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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1856 | - 1856—1856: End of Crimean War
- 29 January 1856—29 January 1856: Victoria Cross created by Royal Warrant, backdated to 1854 to recognise acts
during the Crimean War (first award ceremony 26 June 1857)
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| 2 | 1857 | - 1857—1857: Work starts on the laying of the Transatlantic cable
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| 3 | 1858 | - 1858—1858: 'The great stink' - smell of the River Thames forced Parliament to stop work
- 1858—1858: Royal Opera House opens in Covent Garden, London
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| 4 | 1859 | - 1859—1859: Peaceful picketing legalised in Britain
- 25 April 1859—25 April 1859: Work started on building the Suez canal (opened 17 Nov 1869)
- 4 May 1859—4 May 1859: Brunel's Royal Albert Bridge opened at Saltash giving rail link between Devon
and Cornwall
- 24 November 1859—24 November 1859: Charles Darwin publishes 'The Origin of Species'
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| 5 | 1860 | - 29 August 1860—29 August 1860: First tram service in Europe starts in Birkenhead
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| 6 | 1861 | - 25 May 1861—25 May 1861: American Civil War begins
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| 7 | 1862 | - 1862—1862: Lincoln issues first legal US paper money (Greenbacks)
- 20 April 1862—20 April 1862: First pasteurisation test completed by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard
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| 8 | 1863 | - 1863—1863: Football Association founded (UK)
- 1863—1863: Opening of state institution for criminally insane at Broadmoor, England
- 10 January 1863—10 January 1863: First section of the London Underground Railway opens
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| 9 | 1864 | - 1864—1864: A man-powered submarine, 'Hunley' sank a Federal steam ship USS Housatonic at the entrance to Charleston harbour in 1864 - the first recorded successful attack by a submarine on a surface ship
- 11 March 1864—11 March 1864: The Great Sheffield Flood - over 250 died when a new dam broke while it was being filled for the first time
- 20 August 1864—20 August 1864: Red Cross established - Twelve nations sign the First Geneva Convention
- 8 December 1864—8 December 1864: Clifton Suspension Bridge over the River Avon officially opened
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| 10 | 1865 | - 1865—1865: Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836-1917) becomes first woman doctor in England [she later became the first woman mayor in England, in Aldeburgh 1908]
- 1865—1865: First concrete roads built in Britain
- 14 April 1865—14 April 1865: End of American Civil War - slavery abolished in USA
- 14 April 1865—14 April 1865: Abraham Lincoln assassinated in Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth
- 5 July 1865—5 July 1865: William Booth (1829-1912) founds Salvation Army, in London
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| 11 | 1867 | - 1 July 1867—1 July 1867: The British North America Act takes effect, creating the Canadian Confederation
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| 12 | 1868 | - 1868—1868: Last convicts landed in Australia (Western Australia)
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| 13 | 1869 | - 1869—1869: Ball bearings, celluloid, margarine, and washing machines, all invented
- 23 November 1869—23 November 1869: Cutty Sark launched in Dumbarton
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| 14 | 1870 | - 1870—1870: GPO takes over the privately-owned Telegraph Companies (nationalised)
- 1870—1870: Dr Thomas Barnardo opens his first home for destitute children
- 1870—1870: Water closets come into wide use
- 1870—1870: Diamonds discovered in Kimberley, South Africa
- 1 October 1870—1 October 1870: First British postcard - halfpenny post
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| 15 | 1871 | - 27 March 1871—27 March 1871: First Rugby Football international, England v Scotland, played in Edinburgh
- 29 March 1871—29 March 1871: Opening of Royal Albert Hall, London
- 29 June 1871—29 June 1871: Trades Unions legalised in Britain, but picketing made illegal
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| 16 | 1872 | - 1872—1872: Licensing hours introduced
- 1872—1872: Penalties introduced for failing to register births, marriages & deaths (Eng & Wales)
- 4 December 1872—4 December 1872: American ship 'Mary Celeste' is found abandoned by the British brig 'Dei Gratia' in the Atlantic Ocean
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| 17 | 1874 | - 1874—1874: Factory Act introduces 56-hour week
- 5 April 1874—5 April 1874: Birkenhead Park opened, said to be the first civic public park in the world - features of it later copied in Central Park, New York
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| 18 | 1875 | - 1875—1875: London's main sewage system completed
- 1 January 1875—1 January 1875: Midland Railway abolishes Second Class passenger facilities, leaving First Class and Third Class. Other British railway companies followed during the rest of the year. (Third Class was renamed Second Class in 1956)
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| 19 | 1876 | - 14 February 1876—14 February 1876: Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray each file a patent for the telephone - Bell awarded the rights
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| 20 | 1877 | - 1877—1877: Edison invents microphone and phonograph
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| 21 | 1878 | - 1878—1878: Edison & Swan invent electric lamp
- 1878—1878: Red Flag Act in Britain limits mechanical road vehicles to 4mph
- 1878—1878: CID established at New Scotland Yard
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| 22 | 1879 | - 18 September 1879—18 September 1879: Blackpool illuminations switched on for first time
