Timeline
of Political, Cultural and Literary Events in New Zealand, Australia,
America and England |
Selections
for this timeline have been based on relevance to literature, culture,
gender issues and environment, with occasional world events to provide
context. Authors are generally represented by only one work. |
| BC |
| 42,000
BC |
Aboriginal
engravings from this date located in South Australia |
| 8,000
BC |
Aborigines
develop boomerang |
| 1300 |
| 1300 |
First
Maori settlement in New Zealand (est.) |
| 1600 |
| 1607 |
Jamestown
colony established in America |
| 1611 |
King
James Bible |
| 1616 |
Death
of Shakespeare |
| 1616 |
Dutch
captain Dirk Hartog first European to land on coast of Australia;
doesn't stay long |
| 1619 |
First
African slaves in Jamestown, Virginia |
| 1633 |
John
Donne: "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning" |
| 1642 |
Dutch
navigator Abel Tasman sights New Zealand, sails into what is now called
Golden Bay on north end of the South Island; charts significant areas
of New Zealand and Australia |
| 1666 |
Ann
Bradstreet: "Upon the Burning of Our House" |
| 1677 |
John
Milton: Paradise Lost |
| 1688 |
Aphra
Behn: Oroonoko |
| 1700 |
| 1712 |
Alexander
Pope: Rape of the Lock |
| 1717 |
Immigrants
arrive in America from Scotland and Ireland |
| 1718 |
Transportation
Act ultimately brings 50,000 English convicts to American colonies
as indentured servants in Maryland and Virginia; total population
of colonies estimated at 470,000. |
| 1719 |
Daniel
Defoe: The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe |
| 1726 |
Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels |
| 1732 |
Benjamin
Franklin begins Poor Richard's Almanac |
| 1749 |
Henry
Fielding: Tom Jones |
| 1755 |
Samuel
Johnson: Dictionary of the English Language |
| 1760 |
George
III becomes King of England |
| 1769 |
Capt.
James Cook maps east coast of New Zealand, claims it for England |
| 1770 |
Capt.
James Cook lands on east coast of Australia, claims it for England |
| 1776 |
American
colonies' Declaration of Independence |
| 1777 |
Phyllis
Wheatley: Poems on Various Subjects |
| 1780 |
George
Washington becomes President of the United States |
| 1788 |
Australia
established as penal colony; FIrst Fleet arrives in Sydney Harbor
with 750 convicts, approximately 200 marines, and 40 women and children |
| 1788 |
Australian
Aborigine Bennelong captured, taken to England to meet King George
III |
| 1789 |
William
Blake: Songs of Innocence |
| 1789 |
French
Revolution: storming of the Bastille |
| 1791 |
U.S.
Constitution ratified: does not give women the vote; does not abolish
slavery |
| 1792 |
Mary
Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Women |
|
1800 |
| 1800 |
U.S.
