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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1686 | |
| 2 | 1687 | |
| 3 | 1688 | |
| 4 | 1689 | |
| 5 | 1690 | |
| 6 | 1691 | - 3 Oct 1691: Limerick, Ireland - The Treaty of Limerick allows Catholics in Ireland to exercise their religion freely, but severe penal laws soon follow. The French War begins
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| 7 | 1692 | |
| 8 | 1693 | - 1693: England - Richest counties: Middlesex (with London), Surrey, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire; Poorest Counties: Cheshire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland
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| 9 | 1694 | |
| 10 | 1695 | |
| 11 | 1697 | |
| 12 | 1698 | - 1698: England - Thomas Savery patented an engine which produced a vacuum by condensing steam. It was employed for raising water from a mine and supplying water to several country houses.
- 1698: Russia - Tsar Peter the Great begins taxing men with beards
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| 13 | 1699 | - 23 May 1699: America - John Bartram was born. A naturalist and explorer, considered 'father of American botany'; established a world renowned botanical garden in Philadelphia in 1728.
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| 14 | 1700 | |
| 15 | 1701 | |
| 16 | 1702 | |
| 17 | 1703 | - 1703: Epworth, Lincolnshire, England - Birth of John Wesley. By 1784, 356 Methodist chapels built in places lacking church
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| 18 | 1704 | |
| 19 | 1706 | - 1706: London, England - The Evening Post, first evening newspaper issued
- 23 May 1706: Netherlands - British, Bavarian and Austrian troops under Marlborough defeat the French at the Battle of Ramillies, and expel the French from the Netherlands
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| 20 | 1707 | - 1707: Great Britain - The Act of Union unites the kingdoms of England and Scotland and transfers the seat of Scottish Government to London
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| 21 | 1708 | - 11 Jul 1708: England - The Duke of Marlborough defeats the French at the Battle of Oudenarde. The French incur heavy losses. Queen Anne vetoes a parliamentary bill to recognise the Scottish militia. This is the last time a bill is vetoed by the sovereign
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| 22 | 1709 | |
| 23 | 1710 | - 1710: Great Britain - A Tory ministry is formed, under Harley, with the impeachment of Dr. Sacheverell and the fall of the Whig government
- 1710: Great Britain - Wooden panelling replaces tapestry as wall covering
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| 24 | 1711 | |
| 25 | 1712 | |
| 26 | 1713 | |
| 27 | 1714 | - 1714: Great Britain - Death of Queen Anne at Kensington Palace. A new parliament is elected with a strong Whig majority, led by Charles Townshend and Robert Walpole
- 1714: Great Britain - Quaker John Belles urges founding of hospitals as training grounds for medical students; Board of Longitude created, £20,000 competition for accurate maritime charts and maps
- 1714: Great Britain - George I,ruler of England to 1727. House of Hanover: Son of Elector of Hanover, by Sophia, grand-daughter of James I. Proclaimed King under Act of Settlement.
- 1714: Great Britain - Rioting by Tory and Jacobite mobs commonplace in London (unemployed soldiers, craftsmen), passage of Riot Act, giving increased power to Justices of the Peace through to 1715
- 1714: Great Britain - During period to 1742 there are no big increases from population of about 5.5 million but the distribution changes: East Anglia loses; West Country, South and East Midlands, East Riding and North (except Tyneside) fairly static; West Riding and South Lancashire increase; West Midlands, Surrey and Middlesex grow rapidly with London (London 500,000, Bristol 50,000; Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds, Halifax, Birmingham and Coventry, no longer sprawling villages, but still under 50,000); cause is immigration from cities and (in NW) from Ireland
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| 28 | 1715 | |
| 29 | 1716 | - 1716: Italy - John Lombe steals plans for silk manufacture, returning to England he and brother Thomas build vast factory on island at Derby
- 1716: Scotland - James Lind was born. Lind was a Scottish physician who recommended that fresh citrus fruit and lemon juice be included in the seamen's diet to eliminate scurvy. The Dutch had been doing this for almost two hundred years.
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| 30 | 1717 | - 1717: Great Britain - Townshend is dismissed from government by George I, causing Walpole to resign. The Whig party is split. Convocation is suspended
- 1717: Europe - England allies with French and Dutch against Spanish, Spanish brought to heel in 1718
- 1717: Great Britain - Edmond Halley invents the diving bell.
- 1717: Great Britain - John Lombe in England invents a machine for 'throwing' silk which produces a strong twisted thread
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| 31 | 1719 | |
| 32 | 1720 | - 1720: Great Britain - Dr. Richard Mead publishes Short Discourse Concerning Pestilential Contagion, advocates quarantine, proposes establishment of government Council of Health; inoculation against smallpox introduced from Constantinople by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
- 1720: Great Britain - Hospitals founded in London: Guy's, St. George's, London & Middlesex in period to 1745
- 1720: Meiringen, Switzerland - Invention of meringue is attributed to an Italian pastry chef named Gasparini.
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| 33 | 1721 | |
| 34 | 1722 | |
| 35 | 1723 | - 1723: Great Britain - Legislation allowing parishes to create 'unions' or workhouses, to prevent escape of children they could be manacled
- 1723: Great Britain - Excise Act, restrictions removed on exports, duty removed on imports of raw materials; London builds bonded warhouse for tea, coffee and chocolate
- 1723: New England, USA - Dummer's War 1723-1726.
- 16 Jul 1723: Devon, Great Britain - Birth of Sir Joshua Reynolds (died 1792), arguably finest English landscape and portrait painter, career 1750-1780
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| 36 | 1724 | |
| 37 | 1725 | - 30 Apr 1725: Great Britain - Treaty of Vienna: Austria and Spain resolve differences
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| 38 | 1726 | |
| 39 | 1727 | |
| 40 | 1728 | - 1728: France - Pierre Fauchard, in The Surgeon Dentist, described preventive measures to keep teeth healthy as well as inventing the word dentist.
