Alternative Steampunk Victorian History.
(Please note that this history is not real and many of the events never happened.)
1809 – Isambard Kingdom Brunel born.
1814 – George Stephenson builds the Blucher steam locomotive
1819 - 1826 – Thomas Telford created the Menai suspension bridge
1820 – Charles Babbage Starts work on the difference engine.
1821 – First Difference engine complete, Analytical engine started. (Using Punched cards) – programmed by Ada Lovelace.
1821 – Locomotion steam engine built to run on the Stockton and Darlington railway.
1823 - The Analytical Engine complete and starts work on construction mathematical problems with great success.
1826 – Isambard Kingdom Brunel in charge of the Thames
tunnel. Tunnel uses the Babbage Analytical engine for calculations.
1829 – Babbage Analytical engines seem in all major British Universities, each version getting smaller.
1829 – George and Robert Stephenson’s Rocket went into service. Babbage Analytical engines now used for all major engineering calculations.
1835 – Professor Cavor Born. (Inventor of Cavorite)
1836 – London to Bristol Locomotion line opened, mainly due to the added speed of calculations of the Babbage Analytical engine.
1837 – Victoria Crowned.
1837 – Squadron Commander Grum Foss Born.
1837 – Great Western Steamship Launched. Major Engineering breakthroughs seen.
1837 – Houses of Parliament built.
1838 – First Photograph taken.
1838 - Ferninand Adolf Heinrich August Graf Von Zeppelin Born - in the grand Duchy of Baden
1839-42 – Britain Defeats China in the Opium Wars
(Britain Given Hong Kong) Using newly created weapons, Babbage Analyitical engines help in the refining of the steel. Many new steels are able to be used.
1840 – Britain Claims New Zealand
1840 – First Postage stamp. Queen Victoria Marries Prince Albert
1840– GWR between Bristol and London Complete (Ahead of schedule)
1842 – Assassination Attempt on the Queen. Her majesties popularity soars.
1843 – Natal claimed by Britain
1845-49 – Irish Potato famine.
1844-1845 – 8,000 Miles of rail track laid in Britain.
1848 - George Stephenson Dies.
1850 – First workhouses built to try to alleviate povety in the larger cities. Pollution becoming an issue.
1851 – The great exhibition – Crystal palace
1854-1856 – The Crimean War fought. During this time there is seem great advances in the military and medical sciences.
1854 – Sewer systems built in large British cities.
1855 - Von Zeppelin Joins the Army of Wurttemburg
1856 – Britain and France defeat Russia in Crimea mainly due to the ever increasing use of the Empires modern weaponry. An example of this is the Steam horse first used for the transportation of munitions.
1857 – Brunels Great Eastern lauched. The largest luxurious and most powerful steel steamship built upto date.
1857 - Indian Mutiny. Britain transports many of its new devices to India during this time.
1858 – India Brought under British rule (Victoria Crowned Empress of India)
1859 – Isambard Kingdom Brunel - Dies
1859 - Suez Canal constructin begins.
1861 – Prince Albert dies (of Typhoid)
1861 - American Civil War Starts.
1862 - American Confederate States are blockaded, by Union Navy. Confederate states start using Lighter than air dirigibles to transport supplies with limited success.New designs are built including completly enclosed Gondolas and mutiple gas bags. The size of these dirigibles rises, as does their operating range.
1862 – Professor Cavor starts work on Cavorite.
1863 - Count Von Zeppelin sees his first Dirigibles when serviing as a volunteer for the Union army of the Potomac.
1865 - American Civil War ends with defeat for the Confederate states. Many of the Dirigible crews do not surrender and scatter to become commerce raiders (the first Air pirates)
1866 - British Empire commercial Dirigibles attacked by raiders over the Caribbean, British Navy purchases three commercial dirigibles for escort duties.
1866 - Austro Prusian War. Prussia seen to be dominant. Prussian Aeronaughts use Dirigibles and observation balloons for the first time, using tactics learnt from the American Civil War.
1867 - First British Navy Dirigibles arrive in the Caribbean, outclassed by Pirate vessels two are lost.
1868 - Seven Armed dirigibles are purchased and crews trained for use in the caribbean by the British Navy.
1869 - Suez canal opened, linking the Mediterrean sea with the Red Sea, allowing for significantly shorter sea routes to India and the far east.
