| |
Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1681 | - 1681: Second Test Act (against non-conformists) passed by Westminster Parliament
- 1681: Oil lighting first used in London streets
|
| 2 | 1682 | - 1682: Pennsylvania founded by William Penn
- 1682: Library of Advocates founded in Edinburgh – later National Library of Scotland
- 1682: Halley observes the comet which bears his name
|
| 3 | 1683 | - 1683: Wild boar become extinct in Britain
- 6 Jun 1683: Ashmolean Museum opened at Oxford – first museum in Britain
|
| 4 | 1685 | - 1685: James the Second (1685-1689, died 1701) – Monmouth rebellion and battle of
Sedgemoor – British Army raised to 20,000 men
- 1685: Earl of Argyll's Invasion of Scotland
- 1685: Judge Jeffreys and the Bloody Assizes – 320 executed, 800 transported
|
| 5 | 1686 | - 1686: Release of all prisoners held for their religious beliefs
|
| 6 | 1687 | - 4 Apr 1687: James II issues the Declaration of Indulgence, suspending laws against Catholics
and non-conformists
- 5 Jul 1687: Newton published his "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica" – written
in Latin
|
| 7 | 1688 | - 1688: British Army raised to 40,000
- 1688: Bill of Rights limits the powers of the monarchy over parliament
- 1688: Hearth Tax abolished
- 1688: Mutiny Act
- Feb 1688: Edward Lloyd's Coffee House opens – later became Lloyd's of London
- Nov 1688: The Glorious Revolution: James II abdicates
- 5 Nov 1688: William of Orange lands at Torbay
- Dec 1688: Siege of Londonderry (began Dec 1688; ended 28 Jul 1689)
|
| 8 | 1689 | - 1689: Devonport naval dockyard established
- 13 Feb 1689: William III and Mary II, daughter of James II, jointly take the throne (only William, however, has regal power)
- 12 Mar 1689: Deposed James VII & II flees to Ireland – defeated at the Battle of the Boyne (1
Jul 1690)
- 24 May 1689: Toleration Act passed for Protestant non-conformists
- 27 Jul 1689: Battle of Killiecrankie in Scotland – Jacobites defeated Government troops but
at high cost
- 16 Dec 1689: Bill of Rights passed by Parliament, ending King's divine right to raise taxes or
wage war
|
| 9 | 1690 | - 20 May 1690: England passes Act of Grace, forgiving Roman Catholic followers of James II
|
| 10 | 1692 | - 1692: Land Tax introduced – originally designed as an annual tax on personal estate, public
offices and land. For practical purposes, however, assessors tended to avoid assessing items of
wealth other than landed property so that it became known as the Land Tax.
- 1692: French intention to invade England came to nothing
- 13 Feb 1692: The massacre of Glencoe – Clan Campbell sides with King William and
murders members of Clan McDonald
|
| 11 | 1693 | - 4 Aug 1693: Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Pierre Pérignon 's invention of Champagne
|
| 12 | 1694 | - 1694: National Debt came into effect in England
- 1694: Stamp Duties introduced into Britain from Holland
- 1694: Mary II death leaves William III as sole ruler
- 1694: Triennial Act, new Parliamentary elections every three years
- 1694: Scotland: Poll Tax imposed on all over sixteen, except the destitute and insane (-1699)
- 27 Jul 1694: Bank of England founded by William Paterson (a Scot)
|
| 13 | 1695 | - 1695: Freedom of Press in England granted
- 1695: Bank of Scotland founded
- 1695: Act of Parliament imposes a fine on all who fail to inform the parish minister of the