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| 41 | 1729 | |
| 42 | 1730 | - 1730: Great Britain - A split occurs between Walpole and Townshend
- 1730: Ireland - Famine strikes
- 1730: Great Britain - In early part of 1700s, death rate had surpassed birth rate; begins to reverse; after 1780 death-rate plummets - due to replacement of gin-drinking with beer-drinking after taxes increased and retail sales curtailed on former in 1750; medical care improves, as does agriculture, more food available
- 1730: Great Britain - Georg Brandt, a Swedish chemist, discovered the element cobalt. Cobalt is used in steel making, and is an essential part of vitamin B12.
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| 43 | 1731 | |
| 44 | 1732 | - 1732: British North America - A royal charter is granted for the founding of Georgia in America
- 1732: Great Britain - The English banned American made hats to protect domestic haberdashers.
|
| 45 | 1733 | - 1733: Great Britain - The Excise Crisis occurs and Walpole is forced to abandon his plans to reorganise the customs and excise
- 1733: Europe - Further cementing of relations between Austria and Spain
- 1733: Great Britain - John Kay invents the flying shuttle.
|
| 46 | 1734 | - 1734: Great Britain - Walpole returned to power with smaller majority, power weakened
|
| 47 | 1736 | |
| 48 | 1737 | |
| 49 | 1738 | |
| 50 | 1739 | |
| 51 | 1740 | |
| 52 | 1741 | - 1741: Ireland - Further famine, population about 4 million
|
| 53 | 1742 | |
| 54 | 1743 | |
| 55 | 1744 | |
| 56 | 1745 | |
| 57 | 1746 | |
| 58 | 1747 | |
| 59 | 1748 | |
| 60 | 1749 | - 1749: Great Britain - Deaths among women 1 in 41, children 1 in 15 during period to 1758
|
| 61 | 1750 | - 1750: Great Britain - The grapefruit was first described by Griffith Hughes as the 'forbidden fruit' of Barbados
- 1750: Scotland - Royal Infirmaries are founded in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen
- 1750: Great Britain - Tea-drinking begins to rival alcohol-drinking
- 1750: Great Britain - Population of England and Wales estimated at 6.5 million
- 1750: Great Britain - During period to 1780 English countryside takes on today's familiar apearance as accelerated enclosure produces small fields surrounded by hedges, fences and walls
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| 62 | 1751 | - 1751: British North America - Benjamin Franklin published Experiments and Observations on Electricity after several years of experiments done with several friends. In this book Franklin suggested an experiment to prove that lightning is a large-scale electrical discharge, a task which later he took upon himself, using a kite. This led to the invention of the lightning rod.
- 1751: Great Britain - Death of Frederick, Prince of Wales. His son, Prince George, becomes heir to the throne
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| 63 | 1752 | |
| 64 | 1753 | - 1753: Great Britain - Parliament passes the Naturalization of Jews Act
- 1753: Great Britain - James Lind (1716-1794) Scottish Navy physician, publishes Treatise on Scurvy; Sir Gilbert Blane, Scottish Naval surgeon, enforces strict rules regarding cleanliness, improves health, lifespan of sailors
|
| 65 | 1754 | - 1754: Great Britain - First royal troops disembark in India; Takes 4.5 days to travel London to Manchester
- 1754: France - Antoine Beauvilliers was born. He was a French chef who founded the first luxury restaurant, La Grande Taverne de Londres.
|
| 66 | 1755 | |
| 67 | 1756 | |
| 68 | 1757 | |
| 69 | 1758 | |
| 70 | 1759 | |
| 71 | 1760 | |
| 72 | 1761 | - 1761: Great Britain - Laurence Sterne publishes the enigmatic Tristram Shandy
- 1761: Great Britain - Jonas Hanway and David Porter begin campaign on behalf of child chimney sweeps, achieve protective legislation in 1788
- 1761: Pondicherry, India - Pondicherry captured, French power destroyed
- 1761: Great Britain - William Pitt the elder resigns over King and advisors not permitting further conflict with France and ally Spain
- 1761: Great Britain - River power reaches saturation point, Duke of Bridgewater cuts Worsley Canal, thereby halving price of coal in Manchester
- 1761: Great Britain - Englishman John Harrison invents the navigational clock or marine chronometer for measuring longitude.
- 1761: Great Britain - Various municipalities secure Private Acts by which money can be raised ('rates') to pay for public improvements, such as paving and lighting in period to 1765
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| 73 | 1762 | - 1762: Great Britain - John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, 'created' the Sandwich. This Englishman was said to have been fond of gambling and, during a 24 hour gambling streak, he instructed a cook to prepare his food in such a way that it would not interfere with his game. The cook presented him with sliced meat between two pieces of toast. Perfect! This meal required no utensils and could be eaten with one hand, leaving the other free to continue the game.
- 1762: Great Britain - The Earl of Bute is appointed Prime Minister. He becomes very unpopular and employs a bodyguard
- 1762: France - Académie Francaise recognises term millionaire
- 1762: Great Britain - Spain declares war on Britain; Britain gains West Indian islands from French, Cuba and Manila from Spanish
|
| 74 | 1763 | |
| 75 | 1764 | |
| 76 | 1765 | - 1765: Great Britain - Rockingham ministry. The American Stamp Act raises taxes in the colonies in an attempt to make their defence self-financing
- 1765: Great Britain - Earliest known children's pop-up book
- 1765: France - The very first pâté de foie gras (goose liver paste) is said to have been created in Strasbourg by a Norman chef named Jean-Joseph Close. (Although the technique for producing foie gras goes back as far as the ancient Egyptians)
- 1765: Paris, France - M. Boulanger opens the first restaurant, by that name
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| 77 | 1766 | - 1766: Great Britain - Chatham ministry. Repeal of the American Stamp Act
- 1766: Great Britain - Priestley discovers Law of Inverse Squares (electricity), Louis XV convulses with laughter when line of monks leap into air as electric shock is administered
- 1766: France - Louis, Marquis de Cussy was born. French gastronome, a friend of Grimod de la Reyniere, who stated that Cussy had invented 366 different ways to prepare chicken. Cussy wrote Les Classiques de la table.