1870-71 - Franco - Prusian War. Resulted in the Unification of the German states. Prussian Dirigibles and balloons used extensively
1871 – Charles Babbage dies. Analyitical Engine now seen in most offices, small steam boilers and dynamos incorporated to produce electrical power, punched cards still used but some universities now using Imperial Typewriters for direct input, using the final version of the ADA programming language.
1872 – Cavorite demonstration to Royal Society at Greenwich. Nearly ends in disaster as the small Cavorite sheet breaks a hole in the roof of the test laboratory and dissapears into the atmosphere.
1872 - Count Von Zeppelin starts work on the rigid airship for the newly unified Germany.
1872 – First military use of Cavorite.
1873-74 – Cavorite “spheres” first launched – First moon landing
1874 – Moon Claimed by Britain. Selenites surrender to the British. Military Base established followed by Government run Mining. Moon Mining Co. Established. First use of Dirigibles on the moon for transportation. Using the recently discovered Aether gas (Lighter than Hydrogen)
1874 – Alexander Graham Bell Invents the Telephone
1875 - First civilian establishment on the Moon (Moon town) First Airpirate hijack seen on the moon, a supply of Gold is stolen from the Moon Mining Company, Pirates captured trying hijack a Cavor Sphere in an attempt to escape.
1875 - First Vampire captured in London, Government denies their existence.
1876 - First Military Dirigible deployed to the Moon to stop further pirate attacks. With the increasing number of commercial Dirgibles seem on Earth ( the number jumps dramatically as Aether becomes widely available) there is seen an alarming rise in the number of attacks by what is now widely known as Airpirates. Using boarding wings (mechanical steam powered wings) and other tactics such as abseiling onto the canopy from above has caused great distress. Many craft are lost. The first specialised military Dirigibles are designed by what will be later known as HMD Nimbus in Liverpool.
1876 – First Morse code
transmission from the Moon from the large moon based Heliograph. The signal was picked up from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich.
1876 - European Countries, especially Prussia, Bavaria, France and Russia, form fleets of Armed Dirigibles for escort duties.
1876 – First mission to Mars. Twenty military Spheres containing British Empire marines make first contact with Martian natives. An area of the Northern continent is claimed by the British and a large military base is established. Liftwood trees seen for the first time.
1877 - First Martian Ambassador introduced to the Queen at Buckingham palace. Liftwood plantation on Mars annexed by Britain with the first Liftwood being shipped back to Earth at the end of the year.
1877 - On Mars tamed Air Kraken are seen to be used for transportation. These creatures are relativley small, capapble to carry a gondola for 4 people. A pair of hatchling Krakens are brought back to Earth for experiments as an alternative to Dirigibles.
1877 – Edison invents the
phonograph.
1877 - Royal Dirigible Corps formed by merging units from the Navy and the Cavalry. Royal engineers companies are transferred the the RDC on May 27th 1877.
1877 - HMD Nimbus create the first military Vortex cannon.
1878 - HMD Nimbus design the first liftwood Dirigible, vastly larger than anything seen before (the Imperial Class Crusier) allowing for the first time major armanents to fitted. Built in the Laird shipyard in Birkenhead.
1878 - Air Kraken are bred for transportational experiments. However they are seen to be much larger in size due to the higher Earth gravity. A young pair break free of their tethers during trials and they both were seen to attack a Dirigible containing Tea from Celon, before moving away at great speed. Over the next year more tea carrying Dirigibles are attacked.
1878 – Electric lighting in London. Powered from small 'power stations' scattered around the city. - Steam engines used to turn dynamos to create the electricity.
1878 - First Cavorite Spheres allowed to be sold to other Earth Countries. Belgium are the first to purchase and immediately send troops and colonists to Mars. Other countries follow suit and a huge 'land grab' starts. Navitive Martians start to resist the new colonists and skirmishes ensue.
1878 - First full British civilian colonist arrive on Mars, The Mars trading company is formed with exclusive trading rites for Martian Liftwood. Large British Military presence built up, the 1st Martian Corps formed. (To include the 1st Martian Engineers and 1st Martian Steam Lancers)
1878 - First Parhoon succession war on Mars Britain gives assistance to the Martian crown. - Steam Lancers are used. The Steam mounts cause panic and enable the natives to be routed off the field.
