Timeline of Everyday Life, 1731-1800, by the students of ENL3231, University of Florida, Spring 2001, 2003, and 2004

1731

• John Bevis discovers the Crab Nebula
• Benjamin Franklin establishes the Library Company of Philadelphia, the first circulating library in America
• Pope, Moral Essays
• Second Treaty of Vienna signed
• Construction of a prime minister's residence at #10 Downing Street begun (prime ministers still live there)
• John Hadley invents the quadrant, important navigational instrument
• Jethro Tull invents the seed drill
• Anti-turnpike riots in Gloucestershire
• Edward Cave, Gentleman's Magazine
• Monument to Sir Isaac Newton erected
• Physician John Arbuthnot, oneof the "Scriblerians," publishes the first book advocating dieting for health reasons, An Essay Concerning the Nature of Aliments
• Half a pint of rum becomes the official daily ration for all hands in the British Navy
• A major river improvement project, one of the first of the Industrial Revolution, completed in Staffordshire
• Orchids are cultivated for the first time, by English haberdasher Peter Collinson
• A Spanish coastguardsman cut of f the  ear of Peter Jenkins, an English trader, for defying the Spanish trade monopoly in America, sparking "The War of  Jenkins' Ear"

• Covent Garden Opera House opens
• Oglethorpe founds Georgia as a colony for debtors
• Academy of Ancient Music founded
• Society of Dilettanti founded for the study of antiquities
• Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac
• World-wide flu epidemic; continues into 1733
• Hat Act--forbids Americans to make beaver-felt hats, forcing them to buy imported, expensive British-made hats
• English chemist Thomas Dover invents the first sedative, made of opium, ipecacuanha, and sulfate of potash
• Daniel Neal, The History of the Puritans or Protestant Nonconformists

• Zenger trial in New York; landmark case in freedom of the press
• Perambulator (baby carriage) invented
• Molasses Tax imposes high duties on sugar products not imported from British colonies
• St. George's Hospital founded
• Freemason's Lodge opened in the American Colonies
• White's Club destroyed by fire; depicted in Hogarth's Rake's Progress

• Kay invents the flying shuttle
• First fire extinguisher
• Voltaire, Lettres Philosophiques
• Pope, Essay on Man
• First English translation of the Koran (George Sale)
• Thomas Coke, great agricultural reformer, begins his work at Holkham Hall in Norfolk
• Oglethorpe founds Savannah
• Jonathan Edwards' sermons begin the "Great Awakening" in New England
• Bank of England moves to its present quarters in Threadneedle Street, in  the heart of the City

• Linneaus publishes his Systema Naturae, the founding book for the science of taxonomy
• Swift's Works published
• No opera season in London
• Harrison develops the chronometer to help determine the longitude of ships at sea
• Charles Marie discovers rubber (in South America)
• Hogarth, The Rake's Progress; opens his own academy
• Samuel Johnson's first book, a translation of Lobo's A Voyage to Abyssinia
• Death of physician and author John Arbuthnot

• Charles Avison organizes some subscription concerts--among England'sfirst
• William Boyce is appointed composer at the Chapel Royal (English composer patronized by German king)
• Henry Fielding becomes manager of the New Theatre; farce, Pasquin
• Linneaus Fundamenta Botanica
• Jonathan Hulls, first steamship design
• Ainsworth, Latin-English, English-Latin Dictionary
• Bishop William Warburton, The Alliance between Church and State
• Porteous Riots in Edinburgh
• A third bill to control gin consumption passed (7000 unlicensed gin shops in London)
• Witchcraft declared not criminal

• Samuel Johnson and David Garrick move to London.  Johnson begins to work for The Gentleman's Magazine.
• John Wesley publishes Psalms and Hymns
• Licensing Act passed.  Regulates the number of playhouses and puts plays under the censorship of the Lord Chamberlain
• G. F. Handel writes Arminio, Giustine, Berenice; despite illness, continues active for many years
• Both opera houses fail in London
• Copper coins minted in the American colonies for the first time
• Placing a "price on the head" of Dick Turpin raises his status from common criminal to famous outlaw

• Johnson's London published.
• John Wesley and George Whitfield make an evangelistic trip to the American colonies.
• Daniel Bernouilli discovers the fluid flow equations and publishes Hydrodynamica
• First patent on a spinning machine issued.
• Birth of the king's grandson, later George III

