Timeline of the Avengers' 1888 story

The VICTORIAN ERA

The year 1888 (MDCCCLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. In Germany, 1888 is known as the Year of Three Emperors and is also a secret code to mean Adolf Hitler Heil Hitler (1=A, 8=H). Currently, it is the year that, when written in Roman numerals, has the most digits (13). This record will not be equalled until 2388 (MMCCCLXXXVIII).

VICTORIAN ERA: 1837-1901

Reign of Queen Victoria

CURRENT

ISSUE #7, as of 1/28/08

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October, '88

8th

Giza Plateau, Egypt: Following a narrow escape from tons of falling rock in America the Avengers recieve a telegram from Commander Dee directing them to an issue above the Great Pyramids at the site of another of the Mehir standing stones and "invasion" pit that splits the Causeway between the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid on the plateau.

There the Avengers are directed into a trap unknowingly by their teammate Argonaut! As the Avengers uncover a massive Egyptian Terracotta Growing Warriors beneath the Sphinx's paws - Thor accidentally activates part of the army that begins to attack. Meanwhile in the distance a figure looks down on them from the pyramids...

Following the Causeway tunnel from beneath the Great Sphinx's paws toward the Great Pyramid of Rama-Tut, the Avengers find their teammate, Marshal America trapped within the tomb below. Uncovering him they learn that a mysterious stranger calls out to them from a mechanical device left within the tomb - KANG the Conqueror has triggered this deathtrap for these accursed Avengers!! As three portals open, and a green gas begins to flood the tomb as the team is sealed in FOREVER!!

Fighting for their lives the Avengers defeat the time-ported villain accomplises of: Merlin the Magician, Attila the Hun, and a Tyrannosaurus Rex!! Taking trophies and solving clues left by the madman the Avengers escape learning of the hidden portal into "Limbo" from which the Either Phantom hails - a place that the time-controlling villain Kang has mastered...

Tombstone, AZ, USA: Having travelled to the Americas via Dr. Estrange's eldritch conduit the Avengers tend to the Mehir stone and first meet John Henry and Thor, Odinson.

5th

BROADSHEET Daily Trumpet Issue #4: HEADLINE - " ??? "

September, '88

30th

London, England: Following an ugly autopsy, pealing the young frenchman from the leathered mechanics of his theiving identity of "Mr. Scorp", it was determined that Carmine Black is the forth victim (third found) of London's Ripper. Mr. Black was killed Sunday, September 30, 1888. Scotland Yard notes that Carmine had reported ties to the french owned company Maxim-Nordenfelt Guns, Ammunition Industry Munitions having worked for the dockyards within the East India Docks, a small group of Docks in the Blackwall area of East London, just north of the Isle of Dogs.

Artist's rendering of the Ripper

London, England: Mark Scarlotti (aka. Whiplash) was killed on earlier on Sunday evening, September 30, 1888, on the same day as the next victim (Carmine Black). Scarlotti, originally a babbage engine technician who began his work at Starkweather Industries, and most recently at the Hammer Industries organization of Surrey, England. Scotland Yard notes that following a background check it is revealed that Scarlotti had been relieved of his job at Hammer Industries, having been diagnosed as manic-depressive by prison psychiatrists following a bout with theft. He had been reported as attempting to reform, but his manic nature lead him back to his alter-ego armored criminal identity of "Whiplash".

15-30th

The journey into the darkest Africa, Wakanda lies on the horizon...

Freetown, Africa: Acting on request from Lord Gyrich the Avengers (consisting of Marshal America, Argonaut and new comer the Bush Ranger) escort Mr. Ronald Pershing into the heart of Africa. They move toward the English protectorate of Wakanda to deliever the sound enthusiast to find a source of the fabled metal "Vibranium". It is at this time that the Wrecking Crew is born as well as Pershing himself seemingly being destroyed in a blast of sonics...
The Avengers request that T'chaka tribal chief of the Panthers of Wakanda construct a prison of the mythic metal to hold the newly empowered criminal Men of Renown until such a time that the Empire might bring them into custody...

15th

BROADSHEET Daily Trumpet Issue #3: HEADLINE - " AVENGERS ASSEMBLED - But not soon enough?"

Isle of Wight, England: The Avengers foil the Invasion from the Center of the Earth, forcing the Crown Chief of the Magma-Men to flee back into the pit as the grounds of the Isle of Wight cooled.

