Edison's incandescent lamp
A carbon filament and a power grid light up cities
In October 1879 a carbon-filament lamp burned for over 13 hours in Thomas Edison's laboratory. Building on predecessors such as Lodygin and Swan, Edison produced a practical bulb and a power-distribution system that lit up cities.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 19th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1861 Unification of Italy — 18 years earlier
- 1874 First Impressionist exhibition — 5 years earlier
- 1878 Congress of Berlin — 1 year earlier
- 1886 Benz's first automobile — 7 years later
- 1889 Eiffel Tower — 10 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1861 Emancipation of the serfs in Russia — 18 years earlier
- 1867 Alaska Purchase — 12 years earlier
- 1869 Tolstoy's War and Peace — 10 years earlier
- 1877 Premiere of Swan Lake — 2 years earlier
- 1895 Popov's radio receiver — 16 years later
Middle East
- 1876–1878 The first Ottoman constitution — 3 years earlier
Africa
- 1869 Opening of the Suez Canal — 10 years earlier
- 1879 Battle of Isandlwana — same year
- 1885 The Mahdists take Khartoum — 6 years later
- 1885–1908 The Congo Free State — 6 years later
- 1886 The Witwatersrand Gold Rush — 7 years later
Asia
- 1868 Meiji Restoration — 11 years earlier
- 1876–1878 Great Famine in India — 3 years earlier
- 1883 Eruption of Krakatoa — 4 years later
- 1885 Founding of the Indian National Congress — 6 years later
- 1891 Discovery of Java Man — 12 years later
Oceania
- 1893 New Zealand women win the vote — 14 years later
- 1893 Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom — 14 years later
Alive at the time
- Charles Darwin (aged 70)
- Karl Marx (aged 61)
- Queen Victoria (aged 60)
- Fyodor Dostoevsky (aged 58)
- Leo Tolstoy (aged 51)
- Dmitri Mendeleev (aged 45)
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (aged 39)
- Thomas Edison (aged 32)
- Vincent van Gogh (aged 26)
- Nikola Tesla (aged 23)