May 1 in Victorian History
What the Victorians were up to on this date, year by remarkable year.
The Penny Black is issued
The world's first adhesive postage stamp goes on sale: the Penny Black, bearing the young Queen Victoria's profile. For a penny, anyone can now prepay a letter anywhere in Britain. Rowland Hill's postal revolution will be copied by every nation on earth.
The Great Exhibition opens
Queen Victoria opens the Great Exhibition in Joseph Paxton's glittering Crystal Palace in Hyde Park. Six million visitors -- a third of Britain's population -- marvel at 100,000 exhibits from steam hammers to the Koh-i-Noor diamond. It is the Victorian age showing off to the world, and the world applauds.
The Chicago World's Fair opens
The World's Columbian Exposition opens in Chicago, a gleaming White City of plaster palaces on the shore of Lake Michigan. Cracker Jack is introduced, the zipper makes an early appearance, and some 27 million visitors attend. America announces itself as the coming century's power.