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"A Moment In Time"
Dan Roberts' history radio show daily transcripts, transcript archive and database.
We are in the process of editing and overhauling our timelines to broaden their scope and increase their usefulness as teaching tools. We plan to re-organize the content as well, grouping events by geographic regions first and then by category within each geographic region as the viewer "zooms in" on events in history.


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   [Timeline Sources]

19th Century Timeline

Year International
Relations &
Warfare
Politics Science,
Technology & Discovery
Society &
Culture
Economics &
Daily Life
 1800   Thomas Jefferson elected President
 
     
 1801 Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland creates the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
 
       
 1802 Treaty of Amiens
 
       
 1803 Louisiana Purchase Treaty signed in Paris; The United States purchases rights to 828,800 square miles of territory from France
 
       
 1804 Tripolitan War
 
(1) Aaron Burr kills Alexander Hamilton in duel
(2) Napoleon crowned as Emperor of the French
 
    Lewis & Clark begin expedition to survey the Louisiana Purchase
 
 1805 (1) Battle of Austerlitz
(2) Admiral Horatio Nelson defeats French fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar to maintain naval supremacy
(3) Treaty of Pressburg formally dissolves the Holy Roman Empire
 
       
 1806 (1) French army destroys Prussian army at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt
(2) British acquire Cape Colony
 
       
 1807 Treaty of Tilsit marks high-water mark of Napoleon's empire
 
  The 1st steamship Clermont sails
 
Slave trade abolished in the British Empire
 
 
 1808 French occupy Spain; Peninsular War begins
 
       
 1810 (1) Bolivar in South America
(2) Mexican War of Independence begins
 
       
 1811   Massacre of the Mamelukes
 
  Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
 
 
 1812 (1) Napoleon leads French invasion of Russia, resulting in catastrophic defeat for Franch
(1812 to 1812)
(2) War of 1812 begins with U.S. declaration of war on the United Kingdom
 
       
 1813 The Sixth Coalition defeats Napoleon's army at the Battle of Leipzig, forcing French withdrawal from German territory
(1813 to 1813)
 
       
 1814 (1) Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to St. Elba according to the terms of the Treaty of Fontainebleau
(2) Representatives from Austria, Russia, Prussia, Britain, and France meet at the Congress of Vienna to discuss future of Europe
 
New England states discuss secession in opposition to the War of 1812 at the Hartford Convention
(1814 to 1815) 
    First permanent white settlement founded in New Zealand
 
 1815 (1) The War of 1812 ends with the Treaty of Ghent, reaffirming prewar status quo between the United States and United Kingdom
(2) Napoleon escapes Elba in an attempt to reestablish his power. Coalition forces defeat him at the battle of Waterloo.
(1815 to 1815)
 
       
 1816   Shaka consolidates rule of the Zulu Kingdom
 
  Emma by Jane Austen
 
 
 1818       (1) John Keats's Romantic epic Endymion
(2) Don Juan by Lord Byron
 
 
 1819 Spain cedes Florida to United States
 
  James Watt dies
 
   
 1820   (1) Missouri Compromise
(2) Spanish demand constitution
 
Florence Nightingale born
 
   
 1821 (1) Maori civil wars begin
(2) Greek War of Independence begins
(3) Mexico gains independence under Treaty of Cordoba
 
       
 1822 Brazil gains independence from Portugal
 
    Jean-François Champollion announces the deciphering of the Rosetta stone
 
 
 1823 The Monroe Doctrine declares that European powers must not colonize or interfere with independent nations in the Americas
 
       
 1824 Battle of Ayacucho leads to Peruvian independence
 
John Quincy Adams wins disputed presidential election of 1824; Andrew Jackson accuses Adams of striking a "corrupt bargain" with Henry Clay
 
     
 1825     Erie Canal opens
 
   
 1826   (1) Massacre of the Janissaries
(2) Zollerein established in Germany
 
     
 1827       Beethoven dies
 
 
 1828   Andrew Jackson elected President
 
  (1) Leo Tolstoi born
(2) Goya dies
(3) Catholics allowed to hold office in England
 
 
 1829     Baltimore and Ohio Railroad opens; Becomes first major railroad system in the U.S.
 
Catholic Emancipation
 
 
 1830 Bourbon monarchy overthrown during the July Revolution in France. Louis-Philippe becomes constitutional monarch of France
(1830 to 1830)
 
