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American Declaration of Independence
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Edmund Cartwright patents a power loom
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French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
(which says nothing about slaves or women) -
Tom Paine’s The Rights of Man is published
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First steam locomotive is operating at Pennydarren, Wales
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Luddite riots destroy machines in factories
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George Stephenson begins a rail service from London to Liverpool
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Chartism, a working-class movement for male voting and other rights
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Abolition of slavery in the British Empire
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Great Western is launched in Britain,
the frst steamship built for ocean voyages -
Meiji (‘enlightened rule’) Restoration in Japan; feudalism is abandoned and capitalism embraced
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German unifcation after the Franco-Prussian War leading to Germany’s rise as an imperial power
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Brooklyn Bridge, New York, is opened\
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USA wins Spanish–American War and takes control of Guam, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and (for a time) Cuba
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Guglielmo Marconi invents the wireless (radio)
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The frst Zeppelin airship is built
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Russo-Japanese War; Japan defeats Russia