Technology & Infrastructure in the 19th century

1,436 sourced entries, 1800 CE to 1899 CE, oldest first. Also see Technology & Infrastructure across every century or everything else in the 19th century.

18001 January – Robert Owen becomes manager of the New Lanark spinning mills.Scotland source
18008 January – first soup kitchens open in London.United Kingdom source
180012 August – start of construction of the Military Road across the Wicklow Mountains.Ireland source
180014 August - Trollhätte Canal, later a part of the Göta Canal, is inaugurated.Sweden source
18007 December – Grant names Cape Otway; the Lady Nelson becomes the first ship to cross Bass Strait from the west.Australia source
1800December - The Brecon Canal opens between Brecon and Talybont.Wales source
1800A semaphore line, also known as an optical telegraph, is established between Copenhagen and Schleswig, with 23 reply stations across Zealand, Funen and Als.Denmark source
1800New bridges built at Thurso and Wick and Sir John Sinclair plans development of Thurso.Scotland source
180116 March – Edinburgh music teacher Anne Gunn is granted the first British patent for a board game, designed as a music teaching aid.Scotland source
1801July – Eli Whitney demonstrates before Congress the advantages of the system of interchangeable parts in the manufacture of firearms.United States source
1801December 24 – Cornish engineers Richard Trevithick and Andrew Vivian demonstrate "Puffing Devil", their steam-powered road locomotive, in Camborne. The trial is successful but Trevithick realizes the limitations of steam power in a road-running vehicle and turns his attention to rail, introducing the world's first steam railway locomotive in 1804.source
180124 December – Richard Trevithick demonstrates the first steam-powered vehicle to carry passengers at Camborne.United Kingdom source
1801Shipbuilding has become an important industry in Canada.Canada source
1801First official, dedicated life-boat in Ireland stationed at Clontarf by the Dublin Ballast Board.Ireland source
1801Jefferson, the first American yacht, is built in Salem, Massachusetts, for George Crowninshield Jr.United States source
1801Chirk aqueduct is completed and opened.Wales source
1801First railway in north Wales is built by Lord Penrhyn to link his quarries with Bethesda and Port Penrhyn.Wales source
1802March 16 – The United States Army Corps of Engineers is re-established, and the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York is established under its management, opening on July 4.source
1802June 1 – The United States Patent and Trademark Office is established within the Department of State.source
1802June 1 – William Thornton is appointed the first superintendent of the United States Patent Office.United States source
1802July 19 – Éleuthère Irénée du Pont founds E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, the modern DuPont chemical company, as a gunpowder manufactory near Wilmington, Delaware.source
1802July 31 – William Wordsworth, leaving London for Dover and Calais with his sister Dorothy, witnesses the early morning scene which he captures in his sonnet "Composed upon Westminster Bridge".source
180227 August – West India Docks, first commercial docks in London, open.United Kingdom source
18022 October – first Start Point lighthouse on Sanday, Orkney, completed by Robert Stevenson.Scotland source
1802October 12 – Joseph Gardner Swift and Simeon Magruder Levy become the first graduates of the United States Military Academy.United States source
18025 November – Marc Isambard Brunel begins installation of his blockmaking machinery at Portsmouth Block Mills.United Kingdom source
1802Johann Wilhelm Ritter builds the first electrochemical cell.Germany source
1802George Bodley of Exeter patents the first enclosed kitchen stove.United Kingdom source
1803January 4 – William Symington demonstrates his Charlotte Dundas, the "first practical steamboat", in Scotland.source
18034 January – William Symington demonstrates his Charlotte Dundas, the "first practical steamboat".Scotland source
18032 February – Charles Grimes discovered the Yarra River.Australia source
18035 March – George Howe publishes the first issue of the weekly The Sydney Gazette and The New South Wales Advertiser, Australia's first newspaper.Australia source
1803July 26 – The wagonway between Wandsworth and Croydon is opened, being the first public railway line in England.source
180327 July – Caledonian Canal authorized by Act of Parliament and construction begins; Thomas Telford also begins work on improving roads in Scotland.United Kingdom source
1803First Canadian Paper Mill is built in Quebec.Canada source
1803Belvelly Bridge, linking Great Island to the mainland of County Cork, is built.Ireland source
1803The construction of Ledaal is finished.Norway source
1803Dunraven Castle is built, near Southerndown.Wales source
1804February 21 – Cornishman Richard Trevithick's newly built Penydarren steam locomotive operates on the Merthyr Tramroad, between Penydarren in Merthyr Tydfil and Abercynon in South Wales, following several trials since February 13, the world's first locomotive to work on rails.source
180421 February – The Cornishman Richard Trevithick's newly built "Penydarren" steam locomotive operates on the Merthyr Tramroad between Penydarren Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil and Abercynon in South Wales, following several trials since 13 February, the world's first locomotive to work on rails.United Kingdom source
1804February 21 - The Cornishman Richard Trevithick's newly built "Penydarren" steam locomotive operates on the Merthyr Tramroad between the Penydarren Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil and Abercynon, following several trials since February 13, the world's first locomotive to work on rails. As a result of this achievement, Samuel Homfray wins a 1000 guineas wager with Richard Crawshay as to which of them could first build a steam locomotive for use in their works.Wales source
180424 March – The settlement at the Hunter River, also known as the Coal River, is officially named Newcastle.Australia source
180418 May – First French Empire established.France source
1804May 21 – Père Lachaise Cemetery a 118 acres cemetery in Paris, France, is opened.source
1804May – In an attempt to maintain a British monopoly of trade in Australian waters Governor King prohibits the construction of unauthorised boats of more than fourteen feet long in New South Wales.New Zealand source
180414 September – lighthouse on Inchkeith, designed by Thomas Smith and Robert Stevenson, is first illuminated.Scotland source
1804Shimizu-gumi, predecessor of Shimizu Corporation, a major construction company in Japan, is founded in Kanda region, Edo (modern-day Tokyo).source
1804David Thompson works in Peace River country.Canada source
1804The first Agdenes Lighthouse was established.Norway source
180518 April – Ordnance Survey begins systematic publication of its General Survey of England and Wales ("Old Series") maps to a scale of one inch to the mile (1:63,360) with those for Essex.United Kingdom source
1805November 26 – The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is opened in Wales; it is 1,007 ft long and 126 ft tall.source
180526 November - The Ellesmere Canal's Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is opened, the tallest and longest in Britain, completing the canal's Llangollen branch.Wales source
1805James Squire becomes the first brewer in Australia to cultivate hops.source
1805The Old Man of the Mountain, a natural rock formation in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, is first mentioned by two workmen, Francis Whitcomb and Luke Brooks.source
1805Christiansø Lighthouse is first lit.Denmark source
1805The 1,400 m long horse-powered Damtjern-Storflåtan railway in Krokskogen, was opened. It is believed to have been Norway's first railway.Norway source
1805Alexander Garden (Saint Petersburg) designedRussia source
1805Isla Bank Mills at Keith are established.Scotland source
1805Killermont House is built at Bearsden for the Campbell-Colquhoun family.Scotland source
1805Alban Thomas Jones-Gwynne builds the town of Aberaeron.Wales source
180620 March – Construction begins of Dartmoor Prison, to house prisoners of war.United Kingdom source
1806March 29 – Construction is authorized of the National Road (the first United States federal highway).United States source
180626 November - The Ellesmere Canal's Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is opened, the tallest and longest in Britain, completing the canal's Llangollen branch.Wales source
1806The English architect George Papworth moves to Dublin.Ireland source
1806The first Norwegian assurance associations for ships were established.Norway source
1806Alexander I Palace (Taganrog) builtRussia source
1806The first Spey Bridge at Fochabers, designed by Thomas Telford, is completed.Scotland source
1806The first regular inland postal service is started.South Africa source
1807March 25 – The Swansea and Mumbles Railway in South Wales, at this time known as the Oystermouth Railway, becomes the first passenger-carrying railway in the world.source
180725 March – The Swansea and Mumbles Railway, at this time known as the Oystermouth Railway, becomes the first passenger carrying railway in the world.United Kingdom source
180725 March – Opening of the world's first fare-paying passenger railway – the horse-drawn Oystermouth Railway between Oystermouth and Mumbles.Wales source
1807July 20 – Nicéphore Niépce is awarded a patent by Emperor Napoleon for the Pyréolophore, the world's first internal combustion engine, after it successfully powers a boat upstream on the river Saône in France.source
180720 July – Nicéphore Niépce is awarded a patent by Napoleon for the Pyréolophore, the world's first internal combustion engine, after it successfully powers a boat upstream on the river Saône.France source
1807August 17 – The North River Steamboat, Robert Fulton's first American steamboat, leaves New York City for Albany on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world.source
180717 August – Robert Stevenson and his workmen set out to begin construction of the Bell Rock Lighthouse from Arbroath in the Smeaton.Scotland source
1807August 17 – The Clermont, Robert Fulton's first American steamboat, leaves New York City for Albany, New York, on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world.United States source
180723 August – The first dry cleaning business is opened in Sydney by Englishman Robert Davidson.Australia source
1807In the spring John Colter joins Manuel Lisa at the Platte River who winters on Yellowstone River at the mouth of the Bighorn River.Canada source
1807David Thompson crosses Rockies and builds a trading post at headwaters of Columbia River. NWC Upper Kootenay House is built by David Thompson.Canada source
1808February 11 – Anthracite coal is first burned as fuel by Jesse Fell in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; the discovery leads to the use of coal as the key fuel source of America's Industrial Revolution.United States source
180827 May – the Kilmarnock and Troon Railway becomes the first railway line in Scotland to be authorised by Act of Parliament.Scotland source
180820 July – Henry Crabb Robinson makes the first despatch from a specialist war reporter, to The Times newspaper.United Kingdom source
1808October – Thomas Telford's Dunkeld–Birnam bridge is opened to road traffic.Scotland source
1808Late this year or early 1809 the Unity, Captain Daniel Cooper, is probably the first identifiable European ship to visit Otago Harbour. For a while the harbour is called 'Port Daniel' by visiting sealers. Hooper's Inlet, on the seaward side of the Otago Peninsula is named for the Unitys First Officer Charles Hooper.New Zealand source
1808The Russian Messenger magazine begins publicationRussia source
1808Construction of Fort Constantin beginsRussia source
1808Construction of the Horseshoe Falls on the River Dee by Thomas Telford.Wales source
18099 February - South Stack Lighthouse off Anglesey first illuminated.Wales source
1809February 11 – Robert Fulton patents the steamboat in the United States.source
180925 April – First post office in Sydney established. Ex-convict Isaac Nichols is the first postmaster.Australia source
1809May 5 – Mary Kies is the first American woman to be awarded a patent (for a technique of weaving straw hats with silk and thread).source
1809May 5 – Mary Dixon Kies becomes the first recipient of a patent granted to a woman by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. She invented a technique of weaving straw with silk and thread.United States source
1809November 3: John Molson's steamboat, PS Accommodation, starts for Quebec City. It is 85 ft overall, has a 6 hp engine, and makes the distance in 36 hours, but stops at night and reaches Quebec on November 6. The Accommodation is the second steamboat in America, and probably the world.Canada source
1809November 21 – First stone laid of first 'guided bus' passenger wagonway Gloucester and Cheltenham Tramroad.source
1809November – Thomas Telford certifies completion of his Dunkeld–Birnam bridge. His bridges at Ballater and Conon Bridge are also completed this year.Scotland source
1809Sporgø Lighthouse is constructed by Poul de Løvenørn.Denmark source
1809Inauguration of the Malmö Teater in Malmö.Sweden source
1809Stalybridge Old Band formed, perhaps the first civilian brass band in the world.United Kingdom source
18108 January – The Derwent Star and Van Diemen's Land Intelligencer, Australia's second newspaper and the first in Van Diemen's Land, begins publication.Australia source
1810May 10 – Rev. Henry Duncan opens the world's first commercial savings bank, in Ruthwell, Scotland.source
181010 May – Rev. Henry Duncan opens the world's first commercial savings bank in Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire.Scotland source
1810November 26 – Brewer and businessman John Molson asks the colonial government for the exclusive right to construct and navigate steam-boats, on the Saint Lawrence River, for 15 years.Canada source
1810Friedrich Krupp establishes a steel foundry in Essen.Germany source
1810The construction of Lade Mansion in Trondheim is finished.Norway source
1810The Saint Petersburg main military engineering school becomes the first engineering higher learning institution in the Russian Empire, after the addition of officers' classes, and the application of a five-year term of teaching.Russia source
1810Rocky Point Manor is built in Harrodsburg, Kentucky.United States source
1810Hafod Copperworks opens in the Lower Swansea valley.Wales source
18111 February – Bell Rock Lighthouse begins operation off the coast of Scotland.United Kingdom source
1811March 22 – The Commissioners' Plan for Manhattan is presented.source
1811March 22 – The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 for Manhattan is presented.United States source
1811June – Walter Scott buys the farm at Abbotsford near Galashiels and commences building his future residence, Abbotsford House.Scotland source
181120 August - Thomas Sheasby resigns as engineer of the Aberdare Canal, to be replaced by George Overton. As part of the canal works, a free-standing metal rail bridge is built at Robertstown, Aberdare - the first of its kind in the world.Wales source
1811October 11 – Inventor John Stevens' boat, the Juliana, begins operation as the first steam-powered ferry service, between New York City and Hoboken, New Jersey.source
1811October 11 – Inventor John Stevens' boat, the Juliana, begins operation as the first steam-powered ferry (service between New York, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey).United States source
18111 December – During a tour of Van Diemen's Land, Governor Macquarie gave directions for the layout of Hobart. There was a central square and seven streets named Macquarie, Liverpool, Argyle, Elizabeth, Murray, Harrington and Collins.Australia source
1811John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company establishes a post at mouth of the Columbia River.Canada source
1811The Governor of the Cape orders that cast-iron pipes be laid in the principal streets of Cape Town, including Orange, Long and Strand Streets, to replace the existing wooden pipe system for the city's water supply.South Africa source
1812January 10 – New Orleans steamboat, the first steamship on the Mississippi River, arrives in its namesake city, completing its maiden voyage.United States source
181220 June - Creation of The Kidwelly and Llanelli Canal and Tramroad Company.Wales source
18126 July – the Kilmarnock and Troon Railway becomes the first public railway line to open in Scotland. It begins life as a 9.5-mile (16-kilometre), horse-drawn waggonway to carry coal from Kilmarnock to Troon harbour. On 27 June the horse-drawn passenger coach Caledonia began running over the line between Troon and Gargieston, near Kilmarnock.Scotland source
181212 August – The Middleton Railway, serving coal pits at Leeds, becomes the first to use steam locomotives successfully in regular service.United Kingdom source
1812The Woodford Reserve Bourbon whiskey distillery, established in 1780 along Glenn's Creek in Woodford County, Kentucky, passes to the control of Oscar Pepper.source
1812Andreas Marschall establishes a piano factory in Copenhagen.Denmark source
1812The original Breidenbacher Hof hotel in Düsseldorf, Germany, opens to the public. (It is destroyed by bombing in 1943 and later rebuilt at a different location.)Germany source
1812Landowner John D'Arcy is granted a patent to hold a market at his new town of Clifden.Ireland source
1812The Old Oscar Pepper Distillery (now the Woodford Reserve Distillery), the oldest Kentucky Bourbon distillery, is established along Glenn's Creek in Woodford County, Kentucky.United States source
181315 April – foundation stone of new harbour at Newhaven, Edinburgh, laid.Scotland source
181321 April – Frederick William III of Prussia establishes the LandsturmGermany source
1813November 16 – The British announce a blockade of Long Island Sound, leaving only the New England coasts open to shipping.United States source
181331 December – Westminster Bridge in London is illuminated by gas lighting provided by the Gas Light and Coke Company from the world's first public gasworks nearby.United Kingdom source
1813Angus Bethune witnessed the North West Company's purchase of Fort Astoria from the Pacific Fur Company.Canada source
1813First publication of the newspaper Göteborgs-Posten.Sweden source
1813Construction of Fort Meigs in Ohio begins under the command of Major Amos Stoddard.United States source
1813Anthony Hill and his two brothers go into partnership at the Plymouth ironworks.Wales source
18144 February – The Governors Court is established by Letters Patent dated 4 February 1814 issued by King George III. The court had jurisdiction over civil claims in New South Wales.Australia source
181418 June – improved navigation of River Shannon between Limerick and Killaloe opens.Ireland source
181422 June – First cricket match is played at Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood.United Kingdom source
1814July 25 – George Stephenson tests his first locomotive Blücher successfully in England.source
1814October – Thomas Telford's Lovat Bridge, the first over the River Beauly, is opened.Scotland source
181415 December – The Active passes North Cape.New Zealand source
1814The world's first complex machine mass-produced from interchangeable parts, Eli Terry's wooden pillar-and-scroll clock, comes off the production line in Plymouth, Connecticut.source
1814Having received a hand flour mill from Marsden, Ruatara is at last able to grind the wheat that he has been growing and also that which he brought back from Sydney two years earlier.New Zealand source
1814A mail packet service is started between Great Britain and the CapeSouth Africa source
1814Completion of the Boston Manufacturing Company's integrated cotton weaving mill on the Charles River at Waltham, Massachusetts, engineered by Paul Moody for Francis Cabot Lowell and 'The Boston Associates', and inaugurating the Waltham-Lowell system of manufacturing.United States source
181514 January – The road over the Blue Mountains is completed to the Macquarie River.Australia source
1815February 6 – New Jersey grants the first American railroad charter to John Stevens.source
1815February 6 – New Jersey grants the first American railroad charter to a John Stevens.United States source
1815February 9 – A bill to give the speaker a salary of 1,000 pounds is read.Canada source
181515 February – The Active completes loading of flax and timber to take back to Port JacksonNew Zealand source
1815May or June - Bryn Oer Tramway opens in South Wales.Wales source
1815July 6 – Charles Bianconi runs his first car (i.e. horse-drawn carriage) for conveyance of passengers, from Clonmel to Cahir.Ireland source
181519 September – foundation stones for Regent Bridge and Calton Jail in Edinburgh laid.Scotland source
18153 November – Sir Humphry Davy announces his invention of the Davy lamp as a coal mining safety lamp.United Kingdom source
181610 February - Pembroke Dock's first Royal Navy ships are launched: HMS Ariadne and HMS Valorous.Wales source
181620 February – Preston becomes the first English town outside London with gas lighting publicly available, promoted by the Jesuit priest Joseph Dunn.United Kingdom source
181617 March – Richmond Bridge, designed by James Savage, is opened over Dublin's River Liffey.Ireland source
181630 March – Francis Greenway is appointed as the government's Civil Architect.Australia source
18161 June – Andrew Bent starts regular publication of the Hobart Town Gazette and Southern Reporter.Australia source
181618 June – causeway, bridge and sluice across Loch Fleet at The Mound, designed by Thomas Telford, completed.Scotland source
1816Robert Stirling patents his Stirling engine, at this time known as "Stirling's air engine", in the United Kingdom.source
1816E. Remington and Sons, the firearm and later typewriter manufacturing company, is founded in the United States.source
1816A steamboat PS Frontenac is first placed on Lake Ontario.Canada source
1816E. Remington and Sons (the firearm and later typewriter manufacturing company) is founded in Ilion, New York.United States source
1817February 7 – Baltimore becomes the first U.S. city with public street gas lighting.United States source
1817February 18 – Mr. McCord reads a petition for the deepening of the St. Lawrence.Canada source
1817April 15 – The American School for the Deaf opens in Hartford, Connecticut.source
181726 May – completion of Royal Canal throughout from Dublin to the River Shannon at Tarmonbarry.Ireland source
1817June 12 – German inventor Karl Drais drives his dandy horse ("Draisine" or Laufmaschine), the earliest form of bicycle, in Mannheim.source
181712 June – German inventor Karl Drais drives his dandy horse ("Draisine" or Laufmaschine), the earliest form of bicycle, in Mannheim.Germany source
181718 June – Waterloo Bridge opens in London.United Kingdom source
1817July 4 – At Rome, New York, construction on the Erie Canal begins in the U.S. to link the Hudson River to Lake Erie, with the long-range goal of making the first navigable waterway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes, and reducing the amount of time and costs for transporting goods westward past the Appalachian mountains.source
181710 July – David Brewster patents the kaleidoscope.Scotland source
1817October 17 – The frigate HMS Trincomalee is launched in Bombay for the British Royal Navy. She will still be afloat two centuries later.source
1817November 3 – The Bank of Montreal opens in Montreal.source
1817Governor Lachlan Macquarie directs that a new fort, named Fort Macquarie, be built on a site at Bennelong Point.Australia source
