Christian History Timeline: What Happened when the World Transformed?
The world changes & the church responds
1708 Jethro Tull invents mechanical sower for large-scale planting in rows
1709 Abraham Darby improves iron ore smelting by using coke for fuel
1712 Thomas Newcomen invents the first practical steam engine
1746 John Wesley publishes Primitive Physic
1765 Spinning jenny invented, initiating the automation of weaving
1760s Arthur Guinness inspired to begin charity to the poor of Dublin
1772 Extension of Bridgewater Canal in NW England kicks off “canal mania”
1784 Andrew Meikle develops a threshing machine
1779 First steam-powered mills established
1789 Archibald Cochrane lights his estate with gas
1793 Eli Whitney develops cotton gin
Early 1800s Many new mission societies founded
1801 Steam locomotive demonstrated
1807 First successful steamboat launched
1807 Slave trade outlawed in Great Britain after decades of political effort led by Christians
1807 Primitive Methodism founded in Great Britain, combining American-style worship with outreach to the poor
1811–15 Luddite riots: laborers attack factories and break up machines they fear will replace them
1830 Liverpool and Manchester Railway begins first regular commercial rail service
1831 Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction, making electric engines possible
1834 Charles Babbage develops analytic engine, forerunner of the computer
1833 Society of St. Vincent de Paul founded to serve poor slum dwellers
1837 Telegraph and Morse code developed; first ocean-going steamship launches
1840s Dr. William Lockhart criticizes opium trade as impediment to missions
1840s Benjamin Lee and Arthur Lee Guinness give generously to help victims of Irish potato famine
1842 Amana Colony moves to America, decides to hold property in common
1844 Morse’s telegraph first used commercially
1846 Evangelical Alliance inaugurated
1850 Petrol (gasoline) first refined
1851 Isaac Singer invents practical sewing machine
1852 Elisha Otis invents elevator safety brake, making skyscrapers practical
1858 First trans-Atlantic cable completed
1859 First successful gasoline engine used
1860 Free Methodist Church founded in the United States: antislavery, pro-holiness, free pews for the poor
1860s William and Catherine Booth begin Christian Mission in London, later renamed The Salvation Army
1863 Slavery ends in the United States
1867 Alfred Nobel produces dynamite
1870s–1914 Supporters of the Nonconformist Conscience in Britain work for alcohol prohibition, sexual purity, other causes
1873 Remington typewriter invented
1874 Anglo-Oriental Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade founded
1874 Women’s Christian Temperance Union founded
1874 John Bascom becomes president of the University of Wisconsin, where the Social Gospel influences his “Wisconsin Idea”
1876 Alexander Bell invents the telephone
1877 Thomas Edison invents the phonograph
1879 Thomas Edison invents a practical incandescent lamp
1879 Salvation Army work begins in America
1883 First modern skyscraper (10 stories) built in Chicago; Brooklyn Bridge opens
1884 Hiram Maxim invents machine gun, facilitating mass slaughter and advancing mechanized warfare
1885 Karl Benz introduces automobile with internal-combustion engine
1885 Methodists begin deaconess work, based on a German Lutheran model
1885 John Wilson becomes a member of Parliament, works for social reform
1885 Josiah Strong publishes Our Country
1886 Edward Cecil Guinness establishes the Guinness Trust to help the “laboring poor”
1880s–1890s Guinness company follows John Lumsden’s recommendations for worker treatment
1888 Heinrich Hertz puts the study of radio waves on a scientific basis
1890 William Booth publishes In Darkest England and the Way Out
1891 Pope Leo XIII issues “On Capital and Labor”
1891 Abraham Kuyper helps organize the first Christian Social Congress in the Netherlands
1893 Cadbury begins to build the model village of Bournville
1894 W. T. Stead publishes If Christ Came to Chicago
1896 William Jennings Bryan, Social Gospel proponent, runs unsuccessfullyfor president
1896 Guglielmo Marconi patents wireless telegraph
1899 Aspirin invented
1899 William Sheppard discovers Congo massacre
1899 Joseph Rowntree publishes The Temperance Problem and Social Reform
1899-1901 Boxer uprising rages in China
Early 1900s Charles Welch active philanthropically in Westfield, New Jersey
1902–1904 Rowntree Cocoa builds its model village, New Earswick
1903 Asa Candler assists in building Wesley MECS and associated hospital facilities
1903 Wright brothers first achieve manned, powered, heavier than air flight
1908 Henry Ford mass-produces the Model T
1908 Federal Council of Churches formed
1910 Edinburgh World Missionary Conference convenes
1914 Bouck White issues “Socialist Creed”
1925 First “Life and Work” Congress convenes
1931 Pope Pius XI issues“On Reconstruction of the Social Order”
1933 Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin begin to publish the Catholic Worker and found CW communities
1935 E. Stanley Jones publishes Christ’s Alternative to Communism
1940s Koinonia Farms founded as interracial farming community in rural Georgia
1948 World Council of Churches formed
By the Editors
[Christian History originally published this article in Christian History Issue #104 in 2013]
“The world changes” adapted from “The Industrial Revolution: A Timeline” by George Landow; “The church responds” compiled by Jennifer Woodruff TaitNext articles
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E. Stanley Jones, Carl F. H. Henry, and Billy Graham called for the church to respond to social and economic realities
Stephen W. RankinMeeting together for the good of the world
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Clifford B. Anderson and Kenneth Woodrow HenkeGodless capitalists?
Godless capitalists? How Christian industrialists ran their businesses and used their wealth
Jennifer Woodruff TaitCommon wealth?
Communal societies influenced by Christian teachings found they could not leave economics behind
Gari-Anne PatzwaldSupport us
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