Table of Contents for Great Events from History: The Nineteenth Century Summary

Arabic Literary Renaissance

Development of Working-Class Libraries

Spread of the Waltz

Emergence of the Primitives

Davy Develops the Arc Lamp

Professional Theaters Spread Throughout America

First Asteroid Is Discovered

House of Representatives Elects Jefferson President

Tripolitan War

Flinders Explores Australia

Britain Adopts Gas Lighting

Cobbett Founds the Political Register

U.S. Military Academy Is Established

Trevithick Patents the High-Pressure Steam Engine

Lambton Begins Trigonometrical Survey of India

Dalton Formulates the Atomic Theory of Matter

Elgin Ships Parthenon Marbles to England

Louisiana Purchase

Great Britain Begins Colonizing Tasmania

British and Foreign Bible Society Is Founded

Saussure Publishes His Research on Plant Metabolism

Ohio Enacts the First Black Codes

Lewis and Clark Expedition

Twelfth Amendment Is Ratified

Bonaparte Is Crowned Napoleon I

Burr’s Conspiracy

Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony Introduces the Romantic Age

Exploration of West Africa

Battle of Trafalgar

Battle of Austerlitz

Pike Explores the American Southwest

Bowdler Publishes The Family Shakespeare

Moore Publishes Irish Melodies

Rise of the Knickerbocker School

Congress Bans Importation of African Slaves

Hegel Publishes The Phenomenology of Spirit

Maiden Voyage of the Clermont

Ottomans Suppress the Janissary Revolt

Tenskwatawa Founds Prophetstown

American Fur Company Is Chartered

Dos de Mayo Insurrection in Spain

Peninsular War in Spain

Lamarck Publishes Zoological Philosophy

Astorian Expeditions Explore the Pacific Northwest Coast

Hidalgo Issues El Grito de Dolores

Mexican War of Independence

Egypt Fights the Wahhābīs

Construction of the National Road

Muhammad ‘Alī Has the Mamlūks Massacred

Luddites Destroy Industrial Machines

Krupp Works Open at Essen

Battle of Tippecanoe

Brothers Grimm Publish Fairy Tales

Burckhardt Discovers Egypt’s Abu Simbel

War of 1812

Napoleon Invades Russia

Battle of Salamanca

Battle of Borodino

Founding of McGill University

Bolívar’s Military Campaigns

Creek War

Battle of the Thames

Battle of Leipzig

Fraunhofer Invents the Spectroscope

Scott Publishes Waverley

Exploration of Arabia

Goya Paints Third of May 1808* Execution of the Citizens of Madrid

Communitarian Experiments at New Harmony

France’s Bourbon Dynasty Is Restored

Britain Acquires the Cape Colony

Congress of Vienna

Hartford Convention

Westward American Migration Begins

Biedermeier Furniture Style Becomes Popular

Battle of New Orleans

Treaty of Ghent Takes Effect

Tambora Volcano Begins Violent Eruption

Red River Raids

Organization of the German Confederation

Battle of Waterloo

Second Peace of Paris

Laënnec Invents the Stethoscope

Rossini’s The Barber of Seville Debuts

Second Bank of the United States Is Chartered

African Methodist Episcopal Church Is Founded

American Bible Society Is Founded

Rise of the Cockney School

Ricardo Identifies Seven Key Economic Principles

Zulu Expansion

San Martín’s Military Campaigns

Third Maratha War

Seminole Wars

Search for the Northwest Passage

Schopenhauer Publishes The World as Will and Idea

Irving’s Sketch Book Transforms American Literature

Babbage Designs a Mechanical Calculator

Adams-Onís Treaty Gives the United States Florida

Unitarian Church Is Founded

British Parliament Passes the Six Acts

China’s Stele School of Calligraphy Emerges

Free Public School Movement

Social Reform Movement

Jesuits Are Expelled from Russia, Naples, and Spain

Europeans Explore the Antarctic

London’s Cato Street Conspirators Plot Assassinations

Missouri Compromise

Congress Passes Land Act of 1820

Neapolitan Revolution

Ampère Reveals Magnetism’s Relationship to Electricity