• Jonathan Swift, Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift, his last major work
• War of Austrian Succession, also known as the War of Jenkins' Ear and (after 1743) King George's War
• David Hume, Treatise of Human Nature, Vol. 1
• Coram's Foundling Hospital founded; major orphanage for London's orphaned and abandoned children
• Bow Street court established; ten years later the successor magistrate, Henry Fielding, started a police and detective force here known as the "Bow Street Runners"
• Dick Turpin, notorious highwayman, hanged
• John Winthrop, Notes on Sunspot Observations
• Methodist societies established in Bristol and London
• First performances of Handel's Saul and Israel in Egypt
• Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia (later "Frederick the Great") publishes Anti-Machiavell
• Extreme and extended cold weather leads to famine in Ireland two years later

• Slave rebellion in Charleston, S. C. Fifty are hanged.
• Anson begins his circumnavigationof the globe
• Franklin founds the University of Pennsylvania
• Richardson, Pamela
• War of Austrian Succession
• George Whitefield parts company with John and Samuel Wesley; all three continue their evangelical missions
• Typhoid fever epidemics in Ireland and Germany
• Rediscovery of process of making crucible steel, a much stronger alloy
• Grain exports embargoed because of laboring class riots
• Pope Clement XII succeeded by Pope Benedict XIV
• Hume, Treatise on Human Nature, vol. III
• Parliament allows naturalization of colonists after seven years
• Frederick of Prussia founds the Berlin Academy of Science

• David Garrick performs in London for the first time, as Richard III
• Charles Macklin performs Shylock for the first time
• Elizabeth Lucas, in South Carolina, begins the cultivation of indigo, the foundation of the dyestuffs industry
• Jonathan Edwards, in Enfield, Massachusetts [later Connecticut], preaches "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"
• Celsius temperature scale invented
• Hume, Essays Moral and Political
• Slave Revolt in New York African American timeline

• Robert Walpole is forced to resign after twenty-one years as Britain's first "prime minister"
• Cotton "factories" are established at Birmingham and Wolverhampton.  But see 1769
• Fielding, Joseph Andrews
• Hoyle, A Short Treatise on Whist
• The Franklin stove invented (variously credited to years from 1740-1748)
• Hereford breed of cattle developed by Benjamin Tomkins
• Handel's Messiah, first London performance
• John Wesley, Character of a Methodist

• For the last time a British sovereign commands troops in battle (George II, Battle of Dettingen)
• Celsius scale invented
• The first elevator is built, for Louis XV
• Roads are included in John Speed's Atlas
• Devon and Exeter Hospital opens--charity hospital
• Gin riots against restrictions on purchase of gin
• Treaty of Worms [Worms is a place] creates alliance among Great Britain, Austria, and Sardinia
• Death of Johnson's friend Richard Savage, satirist and abolitionist
• Henry Pelham becomes Prime Minister
• Princess Louisa marries Fredrik V, future king of Norway and Denmark
• Hogarth's Marriage a la Mode series completed

• France declares war on England and Austria
• George Berkeley, Philosophical Reflections Concerning Tarwater
• Death of Alexander Pope
• Johnson's Life of Richard Savage

• Death of Jonathan Swift
• Jacobite Rebellion attempts to restore the Stuart dynasty to the English throne; the "Young Pretender," Prince Charles Edward Stuart, is supported by Scottish Highlanders
• Hogarth, Marriage a la Mode
• Johnson, "Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth" and "Proposals for a new edition of Shakespeare"
• God Save the King first performed in Britain, honoring the Stuart Pretender, not George II
• France takes the Austrian Netherlands at the Battle of Fontenoy
• Charles Bonnet demonstrates that annelid worms can regenerate themselves
• Von Kleist invents the "Leyden Jar," a precursor of the electorical capacitor

• The Jacobite rebels are defeated by the Duke of Cumberland
• William Pitt (the elder) becomes Prime Minister
• George Whitfield, The Full Account of God's Dealings with George Whitfield

• Scottish naval surgeon, Dr. James Lind, finds a cure for scurvy.
• David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
• The last beheading in England: Simon, Lord Lovat (Jacobite rebel)
• Bach, A Musical Offering
• Samuel Foote, satirical mimic, establishes himself as a solo comic actor, a "stand-up comedian"
• Carriage tax
• Dress Act forbidding Scottish Highlanders to wear their national dress passed

• John Fothergill, "Account of the Sore Throat attended with Ulcer," first scientific description of diphtheria
• Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the War of Austrian Succession
• Richardson, Clarissa
• Bach, Art of the Fugue
• Death of James Thomson
• Euler's Introduction in analysis infinitorum introduces methods of mathematical notation still in use today