Library of Congress established |
| 1802 |
First
Australian book published: the NSW General Standing Orders |
| 1803-06 |
Lewis
and Clark expedition |
| 1813 |
Jane
Austen: Pride and Prejudice |
| 1815 |
First
school for Aboriginal children opened in Parramatta, Australia |
| 1818 |
Mary
Shelley: Frankenstein |
| 1819 |
Washington
Irving: Rip Van Winkle |
| 1819 |
Sir
Walter Scott: Ivanhoe |
| 1820s |
"Musket
Wars" between Maori tribes |
| 1826 |
James
Fennimore Cooper: The Last of the Mohicans |
| 1828 |
Noah
Webster: American Dictionary of the English Language |
| 1831 |
Nat
Turner slave rebellion |
| 1834 |
British
Parliament orders slavery abolished in all colonies |
| 1836 |
South
Australia established as colony without convicts (only such colony
in Australia) |
| 1836-37 |
Flinders
Island Chronicle, first Aboriginal newspaper |
| 1837 |
Beginning
of reign of Queen Victoria in England |
| 1837 |
Nathaniel
Hawthorne: Twice Told Tales |
| 1837 |
Ralph
Waldo Emerson: "The American Scholar" |
| 1838 |
Cherokee "Trail of Tears" |
| 1839 |
Cinque
leads slave revolt on Spanish ship Amistad |
| 1839 |
Edgar
Allen Poe: "The Fall of the House of Usher" |
| 1840 |
Treaty
of Waitangi between British and Maori; population estimate: Maori,
115,000; European, 2,000 |
| 1845 |
Frederick
Douglass: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American
Slave |
| 1845 |
Texas
becomes 28th state |
| 1845 |
Irish
potato famine |
| 1845 |
Edgar
Allen Poe: The Raven and Other Poems |
| 1847 |
All
three Bronte sisters publish novels: Charlotte: Jane Eyre;
Anne: Agnes Grey; Emily: Wuthering Heights |
| 1848-50 |
Dunedin
and Canterbury (NZ) founded by Scottish and English settlers |
| 1848 |
Seneca
Falls Convention, first American women's rights convention; organized
by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton |
| 1849 |
Henry
David Thoreau: Civil Disobedience |
| 1849 |
California
Gold Rush |
| 1850 |
Nathaniel
Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter |
| 1851 |
Crystal
Palace World Exhibition in London |
| 1850s |
Australian
Gold Rush in New South Wales, Victoria |
| 1851 |
Herman
Melville: Moby Dick |
| 1852 |
Harriet
Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom's Cabin |
| 1852 |
Charles
Dickens: Bleak House |
| 1854 |
Henry
David Thoreau: Walden |
| 1855 |
Walt
Whitman: Leaves of Grass |
| 1857 |
Anthony
Trollope: Barchester Towers |
| 1860 |
Lincoln
elected President |
| 1860-69 |
New
Zealand Wars: between Maori and Europeans over land sales |
| 1861 |
Harriet
Jacobs: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl |
| 1861 |
Gold
discovered in Otago, New Zealand |
| 1861 |
Rebecca
Harding Davis: "Life in the Iron Mills" |
| 1861-65 |
American
Civil War |
| 1865 |
Lewis
Carroll: Alice in Wonderland |
| 1865 |
Lincoln
assassinated |
| 1865 |
13th
Amendment to Constitution abolishes slavery |
| 1867 |
Gold
rush in Queensland, Australia |
| 1868 |
Last
convicts transported to Australia |
| 1868 |
Louisa
May Alcott: Little Women |
| 1869 |
Transcontinental
railroad completed across U.S. |
| 1874 |
Marcus
Clarke: His Natural Life (Au) |
| 1871 |
George
Eliot: Middlemarch |
| 1874 |
Thomas
Hardy: Far from the Madding Crowd |
| 1876 |
Truganini
dies, last full-blooded Tasmanian Aborigine |
| 1876 |
Mark
Twain: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
| 1876 |
Custer's Last Stand |
| 1876 |
Alexander
Graham Bell invents the telephone |
| 1876 |
Walt
Whitman: Leaves of Grass |
| 1879 |
New
Zealand grants vote to every man over 21 |
| 1879 |
Edison
perfects the incandescent light bulb |
| 1879 |
Henry
James: Daisy Miller |
| 1870s
& 80s |
New
Zealand exports wool, meat, butter; population doubles |
| 1880 |
Ned
Kelly, notorious Australian bushranger and Robin Hood figure, hanged |
| 1880 |
Rosa
Praed:
An Australian Heroine (Au) |
| 1881 |
Clara
Barton establishes the American Red Cross |
| 1881 |
Henry
James, The Portrait of a Lady |
| 1883 |
New
Zealand becomes first country in world to give the vote to women |
| 1883 |
Brooklyn
Bridge completed |
| 1884 |
Mark
Twain: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |
| 1886 |
Death
of Emily Dickinson |
| 1888 |
Rolf
Boldrewood: Robbery Under Arms (Au) |
| 1888 |
The
Dawn: A Journal for Australian Women begins publishing, continues
until 1905 |
| 1889 |
Oklahoma
Land Rush, opening Indian lands for European settlement |
| 1890 |
Ada
Cambridge:
A Marked Man (Au) |
| 1892 |
Henry
Lawson: "The Drover's Wife," "The Bush Undertaker"
(Au) |
| 1892 |
Telephone
service established between New York and Chicago |
| 1893 |
Drought
afflicts Australia; depression follows |
| 1894-5 |
Labor
unrest in U. S. |
| 1895 |
A.