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| 78 | 1767 | |
| 79 | 1768 | - 1768: Great Britain - Grafton ministry. The Middlesex Election Crisis occurs.
- 1768: Great Britain - General election, reformer Wilkes elected as member for Middlesex amid scenes of jubilation; Royal Academy (painting) founded
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| 80 | 1769 | - 1769: Great Britain - James Watt patented a new type of steam engine with a separate condensing chamber and an air pump to bring steam into the chamber and equipped it with a simple 'governor' for safety: if the engine started to go too fast, the power would be automatically cut back. He coined the term horsepower and later loaned his name to the unit of power, or work done per unit of time
- 1769: Great Britain - Captain James Cook's first voyage to explore the Pacific begins
- 1769: Great Britain - Richard Arkwright develops the water-powered spinning frame
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| 81 | 1770 | |
| 82 | 1771 | |
| 83 | 1772 | |
| 84 | 1773 | |
| 85 | 1774 | |
| 86 | 1775 | |
| 87 | 1776 | - 1776: England - Common Sense published by Tom Paine
- 1776: Great Britain - Adam Smith, in The Wealth of Nations, advanced the idea that businesses survive through successful trading in pursuit of their self-interest, and that the resulting equilibrium was not by design.
- 1776: Great Britain - Wilkes introduces bill for universal male suffrage
- 1776: Great Britain - David Bushnell invents a submarine.
- 1776: Great Britain - Edward Gibbon authors Decline and Fall of Roman Empire in period to 1788
- 4 Jul 1776: USA - The American Congress passes their Declaration of Independence from Britain.
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| 88 | 1777 | |
| 89 | 1778 | |
| 90 | 1779 | - 1779: Great Britain - The rise of Wyvill's Christopher Wyvill's radical Yorkshire Association Movement
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| 91 | 1780 | |
| 92 | 1781 | - 1781: Great Britain - Frederick William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus by its movement, although at the time he supposed it to be a comet
- 1781: Great Britain - Matthew Boulton and James Watt produce an improved steam engine with rotary motion achieving significant impact - it means that manufacturers are no longer restricted to site with natural power (i.e., water, wood for charcoal)
- 17 Oct 1781: USA - The Americans obtain a great victory of British troops at the Siege of Yorktown
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| 93 | 1782 | - 1782: Ireland - Ireland obtains short-lived parliament
- 22 Mar 1782: Great Britain - Lord North's government collapses
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| 94 | 1783 | |
| 95 | 1784 | |
| 96 | 1785 | |
| 97 | 1786 | - 1786: Great Britain - The Eden commercial treaty with France is drawn up
- 1786: Pennsylvania, USA - John Fitch invents a steamboat.
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| 98 | 1787 | - 1787: Windsor, Great Britain - In Windsor Great Park, King George III alights from carriage and addresses oak tree as King of Prussia, but eventually recovers from this attack of dementia; first colonies in Australia, first iron boat launched
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| 99 | 1788 | - 1788: Great Britain - Time to travel from London to Manchester reduced from 4.5 days to 28 hours
- 22 Jan 1788: Great Britain - Birth of Lord Byron (died 1824)
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| 100 | 1789 | - 1789: France - French Revolution, Louis XVI, many aristocrats and others executed, France declares war on European monarchies
- 1789: France - The guillotine is invented.
- 1789: Great Britain - The French Revolution sounded the death knoll toward elaborate and affected dress and hairdos. The powdered wig and towering women's hair styles passed from fashion. Simpler, more practical clothes emerged. Boys wore the skeleton suit, often with a comfortable open collar, and by the end of the century with plebian long trousers.
- 1789: USA - Thomas Jefferson brought a pasta making machine back with him when he returned to America after serving as ambassador to France.
- 1789: Switzerland - Dr. Pierre Ordinaire creates an absinthe elixir
- 30 Apr 1789: USA - George Washington first president of the United States 1789-1797.
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| 101 | 1790 | |
| 102 | 1791 | |
| 103 | 1792 | - 1792: Italy - Volta discovered he could arrange metals in a series in such a way that chemical energy is converted into electrical energy; that is, two dissimilar metals are submerged in an electrolyte and connected by an circuit and thereby exchange electrons. By 1800, he had invented the so-called voltaic cell, a pile of such metals 'consisting of pairs of silver and zinc disks separated by pieces of moist cardboard'
- 1792: Great Britain - Coal gas is used for lighting for the first time. Mary Wollstonecraft publishes her Vindication of the Rights of Women
- 1792: Great Britain - Cartwright invents steam-powered weaving loom
- 1792: Great Britain - The first ambulance.
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| 104 | 1793 | - 1793: Great Britain - Economic depression
- 1793: Great Britain - Speculative 'Canal Bubble' bursts
- 1793: Great Britain - Board of Agriculture formed to popularise new methods and machinery
- 1793: Great Britain - Britain becomes foremost world trader during period to 1815
- 1793: Great Britain - Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin which efficiently separates cotton fibers from the seeds, allowing one person to do a job once done by 50 people. This profoundly changes the economics of raising cotton, revitalizing slavery in the American South.
- 1 Feb 1793: Great Britain - France declares war on Britain
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| 105 | 1794 | - 1794: Great Britain - Erasmus Darwin, Charles' grandfather, proposed that 'warm-blooded animals have arisen from one living filament...possessing the faculty of continuing to improve by its own inherent activity, and of delivering those improvements by generation to its posterity.'
- 1794: Great Britain - Metric system introduced in France
- 1794: Great Britain - More lower-class radicalism, Habeas Corpus suspended again, instigators charged with treason, in Scotland found guilty and transported
- 1794: Great Britain - Welshman Philip Vaughan invents ball bearings.
