The industrial era, from about 1760 to 1914, begins with steam power and the first factories in Britain. Railways, the telegraph and later electricity transformed work, travel and cities.
It is also the age of the American and French revolutions, the campaigns that ended the Atlantic slave trade, and Darwin's theory of evolution, and it ends with the outbreak of the First World War.
Explore this era on the timeline
Key events of the Industrial era
37,323 events are on the timeline for this era; these are among the most notable, in date order.
- from 1760 to 1820Industrial Revolution
- 1766Discovery of hydrogen
- 1771Discovery of oxygen
- 1772Discovery of barium
- 1772Discovery of nitrogen
- 1774Discovery of chlorine
- 1774Discovery of manganese
- from 19 April 1775 to 3 September 1783American Revolutionary War
- 1777Discovery of sulfur
- 1778Discovery of molybdenum
- 13 March 1781Discovery of Uranus
- 1783Discovery of tellurium
- 1783Discovery of tungsten
- 1787Discovery of strontium
- 1787Discovery of yttrium
- 11 January 1787Discovery of Titania
- 11 January 1787Discovery of Oberon
- 1789Discovery of zirconium
- 1789Discovery of uranium
- 1789Discovery of carbon
- from 14 July 1789 to 9 November 1799French Revolution
- 28 August 1789Discovery of Enceladus
- 17 September 1789Discovery of Mimas
- 1790Sewing machine
- 1791Discovery of titanium
- 1792Publication of Dream of the Red Chamber
- 12 May 1792Founding of New York Stock Exchange
- 10 August 1793Construction of Louvre Museum
- 14 May 1796Edward Jenner performs the first smallpox vaccination
- 1797Discovery of chromium
- 1798Discovery of beryllium
- 15 July 1799The Rosetta Stone is found
- 1800Battery
- from 18th century to 19th centuryRomanticism
- c. 1800sRise of nationalism
- 1 November 1800Construction of White House
- 1801Discovery of niobium
- 1801Discovery of vanadium
- 1802Discovery of tantalum
- 1803Discovery of rhodium
- 1803Discovery of palladium
- 1803Discovery of iridium
- 1804Discovery of cerium
- 1804Discovery of osmium
- 1807Discovery of sodium
- 1807Discovery of potassium
- 1808Discovery of calcium
- 30 June 1808Discovery of boron
- 1810Discovery of fluorine
- 1811Discovery of iodine
- 16 March 1815Founding of Kingdom of the Netherlands
- 1817Discovery of cadmium
- 1817Discovery of lithium
- 1817Discovery of selenium
- 5 May 1821Founding of The Guardian
- 27 September 1822Champollion deciphers the hieroglyphs
- 1823Discovery of silicon
- 7 May 1824Beethoven's Ninth Symphony premieres
- 1825Discovery of aluminium
- 1825Discovery of bromine
- 1828Discovery of thorium
- 1830Publication of Book of Mormon
- 1835Coriolis force
- 7 April 1837Publication of The Little Mermaid
- 1839Photography
- 1839Cell theory
- January 1839Discovery of lanthanum
- 1841Discovery of praseodymium
- 3 May 1841Founding of New Zealand
- 1843Discovery of terbium
- 1843Discovery of erbium
- 1844Discovery of ruthenium
- 24 May 1844Morse sends 'What hath God wrought'
- 23 September 1846Discovery of Neptune
- 10 October 1846Discovery of Triton
- 21 February 1848Publication of The Communist Manifesto
- 18 September 1851Founding of The New York Times
- 1856Refrigerator
- 1857Rise of Symbolism
- 1860Discovery of caesium
- c. 1860sImpressionism
- 1861Discovery of rubidium
- 1861Discovery of thallium
- from 12 April 1861 to 9 April 1865American Civil War
- 1863Discovery of indium
- 1863Origins of Baháʼí Faith
- 17 February 1863Founding of International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
- 1865Maxwell publishes his theory of electromagnetism
- from 1868 to 1889Meiji Restoration
- 18 August 1868Discovery of helium
- 6 March 1869Periodic table
- 17 November 1869Construction of Suez Canal
- 1873Invention of electrical generator
- 1875Discovery of gallium
- 1876Telephone
- 1877Invention of phonograph
- 12 August 1877Discovery of Deimos
- 17 August 1877Discovery of Phobos
- 1878Discovery of holmium
- 1878Discovery of ytterbium
- 1879Discovery of samarium
- 1879Discovery of thulium
- 1879Invention of incandescent light bulb
- 1879Discovery of scandium
- 22 October 1879Edison's carbon-filament lamp burns for 13 hours
- 1880Discovery of gadolinium
- 19 March 1882Construction of Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Holy Family
- 1884Car
- 1885Bicycle
- 1885Discovery of neodymium
- 1886Discovery of dysprosium
- 1886Discovery of germanium
- 1886Statue of Liberty
- 31 March 1889Construction of Eiffel Tower
- 1890Rise of Art Nouveau
- 1894Discovery of argon
- 1894Radio
- 23 June 1894Founding of International Olympic Committee
- 28 December 1895The Lumiere brothers hold the first public film screening
- from 6 April 1896 to 15 April 1896The first modern Olympic Games open in Athens
- 1897Electron
- 1898Discovery of radium
- 1898Discovery of neon
- 1898Discovery of krypton
- 1898Discovery of polonium
- 12 July 1898Discovery of xenon
- 1899Discovery of actinium
- 1899Discovery of radon
- c. 1900sRise of Expressionism
- c. 1900sRise of modernism
- 1900Quantum mechanics
- 14 December 1900Max Planck introduces the quantum
- 1901Discovery of europium
- 1 January 1901Founding of Australia
- 17 May 1901Discovery of Antikythera mechanism
- 1903Airplane
- 1903Rise of Bolsheviks
- 17 December 1903The Wright brothers make the first powered flight
- 21 May 1904Founding of FIFA
- 1905Special relativity
- 1905Einstein's miracle year
- 1906Discovery of lutetium
- 1907Rise of cubism
- 1907Rise of scouting
- 17 December 1907Founding of Bhutan
- 7 August 1908Discovery of Venus of Willendorf
- 1909Rise of Futurism
- c. 1910sRise of Dada
- 24 July 1911Hiram Bingham reaches Machu Picchu
- 14 December 1911Amundsen reaches the South Pole