Science & Discovery in the 19th century

853 sourced entries, 1800 CE to 1899 CE, oldest first. Also see Science & Discovery across every century or everything else in the 19th century.

1800February 11 – Infrared radiation is discovered by astronomer Sir William Herschel.source
1800February 22 – The Baker rifle, designed by Ezekiel Baker, is selected by the British Board of Ordnance as a new standard.source
1800March 20 – Alessandro Volta describes his new invention, the voltaic pile, the first chemical battery, in a letter to the Royal Society of London.source
1800Infrared radiation is discovered by William Herschel.United Kingdom source
1801January 1 – Giuseppe Piazzi discovers the asteroid and dwarf planet Ceres.source
1801September 8 - Solar eclipse of September 8, 1801Russia source
180126 November – Charles Hatchett announces his discovery of the chemical element niobium to the Royal Society.United Kingdom source
1801The first of a continuous series of censuses is held in France.source
1801Ultraviolet radiation is discovered by Johann Wilhelm Ritter.source
1801Alexander Mackenzie's Voyages to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans published in London.Canada source
1801A Census was held in Iceland, along with other parts of the Denmark-Norway.Iceland source
1801Carl Gustaf af Leopold publishes the Afhandling om svenska stafsättetSweden source
1801Thomas Young discovers the interference of light.United Kingdom source
1801Dalton's law: John Dalton observes that the total pressure exerted by a gaseous mixture is equal to the sum of the partial pressures of each individual component in a gas mixture.United Kingdom source
1801Cyhoeddiadau Cymdeithas y GwyneddigionWales source
1802February – The Rosetta Stone is brought to England by Colonel Tomkyns Hilgrove Turner, who arrives at Portsmouth on the captured French frigate L'Egyptiane.source
1802March 28 – H. W. Olbers discovers the asteroid Pallas.source
18028 April - Organic Articles presented by Napoleon.France source
1802April 10 – The Great Trigonometrical Survey of India begins with the measurement of a baseline near Madras.source
18026 May – William Herschel coins the term asteroid and on 1 July first uses the term binary star to refer to a star which revolves around another.United Kingdom source
18025 July – André-Jacques Garnerin and Edward Hawke Locker make a 17-mile (27.4-km) balloon flight from Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London, to Chingford in just over 15 minutes.United Kingdom source
1802John Playfair publishes Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth in Edinburgh, popularising James Hutton's theory of geology.Scotland source
1802Abraham Rees - The New Cyclopaedia, vol. 1Wales source
1803April 26 – The L'Aigle meteorite falls in Normandy, causing a shift in scientific opinion on the origin of meteorites.source
1803September 6 – John Dalton, British scientist, begins using symbols to represent the atoms of different elements.source
18036 September – John Dalton FRS composes his five main points of atomic theory, the first to do so.United Kingdom source
180321 October – John Dalton presents a paper to the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society containing the first table of atomic weights.United Kingdom source
1803Major breakthroughs in chemistry occur, with the identification of the elements rhodium and palladium (by William Hyde Wollaston); osmium and iridium (by Smithson Tennant); and cerium (by Wilhelm Hisinger, Jons Jakob Berzelius and Martin Heinrich Klaproth)source
1803Humphry Repton publishes Observations on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening.United Kingdom source
1803Smithson Tennant discovers the chemical elements iridium and osmium.United Kingdom source
1803William Hyde Wollaston discovers the chemical element rhodium.United Kingdom source
1803Paeonia mascula is discovered growing on the island of Steep Holm - the only species of peony native to the British Isles.Wales source
1804April 5 – The High Possil meteorite, the first recorded meteorite to fall in Scotland in modern times, falls at High Possil.source
18045 April – High Possil meteorite, the first recorded meteorite to fall in Scotland in modern times, falls at Possil.Scotland source
1804June 21 – Smithson Tennant announces the discovery of the elements iridium and osmium; three days later, William Hyde Wollaston reveals to the Royal Society that he is the formerly anonymous discoverer of palladium.source
1804September 1 – German astronomer K. L. Harding discovers the asteroid Juno.source
18041 September – German astronomer K. L. Harding discovers the asteroid Juno.Germany source
18046 October – HDMS Prinds Christian Frederik is launched from Orlogsværftet on Nyholm in Copenhagen.Denmark source
1804Dr Joseph Mason Cox publishes Practical Observations on Insanity; in which some suggestions are offered towards an improved mode of treating diseases of the mind, and some rules proposed which it is hoped may lead to a more humane and successful method of cure.United Kingdom source
1804Edward Davies - Celtic Researches on the Origin, Traditions and Languages of the Ancient BritonsWales source
1804The Cambrian is the first newspaper published in Wales.Wales source
1805Thomas Charles - Geiriadur YsgrythyrolWales source
180612 June – The Alexander arrives at Portsmouth with Teina and Maki aboard.New Zealand source
18067 October – Carbon paper patented by Ralph Wedgwood.United Kingdom source
1806Flights in Copenhagen with manned hot air balloon.Denmark source
1806Noah Webster publishes A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, his first American English dictionary.United States source
1806Thomas Charles - Geiriadur YsgrythyrolWales source
1807March 29 – H. W. Olbers discovers the asteroid Vesta.source
1807October 6 – English chemist Humphry Davy electrochemically isolates potassium from potash.source
1807James Hogg, Thomas Mouncey Cunningham and others publish the poetry collection The Forest Minstrel, and Hogg publishes The Mountain Bard.Scotland source
1807The post of Regius Professor of Zoology in the University of Glasgow is established as the Regius Chair of Natural History by King George III, Lockhart Muirhead being the first holder.Scotland source
1807Undated – Potassium and sodium isolated by Sir Humphry Davy.United Kingdom source
1807Peter Bailey Williams – Trysorfa GwybodaethWales source
1808June 30 – English chemist Humphry Davy informs the Royal Society of London of his isolation and discovery of two elements by electrolysis. From lime, he has produced calcium and established that lime is calcium oxide; by heating boric acid and potassium in a copper tube, he creates a substance he calls boracium, which is eventually called boron. This year he also isolates magnesium and strontium.source
180830 June – Chemist Humphry Davy informs the Royal Society of London of his isolation and discovery of two elements by electrolysis. From lime, he has produced calcium and established that lime is calcium oxide; by heating boric acid and potassium in a copper tube, he creates a substance he calls boracium, and which is eventually called boron. This year he also isolates magnesium and strontium.United Kingdom source
180819 November - The naval frigate HMS Owen Glendower is launched.Wales source
1808December 9 – At 20:34 UTC, Mercury occults Saturn (there are no observation records).source
1808German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss publishes Theorematis arithmetici demonstratio nova, introducing Gauss's lemma in the third proof of quadratic reciprocity.Germany source
1808Mary Leadbeater's Poems published.Ireland source
1808William Blackwood begins publication of the Edinburgh Encyclopædia, edited by David Brewster.Scotland source
1808John Dalton begins publication of A New System of Chemical Philosophy, explaining his atomic theory of chemistry.United Kingdom source
1809August – The USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides") is recommissioned as the flagship of the North Atlantic Squadron.source
1809December - The former monarch and his family leaves Sweden for Germany.Sweden source
1809Louis Poinsot describes the two remaining Kepler–Poinsot polyhedra.source
1809William Combe begins publication of the verse Tour of Dr Syntax in search of the Picturesque in Ackermann's Political Magazine, illustrated by Thomas Rowlandson.United Kingdom source
1810June – Nicolas Appert publishes L'art de conserver pendant plusieurs années toutes les substances animales ou végétales, the first description of modern food preservation using airtight containers.source
181020 October - Jean Baptiste Bernadotte arrives in Sweden.Sweden source
1810Chlorine named by Humphry Davy.United Kingdom source
18111 February – John Oxley is appointed Surveyor-General of New South Wales.Australia source
1811March 25 – The Great Comet of 1811 is discovered by Honoré Flaugergues.source
181125 March – The Great Comet of 1811 is discovered by Honoré Flaugergues.France source
181127 May – second national Census. In Scotland the count is carried out by schoolmasters.Scotland source
18118 September – The first known landing on Rockall is made by a party from HMS Endymion.United Kingdom source
181126 October – HDMS Najaden is launched at Nyholm in Copenhagen.Denmark source
1811Iodine was discovered by French chemist Bernard Courtois.source
1811Edinburgh Astronomical Institution established.Scotland source
1811Great Comet of 1811 visible overhead through the fall.United States source
1811John Williams (ed.) - Gwaith Prydyddawl ... W. WilliamsWales source
1812February 12 – Napoleon I authorizes the usage of Mesures usuelles, the basis of the metric system.source
1812August 20 – Launch of John Molson's second steamboat, the Swiftsure, at Montreal.Canada source
1812August – Henry Bell's PS Comet begins a passenger service on the River Clyde between Glasgow and Greenock, the first commercially successful steamboat service in Europe.Scotland source
1812The New Flora Britannica (with illustrations by Sydenham Teak Edwards)Wales source
1813June 1 – The English frigate "Shannon" takes the "Chesapeake," in 15 minutes, off Boston.Canada source
1813Probable date – George E. Clymer invents the Columbian press, used to print newspapers worldwide.source
1813The Norwegian journal Historisk-philosophiske Samlinger (Historical-Philosophical Collections) final issue was published.Norway source
1813Svetlana (ballad) by Vasily Zhukovsky publishedRussia source
1813Robert Owen obtains control of the cotton spinning mills at New Lanark and publishes A New View of Society, or Essays on the Principle of the Formation of the Human Character.Scotland source
1813Adam Kok III's people assert the name Griqua.South Africa source
1813Hugh Davies - Welsh Botanology ... A Systematic Catalogue of the Native Plants of Anglesey, in Latin, English, and WelshWales source
181423 May – The Active departs Hobart.New Zealand source
181422 August – The Active arrives in Sydney.New Zealand source
181412 November – Kendall appointed Justice of the Peace for New Zealand by Governor Macquarie.New Zealand source
181428 November – The Active finally departs Port Jackson on its way to establish the mission at Rangihoua.New Zealand source
1814Sydenham Edwards founds The Botanical Register.Wales source
181519 January – Returning northward the Active calls into Whangārei, apparently only the second ever European vessel to do so, after the Venus in 1806.New Zealand source
1815February – The Hartford Convention arrives in Washington, D.C.United States source
1815October 3 – The Chassigny Martian meteorite falls in Chassigny, Haute-Marne, France.source
18153 October - Fall of the Mars meteorite Chassigny in Chassigny, Haute-Marne.France source
1815November 3 – Sir Humphry Davy announces his invention, the Davy lamp (a coal mining safety lamp),source
1815Wisden Cricketers' Almanack retrospectively recognises statistics for first-class cricket in England from this year.source
1815The Great Migration from Europe begins.Canada source
1815Robert Kirk's The Secret Commonwealth, Gaelic folklore collected in 1691/92, is first published.Scotland source
18161 September – the Northern Lighthouse Board's new light on the Isle of May, designed by Robert Stevenson, is completed.Scotland source
1816David Brewster discovers stress birefringence.Scotland source
1817January – The Black Dwarf is first published in London as a satirical radical unstamped newspaper by journalist Thomas Jonathan Wooler.United Kingdom source
181722 July - Windham Sadler succeeds in crossing the Irish Sea by hot air balloon, landing near Holyhead.Wales source
181721 December – Lachlan Macquarie recommends the adoption of the name Australia for the continent instead of New Holland.Australia source