9th

BROADSHEET Daily Trumpet Issue #2: HEADLINE - "RIPPER - Red Light Killings too much for the Police?"

8th

London, England: the dead body of Alexander Gentry (known for the development of his Maxim "Quill" armored plate) is found. Gentry, a former prototype developer from the Maxim-Nordenfelt Guns, Ammunition Industry Munitions (office at 32 Victoria Street SW, London) is considered to be the second victim of the Ripper.

England: the first 6 Football League matches ever were played.

7th

???, a 200 meter cylindric hole appears at ???. (Hole #8)

6th

Charles Turner becomes the first cricket bowler to take 250 wickets in an English season - a feat since accomplished only by Tom Richardson (twice), J.T. Hearne, Wilfred Rhodes (twice) and Tich Freeman (six times).

5th

???, a 200 meter cylindric hole appears at ???. (Hole #7)

4th

George Eastman registers the trademark Kodak, and receives a patent for his camera which uses roll film.

3rd

???, a 200 meter cylindric hole appears at ???. (Hole #6)

1st

???, a 200 meter cylindric hole appears at ???. (Hole #5)

August, '88

31th

London, England: The newly gathered "AVENGERS" meet for the first time as they travel westward by rail to the Isle of Wight to investigate the massive trench that has swallowed the Queen's summer house. ROSTER: Marshal America, the Wasp, Agronaut.

London, England: Wilbur Day (aka. "London Tower", known petty theif) auxiliary mechanical engineer of The Society for the Advancement of Intelligentĭa and Mechanisms (A.I.M.) is murdered. He is the first of the Ripper's victims.

Osbourne House, Isle of Wight

BROADSHEET Daily Trumpet Issue #5: HEADLINE - " MENACE to MANKIND! An unknowable Spyder-man haunts the city"

30th

???, a 200 meter cylindric hole appears at ???. (Hole #4)

29th

Queen Victoria sends letter to her would be Avengers, inviting them to become Her Majesty's Men.

27th

???, a 200 meter cylindric hole appears at ???. (Hole #3)

25th

Isle of Wight, England: a 200 meter cylindric hole appears on the Isle of Wight off the coast of England. The hole swallows half of the Osbourne House mansion, a favorite summer home of Queen Victoria. The land and sea surrounding the House begins to bubble and boil becoming near volcanic - expanding at a rate of about 2 miles radius every 24 hours!! (Hole #2)

23rd

Tombstone, AZ

Tombstone, Arizona, USA, a 200 meter cylindric hole appears roughly five miles outside the wild western town of Tombstone, AZ. The hole causes problems for the Southern Pacific Railroad company lines through the nearby canyons. (Hole #1)

June, '88

29th

Handel's Israel in Egypt is recorded onto wax cylinder at The Crystal Palace, it being the earliest known recording of classical music.

3rd

Casey at the Bat published

March, '88

22nd

The Football League is formed

11th

The "Great Blizzard of '88" begins along the eastern seaboard of the United States, shutting down commerce and killing more than 400.

February, '88

27th

West Orange, New Jersey, USA: Thomas Edison meets with Eadweard Muybridge who proposes a scheme for sound film.

January, '88

27th

Washington, DC, USA: the National Geographic Society is founded.

12th

Dakota Territory, USA: Blizzards (Schoolhouse Blizzard) hit the states of Montana, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas, with 235 dead, many of whom were children on their way home from school.

3rd

The 91-centimeter telescope is first used at Lick Observatory.

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1888

London, England: Unsolved London murders of nefarious mechnaized-armored men of renown by "Jack the Ripper."

George Eastman sells the first roll-film camera, the Kodak

Founding of The Star (absorbed by The Evening News in 1960).

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1887

Frank Julian Sprague develops the electric streetcar

1886

New York, NY, USA: Statue of Liberty dedicated in New York harbor

1884

Lewis E. Waterman develops the “fountain pen”

1883

New York, NY, USA: Brooklyn Bridge opens in New York City

1882

Workers parade in New York City, first Labor Day

1879

Thomas Edison develops the incandescent light bulb

Utica, NY, USA:Woolworth opens first five-and-ten store.

1877

Thomas Edison develops the phonograph

1876

Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia celebrates American independence

Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone

Little Big Horn, MT, USA:General Custer’s Last Stand.

