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Victoria becomes queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Victoria served as the queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 until 1901. In 1876 she also became empress of India. During her reign the English monarchy took on its modern ceremonial character. -
Charles Dickens publishes Oliver Twist in periodical form.
Charles Dickens created an astonishing collection of literary masterpieces each of which tightly grasped the attention of the audience.Oliver Twist was begun in February 1837 and continued as monthly.Dickens originally titled the novel Oliver Twist: The Parish Boy’s Progress but it has since been shorten to simply Oliver Twist. Dickens finished writing the novel in the London, The novel falls into the genre of a children’s detective story but the novel also contains an aspect of social protes -
William Wordsworth becomes poet laureate.
Then, in 1843, after the death of Robert Southey Wordsworth became Poet Laureate. He originally refused the post due to his advanced age but the Prime Minister, Robert Peel, assured him that no duties would be expected. -
Alfred, Lord Tennyson becomes a poet laureate.
English poet often regarded as the chief representative of the Victorian age in poetry. Tennyson succeeded Wordsworth as Poet Laureate in 1850. -
Japan opens trade to the West.
The opening of Japan to the West by Commodore Matthew C. Perry, U.S.N., profoundly affected the American imagination. In the summer of 1853, Perry presented Japanese ministers with a letter from President Fillmore seeking friendly relations; in 1854 the Treaty of Kanagawa confirmed the gesture. -
The U.S. Civil War begins.
In April 12, 1861 the American Civil War began. This skirmish at Charleston’s Fort Sumter, then one of only two forts in the Southern states that had seceded still under federal jurisdiction, was brief and ended on April 14 with the an evacuation of federal troops and rebel Confederate victory. The photograph below shows Fort Sumter on April 14, 1861, flying the Confederate flag. -
In France, Victor Hugo publishes Les Miserables.
Les Misérables first published in 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century.Les Misérables is a melodramatic novel written from the premise that any man can rise above his circumstances to reach perfection. -
Lewis Carroll publishes Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
The Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman and photographer.
His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass as well as the poems "The Hunting of the Snark" and "Jabberwocky", all considered to be within the genre of literary nonsense. -
Mohandas K. Gandhi is born in India.
Gandhi was born 2 October 1869, in Porbandar, in the western part of India, to Karamchand Gandhi, chief minister of Porbandar, and his wife Putlibai, a devout Hindu. -
Thomas Edison invents the incandescent lamp.
Thomas Alva Edison invented a carbon filament that burned for forty hours. Edison placed his filament in an oxygenless bulb.Edison evolved his designs for the lightbulb based on the 1875 patent he purchased from inventors, Henry Woodward and Matthew Evans.
