As an engineer, I'd divide history into pre-1830 and post-1830. In 1830, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened. There were railroads before then, but they were experimental and niche systems. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was the first real inter-city railway. All steam locomotives, no horses. Double track. Passengers and freight. Tickets and timetables. That was the moment the Industrial Revolution got out of beta.

Suddenly change sped up. Way up. For centuries before 1830, life looked about the same. Most people never traveled further than 50 miles from where they were born. Then, over the course of a lifetime, everything changed.