1850
Queen Victoria sells the Royal Pavilion to the Corporation of Brighton for £53,000.
1850
3,000 miles of railway track now exist in Britain.
1850
9,000 miles of railroad are operational in the US.
1850
There are now 70 daguerreotype studios in New York City.
1850
Sondre Norheim of Norway invents the first toe-and-heel binding for skis, allowing skiers to ski down hills without worrying about their skis coming off.
1850 - 1854
Irish explorer Sir Robert McClure crosses the Northwest Passage through the Arctic Ocean, charting over 1,700 miles of new coastline.
1850 - 1859
The word 'vacation' starts to be used in America for the first time in both published works and private journals.
1850 - 1859
The mainstream press begins to report on the health benefits of taking a vacation to rural areas; advice which has previously only been published in medical works and circles.
1850 - 1859
Japan opens her ports to trade with various countries including Great Britain and the United States. Prior to this only the Dutch have been allowed to trade with Japan.
1851
Carlo Gatti, an Italian businessman, opens Britain's first ice cream stall outside London's Charing Cross station. His successors soon take their wares to the increasingly popular seaside resorts.
1851
Thomas Cook promotes trips for working men to see the Great Exhibition in London in his first edition of the Excursionist.
1851
In the UK, Worker's Travel Clubs are set up to arrange travel to the Great Exhibition in London. Their method of bulk buying accommodation and transport tickets bear strong resemblance to more modern inclusive tours.
1852
Battle House Renaissance Mobile Hotel & Spa opens on the site of a military headquarters set up by Andrew Jackson during the War of 1812. The hotel also later serves as a Confederate hospital during the Civil War.
1853
The Willard (now Willard InterContinental) opens in Washington D.C. The Willard has since hosted nearly every United States president; it is where Julia Ward Howe writes 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic'; where President Ulysses S. Grant popularizes the term “Lobbyist” and where Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King finishes his renowned "I Have a Dream" speech.
1853
London Zoo opens the world’s first public ‘aquatic vivarium’, or aquarium.
1853 - 1854
The United States sends the Perry Expedition to Japan to encourage diplomatic and trade relations between the two countries.
1853 - 1855
James S. Remsen and a partner purchase undeveloped land near New York's Beach 102 Street which is soon dubbed 'seaside'. They build the Seaside Hotel and other entertainments and hotels soon join, starting the development of what will become Rockaway Beach, America's largest urban beach.
1853 - 1856
David Livingstone becomes the first to traverse Africa from west to east, discovering and naming Victoria Falls along the way.
1854
London Zoo exhibits the first hippo in Europe since the Roman Empire. Obaysch weighs 37 stone and attracts up to 10,000 visitors a day.
1854
The North Eastern Railway forms after the amalgamation of the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway; the York and North Midland Railway and the Leeds Northern Railway.
1854
Alfred Will's reaches the summit of the Wetterhorn in the Alps, beginning the 'golden age of alpinism'.
1855
The longest continuously operating hotel in the United States opens in Boston. The Omni Parker House hosts every American President since Ulysses S. Grant. At the Parker House, JFK makes his first public speech at age seven, announces his candidacy for the US Senate, holds his bachelor party and proposes to Jacqueline Bouvier.
1855
Thomas Cook conducts his first continental tour, personally taking two parties from the UK around Europe. They eventually end up in Paris for the International Exhibition.
1855
The British government begin issuing single sheet passports written in English. This replaced the previous documents written in French which had been in use since 1772.
1855
The New York Central Railroad publicises Niagara Falls as a popular destination for tourists and romantic honeymoons.
1856 - 1860
British troops fight to legalise the opium trade and open all of China to British merchants in the Second Opium War. At the conclusion, all foreign traders are given rights to travel in China.
1857
The world's first mountaineering club, 'The Alpine Club' is founded in London.
1858
British explorers Sir Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke discover Lake Victoria and Lake Tanganyika.
1858
Michael and Fannie Holland invest $350 into the Rockaway Beach area and, after Michael's death, Fannie Holland works to turn the area into a profitable resort. More entrepreneurs follow and the $350 investment is worth over $1 million within 50 years.
1858 - 1947
The British Raj in India begins as the rule of the East India Company transfers to Queen Victoria. It ends in 1947 with the splitting of territories into the Union of India and the Dominion of Pakistan.
1859
The final 120 miles of American coastline around Prince Wales Island and the Boothia Peninsula are charted.