1817The post of Regius Professor of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow is established by King George III.Scotland source
1818January 3 (21:52 UTC) – Venus occults Jupiter. It is the last occultation of one planet by another before November 22, 2065.source
181825 March – Caspar Wessel, mathematician (born 1745).Norway source
1818July 29 – French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel submits his prizewinning "Memoir on the Diffraction of Light" to the French Academy of Sciences, precisely accounting for the limited extent to which light spreads into shadows, and thereby demolishing the oldest objection to the wave theory of light.source
181829 July - Physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel submits his prizewinning "Memoir on the Diffraction of Light" to the French Academy of Sciences, precisely accounting for the limited extent to which light spreads into shadows, and thereby demolishing the oldest objection to the wave theory of light.France source
1818Change of command at the Russian-American Company (RAC)Russia source
1818Launch of Otechestvennye Zapiski (Memories of the Homeland)Russia source
1818Joseph Harris (Gomer) re-founds the periodical Seren Gomer.Wales source
1818Charles Norris - A Historical Account of TenbyWales source
1819January 29 – Sir Stamford Raffles lands on the island of Singapore.source
1819March 1 – The U.S. naval vessel USS Columbus is launched in Washington, D.C.United States source
1819July 1 – German astronomer Johann Georg Tralles discovers what will be called the Great Comet of 1819.source
18191 July – German astronomer Johann Georg Tralles discovers what will be called the Great Comet of 1819Germany source
18199 November – Marsden leaves at the end of his second visit.New Zealand source
1819December 17 – The new astronomical observatory of Capodimonte in Naples starts operating. The astronomer Carlo Brioschi made the first observation by measuring the position of ⍺ Cassiopeiae.source
1820March 10 – The Astronomical Society of London is founded.source
182010 March – Astronomical Society of London is founded.United Kingdom source
1820April 8 – The statue of the Venus de Milo (Aphrodite of Milos, c. 150 BC-125 BC) is discovered on the Greek island of Milos, by a peasant named Yorgos Kentrotas.source
1820April 21 – Hans Christian Ørsted discovers the relationship between electricity and magnetism.source
182011 May – Launch of HMS Beagle, the ship that will take the young Charles Darwin on his scientific voyage, at Woolwich Dockyard.United Kingdom source
18205 December – Marsden leaves at the end of his third visit.New Zealand source
182015 December – PS Comet (1812) is wrecked near Craignish.Scotland source
1820Divorce Bills Evidence Act (British statute)India source
1820Regina Maria Roche publishes The Munster Cottage Boy: a Tale.Ireland source
1820Robert Chambers's publishing company publishes The Songs of Robert Burns.Scotland source
1820Edward Jones – Hen Ganiadau CymruWales source
1821January 21 – Peter I Island in the Antarctic is first sighted, by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen.source
1821The publisher T&T Clark is established in Edinburgh by Thomas Clark.Scotland source
1821William Hooker (botanist) publishes Flora Scotica; or, A description of Scottish plants.Scotland source
1821Benjamin Lundy publishes the first issue of his abolitionist newspaper, Genius of Universal Emancipation.United States source
182223 May – HMS Comet launched at Deptford Dockyard, the first steamboat commissioned by the Royal Navy.United Kingdom source
1822August 22 – The English ship Orion lands at Yerba Buena, modern-day San Francisco, under the command of William A. Richardson.United States source
1822September 27 – Jean-François Champollion announces his success in deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs, using the Rosetta Stone, in a letter to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in Paris (based on the work of Thomas Young).source
182227 December – The Snapper is the first deep-sea vessel to enter what will become the port at Bluff. (see also 1813)New Zealand source
1822Hieroglyphs deciphered by Thomas Young and Jean-François Champollion using the Rosetta Stone.France source
1822Egyptian hieroglyphs are deciphered by Thomas Young and Jean-François Champollion using the Rosetta Stone.United Kingdom source
1822A fossil Iguanodon tooth is discovered by Gideon Mantell and his wife Mary in West Sussex; in 1825 it will be the first fossil to be recognised as that of a dinosaur.United Kingdom source
182323 January – At Paviland Cave on the Gower Peninsula, William Buckland inspects the "Red Lady of Paviland", the first identification of a prehistoric (male) human burial (although Buckland dates it as Roman).United Kingdom source
182323 January – In Paviland Cave on the Gower Peninsula, William Buckland inspects the "Red Lady of Paviland", the first identification of a prehistoric (male) human burial (first discovered on 21 December last).Wales source
1823February 15 (approx.) – The first officially recognised gold is found in Australia, by surveyor James McBrien at Fish River, near Bathurst, New South Wales, predating the Australian gold rushes.source
182319 August – After the arrival of John Hobbs and Nathaniel Turner, Samuel Leigh leaves the Kaeo mission.New Zealand source
182310 December – Mary Anning finds the first complete Plesiosaurus skeleton, on the Jurassic Coast.United Kingdom source
1823Olbers' paradox is described by the German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers.source
1823William Charles Wentworth publishes the first book of Australian verse, Australasia: A Poem, in London.Australia source
1824February 20 — William Buckland formally announces the name Megalosaurus, the first scientifically validly named non-avian dinosaur species.source
182420 February – Rev. Professor William Buckland becomes the first person to describe a terrestrial dinosaur in a scientific journal.United Kingdom source
1824The Colorado potato beetle is first described, by Thomas Say.source
1824The Panoramagram is invented as the first stereoscopic viewer.source
1824Name change from ' New Holland ' to ' Australia ', recommended by Matthew Flinders in 1804, receives official sanction by the United Kingdom.Australia source
1824The Ordnance Survey of Ireland is established.Ireland source
1824Thomas Say begins publication of American Entomology, or Descriptions of the Insects of North America in Philadelphia, including the first description of the Colorado potato beetle.United States source
1824John Neal publishing serially the first written history of American literature, American Writers (1824–1825)United States source
1824John Howell (editor) – Blodau DyfedWales source
1824Chess William Davies Evans develops the Evans Gambit.Wales source
18251 February – windstorm passes over Scotland with winds around 140 kn.Scotland source
1825February 10 – Gideon Mantell names and describes the second known dinosaur Iguanodon.source
182523 April – Royal charter granted to the Geological Society of London.United Kingdom source
1825Sydney, Lady Morgan, publishes Absenteeism.Ireland source
1825Thomas Crofton Croker publishes the first volumes of his Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland.Ireland source
1825Robert Davidson's Poems are published.Scotland source
1825Michael Faraday isolates benzene.United Kingdom source
1825John Neal publishing serially the first written history of American literature, American Writers (1824–1825)United States source
1826February 23 – Russian mathematician Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky develops non-Euclidean geometry (independently of János Bolyai).source
1826April – A number of leading scientists form the Zoological Society of London.United Kingdom source
1826Aniline is first isolated, from the destructive distillation of indigo, by Otto Unverdorben.source
1826Christian Isobel Johnstone, as 'Margaret Dods', publishes The Cook and Housewife's Manual.Scotland source
1826Possible date – Discovery of the Hunterston Brooch.Scotland source
1826James Humphreys - Observations on the Actual State of the English Laws of Real Property, with the outlines of a CodeWales source
1827January 27 – Author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe first elaborates on his vision of Weltliteratur (world literature), in a letter to Johann Peter Eckermann, declaring his belief that "poetry is the universal possession of mankind", and that "the epoch of world literature is at hand, and each must work to hasten its coming."source
1827April 7 – John Walker begins selling his invention, the "Lucifer" friction match, in England.source
18277 April – John Walker begins selling his invention, the "Lucifer" friction match.United Kingdom source
1827May 1 – Georg Ohm publishes Die galvanische Kette, mathematisch bearbeitet (tr., The Galvanic Circuit Investigated Mathematically) in which Ohm's law appears for the first time.source
1827June 4 – French inventor Joseph Niépce sends a package to Louis Daguerre revealing the existence of his invention, "heliography", where an image can be reproduced onto a pewter plate and then reprinted. In 1829, the two will begin a partnership, and Daguerre will perfect Niépce's photographic process to reproduce images more quickly.source
1827Between June 4–July 18 – In Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, France, Nicéphore Niépce makes the first photograph, View from the Window at Le Gras.source
1827John James Audubon begins publication of the 10-volume The Birds of America, in the United Kingdom.source
1827Autumn: The Icelandic Literary Society's journal Skírnir begins being published.Iceland source
1827Scottish botanist Robert Brown observes the phenomenon of Brownian motion.United Kingdom source
18287 January – Rev. Henry Duncan describes his discovery of the fossil footmarks of quadrupeds (Chelichnus duncani) in Permian red sandstone at Cornockle Muir, near Lochmaben in Dumfriesshire, the first scientific report of a fossil track, in a paper read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.Scotland source
1828December – Mary Anning discovers Britain's first pterosaur fossil at Lyme Regis on the south coast.United Kingdom source
1828Friedrich Wöhler synthesizes urea, possibly discrediting a cornerstone of vitalism.source
1828John Walters - An English and Welsh DictionaryWales source
1829Felix Mendelssohn visits Wales and transcribes some Welsh music.Wales source
183017 May – A meteorite falls on the North Inch at Perth.Scotland source
183012 June – The steam ship PS Frederik den Sjette is launched in Copenhagen. It replaces PS Caledonia on the route between Copenhagen and Kiel.Denmark source
183015 September HDMS Bellona is launched at Nyholm in Copenhagen.Denmark source
1830The C.F. Hansen Medaillen is introduced to mark the 50th anniversary of Christian Frederik Hansen's appointment.Denmark source
1830The private Markree Observatory is set up.Ireland source
18317 March – Royal Astronomical Society receives its Royal Charter.United Kingdom source
18312 April – HDMS Galathea is launched at Nyholm in Copenhagen.Denmark source
1831August 29 - Michael Faraday demonstrates electromagnetic induction at the Royal Society of London. Joseph Henry recognises it at about the same time.source
1831Frédéric Chopin arrives in Paris.France source
183119–21 March – one of Goldsworthy Gurney’s steam road coaches runs from Edinburgh to Glasgow.Scotland source
1831William Wallace invents the eidograph.Scotland source
1831James Hogg publishes Songs, by the Ettrick Shepherd.Scotland source
1832July 2 – André-Michel Guerry presents his Essay on moral statistics of France to the French Academy of Sciences, a significant step in the founding of empirical social science.source
183219 July – Anatomy Act provides for licensing and inspection of anatomists, and for unclaimed corpses from public institutions to be available for their dissection.United Kingdom source
1832September - The Opéra-Comique moves from Salle Ventadour to Salle de la Bourse in Paris.France source
183215 December – The CGS system goes back to a proposal in 1832 by the German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss to base a system of absolute units on the three fundamental units of length.Germany source
1832Work Faust, Part Two by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe published.Germany source
1832John Donald Carrick edits the poetry anthology Whistle Binkie.Scotland source
1832James Hogg, writing as "The Ettrick Shepherd", publishes the poems Altrive Tales.Scotland source
1832Benjamin Jones (P A Môn) — Amddiffyniad o Brynedigaeth NeillduolWales source
183328 August – Bank Notes Act gives Bank of England notes over £5 in value the status of "legal tender" in England and Wales.United Kingdom source
