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Victoria becomes queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britian and Ireland
was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India -
Charles Dickens publishes oliver twist in periodical form
Oliver Twist, subtitled The Parish Boy's Progress, is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens, published by Richard Bentley in 1838. -
William Wordsworth becomes poet laureate
With the death in 1843 of Robert Southey, Wordsworth became the Poet Laureate. He initially refused the honour, saying he was too old, but accepted when Prime Minister Robert Peel assured him "you shall have nothing required of you" -
Elizabeth Barret and Robert Browning elope; during their courtship she writes poems included in Songs from the Portugese
She is best known for her Sonnets from the Portuguese, love poems written secretly during her courtship by Robert Browning, with whom she eloped to Italy at the age of 40 -
Charlotte Bronte publishes Jane Eyre; Emily Bronte publishes Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights is a novel by Emily Brontë, written between October 1845 and June 1846, and published in 1847 under the pseudonym "Ellis Bell." -
Alfred, Lord Tennnyson becomes a poet laruete
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular British poets -
Japan opens trade to the West
Perry returned in February 1854 with twice as many ships. He found that the delegates had prepared a treaty embodying all of the demands in Fillmore’s letter. Perry signed the treaty known as the Convention of Kanagawa on March 31, 1854. -
Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection
a work of scientific literature by Charles Darwin which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. Its full title was On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life -
Thomas Edison invents the incandescent lamp
Thomas Alva Edison invented a carbon filament that burned for forty hours -
Queen Victoria dies
ending the longest reign of any British monarch and signaling the end of the Victorian Era
