Timeline: Elsbeth Gerber: Gerber Family of Langnau

	Date	Event(s)
1	1633	1633: America - Connecticut settled; Maryland founded by George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore 1633: England - Bananas were supposedly displayed in the shop window of merchant Thomas Johnson. This was the first time the banana had ever been seen in Great Britain. It would be more than 200 years before they were regularly imported. In 1999 remains of a banana were found at a Tudor archaeological site on the banks of the River Thames. This would seem to date it 150 years earlier than Thomas Johnson's banana. A classic food mystery! 1633: Rome, Italy - Galileo was forced by the Inquisition in Rome to renounce his theory that the Earth revolved around the Sun. 3 Nov 1633: Italy - Bernardino Ramazzini was born. A physician, he was the first to note the relationship between worker's illnesses and their work environment. Considered the founder of occupational medicine.
2	1634	1634: Boston, Massachusetts - Samuel Cole supposedly opened the first tavern in the U.S.A.
3	1636	1636: England - Tulip mania begins and ceases the following year in a precursor of the 2000 dot-com crash 1636: England - Mild outbreak of Black Death 1636: England - W. Gascoigne invents the micrometer. 1636: America - The Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony established Harvard College (New College), the first college in the Americas.
4	1637	1637: England - Charles I quarrels with Scotland re religion. He tries to force the English Book of Common Prayer on Scots 1637: Connecticut, USA - Pequot War 1637-1638 1637: France - Supposedly, Cardinal Richelieu 'created' the table knife when he had the points rounded on all knives to be used at his table. Presumably so no one could stab him.
5	1638	1638: Scotland - Covenant signed in Scotland, signers bound to preserve Presbyterianism
6	1639	1639: England - First Bishops' War between Charles I and the Scottish Church; ends with Pacification of Dunse
7	1640	1640: England - Second Bishops' War; ends with Treaty of Ripon; The Long Parliament begins. 1640: England - Athanasius Kircher's magic lantern invented May 1640: England - The Short Parliament is convened; instead of discussing Scottish problem, discusses taxes, customs, ship-money, bishops, popery, corrupt judges - everything but Scottish problem 3 Nov 1640: England - Earl of Stafford beheaded, Archbishop Laud to Tower, corruption cleaned up
8	1641	1641: England - Triennial Act requires Parliament to be summoned every three years; Star Chamber and High Commission abolished by Parliament; Catholics in Ireland revolt; some 30,000 Protestants massacred; Grand Remonstrance of Parliament to Charles I 1641: England - Seeing revolution, Charles I prepares for civil war. His supporters are dubbed Cavaliers, Parliament's supporters Roundheads (note: King's foot soldiers mostly Cornish or Welsh) 1641: England - England begin to import cotton from the Mediterranean and cotton fabric begins to be produced in Manchester
9	1642	1642: England - Charles I fails in attempt to arrest five members of Parliament and rejects Parliament's Nineteen Propositions; Civil War (until 1645) begins with Battle of Edgehill 1642: France - Blaise Pascal invents an adding machine.
10	1643	1643: England - Solemn League and Covenant is signed by Parliament 1643: England - Charles I sets HQ at Oxford; tries 3-pronged attack on Roundheads, lasts a year, finally John Pym recruits Scots to fight for Parliament, Scots demand their Covenant and Presbyterianism be enforced on all three kingdoms as price of participation 1643: Italy - Evangelista Torricelli invents the barometer. 1643: France - Louis XIV, King of France (the 'Sun King') was born. A gourmet, gourmand and many say a glutton. During his reign food began to be served in courses, rather than placed on the table all at once, and forks came into widespread use. 1643: New England - Connecticut, New Haven, Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay unite in common defence
11	1644	1644: Yorkshire, England - Battle of Marston Moor: Scots help rout Charles I and Oliver Cromwell gains fame as leader of cavalry
12	1645	1645: England - Formation of Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army; Battle of Naseby; Charles I defeated by Parliamentary forces
13	1646	1646: England - Charles I surrenders to the Scots
14	1647	1647: England - Scots surrender Charles I to Parliament; he escapes to the Isle of Wight; makes secret treaty with Scots 1647: England - Parliament tries unsuccessfully until 1648 to treat with Charles I, who is trying to secure help from France, Scotland or Ireland; Parliamentarians try unsuccessfully to fulfill their agreement with Scots
15	1648	1648: England - Treaty of Westphalia ends Thirty Years' War 19 Aug 1648: England - Scots invade England and are defeated by Cromwell at Battle of Preston Pride's Purge: Presbyterians expelled from Parliament (known as the Rump Parliament)
16	1649	1649: London, England - The Commonwealth, in which England is governed as a republic, is established and lasts until 1660 1649: Ireland - Cromwell harshly suppresses Catholic rebellions 1649: England - Long Parliament (Rump Parliament) confiscates land; House of Lords abolished; Charles II, meanwhile in exile on Continent, travels to Scotland, signs Covenant, Scots support him 1649: England - Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector, ruler of England to 1658. Commonwealth & Protectorate. 1649: England - Nicholas Culpeper, Herbalist, wrote the pseudoscientific A Physicall Directory. It listed plants and their supposed healing properties based on the plants resemblance to the human body parts. 30 Jan 1649: London, England - Execution of Charles I
17	1650	1650: Scotland - Charles II lands in Scotland; is proclaimed king 1650: England - Oliver Cromwell crushes Irish rebellion, then Scots at Battle of Dunbar; Dutch traders recognised as most dangerous rivals. 1650: England - Otto von Guericke invents an air pump.
18	1651	1651: England - Thomas Hobbes, in Leviathan, argued from a mechanistic theory that man is a selfishly individualistic animal at constant war with others. In the state of nature, life is 'nasty, brutish, and short.' 1651: England - Navigation Act passes, forbids exportation of goods except in all-English ships, foreign merchants and goods prohibited in England and colonies, strengthened in 1660 3 Sep 1651: England - Charles II invades England and is defeated at Battle of Worcester; Charles escapes to France
19	1652	1652: England - First Anglo-Dutch War 1652: France - Cookbook Le Cuisinier francois by La Varenne is published.
20	1653	1653: England - Oliver Cromwell dissolves the 'Rump Parliament' and becomes Lord Protector 1653: England - England victorious in battles against Spain and aids France against Spain; England becomes leading naval power and important military power; restores legal rights to Jews
21	1654	1654: Armagh, Ireland - James Ussher, Protestant archbishop of Armagh, determined by a close reading of scriptural genealogies that the events described on the first page of the Book of Genesis occurred in 4004 B.C. 1654: England - Treaty of Westminster between England and Dutch Republic 1654: America - A bridge in Rowley, Massachusetts begins charging a toll for animals. People pass for free.
22	1655	1655: England - Christiaan Huygens discovered Titan, Saturn's largest moon, and that what Galileo had thought were moons were actually rings. He was the first to note markings on Mars. 1655: England - England divided into 12 military districts by Cromwell; seizes Jamaica from Spain 1655: England - Cromwell dissolves First Protectorate Parliament; failure of assault on Hispaniola
23	1656	1656: England - Christiaan Huygens built the first pendulum-regulated clock. Two years later, Huygens, in Horologium, claimed that his clock could establish longitude at sea which was not then possible and had led to many maritime disasters. 1656: England - War with Spain (until 1659) 1656: England - Second Protectorate Parliament
24	1657	1657: France - Stockings are manufactured in France.
25	1658	14 Jun 1658: England - Battle of the Dunes, Spanish defeated by Anglo- French army; acquisition of Dunkirk 3 Sep 1658: England - Oliver Cromwell dies; succeeded as Lord Protector by son Richard 3 Sep 1658: England - Richard Cromwell, Lord Protector. Ruler of England to 1659. Commonwealth & Proctorate: 3rd son of Oliver.
26	1659	1659: London, England - First cheque drawn 1659: America - The celebration of Christmas was banned in Boston (until 1681). The pilgrims believed it to be a decadent celebration. 2 Feb 1659: South Africa - Jan van Riebeeck, the first governor of the Cape of Good Hope made the first wine from grapes grown at the Cape. 25 May 1659: England - Richard Cromwell forced to resign by the army; 'Rump Parliament' restored
27	1660	1660: Furtwangen, Germany - Cuckoo clocks made in the Black Forest region. 1660: England - Charles II, ruler of England to 1685. House of Stuart (restored): Eldest son of Charles I, died without issue. De Jure King from 30 JAN 1649. 1660: England - Two houses of Parliament and Church of England restored, land returned to rightful owners; 'Dissenters' born (Quakers, Baptists, Congregationalists, etc.) 1660: New Amsterdan, America - Asser Levy from Portugal, applied for a license to sell kosher meat. He was the first kosher butcher in the city that was to become New York 29 May 1660: London, England - Charles II, aged 30, rides into London, people go mad with joy
28	1661	1661: England - Clarendon Code; 'Cavalier' Parliament of Charles II passes series of repressive laws against Nonconformists 1661: India - The English acquire Bombay 1661: England - Laws permitting burning of heretics repealed (during period to 1665)
29	1662	1662: England - Boyle, using a vacuum pump of his own invention, determined that the volume and pressure of a gas are inversely proportional 1662: England - John Graunt, in Observations upon the Bills of Mortality, using London population data, noted that life expectancy is 27 years, with nearly two thirds dying before 16 years. 1662: England - Act of Uniformity passed 1662: London, England - Royal Society founded
30	1663	1663: England - James Gregory invents the first reflecting telescope.
