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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1831 | - 1831: 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: Swing' Riots in rural areas against the mechanization of agricultural activities. The new London Bridge is opened over the River Thames
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| 2 | 1832 | - 1832: 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
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| 3 | 1833 | - 1833: Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Empire. 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. Start of the Oxford Movement in the Anglican Church
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| 4 | 1834 | - 1834: 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: Parliament passes the Poor Law Act, establishing workhouses for the poor. Robert Owen founds the Grand National Consolidated Trade Union. The government acts against 'illegal oaths' in such unionism, rsulting in the Tolpuddle Martyrs being transported to Australia. Fire destroys the Palace of Westminster
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| 5 | 1835 | - 1835: Parliament passes the Municipal Reform Act, requiring members of town councils to be elected by ratepayers and councils to publish their financial accounts
- 1835: Commercial boom with 'little' railway mania across Britain starts and continues into 1836
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| 6 | 1837 | - 1837: Death of King William IV at Windsor. He is succeeded by his niece, Victoria. Births, deaths and marriages must be registered by law. Charles Dickens publishes 'Oliver Twist,' drawing attention to Britain's poor.
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| 7 | 1838 | - 1838: The Anti-Corn Law League is established. Publication of the People's Charter. The start of Chartism
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| 8 | 1839 | - 1839: Chartist Riots take place
- 1839: First use of 'OK' in print? (in Boston Morning Post)
- 1839: Fox Talbot produces photographs from negatives
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| 9 | 1840 | - 1840: Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The penny post is instituted
- 1840: There are reckoned to be 107 accountants in London
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| 10 | 1841 | - 1841: The first British Census recording the names of the populace is undertaken. The Tories come to power. Sir Robert Peel becomes Prime Minister
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| 11 | 1842 | - 1842: First Christmas card
- 1842: First UK public telegraph lines, from Paddington to Slough and Gosport to London
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| 12 | 1843 | - 1843: Alexander Bain (1818-1903) invented an early fax machine
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| 13 | 1844 | - 1844: Charles Darwin wrote, but didn't publish, an essay presaging the theory of the origin of species.
- 1844: Samuel Finley Breese Morse demonstrates a telegraph, using a code of his own invention
- 1844: Parliament passes the Bank Charter Act. Foundation of the Rochdale Co-Operative Society and the Royal Commission on the Health of Towns
- 1844: Two years of railway mania begins across Britain. Massive investment and speculation leads to the laying of 5,000 miles of track
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| 14 | 1845 | - 1845: Irish Potato Famine kills more than a million people in two years
- 1845: Engels publishes 'The Condition of the Working Class in England'
- 1845: There are reckoned to be 210 accountants in London
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| 15 | 1846 | - 1846: End of Sir Robert Peel's Ministry. Whigs come to Power. Repeal of the Corn Laws
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| 16 | 1847 | - 1847: Flourens discovered the anesthetic properties of chloroform
- 1847: Levi Strauss invents denim jeans
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| 17 | 1848 | - 1848: Major Chartist demonstration in London. Revolutions in Europe. Parliament passes the Public Health Act
- 1848: Karl Marx publishes 'The Communist Manifesto' and 'Das Kapital'
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| 18 | 1849 | - 1849: Howe patents the safety-pin
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| 19 | 1850 | - 1850: 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: First machine-made paper bag
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| 20 | 1851 | - 1851: The Great Exhibition is staged in Hyde Park. Thanks to Prince Albert, it is a great success
- 1851: Patent for Singer sewing machine issued
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| 21 | 1852 | - 1852: Death of the Duke of Wellington. Derby's first minority Conservative government. Aberdeen's coalition government is established
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| 22 | 1853 | - 1853: Potato crisps invented by a cook named George Crum.
- 1853: Florence Nightingale first recommended the regimen of cleanliness which dramatically reduced the death rate in hospitals
- 1853: Vaccination against smallpox is made compulsory. Queen Victoria uses chloroform during birth of Prince Leopold. Gladstone presents his first budget
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| 23 | 1854 | - 1854: The Northcote-Trevelyan civil service report is published; and The Crimean War begins, as Britain and France attempt to defend European interests in the Middle East against Russia
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| 24 | 1855 | - 1855: John Snow, investigating London's piped water supply, showed graphically that cholera could be transmitted by water from a particular pump.
- 1855: End of Aberdeen's coalition government. Palmerston's first government comes to power
- 1855: Yale lock invented
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| 25 | 1856 | - 1856: Crimean War comes to an end. The Victoria Cross is instituted for military bravery
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| 26 | 1857 | - 1857: Cyrus Field made his first attempt at laying a trans-Atlantic telegraph cable. In 1866, his fourth attempt was successful.
- 1857: The Second Opium War opens China to European trade. The Indian Mutiny erupts against British Rule on the sub-continent
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| 27 | 1858 | - 1858: Derby establishes his second minority government. Parliament passes the India Act
- 1858: Eraser fitted to end of pencil
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| 28 | 1859 | - 1859: Darwin in 'On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life', asserted all life had a common ancestor and that the origin of species was natural selection
- 1859: End of Derby's second minority government. Palmerston brings his second Liberal government to power.
- 1859: Smiles' 'Self-Help' published
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| 29 | 1860 | - 1860: Joseph Wilson Swan invented the light bulb, an incandescent lamp using a carbon filament.
- 1860: Gladstone's budget and the Anglo-French Cobden Treaty codifies and extends the principles of free trade
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| 30 | 1861 | - 1861: Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis published his deduction that childbirth fever was transmitted on the hands of doctors during their examinations
- 1861: Death of Prince Albert, Prince Consort
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1831 - 1861 (29 years)