1859 - 1908
The luxury Fifth Avenue Hotel opens in New York. It is designed by Griffith Thomas and William Washburn and built at a cost of $2 million. The hotel is the first to contain an Otis Tuft ‘vertical screw railway’; one of the first elevators to carry guests. Each room contains a private bathroom and a fireplace. It is demolished in 1908.
1860
Brighton welcomes 250,000 visitors a year by train.
1860
30,000 miles of railroad are operational in the US.
1860 - Present
The Codman family's Punch and Judy show makes it first appearance on the promenade at Llandudno, Wales, beginning a more than 150 year run.
1860 - Present
Alton Towers opens as a pleasure garden, with flower shows and garden tours. The theme park is opened in 1980, and the hotel in 1996. The park welcomes approximately three million visitors a year.
1860 - 1861
Surveyors William Wills and Robert O'Hara Burke become the first people to cross Australia from south to north.
1861 - 1865
The American Civil War is fought to determine the survival of the Union or the independence of the southern Confederacy.
1861 - 1865
The American government require all travelling citizens to hold a valid passport throughout the Civil War. Laws are relaxed after the end of the Civil War until the First World War.
1861 - Present
The Gunnery Camp is founded in Washington, Connecticut. Early campers enjoyed boating, fishing and trapping. It is one of the oldest operating camps in the United States.
1862
Le Grand Hôtel is opened in Paris by Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III. The hotel has been built by brothers Isaac & Émile Pereire and has 800 rooms for guests. The building is designed by the architect Alfred Armand to "show the élite of travellers from all over the world the progress made under the Second Empire by the sciences, arts and industry". The first hydraulic lift is installed in this hotel and the entire hotel is equipped with electric lighting in 1890 and steam central heating in 1901.
![Mermaids at Brighton [showing bathing machines] by William Heath, c.1829](media/mermaidsatbrighton.jpg)
1862
Margate Town Council in England decrees that all seaside bathers wear swimming costumes and that a distance of not less than 60 feet be maintained between male and female bathing machines. This is in response to male bathers insisting on their right to bathe naked, to receive the full benefits of the sea's healthy mineral particles.
1862
John Hanning Speke pinpoints the Nile flowing from Lake Victoria.
1862
Austrian Alpenverein mountaineering club forms. Membership is largely confined to upper class society.
1862
George Pullman establishes the Pullman Company after being inspired by an uncomfortable overnight train journey in New York State. The Pullman Company produces trains with luxury sleeping cars.
1862 - 1902
The Great Eastern Railway is formed with the amalgamation of the Eastern Counties Railway and the Northern and Eastern Railway. Its London terminus is Liverpool Street station.
1863
Thomas Cook conducts his first party of 62 people to Switzerland, via Paris. Jemima Morrell, a 31 year old unmarried woman from Selby becomes one of the first women to cross the Swiss Alps as one of the party.
1863
Swiss Alpenclub mountaineering club forms. Membership is largely confined to upper class society.
1863
Club Alpino Italiano is created in the wake of other famous European mountaineering clubs. Membership is largely confined to upper class society.
1863
North Pier opens to the public in Blackpool. An amusement park is later added. It eventually becomes known as the present-day Pleasure Beach.
1864
The Grand Hotel in Brighton is built and opens to the public. The hotel is an exclusive and expensive residence and contains one of the only lifts installed in a building outside of London.
1864
Creation of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, which now boasts 400 miles of track across Iowa and Illinois.
1864
Senator John Conness of California sponsors an act to transfer Yosemite Valley and Mairposa Big Tree Grove to the state so they could act to protect it. This begins the process of preserving areas of natural beauty in the USA.
1864 - 1882
London Zoo exhibits Jumbo the elephant, the biggest elephant in captivity. He is sold in 1882 to P. T. Barnum’s circus and shipped to America, sparking ‘Jumbomania’.
1865
English mountaineer Edward Whymper becomes the first man to ascend the Matterhorn in the Alps. Upon descent, four of his companions fall to their deaths and the tragedy is marked as ending the 'golden age of alpinism'.
1865
Thomas Cook opens an office in Fleet Street, London.
1866
The West Pier in Brighton is opened to the public.
![[Mountain View House and surroundings]](media/nhhs_917.78b_w591sp_004.jpg)
1866 - Present
William and Mary Jane Dodge welcome their first guests at their home in New Hampshire. Inspired to open a guest house, Mountain View House is born. The hotel overlooks a series of 5,000 and 6,000 foot mountain peaks in the White Mountain range, and still operates today as a Four Seasons hotel.