National League Baseball founded

1872

Congress establishes first national park at Yellowstone

1871

Chicago, IL, USA: The Great Chicago Fire

1869

Utah, USA: Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads meet at Promontory Point; first transcontinental railroad

1868

President Andrew Johnson impeached by House; acquitted by Senate

1867

U.S. purchases Alaska for $7.2 million

1865

President Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater; Andrew Johnson becomes President

13th Amendment ratified (Slavery abolished)

1862

Homestead Act grants free family farms to settlers

1861-65

American Civil War

1858-78

Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux build New York’s Central Park, which becomes a model for city parks.

1838

Samuel F.B. Morse invents the telegraph

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THE FUTURE!!

1888

December 23 - During a bout of mental illness, Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh infamously cuts off the lower part of his own left ear and gives it to a prostitute.

November 9 - In London, England, the dead body of Mary Jane Kelly is found. She is considered to be the fifth, and last, of Jack the Ripper's victims. A number of similar murders in England follow, but the police attribute them to copy-cat killers.

November 6 - The U.S. presidential election, 1888. United States Democratic Party incumbent Grover Cleveland wins the popular vote, but loses the U.S. Electoral College vote to United States Republican Party challenger Benjamin Harrison, therefore losing the election.

October 14 - Louis Le Prince films the first motion picture: Roundhay Garden Scene in Roundhay, Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK. Followed by his movie Leeds Bridge.

October 9 - The Washington Monument officially opens to the general public.

September 30 - In London, the bodies of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes are found. They are generally considered Jack the Ripper's third and fourth victim respectively.

1892

Ellis Island opens to receive immigrants

1893

First World’s Fair in Chicago

1894

Edison’s kinetoscope (motion pictures) given first public showing

1898

USS Maine destroyed in Havana in February, sparking the Spanish-American war; ends in December with the Treaty of Paris

Hawaii annexed

1899

U.S. declares Open Door Policy; opens trade with China

1900

U.S. helps quell Boxer Rebellion in China

1901

President McKinley assassinated by Leon Czolgosz;

Theodore Roosevelt becomes President

1903

Wright Brothers make first flight at Kitty Hawk, NC

1906

San Francisco earthquake kills 503

1908

Ford Model T available for $850

1909

Robert Peary claims to have reached North Pole

1910

Boy Scouts founded

1911

Mother’s Day becomes a U.S. holiday

First transcontinental airplane flight

1912

R.M.S. Titanic sinks in North Atlantic after hitting iceberg

Girl Scouts founded

1913

Father’s Day becomes a U.S. holiday

1914-1918

World War I, ending with the Treaty of Versailles

1914

Panama Canal opens

1915

First transcontinental telephone call

1916

Pershing enters Mexico to pursue Pancho Villa, who had raided border areas

1917

U.S. enters World War I, following Germany’s declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare

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WORKING

1819—Victoria is born. 1826—First photograph taken by Joseph Nicophore Niepce. 1829—Catholic Emancipation, ends most restrictions on Catholic civil rights, property ownership, & public service. 1832—Great Reform Act. 1834—Slavery banned in British colonies. 1837–67—Isambard Kingdom Brunel builds London to Bristol railway for the Great Western Railway. 1837—Victoria succeeds uncle, William IV, at age 18.

           Dickens’s Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist.

1837–67—Construction of neo-Gothic Houses of Parliament. 1838—Dickens’s Nicholas Nickleby. 1840—Victoria marries first cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, will have nine children.

           Penny postage insituted.
           Dickens’s Old Curiosity Shop.

1842—Founding of Mudie’s Library by Charles Mudie. 1843—Carlyle’s Past and Present.

           Dickens's A Christmas Carol.
           First volume of Ruskin’s Modern Painters.

1844—Irish potato famine begins. 1845—Brunel builds the S. S. Great Britain, the first propeller-driven steamship. 1846—Repeal of Corn Laws, beginning era of free trade.

           Dickens’s Dombey & Son.

1847—Ten Hours Act restricts working hours of children in factories.

           Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. 
           Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.

1848—Founding of Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

           Marx and Engels, Communist Manifesto.

1849—Dickens’s David Copperfield. 1850—First British Public Library Act, permitting the establishment of public libraries.

         Tennyson named Poet Laureate. 
           Dickens’s Household Words started.

1851—First telegraph cable laid across the English Channel.

           Invention of instantaneous photography by William Fox Talbot.
           First cigarettes sold in Britain.
           Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace.
           Half of population of Great Britain lives in cities.
           London population grows from 1.1 million in 1801 to 2.7 million; reaches 6.6 million in 1901.
           Dickens’s Bleak House.

