List of Dates, A Supplement To
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2015 (2020)
ARCTIC ARCHIPELAGO
§ Three voyages of Martin Frobisher.
§ Two voyages of John Davis.
§ George Waymouth sails "about 100 leagues" into a strait which was to be called Hudson Strait.
§ Voyage of Henry Hudson, "his ten men and a boy," and how they are blocked by Greenland and the ice flows.
§ Hudson in the north-east: the Kara Sea.
§ Hudson, the Dutch, and the East India Co.
§ Inspired by the earlier voyage of Waymouth, Hudson, entered the a Strait which is named after him and discovers "a sea to the westwards": The Hudson Bay.
§ The voyage of Thomas Button and the western shores of Hudson Bay.
§ The voyages of Robert Bylot and William Baffin.
§ Denmark, Jens Munk and the mouth of the Churchill.
§ The separate voyages of Luke Foxe and Thomas James.
§ Radisson and Groseilliers arrive Montreal with a flotilla of fur-filled canoes "so great a number of boats that did almost cover the whole River."
§ England presses France in the north (Hudson's Bay Company) and Spain in the south. In the meantime the French were reaching out and around the English with La Salle dreaming of defensive forts at regular intervals from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico.
§ The Hudson's Bay Company, incorporated.
§ The infant Hudson's Bay Company, had by 1687 established posts near the mouth of Nelson River.
§ Only two settlements are in English hands: "York Fort and New Severn." "Moose, Albany and Rupert River, were in French hands" having been taken by the French in a brilliant overland march from Montreal.
§ Henry Kelsey, from the western shores of Hudson Bay, paddled his way up the Hayes River and pierced his way through to Lake Winnipeg, and beyond, to become the first European to see the Canadian plains.
§ Britain and French are at war; the fighting extended to the Hudson Bay.
§ Iberville sacks the English communities in Newfoundland and then, braving wind and storms takes the English posts in Hudson Bay.
§ Frenchmen, such as La Vérendrye, strike deeply into the forests of North America.
§ The French are deep inland and connecting up their holdings through the Great Lakes and down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
§ Seven Years War starts between Britain and France.
§ John Harrison (1693-1776) invents the chronometer, such an accurate time keeping devise was to allow the Royal Navy to resolve the longitude problem and thereafter to calculate distances, east to west and thereby to safely predict land falls.
§ Seven Years War comes to an end and French signs off on its claims in North America in favour of Great Britain, including, of course, Quebec.
§ October 7th: This is the date of a "Royal Proclamation On North America." Among other matters, it states that "great frauds and abuses have been committed in the purchasing lands of the Indians ... we do ... strictly enjoin and require, that no private person do presume to make any purchase from the said Indians ... [and we declare] that the trade with the said Indians shall be free and open to all our subjects whatever, provided that every person who may incline to trade with the said Indians do take out a license for carrying on such trade."
§ A thirty-three year old mathematical-instrument maker by the name of James Watt, in 1769, filed a patent for an engine which called for strange things such as condensers and steam jackets; within a few years, in 1784, his company, the Soho Engineering Works, was manufacturing pump machines run by steam.
§ July - Samuel Hearne, on his third try, "reached the Coppermine River."
§ The Big Bang of The Industrial Revolution occurs in England when, for first time, steam engines are used to power spinning machinery.
§ Jul 10 - Alexander Mackenzie arrives at the mouth of the Mackenzie River.
§ Jul 22 - Alexander Mackenzie writes his lines on a rock bluff in Dean's Channel just in from the Pacific Ocean: "Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada, by land, the twenty-second of July, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three."
§ August 9 - Cook, on his last voyage, entered Bering's Strait, thus establishing the fact that Asia and America are separated from one another.
§ April: Franklin is at The Battle of Copenhagen, a sea battle, one of a number during the Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815).
§ Summer: Now aboard the Investigator, Franklin is exploring the coasts of Australia.
§ August 7th: Now back in England, Franklin was appointed to the HMS Bellerophon. The Bellerophon joined the blockading Channel fleet.
