istoryworld
Events relating to europe
Alfred Tennyson's elegy for a friend, In Memoriam, captures perfectly the Victorian mood of heightened sensibility
British engineer Robert Stephenson completes a box-girder railway bridge over the Menai Strait, between Anglesey and mainland Wales
English cartoonist John Tenniel begins a 50-year career drawing for the satirical magazine Punch
Marian Evans meets the journalist George Henry Lewes in William Jeff's bookshop in Burlington Arcade
Thomas Cubitt completes Osborne House, designed as a quiet retreat for Victoria and Albert on the Isle of Wight
Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto, based on a play by Victor Hugo, is a huge success at its premiere in Venice
English photographer Frederick Scott Archer publishes the details of his collodion process, a marked improvement on the earlier calotype negative
English textile magnate Titus Salt begins to build Saltaire as a model industrial village for his workers
Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace, built in London in six months, is the world's first example of prefabricated architecture
French physicist Léon Foucault demonstrates the rotation of the earth by means of a long pendulum suspended in the Pantheon in Paris
Marian Evans (her new spelling of her name) moves to London and gets a job as subeditor of Westminster Review
The Great Exhibition attracts six million visitors to London's new Crystal Palace in a period of only six months
The president of France, Louis Napoleon, stages a coup d'état, rounding up his political opponents during a long December night
Queen Victoria opens the new Houses of Parliament, designed by Charles Barry and Augustus Welby Pugin
Scottish physicist William Thomson formulates the second law of thermodynamics, concerning the transfer of heat within a closed system
Russia insists that her exclusive rights over the Holy Places are enshrined in the treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji
Louis Napoleon, asking the French people to approve his elevation to emperor as Napoleon III, receives a resounding yes in the plebiscite
London physician Peter Mark Roget publishes his dictionary of synonyms, the Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases
Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore is a success at its premiere in Rome
Just six weeks after the success of Il Trovatore, Giuseppe Verdi's opera La Traviata is a disaster at its premiere in Venice
In a worsening diplomatic crisis, Russia puts her Black Sea fleet in a state of alert at Sebastopol
G.H. Lewes leaves his serially unfaithful wife and begins an affair with Marian Evans
Russia occupies two Ottoman principalities, Moldavia and Wallachia, on the west coast of the Black Sea
In the expectation of British and French support, the Ottoman sultan declares war on Russia - launching the Crimean War
The hypodermic syringe with a plunger is simultaneously developed in France and in Scotland