1833November 12–13 – "The night the stars fell on Alabama": A spectacular occurrence of the Leonid meteor shower is observed in Alabama.United States source
1833November 13 – Meteor showers at Niagara, Ontario.Canada source
1833The dawn of biochemistry: The first enzyme, diastase, is discovered by Anselme Payen.source
1833Chemist Thomas Graham proposes Graham's law.Scotland source
1834March 14 – John Herschel discovers the open cluster of stars now known as NGC 3603, observing from the Cape of Good Hope.source
1834March – William Whewell (anonymously) first publishes the term scientist in the Quarterly Review (but notes it as "not generally palatable").United Kingdom source
1834November 11 – The rare 1804 dollar coin is struck by the United States Mint.United States source
1834Croquet is recorded as being played in Ireland (at Greenmount near Castlebellingham, County Louth) at about this date.Ireland source
1834Taras Shevchenko National University of KyivRussia source
1834Thomas Henderson is appointed first Astronomer Royal for Scotland.Scotland source
1834Edinburgh Geological Society is established.Scotland source
1834Foulk Robert Williams - Llyfr Cerddoriaeth o Gerddi Sion... (unpublished MS)Wales source
183525 July – The first demonstration of an incandescent light bulb is made by James Bowman Lindsay in Dundee, Scotland.United Kingdom source
1835August 25 – In the U.S., The New York Sun prints the first of six installments of the Great Moon Hoax.source
1835August 25 – The Great Moon Hoax begins.United States source
1835November 16 – Halley's Comet reaches perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun.source
183530 December – The Beagle leaves New Zealand.New Zealand source
1835Cell division is first observed under the microscope by German botanist Hugo von Mohl as he works over green algae Cladophora glomerata.Germany source
1835Hugh Miller publishes Scenes and Legends in the North of Scotland.Scotland source
1835Adam Sedgwick names the Cambrian period in geology.Wales source
1836January 5 – Davy Crockett arrives in Texas, which at this time is not part of the United States.United States source
18363 February – A new fourpence coin (groat or "joey") is declared legal tender prior to its first minting since 1800.United Kingdom source
18365 March – George Brodie appointed Historiographer RoyalScotland source
1836May 15 – During an eclipse of the Sun, English astronomer Francis Baily observes the phenomenon named after him as Baily's beads.source
183618 June – Belgium adopts metric system.Belgium source
1836The dissertation of the German writer Georg Büchner on the common barbel (fish), Barbus barbus, "Mémoire sur le Système Nerveux du Barbeaux (Cyprinus barbus L.)", appears in Paris and Strasbourg. After receiving his doctorate, he is appointed in October by the University of Zurich as a lecturer in anatomy.Germany source
1836Former windmill at Maxwelltown opens as converted into an astronomical observatory and the world's oldest working camera obscura, basis of the modern-day Dumfries Museum.Scotland source
1836First McGuffey Readers published.United States source
18377 February – Samuel Marsden arrives in New Zealand on his last visit.New Zealand source
1837February – Charles Lever begins publishing his fictional The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer in Dublin University Magazine.Ireland source
18378 April - Low-water mark datum measured at Poolbeg Lighthouse by the Ordnance Survey.Ireland source
18374 July – Samuel Marsden leaves New Zealand for the final time.New Zealand source
183719 July – The Isambard Kingdom Brunel-designed steamship SS Great Western is launched in Bristol.United Kingdom source
1837October – Alleged first sighting of a Spring-heeled Jack, in London.United Kingdom source
183715 November – Isaac Pitman publishes Pitman Shorthand.United Kingdom source
1837Louis Daguerre develops the daguerreotype.source
1837Peter Chaadev publishes Apology of a Madman.Russia source
1838November 1 – Lord Durham leaves Quebec.Canada source
1838Proteins are discovered by Gerardus Johannes Mulder. and named by Jöns Jacob Berzelius.source
1838Friedrich Bessel makes the first accurate measurement of distance to a star.source
1838David Brewster originates the stereoscope.Scotland source
1838Alexander and John Bethune publish Tales and Sketches of the Scottish Peasantry.Scotland source
1838Isaac Williams - Thoughts in Past YearsWales source
1839January 2 – The first photograph of the Moon is taken, by French photographer Louis Daguerre.source
1839January 9 – The French Academy of Sciences announces the daguerreotype photography process.source
18399 January – The French Academy of Sciences announces the Daguerreotype photography process.France source
183925 January – H. Fox Talbot shows his "photogenic drawings" at the Royal Institution in London. Sara Anne Bright is also producing such photographic reproductions this year.United Kingdom source
183929 May – Mungo Ponton presents his discovery of the light-sensitive quality of sodium dichromate as a method of permanent photography.Scotland source
1839August 19 – The French government gives the daguerreotype "for the whole world".source
1839November 10 - The first known photograph taken in Spain is taken at the Pla de Palau, BarcelonaSpain source
1839December – New Committee of Council on education sets up a new national system of Inspectors of Schools for grant-aided establishments.United Kingdom source
1839Michael Faraday publishes Experimental Researches in Electricity, clarifying the true nature of electricity.source
1839The Statue of Thomas Munro was shipped to MadrasIndia source
1839Thomas John Newbold is appointed deputy assistant adjutant-general and postmaster to the field force of the East India CompanyIndia source
1839Roderick Murchison publishes The Silurian System.Scotland source
1840March 12 – Paweł Strzelecki reaches Australia's highest summit, Mount Kosciuszko.source
18403–9 July – The 2nd Scandinavian Scientist Conference is held in Copenhagen.Denmark source
184011 August — Union Jack is flown over Akaroa.New Zealand source
1840December 7 – David Livingstone leaves Britain for Africa.source
18408 December – David Livingstone leaves for Africa.United Kingdom source
1840The first known photograph of Niagara Falls, a daguerreotype, is taken by English chemist Hugh Lee Pattinson.source
1840Peter Faber takes the first Danish photograph on record at Ulfeldts Plads in Copenhagen.Denmark source
1840The largest recorded surface area of the Langjökull ice gap was recorded.Iceland source
1840Lex Loci Report of October 1840 emphasised the importance and necessity of uniformity in the codification of Indian law, relating to crimes, evidences, and contract but it recommended that personal laws of Hindus and Muslims should be kept outside such codification.India source
1840Samlade vitterhetsförsök by Ulrika Carolina WidströmSweden source
1840Nyare dikter by Wilhelm von BraunSweden source
18419 March - The first known photograph is taken in Wales, of Margam Castle by Calvert Jones.Wales source
1841The first Australian book for children was published in Sydney, A mother's offering to her children, by a 'lady long resident in New South Wales'. Although published anonymously, the author is Charlotte Barton.Australia source
1841Uranium is first isolated, by Eugène-Melchior Péligot.France source
1841The first recorded mining in New Zealand, as outcrops of manganese are mined on the coast of Kawau Island.New Zealand source
1841Diodes och Lydia by Wilhelmina StålbergSweden source
1841Chemical Society of London founded by Thomas Graham.United Kingdom source
184224 February: The Bay of Islands Observer begins publishing. The newspaper publishes its last issue on 27 October 1842.New Zealand source
1842July 8 – The total solar eclipse of July 8, 1842 is visible from Asia.source
1842Julius von Mayer proposes that work and heat are equivalent.source
1842English palaeontologist Richard Owen coins the name Dinosauria, hence the Anglicized dinosaur.source
1842Linguistic purism in Icelandic: Jónas Hallgrímsson publishes a translation of a textbook on astronomy (Stjörnufræði) which became exemplary for later translations of scientific literature.Iceland source
1842New pattern musket with percussion cap produced to replace the flintlock in the British Army.United Kingdom source
1842Paleontologist Richard Owen coins the term name Dinosauria, hence the Anglicised dinosaur.United Kingdom source
1842John Orlando Parry – Anticipations of SwitzerlandWales source
1843March 11–14 – Eta Carinae flares, to become the second-brightest star.source
1843July 19 – Isambard Kingdom Brunel's SS Great Britain is launched from Bristol; it will be the first iron-hulled, propeller-driven ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean.source
1843August 1 – Brazil becomes the second country, after Great Britain, to issue nationally valid postage stamps, with the release of its Bull's Eye series.source
1843August 19 – Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Black Cat" is first published in The Saturday Evening Post.source
1843October 16 – Irish mathematician William Rowan Hamilton discovers the calculus of quaternions and deduces that they are non-commutative.source
184317 December – Publication of Charles Dickens' novella A Christmas Carol by Chapman & Hall in London at his expense. It introduces the character Ebenezer Scrooge. Released on 19 December, the first printing sells out by Christmas Eve and inspires charitable giving.United Kingdom source
1843December 19 – Charles Dickens's novella A Christmas Carol is first published in London, England. Released on December 19, it sells out by Christmas Eve.source
1843December 19 – "A Christmas Carol", by Charles Dickens, was first published on December 19, 1843, with the first edition sold out by Christmas Eve. By 1844, the novella had gone through 13 printings and continues to be a robust seller more than 175 years later.United States source
1843December 21 – The first total solar eclipse of Saros 139 occurs over southern Asia.source
1843The Quaker magazine The Friend is first published in London.source
1843James Joule experimentally finds the mechanical equivalent of heat.source
1843Pierre-Joseph van Beneden establishes the world's first marine laboratory in OstendBelgium source
1843Lord Metcalfe comes to Montreal.Canada source
1843Ohm's acoustic law was proposed by German physicist Georg Ohm.Germany source
1843(Colonies) Evidence Act (British statute)India source
1843Hill & Adamson form Scotland's first photographic studio, on Calton Hill in Edinburgh.Scotland source
1843Förhoppingar by Sophie von KnorringSweden source
18448 March - John Jones (Shoni Sguborfawr) embarks on the Blundell for transportation to Norfolk Island, his sentence for shooting at a man during the Rebecca Riots.Wales source
1844August 10 – German astronomer Friedrich Bessel deduces from the motion of the bright stars Sirius and Procyon that they have dark companions.source
184425 September: The New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator prints its final issue. 369 issues were produced.New Zealand source
1844Swedish chemistry professor Gustaf Erik Pasch is granted a privilege for his invention of a safety match.source
1844The Shipping Gazette and Sydney General Trade List is first published by Charles Kemp and John Fairfax.Australia source
1844Undated – Aborigines' Evidence Act 1844 permitting Indigenous South Australians to give unsworn evidence in Court.Australia source
1844Mary Ann Aldersey, an eccentric British woman, who opens a school for girls in NingboChina source
1844Judicial Committee Act (British statute)India source
184411–18 July – The 4th Scandinavian Scientist Conference is held in Oslo.Norway source
1844Maria Jane Williams - Ancient National Airs of Gwent and MorgannwgWales source
18451 January – Lewis Edwards founds the periodical Y Traethodydd.Wales source
184513 February – Henrik Steffens, philosopher, scientist, and poet (born 1773)Norway source
1845August 28 – The journal Scientific American begins publication.source
184531 October – Johan Reinhardt, professor in zoology (born 1778)Norway source
1845Ephraim Bee reveals that the Emperor of China has given him a special dispensation: that he has entrusted him with certain sacred and mysterious rituals through Caleb Cushing, the U.S. Commissioner to China, to "extend the work and influence of the Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus" in the New World.source
1845Construction begins of the "Leviathan of Parsonstown", a telescope built by William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse.Ireland source
1845Skutterudite, a mineral containing nickel and iron, was discovered. The discovery was made in Skuterud Mines, Modum, Buskerud.Norway source