31	1664	1664: New Amsterdan, America - England siezes New Amsterdam from the Dutch, changes name to New York
32	1665	1665: Netherlands - Great Plague kills 1/5 London population; 1665: Germany - Rudolph Jacob Camerarius was born. A botanist, he showed the existence of sexes in plants, and identified the stamen and pistil as the male and female organs.
33	1666	1666: England - First European printed paper banknote issued 1666: London, England - The Great Fire of London began in the shop of the King's baker. After burning for four days, more than 13,000 buildings had been destroyed.
34	1667	1667: Medway River, Kent - Dutch fleet defeats the English
35	1668	1668: Europe - Triple Alliance of England, Netherlands, and Sweden against France 1668: England - Isaac Newton invents a reflecting telescope.
36	1669	1669: England - Isaac Newton circulated a manuscript, De analysi per aequationes numero terminorum infinitas, the first notice of his calculus.
37	1670	1670: England - Secret Treaty of Dover between Charles II of England and Louis XIV of France to restore Roman Catholicism to England 1670: America - Hudson's Bay Company founded 1670: France - Dom Pérignon invents Champagne. 1670: England - Over a 20 year period 80,000 Huguenots come to England, majority are silk workers, by 1689 40,000 families make living by silk 1670: Cologne, Germany - At Cologne Cathedral, the choirmaster makes sugar sticks to give to the young singers in the choir, to keep them occupied during the Living Crèche ceremony: the first candy canes.
38	1671	1671: England - Game Laws prevent majority of citizens from hunting, even on their own land 1671: Germany - Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz invents a calculating machine.
39	1672	1672: England - Third Anglo-Dutch war (until 1674) 1672: Netherlands - William of Orange becomes ruler
40	1673	1673: England - Test Act aims to deprive English Roman Catholics and Nonconformists of public office 1673: America - The White Horse Tavern in Rhode Island was built. It is the oldest operating tavern in the United States.
41	1674	1674: England - Hennig Brand discovered phosphorus in a distillation of human urine 1674: Netherlands - Anton van Leeuwenhoek reported his discovery of protozoa, using his newly-devised microscope 1674: England - Treaty of Westminster between England and the Netherlands
42	1675	1675: America - King Philip's War: New England colonies vs Wampanoag, Narragansett and Nipmuck Indians 1675-1676. 1675: Netherlands - Christiaan Huygens patents the pocket watch. 23 Dec 1675: England - Charles II issued a proclamation suppressing Coffee Houses. The public response was so negative that he revoked it on January 8, 1676.
43	1676	1676: England - Robert Hooke invents the universal joint. 1676: Paris, France - Compagnie de Limonadiers vendors sold lemonade from tanks they carried on their backs - these were the first soft drinks.
44	1677	1677: Netherlands - William III, ruler of the Netherlands, marries Mary, daughter of James, Duke of York, heir to the English throne
45	1678	1678: England - Popish Plot in England; Titus Oates falsely alleges a Catholic plot to murder Charles II 1678: England - John Bunyan (1628-1688) publishes Pilgrim's Progress
46	1679	1679: England - Act of Habeas Corpus passed, forbidding imprisonment without trial; Parliament's Bill of Exclusion against the Roman Catholic James, Duke of York blocked by Charles II; Parliament dismissed; Charles II rejects petitions calling for a new Parliament; petitioners become known as Whigs; their opponents (royalists) known as Tories 1679: France - Denis Papin, a French physicist invented the pressure cooker, which he called Papin's Digester.
47	1680	1680: America - Pennsylvania founded by William Penn for oppressed Quakers 1680: England - Moves to remove Charles II's brother James from succession persist through into 1681 (because he married an Italian and converted to Catholicism) and replace with Charles's illegitimate son, also Charles;civil war between Tories and Whigs narrowly averted
48	1681	1681: England - Whigs reintroduce Exclusion Bill; Charles II dissolves Parliament 1681: Glasgow, Scotland - College of Physicians founded
49	1685	1685: England - Rebellion by Charles II's illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, against James II is put down 1685: England - Death of Charles II 1685: England - James II, ruler of England to 1689. House of Stuart (restored): 2nd son of Charles I. Deposed 1688, interregnum Dec 11, 1688, to Feb 13, 1689.
50	1686	1686: England - James II disregards Test Act; Roman Catholics appointed to public office
51	1687	1687: England - Isaac Newton publishes Principia Mathematica 4 Apr 1687: England - James II issues Declaration of Liberty of Conscience, extends toleration to all religions
52	1688	1688: England - Edward Lloyd's coffee house opens in England 1688: England - England's Glorious Revolution; William III of Orange is invited to save England from Roman Catholicism, lands in England, James II flees to France 1688: England - Gregory King's Tables (from Charles Davenant's Works, 1771), estimates over one million people (nearly 20% of pop.) in occasional receipt of alms, mostly in form of public relief from parish 1688: England - William Cheselden was born. An English surgeon and teacher, he was one of the first to describe the role of saliva in digestion.
53	1689	1689: England - Convention Parliament issues Bill of Rights; establishes a constitutional monarchy in Britain; bars Roman Catholics from the throne; Toleration Act grants freedom of worship to dissenters in England; Grand Alliance of the League of Augsburg, England, and the Netherlands 1689: Londonderry, Ireland - Catholic forces loyal to James II land from France and lay siege 1689: England - King William's War: English Colonies vs France 1689-1697. 13 Feb 1689: England - William III and Mary II, rulers of England to 1702. House of Stuart (restored): Son of William, Prince of Orange, by Mary, daughter of Charles I. Mary eldest daughter of James II. She died 1694.
54	1690	1690: Ireland - Battle of the Boyne: James II defeated, flees into exile 1690: India - The English found Calcutta 1690: England - John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding 1690: Salem, Massachusetts - The first shipment of bananas arrived in the colonies
55	1691	3 Oct 1691: Limerick, Ireland - The Treaty of Limerick allows Catholics in Ireland to exercise their religion freely, but severe penal laws soon follow. The French War begins
56	1692	1692: England - Retribution against Catholics who helped James II until 1710, lands confiscated, given to Protestants; harsh laws passed against Catholic religion and trade 13 Feb 1692: Glencoe, Scotland - The Glencoe Massacre occurs 3 Aug 1692: England - Battle of Steinkirk and Battle of Lande (against France), both defeats for England, through into 1693
57	1693	1693: England - Richest counties: Middlesex (with London), Surrey, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire; Poorest Counties: Cheshire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland
58	1694	1694: England - Death of Queen Mary; King William now rules alone. 1694: England - Foundation of the Bank of England 1694: England - Triennial Act sets the maximum duration of a parliament to three years
59	1695	1695: England - Lapse of the Licensing Act
60	1697	1697: England - Peace of Ryswick between the allied powers of the League of Augsburg and France ends the French War 1697: England - Civil List Act votes funds for the maintenance of the Royal Household 1697: England - Blasphemy Act in England 10 Nov 1697: England - Birth of William Hogarth (died 1764), bitter satirical artist of great genius, chronicling social evils of the times
61	1698	1698: England - Thomas Savery patented an engine which produced a vacuum by condensing steam. It was employed for raising water from a mine and supplying water to several country houses. 1698: Russia - Tsar Peter the Great begins taxing men with beards
62	1699	23 May 1699: America - John Bartram was born. A naturalist and explorer, considered 'father of American botany'; established a world renowned botanical garden in Philadelphia in 1728.
63	1700	1700: England - Population of England and Wales estimated at 5.5 million 1700: England - Population of English colonies in America, 200,000
64	1701	1701: England - The Act of Settlement settles the Royal Succession on the Protestant descendants of Sophia of Hanover. William III forms a grand alliance between England, Holland and Austria to prevent the union of the Spanish and French crowns. The War of the Spanish Succession breaks out in Europe over the vacant throne 1701: England - Death of James II in exile, King Louis of France recognises James's son as King James III 1701: England - Jethro Tull invents the seed drill.