Greeks Fight for Independence from the Ottoman Empire

Santa Fe Trail Opens

Jedediah Smith Explores the Far West

Exploration of North Africa

Brazil Becomes Independent

Great Britain Withdraws from the Concert of Europe

Hokusai Produces Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji

Hartford Female Seminary Is Founded

Wakley Introduces The Lancet

President Monroe Articulates the Monroe Doctrine

British Parliament Repeals the Combination Acts

Paris Salon of 1824

Ranke Develops Systematic History

Buckland Presents the First Public Dinosaur Description

First Performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony

U.S. Election of 1824

Great Java War

Stockton and Darlington Railway Opens

Erie Canal Opens

Decembrist Revolt

First Meetings of the Plymouth Brethren

Young Germany Movement

Portugal’s Miguelite Wars

Arnold Reforms Rugby School

Second Russo-Turkish War

Roman Catholic Emancipation

Webster Publishes the First American Dictionary of English

U.S. Election of 1828

Irish Immigration to Canada

Treaty of Adrianople

British Abolish Suttee in India

Scientists Study Remains of Giant Moas

American Renaissance in Literature

Trail of Tears

Southerners Advance Proslavery Arguments

Barbizon School of Landscape Painting Flourishes

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Opens

Webster and Hayne Debate Slavery and Westward Expansion

Hugo’s Hernani Incites Rioting

Smith Founds the Mormon Church

Congress Passes Indian Removal Act

France Conquers Algeria

Lyell Publishes Principles of Geology

July Revolution Deposes Charles X

Belgian Revolution

Delacroix Paints Liberty Leading the People

First Polish Rebellion

Mazzini Founds Young Italy

Hiroshige Completes The Tokaido Fifty-Three Stations

Garrison Begins Publishing The Liberator

Cherokee Cases

Tocqueville Visits America

McCormick Invents the Reaper

Turner Launches Slave Insurrection

Faraday Converts Magnetic Force into Electricity

Turko-Egyptian Wars

Abdelkader Leads Algeria Against France

British Parliament Passes the Reform Act of 1832

Jackson Vetoes Rechartering of the Bank of the United States

Nullification Controversy

British Parliament Passes the Factory Act

Great Britain Occupies the Falkland Islands

Oxford Movement Begins

Slavery Is Abolished Throughout the British Empire

Birth of the Penny Press

Carlist Wars Unsettle Spain

American Anti-Slavery Society Is Founded

Oberlin College Opens

German States Join to Form Customs Union

Clay Begins American Whig Party

British Parliament Passes New Poor Law

Blair Patents His First Seed Planter

Finney Lectures on “Revivals of Religion”

South Africa’s Great Trek Begins

Strauss Publishes The Life of Jesus Critically Examined

Andersen Publishes His First Fairy Tales

Melbourne, Australia, Is Founded

British Parliament Passes Municipal Corporations Act

Texas Revolution

Transcendental Movement Arises in New England

Colt Patents the Revolver

Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad Opens

Mazzini Begins London Exile

Panic of 1837 Begins

Rebellions Rock British Canada

Mount Holyoke Female Seminary Opens

Aroostook War

Schwann and Virchow Develop Cell Theory

Chartist Movement

Queen Victoria’s Coronation

Blanc Publishes The Organization of Labour

Daguerre and Niépce Invent Daguerreotype Photography

First Afghan War

Layard Explores and Excavates Assyrian Ruins

First Opium War

Stephens Begins Uncovering Mayan Antiquities

American Era of “Old” Immigration

Russian Realist Movement

Liebig Advocates Artificial Fertilizers

Great Britain Establishes Penny Postage

British Houses of Parliament Are Rebuilt

U.S. Election of 1840

Upper and Lower Canada Unite

Congress Passes Preemption Act of 1841

Tennyson Publishes “Morte d’Arthur”

