Example Chronology

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This is a chronology for testing purposes. Users can provide a title and full description here. This is intended for establishing the purpose and scope of the chronology. The bulk of the work will happen in the second step: after saving this page, users will add individual entries to the chronology using the "Add items" link on this page, which will automatically set this chronology as a parent to any entries created. They can easily add many chronology entries at a time by clicking the "Add another" link. 

Timeline

Chronological table

Displaying 1 - 6 of 6
Date Event Created by Associated Places
20 Jun 1837

Victoria comes to the throne after the death of William IV

Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria

Victoria became queen at the age of 18 after the death of her uncle, William IV. She reigned for more than 60 years, longer than any other British monarch. Her reign was a period of significant social, economic and technological change, which saw the expansion of Britain's industrial power and of the British empire.

Test Annotator
1838

Charles Dickens' 'Oliver Twist' is published

Charles Dickens was one of the greatest Victorian novelists. 'Oliver Twist' was, like many of Dickens' other novels, originally published in serial form and brought to public attention contemporary social evils. Dickens' other works included 'The Pickwick Papers', 'A Christmas Carol', 'David Copperfield' and 'Great Expectations'.

David Rettenmaier
1 May 1851

The Great Exhibition opens at the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London

The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace

This event was the brainchild of Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, and was designed to provide a showcase for the world's most advanced inventions, manufactures and works of art. It was housed in the massive 19-acre Crystal Palace, designed by Joseph Paxton. The event attracted almost six million visitors during the five summer months it was open. Many ordinary people travelled to London for the first time on cheap-rate excursion trains.

David Rettenmaier
1862

Les Misérables

In 1862 Victor Hugo Published the book Les Miserable. This novel is considered to be one of the longest ever written with 48 books and 350+ chapters. This novel was very important for its time period and was considered one of the greatest ever written. 

Jacob Yasso
circa. 1892 to circa. 1893

Lady Windermeres Fan

Oscar Wilde's play, Lady Windermere's Fan, was a four acts play that was first performed in 1892 and was published the following year. The reviews of the play were strictly positive and they thought Wilde was nothing unless witty and brilliant. The play is about the jealousy that Lady Windermere faces when she sees her husband fawning over an older woman. When in fact, the older woman is Lady Windermere's mother who was presumed dead 20 years prior and is using her husband as a way to reunite with Lady Windermere. Lady Windermere's Fan was one of Wilde's first "comedies" and used shrewd satire of Victorian high society in order to achieve this. Wilde wrote Lady Windermere's Fan as a way to highlight the Victorian culture and how pretentious it was, he wanted to highlight the impact that had especially on the woman in society. 

 

Sources: 

“Lady Windermere's Fan.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lady-Windermeres-Fan.

 
Mackenzie Warren
circa. The end of the month Spring 1895 to circa. The middle of the month Spring 1897

Trials of Oscar Wilde

On may 25th, 1895, Oscar Wilde was put in prison for gross indecency. Queensberry (Sir John Sholto Douglas) accused him of having homosexual relationships with other men and Wilde tried to deny these claims by accusing Douglas of libel. When this backfired he refrained from leaving England, stayed for the trials, and ended up getting sentenced to two years in prison with hard labor. Before the trial began, it is believed Wilde got romantically involved with Alfred Douglas whose father, Sir John Sholto Douglas, found out and accused Wilde of Sodomy. Queensberry told his son Alfred to stop all contact with Wilde or he’d “disown… and stop all money supplies” (Source 2). Oscar denied these claims and figured that his public image would help him in a trial against this man. As a way to defend himself, he went on to convict Sir Douglas of Libel. However, Douglas argued that Wilde solicited twelve men to commit Sodomy between the years of 1892 and 1894. On the third day of the proceedings Wilde's Lawyer found there was “abundant evidence of clients guilt” and he chose to withdraw from the case (Source 1).

After the libel drama with Queensberry, Sir Edward Clarke, Wilde’s lawyer, “urged Wilde to drop the case” and flee to France until the drama over his public image dies down (Source 2). After failing to accuse Queensberry of Libel, Wilde was accused of gross indecency, a very serious charge up until the late 1960s when England decriminalized same sex relationships. Wilde remained in England throughout the gross indecency trial. During this time the line from A Picture of Dorian Grey reading “love that dare not speak its name” was cross examined extensively (Source 1). While Oscar Wilde secured a mistrial on his first trial, during the second trial, beginning on May 21st, Oscar Wilde was convicted of gross indecency. Despite many potential witnesses not betraying Wilde and the Judge thinking that this was a trial without adequate evidence for conviction, Wilde was sentenced to two years in prison with hard labor and no bail. By the time Oscar Wilde got out of prison on May 19th of 1897 he was exiled to France and died there three years later at age 45 in poverty. 

Sources: 

  1. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/oscar-wilde-is-sent-to-prison-for-indecency (Source 1)
  2. https://www.biography.com/news/oscar-wilde-trials-downfall-gross-indecency (Source 2)
  3. https://time.com/3890539/oscar-wilde-trial-history/ (Source 3)

​​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXbpox7l8r0 (Source 4)

Elliott Dynes