65	1702	1702: England - Death of King William III in a riding accident. He is succeeded by his sister-in-law. 1702: England - Queen Anne, ruler of England to 1714. House of Stuart (restored): 2nd daughter of James II. Died with no living heirs. 1702: England - Queen Anne's War: England declares war on France as part of the War of the Spanish Succession. English Colonies vs France 1702-1713. 1702: England - England tries to prevent grandson of Louis of France from taking Spanish throne; John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, instrumental in uniting England, Holland, Austria and Germany against France (period to 1713) 1702: England - Freehold yeomen represent one eigth of population of England. Substantial tenant farmers represent a little less; coffee houses become popular
66	1703	1703: Epworth, Lincolnshire, England - Birth of John Wesley. By 1784, 356 Methodist chapels built in places lacking church
67	1704	1704: England - Johann Sebastian Bach began composing music 1704: Gibraltar - British capture Gibraltar from Spain 13 Aug 1704: England - British, Dutch, German and Austrian troops, under the Duke of Marlborough, defeat the French and Bavarians at the Battle of Blenheim
68	1706	1706: London, England - The Evening Post, first evening newspaper issued 23 May 1706: Netherlands - British, Bavarian and Austrian troops under Marlborough defeat the French at the Battle of Ramillies, and expel the French from the Netherlands
69	1707	1707: Great Britain - The Act of Union unites the kingdoms of England and Scotland and transfers the seat of Scottish Government to London
70	1708	11 Jul 1708: England - The Duke of Marlborough defeats the French at the Battle of Oudenarde. The French incur heavy losses. Queen Anne vetoes a parliamentary bill to recognise the Scottish militia. This is the last time a bill is vetoed by the sovereign
71	1709	1709: England - Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit constructed an alcohol thermometer 1709: Great Britain - Quaker Abraham Darby discovers coal-smelting technique for producing pig-iron, replaces charcoal method 1709: England - Bartolomeo Cristofori invents the piano. 11 Sep 1709: England - Duke of Marlborough defeats the French at the Battle of Malplaquet
72	1710	1710: Great Britain - A Tory ministry is formed, under Harley, with the impeachment of Dr. Sacheverell and the fall of the Whig government 1710: Great Britain - Wooden panelling replaces tapestry as wall covering
73	1711	1711: Great Britain - Englishman John Shore invents the tuning fork.
74	1712	1712: Great Britain - Thomas Newcomen patents the atmospheric steam engine.
75	1713	1713: Europe - The Treaty of Utrecht is signed by Britain and France, thus concluding the War of the Spanish Succession
76	1714	1714: Great Britain - Death of Queen Anne at Kensington Palace. A new parliament is elected with a strong Whig majority, led by Charles Townshend and Robert Walpole 1714: Great Britain - Quaker John Belles urges founding of hospitals as training grounds for medical students; Board of Longitude created, £20,000 competition for accurate maritime charts and maps 1714: Great Britain - George I,ruler of England to 1727. House of Hanover: Son of Elector of Hanover, by Sophia, grand-daughter of James I. Proclaimed King under Act of Settlement. 1714: Great Britain - Rioting by Tory and Jacobite mobs commonplace in London (unemployed soldiers, craftsmen), passage of Riot Act, giving increased power to Justices of the Peace through to 1715 1714: Great Britain - During period to 1742 there are no big increases from population of about 5.5 million but the distribution changes: East Anglia loses; West Country, South and East Midlands, East Riding and North (except Tyneside) fairly static; West Riding and South Lancashire increase; West Midlands, Surrey and Middlesex grow rapidly with London (London 500,000, Bristol 50,000; Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds, Halifax, Birmingham and Coventry, no longer sprawling villages, but still under 50,000); cause is immigration from cities and (in NW) from Ireland
77	1715	1715: Great Britain - Thomas Fairchild produced the first artificial hybrid plant 1715: Scotland - 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 1715: Great Britain - The Septennial Act sets General Elections to be held every seven years
78	1716	1716: Italy - John Lombe steals plans for silk manufacture, returning to England he and brother Thomas build vast factory on island at Derby 1716: Scotland - James Lind was born. Lind was a Scottish physician who recommended that fresh citrus fruit and lemon juice be included in the seamen's diet to eliminate scurvy. The Dutch had been doing this for almost two hundred years.
79	1717	1717: Great Britain - Townshend is dismissed from government by George I, causing Walpole to resign. The Whig party is split. Convocation is suspended 1717: Europe - England allies with French and Dutch against Spanish, Spanish brought to heel in 1718 1717: Great Britain - Edmond Halley invents the diving bell. 1717: Great Britain - John Lombe in England invents a machine for 'throwing' silk which produces a strong twisted thread
80	1719	1719: Great Britain - The South Sea Bubble bursts, leaving many investors ruined after speculating with stock of the South Sea Company 1719: British North America - The first potato planted North Amercia was planted in Londonderry Common Field, New Hampshire.
81	1720	1720: Great Britain - Dr. Richard Mead publishes Short Discourse Concerning Pestilential Contagion, advocates quarantine, proposes establishment of government Council of Health; inoculation against smallpox introduced from Constantinople by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu 1720: Great Britain - Hospitals founded in London: Guy's, St. George's, London & Middlesex in period to 1745 1720: Meiringen, Switzerland - Invention of meringue is attributed to an Italian pastry chef named Gasparini.
82	1721	1721: Great Britain - 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
83	1722	1722: Great Britain - First written reference to Stilton cheese in William Stukeley's Itinerarium Curiosum, letter V 1722: Great Britain - Death of the Duke of Marlborough. The Jacobite 'Atterbury Plot' is hatched 1722: France - C. Hopffer patents the fire extinguisher.
84	1723	1723: Great Britain - Legislation allowing parishes to create 'unions' or workhouses, to prevent escape of children they could be manacled 1723: Great Britain - Excise Act, restrictions removed on exports, duty removed on imports of raw materials; London builds bonded warhouse for tea, coffee and chocolate 1723: New England, USA - Dummer's War 1723-1726. 16 Jul 1723: Devon, Great Britain - Birth of Sir Joshua Reynolds (died 1792), arguably finest English landscape and portrait painter, career 1750-1780
85	1724	1724: Great Britain - Duke of Newcastle develops passion for electioneering politics, becomes Secretary of State, controls government patronage for nearly 40 years 1724: Great Britain - Gabriel Fahrenheit invents the first mercury thermometer.
86	1725	30 Apr 1725: Great Britain - Treaty of Vienna: Austria and Spain resolve differences
87	1726	1726: Scotland - First circulating library in Britain opens in Edinburgh. Jonathan Swift publishes his Gulliver's Travels 1726: Great Britain - English peers number 179, about 130 of whom are active
88	1727	1727: Great Britain - Death of Sir Isaac Newton and of King George I (in Hanover) 1727: Great Britain - The Gentleman's Magazine, first modern magazine, published 1727: Great Britain - Rev. Stephen Hales publishes Vegetable Staticks, important contributions to chemistry and botany 1727: Great Britain - Provincial newspapers have increased from 8 in 1700 to 25 in 1727 1727: Great Britain - George II, ruler of England to 1760. House of Hanover: Only son of George I, married Caroline of Brandenburg. 14 May 1727: Great Britain - Baptism of Thomas Gainsborough, portrait painter influenced by Sir Joshua Reynolds
89	1728	1728: France - Pierre Fauchard, in The Surgeon Dentist, described preventive measures to keep teeth healthy as well as inventing the word dentist.
90	1729	1729: Great Britain - Alexander Pope publishes his Dunciad
91	1730	1730: Great Britain - A split occurs between Walpole and Townshend 1730: Ireland - Famine strikes 1730: Great Britain - In early part of 1700s, death rate had surpassed birth rate; begins to reverse; after 1780 death-rate plummets - due to replacement of gin-drinking with beer-drinking after taxes increased and retail sales curtailed on former in 1750; medical care improves, as does agriculture, more food available 1730: Great Britain - Georg Brandt, a Swedish chemist, discovered the element cobalt. Cobalt is used in steel making, and is an essential part of vitamin B12.
92	1731	1731: Europe - Second Treaty of Vienna, Austria and Spain smooth out remaining differences
93	1732	1732: British North America - A royal charter is granted for the founding of Georgia in America 1732: Great Britain - The English banned American made hats to protect domestic haberdashers.
94	1733	1733: Great Britain - The Excise Crisis occurs and Walpole is forced to abandon his plans to reorganise the customs and excise 1733: Europe - Further cementing of relations between Austria and Spain 1733: Great Britain - John Kay invents the flying shuttle.
95	1734	1734: Great Britain - Walpole returned to power with smaller majority, power weakened
96	1736	1736: Great Britain - John Harrison finished building and tested at sea what proved to be the first accurate chronometer for timing longitude 1736: Great Britain - Duke of Newcastle now controls clerical (religious) patronage
97	1737	1737: Scotland - Porteous Riots 1737: America - Spain begins to attack British trade 20 Nov 1737: Great Britain - Death of King George II's wife, Queen Caroline
98	1738	1738: Great Britain - John and Charles Wesley start the Methodist movement in Britain 1738: Europe - Third Treaty of Vienna settles Polish question, gives Lorraine to France
99	1739	1739: Europe - 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 1739: Great Britain - First 'Lying-in hospital' for women 1739: Europe - War with Spain, War with France; Britain uses German and Dutch mercenaries
100	1740	1740: Europe - Commencement of the War of Austrian Succession in Europe 1740: Great Britain - For stealing a handkerchief from the person a child could be hanged by the neck until dead 1740: Great Britain - Publication of the first novel, Samuel Richardson's Pamela 1740: British North America - War against France (to 1748) 1740: India - British War against the French, Major Stringer Lawrence and Robert Clive win for Britain (period to 1748) 1740: Great Britain - Quaker Benjamin Huntsman discovers method of making high-quality cast steel
101	1741	1741: Ireland - Further famine, population about 4 million
102	1742	1742: Great Britain - Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington Prime Minister until 1743 (Whig) 1742: Great Britain - 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: Great Britain - Sir Robert Walpole resigns after criticism for advocating mercenaries; John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville succeeds him 1742: Williamsburg, British North America - The Compleat Housewife, or Accomplish'd Gentlewoman's Companion is the first cookbook published in America
103	1743	1743: Great Britain - Henry Pelham Prime Minister until 1754 (Whig) 27 Jun 1743: Germany - Battle of Dettingen - King George II is victorious
104	1744	1744: Great Britain - King George's War: French Colonies vs Great Britain 1744-1748.