1817Approximate date - Britain's longest tramroad tunnel is opened at Pwll du near Blaenavon. The Pwll Du Tunnel is more than a mile (2400 m) in length. Begun as a mineral adit, at this time it carries a horse-drawn double track plateway of approximately 2 ft (600 mm) gauge carrying material for Blaenavon Ironworks; next summer it will be incorporated in Thomas Hill's Tramroad, connecting to the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal.Wales source
18186 January – opening of General Post Office (Dublin).Ireland source
1818January 12 – The Dandy horse (Laufmaschine bicycle) is patented by Karl Drais in Mannheim.source
181812 January - The Dandy horse (Laufmaschine bicycle) was invented by Karl Drais in Mannheim.Germany source
1818February 3 – Jeremiah Chubb is granted a British patent for the Chubb detector lock.source
18183 February – Jeremiah Chubb is granted a patent for the Chubb detector lock.United Kingdom source
18183 March – construction of the Union Canal begins at the Edinburgh end.Scotland source
1818The Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens is first opened.Australia source
1818The first Mill of Cotton clothes in KolkataIndia source
1818The first slate quarry on the site of what will become Oakeley quarry in Blaenau Ffestiniog (which will be the world's largest underground slate mine) is begun when Samuel Holland, a Liverpool merchant, leases land near Rhiwbryfdir farm from the landlords, the Oakeley family of Plas Tan y Bwlch.Wales source
1818Richard Fothergill retires from his role in managing the Tredegar ironworks with Samuel Homfray. The Sirhowy Ironworks, previously run by Fothergill, is leased to Messrs. Harford of Ebbw Vale.Wales source
181920 March – Burlington Arcade opens in London.England source
181913 April – The Mansfield and Pinxton Railway, a wagonway, opens for coal traffic.England source
181914 May – the first all iron-hulled vessel, the barge Vulcan, is launched on the Monkland Canal at Faskine, Airdrie for use as a horse-drawn passenger boat between Edinburgh and Glasgow on the Forth and Clyde Canal.Scotland source
18192 July – Cotton Mills and Factories Act passed, a first attempt to regulate employment of young children in textile mills.England source
181917 August–1 October – English poet Robert Southey joins civil engineer Thomas Telford on a tour of his Scottish projects. A replacement Highbridge near Spean Bridge, designed by Telford, is built this year.Scotland source
1819August 25 – Salon of 1819 opens in Paris. Amongst the exhibits is The Raft of the Medusa.source
1819August – Thomas Telford begins construction of the Menai Suspension Bridge.Wales source
1819The city of Fernandina de Jagua (later Cienfuegos) is founded in Cuba.source
1819Robert Bamford Hesketh begins construction of Gwrych Castle.Wales source
1819The embankment on Telford's Holyhead Road through the Nant Ffrancon Pass is completed.Wales source
18203 May – A plough is used for the first time in New Zealand when John Gare Butler drives a team of six bullocks at Kerikeri.New Zealand source
1820July 26 – Union Chain Bridge opens across the River Tweed, between England and Scotland. Its span of 449 ft (137 m) is the world's longest for a vehicular bridge at this time.source
182026 July – opening of Union Chain Bridge across the River Tweed between England and Scotland, designed by Captain Samuel Brown. Its span of 449 ft (137 metres) is the longest in the Western world at this time, and it is the first wrought iron vehicular suspension bridge of its type in Britain.Scotland source
1820August 1 — The Regent's Canal through to the London Docks is opened.source
18201 August – Completion and opening of the Regent's Canal through to the London Docks.United Kingdom source
182028 October – Governor Macquarie names Lake George after King George III.Australia source
182022 November – Instruções, first election lawPortugal source
1820Construction work is completed on the Citadelle Laferrière in Haiti, the largest fortification in the Americas, built on the orders of Henri Christophe to defend the country against potential French reoccupation.source
1820Suspension of construction of the Wellington Testimonial, Dublin, in Phoenix Park to the design of Robert Smirke.Ireland source
1820Charlottesville Woolen Mills built along the Rivanna RiverUnited States source
1820Crawshay Bailey becomes a partner at Nant-y-glo ironworks with his brother, Joseph Bailey.Wales source
182115 January – Sumburgh Head Lighthouse in Shetland, designed by Robert Stevenson, is first illuminated.Scotland source
18211 March – The first gas street lighting in Wales is installed at Swansea.Wales source
1821July 17 – Construction of the Lachine Canal in Montreal begins.Canada source
182131 July – Opening of the Eau Brink Cut, improving the outfall of the River Great Ouse at King's Lynn in Norfolk. Engineers working on the project included John Rennie the Elder, Thomas Telford and Thomas Hyde Page.United Kingdom source
182114 August – Trinity Chain Pier opens at Trinity, Edinburgh.Scotland source
1821The town of Al-Ubayyid, Sudan is established.source
1821The Female Factory, for women convicts, is separated from the Parramatta Gaol. Many women are selected as brides or for domestic service.Australia source
1821Metal Man seamark erected at Rosses Point.Ireland source
1821Construction of the Kerikeri Mission House is started.New Zealand source
182224 April – Salon of 1822 opens at the Louvre in ParisFrance source
1822May – the Edinburgh and Glasgow Union Canal, engineered by Hugh Baird, is opened throughout, from a terminus at Fountainbridge in Edinburgh to a junction with the Forth and Clyde Canal at Camelon near Falkirk, including Scotland's only canal tunnel (at Falkirk) and completion of Slateford Aqueduct; passenger boats have been operating on the canal from the beginning of the year.Scotland source
1822July 3 – Charles Babbage publishes a proposal for a difference engine, a forerunner of the modern computer, for calculating logarithms and trigonometric functions. Construction of an operational version will proceed under British Government sponsorship (1823–1832), but it will never be completed.source
18223 July – Charles Babbage publishes a proposal for a "difference engine", a mechanical forerunner of the modern computer for calculating logarithms and trigonometric functions. Construction of an operational version will proceed under Government sponsorship 1823–32 but it will never be completed.United Kingdom source
1822The fifth and last prohibition of coffee in Sweden is lifted.source
1822Röchling SE & Co. KG, a plastics engineering company headquartered in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany is established.Germany source
1822Public gas lighting in Belfast.Ireland source
1822Inauguration of the National Portrait Gallery (Sweden).Sweden source
1822Gist Mansion is built in Wellsburg, West Virginia (used some 100 years later for the Brooke Hills Spooktacular).United States source
1822Horse-drawn trams begin a passenger service between Tredegar and Newport.Wales source
182315 February – Surveyor James McBrien at the Fish River near Bathurst discovers gold. It is the first known report of gold, though it is not made public, the Australian gold rushes do not begin until 1851.Australia source
1823April 6 - French cross the river Bidasoa on the Franco-Spanish borderSpain source
182317 June – Charles Macintosh patents the waterproof material later used to make Mackintosh coats.Scotland source
18235 August – the Royal Hibernian Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture is established by letters patent in Dublin.Ireland source
182325 November – Opening of The Royal Suspension Chain Pier at Brighton, designed by Captain Samuel Brown, RN, the first pleasure pier on the mainland of England.United Kingdom source
1823James Fenimore Cooper's first volume of his Leatherstocking series published in United States.Canada source
1823King Carl III (Karl Johan) ordered to build the royal palace in Christiania.Norway source
1823Summer – Stanley Embankment completed by Thomas Telford carrying the Holyhead road between Anglesey and Holy Island.Wales source
1824January – The construction of the "leat" or "leete" at Loggerheads, Denbighshire, used in the local lead mining industry, is first recorded.Wales source
182424 May – the foundation stone for an oil-gas works at Tanfield in Edinburgh is laid by Sir Walter Scott as company chairman.Scotland source
1824July 25 – The Montparnasse Cemetery opens in Paris, France.source
182431 August - The Revd. Henry Williams lays the keel for the 55-ton schooner Herald 1826 ship, the first sailing ship (schooner) built in New Zealand.New Zealand source
1824October 10 – The Edinburgh Town Council founds the Edinburgh Municipal Fire Brigade, the first fire brigade in Britain, under the leadership of James Braidwood.source
1824October 21 – Joseph Aspdin patents Portland cement, receiving BP 5,022 for An Improvement in the Mode of Producing an Artificial Stone.source
182421 October – Joshua John Moore is the first person to take out a ticket-of-occupation for the land which later became the site of CanberraAustralia source
1824November 30 – The first sod is turned in Ontario for the first of four Welland Canals. The canal opens for a trial run five years later to the day, on November 30, 1829.source
1824The first Welland Canal is begun, partly in response to American initiatives in the Erie Canal.Canada source
1824The Kurhaus of Baden-Baden in Germany is designed by Friedrich Weinbrenner.Germany source
1824South Africa's first lighthouse is built at Green Point, Cape Town.South Africa source
1824Work commences on the reconstruction of Windsor Castle, Berkshire, to the design of Jeffry Wyattville.United Kingdom source
1825June 11 – The first cornerstone is laid for Fort Hamilton in New York City.United States source
1825September 27 – The world's first modern railway, the Stockton and Darlington Railway, opens in England.source
182527 September – The world's first modern railway, the Stockton and Darlington Railway, opens with engineer George Stephenson driving the first public train pulled by the steam engine Locomotion No 1.United Kingdom source
1825October 25 – The Erie Canal opens, granting passage from Albany, New York to Lake Erie.United States source
1825October 26 – The Erie Canal opens, providing passage from Albany, New York to Buffalo and Lake Erie.source
1825October 26 – US finishes Erie Canal from Buffalo to Hudson River and New York City.Canada source
18254 November - Canal Saint-Martin opened in Paris.France source
1825Hans Christian Ørsted reduces aluminium chloride to produce metallic aluminium.source
1825The first horse-drawn omnibuses established in London.source
1825The Fort Vancouver trading post is established on the lower Columbia River by the Hudson's Bay Company.source
1825The United States Postal Service starts a dead letter office.source
1825Portlaw in County Waterford is established as a model village by the Malcomson family, Quaker cotton mill owners.Ireland source
1825The following Scotch whisky distilleries are established: Ben Nevis (at Lochy Bridge); Edradour (in Pitlochry); Glenkinchie (in East Lothian); and Glenury (at Stonehaven).Scotland source
1825Rails for the Stockton and Darlington Railway (opened 27 September) are made at Ebbw Vale.Wales source
1826January 30 – The Menai Suspension Bridge, built by engineer Thomas Telford as the first major suspension bridge in world history, is opened between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales.source
182630 January - Opening of the Menai Suspension Bridge, designed by Thomas Telford.Wales source
182625 March – The 1825 New Zealand Company vessels Rosanna, Captain James Herd, and Lambton, Captain Barnett, arrive at Stewart Island and undergo refitting for a month.New Zealand source
1826April 1 – In the U.S., Samuel Morey patents an internal combustion engine.source
1826April 1 – Samuel Morey patents an internal combustion engine.United States source
18267 April – Australia's first street lamp erected in Macquarie Place, Sydney – it burned whale oil.Australia source
1826May 5 – The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, designed by George Stephenson and Joseph Locke, destined to open as the world's first purpose-built passenger railway operated by steam locomotives in 1830, receives authorisation by the Parliament of the United Kingdom.source
18265 May – The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, designed by George Stephenson and Joseph Locke, which in 1830 is to become the world's first purpose-built passenger railway operated by steam locomotives to be opened, is authorised by Parliament.United Kingdom source
182626 May – the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway and Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway are authorised.Scotland source
1826September 21 – Construction of the Rideau Canal begins in Canada.source
1826September 21 – Construction of the Rideau Canal begins.Canada source
1826October 1 – The Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway opens in Scotland.source
1826October 7 – The first train operates over the Granite Railway in Massachusetts.source
1826December – The paddle steamer SS Constitutionen, the first steam ship of Norway, arrives. The ship was built in England for the State of Norway.Norway source
1827February 28 – The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is incorporated, becoming the first railroad in the United States offering commercial transportation of both people and freight.source
1827February 28 – The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is incorporated, becoming the first railroad in America offering commercial transportation of both people and freight.United States source
1827May 25 – Romanian inventor Petrache Poenaru receives a French patent for the invention of the first fountain pen.source
182714 August – the foundation stone of the George IV Bridge in Edinburgh is laid as authorised by an Improvement Act of this year.Scotland source
1827September 20 – A petition for a land grant for 215 acres on the north bank of Rio Grande, just across from Paso del Norte (modern-day Ciudad Juárez), is approved; the first residence is built on what is modern-day El Paso, Texas.source
182710 November – A banquet is held in the Thames Tunnel under construction in London, attended by the Duke of Wellington and Isambard Kingdom BrunelUnited Kingdom source
1827Centro de Apoio Social de Runa openedPortugal source
1827George Ballantine sets up a grocery store in Edinburgh, the predecessor of Ballantine's whisky blenders.Scotland source
1827J. J. Audubon's The Birds of America commences publication in the United Kingdom.United States source
1827A source of manganese is discovered at Y Rhiw.Wales source
1827Construction work begins on Marble Arch, designed by Welsh architect John Nash and erected in front of Buckingham Palace in London.Wales source
18281 June - The Saundersfoot Railway and Harbour Company is formed.Wales source
1828July 4 – Construction of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad commences with a cornerstone laid by Charles Carroll of Carrollton.United States source
18288 August – the Ballochney Railway (near Airdrie, horse worked) is completed throughout.Scotland source
1828August 11 – The Working Men's Party is founded in the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as the 1st 'worker oriented' political party in the United States.United States source
18281 October – James Beaumont Neilson patents the hot blast process for ironmaking.United Kingdom source
1828Ányos Jedlik creates the world's first electric motor.source
1828Australia's first postman, a private servant of George Panton, is appointed Sydney Postmaster.Australia source
1828Kings Bridge opens across the River Liffey in Dublin.Ireland source
1828An iron suspension bridge is built to link South Stack with Holy Island, Anglesey.Wales source
1829April 21– Popular German conductor Felix Mendelssohn begins his first of 10 visits to Britain, touring the island until November 28. This includes the first London performance of his concert overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, and his trip to Fingal's Cave.source
1829May 6 – The patent for an instrument called the accordion is applied for by Cyrill Demian (officially approved on May 23).source
18291 June – Wishaw and Coltness Railway incorporated.Scotland source
1829June 19 – Robert Peel establishes the Metropolitan Police Service in London, the first modern police force. The first officers, known by the nickname "bobbies", go on patrol on September 29.source
182919 June – Robert Peel's Metropolitan Police Act establishes the Metropolitan Police Service.United Kingdom source
1829July 4 – George Shillibeer begins operating the first bus service in London.source
1829July 23 – In the United States, William Burt obtains the first patent for a form of typewriter, the typographer.source
1829July 23 – William Austin Burt obtains the first patent for a typographer (typewriter).United States source
1829August 10 – Finsteraarhorn, the highest summit of the Bernese Alps, is first ascended.source
1829September – Timothy Burstall of Leith completes the vertical boiler geared steam locomotive Perseverance for October's Rainhill Trials on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (although it does not formally compete).Scotland source
1829October 14 – Stephenson's Rocket wins the Rainhill trials to determine the practicality of steam locomotives to operate the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in England.source
1829October 16 – The first modern hotel in the United States, Tremont House (Boston), opens.source
1829November 30 – The original Welland Canal opens for a trial run, with a ceremony at Port Dalhousie, Upper Canada.source
1829November 30 – Construction of the First Welland Canal is completed (construction to begin again in 1831)Canada source
1829Barthélemy Thimonnier invented the "sewing machine"France source
1829The present Kvitsøy Lighthouse was built.Norway source
1829Beaumaris Gaol is built, to the design of Joseph Hansom.Wales source
183019 March – The suspension bridge at Montrose partly collapses due to movement of a crowd watching a boat race from it, with the loss of at least 4 lives.Scotland source
18301 April – The annual Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition opensDenmark source
1830July 17 – Barthélemy Thimonnier is granted a French patent (#7454) for a sewing machine: it chain stitches at 200/minute.source
1830July 17 – Barthélemy Thimonnier is granted a patent (#7454) for a sewing machine. It chain stitches at 200/minute.France source
183031 July – William Yate returns from 6 months 'training' in printing at Sydney with a printing press. His attempts at printing are not particularly successful. (see also 1834 & 1835)New Zealand source
1830August 31 – Edwin Beard Budding is granted an English patent for the invention of the lawn mower.source
1830September 15 – The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the world's first intercity passenger railway operated solely by steam locomotives, takes place in England, UK.source
183015 September – Liverpool and Manchester Railway opens, the world's first intercity passenger railway operated solely by steam locomotives. At the opening, Liverpool MP William Huskisson is accidentally killed by Stephenson's Rocket, thereby becoming the first railway casualty. The works include notable tunnels at Edge Hill, Liverpool.United Kingdom source
1830October 20 – Thomas Cochrane is granted a patent for the first airlock.source
1830December - First issue of Aftonbladet.Sweden source
1830T. & A. Mulholland open the 8000-spindle York Street flax mill in Belfast.Ireland source
1830The Penydarren works at Merthyr Tydfil produce the rails for the world's first steam railway.Wales source
18314 March - James Stirling commissioned as Lieutenant-Governor of Western Australia, rectifying the absence of a legal instrument providing the authority detailed in Stirling's Instructions of 30 December 1828.Australia source
183114 March - The Surprise, the first paddle steamer built in Australia, was launched in Sydney.Australia source
183110 May – first steam locomotive to be built in Glasgow completed by Murdoch, Aitken & Co. for the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway.Scotland source
18311 October – John and Betty Guard's son, John Guard, is born at his father's whaling station at Te Awaiti in Tory Channel. He is the first European child born in the South Island.New Zealand source
183115 October – Board of Works formed as a department of state by merger of the Office of the Surveyor-General for Ireland, the Barracks Board, and the Navigation Board.Ireland source
1831October 28 – Michael Faraday constructs an early form of dynamo.source
1831October – King's College London opens.United Kingdom source
1831A charter for a railway, from La Prairie, Quebec to St. John's, is granted; it will be the first railway in Canada.Canada source
1831The Visingo oak forest was started, leading to the planting of 300,000 oak trees intended to build naval ships.Sweden source
1832January – Theatre Royal, Wexford opened.Ireland source
1832February 25 – The first railway charter in Canada is issued for the Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad.Canada source
183219 April – Construction of the Stone Store at Kerikeri begins.New Zealand source
183223 May — The Festiniog Railway Company is set up by an act of Parliament, making it, as of the 21st century, the world's oldest surviving statutory public railway company.Wales source
1832May 30 – The Rideau Canal in eastern Ontario (Canada) is opened.source
18322 June – passengers are first carried over the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway, between St Leonards and North Esk by horse-drawn carriage.Scotland source
1832June 9 – The Strasburg Rail Road is incorporated by the Pennsylvania State Legislature, making it the oldest continuously operating railroad in the Western Hemisphere.source
1832July 24 – Benjamin Bonneville leads the first wagon train across the Rocky Mountains using the South Pass (Wyoming).United States source
183226 September - Inauguration of the Göta Canal.Sweden source
1832October 4 – Prince Otto of Bavaria, the second oldest son of King Ludwig I, is selected by Europe's major powers to become Othon, the first King of Greece, after the Hellenic nation's reacquisition of independence.source
1832The Cumberland and Oxford Canal connects the largest lakes of southern Maine with the seaport of Portland, Maine.source
1832The first commutator DC electric motor, capable of turning machinery, is demonstrated by William Sturgeon in London.source
1832Théâtre des Folies-Dramatiques opens on the site of the Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique on the Boulevard du Temple in Paris under Frédérick Lemaître.France source
18332 April – Launch of HMS Royal William at Pembroke Dock. This is the first ship to be built there with over 100 guns.Wales source
1833May 6 – In Germany, Carl Friedrich Gauss and Wilhelm Weber obtain permission to build an electromagnetic telegraph in Göttingen.source
18336 May – Carl Friedrich Gauss and Wilhelm Weber obtain permission to build an electromagnetic telegraph in Göttingen.Germany source
1833June 5 – Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage, both pioneers in developing a computer, are introduced to each other by Mary Somerville.source
1833June 6 – Andrew Jackson becomes the first U.S. president to ride a railroad train.United States source
183318 July – Law on distilleries passed, establishing a duty of 22 centimes per hectolitre per day on distillation containers used.Belgium source
183329 August – The Factory Act makes it illegal to employ children less than 9 years old in factories and limits child workers of 9 to 13 years of age to a maximum of 9 hours a day.United Kingdom source
183330 October – Edinburgh Town Council first allows newspaper reporters to attend its meetings.Scotland source