- 1794: Great Britain - Total of 40,000 British troops die in West Indies in war with France over two year period
- 1 Jun 1794: Great Britain - Howe defeats French fleet at Ushant
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| 106 | 1795 | |
| 107 | 1796 | - 1796: Great Britain - Edward Jenner investigated the folk tale that milk maids were immune to small pox, the virus variola major, and in a brief series of experiments confirmed that exposure to cow pox, the virus vaccinia, rendered immunity
- 1796: Italy - General Napoleon Bonaparte appears on scene, attacks Austrian armies
- 1796: Ceylon - British conquer Ceylon
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| 108 | 1797 | - 1797: Europe - All Europe makes peace with France save Britain, sea battle off Cape St. Vincent (off Spanish coast), Jervis and Nelson (then Captain) utterly defeat big French and Spanish fleet
- 1797: Great Britain - Royal Navy sailors at Spithead and the Nore mutiny over deplorable conditions
- 1797: USA - John Adams president of the USA 1797-1801.
- 1797: Great Britain - A British inventor, Henry Maudslay invents the first metal or precision lathe.
- 1797: Great Britain - Wittemore patents a carding machine.
- 1797: Great Britain - John Hetherington in London develops the top hat.
- 1797: Great Britain - Major Dubied purchased the formula for an 'absinthe elixir' and together with his son, Henri-Louis Pernod sets up an absinthe factory in Switzerland.
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| 109 | 1798 | |
| 110 | 1799 | |
| 111 | 1800 | |
| 112 | 1801 | - 1801: UK - The first British Census is undertaken
- 1801: UK - Population of England and Wales now 10 million, Great Britain estimated at 11 million, biggest increases in North and West Midlands, London now 1 million plus, Manchester 137,201, Glasgow and Edinburgh 100,000 plus, England has 8 towns larger than 50,000, 6 of them in the North; Lord Dundas travels on Scottish canal in small steamboat - beginning of steamboat travel
- 1801: UK - Tripolitan War 1801-1805. Barbary Wars: also fought in 1815. United States vs Morocco, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli 1801-1805.
- 1801: USA - Thomas Jefferson president of the USA 1801-1809.
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| 113 | 1802 | |
| 114 | 1803 | |
| 115 | 1804 | |
| 116 | 1805 | |
| 117 | 1806 | |
| 118 | 1807 | |
| 119 | 1808 | - 1808: Peninsular War to drive the French out of Spain (until 1814)
- 1808: Portugal - Battle of Vimeiro is a British victory; British casualties less than 40,000 dead
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| 120 | 1809 | |
| 121 | 1810 | |
| 122 | 1811 | - 1811: UK - Depression caused by Orders of Council.
- 1811: UK - George III's illness leads to his son, the Prince of Wales, becoming Regent
- 1811: UK - Ned Ludd leads rioters who smash machinery, burn factories, followers known as Luddites
- 1811: UK - Birth rate falls all over England during the next 20 years
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| 123 | 1812 | |
| 124 | 1813 | |
| 125 | 1814 | |
| 126 | 1815 | - 1815: Europe - Peace is established in Europe at the Congress of Vienna.
- 1815: UK - The Corn Laws are passed by Parliament to protect British agriculture from cheap imports
- 1815: UK - Start of two-year commercial boom in Britain
- 1815: UK - England has now 2600 miles of canals, 500 in Scotland and Ireland; China clippers take 109 days to sail 15000 miles from Canton to English Channel; Britain's population estimated at 13 million; Britain imports 82 million pounds of raw cotton, by 1860 1000 million pounds; coal output 16 million tons (30 miillion by 1835, 50 million by 1848)
- 1815: UK - Sir Humphry Davy invents the miner's lamp.
- 1815: UK - Over the next fifteen years, five new states are founded along Mississippi Valley, mostly due to people fleeing Depression; more go to Canada, as many as 20,000 some years, frequently Scots
- Mar 1815: Elba, France - Napoleon escapes, leads French in war once more
- 18 Jun 1815: Belgium - Duke of Wellington trounces the French at Waterloo with timely help of Blucher (Prussia)
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| 127 | 1816 | |
| 128 | 1817 | |
| 129 | 1818 | |
| 130 | 1819 | |
| 131 | 1820 | - 1820: UK - A radical plot to murder the Cabinet, known as the Cato Street Conspiracy, fails
- 1820: UK - Trial of Queen Caroline, in which George IV attempts to divorce her for adultery
- 1820: UK - Death of George III, blind and insane
- 1820: UK - London's population estimated at 1,274,000
- 1820: UK - Government finances scheme to send out 6,000 settlers to Cape in South Africa
- 1820: UK - George IV, ruler of England to 1830. House of Hanover: Eldest son of George III, Prince Regent, from Feb 1811.
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| 132 | 1821 | |
| 133 | 1822 | - 1822: France - First prototype Espresso machine
- 1822: Ireland - Famine in Ireland prompts migration to US and Canada
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| 134 | 1823 | |
| 135 | 1824 | |
| 136 | 1825 | |
| 137 | 1826 | |
| 138 | 1827 | |
| 139 | 1828 | |
| 140 | 1829 | |
| 141 | 1830 | |
| 142 | 1831 | |
| 143 | 1832 | |
| 144 | 1833 | |
| 145 | 1834 | |
| 146 | 1835 | |
| 147 | 1836 | |
| 148 | 1837 | |
| 149 | 1838 | |
| 150 | 1839 | |
| 151 | 1840 | |
| 152 | 1841 | |
| 153 | 1842 | |
| 154 | 1843 | |
| 155 | 1844 | |
| 156 | 1845 | |
| 157 | 1846 | |
| 158 | 1847 | |
| 159 | 1848 | |
| 160 | 1849 | - 1849: USA - Zachary Taylor president of the USA 1849-1850. Zachary Taylor died while in office.
