The Victorian Age: A Timeline

A timeline of the events relevant to the Victorian Age.

Timeline

Table of Events

Date	Event	Created by
1851	Crystal Palace opens In 1851, the Crystal Palace opens, housing the Great Exhibition of 1851. This monumental glass and iron structure was simultaneously a building, an event, and a phenomenon: a department store, a world's fair, an anthropological museum, and a trade exhibition. Articles Jules Law, “The Victorian Stereoscope” Related Articles Anne Helmreich, "On the Opening of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, 1854"	David Rettenmaier
May 1781	Sunday Observance Act In 1781, passage of what is commonly known as the Sunday Observance Law. Discussion of the bill in the House of Commons started on May 3, 1781. Image: The Rt. Revd. Beilby Porteus, Bishop of London, printed by Fisher, Son & Co., London, 1833. Print of engraving by H. Meyer after J. Hoppner R. A.. This is a faithful photographic reproduction of an original two-dimensional work of art, and, so, is public domain, following U.S. case of Bridgeman v. Corel (1999). Passage of this Act, formally titled “Act for Preventing Certain Abuses and Profanations on the Lord’s Day, Called Sunday,” had a powerful, repressive effect on British society and culture for more than a century-and-a-half, as noted by both its proponent (Bishop Beilby Porteus) and its many Victorian critics, among them John Stuart Mill in On Liberty. Articles Christopher Lane, "On the Victorian Afterlife of the 1781 Sunday Observance Act"	David Rettenmaier
2 Mar 1815	Corn Law Act On 23 March 1815, parliament passed the Corn Law Act of 1815. Image: the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Corn Law Act of 1815 prohibited the importation of grain when the prices in the domestic market were high. The Act was repealed on 25 June 1846. Articles Ayse Çelikkol, "On the Repeal of the Corn Laws, 1846"	David Rettenmaier
18 Jun 1815	Battle of Waterloo On 18 June 1815, Wellington led Allied troops to a final victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, ending Napoleon’s “Hundred Days” of rule after his escape from Elba on 26 February. The war is officially ended by the 1815 Treaty of Paris, and Napoleon is sentenced to permanent imprisonment at St. Helena, where he dies in 1821. Image: Richard Knötel, Print of English Life Guards (left) and Horse Guards (right) of 1815 charging (Band IV, Tafel 4, Uniformenkunde, Lose Blätter zur Geschichte der Entwicklung der militärischen Tracht, Berlin, 1890). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired. Related Articles Sean Grass, “On the Death of the Duke of Wellington, 14 September 1852″ Mary Favret, "The Napoleonic Wars" Frederick Burwick, “18 June 1815: The Battle of Waterloo and the Literary Response”	David Rettenmaier
16 Aug 1819	Peterloo massacre On 16 August 1819, at St. Peter’s Field, Manchester, more than 60,000 workers gathered to demonstrate in favor of an expansion of suffrage in England. In an attempt to disperse the crowd and arrest the organizers of the demonstration, local cavalry and members of the 15th Hussars and 88th Foot attacked the crowd, killing a dozen protestors and injuring as many as 600. Though Wellington was not involved, the incident was dubbed “Peterloo” because of his persistent opposition to reform in the House of Lords. Image: Richard Carlisle, To Henry Hunt, Esq., as chairman of the emeeting assembled in St. Peter's Field, Manchester, sixteenth day of August, 1819, and to the female Reformers of Manchester and the adjacent towns who were exposed to and suffered from the wanton and fiendish attack made on them by that brutal armed force, the Manchester and Cheshire Yeomanry Cavalry, this plate is dedicated by their fellow labourer, Richard Carlile: a coloured engraving that depicts the Peterloo Massacre (1 October 1819), Manchester Library Services. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired. Related Articles James Chandler, “On Peterloo, 16 August 1819″ Sean Grass, “On the Death of the Duke of Wellington, 14 September 1852″	David Rettenmaier
12 May 1820	Birth of Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy on 12 May 1829. Nightingale will one day aid soldiers in the Crimean War and reform nursing, statistics, and the War Office. Image: Photograph of Florence Nightingale (1858). This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired. Articles Lara Kriegel, “On the Death—and Life—of Florence Nightingale, August 1910″ Related Articles Arlene Young, “The Rise of the Victorian Working Lady: The New-Style Nurse and the Typewriter, 1840-1900″	David Rettenmaier