1833Royal William, formerly operating between Quebec and Halifax, becomes first steamship to cross Atlantic.Canada source
1833Adrian Stephens invents the steam whistle as a safety device for use at Dowlais Ironworks; he fails to patent it.Wales source
1834January – The Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad is chartered in Wilmington, North Carolina.source
18341 May – Belgian State Railways established.Belgium source
1834June 21 – American inventor and businessman Cyrus McCormick is granted a patent for his mechanical reaper.source
183423 June - HMS Tartarus is launched at Pembroke Dock. It is the Royal Navy's first steam-powered man-of-war (a paddle gunvessel).Wales source
1834August 1 – Construction work begins on the Wilberforce Monument in Kingston upon Hull, England.source
1834Charles Babbage begins the conceptual design of the Analytical Engine, a mechanical forerunner of the modern computer. It will not be built in his lifetime.source
1834Thomas Davenport, inventor of the first American DC electrical motor, installs his motor in a small model car, creating one of the first electric cars.source
1834William Lyon Mackenzie elected first mayor of the city of Toronto.Canada source
1834Henning Smith's Iron Foundry is established in Aalborg.Denmark source
1834Aass Brewery is founded in Drammen. Norway's oldest brewery still active.Norway source
1834Naval architect John Scott Russell first observes a nondecaying solitary wave (a soliton, which he calls "the Wave of Translation") while watching a boat hauled through the water of the Union Canal near Edinburgh, subsequently using a tank to study the dependence of solitary wave velocities on amplitude and liquid depth.Scotland source
1834The famous coffee house Tysta Mari is opened in Stockholm.Sweden source
1834The Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad is chartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, and begins construction.United States source
183521 January – Airdrie Savings Bank opens its doors to business; it will remain as an independent trustee savings bank until 2017.Scotland source
1835May 5 – The first railway in continental Europe is opened between Brussels and Mechelen in Belgium.source
1835June 1 – Kingston Penitentiary opens in Kingston, Ontario.source
1835June 1 – Official opening of the Kingston Penitentiary.Canada source
1835July 4 – The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad completed construction of its Thomas Viaduct then the longest bridge in the United States, and second only to London Bridge in the world; the longer Canton Viaduct is completed two weeks later.United States source
183515 September – Exposition des produits de l'industrie nationale opens in Brussels.Belgium source
1835September - John Frost is one of the first councillors elected in Newport under the terms of the Municipal Reform Act.Wales source
1835November 12 – Construction is completed on the Wilberforce Monument in Kingston Upon Hull.source
1835December 7 – The Bavarian Ludwig Railway opens between Nuremberg and Fürth, with a train hauled by the English-built Der Adler ("The Eagle"), the first railway in Germany.source
18357 December – The Bavarian Ludwig Railway opens between Nuremberg and Fürth, with a train hauled by the British-built Der Adler ("The Eagle"), the first railway in Germany.Germany source
1835December 21 – The Raleigh and Gaston Railroad is chartered in Raleigh, North Carolina.source
1835The Cachar Levy, forerunner of the Assam Rifles, is founded in India.source
1835Charles-Louis Havas creates Havas, the first news agency in the world (which later spawns Agence France-Presse).source
1835The Søholm pottery is founded in Rønne on Bornholm.Denmark source
1835Early in the year Alfred Nesbitt Brown opens the mission at Matamata. (see also 1833, 1834 & 1836)New Zealand source
1836February 5 – Henry Roe Campbell builds the first 4-4-0, a steam locomotive type that will soon become the most common on all railroads of the United States.United States source
1836February 8 – London and Greenwich Railway opens its first section, the first railway in London, England.source
1836February 25 – Samuel Colt receives a United States patent for the Colt revolver, the first revolving barrel multishot firearms.source
183621 June – An Act of Parliament is passed, allowing the construction of the Taff Vale Railway.Wales source
1836July 21 – The Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad opens between St. John and La Prairie, Quebec, the first steam-worked passenger railroad in British North America.source
1836July 21 – Opening of the Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad, the first public railway in Canada.Canada source
183613 August – Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway authorised.Scotland source
183615 August – Liverpool Lime Street railway station opens in the centre of Liverpool, the first grand terminus building in the world, replacing the smaller Crown Street station and accessed via a long railway tunnel from Edge Hill in the east of the city.United Kingdom source
1836September 1 – Rebuilding begins at the Hurva Synagogue in Jerusalem.source
1836October 24 – The earliest United States patent for a phosphorus friction match is granted to Alonzo Dwight Phillips, of Springfield, Massachusetts.source
1836October 25 – Construction begins on the Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad in North Carolina. Due to a lack of support in Raleigh, the route is revised to run from Wilmington to the Petersburg Railroad in Weldon.source
1836December 15 – The United States Patent Office burns in Washington, D.C.source
183626 December – John Hughes, W.I. Haberfield and others from the Weller brothers whaling station at Otakou arrive in the Magnet and set up a whaling station on the north side of Moeraki Point.New Zealand source
1836Sunnanpósturinn begins publication.Iceland source
1836The Stone Store at Kerikeri, the oldest stone building in New Zealand, is completed mid-year.New Zealand source
1837February 25 – Thomas Davenport obtains the first United States patent on an electric motor.United States source
183728 March - The Hoddle Grid of streets for the central business district is surveyed by Robert Hoddle.Australia source
18373 April – the Paisley and Renfrew Railway is opened, a 4 ft 6 in gauge railway providing passenger services hauled by steam locomotives.Scotland source
1837May – W. F. Cooke and Charles Wheatstone patent an electrical telegraph system.source
183721 August – Victor Hugo travels by train for the first time while visiting Belgium.Belgium source
1837September 28 – Samuel Morse files a caveat for a patent for the telegraph.source
1837October 30 – The Tsarskoye Selo Railway, the first in the Russian Empire, opens between Saint Petersburg Tsarskoselsky station and Tsarskoye Selo (modern-day Pushkin), engineered by Franz Anton von Gerstner.source
1837The first electric locomotive built is a miniature battery locomotive constructed by chemist Robert Davidson of Aberdeen in Scotland, and powered by galvanic cells (batteries).source
1837Atlanta is fixed as the terminal of the Western and Atlantic Railroad; it is originally named Marthasville.source
1837In the course of this year, steam is adopted as the motive power, on the Champlain & St. Lawrence Railway.Canada source
1837Jessop & Company complete construction of the first iron bridge in British India, Loha-ka-Pul over River Gomti at Lucknow, 1812-1840India source
1837Joseph Price, a representative of the Weller brothers, sets up a whaling station at Patiti Point, Timaru . (other sources suggest 1839)New Zealand source
1837Major reconstruction of Penrhyn Castle in north Wales by Thomas Hopper (architect) is largely completed.Wales source
18381 January - John Pascoe Fawkner founded The Melbourne Advertiser, the Port Phillip district's first newspaper.Australia source
1838January 6–11 – Samuel Morse first publicly demonstrates electric telegraphy, at Morristown, New Jersey, assisted by Alfred Vail and using dots and dashes, the forerunner of Morse code.United States source
1838January 11 – At Morristown, New Jersey, Samuel Morse, Alfred Vail and Leonard Gale give the first public demonstration of Morse's new invention, the telegraph.source
1838April 8–23 – Isambard Kingdom Brunel's paddle steamer SS Great Western (1838) makes the transatlantic crossing to New York from Avonmouth, England, in 15 days, inaugurating a regular steamship service.source
18381 June – Parliament approves government loan of 2 million Belgian francs for building highways and railways.Belgium source
18384 July – Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway authorised.Scotland source
1838November 16 – Austria: Moravia opens the final section of Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway (Rajhrad–Brno) for exhibition (preliminary) use.source
183822 December - Potchefstroom is founded as the Transvaal Republic's capital by Andries Hendrik Potgieter.South Africa source
1838Niverød Brickworks us established on the coast north of Copenhagen.lDenmark source
1838Jessop & Company work on the construction of the first iron bridge in British India, Loha-ka-Pul over the River Gomti at Lucknow, 1812–1840India source
1838Tinplate manufacture at Ystalyfera begins.Wales source
1839February 24 – William Otis receives a U.S. patent for the steam shovel.source
1839March 9 – Prussia imposes the Child Labor Law of 1839, becoming the first nation in the world to place restrictions on child labor.source
1839March 23 – The Boston Morning Post first records the use of "O.K." (oll korrect).source
1839March 23 – The Boston Morning Post first records the use of "OK".United States source
18393 April – William Light is replaced by Charles Sturt as Surveyor-General of South AustraliaAustralia source
1839April 7- The first long-distance railway opened Leipzig-Dresden railway.Germany source
1839April 9 – The world's first commercial electric telegraph line comes into operation, alongside the Great Western Railway line in England, from London Paddington station to West Drayton.source
183921 May – Royal Library of Belgium opens to the public.Belgium source
1839June 22 – Louis Daguerre receives a patent for his camera (commercially available by September at the price of 400 francs).source
1839September 19 – Opening of the Albion Mines Railway in Nova Scotia, an early Canadian steam-driven mining railwayCanada source
1839October 3 – A railway between Naples and Portici (7.4 km) in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies is inaugurated by King Ferdinand II of Bourbon as the first line in the Italian Peninsula.source
1839In the United States, the first state law permitting women to own property is passed in Jackson, Mississippi.source
1839Chattanooga, Tennessee, is incorporated as a town.source
1839Jessop & Company work on construction of the first iron bridge in British India, Loha-ka-Pul over River Gomti at Lucknow, 1812–1840India source
1839A whaling station and trading post is set up at Wairoa by Captain William Barnard Rhodes.New Zealand source
1839Liljeholmens Stearinfabriks ABSweden source
1840January 10 – Uniform Penny Post is introduced in the United Kingdom.source
1840March 9 – The Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad is completed, from Wilmington, North Carolina to Weldon, North Carolina. At 161.5 mi, it is the world's longest railroad.source
1840March 9 – The Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad is completed from Wilmington, North Carolina to Weldon, North Carolina. At 161.5 miles, it was the world's longest railroad at the time.United States source
1840April – The Raleigh and Gaston Railroad is completed from Raleigh to near Weldon, North Carolina.source
1840May 1 – Britain issues the Penny Black, the world's first postage stamp; it becomes valid for the pre-payment of postage from May 6.source
1840May 6 — Postage stamps come into use.Canada source
18404 June – Botanical Garden of Mechelen opens, with Joseph Van Hoorde as head gardener.Belgium source
184015 June — The New Zealand Advertiser and Bay of Islands Gazette begins publishing in Kororāreka. The newspaper publishes its last issue on 10 December 1840. It was suppressed because of anti-government tendencies.New Zealand source
1840July 4 – The Cunard Line's 700-ton wooden paddlewheel steamer RMS Britannia departs from Liverpool, bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the first steam transatlantic passenger mail service.source
18404 July – the Cunard Line's 700-ton wooden paddle steamer RMS Britannia, launched by Robert Duncan & Company at Greenock on 5 February, departs from Liverpool bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the first steam transatlantic passenger mail service. Scottish marine engineer Robert Napier is a major partner in the venture and has supplied the ship's engine.Scotland source
1840July 21 – August Borsig's steam locomotive, the first built in Germany, competes against a Stephenson-built locomotive on the Berlin–Jüterbog railroad; the Borsig locomotive wins by 10 minutes.source
18408 October - Taff Vale Railway is officially opened, the first steam-worked passenger railway in Wales, running from Cardiff docks to Navigation House at Abercynon via the Cardiff station known in modern days as Queen Street. Public service begins the following day.Wales source
18402 November – Construction of The Causeway across the Swan River in Perth begins.Australia source
1840December 21 – Stockport Viaduct is completed in North West England. It is one of the largest brick structures in Europe.source
1840Kajima, a construction company based in Japan, is founded in Edo (modern-day Tokyo).source
1840Jessop & Company completes construction of the first iron bridge in British India, Loha-ka-Pul over River Gomti at Lucknow, 1812–1840India source
184129 March – the Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock Railway is opened between Glasgow Bridge Street railway station and Greenock.Scotland source
1841March: Captain Rhodes builds the first wharf in Wellington, in front of his store on the Wellington waterfront.New Zealand source
184124 May - Gas lighting used for the first time in Sydney.Australia source
1841July 5 – Thomas Cook arranges his first railway excursion in England.source
184115 July – Exposition des Produits le l'Industrie Nationale opens in Brussels.Belgium source
184119 August — three British warships and 380 marines drove the Chinese from the land bridge (known as "The Barrier") separating Macau from the Chinese mainland.China source
18418 December - The month-old Albert Edward, eldest son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, is created Prince of Wales by letters patent.Wales source
1841Wendela Hebbe, regarded a pioneer of female reporters, is employed as a reporter at Aftonbladet.Sweden source
1841The first steam self-propelled fire engine in the U.S. is completed by Paul Rapsey Hodge for use in New York City.United States source
184221 February – Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway opened.Scotland source
1842March 31 – The Middleton Junction and Oldham Branch Railway line is opened up to Werneth in North West England.source
1842April: The Auckland Standard begins publication. It folds on 28 August, after four months.New Zealand source
1842June 13 – Queen Victoria becomes the first reigning British monarch to travel by train, on the Great Western Railway between Slough and London Paddington station.source
184213 June – Queen Victoria makes the first train journey by a reigning British monarch, on the Great Western Railway (Slough to Paddington).United Kingdom source
1842June – James Nasmyth patents the steam hammer in the United Kingdom.source
184223 July – Hørsholm Textile Factory is established in Hørsholm.Denmark source
1842October 5 – Josef Groll brews the first pilsner light lager beer in the city of Pilsen, Bohemia (the modern-day Czech Republic).source
184210 October – The Town Dock at Newport is opened.Wales source
1842Pickelhaube helmet introduced in the Prussian Army.source
1842The first Railway in Nova Scotia is begun.Canada source
1842Jørgen Ernst Meyer establishes the nation's first lacquerware company.Denmark source
1842The Garden Society of Gothenburg is opened.Sweden source
1843March 13 – Catawba County, North Carolina is created, and its first court is held in Mathias Barringer Jr.'s house.source
1843March 15 – Victoria, British Columbia, is founded by the Hudson's Bay Company as a trading post and fort.source
1843March 25 – Marc Isambard Brunel's Thames Tunnel, the first tunnel under the River Thames and the world's first bored underwater tunnel, is opened in London for pedestrians.source
184325 March – Marc Isambard Brunel's Thames Tunnel, the first tunnel under the River Thames, is opened to pedestrians.United Kingdom source
1843May 22 – The first major wagon train headed for the American Northwest sets out with 1,000 pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri, on the Oregon Trail.source
1843May 22 – The first major wagon train for the American Northwest sets out with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri on the Oregon Trail.United States source
1843June 21 – Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Gold-Bug" begins serialization in American newspapers.source
184329 June – Robert Napier launches his first iron ship, the paddle steamer Vanguard, from his new yard at Govan on the River Clyde.Scotland source
184316 August – Georg Carstensen Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen are inaugurated with 3,615 visitors on the opening day. At the end of the 1843 season, more than 175,000 guests have visited the park.Denmark source
184318 August – Dalkey Atmospheric Railway opens unofficially.Ireland source
1843September – Ada Lovelace translates and expands Menabrea's notes on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, including an algorithm for calculating a sequence of Bernoulli numbers, regarded as the world's first computer program.source
1843September – John Ridley builds his invention, a corn stripper-harvester, in Hindmarsh.Australia source
18431 November – The foundation stone for the first Beaumaris Pier is laid.Wales source
1843December – The world's first Christmas cards, commissioned by Sir Henry Cole in London from the artist John Callcott Horsley, are sent.source
1843The steam powered rotary printing press is invented, by Richard March Hoe in the United States.source
1843Fort Victoria built by British to strengthen their claim to Vancouver Island.Canada source
1844February – public ferry service commences between Balmain East ferry wharf and the Australian Gas Light Company wharf at Millers Point, Sydney.Australia source
1844March 12 – The Columbus and Xenia Railroad, the first railroad planned to be built in Ohio, is chartered.source
184415 March – opening of Gößnitz stationGermany source
1844May 1 – The Hong Kong Police Force, the world's second and Asia's first modern, police force is established.source
1844May 24 – The first electrical telegram is sent by Samuel Morse from the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. to the B&O Railroad "outer depot" in Baltimore, saying "What hath God wrought".source
1844May 24 – The first electrical telegram is sent by Samuel F. B. Morse from the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. to the B&O Railroad "outer depot" in Baltimore, Maryland, saying "What hath God wrought".United States source
184411 June – Hans Christian Lumbye's Telegraph Galop premiers in Tivoli's Concert Hall in Copenhagen.Denmark source
1844June 15 – Charles Goodyear receives a United States patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber.source
184412 October: The New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian begins publishing in Wellington. It publishes weekly until its demise in 1865.New Zealand source
184428 October – the first paddlewheel Jackal-class gunvessel, HMS Jackal (or Jackall) is launched by Robert Napier at Govan on the River Clyde as the Royal Navy's first iron ship. It is followed a month later by its sister HMS Lizard.Scotland source
1844Utsira Lighthouse is established.Norway source
1844A prospectus is issued to potential investors in a railway to be built through south Wales from a junction with the Great Western Railway at Standish in Gloucestershire.Wales source
1845January 1 – The Cobble Hill Tunnel in Brooklyn is completed.United States source
18451 March — Work begins on the construction of the Chester and Holyhead Railway; Robert Stephenson is chief engineer on the project.Wales source
1845March 17 – Stephen Perry patents the rubber band, in the United Kingdom.source
1845March — Thomas Brigstocke exhibits his painting of General Nott before Queen Victoria.Wales source
1845May 2 – Yarmouth suspension bridge in Great Yarmouth, England, collapses leaving around 80 dead, mostly children.source
18452 May – The Yarmouth suspension bridge at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, collapses: 79 killed.United Kingdom source
1845July 26–August 10 – Isambard Kingdom Brunel's iron steamship Great Britain makes the transatlantic crossing from Liverpool to New York, the first screw propelled vessel to make the passage.source
184531 July – Aberdeen Railway Bill receives Royal AssentScotland source
18457 December – Tinius Olsen, Norwegian American engineer and inventor (died 1932)Norway source
1845Halifax native Samuel Cunard chooses Boston as the western terminus for his steamships.Canada source
1845Bessbrook in County Armagh is established as a model village by Quaker linen manufacturer John Grubb Richardson.Ireland source
18469 January – Barentin Viaduct on the Paris–Le Havre railway collapses soon after its completion by English engineers.France source
1846January 13 – The Milan–Venice railway's 3.2 km bridge, over the Venetian Lagoon between Mestre and Venice in Italy, opens, the world's longest since 1151.source
1846January 30 – The City of Milwaukee is incorporated in Wisconsin, merging Juneautown, Kilbourntown and Walker's Point following the Milwaukee Bridge War of 1845. Solomon Juneau is elected first mayor.United States source
18463 April – Last London-based mail coach runs to Norwich.United Kingdom source
18466 May — Work begins on Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, designed by Jean-Pierre CluysenaarBelgium source
1846June 15 – Launceston Church Grammar School opens for the first time in Tasmania.source
184622 June – the North British Railway is opened to public traffic between Edinburgh and Berwick-upon-Tweed, the first line to cross the border between Scotland and England. Edinburgh Waverley railway station is opened.Scotland source
1846June 28 – The saxophone is patented by Adolphe Sax.source
18461 August - Opening of the Aberdare railway.Wales source
1846September 3 – Electric Telegraph Company founded in Britain.source
1846September 10 – Elias Howe is awarded the first United States patent for a sewing machine, using a lockstitch design.source
184622 September – the Great Western Steamship Company's SS Great Britain, bound from Liverpool for New York, runs aground in Dundrum Bay (County Down). She lies here for almost a year, protected by temporary measures organised by her designer, I. K. Brunel.Ireland source
1846The first copper mine in Canada opens at Bruce Mines.Canada source
1847January 4 – Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the U.S. government.source
1847January 4 – Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol, the Colt Walker, to the U.S. government for the Texas Rangers.United States source
1847June 26 – The first passenger railway wholly within modern-day Denmark opens, from Copenhagen to Roskilde.source
1847July 1 – The United States issues its first postage stamps.source
18471 July – Opening of the Exposition des produits de l'industrie nationale in Brussels.Belgium source
