The Orient Express was a luxury long-distance train service run by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, a company founded by the Belgian entrepreneur Georges Nagelmackers. It first linked Paris with Constantinople, today Istanbul, through Central Europe and the Balkans, giving passengers comfortable sleeping cars and fine dining. It was used by diplomats, aristocrats and spies, and became a symbol of glamour and intrigue, appearing in Agatha Christie's novel Murder on the Orient Express. Over the decades the route changed, with variants such as the Simplon Orient Express, and after the Second World War and the Cold War the service declined. The last scheduled train to carry the name was discontinued in 2009.
Before and after
- 30 April 1883Death of Édouard Manet
- from May 1883 to December 1885First Madagascar expedition
- 16 May 1883Birth of Celâl Bayar
- 24 May 1883Construction of Brooklyn Bridge
- from 5 June 1883 to 14 December 2009Orient Express
- 5 June 1883Birth of John Maynard Keynes
- 15 June 1883Bismarck introduces the first national health insurance
- 3 July 1883Birth of Franz Kafka
- 29 July 1883Birth of Benito Mussolini
More in Wars, politics & history
- from 19 April 1775 to 3 September 1783American Revolutionary War
- 4 July 1776United States Declaration of Independence
- 17 September 1787United States Constitution
- from 1803 to 1815Napoleonic Wars
- from 12 April 1861 to 9 April 1865American Civil War
- from 1868 to 1889Meiji Restoration
The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.