1845 Continued activity of the Anti-Corn Law League. Great bazaar at London, where the receipts amount to £25,000. Railway mania in England attains its height: scrip issued to the nominal amount of several hundred millions sterling. Annexation of Texas to the United States. Steam established between Liverpool and New York. Sir John Franklin set sail 22nd May.
1846 The Spanish double marriages. Mexico annexed, 25th August. Coolness betwixt the courts of St. James and the Tuilleries. Abolition of the Corn Laws, followed by resignation of the Peel ministry. Austria, in violation of the treaties of Vienna, seizes on Cracow, and incorporates it with her own dominions. Louis Napoleon escapes from the Castle of Ham, in Normandy. Gregory XVI dies, and is succeeded by Cardinal Mastai Ferretti, who takes the title of Pius IX. Revolution of Geneva, October 7th.
1847 Pope Pius introduces some reforms into the Papal States: excitement in the rest of Italy. Civil war in Switzerland: Sonderbund suppressed. Abd-el-Kader taken prisoner. The Duchy of Lucca reverts to Tuscany. Failure of the potato crop in Ireland.
1848 Upper California and New Mexico ceded to the United States. February revolution in Paris: flight of Louis Philippe, 24th February: France a Republic: Cavaignac: Revolution at Vienna 6th October, and Berlin 12th November: Schleswig-Holstein insurrection. Arctic ships deserted, 22nd April. Peace Congress at Brussels, 20th September. Defeat of Sikhs at Mooltan, 7th November. Napoleon III first elected President, 20th December. Smith O’Brien defeated in his attempt to raise a resurrection in Ireland.
1849 Death of Queen Adelaide. Punjaub war. Revolutions in Rome and Tuscany: Mazzini: French invasion and occupation of Rome. Revolutionary movements in Germany and Hungary. Kossuth. Revolution in Baden suppressed by Prussia; in Hungary by Russia; and Hungarians defeated by Hayman.
1850 Battle of Idstedt and suppression of the Schleswig-Holstein insurrection. Peace between Denmark and Prussia. Louis Philippe died 26th August. Sir Robert Peel died.
1851 Great industrial exhibition in London in Crystal Palace. French coup d’état: National assembly broken up, and Napoleon declared President of the Republic for ten years. Discovery of gold fields in Australia.
1852 The Earl of Derby forms a protectionist ministry, dissolves parliament, but is soon forced to resign: Lord Aberdeen becomes Premier. On the 14th September, the illustrious Duke of Wellington, the Iron Duke, died at Walmar Castle near Dover, aged 83. Louis Napoleon proclaimed Emperor of the French, as Napoleon III. Amazon steamer burnt at sea, and 100 persons perished, 4th January. The steamer Birkenhead with troops on board for the Cape of Good Hope wrecked 26th February, and of 638 persons only 184 were saved; 454 of the crew and soldiers of the 12th Lancers, 2nd, 6th, 12th, 43rd, 45th, 60th Rifles, 73rd, 74th and 91st Regiments perished by drowning or swallowed by sharks which were seen swimming around.
1853 Marriage of Napoleon III to Eugenie de Montejo in January. Fire which broke out in Windsor Castle, extinguished March 19th. The Queen of Portugal died November 15th. The Porte formerly declared war against Russia, October 5th. Russia invades the Danubian principalities, crossing the Pruth in July, destroys the Turkish fleet at Sinopé, hence called the “Massacre of Sinopé.” Battle of Silistria. Death of Captain Butler.