1845Publication of the New Statistical Account of Scotland is completedScotland source
1845Brita Sofia Hesselius opens a daguerreotype photographic studio in Karlstad and likely becomes the first professional female photographer in Sweden.Sweden source
1845John Mills (Ieuan Glan Alarch) — Y Beirniadur CymreigWales source
1846June 20 – The first officially recorded baseball game using modern rules developed by Alexander Cartwright is played in Hoboken, New Jersey.United States source
18468 August – The planet Neptune is first observed but not recognised by James Challis, director of the Cambridge Observatory.United Kingdom source
1846September 23 – Discovery of Neptune: The planet is observed for the first time by German astronomers Johann Gottfried Galle and Heinrich Louis d'Arrest, as predicted by British astronomer John Couch Adams and French astronomer Urbain Le Verrier.source
1846October 1 – Triton, Neptune's largest moon, is discovered by William Lassell 17 days after the discovery of Neptune.source
184610 October – William Lassell discovers Triton, one of the moons of Neptune.United Kingdom source
184614-year-old James Clerk Maxwell's first scientific paper is presented to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.Scotland source
1847March – The first known publication of the classic joke "Why did the chicken cross the road?" occurs in The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine.source
18478 April - John Jones (Shoni Sguborfawr) is transferred from Norfolk Island to Tasmania.Wales source
184713 August – John Russell Hind makes the first British discovery of an asteroid, from London, 7 Iris. On 18 October he discovers 8 Flora.United Kingdom source
1847Colombia Adopts The Decimal System.Colombia source
1847Publishers Simms & McIntyre of Belfast introduce their Parlour Library of fiction reprints.Ireland source
1847R. M. Ballantyne returns to Edinburgh from Canada.Scotland source
1847Thomas Guthrie publishes A Plea for Ragged Schools in Edinburgh.Scotland source
1847Jenny Lind returns to Sweden with a great tour.Sweden source
1847Reports of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the state of education in WalesWales source
184825 April – Andrew Graham discovers asteroid 9 Metis from politician Edward Joshua Cooper's private Markree Observatory in County Sligo, the first (and until 2008 only) discovery from Ireland of a minor planet.Ireland source
1848May 3 – The boar-crested Anglo-Saxon Benty Grange helmet is discovered in a barrow on the Benty Grange farm in Derbyshire.source
1848September 16 – William Cranch Bond and William Lassell discover Hyperion, Saturn's moon.source
184816 September – William Lassell independently co-discovers Hyperion, one of the moons of Saturn.United Kingdom source
184817 September – The first attempt at photography is made in New Zealand. Lieutenant-Governor Eyre is unsuccessful in his attempt to take a daguerreotype of Eliza Grey, wife of Governor Grey.New Zealand source
1848Undated - the Aboriginal Witnesses Act 1848. was enacted in South Australia.Australia source
1848Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen, author and college professor in America (d.1895)Norway source
1848Cambridge rules for Association football drawn up.United Kingdom source
1848John Jenkins - National EducationWales source
1849March 29 – Shipment containing Henry Box Brown departs Richmond for Philadelphia.United States source
1849April 12 – Astronomer Annibale de Gasparis discovers the asteroid 10 Hygiea.source
1849April 22 – The first Kennedy arrives in America.source
1849July 23 – French scientist Hippolyte Fizeau makes a measurement of the speed of light in air using a specially devised apparatus.source
1849William Thompson began publication (in London) of The Natural History of Ireland, with the first volume, on birds.Ireland source
1849George Boole was appointed as first professor of mathematics at Queen's College, Cork.Ireland source
1850May 7 – The brigantine USS Advance is loaned to the United States Navy.United States source
185016 May - Battleship Le Napoléon is launched.France source
1850May 25 – The hippopotamus Obaysch arrives at London Zoo from Egypt, the first seen in Europe since Roman times.source
185025 May – The hippopotamus Obaysch arrives at London Zoo from Egypt, the first to live in the British Isles since prehistoric times.United Kingdom source
1850June – Harper's Magazine published as a new monthly in New York City.United States source
1850July 17 – Vega becomes the first star (other than the Sun) to be photographed.source
185017 December – The George Seymour arrives in Lyttelton.New Zealand source
1850Astronomer Maria Mitchell becomes the first woman member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.United States source
1851February 12 – Edward Hargraves claims to have found gold in Australia.source
185112 February — Edward Hargraves finds evidence of gold near Bathurst, but no announcement is made at that time.Australia source
18512 May— Edward Hargraves proclaims the discovery of gold at Ophir, New South Wales. The gold was actually discovered by William Tom and John Lister, between 7 and 12 April 1851.Australia source
1851July 28 – Total solar eclipse visible in Canada, Greenland, Iceland and Northern Europe, the first solar eclipse to be photographed.source
1851July 29 – Annibale de Gasparis, in Naples, Italy discovers asteroid 15 Eunomia.source
1851October 24 – Ariel and Umbriel, moons of Uranus, are discovered by William Lassell.source
185124 October – Ariel and Umbriel, moons of Uranus, are discovered by William Lassell.United Kingdom source
1851Surviving 1851 Census Returns of IrelandIreland source
1851Publication of Daniel Wilson's The Archaeology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, which introduces the word prehistoric into the English archaeological vocabulary.Scotland source
1851All Swiss weights and measures are unifiedSwitzerland source
1852March 17 – Annibale de Gasparis discovers the asteroid Psyche from the north dome of the Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte in Naples.source
1852April – Samuel Orchart Beeton begins publication of The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine, the first for women.United Kingdom source
1852September 19 – Annibale de Gasparis discovers the asteroid Massalia from the north dome of the Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte in Naples.source
18524 October – Sweden and Finland 'skip' 10 days in order to align with the spring equinox according to the Gregorian calendar.Sweden source
1852October 23 – The conjecture of the four color theorem is first proposed, as student Francis Guthrie of University College London presents the question of proving, mathematically, that no more than four colors are needed to give separate colors to bordering shapes on a map (the theorem is not proven for almost 123 years, until 1976).source
1852October – The Bank of Montreal issues notes like the Bank of England's; denomination water-marked.Canada source
1852Sophia Posse takes over the girls' school Hammarstedtska skolan.Sweden source
1852John Williams (Glanmor) – Awstralia a'r Cloddfeydd AurWales source
1853September 19 – English missionary Hudson Taylor first leaves for China.source
1853October 4 – On the east coast of the United States, Donald McKay launches the Great Republic, the world's biggest sailing ship, which at 4,500 tons is too large to be successful.source
185315 December – The Sierra redwood Sequoiadendron giganteum is introduced to England as Wellingtonia by William Lobb.United Kingdom source
1853French diplomat Arthur de Gobineau begins publication of his An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (Essai sur l'inégalité des races humaines), an early example of scientific racism.source
1853National Herbarium of New South Wales establishedAustralia source
1853National Herbarium of Victoria establishedAustralia source
1853Arthur de Gobineau begins publication of his An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (Essai sur l'inégalité des races humaines).France source
1853Grunerite is discovered and named after Emmanuel-Louis Gruner, the Swiss-French chemist who first analyzed itSwitzerland source
1853William Spurrell — English-Welsh DictionaryWales source
1854April - The Chile 1854 Census is conducted.Chile source
185422 July – Discovery of the asteroid 30 Urania by John Russell Hind.United Kingdom source
1854August 9 – Walden first published.United States source
185410 August – Merchant Shipping Act 1854 introduces official numbers for ships, revises calculations of tonnage, vests management of Scottish lighthouses in the Northern Lighthouse Board and provides for rewards to lifesavers leading to creation of the Sea Gallantry Medal.United Kingdom source
1854Professor Benjamin Silliman of Yale University is the first person to fractionate petroleum into its individual components, by distillation.source
1854Alexander Cunningham, a British army engineer with the Bengal Engineer Group, published LADĀK: Physical, Statistical, and Historical with Notices of the Surrounding CountriesIndia source
1854Dadabhai Naoroji founded a Gujarati fortnightly publication, the Rast Goftar ('The Truth Teller'), to clarify Zoroastrian concepts and promote Parsi social reformsIndia source
1854Calcutta Survey first issued Inverted Head 4 Annas postage stampsIndia source
1854c. October – George Airy calculates the mean density of the Earth by measuring the gravity in a coal mine in South Shields.United Kingdom source
1855April 18 – The Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855, requested by Napoleon III for the Exposition Universelle (opening May 15), first appears.source
185518 April – The Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855, requested by Napoleon III for the Exposition Universelle (opening 15 May), first appears.France source
185525 July – Robert Napier and Sons launch RMS Persia on the River Clyde, the first iron-hulled ship for the Cunard Line and the world's largest at this date (3300 grt, 398 ft (121 m)).Scotland source
1855August 1 – Monte Rosa, the second-highest summit in the Alps, is first ascended.source
185527 November – Christian Winther publishes Hjortens Flugt. Et Digt.Denmark source
1855The cocaine alkaloid is first isolated by German chemist Friedrich Gaedcke.source
1855Approximate date – the Corraghy Heads and Corleck Head are discovered.Ireland source
1855Olea Crøger, folk music collector (born 1801)Norway source
1855Botanist Carl Meissner gives Grevillea ramosissima its current name and first describes Grevillea thyrsoidesSwitzerland source
1855James Clerk Maxwell unifies electricity and magnetism into a single theory, classical electromagnetism, thereby showing that light is an electromagnetic wave.United Kingdom source
1856January 8 – Borax deposits are discovered in large quantities by John Veatch in California.source
185624 July – HDMS Heimdal is launched at Nyholm in Copenhagen.Denmark source
1856November – James Clerk Maxwell takes up an appointment as Professor of Natural Philosophy at Marischal College, Aberdeen.Scotland source
1856November – The first known rules of modern croquet are registered by Isaac Spratt in London.United Kingdom source
1856Gregor Mendel starts his research on genetics.source
1856The Great Trigonometrical Survey of India officially gives 'Peak XV' (later to be named Mount Everest) the height of 29,002 ft. 'Peak IX' (Kangchenjunga), previously thought to be the world's highest, is confirmed as 28,156 ft.source
1856While surveying lands recently acquired by the Crown under the Robinson-Huron Treaty, British land surveyor Albert Salter observes a significant magnetic anomaly near the future site of Creighton Mine in modern-day Northern Ontario. This is an early scientific observation of the vast mineral resources of the Sudbury Basin.Canada source
1856Foreign Tribunals Evidence Act (British statute)India source
185612–18 July – The 7th Scandinavian Scientist Conference is held in Oslo.Norway source
1856Date unknown - Revision of the Infanticide Act (Sweden).Sweden source
1856Carl Meissner discovers Conospermum mitchelliiSwitzerland source
1857March 15 - President Comonfort signs the law adopting the metric systemMexico source
1857March 23 – Elisha Otis' first elevator is installed (at 488 Broadway, New York City).source
1857March 25 – The phonautograph is patented by French typesetter Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville. It is the earliest known device for recording sound.source
185713 August — Eugene Goddard crosses the Menai Strait in his gas balloon Aurora from Caernarfon Castle to Llanidan.Wales source
1857W. C. Stewart publishes The Practical Angler.Scotland source
1857Owen Wynne Jones — Dafydd LlwydWales source