• Fielding, Tom Jones
• Johnson, The Vanity of Human Wishes
• Johnson's Irene performed at Drury Lane
• Georges Buffon, Historie Naturelle, an encyclopedic, secular study of the physical world
• David Hartley, Observations on Man, landmark work in the history of psychology
• The Monthly  Review begins publication
• a "classic" pornographic novel, Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, published
• Prime minister reduces the interest payments on the national debt
• The Georgia colony reverses itself and declares slavery legal

• Rousseau, Discours sur les sciences et les arts, the idea of the "noble savage"
• East India Company's trade with India popularizes tea
• Johnson begins publishing The Rambler essays
• Death of Bach
• Opening of Westminster Bridge
• The Iron Act protects British iron industry at the expense of the American iron industry
• London experiences two minor earthquakes
• Typhoid fever epidemic in London
• Fashionable new neighborhood, Hanover Square, is completed
• The waltz becomes fashionable
• City of London Lying-In Hospital founded

• Hume, Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals
• Children's clothing not based on adult fashions is developed
• Baron Cronstedt discovers the element nickel
• In a Royal (charitable) hospital, an aqueduct to bring water for laundery and for the infectious latrines was installed
• The future George III becomes Prince of Wales

• Franklin conducts his "kite" experiment proving that lightning is electricity
• England finally adopts the reformed calendar, losing 10 days in September (i.e., if you were born on September 7 O.S. your new birthday was September 18)

• Jewish Naturalization Bill passed
• Common-law marriage abolished
• British Library and British Museum established by Act of Parliament
• James Lind, Treatise of the Scurvy
• Edward Moore, The Gamester
• Samuel Richardson, The History of Sir Charles Grandison
• Claud Geoffrey identifies bismuth as a chemical element
• Death of George Berkeley
• Beatification of the patron saint of students and (later) air travelers, St. Joseph of Copertino
• Swedish Academy of Letters founded

1754

• Thomas Warton, Observations on the Faerie Queene of Spenser
• Rousseau, Discours sur l'origine de l'inegalite des hommes
• Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland, founded
• George Washington was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel for services in the French and Indian War

• Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language
• Fanny Abington, actress and fashion leader, debuts at the Haymarket Theatre
• The first British naval vessel on Lake Ontario is launched (suggestion of Benjamin Franklin)
• Charles Perry, Mechanical Account and Explication of the Hysterical Passion and of all other Nervous Disorders Incident to the Sex, with an Appendix on Cancers. Pioneering treatise on women's medicine (other than obstetrics).
• Tsarina Elizabeth establishes the University of Moscow
• Harvard burned a stuffed bird that was rotting away--the last remaining specimen of the extinct Dodo
• Acadians of Nova Scotia forced to leave when the British capture Ft. Beausejour--some move to Louisiana.  Their story is retold in Longfellow's Evangeline
• An earthquake destroys much of the city of Lisbon, an event  later used in Voltaire's Candide to satirize the idea that this is the "best of all possible worlds" (Leibnitz)

1756

• War declared between France and England.
• In India, a rebellious native prince allegedly  imprisons 146 British men, women, and children in one small cell; only 23 survived: the "Black Hole of Calcutta"
• Frederick II (the Great) of Prussia invades Saxony
• John Smeaton, British engineer, builds the first railroad turntable
• Cotton velvet invented
• French begin building Ft. Ticonderoga
• Mayonnaise invented by the chef of the Duc de Richelieu

1757

• The achromatic lens--a double lens which allows sharp images--is invented by John Dolland
• Clive captures India from the French
• John Campbell invents the sextant
• Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful
• Johnson, "Review of Soame Jenyns' An Enquiry into the Origin of Evil"
• John Home's Douglas is produced
• Admiral Byng is executed for losing a naval battle
• The Nawab of Bengal tries to expel the British from India and fails; battle of Plassey
• The Pitt ministry is replaced by a coalition ministry, with Newcastle as Lord Treasurer and Pitt as Secretary of State
• Men's fashions underwent a major transformation, with long trousers replacing knee breeches
• Women's fashions included large hoops, worn even by the lower classes, and "farthingales," that were quickly dropped from ordinary dress but retained in court dress
• Hume, The Natural History of Religion
• Sankey Canal--first man-made water route in England
• Emperor Qian Long's Closed Door Policy bans all westerners from China
• Boucher, "Marquise de Pompadour at the Toilet-Table"

1758

Threshing machine invented

Henri du Monceau, botanist, describes the structure and physiology of trees

Women's styles for court included long trains, very wide skirts (sometimes as much as sixteen feet in circumference, and hair styles so high that women had to kneel for their hair to be done and to ride in carriages.  The most famous style, the "Belle Poule," included a model of a frigate and decorations including fruits, dolls, feathers, and toys