1852—Opening of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

           Last duel fought in England at Priest Hill, Surrey (duels had been outlawed in 1840s).

1853—Livingstone discovers Victoria Falls. 1853–56—Crimean War. 1854—Florence Nightingale goes to Crimea and organizes nursing during the war.

           Cigarettes introduced into Britain. 
           Dickens’s Hard Times .

1855—Balmoral Castle completed.

           Newspaper stamp tax abolished.
           Dickens’s Little Dorrit .

1856—Henry Bessemer invents blast furnace, permitting mass production of steel. 1857—Founding of National Portrait Gallery.

           First telegraph cable laid across the Atlantic.
           Matrimonial Causes Act permits divorce for adultery (but women could not petition until 1923).
           Suppression of Indian mutiny against British rule in India.

1858—Government of India transferred to the Crown.

           Big Ben bell cast (April 10).
         John Speke discovers Lake Victoria.
           Launching of Brunel ’ s Great Eastern, largest ship yet built.

1859—Big Ben enters service (May 31).

           First women admitted to Royal Academy schools.
           Darwin’s Origin of the Species.
           Dickens’s Tale of Two Cities.

1860—Introduction of trams into England (August 30).

           Dickens’s Great Expectations.
           Nightingale publishes first definitive textbooks on nursing.

1861—Death of Prince Albert of typhoid fever at age 42.

           Founding of Morris’s design firm.

1862—Speke & Grant discover sources of the river Nile. 1863–65—Construction of St. Pancras train station. 1863–72—Construction of Albert Memorial. 1863—First underground railway, Metropolitan Railway in London between Paddington & Farringdon St. (opens Jan. 10).

           Marriage of Prince of Wales (Bertie, later King Edward VII) and Alexandra (March 10).
           Broadmoor criminal lunatic asylum opened (May 27).

1864—Cafe Royal founded in London (bombed in 1940).

           Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend.

1865—Founding of Salvation Army by William Booth (July 2).

           Joseph Bazalgette c ompletes metropolitan drainage system in London (began 1855).
           National Association for Women’s Suffrage formed in Manchester; no voting rights until 1918.
           Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.

1866—First Atlantic telegraph cable successfully laid by the SS Great Eastern (completed September 7).

           Swinburne’s Poems and Ballads.

1867–71—Construction of Royal Albert Hall. 1867—Second Reform Act, extending vote to tax-paying males of the urban working class. 1868—Disraeli becomes Prime Minister; defeated within several months in election.

           Last public execution (May 26); public hangings stopped because caused crime among spectators.
           Last shipment of convicts from England to Australia.
           Metropolitan District Railway between Mansion House and South Kensington opens in London .

1869—Ferdinand de Lesseps builds Suez Canal, dramatically cutting journey to & from Australia & Far East. 1870—Education Act, compulsory primary education until the age of 11.

           A 1p ($1) fee per day for the schooling.
           Married Women’s Property Act gives women the right to earn and keep money for their own use.

1871—Institution of practice of photographing prisoners (November 2).

           Publication completed of Encyclopedia Britannica (began 1768).
           Opening of Royal Albert Hall (March 29).

1872—Secret ballot made compulsory; G. Eliot’s Middlemarch . 1874—Disraeli becomes Prime Minister for second time, governs until 1880. 1875—First intelligible telephone communication made by Bell (June 5).

           Disraeli buys Britain controlling interest in Suez Canal.

1876—Victoria named Empress of India. 1877—Founding of Truth magazine.

         Telephones, invented by Scottish scientist Alexander Graham Bell, become available.
           American Thomas Edison invents the phonograph, recording "Mary had a little lamb."

1878—First electric street lighting in London.

           Whistler vs. Ruskin Trial.

1879—Edison invents the electric light bulb. 1880—St. James’s Gazette begins publication (absorbed by the Evening Standard in 1905).

           First telephone directory issued in Britain (January 15).

1881—Founding of TitBits periodical by George Newnes.

           Electric light first used domestically.
           First electric power station in England opened at Goldalming.

1883—Expansion of Married Women’s Property Act.

           Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island.

1884—Third Reform Act, extending voting rights to agricultural workers.

           Term “Industrial Revolution,” for the period of 1760 to 1840, coined by Arnold Toynbee.
           Completion of Revised Version of the Bible.