§ December 12th: War between Britain and Bonaparte-dominated Spain breaks out.
§ Trevithick adapts the Watt engine to vehicle, and the locomotive comes into being. By the middle of the century a network of railways had spread all over Europe.
§ October 21st: Nelson's victory at Trafalgar. Franklin was there.
§ Robert Fulton's Clermont proves the practicality of steam power for river craft.
§ October 25th: Franklin was appointed to the Bedford (Captain Walker).
§ Franklin's father, after experiencing serious financial problems, dies.
§ The North American continent is now being tied together and mapped all the way to the Pacific. David Thompson (1770-1857), surveyor and geographer, was making sense out of the observations and explorations of the past and the present.
§ It was during this winter that the news came of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow and his struggle to retain hold of central Europe.
§ April 27th, 1813, American forces raid York (Toronto) looting and burning buildings, including the governor's house and the provincial legislative building.
§ December: Franklin was at The Battle of New Orleans.
§ The allies crossed the Rhine and invaded France in the early months of 1814. During April, Paris was captured and Bonaparte abdicated.
§ January 8: The Battle of New Orleans. Franklin got in on the fight and was wounded.
§ June 18th, 1815, The Battle of Waterloo. The Settlement at Vienna gave Europe forty years of Peace. Now Great Britain could think of arctic exploration, not much was done in regards to any kind of exploration during the war years.
§ Unemployed ex-servicemen walk the streets.
§ Due to the discoveries of Volta, there comes into being the Voltaic battery.
§ A convention between the United States and Great Britain established the northern boundary of the Louisiana Purchase at 49 degrees north.
§ A second British expedition to find the North West Passage under John Ross and William Parry; they explored Baffin Bay.
§ April: HMS Dorothea (Captain David Buchan) and HMS Trent (Lieutenant Franklin) set out from England to find the North-pole almost directly north of Spitzbergan. These ships failed to get anywhere near the Pole on account of the impenetrable barrier of ice.
§ Oct 22: The badly damaged ships, HMS Dorothea and HMS Trent, arrived back in England.
§ May 11: The Hecla and the Griper set sail for Baffin Bay under William Parry
§ May 23: Franklin sets sail from Gravesend in the Hudson's Bay ship, Prince of Wales to start his "First overland Expedition to the Arctic."
§ May 24: Queen Victoria, born.
§ The stethoscope, invented.
§ Jul: Steam ship Savannah crossed the Atlantic in 26 days.
§ "Francis Beaufort, hydrographer to the Admiralty, began the accurate series of charts covering the entire globe known as Admiralty pilots."
§ Aug 30: Franklin at York Factory.
§ Oct 23: Franklin at Cumberland House on the Saskatchewan River. (See Map)
§ Jan 18: Franklin set out north from Cumberland House.
§ Feb 01: Franklin at Carlton House.
§ Mar 26: Franklin arrived at Fort Chipewyan.
§ Jul 18: Franklin left Fort Chipewyan.
§ Jul 29: Franklin reaches Fort Providence, near Great Slave Lake.
§ Aug 20: Franklin stops at Winter Lake and built his winter quarters, Fort Enterprise.
§ The North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company unite as one.
§ Jun 14: Franklin left Fort Enterprise.
§ Jul 01: Franklin reached the banks of the Coppermine River.
§ Jul 21: Franklin reached the mouth of the Coppermine River located on the Arctic Ocean.
§ Nov 07: Franklin and what remained of his group are rescued at Fort Enterprise.
§ Dec 11: Franklin at Fort Providence then on to Moose Deer Island where the balance of the winter was spent
§ May 26: Franklin started for York Factory
§ Jul: Franklin reached York Factory and took ship for England
§ Oct: Franklin reached England.
§ Wax (candle light), not gas, is being burnt for illumination.
§ Aug 19: Franklin married Eleanor Anne Porden.
§ Charles Macintosh develops a process of brushing rubber onto cloth to form an impervious layer. "A factory for mass production was opened in Manchester in 1824, and within a year the men-about-town were wearing Macintoshes in the London rain."