1847October 12 – German inventors and industrialists Werner von Siemens and Johann Georg Halske found Siemens & Halske to develop the electrical telegraph.source
184712 October – German inventors and industrialists Werner von Siemens and Johann Georg Halske found Siemens & Halske to develop the electrical telegraph.Germany source
1847October 18 – Telegraph Line from Quebec to London, Canada West, complete.Canada source
1847November 10 – The first brew of Carlsberg beer is finished in Copenhagen.source
184710 November – The first beer is brewed at J.C. Jacobsen's new Carlsberg brewery on Valby Hill in Copenhagen.Denmark source
1847The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates the railroad town of Goldsborough, and the Wayne county seat is moved to the new town.source
1847The first railway line completed in India between Bombay and Thane came to fruition on April 16, 1853, although the proposal and planning phase began earlier in 1847. This railway line covered a distance of approximately 21 miles (34 kilometers).India source
1847Sugar cane plantations are started in Natal.South Africa source
1847Aurore Storckenfeldt open the Storckenfeldtska skolan.Sweden source
1848January 31 – Construction of the Washington Monument begins in Washington, D.C.source
1848January — California Gold Rush starts, as gold was discovered at Sutters mill, which inspires thousands of Chinese people to travel to America, in search of gold.China source
1848April 10 – The Illinois and Michigan Canal is completed.source
184817 May – Erik Jørgensen, master gunsmith (died 1896)Norway source
1848July 11 – Waterloo railway station in London opens.source
18481 August – Opening of an isolated section of the Chester and Holyhead Railway across Anglesey from Llanfair to Holyhead.Wales source
184829 August – The Cape Otway lighthouse in Victoria is lit for the first time.Australia source
1848September 13 – Vermont railroad worker Phineas Gage survives a 3-foot-plus iron rod being driven through his head.source
1848September 13 – Vermont railroad worker Phineas Gage incredibly survives a 3-foot-plus iron rod being driven through his head.United States source
1848October 28 – In Catalonia, Spain, the Barcelona–Mataró railroad route (the first to be constructed in the Iberian Peninsula) is inaugurated.source
184828 October 1848: the railway line Barcelona–Mataró is opened. It is the first railway line in Spain.Spain source
1848Richard Wagner begins writing the libretto that will become Der Ring des Nibelungen ("The Ring of the Nibelung").source
1848First telegraph lines in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.Canada source
1848Painting Gnome Watching Railway Train by Carl SpitzwegGermany source
1849January 1 – France begins issue of the Ceres series, the nation's first postage stamps.source
18494 January: The Māori language magazine, The Maori Messenger or Ko te Karere Maori publishes its first issue, replacing Te Karere o Nui Tireni which stopped publishing in 1846. The magazine continues under several titles until 1863.New Zealand source
1849January 27 – The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates the North Carolina Railroad, to complete a rail line from Goldsboro through Raleigh, and Salisbury to Charlotte.source
1849February 10 – The Governor, Ministers, MPs and Montreal's council visit St. Hyacinthe, on the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad.Canada source
1849March 3 – The United States Department of the Interior is established, incorporating the Census Office, United States General Land Office, Office of Indian Affairs and Patent and Trademark Office.source
1849May 22 – Future President Abraham Lincoln receives a patent, for a device designed to lift boats over river obstructions.United States source
18491 July – First Belgian postage stamp issued.Belgium source
1849July 15 – The first airstrike in history: Austria launches pilotless balloons against the city of Venice.source
18491 August – Great Indian Peninsula Railway was incorporated by an act of the British ParliamentIndia source
1849September 1 – The first segment of the Pennsylvania Railroad, from Lewistown to Harrisburg, opens for service.source
1849Krasnoye Sormovo Factory No. 112 foundedRussia source
1849The Bourse (Gothenburg) is opened.Sweden source
1849A uniform postal service, the Swiss Post, is introduced.Switzerland source
1850March 5 – The Britannia Bridge opens over the Menai Strait in Wales.source
185015 April – iron paddle steamer SS City of Glasgow, built by Tod & Macgregor of Partick, makes her maiden voyage as the first steamer on the Glasgow–New York route.Scotland source
1850April 19 – The Clayton–Bulwer Treaty is signed by the United States and Great Britain, allowing both countries to share Nicaragua, and not claim complete control over the proposed Nicaragua Canal.source
1850April 19 – Clayton–Bulwer Treaty is signed by the United States and Great Britain, allowing both countries to share Nicaragua and not claim complete control over the proposed Nicaragua Canal.United States source
1850June 1 – The postage stamp issues of Austria begin with a series of imperforate typographed stamps, featuring the coat of arms.source
185018 June – Opening of the South Wales Railway between Chepstow and Swansea.Wales source
185030 July – First issue of Hallandsposten.Sweden source
1850September 18 – Harriet Tubman becomes an official conductor of the Underground Railroad.source
1850October 11 – The St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad opens.Canada source
185021 December – Otago News finishes publication. The newspaper started in 1848.New Zealand source
1850The American system of watch manufacturing is started in Roxbury, Massachusetts, by the Waltham Watch Company.source
1850The ceremony of turning the first sod for the Great Indian Peninsula Railway from Mumbai to Kalyan was performed by J. P. Willoughby at a place near Sion.India source
1850The Swiss Federal Council asks two British engineers to design plans for a railway network for the Swiss ConfederationSwitzerland source
185115 February (O.S. 3 February) – Nicholas I issues a decree authorising surveys for the construction of the Saint Petersburg–Warsaw Railway.Russia source
1851April 8 – Western Union is founded, as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company.source
185124 April – Convention with the Netherlands allowing steamships on the Ghent–Terneuzen Canal signed in The Hague.Belgium source
1851May 1 – The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in the Crystal Palace, Hyde Park, London is opened by Queen Victoria.source
1851May 6 – John Gorrie of Apalachicola, Florida is granted Patent No. 8080 for a machine to make ice.United States source
185114 July – Sir William Denison, Lieutenant-Governor of Tasmania writes to Earl Grey supporting a continuation of transportation.Australia source
1851August 12 – Isaac Singer is granted a United States patent for his improved sewing machine.source
1851November 1 – Saint Petersburg–Moscow Railway officially opens in Russia.source
1851November 13 – The first protected submarine telegraph cable is laid, across the English Channel.source
1851December 22 – The first railway begins operation in India, hauling canal construction material in Roorkee.source
185124 December: The Governor Wynyard, the first steamer built in New Zealand, is launched at Freemans Bay, Auckland.New Zealand source
1851The first experimental electric telegraph line, between Calcutta and Diamond Harbour, is opened for the British East India CompanyIndia source
1851Sugar is first produced from cane in NatalSouth Africa source
1851The Eidgenössischer Stutzer 1851, the first service rifle used by the Swiss armed forces to be procured by the federal government, goes into serviceSwitzerland source
185219 January: The Governor Wynyard, the first steamer built in New Zealand, launched at Freemans Bay, Auckland, makes her first trial trip.New Zealand source
1852February 11 – The first British public toilet for women opens in Bedford Street, London.source
1852February 16 – The Studebaker Brothers Wagon Company, precursor of the automobile manufacturer, is established in South Bend, Indiana.source
1852February 16 – The Studebaker Brothers Wagon Company, precursor of the automobile manufacturer, is established.United States source
1852March 2 – The first American experimental steam fire engine is tested.source
1852June 26 - creation of the Federal Railroad Police.Brazil source
1852September 24 – French engineer Henri Giffard makes the first airship trip, from Paris to Trappes.source
1852November 10 – The Grand Trunk Railway Company is incorporated to build a railway between Toronto and Montreal.Canada source
1852November 23 – The first roadside pillar boxes in the British Isles are brought into public use in Saint Helier, on Jersey in the Channel Islands, at the suggestion of English novelist Anthony Trollope, at this time an official of the British General Post Office.source
1852December – The Western Railroad is chartered to build a railroad from Fayetteville, North Carolina, to the coal fields of Egypt, North Carolina.source
1852The semaphore line in France is superseded by the telegraph.source
1852Smith & Wesson is founded as a firearms manufacturer in the United States.source
1852In Hawaii, sugar planters bring over the first Chinese laborers on 3- or 5-year contracts, giving them 3 dollars per month plus room and board for working a 12-hour day, 6 days a week.source
1852The grooved rail is developed by Alphonse Loubat.source
1852The first telegraph station was opened in October 1. Marking the transition from Optical telegraph to Electrical telegraph.Russia source
1852Copper mining begins at SpringbokfonteinSouth Africa source
1852The manufacturer Hästens is established.Sweden source
1852Alfred Escher, among others, helps push through a railway law saying that railway construction and operation should be left to private companiesSwitzerland source
1853February 4 – Johann Jakob Speiser, Achilles Bischoff, and Karl Geigy establish the Swiss Central RailwaySwitzerland source
1853February 12 – The city of Puerto Montt is founded in the Reloncaví Sound, Chile.source
1853March 5 – Steinway & Sons, a piano maker, is founded in Manhattan by the German immigrant Henry E. Steinway (Heinrich E. Steinweg) and his family.United States source
1853April 16 – Indian Railways: The first passenger railway in India opens from Bombay to Thana, Maharashtra, 22 mi.source
1853April 16 – The first Indian train steamed off from Bombay to Thane. The train was drawn by three steam locomotives and covered the 34 km distance in 57 minutes.India source
1853May 12–October 31 – The Great Industrial Exhibition is held in Dublin, Ireland.source
1853May 23 – The first plat for Seattle, Washington, is laid out.source
18539 June – Aalst railway station opens.Belgium source
1853June 30 – Georges-Eugène Haussmann is selected as préfect of the Seine (department) to begin the re-planning of Paris.source
1853July 1 – The Swiss watch company Tissot is founded.source
1853August 24 – Potato chips are first prepared, by George Crum at Saratoga Springs, New York, according to popular accounts.source
1853September 5 – First official rail journey in Brazil, prior before the line was formally opened to the publicBrazil source
185323 September - occupancy of the present site of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which was part of a 'police paddock', was given to the Melbourne Cricket Club by Lieutenant Governor Charles La Trobe. This followed the forced resumption of land from the then-15-year-old Club to build Australia's first steam train railway.Australia source
1853October 1 – C. Bechstein's piano factory is founded, one of three established in a "golden year" in the history of the piano (Julius Blüthner and Steinway & Sons being the others).source
1853December 30 – Gadsden Purchase: The United States buys approximately 77,000 km² of land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest.source
1853December 30 – Gadsden Purchase: The United States buys land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest.Mexico source
1853Isambard Kingdom Brunel accepts John Scott Russell's tender for construction of the SS Great Eastern passenger steamer.source
1853Melbourne Cricket Ground, the largest sports stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, officially opens.source
1853The world's first public aquarium opens, as a feature of the London Zoo.source
1853The Union Steamship Line is foundedSouth Africa source
1854January 20 – The North Carolina General Assembly in the United States charters the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad, to run from Goldsboro through New Bern, to the newly created seaport of Morehead City, near Beaufort.source
1854January 27 – The Great Western Railway opens, linking Toronto, Hamilton and Windsor.Canada source
1854February 11 – Major streets are lit by coal gas for the first time by the San Francisco Gas Company; 86 such lamps are turned on this evening in San Francisco, California.source
1854February 14 – Texas is linked by telegraph with the rest of the United States, when a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas is completed.source
1854March 1 – German psychologist Friedrich Eduard Beneke disappears; 2 years later his remains are found in the canal near Charlottenburg.source
1854March 3 – Australia's first telegraph line, linking Melbourne and Williamstown, Victoria, opens.source
1854March 20 – The Boston Public Library opens to the public.source
1854June 10 – The first class of the United States Naval Academy graduates at Annapolis, Maryland.source
1854June – The Grand Excursion takes prominent Eastern United States inhabitants from Chicago to Rock Island, Illinois, by railroad, then up the Mississippi River to Saint Paul, Minnesota, by steamboat.source
1854July 4 – James Ambrose Cutting takes out the first of his three United States patents for improvements to the wet plate collodion process (Ambrotype photography).source
1854July 7 – The Bombay Spinning and Weaving Company is established as the first cotton mill in India by Cowasjee Nanabhoy Davar and associates.source
185415 July – The Glaspalast is opened in Munich. A giant glass building modelled on London's Crystal Palace, it houses an industrial exhibition.Germany source
18541 September – The first Norwegian railway, Hovedbanen between Oslo and Eidsvoll, is opened. This also constitutes the establishment of the now state owned Norwegian State Railways.Norway source
185412 September – Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria Charles Hotham opens Flinders Street station, the first city railway station in Australia.Australia source
1854October 1 – The watch company founded in 1850 in Roxbury, Massachusetts, by Aaron Lufkin Dennison, relocates to Waltham, to become the Waltham Watch Company, pioneer in the American system of watch manufacturing.source
1854November 17 – In Egypt, the Suez Canal Company is formed.source
1854December 19 – The Basel SBB railway station is openedSwitzerland source
1854The future Waterbury Clock Company (Incorporated on March 27, 1857) is founded as a department within the Benedict and Burnham Manufacturing Company in Waterbury, Connecticut, the predecessor of Timex Group USA in timepiece manufacturing.source
1854A Russian fort is established at the modern-day site of Almaty.source
1854the first Chinese laborers arrive in JamaicaChina source
1854The first train ran on Eastern Railway zone between Howrah and Hooghly on 15 AugustIndia source
18551 January - The Telegraphynet between the most important cities in Sweden are completed.Sweden source
1855January 23 – The first bridge over the Mississippi River opens in modern-day Minneapolis, a predecessor of the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge.source
1855January 23 – The first bridge over the Mississippi River opens in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota (a crossing made today by the Hennepin Avenue Bridge).United States source
1855January 27 – The Panama Railway becomes the first railroad to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.source
1855February 15 – The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates the Western North Carolina Railroad, to build a rail line from Salisbury to the western part of the state.source
1855March 8 – A bridge over the Niagara River near Niagara Falls is completed.Canada source
1855June 15 – Stamp duty revenue tax is removed from British newspapers, creating free mass media thereafter in the United Kingdom.source
1855June 29 – The Daily Telegraph newspaper begins publication in London.source
185529 June – Telegraphic convention between Belgium, France and Prussia signed in Berlin.Belgium source
185526 September – Sydney to Parramatta railway openedAustralia source
1855October 17 – Henry Bessemer files his patent in the United Kingdom for the Bessemer process of steelmaking.source
1855Samuel Colt incorporates his business as the Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company and opens a new factory, the Colt Armory, in Hartford, Connecticut.source
1855Steamship service links Manaus with Nauta, PeruBrazil source
1855Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway was incorporated to undertake the task of constructing a railway line between Bombay and VadodaraIndia source
1855The Oberwinterthur railway station and Winterthur main railway station openSwitzerland source
1856January 29 – The 223-mile North Carolina Railroad is completed from Goldsboro through Raleigh and Salisbury to Charlotte.source
1856April 21 – Building workers agitate for the eight-hour day in Melbourne, Australia.source
185627 April – The Roskuilde–Korsør extension of the Copenhagen–Roskilde Railway is inaugurated.Denmark source
18561 May – Railway line between Brussels and Ghent completedBelgium source
1856July 17 – The Great Train Wreck (the worst railroad calamity in the world to date) occurs near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.source
1856September 7 – The Saimaa Canal was inaugurated.source
185623 September – The town of Perth, Western Australia, is proclaimed a City by letters patent from Queen Victoria.Australia source
1856October 27 – The two halves of the Grand Trunk Railway are joined with the construction of the Oshawa–Brockville section of the original mainline. Celebratory trains meet near the centre of the line at Kingston. The western terminus of the mainline is the east bank of the Don River.Canada source
185626 December – The Otago Colonist publishes its first issue. The newspaper changes its name to The Colonist in 1862 and is absorbed into the Daily Telegraph at the beginning of 1863.New Zealand source
1856Kate Warne, the first female private detective, begins to work for the Pinkerton Detective Agency.source
1856Mauveine, the first synthetic organic dye, is discovered by William Henry Perkin, while attempting to synthesize quinine. This eventually leads to the birth of the chemical industry.source
1856Provisional opening of the Santa Apolónia railway station on 28 October 1856.Portugal source
1856Date unknown - Construction of the Western Main Line, the main railway line between Stockholm and Gothenburg, begins.Sweden source
1856The first part of the Olten–Lausanne railway line is openedSwitzerland source
1857January 7 – The partly French-owned London General Omnibus Company begins operating.source
1857March 12 — Desjardins Canal disaster - The bridge over Desjardins Canal, near Hamilton, Canada West, collapses under a Great Western Railway passenger train. About 60 people die.Canada source
185713 May – St Kilda railway station, Melbourne is opened.Australia source
1857May 25 – Flying Eagle cent released for circulation.United States source
18571 June — Opening of the Crumlin Viaduct, built to carry the Taff Vale Extension of the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway.Wales source
1857September – The Panic of 1857 begins: Speculation in U.S. railroad shares, and the collapse on August 24 of the New York City branch of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company, following widespread embezzlement, trigger a financial crisis which will extend to Europe.source
1857December 20 – Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria issues a decree, Es ist Mein Wille, which leads to the demolition of the city walls of Vienna, allowing the construction of the Ringstraße.source
1857Bustling tourist attraction Sunny Lane in Falmouth, United Kingdom, is built.source
1857Bucharest becomes the world's first city to have its streets illuminated by kerosene lamps.source
1857Kuala Lumpur, the future capital of Malaysia, is founded as a tin mining settlement.source
1857Svanemøllen is constructed on the island of Bornholm.Denmark source
1857Krenholm Manufacturing CompanyRussia source
1857The Union Steam Ship Company wins the first mail contract for regular mail service between Great Britain and South Africa.South Africa source
1857Several protests for higher pay in Sweden's iron and steel factories.Sweden source
18581 January – the permanent North Unst Lighthouse on Muckle Flugga (Shetland), designed by brothers Thomas and David Stevenson, is first illuminated.Scotland source
185831 January – I. K. Brunel's SS Great Eastern, the largest ship built to date, is launched on the River Thames.United Kingdom source
1858March 30 – Hymen Lipman patents a pencil with an attached eraser in the United States.source
185822 May – The Adelaide to Melbourne telegraph line is open to the public.Australia source
1858June 17 – The Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad opens, operating 95 miles from Goldsboro, North Carolina, to New Bern, North Carolina.source
1858July 12 – The Advertiser, a daily newspaper still in circulation, begins publication in Adelaide, Australia.source
1858August 5 – Cyrus West Field and others complete the first transatlantic telegraph cable, after several unsuccessful attempts. The service ends on September 1, due to weak current.source
1858August 16 – U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new trans-Atlantic telegraph cable, by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service in a few weeks.source
1858August 16 – U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new trans-Atlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service on September 1.United States source
1858September 11 – Dom, the third-highest summit in the Alps, is first ascended.source
18585 October – The Vale of Clwyd Railway, built by David Davies Llandinam, is opened.Wales source
1858December 29 – The Northern Railway Company is established in Madrid, Spain, with a purpose to construct the Northern Railway.source
1858Pike's Peak Gold Rush: Fifty-Niners stream into the Rocky Mountains of the western United States.source
1858The second and third railroad lines in Brazil begin operation.Brazil source
1858Chinese, German, Norwegian, Jews, American, Irish, Latin American, French, Belgian Canadian and other immigrants who had been in the California goldfields arrive in British Columbia, attracted by the Fraser River Gold rush, joining French Canadians, Métis, Hawaiians and others already in the area who abandoned regular employment to work the banks of the Fraser alongside the native peoples, who also took part in the rush.Canada source
1858Bernhard Hertz establishes his own workshop.Denmark source
185910 January – Pencarrow Head Lighthouse becomes the first permanent lighthouse in New Zealand. Its first keeper is Mary Bennett, the only woman to hold the position.New Zealand source
1859March 3 – Construction begins on the first railway in northern India as tracks are laid between the modern-day locations of Allahabad and Kanpur.source
18591 April - Opening of the Corris Railway.Wales source
185915 April – An act provides for the Royal Danish Navy as well as the Botanical Gardens to leave Gammelholm which is instead to undergo urban redevelopment. The Navy's activities are moved to Nyholm while the Botanical Gardens relocate to their current site.Denmark source