Johnson begins the Idler  (continued through 1760)

The English are successful in their war against the French in the Colonies, taking Louisbourg and Duquesne (renamed Fort Pitt; now Pittsburg)

Death of Jonathan Edwards

Construction of a canal between Liverpool and Leeds begins

First English manual on guitar playing

Roger Bosovich, A Theory of Natural Philosophy, pioneering study in field theory

Diderot, Le pere de famille

Boucher, "The Mill at Charenton" (painting)

Appearance of Halley's comet

First forgery of English banknotes

John Z. Holwell, survivor's account of "The Black Hole of Calcutta"

• Voltaire, Candide.  In the twentieth century, a musical version was written by Leonard Bernstein
• English capture Quebec.
• Death of Handel
• The British Museum opens to the public
• Johnson, Rasselas
• Teacups with handles adopted throughout Europe
• Halley's Comet returns as predicted (first spotted days earlier, in late 1758, in Germany)
• English capture Ft. Niagara
• "Caucasian" first used to designate persons of central and western European descent (by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach)
• Canal network begun by Francis Egerton, third Duke of Bridgewater.  His canal led from coal mines directly to Manchester and Liverpool, bypassing river tolls and leading to major reductions in coal prices

• The official end of the current war against France is signalled by raising the British flag over Detroit
• Thomas Braidwood opens the first British school for the deaf and mute
• George II is succeeded by his grandson, George III
• Photometry is invented
• Roller skatesare invented by Joseph Merlin
• Thomas Braidwood opens the first British school for the deaf
• Kew Botanical Gardens opened

• Mikhael Lomonosov observes the atmosphere of Venus
• Bridgewater Canal between Liverbook and Leeds opened
• Agricultural machines are displayed in London in an exhibition of the Society of the Arts--such exhibitions eventually lead to our "world's fairs"
• Erasmus Darwin prescribes massive quantities of opium in his medical practice
• "Nuptial Bounty" for poor girls who married and stayed married for at least a year provided by some ladies in Gloucester, to encourage marriage in the laboring class

• The first discovery of the role of  microorganisms("germs") is made by Marc Plenciz
• Rousseau, The Social Contract
• British forces occupy Manilla and capture Buenos Aires
• John Montagu, Fourth Earl of Sandwich, invents the sandwich.  Or was this in 1778?
• Registration of pauper children required, in the hope of discouraging workhouse masters from simply letting them die
• James Stuart and Nicholas Revett, Antiquities of Athens, leads to fashion shift from Palladian to neoclassical decoration and architecture
• Michael Combrune begins using a thermometer in brewing, a sign of the new alliance of the "exact" sciences and industry

• Treaty of Paris ends the Seven Years War
• Poet and gardener William Shenstone dies
• Wilkes's North Briton, No. 45 published; leads to his arrest for sedition
• Proclamation of 1763 forbade further English settlement across the Appalachian Mountains because of  conflict between colonists and Iroquois.
• British gain control of Florida in exchange for Havana, Cuba
• Hargreaves invents the Spinning Jenny

1764

• January 19 John Wilkes is expelled from the House of Commons and flees to Paris
• London houses are numbered for the first time
• Voltaire, Dictionnaire philosophique
• Colonies forbidden to issue paper money
• The Sugar Act, regulating sugar trade, passed, leading to colonial discontent
• Death of Hogarth
• St. Louis founded in what would later be Missouri by Pierre Laclede and Auguste Chouteau

1765

• James Watt invents an improvement for the steam engine, the condenser
• Johnson publishes his edition of The Works of William Shakespeare, notable for its criticism of the "three unities," its development of the concept of dramatic illusion, its recognition of the relative importance of various sources in establishing an author's text, and the wit and wisdom of its preface and notes.  All subsequent "variorum" editions of Shakespeare derive, in some degree, from this edition.
• The potato becomes a popular staple food, almost the only food of the poor in Ireland
• The "Rockingham Whigs" come to power
• Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, the first "Gothic" novel
• Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, vol. 1.  Based on a series of lectures, this history and analysis of English common and statute law became a staple for law students and the general public alike.  There were eventually 4 volumes.
• Lazzaro Spallanzani discover hermetic sealing as a means of preserving food (e.g., canning)
• The Stamp Act, one of the revenue acts leading to the American Revolution, is passed
• First American medical school, the College and Academy of Philadelphia, opens
• Ship's chronometer invented by Pierre Leroy (Paris)
• Edmund Burke elected to Parliament for the first time
• Quartering Act passed, requiring American colonists to provide housing for British soldiers
• Daughters of Liberty, first women's club to boycott British goods, formed