birth of a child (repealed 1706)
- 1695: Start of "Dissenters" lists in parish registers – children born but not christened in the
parish church – some were named "Papist" and others "Protestants"
|
| 14 | 1697 | - 2 Dec 1697: Official opening of St Paul's Cathedral
|
| 15 | 1698 | - 1698: Invention of steam engine by Capt Thomas Savery
- 1698: Darien Expedition: a disastrous attempt to establish a Scots settlement in Panama
- 1698: Duties (taxes) on entries in parish registers – repealed after five years
- 4 Jan 1698: Most of the Palace of Whitehall in London destroyed by fire
- 14 Nov 1698: Eddystone Lighthouse (Henry Winstanley's) first lit; completed 10 days earlier
|
| 16 | 1700 | - 1700: Population in England and Scotland approx 7.5 million
|
| 17 | 1701 | - 1701: Act of Settlement bars Catholics from the British throne
- 23 May 1701: After being convicted of piracy and murdering William Moore, Captain
William Kidd hanged in London
|
| 18 | 1702 | - 8 Mar 1702: Anne Stuart becomes Queen
- 11 Mar 1702: First English daily newspaper The Daily Courant (till 1735)
|
| 19 | 1703 | - 4 Aug 1703: British take Gibraltar
- 24 Nov 1703: Climate: Most violent storms of the millennium cause vast damage
across southern England – about a third of Britain's merchant fleet lost, and Eddystone
lighthouse destroyed on 27 November (Nov 24 - Dec 2)
|
| 20 | 1704 | - 1704: Penal Code enacted – Catholics barred from voting, education and the military
- 13 Aug 1704: Battle of Blenheim
|
| 21 | 1705 | - 1705: First workable steam pumping engine devised by Thomas Newcomen (some say c1710
or 1711)
- 1705: Isaac Newton knighted (for his work at the Royal Mint)
|
| 22 | 1706 | - 1706: First evening newspaper "The Evening Post" issued in London
|
| 23 | 1707 | - 16 Jan 1707: Union with Scotland – Scots agree to send 16 peers and 45 MPs to English
Parliament in return for full trading privileges – Scottish Parliament meets for the last time in
March
- 1 May 1707: English and Scottish Parliaments united by an Act of the English Parliament –
The Kingdom of Great Britain established – largest free-trade area in Europe at the time
|
| 24 | 1708 | - 1708: First Jacobite rising in Scotland
- 1708: Earliest Artillery Muster Rolls
|
| 25 | 1709 | - 1709: Second Eddystone lighthouse completed
- 1709: First Copyright Act pass
- 1709: Bad harvests throughout Europe – bread riots in Britain
- 2 Feb 1709: Alexander Selkirk rescued from shipwreck on a desert island, inspiring the book
Robinson Crusoe (published in 1719) by Daniel Defoe
|
| 26 | 1710 | - 1710: Tax on Apprentice Indentures introduced
|
| 27 | 1711 | - 1711: Incorporation of South Sea Company, in London
- 11 Aug 1711: First race meeting at Ascot
|
| 28 | 1712 | - 1712: Imposition of Soap Tax (abolished 1853)
- 1712: Last trial for witchcraft in England (Jane Wenham)
- 1712: Toleration Act passed – first relief to non-Anglicans
|
| 29 | 1713 | - 1713: By this year there are some 3,000 coffee houses in London
|
| 30 | 1714 | - 1714: Longitude Act: prize of £20,000 offered to the inventor of a workable method of
determining a ship's longitude (won by John Harrison in 1773 for his chronometer).
- 1714: Schism Act, prevents Dissenters from being schoolmasters in England
- 1714: Landholders forced to take the Oath of Allegiance and renounce Roman Catholicism
- 1 Aug 1714: Queen Anne Stuart dies – George I Hanover becomes king (1714-1727).