Frémont Explores the American West

Rhode Island’s Dorr Rebellion

Webster-Ashburton Treaty Settles Maine’s Canadian Border

Carlyle Publishes Past and Present

Wagner’s Flying Dutchman Debuts

First Minstrel Shows

Wilson Launches The Economist

Anti-Irish Riots Erupt in Philadelphia

Morse Sends First Telegraph Message

Goodyear Patents Vulcanized Rubber

Clipper Ship Era Begins

Modern Baseball Begins

Great Irish Famine

Newman Becomes a Roman Catholic

Mormons Begin Migration to Utah

Battle of Palo Alto

Mexican War

British Parliament Repeals the Corn Laws

United States Acquires Oregon Territory

United States Occupies California and the Southwest

Establishment of Independent U.S. Treasury

Smithsonian Institution Is Founded

Howe Patents His Sewing Machine

Safe Surgical Anesthesia Is Demonstrated

Boole Publishes The Mathematical Analysis of Logic

Hamburg-Amerika Shipping Line Begins

Taos Rebellion

Semmelweis Develops Antiseptic Procedures

Liberia Proclaims Its Independence

Battle of Chapultepec

Douglass Launches The North Star

Exploration of East Africa

Italian Revolution of 1848

California Gold Rush Begins

Marx and Engels Publish The Communist Manifesto

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Ends Mexican War

Paris Revolution of 1848

Prussian Revolution of 1848

Second Anglo-Sikh War

Ground Is Broken for the Washington Monument

Seneca Falls Convention

Swiss Confederation Is Formed

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood Begins

Chinese Begin Immigrating to California

First Test of Canada’s Responsible Government

Dostoevski Is Exiled to Siberia

Rise of Burlesque and Vaudeville

First U.S. Petroleum Refinery Is Built

Underground Railroad Flourishes

Clausius Formulates the Second Law of Thermodynamics

Compromise of 1850

California’s Bloody Island Massacre

Second Fugitive Slave Law

Tennyson Becomes England’s Poet Laureate

Gold Is Discovered in New South Wales

Melville Publishes Moby Dick

Comte Advances His Theory of Positivism

China’s Taiping Rebellion

London Hosts the First World’s Fair

Akron Woman’s Rights Convention

Modern New York Times Is Founded

Stowe Publishes Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Dickens Publishes Bleak House

Canada’s Grand Trunk Railway Is Incorporated

Louis Napoleon Bonaparte Becomes Emperor of France

Qing Dynasty Confronts the Nian Rebellion

Pacific Railroad Surveys

National Council of Colored People Is Founded

Burton Enters Mecca in Disguise

Crimean War

Livingstone Sees the Victoria Falls

Gadsden Purchase Completes the U.S.-Mexican Border

Wallace’s Expeditions Give Rise to Biogeography

Perry Opens Japan to Western Trade

Congress Passes the Kansas-Nebraska Act

Birth of the Republican Party

Siege of Sevastopol

Battle of Balaklava

Nightingale Takes Charge of Nursing in the Crimea

Pius IX Decrees the Immaculate Conception Dogma

Bessemer Patents Improved Steel-Processing Method

Courbet Establishes Realist Art Movement

Walker Invades Nicaragua

Muslim Rebellions in China

Bleeding Kansas

Neanderthal Skull Is Found in Germany

Flaubert Publishes Madame Bovary

Second Opium War

Pasteur Begins Developing Germ Theory and Microbiology

First African American University Opens

Otis Installs the First Passenger Elevator

Sepoy Mutiny Against British Rule

New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children Opens

Texas’s Cart War

British Parliament Passes the Matrimonial Causes Act

Brunel Launches the SS Great Eastern

Virgin Mary Appears to Bernadette Soubirous

Fraser River Gold Rush Begins

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Rothschild Is First Jewish Member of British Parliament