1878 - RDC Units arrive on Mars using old equipment they are used in support for the ground forces in the First Parhoon succession war.
1879 - Ute Indian uprising in United States.
1879 -Britian fight in the Zulu War, occupy Khyber Pass in Afganistan. British legation in Kabul massacred.
1879 - RDC uses new Imperial class cruisers to arial bombard tribal strongholds in the area surrounding Kabul with great success.
1879 -Germany declares Alsace-Lorraine to be an integral part of the
German Empire.
1879 - Alexander of Battenberg elected Prince Alexander I of Bulgaria.
1879 - Radical Egyptian elements depose Ismail Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt. He is succeeded by Tewfik Pasha.
1879 -The French Panama Canal Co. is organized and headed by Ferdinand de Lesseps.
1880 - Disraeli Steps
down as British prime minister; succeeded by Gladstone.
1880 -Second War of the
Parhoon Succession results in
establishment of the British crown colony of Syrtis Major on Mars. This results in a colonisation explosion.
1880 - France annexes Tahiti. The Pacific War breaks out: Chile
versus Peru and Bolivia. The war drags on into 1884.
1880 - The Boers of the Transvaal declare their independence from Britain. A republic is established, with Kruger as president.
1880 - J.A.Garfield is elected president of
the United States. Carnegie develops the first large steel furnace.
1880 - Electricity replaces gaslights on New York streets. Canned fruits and meat widely available for the first time in stores.
1881 - The Boers of the Transvaal repulse the British at Laing's Nek and inflict a stunning defeat on them at Majuba Hill. In the Treaty of Pretoria, Britain recognizes the independent Transvaal Republic.
1881 - HMS Aphid, first armored aerial gunboat, launched at Syrtis Major on Mars.
1881 - Flogging abolished in the British Army and Navy.
1881 - J.A.Garfield is assassinated, and his vice president, Chester Arthur, succeeds him.
1881 - The Bey of Tunis accepts status as a French protectorate.
1881 - The first political parties are formed in Japan.
1881 - Serbia forms an alliance with Austria to strengthen the government's hand against internal unrest.
1881 - 83 - French troops control Tunis. Ordered by the French Government landing 32,000 men at Kiarouan, the city surrenderd without a fight. Many air Pirates who had been using Tunisia as a base of operation were forced to find other safe ports.
1882 - Prince Milan Obrenovich of Serbia proclaims himself king.
1882 - Triple alliance formed between Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary.
1882 - British troops occupy Cairo, Egypt. Meepsoor and Moeris Lacus accept status as British protectorates.
1882 - Belgian legion involved in frequent fighting in the Coprates Valley on Mars.
1882 - Bank of Japan founded.
1883 – Paul Kruger elected president of the South African Republic.
1883 - Failed Mutiny on board the HMD Wallenstein, when on station at Harrogate, by a returning officer, Captain Polly Sykes. The mutiny was put down by the RDC Marines, who on a daring dawn raid took the vessel by surprise.
1883 - Russian intervention in Hecates Lacus civil war leads to Treaty of Cebrenia recognizing Russia's "special interests" in the region.
1883 - RDC fight aerial campaign
against pirates in the Aerian Hills on Mars
1883 - Rebellion in the Sudan grows.
1883 - The "Orient Express" (Paris to Istanbul railroad) makes its first run.
1883 - Britain Takes complete control Of Egypt
1883 – First electric railway. London Underground trains are electrified the first in the world.
1884 - Lawrence Hargrave builds and flies the first Ornithopter. The craft is steam powered by the high pressure 'Trevithick' steam engine
1884-85 - Mahdist rebels cause uprising in the Sudan. General Gordon, ordered to oversea a withdrawl of Empire troops from Sudan. He decides however to occupy the city of Khartoom which besieiged finally falling to the Mahdist rebels forces in January 1885.
1886 - RDC uses Hargrave Ornithopters for scouting. These craft are suspended underneath the Gondolas and are launched by releasing them from the their suspensor hooks. The Ornithopters are are recovered by the pilot flying under the dirigible and then catching the suspensor hook.
1887 – British Colony in Nigeria established.
1887 – Gramophone invented.
1898 - Horatio Kitchener sent to recapture the Sudan after the fall of Khartoom in Jan. 1885. He defeats the Mahdists at the battle of Omdurman and captures their leaders soon after
1901 – Queen Victoria Dies.