    Emily Dickinson born
 
 
 1831 Belgium declares independence from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands
 
  H.M.S. Beagle sails with Charles Darwin
 
Victor Hugo's novel Notre-Dame de Paris (or The Hunchback of Notre Dame)
 
 
 1832 Treaty of Constantinople grants Greek independence
 
(1) English Reform Act
(2) Nullification crisis between the federal government and South Carolina over tariff collection
(1832 to 1833) 
  (1) Edouard Manet born
(2) Lewis Carroll born
(3) Louisa May Alcott born
 
 
 1833   Revolt in Spain
 
  (1) Slave trade abolished
(2) James Holtzclaw born
 
 
 1834     Thomas Malthus dies
 
(1) Edgar Degas born
(2) Spanish Inquisition ends
 
 
 1835 Second Seminole War begins
 
    Mark Twain born
 
 
 1836 Texan War of Independence
 
    (1) Winslow Homer born
(2) Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe
(3) Ralph Waldo Emerson establishes the principles of American Transcendentalism in his essay "Nature"
 
 
 1837   (1) Victoria assumes English throne
(2) Canadian Rebellion
 
     
 1838     Photography invented
 
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
 
 
 1839 (1) First Opium War begins (1839-1842)
(2) Afghan-British War, First begins
 
       
 1840 Britain annexes New Zealand
 
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert marry
 
  Claude Monet born
 
 
 1841 (1) Britain claims Hong Kong
(2) Canada united
 
    (1) The Murders on the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe
(2) Oliver Wendell Holmes, Supreme Court Justice, born
 
 
 1842 (1) Second Seminole War ends
(2) First Afghan-British War ends
(3) Treaty of Nanjing ends First Opium War; Britain gains Hong Kong
 
  Gold and copper are discovered in Australia
 
   
 1843     Dorothea Dix and insane asylum reforms
 
Noah Webster dies
 
 
 1844   James K. Polk elected President
 
Samuel F. B. Morse dispatches the first telegraph message from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore.
 
(1) YMCA founded
(2) Friedrich Nietzsche born
 
 
 1845   Florida becomes a state
 
  First publication of Edgar Allen Poe's poem "The Raven"
 
Potato blight first noticed in Ireland; The Irish Potato Famine begins (1845-1852)
 
 1846 U.S.-Mexican War begins
 
(1) The Wilmot Proviso
(2) English Corn Laws revoked
 
Neptune discovered
 
   
 1847     Thomas Edison born
 
English novelist Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre
 
 
 1848 (1) Revolution of 1848 begins in France resulting in the establishment of the Second French Republic and spread of revolutionary movements throughout Europe
(2) Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends U.S.-Mexican War; U.S. gains California and other Mexican territory
 
Whig candidate Zachary Taylor defeats Democrat Lewis Cass to become 12th President of the U.S.
 
  (1) Paul Gauguin born
(2) Mormons to Utah
(3) Pius IX flees Rome
(4) Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish the Communist Manifesto in London
 
Gold discovered in California
 
 1849     Livingston in Africa
 
Feminist novelist George Sand's La Petite Fadette
 
 
 1850   (1) Compromise of 1850
(2) Taiping Rebellion in China; Up to 30 million Chinese die in civil war between Qing government and Hong Xiuquan's Heavenly Kingdom
(1850 to 1871) 
  Robert Lewis Stevenson born
 
 
 1851   (1) Louis Napoleon's Coup d'Etat
(2) Gold found in Australia
 
  Moby Dick by Herman Melville
 
 
 1852   Democratic candidate Franklin Pierce defeats Whig Winfield Scott to become 14th President of the U.S.
 
  Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
 
 
 1853 Gadsden Purchase Treaty
 
    Vincent van Gogh born
 
 
 1854 Crimean War begins
 
(1) Kansas-Nebraska Bill
(2) Republican Party formed in Jackson, Michigan in protest of the Kansas-Nebraska Act
(3) Bleeding Kansas
 
Florence Nightingale sent by British government to investigate medical conditions in army hospitals during the Crimean War
 
(1) The Charge of the Light Brigade by Lord Tennyson
(2) Oscar Wilde Born
 
 
 1855 Crimean War ends
 
  Percival Lowell born
 
(1) Hungarian pianist and composer Franz Liszt publishes first suite of Années de Pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage)
(2) Walt Whitman publishes first edition of his collection of poetry Leaves of Grass
 
 
 1856 (1) Massacre of Potawatomie Creek
(2) Declaration of Paris
(3) Second Opium War begins (1856-1860)
 
(1) Democratic candidate James Buchanan defeats Republican John Fremont to become 15th President of the U.S.
(2) Booker T. Washington born
 
(1) Sigmund Freud born
(2) Robert E. Peary, polar explorer, is born.
 