1867
Charles Feltman invents the 'Coney Island Red Hot', the precursor to the modern hot dog.
1868
Thomas Cook launches his hotel coupon, which enabled travellers to pay for accommodation and meals without cash.
1868 - 1870
Central Pier is opened to the public in Blackpool. The pier has a theatre and Robert Bickerstaffe adds open-air dancing for the “working classes” in 1870.
1868 - 1878
William A. Engeman builds a resort in the Coney Island area. It is given the name "Brighton Bridge" in 1878 by Henry C. Murphy and a group of businessmen.
1869
The German Alpenverein Club is formed. Membership is largely confined to upper class society.
1869
The first cog railway is built in New Hampshire.
![Tourists picnicking at an Egyptian temple [from a later Thomas Cook trip]](media/tca_gb11_16_0001.jpg)
1869
Thomas Cook conducts his first tour to Egypt and Palestine.
1869
The Suez Canal is completed, providing an artificial sea-level channel connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. This is a new and invaluable sea route.
1869 - 1870
The first British holiday bungalows are built in Westgate-on-Sea to serve the wealthy. Self-catering Victorian holiday makers begin enjoying seaside holidays.
1869 - 1870
Arctic explorers Carl Koldewey and Julius von Payer explore the east coast of Greenland.
![[Photograph of Feltman's - "the largest dining establishment in the world']](media/bhs_f129.c75_c64_1930_c.1_0007.jpg)
1870
German immigrant Charles Feltman begins serving sausages in rolls on Coney Island, possibly one of the first appearances of the 'hot-dog'. The success of this item allowed him to buy enough land to open his own restaurant in 1874.
1870
First trans-continental excursion by a train with Pullman cars leaves Boston for San Francisco on 23 May 1870 to return on 1 July.
1870 - 1879
Chautauqua, NY, becomes a favoured vacation spot due to its varied amusements, promises of relaxation and reputation for providing recreation alongside education and self-improvement.
1871
The Bank Holiday Act is passed by the British government, establishing the first bank holidays in the UK and allowing those who work at least four guaranteed days off a year.
1871
Thomas Cook's son, John Mason Cook, is officially taken on as his partner and the company changes its name to Thomas Cook and Son.
1872
The Aquarium in Brighton opens, exhibiting two tanks with a capacity of 100,000 gallons of water each.
1872
Raikes Hall Pleasure Gardens open in Blackpool. The gardens are later extended to include a lake, racecourse, football and cricket ground, skating rink, aviary, monkey house, ballroom, theatre and switchback.
1872
Thomas Cook open their first Egypt office in Cairo.
1872
Yellowstone National Park is established in Idaho, USA.
1872 - 1873
Thomas Cook conducts his first around the world tour. He covers more than 25,000 miles.
1873
The Cliff House at Pikes Peak, Colorado, opens as a 20 room boarding house. The inn proves popular during the gold rush and the proprietors occasionally have to pitch tents to accommodate the overflow of guests.
1873
The Palais de Würtemberg in Vienna is transformed into a luxury residence for the notables of the epoch, l'Hôtel Impérial. Kings and queens became regular visitors and it is possible that Richard Wagner directed the first productions of "Tannhäuser" and "Lohengrin" there.
1873
Thomas Cook opens its new head office at Ludgate Circus, London.
1874
The catacombs of Paris (l'Ossuaire Municipal) are first opened to the public on a regular basis as a tourist attraction.
1874
Thomas Cook introduces his circular note, which enables travellers to obtain local currency without carrying cash. It is the forerunner of the traveller’s cheque.
1874
Cook's Circular Note, an early form of the travellers cheque, is launched in New York.
1874 - Present
The Philadelphia Zoo opens. It is the United States oldest operating zoo.
1875 - 1913
Mrs Eliza Sproat opens a camp for girls in Downington, PA., in order to teach city girls about country life. By 1910, 3,000 children are attending Sproat’s 25 camps and in 1913 the camps are officially named Paradise Camps.
1875
The Palace Hotel in San Francisco opens. It is reported to be the largest, most luxurious and costly hotel in the world. The hotel’s Garden Court includes a domed ceiling containing more than 70,000 pieces of iridescent glass, one of the largest expanses of coloured glass in the world.
1875
The Palmer House Hotel in Chicago opens its doors. The second iteration of this hotel (the first one burned down in 1871), the seven story structure has been designed by John M. Van Osdel and the iron and brick construction is advertised as the world’s only fireproof hotel.
