Stoke City Football Club was founded in 1863 and is the oldest soccer club in the English Premier League and the second oldest professional club in the world (only Notts County, 1862, is older). With the Dynamo set to face Stoke City on July 24, here is a look back at what was happening in the world 150 years ago.
Key world events in 1863:
- January: The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln
- January: Workers began construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad in the United States
- January: The first section of the London Undergound subway system (Paddington to Farrington Street) opened
- June: The Arts Club was founded in London by Charles Dickens and Frederic Leighton
- October: President Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving to be celebrated the final Thursday in November
- October: The Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island Rail Road opens in Brooklyn, the oldest route in the New York subway system
- October: Steamed locomotives were introduced in North Wales.
- October: The Football Association is formed in London as the governing body of English Football (soccer) and the first FA in the world
- November: President Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address
- December: The Laws of the Game are approved at a meeting of the FA, creating “Association Football”, including field dimensions, goal size, and other basic rules
- December: 11 days later, the first soccer game is played in London under the new Football Association rules, ending in a goalless draw
Other 1863 notes:
- In 1863, a postage stamp cost two cents
- The U.S. was comprised of 36 states by the end of 1863
- Sam Houston and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson died
- William Randolph Hearst and Henry Ford were born