|
| 31 | 1715 | - 1715: Second Jacobite rebellion in Scotland, under the Old Pretender ('The Fifteen')
- 1 Aug 1715: Riot Act passed
|
| 32 | 1716 | - 1716: The Septennial Act of Britain leads to greater electoral corruption – general elections
now to be held once every 7 years instead of every 3 (until 1911)
- 1716: Climate: Thames frozen so solid that a spring tide lifted the ice bodily 13ft without
interrupting the frost fair
|
| 33 | 1717 | - 1717: First Masonic Lodge opens in London
- 1717: Value of the golden guinea fixed at 21 shillings
|
| 34 | 1719 | - 1719: Third abortive Jacobite rising
|
| 35 | 1720 | - 1720: South Sea Bubble, a stock-market crash on Exchange Alley – government assumes
control of National Debt
- 1720: Manufacturing towns start to increase in population – rise of new wealth
- 1720: Wallpaper becomes fashionable in England
|
| 36 | 1721 | - 2 Apr 1721: Robert Walpole (Whig) becomes first Prime Minister (to 1742)
|
| 37 | 1722 | - 1722: Last trial for witchcraft in Scotland
- 1722: Knatchbull's Act, poor laws
|
| 38 | 1723 | - 1723: Excise tax levied for coffee, tea, and chocolate
- 1723: The Waltham Black Acts add 50 capital offences to the penal code – people could be
sentenced to death for theft and poaching – repealed in 1827
- 1723: The Workhouse Act or Test – to get relief, a poor person has to enter Workhouse
|
| 39 | 1724 | - 1724: Rapid growth of gin drinking in England
- 1724: Longman's founded (Britain's oldest publishing house)
|
| 40 | 1726 | - 1726: First circulating library opened in Edinburgh
- 1726: Invention of the chronometer by John Harrison
|
| 41 | 1727 | - 1727: Board of Manufacturers established in Scotland
- 11 Jun 1727: George I dies – George II Hanover becomes king
|
| 42 | 1729 | - 9 Nov 1729: Treaty of Seville signed between Britain, France and Spain – Britain maintained
control of Port Mahon and Gibraltar
|
| 43 | 1730 | |
| 44 | 1731 | - 1731: Invention of seed drill by Jethro Tull [others say 1701]
- 1731: Invention of sextant by John Hadley
|
| 45 | 1732 | - 7 Dec 1732: Covent Garden Opera House opens
|
| 46 | 1733 | - 1733: Excise crisis: Sir Robert Walpole wanted to add excise tax to tobacco and wine –
Pulteney and Bolingbroke oppose the excise tax
- 1733: Law forbidding the use of Latin in parish registers generally obeyed – some continued in
Latin for a few years
- 1733: John Kay invents the flying shuttle, revolutionised the weaving industry
|
| 47 | 1734 | - 1734: Kent's Directory published
|
| 48 | 1737 | - 1737: Licensing Act restricts the number of London theatres and subects plays to censorship
of the Lord Chamberlain (till 1950s)
|
| 49 | 1738 | - 24 May 1738: John Wesley has his conversion experience
|
| 50 | 1739 | - 1739: Wesley and Whitefield commence great Methodist revival
- 7 Apr 1739: Dick Turpin, highwayman, hanged at York
- 23 Oct 1739: War of Jenkins' Ear starts: Robert Walpole reluctantly declares war on Spain
|
| 51 | 1741 | - 1741: Benjamin Ingham founded the Moravian Methodists or Inghamites – Earliest Moravian
registers
|
| 52 | 1742 | - 1742: England goes to war with Spain – incited by William Pitt the Elder (Earl of Chatham)
for the sake of trade
|
| 53 | 1743 | - 16 Jun 1743: (June 27 in Gregorian calendar): Battle of Dettingen – last time a British
sovereign (George II) led troops in battle
|
| 54 | 1744 | - 1744: Tune 'God Save the King' makes its appearance
|
| 55 | 1745 | - 1745: Jacobite rebellion in Scotland ('The Forty-five')
- 19 Aug 1745: Bonnie Prince Charlie (The Young Pretender) lands in the western Highlands –
raises support among Episcopalian and Catholic clans – The Pretender's army invades Perth,
Edinburgh, and England as far as Derby
|
| 56 | 1746 | - 16 Apr 1746: Battle of Culloden – last battle fought in Britain – 5,000 Highlanders routed by
the Duke of Cumberland and 9,000 loyalists Scots – Young Pretender Charles flees to
Continent, ending Jacobite hopes forever – the wearing of the kilt prohibited
|
| 57 | 1747 | - 1747: Abolition of Heritable Jurisdictions in Scotland
- 1747: Act for Pacification of the Highlands
