This 150-year timeline is a progressive project that I add to as I prepare each class; it is currently complete through Class 10, though my selection of works and events is somewhat arbitrary. As you see, I make a distinction in placement between the two countries, and in color between practical and cultural events. Where dates are approximate or extend over several years, I have chosen a single date somewhat arbitrarily, just to have something to put on the chart, though items may not be in order within a given year. The artworks mentioned are representative of the many more discussed in class; the abbreviations are: (a) visual arts, (m) music, (w) writing. rb.
1770 1780 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920
| back to top | 1770s | |
| 1770 | Captain Cook lands in Australia | |
| West: Death of Wolfe at Quebec (a) | ||
| 1771 | First cotton mill opens | |
| 1772 | John Newton: Amazing Grace (hymn) | |
| Boston Tea Party | 1773 | |
| First Continental Congress | 1774 | Dance: Portrait of Lord North (a) |
| Washington takes command of Continental Army | 1775 | Britain hires Hessian mercenaries |
| Declaration of Independence | 1776 | Adam Smith: The Wealth of Nations (w) |
| Washington crosses the Delaware to attack Trenton | ||
| Tom Paine: Common Sense (w) | ||
| Articles of Confederation adopted | 1777 | Iron Bridge at Coalbrookdale |
| Earl: Portrait of Roger Sherman (a) | ||
| American treaties with France and Holland | 1778 | Catholic Relief Act |
| Congress prohibits import of slaves | ||
| back to top | 1780s | |
| 1780 | Gordon Riots against Catholic Relief Act | |
| Americans defeat British at Yorktown | 1781 | British surrender at Yorktown |
| Fuseli: The Nightmare (a) | ||
| Bank of North America established | 1782 | |
| Stuart: The Skater (a) | ||
| Treaty of Paris ends War of Independence | 1783 | Treaty of Paris ends War of Independence |
| 1786 | Samuel Meikle invents the threshing machine | |
| David Dale builds New Lanark | ||
| 1788 | The Times begins publication | |
| [Storming of the Bastille; French Revolution begins] | 1789 | [Storming of the Bastille; French Revolution begins] |
| US Constitution adopted | ||
| George Washington inaugurated as first President | ||
| back to top | 1790s | |
| US Patent Office issues first patent | 1790 | |
| Pierre L'Enfant's plans for Washingon | 1791 | |
| US Capitol begun | ||
| Bill of Rights ratified | ||
| 1792 | Wollstonecraft: Vindication of the Rights of Woman (w) | |
| Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin | 1793 | Britain goes to war with France |
| Slater and Brown open spinning mill in Rhode Island | ||
| Franklin: Autobiography published in English (w) | ||
| 1796 | Beckford's Fonthill Abbey begun | |
| John Adams becomes second President | 1797 | |
| Benjamin: The Country Builder's Assistant (w) | ||
| 1798 | Edward Jenner delivers first vaccine | |
| Coleridge & Wordsworth: Lyrical Ballads (w) | ||
| back to top | 1800s | |
| Library of Congress founded | 1800 | Act of Union creates the United Kingdom |
| Thornton's US Capitol begun | ||
| Thomas Jefferson becomes third President | 1801 | Loutherbourg: Coalbrookdale by Night (a) |
| First steam-powered pumping station, Philadelphia | ||
| Eli Whitney builds rifles with interchangeable parts | ||
| Eluthère du Pont opens gunpowder mill | 1802 | |
| Louisiana Purchase | 1803 | |
| 1804 | Richard Trevithick builds first steam locomotive | |
| Blake: Jerusalem (w) | ||
| 1805 | Lord Nelson defeats Napoleon at Trafalgar | |
| Scott: The Lay of the Last Minstrel (w) | ||
| Latrobe: Baltimore Basilica | 1806 | |