1885—Karl Benz invents the first automobile. 1885–89—Founding of the Men’s and Women’s Club 1886–89—Anatole Baju’s journal Le Décadent. 1887—Golden Jubilee, celebration of 50th anniversary of Victoria’s reign.

           Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet, the first Sherlock Holmes story.

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1889—Founding of Women’s Franchise League by Emmeline Pankhurst.

           Arthur Symons’s Days and Nights.

1890—Sir James Frazer’s The Golden Bough.

           First electric underground public railway line opens December 18: City & South London Railway between King                              William St. & Stockwell).
           First comic book, Comic Cuts.

1891—Completion of New Scotland Yard by Norman Shaw.

           Founding of the Romanes Lectures at Oxford University by George Romanes.
           Kelmscott Press founded by William Morris.
           Electrification of trams in England began in Leeds.
           Education made free for every child.
           Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray, Salome, “The Critic as Artist,” and “Soul of Man Under Socialism.”

1892—Founding of The Westminster Gazette (absorbed by The Daily News in 1928).

           Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan.
           Symons’s Silhouettes .

1893—Wilde’s A Woman of No Importance.

           George Egerton’s Keynotes.
           Arthur Wing Pinero’s Second Mrs.  Tanqueray, starring Mrs. Patrick Campbell.
           Aubrey Beardsley’s Le Morte Darthur.
           Wilde’s Salome banned in London (staged in Paris in 1896).
           New Zealand becomes first country to give women the right to vote. 

1894–97—The Yellow Book. 1894—Egerton’s Discords.

           Publication of Wilde’s Salome in English, with Beardsley’s illustrations.

1895—Founding of the London Promenade Concerts by Sir Henry Wood (October 6).

           Wireless telegraphy brought about by Marconi.
           Wilde’s The Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest .
           The three Wilde trials.
           Symons’s London Nights.

1896—Marconi patented wireless telegraphy (June 2).

           Speed limit for cars was increased from 4 to 20 mph.
           The Savoy ( January–September).

1897—Official opening of the Tate Gallery, founded by Sir Henry Tate (July 21).

           Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

1899—Symons’s Images of Good and Evil. 1901—Death of Queen Victoria at age 82 (January 22, 6:30 am).

           Population of London reaches 6.6 million.

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   *  June 20, 1819 The Savannah becomes the  first steamship  to cross the Atlantic as it arrives in Liverpool from Georgia.
   * January 29, 1820 Prince Regent George IV becomes king after his father's death.
   * July 2 1820 Napoleon dies at 51 at St. Helena.
   * September 26, 1820 US frontiersman Daniel Boone dies.
   * December 6, 1820 James Monroe is re-elected as President of the United States.
   * January 15, 1821 Britain Claims the Gold Coast of Africa as a colony.
   * August 12 1822 Britain's foreign secretary Lord Castlereagh, commits suicide at his home in Kent.
   * July 14, 1823 King Kamehama II and Queen Kamamalu of Hawaii die from the measles while visiting Britain.
   * February 1824 War breaks out between Britain and Burma after Burmese occupation of parts of British controlled India.
   * 1824 The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is founded in Britain.
   * February 9, 1825 John Quincy Adams is named President of the United States after a two month delay.
   * September 27, 1825 The first steam railroad begins operation in England between Stockton and Darlington.
   * 1825 Joseph Smith founds the Mormon Church in Fayette, New York.
   * February 1826 The British defeat Burma for control of India.
   * July 4, 1826 On the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, former presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both die.
   * February 1827 The tradition of the Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) is begun in New Orleans, Louisiana  in the United States.
   * March 29, 1827 Beethoven dies in Vienna, Austria at the age of 56.
   * February, 1827 Lord Liverpool, British Prime Minister, resigns after 15 years in office due to a stroke.
   * April 21, 1828 Noah Webster publishes his American Dictionary of the English Language in the United States.
   * December 3, 1828 Andrew Jackson is elected president of the United States.
   * 1829 London forms it's first police force, introduced by Robert Peel of Ireland.
   * 1829 Britain bans the practice of widows in India burning themselves to death on the funeral pyres of their deceased husbands.