1859April 25 – Ground is broken for the Suez Canal, in Egypt.source
1859May 4 – The Cornwall Railway opens across the Royal Albert Bridge, linking the counties of Devon and Cornwall in England.source
185926 May – Engebret Soot, canal engineer (born 1786)Norway source
1859July 11 – The chimes of Big Ben ring for the first time in London.source
1859August 28–September 2 – The solar storm of 1859, the largest geomagnetic solar storm on record, causes the Northern lights to be visible as far south as Montería, Colombia and knocks out telegraph communication (this is also called the Carrington event).source
18598 September – A small 0-4-0 tank steam locomotive is landed in Cape Town, to be used during construction of the first railway in South Africa.South Africa source
185914 October – Glasgow Town Council's Loch Katrine public water supply scheme officially opened.Scotland source
1859November 1 – The current Cape Lookout, North Carolina, lighthouse is lighted for the first time (its first-order Fresnel lens can be seen for 19 miles).source
1859Tidskrift för hemmet, the first women's magazine in the Nordic countries, begins publication in Sweden.source
1859Fabrique d'armes Émile et Léon Nagant established in LiègeBelgium source
1859The beginning of the Tidskrift för hemmet, the first women's magazine in the Nordic countries.Sweden source
18607 March — HMS Howe, the Royal Navy’s last, largest and fastest wooden first-rate three-decker ship of the line, is launched at Pembroke Dockyard but never completed for sea service.Wales source
186020 March – The Cape Town Railway and Dock Company takes delivery of eight broad gauge 0-4-2 tender locomotives for service on the Cape Town-Wellington line, which is still under construction.South Africa source
1860August 25 – Montreal's Victoria Bridge opens.Canada source
186017 October – The first professional golf tournament is held at Prestwick in Scotland, sometimes regarded as the first Open, although it is not truly open until the following year.United Kingdom source
1860October – the Royal National Lifeboat Institution stations the first Thurso life-boat at Scrabster.Scotland source
186012 November – The Victorian College for the Deaf is opened in a small house in Peel Street Windsor.Australia source
1860December 29 – The world's first ocean-going (all) iron-hulled and armoured battleship, the (British) HMS Warrior, is launched.source
1860The first indenture of Indian workers arrive in Natal to work in the sugar industry.South Africa source
1860The Russian Empire has c. 1,250 mi of railroads.source
1860Cologne Zoological Garden is opened.Germany source
1861January 1 – The first steam-powered carousel is recorded, in Bolton, England.source
186116 February: The Southern News and Foveaux Strait's Herald publishes its first issue. The paper will become daily by 1875 and change its name to The Southland Daily News. It continues until 1968.New Zealand source
186111 March – the Portpatrick Railway opens to Stranraer Town railway station, providing a connection from Dumfries.Scotland source
1861May 17 – A 7-day working men's package holiday to Paris, organised by Thomas Cook, sets out from London Bridge station.source
186117 May – A 7-day working men's package holiday to Paris, organised by Thomas Cook, sets out from London Bridge station.United Kingdom source
186110 June - The Oswestry and Newtown Railway is completed throughout by opening of the section between Abermule and Newtown, giving through rail communication from England to Llanidloes.Wales source
1861September 16 – Roman Rock Lighthouse at the entrance to Simon's Town begins operating after taking 4 years to build.South Africa source
1861October 24 – HMS Warrior, the world's first ocean-going (all) iron-hulled armored battleship, is completed and commissioned into the British Royal Navy.source
1861October 24 – Western Union completes the first transcontinental telegraph line across the United States.source
18616 November – First message sent via the newly completed Sydney to Brisbane telegraph line.Australia source
1861The first industrial meat packing plant in Uruguay is established, at Fray Bentos.source
1861The Cariboo Gold Rush starts in British Columbia.Canada source
1861A decision is taken to construct Strandvägen in Stockholm.Sweden source
18621 January – South Wales Railway leased to Great Western Railway prior to merger.Wales source
1862January 30 – American Civil War: The first U.S. ironclad warship, USS Monitor, is launched in Brooklyn.source
1862February 2 – The first railway is opened in New Zealand, by the Dun Mountain Copper Mining Company.source
1862March 17 – The first railway line in Finland, between the cities of Helsinki and Hämeenlinna, is officially opened.source
1862April 12 – Great Locomotive Chase (Andrews' Raid) – Union volunteers steal Confederate steam railroad locomotive The General (which will still exist in the 21st century) in an attempt to sabotage the rail network.source
1862May 24 – Westminster Bridge is opened across the Thames in London. This new iron bridge, designed by Thomas Page, replaces the previous stone one.source
1862July 1 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs into law the Pacific Railroad Acts, authorizing construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad.source
18621 July – The first telegraph transmission in New Zealand is made from Lyttelton Post Office to Christchurch.New Zealand source
1862July 1 – President Abraham Lincoln signs into law the Pacific Railway Acts, authorizing construction of the first transcontinental railroad.United States source
1862July 18 – Dent Blanche, one of the highest summits in the Alps, is first ascended.source
18629 August – Theater Baden-Baden opens with Béatrice et Bénédict.Germany source
1862August 21 – The Vienna Stadtpark opens its gates.source
18622 September – The first Aarhus and Randers railway stations oen when the new Aarhus–Randers railway line is inaugurated.Denmark source
1862October 2 – A breakwater construction locomotive for Table Bay Harbour arrives on the ship Navarino.South Africa source
18623 October – Kongsvingerbanen, Norway's third railway opens between Lillestrøm and Kongsvinger, is opened.Norway source
1862November 4 – Richard Jordan Gatling patents the Gatling gun in the United States.source
1862Japanese construction company Satō Kōgyō is founded in Toyama as Satō-gumi.source
1862Saint Petersburg–Warsaw RailwayRussia source
1863January 10 – The first section of the London Underground Railway (Paddington to Farringdon Street) opens officially. This is the world’s first ever underground railway.source
1863January 21 – Adam Opel founds Opel in Germany, originally for the manufacture of sewing machines.source
1863February 10 – Alanson Crane of Virginia patents a fire extinguisher.source
1863March 14 – Queen Victoria issues Letters Patent granting Goulburn city status, making it Australia's first inland city.source
186314 March – Queen Victoria issues Letters Patent granting Goulburn, New South Wales city status, making it Australia's first inland city.Australia source
1863April 1 – The Cape Town and Green Point Tramway Company commences with the first horse-drawn trams in Cape Town from the foot of Adderley Street and out along Somerset Road to Green Point.South Africa source
1863April 16 – The first ever submarine to be propelled by mechanized (rather than human) power, Plongeur, of the French Navy, propelled by compressed air, is launched in Rochefort, Charente-Maritime.source
1863July 1 – The Kingston loop line of the London and South Western Railway opens.source
1863July 6 – Queen Victoria issues Letters Patent, annexing to South Australia the part of the colony of New South Wales that will later become the Northern Territory.source
1863August 1 – Friedrich Bayer founds the chemical manufacturing company of Bayer at Barmen for the manufacture of dyestuffs.Germany source
1863September – The Western Railroad from Fayetteville, North Carolina, to the coal fields of Egypt, North Carolina, is completed.source
1863October 5 – The Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island Rail Road starts operations in Brooklyn, New York, making it the oldest right-of-way on the New York City Subway, the largest rapid transit system in the United States, and one of the largest in the world.source
1863October 5 – The Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island Rail Road starts operations in Brooklyn, New York; this is now the oldest right-of-way on the New York City Subway, the largest rapid transit system in the United States and one of the largest in the world.United States source
186322 October – The first tramway in Copenhagen begins operations. The Horse-drawn tram cars run along a single track between Sankt Annæ Plads and Frederiksberg Runddel.Denmark source
1863December 1 – The first steam-operated passenger railway in New Zealand opens at Christchurch in South Island.source
1863December 15 – Romania opens its first mountain railway (from Anina to Oravița).source
1863Colonial Letters Patent Act (British statute)India source
1863A town board is established in Wellington with three wards (Thorndon, Lambton and Te Aro) but no mayor.New Zealand source
18631863–1864: Rudberg and Gillis Bildt develop a city plan for Stockholm. Albert Lindhagen is appointed head of a commission to examine the plan the following year, only to produce a plan of his own in 1866. The plan, published in 1867, results in no actions.Sweden source
18644 May – The first trout hatchery in the southern hemisphere is established at Plenty, Tasmania.Australia source
1864June 23 - Aberystwyth is linked to the rail network for the first time.Wales source
1864June 29 – St-Hilaire train disaster : A train of newly arrived immigrants fails to stop at the open swing span near Beloeil, Canada East. The Grand Trunk Railway train runs into the Richelieu River, killing 99.Canada source
1864August 1 – The Elgin Watch Company is founded in Elgin, Illinois.source
1864December 8 – The Clifton Suspension Bridge across the River Avon (Bristol) in England, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and completed as a memorial to him, opens to traffic.source
1864December 19 – A railway line to Wynberg, constructed with private capital, is opened to the public.South Africa source
1864Belgian State Railways Type 1 taken into useBelgium source
1864India Office Site Act (British statute)India source
1864The Wairau Record starts publishing in Blenheim. The newspaper changed its name to The Marlborough News and General Advertiser in 1865 and then to just The Marlborough News. It folded in 1874.New Zealand source
1864The newspaper Dagens Nyheter begins its publication.Sweden source
18655 January — The Festiniog Railway officially opens to passengers, the first narrow gauge railway in the British Isles to do so.Wales source
1865February 21 – John Deere receives a United States patent for ploughs.source
1865March – Hamm's Brewery opens in St. Paul, Minnesota.source
1865April 6 – German chemicals producer Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik (BASF) is founded in Mannheim.source
1865April 21 – German chemicals producer BASF moves its headquarters and factories from Mannheim, to the Hemshof District of Ludwigshafen.source
1865May 17 – The International Telegraph Union is founded.source
1865July 5 – The first speed limit is introduced in Britain: 2 mph in town and 4 mph in the country.source
1865July 5 – The U.S. Secret Service is founded.source
1865July 23 – The SS Great Eastern departs on a voyage to lay a transatlantic telegraph cable.source
1865July 31 – The first narrow gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Australia.source
186531 July – Queensland Railways opens the first section of track from Ipswich to Bigge's Camp, the first narrow gauge mainline railway in the world.Australia source
186523 September – Brussels city council approves plans for the covering of the Senne.Belgium source
1865November: The Grey River Argus begins publication in Greymouth. It published three times a week until becoming daily in 1871. The paper folded in 1966.New Zealand source
1865The General German Cigar Workers Society ("Allgemeiner Deutsche Cigarrenarbeiter-Verein"), established in Leipzig in 1865, was the first centrally organized union in Germany.Germany source
1865India Office Site & Approaches ActIndia source
1865The Natal Railway Company obtains a 0-4-0 saddle-tank locomotive from Kitson and Company. The Natal Railway's second locomotive is named Durban.South Africa source
1865The first issue of the Jönköpings-Posten.Sweden source
1866May: The New Zealander stops publishing after its office burns down. The Auckland-based newspaper started publishing in 1845.New Zealand source
1866June 9 – At Danville, Canada East, a fire breaks out in a railway car containing 2,000 lb of ammunition. Private Timothy O'Hea, an Irish soldier, will be awarded the Victoria Cross for his leadership and initiative in fighting the fire.Canada source
1866July 27 – The SS Great Eastern successfully completes laying the transatlantic telegraph cable between Valentia Island, Ireland, and Heart's Content, Newfoundland, permanently restoring a communications link.source
186627 August – Antwerp city council makes Dutch the official language of city business.Belgium source
1866September 24 – Western Union Telegraph Expedition to Alaska begins its second season, the first after the death of Robert KennicottUnited States source
1866November 7 – The Ruse–Varna railway line (the first railway in Bulgaria) officially opens.source
186624 November – Richard Dry becomes Premier of TasmaniaAustralia source
1866The Minneapolis Milling Company, predecessor of General Mills, builds its own mills.source
1866Laksar Junction opened in Laksar, UttarakhandIndia source
1866Kalinin Machine-Building PlantRussia source
1866The inauguration of the Norrköping Central Station.Sweden source
1867January 1 – The Covington–Cincinnati Suspension Bridge opens between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky, in the United States, becoming the longest single-span bridge in the world. It is renamed after its designer, John A. Roebling, in 1983.source
1867January 1 – The John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge opens between Cincinnati, Ohio and Covington, Kentucky, becoming the longest suspension bridge in the world.United States source
18675 February: Opening of New Zealand's third railway line: 27 km connecting Invercargill and Bluff.New Zealand source
1867May 7 – Alfred Nobel patents dynamite in the United Kingdom.source
1867June 15 – The Atlantic Cable Quartz Lode gold mine is named in Montana.source
1867July 15 – Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau becomes the first premier of Quebec.Canada source
186719 August – The Victoria pier at Rhyl, built at a cost of £23,000, opens to the public.Wales source
186715 November – Ferrocarril Andino, the first state-owned railway in Argentina, is founded.Argentina source
1867Pierre Michaux invents the front wheel-driven velocipede, the first mass-produced bicycle.source
18671867–1873 – Chinese, Scandinavian and Irish immigrants lay 30,000 mi of railroad tracks in the United States.source
1867At Fountain Point, Michigan, an artesian water spring, begins to gush continuously.source
1867Clarke School for the Deaf in Western Massachusetts opens its doors for the first time, becoming the first school for the deaf in the United States to teach its children how to communicate using the oral method.source
1867Euphrosine Beernaert, Pond in Villers-la-VilleBelgium source
1867Great Indian Peninsula Railway's Allahabad-Jubbulpore branch line was opened in JuneIndia source
1867Berdichev machine-building plantRussia source
18681 February – At the bridge over the Severn at Caersws an approach embankment, damaged by flood water, collapses under a train. The driver and fireman are killed.Wales source
1868March 27 – The Lake Ontario Shore Railroad Company is organized in Oswego, New York.source
186824 April – The Port of Esbjerg construction act provides for the construction of a new export port at Esbjerg, until then a tiny community, as a replacement for the harbour in Altona, which had previously been Denmark's most important North Sea harbour.Denmark source
186825 April – HMS Repulse, the last wooden battleship constructed for the Royal Navy, is launched as an ironclad (with auxiliary steam propulsion) at Woolwich Dockyard.United Kingdom source
1868May 31 – The first popular bicycle race is held at Parc de Saint-Cloud, Paris.source
1868June 20 – Fort Fred Steele is established to protect what is at this time the western terminus of the Union Pacific Railway, near modern-day Sinclair, Wyoming.source
1868July 1 – The cable-operated West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway in Manhattan becomes the first elevated railway in the United States.source
186819 August – the clipper Thermopylae is launched at Walter Hood & Company's Aberdeen shipyard for George Thompson's Aberdeen Line.Scotland source
18687 September – Third international workers congress opens in Brussels.Belgium source
186819 September – inauguration of Dalsland Canal.Sweden source
186812 October- The final stretch of the railway line Randsfjordbanen between Drammen and Hønefoss makes Norway's fifth railway complete.Norway source
1868October 28 – Thomas Edison applies for his first patent, the electric vote recorder.source
1868December 4 – Thomas Humber invented the safety bicycle.source
1868December 9 – The world's first traffic signal lights are installed at the junction of Great George Street and Bridge Street in the London Borough of Westminster.source
1868Herrenhäuser Brewery is established in Hanover, Germany.source
1868Louis Arthur Ducos du Hauron patents methods of color photography.source
1868Indian Railway Companies Act (British statute)India source
1869February – The Imperial faction took delivery (February 1869) of the French-built ironclad Kotetsu, the first ironclad warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy.Japan source
1869May 10 – The first transcontinental railroad in North America is completed at Promontory, Utah, by the driving of the "golden spike".source
1869May 10 – The "golden spike" is driven marking the completion of the First transcontinental railroad in Promontory, Utah.United States source
1869May 22 – Sainsbury's first store, in Drury Lane, London, is opened.source
186931 May – Horse-drawn omnibuses introduced in Brussels.Belgium source
1869June 15 – John Wesley Hyatt patents celluloid in Albany, New York.source
1869July 15 – Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès files a patent for margarine in France.source
186920 August – Kunsthalle Hamburg opened.Germany source
1869August: The first bicycle built in Auckland is ridden for the first time. Bicycles are also built and ridden in Christchurch and Dunedin in this year.New Zealand source
1869September 4 – The first rails of the Namaqualand Railway is laid.South Africa source
186918 October – The Lithgow Zig Zag Railway was opened.Australia source
1869November 17 – In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is inaugurated in an elaborate ceremony.source
1869The Timișoara horse-drawn railway, opened in 1869.source
1869East India Irrigation and Canal Act (British statute)India source
1870January 1 – Plans for the Brooklyn Bridge are completed.source
1870January 3 – Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge begins in New York City.source
1870January 26 - The first public utility, Denshin, is established. (Traditional Japanese Date: Twenty-fifth Day of the Twelfth Month, Meiji 2)Japan source
1870February 12 – Women gain the right to vote in Utah Territory. On February 14, in a Salt Lake City municipal election, Seraph Young Ford becomes the first woman in the U.S. to cast her vote.United States source
1870February 26 – In New York City, the first pneumatic subway, Beach Pneumatic Transit, is opened.source
1870June 8 – The final splice on the first telegraph submarine cable between Great Britain and India is made.source
1870June 23 –The first message by electric telegraph using the Great Britain to India submarine cable is sent from London.source
1870August 2 – The Tower Subway beneath the River Thames in London, the world's first underground passenger "tube" railway, officially opens. Although this lasts as a railway operation only until November, it demonstrates the technologically successful first use of the cylindrical wrought iron tunnelling shield, devised by Peter W. Barlow and James Henry Greathead, and of a permanent tunnel lining of cast iron segments.source
1870September – Work begins on the Australian Overland Telegraph Line linking Port Augusta to Darwin.Australia source
18704 October – The railway line South Line (Sydbanen), between Roskilde and Vordingborg by way of Køge and Næstved, is opened.Denmark source
1870November 1 – In the United States, the newly created Weather Bureau (later renamed the National Weather Service) makes its first official meteorological forecast: "High winds at Chicago and Milwaukee... and along the Lakes".source
1870December 31 – The 12.8 km Fréjus Rail Tunnel through the Alps is completed.source
1870The Alfred Basin in Table Bay Harbour, named after Prince Alfred, is completed.South Africa source
1870David Kenyon invents the fireman's pole in Chicago.source
1870Graeter's ice cream is originated in Cincinnati, Ohio.source
1870The first submarine telegraph cable from UK landed in Bombay.India source
1870New Zealand's first golf course was opened in Dunedin.New Zealand source
1870Thomas William Rhys Davids begins a series of articles for the Ceylon branch of the Royal Asiatic Society Journal.Wales source
18711 February: The Daily Telegraph begins publishing in Napier. It continues until 1999, when it merges with The Hawke's Bay Herald Tribune to form Hawke's Bay Today.New Zealand source
187121 February – Regular railway services between France and Belgium resumed.Belgium source
1871March 21 – Otto von Bismarck becomes the first Chancellor of the German Empire.source
1871March 27 – The first Rugby Union International results in a 1–0 win, by Scotland over England.source
1871March 29 – The Royal Albert Hall in London is opened by Queen Victoria; it incorporates a grand organ by Henry Willis & Sons, the world's largest at this time.source
18711 May - the Rural Association of Uruguay, first union of rural producers in the country, was established.Uruguay source
1871May 4 – The first supposedly Major League Baseball game is played in America.source
1871May 8 – The first Major League Baseball home run is hit by Ezra Sutton, of the Cleveland Forest Citys.source
1871May 21 – The first rack railway in Europe, the Vitznau–Rigi Railway on Mount Rigi in Switzerland, is opened.source
1871July 22 – The foundation stone of the first Tay Bridge is laid; the bridge collapses as a train crosses in a storm eight years later.source
1871August – The East Argentine Railway company is founded by British investors.Argentina source
18716 October - Corpbanca begins business.Chile source
1871October 20 – The Royal Regiment of Artillery forms the first regular Canadian army units, when they create two batteries of garrison artillery, which later become the Royal Canadian Artillery.source
1871November 7 – The London–Australia telegraph cable is brought ashore at Darwin.source
187120 November – Initial operation of the Java telegraph cable, landed at Darwin, linking Australia to the UK.Australia source
1871December 15 – The Deseret Telegraph Company office in Pipe Spring begins service with a message keyed by Ella Stewart. It is the first telegraph sent from Arizona Territory.source
1871c. November – The South Improvement Company is formed in Pennsylvania by John D. Rockefeller and a group of major United States railroad interests, in an early effort to organize and control the American petroleum industry.source
