| |
Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1768 | - 9 Jan 1768: Philip Astley starts his circus in London
- 6 Dec 1768: The first edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" published in Edinburgh by
William Smellie
|
| 2 | 1769 | - 1769: Arkwright invents water frame (textile production)
- 1769: Capt James Cook maps the coast of New Zealand
- 6 Sep 1769: David Garrick organises first Shakespeare festival at Stratford-upon-Avon
|
| 3 | 1770 | - 1770: Clyde Trust created to convert the River Clyde, then an insignificant river, into a major
thoroughfare for maritime communications
- 28 Apr 1770: Capt James Cook lands in Australia (Botany Bay) — Aug 21: formally claims
Australia for Britain
|
| 4 | 1771 | - 1771: Right to report Parliamentary debates established in England
|
| 5 | 1772 | - 1772: First Travellers' Cheques issued by the London Credit Exchange Company
- 1772: "Morning Post" first published (until 1937)
- 14 May 1772: Judge Mansfield rules that there is no legal basis for slavery in England
|
| 6 | 1774 | - 13 Sep 1774: Cook arrives on Easter Island
|
| 7 | 1775 | - 19 Apr 1775: Battle of Lexington: first action in American War of Independence (1775–1783)
|
| 8 | 1776 | - 1776: Somerset House in London becomes the repository of records of population
- 1776: Watt and Boulton produce their first commercial steam engine
- 4 Jul 1776: American Declaration of Independence
- 7 Sep 1776: First attack on a warship by a submarine – David Bushnell's "Turtle" attacked
HMS Eagle in New York harbour. The attack was perhaps spectacular (a charge did
detonate beneath the ship), but was nevertheless unsuccessful. "Turtle" was a one man
affair, man-powered [Les Moore]
|
| 9 | 1777 | - 1777: Samuel Miller of Southampton patents the circular saw.
|
| 10 | 1779 | - 1779: Marc Isambard Brunel opens the first steamdriven sawmill at Chatham Dockyard in Kent
- 1779: First iron bridge built, over the Severn by John Wilkinson
- 1779: First Spinning Mills operational in Scotland
- 14 Feb 1779: Capt James Cook killed on Hawaii
- 23 Sep 1779: Naval engagement between Britain and USA off Flamborough Head
|
| 11 | 1780 | - 1780: Male Servants Tax
- 1780: The English Reform Movement – until now, only landowners and tenants (freeholders
with 40 shillings per year or more) allowed to vote, and in open poll books
- 1780: Fountain pen invented
- 1780: About this time the word 'Quiz' entered the language, said to have been invented as a
wager by Mr Daly, a Dublin theatre manager
- 4 May 1780: First Derby run at Epsom (some say 2nd June)
- 2 Jun 1780: Jun 2–8: The Gordon Riots – Parliament passes a Roman Catholic relief measure – for
days, London is at the mercy of a mob and destruction is widespread
|
| 12 | 1782 | - 1782: Gilbert's Act establishes outdoor poor relief – the way of life of the poor beginning to
alter due to industrialisation – New factories in rapidly expanding towns required a workforce
that would adjust to new work patterns
- 1782: James Watt patents his steam engine
|
| 13 | 1783 | - 1783: Duty payable on Parish Register entries (3d per entry – repealed 1794) – led to a fall in
entries!