France and Spain Invade Vietnam

Mill Publishes On Liberty

Smiles Publishes Self-Help

Battle of Solferino

Last Slave Ship Docks at Mobile

Napoleon III and Francis Joseph I Meet at Villafranca

Commercial Oil Drilling Begins

Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry

Darwin Publishes On the Origin of Species

China’s Self-Strengthening Movement Arises

Lenoir Patents the Internal Combustion Engine

Pony Express Expedites Transcontinental Mail

Apache and Navajo War

Garibaldi’s Redshirts Land in Sicily

Lincoln Is Elected U.S. President

Morris Founds Design Firm

Apache Wars

Establishment of the Confederate States of America

Emancipation of Russian Serfs

Lincoln Is Inaugurated President

Italy Is Proclaimed a Kingdom

U.S. Civil War

First Battle of Bull Run

Transcontinental Telegraph Is Completed

France Occupies Mexico

Cixi’s Coup Preserves Qing Dynasty Power

Spencer Introduces Principles of Social Darwinism

Battle of the Monitor and the Virginia

Lincoln Signs the Homestead Act

Lincoln Signs the Morrill Land Grant Act

Great Sioux War

Bismarck Becomes Prussia’s Minister-President

Slave Traders Begin Ravaging Easter Island

Bahā’īism Takes Form

Greece Unifies Under the Glücksburg Dynasty

Lincoln Issues the Emancipation Proclamation

First Underground Railroad Opens in London

Russia Crushes Polish Rebellion

Congress Passes the National Bank Acts

Union Enacts the First National Draft Law

Paris’s Salon des Refusés Opens

Battles of Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga

Long Walk of the Navajos

Reconstruction of the South

Hill Launches Housing Reform in London

Danish-Prussian War

“In God We Trust” Appears on U.S. Coins

International Red Cross Is Launched

First International Is Founded

Sherman Marches Through Georgia and the Carolinas

Sand Creek Massacre

Pius IX Issues the Syllabus of Errors

Mendel Proposes Laws of Heredity

Naturalist Movement Begins

Basuto War

Congress Creates the Freedmen’s Bureau

Surrender at Appomattox and Assassination of Lincoln

Paraguayan War

Watie Is Last Confederate General to Surrender

Booth Establishes the Salvation Army

Vassar College Opens

Morant Bay Rebellion

Mississippi Enacts First Post-Civil War Black Code

Thirteenth Amendment Is Ratified

Birth of the Ku Klux Klan

North German Confederation Is Formed

Civil Rights Act of 1866

Memphis and New Orleans Race Riots

Suffragists Protest the Fourteenth Amendment

Fenian Risings for Irish Independence

Red Cloud’s War

Austria and Prussia’s Seven Weeks’ War

Battle of Könniggrätz

First Transatlantic Cable Is Completed

Fetterman Massacre

Chisholm Trail Opens

Lister Publishes His Theory on Antiseptic Surgery

Marx Publishes Das Kapital

U.S. Department of Education Is Created

Russia Sells Alaska to the United States

Austrian Ausgleich

British North America Act

British Parliament Passes the Reform Act of 1867

Nobel Patents Dynamite

Medicine Lodge Creek Treaty

National Grange Is Formed

Bakunin Founds the Social Democratic Alliance

Last Convicts Land in Western Australia

Japan’s Meiji Restoration

Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

Lartet Discovers the First Cro-Magnon Remains

British Expedition to Ethiopia

Promulgation of Japan’s Charter Oath

Great Britain’s First Trades Union Congress Forms

Sholes Patents a Practical Typewriter

Fourteenth Amendment Is Ratified

Burlingame Treaty

Spanish Revolution of 1868

Cuba’s Ten Years’ War

Washita River Massacre

Gladstone Becomes Prime Minister of Britain

Baseball’s First Professional Club Forms

First Modern Department Store Opens in Paris

Golden Age of Flamenco Begins

Mendeleyev Develops the Periodic Table of Elements

Westinghouse Patents His Air Brake

Woman Suffrage Associations Begin Forming

First Transcontinental Railroad Is Completed

Scandals Rock the Grant Administration

First Riel Rebellion

Suez Canal Opens

Wyoming Gives Women the Vote

Vatican I Decrees Papal Infallibility Dogma

Aesthetic Movement Arises

Japan Expands into Korea

Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society Is Founded

Standard Oil Company Is Incorporated

Schliemann Excavates Ancient Troy

Franco-Prussian War

Battle of Sedan

Prussian Army Besieges Paris

Darwin Publishes The Descent of Man

Díaz Drives Mexico into Civil War

Kulturkampf Against the Catholic Church in Germany

Great American Buffalo Slaughter

Przhevalsky Explores Central Asia

German States Unite Within German Empire

Third French Republic Is Established

Grant Signs Indian Appropriation Act

Paris Commune

Barnum Creates the First Modern American Circus

Treaty of Washington Settles U.S. Claims vs. Britain

Great Chicago Fire

Dominion Lands Act Fosters Canadian Settlement

Metropolitan Museum of Art Opens

Yellowstone Becomes the First U.S. National Park

Ward Launches a Mail-Order Business

Ukrainian Mennonites Begin Settling in Canada

Exploration of Africa’s Congo Basin

Zanzibar Outlaws Slavery

Second British-Ashanti War

“Crime of 1873”