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| 23 | 1880 | - 1880—1880: Education Act: schooling compulsory for 5-10 year olds
- 1880—1880: Mosquito found to be the carrier of malaria
- 2 August 1880—2 August 1880: Greenwich Mean Time adopted throughout UK
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| 24 | 1881 | - 1881—1881: Postal Orders introduced
- 1881—1881: Flogging abolished in Army and Royal Navy
- September 1881—September 1881: Godalming in Surrey became the first town in England to have a public electricity
supply installed (but in 1884 it reverted to gas lighting until 1904)
- 26 October 1881—26 October 1881: Gunfight at OK Corral
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| 25 | 1882 | - 1882—1882: Fourth Eddystone Lighthouse completed
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| 26 | 1883 | - 1883—1883: Statue of Liberty presented to USA by France
- 24 May 1883—24 May 1883: Brooklyn Bridge, New York opens (crosses East River)
- 1 August 1883—1 August 1883: Parcel post starts in Britain
- 27 August 1883—27 August 1883: Eruption of Krakatoa near Java - 30,000 killed by tidal wave
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| 27 | 1884 | - 31 May 1884—31 May 1884: John Harvey Kellogg patents corn flakes
- 13 October 1884—13 October 1884: Greenwich made prime meridian of the world
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| 28 | 1885 | - 1885—1885: Carl Benz builds the 'Motorwagen', a single-cylinder motor car
- 1885—1885: Gottlieb Daimler patents the world's first motorcycle
- 1885—1885: Eastman makes first coated photographic paper
- 1885—1885: Canadian Pacific Railway completed
- March 1885—March 1885: First UK cremation in modern times took place at Woking
- 5 September 1885—5 September 1885: The first train runs through the Severn Tunnel
- 29 September 1885—29 September 1885: First electric tramcar used at Blackpool
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| 29 | 1886 | - 20 January 1886—20 January 1886: Mersey railway (under Mersey) opened by Prince of Wales
- May 1886—May 1886: Pharmacist John Styth Pemberton invents a carbonated beverage later named 'Coca-Cola'
- 29 May 1886—29 May 1886: Putney Bridge opens in London
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| 30 | 1887 | - 1887—1887: Daimler produces a four-wheeled motor car
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| 31 | 1888 | - 1888—1888: Convention of Constantinople guarantees free maritime passage through Suez Canal in war and peace
- 1888—1888: Jack the Ripper active in east London during the latter half of the year
- 1888—1888: County Councils set up in Britain
- 1888—1888: Dunlop invents pneumatic tyre
- 1888—1888: First box camera - George Eastman registers the trademark Kodak, and receives a patent
for his camera which uses roll film
- 20 March 1888—20 March 1888: Football League formed
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| 32 | 1889 | - 1889—1889: Celluloid film produced
- 1889—1889: Dock Strike - docker's won their 'Docker's Tanner' 6 old pennies
- 31 March 1889—31 March 1889: Eiffel Tower completed (to mark centenary of French Revolution)
- 14 May 1889—14 May 1889: Children's charity NSPCC launched in London
- 3 June 1889—3 June 1889: Canadian Pacific Railway completed from coast to coast
- 28 September 1889—28 September 1889: Length of a metre defined
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| 33 | 1890 | - 4 March 1890—4 March 1890: Forth railway bridge opens - took six years to build
- 4 November 1890—4 November 1890: City & South London Railway opens - London's first deep-level tube railway
and first major railway in the world to use electric traction
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| 34 | 1891 | - 1891—1891: Primary education made free and compulsory
- 18 March 1891—18 March 1891: First telephone link between London & Paris
- 4 May 1891—4 May 1891: Fictional date when Sherlock Holmes throws Moriarty over Reichenbach Falls, then disappears for 3 years! (published in 1893)
- 24 August 1891—24 August 1891: Thomas Edison patents the motion picture camera
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| 35 | 1892 | - 1892—1892: Electric oven invented
- 1892—1892: Shop Hours Act - limit 74 hours per week for under-18's
- 6 October 1892—6 October 1892: Alfred Lord Tennyson dies, aged 83, at his house Aldworth, near Haslemere
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| 36 | 1893 | - 1893—1893: Henry Ford's first car
- 1893—1893: Zip fastener invented
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| 37 | 1894 | - 1894—1894: Picture postcard introduced in Britain
- 1 January 1894—1 January 1894: Manchester Ship Canal opens
- 1 March 1894—1 March 1894: Blackpool Tower opens
- 30 June 1894—30 June 1894: Tower Bridge first opens
- 2 August 1894—2 August 1894: Death duties first introduced in Britain
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| 38 | 1895 | - 1895—1895: Sir Henry Wood starts Promenade Concerts in London
- 12 January 1895—12 January 1895: The National Trust founded in England
- 24 May 1895—24 May 1895: Henry Irving becomes the first person from the theatre to be knighted
- 28 May 1895—28 May 1895: Oscar Wilde sent to prison
- 12 July 1895—12 July 1895: First recorded motor journey of any length (56 miles) in Britain
- 17 October 1895—17 October 1895: First people in Britain to be charged with motor offences - John Henry Knight and James Pullinger of Farnham, Surrey
- November 1895—November 1895: X-rays discovered
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| 39 | 1896 | - 5 April 1896—5 April 1896: First modern Olympic Games held in Athens
- 2 June 1896—2 June 1896: Guglielmo Marconi receives a British patent (later disputed) for the radio
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| 40 | 1897 | - 1897—1897: Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector
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1856 - 1897 (41 years) 
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