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   Date  Event(s)
1649 
  • 1649: London, England - The Commonwealth, in which England is governed as a republic, is established and lasts until 1660
  • 1649: Ireland - Cromwell harshly suppresses Catholic rebellions
  • 1649: England - Long Parliament (Rump Parliament) confiscates land; House of Lords abolished; Charles II, meanwhile in exile on Continent, travels to Scotland, signs Covenant, Scots support him
  • 1649: England - Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector, ruler of England to 1658. Commonwealth & Protectorate.
  • 1649: England - Nicholas Culpeper, Herbalist, wrote the pseudoscientific A Physicall Directory. It listed plants and their supposed healing properties based on the plants resemblance to the human body parts.
  • 30 Jan 1649: London, England - Execution of Charles I
1650 
1651 
  • 1651: England - Thomas Hobbes, in Leviathan, argued from a mechanistic theory that man is a selfishly individualistic animal at constant war with others. In the state of nature, life is 'nasty, brutish, and short.'
  • 1651: England - Navigation Act passes, forbids exportation of goods except in all-English ships, foreign merchants and goods prohibited in England and colonies, strengthened in 1660
  • 3 Sep 1651: England - Charles II invades England and is defeated at Battle of Worcester; Charles escapes to France
1652 
1653 
  • 1653: England - Oliver Cromwell dissolves the 'Rump Parliament' and becomes Lord Protector
  • 1653: England - England victorious in battles against Spain and aids France against Spain; England becomes leading naval power and important military power; restores legal rights to Jews
1654 
1655 
1656 
1657 
10 1658 
11 1659 
12 1660 
13 1661 
14 1662 
15 1663 
16 1664 
17 1665 
18 1666 
  • 1666: England - First European printed paper banknote issued
  • 1666: London, England - The Great Fire of London began in the shop of the King's baker. After burning for four days, more than 13,000 buildings had been destroyed.
19 1667 
  • 1667: Medway River, Kent - Dutch fleet defeats the English
20 1668 
21 1669 
  • 1669: England - Isaac Newton circulated a manuscript, De analysi per aequationes numero terminorum infinitas, the first notice of his calculus.
22 1670 
23 1671 
24 1672 
25 1673 
26 1674 
27 1675 
28 1676 
29 1677 
30 1678 
31 1679 
32 1680 
  • 1680: America - Pennsylvania founded by William Penn for oppressed Quakers
  • 1680: England - Moves to remove Charles II's brother James from succession persist through into 1681 (because he married an Italian and converted to Catholicism) and replace with Charles's illegitimate son, also Charles;civil war between Tories and Whigs narrowly averted
33 1681 
34 1685 
35 1686 
36 1687 
37 1688 
38 1689 
39 1690 
40 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
41 1692 
42 1693 
43 1694 
44 1695 
45 1697 
46 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
47 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.
48 1700 
49 1701 
50 1702 
51 1703 
  • 1703: Epworth, Lincolnshire, England - Birth of John Wesley. By 1784, 356 Methodist chapels built in places lacking church
52 1704 
53 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
54 1707 
  • 1707: Great Britain - The Act of Union unites the kingdoms of England and Scotland and transfers the seat of Scottish Government to London
55 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
56 1709 
57 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
58 1711 
59 1712 
60 1713 
61 1714 
62 1715 
63 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.
64 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
65 1719 
66 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.
67 1721 
68 1722 
69 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
70 1724 
71 1725 
  • 30 Apr 1725: Great Britain - Treaty of Vienna: Austria and Spain resolve differences
72 1726 
73 1727 
74 1728 
  • 1728: France - Pierre Fauchard, in The Surgeon Dentist, described preventive measures to keep teeth healthy as well as inventing the word dentist.
75 1729 
76 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.
77 1731 
78 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.
79 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.
