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Victoria becomes queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain 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 Wordsworth becomes poet laureate.
Wordsworth's magnum opus is generally considered to be The Prelude, a semiautobiographical poem of his early years which he revised and expanded a number of times. It was posthumously titled and published, prior to which it was generally known as the poem "to Coleridge". Wordsworth was Britain's Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850. -
Charlotte Bronte publishes Jane Eyre; Emily Bronte publishes Wuthering Heights.
Jane Eyre is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published on 16 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London, England, under the pen name "Currer Bell." The first American edition was released the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York. Writing for the Penguin edition, Stevie Davies describes it as an "influential feminist text" because of its in-depth exploration of the main female character's feelings. -
Alfred, Lord Tennyson becomes a poet laureate.
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, was Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular British poets. Tennyson excelled at penning short lyrics, such as "Break, Break, Break", "The Charge of the Light Brigade", "Tears, Idle Tears" and "Crossing the Bar".Tennyson was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, a rector's son and fourth of 12 children. -
The U.S. Civil War begins
The Civil War was between the United States and several Southern slave states that had declared their secession and formed the Confederate States of America. The war had its origin in the fractious issue of slavery, and, after four years of bloody combat, the Confederacy was defeated, slavery was abolished, and the difficult Reconstruction process of restoring unity and guaranteeing rights to the freed slaves began. -
In France, Victor Hugo publishes Les Miserables.
It is considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century. In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its original French title, which can be translated from the French as The Miserables,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. -
Mohandas K. Gandhi is born in India.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, into a Hindu Modh family in Porbanadar, Gujarat, India. His father, named Karamchand Gandhi, was the Chief Minister of the city of Porbanadar. His mother, named Putlibai, was the fourth wife; the previous three wives died in childbirth. Gandhi was born into the vaishya (business caste). -
Thomas Edison invents the incandescent lamp
After many experiments with platinum and other metal filaments, Edison returned to a carbon filament. The first successful test was on October 22, 1879; it lasted 13.5 hours. Edison continued to improve this design and by November 4, 1879, filed for U.S. patent 223,898 (granted on January 27, 1880) for an electric lamp using "a carbon filament or strip coiled and connected to platina contact wires". -
L. Frank Baum publishes The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
The story chronicles the adventures of a young girl named Dorothy Gale in the Land of Oz, after being swept away from her Kansas farm home in a cyclone. The novel is one of the best-known stories in American popular culture and has been widely translated. Its initial success, and the success of the 1902 Broadway musical which Baum adapted from his original story, led to Baum's writing thirteen more Oz books. -
Queen Victoria Dies
Queen Victoria was the longest reigning British monarch in history, ruling the United Kingdom from 1837 to 1901. Her death at 6:30 p.m. on January 22, 1901 at age 81 Queen Victoria died, surrounded by her family, at the Osborne House on the Isle of Wight and it was mourned around the world and signaled an end to the Victorian Era.
