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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1623 | |
| 2 | 1624 | |
| 3 | 1625 | |
| 4 | 1626 | - 1626: England - Francis Bacon died. An English statesman, philosopher and author of Novum Organum, a work on scientific inquiry, he died after having stuffing a dressed chicken with snow to see how long the flesh could be preserved by the extreme cold. He caught cold and died from complications about a month later.
- 1626: England - A large Codfish, split open at a Cambridge market, is found to contain a copy of a book of religious treatises by John Frith.
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| 5 | 1627 | - 1627: England - William Harvey was able to confirm his observation that the blood circulates throughout the body, which he inferred from the structure of the venal valves. The following year, in Exercitatio Anatomica, he published these conclusions as well as a description of the heart as a mechanical pump.
- 1627: Warsaw, Poland - The last known living ancestor of all modern domestic cattle (the aurochs) was killed by a poacher
- 1627: England - John Ray (Wray) was born. A leading 17th century English naturalist and botanist. He contributed to the advancement of taxonomy, and established the species as the basic unit of taxonomy.
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| 6 | 1628 | |
| 7 | 1629 | |
| 8 | 1630 | |
| 9 | 1633 | - 1633: America - Connecticut settled; Maryland founded by George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore
- 1633: England - Bananas were supposedly displayed in the shop window of merchant Thomas Johnson. This was the first time the banana had ever been seen in Great Britain. It would be more than 200 years before they were regularly imported. In 1999 remains of a banana were found at a Tudor archaeological site on the banks of the River Thames. This would seem to date it 150 years earlier than Thomas Johnson's banana. A classic food mystery!
- 1633: Rome, Italy - Galileo was forced by the Inquisition in Rome to renounce his theory that the Earth revolved around the Sun.
- 3 Nov 1633: Italy - Bernardino Ramazzini was born. A physician, he was the first to note the relationship between worker's illnesses and their work environment. Considered the founder of occupational medicine.
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| 10 | 1634 | - 1634: Boston, Massachusetts - Samuel Cole supposedly opened the first tavern in the U.S.A.
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| 11 | 1636 | - 1636: England - Tulip mania begins and ceases the following year in a precursor of the 2000 dot-com crash
- 1636: England - Mild outbreak of Black Death
- 1636: England - W. Gascoigne invents the micrometer.
- 1636: America - The Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony established Harvard College (New College), the first college in the Americas.
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| 12 | 1637 | |
| 13 | 1638 | |
| 14 | 1639 | |
| 15 | 1640 | |
| 16 | 1641 | |
| 17 | 1642 | |
| 18 | 1643 | |
| 19 | 1644 | |
| 20 | 1645 | |
| 21 | 1646 | - 1646: England - Charles I surrenders to the Scots
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| 22 | 1647 | |
| 23 | 1648 | |
| 24 | 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
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| 25 | 1650 | |
| 26 | 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
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| 27 | 1652 | |
| 28 | 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
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| 29 | 1654 | |
| 30 | 1655 | |
| 31 | 1656 | |
| 32 | 1657 | |
| 33 | 1658 | |
| 34 | 1659 | |
| 35 | 1660 | - 1660: Furtwangen, Germany - Cuckoo clocks made in the Black Forest region.
- 1660: England - Charles II, ruler of England to 1685. House of Stuart (restored): Eldest son of Charles I, died without issue. De Jure King from 30 JAN 1649.
- 1660: England - Two houses of Parliament and Church of England restored, land returned to rightful owners; 'Dissenters' born (Quakers, Baptists, Congregationalists, etc.)
- 1660: New Amsterdan, America - Asser Levy from Portugal, applied for a license to sell kosher meat. He was the first kosher butcher in the city that was to become New York
- 29 May 1660: London, England - Charles II, aged 30, rides into London, people go mad with joy
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| 36 | 1661 | |
| 37 | 1662 | |
| 38 | 1663 | |
| 39 | 1664 | |
| 40 | 1665 | |
| 41 | 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.
