Invention of the telephone
Bell sends a voice down a wire — the world starts calling
In March 1876 Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for the telephone and days later spoke the first words over a wire to his assistant. Long-distance voice communication transformed business, daily life and government.
Wikipedia (English) · 19th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1861 Unification of Italy — 15 years earlier
- 1874 First Impressionist exhibition — 2 years earlier
- 1878 Congress of Berlin — 2 years later
- 1886 Benz's first automobile — 10 years later
- 1889 Eiffel Tower — 13 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1861 Emancipation of the serfs in Russia — 15 years earlier
- 1867 Alaska Purchase — 9 years earlier
- 1869 Tolstoy's War and Peace — 7 years earlier
- 1877 Premiere of Swan Lake — 1 year later
- 1895 Popov's radio receiver — 19 years later
Middle East
- 1876–1878 The first Ottoman constitution — same year
Africa
- 1869 Opening of the Suez Canal — 7 years earlier
- 1879 Battle of Isandlwana — 3 years later
- 1885 The Mahdists take Khartoum — 9 years later
- 1885–1908 The Congo Free State — 9 years later
- 1886 The Witwatersrand Gold Rush — 10 years later
Asia
- 1853–1854 Commodore Perry's Black Ships — 23 years earlier
- 1868 Meiji Restoration — 8 years earlier
- 1876–1878 Great Famine in India — same year
- 1883 Eruption of Krakatoa — 7 years later
- 1885 Founding of the Indian National Congress — 9 years later
Oceania
- 1851 The Australian gold rushes — 25 years earlier
- 1893 New Zealand women win the vote — 17 years later
- 1893 Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom — 17 years later
Alive at the time
- Charles Darwin (aged 67)
- Karl Marx (aged 58)
- Queen Victoria (aged 57)
- Fyodor Dostoevsky (aged 55)
- Leo Tolstoy (aged 48)
- Dmitri Mendeleev (aged 42)
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (aged 36)
- Thomas Edison (aged 29)
- Vincent van Gogh (aged 23)
- Nikola Tesla (aged 20)