istoryworld
Events relating to europe
Brunel's Great Western, a wooden paddle-steamer, arives in New York the day after the Sirius, with the record for an Atlantic crossing already reduced to 15 days
During a ceremony to celebrate their treaty with Dingaan, Piet Retief and his Boer companions are overpowered and killed
Dingaan's warriors massacre Boer families in a series of dawn raids near the Bloukrans river
The London Prize Ring rules disallow kicking, gouging, head-butting and biting in the sport of boxing
The People's Charter, with its six political demands, launches the Chartist movement in England
J.M.W. Turner paints an icon of British art, The Fighting Téméraire
The river Ncome becomes known as the Blood River after thousands of Zulu die attacking Andries Pretorius and the Boers
Seven Manchester merchants and mill-owners found the Anti-Corn Law League
The British seize the strategic port of Aden and administer it as a province annexed to India
A British army invades Afghanistan and instals a puppet ruler, Shuja Shah, as the Afghan amir
Abd-el-Kader proclaims a holy war against the French in Algeria and begins a military campaign that will last for eight years
Andries Pretorius sets up the Boer republic of Natalia, with its capital at Pietermaritzburg
British troops invade China after the Chinese authorities seize and destroy the opium stocks of British merchants in Canton
Polish composer Frédéric Chopin completes his Preludes under difficult conditions in Majorca
The French painter Gustave Courbet moves from his native town of Ornans to Paris
Swiss scientist Louis Agassiz argues, in his Study on Glaciers, that much of Europe was recently in the grip of an ice age
Napoleon's remains are brought to Paris for burial in Les Invalides, as the Napoleonic legend grows
Rowland Hill introduces in Britain the world's first postage stamps - the Penny Black and Two Pence Blue
Victoria marries Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and soon, with nine children, they provide the very image of the ideal Victorian family
The Straits Convention, agreed between the European powers and Turkey, is a concerted attempt to prop up the Ottoman empire
Fox Talbot patents the 'calotype', introducing the negative-positive process that becomes standard in photography
With a teetotallers' rail trip for 570 people, Thomas Cook introduces the notion of the package tour
Britain sends four naval ships up the river Niger to make anti-slavery treaties with local kings
Lord Shaftesbury's Mines Act makes it illegal for boys under 13, and women and girls of any age, to be employed underground in Britain
The British abandon Kabul, losing most of the garrison force in the withdrawal to India and bringing to an end the first Anglo-Afghan war