1871The first section of the railway line Sørlandet Line is opened.Norway source
1872March 5 – George Westinghouse receives a United States patent for the "failsafe" automatic railway air brake.source
187224 May – Convention with The Netherlands for building water defences on the Zwin signed in Bruges.Belgium source
1872August 22 – The Australian Overland Telegraph Line is completed, providing a telegraphic link between Australia and the rest of the world for the first time.source
187222 August – The Australian Overland Telegraph Line is completed when two telegraph lines are joined at Frew's Ponds in the Northern Territory (then South Australia).Australia source
1872August – Aaron Montgomery Ward issues the first Montgomery Ward mail order catalogue from Chicago.United States source
18727 October – The railway line Drammenbanen between Oslo and Drammen is opened.Norway source
1872December 1 – Responsible government is granted to Cape Colony (South Africa). Sir John Molteno, first Prime Minister of the Cape of Good Hope, forms the first Cape Cabinet which immediately plans to establish Cape Government Railways and take over the operation of all private railways in the Colony.source
1872The Cape Government Railways is established under Cape Act 10 and takes over the operation of all private railways in the Colony, consisting of altogether 63 mi 26 ch of track from Cape Town via Stellenbosch to Wellington and from Salt River to Wynberg.South Africa source
1872date unknown - The Argentine government awards the concession for the Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway to John E. Clark for the construction of a railway from Buenos Aires to Chile.Argentina source
1872Elijah McCoy, born in Colchester, Ontario, invents the first of his many devices to oil engines used on trains and in factories.Canada source
1872Tomioka silk mill, Japan's first modern model silk reeling factory, is established by the government.Japan source
1873January 1 - Japan begins using the Gregorian calendar.Japan source
187313 January – Convention with The Netherlands for building water defences on the Zwin comes into effect.Belgium source
1873March 1 – E. Remington and Sons of Ilion, New York, start production of the first practical typewriter.United States source
1873May 20 – Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive United States patent 139121, for using copper rivets to strengthen the pockets of denim work pants. Levi Strauss & Co. begins manufacturing the famous Levi's brand of jeans, using fabric from the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in Manchester, New Hampshire.source
1873May – Henry Rose exhibits barbed wire at an Illinois county fair, which is taken up by Joseph Glidden and Jacob Haish, who invent a machine to mass-produce it.source
1873August 20 – Prime Minister John Molteno authorises construction of the new Cape Eastern railway line from East London.South Africa source
1873December – Major Walter Clopton Wingfield designs and patents a racquet sport, which he calls sphairistike (Greek σφάίρίστική, "skill at playing at ball"), soon known simply as Stické and an ancestor of lawn tennis, for the amusement of his guests at a garden party on his estate of Nantclwyd, in Llanelidan, Wales.source
1873December: The Onehunga Branch railway line from Auckland to Onehunga (via Newmarket, Ellerslie, and Penrose) is opened.New Zealand source
1873In Mexico, the Veracruz–Mexico City railroad is completed.source
1873Coors Brewing Company begins making beer in Golden, Colorado.source
1873Demonstration of an electric tram operated on Miller's line at Sestroretsk near Saint Petersburg in the Russian Empire by inventor Fyodor Pirotsky.source
1873Frankfurt South station is opened.Germany source
1873The first Icelandic postage stamps were published in Iceland.Iceland source
1873Indian Railway Companies Act (British statute)India source
1874February 21 – The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first issue in California.source
1874February 23 – Walter Clopton Wingfield patents in Britain a game called "sphairistike", more commonly called lawn tennis.source
1874The railway line from Port Elizabeth to Uitenhage is partially opened.South Africa source
187415 June – Brisbane's first Victoria Bridge opens; it is lost in the 1893 Brisbane flood.Australia source
1874July 1 – The Sholes and Glidden typewriter, with cylindrical platen and QWERTY keyboard, is first marketed in the United States.source
1874July 1 – The Bank of Spain issues the first peseta banknotes.source
1874July 1 – The Sholes and Glidden typewriter, with cylindrical platen and QWERTY keyboard, is first marketed.United States source
1874July 24 – Mathew Evans and Henry Woodward patent the first incandescent lamp, with an electric light bulb.source
18742 September – Convention with The Netherlands for improvements to the Ghent–Terneuzen Canal signed in Brussels.Belgium source
1874October 1 – The North-West Mounted Police base at Fort Macleod is foundedCanada source
1874November 10 – John Ernst Worrell Keely demonstrates his "induction resonance motion motor", a perpetual motion machine, which eventually turns out to be a fraud.source
1874The Agra Canal opens in India.source
1874Dalum Papirfabrik is established on Odense Å.Denmark source
1874The Marlborough Times begins publication bi-weekly, and absorbs The Marlborough News. It became a daily in 1882. The Marlborough Express bought it in 1895 and closed it in 1905.New Zealand source
1874The inauguration of the Grand Hôtel (Stockholm).Sweden source
1875January 1 – The Midland Railway of England abolishes the Second Class passenger category, leaving First Class and Third Class. Other British railway companies follow Midland's lead during the rest of the year (Third Class is renamed Second Class in 1956).source
1875March 3 – The first indoor ice hockey game is played at the Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.source
1875March 9 - The settlement of Deán Funes, Córdoba, is founded, when the Deán Funes, Córdoba when the Ferrocarril Central Norte (railway) from Córdoba reaches the area.Argentina source
1875May 17 – Aristides wins the first Kentucky Derby.source
1875June 1 – Construction begins on the Canadian Pacific Railway.Canada source
1875July 11 – Tanaka Manufacturing, a telecommunications factory in Ginza, Tokyo, a predecessor of Toshiba, a Japanese electromechanics giant, is founded.source
1875August 25 – Captain Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim the English Channel.source
1875The Molteno Government begins construction of two Midland railway lines from Swartkops in Port Elizabeth and from Uitenhage.South Africa source
1875November 26 – The Times newspaper in London reveals that Isma'il Pasha has sold Egypt's 44% share in the Suez Canal to Britain, in a deal secured by Benjamin Disraeli, without the prior sanction of the British Parliament.source
1875December 24: Telegraph service begins between Rio de Janeiro and the provinces of Bahia, Pernambuco, and Pará.Brazil source
1875Polo played for the first time in Australia at Albert Park in VictoriaAustralia source
1875Hotel Kaiserhof opens in Berlin.Germany source
1875Contract let for construction of the Rimutaka Incline railway using the Fell system.New Zealand source
1875Constitution and Convention of the International Telecommunication UnionRussia source
1876February 14 – Alexander Graham Bell applies for a U.S. patent for the telephone, as does Elisha Gray.source
187618 February: The first trans-Tasman submarine communications cable is completed, allowing telegraph communications with the rest of the world.New Zealand source
1876March 7 – Alexander Graham Bell is granted a United States patent for the telephone.source
1876March 10 – Alexander Graham Bell makes the first successful telephone call, saying "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you".source
1876April 1 – Lars Magnus Ericsson starts a small mechanical workshop in Stockholm, Sweden (from April 27 partnering with Carl Johan Andersson), dealing with telegraphy equipment, which grows into the worldwide company Ericsson.source
1876May 1 – The Settle–Carlisle Railway in England is opened to passenger traffic (it opened to goods traffic in 1875).source
1876May 17 – Nicolaus Otto files his patent for the four-stroke cycle internal combustion engine.source
1876June 4 – The Transcontinental Express arrives in San Francisco via the first transcontinental railroad, 83 hours and 39 minutes after having left New York City.source
1876June 4 – The Transcontinental Express arrives in San Francisco, California via the First Transcontinental Railroad, 83 hours and 39 minutes after having left New York City.United States source
1876June 16 – The railway line from Cape Town to Worcester is officially opened.South Africa source
1876July 1 – The Intercolonial Railway connecting central Canada to the Maritimes is completedCanada source
18765 July – The completion of a railway bridge across the Brisbane River links Brisbane and Ipswich, Queensland.Australia source
187612 July – The Svendborg Railway Line opens between the towns of Odense and Svendborg on Funen.Denmark source
1876August 8 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for his mimeograph.source
1876October 4 – Texas A&M University opens for classes.source
1876Lyford House, by Richardson Bay, Tiburon, California, is constructed.source
1876Charles Wells opens his brewery, based in Bedford, England.source
1876Construction of Spandau Prison in Berlin is completed.source
1876Emile Berliner invents an improved form of microphone which will be adopted for Alexander Graham Bell's telephone.source
1876Woosung Road constructed in Shanghai, JiangsuChina source
1876Date unknown - Upsala-Lenna JernvägSweden source
1877March 4 – Emile Berliner patents the microphone in the United States.source
1877March 15 – English cricket team in Australia and New Zealand in 1876–77: The first Test cricket match is held between England and Australia.source
1877April 15 – First telephone line installed between Boston and Somerville, Massachusetts.United States source
1877June 20 – Alexander Graham Bell installs the world's first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.source
187715 August – Opening to passengers of the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways from Dinas to Tryfan Junction and Bryngwyn.Wales source
18774 November - Inauguration of the Maria Pia Bridge, in Porto.Portugal source
18771 December – The Aarhus–Ryomgård section of the Grenaa Line railway is opened.Denmark source
18778 December – Telegraph line between Western Australia and South Australia completed, linking Western Australia to the east coast by telegraphy for the first time, via Adelaide.Australia source
1877Woosung Road railway purchased and dismantled by Viceroy of Liangjiang Shen BaozhenChina source
1877First suspension bridge in India was opened in Punalur, Travancore (now in Kerala).India source
1877In February and March Whythes & Jackson Limited, contracted by the Natal government for the construction of the line from Durban to Pietermaritzburg, takes delivery of two construction locomotives appropriately named Durban and Pietermaritzburg.South Africa source
18788 January – The telephone is used for the first time in Australia in Melbourne.Australia source
1878January 28 – The world's First Telephone Exchange begins commercial operation in New Haven, Connecticut.source
18782 February: Alois Lubecki makes the first telephone call in the country, between Dunedin and Milton. Later in the year the first public demonstration of the telephone is made with a call between Blenheim and Nelson.New Zealand source
1878February 19 – The phonograph is patented by Thomas Edison.source
1878June 1 – The General Postal Union is renamed the Universal Postal Union (UPU).source
187817 July – Swansea tramways are forced by legal action to return to horse-drawn operation after experimenting with steam locomotives.Wales source
1878September 12 – Cleopatra's Needle is erected beside the Thames in London, having arrived in England on January 21.source
18786 December - The Phonograph is introduced in SwedenSweden source
1878December 7 – The United States territory of New Mexico is linked to the rest of the nation by railroad for the first time, as the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway inaugurates a newly completed line through the Raton Pass.source
1878The telegraph service between Natal and Transvaal is opened.South Africa source
1878Newton Heath Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Football Club, the team that will become Manchester United.source
1878Small town La Farge, Wisconsin, along the Kickapoo River.source
1878E. Remington and Sons, in the United States, introduce their No. 2 typewriter, the first with a shift key, enabling production of lower as well as upper case characters.source
1878Lester Allan Pelton produces the first operational Pelton wheel.source
1878Kawasaki Tsukiji Shipyard, as predecessor of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, a motorbike, helicopters, rolling stock and shipbuilding concern in Japan.source
1878The Great Wall construction Was finalizedChina source
1878The original Reykjanesviti structure was constructed.Iceland source
1878The Remington No. 2 typewriter, the first with a shift key enabling production of lower as well as upper case characters, is introduced.United States source
1879February 3 – Mosley Street in Newcastle upon Tyne (England) becomes the world's first public highway to be lit by the electric incandescent light bulb invented by Joseph Swan.source
1879February 14 - The War of the Pacific begins when 500 Chilean soldiers arrive by ship and occupied the port city of Antofagasta without a fight, in response to the National Congress of Bolivia's attempt to seize and auction the assets of the Antofagasta Nitrate & Railway Company.Bolivia source
187930 March: The Ross Guardian ceases publication. It began in 1866.New Zealand source
1879April – Postman Ferdinand Cheval begins to build his Palais Idéal at Hauterives in France.source
1879May 30 – New York City's Gilmore's Garden is renamed Madison Square Garden by William Henry Vanderbilt and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.source
187931 May – German inventor Werner von Siemens demonstrates the first electric locomotive using an external power source at Berlin.Germany source
1879June 6 – William Denny and Brothers launch the world's first ocean-going steamer to be built of mild steel, the SS Rotomahana, on the River Clyde in Scotland. On October 2 they launch the first transatlantic steamer of the same material, the SS Buenos Ayrean; on December 1 she makes her maiden voyage out of Glasgow, bound for South America.source
18791 July – The Daily Telegraph newspaper is first published in Sydney.Australia source
1879September 19 – The Blackpool Illuminations in England are switched on for the first time.source
1879October 22 – Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests his first practical electric light bulb (it lasts 13 1/2 hours before burning out).source
1879November 4 – Thomas Edison applies for a patent for his invention of the incandescent light bulb (U.S. Patent 223,898 will be granted on January 27, 1880).source
1879November 10 – The Bell Telephone Company and Western Union reach an agreement in the United States, in which the former agrees to stay out of telegraphy and the latter to keep out of the telephone business.source
1879December 28 – Tay Bridge disaster: The central part of the Tay Rail Bridge at Dundee, Scotland, collapses in a storm as a train passes over it, killing 75.source
1879Aberdeen Angus cattle are first introduced to Argentina by Don Carlos Guerrero.Argentina source
1879Leuven railway station rebuiltBelgium source
1879Indian Guaranteed Railways Act (British statute)India source
1879The Natal Government Railways places seven 2-6-0T locomotives in service, later to be modified to a 4-6-0T wheel arrangement and designated Class G.South Africa source
188020 January – The Hillerød-Græsted section of the Gribskov Railway opens.Denmark source
1880January 27 – Thomas Edison is granted a patent for the incandescent light bulb. Edison filed for a US patent for an electric lamp using "a carbon filament or strip coiled and connected ... to platina contact wires." Although the patent described several ways of creating the carbon filament, including using "cotton and linen thread, wood splints, papers coiled in various ways," Edison and his team later discovered that a carbonized bamboo filament could last more than 1200 hours.source
1880February 2 – The first electric streetlight is installed in Wabash, Indiana.source
1880May 2 – After having her lights installed by Edison's personnel, the SS Columbia is lit up for the first time at the foot of Wall Street, in New York City.source
1880May 11 – Mussel Slough Tragedy: A land dispute between the Southern Pacific Railroad and settlers in Hanford, California, turns deadly when a gun battle breaks out, leaving 7 dead.United States source
1880May 13 – In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway.source
1880June 1 – Tinius Olsen is awarded a United States Patent, for the Little Giant Testing Machine.source
188015 June – The Natal South Coast railway line from Durban is opened to traffic to Isipingo.South Africa source
1880June – The SS Columbia sets off on her maiden voyage around Cape Horn to Portland, Oregon, carrying 13 locomotives and 200 railcars.source
1880July 14 – Dorchester Penitentiary opens in Canada.source
1880August – The first telephone exchange in Australia opened in Melbourne.Australia source
18806 October – The ironclad ARA Almirante Brown is officially launched from a London shipyard.Argentina source
1880November 4 – The first cash register is patented by James and John Ritty of Dayton, Ohio.source
1880Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). British-backed Canadian firm, headed by US railroad building genius (Sir William Cornelius Van Horne) gets the deal: $25 million, 25 e6acre, already completed sections free, all under-construction sections finished free, 20 year monopoly as only railway and 20-year control over rate-setting.Canada source
1880East India Loan (East Indian Railway Debentures) Act (British statute)India source
1880Berdichev machine-building plantRussia source
1881January 25 – Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company.source
1881February 16 – The Canadian Pacific Railway is incorporated.source
1881May 16 – The world's first regular electric tram service is started near Berlin, by Siemens & Halske.source
188116 May – Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway, world's first electric tramway, starts in Berlin.Germany source
1881June 20 – The current Cincinnati Reds baseball team plays its first game.source
188121 September – the Statue of Niels Juel, created by the sculptor Theobald Stein, is unveiled in 1881 at Holmens Kanal.Denmark source
1881September 26 – Godalming becomes the first town in England to have its streets illuminated by electric light (hydroelectrically generated).source
18811 October – The first telephone exchange in New Zealand is opened in Christchurch.New Zealand source
1881October 10 – Richard D'Oyly Carte's Savoy Theatre opens in London, the world's first public building to be fully lit by electricity, using Joseph Swan's incandescent light bulbs.source
1881October – Clifton, Ontario, is renamed to Niagara Falls.Canada source
1881Rafaela, Argentina, is formed.source
1881The Alþingishúsið (The Parliament House) is constructed.Iceland source
1881East Indian Railway (Redemption Of Annuities) Act (British statute)India source
1881Construction begins on the Port Alfred-Grahamstown line.South Africa source
1881River Vyrnwy is dammed to create Lake Vyrnwy.Wales source
18822 January – FLSmidth, a supplier of cement production technology, is founded by Frederik Læssøe Smidth as a small "technical bureau" based in a single room of his mother's apartment.Denmark source
1882January 12 – Holborn Viaduct power station in the City of London, the world's first coal-fired public electricity generating station, begins operation.source
188217 February – The first cricket Test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground begins.Australia source
188226 April – A telephone exchange is opened in Dunedin (the third in New Zealand).New Zealand source
1882April 29 – The Elektromote, the world's first trolleybus, begins operation in Berlin.source
188229 April – the Electromote was the world's first vehicle run like a trolleybus, which was first presented to the public on April 29, 1882, by its inventor Ernst Werner von Siemens in Halensee, a suburb of Berlin, Germany.Germany source
1882May 1 – The Berlin Philharmonic orchestra is founded in Germany, as Frühere Bilsesche Kapelle.source
1882July 11–13 – Anglo-Egyptian War: The British Mediterranean Fleet carries out the Bombardment of Alexandria, its forces capturing the city of Alexandria, Egypt, and securing the Suez Canal.source
1882September 2 – Kimberley becomes the first town in the Southern Hemisphere to install electric street lighting.South Africa source
1882September 4 – Thomas Edison flips the switch to the first commercial electrical power plant in the United States, lighting one square mile of lower Manhattan. This is considered by many as the day that begins the electrical age.source
1882September 4 – Thomas Edison starts the U.S.'s first commercial electrical power plant, lighting one square mile of lower Manhattan.United States source
1882September 5 – The first United States Labor Day parade is held in New York City.source
1882October 10 – The Bank of Japan opens in Tokyo City.source
1882October 16 – The New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad ("Nickel Plate Road") runs its first trains over the entire system between Buffalo, New York, and Chicago. Nine days later the Seney Syndicate sells the road to William Henry Vanderbilt, for US$7.2 million.source
188216 November – The new Fishguard Lifeboat Station boat Sir Edward Perrott is launched 5 times and rescues 46 lives from 15 different vessels.Wales source
1882The British Chartered Institute of Patent Agents (the modern-day Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys) is founded.source
1882Redruth Mining School opens in Cornwall.source
1882Nikola Tesla claims this is when he conceives the rotating magnetic field principle, which he later uses to invent his induction motor.source
1882Closure of the Rossander Course.Sweden source
1883January 19 – The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires begins service in Roselle, New Jersey, United States, installed by Thomas Edison.source
1883January 19 – The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires begins service in Roselle, New Jersey (it was built by Thomas Edison).United States source
1883February 15 – Tokyo Electrical Lightning Grid, predecessor of Tokyo Electrical Power (TEPCO), one of the largest electrical grids in Asia and the world, is founded in Japan.source
1883February 23 – Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law.source
1883March 20 – The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property is held.source
1883April 5 – Oxygen is liquefied for the first time.source
1883May 24 – Brooklyn Bridge is opened to traffic in New York City, after 13 years of construction.source
188314 June – A rail service between Sydney and Melbourne commences when the NSW and Victorian rail systems are joined at Albury.Australia source
1883June 28 – In Milan, Italy, the first central European electricity power station is inaugurated.source
1883July 4 – The world's first rodeo is held in Pecos, Texas.source
1883July 24 - Campos dos Goytacazes, in the province of Rio de Janeiro, is the first city in Brazil to have street lights.Brazil source
1883September 29 – A consortium of flour mill operators in Minneapolis forms the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie and Atlantic Railway, as a means to get their product to the Great Lakes ports, avoiding the high tariffs of Chicago.source
