| |
Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 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
|
| 2 | 1721 | - 2 Apr 1721: Robert Walpole (Whig) becomes first Prime Minister (to 1742)
|
| 3 | 1722 | - 1722: Last trial for witchcraft in Scotland
- 1722: Knatchbull's Act, poor laws
|
| 4 | 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sentenced to death for theft and poaching – repealed in 1827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
|
| 5 | 1724 | - 1724: Rapid growth of gin drinking in England
- 1724: Longman's founded (Britain's oldest publishing house)
|
| 6 | 1726 | - 1726: First circulating library opened in Edinburgh
- 1726: Invention of the chronometer by John Harrison
|
| 7 | 1727 | - 1727: Board of Manufacturers established in Scotland
- 11 Jun 1727: George I dies – George II Hanover becomes king
|
| 8 | 1729 | - 9 Nov 1729: Treaty of Seville signed between Britain, France and Spain – Britain maintained
control of Port Mahon and Gibraltar
|
| 9 | 1730 | |
| 10 | 1731 | - 1731: Invention of seed drill by Jethro Tull [others say 1701]
- 1731: Invention of sextant by John Hadley
|
| 11 | 1732 | - 7 Dec 1732: Covent Garden Opera House opens
|
| 12 | 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
|
| 13 | 1734 | - 1734: Kent's Directory published
|
| 14 | 1737 | - 1737: Licensing Act restricts the number of London theatres and subects plays to censorship
of the Lord Chamberlain (till 1950s)
|
| 15 | 1738 | - 24 May 1738: John Wesley has his conversion experience
|
| 16 | 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
|
| 17 | 1741 | - 1741: Benjamin Ingham founded the Moravian Methodists or Inghamites – Earliest Moravian
registers
|
| 18 | 1742 | - 1742: England goes to war with Spain – incited by William Pitt the Elder (Earl of Chatham)
for the sake of trade
|
| 19 | 1743 | - 16 Jun 1743: (June 27 in Gregorian calendar): Battle of Dettingen – last time a British
sovereign (George II) led troops in battle
|
| 20 | 1744 | - 1744: Tune 'God Save the King' makes its appearance
|
| 21 | 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
|
| 22 | 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
|
| 23 | 1747 | - 1747: Abolition of Heritable Jurisdictions in Scotland
- 1747: Act for Pacification of the Highlands
|
| 24 | 1749 | - 27 Apr 1749: First performance of Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks (in Green Park,
London)
|
| 25 | 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)
|
| 26 | 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"
|
| 27 | 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
|
| 28 | 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
|
| 29 | 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
|
| 30 | 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
|
| 31 | 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
|
| 32 | 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
|
1720 - Abt 1757 (36 years)
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