9 Jan 1828	Wellington made Prime Minister On 9 January 1828, shortly after the death of Prime Minister George Canning in August 1827, and after Lord Goderich’s failed attempt to form a government, King George IV asked Wellington to serve as Prime Minister and form a Tory cabinet. Image: Sir Thomas Lawrence, Portrait of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1814). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired. Articles Sean Grass, “On the Death of the Duke of Wellington, 14 September 1852″	David Rettenmaier
9 May 1828	Sacramental Test Act Sacramental Test Act passed on 9 May 1828. Image: John Jabez Edwin Mayall, Portrait of Lord John Russell. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired. Introduced by Lord John Russell and passed in 1828, the Sacramental Test Act repealed the Corporation Act of 1661 and the Test Act of 1673. Those Acts had required individuals who held municipal, civil, or military office to take communion in the Church of England and to declare that they did not believe in transubstantiation. Initially aimed at keeping Catholics out of public office, these Acts ended up restricting Protestants who were not Anglicans. However, in the century and a half following the passage of the Test and Corporation Acts, the growing social power of Dissenting religions in England gradually eased those strictures. Articles Elsie B. Michie, "On the Sacramental Test Act, the Catholic Relief Act, the Slavery Abolition Act, and the Factory Act"	David Rettenmaier
1 Apr 1829	Roman Catholic Relief Act Roman Catholic Relief Act received the Royal Assent on 13 April 1829 (sometimes called the Catholic Emancipation Act). Image: the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Catholic Relief Act of 1829 allowed Catholics to become Members of Parliament and to hold public offices, but it also raised the property qualifications that allowed individuals in Ireland to vote. The passage of the Catholic Relief Act marked a shift in English political power from the House of Lords to the House of Commons. The Act was led by the Duke of Wellington and passed despite initially serious opposition from both the House of Lords and King George IV. Articles Elsie B. Michie, "On the Sacramental Test Act, the Catholic Relief Act, the Slavery Abolition Act, and the Factory Act" Related Articles Carolyn Vellenga Berman, “On the Reform Act of 1832″ Sean Grass, “On the Death of the Duke of Wellington, 14 September 1852″	David Rettenmaier
15 Sep 1830	Opening of Liverpool & Manchester Railway On 15 September 1830, the world’s first major passenger railway opened with a huge celebration—and an unforgettable tragedy. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway stages a grand public opening with dignitaries including then-prime-minster Duke of Wellington. But, before the inaugural trains reach their destination, a fatal accident occurs to MP William Huskisson and, in Manchester, the cheering crowds give way to angry political protests. Image: The Remains of Stephenson's 'Rocket', 1829. Used with permission. Copyright (c) National Railway Museum / Science & Society Picture Library. Articles Paul Fyfe, “On the Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, 1830″	David Rettenmaier
29 Aug 1833	Slavery Abolition Act The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 received the Royal Assent (which means it became law) on 29 August 1833. The Act outlawed slavery throughout the British Empire; Britain’s colonial slaves were officially emancipated on 1 August 1834 when the law came into force, although most entered a form of obligatory apprenticeship that ended in 1840. Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Image: the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Articles Elsie B. Michie, "On the Sacramental Test Act, the Catholic Relief Act, the Slavery Abolition Act, and the Factory Act" Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″	David Rettenmaier