| Robert Fulton invents the steamboat | 1807 | Slave trading made illegal (but not ownership) |
| James Madison becomes the fourth President | 1809 | |
| back to top | 1810s | |
| War of 1812 | 1812 | War of 1812 |
| 1813 | London Philharmonic Society established | |
| Jethro Woods invents first plough with repaceable blade | 1814 | |
| Second Ku Klux Klan founded | 1815 | Duke of Wellington defeats Napoleon at Waterloo |
| Nash: Royal Pavillion, Brighton | ||
| West: Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky (a) | 1816 | |
| James Monroe becomes the fifth President | 1817 | |
| Plan for Erie Canal drawn up | ||
| 1818 | Mary Shelley: Frankenstein (w) | |
| 1819 | Peterloo Massacre suppresses calls for reform | |
| back to top | 1820s | |
| Irving: Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (stories) | 1820 | Opening of Stockton and Darlington railway |
| George III dies; George IV becomes king | ||
| John McAdam develops road construction technique | ||
| Clare publishes The Village Minstrel (w) | ||
| 1821 | Constable: The Hay Wain (a) | |
| 1822 | Royal Aademy of Music founded | |
| Monroe Doctrine establishes US foreign policy | 1823 | |
| Completion of the Erie Canal | 1825 | |
| Cooper: The Last of the Mohicans (w) | 1826 | Amelia Opie: The Negro's Complaint (w) |
| Andrew Jackson becomes President | 1829 | Robert Peel sets up Metropolitan Police |
| back to top | 1830s | |
| Indian Removal Act | 1830 | George IV dies; William IV becomes king |
| Opening of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad | Opening of Liverpool–Manchester railway | |
| Nat Turner's revolt | 1831 | Constable: Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows (a) |
| McCormick patents the reaper | ||
| 1832 | Parliament passes Great Reform Act | |
| Walter Hunt invents sewing machine; doesn't patent it | 1833 | Slavery abolished in the British Empire |
| 1834 | Houses of Parliament burnt down | |
| Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy in America (w) | 1835 | |
| Samuel Colt invents the revolver | 1836 | Pugin: Contrasts (w) |
| McGuffey: Eclectic Readers (w) | Paxton builds Conservatory at Chatsworth | |
| Cole: The Oxbow and The Course of Empire (a) | ||
| Oberlin becomes the first coeducational college in the US | 1837 | William IV dies; Victoria becomes queen |
| Samule Morse patents the telegraph | Charles Babbage's Analtrical Engine described | |
| Hawthorne: Twice-Told Tales (w) | ||
| Cooper: Gleanings in Europe (w) | ||
| 1838 | First rail line into London opens (from Birmingham) | |
| Dickens: Nicholas Nickleby (w) | ||
| back to top | 1840s | |
| Longfellow: The Village Blacksmith (w) | 1840 | Penny post inaugurated |
| International Conference on Slavery, London | ||
| Vaccination for the poor introduced | ||
| Rebuilding of Houses of Parliament begins | ||
| Poe: The Murders in the Rue Morgue (w) | 1841 | |
| First operation using ether | 1842 | Dickens: American Notes (w) |
| Morse demonstrates his telegraph | Nash: All Souls, Langham Place | |
| Charles Dickens' first visit to America | ||
| Alexander: Portrait of Charles Dickens (a) | ||
| Longfellow: Poems on Slavery (w) | ||
| 1843 | Brunel launches the Great Eastern | |
| Opening of the Thames Tunnel | ||
| Balfe: The Bohemian Girl (m) | ||
| Elzabeth Barrett: Cry of the Children (w) | ||
| 1844 | Hood: The Bridge of Sighs (w) | |
| Journalist John O'Sullivan coins term "Manifest Destiny" | 1845 | Irish potato famine (to 1849) |
| Thoreau builds cabin at Walden Pond | ||
| Robert Mills submits designs for Washington Monument | ||
| Margaret Fuller: Woman in the Nineteenth Century (w) | ||
