Major Anniversaries in 2026

250 years since the publication of The Wealth of Nations by Scottish philosopher Adam Smith, the foundation of the discipline of economics

250 years since the death of John Harrison, an English carpenter and clockmaker who invented the marine chronometer which solved the problem of calculating longitude while at sea

225 years since the discovery of niobium by English mineralogist Charles Hatchett

200 years since the publication of 'The Last of the Mohicans' by American novelist James Fenimore Cooper, the first popular American novel

175 years since the death of English author Mary Shelley, best known for creating Frankenstein in her Gothic novel 'Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheous', written when she was only 21

175 years since the foundation of Reuters news agency, the world's biggest and most prestigious news agency throughout the 19th and 20th centuries

150 years since the first telephone call made by Scottish inventor Alexander Graham Bell

125 years since the death of John Kemp Starley, an English inventor and industrialist who is widely considered to be the inventor of the modern bicycle, and who originated the name Rover.

125 years since the death of Queen Victoria

100 years since the publication of 'Winnie the Pooh' by English author A. A. Milne