B. Patterson: The Man From Snowy River (Au) |
| 1895 |
Stephen
Crane: The Red Badge of Courage |
| 1896 |
Sarah
Orne Jewett: The Country of the Pointed Firs |
| 1899 |
Kate
Chopin: The Awakening |
| 1899 |
Scott
Joplin: "Maple Leaf Rag" |
| 1900 |
| 1900 |
Theodore
Dreiser:Sister Carrie |
| 1901 |
Commonwealth
of Australia established |
| 1901 |
Miles
Franklin:
My Brilliant Career (Au) |
| 1901 |
Australia's
Immigration Restriction Act requires immigrants to pass dictation
test in a European language |
| 1902 |
Australia
grants women the right to vote |
| 1902 |
Barbara
Baynton: Bush Studies (Au) |
| 1903 |
W.E.B.
DuBois: The Souls of Black Folk |
| 1903 |
Edison's
11-minute film, "The Great Train Robbery," shown |
| 1903 |
Joseph
Furphy: Such is Life (Au) |
| 1903 |
Orville
Wright flies |
| 1908 |
Ford
Model T introduced |
| 1910 |
Jane
Addams: Twenty Years at Hull House |
| 1911 |
Triangle
Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City |
| 1912 |
Titanic
sinks |
| 1913 |
Willa
Cather: O Pioneers! |
| 1913 |
Robert
Frost: A Boy's Will |
| 1914-18 |
New
Zealand and Australia fight on Allied side in WWI |
| 1915 |
T.
S. Eliot: "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock" |
| 1915 |
Australian
and New Zealand armies fight at Gallipoli (Turkey) with great heroism
and great losses |
| 1916 |
Carl
Sandburg: Chicago Poems |
| 1917 |
U.S.
Immigration Act requires literacy test and excludes all Asians except
Japanese |
| 1917 |
U.
S. enters WWI; enacts draft |
| 1918 |
Henry
Adams: The Education of Henry Adams |
| 1918 |
Britain
gives vote to all men over 21 and all women over 30 |
| 1918-19 |
Worldwide
influenza epidemic; deaths estimated as high as 40 million |
| 1919 |
Sherwood
Anderson: Winesburg, Ohio |
| 1920 |
Edith
Wharton: The Age of Innocence |
| 1920 |
Sinclair
Lewis: Main Street |
| 1920 |
19th
Amendment to U. S. Constitution: women's suffrage |
| 1921 |
James
Joyce: Ulysses |
| 1922 |
John
Galsworthy: The Forsyte Saga |
| 1922 |
T.
S. Eliot: The Waste Land |
| 1924 |
U.
S. Immigration law sets quotas (2% of nationalities already in country)
and ends immigration from Japan |
| 1923 |
Katherine
Mansfield: The Garden Party and Other Stories (NZ) |
| 1923 |
Australians
invent "Vegemite," a nutritious spread made from brewers'
yeast, popularized by contests and advertising slogans such as, "If
your get up and go has got up and gone." |
| 1923 |
D.
H. Lawrence:
Kangaroo |
| 1924 |
E.
M. Forster: A Passage to India |
| 1925 |
F.
Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby |
| 1925 |
Scopes
Trial (on teaching Darwin's theory of evolution) in U. S. |
| 1926 |
Ernest
Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises |
| 1927 |
Lindbergh
crosses the Atlantic in The Spirit of St. Louis |
| 1927 |
Virginia
Woolf: To the Lighthouse |
| 1928 |
Britain
lowers women's voting age from 30 to 21 |
| 1929 |
M.
Bernard Eldershaw (Marjorie Barnard & Flora Eldershaw): A
House is Built (Au) |
| 1929 |
Katharine
Susannah Prichard: Coonardoo (Au) |
| 1929 |
William
Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury |
| 1929 |
Stock
Market Crash, beginning of the Great Depression (worldwide) |
| 1930 |
Henry
Handel Richardson (pseud. of Ethel Richardson Robertson): The
Fortunes of Richard Mahony (Au) |
| 1932 |
Aldous
Huxley: Brave New World |
| 1936 |
Dymphna
Cusack: Jungfrau (Au) |
| 1937 |
Zora
Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God |
| 1938 |
Robin
Hyde : The Godwits Fly (NZ) |
| 1939 |
John
Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath |
| !939-45 |
Australia
and New Zealand join Allies in WWII |
| 1940 |
Richard
Wright: Native Son |
| 1941 |
Eleanor
Dark: The Timeless Land (Au) |
| 1942 |
Japanese
bomb Darwin, Broome and Townsville, Australia; Japanese mini-subs
enter Sydney harbor |
| 1944 |
Christina
Stead: For Love Alone (Au) |
| 1945 |
Evelyn
Waugh : Brideshead Revisited |
| 1946 |
Eudora
Welty: Delta Wedding |
| 1946 |
Martin
Boyd: Lucinda Brayford (Au) |
| 1946 |
Frank
Sargeson: That Summer, and Other Stories (NZ) |
| 1947 |
New
Zealand adopts Statute of Westminster, becoming independent |
| 1948 |
First
Australian-made car: the Holden |
| 1950 |
Nevil
Shute: A Town Like Alice (Au) |
| 1951 |
ANZUS
defense treaty signed by Australia, New Zealand, United States |
| 1951 |
J.
D. Salinger: Catcher in the Rye |
| 1952 |
Flannery
O'Connor: Wise Blood |
| 1952 |
Ralph
Ellison: Invisible Man |
| 1953 |
Sir
Edmund Hillary, with Tenzeng Norgay, makes first successful ascent
of Mt. Everest |
| 1953 |
James
Baldwin: Go Tell It On the Mountain |
| 1954 |
William
Golding: Lord of the Flies |
| 1956 |
Olympic
Games held in Melbourne, Australia |
| 1956 |
Maurice
Duggan: Immanuel's Land (stories) (NZ) |
| 1957 |
Jack
Kerouac: On the Road |
| 1957 |
Patrick
White: Voss (Au); wins first Miles Franklin Award |
| 1957 |
Ruth
Park:
One-a-Pecker, Two-a-Pecker (NZ) |
| 1958 |
Australia
abolishes dictation test for immigrants |
| 1958 |
Elizabeth
Harrower: The Long Prospect (Au) |
| 1959 |
Saul
Bellow: Henderson the Rain King |
| 1961 |
New
Zealand abolishes capital punishment |
| 1961 |
Joseph
Heller: Catch 22 |
| 1963 |
Sylvia
Plath: The Bell Jar |
| 1965 |
Australia
sends troops to Vietnam; opposition stages major demonstrations at
home |
| 1965 |
Mudrooroo
(Colin Johnson): Wild Cat Falling (Au) |
| 1967 |
90.8%
of Australian voters pass a Constitutional referendum ending legal
discrimination against Aborigines |
| 1967 |
Norman
Mailer: Why Are We in Vietnam? |
| 1967 |
Bernard
Malamud: The Fixer |
| 1968 |
