Luther King Jr Assassinated 1968: Czechoslovakia - Prague Spring 1968: UK - Robert F. Kennedy Assassinated 1968: Vietnam - Tet Offensive 1968: Stanford, CA, USA - The computer mouse invented by Douglas Engelbart 1968: USA - The first computer with integrated circuits made. 1968: USA - Robert Dennard invented RAM (random access memory). 1968: UK - John Lennon returns OBE due to government's support of Vietnam War
180	1969	1969: USA - Apollo 11 launched and successfully lands man on the Moon 1969: UK - Voting age lowered from 21 to 18 1969: USA - ARPANET, the Precursor of the Internet, is Created 1969: USA - Charles Manson and 'Family' Arrested 1969: Woodstock, NY, USA - Rock-and-Roll Concert 1969: Palestine - Yasser Arafat Becomes Leader of the PLO 1969: USA - Richard Nixon president 1969-1974. 1969: USA - The artificial heart invented. 1969: UK - The ATM invented. 1969: USA - The bar-code scanner is invented. 1969: USA - Damages awarded to Thalidomide victims
181	1970	1970: Vietnam - American Soldiers Accused of Murdering Entire Town of Vietnamese Civilians 1970: Egypt - Aswan High Dam Completed 1970: UK - The Beatles Break Up 1970: USA - Palestinian Group Hijacks Five Planes 1970: UK - Protesting Students shot at Kent State University 1970: UK - The daisy-wheel printer invented. 1970: USA - The floppy disk invented by Alan Shugart. 1970: USA - Intel builds the first microprocessor, 'a computer on a chip'
182	1971	1971: UK - Decimalisation of coinage 1971: London, UK - IRA Bomb explodes in Post Office tower 1971: London, UK - London Bridge sold to the U.S. 1971: UK - First domestic VCRs Introduced 1971: UK - The dot-matrix printer invented. 1971: USA - The food processor invented. 1971: UK - The liquid-crystal display (LCD) invented by James Fergason.
183	1972	1972: UK - Power workers strike crisis 1972: UK - Miners call off crippling coal strike 1972: USA - MASH* TV Shows Premiers 1972: USA - Mark Spitz Wins Seven Gold Medals 1972: Munich, German - Terrorists Attack at the Olympic Games 1972: Washington, DC, USA - Watergate Scandal Begins 1972: USA - The word processor invented. 1972: UK - Pong (first home video game) invented by Nolan Bushnell.
184	1973	1973: Europe - Britain enters EEC Common Market with Ireland and Denmark 1973: UK - Miners strike and oil crisis precipitate 'three-day week' until Mar 1974 to conserve power 1973: UK - Paul Getty Kidnapped 1973: Chicago, IL, USA - Sears Tower Built 1973: Vietnam - US Pulls Out of Vietnam 1973: USA - Vice President Resigns 1973: USA - Gene splicing invented. 1973: Palo Alto, CA, USA - The ethernet (local computer network) invented by Robert Metcalfe and Xerox. 1973: USA - Bic invents the disposable lighter. 1973: Middle East - OPEC oil shock
185	1974	1974: Ethiopia - Halie Selassie, Emperor, Deposed 1974: USSR - Mikhail Baryshnikov Defects 1974: China - Terracotta Army Discovered 1974: USA - The post-it note invented by Arthur Fry. 1974: Rome, Italy - Giorgio Fischer, a gynecologist, invents liposuction. 1974: Vietnam - End of Vietnam war 8 Aug 1974: Washington, DC, USA - President Nixon resigns over Watergate scandal 8 Aug 1974: USA - Gerald Ford president 1974-1977.
186	1975	1975: UK - Equal Pay Act and Sex Discrimination Act come into force 1975: London, UK - Arthur Ashe First Black Man to Win Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship 1975: Lebanon - Civil War in Lebanon 1975: Seattle, WA, USA - Microsoft Founded 1975: Cambodia - Pol Pot Becomes Communist Dictator 1975: UK - The laser printer invented. 1975: UK - The push-through tab on a drink can invented. 1975: CA, USA - First Apple computer
187	1976	1976: Mars - NASA's Viking Lander lands, starts looking for alien life 1976: UK - Long hot summer leads to water shortages. Parliament introduces Drought Act 1976: UK - Nadia Comaneci Given Seven Perfect Tens 1976: Vietnam - North and South Vietnam Join to Form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam 1976: UK - Tangshan Earthquake Kills Over 240,000 1976: UK - The ink-jet printer invented. 1976: Paris, France - The Centre National d'Art et de la Culture Georges-Pompidou (Pompidou Centre or 'Beaubourg'), a Hi-Tech metal-framework building designed by Richard Rogers, is completed in Paris and proves immensely popular.