§ Jun 3: A daughter is born to Franklin, Eleanor.
§ Feb 16: Franklin leaves England for his "Second overland Expedition to the Arctic."
§ Feb: While Franklin was at sea on his way to America, his first wife, Anne dies.
§ Mar 22: Franklin arrived at New York.
§ Apr 22: Franklin is at Penentanguishene on Lake Huron.
§ Aug 14: Franklin is on the Mackenzie River. (See Map)
§ Sep 05: Franklin rejoined his friends at the expedition's winter headquarters, Fort Franklin.
§ The first railway opens in the northern part of England, between Stockton and Darlington; Stephenson's "Rocket," with a thirteen ton train, gets up a speed of 44 miles per hour.
§ There has been great advances in transit instruments, including chronometers.
§ The inventions of the "Drummond Light" and "Portland Cement" made a big difference in the construction of lighthouses.
§ Jun 24: The Franklin explorers set out from Fort Franklin for their objectives.
§ Aug 18: Franklin reached his furthest point west on the shores of the Beaufort Sea.
§ Sep 21: Franklin reached his winter headquarters, Fort Franklin.
§ John Walker (1781-1859), a chemist, inventor, born Stockton-on-Tees, in 1827, invented the friction match; they were called "Congreves," later named Luicifers, and, eventually, matches.
§ William Parry made an attempt on the North Pole going north of Spitzbergen. He reached 82°45’N, "which remained for 49 years the highest latitude attained."
§ Mar 08: Franklin at Fort Simpson
§ Mar 26: Franklin at Fort Resolution
§ Apr 12: Franklin at Fort Chipewyan
§ Jun 18: Franklin at Fort Cumberland
§ Sep 26: Franklin landed at England.
§ In London an exhibition specifically devoted to machinery is held. "The export of machinery except under license was forbidden until 1843 ..."
§ Autumn: Franklin returned to England after a visit to Russia.
§ Nov 05: Franklin married for a second time, Jane Griffen.
§ Rossini writes the William Tell Overture.
§ A further exploration of the north polar regions was under taken by the British. The Victory under John Ross was sent to attempt the discovery of the North-West Passage. She got stuck in the ice and the Victory and her crew spent three years, so stuck.
§ Apr: Franklin was knighted.
§ Jul: Franklin granted a DCL at Oxford.
§ Samuel Morse, a Massachusetts portrait painter, devises a workable code.
§ Lyell's book, Principles of Geology; or Modern Changes of the Earth and Its Inhabitants was published.
§ Aug 23: Franklin appointed the captain of HMS Rainbow.
§ Nov 11: The Rainbow proceeded to the Mediterranean.
§ Franklin was stationed at Malta. Then, in April or May, he was stationed at Corfu.
§ Apr 27: The steamship, Royal William, was launched at Quebec. The company behind it, included: the Cunard brothers (Samuel, Joseph and Edward).
§ An epidemic of cholera (1831-3). It broke out in Russia and spread west, arriving in England during the fall of 1831.
§ The passing at London of The Reform Bill: The changes brought about "formed the first breach in a time-honoured system, and that their tendency was to shift the balance of political power from the landed aristocracy to the industrial and commercial classes, which had been born of the far-reaching changes of The Industrial Revolution."
§ Darwin sails on the Beagle.
§ During the winter of 1831-2, Lady Franklin went to Corfu to be with her husband. However ...
§ Mar: Lady Franklin, without her husband who was attending to his naval duties, began a tour of Egypt and the Holy Land.
§ August 18th, the steamship Royal William sails for England from Nova Scotia.
§ The Factory Act in England: Factory inspectors were set up; school inspectors and Mine Inspectors shortly followed.
§ Up to this year, 1833, the East India Company "brought British goods to India, exchanged them for silver, and, with the silver, obtained Chinese silks and tea for the home market." It was more than just silk and tea involved in the China trade. There developed problems between the Chinese and the British which resulted in two Opium Wars: the First (1834–1843) and the Second (1856-1860).