105	1745	1745: Great Britain - Sir Robert Walpole dies 1745: Great Britain - E.G. von Kleist invents the leyden jar, the first electrical capacitor. 1745: Western Highlands, Scotland - Bonnie Prince Charlie, son of James III, lands and triggers a Jacobite Rebellion 1745: Great Britain - Scots reach Derby; 'Bonnie Prince Charlie' is inexplicably persuaded to turn back, loses initiative 1745: Scotland - The secret formula for Drambuie liqueur is given to the Mackinnon family by Prince Charles Edward. 11 May 1745: Fonteney, Austrian Netherlands - Battle of Fontenoy (Flanders/Belgium), George's son, Duke of Cumberland, leads Britain's defeat 21 Sep 1745: Scotland - a Scottish victory at the Battle of Prestonpans
106	1746	1746: England - William Pitt (the elder) enters government 16 Apr 1746: Culloden, Scotland - Battle of Culloden, Scots defeated by Cumberland; fails to capture Charles who, after five months, escapes to France
107	1747	1747: Great Britain - Yorkshire pudding mentioned in recipes 1747: Great Britain - Art of Cookery, by Hannah Glasse is published. 1747: British North America - The oldest cattle ranch in the US was started at Montauk on Long Island, New York.
108	1748	18 Oct 1748: Great Britain - The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle brings the War of Austrian Succession to a close
109	1749	1749: Great Britain - Deaths among women 1 in 41, children 1 in 15 during period to 1758
110	1750	1750: Great Britain - The grapefruit was first described by Griffith Hughes as the 'forbidden fruit' of Barbados 1750: Scotland - Royal Infirmaries are founded in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen 1750: Great Britain - Tea-drinking begins to rival alcohol-drinking 1750: Great Britain - Population of England and Wales estimated at 6.5 million 1750: Great Britain - During period to 1780 English countryside takes on today's familiar apearance as accelerated enclosure produces small fields surrounded by hedges, fences and walls
111	1751	1751: British North America - 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: Great Britain - Death of Frederick, Prince of Wales. His son, Prince George, becomes heir to the throne
112	1752	1752: Great Britain - René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur showed by experiment that gastric juice liquifies meat. 1752: Great Britain - Sir John Pringle (1707-1782), Scottish Army physician, publishes Observations on Diseases of the Army, institutes rules for camp hygiene, clothing and diet, shows how dysentery and malaria spread, identifies hospital / camp / gaol (jail) / ship fever as typhus 1 Jan 1752: Great Britain - Adoption of the Gregorian Calendar in Britain
113	1753	1753: Great Britain - Parliament passes the Naturalization of Jews Act 1753: Great Britain - James Lind (1716-1794) Scottish Navy physician, publishes Treatise on Scurvy; Sir Gilbert Blane, Scottish Naval surgeon, enforces strict rules regarding cleanliness, improves health, lifespan of sailors
114	1754	1754: Great Britain - First royal troops disembark in India; Takes 4.5 days to travel London to Manchester 1754: France - Antoine Beauvilliers was born. He was a French chef who founded the first luxury restaurant, La Grande Taverne de Londres.
115	1755	1755: Great Britain - Samuel Johnson publishes the first English language dictionary. 23 Mar 1755: Great Britain - Josiah Spode was born; the inventor of Fine Bone China.
116	1756	1756: Great Britain - 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: Europe - Britain, allied with Prussia, declares war against France and her allies, Austria and Russia. The Seven Years' War begins 20 Jun 1756: Calcutta, India - Mîrzâ Mohammad Sirâjud Dawla takes the city and English prisoners suffocate in Black Hole; Robert Clive brings 2000 sepoys (Indian soldiers) from Madras to avenge, retakes Calcutta
117	1757	1757: Great Britain - William Pitt the elder becomes Prime Minister 1757: India - Robert Clive wins the Battle of Plassey and secures the Indian province of Bengal for Britain 1757: Great Britain - John Campbell invents the sextant.
118	1758	1758: Great Britain - Dolland invents the achromatic lens. 1758: Great Britain - Ribbing machine developed in England to make Jedediah Strutt stockings.
119	1759	1759: Canada - Wolfe captures Quebec and expels the French 1759: Great Britain - Battle of Quiberon (Brest fleet) and Battle of Lagos (Toulon fleet), Admirals Sir Edward Hawke and Boscawen, respectively, victorious for Britain; Dakar captured 1759: British North America - Cherokee War: English Colonists vs Cherokee Indians 1759-1761.
120	1760	1760: Great Britain - Death of George II 1760: Great Britain - George III, ruler of England to 1820. House of Hanover: Grandson of George II, married Charlotte of Mecklenburg.
121	1761	1761: Great Britain - Laurence Sterne publishes the enigmatic Tristram Shandy 1761: Great Britain - Jonas Hanway and David Porter begin campaign on behalf of child chimney sweeps, achieve protective legislation in 1788 1761: Pondicherry, India - Pondicherry captured, French power destroyed 1761: Great Britain - William Pitt the elder resigns over King and advisors not permitting further conflict with France and ally Spain 1761: Great Britain - River power reaches saturation point, Duke of Bridgewater cuts Worsley Canal, thereby halving price of coal in Manchester 1761: Great Britain - Englishman John Harrison invents the navigational clock or marine chronometer for measuring longitude. 1761: Great Britain - Various municipalities secure Private Acts by which money can be raised ('rates') to pay for public improvements, such as paving and lighting in period to 1765
122	1762	1762: Great Britain - 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: Great Britain - The Earl of Bute is appointed Prime Minister. He becomes very unpopular and employs a bodyguard 1762: France - Académie Francaise recognises term millionaire 1762: Great Britain - Spain declares war on Britain; Britain gains West Indian islands from French, Cuba and Manila from Spanish
123	1763	1763: Americas - Treaty of Paris returns Cuba and Manila to Spain, keeps Florida, recovers Minorca; returns West Indian islands and trading stations in India to French, keeps Canada
124	1764	1764: Great Britain - James Hargreaves in England invents the spinning jenny which can produce 8 threads at one time.
125	1765	1765: Great Britain - Rockingham ministry. The American Stamp Act raises taxes in the colonies in an attempt to make their defence self-financing 1765: Great Britain - Earliest known children's pop-up book 1765: France - The very first pâté de foie gras (goose liver paste) is said to have been created in Strasbourg by a Norman chef named Jean-Joseph Close. (Although the technique for producing foie gras goes back as far as the ancient Egyptians) 1765: Paris, France - M. Boulanger opens the first restaurant, by that name
126	1766	1766: Great Britain - Chatham ministry. Repeal of the American Stamp Act 1766: Great Britain - Priestley discovers Law of Inverse Squares (electricity), Louis XV convulses with laughter when line of monks leap into air as electric shock is administered 1766: France - Louis, Marquis de Cussy was born. French gastronome, a friend of Grimod de la Reyniere, who stated that Cussy had invented 366 different ways to prepare chicken. Cussy wrote Les Classiques de la table.
127	1767	1767: Great Britain - John Wilkinson, ironmaster, produces railways for mines; Manchester and Liverpool joined by canal 1767: Great Britain - Joseph Priestley invents carbonated water - soda water.
128	1768	1768: Great Britain - Grafton ministry. The Middlesex Election Crisis occurs. 1768: Great Britain - General election, reformer Wilkes elected as member for Middlesex amid scenes of jubilation; Royal Academy (painting) founded
129	1769	1769: Great Britain - 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: Great Britain - Captain James Cook's first voyage to explore the Pacific begins 1769: Great Britain - Richard Arkwright develops the water-powered spinning frame
130	1770	1770: Great Britain - Lord North begins service as Prime Minister. The Falkland Island Crisis occurs. Edmund Burke publishes his Thoughts on the Present Discontents 1770: Australia - James Cook documents the location of Australia 1770: Great Britain - Gum pencil eraser invented 1770: Great Britain - Early skeleton suits begin to appear - the first specialized children's clothing. The earliest were still worn with knee breeches, but by the 1780s they were warn with long trousers.