29 Aug 1833	Factory Act Act to Regulate the Labour of Children and Young Persons in the Mills and Factories of the United Kingdom passed on 29 August 1833. Image: the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Articles Elsie B. Michie, "On the Sacramental Test Act, the Catholic Relief Act, the Slavery Abolition Act, and the Factory Act" Related Articles Peter Capuano, “On Sir Charles Bell’s The Hand, 1833″	David Rettenmaier
9 Sep 1833 to 25 Jan 1841	Tracts for the Times: 1833-1841 Between 1833 and 1841, members of the Oxford Movement (including John Henry Newman, John Keble, Edward Pusey, Hurrell Froude, Benjamin Harrison, and others) published 90 pamphlets in defense of Anglo-Catholic doctrine. The Tracts for the Times were vital in disseminating and consolidating the principles of the Oxford Movement, or Tractarianism as it was henceforth known. Image: This image is in the public domain in the United States. Articles Kimberly J. Stern, "The Publication of John Pentland Mahaffy's The Decay of Modern Preaching (1882)" Related Articles Laura Mooneyham White, "On Pusey's Oxford Sermon on the Eucharist, 24 May 1843" Miriam Burstein, "The 'Papal Aggression' Controversy, 1850-52" Barbara Charlesworth Gelpi, "14 July 1833: John Keble's Assize Sermon, National Apostasy"	David Rettenmaier
14 May 1842	The Illustrated London News launched On May 14 1842, The Illustrated London News, a mass-circulation periodical, was launched. Image: Masthead of the Illustrated London News. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired. Articles Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, “The Moxon Tennyson as Textual Event: 1857, Wood Engraving, and Visual Culture”	David Rettenmaier
24 May 1843	Pusey’s Oxford Sermon on the Eucharist On 24 May 1843, E. B. Pusey gave a sermon at Christ Church, Oxford, on “The Holy Eucharist a Comfort to the Penitent”; the University authorities deemed the sermon heretical and punished Pusey, an act which constituted a key skirmish between the Oxford Movement and the Established Church. Image: Engraving of Edward Bouverie Pusey, from Rev. C. Arthur Lane, Illustrated Notes on English Church History (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1901). This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired. Articles Laura Mooneyham White, "On Pusey's Oxford Sermon on the Eucharist, 24 May 1843" Related Articles Barbara Charlesworth Gelpi, "14 July 1833: John Keble's Assize Sermon, National Apostasy"	David Rettenmaier
9 Oct 1845 to 9 Oct 1845	John Henry Cardinal Newman’s conversion to Catholicism On 9 October 1845, Newman was formally received into the Catholic Church in Littlemore, where he had resided for approximately three years. Image: John Henry Newman by John Everett Millais. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Articles Kimberly J. Stern, "The Publication of John Pentland Mahaff's The Decay of Modern Preaching (1882)"	David Rettenmaier
25 Jun 1846	Repeal of Corn Laws The repeal of the Corn Laws on 25 June 1846. Reversing decades of protectionism, the repeal of the Corn Laws lifted restrictions on the importation of foreign grain. Image: the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Articles Ayse Çelikkol, "On the Repeal of the Corn Laws, 1846" Related Articles Peter Melville Logan, “On Culture: Matthew Arnold’s Culture and Anarchy, 1869″ Robert O’Kell, “On Young England”	David Rettenmaier
Feb 1848	Roman villa discovered In February 1848, a Roman villa was discovered in Lower Thames St., resulting from the excavation undertaken during construction of the new Coal Exchange. Image: Engraving, “Roman Villa Discovered in Lower Thames-Street,” from the Illustrated London News, 5 February 1848. This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired. Articles Virginia Zimmerman, "On Accidental Archaeology"	David Rettenmaier
4 Mar 1848	Illustrated London News's "The French Revolution" On 4 March 1848, the Illustrated London News publishes a special commemorative double number (numbers 305 and 306, vol. 12), “The French Revolution.” Image: Masthead of the Illustrated London News. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired. Articles Jo Briggs, “1848 and 1851: A Reconsideration of the Historical Narrative”	David Rettenmaier
14 Sep 1852	Death of Wellington On 14 September 1852, Wellington died at Walmer Castle at age 83 after what was most likely a stroke, touching off an extraordinary period of mourning because of a two-month delay between his death and his massive and elaborate state funeral. Image: Sir Thomas Lawrence, Portrait of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1814). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired. Articles Sean Grass, “On the Death of the Duke of Wellington, 14 September 1852″	David Rettenmaier