1875
The Grand Hotel Europe opens its doors in St Petersburg. This prestigious place is where Tchaikoswky spends his honeymoon and where Shostakovich plays a sonata for Prokofiev in his suite.
1875
Andrew Culver builds the Prospect Park and Coney Island Railroad to the Coney Island resort.
1876
Queen Victoria is named Empress of India.
1876
Italian naturalist and explorer Luigi D'Albertis travel 500 miles up the Fly River in Papua New Guinea.
1876
Danish woodcarver Charles I. D. Looff builds the first carousel and amusement ride at Coney Island.
1876
The first completed parts of the Winter Gardens in Blackpool and an open-air roller skating rink open.
1877
Austin Corbin opens the Manhattan Beach Hotel, one of three luxury hotels on Coney Island. Designed by J. Pickering Putnam, the 150 room Manhattan Beach Hotel contains restaurants, ballrooms and shops. It is opened by Ulysses S. Grant.
1878
The Blackpool Winter Gardens is opened to the public, providing indoor entertainment in inclement weather.
1878
The Bicycle Touring Club is founded by Thomas Hiram Holding. It eventually becomes the Cyclists' Touring Club.
1878 - 1879
Finnish Arctic explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld is the first to travel the Northeast Passage from the Russian Arctic coast to the Bering Strait.
1878
The Camera Obscura Observatory, a 300 foot iron tower, is imported from the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition and installed at Coney Island. Mirrors and lens provide a panoramic view of the area.
1878
Major Charles Davis' discovers Roman remains in the city of Bath. The excavation of the Great Bath begins.
1879 - 1899
Thomas Cook retires and his son, John Mason Cook, takes over the company until his death from dysentery in 1899.
1879
Blackpool installs what are widely considered the first artificial street lights in the world. Dr Siemens' 8 dynamo-electric machines powered by 16 Robey engines are used to power 8 arc lamps on the promenade spaced 320 yards apart, emitting the equivalent of 48,000 candles of light in total. The event is advertised nationally and attracts between 70,000 and 100,000 visitors.
1879 - 1916
Eagle Mountain House opens as a guest house with 12 guest rooms. The original house is destroyed by fire in 1915 and, the following year, it is rebuilt, boasting 125 guest rooms with 100 full baths, spectacular mountain views and a 280-foot wrap-around veranda.
1879
The travel agency Raymond and Whitcomb Tours is founded by Walter Raymond and Irving Whitcomb in Boston Massachusetts. They specialise in providing elite, all-inclusive tours in North America and their customers are often wealthy church-goers.
1880
Andrew Culver opens the Oriental Hotel on Coney Island, which hosts rooms for wealthy families staying for extended periods.
1880
The SS Ravenna becomes the first cruise ship to be built using a total steel superstructure.
1880
Denver and Rio Grande railroad is extended. The Cambric and Toltec is built to serve the mining camps in the San Juan mountains.
1881
Prospect House, Blue Mountain Lake, New York installs electric lighting.
1881
Raymond and Whitcomb Tours organises their first Western tour, covering 44 days and many US destinations.
1882
Norske Ski Club, the first modern ski club in America, is organised in New Hampshire by resident Norwegians.
1882
Coney Island’s first theatre, the Surf Theatre, is opened by Peter and George C. Tilyou.
1883
The first electric tramway in England is built by Magnus Volk in Brighton. It is the world's oldest operating electric railway.
1883
The Orient Express makes it's inaugural run, travelling from Paris to Varna. Passengers disembark here to catch a steamboat to Constantinople.
1884
LaMarcus A. Thompson introduces his Switchback Gravity Pleasure Railway at Coney Island. This device is recognized as the first true roller coaster in the United States.
1884
John Cook of Thomas Cook and Son is contracted by the British Government to assist a relief expedition up the Nile from Asyut to Wadi Halfa to rescue General Gordon from Khartoum in the Sudan. General Gordon has been defending the city from a revolt with minimal men and supplies. Despite organising a large rescue operation, the relief expedition arrived two days after the city has fallen and Gordon killed.
1885
The Blackpool Electric Tramway Company introduce the town's first electric trams.
1885
The first YMCA camp opens in Dudley, and is the longest continually operating camp in the United States. By 1901, the YMCA camps are housing five thousand boys each summer, a number that grew to 23,300 by 1916. Camps for girls are established from 1902.
1885
Dr William Gordon Stables designs the first purpose-built touring caravan, 'The Wanderer'.