1858February 11 – Lourdes apparitions: Pauper girl Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes, fourteen, has a vision at the grotto of Massabielle, the first in a series of eighteen events which will come to be regarded as Marian apparitions.source
185811 February - Lourdes apparitions: Pauper girl Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes, 14, has a vision at the grotto of Massabielle, the first in a series of eighteen events (up to 16 August) which will come to be regarded as Marian apparitions.France source
1858June 2 – Comet Donati, the first comet to be photographed, is discovered by Giovanni Battista Donati, and remains visible for several months afterwards.source
1858July 1 – A joint presentation of papers by Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, announcing a theory of evolution by natural selection, are read at London's Linnean Society.source
18581 July – Papers by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace announcing a theory of evolution by natural selection read at the Linnean Society of London.United Kingdom source
1858August – The first aerial photography is carried out by Nadar, from a moored balloon in France.source
1858November 16 – The 2,400,000th day of the Epoch of the Julian day is reached.source
1858Loke Yew leaves China for British MalayaChina source
1858Creation of K. Rudzki i S-ka (in Warsaw)Russia source
1858Abraham Lincoln and others observe Comet Donati.United States source
1858Mirror galvanometer invented by William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin.United Kingdom source
1858Alfred Russel Wallace — On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely From the Original TypeWales source
1858Morgan Howells — Gweithiau Morgan Howells ... pregethau a thraethodau (posthumously published)Wales source
1859March 26 – French amateur astronomer Edmond Modeste Lescarbault claims to have noticed a planet closer to the Sun than Mercury (later named Vulcan).source
185926 March - Attempting to explain Mercury's solar orbit, mathematician Urbain Le Verrier has proposed the existence of a hypothetical planet, Vulcan, inside its orbit and amateur astronomer Edmond Modeste Lescarbault claims to have observed it on this date.France source
185921 April – the Dunfermline Press begins publication.Scotland source
1859June 18 – Aletschhorn, the second summit of the Bernese Alps, is first ascended.source
18591 September – Astronomer Richard Carrington makes the first observation of a solar flare.United Kingdom source
18596 October – Thomas Austin takes 24 rabbits and 5 hares to Australia in order to release them there as a game. They will multiply exponentially.Australia source
1859November 24 – The French Navy's La Gloire, the first ocean-going ironclad warship in history, is launched.source
185924 November - The French Navy's La Gloire ("Glory"), the first ocean-going ironclad warship in history, is launched.France source
1859November – Bernhard Riemann publishes On the Number of Primes Less Than a Given Magnitude. In his paper there is an incidental comment that later becomes the Riemann Hypothesis, one of the most important unsolved problems in Mathematics.source
1859British Law Ascertainment Act (British statute)India source
1859Evidence By Commission Act (British statute)India source
1860January 2 – The astronomer Urbain Le Verrier announces the discovery of a hypothetical planet Vulcan at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris, France.source
186025 January – HMS Prince of Wales, a 121-gun screw-propelled first-rate ship of the line is launched at Portsmouth Dockyard.United Kingdom source
1860April 9 – French typesetter Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville creates a recording of the French folk song Au clair de la lune with his phonautograph, producing the world's earliest known intelligible sound recording of the human voice (however, it was not rediscovered until 2008).source
18609 April - Typesetter Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville sings "Au clair de la lune" into his phonautograph, producing the world's earliest known sound recording of a song. However, it would not be converted back into audible sound until 2008.France source
186020 November – The frigate Jylland is launched at Holmen in Copenhagen.Denmark source
186029 December – The world's first ocean-going (all) iron-hulled and armoured battleship, HMS Warrior is launched on the Thames.United Kingdom source
1860Discovery of the chemical elements: Robert Bunsen discovers caesium and rubidium.source
1860German chemist Albert Niemann makes a detailed analysis of the coca leaf, isolating and purifying the alkaloid, which he calls cocaine.source
1860Chalon head postage stamp issued in New BrunswickCanada source
18608–14 July – The 8th Scandinavian Scientist Conference is held in Copenhagen.Denmark source
1860Erlenmeyer flask is created by Emil Erlenmeyer.Germany source
1860Folklorist John Francis Campbell begins publication of Popular Tales of the West Highlands in Edinburgh.Scotland source
186113 March – Tsushima incident: the Russian corvette Posadnik arrives at Tsushima Island in the Korea Strait, Japan, provoking a reaction from the Japan.Russia source
1861March 30 – Discovery of the chemical elements: British chemist William Crookes announces his discovery of thallium.source
186130 March – William Crookes announces his discovery of thallium.United Kingdom source
1861April 26 – Giovanni Schiaparelli discovers the asteroid 69 Hesperia.source
1861May 13 – Comet C/1861 J1 (the "Great Comet of 1861") is discovered from Australia.source
186113 May – The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales.Australia source
1861May 17 – Scottish-born physicist James Clerk Maxwell demonstrates the principle of permanent three-colour photography in a lecture at the Royal Institution in London using a photograph captured by Thomas Sutton.source
186117 May – Scottish-born physicist James Clerk Maxwell demonstrates the principle of three-colour photography in a lecture at the Royal Institution in London using a photograph captured by Thomas Sutton.United Kingdom source
1861June 9 – Règlement Organique: With the approval of European powers, the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate is established as a semi-autonomous sub-division separate from the Sidon Eyalet. An Ottoman Armenian, Davud Pasha, is appointed Mutasarrıf by the Ottoman Sultan.source
1861August 1 – The first public weather forecast: measured and predicted correctly by Admiral Robert FitzRoy in Britain.source
1861August 15 – First description of Archaeopteryx, based on a feather found in Bavaria; in September the first complete identified skeleton is found near Langenaltheim in Germany.source
186115 August – First description of Archaeopteryx, based on a feather found in Bavaria; in September the first complete identified skeleton is found near Langenaltheim.Germany source
1861August 19 – Weisshorn, the fifth highest summit in the Alps, is first ascended.source
1861Foreign Law Ascertainment Act (British statute)India source
1862January 31 – Alvan Graham Clark makes the first observation of Sirius B, a white dwarf star, through an eighteen-inch telescope at Northwestern University in Illinois.source
186229 July – Confederate commerce raider CSS Alabama is launched clandestinely at Birkenhead by John Laird Sons and Company.United Kingdom source
1862David Kirkaldy publishes Results of an Experimental Inquiry into the Comparative Tensile Strength and other properties of various kinds of Wrought-Iron and Steel in Glasgow describing his pioneering work in tensile testing.Scotland source
18631 January – The Torrens title system is introduced in New South Wales with the commencement of the Real Property Act 1862.Australia source
1863January 3 – The Thomas Nast drawing of the modern Santa Claus appears on the cover of Harper's Weekly, although Santa existed previously.United States source
18636 May – HDMS Rolf Krake is launched at Nyholm in Copenhagen.Denmark source
1863June 27 – The Chōshū Five leave Japan secretly to study at University College London, which is part of the ending of sakoku.source
1863August 27–29 – Astronomische Gesellschaft in Heidelberg is founded, the world's second oldest astronomical society.Germany source
1863September 5 — Louis-Victor Sicotte appointed a puisne judge of the Superior Court for Saint-Hyacinthe DistrictCanada source
1863December 19 – Linoleum is patented in the United Kingdom.source
1863Richard Owen publishes the first description of a fossilised bird, Archaeopteryx.source
1863The Paris Observatory begins to publish weather maps.France source
1863Max Schultze advances cell theory with the observation that animal and vegetable protoplasm are identical.Germany source
1863The Newdigate Prize is awarded to Thomas Llewellyn Thomas.Wales source
1864May 7 – The clipper ship City of Adelaide is launched in Sunderland, England. By the 21st century, she will be the world's oldest surviving clipper of only two (Cutty Sark being the other).source
1864June 30 – President Abraham Lincoln signs the Yosemite Grant Act, precursor to Yosemite National Park.United States source
1864October 10 – October 27: Quebec Conference, identified 72 resolutions for the British North America Act, 1867Canada source
186418 October – HDMS Peder Skram is launched at Nyholm in Copenhagen.Denmark source
1864October 30 – An annular solar eclipse occurs, the 42nd solar eclipse of Solar Saros 131.source
1864December 8 – James Clerk Maxwell presents his paper, A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field, to the Royal Society in London, treating light as an electromagnetic wave.source
1864Lantern wins the Melbourne Cup.Australia source
1864Hugo Erfurt invents Ingrain wallpaperGermany source
1864Australian magpie introduced to New ZealandNew Zealand source
1864Queen Louise and Princess Louise take lessons in ice skating from the pioneer Nancy Edberg, making ice skating socially acceptable for females.Sweden source
1864Alfred Russel Wallace - The Origin of Human Races and the Antiquity of Man Deduced from the Theory of Natural SelectionWales source
1865February 8 & March 8 – Gregor Mendel reads his paper on Experiments on Plant Hybridization at two meetings of the Natural History Society of Brünn in Moravia, subsequently taken to be the origin of the theory of Mendelian inheritance.source
1865June 26 – Jumbo, a young male African elephant, arrives at London Zoo and becomes a popular attraction.source
186526 June – Jumbo, a young male African elephant, arrives at London Zoo and becomes a popular attraction.United Kingdom source
1865June–August – English polymath Francis Galton first describes eugenics.source
1865June–August – Francis Galton formulates eugenics.United Kingdom source
186530 August: The New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian publishes its last issue. It began in 1844.New Zealand source
1865September – John Henry Walsh (writing as 'Stonehenge' in the magazine The Field) gives the first definition of a dog breed standard (for the pointer) based on physical form.United Kingdom source
1865The New Zealand Exhibition in Dunedin runs from 12 January until 6 May 1865.New Zealand source
1865John Jones (Mathetes) — Pregeth i Fyfyrwyr Coleg Hwlffordd ...Wales source
1866March 31 – A total lunar eclipse occurs.source
1866June 5 – Calculations indicate Pluto (not known at this time) reaches its only aphelion (furthest point from the Sun) between 1618 and August 2113.source
1866July 28 – The Metric Act of 1866 becomes law and legalizes the use of the metric system for weights and measures in the United States.United States source
186622 August – SS Ottawa departs from Copenhagen as the first emigration ship between Copenhagen and New York City.Denmark source
1866Marcus Jastrow arrives in the United States to become rabbi of Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia.source
1866Alfred Nobel – invents dynamite in Germany.Germany source
1866Order of the Star of India was expanded to three classesIndia source
1866New Zealand Derby winner: NebulaNew Zealand source
1866The last Kirkcaldy whaler, The Brilliant, is sold to Peterhead.Scotland source
1866Alfred Nobel invented dynamite in 1866.Sweden source
1866Rees Howell Gronow — Last RecollectionsWales source
18671 April–3 November - Exposition Universelle in Paris.France source
186717 May – New criminal code published.Belgium source
186722 May – Maria Fedeorowna arrives to Copenhagen.Denmark source
1867June 20 – The first recorded association football match in Argentina takes place in Buenos Aires.source
186714 July – Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel demonstrates dynamite in a quarry in Redhill, Surrey, having patented it in the UK on 7 May.United Kingdom source
1867South African diamond fields are discovered.source