George Bernard Shaw born
 
 
 1857 The Indian Mutiny
 
Dred Scott decision in U. S. Supreme Court
 
     
 1858       The Paulist Fathers founded
 
Minnesota becomes the 32nd state admitted into the Union.
 
 1859 The Battles of Magenta & Solferino
 
John Brown leads raid on Federal Arsenal in Harper's Ferry; Executed for treason
 
(1) On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
(2) Construction begins on Suez Canal
 
(1) A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
(2) Alexis de Tocqueville dies
(3) Georges Seurat born
(4) Liberal philosopher John Stuart Mill's On Liberty
 
 
 1860   (1) Abraham Lincoln elected President of United States
(2) South Carolina becomes first southern state to secede from the Union
 
  Anton Chekhov born
 
 
 1861 (1) Federal garrison at Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederate forces; Abraham Lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the rebellion
(2) Great Britain declares its neutrality in the American Civil War
 
(1) Victor Emmanuel is proclaimed King of Italy by the first Italian Parliament
(2) Confederate States of America formed at Montgomery, AL
(3) American Civil War begins
 
  Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
 
Russia emancipates its serfs
 
 1862 Union army under George B. McClellan inflicts strategic defeat on Confederate army led by Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Antietam; Approximately 23,000 casualties mark the bloodiest day in American history
 
Emancipation Proclamation Issued
 
  Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
 
Cinco de Mayo: The Mexican victory over the French at the town of Puebla is commemorated as a Mexican national holiday.
 
 1863 Battle of Gettysburg
 
  Henry Ford born
 
(1) Lucien Pissarro born
(2) Edvard Munch born
 
 
 1864 Prussia and Austria invade Schleswig and Holstein after Denmark effectively annexes the territories
 
Abraham Lincoln re-elected as President
 
Louis Pasteur completes first successful pasteurization experiment
 
Henri Toulouse-Lautrec born
 
 
 1865 Lee surrenders at Appomattox Court House; Effectively ends U.S. Civil War
 
(1) President Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Washington D.C.; Andrew Johnson becomes 17th President of the United States
(1865 to 1865)(2) 13th Amendment to U.S. Constitution abolishes slavery
 
First Pullman cars
 
   
 1866 (1) Peace of Prague between Prussia and Austria; Austria excluded from German affairs
(2) Austro-Prussian War (Seven Week's War) begins after disagreements over the administration of Schleswig-Holstein
(1866 to 1866)
 
       
 1867 (1) Fall of Maximilian
(2) United States buys Alaska
 
(1) Canadian Confederation
(2) The Austro-Hungarian Compromise leads to establishment of the Dual Monarchy
(3) Reconstruction Act
 
Trans-Atlantic cable laid
 
das Kapital by Karl Marx
 
 
 1868   (1) Ulysses Grant elected President
(2) Shogun Kekie abdicates
(3) William Gladstone named Prime Minister of Great Britain
 
Diamonds discovered in South Africa
 
Cincinnati Reds established; First Major League Baseball team
 
 
 1869 Suez Canal opens
 
  (1) Frank Lloyd born
(2) Henri Matisse born
(3) The first transcontinental railroad acoss the US is completed when the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railways meet at Promontory Summit, in Utah Territory.
 
(1) Siegfried Wagner born
(2) Mahatma Ghandi born
(3) Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace
 
 
 1870 (1) Battle of Sedan; Napoleon III captured along with 104,000 soldiers
(2) Siege of Paris begins
(3) Italian forces capture Rome; Kingdom of Italy annexes the Papal State completing the unification of Italy
(4) Franco-Prussian War begins following Spanish Succession Crisis
 
Napoleon III overthrown; Third Republic proclaimed in France
 
  Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
 
 
 1871 Treaty of Frankfurt ends Franco-Prussian War; German Empire recognized and France loses Alsace-Lorraine
 
(1) Wilhelm I proclaims German Empire at Versailles
(2) Paris Commune takes over French capital; Put down by army by May 28
(1871 to 1871) 
(1) The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin
(2) Orville Wright born
 