| Mexican War begins | 1846 | Winterhalter: Family of Queen Victoria (a) |
| Melville: Typee (w) | ||
| Mexican War ends with the acquisition of CA and NM | 1848 | DG Rossetti founds the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood |
| California gold rush begins | ||
| First Women's Convention, Seneca Falls | ||
| Renwick: Smithsonian building | 1849 | |
| back to top | 1850s | |
| Fugitive Slave Act passed | 1850 | |
| Missouri Compromise | ||
| Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter (w) | ||
| Melvile: Moby-Dick (w) | 1851 | The Great Exhibition |
| Leutze: Washington Crossing the Delaware (a) | Saltaire founded by Sir Titus Salt | |
| Stowe: Uncle Tom's Cabin (w) | 1852 | Millais: Ophelia (a) |
| Commodore Perry opens trade with Japan | 1853 | Crimean War begins |
| Republican Party founded on abolitionist platform | 1854 | Brunel: Paddington Station |
| Fry writes Niagara Symphony for PT Barnum (m) | Foster: Jeanie with the light brown hair (m) | |
| Gaskell: North and South (w) | ||
| Longfellow: The Song of Hiawatha (w) | 1855 | Holman Hunt: The Awakening Conscience (a) |
| 1856 | Crimean War ends | |
| Supreme Court rejects Dred Scott's petition for freedom | 1857 | Sepoy Rebellion (aka. Indian Mutiny) |
| Elisha Otis demonstrates the safety elevator | ||
| 1858 | Proclamation of the British Raj (government takeover) | |
| Egg: Past and Present (a) | ||
| First oil well, at Titusville PA | 1859 | Barker: Relief of Lucknow (a) |
| John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry | Darwin: On the Origin of Species (w) | |
| Johnson: Negro Life at the South (a) | Webb & Morris: The Red House | |
| Bierstadt visits the Rockies for the first time | Christina Rossetti: Goblin Market (w) | |
| Tennyson: Idylls of the King, first volume (w) | ||
| back to top | 1860s | |
| Abraham Lincoln elected president | 1860 | Florence Nightingale founds School of Nursing |
| Winchester repeating rifle | Scott: Iron and Coal (a) | |
| Civil War begins | 1861 | Albert, Prince Consort dies; Victoria goes into mourning |
| Leutze: Westward the Course of Empire (a) | Eliot: Silas Marner (w) | |
| Hugues Merle: The Scarlet Letter (a) | Isabella Beeton: Book of Household Management (w) | |
| William Morris founds Morris & Co. | ||
| 1862 | Nicholls: Victorian Family at the Seaside (a) | |
| Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation | 1863 | London Underground opens |
| First oil pipeline | 1864 | Natural History Museum begun |
| Patmore: The Angel in the House, vol 1 (w) | ||
| Civil War ends | 1865 | |
| Lincoln assassinated | ||
| Ku Klux Klan founded | ||
| Whitman: When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed (w) | ||
| 13th Amendment ends slavery | 1866 | Lewis Carroll: Alice in Wonderland (w) |
| Susan B. Anthony founds American ERA | ||
| Johnson: Fiddling his Way (a) | ||
| Invention of barbed wire | 1867 | Royal Albert Hall begun |
| Charles Dickens' second visit to America | 1868 | Joseph Lister discovers disinfectant |
| Alcott: Little Women (w) | Waterhouse: Manchester Town Hall | |
| Transcontinental railroad completed | 1869 | |
| back to top | 1870s | |
| 1870 | Education Act ensures universal schooling | |
| First Married Women's Property Act | ||
| President Grant proscribes the Ku Klux Klan | 1871 | Opening of the Royal Albert Hall |
| Yellowstone National Park created | 1872 | Eliot: Middlemarch (w) |
| Alcott: Work: a Story of Experience (w) | ||
| Christopher Latham Sholes invents the typewriter | 1873 | |
| Homer: The Red Schoolhouse | ||
| First structural steel bridge (Mississippi at St. Louis) | 1874 | |