The 1830's

   * June 30, 1830 William IV succeeds his deceased brother, George IV, as king of England.
   * June 1832 4000 people die of Cholera in New York City
   * December 5, 1832 President Andrew Jackson is re-elected in the United States.
   * 1833 New laws are enacted in London limiting the hours that a teenager can be forced to work to 12 hours a day.
   * 1833 Britain claims the Falkland Islands, formerly claimed but never occupied by Argentina.
   * August 1, 1834 Slavery is abolished in Britain.
   * December, 1834 Madame Tussaud opens her wax museum in London.
   * January 30, 1835 President Andrew Jackson escapes an assassination attempt when the assailant's guns misfire.
   * March 6 1836  A Mexican army led by Santa Anna takes the Alamo fort in Texas and massacres all 187 of its defenders, including Davy Crockett and Sam Bowie.
   * June 20, 1837 On the death of her uncle, William IV, Victoria becomes Queen of Great Britain and Ireland.
   * December 7, 1836 Martin Van Buren, a New York City lawyer is elected President of the United States.
   * 1837 Charles Dickens publishes Oliver Twist.
   * 1838 British forces head across the seas to quell the uprising in the British Territory of Canada.
   * 1839 Riots by former slave-owning sugar planters in Jamaica force a showdown between PM Robert Peel and Queen Victoria. The queen is triumphant and order is restored.

The 1840's

   * February 6, 1840 Britain claims New Zealand as a colony to head off proposed French settlements.
   * February 10, 1840 Queen Victoria marries her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
   * June, 1840 Britain and China begin the Opium Wars after China bans the lucrative British practice of opium trade.
   * July 23, 1840 Canada is granted partial independence from Britain in an effort to prevent American expansion into the territory.
   * April 4, 1841 US President William Henry Harrison dies in office from pneumonia. VP John Tyler becomes president.
   * December 1841 War begins in Afghanistan as the population tries to overthrow British rule.
   * August 1842 The Opium Wars between Britain and China end as China cedes Hong Kong and opens Chinese ports for trade.
   * 1842 Afghanistan defeats the British and reclaim their country.
   * 1843 Britain claims the former Boer republic of Natal as a   British colony.
   * March 4 1845 James K. Polk becomes the 11th president of the United States.
   * 1845 Blight strikes the potato crop in Ireland and serious famine develops.
   * May 13, 1846 The United States declares war on Mexico.
   * September 14, 1847 The United States wins the war with Mexico as the US captures Mexico City.
   * November 7, 1848 Zachary Taylor is elected President of the United States.
   * October 3, 1849 American author Edgar Allen Poe dies from alcohol poisoning in Baltimore, Maryland.

The 1850's

   * July 10, 1850 Millard Filmore becomes President of the United States upon the death of Zachary Taylor.
   * May 1, 1851 Queen Victoria opens the Great Exhibition at The Crystal Palace in London's Hyde Park.
   * November 2, 1852 Franklin Pierce is elected President of the United States.
   * November 17, 1855  The breathtaking waterfalls discovered by David Livingstone in Africa are named Victoria Falls in honor of the queen.
   * November 1, 1856 Britain declares war on Persia in response to it's invasion of Afghanistan.
   * November 4, 1856 James Buchanan is elected President of the United States.
   * May 1857 India revolts against British rule, seize Delhi and kill many Britons.
   * September 21, 1857 The British storm and retake Delhi in India incurring 1200 British casualties in the process.
   * November 1, 1858 Queen Victoria is crowned Empress of India.
   * November 30, 1859 Charles Darwin publishes his book on evolution called Origin of the Species questioning the theory of  creationism.

The 1860's

   * November 6, 1860 Abraham Lincoln is elected President of the United States.
   * August 5, 1861 In order to fund the Civil War, President Lincoln enacts the first nationwide income tax.
   * December 14, 1861 Queen Victoria is devastated by the death of her husband Albert from typhoid fever and begins a lifetime of mourning.
   * April 13, 1861 The first shots of the American Civil War are fired at Fort Sumter in South Carolina.
   * September 22, 1862 President Lincoln declares that all slaves are to be free as of January1, 1863.
   * October 3, 1863 President Lincoln declares the holiday of Thanksgiving, to be celebrated on the last Thursday of November.
   * January 10, 1863 The world's first subway system opens in London after 3 years of construction.
   * November 8, 1864 President Lincoln is re-elected President of the United States.
   * 1865 Charles Lutwidge Dodgson publishes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland under the pen-name of Lewis Carroll.
   * April 9, 1865 Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders to the Union's Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox ending the Civil War.
   * April 15, 1865 President Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Fords Theatre. He is succeeded by Andrew Johnson.
   * July 27, 1866 A trans-Atlantic telegraph cable is laid beneath the seas between Newfoundland and Ireland. It is 2500 miles long.
   * May 26, 1868 President Andrew Johnson escapes impeachment by one vote for failure to accept the First Reconstruction act, inflammatory speeches, and dismissing his Secretary of State, Edwin Stanton. He is even implicated in the conspiracy to murder Abraham Lincoln.
   * November 3, 1868 Ulysses S. Grant is elected President of the United States.