1766

• Henry Cavendish discovers nitrogen produced in soil by liightning, leading to the understanding of the role of nitrogen in plant nutrition
• The Royal Theatre opens in Bristol
• High bread prices cause riots
• The Grand Trunk Canal from the Trent to the Mersey river is begun, to allow water passage from the Irish Sea to the North Sea
• The Declaratory Act asserts Parliament's authority over the Colonies "in all cases whatsoever"; previously, local legislatures had had or assumed the power to make certain decisions without Parliament's consent
• George Stubbs, The Anatomy of the Horse, important artistically as well as scientifically
• John Spilsbury produces the first jigsaw puzzle, a colored map of Europe.  This firm is still in business today.
• The first paved footpath (sidewalk): Westminster, London
• The Stamp Act is repealed
• Rust ruins the Italian wheat crop
• Beginning of survey of the Mason-Dixon line
• The Treaty of Oswego ends a war with Native Americans
• Tissot, Essay on the Disorders of People of Fashion, exceptionally useful self-help medical book
• Catherine the Great grants freedom of worship in Russia

• Charles Mason and Jeremiath Dixon complete their survey of the Mason-Dixon line, later the dividing line between the Union and the Confederacy in the American Civil War (1861-1865)
• The Townsend Act, placing duties (taxes) on lead, glass, and tea is introduced in Parliament
• Joseph Priestley, The History and Present State of Electricity
• Samuel Wallis discovers Tahiti
• British Nautical Almanac founded
• Priestley invents carbonated water

• James Cook, Captain of the Endeavour, begins his voyages of exploration in the Pacific
• Blackstone's Commentaries are completed
• Philip Astley forms the first modern circus
• Joshua Reynolds founds and becomes the first president of the Royal Academy of Arts
• The first edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica is begun in Edinburgh.  Published in weekly parts, it is edited by botanist William Smellie and supported by a "Society of Gentlemen"
• The Liverpool Conversation Club begins to discuss the merits of secret ballots
• An immigration wave from Eastern Europe increases the Jewish population in England threefold
• Richard Arkwright invents the spinning frame
• Colonial boycott of British luxury goods in protest of the Townshend Act (1767)
• First Russo-Turkish war begins

1769

• James Cook reaches Australia and New Zealand
• Richard Arkwright. patents a water-operated spinning frame, a key invention of the Industrial Revolution
• James Watt patents steam engine (note: this link doesn't work in Netscape)
• Attacks on corruption in government by "Junius" appear as "Letters in The Public Advertiser
• Architects Robert and James Adam complete the Royal Society of Arts Building

• The Tory ministry of Lord North takes office
• The printers and publishers of the "Letters of Junius" are tried for seditious libel; the author's identity has never been authoritatively determined
• Crime has noticeably increased in London
• Popular children's book, London Cries, about the oral advertisements of all the London tradespeople, published

• Benjamin West insists that the “Death of Wolfe” should be painted in contemporary British uniform as opposed to ancient armor.
• In his Farmer's Letters, Arthur Young deplores the 'rural exodus' which was to continue into the 19th century.
• Arkwright's first spinning-mill
• Current electricity is produced by Luigi Galvanni.
• Johnson, Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falklands Islands.
• An Irish priest convicted of acting as a priest  received a Royal Pardon on condition that he leave the country
• Death of Thomas Gray.
• Death of Christopher Smart

1772

• First nationwide banking system anywhere established in Scotland
• First Partition of Poland
• Sommersett, a slave brought to England, is freed in a landmark case, on the grounds that England "does not authorize so high an act of dominion as slavery"
• Toleration Act, designed to remove some of the restrictions on non-Anglicans ministers and schoolmasters, fails in Parliament
• A private Act of Parliament restored the inheritance of Catholic heiress Anne Benison Fenwick.