1867Date unknown - Volume I of Das Kapital by Karl Marx was published in Hamburg by Verlag Otto MeisnerGermany source
1867Royal Irish Constabulary granted its "Royal" prefix by Queen Victoria.Ireland source
1867New Zealand Cup winner: MagentaNew Zealand source
1867The Bronze Age cairns at Llanmadoc Hill are excavated and finds recorded.Wales source
18684 February - the first Uruguayan Mining Code is passed, approved by Law No. 920 of 4 February 1868.Uruguay source
1868February – The Benjamin Franklin "Z Grill" postage stamp is issued; it will be among the rarest ever.United States source
18688 August – HDMS Lindormen is launched at Nyholm in Copenhagen.Denmark source
1868August 18 – The element later named as helium is first detected in the spectrum of the Sun's chromosphere, by French astronomer Jules Janssen, during a total eclipse in Guntur, British India, but is assumed to be sodium.source
186818 August - The element later named as helium is first detected in the spectrum of the Sun's chromosphere by astronomer Jules Janssen during a total eclipse in Guntur, India, but assumed to be sodium (on 20 October English astronomer Norman Lockyer identifies it).France source
1868August – meteorological observatory set up on Valentia Island.Ireland source
1868October 20 – English astronomer Norman Lockyer observes and names the D 3 Fraunhofer line in the solar spectrum, and concludes that it is caused by a hitherto unidentified element, which he later names helium.source
186820 October – astronomer Norman Lockyer observes and names the D 3 Fraunhofer line in the solar spectrum and concludes that it is caused by a hitherto unidentified chemical element which he later names helium.United Kingdom source
1868November 2 – Time zone: New Zealand officially adopts a standard time, to be observed nationally.source
1868Thomas Henry Huxley discovers what he thinks is primordial matter and names it bathybius haeckelii (he admits his mistake in 1871).source
1868Documentary Evidence Act (British statute)India source
1868John Ceiriog Hughes – Oriau eraillWales source
18699 January – The British clipper ship Thermopylae arrives in Melbourne, having sailed from London in the record time of 64 days.Australia source
1869March 1 – (O. S. February 17) – Dmitri Mendeleev finishes his design of the first periodic table and sends it for publishing.source
1869March 18 (O. S. March 6) – Dmitri Mendeleev makes a formal presentation of his periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society.source
1869September 20 – Ezo was given its present name, Hokkaido (北海道 Hokkaidō, literally "Northern Sea Region").Japan source
186922 November – the clipper ship Cutty Sark is launched in Dumbarton, one of the last clippers built and the only one to survive in the UK.Scotland source
186922 November – clipper ship Cutty Sark is launched in Dumbarton, Scotland; she is one of the last clippers built, and the only one to survive in the UK.United Kingdom source
1869November 23 – In Dumbarton, Scotland, the clipper ship Cutty Sark is launched (it is one of the last clippers built, and the only one to survive in the United Kingdom).source
1869Friedrich Miescher purifies nuclein, which was then identified as deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).source
1869Marcus Jastrow arrives in the United States to become rabbi of Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia.United States source
1869J. H. Clark – History of MonmouthshireWales source
1870March 18 – Female Infanticide Prevention Act, 1870, passed in British India by Natalia Fish.source
187017 May – The turreted ironclad Gorm is launched from the Naval Dockyard in Copenhagen.Denmark source
1870July 28 – Start of Solar Saros 153. The final eclipse in this series will be in 3114.source
187027 August – White Star's first ocean liner RMS Oceanic is launched by Harland and Wolff in Belfast.Ireland source
1870Ludimar Hermann observes the Hermann grid illusion.Germany source
1870Rudolf Clausius proves the scalar virial theorem.Germany source
1870Torrens system of registered land titles adopted.New Zealand source
1870In India, Timothy Richards Lewis discovers a nematoid worm, which he calls Filaria sanguinis hominis (later "Wuchereria bancrofti").Wales source
1871February 21 – The District of Columbia Organic Act of 1871 is signed into law by U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant.source
1871February 21 – District of Columbia Organic Act of 1871United States source
1871September 2 – Whaling disaster of 1871: The Comet, a brig used by whalers, becomes the first of 33 ships to be crushed in the Arctic ice by an early freeze. Remarkably, all 1,219 people on the abandoned ships are rescued without a single loss of life.source
1871October 5 – The Società degli Spettroscopisti Italiani (laterSocietà Astronomica Italiana) is established in Rome, the first scientific organisation in the world dedicated to astrophysics.source
187124 October – The Argentine National Observatory is founded by President Domingo F. Sarmiento and the North American astronomer Benjamin Apthorp Gould.Argentina source
1871November 17 – George Biddell Airy presents his discovery that astronomical aberration is independent of the local medium.source
187117 November – George Biddell Airy presents his discovery that astronomical aberration is independent of the local medium.United Kingdom source
1871When an 83.50 carats diamond is discovered, a diamond rush results and the town of New Rush springs up.South Africa source
1871Modern "neoclassical economics" is initiated by publication of William Stanley Jevons's Theory of Political Economy and Carl Menger's Principles of Economics (Grundsätze der Volkswirtschaftslehre).source
1871Alfred Stevens, The Psyché (My Studio) (c. 1871)Belgium source
1872February 4 – A great solar flare, and associated geomagnetic storm, makes northern lights visible as far south as Cuba.source
1872May 4 – The magazine Popular Science is first published in the United States.source
187217 November – Edvard Engelsaas, speed skater and world championNorway source
1872November 27 – A meteor shower display of Andromedids is seen over France.source
187227 November - Meteor shower display over France.France source
1872November 28 – Geologist Clarence King uncovers the diamond hoax in Wyoming in The New York Times.United States source
187212 December – The central battery ironclad Odin is launched from the Naval Dockyard in Copenhagen.Denmark source
187212 December – a meteorite strikes Earth near Banbury.United Kingdom source
1872Richard Dedekind publishes Stetigkeit und irrationale Zahlen, a theory of irrational numbers.Germany source
1872Polyvinyl chloride is accidentally synthesised by German chemist Eugen Baumann.Germany source
1872New Zealand Cup winner – DetractorNew Zealand source
1873January 1 – Japan adopts the Gregorian calendar.source
1873July 5 – New Rush in Griqualand West, South Africa, is renamed Kimberley.source
1873July 5 – New Rush in Griqualand West is renamed Kimberley after John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley.South Africa source
1873Nine Pekin ducks are imported to Long Island (the first in the United States).source
1873Hermann von Helmholtz is awarded the Copley Medal "for his researches in physics and physiology".Germany source
1873The armoured frigate SMS Preußen is launched.Germany source
1873Edinburgh Evening News first publishedScotland source
1873Lexicographer James Murray publishes Dialect of the Southern Counties of ScotlandScotland source
1874Charles Taze Russell and the Bible Student movement claim this year marks the invisible return of Jesus Christ to earth.source
18751 April – The Times publishes the first daily weather map.United Kingdom source
1875September 11 – Egypt adopts the Gregorian calendar; replacing the Coptic/Alexandrian calendar (based on the ancient Egyptian calendar) which had been the official calendar since the Roman period.source
1875Gallium is discovered by Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran.France source
1875The weekly medical journal, Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift, is established in Germany by Paul Börner.Germany source
1875India Meteorology Department was established on 15 January.India source
1875The Metric system was introduced and replaced the old measurement units (de jure).Norway source
1875Creation of the Lisbon Geographic Society.Portugal source
1875Alfred Nobel invents the Gelignite.Sweden source
1875Robert Griffiths becomes the first secretary of the tonic solfa college.Wales source
1876January 1 – The Bass Brewery Red Triangle becomes the world's first registered trademark symbol, in the United Kingdom.source
18761 January – the Bass Brewery Red Triangle becomes the first registered trademark symbol, under the Trade Mark Registration Act 1875.United Kingdom source
1876American librarian Melvil Dewey first publishes the Dewey Decimal Classification system.source
1876March – Librarian Melvil Dewey first publishes the Dewey Decimal Classification system.United States source
1877August 12 – American astronomer Asaph Hall discovers Deimos, the outer moon of Mars.source
1877August 18 – Asaph Hall discovers Phobos, the inner moon of Mars.source
1877November 21 – Thomas Edison announces his invention of the phonograph, a machine that can record sound, considered his first great invention. Edison demonstrates the device for the first time on November 29.source
1877November 21 – Thomas Edison announces his invention of the phonograph, a machine that can record sound, considered Edison's first great invention. Edison demonstrates the device for the first time on December 6.United States source
1877Louis Melsens becomes the second person to receive the Guinard Prize by the Brussels Academy, a Belgian award, given every 5 years since 1872, to the scientist who has written the best work or created the best invention to improve the material or intellectual position of the working class.Belgium source
1877Robert Louis Stevenson's first published works of fiction appear in magazines.Scotland source
1877A breed register for the Clydesdale horse is established.Scotland source
1877A publication about birth control. View original copy.United Kingdom source
1877Publication date of Edward Lear's Laughable Lyrics (actually issued December 1876).United Kingdom source
187811 February – first weekly weather report published in the UK.United Kingdom source
18789 May – The panserbatteri Helgoland is launched.Denmark source
1878October 14 – The world's first recorded floodlit football fixture is played at Bramall Lane, in Sheffield, England.source
187822 November - The Metric system is introduced in SwedenSweden source
187818 December – Joseph Swan of Newcastle announces his invention of an incandescent light bulb.United Kingdom source
18783–9 July – The 11th Scandinavian Scientist Conference is held in Copenhagen.Denmark source
1878Elders' Widows' Fund (India) Act (British statute)India source
1878Territorial Waters Jurisdiction Act (British statute)India source
1878William Crookes invents the Crookes tube which produces cathode rays.United Kingdom source
1879January 1 – The Specie Resumption Act takes effect. The United States Note is valued the same as gold, for the first time since the American Civil War.source
1879January 1 – The Specie Resumption Act takes effect: the Greenback is valued the same as gold for the first time since the American Civil War.United States source
1879February 8 – At a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute, engineer and inventor Sandford Fleming first proposes the global adoption of standard time.source
187914 April – The first use of a parachute in Australia occurs when Henri L 'Estrange's balloon ruptures above Melbourne's Agricultural Showgrounds.Australia source
18796 June – William Denny and Brothers launch the world's first ocean-going ship to be built of mild steel, the SS Rotomahana, at Dumbarton.United Kingdom source
1879July 1 – American Restorationist Charles Taze Russell publishes the first issue of the monthly Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence which, as The Watchtower, will become the most widely circulated magazine in the world.source
1879July 1 – Restorationist Charles Taze Russell publishes the first issue of the monthly Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence which, as The Watchtower, will become the most widely circulated magazine in the world.United States source
18796 September – first publication of a story by Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Mystery of Sasassa Valley" in Chambers's Journal.Scotland source
1879October 28 – The Hall effect is discovered by Edwin Hall at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.source
1879December 31 – Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time, in Menlo Park, New Jersey.source