188	1977	1977: UK - UK road speed limits set at 70mph for dual roads; 60mph single 1977: UK - Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her Silver Jubilee 1977: UK - Star Wars fever invades Britain as thousands flock to cinemas to watch the long-awaited sci-fi blockbuster 1977: USA - Elvis Found Dead 1977: USA - Mini-series Roots Airs 1977: South Africa - Anti-Apartheid Leader Steve Biko Tortured to Death 1977: USA - Jimmy Carter president 1977-1981. 1977: USA - Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) invented by Raymond V. Damadian. 1977: Oldham, Lancashire, UK - World's first 'test tube' baby, Louise Browne born
189	1978	1978: London, UK - Writer and broadcaster Georgi Markov dies after an assassin stabs him with a poisoned umbrella at a London bus stop. 1978: Rome, Italy - Pope John Paul II elected by cardinals: first non-Italian for 450 years 1978: UK - Jonestown Massacre 1978: UK - The artificial heart Jarvik-7 invented by Robert K. Jarvik. 1978: UK - Margaret Thatcher Prime Minister to 1990 (Conservative)
190	1979	1979: UK - Public sector strike paralyses country 1979: Tehran, Iran - Ayatollah Khomeini Returns as Leader of Iran 1979: Tehran, Iran - Iran Takes American Hostages in Tehran 1979: Stockholm, Sweden - Mother Theresa Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 1979: NY, USA - Nuclear Accident at Three Mile Island 1979: Japan - Sony Introduces the Walkman 1979: UK - Cellular phones invented. 1979: USA - Cray supercomputer invented by Seymour Cray. 1979: USA - Scott Olson invents roller blades.
191	1980	1980: Tehran, Iran - Failed U.S. Rescue Attempt to Save Hostages in Tehran 1980: New York, NY, USA - John Lennon Assassinated 1980: USA - Mount St. Helens Erupts 1980: UK - Rubik's Cube Popular 1980: Atlanta, GA, USA - Ted Turner Establishes CNN 1980: UK - The hepatitis-B vaccine invented. 1980: Cape Canaveral, FL, USA - First US Space Shuttle (Columbia) launched
192	1981	1981: UK - Worst April blizzards of 20th century 1981: London, UK - Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer 1981: UK - Assassination Attempt on Pope John Paul II 1981: USA - Ronald Reagan president 1981-1989. 1981: USA - Assassination Attempt on U.S. President Ronald Reagan 1981: UK - AIDS Identified 1981: UK - Pac-Man is Extremely Popular 1981: USA - Personal Computer (PC) Introduced by IBM 1981: Seattle, WA, USA - MS-DOS invented. 1981: Falkland Islands - Argentina invades Falkland Islands
193	1982	1982: UK - Unemployment reaches 3 million 1982: Berkshire, UK - Women's peace protests against cruise missiles begin at Greenham Common 1982: USA - E.T. Movie Released 1982: UK - King Henry VIII's Ship the Mary Rose Raised from seabed After 437 Years 1982: New York, NY, USA - Reverend Sun Myung Moon Marries 2,075 Couples at Madison Square Garden 1982: USA - Human growth hormone genetically engineered. 1982: UK - Margaret Thatcher wins landslide second term election victory, taking 397 seats to Labour's 209
194	1983	1983: UK - 1983: USA - Ronald Reagan Announces Defense Plan Called Star Wars 1983: USA - Soviet Union Shoots Down a Korean Airliner 1983: Grenada - United States Intervention 1983: UK - Soft bifocal contact lens invented. 1983: USA - First Cabbage Patch Kids sold. 1983: USA - Programmer Jaron Lanier first coins the term virtual reality. 1983: UK - Miners' strike - High Court orders sequestration of NUM assets