§ George Back is sent by the Admiralty to discover what became of John Ross who had been missing at this point for three years. (In the meantime Ross and his men were making their way home having been picked up by a whaler that had discovered them.)
§ Slavery was finally made unlawful throughout all of the British territories.
§ Aug 31: John Franklin's brother, James, died.
§ Aug 16: George Back who was on a mission to find John Ross reached his most northerly point on King William Island. (See Map)
§ Mar: Franklin is offered lieutenant-governorship of Antigua, which, after considering and discussing with his lady, politely refused. Shortly after that, Franklin was offered a similar position in Tasmania which he accepted.
§ Jun 24: George Back left for further exploration in the Terror. The Terror got stuck in ice even before it cleared the Hudson's Strait. By September, the damaged Terror was back in England.
§ Autumn: the Franklins went aboard the Fairlie and made the long sail to Tasmania where Franklin took-up his duties as its governor. Franklin continued on this position until 1842.
§ Two officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, Peter Dease and George Simpson, carried out their arctic explorations.
§ With the death of William IV on June 20, 1837, the young Queen Victoria took the English throne and the Victorian period began and lasted into the next century, a period that, for the British, was marked by peace and prosperity.
§ Dickens' book, Oliver Twist is published.
§ John Ross started his voyage to the Southern and Antarctic Regions carried out during the years 1839-43. His vessels: the Erebus and the Terror.
§ The introduction of the penny post in England.
§ The glacial theory was asserted by Louis Agassiz (1807-1873) a Swiss national. His theory was that the Earth had been subject to a past ice age.
§ Aug 16: John Ross, at the start of his final leg to the Antarctic calls by Tasmania and has a visit with Franklin, then its governor.
§ An Act to abolish certain types of punishment: "Pillory, Cutting off the Ears and Whipping."
§ In Great Britain, the Mines Act of 1842 "prohibited the employment of women and girls underground, set an age-limit of ten to the employment of boys, and provided inspectors to enforce the law and report to the central authority."
§ The Chartist Movement (a mass working class movement from 1838-1848): Riots broke out, including the Manchester riot which occurred in August of 1842. It soon spread through Britain affecting factories, mills in Yorkshire, Lancashire and coal mines from Dundee to South Wales and Cornwall.
§ The Illustrated London News first appears in 1842.
§ Relieved of his appointment in 1843, as Governor of Tasmania, Franklin arrived back at London.
§ The first telegraph line in England was run between Paddington and Slough.
§ May 19: The Erebus and the Terror sail from the Thames.
§ Jun 22: Franklin is off the most southerly point of Greenland, Cape Farewell.
§ Jul 04: Franklin entered Whalefish, Disco Bay, Greenland where he stayed from "ten to twelve days."
§ Jul 11: Franklin wrote his last letter home, which he put aboard a returning transport.
§ Jul 26: Last seen, Franklin was in the Davis Strait, as reported by a Whaling Ship; and we might add, never to be seen again. (See Map)
§ "Oregon Territory is ceded to the U.S. from Britain following an 1818 joint claim on the territory (which resulted in the phrase "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!"). The Treaty of Oregon establishes the boundary at 49 degrees north."
§ Advances In Arms: The rifles and Minie Balls: "The precursor to the Minie ball was created in 1848 by the French Army captains Montgomery and Henri-Gustave Delvigne. Their design was made to allow rapid muzzle loading of rifles, an innovation that brought about the widespread use of the rifle rather than the smoothbore musket as a mass battlefield weapon. Delvigne had invented a ball that could expand upon ramming to fit the grooves of a rifle ..."
§ THREE SEARCH PARTIES SENT OUT FOR FRANKLIN:
East: James Clark Ross, (HMS Enterprise & HMS Investigator) but only made it to Somerset Island because of ice;
Center: Rae–Richardson Arctic Expedition Mackenzie River and along the coast; and
West: HMS Plover, HMS Herald to Bering Strait; William Pullen reaches Mackenzie by whaleboat.
§ The British government offers an award of 20,000L "to any private adventures, of any nation, who should discover and relieve the wanderers."
