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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1747 | |
| 2 | 1748 | |
| 3 | 1749 | - 1749: Great Britain - Deaths among women 1 in 41, children 1 in 15 during period to 1758
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| 4 | 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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| 5 | 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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| 6 | 1752 | |
| 7 | 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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| 8 | 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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| 9 | 1755 | |
| 10 | 1756 | |
| 11 | 1757 | |
| 12 | 1758 | |
| 13 | 1759 | |
| 14 | 1760 | |
| 15 | 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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| 16 | 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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| 17 | 1763 | |
| 18 | 1764 | |
| 19 | 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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| 20 | 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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| 21 | 1767 | |
| 22 | 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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| 23 | 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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| 24 | 1770 | |
| 25 | 1771 | |
| 26 | 1772 | |
| 27 | 1773 | |
| 28 | 1774 | |
| 29 | 1775 | |
| 30 | 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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| 31 | 1777 | |
| 32 | 1778 | |
| 33 | 1779 | - 1779: Great Britain - The rise of Wyvill's Christopher Wyvill's radical Yorkshire Association Movement
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| 34 | 1780 | |
| 35 | 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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| 36 | 1782 | - 1782: Ireland - Ireland obtains short-lived parliament
- 22 Mar 1782: Great Britain - Lord North's government collapses
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| 37 | 1783 | |
| 38 | 1784 | |
| 39 | 1785 | |
| 40 | 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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| 41 | 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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| 42 | 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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| 43 | 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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| 44 | 1790 | |
| 45 | 1791 | |
| 46 | 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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| 47 | 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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| 48 | 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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| 49 | 1795 | |
| 50 | 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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| 51 | 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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| 52 | 1798 | |
| 53 | 1799 | |
| 54 | 1800 | |
| 55 | 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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| 56 | 1802 | |
| 57 | 1803 | |
| 58 | 1804 | |
| 59 | 1805 | |
| 60 | 1806 | |
| 61 | 1807 | |
| 62 | 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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| 63 | 1809 | |
| 64 | 1810 | |
| 65 | 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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| 66 | 1812 | |
| 67 | 1813 | |
| 68 | 1814 | |
| 69 | 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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| 70 | 1816 | |
| 71 | 1817 | |
| 72 | 1818 | |
| 73 | 1819 | |
| 74 | 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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| 75 | 1821 | |
| 76 | 1822 | - 1822: France - First prototype Espresso machine
- 1822: Ireland - Famine in Ireland prompts migration to US and Canada
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| 77 | 1823 | |
| 78 | 1824 | |
| 79 | 1825 | |
| 80 | 1826 | |
| 81 | 1827 | |
| 82 | 1828 | |
| 83 | 1829 | |
| 84 | 1830 | |
| 85 | 1831 | |
| 86 | 1832 | |
| 87 | 1833 | |
| 88 | 1834 | |
| 89 | 1835 | |
| 90 | 1836 | |
| 91 | 1837 | |
| 92 | 1838 | |
| 93 | 1839 | |
| 94 | 1840 | |
| 95 | 1841 | |
| 96 | 1842 | |
| 97 | 1843 | |
| 98 | 1844 | |
| 99 | 1845 | |
| 100 | 1846 | |
| 101 | 1847 | |
| 102 | 1848 | |
| 103 | 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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| 104 | 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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| 105 | 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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| 106 | 1852 | |
| 107 | 1853 | |
| 108 | 1854 | |
| 109 | 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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| 110 | 1856 | |
| 111 | 1857 | |
1747 - Yes, date unknown