188315 October – Inauguration of Palais de Justice, Brussels.Belgium source
1883October 22 – The Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram in Vienna (Austria) is the first electric tram powered by overhead wire.source
1883November 18 – U.S. and Canadian railroads institute 5 standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.source
1883ASEA is founded by Ludvig Fredholm in Sweden, predecessor of the global electronic equipment and engineering business ABB.source
1883Construction of Speicherstadt as a free zone in the Port of Hamburg begins.source
1883Baltimore Polytechnic Institute in Marylandsource
1883During construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1883, blasting and excavation reveal high concentrations of nickel–copper ore at Murray Mine, on the edge of the Sudbury Basin, located near Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.source
1883Nickel-copper ore is discovered at Murray Mine in Sudbury during construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR).Canada source
1883Hofskirkja is constructed in Hof in South Iceland.Iceland source
18831883–84 New Zealand cricket seasonNew Zealand source
1883Eighteen 3rd Class 4-4-0 tender passenger locomotives are delivered to the Cape Government Railways from Neilson and Company and placed in passenger service out of Cape Town, East London and Port Elizabeth respectively.South Africa source
188410 March — Foundation of the Terni steelworks in Umbria with state guarantees and capital from several large banks, such as the Banca Generale, Credito Mobiliare and Banca Nazionale in the Kingdom of Italy. Construction, an important step in the industrialization of Italy, of the plant began shortly afterwards with the support of workers from the French Schneider steelworks. Completion was reached after two years and showed a complex of international significance. The key initiator of the project was the Minister of the Navy Benedetto Brin, while the self-made industrialist, Ernesto Breda, was its technical designer. The main purpose was to free the Italian Royal Navy and the Italian railways from depending on foreign steel. The national output of steel, which had been under 4,000 tons in 1881, reached 158,000 tons in 1889.Italy source
188431 March – Cape Midland – Noupoort to De Aar, to link up with the Cape Western System, 69 mi 6 ch.South Africa source
1884March – John Joseph Montgomery conducts the first manned glider flights in the United States near Otay, California.source
1884May 1 – The eight-hour workday is first proclaimed by the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in the United States. This date, called May Day or Labour Day, becomes a holiday recognized in almost every industrialized country.source
1884May 16 – Angelo Moriondo of Turin is granted a patent for an espresso machine.source
18849 June – The construction of the Reichstag building in Berlin started.Germany source
1884June 13 – LaMarcus Adna Thompson opens the "Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway" at Coney Island, New York City.source
1884July 3 – The Dow Jones Transportation Average, consisting of eleven transportation-related companies (nine railroads and two non-rail companies, Western Union and Pacific Mail), is created in the United States. The index is the oldest stock index to remain in use.source
18845 July – Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property obtains legal forceBelgium source
1884July 7 – Nagasaki Shipyard, predecessor of the Japanese aircraft and shipbuilding business Mitsubishi, is founded on the island of Kyushu.source
1884August 5 – The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor.source
1884November 2 – Timișoara, Romania, is the first town in Europe with streets illuminated by electric light.source
1884Thomas Parker builds a practical production electric car in Wolverhampton (England) using his own specially designed high-capacity rechargeable batteries.source
1884Mexican General Manuel Mondragón designs an early form of the Mondragón rifle, the world's first automatic rifle.source
1884Indian Marine Service Act (British statute)India source
1884Unknown date – Yamada Electronic Wire Manufacturing, as predecessor of Furukawa Electronic Work has founded.Japan source
18841883–84 New Zealand cricket seasonNew Zealand source
1884Launch of NRP Afonso de Albuquerque.Portugal source
1885January 20 – American inventor LaMarcus Adna Thompson patents a roller coaster.source
1885February 16 – Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The index stands at a level of 62.76, and represents the dollar average of 14 stocks: 12 railroads and two leading American industries.source
1885March 3 – A subsidiary of the American Bell Telephone Company, American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), is incorporated in New York.source
188524 March – Hugh Victor McKay patents stripper-harvester.Australia source
1885April 3 – Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent, for his single-cylinder, water-cooled engine design.source
18853 April – Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for his 1-cylinder water-cooled engine design.Germany source
1885May 20 – The first public train departs Swanage railway station, on the newly built Swanage Railway in England.source
1885July 14 – Sarah E. Goode is the first African-American woman to apply for and receive a patent, for the invention of the hideaway bed.source
1885July 15 – The Reservation at Niagara Falls opens, enabling access to all for free. Thomas V. Welch is the first Superintendent of the Park.source
1885July 20 – The Football Association recognises professional players in England.source
18851 August: The New Zealand Industrial Exhibition opens in WellingtonNew Zealand source
1885August 29 – Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for the Daimler Reitwagen, regarded as the first motorcycle, which he has produced with Wilhelm Maybach.source
18851 October – DSB is founded through the merger of the state-owned Zealand Railway Company and Jutland-Funen Railway Company.Denmark source
1885October 10 – The largest ever explosion for a non-military purpose is set off in the East River of New York City as part of a scheme for the removal of Hell Gate rocks by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.source
1885October 13 – The Georgia Institute of Technology is established in Atlanta, Georgia as the Georgia School of Technology.United States source
1885November 7 – Canadian Pacific Railway: At Craigellachie, British Columbia, the last spike is driven on a railway extending across Canada. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald considers the project to be vital to Canada, due to the exponentially greater potential for military mobility.source
1885November 7 – The Last Spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway at Craigellachie, British Columbia. John A. Macdonald receives a telegram announcing that the first train from Montreal in Quebec is approaching the Pacific.Canada source
1885November 28 – The railway line from Cape Town to Kimberley is completed.South Africa source
1885December 1 – Dr Pepper is served for the first time (as acknowledged by the U.S. Patent Office; the exact date of Dr. Pepper's invention is unknown).source
1885Michigan Technological University (originally Michigan Mining School) opens its doors for the first time, in the future Houghton County Fire Hall.source
1885Karl Benz produces the Benz Patent-Motorwagen in Mannheim (Germany), regarded as the first automobile (patented and publicly launched the following year).source
1885Bicycle Playing Cards are first produced in the United States.source
1885John Kemp Starley demonstrates the Rover safety bicycle in Coventry (England), regarded as the first practical modern bicycle.source
1885Belgian State Railways Type 6 steam locomotive taken into use.Belgium source
1886January 26 - The Hokkaidō Agency opens, with its main office in Sapporo and branch offices in Hakodate and Nemuro.Japan source
1886January 29 – Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile, the Benz Patent-Motorwagen (built in 1885).source
1886February 14 – The first trainload of oranges leaves Los Angeles via the United States transcontinental railroad.source
1886March 16 – A law establishing the Kiel Canal is adopted in the German Empire.source
1886March 20 – William Stanley Jr. demonstrates the first commercial alternating current generator and transformer system in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.source
1886March 29 – Wilhelm Steinitz becomes the first recognized World Chess Champion.source
1886March – Gottlieb Daimler assembles his first automobile, in Germany.source
1886May 4 – Emile Berliner starts work that leads to the invention of the gramophone.source
1886May 10 – Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that corporations have the same rights as living persons.source
1886May 29 – John Pemberton begins to advertise Coca-Cola (in The Atlanta Journal).source
18867 June — Palermo Centrale railway station, the main railway station of Palermo, capital of Sicily, is opened.Italy source
1886June 12 – King Ludwig II of Bavaria is detained as part of a deposition, drowning the following day under mysterious circumstances. Because his brother Otto lacks mental capacity, their uncle Luitpold (until 1912) serves as regent. Six weeks later, Ludwig's unfinished Neuschwanstein Castle is opened to the public.source
1886June 13 – A large log jam forms on the St. Croix River near Taylors Falls, Minnesotasource
1886July 3 – Karl Benz officially unveils the Benz Patent Motorwagen.source
1886July 9 – American inventor Charles Martin Hall files a patent for his inexpensive method of refining aluminium (discovered on February 23); independently and near-simultaneously discovered in France by Paul Héroult it becomes known as the Hall–Héroult process.source
1886July 23 – Steve Brodie is reported to have made a jump from the Brooklyn Bridge, a claim subsequently disputed.source
188613 August – Alexandru Ciurcu demonstrates the first boat powered by a jet engine. It travelled for 15 minutes.Romania source
1886September 21 – American physicist William Stanley Jr. patents the first practical alternating current transformer device, the induction coil.source
1886October 11 – The Standard Bank of South Africa opens the first bank in Ferreira's Camp.South Africa source
1886October 28 – U.S. President Grover Cleveland dedicates the Statue of Liberty, a gift from France, in New York Harbor. The ensuing spontaneous celebration in New York City leads to the first ticker tape parade.source
1886November 14 – German inventor Friedrich Soennecken first develops the hole puncher, a type of office tool capable of punching small holes in paper.source
188614 November – Friedrich Soennecken files his patent for his holepunch Papierlocher für Sammelmappen.Germany source
1886November 15 – The Werkstätte für Feinmechanik und Elektrotechnik (Workshop for Fine Mechanics and Electronics) is founded in Baden-Württemberg, Germany by Robert Bosch. The company will later become the home appliance and power tool brand, Robert Bosch GmbH.source
188618–29 March – Series of strikes and disturbances in industrial areas of WalloniaBelgium source
1886Mohawk men of the Caughnawaga Reserve in Quebec are trained to help build a bridge across the St. Lawrence River, beginning a tradition of high steel construction work among the Iroquois.Canada source
1886Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical UniversityRussia source
1887January 22 - Tōkyō Denkō begins selling electric lights.Japan source
1887January 28 – Construction work begins on the foundations of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.source
1887February 5 – The 1887 Hartford Railroad Disaster leaves thirty-seven dead in Vermont.source
1887February 24 – The first international telephone line in Europe is opened to the public between Brussels and Paris.source
188724 February – The first international telephone line in Europe is opened to the public between Brussels and ParisBelgium source
1887February – The Atlanta Cyclorama is first displayed in Detroit as "Logan's Great Battle".United States source
1887March 3 – Anne Sullivan begins teaching Helen Keller.source
1887March 13 – Chester Greenwood patents earmuffs in the United States.source
18879 May – Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show opens in London.United Kingdom source
1887June 8 – Herman Hollerith receives a U.S. patent for his punched card calculator.source
1887June 21 – The Nederlandsche-Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg-Maatschappij (NZASM) is floated.South Africa source
188722 June – The Fremantle Town Hall is opened.Australia source
1887July 1 – Construction of the iron structure of the Eiffel Tower starts in Paris, France.source
1887July 19 – Dorr Eugene Felt receives the first U.S. patent for his comptometer.source
1887July – James Blyth operates the first working wind turbine at Marykirk, Scotland.source
1887July – James Blyth operates the world's first working wind turbine at Marykirk.Scotland source
188724 August – Roath Dock opened in Cardiff Docks; the first sod of Roath Park is dug.Wales source
1887November 8 – Emile Berliner is granted a U.S. patent for the Berliner Gramophone.source
1887Heyl & Patterson Inc., a pioneer in coal unloading equipment, is founded by Edmund W. Heyl and William J. Patterson in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.source
1887Publication in Barcelona of Enrique Gaspar's El anacronópete, the first work of fiction to feature a time machine.source
1887The first battery rail car is used on the Royal Bavarian State Railways.source
188830 January – The first strike in Romania takes place when 300 workers at the Romanian Railways Workshop in Galați walk out in solidarity following the dismissal of a colleague, Ioan A. Ionescu.Romania source
1888February 27 – In West Orange, New Jersey, Thomas Edison meets with Eadweard Muybridge, who proposes a scheme for sound film.source
1888March 1 - Queensland's Western Railway Line reaches Charleville.source
1888March – Construction work begins on the Dowlais steelworks at East Moors, Cardiff.Wales source
1888April 3 – The Brighton Beach Hotel in Coney Island (New York) is moved 520 ft, using six steam locomotives, by civil engineer B. C. Miller, to save it from ocean storms.source
1888April 21 – The Texas State Capitol building, completed at a cost of $3 million, opens to the public in Austin.source
1888May 30 – Hong Kong's Peak Tram begins operation.source
1888August 1 – Carl Benz is issued with the world's first driving licence by the Grand Duchy of Baden.source
18884 August: Reefton Power Station begins operationNew Zealand source
1888August 5 – Bertha Benz arrives in Pforzheim having driven 40 mi from Mannheim in a car manufactured by her husband Carl Benz, thus completing the first "long-distance" drive in the history of the automobile.source
1888August 10 – Dr Friedrich Hermann Wölfert’s motorised airship successfully completes the world’s first engine-driven flight, from Cannstatt to Kornwestheim in Germany.source
1888August 24 –The first trams in Tallinn (Reval), horsecars, begin operation.source
1888September 4 – In the United States, George Eastman registers the trademark Kodak, and receives a patent for his camera, which uses roll film.source
1888September 6 – Australian cricketer Charles Turner becomes the first bowler to take 250 wickets in an English season – a feat since accomplished only by Tom Richardson (twice), J. T. Hearne, Wilfred Rhodes (twice) and Tich Freeman (six times).source
1888September 27 – Stanley Park is officially opened by Vancouver (B.C.) mayor David Oppenheimer.source
1888October 9 – The Washington Monument officially opens to the general public in Washington, D.C.source
1888October 14 – Louis Le Prince films the first motion picture: Roundhay Garden Scene in Roundhay, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, two seconds and 18 frames in length (followed by his movie Leeds Bridge and Accordion Player).source
1888November 8 – Joseph Assheton Fincher files a patent in the United Kingdom for the parlour game which he calls "Tiddledy-Winks".source
1888December 1 – The Washington Bridge opens to permit-holding pedestrians over the Harlem River in New York City, connecting the boroughs of Manhattan and The Bronx.United States source
1888December 7 – John Boyd Dunlop patents the pneumatic bicycle tyre in the United Kingdom.source
1888In Poland, silver manufacturer Schiffers & Co. is founded in Warsaw.source
1888Excavation begins on the water supply tunnels beneath Fremantle Prison, in Western Australia.Australia source
1888Belgian State Railways Type 12 taken into service.Belgium source
1888The locomotive named Havelock, built in the Durban workshops and known as Hairy Mary during the Second Boer War, is the first locomotive to be designed and built in South Africa.South Africa source
1888The trade union Swedish Metalworkers' Union is formed.Sweden source
1889January 8 – Herman Hollerith receives a patent for his electric tabulating machine in the United States.source
188925 January – Johan Lauritz Sundt, industrialist (born 1828).Norway source
1889March 12 – Almon B. Strowger, an undertaker in Topeka, Kansas, files a patent in the United States for an automatic telephone exchange using the Strowger switch.source
1889April – British chemists Frederick Abel and James Dewar file their first patent for the smokeless propellant cordite.source
1889May 6 – The Exposition Universelle opens in Paris, with the Eiffel Tower as its entrance arch. The Galerie des machines, at 111 m, spans the longest interior space in the world at this time. The Exposition, which marks the centenary of the French Revolution, runs until October 31.source
1889June 3 – The first long distance electric power transmission line in the United States is completed, running 14 mi between a generator at Willamette Falls and downtown Portland, Oregon.source
1889June 3 – The first long distance electric power transmission line in the United States is completed, running 14 miles between a generator at Willamette Falls and downtown Portland, Oregon.United States source
1889June 11 – A Neapolitan baker named Raffaele Esposito invents the Pizza Margherita, named after the queen consort of Italy Margherita of Savoy. This is the forerunner of the modern pizza.source
18893 July – FN Herstal arms manufactory foundedBelgium source
1889August 6 – The Savoy Hotel in London opens.source
188926 August – Act of incorporation of the Barry Railway Company#Vale of Glamorgan Railway.Wales source
1889August 30 – The Royal Mail Mount Pleasant Sorting Office officially opens in London.source
1889October 6 – The Moulin Rouge cabaret opens in Paris.source
188921 October – Cape Western – Eerste River to Somerset West, 8 mi 79 ch.South Africa source
1889November 2 – English Association football team Wimbledon F.C. plays their first match.source
1889November 23 – The first jukebox goes into operation, at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco.source
18892 December – The S.S. Alice, the first mechanically powered vessel on the Rotorua Lakes, is launched.New Zealand source
1889December 28 – The first interurban tram-train to emerge in the United States is the Newark and Granville Street Railway in Ohio.source
1889Yellow fever interrupts the building of the Panama Canal.source
1889The Capilano Suspension Bridge (the longest suspension foot-bridge in the world) is opened in British Columbia.source
1889An early method of high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission, as developed by the Swiss engineer René Thury, is implemented commercially in Italy by the Acquedotto de Ferrari-Galliera Company. This system transmits 630 kW at 14 kV DC over a distance of 120 km.source
1889The company Dampskibsselskabet Torm is established by Ditlev Torm and Christian Schmiegelow in Copenhagen.Denmark source
1889Víðidalstungukirkja is constructed in Húnaþing vestra.Iceland source
1890February unknown date – Kubota founded in Nishi-ku, Osaka.Japan source
1890March 4 – The Forth Bridge, the longest bridge in Great Britain, on the Firth of Forth in Scotland, is opened to rail traffic.source
18904 March – the Forth Bridge (1,710 ft) is opened to rail traffic.Scotland source
1890March 17 – The first railway in Transvaal, the Randtram, opens between Boksburg and Braamfontein in Johannesburg.source
1890March 17 – The first railway line in the Transvaal, known as the Randtram, is opened for service between Boksburg and Braamfontein in Johannesburg.South Africa source
1890June 1 – The United States Census Bureau begins using Herman Hollerith's tabulating machine to record census returns using punched card input, a landmark in the history of computing hardware. Hollerith's company eventually becomes IBM.United States source
1890October 9 – The first brief flight of Clément Ader's steam-powered fixed-wing aircraft Ader Éole takes place in Satory, France. It flies uncontrolled approximately 50 m at a height of 20 cm, the first take-off of a powered airplane solely under its own power.source
18909 October – The first brief flight of Clément Ader's steam-powered fixed-wing aircraft Ader Éole takes place in Satory. It flies uncontrolled approximately 50 m at a height of 20 cm, the first take-off of a powered airplane solely under its own power.France source
189028 October: The first Labour Day is celebrated (but it is not a public holiday).New Zealand source
1890November 4 – The first deep level London Underground (Tube) Railway, the City and South London Railway, opens officially.source
18904 November – London's City & South London Railway, the first deep-level underground railway in the world, opens. It runs a distance of 5.1 km between the City of London and Stockwell.United Kingdom source
1890December 10 – The New York World Building is completed in New York City, the tallest building in the United States for 10 years at a height of 110 meters.source
1890Japanese tractor and iron pipe brand, Kubota founded in Osaka, Japan.source
1890Brown trout are introduced into the upper Firehole River, in Yellowstone National Park.source
1890Emerson Electric, an American electronics industry giant, is founded in Missouri.source
1890Blackwall Buildings, Whitechapel, noted philanthropic housing, is built in the East End of London.source
1890The United States city of Boise, Idaho, drills the first geothermal well.source
1890Opening of the Rock Mill watermill for woollen milling at Capel Dewi, Llandysul.Wales source
1891January 5 – A fight between railway strikers and police breaks out at Motherwell, Scotland.source
189113 January – The first public phonograph performance in New Zealand is made at Christchurch.New Zealand source
1891January 15 – Scottish railway strikers attempt to wreck a train near Greenock, Scotland.source
1891March 18 – The London–Paris telephone system officially opens.source
1891April 1 – The London–Paris telephone system is opened to the general public.source
1891May 1 – The first Fascio dei lavoratori (Workers League) is founded by Giuseppe De Felice Giuffrida in Catania, Sicily.source
1891May 31 N.S. (May 19 O.S.) – In the Kuperovskaya district of Vladivostok, a grand ceremonial inauguration of construction work on the Trans-Siberian Railway is carried out by the Tsesarevich Nikolay Alexandrovich, and a religious service held.source
189113 June – The first official train arrives at Bartolomeu railway station, the station having been inaugurated on 6 June.Romania source
1891June 21 – The first long-distance transmission of alternating current is made, from the Ames power plant near Telluride, Colorado, by Lucien and Paul Nunn.source
1891June 21 – First long-distance transmission of alternating current by the Ames power plant near Telluride, Colorado by Lucien and Paul Nunn.United States source