§ December 15: An International Postal Convention was signed between nations including Great Britain.
§ THE SEARCH FOR FRANKLIN: Through to '50, Lieutenant James Saunders (HMS North Star).
§ At Paris, Jean Foucault (1819-68) calculated the speed of light. In 1852 he constructs a gyroscope.
§ Kerosene Gas Light Co. Incorporated by statute.
§ SEARCHES SENT OUT FOR FRANKLIN:
>> Through to '51, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Edwin J. De Haven, U.S. Navy Lieutenant S. P. Griffin (HMS Advance and HMS Rescue) (First Grinnell Expedition)
>> Through to '51, Captain Horatio Austin, Captain Erasmus Ommanney, Lieutenant Sherard Osborn, Lieutenant Bertie Cator (HMS Resolute, HMS Assistance, HMS Intrepid, & HMS Pioneer) This search bore results, as Ommanney finds Franklin's Beechey Island camp. They leave the Arctic before winter in 1851.
>> Through to '51, Captain William Penny, Alexander Stewart (Lady Franklin & Sophia)
>> Through to '51, Rear Admiral, John Ross (Felix).
>> Captain Charles Forsyth (Prince Albert). Financed by Lady Franklin; sledge on Somerset Island to Fury Beach.
>> Through to '55, Captain Richard Collinson (HMS Enterprise).
§ The first undersea cable was laid between Calais and Dover. Reuters News Service was founded in this year.
§ The Great Exhibition was held at Hyde Park, in the Crystal Palace, a structure of iron and glass.
§ SEARCHES SENT OUT FOR FRANKLIN:
>> John Rae (Overland).
>> Through to '52, Captain William Kennedy (Prince Albert).
§ SEARCHES SENT OUT FOR FRANKLIN:
>> Commander Edward Augustus Inglefield (Isabel), in northern Baffin Bay;
>> Through to '54, Belcher, Osborn, Kellett, McClintock (HMS Assistance, HMS Pioneer, HMS Resolute, & HMS Intrepid); and
>> Through to '54, William John Samuel Pullen (HMS North Star).
§ David Livingstone, the missionary, began his exploration of the Zambezi.
§ The Royal Mail steamer, America, was going back and forth over the Atlantic Ocean ... "twelve and a half days from Liverpool ..."
§ SEARCHES SENT OUT FOR FRANKLIN:
>> Edward Augustus Inglefield and William Fawckner (HMS Phoenix and HMS Breadalbane);
>> Through to '54, John Rae, overland. This search bore results;
>> Through to '55, Elisha Kane of U.S. Navy (Advance). Kane left New York on 30th May.
§ A mixture of liquid hydrocarbons resulting from the distillation of petroleum as obtained from coal and bituminous shale is discovered by Abraham Gesner; it, in short time, became extensively used as a lamp-oil.
§ February: The first of the British troops who were to fight in the Crimean War (1854-1856) sailed from England to Malta.
§ John Rae brought home to England news of what the Eskimos had to say and articles received in trade which they had lifted from those of the Franklin Expedition. On Saturday, October 21st, the Times published Rae's report.
§ THE SEARCH FOR FRANKLIN: Chief Factor John Anderson (HBC). Went overland and down the Back River.
§ Henry Bessemer, an Englishman, receives his patent for his process of converting pig-iron into steel.
§ THE SEARCH FOR FRANKLIN: Through to '59, McClintock and Hobson carried out their searches aboard the Fox. They left England on July 1st. This search bore results.
§ THE SEARCH FOR FRANKLIN: McClintock and his crew spent their second winter (1858-9) on the Fox at Bellot Strait. (See Map.)
§ Alarm in England that France was now headed up by another Napoleon, Napoleon III, and an evasion might be launched. "The dockyards and arsenals of England were unprotected from attack; a royal commission on national defence, appointed in 1859, recommended the expenditure of £11,000,000 on coastal fortifications."
§ A gun which came into vogue was the RBLs (rifled breach loaders).
