Victorian Timeline

• 1819. Queen Victoria is born
• 1820. Florence Nightingale is born
• 1826. First photograph taken by Joseph Nicophore Niepce.
• 1829. Catholic Emancipation, ending most denials or restrictions of Catholic civil rights, ownership of property, and holding of public office.
• 1834. Slavery banned in British colonies.
• 1835-1841. Brunel builds London to Bristol railway for GWR.
• 1837. Queen Victoria comes to the throne.
• 1837. Charles Dickens publishes Pickwick Papers - instant fame.
• 1838. Charles Dickens publishes Oliver Twist - still one of his best known books.
• 1838. Brunel builds the paddle steamer the Great Western (made the Bristol New-York crossing in under 15 days).
• 1840. Queen Victoria marries her cousin Prince Albert.
• 1840. Penny post instituted.
• 1843. Charles Dickens publishes A Christmas Carol - a sensational success.
• 1844. Potato famine begins in Ireland.
• 1845. Brunel builds the S.S Great Britain -first propeller driven steamship ever.
• 1848. Karl Marx and Frederich Engels publish the “Communist Manifesto” - summed up as the “abolition of private property”.
• 1849. Charles Dickens publishes David Copperfield - said to be his own favourite.
• 1851. Great Exhibition of 1851- the Crystal Palace was built to house this exhibition - 6 million tickets were sold.
• 1853. Crimean war breaks out.
• 1854. Florence Nightingale goes to Crimea to organise nursing during the war.
• 1856. Crimean war ends.
• 1858. Brunel builds the Great Eastern the biggest steamship of its time.
• 1859. Charles Dickens publishes A Tale of Two Cities based on the French Revolution of 1789.
• 1859. Brunel dies - death caused by overwork and worry.
• 1859. Charles Darwin publishes ‘Origin of Species’ - first edition sells out in one day - amid raging controversy.
• 1860. Florence Nightingale publishes first ever definitive textbooks on nursing.
• 1860. Charles Dickens publishes Great Expectations - considered by many to be his finest novel.
• 1861. Prince Albert dies of typhoid fever aged 42.
• 1861-1865. American Civil War.
• 1865. American President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated.
• 1867. Disraeli introduces a law so that all taxpayers can now vote.
• 1868. Disraeli becomes Prime Minister for the first time but is only in post for several months - defeated in election.
• 1868. Last shipment of convicts from England to Australia.
• 1869. Suez Canal built by Ferdinand de Lesseps - ship journey to Australia and Far East cut dramatically.
• 1870. Charles Dickens dies - strain of doing public readings hastened his death aged 58.
• 1874. Disraeli becomes Prime minister for the second time and governs until 1880.
• 1875. Disraeli buys Suez Canal Shares, gaining a controlling interest for Britain.
• 1876. Disraeli gives the title Empress of India to Queen Victoria.
• 1877. Telephones become available, invented by Scottish scientist Alexander Graham Bell.
• 1877. Thomas Edison invents the phonograph - he records and plays back- “Mary had a little lamb”.
• 1879. Electric light-bulb invented by U.S inventor Thomas Edison.
• 1881. Benjamin Disraeli dies.
• 1885. First automobile built by Karl Benz.
• 1888. Jack the Ripper murders terrify East End of London.
• 1893. New Zealand is the first country to give women the right to vote.
• 1901. Queen Victoria dies.

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