Europe

19 Finnish women become the world’s first female parliamentarians

March 16, 1907 | By Peter Schulte | Good News Links, Past Progress

Lucina Hagman, Miina Sillanpää, Anni Huotari, Hilja Pärssinen, Hedvig Gebhard, Ida Aalle-Teljo, Mimmi Kanervo, Eveliina Ala-Kulju, Hilda Käkikoski, Liisi Kivioja, Sandra Lehtinen, Dagmar Neovius, Maria Raunio, Alexandra Gripenberg, Iida Vemmelpuu, Maria Laine, Jenny Upari and Hilma Räsänen became the first female MPs in the world after the Grand Principality of Finland became the first territory to give women full political rights.

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The automobile is invented in France and Germany

October 6, 1890 | By Peter Schulte | Past Progress

Its thirty-five-horsepower engine weighed only fourteen pounds per horsepower, and it achieved a top speed of fifty-three miles per hour.

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Vincent Van Gogh paints “The Starry Night”

March 1, 1889 | By Peter Schulte | Past Progress

Largely self-taught, van Gogh produced more than 2,000 oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, and sketches, which became in demand only after his death.

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James Blyth's windmill at his cottage in Marykirk in 1891

James Blyth of Scotland builds world’s first ever wind turbine used for electricity generation

July 10, 1887 | By Peter Schulte | Good News Links, Past Progress

Blyth’s 10 m high, cloth-sailed wind turbine was installed in the garden of his holiday cottage at Marykirk in Kincardineshire and was used to charge accumulators developed by the Frenchman Camille Alphonse Faure, to power the lighting in the cottage, thus making it the first house in the world to have its electricity supplied by wind power. Blyth offered the surplus electricity to the people of Marykirk for lighting the main street, however, they turned down the offer as they thought electricity was “the work of the devil.”

James Blyth of Scotland builds world’s first ever wind turbine used for electricity generation Read more

Oxford English Dictionary debuts

February 2, 1884 | By Peter Schulte | Past Progress

The Oxford English Dictionary is now the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press.

Oxford English Dictionary debuts Read more

First ‘Impressionist’ art exhibition opens in Paris, featuring Monet, Degas, Renoir, and others

April 15, 1874 | By Peter Schulte | Good News Links, Past Progress

Impressionism is an art movement that took the French art world—and later the artistic spheres of other countries —by storm in the 19th century.

First ‘Impressionist’ art exhibition opens in Paris, featuring Monet, Degas, Renoir, and others Read more

Portrait of Fyodor Dostoyevsky by Vasily Perov

Fyodor Dostoevsky publishes Crime & Punishment

February 25, 1866 | By Peter Schulte | Past Progress

Crime and Punishment focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in Saint Petersburg who formulates a plan to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker for her money.

Fyodor Dostoevsky publishes Crime & Punishment Read more

The First Geneva Convention is signed by 12 nations

August 22, 1864 | By Peter Schulte | Past Progress

The 1864 Geneva Convention was the world’s first codified international treaty that covered the sick and wounded soldiers on the battlefield.

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The world’s first underground railway, the London Underground, opens

January 24, 1863 | By Peter Schulte | Past Progress

The world’s first underground railway, it opened in January 1863 between Paddington and Farringdon in London using gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives.

The world’s first underground railway, the London Underground, opens Read more

The Abolition of Serfdom in Russia: Work in Freedom is the Foundation of a State (1914), by Alphonse Mucha,

Alexander II of Russia signs the Emancipation Manifesto, granting serfs the full rights of free citizens

March 3, 1861 | By Peter Schulte | Good News Links, Past Progress

The Emancipation Reform of 1861 in Russia was the first and most important of the liberal reforms enacted during the reign of Emperor Alexander II of Russia. he reform effectively abolished serfdom throughout the Russian Empire.

Alexander II of Russia signs the Emancipation Manifesto, granting serfs the full rights of free citizens Read more

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