The world's first railway fatality

William Huskisson, who died after falling under a train at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester railway in September 1830, is generally held to be the world's first rail casualty. Simon Garfield has written a book about the incident.

But a note buried in today's Guardian Corrections and Clarifications column suggests Huskisson may not deserve this sad accolade:

The Egglescliffe parish register records the death, in 1827, of "a female, name unknown", thought to be a blind beggar woman, and notes she was "killed by the steam machine on the railway".