1891June – The clipper ship Cromdale is completed. She is the last fully rigged ship built for the Australian wool trade.source
1891August 5 – The first American Express traveler's cheque is cashed.source
1891September 22 – The first hydropower plant of Finland is commissioned along the Tammerkoski rapids in Tampere, Pirkanmaa.source
1891September 28 – Club Atlético Peñarol is founded in Montevideo, under the name of the CURCC (Central Uruguay Railway Cricket Club).source
1891November 28 – The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is organized in St. Louis, Missouri.source
1891December 10 – The Calgary and Edmonton Railway opens, connecting Edmonton to the national railway network for the first time.Canada source
1891Philips founded in Eindhoven, Netherlands, for the production of carbon-filament lamps and other electro-technical products.source
1891Michelin patents the removable pneumatic bicycle tire.source
1891Production of the Swiss Army Knife by Victorinox begins.source
1891Mail Ships Act (British statute)India source
1891Opening of the original line of the Funicular dos Guindais, in Porto.Portugal source
1891Construction of the Trans-Siberian Railroad BeginsRussia source
1891Thirty 5th Class 4-6-0 tender locomotives in mainline service on all three Cape Systems.South Africa source
189231 January - The Holmenkollen ski jump opens.Norway source
1892February 27 – Rudolf Diesel applies for a patent in Germany, on his compression ignition engine (the Diesel engine).source
1892March 15 – Jesse W. Reno patents the first escalator, installed at Coney Island as a pleasure ride.source
1892March 15 – Jesse W. Reno patents the first working escalator, used at Old Iron Pier, Coney Island, New York City.United States source
1892March 31 – The world's first fingerprinting bureau is formally opened by the Buenos Aires Chief of Police; it has been operating unofficially since the previous year.source
1892May 20 – The last broad gauge train runs from Paddington on the Great Western Railway of England.source
189220 May – The last broad gauge train runs on the Great Western Railway main line out of London Paddington station. Over the following two days, 177 route miles (285 km) of its line are converted to standard gauge.United Kingdom source
1892June 6 – The Chicago "L" begins operation for the first time with the opening of the Chicago and South Side Rapid Transit Railroad.source
1892August 9 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for a two-way telegraph.source
18928 September – Cunard liner RMS Campania is launched by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company at GovanScotland source
189213 September – The Watkin Path up Snowdon is officially opened by William Ewart Gladstone.Wales source
1892September 15 – The railway line from Cape Town via Bloemfontein, with connections to Port Elizabeth and East London, is completed to Germiston.South Africa source
1892U.S. accuses Canadian Pacific Railway of helping Chinese illegally cross border from British ColumbiaCanada source
1892The Ministerial Residence Ráðherrabústaðurinn is constructed on Flateyri.Iceland source
1893January 2 – Webb C. Ball introduces railroad chronometers, which become the general railroad timepiece standards in North America.source
1893January 15 – The Telefon Hírmondó service starts with around 60 subscribers, in Budapest.source
1893February 23 – Rudolf Diesel receives a patent for the diesel engine.source
1893March 6 – The Liverpool Overhead Railway opens with 2-car electric multiple units, the first to operate in the world.source
1893The first Crocidolite (Blue Asbestos) mine is opened near Prieska.South Africa source
1893June 20 – The Wengernalpbahn railway in Wengen, Switzerland (Canton of Bern) is opened.source
189331 July – A peasant conference at Corleone drafted model agrarian contracts for labourers, sharecroppers and tenants and presented them to the landowners. When those refused to negotiate, a strike against landowners and against state taxes broke out over a large part of western Sicily. The so-called Patti di Corleone (Corleone Covenants), are considered by historians to be the first trade union collective contract in capitalist Italy.Italy source
18936 August – The Corinth Canal is completed in Greece.source
189312 August – First Paris–Brussels road cycle raceBelgium source
1893August 14 – The world's first driving licenses are introduced in France under the Paris Police Ordinance.source
18931 September – Franz Ramesohl and Franz Schmidt open a milk separator-producing workshop under the name of Ramesohl & Schmidt oHG in Oelde. The workshop forms the basis of the still extant company GEA Westfalia Separator.Germany source
1893September 21 – Brothers Charles and Frank Duryea drive the first gasoline-powered motorcar in America, on public roads in Springfield, Massachusetts.source
1893October 10 – The first car number plates appear in Paris, France.source
1893Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson begins serialization in The Century Magazine (U.S.)source
1893The first recumbent bicycle, the Fautenil Vélociped, is made in France.source
1893Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, is incorporated as a town.source
1893Victoria wins the inaugural Sheffield ShieldAustralia source
1893Jacques Cartier Monument (Montreal) unveiled.Canada source
1893Pole vault – W. West (Canterbury)New Zealand source
1893The construction of the Ob railway bridge began, which led to the founding of the Novonikolayevsky settlement. This settlement would later become the city of Novosibirsk in 1904, now one of Russia's largest cities.Russia source
1894January 7 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film in the United States.source
1894January 7 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film.United States source
1894January 9 – New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard, in Lexington, Massachusetts.source
1894March 12 – Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time.source
189429 March – Jacob Smith Jarmann, firearms designer (born 1816)Norway source
1894April 29 – Opening of the Roma San Pietro railway station (Stazione di Roma San Pietro) in Rome.Italy source
18945 May – Exposition Internationale d'Anvers opens (to 5 November)Belgium source
1894May 14 – Blackpool Tower is opened in Blackpool, in north-west England, as a visitor attraction.source
1894May 21 – The Manchester Ship Canal and Docks are officially opened by Queen Victoria, linking the previously landlocked industrial city of Manchester, in north-west England, to the Irish Sea.source
189428 June - A Colonial Conference, held in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, resolves to lay a telegraph cable between Canada and Australia.Australia source
1894June 30 – Tower Bridge in London opens for traffic.source
1894July 22 – The Paris–Rouen Competition for Horseless Carriages, the first automobile competition, is held.source
1894September 3 – Labour Day celebrated for the first time in Canada.Canada source
1894October 20 – The railway line between Lourenço Marques and Pretoria is completed at Balmoral.South Africa source
1894October 30 – Domenico Menegatti obtains a patent for a procedure to be applied in producing pandoro industrially.source
1894Auðkúlukirkja is constructed at the Svínavatn lake, North Iceland.Iceland source
1895March 18 – The world's first gasoline bus route is started in Germany, between Siegen and Netphen.source
1895March 22 – Brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière make what is probably the first presentation of a projected celluloid film moving picture, the 46-second Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory, to members of the Société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale in Paris.source
1895March 30 – Rudolf Diesel patents the Diesel engine in Germany.source
1895April 27 – The unique, historic and picturesque Spiral Bridge is constructed to carry U.S. 61 over the Mississippi River at Hastings, Minnesota. It is demolished in 1951.source
1895May 18 – The first motor race in Italy is held, on a course from Turin to Asti and back, a total of 93 km. Five entrants start the event; only three complete it. It is won by Simone Federman in a four-seat Daimler Omnibus, at an average speed of 15.5 km/h.source
1895May 18 – the first motor race in Italy is held. It is run on a course from Turin to Asti and back, a total of 93 km. Five entrants start the event; only three complete it. It is won by Simone Federman in a four-seat Daimler Omnibus, at an average speed of 15.5 km/h.Italy source
1895June 21 – The Kiel Canal, connecting the North Sea to the Baltic across the base of the Jutland peninsula in Germany, is officially opened.source
1895September 3 – The first professional American football game is played, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, between the Latrobe YMCA and the Jeannette Athletic Club (Latrobe wins 12–0).source
1895September 24–October 3 – the Automobile Club de France sponsors the longest race to date, a 1,710 km event, from Bordeaux to Agen and back. Because it is held in ten stages, it can be considered the first rally. The first three places are taken by two Panhards and a three-wheeler De Dion-Bouton.source
18951 October – The Podul Regele Carol I (now called the Anghel Saligny Bridge) is opened, crossing the River Danube between Cernavodă and Fetești. It is the longest bridge in continental Europe and the third longest in the world.Romania source
1895November 5 – George B. Selden is granted the first U.S. patent for an automobile.source
189510 December - Launceston, Tasmania becomes the first Australian city to be powered by hydro-electricity with the opening of the Duck Reach Power StationAustralia source
1895December 15 – The railways of the Cape of Good Hope, Colony of Natal, the Orange Free State, the South African Republic and southern Mozambique are all linked at Union Junction near Alberton.source
1895December 15 – The railways of the Cape Colony, Natal, the Orange Free State, the South African Republic and southern Mozambique are all linked at Union Junction near Alberton, completing the logistics supply lines for the British military invasion of the Boer Republics in the Second Boer War.South Africa source
1895December 18 – The Laurin & Klement automobile brand, predecessor of Škoda Auto, is founded as a bicycle manufacturer in central Bohemia (modern-day Czech Republic).source
1895The world's first portable handheld electric drill is developed, by brothers Wilhelm and Carl Fein in Germany.source
1895The Duck Reach Power Station opens in Tasmania (the first publicly owned hydroelectric plant in the Southern Hemisphere).source
1895The name 'HP Sauce' is first registered in the United Kingdom for a brown sauce.source
1895Victor Horta, Hôtel van Eetvelde, built for Edmond van EetveldeBelgium source
1895Litlibær, a historical turf farmstead in Northwest Iceland was constructed.Iceland source
1895Unknown date – Genzo Shimazu Battery Manufacturing, as predecessor of GS Yuasa was founded in Kyoto.Japan source
1895Long jump – J. Ryan (Hawkes Bay)New Zealand source
1896June 4 – The Ford Quadricycle, the first vehicle developed by Henry Ford, is completed, eventually leading Ford to build the empire that "put America on wheels".source
1896June 18 – The New York Telephone Company is formed, succeeding the Metropolitan Telephone and Telegraph Company, to control telephone service within New York City.source
1896August 14 – The Uganda Railway Act, 1896, is approved in the United Kingdom, for construction of a railway in Africa from Mombasa to Lake Victoria.source
1896August 28 — The Chinese government partnered with the Russo-Chinese Bank to construct the China Eastern Railway. The bank was renamed Sino-Russian Righteousness Victory Bank (Traditional Chinese: 華俄道勝銀行).China source
1896October 1 – Gottlieb Daimler builds the first gasoline truck.source
1896December 14 – The Glasgow Subway, the third-oldest underground metro system in the world, opens.source
1896A school of mines opens in Kimberley and will form the core of the University of the Witwatersrand.source
1896The first Canadian blast furnace opens in Hamilton, Ontario.Canada source
1896Academic Engineers and Architects in Finland TEKFinland source
1896Gottlieb Daimler produces the first gasoline truck.Germany source
1896Dagskrá – Reykjavík, Icelands first newspaper begins publication.Iceland source
1896Unknown date – Penta-Ocean construction company foundedJapan source
1896The Waikato Argus starts publication. The newspaper runs until 1915.New Zealand source
1896The first of a second batch of fifty 6th Class 4-6-0 steam locomotives. In 1912 they would be designated Class 6A on the South African Railways (SAR).South Africa source
1897January 22 – In this date's issue of the journal Engineering, the word computer is first used to refer to a mechanical calculation device.source
189716 March – An agreement for the construction of the careening dock and the shipyard Cantiere navale di Palermo was signed between the government and the Ignazio Florio Jr., scion of the wealthy Florio family, and shipowner and owner of the Navigazione Generale Italiana company, which provided regular services within Sicily and to the ports of Naples and Marseille. The financing of the work was divided between the Florio family (66%), the Italian State, the Municipality of Palermo and the Province of Palermo, as well as a small subsidy from the Cassa di Risparmio of Palermo.Italy source
1897April 19 – The first Boston Marathon is held in the United States, with fifteen men competing, and is won by John McDermott.source
1897May 11 – A patent is awarded for the invention of the first automotive muffler, with the granting by the U.S. Patent Office of application number 582,485 to Milton Reeves and his brother Marshall T. Reeves, of the Reeves Pulley Company of Columbus, Indiana.source
1897May 22 – The Blackwall Tunnel, at this time the longest underwater road tunnel in the world, is opened for traffic beneath the River Thames in the East End of London by the Prince of Wales.source
1897June 1 – Opening of Matsugishi Station in Chōshi, Chiba.Japan source
1897June 12 - opening of Els Quatre Gats in BarcelonaSpain source
189722 June - The second Victoria Bridge is opened in Brisbane by the Governor of Queensland, Lord Lamington. The previous bridge was destroyed by floodwatersAustralia source
189710 August – Rudolf Diesel builds his first working prototype Diesel engine in Augsburg.Germany source
1897August 21 – The Olds Motor Vehicle Co. is founded in Lansing, Michigan, by Ransom E. Olds.source
1897August 31 – Thomas Edison is granted a patent for the Kinetoscope, a precursor of the movie projector.source
1897September 1 – The Tremont Street subway is opened in Boston, Massachusetts.source
1897Dos Equis beer is first brewed in Mexico, in anticipation of the new century. "Dos equis" is Spanish for "two x", a reference to the 20th Century (XX in Roman numerals)source
1897The first electric bicycle is invented.source
1897Garðskagaviti lighthouse is constructed on Suðurnes.Iceland source
1897Pole vault – tie Jimmy Te Paa (Auckland) and Hori Eruera (Auckland)New Zealand source
1897The independent Pretoria-Pietersburg Railway in the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (Transvaal Republic) purchases a 4-6-0 35 Tonner tank locomotive named Portuguese from the Lourenco Marques, Delagoa Bay and East Africa Railway in Mozambique.South Africa source
1898January Unknown date – A construction brand, Kumagai Gumi was founded in Fukui City.Japan source
1898March 24 – Robert Allison of Port Carbon, Pennsylvania, becomes the first person to buy an American-built automobile, when he buys a Winton automobile that has been advertised in Scientific American.source
1898March 26 – The Sabie Game Reserve in South Africa is created, as the first officially designated game reserve.source
1898April 25 – In Essen, German company Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk RWE is founded.source
1898April 29 – The Paris Auto Show, the first large-scale commercial vehicle exhibition show, is held in Tuileries Garden.source
18981 May – The Slagelse-Verslev Railway opens on western Zealand.Denmark source
189831 May – A/S Holmenkolbanen open the Holmenkollen Line to BesserudNorway source
1898August 20 – The Gornergrat railway opens, connecting Zermatt to the Gornergrat in Switzerland.source
1898October 11 – The Kubok Obschestva Velosipednoy Ezdy (Bicycle Riders Society Cup) first Grand Prix in Russia is staged with seven cars near Saint Petersburg, on a route from Alexandrovskaya to Strelna and back again for a total distance of 25 mi, and is won by Pavel Belyaev.source
1898October 15 – In Canada, the "9 O'Clock Gun" is fired for the first time at Stanley Park in Vancouver, and goes on to become a daily tradition to serve as a time signal for ships in port and for local residents to set their timepieces at exactly 9:00 p.m. local time.source
1898October 16 – The American ferryboat Berkeley, the only means prior to 1937 for motor vehicles to travel directly across San Francisco Bay between San Francisco and Oakland, is launched. Its role will be superseded in 1937 by the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge.source
189817 October - The Perth Zoo opens with two lions and a tiger.Australia source
1898October 24 – Chinese soldiers attack a party of British engineers at the Marco Polo Bridge on the Beijing to Hankou railway.source
1898October 24 – Augustus Herring, hired by civil engineer Octave Chanute to design and help test heavier-than-air flying machines, reportedly makes a flight near St. Joseph, Michigan, traveling slightly above the ground for a level distance of more than 70 ft in 10 seconds.source
18981 December: W H Bartlett films the opening of the Auckland Industrial and Mining Exhibition. The film is screened on Christmas Eve at Bartlett's studio – the first public screening of a New Zealand film.New Zealand source
1898December 15 – The French Chamber of Deputies votes to extend a loan of 200,000,000 francs for the construction of railroads in French Indochina.source
1898December 18 – Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat sets the first official land speed record in an automobile, averaging 63.15 km/h over 1 km in France.source
1898December 25 – Penny postage goes into effect throughout the British Empire, setting the cost of mailing a letter to most British colonies at one pence. Rates remain the same for mail to Australia, New Zealand and the Cape Colony.source
1898Unknown date – An industrial robot and factory automation manufacturing brand KUKA was founded in Bavaria.Germany source
1898A fourth batch of thirty-three 6th Class 4-6-0 steam locomotives. In 1912 they will be designated Class 6D on the South African Railways (SAR).South Africa source
1899January 21 – Opel Motors opens for business in Germany.source
1899January 26 – German inventor Karl Ferdinand Braun, who will later share the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Guglielmo Marconi, receives a British patent for his wireless radio invention "Telegraphy without directly connected wire".source
1899February 1 – Telephone service begins between Tokyo and Osaka.Japan source
1899February 12 – The cornerstone for the Aswan Dam is set down in Egypt.source
1899March 3 – Guglielmo Marconi conducts radio beacon experiments on Salisbury Plain and notices that radio waves are being reflected back to the transmitter by objects they encounter, one of the early steps in the development of radar.source
1899March 6 – In Berlin, Felix Hoffmann patents Aspirin and Bayer registers its name as a trademark.source
1899March 11 – Waldemar Jungner files the patent application for the first alkaline battery and receives a Swedish patent.source
1899March 11 – The world's first wireless distress signal is sent by wireless telegraphy (in Morse code) to the East Goodwin light vessel when German cargo-carrying barquentine Elbe runs aground in fog in the English Channel.source
1899March 21 – The Eden Theatre in La Ciotat, a commune in France near Marseille, lays a claim to being the first cinema as brothers Auguste Lumière and Louis Lumière present their short film, L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat ("The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station") to 250 surprised spectators.source
1899March 27 – Guglielmo Marconi successfully transmits a radio signal across the English Channel.source
1899April 29 – In the U.S., several hundred miners capture a railroad train at Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, arm themselves with guns and dynamite, and advance on the town of Wardner, Idaho, destroying property of mining ccompanies that employ non-unon labor.source
1899May 1 – Britain's Prime Minister announces in the House of Commons that the government has not been able to reach an agreement with Cecil Rhodes on plans for a Cape Town to Cairo railroad across Africa.source
1899May 4 – German inventor John Matthias Stroh applies for the patent for his new invention, the "Stroh violin". A British patent is granted on March 24, 1900.source
1899June 27 – A patent for a form of paperclip is applied for by Norwegian inventor Johan Vaaler but it is never put into production.source
1899June 30 – 'Mile-a-Minute Murphy' earns his nickname after he becomes the first man to ride a bicycle for 1 mi in under a minute, on Long Island. Murphy pedals his bike one mile in 57.8 seconds for an average speed of 62.28 miles per hour.source
1899July 8 – The Lorelei Fountain is unveiled in The Bronx in New York City.source
1899July 11 – In Turin, Giovanni Agnelli and eight investors form the Italian automobile manufacturer F.I.A.T., producers of the Fiat motor vehicles.source
1899July 11 – The automobile manufacturer Fiat, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili Torino, is established in Turin by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli. The company would become the major car making industry of Italy. The first Fiat plant opened in 1900 with 35 staff making 24 cars.Italy source
189916 July: Roberto Landell de Moura performs the first public demonstration of his Wave Transmitter.Brazil source
1899July 20 – Park Row Building in New York City is completed. It is the world's tallest building until 1908.source
189920 July – The opening of Badu Station in Taihoku Prefecture.Taiwan source
1899August 5 – Automotive mechanic Henry Ford incorporates the Detroit Automobile Company. While the company failed, it establishes Detroit, Michigan, as the site for U.S. car manufacturing and provided a model for the Ford Motor Company.source
189919 August – A bill to construct the proposed Dortmund-Rhine Canal in Germany fails overwhelmingly in the lower house of parliament.Germany source
1899September 19 – The patent for the first water meter is granted to Edwin Ford.source
1899September 28 – Austrian auto designer Ferdinand Porsche attracts worldwide attention when his first car, the Porsche P1, wins the Berlin Road Race 18 minutes ahead of the second-place finisher.source
1899October 19 – Boer troops commanded by Johannes Kock capture the railway station in Elandslaagte and cut the telegraph line between the British Army headquarters at Ladysmith and its station at Dundee.source
1899November 8 – The Bronx Zoological Park opens in New York City.source
1899November 14 – The first aerial crossing of the Mediterranean Sea is made by Louis Capazza and Alphonse Fondère in Capazza's balloon.source
1899November 15 – The American Line's SS St. Paul becomes the first ocean liner to report her imminent arrival by wireless telegraphy.source
1899November 21 – The Boers cut off all telegraph lines and seize the railway connecting Estcourt to the rest of the Cape Colony.South Africa source
1899Men – Arthur Duncan (Wellington) – first titleNew Zealand source
1899Construction of St Andrew's Church in Lisbon.Portugal source