- 1849: UK - Walter Hunt invents the safety pin.
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| 161 | 1850 | - 1850: USA - American Joel Houghton invented the first dishwasher. He made it out of wood, and gave it a hand-turned wheel that splashed water on the dishes inside. It didn't really work, but it did get the first 'dishwasher' patent
- 1850: UK - First machine-made paper bag
- 1850: UK - Mines Inspectorate created, helps protect adult male mine workers
- 1850: USA - Millard Fillmore president of the USA 1850-1853. Vice president under Zachary Taylor, he was sworn in as president after Taylor's death.
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| 162 | 1851 | - 1851: UK - The Great Exhibition is staged in Hyde Park. Thanks to Prince Albert, it is a great success
- 1851: UK - Window tax abolished
- 1851: USA - Patent for sewing machine issued to Isaac Singer
- 1851: UK - British Census shows 10,736,000 females, 8,155,000 of whom were aged 10 and older, largest occupational group domestic service workers, 905,000, 145,000 washerwomen, 55,000 charwomen (cleaners), 272,000 in cotton industry, 113,000 in woolen industry, 140,000 in lace, hosiery and linen
- 1851: Europe - First submarine cable, Dover to Calais
- 1851: London, UK - Reuters opens news agency
- 1851: Africa - Livingstone's explorations begin
- 1851: Australia - Population of Australia rises from 405,000 in 1851 to 1,168,000 in 1861
- Sep 1851: Melbourne, Australia - Gold fever - 19,000 immigrants land in one month, for the whole year 94,664, seven times as many as 1851
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| 163 | 1852 | |
| 164 | 1853 | |
| 165 | 1854 | |
| 166 | 1855 | - 1855: UK - John Snow, investigating London's piped water supply, showed graphically that cholera could be transmitted by water from a particular pump.
- 1855: UK - Palmerston's first government comes to power
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| 167 | 1856 | |
| 168 | 1857 | |
| 169 | 1858 | |
| 170 | 1859 | |
| 171 | 1860 | |
| 172 | 1861 | |
| 173 | 1862 | |
| 174 | 1863 | |
| 175 | 1864 | |
| 176 | 1865 | |
| 177 | 1866 | |
| 178 | 1867 | |
| 179 | 1868 | |
| 180 | 1869 | |
| 181 | 1870 | |
| 182 | 1871 | |
| 183 | 1872 | - 1872: UK - Secret voting is introduced for elections
- 1872: UK - Parliament passes the Scottish Education Act
- 1872: USA - A.M. Ward issues the first mail-order catalog.
- 1872: UK - J.S. Risdon patents the metal windmill.
- 1872: UK - Period to 1896 sees three economic slumps and two recoveries, said to be due to imported foodstuffs from US depressing Britain's agricultural business
- 1872: USA - Levi Strauss discovered rugged trousers for miners made out of sturdy brown canvas. Once this resource was exhausted, he turned to denim, which he dyed blue to become what is known now as blue jeans
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| 184 | 1873 | |
| 185 | 1874 | |
| 186 | 1875 | - 1875: UK - Benjamin Disraeli purchases a controlling interest for Britain in the Suez Canal.
- 1875: UK - Parliament passes R.A. Cross's Conservative social reforms
- 1875: UK - Collapse of British agriculture due to cheap grain from US, wheat acreage falls by nearly a million acres
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| 187 | 1876 | |
| 188 | 1877 | |
| 189 | 1878 | |
| 190 | 1879 | |
| 191 | 1880 | - 1880: UK - William Gladstone establishes his second Liberal government
- 1880: South Africa - The first Anglo-Boer War begins
- 1880: UK - British forests now decimated except for bits of the New Forest and the Forest of Dean.
- 1880: UK - Number of agricultural labourers reduced by about 100,000 in last 10 years
- 1880: UK - Englishman John Milne invents the modern seismograph.
- 1880: UK - The British Perforated Paper Company invents a form of toilet paper.
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| 192 | 1881 | |
| 193 | 1882 | |
| 194 | 1884 | - 1884: Vienna, Austria - Sigmund Freud published a paper in which he found cocaine, an alkaloid in coca, effective against fatigue and neurasthenia.
- 1884: UK - Hilaire de Chardonnet invented the first artificial textile, which was made from cellulose. It was later named rayon
- 1884: UK - Parliament passes the third Reform Act which further extends the franchise
- 1884: UK - Fabian Society forms, rejects Marxian theory, embraces Ricardian theory (socialist)
- 1884: One-third of world's shipping is British, including 4/5 of world's steamships
- 1884: Burma - Britain annexes Upper Burma
- 1884: Africa - Britain and Germany partition East Africa
- 1884: UK - Excess of births over deaths in England is 13.3, in Germany 10.8, and France 1.4.
- 1884: USA - James Ritty invents the first working, mechanical cash register.
- 1884: UK - Charles Parson patents the steam turbine.
- 1884: USA - Lewis Edson Waterman invents the first practical fountain pen.
- 1884: USA - George Eastman patents paper-strip photographic film.
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| 195 | 1885 | |
| 196 | 1886 | - 1886: UK - Gladstone's third Liberal government fails to pass its first Irish Home Rule Bill through the House of Commons. Gladstone resigns as Prime Minister. Split in the Liberal Party. Salisbury establishes his second Conservative-Liberal-Unionist government.
- 1886: UK - The Royal Niger Company is chartered
- 1886: South Africa - Gold is discovered in the Transvaal
- 1886: New York, NY, USA - Statue of Liberty erected in New York Harbour
- 1886: UK - Local Government Act establishes County Councils as administrative organs of country life, replace Justices of Peace who are preserved as magistrates, creates London County Council (does not cover City); women are included with men in electorate of newly- established County Councils
- 1886: UK - British South Africa Company, formed by Yorkshireman Cecil Rhodes, colonization of Rhodesia begins
- 1886: UK - Great Dock Strike of London dockers, led by John Burns and Tom Mann
- 1886: USA - John Pemberton invents Coca Cola.