131	1771	1771: Great Britain - The Encyclopedia Britannica is first published 1771: Great Britain - Richard Arkwright builds the first spinning mill
132	1772	1772: Great Britain - Lord Mansfield makes slavery illegal 1772: Great Britain - James Burgh publishes Political Disquisitions, advocates universal male suffrage
133	1773	1773: British North America - Colonists protest at the East India Company's monopoly over tea exports to the colonies, at the so-called Boston Tea Party 1773: Coalbrookedale, England - The world's first Cast Iron bridge is constructed over the River Severn 1773: Great Britain - Benjamin Delessert was born. French industrialist who developed the first successful process to extract sugar from sugar beets.
134	1774	1774: Great Britain - Franz Anton Mesmer began the psychotherapeutic practice 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: Great Britain - Parliament passes the Coercive Acts in retaliation for the Boston Tea Party 1774: Great Britain - Joseph Priestley isolates oxygen 1774: Great Britain - Georges-Louis Le Sage patents the electric telegraph.
135	1775	1775: British North America - American War of Independence begins when colonists fight British troops at Lexington. 1775: Great Britain - Alexander Cummings invents the flush toilet. 1775: Great Britain - Jacques Perrier invents a steamship.
136	1776	1776: England - Common Sense published by Tom Paine 1776: Great Britain - 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: Great Britain - Wilkes introduces bill for universal male suffrage 1776: Great Britain - David Bushnell invents a submarine. 1776: Great Britain - Edward Gibbon authors Decline and Fall of Roman Empire in period to 1788 4 Jul 1776: USA - The American Congress passes their Declaration of Independence from Britain.
137	1777	1777: Great Britain - Samuel Crompton in England invents the spinning mule capable of spinning cloth in great quantity.
138	1778	1778: Great Britain - James Cook explores Hawaiian Islands. He fails to locate Northwest Passage from Alaskan side and is killed in Hawaii the following year 1778: Europe - Naval war with France, Spain and Holland ally with France during period to 1783
139	1779	1779: Great Britain - The rise of Wyvill's Christopher Wyvill's radical Yorkshire Association Movement
140	1780	1780: Great Britain - The Gordon Riots develop from a procession to petition parliament against the Catholic Relief Act (1778) 1780: Southampton, England - Gervinus invents the circular saw. 1780: Great Britain - Country banks rise in number from less than 300 to over 700 in period to 1815 1780: Great Britain - The Bowler Hat appears in England.
141	1781	1781: Great Britain - Frederick William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus by its movement, although at the time he supposed it to be a comet 1781: Great Britain - Matthew Boulton and James Watt produce an improved steam engine with rotary motion achieving significant impact - it means that manufacturers are no longer restricted to site with natural power (i.e., water, wood for charcoal) 17 Oct 1781: USA - The Americans obtain a great victory of British troops at the Siege of Yorktown
142	1782	1782: Ireland - Ireland obtains short-lived parliament 22 Mar 1782: Great Britain - Lord North's government collapses
143	1783	1783: Great Britain - Joseph Michel and Jacques Étienne Montgolfier invented the first practical hot air balloon. 1783: Great Britain - Fox-North coalition established 1783: Great Britain - Britain recognises American independence at the Treaty of Paris. 1783: Ireland - Act of Renunciation gives Ireland rights in legislation and judication 1783: Great Britain - William Pitt the Younger becomes Prime Minister, simplifies taxes and customs duties, tries to pacify Ireland, abolish slave-trading and laws preventing Catholics holding office; returns Florida and Minorca to Spain and Senegal to France 1783: Great Britain - Englishman Henry Cort invents the Rolling Mill for steel production. 1783: Great Britain - Sébastien Lenormand demonstrates the first parachute. 1783: Great Britain - Benjamin Hanks patents the self-winding clock. 2 Apr 1783: Great Britain - William Bentinck, Duke of Portland Prime minister (Whig)
144	1784	1784: Great Britain - First edition of The Times newspaper 1784: Great Britain - Introduction of mail coach 1784: Great Britain - Andrew Meikle invents the threshing machine. 1784: Great Britain - Joseph Bramah invents the safety lock. 1784: USA - Benjamin Franklin develops bifocal eyeglasses.
145	1785	1785: Great Britain - William Pitt's motion for Parliamentary Reform is defeated 1785: Great Britain - Charles-Augustin de Coulomb invents the torsion balance. 1785: Great Britain - Blanchard invents a working parachute. 1785: Great Britain - Edmund Cartwright invents the power loom. 1785: France - Claude Berthollet invents chemical bleaching. 1785: Scotland - Glasgow triples in size, has 54 cotton mills in full work during period to 1818 1785: USA - Oliver Evans of Newport, Delaware invented the automatic flour-milling machinery that revolutionized the industry.
146	1786	1786: Great Britain - The Eden commercial treaty with France is drawn up 1786: Pennsylvania, USA - John Fitch invents a steamboat.
147	1787	1787: Windsor, Great Britain - In Windsor Great Park, King George III alights from carriage and addresses oak tree as King of Prussia, but eventually recovers from this attack of dementia; first colonies in Australia, first iron boat launched
148	1788	1788: Great Britain - Time to travel from London to Manchester reduced from 4.5 days to 28 hours 22 Jan 1788: Great Britain - Birth of Lord Byron (died 1824)
149	1789	1789: France - French Revolution, Louis XVI, many aristocrats and others executed, France declares war on European monarchies 1789: France - The guillotine is invented. 1789: Great Britain - The French Revolution sounded the death knoll toward elaborate and affected dress and hairdos. The powdered wig and towering women's hair styles passed from fashion. Simpler, more practical clothes emerged. Boys wore the skeleton suit, often with a comfortable open collar, and by the end of the century with plebian long trousers. 1789: USA - Thomas Jefferson brought a pasta making machine back with him when he returned to America after serving as ambassador to France. 1789: Switzerland - Dr. Pierre Ordinaire creates an absinthe elixir 30 Apr 1789: USA - George Washington first president of the United States 1789-1797.
150	1790	1790: Great Britain - Edmund Burke publishes his Reflections on the Revolution in France 1790: Great Britain - Lower-class radicalism increases, Habeas Corpus Act temporarily suspended 1790: USA - The United States issued its first patent to William Pollard of Philadelphia for a machine that roves and spins cotton. 1790: USA - Samuel Slater opens the first U.S. cotton mill in Rhode Island. Thomas Saint in England invents the first cloth-stitching machine. 1790: Great Britain - Marie, Vicomte de Botherel, born. He installed kitchens on buses in Paris suburbs in 1839, the first restaurant cars. 1790: Great Britain - Marie Harel is said to have developed Camembert cheese in Normandy.
151	1791	1791: Great Britain - The Celerifere, an early version of the bicycle, was built by Comte Mede de Sivrac. It was basically a scooter with a high seat 1791: Great Britain - James Boswell publishes his Life of Johnson and Thomas Paine, his Rights of Man 1791: Great Britain - John Barber invents the gas turbine.
152	1792	1792: Italy - 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: Great Britain - Coal gas is used for lighting for the first time. Mary Wollstonecraft publishes her Vindication of the Rights of Women 1792: Great Britain - Cartwright invents steam-powered weaving loom 1792: Great Britain - The first ambulance.
153	1793	1793: Great Britain - Economic depression 1793: Great Britain - Speculative 'Canal Bubble' bursts 1793: Great Britain - Board of Agriculture formed to popularise new methods and machinery 1793: Great Britain - Britain becomes foremost world trader during period to 1815 1793: Great Britain - Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin which efficiently separates cotton fibers from the seeds, allowing one person to do a job once done by 50 people. This profoundly changes the economics of raising cotton, revitalizing slavery in the American South. 1 Feb 1793: Great Britain - France declares war on Britain
154	1794	1794: Great Britain - 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: Great Britain - Metric system introduced in France 1794: Great Britain - More lower-class radicalism, Habeas Corpus suspended again, instigators charged with treason, in Scotland found guilty and transported 1794: Great Britain - Welshman Philip Vaughan invents ball bearings. 1794: Great Britain - Total of 40,000 British troops die in West Indies in war with France over two year period 1 Jun 1794: Great Britain - Howe defeats French fleet at Ushant
155	1795	1795: Great Britain - The 'Speenhamland' system of outdoor relief is adopted, making wages up to equal the cost of subsistence 1795: Ireland - Near-civil war between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland, erupts in 1798, takes nearly a year to suppress 1795: Great Britain - New Treason and Sedition Act passed 1795: Great Britain - Francois Appert invents the preserving jar for food.
156	1796	1796: Great Britain - 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 1796: Italy - General Napoleon Bonaparte appears on scene, attacks Austrian armies 1796: Ceylon - British conquer Ceylon
157	1797	1797: Europe - All Europe makes peace with France save Britain, sea battle off Cape St. Vincent (off Spanish coast), Jervis and Nelson (then Captain) utterly defeat big French and Spanish fleet 1797: Great Britain - Royal Navy sailors at Spithead and the Nore mutiny over deplorable conditions 1797: USA - John Adams president of the USA 1797-1801. 1797: Great Britain - A British inventor, Henry Maudslay invents the first metal or precision lathe. 1797: Great Britain - Wittemore patents a carding machine. 1797: Great Britain - John Hetherington in London develops the top hat. 1797: Great Britain - Major Dubied purchased the formula for an 'absinthe elixir' and together with his son, Henri-Louis Pernod sets up an absinthe factory in Switzerland.