1773

• Samuel Johnson and James Boswell tour the Hebrides; each writes a book about the tour
• Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer opens
• The first cast-iron bridge (but see 1779 and 1781)
• The Boston Tea-Party (December)
• Captain James Cook crosses the Antarctic Circle
• An Act regulating Lying-In Hospitals and the Settlement of Bastard Children--early attempt to reform care of poor pregnant women
• General Turnpike Act passed, attempting to improve toll roads
• Medical Society of London formed
• Phillis Wheatley's Poems on Various Subjects, the first published book by an African American
• Helvetius, De l'homme
• Hester Capone, Letters on Improvement of the Mind
• William Blake's first painting, "Joseph of Arimathea"
• Regulating Act for India passed, limiting the powers of the East India company and establishing a dual system of control over India

• Mt. Vesuvius erupts
• Joseph Priestly (England) and Karl Scheele (Germany) independently discover oxygen
• J.G. Gahn discover magnesium
• F. A. Mesmer first uses hypnotism as a medical treatment ("mesmerism")
• Parliament passes the "Coercive Acts" in response to the Boston Tea Party
• Westminster General Dispensary opens: clinic for the poor that lasted for 182 years
• Sarah Siddons, great actress, has her first success
• The first comprehensive Marine Atlas published
• Sir Robert Clive, possibly the richest Englishman who ever lived, kills himself after having been attacked in Parliament for his conduct in India.  He had been exonerated, but committed suicide anyway.
• Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer
• Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther
• Johnson, The Patriot

• British Parliament proclaims that Massachusets is in revolt, and the first shots are fired at Lexington: the American revolution is under way
• Europeans discover San Francisco Bay
• Benjamin Franklin becomes the first Postmaster General for the future United States
• George III issues an order intended to protect women and children from the worst aspects of working in coal and salt mines
• The Second Continental Congress opens
• Thomas Paine publishes an anti-slavery article and helps to form the first anti-slavery society in America.
• First medical use of digitalis, as a diuretic, not for heart problems
• Paul Revere's ride
• First Thames regatta
• Bank Clearing House established in Lombard Street in London
• Burke, On Conciliation with the Colonies
• New England Restraining Act banned trade between the New England colonies and any country other than Great Britain

• Abigail Adams write to her husband John asking that he and the other men who were at work on the Declaration of Independence "remember the ladies." Nevertheless, the Declaration reads, "all men are created equal."
• July 4--the Continental Congress ratifies the Declaration of Independence
• Britain responds in force to the American rebellion; Franklin seeks help in Paris, and George Washington emerges as leader of the American forces
• The first submarine is used in warfare.  It was equipped with a drill to penetrate the enemy's hull, plant a bomb, and retreat.  The sub worked; the drill didn't.
• Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, founding text of modern economics
• Battle of Trenton--colonial victory
• First running of the St. Leger Stakes, a famous horse race.  Won by Allabaculia
• Parliamentary Reform Bill, proposed by John Wilkes, rejected
• Richard Price, Observations on Civil Liberty and the War with America

• Sheridan's The School for Scandal opens at Drury Lane
• Cook discovers the Hawaian Islands
• Dispensaries offering medicine and medical care to the poor are opened in London and Surrey
• Burgoyne's defeat strengthens American position in war with England
• John Howard makes the case for prison reform in The State of Prisons
• Women forbidden in visitors' gallery in Parliament

• Bramah invents the valve-and-siphon flushing system, "the basis of all future toilet plumbing"
• Dispensary opened in Middlesex
• The Sandwich? See 1762
• American-French alliance
• Some Catholic political disadvantages are removed in England and Ireland
• Towers of powdered hair are at the height of their popularity

• Gibralter is besieged by French and Spanish forces; supplies are cut off by naval blockade
• Samuel Crompton invents the "mule," a machine to spin high-quality cotton yarn in large quantities, making possible the simpler fashions of the Regency period
• Spinning mills are operational in Scotland
• The first bridge made completely of iron is begun. It is still in service (built by John Wilkinson, over the Severn).
• First children's hospital opened in London
• Johann Peter Frank begins publication of the first major work on public health and hygiene
• First Medical Directory published
• Birmingham General Hospital founded
• Hume, Dialogues concerning Natural Religion
• Ft. Sackville captured by American colonists under Colonel George Rogers Clark.

• Steel pens begin to replace quills
• James Watt invents a paper copier, using a special ink that stayed wet for 24 hours, permitting another sheet to be printed by placing it on top of the already printed copy
• Major Cartwright founds the Society for Constitutional Relief, one of the first societies seeking voting reform.  He sought universal male suffrage.
• The Gordon Riots, protesting relief measures for Roman Catholics
• 290 dead
• 100 buildings burned and/or looted
• £100,000 damages
• 25 ringleaders hanged
• Lord George Gordon, the instigator, tried by the House of Lords for treason, found "not guilty" and released without penalty
• Bentham, Introduction to Principles of Morals and Legislation.  Foundation of "Utilitarian" philosophy.
• Revival of the Sunday School movement--literacy and arithmetic as well as religion taught