1885 - 1896
The Elphantine Colossus is built on Coney Island as a tourist attraction. Standing at seven stories (122 ft high, with legs 60ft. in circumference), it is said to be the first artificial structure visible to immigrants arriving in the United States, being built two years before the Statue of Liberty. It serves as a hotel, concert hall and amusement bazaar until it burns down in 1896. A cigar store opens in one of the first legs and a diorama opens in the other. Guests reach a shop and the rooms through a spiral staircase in the hind leg and can view the ocean through slits in the elephant’s eyes. The hotel becomes synonymous with prostitution, prompting the local phrase “visiting the elephant”.
1886
The Polytechnic organises trips for members to Switzerland and Boulogne as part of their first foreign package tour.
1886
The Polytechnic Touring Association advertises battlefield tours of Waterloo.
1886 - Present
Leffert Buck builds the steel bridge that still carries trains over the Niagara River today.
1888
The first Kodak camera, designed by George Eastman, is available to purchase. Its fairly low price makes it appealing to a wide audience.
1888
The first patented film camera is designed by Louis Le Prince, a Frenchman in England.
1888
The first electric powered street railway opens in Richmond, Virginia, with many more constructed throughout the United States. This innovation results in the development of facilities along the routes such as amusement parks and dance halls, which maximise revenue in the evenings and weekends.
1889
The first opera house is built in Blackpool.
1889
The United States’ first vertical looping roller coaster is constructed by Lina Beecher in Toledo. It is later relocated to New York's Coney Island.
1889
The S.S. Valetta becomes the first cruise ship to have electric lighting.
1889
The Savoy in London opens its doors. Built next to the Savoy Theatre by owner Richard D’Oyly, the hotel offers accommodation to tourists travelling to see the opera. The main restaurant is run by Cesar Ritz, who hires August Escoffier, “king of chefs and chef of kings”.
1889
Manitou and Pikes Peak Railway is founded.
1889
The Polytechnic organises a trip for its members to the Paris Exhibition.
1890 - 1942
The Glen Springs Sanatorium, the 'American Nauheim' opens as a health and pleasure resort in New York State. It is claimed that American Indians used to flock to the springs to reap the medicinal benefit of the waters and now this resort enables tourists to drink and bathe in them too.
1890
The first school for hoteliers is founded in Lausanne, Switzerland by J. Tschumi, Director of the Beau Rivage in Lausanne, and A. R. Armleder, the "father" of the Richemond in Geneva.
1890
Yosemite National Park is established in California, USA.
1890
Sequoia National Park is established in California, USA.
1891
First passenger train makes it to the summit of Pikes Peak on 30 June 1891.
1891
Work begins on the building of Blackpool Tower by Lancashire architects James Maxwell and Charles Tuke.
1892
The Fresh Air Fund is launched in the UK by newspaper proprietor Arthur Pearson. It is intended to provide days out for impoverished children from the big cities.
1893
Chicago's Columbian Exposition introduces the famous George Ferris Giant Wheel.
1893
South Pier in Blackpool opens.
1893
Electric lighting is installed throughout the Winter Gardens in Blackpool at a cost of £3,307.
1893
Civil War hero, General Roy Stone, is appointed Special Agent for the new Office of Road Enquiry to promote rural road development and help the bicycles, wagons and coaches travelling on the current dirt road system.
1893 - 1929
Millionaire William Waldorf Astor opens the 13 storey Waldorf Hotel on the site of his mansion at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 33rd Street, designed by renowned architect Henry Hardenbergh. The hotel is closed in 1929 and the site is sold to the developers of the Empire State Building.
1893 - 1896
Oscar Tschirky, the Waldorf Hotel’s maître d'hôtel, creates the Waldorf Salad.
1893 - Present
The Pfister Hotel opens in Milwaukee. Accruing construction costs of over $1 million, the hotel is designed by architect Henry C. Koch and includes features such as fireproofing, electricity throughout the hotel and thermostat controls in every guestroom. An avid art collector, owner Charles Pfister displays much of his collection throughout The Pfister. It remains the largest hotel collection of Victorian art.
1894
Royal Mail gives permission for British publishers to manufacture and sell picture postcards.
1894
The Cunningham Camp for men opens on the Isle of Man. Campers stay in tents and conditions are basic.
1894
Chutes Park in Chicago opens. Built by Captain Paul Boyton, Chutes Park is the first amusement park to be enclosed and charge an admission fee.
1894
The Netherland Hotel in New York City becomes the first hotel to provide all its guests with their own telephone.