158	1798	1798: Great Britain - 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: Great Britain - Introduction of An income tax of ten percent on incomes over £200. 1798: Egypt - Battle of the Nile, Napoleon's Mediterranean fleet smashed 1798: Ireland - Catholic uprising 1798: Great Britain - Wordsworth and Coleridge publish Lyrical Ballads 1798: Great Britain - Franco-American Naval War: United States vs France 1798-1800. 1798: Great Britain - Aloys Senefelder invents lithography. 1798: Great Britain - The first soft drink id invented.
159	1799	1799: Great Britain - Trade Unions are suppressed. Napoleon is appointed First Consul in France 1799: France - Napoleon is appointed First Consul in France 1799: Great Britain - Three-year commercial boom in Britain begins 1799: France - Napoleon becomes President of France; amendments to Treason and Sedition Act 1799: Great Britain - Alessandro Volta invents the battery. 1799: Great Britain - Louis Robert invents the Fourdrinier Machine for sheet paper making. 1799: Great Britain - Deaths among women 1 in 913, children 1 in 115. For the first time London birth rate passes death rate, continues until introduction of water closet deposits effluence in Thames (source of potable water) and typhoid returns 1799: Great Britain - Eliza Acton Born. She wrote the first cookbook for the housewife, rather than for the professional chef. 1799: France - Joseph-Louis Proust, a French chemist, extracted sugar from grapes, and proved it identical to sugar extracted from honey.
160	1800	1800: UK - Act of Union with Ireland unites Parliaments of England and Ireland 1800: UK - Battle of Copenhagen, Napoleon's Danish fleet decimated 1800: Ireland - After Catholic rebellion in Ireland Pitt proposes one Parliament for both countries, but King George refuses, Pitt resigns; Sir Joseph Banks introduces voltaic battery 1800: UK - Sir Joseph Banks introduces voltaic battery 1800: UK - Robert Owen buys mills at New Lanark, turns into successful humane model 1800: France - Frenchman J.M. Jacquard invents the Jacquard Loom. 1800: UK - Over 20 miles of railway tracks laid 1800: UK - Over a ten year period, 30 acres of new docks are built in London, which becomes the greatest port in the world 1800: UK - Over the coming century, approx. 1 million people emigrate from Britain. 50,000 are prisoners transported to Maryland or Botany Bay 1800: USA - William Young in Philadelphia offers shoes made for the left and the right foot.
161	1801	1801: UK - The first British Census is undertaken 1801: UK - Population of England and Wales now 10 million, Great Britain estimated at 11 million, biggest increases in North and West Midlands, London now 1 million plus, Manchester 137,201, Glasgow and Edinburgh 100,000 plus, England has 8 towns larger than 50,000, 6 of them in the North; Lord Dundas travels on Scottish canal in small steamboat - beginning of steamboat travel 1801: UK - Tripolitan War 1801-1805. Barbary Wars: also fought in 1815. United States vs Morocco, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli 1801-1805. 1801: USA - Thomas Jefferson president of the USA 1801-1809.
162	1802	1802: UK - Peace with France is established. Peel introduces the first factory legislation 1802: UK - Ineffective Treaty of Amiens signed with French
163	1803	1803: UK - Beginning of the Napoleonic Wars. Britain declares war on France. Parliament passes the General Enclosure Act, simplifying the process of enclosing common land 1803: UK - Parliament passes the General Enclosure Act, simplifying the process of enclosing common land 1803: UK - Threat of French invasion causes flood of volunteers, army of half a million fielded during period to 1805
164	1804	1804: France - Napoleon crowned Emperor of France 1804: UK - John Dalton establishes atomic theory 1804: UK - Richard Trevithick, an English mining engineer, developed the first steam-powered locomotive. 1804: UK - Freidrich Winzer (Winsor) was the first person to patent gas lighting.
165	1805	1805: UK - Ludolf Christian Treviranus said that spermatozoa were analogous to pollen 21 Oct 1805: UK - Battle of Trafalgar, Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson trounces French and Spanish fleets for Britain, is mortally wounded; John Wilkinson expires, buried in iron coffin
166	1806	1806: Africa - Cape Colony passes under British control 1806: UK - Louis Nicolas Vauquelin and Pierre Jean Robiquet isolated the first amino acid, asparagine' from asparagus. 1806: UK - Sir Humphry Davy discovers sodium, magnesium, potassium, many other metals, and chlorine 23 Jan 1806: UK - Death of Pitt the Younger
167	1807	1807: UK - Trading in slaves made illegal in England by work of Wilberforce 1807: UK - William Bentinck, Duke of Portland Prime Minister to 1809 (Whig) 1807: USA - Robert Fulton ushered in the era of self-propelled ships with his construction of a commercially viable paddle-wheel steamboat
168	1808	1808: Peninsular War to drive the French out of Spain (until 1814) 1808: Portugal - Battle of Vimeiro is a British victory; British casualties less than 40,000 dead
169	1809	1809: UK - Two-year commercial boom in Britain 1809: USA - James Madison president of the USA 1809-1817. 1809: UK - Sir Humphry Davy invents the first electric light - the first arc lamp. 1809: UK - Grain famine each of the years to 1812
170	1810	1810: UK - Final illness of George III begins 1810: Germany - Frederick Koenig invents an improved printing press. 1810: UK - Over the next decade the death rate in England and Wales reaches 21.1 in 1000
171	1811	1811: UK - Depression caused by Orders of Council. 1811: UK - George III's illness leads to his son, the Prince of Wales, becoming Regent 1811: UK - Ned Ludd leads rioters who smash machinery, burn factories, followers known as Luddites 1811: UK - Birth rate falls all over England during the next 20 years
172	1812	1812: France - Georges Cuvier, in Discours sur les révolutions de la surface du globe, maintained the stratigraphic succession proved that fossils occur in the chronological order of creation: fish, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals. 1812: UK - Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated in the House of Commons by a disgruntled bankrupt 1812: Russia - Napoleon attacks Russia, defeated 1812: London, UK - Cylinder Printing press invented and adopted by The Times 1812: USA - War of 1812: United States vs Great Britain 1812-1815.
173	1813	1813: UK - Canned food was invented for the British Navy by Peter Durand. The cans were made of solid iron and usually weighed more than the food inside them 1813: UK - Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is published. 1813: India - The monopolies of the East India Company are abolished 1813: Portugal - British victory at Battle of Vittorio 1813: UK - 2300 power looms in use, by 1833 - 100,000 1813: USA - Creek War: United States vs Creek Indians 1813-1814.
174	1814	1814: France - Napoleon abdicates, exiled to Isle of Elba 1814: UK - George Stephenson designs a steam locomotive. 1814: UK - Joseph Nicéphore Niépce was the first person to take a photograph. 1814: Germany - Joseph von Fraunhofer invents the spectrocope for the chemical analysis of glowing objects. 1814: UK - The first plastic surgery is performed
175	1815	1815: Europe - Peace is established in Europe at the Congress of Vienna. 1815: UK - The Corn Laws are passed by Parliament to protect British agriculture from cheap imports 1815: UK - Start of two-year commercial boom in Britain 1815: UK - England has now 2600 miles of canals, 500 in Scotland and Ireland; China clippers take 109 days to sail 15000 miles from Canton to English Channel; Britain's population estimated at 13 million; Britain imports 82 million pounds of raw cotton, by 1860 1000 million pounds; coal output 16 million tons (30 miillion by 1835, 50 million by 1848) 1815: UK - Sir Humphry Davy invents the miner's lamp. 1815: UK - Over the next fifteen years, five new states are founded along Mississippi Valley, mostly due to people fleeing Depression; more go to Canada, as many as 20,000 some years, frequently Scots Mar 1815: Elba, France - Napoleon escapes, leads French in war once more 18 Jun 1815: Belgium - Duke of Wellington trounces the French at Waterloo with timely help of Blucher (Prussia)
176	1816	1816: UK - Violation of game laws can result in seven years transportation
177	1817	1817: UK - Economic slump in Britain leads to the 'Blanketeers' March' and other disturbances 1817: USA - James Monroe president of the USA 1817-1825.
178	1818	1818: UK - Mary Shelley publishes her Frankenstein 1818: India - Britain defeats Maratha, now effective ruler of India
179	1819	1819: UK - Troops intervene at a mass political reform meeting in Manchester, killing and wounding four hundred people at the 'Peterloo Massacre' 1819: UK - Singapore founded as free trade port 1819: UK - René Laënnec invents the stethoscope. 1819: UK - Samuel Fahnestock patents a 'soda fountain'
180	1820	1820: UK - A radical plot to murder the Cabinet, known as the Cato Street Conspiracy, fails 1820: UK - Trial of Queen Caroline, in which George IV attempts to divorce her for adultery 1820: UK - Death of George III, blind and insane 1820: UK - London's population estimated at 1,274,000 1820: UK - Government finances scheme to send out 6,000 settlers to Cape in South Africa 1820: UK - George IV, ruler of England to 1830. House of Hanover: Eldest son of George III, Prince Regent, from Feb 1811.