• Herschel discovers Uranus, the first modern planetary discovery
• The American Revolution ends, with the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.  British troops remain in America.
• Volumes II and III of Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire are published, ending with the total defeat of the Roman Empire in Europe.  Parallels to America are immediately noted.
• The world's first completely iron bridge completed

• Newgate Prison is opened.  John Howard tours this and other prisons and urges prison reform
• Peace talks between the Colonies and Britain begin in Paris
• James Watt patents a double-acting steam engine, one that can be used to power many different types of machiner
• Josiah Wedgwood invents the "pyrometer," a device to measure the temperature of pottery furnaces, revolutionizing the pottery business
• William Cowper, Poems
• New "Poor Law," establishing workhouses, passed
• Cornwallis defeated at Yorktown--major turning point in American Revolution
• England acquires the Mysore district in India

• Treaty of Versailles officially ends the American Revolution
• William Blake, Poetical Sketches
• The Brothers Montgolfier launch the first manned hot-air balloon
• Death of Lancelot "Capability" Brown, who had revolutionized landscape gardening
• Quakers in England petition against the slave trade
• Charles Townshend becomes Home Secretary
• According to the Rambler Magazine, a man left £50 each to six virgins, the price that "Mother Douglas had long since established."  [Not Johnson's Rambler!]

1784

• General election.  Pitt (the younger) becomes Prime Minister, defeating Charles Fox
• Pitt's India Act gives the crown the power to "guide" Indian politics
• Death of Samuel Johnson
• John Wesley, Deed of Declaration (Methodism)
• Lavoisier studies the interaction between oxygen and carbon dioxide in respiration

• Cartwright invents the steam powered loom
• James Beauclerc publishes a new version of the Bible
• H.D. Rawlings begins manufacturing soda water in England.  See 1791.
• A revolutionary  new plow is tested in Berkshire
• John Walter publishes the first Daily Universal Register, later and still The Times
• Thomas Reid, Philosophy of Intellectual Powers
• London and Westminster Bill proposed, to create a metropolitan police force

• Henry Nock invents the breech-loading musket
• Hester Lynch, Anecdotes of Samuel Johnson
• Eden Treaty confirmed by Parliament, reducing many duties on everyday goods
• Experiments with gas lighting inside buildings
• In Ireland gang attacks similar to those of the "Whiteboys" (1761-1781) occurred, underscoring the need for police reform
• First effective threshing machine patented by Andrew Meikle
• Luigi Galvani experiments with muscle stimulation by applying electrical shocks to frogs--technical achievement at the expense of animals first questioned.  See Jonathan Mandelbaum, The Ambiguous Frog (Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1992).

• Official formation of the Methodist Episcopal Church
• Irish police force establish
• Transportation of criminals to Australia begins
• First comprehensive business register in Ireland, the  Treble Almanack, begins publication
• Jeremy Bentham invents the Panopticon
• first automated assembly line, Delaware; designed by Oliver Evans
• final English edition of the Catholic "Douay" translation of the Bible for more than 100 years
• Lord Nelson introduces a new method of semaphore to the Royal Navy
• Mozart, Don Giovanni
• First regulation of working conditions for chimney sweeps
• Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade formed, by Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp
• The future George IV becomes Regent for the incapacitated George III

• First criminals arrive in Australia--Australia's Foundation Day
• George III's mental illness occasions a crisis over creating a Regency
• First steamboat demonstrated in Scotland
• First act to regulate slave trade, requiring more humane conditions of slave ships
• Ratification of the Constitution of the United States completed
• Sugar prices began to rise
• George Washington becomes the first U.S. President
• January 1: John Walter's Daily Universal Register is renamed the Times, the oldest continually-operating newspaper in the English-speaking world (the Daily Universal Register goes back to the 1750s)
• The first daily evening paper begins publication in May, Star and Evening Advertiser
• Gibbon completes The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire with volumes IV-VI, on the Byzantine empire and its competitors
• Marylebone Cricket Club founded; still functioning

• July 14--the French revolution begins with the storming of the Bastille
• Blake, Songs of Innocence
• Lavoisier, Elements of Chemistry--the first modern text on chemistry
• Bentham, Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (Utilitarian philosophy)
• Mozart, Cosi fan tutte (opera)
• La Place, Laws of the Planetary System
• In New York City, first convening of the United States Congress

• Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
• Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Men
• William Nicholson invents the rotary press
• Lady Charlotte Campbell sets styles in England.  Men wear clothes in matching dark colors, not various colors mixed.
• Lavoisier, Table of Chemical Elements (33 items,  including two that were not elements)
• First patent law in America