Joan
Lindsay:
Picnic at Hanging Rock (Au) |
| 1971 |
Neville
Bonner becomes first Aboriginal member of Australian Parliament |
| 1971 |
Wallace
Stegner: Angle of Repose |
| 1972 |
Thomas
Keneally: The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (Au) |
| 1972 |
Frank
Moorhouse:
The Americans, Baby (Au) |
| 1973 |
Patrick
White wins Nobel Prize for Literature |
| 1974 |
Australia
adopts immigration policy without racial discrimination |
| 1975 |
New
Zealand establishes Waitangi Tribunal to adjudicate Maori land claims
and compensate for confiscated land |
| 1977 |
Leslie
Marmon Silko: Ceremony |
| 1977 |
Toni
Morrison: Song of Solomon |
| 1977 |
Helen
Garner: Monkey Grip (Au) |
| 1979 |
Maurice
Gee: Plumb (NZ) |
| 1980 |
Janet
Frame: Living in the Maniototo (NZ) |
| 1980 |
Elizabeth
Jolley: Palomino (Au) |
| 1982 |
Sue
McCauley: Other Halves (NZ) |
| 1984 |
Keri
Hulme: The Bone People (NZ) |
| 1984 |
Owen
Marshall: The Day Hemingway Died and Other Stories (NZ) |
| 1985 |
C.
K. Stead: All Visitors Ashore (NZ) |
| 1985 |
Peter
Carey: Illywhacker (Au) |
| 1986 |
Proclamation
of Australia Act ends legal ties with Great Britain |
| 1986 |
Patricia
Grace: Potiki (NZ) |
| 1986 |
Ian
Wedde: Symmes Hole (NZ) |
| 1987 |
Fiona
Kidman: The Book of Secrets (NZ) |
| 1987 |
Sally
Morgan: My Place (best-selling Australian Aboriginal memoir) |
| 1987 |
Thea
Astley: It's Raining in Mango (Au) |
| 1988 |
Salman
Rushdie: The Satanic Verses |
| 1989 |
Jill
Ker Conway: The Road from Coorain (Au) |
| 1990 |
David
Malouf: The Great World (Au) |
| 1990 |
Maurice
Shadbolt: Monday's Warriors (NZ) |
| 1991 |
Alan
Duff : Once Were Warriors (NZ) |
| 1992 |
Michael
Ondaatje: The English Patient |
| 1992 |
Mabo
decision in Australia acknowledges that Aborigines possessed land
when English arrived |
| 1991 |
Barbara
Anderson: Portrait of the Artist's Wife (NZ) |
| 1993 |
Vincent
O'Sullivan: Let the River Stand (NZ) |
| 1994 |
Witi
Ihimaera: Bulibasha: King of the Gypsies (NZ) |
| 1995 |
New
Zealand wins America's Cup |
| 1997 |
New
Zealand compensates Maori tribe for confiscated land |
| 1997 |
Jenny
Shipley becomes first woman Prime Minister in New Zealand |
| 1998 |
Catherine
Chidgey: in a fishbone church (NZ) |
| 1998 |
Murray
Bail: Eucalyptus (Au) |
| 2000 |
| 2000 |
Summer
Olympic Games held in Sydney |
| 2002 |
Richard
Flanagan: Gould's Book of Fish (Au) |
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| Items
in this timeline have been gathered from the following sources: Encyclopedia
Britannica, A Brief Timeline of American Literature and Events
(http://guweb2.gonzaga.edu/faculty/campbell/enl310/1650.htm),
The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature, The Cambridge
Companion to Australian Literature, Eyewitness Guide to New Zealand,
Eyewitness Guide to Australia, English History Timeline (http://www.postcolonialweb.org/victorian/history/historytl.html ),
The Literary Dictionary (http://www.litencyc.com/histfr.html),
Classics of Australian Literature (http://home.vicnet.net.au/~ozlit/classics.html), |