- 3 Sep 1783: Treaty of Versailles (Britain/US)
- 3 Nov 1783: Last public execution at Tyburn in London (John Austin, a highwayman)
|
| 14 | 1784 | - 1784: Pitt's India Act – the Crown (as opposed to officers of the East India Company) has
power to guide Indian politics
- 1784: Wesley breaks with the Church of England
- 1784: First golf club founded at St Andrews
- 1784: Invention of threshing machine by Andrew Meikle
- 2 Aug 1784: First mail coaches in England (4pm Bristol / 8am London)
|
| 15 | 1785 | - 1785: Sunday School Society founded to educate poor children (by 1851, enrols more than 2
million)
- 1 Jan 1785: John Walter publishes first edition of The Times (called The Daily Universal
Register for 3 years)
|
| 16 | 1787 | - 1787: MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) established at Thomas Lord's ground in London
|
| 17 | 1788 | - 1788: First steamboat demonstrated in Scotland
- 1788: Law passed requiring that chimney sweepers be a minimum of 8 years old (not
enforced)
- 1788: First slave carrying act, the Dolben Act of 1788, regulates the slave trade – stipulates
more humane conditions on slave ships
- 1788: King George III's mental illness occasions the Regency Crisis – Edmund Burke and
Charles James Fox attack ministry of William Pitt – trying to obtain full regal powers for the
Prince of Wales
- 1788: Gibbon completes "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"
- 26 Jan 1788: First convicts (and free settlers) arrive in New South Wales (left Portsmouth 13
May 1787) — the 'First Fleet'; eleven ships commanded by Captain Arthur Phillip
|
| 18 | 1789 | - 28 Apr 1789: Mutiny on HMS Bounty – Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors are set adrift
and the rebel crew ends up on Pitcairn Island
|
| 19 | 1790 | - 1790: Forth and Clyde Canal opened in Scotland
|
| 20 | 1791 | - 1791: John Bell, printer, abandons the "long s" (the "s" that looks like an "f")
- 1791: Establishment of the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain
- 4 Dec 1791: First publication of The Observer – world's oldest Sunday newspaper
|
| 21 | 1792 | - 1792: Repression in Britain (restrictions on freedom of the press) – Fox gets Libel Act through
Parliament, requiring a jury and not a judge to determine libel
- 1792: Boyle's Street Directory published
- 1792: Coal-gas lighting invented by William Murdock, an Ayrshire Scot
- 1 Oct 1792: Introduction of Money Orders in Britain
- 1 Dec 1792: King's Proclamation drawing out the British militia
|
| 22 | 1793 | - 11 Feb 1793: Britain declares war on France (1793-1802)
- 15 Apr 1793: £5 notes first issued by the Bank of England
|
| 23 | 1794 | - 1794: Abolition of Parish Register duties
- 6 Oct 1794: The prosecutor for Britain, Lord Justice Eyre, charges reformers with High
Treason – he argued that, since reform of parliament would lead to revolution and revolution
to executing the King, the desire for reform endangered the King's life and was therefore
treasonous
|
| 24 | 1795 | - 1795: The Famine Year
- 1795: Foundation of the Orange Order
- 1795: Speenhamland Act proclaims that the Parish is responsible for bringing up the labourer's
wage to subsistence level – towards the end of the eighteenth century, the number of poor and
unemployed increased dramatically – price increases during the Napoleonic Wars
(1793-1815) far outstripped wage rises – many small farmers were bankrupted by the move
towards enclosures and became landless labourers – their wages were often pitifully low
- 1795: Pitt and Grenville introduce "The Gagging Acts" or "Two Bills" (the Seditious Meetings and Treasonable Practices Bills) – outlawed the mass meeting and the political lecture.