• Sodium carbonate patented by Nicholas Leblanc in France (soda)--see 1785
• Slave uprising in St. Dominigue; sugar prices rise sharply
• Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man, Part I
• Burke and Paine write political pamphlets arguing for and against the French Revolution
• Mineralist William Gregor discovers titanium
• George Morland paints The Stables; establishes taste for scenes of everyday country life

• Farmer's Almanac first published, by Robert B. Thomas.  See next year.
• First use of gas lighting in a home (William Murdock of Cornwall)
• Mass petition for abolition of slavery begins in England
• Sugar boycott
• Arthur Young, Travels in France
• Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women
• Paine, Rights of Man, II.  Indicted for treason; escapes to France

• France declares war on Great Britain (Napoleon)
• Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin
• House of Commons almost votes to abolish the British slave trade
• Kant, Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone
• Friendly Societies Act exempts organizations through which the poor were encouraged to save money from the Bubble Act, regulating for-profit enterprises
• Habeas Corpus suspended; Traitorous Correspondence Act; both to prevent support for revolutionary France
• Board of Agriculture established, to encourage scientific farming and increase domestic food production
• Godwin, Inquiry concerning Political Justice
• Wordsworth, An Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches

• Hannah Wilkinson Slater the first woman to receive a patent (for cotton thread?)
• John Dalton discovers color blindness
• The Farmers' Almanac begins publication (pub. by Robert Thomas Bailey)
• Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Songs of Innocence and Experience
• Paine, The Age of Reason
• Edward Stone proposes the bark of the willow--salicylic acid--as a medicine: the source of aspirin
• Erasmus Darwin, Zoonomia  (Charles Darwin was his grandson)
• William Paley, A View of the Evidences of Christianity
• Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho ("rationalized" Gothic novel)
• Powdering of men's hair goes out of fashion, after more than 100 years
• Death of Edward Gibbon
• Coleridge and Southey, Fall of Robespierre (play)
• Robert Street patents first practical internal combustion engine

• Government attempts to limit freedom of assembly and speech by a Royal Proclamation and the "Gagging Acts": bills against "Seditious Meetings and Treasonable Practices"
• Joseph Bramah invents the hydrolic press
• France adopts the metric system
• Condorcet, On the Progress of Human Reason
• Paine, Age of Reason , Part II
• Wordsworth meets Coleridge
• Haydn, London Symphony

• Civil disobedience to protest the two Gagging Acts leads to the trial of two leaders, John Binns ajd John Gale Jones; eventually Binns is acquitted and, though Jones is convicted, he is never sentenced
• J. T. Lowitz distills pure ethyl alcohol
• Jenner discovers a vaccine for smallpox, replacing the former dangerous method of innoculating against smallpox
• Amelia Simmon's American Cookery: recipes with Native American ingredients, such as pumpkin and winter squash
• Matthew Gregory, The Monk (Gothic novel--the model for "dark" Gothics)
• Burke, Letter to a Noble Lord (defense of career statesman against inherited political power)
• Watson, An Apology for the Bible (against Paine's Age of Reason)

• Britain clashes with Spain in the West Indies; takes Trinidad
• Britain authorizes the search and seizure of neutral (e.g., American) ships
• Metal lathe invented by Henry Maudsley
• Passenger steam coach built by Richard Trevithick
• War with Napoleon begun
• Short supply of gold leads to the issuing of the first paper pound notes
• New tax on newspapers
• Two naval mutinies
• Death of Horace Walpole
• Death of Edmond Burke
• First issue of the Anti-Jacobin

• Income tax introduced (10%) to finance war
• Wordsworth and Coleridge publish Lyrical Ballads
• Malthus, Essay on Population
• Major rebellion in Ireland suppressed
• Henry Cavendish calculates the mass of the earth

• Humphry Davy develops nitrous oxide and uses it for anesthesia
• British Forces capture Malta
• “Combination Laws” are passed outlawing trade unions among workmen.(2)
• Robert Owen buys New Lanark Mills and established a model of enlightened and humane industrialization by constructing houses and schools for his workers' families.  This behavior is not widely imitated by industrialists despite its success.

 

• Davy publishes his research
• Franz Joseph Gall invents phrenology, the pseudoscience of judging character from the bumps on a person's skull
• Napoleon takes over in France
• Napoleon campaigns in Egypt and the Middle East, taking archeological teams with him and bringing back the founding stock of the Louvre
• Sugar prices began to decline
• Allesandro Volta develops the electric battery
• Act of Union with Ireland combines Irish and British   parliaments.
• Royal College of Surgeons founded
• Use of high pressure steam is pioneered by Richard Trevithick.
• Population Act establishes regular census