80 1734 
  • 1734: Great Britain - Walpole returned to power with smaller majority, power weakened
81 1736 
82 1737 
83 1738 
84 1739 
85 1740 
86 1741 
  • 1741: Ireland - Further famine, population about 4 million
87 1742 
88 1743 
89 1744 
90 1745 
91 1746 
92 1747 
93 1748 
94 1749 
  • 1749: Great Britain - Deaths among women 1 in 41, children 1 in 15 during period to 1758
95 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
96 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
97 1752 
98 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
99 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.
100 1755 
101 1756 
102 1757 
103 1758 
104 1759 
105 1760 
106 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
107 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
108 1763 
109 1764 
110 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
111 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.
112 1767 
113 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
114 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
115 1770 
116 1771 
117 1772 
118 1773 
119 1774 
120 1775 
121 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.
122 1777 
123 1778 
124 1779 
  • 1779: Great Britain - The rise of Wyvill's Christopher Wyvill's radical Yorkshire Association Movement
125 1780 
126 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
127 1782 
  • 1782: Ireland - Ireland obtains short-lived parliament
  • 22 Mar 1782: Great Britain - Lord North's government collapses
128 1783 
129 1784 
130 1785 
131 1786 
  • 1786: Great Britain - The Eden commercial treaty with France is drawn up
  • 1786: Pennsylvania, USA - John Fitch invents a steamboat.
132 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
133 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)
134 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.
135 1790 
136 1791 
137 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.
138 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
139 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
140 1795 
141 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
142 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.
143 1798 
144 1799 
145 1800 
146 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.
147 1802 
148 1803 
149 1804 
150 1805 
151 1806 
152 1807 
153 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
154 1809 
155 1810 
156 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
157 1812 
158 1813 
159 1814 
160 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)
161 1816 
162 1817 
163 1818 
164 1819 
165 1820 
166 1821 
167 1822 
  • 1822: France - First prototype Espresso machine
  • 1822: Ireland - Famine in Ireland prompts migration to US and Canada
168 1823 
169 1824 
170 1825 
171 1826 
172 1827 
173 1828 
174 1829 
175 1830 
176 1831 
177 1832 
178 1833 
179 1834 
180 1835 
181 1836 
182 1837 
183 1838 
184 1839 
185 1840 
186 1841 
187 1842 
188 1843 
189 1844 
190 1845 
191 1846 
192 1847 
193 1848 
194 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.
195 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.
196 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
197 1852 
198 1853 
199 1854 
200 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
201 1856 
202 1857 
203 1858 
204 1859 
205 1860 
206 1861 
207 1862 
208 1863 
209 1864 
210 1865 
211 1866 
212 1867 
213 1868 
214 1869 
215 1870 
216 1871 
217 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
218 1873 
219 1874 
220 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
221 1876 
222 1877 
223 1878 
224 1879 
225 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.
226 1881 
227 1882 
228 1884 
229 1885 
230 1886 
231 1887 
232 1888 
233 1889 
234 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
235 1891 
236 1892 
237 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.
238 1894 
  • 1894: UK - Rosebery takes power with his minority Liberal government
239 1895 
240 1896 
241 1897 
242 1898 
243 1899 
244 1900 
245 1901 
246 1902 
247 1903 
248 1904 
249 1905 
250 1906 
251 1907 
252 1908 
253 1909 
254 1910 
255 1911 
256 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
257 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.
258 1914 
259 1915 
260 1916 
261 1917 
262 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
263 1919 
264 1920 
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288 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.
289 1945 
290 1946 
291 1947 
292 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
293 1949 
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333 1989 
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335 1991 
336 1992 
  • 1992: Waco, TX, USA - Cult Compound in Waco, Texas Raided
337 1993 
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341 1997 
342 1998 
  • 1998: UK - Titanic Most Successful Movie Ever
  • 1998: USA - U.S. President Clinton Impeached
  • 1998: USA - Viagra on the Market
  • 1998: Europe - The Euro the New European Currency
343 1999 
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347 2003