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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1715 | - 1715: Thomas Fairchild produced the first artificial hybrid plant
- 1715: The Jacobite Rebellion begins in Scotland with the aim of overthrowing the Hanovarian succession and placing the "Old Pretender" - James II's son - on the throne. The rebellion is easily defeated
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| 2 | 1716 | - 1716: The Septennial Act sets General Elections to be held every seven years
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| 3 | 1717 | - 1717: Townshend is dismissed from government by George I, causing Walpole to resign. The Whig party is split. Convocation is suspended
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| 4 | 1719 | - 1719: South Sea Bubble bursts, leaving many investors ruined after speculating with stock of the 'South Sea Company'
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| 5 | 1721 | - 1721: Sir Robert Walpole Prime Minister to 1742 (Whig)
- 1721: Sir Robert Walpole returns to government as First Lord of the Treasury. He remains in office until 1742 and effectively becomes Britain's first Prime Minister
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| 6 | 1722 | - 1722: First written reference to Stilton cheese in William Stukeley?s Itinerarium Curiosum, letter V
- 1722: Death of the Duke of Marlborough. The Jacobite 'Atterbury Plot' is hatched
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| 7 | 1726 | - 1726: First circulating library in Britain opens in Edinburgh. Jonathan Swift publishes his 'Gulliver's Travels'
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| 8 | 1727 | - 1727: Death of Sir Isaac Newton and of King George I (in Hanover). The latter is succeeded by his son as King George II
- 1727: The Gentleman's Magazine', first modern magazine, published
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| 9 | 1728 | - 1728: Pierre Fauchard, in 'The Surgeon Dentist', described preventive measures to keep teeth healthy as well as inventing the word 'dentist.'
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| 10 | 1729 | - 1729: Alexander Pope publishes his ' Dunciad'
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| 11 | 1730 | - 1730: A split occurs between Walpole and Townshend
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| 12 | 1732 | - 1732: A royal charter is granted for the founding of Georgia in America
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| 13 | 1733 | - 1733: The 'Excise Crisis' occurs and Walpole is forced to abandon his plans to reorganise the customs and excise
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| 14 | 1736 | - 1736: John Harrison finished building and tested at sea what proved to be the first accurate chronometer for timing longitude
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| 15 | 1737 | - 1737: Death of King George II's wife, Queen Caroline
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| 16 | 1738 | - 1738: John and Charles Wesley start the Methodist movement in Britain
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| 17 | 1739 | - 1739: Britain goes to war with Spain in the 'War of Jenkins' Ear'. The cause: Captain Jenkins' ear was claimed to have been cut off during a Naval Skirmish
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| 18 | 1740 | - 1740: Commencement of the War of Austrian Succession in Europe
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| 19 | 1742 | - 1742: Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington Prime Minister until 1743 (Whig)
- 1742: Beginning with a bull calf from the cow 'Silver' and two cows, 'Pidgeon' and 'Mottle' (inherited from his father's estate), Benjamin Tomkins is credited with founding the Hereford breed.
- 1742: Walpole resigns as Prime Minister
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| 20 | 1743 | - 1743: Henry Pelham Prime Minister until 1754 (Whig)
- 1743: George II leads British troops into battle at Dettingen in Bavaria
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| 21 | 1744 | |
| 22 | 1745 | - 1745: Jacobite Rebellion in Scotland led by 'Bonnie Prince Charlie'. There is a Scottish victory at Prestonpans
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| 23 | 1746 | - 1746: The Duke of Cumberland crushes the Scottish Jacobites at the Battle of Culloden
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| 24 | 1747 | - 1747: Yorkshire pudding mentioned in recipes
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| 25 | 1748 | - 1748: The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle brings the War of Austrian Succession to a close
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| 26 | 1750 | - 1750: The grapefruit was first described by Griffith Hughes as the "forbidden fruit" of Barbados
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| 27 | 1751 | - 1751: 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: Death of Frederick, Prince of Wales. His son, Prince George, becomes heir to the throne
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| 28 | 1752 | - 1752: James Lind called attention to the value of fresh fruit in the prevention of scurvy
- 1752: Ren? Antoine Ferchault de R?aumur showed by experiment that gastric juice liquifies meat.
- 1752: Adoption of the Gregorian Calendar in Britain
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| 29 | 1753 | - 1753: Parliament passes the Jewish Naturalization Bill
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| 30 | 1754 | - 1754: The ministry of Newcastle
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| 31 | 1755 | - 1755: Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language published
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| 32 | 1756 | - 1756: Mayonnaise invented to commemorate a victory at the start of the Seven Years War, the successful seige of English-held St. Philip's Castle
- 1756: Britain, allied with Prussia, declares war against France and her allies, Austria and Russia. The Seven Years' War begins
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| 33 | 1757 | - 1757: The Pitt-Newcastle ministry. Robert Clive wins the Battle of Plassey and secures the Indian province of Bengal for Britain. William Pitt becomes Prime Minister
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| 34 | 1759 | - 1759: Wolfe captures Quebec and expels the French from Canada
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| 35 | 1760 | - 1760: Death of King George II. He is succeeded by his grandson as George III
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| 36 | 1761 | - 1761: Laurence Sterne publishes his 'Tristram Shandy'
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| 37 | 1762 | - 1762: 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: The Earl of Bute is appointed Prime Minister. He becomes very unpopular and employs a bodyguard
- 1762: Acad?mie Francaise recognises term 'millionaire'
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| 38 | 1763 | - 1763: Peace of Paris ends the Seven Years' War. Grenville ministry.