- 1795: Consumption of lime juice made compulsory in Royal Navy
|
| 25 | 1796 | - 1796: Pitt's "Reign of Terror": More treason trials – leading radicals emigrate
- 1796: Legacy Tax on sums over £20 excluding those to wives, children, parents and
grandparents
- 14 May 1796: Dr Edward Jenner gave first vaccination for smallpox in England
|
| 26 | 1797 | - 1797: England in Crisis, Bank of England suspends cash payments
- 1797: Mutinies in the British Navy at Spithead and Nore
- 1797: Tax on newspapers (including cheap, topical journals) increased to repress radical
publications
- 1797: The first copper pennies were produced ('cartwheels') by application of steam power to
the coining press
- 22 Feb 1797: French invade Fishguard, Wales; last time UK invaded; all captured 2 days later
- 26 Feb 1797: First £1 (and £2) notes issued by Bank of England
|
| 27 | 1798 | - 1798: First planned human experiment with vaccination, to test theories of Edward Jenner
- Feb 1798: The Irish Rebellion; 100,000 peasants revolt; approximately 25,000 die – Irish
Parliament abolished (Feb-Oct)
- 1 Aug 1798: Battle of the Nile (won by Nelson)
|
| 28 | 1799 | - 1799: Foundation of Royal Military College Sandhurst by the Duke of York
- 1799: Foundation of the Royal Institution of Great Britain
- 9 Jan 1799: Pitt brings in 10% income tax, as a wartime financial measure
- 12 Jul 1799: 'Combination Laws' in Britain against political associations and combinations
- 15 Jul 1799: "Rosetta Stone" discovered in Egypt, made possible the deciphering (in 1822) of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics
|
| 29 | 1800 | - 1800: Electric light first produced by Sir Humphrey Davy
- 1800: Use of high pressure steam pioneered by Richard Trevithick (1771-1833)
- 1800: Royal College of Surgeons founded
- 1800: Herschel discovers infra-red light
- 1800: Volta makes first electrical battery
- 2 Jul 1800: Parliamentary union of Great Britain and Ireland
|
| 30 | 1801 | - 1801: Grand Union Canal opens in England
- 1801: Elgin Marbles brought from Athens to London
- 1 Jan 1801: Union Jack becomes the official British flag
- 10 Mar 1801: First census puts the population of England and Wales at 9,168,000. Population of Britain nearly 11 million (75% rural)
- 24 Dec 1801: Richard Trevithick built the first self-propelled passenger carrying road loco
|
| 31 | 1802 | - 25 Mar 1802: Treaty of Amiens signed by Britain, France, Spain, and the Netherlands – the "Peace of Amiens," as it was known, brought a temporary peace of 14 months during the Napoleonic Wars – one of its most important cultural effects was that travel and correspondence across the English Channel
became possible again
|
| 32 | 1803 | - 1803: Poaching made a Capital offence in England if capture resisted
- 1803: Richard Trevithick built another steam carriage and ran it in London as the first
self-propelled vehicle in the capital and the first London bus
- 1803: Semaphore signalling perfected by Admiral Popham
- 30 Apr 1803: Louisiana Purchase: Napoleon sells French possessions in America to United States
- 12 May 1803: Peace of Amiens ends – resumption of war with France – The Napoleonic Wars (1803-18l5)
- 23 Jul 1803: First public railway opens (Surrey Iron Railway, 9 miles from Wandsworth to
Croydon, horse-drawn)
|
| 33 | 1804 | - 1804: Matthew Flinders recommends that the newly discovered country, New Holland, be renamed "Australia"
- 21 Feb 1804: Richard Trevithick runs his railway engine on the Penydarren Railway (9.5 miles
from Pen-y-Darren to Abercynon in South Wales) – this hauled a train with 10 tons of
iron and 70 passengers. It was commemorated by the Royal Mint in 2004 in the form of
a £2.00 coin.
