Our Family History

The Genealogy of Robert and Christina Barritt

1859 - 1874 (14 years)

	Date	Event(s)
1	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
2	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
3	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)
4	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.
5	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
6	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
7	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.
8	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.
9	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.
10	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.
11	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.
12	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.
13	1871	1871: UK - Trade Unions are legalized
14	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
15	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
16	1874	1874: UK - Benjamin Disraeli becomes Conservative Prime Minister for the second time 1874: USA - American, C. Goodyear, Jr. invents the shoe welt stitcher.