28 Mar 1854	Britain declares war against Russia On 28 March 1854, Britain declares war against Russia, thus entering the Crimean War. Image: Russo-British skirmish during Crimean War (anonymous plate). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired. In 1854, in defense of the Turks and of British access to eastern trade routes, Britain entered into war in the Crimea. The two-year campaign represented the nation’s first major military engagement since the end of the Napoleonic wars. It thus sheds light on mid-Victorian attitudes towards national identity, offering a counter-narrative to views of the 1850s dominated by responses to the Great Exhibition of 1851. As literary and visual representations of the war reveal, reactions to this conflict were both more nuanced and more ambivalent than our preconceptions about Victorian jingoism might anticipate. Articles Stefanie Markovits, "On the Crimean War and the Charge of the Light Brigade"	David Rettenmaier
10 Jun 1854	Sydenham Crystal Palace opens Opening of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham on 10 June 1854. Image: The Crystal Palace on fire (30 November 1936; author unknown). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired. The resurrection of the Crystal Palace of 1851 in its new setting at Sydenham, with an expanded architectural complex and enhanced functional brief, embodies the Victorian emphasis upon visuality as a means of acquiring and conveying knowledge. In addition, the new Crystal Palace was shaped by prevailing concepts of rational recreation and beneficial commerce that insisted that private and public interests could be simultaneously satisfied and lead to a stronger nation and even Empire. Articles Anne Helmreich, "On the Opening of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, 10 June 1854" Related Articles Audrey Jaffe, "On the Great Exhibition" Aviva Briefel, "On the 1886 Colonial and Indian Exhibition" Anne Clendinning, “On The British Empire Exhibition, 1924-25″	David Rettenmaier
1855	Alexander Bain, The Senses and the Intellect Publication of Alexander Bain's The Senses and the Intellect Articles ">Irena Yamboliev, “Christopher Dresser, Physiological Ornamentist” Related Articles ">Shannon Draucker, “Hearing, Sensing, Feeling Sound: On Music and Physiology in Victorian England, 1857-1894” ">Scott C. Thompson, “On G. H. Lewes’s Problems of Life and Mind, 1874—79″	David Rettenmaier
1855	Herbert Spencer, Principles of Psychology Publication of Herbert Spencer's Principles of Psychology. Articles ">Irena Yamboliev, “Christopher Dresser, Physiological Ornamentist” Related Articles ">Shannon Draucker, “Hearing, Sensing, Feeling Sound: On Music and Physiology in Victorian England, 1857-1894” ">Scott C. Thompson, “On G. H. Lewes’s Problems of Life and Mind, 1874—79″	David Rettenmaier
17 Nov 1855	Men and Women On November 17, 1855, publication of Robert Browning’s Men and Women, a two-volume publication of Robert Browning’s major poetic works. Image: Photogravure of Robert Browning by Juliet Margaret Cameron (1865, printed c. 1893). Original is at the Art Institute of Chicago. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired. Robert Browning’s Men and Women was a major literary event in nineteenth-century Britain in its shift of emphasis from the private, atemporal and generally non-social genre of Romantic lyricism to the ironies and enigmas of human awareness and social relationships, to dramatic action in human speech. His men and women are presented overtly as speech acts, grounded in psychological and cultural origins, and in the ambiguities of linguistic processes. Readers often found Browning’s mode of writing obscure, but its methods and implications consistently engage with other domains of Victorian thought, in religion, biology, and psychiatry. While the status of this publication was not widely understood at the time, its value is manifest in its reception history, in the discussion and representations that constitute its ongoing existence as a historical event. Articles E. Warwick Slinn, "On Robert Browning’s Men and Women"	David Rettenmaier
