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Charles Dickens publishes Oliver Twist in periodical form.
The story is about an orphan, Oliver Twist, who endures a miserable existence in a workhouse and then is placed with an undertaker. He escapes and travels to London where he meets the Artful Dodger, leader of a gang of juvenile pickpockets. Naively unaware of their unlawful activities, Oliver is led to the lair of their elderly criminal trainer Fagin. -
Victoria becomes queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britian and Ireland
Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth son of King George III. Both the Duke of Kent and King George III died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne at the age of 18, after her father's three elder brothers had all died leaving no legitimate, surviving children. -
William Woodsworth becomes poet laureate
The post of Poet Laureate is a special honour awarded to a poet whose work is of national significance. The title comes from the laurels with which the ancient Greeks traditionally crowned their most celebrated poets. Originally the office involved writing court odes to mark occasions such as the Sovereign's birthday, but nowadays the position is purely honorary. -
Potato famine begins in Ireland; close to one million people die of starvation or famine-related diseases; massive emigration
During the famine approximately 1 million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland,[3] causing the island's population to fall by between 20% and 25%.[4] The proximate cause of famine was a potato disease commonly known as potato blight.[5] Although blight ravaged potato crops throughout Europe during the 1840s, the impact and human cost in Ireland. -
The U.S. Civil War begins
The American civil war was a civil war fought from 1861 to 1865 between the United States (the "Union" or the "North") and several Southern slave states that had declared their secession and formed the Confederate States of America (the "Confederacy" or the "South"). -
In France, Victor Hugo publishes Les Miserables
Les Miserables that is considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century. Beginning in 1815 and culminating in the 1832 June Rebellion in Paris, the novel follows the lives and interactions of several characters, focusing on the struggles of ex-convict Jean Valjean and his experience of redemption. -
Lewis Carroll publishes Alices's Adventures in Wonderland
This was written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll.[1] It tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world (Wonderland) populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as children.[2] It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre -
Thomas Edison invents the incadescent 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.) -
L. Frank Baum publishes The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
In 1900, Baum and Denslow (with whom he shared the copyright) published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to much critical acclaim and financial success.[20] The book was the best-selling children's book for two years after its initial publication.[citation needed] Baum went on to write thirteen more novels based on the places and people of the Land of Oz.[citation needed] -
Queen Victoria dies
The death of Queen Victoria on January 22, 1901, ends an era in which most of her British subjects know no other monarch. Her 63-year reign, the longest in British history, saw the growth of an empire on which the sun never set. Victoria restored dignity to the English monarchy and ensured its survival as a ceremonial political institution.
