1829: UK - Parliament passes the Catholic Relief Act, ending most restrictions on Catholic Civil Rights. They are allowed to own property and run for public office, including parliament
1831: UK - Michael Faraday, in the first in a series of Experimental Researches in Electricity, discovered the means of producing electricity from magnetism, i.e., electromagnetic induction, the generation of an electric field by a changing magnetic field. This is the principle of the dynamo
1831: UK - Swing Riots' in rural areas against the mechanization of agricultural activities.
1832: UK - The first or Great Reform Act is passed. This climax of a period of political reform extends the vote to a further 500,000 people and redistributes Parliamentary seats on a more equitable basis
1832: UK - House-breaking, sheep-stealing and forgery removed from list of capital crimes in England
1832: UK - Commission created to look into inhumanity of transporting prisoners to Australia, another in 1837, transportation to New South Wales finally stops in 1840
1833: UK - Parliament passes the Factory Act, prohibiting children aged less than nine from working in factories, and reducing the working hours of women and older children
1834: UK - Charles Babbage designed a programmable mechanical calculating machine, or 'analytical engine,' that could carry out arithmetic operations specified on punch cards and choose the sequence of operations. Although the design was never built, Augusta Ada Byron wrote programs to demonstrate its potential power.