Stephen Crane born
 
 
 1872 Geneva Arbitration
 
  Brooklyn Bridge opens
 
   
 1873     Color photography invented
 
John Stuart Mill dies
 
 
 1874       (1) 1st Impressionist exhibit
(2) Gertrude Stein born
 
 
 1875     Albert Schweitzer born
 
(1) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
(2) Impressionist Camille Pissarro's The Garden of Pontoise
 
 
 1876 Korea gains independence
 
  Telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell
 
(1) Jack London born
(2) George Sand dies
 
 
 1877 (1) Satsuma revolt
(2) Crazy Horse surrenders to General George Crook in Nebraska
 
  Phonograph invented by Alexander Graham Bell
 
   
 1878 (1) Greco-Turkish War
(2) Afghan-British War, Second begins
 
       
 1879 (1) Zulu-British War
(2) Battle of Isandhlwana
(3) Battle of Rorke's Drift
 
       
 1880 Afghan-British War, Second ends
 
       
 1881 (1) Sudan, War for the begins
(2) British forces defeat rebel Egyptian army at the Battle of Tel el-Kebir, marking the beginning of British military occupation of Egypt
 
1881 - 1882 First wave of Zionist immigration (aliyah) into Palestine
 
  (1) Edgar Degas's sculpture Little Dancer of Fourteen Years
(2) Booker T. Washington founds the Tuskegee Institute, a major center for African-American higher education
 
 
 1882 France takes Annam
 
Bank of Japan established
 
     
 1883       (1) Edouard Manet dies
(2) Karl Marx dies in London
 
 
 1884 Mahdist Sudanese army besieges and defeats British-led Egyptian garrison at the Siege of Khartoum
(1884 to 1885)
 
    First publication of Mark Twain's novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
 
 
 1885       Victor Hugo dies
 
 
 1886       (1) Franz Liszt dies
(2) Statue of Liberty dedicated in New York
 
 
 1888       Jack the Ripper active in London; Commits series of brutal murders
 
 
 1890 Lakota Sioux defeated by U.S. Army at Wounded Knee
 
    (1) The Cardplayers by Cezanne
(2) Publication of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray
 
 
 1891       (1) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes first published
(2) Georges Seurat dies
(3) Agatha Christie born
 
 
 1892   Homestead Strike; Major labor dispute between union steelworkers and the Carnegie Steel Company in Homestead, Pennsylvania
(1892 to 1892) 
  (1) At the Moulin Rouge by Toulouse-Lautrec
(2) The Nutcracker Suite by Tchaiovsky
(3) Walt Whitman dies
(4) Post-Impressionist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec paints At the Moulin Rouge
(1892 to 1895) 
 
 1893     First car built by Henry Ford
 
(1) New Zealand grants women's suffrage
(2) Publication of French novelist Émile Zola's Le Docteur Pascal, the final installment of his 20-volume Les Rougon-Macquart
(3) Post-Impressionist Paul Cézanne's still life Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier
 
 
 1894 Sino-Japanese War
 
       
 1895   Booker T. Washington gives "Atlanta Compromise" speech on race relations in the United States
 
x-rays discovered
 
(1) The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
(2) Publication of Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage
 
 
 1896 Ethiopia defeats Italy in the First Italo-Ethiopian War after decisive victory at the Battle of Adwa; Marks first victory of an African state over a European colonial power
 
    Theodore Herzl writes Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State)
 
 
 1897   (1) First Zionist Congress starts program to resettle Jewish people in Palestine
(2) William McKinley inaugurated as the 25th President of the United States
 
  Post-Impressionist Paul Gauguin's Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?
 
 
 1898 (1) British and French resolve the Fashoda Incident over colonial boundaries in Africa, confirming British control over Sudan; Seen as important precursor to the Entente Cordiale
(1898 to 1899)
(2) The United States defeats Spain in the Spanish-American War and annexes the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico
(1898 to 1898)
(3) President William McKinley signs the Newlands Resolution, officially annexing Hawaii to the United States
 
  Marie Curie discovers radium
 
(1) Ernest Hemingway born
(2) H. G. Wells' science fiction novel The War of the Worlds
 
 
 1899 (1) Peace Conference at the Hague
(2) Second Boer War begins
(3) Boxer Rebellion against foreign influence in China
(1899 to 1901)
(4) The Philippine-American War begins after a Filipino soldier is shot by an American in Manila. U.S. forces battle those of the First Philippine Republic in Manila
 
    Friedrich Nietzsche dies
 
 
Year International
Relations &
War
Politics Science,
Technology &
Discovery
Society &
Culture
Economics &
Daily Life

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