- 3 Mar 1804: John Wedgwood (eldest son of the potter Josiah Wedgwood) founds The Royal
Horticultural Society
- 2 Dec 1804: Napoleon declares himself Emperor of the French
- 12 Dec 1804: Spain declares war on Britain
|
| 34 | 1805 | - 1805: London docks opened
- 21 Oct 1805: Admiral Nelson's victory at Trafalgar
- 2 Dec 1805: Battle of Austerlitz; Napoleon defeats Austrians and Russians
|
| 35 | 1806 | - 1806: Dartmoor Prison opened (built by French prisoners)
- 9 Jan 1806: Nelson buried in St Paul's cathedral, London
|
| 36 | 1807 | - 25 Mar 1807: Parliament passes Act prohibiting slavery and the importation of slaves from 1808 – but does not prohibit colonial slavery
|
| 37 | 1808 | - 1808: Gas lighting in London streets
- 13 Jul 1808: 'Hot Wednesday' – temperature of 101°F in the shade recorded in London
- 20 Dec 1808: Beethoven premieres his Fifth Symphony, Sixth Symphony, Fourth Piano Concerto and Choral Fantasy together in Vienna
|
| 38 | 1809 | - 12 Feb 1809: Birth of Charles Darwin
- 18 Sep 1809: Royal Opera House opens in London
|
| 39 | 1810 | - 1810: John McAdam begins road construction in England, giving his name to the process of
road metalling
|
| 40 | 1811 | - 5 Feb 1811: Prince of Wales (future George IV) made Regent after George III deemed insane
|
| 41 | 1812 | - 11 May 1812: Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, assassinated – shot as he entered the House of Commons by a bankrupt Liverpool broker, John Bellingham, who was subsequently hanged
- 18 Jun 1812: Start of American "War of 1812" (to 1814) against England and Canada
- Oct 1812: Napoleon retreats from Moscow with catastrophic losses
|
| 42 | 1813 | - 1813: Ireland: First recorded "12th of July" sectarian riots in Belfast
- 1813: Jane Austen wrote "Pride and Prejudice"
|
| 43 | 1814 | - 1 Jan 1814: Invasion of France by Allies
- 6 Apr 1814: Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to Elba
- 13 Aug 1814: Convention of London signed, a treaty between the UK and the Dutch
- 24 Aug 1814: The British burn the White House
- 29 Nov 1814: "The Times" first printed by a 'mechanical apparatus' (at 1,100 sheets per hour)
- 24 Dec 1814: Treaty of Ghent signed ending the 1812 war between Britain and the US
|
| 44 | 1815 | - 1815: Trial by Jury established in Scotland
- 1815: Davy develops the safety lamp for miners
- 18 Jun 1815: The Battle of Waterloo: Napoleon defeated and exiled to St. Helena
|
| 45 | 1816 | - 1816: Income tax abolished
- 1816: For the first time British silver coins were produced with an intrinsic value substantially
below their face value – the first official 'token' coinage
- 1816: Climate: the 'year without a summer' – followed a volcanic explosion of the mountain "Tambora" in Indonesia the previous year, the biggest volcanic explosion in 10,000 years
- 1816: Large scale emigration to North America
- 1816: Trans-Atlantic packet service begins
|
| 46 | 1817 | - 1817: March of the Manchester Blanketeers; Habeas Corpus suspended
- 1817: Constable painted "Flatford Mill"
|
| 47 | 1818 | - 1818: Manchester cotton spinners' strike
- 20 Oct 1818: 'Convention of 1818' signed between the United States and the United Kingdom
which, among other things, settled the US-Canada border on the 49th parallel for most of its
length
|
| 48 | 1819 | - 1819: Primitive bicycle, the Dandy Horse, becomes popular
- 1819: Britain returns to gold standard
- 1819: Singapore founded by Sir Stamford Raffles
- May 1819: SS "Savannah" first steamship to cross Atlantic, reaching Liverpool 20 June 1819 (26
days, mostly under sail)
- 16 Aug 1819: Peterloo Massacre at Manchester – a large, orderly group of 60,000 meets at St.