- 1886: USA - Josephine Cochrane invents the dishwasher.
- 1886: UK - 3,992,880 migrants leave UK for US, 2,235,671 leave UK for British North America during period to 1927
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| 197 | 1887 | |
| 198 | 1888 | |
| 199 | 1889 | |
| 200 | 1890 | - 1890: UK - Starting this decade, women's clothing becomes less voluminous, lawn tennis takes place of croquet as means of meeting opposite sex, bicycle becomes fashionable
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| 201 | 1891 | |
| 202 | 1892 | |
| 203 | 1893 | - 1893: USA - Whitcomb L. Judson invented the zip to help a friend with a stiff back who could not bend over to do up his shoes
- 1893: UK - Second Irish Home Rule Bill fails to pass the House of Lords
- 1893: New Zealand - First nation to grant women the right to vote
- 1893: France - Car number plates introduced
- 1893: USA - Grover Cleveland president of the USA 1893-1897.
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| 204 | 1894 | - 1894: UK - Rosebery takes power with his minority Liberal government
|
| 205 | 1895 | |
| 206 | 1896 | - 1896: Vienna, Austria - Sigmund Freud suggested analyzing childhood conflicts in the study of neuroses. He also devised a psychoanalytic technique called free association which allows emotionally-charged, repressed material to be consciously recognized
- 1896: Sudan - British conquest of the Sudan begins
- 1896: USA - Lightner Witmer establishes at the University of Pennsylvania a clinic of psychology, the first psychological clinic in America and perhaps in the world
- 1896: UK - Items considered luxuries in 1837 are now common comforts; food, clothing, bedding, furniture, are all far more abundant; gas and oil lighting being replaced by electricity; seaside holidays no longer rare
- 1896: UK - Howard publishes Garden Cities of Tomorrow, forerunner of modern city planning
- 1896: York, UK - Seebohm Rowntree (of chocolate fame) studies poor, determines poverty due to inadequate wages, not shiftlessness
- 1896: USA - American, H. O'Sullivan invents the rubber heel.
|
| 207 | 1897 | |
| 208 | 1898 | |
| 209 | 1899 | |
| 210 | 1900 | |
| 211 | 1901 | |
| 212 | 1902 | |
| 213 | 1903 | - 1903: USA - Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright achieved flight in a manned, gasoline power-driven, heavier-than-air flying machine at Kitty Hawk.
- 1903: UK - First Silent Movie, The Great Train Robbery
- 1903: India - Plague strikes
- 1903: Ireland - Irish land purchase bill, Wyndham's Act, permits Irish to buy land from landlords with £150 million of loans included
- 1903: UK - Liverpool University, Sheffield University and Leeds University founded
- 1903: UK - Balfour's Licensing Act reduces number of houses selling alcohol
- 1903: UK - Trade depression - unemployment results; Act sets up local committees to find employment, voluntary contributions give small stipend to unemployed
- 1903: UK - Act of Parliament secures highly privileged immunity for trades unions; Labour Party formed
- 1903: UK - Free school meals for poor children, Children's Act deals with cruelty to children, prohibits imprisonment of children under 14
- 1903: UK - 72 British ships have Marconi's radio, 1912 - 450, 1914 - 879
- 1903: UK - Beginning of Old Age Pension scheme
- 1903: UK - Trade depression - unemployment results; William Beveridge publishes Unemployment, a Problem of Industry, which prompts creation of Labour Exchanges
- 1903: Europe - Louis Bleriot flies across the English Channel
- 1903: UK - Edward Binney and Harold Smith co-invent crayons.
- 1903: UK - Bottle-making machinery invented by Michael J. Owens.
- 1903: UK - Mary Anderson invents windshield wipers.
- 1903: USA - William Coolidge invents ductile tungsten used in lightbulbs.
|
| 214 | 1904 | |
| 215 | 1905 | |
| 216 | 1906 | |
| 217 | 1907 | |
| 218 | 1908 | |
| 219 | 1909 | |
| 220 | 1910 | - 1910: UK - Georges Claude discovered that electricity conducted through a tube of the rare inert gas, neon, gives a bright red glow and that other gases gave off other colors, e.g., argon gives blue, helium gives yellow and white, etc.
- 1910: UK - First live opera broadcast
- 1910: UK - Halley's Comet Makes an Appearance
- 1910: UK - The Tango Catches On
- 1910: South Africa - Formation of Union of South Africa
- 1910: UK - Death of Edward VII
- 1910: UK - Population of England/Wales 36,070, Scotland - 4,761, N. Ireland - 1,251
- 1910: UK - Contributory National Insurance Scheme introduced by David Lloyd George, provides medical care, maternity benefits and sick pay
- 1910: UK - Parliament Act reduces House of Lords' veto to delaying power; House of Commons begins to pay members a stipend
- 1910: UK - There are 146,000 female clerical workers in England, up from 22,000 in 1891, 7,000 in 1881, and 19 in 1851
- 1910: USA - Thomas Edison demonstrated the first talking motion picture.
- 1910: UK - Infant mortality now 110 per 1000 live births, declines steadily to 24.4 in 1956; emigration reaches about 464,000/year; divorces average 823/year, go to 3,619/year in 1920-1922, 7,955/year in 1939 (latter rise because willful desertion, cruelty and incurable insanity added to causes in 1937)
- 1910: UK - Strikes of seaman, dock and transport workers, general railway strike for higher wages during period to 1912
- 20 Jan 1910: UK - George V, ruler of England to 1936. House of Windsor (name adopted Jul 17, 1917): 2nd son of Edward VII, married Princess Mary of Teck.
|
| 221 | 1911 | |
| 222 | 1912 | - 1912: North Sea - The Sinking of the Titanic: 1,515 people lose their lives.