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| 42 | 1667 | - 1667: Medway River, Kent - Dutch fleet defeats the English
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| 43 | 1668 | |
| 44 | 1669 | - 1669: England - Isaac Newton circulated a manuscript, De analysi per aequationes numero terminorum infinitas, the first notice of his calculus.
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| 45 | 1670 | |
| 46 | 1671 | |
| 47 | 1672 | |
| 48 | 1673 | |
| 49 | 1674 | |
| 50 | 1675 | |
| 51 | 1676 | |
| 52 | 1677 | |
| 53 | 1678 | |
| 54 | 1679 | |
| 55 | 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
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| 56 | 1681 | |
| 57 | 1685 | |
| 58 | 1686 | |
| 59 | 1687 | |
| 60 | 1688 | |
| 61 | 1689 | |
| 62 | 1690 | |
| 63 | 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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| 64 | 1692 | |
| 65 | 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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| 66 | 1694 | |
| 67 | 1695 | |
| 68 | 1697 | |
| 69 | 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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| 70 | 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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| 71 | 1700 | |
| 72 | 1701 | |
| 73 | 1702 | |
| 74 | 1703 | - 1703: Epworth, Lincolnshire, England - Birth of John Wesley. By 1784, 356 Methodist chapels built in places lacking church
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| 75 | 1704 | |
| 76 | 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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| 77 | 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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| 78 | 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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| 79 | 1709 | |
| 80 | 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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| 81 | 1711 | |
| 82 | 1712 | |
| 83 | 1713 | |
| 84 | 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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| 85 | 1715 | |
| 86 | 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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| 87 | 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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| 88 | 1719 | |
| 89 | 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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| 90 | 1721 | |
| 91 | 1722 | |
| 92 | 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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| 93 | 1724 | |
| 94 | 1725 | - 30 Apr 1725: Great Britain - Treaty of Vienna: Austria and Spain resolve differences
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| 95 | 1726 | |
| 96 | 1727 | |
| 97 | 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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| 98 | 1729 | |
| 99 | 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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| 100 | 1731 | |
| 101 | 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.
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| 102 | 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.
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| 103 | 1734 | - 1734: Great Britain - Walpole returned to power with smaller majority, power weakened
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| 104 | 1736 | |
| 105 | 1737 | |
| 106 | 1738 | |
| 107 | 1739 | |
| 108 | 1740 | |
| 109 | 1741 | - 1741: Ireland - Further famine, population about 4 million
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| 110 | 1742 | |
| 111 | 1743 | |
| 112 | 1744 | |
| 113 | 1745 | |
| 114 | 1746 | |
| 115 | 1747 | |
| 116 | 1748 | |
| 117 | 1749 | - 1749: Great Britain - Deaths among women 1 in 41, children 1 in 15 during period to 1758
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| 118 | 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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| 119 | 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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| 120 | 1752 | |
| 121 | 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
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| 122 | 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.
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| 123 | 1755 | |
| 124 | 1756 | |
| 125 | 1757 | |
| 126 | 1758 | |
| 127 | 1759 | |
| 128 | 1760 | |
| 129 | 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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| 130 | 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
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| 131 | 1763 | |
| 132 | 1764 | |
| 133 | 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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| 134 | 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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| 135 | 1767 | |
| 136 | 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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| 137 | 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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| 138 | 1770 | |
| 139 | 1771 | |
| 140 | 1772 | |
| 141 | 1773 | |
| 142 | 1774 | |
| 143 | 1775 | |
| 144 | 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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| 145 | 1777 | |
| 146 | 1778 | |
| 147 | 1779 | - 1779: Great Britain - The rise of Wyvill's Christopher Wyvill's radical Yorkshire Association Movement
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| 148 | 1780 | |
| 149 | 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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| 150 | 1782 | - 1782: Ireland - Ireland obtains short-lived parliament
- 22 Mar 1782: Great Britain - Lord North's government collapses
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| 151 | 1783 | |
| 152 | 1784 | |
| 153 | 1785 | |
| 154 | 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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1623 - Yes, date unknown