1894
The Blackpool Tower complex is opened to the public. It boasts an aquarium, menagerie, circus, Grand Pavilion (which later became the Tower Ballroom) and multiple cafes, shops and bars. The tower is climbed by over 3,000 people on the opening day.
1894
Cunningham's Young Men's Holiday Camp, the first holiday camp in the UK, opens on the Isle of Man. Created by Mr and Mrs Cunningham, it only accepts young men as its customers.
1895
The first radio transmission consisting of morse code is made from a temporary station set up by Guglielmo Marconi.
1895
The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty (often referred to as 'The National Trust') is established in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and is given statutory power to preserve and run historic sites, landscapes and nature reserves.
1895
Llandudno in Wales officially reintroduces mixed bathing on part of its beach, bowing to pressure from the public, though stipulates that all bathers must wear appropriate attire. Other seaside destinations in the UK soon follow its lead.
1895
Naturfreunde [Friends of Nature] mountaineering club is formed in Vienna to appeal to working class members of society.
1895
Paul Boyton opens a themed venue, the Coney Island Sea Lion Park. The park features forty trained lions and Boyton’s own aquatic inventions. He also includes several early theme park rides such as a raft on a water slide, a roller coaster and a mill ride.
1896
The Empress Ballroom in Blackpool opens to the public.
1896
The Swiss hotelier Caspar Badrutt opens the famous Palace de Saint Moritz in Switzerland.
1897
The 17 storey Astoria Hotel is erected by William Waldorf Astor's cousin, John Jacob Astor IV.
1897
Marylebone station is built in London, forming a new line of the Great Central Railway.
1897 - 1964
The first of the three original Coney Island amusement parks, Steeplechase Park is opened on Coney Island. It becomes the oldest and longest lasting park, despite partially burning down in 1907. The park runs until 1964, when, after years of struggling to profit, it is sold to the Trump family and closed for good.
1897
The areas of Hammels, Holland and Seaside combine to form the Village of Rockaway Beach on the coast of New York City. It continues to grow as a bustling seaside resort as regular transport from Manhattan and entertainments and accommodation continue to be developed.
1898
Congress pass the 'Private Mailing Card Act', allowing private publishers to produce postcards. Prior to this only the Post Office had been allowed to print postcards.
1898
César Ritz, from the Valais in Switzerland, opens the first Ritz Hotel in Place Vendôme, Paris. César Ritz would later be called the "king of hoteliers and hotelier to kings" by King Edward VII.
1898
The deckchair is introduced at Margate, England. It is available for beachgoers to rent by the hour.
1898
John Cook, of Thomas Cook and Sons, organises a tour of the Holy Land for Kaiser Wilhelm II.
1898 - 1901
Upon returning from a trip to Chamonix in the Alps, where he and his son engaged Swiss guides to teach them to ski, Henry Lunn recognises the potential growing popularity of skiing and sets up the Public Schools Alpine Sports Club. Functioning as a travel agency, membership is limited to ex-public school boys and those of a certain rank and members are expected to behave and dress to a certain code.
1899
John Mason Cook dies of dysentery and Thomas Cook and Son passes to his three sons, Frank Henry, Thomas Albert and Ernest Edward.
1899 - 1902
The Blackpool Alhambra opens to the public. It features a 2,000 seat circus, a ballroom big enough for 3,000 dancers and a 3,000 seat theatre. It soon proves too big and expensive to run and is incorporated into the Blackpool Tower (as the Palace) in 1902.
1899
The Palace Pier in Brighton opens to the public.
1899
Bronx Zoo opens to the public; the largest metropolitan zoo in the United States. The zoo has around 2.15 million visitors a year.
1899
US automobile ownership exceeds 1,000 for the first time.
1899
Mount Rainier National Park is established in Washington, USA.
1899
The South Eastern and Chatham Railway forms from the South Eastern Railway and the London, Chatham and Dover Railway.
1899 - 1902
The Second Boer War is fought between Great Britain and South Africa. Thomas Cook begin to offer battlefield tours while the conflict is ongoing.
1900
George Eastman introduces the 'Brownie' camera. Simple in design and inexpensive to buy, this camera heralds the concept of taking snapshots.
1900
The population of Las Vegas, the United States’ most popular gaming cities, is just 22!
1900
The Prinzessin Victoria Louise is built exclusively for luxury cruising; the first of its kind. She is designed by general manager of Hamburg-America Line, Albert Ballin.
1900
The Polytechnic Touring Association emerges as an organisation within the Polytechnic, offering cheaper travel to less affluent customers.
1900
America has fewer than 10,000 hotels across the country.