1879Wilhelm Wundt establishes the first psychological research laboratory, at the University of Leipzig.source
1879The Stefan–Boltzmann law is discovered by Jozef Stefan.source
1879D. Walter Thomas & Edward Hughes – The Cymric languageWales source
1880February 24 – The SS Columbia, which will be the first outside usage of Thomas Edison's incandescent light bulb, is launched at the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works of John Roach & Sons in Chester, Pennsylvania.source
1880February – The journal Science is first published, with financial backing from Thomas Edison.United States source
1880July – John Venn popularises Venn diagrams.source
188030 September – HDMS Tordenskjold is launched at Nyholm in Copenhagen.Denmark source
1880September 30 – Amateur astronomer Henry Draper takes the first ever photograph of the Orion Nebula.United States source
18809 December – Jens Peter Jacobsen's Niels Lyhne by Gyldendal.Denmark source
1880Piezoelectricity is discovered by Pierre Curie and Jacques Curie.source
1880Discovery of piezoelectricity by Pierre Curie and Jacques Curie.France source
1880The Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction of the Women's Christian Temperance Union is established.United States source
1881June – Oscar Wilde's Poems published in London.Ireland source
188122 October – Tit-Bits weekly digest magazine founded by George Newnes.United Kingdom source
1881October 29 – Judge magazine is first published.United States source
1881Some Vatican archives are opened to scholars for the first time.source
1881The Pali Text Society is founded by British scholar Thomas William Rhys Davids, for the study of Pali (Ceylonese) texts.source
1881Gustave Den Duyts, Panoramic View of Ghent (c. 1881)Belgium source
1881Judicial Committee Act (British statute)India source
1882August 5 – Standard Oil of New Jersey is established.United States source
1882September 7 – W.H. Finlay of Cape Town's Royal Observatory is first to record observations of the Great Comet of 1882.South Africa source
1882September 18 – Great Comet of 1882: Her Majesty's Astronomer at the Cape, David Gill, reports watching the comet rise a few minutes before the Sun, describing it as "The nucleus was then undoubtedly single, and certainly rather under than over 4″ in diameter; in fact, as I have described it, it resembled very much a star of the 1st magnitude seen by daylight."source
1882December 6 – A transit of Venus, the last until 2004, occurs.source
18826 December – A rare transit of Venus across the disc of the Sun is visible from Australia, and many scientific parties arrive from around the world to observe and record the transit. The next occurrence was June 2004.Australia source
1882The first International Polar Year, an international scientific program, begins.source
1882Documentary Evidence Act (British statute)India source
1882Lewis Campbell publishes The Life of James Clerk Maxwell, with a Selection from his Correspondence and Occasional Writings and a Sketch of his Contributions to Science, including some of Maxwell's verses.Scotland source
1882American scholar Francis James Child begins publication of The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, the Child Ballads.Scotland source
1882Archaeologist Robert Munro publishes Ancient Scottish Lake Dwellings or Crannogs.Scotland source
1882The Society for Psychical Research is founded by Henry Sidgwick.United Kingdom source
18831 January – Augustus Pitt Rivers takes office as Britain's first Inspector of Ancient Monuments.United Kingdom source
1883March 2 – The Hong Kong Observatory is established.source
1883April 30 – New York Governor Grover Cleveland signs a bill authorizing protection of land for Niagara Falls State Park, which would eventually lead to the Niagara Reservation being established two years later in 1885.United States source
188311 October – The Russian tsar family departs from Copenhagen.Denmark source
1883Fernand Khnopff, Listening to Schumann; Portrait de Mademoiselle Van der HechtBelgium source
1883The Schotten-Baumann reaction is first described in 1883 by German chemists Carl Schotten and Eugen Baumann.Germany source
1884January – Arthur Conan Doyle's anonymous story "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" appears in the Cornhill Magazine (London). Based on the disappearance of the crew of the Mary Celeste in 1872, many of the fictional elements introduced by Doyle come to replace the real events in the popular imagination.source
1884October 22 – The International Meridian Conference meeting in Washington, D.C., fixes the Greenwich meridian as the world's prime meridian (voted on October 13).source
188422 October – The International Meridian Conference meeting in Washington, D.C., adopts the Greenwich meridian as the world's prime meridian (voted on 13 October).United Kingdom source
1884October – International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C., fixes the Greenwich meridian as the world's prime meridian.United States source
1884The Stefan–Boltzmann law is reformulated by Ludwig Boltzmann.source
1884The Thorvaldsen Exhibition Medal is awarded to Christian Zacho for the painting Quiet waters in Dyrehaven and to August Jerndorff for a portrait painting (possibly Anne Gerricke).Denmark source
1884Koch's postulates are four criteria designed to establish a causative relationship between a microbe and a disease. The postulates were formulated by Robert Koch and Friedrich Loeffler in 1884.Germany source
1884Paal-Knorr Synthesis was initially reported independently by German chemists Carl Paal and Ludwig Knorr as a method for the preparation of furansGermany source
1884Naval Discipline Act (British statute)India source
1884Teacher's Highland Cream blended whisky registered.Scotland source
188526 February – A speed skating duel at Frognerkilen between Axel Paulsen and Renke van der Zee was attended by between 20,000 and 30,000 spectators.Norway source
188514 March Scotland 8–2 Ireland (in Glasgow)Ireland source
1885August 19 – S Andromedae, the only supernova seen in the Andromeda Galaxy so far by astronomers, and the first ever noted outside the Milky Way, is discovered.source
188512 September – Arbroath 36–0 Bon Accord is the world's highest scoring unrigged professional Association football match. An official score of Dundee Harp 35–0 Aberdeen Rovers is recorded in a separate match on the same day.Scotland source
1885Martha, the last Passenger pigeon was bornsource
1885Evidence By Commission Act (British statute)India source
1885New Zealand Cup winner: FusiladeNew Zealand source
18866 February – German chemist Clemens Winkler discovers chemical element Germanium.Germany source
188624 February - At Raukleiv’s first Siljordsskirendet, Johannes Nordgården falls at a 27 m world record, and Olaf Bergland later sets the official record at 25.5 m.Norway source
1886May 8 – American pharmacist Dr. John Pemberton invents a carbonated beverage that will be named 'Coca-Cola'.source
1886May 8 – Pharmacist Dr. John Stith Pemberton invents a carbonated beverage that will be named 'Coca-Cola'.United States source
1886November 11 – Heinrich Hertz verifies the existence of electromagnetic waves, at the University of Karlsruhe.source
1886December 14 – Yoho National Park establishedCanada source
1886unknown date: The Brazilian arboreal mouse (Rhagomys rufescens) is described for the first time by zoologists.Brazil source
1886A supplementary session of the Althing was first held in 1886.Iceland source
1886New Zealand Cup – Spade GuineaNew Zealand source
1886The publication of Crime and Punishment by Fyodor DostoyevskyRussia source
18871 January – Clement Wragge is appointed Government Meteorologist for QueenslandAustralia source
1887February 26 – At the Sydney Cricket Ground, George Lohmann becomes the first bowler to take eight wickets, in a Test innings.source
18871 October – A. G. Sheath, with Shot Put, 10.21 m at Napier, makes the first performance to be recognised as a national record.New Zealand source
1887Results of the Michelson–Morley experiment are published, indicating that the speed of light is independent of motion.source
1887Heinrich Hertz discovers the photoelectric effect on the production and reception of electromagnetic (EM) waves (radio); this is an important step towards the understanding of the quantum nature of light.source
1887Franz König publishes "Über freie Körper in den Gelenken" in the medical journal Deutsche Zeitschrift für Chirurgie, describing (and naming) the disease Osteochondritis dissecans for the first time.source
1887The Petri dish is created by German bacteriologist Julius Richard Petri.Germany source
1887Heinrich Hertz discovers the photoelectric effect on the production and reception of electromagnetic waves in radio, an important step towards the understanding of the quantum nature of light.Germany source
1887Adolf Gaston Eugen Fick invents the contact lens, made of a type of brown glass.Germany source
1887Appellate Jurisdiction Act (British statute)India source
1887William Ewart Gladstone publishes Handbook of Home Rule.Ireland source
1887Mixed doubles – ?. Hudson and K. HitchingsNew Zealand source
1888January 3 – The great telescope (with an objective lens of 91 cm diameter) at Lick Observatory in California is first used.source
188824 March – Olof Jacobsen, gymnast and Olympic bronze medallistNorway source
188813 May – The young Beatrix Potter records a trip to Machynlleth in her diary.Wales source
18881 July – "The Dawn: A Journal for Australian Women" first published by Louisa Lawson, in Sydney.Australia source
1888August 28 – The longest date in roman numerals is achieved, as "VIII-XXVIII-MDCCCLXXXVIII". In contrast, the shortest date (I-I-MM) will be achieved 111 years later on January 1, 2000.source
1888September 4 – Mohandas Gandhi embarks on the SS Clyde from Bombay for London.source
188813 December – Heinrich Hertz presents his report on the discovery of electromagnetic radiation to the Berlin Academy of SciencesGermany source
1888John Robert Gregg first publishes Gregg shorthand in the United States.source
1888Maurice Barrès - Le Culte du moiFrance source
1888W. B. Yeats joins the Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society.Ireland source
1888250 yards – A. Williams (Canterbury)New Zealand source
1888440 yards – A. Williams (Canterbury)New Zealand source
1889January 1 – The total solar eclipse of January 1, 1889 is seen over parts of California and Nevada.source
1889January 1 – A total solar eclipse is seen over parts of California and Nevada.United States source
188921 January – American "Professor" Baldwin makes the first balloon ascent in New Zealand at Dunedin.New Zealand source
1889June 28 – The annular solar eclipse of June 28, 1889 is visible across the Atlantic Ocean, Africa and Indian Ocean, and is the 47th solar eclipse of Solar Saros 125.source
1889October 21 – Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder is recorded by Adelbert Theodor Wangemann, a German associate of Thomas Edison, on wax cylinders via phonograph. The two surviving wax cylinders that are produced make von Moltke, who was born in 1800, the earliest-living human whose voice has been recorded, and the only person born in the 18th century whose voice will be heard into the 21st.source
1889November 14 – Pioneer American woman journalist Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) begins an attempt to travel around the world in less than 80 days, inspired by Jules Verne; she finishes the journey in 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes.source
1889November 14 – Pioneer woman journalist Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) begins an attempt to beat travel around the world in less than 80 days, inspired by Jules Verne; she finishes the journey in 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes.United States source
1889November – Bravo wins the Melbourne CupAustralia source
1889Interpretation Act 1889 (British statute)India source
1889Oscar Wilde published his dialogue, The Decay of Lying, and his story The Portrait of Mr. W. H..Ireland source
1889250 yards – H. Reeves (Canterbury)New Zealand source
1889The metric system was introduced in Norway (the actual law having been passed in 1875).Norway source
1890January 25 – American journalist Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world journey in 72 days.source
1890January 25 – Journalist Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world journey in 72 days.United States source
189020 March – The battle cruiser Almirante Tamandaré is launched at Rio de Janeiro Dockyards.Brazil source
189020 March - Leo von Caprivi shift beginsGermany source
189029 March Ireland 1–4 Scotland (in Belfast)Ireland source
1890May 30 – The five-story skylight Arcade opens in Cleveland, Ohio.source
