|
Date |
Event(s) |
1 | 1758 | - 1758: India stops being merely a commercial venture – England begins dominating it
politically – The East India Company retains its monopoly although it ceased to trade
|
2 | 1759 | - 1759: Wesley builds 356 Methodist chapels
- 15 Jan 1759: British Museum opens to the public in London
- 16 Oct 1759: Third Eddystone Lighthouse (John Smeaton's) completed
|
3 | 1760 | - 1760: Carron Iron Works in operation in Scotland
- 5 May 1760: First use of hangman's drop
- 25 Oct 1760: George II dies – George III Hanover, his grandson, becomes king. The date conventionally marks the start of the so-called "first Industrial Revolution"
|
4 | 1761 | - 16 Jan 1761: British capture Pondicherry, India from the French
|
5 | 1762 | - 1762: Cigars introduced into Britain from Cuba
|
6 | 1763 | - 1763: Treaty of Paris – gives back to France everything Pitt fought to obtain – (Newfoundland
[fishing], Guadaloupe and Martininque [sugar], Dakar [gum]) – but English displaces French
as the international language
|
7 | 1764 | - 1764: Lloyd's Register of shipping first prepared
- 1764: Practice of numbering houses introduced to London
- 1764: James Hargeaves invents the Spinning Jenny (but destroyed 1768)
- 1764: Mozart produces his first symphony at age eight
|
8 | 1765 | - 1765: The potato becomes the most popular food in Europe
- 22 Mar 1765: Stamp Act passed – imposed a tax on publications and legal documents in the
American colonies (repealed the following year)
|
9 | 1766 | - 1766: Start of 'composite' national records on rainfall in the UK
- 5 Dec 1766: Christie's auction house founded in London by James Christie
|
10 | 1767 | - 1767: Newcomen's steam pumping engine perfected by James Watt
|
11 | 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
|
12 | 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
|
13 | 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
|
14 | 1771 | - 1771: Right to report Parliamentary debates established in England
|
15 | 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
|
16 | 1774 | - 13 Sep 1774: Cook arrives on Easter Island
|
17 | 1775 | - 19 Apr 1775: Battle of Lexington: first action in American War of Independence (1775–1783)
|
18 | 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]
|