|
| 58 | 1749 | - 27 Apr 1749: First performance of Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks (in Green Park,
London)
|
| 59 | 1750 | - Feb 1750: Series of earthquakes in London and the Home Counties cause panic with
predictions of an apocalypse (Feb/Mar)
- 16 Nov 1750: Original Westminster Bridge opened (replaced in 1862 due to subsidence)
|
| 60 | 1751 | - Mar 1751: Chesterfield's Calendar Act passed – royal assent to the bill was given on 22
May 1751 – decision to adopt Gregorian Calendar in 1752: "In and throughout all his
Majesty's Dominions and Countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, belonging or
subject to the Crown of Great Britain, the said Supputation, according to which the Year of
Useful dates in British history
03/01/2009 12:12
our Lord beginneth on the 25th Day of March, shall not be made use of from and after the
last Day of December 1751; and that the first Day of January next following the said last Day
of December shall be reckoned, taken, deemed and accounted to be the first Day of the Year
of our Lord 1752"
|
| 61 | 1752 | - 1752: Benjamin Franklin invents the lightning conductor
- 1 Jan 1752: Beginning of the year 1752 [Scotland had adopted January as the start of the year
in 1600, and some other countries in Europe had adopted the Gregorian calendar as early as
1582]
- 3 Sep 1752: Julian Calendar dropped and Gregorian Calendar adopted in England and
Scotland, making this Sep 14
|
| 62 | 1753 | - 1753: Private collection of Sir Hans Sloane forms the basis of the British Museum
- 1 May 1753: Publication of "Species Plantarum" by Linnaeus, and the formal start date of plant
taxonomy
|
| 63 | 1754 | - 1754: Hardwicke Act (1753): Banns to be called, and Printed Marriage Register forms to be
used – Quakers & Jews exempt
- 1754: In the General Election, the Cow Inn at Haslemere, Surrey caused a national scandal by
subdividing the freehold to create eight votes instead of one
- 1754: First British troops not belonging to the East India Company despatched to India
|
| 64 | 1755 | - 1755: Publication of "Dictionary of the English Language" by Dr Samuel Johnson
- 1755: Period of canal construction began in Britain (till 1827)
- 2 Dec 1755: Second Eddystone Lighthouse destroyed by fire
|
| 65 | 1756 | - 15 May 1756: The Seven Years War with France (Pitt's trade war) begins
- Jun 1756: Black Hole of Calcutta – 146 Britons imprisoned, most die according to British
sources
|
| 66 | 1757 | - 1757: The foundation laid for the Empire of India
- 14 Mar 1757: Admiral Byng shot at Portsmouth for failing to relieve Minorca
- 23 Jun 1757: The Nawab of Bengal tries to expel the British, but is defeated at the battle of
Plassey (Palashi, June 23) – the East India Company forces are led by Robert Clive
|
| 67 | 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
|
| 68 | 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
|
| 69 | 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"
|
| 70 | 1761 | - 16 Jan 1761: British capture Pondicherry, India from the French
|
| 71 | 1762 | - 1762: Cigars introduced into Britain from Cuba
|
| 72 | 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
|
| 73 | 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
|
| 74 | 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)
|
| 75 | 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
|
| 76 | 1767 | - 1767: Newcomen's steam pumping engine perfected by James Watt
|
| 77 | 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
|
| 78 | 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
|
| 79 | 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
|
| 80 | 1771 | - 1771: Right to report Parliamentary debates established in England
|
| 81 | 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
|
| 82 | 1774 | - 13 Sep 1774: Cook arrives on Easter Island
|
| 83 | 1775 | - 19 Apr 1775: Battle of Lexington: first action in American War of Independence (1775–1783)
|
| 84 | 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]
|
1681 - 1776 (95 years)
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