English mathematician Charles Babbage builds a sophisticated calculating machine, which he calls a 'difference engine'

English author Frances Trollope ruffles transatlantic feathers with her Domestic Manners of the Americans, based on a 3-year stay

After several rejections by Britain's House of Lords, the Reform Bill finally passes and receives royal assent

Mendelssohn's concert overture The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave) has its premiere in London's Covent Garden

20-year-old English artist Edward Lear publishes Family of the Psittacidae, a collection of his paintings of parrots

The Tories in Britain adopt a reassuring name for an uncertain future – Conservatives

Six farm labourers, from Tolpuddle in Dorset, are transported for seven years to Australia for administering unlawful oaths in the forming of a union

In London a great fire destroys most of the Palace of Westminster, including the two houses of parliament

English architect and designer Augustus Welby Pugin plays a major part in the second stage of the Gothic Revival

Fox Talbot exposes the first photographic negatives, among them a view looking out through an oriel window in Lacock Abbey

English artist Edward Lear begins a series of travels, sketching around the Mediterranean and in the Middle East

24-year-old Charles Dickens begins monthly publication of his first work of fiction, Pickwick Papers (published in book form in 1837)

The Tolpuddle Martyrs are brought back to England from Australia after public protest leads to their sentences being remitted

Work begins on the suspension bridge over the river Avon, at Clifton, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel

HMS Beagle reaches Falmouth, in Cornwall, after a voyage of five years, and Charles Darwin brings with him a valuable collection of specimens

The 18-year-old Victoria comes to the throne in Britain, beginning the long Victorian era

Work begins on Charles Barry's spectacular design for London's new Houses of Parliament

Charles Dickens' first novel, Oliver Twist, begins monthly publication (in book form, 1838)

An Irish packet steamer, the Sirius, becomes the first steamship to cross the Atlantic, completing the journey to New York in 19 days

Brunel's Great Western, a wooden paddle-steamer, arives in New York the day after the Sirius, with the record for an Atlantic crossing already reduced to 15 days

The London Prize Ring rules disallow kicking, gouging, head-butting and biting in the sport of boxing

The People's Charter, with its six political demands, launches the Chartist movement in England

J.M.W. Turner paints an icon of British art, The Fighting Téméraire

Seven Manchester merchants and mill-owners found the Anti-Corn Law League

Rowland Hill introduces in Britain the world's first postage stamps - the Penny Black and Two Pence Blue