| American Natural History Museum begun | ||
| Art Students League of NY founded | 1875 | |
| Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone | 1876 | Queen Victoria declared Empress of India |
| Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia | ||
| Central Park opened in NYC | ||
| Battle of Little Bighorn | ||
| Mark Twain: Tom Sawyer (w) | ||
| Edison invents the phonogaph | 1877 | |
| Great Railroad Strike nationwide | ||
| Thomas Edison creates first commercial light bulb | 1879 | |
| Revised edition of McGuffey Readers | ||
| Carr: The Beach at Coney Island (a) | ||
| back to top | 1880s | |
| Richardson: Albany City Hall | 1880 | Primary education made compulsory |
| Tuskegee Institute founded | 1881 | |
| 1882 | Forth Bridge begun | |
| Brooklyn Bridge opened | 1883 | Royal College of Music founded |
| Mark Twain: Huckleberry Finn (w) | 1884 | |
| Gast: American Progress (a) | 1885 | |
| Statue of Liberty dedicated | 1886 | |
| Burnham & Root: Monadnock Building, Chicago | ||
| George Eastman releases the Kodak box camera | 1888 | Kipling: Plain Tales from the Hills (w) |
| 1889 | Grove: Dictionary of Music (m) | |
| Gilbert & Sullivan: The Gondoliers (m) | ||
| back to top | 1890s | |
| Massacre at Wounded Knee | 1890 | |
| Jacob Riis: How the Other Half Lives (w) | ||
| Jesse Reno introduces escalator as a ride at Coney Island | 1891 | Hardy: Tess of the d'Urbervilles (w) |
| Carnegie Hall opened in New York | ||
| Ives: Variations on "America" (m) | ||
| World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago | 1893 | |
| Dvorak: From the New World (Symphony 9, m) | ||
| Henry Ford builds his first automobile | 1896 | |
| 1897 | World's first wireless station (Isle of Wight) | |
| Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee | ||
| Kipling: Recessional (w) | ||
| Spanish-American War; US gains in Caribbean and Pacific | 1898 | Coleridge-Taylor: Hiawatha's Wedding Feast (m) |
| Eakins: Salutat (a) | ||
| Spanish-American War; US gains the Philippines &c. | 1899 | Elgar: Enigma Variations (m) |
| Frank Norris: McTeague (w) | ||
| back to top | 1900s | |
| 1900 | Dicksee: The Two Crowns (a) | |
| McMillan plans for Washington Mall | 1901 | Queen Victoria dies; Edward VII becomes king |
| Panama Canal opened | Drummond: Assumption of Queen Victoria (a) | |
| Kipling: Kim (w) | ||
| Willis Carrier designs first air-conditioning system | 1902 | Edward German: Merrie England (m) |
| Frank Lloyd Wright: Ward Willits House, Chicago | Charles Rennie Mackintosh: Hill House, Helensburgh | |
| Beatrix Potter: The Tale of Peter Rabbit (w) | ||
| Wright Brothers make their first powered flight | 1903 | |
| Herbert: Babes in Toyland, his first operetta (m) | ||
| Great Train Robbery movie opens | ||
| Heny Ford introduces the Model T | 1908 | |
| Bellows: The Beach at Coney Island (a) | ||
| back to top | 1910s | |
| 1910 | Aston Webb begins redesign of the Mall | |
| Ethel Smyth: March of the Women (m) | ||
| Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire in NYC | 1911 | |
| 1912 | Elgar and Harrison: Masque, Crown of India (m) | |
| Armory Show in New York City | 1913 | "Cat and Mouse Act" passed to deal with hunger strikers |
| DW Griffith: The Birth of a Nation (film) | 1915 | |
| Berlin: God Bless America (m) | 1918 | Women of property gain the right to vote |
| back to top | 1920s | |
| 19th Amendment gives women the right to vote | 1920 | |
| 1921 | British Empire reaches its maximum size | |
| Melville's unfinished Billy Budd published | 1924 | |
| Philo Farnsworth demonstrates the first television | 1927 | |
| 1928 | All women gain the right to vote |