The 1870's

   * June 9, 1870 Charles Dickens dies at his home in Kent at the age of 58.
   * October 9, 1871 A massive fire, believed started by Mrs. O'Leary's cow kills 300 people, leaves an additional 90,000 homeless and causes $200 million in damages in Chicago.
   * November 5, 1872 Ulysses S. Grant is re-elected as President of The United States.
   * October, 1874 Britain annexes the Fiji Islands.
   * May 17, 1875 The first Kentucky Derby is held at Louisville, Kentucky.
   * August 25, 1875 Mathew Webb is the first man to swim the English Channel, 40 miles in 22 hours.
   *
   * 1876 Mark Twain publishes The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, a novel based on his own childhood.
   *  June 25, 1876 General George Custer is killed by Sioux Indians at Little Big Horn in the territory of Dakota.
   * March 3, 1877 Rutherford B. Hayes finally takes the office of President of the United States after 4 months of contested election results.
   * 1878 With it's motto, "Through Blood and Fire", the Salvation Army is founded in London by William Booth.

The 1880's

   * November 2, 1880 James A. Garfield is elected President of the United States.
   * July 2, 1881 President Garfield is wounded in an assassination attempt.
   * September 19, 1881 President Garfield succumbs to infections brought on by surgical attempts to remove the bullet from an assassination attempt. Chester A. Arthur becomes President.
   * 1882 The second Married Women's Property Act is passes allowing women to own property after divorce.
   * January, 1883 Britain takes complete control of Egypt.
   * March 4, 1885 Grover Cleveland takes office as President of the United States.
   * June 20, 1887 Queen Victoria meets Annie Oakley, the famous American markswoman.
   * 1887 Britain establishes the colony of Nigeria in Africa.
   * 1887 Queen Victoria celebrates the Jubilee Thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey. She begins to come out of the perpetual mourning of her late husband, Albert.
   * November 6, 1888 Benjamin Harrison is elected President of the United States.

The 1890's

   * 1890 The longest railway bridge in the world is opened across Scotland and measures 1700' in length.
   * July 1, 1890 Queen Victoria presents Mount Kilimanjaro in East Africa to Germany in exchange for the island of Zanzibar.
   * June 1891 Edward, the Prince of Wales and oldest son of Queen Victoria testifies for the prosecution in a gambling case and causes a scandal.
   * 1891 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle publishes his book, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes".
   * November 8, 1892 Grover Cleveland is re-elected President of the United States.
   * January, 1894 Britain takes Zimbabwe by force to strengthen Britain's hold on Southern Africa.
   * May, 1895 Actor Oscar Wilde is sent to jail for homosexuality in London.
   * November 20, 1895 Queen Victoria presents bibles to three African Kings in a reception at Windsor Castle.
   * November 3, 1896 William McKinley is elected President of the United States.
   * 1896 The Daily Mail begins publication in Britain.
   * July 1897 Queen Victoria celebrates her Diamond Jubilee by gathering the heads of all British territories and protectorates at St. Paul's Cathedral.

The Turn of The Century

   * April 9, 1900 The Boers defeat the British at Kroonstadt in South Africa.
   * November 6, 1900 President William McKinley is re-elected in the United States.
   *

     January 22, 1901 Queen Victorian dies at the age of 81 on The Isle of Wight. Her eyesight was in serious decline, she suffered from insomnia and had rarely moved from a chair in months. She is succeeded by her son, Edward VII.

