Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set off from St Louis to explore up the Missouri river and west to the coast

Lewis and Clark make their way through the Rockies and reach the Pacific

Lewis and Clark get back to St Louis with a wealth of information about the unopened west of the continent

US engineer Robert Fulton launches a steamboat, the Clermont, on New York's Hudson river

Work begins at Cumberland in Maryland on the construction of America's National Road

William Hedley's Puffing Billy, the first steam locomotive running on smooth rails, goes to work at Wylam colliery

Scottish engineer John McAdam builds the first macadamized road, in the Bristol region of southwest England

Active (later called Locomotion) is the engine on the first passenger railway, between Stockton and Darlington

Work begins on the 363-mile Erie Canal that will link the Hudson River to Lake Erie

The locomotive Rocket, built by George and Robert Stephenson, defeats two rivals in the Rainhill trials, near Liverpool

Richard Lander and his brother John explore the lower reaches of the Niger, proving that the great river is navigable

George Stephenson's railway between Liverpool and Manchester opens, with passengers pulled by eight locomotives based on Rocket

HMS Beagle sails from Plymouth to survey the coasts of the southern hemisphere, with Charles Darwin as the expedition's naturalist

The Göta canal is completed, enabling ships to cross Scandinavia from the North Sea to the Baltic

The paddle steamer Alburkah becomes the first ocean-going iron ship, completing the journey from England to the Niger

The first long-distance US railway, in South Carolina, carries its first passengers

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

The first trains run between London and Birmingham on the railway designed by Robert Stephenson

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

US naval officer Charles Wilkes leads a four-year exploration of the Antarctic and Pacific, proving on the way that Antarctica is a continent

With a teetotallers' rail trip for 570 people, Thomas Cook introduces the notion of the package tour

Isambard Kingdom Brunel launches the Great Britain, the first iron steamship designed for the transatlantic passenger trade

English naval officer John Franklin sets off with two ships, Erebus and Terror, to search for the Northwest Passage

As many as 50,000 US pioneers travel west this year on the Oregon Trail

US entrepreneur Cornelius Vanderbilt conveys passengers across the American continent through Nicaragua by steamship and horse and carriage