§ September: McClintock arrives back at Portsmouth, England, in the Fox with his crew, safe and sound. He arrived with some very important news and relics of the Franklin Expedition.
§ Steamships of wood with paddle wheels, which came into being early in the century, by this year had been replaced by steel hulls with screw propulsion.
§ Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) became the 16th President of the United States. Before Lincoln had come to power South Carolina had seceded over the flaming question of "states rights," and in particular slavery; war loomed between the north and the south. It broke out with the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter. It began on April 12, 1861; ended April 9, 1865. The attitude of the British authorities was definitely sympathetic to the southern cause.
§ July 12th, British government approves the principle of Union of the British North American colonies.
§ Louis Pasteur (1822-1895): Pasteur's research showed that the growth of micro-organisms was responsible for spoiling beverages, such as beer, wine and milk. With this established, he invented a process in which liquids such as milk were heated to kill most bacteria and moulds already present within them. This process became known as pasteurization.
§ U.S. Emancipation Proclamation.
§ International Rules of War were established at the First Geneva Convention.
§ Open hearth process.
§ The British infantry was armed with breech-loading rifles.
§ THE SEARCH FOR FRANKLIN: Francis Hall, an American, who first became acquainted with the Inuit, carried out an expedition to see what became of Franklin, "lasted for five years and three months, between 1864 and 1869." This search bore results.
§ The first telegraph line is laid across the ocean floor from England to America. A new cable ship was employed, the largest ship afloat, the Great Eastern. Actually, the first cable was laid in 1858, but it did not work due to insulation problems.
§ "... in 1865 the steam tonnage added to Lloyd's register for the first time exceeded that of sailing ships." However, sailing vessels still hauled a lot of cargo. "Steam has ousted sail for passenger and mail traffic, but sail could compete successfully in the carriage of bulky commodities (including coal for steamships) over long distances."
§ Annexation of the Canadian provinces to the United States was in the air and politicians in the United States confidently expected it. In this year there was a bill introduced into the House of Representatives providing for the admission of the states of Upper Canada and Nova Scotia.
§ Flogging, except in times of war, was abolished in Great Britain.
§ "1867: Alaska (admitted as 49th state in 1958) was purchased from Russia for $7.2 million in gold. Some thought the idea was ridiculous and the purchase became known as Seward's Folly, after Secretary of State William Henry Seward. The boundary between Russia and Canada was established by treaty in 1825."
§ July, 1st: The provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick formed up under British law to be one Dominion, under the name of Canada. (The British North America Act.)
§ A British statute is passed (31, Victoria) requiring that executions for murder are to take place inside gaols.
§ In 1868, Cambridge accepted women as candidates for the examinations.
§ The first American transcontinental railroad is completed.
§ Rubert's Land and the North-Western Territory were added to Canada.
§ The way is finally cleared so that Protestant Dissenters (from the Anglican church) and Catholics can attend Cambridge and Oxford.
§ Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified; it gave the right to vote to black men, but not to women.
§ "In 1870 the volume of the external trade of the United Kingdom exceeded that of France, Germany and Italy together and was between three and four times that of the United States."
§ The Cardwell reforms in the British armed services: these reforms "included the abolition of the purchase of officers' commissions, and the short service system enlistment, creating at last an army reserve."
§ Mauser's rifle was adopted by the German military experts in 1871, and perfected in 1884. In the original Mauser the soldier had to give the stock a smart stroke so as to throw out the used cartridge.
§ Evidence Bill is passed in Britain.
§ "Between the fourth quarter of the eighteenth and the third quarter of the nineteenth century it [British Empire] had made itself -- despite the loss of much of North America -- the largest empire.
§ THE SEARCH FOR FRANKLIN: Allen Young is sent out in the Pandora under the auspices of Lady Franklin. He was blocked at Peel Sound. (See Map)
§ Alexander Graham Bell granted a patent for the telephone.
§ Phonograph invented.
§ The Treaty of Berlin, which led to an armed peace in western Europe that was to last 36 years.
§ THE SEARCH FOR FRANKLIN: Through to '80, U.S. Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka (Overland). This search bore results.
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