25 May 1857 to 25 Jun 1857	Pre-Raphaelite Art Exhibit Pre-Raphaelite Art Exhibit, Russell Square, London, from 25 May to 25 June 1857. This was the first exhibition devoted solely to the work of the Pre-Raphaelites. Image: Portrait of Dante Gabriel Rossetti: albumen print. This photograph, from 7 October 1863, was reproduced as the frontispiece of: Rossetti, William Michael, Dante Gabriel Rossetti as Designer and Writer. London: Cassell and Company, 1898. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired. Related Articles Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, “The Moxon Tennyson as Textual Event: 1857, Wood Engraving, and Visual Culture”	David Rettenmaier
9 Jul 1860	Nightingale Home and Training School for Nurses opened On 9 July 1860, the Nightingale Home and Training School for Nurses opened its doors. Image: Photograph of Florence Nightingale (1858). This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired. Articles Lara Kriegel, “On the Death—and Life—of Florence Nightingale, August 1910″ Related Articles Arlene Young, “The Rise of the Victorian Working Lady: The New-Style Nurse and the Typewriter, 1840-1900″	David Rettenmaier
1871 to 1872	George Eliot Published Middlemarch Image: Cover to Book 1 of Middlemarch published 1871. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright is expired. Courtesy of the British Library Collections George Eliot's Middlemarch: A Study in Provincial Life published in 8 installments, 1871-72. Articles Jules Law, “Victorian Virtual Reality”	David Rettenmaier
1 Jun 1876 to 1 Jun 1878	Great Indian Famine of 1876–78 [caption id="attachment_3198" align="aligncenter" width="700"] The last of the herd. Author: Horace Harral[/caption]In 1876-8, somewhere between six and eleven million people died in southern and western India of starvation and other famine-related conditions. These estimates are taken from: Davis, Mike. Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World. London: Verso, 2002. Print. pp. 7. Related Articles Kathleen Frederickson, "British Writers on Population, Infrastructure, and the Great Indian Famine of 1876-8"	David Rettenmaier
4 May 1886 to 14 Oct 1886	Colonial and Indian Exhibition The Colonial and Indian Exhibition opened in South Kensington on 4 May 4 1886, lasted over six months, and accommodated 5.5 million visitors. Image: “Woodcarvers (Courtyard of Indian Palace).” “Colonial Indian Exhibition: The Indian Empire.” Illustrated London News 17 July 1886: 84. Courtesy of the Bowdoin College Library, Brunswick, Maine. Featuring extravagant displays from British colonial holdings, the exhibit was organized by the Prince of Wales as an “imperial object lesson” in England’s power and grandeur. Articles Aviva Briefel, "On the 1886 Colonial and Indian Exhibition" Related Articles Audrey Jaffe, "On the Great Exhibition" Anne Helmreich, "On the Opening of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, 10 June 1854" Anne Clendinning, “On The British Empire Exhibition, 1924-25″ Erika Rappaport, “Object Lessons and Colonial Histories: Inventing the Jubilee of Indian Tea”	David Rettenmaier
1 Nov 1887	Bloody Sunday On 13 November 1887, “Bloody Sunday” occurred. Police charged against socialists after a Trafalgar Square protest against unemployment and the Irish Coercion Acts; 75 were wounded. At another Trafalgar Square protest on November 20, a bystander, Alfred Linnell, was trampled by a police horse and later died of wounds. Image: Bloody Sunday, 1887. This engraving from the The Illustrated London News depicts a policeman being clubbed by a demonstrator as he wrests a banner from a female protester. Articles Florence Boos, “The Socialist League, founded 30 December 1884″	David Rettenmaier
27 Jun 1894	End of the 3-Volume Novel On 27 June 1894, Mudie’s Select Library and W. H. Smith’s, the largest of the private circulating libraries that provided many Victorians with their reading material, issued simultaneous announcements specifying the new terms on which they would buy novels from publishers, beginning in the next calendar year. This change spelled the effective end of the 3-volume system; whereas 112 three-volume works were published in 1894, only two were published in 1897. Image: "Going to Mudie's," London Society v.16, no. 95, Nov. 1869. This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired. Articles Richard Menke, “The End of the Three-Volume Novel System, 27 June 1894″	David Rettenmaier