Discover Belgium: History, News, Travel, and Stories

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• 1795 - October 1 - Belgium is conquered by France.
  
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• 1800 - Population of Belgium (French Republic) - 4,000,000
  
  
• 1815 - March 16 - Willem I proclaimed king of the Netherlands, including Belgium
  
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• 1830 - October 4 - Provisional government declares secession of Belgium from Netherlands
  
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• 1831 - July 21 - Belgium gains independence from Netherlands, Leopold I made king
  
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• 1839 - April 19 - Treaty of London constitutes Belgium an independent kingdom & Luxembourg a Grand Duchy
  
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• 1868 - Belgium needs school-masters. Not one in ten of her artisans can read and write.
  
  St Joseph Herald
  Saint Joseph, Michigan
  December 19, 1868
  
• 1870 - A terrible accident occurred on a railroad, near Luxembourg, Belgium, on the 9th. It is reported that twenty persons were killed.
  
  St Joseph Herald
  Saint Joseph, Michigan
  May 21, 1870
  
•   1880 - Ladies who wear sealskin sacques are very liable to not wear them,
  for in Belgium rabbit skins are successfully prepared to resemble sealskin, and thousands of rabbits are annually killed in England whose pelts go to Belgium, and leave that country as genuine sealskins.
  St Joseph Herald
  Saint Joseph, Michigan
  May 22, 1880
  
•   1889 - DISASTER IN BELGIUM.
  A Railway Accident in Which Fourteen Person Were Killed and Fifty Others Injured.
  
  BRUSSELS, Feb. 4. - A railway train from Brussels to Namur was thrown from the track while running at a high rate of speed near Groenendael Sunday. Fourteen persons were killed and fifty injured. The bodies of all the persons killed by the railroad accident have been brought here. Fifteen persons, all mortally injured, lie at Hoeviaert near the scene of the disaster. Among them are several children. The Minister of Railways has visited the injured, most of whom are suffering from fractured legs. Masses of masonry block the line, and they will probably have to be removed by the use of dynamite.
  
  It has been ascertained that the train struck the pillar of a bridge near Namur causing the bridge to collapse. The train was carried down with it and completely wrecked.
  St Joseph Herald
  Saint Joseph, Michigan
  February 9, 1889
  
•   1890 - December 25 - The coal mining companies of Belgium have decided on a general reduction of wages, and the miners threaten to strike.
  
  The Toronto Daily Mail
  Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  December 25, 1890
  
• 1895 - Belgium
  "Belgium, a small kingdom of Western Europe, is bounded on the N. by the Netherlands, on the E. by Luxemburg, Rhenish Prussia, and the Netherlands, on the S. and S.W. by France, and on the N.W. by the German Ocean. It lies between lat. 49° 30' and 51° 30' N. and lon. 2° 32' and 6° 7' E. Its greatest length, on a line drawn from Ostend to Arlon, is 174 miles. Area, 11,373 square miles. It is divided into 9 provinces, Antwerp, Brabant, East Flanders, West Flanders, Hainaut, Liege, Limbourg, Luxembourg, and Namur. Capital, Brussels. Pop. in 1889, 6,693.798.
  
  Physical Features.—The surface is mostly level, but in some parts is diversified by hills, the most elevated of which are about 2000 feet high and are in the southeastern Provinces of Liege, Luxembourg, and Namur..."
  Lippincott's Gazetteer of the World: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer Or Geographical Dictionary of the World Containing Notices of Over One Hundred and Twenty-five Thousand Places ... Joseph Thomas January 1, 1895 J.B. Lippincott
  
• 1900 - Population of Belgiuim - 6,693,500
  
  
•   1918 - November 21 - 2 German ammunition trains explode in Hamont Belgium, 1,750 die
  
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