Peter's Fields, Manchester – demand Parliamentary Reform – mounted troops charge on the
meeting, killing 11 people and and maiming many others
|
| 49 | 1820 | - 1820: Cato Street Conspiracy – plot to assissinate British cabinet
- 1820: Abolition of the Spanish Inquisition
- 29 Jan 1820: Accession of George IV, previously Prince Regent
- 1 Aug 1820: Regent's Canal in London opens
- 17 Aug 1820: Trial of Queen Caroline to prove her infidelities so George IV can divorce her –
George tries to secure a Bill of Pains and Penalties against her – Caroline is virtually acquitted
because bill passed by such a small majority of Lords
|
| 50 | 1821 | - 1821: Faraday publishes "Principles of electro-magnetic rotation"
- 1821: Constable paints "The Hay Wain"
- 5 May 1821: Napoleon Bonaparte dies on St Helena
|
| 51 | 1822 | - 14 Jun 1822: Charles Babbage proposes a difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society
|
| 52 | 1823 | - 1823: New laws concerning marriage by licence – 'very troublesome' according to some: "the
Act was repealed, all in a hurry, at the beginning of the next session"
- 1823: Peel begins penal reforms – death penalty abolished for over 100 crimes
- 1823: Rugby Football 'invented' at Rugby School
- 1823: Rubberised waterproof material produced by MacIntosh
- 2 Dec 1823: US President James Monroe delivers a speech establishing American neutrality in
future European conflicts (the 'Monroe Doctrine')
|
| 53 | 1824 | - 1824: RSPCA established
- 1824: Portland cement patented
- 4 Mar 1824: Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) founded (called the "National
Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck" until 1854)
- 10 May 1824: National Gallery in London opens to the public
|
| 54 | 1825 | - 27 Sep 1825: Stockton to Darlington Railway opens – world's first service of locomotive-hauled passenger trains
|
| 55 | 1827 | - 1827: Ohm's Law published
|
| 56 | 1828 | - 25 Oct 1828: St Katharine Docks in London opened (designed by Thomas Telford)
|
| 57 | 1829 | - 1829: London Metropolitan Police Force formed, nicknamed "Bobbies" after Sir Robert Peel
- 1829: Louis Braille invents his sytem of finger-reading for the blind
- 10 Jun 1829: First Oxford/Cambridge Boat Race
- 6 Oct 1829: George Stephenson's Rocket wins the Rainhill trials (it was the only one to
complete the trial!)
|
| 58 | 1830 | - 1830: Uprisings and agitation across Europe: the Netherlands are split into Holland and
Belgium
- Jul 1830: Revolution in France, fall of Charles X and the Bourbons – Louis Philippe (the
Citizen King) on the throne
- 15 Sep 1830: George Stephenson's Liverpool & Manchester Railway opened by the Duke of
Wellington – first mail carried by rail, and first death on the railway as William Huskisson, a
leading politician, is run over!
|
| 59 | 1831 | - 1831: A list of all parish registers dating prior to 1813 compiled
- 1 Jun 1831: James Clark Ross discovers the North Magnetic Pole
- 1 Aug 1831: 'New' London Bridge opens (replaced 1973) – old bridge (which had existed for over 600 years) then demolished
|
| 60 | 1832 | - 1832: Electoral Registers introduced
- 1832: Electric telegraph invented by Morse
- 7 Jun 1832: Reform Bill passed – Representation of the People Act
|
| 61 | 1833 | - Jan 1833: Britain invades the Falkland Islands
- 29 Aug 1833: Factory Act forbids employment of children below age of 9
|
| 62 | 1834 | - 1834: Babbage invents forerunner of the computer
- 18 Mar 1834: 'Tolpuddle Martyrs' transported (to Australia) for Trades Union activities
- 1 May 1834: Slavery abolished in British possessions
|
| 63 | 1835 | - 1835: Christmas becomes a national holiday
- 1835: First railway boom period starts in Britain – construction of Great Western Railway
|
| 64 | 1836 | - 1836: First Potato famine in Ireland
- 30 Jan 1836: Telford's Menai Straits Bridge opened – considered the world's first modern suspension bridge
- 25 Feb 1836: Samuel Colt patented the 'revolver'
- 6 Mar 1836: The Alamo falls to Mexican troops – death of Davy Crockett
- Jul 1836: Inauguration of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris
|
| 65 | 1837 | - 1837: Pitman introduces his shorthand system
- 1837: P&O Founded
- 20 Jun 1837: William IV dies – accession of Queen Victoria (to 1901)
- 1 Jul 1837: Compulsory registration of Births, Marriages & Deaths in England & Wales –
Registration Districts were formed covering several parishes; initially they had the same
boundaries as the Poor Law boundaries set up in 1834
- 13 Jul 1837: Queen Victoria moves into the first Buckingham Palace
- 20 Jul 1837: Euston Railway station opens – first in London
|
| 66 | 1838 | - 28 Jun 1838: Coronation of Queen Victoria at Westminster Abbey
|
1768 - 1838 (70 years)
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