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| 39 | 1764 | - 1764: James Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny
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| 40 | 1765 | - 1765: Rockingham ministry. The American Stamp Act raises taxes in the colonies in an attempt to make their defence self-financing
- 1765: Earliest known children's pop-up book
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| 41 | 1766 | - 1766: Chatham ministry. Repeal of the American Stamp Act
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| 42 | 1768 | - 1768: Grafton ministry. The Middlesex Election Crisis occurs
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| 43 | 1769 | - 1769: 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: Captain James Cook's first voyage to explore the Pacific begins
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| 44 | 1770 | - 1770: Lord North begins service as Prime Minister. The Falkland Island Crisis occurs. Edmund Burke publishes his 'Thoughts on the Present Discontents'
- 1770: James Cook documents the location of Australia
- 1770: Gum pencil eraser invented
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| 45 | 1771 | - 1771: The Encyclopedia Britannica is first published
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| 46 | 1773 | - 1773: American colonists protest at the East India Company's monopoly over tea exports to the colonies, at the so-called 'Boston Tea Party'. The World's first cast-iron bridge is constructed over the River Severn at Coalbrookdale
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| 47 | 1774 | - 1774: Franz Anton Mesmer began the psychotherapeutic practive of hypnotism, which he called 'animal magnetism' and conceived it to be an actual fluid. Apparently he had some success with psychosomatic illnesses. Part of his technique seems to have been used earlier by exorcists.
- 1774: Parliament passes the Coercive Acts in retaliation for the 'Boston Tea Party'
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| 48 | 1775 | - 1775: American War of Independence begins when colonists fight British troops at Lexington.
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| 49 | 1776 | - 1776: 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: On 4 JUL, the American Congress passes their Declaration of Independence from Britain. Edward Gibbons' publishes his 'Decline and Fall'
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| 50 | 1778 | - 1778: Cook explores Hawaiian Islands. He fails to locate Northwest Passage from Alaskan side and is killed in Hawaii the following year
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| 51 | 1779 | - 1779: The rise of Wyvill's Association Movement
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| 52 | 1780 | - 1780: The Gordon Riots develop from a procession to petition parliament against the Catholic Relief Act
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| 53 | 1781 | - 1781: Frederick William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus by its movement, although at the time he supposed it to be a comet
- 1781: The Americans obtain a great victory of British troops at the surrender of Yorktown
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| 54 | 1782 | - 1782: End of Lord North's time as Prime Minister. He is succeeded by Rockingham in his second ministry. Ireland obtains short-lived parliament
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| 55 | 1783 | - 1783: William Bentinck, Duke of Portland Prime minister (Whig)
- 1783: Joseph Michel Montgolfier and Jacques ?tienne Montgolfier invented the first practical hot air balloon.
- 1783: Shelburne's ministry, followed by that of William Pitt the Younger. Britain recognises American independence at the Peace of Versailles. Fox-North coalition established
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| 56 | 1784 | - 1784: Parliament passes the East India Act
- 1784: First edition of 'The Times' newspaper
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| 57 | 1785 | - 1785: Pitt's motion for Parliamentary Reform is defeated
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| 58 | 1786 | - 1786: The Eden commercial treaty with France is drawn up
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| 59 | 1788 | - 1788: George III suffers his first attack of 'madness' (caused by porphyria)
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| 60 | 1789 | - 1789: Outbreak of the French Revolution
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| 61 | 1790 | - 1790: Edmund Burke publishes his 'Reflections on the Revolution in France'
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| 62 | 1791 | - 1791: The 'Celerifere', an early version of the bicycle, was built around by Comte Mede de Sivrac. It was basically a scooter with a high seat
- 1791: James Boswell publishes his 'Life of Johnson' an Thomas Paine, his 'Rights of Man'
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| 63 | 1792 | - 1792: 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: Coal gas is used for lighting for the first time. Mary Wollstonecraft publishes her 'Vindication of the Rights of Women'
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| 64 | 1793 | - 1793: Outbreak of War between Britain and France. The voluntary Board of Agriculture is set up. Commercial depression throughout Britain
- 1793: Speculative 'Canal Bubble' in UK bursts
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| 65 | 1794 | - 1794: 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: Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin
- 1794: Metric system introduced in France
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| 66 | 1795 | - 1795: The 'Speenhamland' system of outdoor relief is adopted, making wages up to equal the cost of subsistence
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| 67 | 1796 | - 1796: 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
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| 68 | 1798 | - 1798: Thomas Robert Malthus, in his Essay on the Principle of Population, contended that population increses by a geometric ratio whereas the means of subsistence increase by an arithmetic ratio.
- 1798: Introduction of a tax of ten percent on incomes over ?200.
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| 69 | 1799 | - 1799: Trade Unions are suppressed. Napoleon is appointed First Consul in France
- 1799: Three-year commercial boom in Britain begins
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| 70 | 1800 | - 1800: Act of Union with Ireland unites Parliaments of England and Ireland
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| 71 | 1801 | - 1801: Close of Pitt the Younger's Ministry. The first British Census is undertaken
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| 72 | 1802 | - 1802: Peace with France is established. Peel introduces the first factory legislation
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| 73 | 1803 | - 1803: Beginning of the Napoleonic Wars. Britain declares war on France. Parliament passes the General Enclosure Act, simplifying the process of enclosing common land
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| 74 | 1805 | - 1805: Ludolf Christian Treviranus said that spermatozoa were analogous to pollen
- 1805: Nelson destroys the French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar, but is killed in the process
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