David Livingstone makes a heroic six-month journey from the Zambezi river to the west coast of Africa

The Panama Railroad company completes a line between the Atlantic and the Pacific, providing America's first transcontinental link

David Livingstone, moving down the Zambezi, comes upon the Victoria Falls

Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke set off from Bagamoyo in their search for the source of the Nile

Burton and Speke reach Lake Tanganyika at Ujiji, a place later famous for the meeting between Livingstone and Stanley

Brunel dies just before the maiden voyage of his gigantic final project, the luxury liner The Great Eastern

Speke reaches Lake Victoria and guesses that it is probably the source of the Nile

Frozen remains and a document are finally found to reveal the fate of the Franklin expedition of 1845 to the NorthWest Passage

Mail is carried by horse relay from Missouri to California, travelling 2000 miles in ten days in the service known as the Pony Express

Richard Burton, visiting Dahomey, provides reports of the kingdom's celebrated Amazons preparing for war

Speke and Grant find the Ripon Falls, over which the headwater of the Nile flows from Lake Tanganyika

John McDouall Stuart reaches the north coast of Australia at Van Diemen's Gulf seven months after setting off from Adelaide

The bones of Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills are brought back to Melbourne after the heroic failure of their attempt to cross Australia

The Metropolitan Railway, the world's first to go underground, opens in London using steam trains between Paddington and Farringdon Street

The Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads meet at Promontory Summit in Utah, completing the first transcontinental line

The proprietor of the New York Herald gives Henry Morton Stanley a very concise commission – 'Find Livingstone'

The most famous of the three-masted tea-clippers, the Cutty Sark is launched at Dumbarton for service to and from China

Stanley, finding Livingstone at Ujiji, greets him with four words which become famous – 'Dr Livingstone, I presume'

Stanley sets off from Bagamoyo, intending to resume the exploration of central Africa where Livingstone left off

Stanley passes Nyangwe on the Lualaba, the furthest point down the Congo river system reached by Livingstone

Stanley completes his exploration of the Congo, reaching the Atlantic coast at Boma after a three-year journey

German engineer Karl Friedrich Benz builds the Tri-Star, a three-wheeled vehicle with an internal combustion that is considered the first commercial automobile

German engineer Gottlied Wilhelm Daimler builds the first successful 4-wheel vehicle with an internal combustion engine

A vast cantilever bridge, spanning a mile of water, carries the railway across the Firth of Forth in Scotland

The world's first electric underground railway passes under the Thames, linking the City of London and Stockwell