Congress Passes the Comstock Antiobscenity Law

Three Emperors’ League Is Formed

Canada Forms the North-West Mounted Police

Anthony Is Tried for Voting

Canada’s Mackenzie Era

First Impressionist Exhibition

Red River War

Glidden Patents Barbed Wire

Supreme Court of Canada Is Established

Bizet’s Carmen Premieres in Paris

Congress Enacts the Page Law

Theosophical Society Is Founded

Eddy Establishes the Christian Science Movement

Post-Impressionist Movement Begins

Canada’s Indian Act

Spanish Constitution of 1876

Sioux War

Bulgarian Revolt Against the Ottoman Empire

Otto Invents a Practical Internal Combustion Engine

Philadelphia Hosts the Centennial Exposition

Battle of the Little Bighorn

Bell Demonstrates the Telephone

Declaration of the Rights of Women

First Performance of Wagner’s Ring Cycle

American Library Association Is Founded

Former Samurai Rise in Satsuma Rebellion

Hayes Becomes President

Third Russo-Turkish War

Nez Perce War

Texas’s Salinero Revolt

Edison Patents the Cylinder Phonograph

Muybridge Photographs a Galloping Horse

Irving Manages London’s Lyceum Theatre

Congress of Berlin

Macdonald Returns as Canada’s Prime Minister

Germany Passes Anti-Socialist Law

Powell Publishes His Report on the American West

Battles of Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift

Zulu War

War of the Pacific

Edison Demonstrates the Incandescent Lamp

Brahmin School of American Literature Flourishes

Roux Develops the Theory of Mitosis

Rise of Yellow Journalism

Irish Tenant Farmers Stage First “Boycott”

First Boer War

Bismarck Introduces Social Security Programs in Germany

Stevenson Publishes Treasure Island

London’s Savoy Theatre Opens

First Birth Control Clinic Opens in Amsterdam

Metchnikoff Advances the Cellular Theory of Immunity

Standard Oil Trust Is Organized

Koch Announces His Discovery of the Tuberculosis Bacillus

French Indochina War

Kilmainham Treaty Makes Concessions to Irish Nationalists

Arthur Signs the Chinese Exclusion Act

Triple Alliance Is Formed

Korean Military Mutinies Against Japanese Rule

Battle of Tel el Kebir

San Francisco’s Chinese Six Companies Association Forms

Galton Defines “Eugenics”

World’s First Skyscraper Is Built

Pendleton Act Reforms the Federal Civil Service

Brooklyn Bridge Opens

Krakatoa Volcano Erupts

Civil Rights Cases

Metropolitan Opera House Opens in New York

Gaudí Begins Barcelona’s Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Família