- 1912: UK - Parachutes Invented
- 1912: UK - Piltdown Man, the 'Missing Link,' Discovered but later revealed as a fraud
- 1912: SOS Accepted as Universal Distress Signal
- 1912: UK - Motorized movie cameras invented, and replaced hand-cranked cameras.
- 1912: UK - The first tank patented by Australian inventor De La Mole.
- 1912: USA - Clarence Crane created Life Savers candy
|
| 223 | 1913 | - 1913: USA - Leo Baekeland invented a plastic laminate, known as Bakelite, and later as Formica
- 1913: Detroit, MI, USA - First assembly line introduced in Ford automobile factory
- 1913: New York, NY, USA - The Armory Show, an international display of some 1600 works of modern art, and one of the more important U.S. art exhibitions ever held, opens at the 69th-regiment armory. It arouses public curiosity, generates sensational news coverage, and helps change the direction of American art
- 1913: USA - Personal Income Tax introduced
- 1913: Washington, DC, USA - Woodrow Wilson president 1913-1921.
- 1913: UK - The crossword puzzle was invented by Arthur Wynne.
- 1913: USA - The Merck Chemical Company patented what is now known as ecstasy.
- 1913: USA - Mary Phelps Jacob invents the bra
- 1913: USA - Gideon Sundback invents the modern zipper.
|
| 224 | 1914 | - 1914: UK - Battle of the Marne
- 1914: USA - Charlie Chaplin First Appeared as the Little Tramp
- 1914: UK - First Traffic Light
- 1914: Panama - Panama Canal Officially Opened
- 1914: Egypt - Britain proclaims protectorate over Egypt
- 1914: France - Stunning British casualty figures come from Loos -60,000; in on the Somme, 60,000 in one day; total for 5-month offensive - 400,000; Germans use poison gas at Ypres
- 1914: Ireland - Easter Monday Irish rebellion, Irish Volunteers (later Irish Republican Army) proclaim Irish Republic; German submarine lands Sir Roger Casement who is arrested, German ship with rifles intercepted off Irish coast, Casement executed; Sinn Fein and Ulster cannot agree on partition
- 1914: France - Passchendaele, British advance of 5 miles costs 400,000 casualties
- 1914: UK - Balfour Declaration promises Jews home in Palestine
- 1914: UK - First use of massed tanks (Battle of Cambrai)
- 1914: UK - King George V adopts Windsor as Royal Family's English surname in place of family's German name
- 1914: USA - Garrett A. Morgan invents the Morgan gas mask
- 4 Aug 1914: World War I begins and lasts until 1918, because Germany violates a treaty to respect neutrality of Belgium; Turkey enters war on Germany's side
|
| 225 | 1915 | |
| 226 | 1916 | |
| 227 | 1917 | |
| 228 | 1918 | - 1918: UK - Influenza Epidemic
- 1918: Russia - Czar Nicholas II and his family are killed
- 1918: UK - Summer:Great Influenza Epidemic begins, reaches height end of year, new outbreak first quarter of 1919: England and Wales lose 150,000 (15,000 in London alone)
- 1918: UK - Final casualties for World War I - almost 1 million British Empire men killed, about 3 million maimed (744,000 killed are from UK)
- 1918: UK - Women over 30 given the vote (complete voting equality with men comes in 1928), all men over 21 (except peers, lunatics and felons) given vote
- 1918: UK - Consumer purchasing power now about 1/3 of what it was in 1914
- 1918: USA - Charles Jung invented fortune cookies.
- 1918: UK - Police strikes this year and the next
- 9 Nov 1918: Europe - Kaiser abdicates, peace signed two days later at Treaty of Versailles, ending World War I
|
| 229 | 1919 | |
| 230 | 1920 | - 1920: India - Bubonic Plague strikes
- 1920: UK - League of Nations Established
- 1920: UK - Population of England/Wales - 37,887, Scotland - 4,882, N.Ireland - 1,258
- 1920: UK - Economic slump, 2,170,000 unemployed
- 1920: Palestine - Serious clashes between Jews and Arabs
- 1920: USA - US restricts immigration
- 1920: Ireland - Southern Irish parliament passes Government of Ireland Act, civil war effectively ends (until 1968)
- 1920: UK - Lloyd George sells honours in return for party contributions, partly responsible for downfall of Coalition government
- 1920: Egypt - Britain recognizes Egyptian independence
- 1920: UK - British Broadcasting Company (BBC) begins transmission of speech over air to public
- 1920: Italy - Benito Mussolini becomes fascist dictator
- 1920: UK - First football cup final at Wembley
- 1920: UK - Greyhound racing becomes popular
- 1920: UK - Radio and cinema begin growth (by 1929, 3,000 cinemas in Britain)
- 1920: UK - Convictions for drunkenness fall from 189,000 in 1913 to 53,000 in 1930
- 1920: France - Tuberculosis vaccine developed
- 1920: UK - The tommy gun patented by John T Thompson.
- 1920: USA - The Band-Aid invented by Earle Dickson
- 1920: Ireland - Irish Republican Army begins Civil War with raids on police barracks and income tax offices all over Ireland
- 1920: UK - Communist Party of Great Britain founded; affiliation with Labour Party rebuffed = schism between communism and socialism
- 1920: UK - Population of Great Britain has grown by 5 per cent, emigration overseas declines from 256,000 in 1923 (post-war peak) to 92,000 in 1930 and many return to offset those leaving; British population gravitates to south and away from depressed areas of South Wales and northern England, Greater London is now over 8 million
- Dec 1920: Ireland - New Government of Ireland Act proposes partition of Ireland into Ulster (north) and Irish Free State (south), each to have its own government
|
| 231 | 1921 | |
| 232 | 1922 | |
| 233 | 1923 | |
| 234 | 1924 | |
| 235 | 1925 | |
| 236 | 1926 | |
| 237 | 1927 | |
| 238 | 1928 | |
| 239 | 1929 | |
| 240 | 1930 | |
| 241 | 1931 | - 1931: UK - Housing Act passes, provides subsidies for slum clearance
- 1931: USA - Al Capone Imprisoned for Income Tax Evasion
- 1931: UK - Auguste Piccard Reaches Stratosphere
- 1931: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - Christ Monument Built on Hilltop
- 1931: New York, NY, USA - Empire State Building Completed
- 1931: USA - First official US National Anthem
- 1931: UK - Census shows British professional workers now number .75 million (8 per cent); up from 80,000 in 1921 Census: population: England/Wales - 39,952, Scotland - 4,842, N. Ireland - 1,243
- 1931: USA - Harold Edgerton invented stop-action photography.