181	1821	1821: UK - Jean François Champollion, employing the Rosetta Stone, established the principles for deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics. 1821: UK - Queen Caroline is excluded from the coronation 1821: UK - Start of two years of famine in Ireland 1821: UK - Michael Faraday invents electric motor and generator
182	1822	1822: France - First prototype Espresso machine 1822: Ireland - Famine in Ireland prompts migration to US and Canada
183	1823	1823: UK - The Royal Academy of Music is established in London. 1823: UK - The British Museum is extended and extensively rebuilt to house an expanding collection 1823: UK - Mackintosh (raincoat) invented by Charles Mackintosh of Scotland.
184	1824	1824: UK - The National Gallery is established 1824: UK - Commercial boom in Britain 1824: UK - Professor Michael Faraday invents the first toy balloon. 1824: UK - Englishman Joseph Aspdin patents Portland cement, the modern building material.
185	1825	1825: UK - Nash reconstructs Buckingham Palace. 1825: UK - Trade Unions are legalized. 1825: UK - Commercial depression in Britain 1825: UK - The world's first railway service, the Stockton and Darlington Railway opens 1825: USA - John Quincy Adams president of the USA 1825-1829. 1825: UK - William Sturgeon invented the electromagnet. 1825: Settlement of Canada, Australia and New Zealand begins in earnest over the next 25 years
186	1826	1826: France - One of the first print references to fondue written by Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin in his Physiologie du Gout 1826: France - Physicist Joseph Niepce makes the first known photograph, View from a Window at Gras, via a heliograph process on a metal plate.
187	1827	1827: UK - Printing press can now print 4-5000 copies/hour, 11.5 million copies of newspapers pour over Britain 1827: UK - Charles Wheatstone invents the microphone. 1827: UK - John Walker invents modern matches.
188	1828	1828: UK - The Duke of Wellington becomes British Prime Minister
189	1829	1829: UK - Parliament passes the Catholic Relief Act, ending most restrictions on Catholic Civil Rights. They are allowed to own property and run for public office, including parliament 1829: UK - Sir Robert Peel founds the Metropolitan Police Force, constables become known as bobbies 1829: USA - Andrew Jackson president of the USA to 1837. 1829: USA - William Austin Burt patents a typographer, a predecessor to the typewriter. 1829: France - Louis Braille invents braille printing.
190	1830	1830: UK - Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. 1830: UK - First major cholera epidemic in Britain starts and lasts two years. 1830: Australia - Free migrants to Australia = 1500, by 1841 = 32,000 1830: UK - Starving field labourers in southern counties riot for higher wages, 19 hanged, 481 deported to Australia 1830: France - B. Thimonnier invents a sewing machine. 1830: UK - William IV, ruler of England to 1837. House of Hanover: 3rd son of George III, married Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen. 1830: UK - Royal Commission finds that mail coach average speed is 9 miles per hour 26 Jun 1830: UK - Death of George IV
191	1831	1831: UK - Michael Faraday, in the first in a series of Experimental Researches in Electricity, discovered the means of producing electricity from magnetism, i.e., electromagnetic induction, the generation of an electric field by a changing magnetic field. This is the principle of the dynamo 1831: UK - Swing Riots' in rural areas against the mechanization of agricultural activities. 1831: UK - The new London Bridge is opened over the River Thames 1831: UK - Population of England and Wales now 14 million 1831: UK - American, Cyrus H. McCormick invents the first commercially successful reaper.
192	1832	1832: UK - The first or Great Reform Act is passed. This climax of a period of political reform extends the vote to a further 500,000 people and redistributes Parliamentary seats on a more equitable basis 1832: UK - Cholera Act 1832: UK - House-breaking, sheep-stealing and forgery removed from list of capital crimes in England 1832: UK - Commission created to look into inhumanity of transporting prisoners to Australia, another in 1837, transportation to New South Wales finally stops in 1840 1832: USA - Texas Revolutionary War: Texas vs Mexico 1832-1836. 1832: UK - Age of Coal and Iron or The Railway Age, dooms canals and stage coaches during period to 1867. Leaders are mostly Quakers of Midlands and North: Peases, Croppers, Sturges
193	1833	1833: UK - Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Empire. 1833: UK - Parliament passes the Factory Act, prohibiting children aged less than nine from working in factories, and reducing the working hours of women and older children 1833: UK - Start of the Oxford Movement in the Anglican Church
194	1834	1834: UK - Charles Babbage designed a programmable mechanical calculating machine, or 'analytical engine,' that could carry out arithmetic operations specified on punch cards and choose the sequence of operations. Although the design was never built, Augusta Ada Byron wrote programs to demonstrate its potential power. 1834: UK - Robert Owen founds the Grand National Consolidated Trade Union. The government acts against 'illegal oaths' in such unionism, resulting in the Tolpuddle Martyrs being transported to Australia 1834: London, UK - Fire destroys the Palace of Westminster 1834: UK - New Poor Law Act, object to make life in the workhouse far worse than in fields and factories 1834: USA - Jacob Perkins invents an early refrigerator (really an ether ice machine). 1834: USA - Henry Blair patents a corn planter, he is the second black person to receive a U.S. patent.
195	1835	1835: UK - Parliament passes the Municipal Reform Act, requiring members of town councils to be elected by ratepayers and councils to publish their financial accounts 1835: UK - Commercial boom. 'Little' railway mania across Britain starts and continues into 1836 1835: UK - Englishman Francis Pettit Smith invents the propeller. 1835: UK - Solymon Merrick patents the wrench. 1835: UK - Charles Babbage invents a mechanical calculator.
196	1836	1836: UK - William Lovett founds London Working Men's Association, beginning of Chartism 1836: USA - Samuel Colt invented the first revolver. 1836: South Africa - Boers leave British South Africa in search of independence on Great Trek (to 1840)
197	1837	1837: UK - Charles Dickens publishes Oliver Twist, drawing attention to Britain's poor. 1837: UK - Death of William IV 1837: USA - Martin van Buren president of the USA 1837-1841. 1837: UK - English schoolmaster Rowland Hill invents the postage stamp. 1837: UK - Victoria I, ruler of England to 1901. House of Hanover: Daughter of Edward, 4th son of George III Jul 1837: UK - Births, deaths and marriages must be registered by law
198	1838	1838: UK - The Anti-Corn Law League is established. Publication of the People's Charter. The start of Chartism
199	1839	1839: USA - First use of OK in print (in Boston Morning Post) 1839: UK - William Henry Fox-Talbot produces photographs from negatives 1839: France - Louis Daguerre and J.N. Niepce co-invent Daguerreotype photography. 1839: UK - Kirkpatrick Macmillan invents a bicycle. 1839: USA - Charles Goodyear invents rubber vulcanization. 1839: UK - Welshman Sir William Robert Grove conceives of the first hydrogen fuel cell. 1839: USA - Thaddeus Fairbanks invents platform scales. 1839: UK - First railway timetable published by Quaker Bradshaw 1839: China - The Opium Wars until 1842, Britain forces China to take European goods
200	1840	1840: UK - Victoria I marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. 1840: UK - There are reckoned to be 107 accountants in London 1840: New Zealand - New Zealand annexed 1840: UK - Englishman John Herschel invents the blueprint. 1840: Australia - During period to 1853 convicts are still sent to Tasmania at the rate of about 4,000 per year 1840: UK - Queen Victoria begins dressing the princes in kilts and sailor suits.
201	1841	1841: UK - The first British Census recording the names of the populace is undertaken. 1841: UK - The Tories come to power. Sir Robert Peel becomes Prime Minister 1841: USA - William Henry Harrison president of the USA. He succumbed to pneumonia in 1841. 1841: USA - John Tyler president of the USA to 1845. He is the first vice president to succeed to the presidency due to death of a president. 1841: UK - Samuel Slocum patents the stapler.
202	1842	1842: UK - First Christmas card 1842: UK - First UK public telegraph lines, from Paddington to Slough and Gosport to London 1842: UK - Lord Shaftesbury's Mines Act forbids underground work for women and children under 10 1842: China - Hong Kong annexed 1842: UK - Joseph Dart builds the first grain elevator.