Maxim Patents His Machine Gun

New Guilds Promote the Arts and Crafts Movement

Decadent Movement Flourishes

Fabian Society Is Founded

Indian Legislative Council Enacts the Ilbert Bill

Siege of Khartoum

Gold Is Discovered in the Transvaal

U.S. Election of 1884

Berlin Conference Lays Groundwork for the Partition of Africa

Twain Publishes Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

British Parliament Passes the Franchise Act of 1884

Indian National Congress Is Founded

Second Riel Rebellion Begins

Rise of the Symbolist Movement

French Right Wing Revives During Boulanger Crisis

Benz Patents the First Practical Automobile

Pemberton Introduces Coca-Cola

Irish Home Rule Debate Dominates British Politics

Statue of Liberty Is Dedicated

American Federation of Labor Is Founded

Interstate Commerce Act

General Allotment Act Erodes Indian Tribal Unity

American Protective Association Is Formed

Goodwin Develops Celluloid Film

Conan Doyle Introduces Sherlock Holmes

Rodin Exhibits The Thinker

Ramón y Cajal Shows How Neurons Work in the Nervous System

Rhodes Amalgamates Kimberley Diamondfields

Dunlop Patents the Pneumatic Tire

Great Britain Strengthens Its Royal Navy

Japan Adopts a New Constitution

Eiffel Tower Is Dedicated

Johnstown Flood

Addams Opens Chicago’s Hull-House

First Pan-American Congress

Dahomey-French Wars

Rise of Tin Pan Alley Music

Mississippi Constitution Disfranchises Black Voters

U.S. Census Bureau Announces Closing of the Frontier

Women’s Rights Associations Unite

Harrison Signs the Sherman Antitrust Act

Behring Discovers the Diphtheria Antitoxin

Wounded Knee Massacre

Naismith Invents Basketball

Strowger Patents Automatic Dial Telephone System

Papal Encyclical on Labor

America’s “New” Immigration Era Begins

Toulouse-Lautrec Paints At the Moulin Rouge

Ellis Island Immigration Depot Opens

Diesel Patents the Diesel Engine

Anti-Japanese Yellow Peril Campaign Begins

Birth of the People’s Party

Hardie Becomes Parliament’s First Labour Member

Munch Paints The Scream

Nansen Attempts to Reach the North Pole

Chicago World’s Fair

New Zealand Women Win Voting Rights

British Subdue African Resistance in Rhodesia

National Council of Women of Canada Is Founded

Kellogg’s Corn Flakes Launch the Dry Cereal Industry

Ottomans Attempt to Exterminate Armenians

Franco-Russian Alliance

Pullman Strike

Kabo Reforms Begin Modernization of Korean Government

Sino-Japanese War

Dreyfus Affair

Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun Premieres

Hearst-Pulitzer Circulation War

Hawaii’s Last Monarch Abdicates

Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Is Staged in St. Petersburg

Cuban War of Independence

Chinese Californians Form Native Sons of the Golden State

Germany’s Kiel Canal Opens

Washington’s Atlanta Compromise Speech

Röntgen Discovers X Rays

Nobel Bequeaths Funds for the Nobel Prizes

First Commercial Projection of Motion Pictures

Jameson Raid

Brooks Brothers Introduces Button-Down Shirts

Immigrant Farmers Begin Settling Western Canada

Herzl Founds the Zionist Movement

Sudanese War

Ethiopia Repels Italian Invasion

Modern Olympic Games Are Inaugurated

Marconi Patents the Wireless Telegraph

Laurier Becomes the First French Canadian Prime Minister

Klondike Gold Rush Begins

McKinley Is Elected President

First U.S. Hydroelectric Plant Opens at Niagara Falls

Ellis Publishes Sexual Inversion

Abel and Takamine Isolate Adrenaline

Greco-Turkish War

“Aspirin” Is Registered as a Trade Name

Bjerknes Founds Scientific Weather Forecasting

Congress Passes Dingley Tariff Act

Ross Establishes Malaria’s Transmission Vector

New Library of Congress Building Opens

Scramble for Chinese Concessions Begins

Beijerinck Discovers Viruses

Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party Is Formed

Stratosphere and Troposphere Are Discovered

Spanish-American War

Fashoda Incident Pits France vs. Britain

Moscow Art Theater Is Founded

Hilbert Publishes The Foundations of Geometry

Joplin Popularizes Ragtime Music and Dance

Rediscovery of Mendel’s Hereditary Theory

Philippine Insurrection

First Hague Peace Conference

Hay Articulates “Open Door” Policy Toward China

South African War

Siege of Mafeking

Freud Publishes The Interpretation of Dreams

Lebesgue Develops New Integration Theory

Wiechert Invents the Inverted Pendulum Seismograph

Puccini’s Tosca Premieres in Rome

Kodak Introduces Brownie Cameras

British Labour Party Is Formed

Evans Discovers Crete’s Minoan Civilization

Boxer Rebellion

Suppression of Yellow Fever

Zeppelin Completes the First Flying Dirigible

Galveston Hurricane

Dreiser Publishes Sister Carrie

Articulation of Quantum Theory

General Electric Opens Research Laboratory