189015 October - "Birth" of Álvaro de Campos, one of Fernando Pessoa's heteronyms.Portugal source
1890The folding carton box is invented by Robert Gair, a Brooklyn printer who developed production of paper-board boxes in 1879.source
1890Francis Galton announces a statistical demonstration of the uniqueness and classifiability of individual human fingerprints.source
1890440 yards – H. Reeves (Canterbury)New Zealand source
1890Saint Petersburg Mathematical SocietyRussia source
1890William McGonagall's Poetic Gems published.Scotland source
1891March 3 – The International Copyright Act of 1891 is passed, by the 51st United States Congress.source
1891March 3 – The International Copyright Act of 1891 is passed by the Fifty-first United States Congress.United States source
1891May 7 - Itata Incident: The Itata leaves San Diego for ChileChile source
1891May 20 – Thomas Edison's prototype kinetoscope is first displayed at Edison's Laboratory, for a convention of the National Federation of Women's Clubs.source
1891June 1 – The Johnstown Inclined Plane opens in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.source
189112 August Godfrey Shaw sets the first (unofficial) world record by a New Zealander. He runs 57.2 seconds for 440 yards hurdles at the Isle of Man.New Zealand source
1891September – Hugh Munro publishes the first table of mountains in Scotland over 3,000 feet (914.4 m), in the Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal; these become known as the Munros.Scotland source
1891December 22 – Asteroid 323 Brucia becomes the first asteroid discovered using photography.source
1891Nikola Tesla invents the Tesla coil.source
1891Gustave Moreau becomes a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.France source
1891The modern taximeter is invented by German Friedrich Wilhelm Gustav Bruhn.Germany source
1891The Fischer projection is devised by Hermann Emil Fischer.Germany source
1891Standish James O'Grady publishes Finn and his Companions.Ireland source
189211 February – Henriette Homann, photographer and painter (born 1819).Norway source
189219 March Ireland 2–3 Scotland (in Belfast)Ireland source
1892April – First publication of The Irish NaturalistIreland source
1892September 9 – Amalthea, the fifth moon of Jupiter, is discovered by Edward Emerson Barnard.source
1892Viruses are first described by Russian biologist Dmitri Ivanovsky.source
1892Danish botanist Eugenius Warming gives the first detailed description of the Brazilian cerrado in his book Lagoa Santa.Brazil source
18924–9 July – The 14th Scandinavian Scientist Conference is held in Copenhagen.Denmark source
1892Winners: Linfield 7–0 The Black WatchIreland source
1892The discovery of viruses by Dmitri IvanovskyRussia source
1893February 28 – USS Indiana, the first battleship in the United States Navy comparable to other nation's battleships of the time, is launched.source
1893May 9 – Edison's 1½ inch system of Kinetoscope is first demonstrated in public, at the Brooklyn Institute.source
1893May 10 – Nix v. Hedden: the United States Supreme Court legally declares the tomato to be a vegetable.United States source
1893July 1 – U.S. President Grover Cleveland is operated on in secret.source
1893July 11 – Kōkichi Mikimoto, in Japan, develops the method to seed and grow cultured pearls.source
189318 November – Akademischer SC 1893 BerlinGermany source
1893Carl Anton Larsen becomes the first man to ski in Antarctica.source
1893German physicist Wilhelm Wien formulates Wien's displacement law.source
1893Tarcoola wins the Melbourne CupAustralia source
1893Émile Zola - Le Docteur PascalFrance source
1893Wilhelm Wien formulates Wien's displacement law.Germany source
1893Douglas Hyde publishes Love Songs of Connacht.Ireland source
1893440 yards hurdles – D. Matson (Canterbury)New Zealand source
1893The first publication of The Story of an Unknown Man by Anton Chekhov.Russia source
1894March 21 – A syzygy of planets occurs, as Mercury transits the Sun as seen from Venus, and Mercury and Venus both transit the Sun as seen from Saturn, but no two of the transits are simultaneous.source
18941 October – Leipziger Volkszeitung is first published.Germany source
1894Oil is discovered on the Osage Indian reservation, making the Osage the "richest group of people in the world".source
1894Camille Flammarion - Omega: The Last Days of the WorldFrance source
1894Professor John Joly of Trinity College Dublin, devises a colour photographic process.Ireland source
1894Fours – J. Davidson, A. Owen, J. Wedderspoon and J. Evans (skip) (Caledonian)New Zealand source
1894Ian Maclaren's stories Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush are published.Scotland source
1894Date unknown - Kata Dalström is engaged as a lecturer for the Socialists.Sweden source
1894Argon discovered by Lord Rayleigh and Sir William Ramsay.United Kingdom source
1894Owen Morgan Edwards makes his first report on county schools in WalesWales source
189515 March – Dreyfus is landed on Devil's Island off French Guiana.France source
18954 July - The Chilean cruiser Esmeralda (1895) is laid down.Chile source
1895November 1 – Max Skladanowsky and his brother Emil present a short film at the Berlin Wintergarten theatre in Germany using the movie projector they have developed.source
1895November 8 – Wilhelm Röntgen discovers the type of electromagnetic radiation later known as X-rays.source
1895December 11 – Svante Arrhenius becomes the first scientist to deliver quantified data about the sensitivity of global climate to atmospheric carbon dioxide (the "Greenhouse effect"), as he presents his paper "On the Influence of Carbonic Acid in the Air Upon The Temperature of the Ground" to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.source
1895The Umfolozi Game Reserve is proclaimed.South Africa source
1895Konstantin Tsiolkovsky proposes a space elevator.source
1895Little Donah Polka published under the name 'Ansell Hope' (unidentified)Australia source
1895New Zealand Derby – EuroclydonNew Zealand source
1895Shot put – Charles M. Louisson (Canterbury)New Zealand source
1895W. E. B. Du Bois becomes the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University.United States source
1895Daniel Owen – Straeon y PentanWales source
1896January 5 – An Austrian newspaper reports Wilhelm Röntgen's discovery, last November, of a type of electromagnetic radiation, later known as X-rays.source
1896January 12 – H. L. Smith takes the first X-ray photograph.source
189614 January – Acres demonstrates his Kineopticon to the Royal Photographic Society at the Queen's Hall in London.United Kingdom source
1896April – Svante Arrhenius first publishes the "greenhouse law", becoming the first person to predict that emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels and other combustion processes are large enough to cause global warming through the greenhouse effect.source
189624 September – William Frost flies his Frost Airship Glider for the only time.Wales source
1896German physicist Wilhelm Wien derives the Wien approximation.Germany source
1896Unknown date – Kotaro Mikamo reports the first results of a double-eyelid procedure for aesthetic purposes.Japan source
1896250 yards – W. Kingston (Otago)New Zealand source
1896100 yards – E. Robinson (Canterbury)New Zealand source
1896A new Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, is established on Blackford Hill, replacing that on Calton Hill, under the auspices of Ralph Copeland, Astronomer Royal for Scotland.Scotland source
1896Owen Morgan Edwards – Cartrefi CymruWales source
189727 March Scotland 5–1 Ireland (in Glasgow)Ireland source
1897April 30 – J. J. Thomson of the Cavendish Laboratory announces his discovery of the electron as a subatomic particle, over 1,800 times smaller than a proton (in the atomic nucleus), at a lecture at the Royal Institution in London.source
189730 April – J. J. Thomson first announces his discovery of the electron.United Kingdom source
1897May 6 – John Jacob Abel announces the successful isolation of epinephrine (adrenaline), in a paper read before the Association of American Physicians.source
1897July 25 – Writer Jack London sails to join the Klondike Gold Rush, where he will write his first successful stories.source
1897October 13 – HMS Canopus, a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy, is launched at Portsmouth, England; she will be deployed widely in World War I.source
189713 October – HMS Canopus, a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy, is launched at Portsmouth; she will be deployed widely in World War I.United Kingdom source
1897Jules Verne - Le Sphinx des glacesFrance source
1897David Hilbert unifies the field of algebraic number theory with his treatise Zahlbericht.Germany source
1897Pairs – W. Cowie and W. Thomson (skip) (Dunedin)New Zealand source
1897Arthur Cheetham begins making films in Wales.Wales source
1897Walford Davies – Overture in D minorWales source
1898March 15 – March 1898 Japanese general electionJapan source
189826 March Ireland 0–3 Scotland (in Belfast)Ireland source
1898May 28 – Secondo Pia takes the first photographs of the Shroud of Turin and discovers that the image on the Shroud itself appears to be a photographic negative.source
189828 May – Italian photographer Secondo Pia takes the first photograph of the Shroud of Turin, unwittingly taking the first step in the field of modern sindonology.Italy source
1898May 29 Lease of Guangzhouwan to FranceChina source
189830 May – William Ramsay and Morris Travers make the first of their discovery of noble gases, krypton, followed on 7 June by neon and on 12 July by xenon at University College London.United Kingdom source
18981 June – HNoMS Storm is launched, one of the oldest ships still in front line service in the Second World WarNorway source
1898June 7 – William Ramsay and Morris Travers discover neon at their laboratory at University College London, after extracting it from liquid nitrogen.source
1898July 18 – "The Adventures of Louis de Rougemont" first appear in The Wide World Magazine, as its August 1898 issue goes on sale.source
1898December 26 – Marie and Pierre Curie announce the discovery of an element that they name radium.source
189826 December – Marie and Pierre Curie announce discovery of a substance they call radium.France source
1898880 yards – H. C. Garsia (Canterbury)New Zealand source
1899January 14 – The White Star Line's transatlantic ocean liner RMS Oceanic is launched from the Belfast shipyards in Ireland. At 17,272 gross register tons and 704 ft, she is the largest ship afloat at this time.source
1899January 19 – Future film producer Samuel Goldwyn, born in Poland and later a resident of Germany and England, arrives in the United States at the age of sixteen as Szmuel Gelbfisz.United States source
1899March 18 – Phoebe, the ninth-known moon of the planet Saturn is discovered by U.S. astronomer William Pickering from analysis of photographic plates made by a Peruvian observatory, the first discovery of a satellite photographically.source
18992 April – The Hamburg America Line cruise ship SS Graf Waldersee begins its maiden voyage.Germany source
1899April 21 – The nova V606 Aquilae is first observed from Earth as seen within the constellation Aquila.source
1899June 17 – David Hilbert creates the modern concept of geometry, with the publication of his book Grundlagen der Geometrie, released at Göttingen.source
1899June 27 – A. E. J. Collins, a 13-year-old schoolboy, makes the highest-ever recorded individual score in cricket, 628 not out. His record will stand for 117 years.source
189927 June – The paperclip is patented by Johan Vaaler, a Norwegian inventor.Norway source
18998 October – The word "wowser" is first used by John Norton, editor of the Melbourne Truth newspaper.Australia source
1899October 19 – Robert H. Goddard receives his inspiration to develop the first rocket capable of reaching outer space, after viewing his yard from high in a tree and imagining "how wonderful it would be to make some device which had even the possibility of ascending to Mars, and how it would look on a small scale, if sent up from the meadow at my feet."source
1899November – Momijigari, the oldest extant Japanese film, is shot an open space behind the Kabuki-za in Tokyo.Japan source
1899December 2 – During the new moon, a near-grand conjunction of the classical planets and several binocular Solar System bodies occur. The Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars and Saturn are all within 15° of each other, with Venus 5° ahead of this conjunction and Jupiter 15° behind.source
1899Chinese oracle bones from the former capital site of Yinxu are identified by academic Wang Yirong as carrying Shang dynasty writing.China source
1899250 yards – W. Kingston (Otago)New Zealand source
1899The Bus is introduced in StockholmSweden source