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1837 Queen Victoria ascends to the throne Charles Dickens published The Pickwick Papers and gained instant notariety 1838 Charles Dickens published Oliver Twist Brunel built the "Great Western, a paddle steamer. Made the Bristol/New York crossing in under 15 days. 1840 Queen Victorian married her cousin Prince Albert The Penny Post went into effect 1843 Charles Dickens publishes A Christmas Carol. Sold out completely in 6 days. 1844 The potato famine began in Ireland 1845 Brunel built the S. S. Great Britain, the first propeller driven steamship. 1849 Charles Dickens published David Copperfield. 1851 The Great Exhibition of 1851 was held at the Crystal Palace which was especially built to house this exhibition. Six million tickets sold. 1853 Crimean war breaks out 1854 Florence Nightgale goes to Crimea to organize the nursing during the war 1856 Crimean war ends 1859 Charles Dickens published A Tale of Two Cities which was based on the French Revolution of 1789 Brunel dies Charles Darwin published the controversial "Origin of the Species" 1860 Florence Nightgale published the first nursing textbooks Charles Dickens published Great Expectations, considered to be his best novel 1861 Prince Albert died from Typhoid fever at the age of 42 1867 Disraeli introduces a law giving voting rights to taxpayers. 1868 Disraeli became Prime Minister, at post only a few months Last shipment of criminals from England to Australia 1870 Charles Dickens dies 1874 Disraeli became Prime Minister for second time and governs until 1880 1875 Disraeli purchases Suez Canal shares gaining the controlling interest for Britain 1876 Disraeli gives the title "Empress of India" to Queen Victoria 1877 The telephone, the invention of Alexander Graham Bell, became available Thomas Edison invented the phonograph. First recording and playback was "Mary had a little lamb" 1879 The electric light bulb was invented by American Thomas Edison 1881 Disraeli died 1885 First automobile built by Karl Benz 1888 Jack the Ripper terrorized the East End of London 1893 New Zealand became first country to give women the right to vote 1901 Queen Victoria died

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1801 Castlereagh secures passage of the Act of Union, which unites Britain and Ireland; the British defeat Napolean's army of Egypt at Alexandria;

the Union Jack becomes the official flag of the United Kingdom

1807 Abolition of the slave trade throughout the British Empire

1808 The British under Wellington aid Portugal against France in the Peninsular War

1809 Lamarck publishes his theories of evolution in Zoological Philosophy

1812 Territorial disputes between the U.S. and Britain lead to the War of 1812;

1813 William Henry Harrison defeats the British at the Battle of the Thames

1814 The Treaty of Ghent ends the War of 1812 between the U.S. and Britain; Jane Austen,

1815 Battle of Waterloo

1817 Coleridge, Biographia Literaria

1818 Keats, Endymion. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (Text). Scott, Rob Roy

1819 Birth of Victoria

1829 Catholic Emancipation Act

1830 William IV succeeds George IV as king of England, Scotland, and Ireland

1832 The Reform Bill

1836 Dickens, Pickwick Papers(Text); Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Nature."(Text) Victorian Era

1837 William IV dies,

Accession of Queen Victoria age 18 (to 1901);

Britain refuses to grant more home rule in Canada which leads to the Rebellions of 1837

1838-1849 The Chartist Movement

1840 Shelley, A Defence of Poetry Macaulay, Lord Clive

1842 Mines Act of 1842;

1843 Wordsworth Poet Laureate

1845 Repeal of the Corn Laws

Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England

1845-1850 Famine in Ireland

1847 Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto(Text)

1849 Henry David Thoreau, "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience."

1850 Tennyson, In Memoriam Tennyson Poet Laureate

1852 Revolt in Burma

1854 The Crimean War;

Dickens, Hard Times

1856 The Treaty of Paris ends the Crimean War

1857 Sepoy or Indian Mutiny

Dickens, Little Dorrit

1858 Victoria proclaims permanent British rule of India

1859 Darwin, Origin of Species (Text)

1865 Lewis CarrolI, Alice in Wonderland(Text).

1867 Karl Marx, Das Kapital

The Second Reform Bill

1869 Tennyson, The Holy Grail and Other Poems.

1870 Education Act of 1870

1871 Darwin, Descent of Man(Text)

1873 Ashanti Revolt

1874 Benjamin Disraeli becomes the Conservative Prime Minister of Britain

1875 Public Health Act of 1875

1876 Victoria proclaimed Empress of India

1879 Zulu Wars

1884 The Third Reform Bill; Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn(Text)

1886 Britain makes Burma a province of India after winning the Anglo-Burma War;

1888 Kipling, Plain Tales from the Hills

1898 Britain obtains a 99 year lease for Hong Kong from China

1900 Boxer Rebellion

1899-1902 Boer War

1901 Death of Victoria age 81

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AGE OF WONDERS - "The IMPERIALS"