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!