- 1931: Germany - Germans Max Knott and Ernst Ruska co-invent the electron microscope.
- 24 Aug 1931: UK - Resignation of Labour government accepted by King, asks Ramsay MacDonald to form National Government (Coalition) to deal with economic crisis
- 21 Oct 1931: UK - General Election, vote for National Government overwhelming, more votes for Conservatives, Liberal party in disarray
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| 242 | 1932 | - 1932: UK - Agricultural Marketing Act passed, regulates quality of produce
- 1932: USA - Air Conditioning Invented
- 1932: Amelia Earhardt First Woman to Fly Solo Across the Atlantic
- 1932: Cambridge, UK - Scientists Split the Atom
- 1932: USA - Zippo Lighters Introduced
- 1932: Ireland - De Valera succeeds Cosgrave as Prime Minister of Irish Free State, ousts British Governor-General, abolishes senate, alters law re citizenship to distinguish Irish nationality from British, but still claims Commonwealth membership
- 1932: USA - Polaroid photography invented by Edwin Herbert Land.
- 1932: UK - Unemployment falls from 3 million to below 2 million in July 1935; production rises, but imports steady, exports decline; new industries booming - chemicals, rayon, cars, radio, cost of living falls
- Sep 1932: UK - 6-7 million living on 'dole', worse in Tyne and Tees and Welsh valleys
|
| 243 | 1933 | |
| 244 | 1934 | |
| 245 | 1935 | |
| 246 | 1936 | - 1936: UK - Edward VIII, ruler of England 1936. House of Windsor (name adopted Jul 17, 1917): Eldest son of George V.
- 1936: UK - BBC starts regular TV broadcasts
- 1936: USA - Dale Carnegie Publishes How to Win Friends and Influence People
- 1936: Germany - Nazi Olympics in Berlin
- 1936: Spain - Spanish Civil War Begins. Germany and Italy help rebels against government, Soviet Union aids government, as do International Brigade with volunteers from European countries and US during period to 1939
- 1936: UK - Arabs attack Jews and British troops and police, riots, strikes, outbursts of great violence, Jews attack Arabs and British, disorder continues through beginning of World War II
- 1936: USA - Bell Labs invents the voice recognition machine.
- 1936: USA - Samuel Colt patents the Colt revolver.
- 1936: Germany - Hitler and Mussolini make Rome-Berlin Axis agreement to conduct aggression together, followed by German agreement with Japan which Italy signs later
- 20 Jan 1936: UK - Death of King George V
- 12 May 1936: UK - George VI, ruler of England 1936-1952. House of Windsor (name adopted Jul 17, 1917): 2nd son of George V, Duke of York; married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.
- 16 Nov 1936: UK - Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin learns Edward VIII wants to marry twice-divorced Mrs.Simpson and will abdicate if necessary, public storm breaks on 2- 3 December, King abdicates on 5 December, announces 10 December, Abdication Act rushes through 11 December; Duke of York (father of Queen Elizabeth II) becomes George VI
|
| 247 | 1937 | |
| 248 | 1938 | |
| 249 | 1939 | |
| 250 | 1940 | |
| 251 | 1941 | |
| 252 | 1942 | |
| 253 | 1943 | |
| 254 | 1944 | - 1944: France - D-Day landings
- 1944: France - First German V1 and V2 Rockets Fired
- 1944: Berlin, Germany - Hitler Escapes Assassination Attempt
- 1944: USA - The kidney dialysis machine invented by Willem Kolff.
- 1944: USA - Synthetic cortisone invented by Percy Lavon Julian.
|
| 255 | 1945 | |
| 256 | 1946 | |
| 257 | 1947 | |
| 258 | 1948 | - 1948: USA - Life magazine makes painter Jackson Pollock an overnight celebrity by devoting a three-page spread with color photographs to him and his paintings under the headline, Jackson Pollock: Is He the Greatest Living Painter in the United States?; Abstract Expressionism becomes a subject of widespread popular ridicule.
- 1948: Berlin, Germany - Berlin Airlift
- 1948: UK - Big Bang Theory Formulated
- 1948: India - Gandhi Assassinated
- 1948: South Africa - Policy of Apartheid Begun
- 1948: Israel - State of Israel Founded
- 1948: USA - The Frisbee® invented by Walter Frederick Morrison and Warren Franscioni.
- 1948: USA - Velcro® invented by George de Mestral.
- 1948: USA - Robert Hope-Jones invented the Wurlitzer jukebox
|
| 259 | 1949 | |
| 260 | 1950 | |
| 261 | 1951 | |
| 262 | 1952 | |
| 263 | 1953 | |
| 264 | 1954 | |
| 265 | 1955 | |
| 266 | 1956 | |
| 267 | 1957 | |
| 268 | 1958 | |
| 269 | 1959 | |
| 270 | 1960 | |
| 271 | 1961 | |
| 272 | 1962 | |
| 273 | 1963 | |
| 274 | 1964 | |
| 275 | 1965 | |
| 276 | 1966 | |
| 277 | 1967 | |
| 278 | 1968 | |
| 279 | 1969 | |
| 280 | 1970 | |
| 281 | 1971 | |
| 282 | 1972 | |
| 283 | 1973 | |
| 284 | 1974 | |
| 285 | 1975 | |
1848 - 1936 (~ 88 years)