Chronology
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In the World

We had telephones, trains and typewriters, but no cars or computers,
We had bicycles and magic lanterns, but no aeroplanes, cinemas or television,
Electric lighting and the electric iron had just been invented, and cameras using film were a new idea,
The Forth Bridge was under construction....
.... but work had just been halted on the first Channel Tunnel,
There was a transit of Venus, an event not to be repeated until 2004,
Britain invaded Egypt,
Helen Keller lost her hearing and sight,
A A Milne, author of 'Winnie the Pooh', the composer Stravinsky, the suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst, the craftsman Eric Gill and the author Virginia Woolf were born,
Darwin, author of 'The Origin of Species, the poet Longfellow, the Italian Garibaldi and the author Anthony Trollope died,
Queen Victoria had reigned for 46 years, and a great deal of the world map was coloured pink,
P T Barnum, of Barnum and Bailey's circus, purchased the elephant 'Jumbo',
Robert Koch discovered the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis,
Wagner composed his opera 'Parsifal', and Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Treasure Island' was published in serial form,
women were admitted to the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge on the same terms as men,
and the Married Women's Property Act in Britain enabled women to buy, own and sell property, and to keep their own earnings.


In Portsmouth
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle set up his medical practice, and Kipling, after an unhappy childhood, left for India.
HMS Colossus, Portsmouth's first steel ship, was launched.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth was formed, and work started in the building of the Catholic Cathedral of St John.

And Portsmouth High School was founded!