203	1843	1843: UK - Alexander Bain (1818-1903) invented an early fax machine 1843: UK - About 2000 miles of railway lines now laid
204	1844	1844: UK - Charles Darwin wrote, but didn't publish, an essay presaging the theory of the origin of species. 1844: USA - Samuel Finley Breese Morse demonstrates a telegraph, using a code of his own invention 1844: UK - Parliament passes the Bank Charter Act 1844: Yorkshire, UK - Foundation of the Rochdale Co-Operative Society - Chartist and Owenite workers of Rochdale open Rochdale Pioneers Store (cooperative) in Toad (T'owd) Lane 1844: UK - Royal Commission on the Health of Towns 1844: UK - Two years of railway mania begins across Britain. Massive investment and speculation leads to the laying of 5,000 miles of track 1844: UK - Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children founded 1844: UK - Englishman John Mercer invents mercerized cotton. 1844: UK - Ten Hours Bill limited working hours for women and youths in textile business to 10 hours/day, passes thanks to Lord Shaftesbury's efforts during period to 1847
205	1845	1845: Ireland - Irish Potato Famine kills more than a million people in two years 1845: UK - Frederick Engels publishes The Condition of the Working Class in England 1845: UK - There are reckoned to be 210 accountants in London 1845: UK - General Enclosure Act, further enclosure prohibited 1845: USA - James Polk president of the USA to 1849. 1845: USA - American Elias Howe invents a sewing machine. 1845: UK - Robert William Thomson patents the first vulcanised rubber pneumatic tyre. 1845: India - Conquest of Punjab and Kashmir (to 1849)
206	1846	1846: UK - Repeal of the Corn Laws, Britain moves towards complete free trade 1846: UK - Electric Telegraph Company formed, 17 offices by 1854 1846: USA - Mexican-American War 1846-1848. 1846: USA - Dr. William Morton, a Massachusetts dentist, is the first to use anesthesia for tooth extraction.
207	1847	1847: UK - Flourens discovered the anesthetic properties of chloroform 1847: USA - Levi Strauss invents denim jeans 1847: UK - Hungarian Ignaz Semmelweis invents antisceptics.
208	1848	1848: UK - Major Chartist demonstration in London. 1848: UK - Parliament passes the Public Health Act 1848: UK - Karl Marx publishes The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital 1848: UK - 5000 miles of railway tracks now laid, 2000 of which were equipped with telegraph wires; Britain now produces about half of world's pig iron, trebles output within 30 years 1848: UK - Queen's College for Women founded
209	1849	1849: USA - Zachary Taylor president of the USA 1849-1850. Zachary Taylor died while in office. 1849: UK - Walter Hunt invents the safety pin.
210	1850	1850: USA - American Joel Houghton invented the first dishwasher. He made it out of wood, and gave it a hand-turned wheel that splashed water on the dishes inside. It didn't really work, but it did get the first 'dishwasher' patent 1850: UK - First machine-made paper bag 1850: UK - Mines Inspectorate created, helps protect adult male mine workers 1850: USA - Millard Fillmore president of the USA 1850-1853. Vice president under Zachary Taylor, he was sworn in as president after Taylor's death.
211	1851	1851: UK - The Great Exhibition is staged in Hyde Park. Thanks to Prince Albert, it is a great success 1851: UK - Window tax abolished 1851: USA - Patent for sewing machine issued to Isaac Singer 1851: UK - British Census shows 10,736,000 females, 8,155,000 of whom were aged 10 and older, largest occupational group domestic service workers, 905,000, 145,000 washerwomen, 55,000 charwomen (cleaners), 272,000 in cotton industry, 113,000 in woolen industry, 140,000 in lace, hosiery and linen 1851: Europe - First submarine cable, Dover to Calais 1851: London, UK - Reuters opens news agency 1851: Africa - Livingstone's explorations begin 1851: Australia - Population of Australia rises from 405,000 in 1851 to 1,168,000 in 1861 Sep 1851: Melbourne, Australia - Gold fever - 19,000 immigrants land in one month, for the whole year 94,664, seven times as many as 1851
212	1852	1852: UK - Death of the Duke of Wellington 1852: UK - Derby's first minority Conservative government 1852: UK - Aberdeen's coalition government is established
213	1853	1853: UK - Potato crisps invented by a cook named George Crum. 1853: Crimea - Florence Nightingale first recommended the regimen of cleanliness which dramatically reduced the death rate in hospitals 1853: UK - Vaccination against smallpox is made compulsory 1853: UK - Queen Victoria uses chloroform during birth of Prince Leopold 1853: UK - William Gladstone presents his first budget 1853: UK - Franklin Pierce president of the USA 1853-1857.
214	1854	1854: UK - The Northcote-Trevelyan civil service report is published 1854: UK - John Tyndall demonstrates the principles of fiber optics. 1854: UK - Crimean War begins, as Britain and France attempt to defend European interests in the Middle East against Russia
215	1855	1855: UK - John Snow, investigating London's piped water supply, showed graphically that cholera could be transmitted by water from a particular pump. 1855: UK - Palmerston's first government comes to power
216	1856	1856: Crimea - Crimean War comes to an end. 1856: UK - The Victoria Cross is instituted for military bravery 1856: UK - Every county and borough required to employ police force 1856: UK - Marriage and Divorce Act permits any man to divorce his wife on grounds of adultery, permits woman same but has to also show cruelty or desertion; beforehand, a special Act of Parliament was required for divorce 1856: UK - Britons panicked by false rumours of Napoleon III's designs on Britain 1856: UK - John Stuart Mill publishes Liberty 1856: Great novels: Dickens, Dumas, Flaubert, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy 1856: France - Louis Pasteur invents pasteurisation. 1856: New Zealand - Population of New Zealand rises from less than 60,000 to 350,000 in the period to 1878
217	1857	1857: Atlantic - Cyrus Field made his first attempt at laying a trans-Atlantic telegraph cable. In 1866, his fourth attempt was successful. 1857: China - The Second Opium War opens China to European trade. 1857: India - The Indian Mutiny erupts against British Rule on the sub-continent 1857: USA - James Buchanan president of the USA 1857-1861. 1857: USA - George Pullman invents the Pullman Sleeping Car for train travel.
218	1858	1858: UK - Derby establishes his second minority government 1858: UK - Parliament passes the India Act 1858: UK - Eraser fitted to end of pencil 1858: UK - Jean Lenoir invents an internal combustion engine. 1858: UK - Hamilton Smith patents the rotary washing machine.
219	1859	1859: UK - Charles Darwin's book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life asserts that all life had a common ancestor and that the origin of species was natural selection 1859: UK - Palmerston brings his second Liberal government to power. 1859: UK - Samuel Smiles' Self-Help published
220	1860	1860: UK - Joseph Wilson Swan invented the light bulb, an incandescent lamp using a carbon filament. 1860: UK - Gladstone's budget and the Anglo-French Cobden Treaty codifies and extends the principles of free trade
221	1861	1861: UK - Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis published his deduction that childbirth fever was transmitted on the hands of doctors during their examinations 1861: UK - Death of Prince Albert, Prince Consort 1861: Australia - Women first given vote 1861: USA - Abraham Lincoln president of the USA 1861-1865. 1861: USA - Elisha Otis patents elevator safety brakes, creating a safer elevator. 1861: USA - Linus Yale invents the Yale lock or cylinder lock. 1861: USA - American Civil War (to 1865)
222	1862	1862: France - Louis Pasteur published the germ theory: infection is caused by self-replicating microorganisms, and that attenuated viral cultures granted immunity. These beneficent antigens he named vaccines in honor of Edward Jenner and his vaccinia virus 1862: UK - Parliament passes the Limited Liability Act in order to provide vital stimulus to accumulation of capital in shares 1862: UK - Alexander Parkes invents the first man-made plastic, Parkesine. 1862: UK - Dr. Richard Gatling patents the machine gun.
223	1863	1863: UK - Edward, Prince of Wales, marries Princess Alexandra of Denmark. 1863: UK - The Salvation Army is founded 1863: UK - First underground railway opens in London
224	1864	1864: UK - Chimney-sweeper's Act, due in part to Charles Kinglsey's Water Babies 1864: UK - Great Battle of Berkhamstead Common saves common land, Epping Forest also saved 1864: UK - Reform Bill, working men given franchise 1864: Canada - First independent dominion in the British Empire under the Dominion of Canada Act 1864: UK - Judge declares trades unions illegal
225	1865	1865: Finland - Nokia corporation established as a forest industry enterprise by mining engineer Fredrik Idestam 1865: UK - Lister, using carbolic acid as antiseptic and sterilizing his instrument, proved the efficacy of antiseptic surgery 1865: UK - Death of Palmerston. Russell establishes his second Liberal government 1865: UK - Lewis Carroll publishes Alice's Adventure in Wonderland 1865: UK - Andrew Johnson president of the USA 1865-1869. Vice president under Abraham Lincoln, he was sworn in as president upon Lincoln's death. 14 Apr 1865: USA - Abraham Lincoln shot by John Wilkes Booth and dies the next day.
226	1866	1866: UK - Gregor Mendel, in Versuche über Pflantenhybriden, interpreted heredity in terms of a pairing of dominant and/or recessive unit characters; that is, ones that could in practice be treated as indivisible and independent particles 1866: UK - Alfred Nobel patented dynamite 1866: UK - Russell and Gladstone fail to have their moderate Reform Bill passed in parliament. Derby takes power in his third minority Conservative government 1866: UK - Englishman Robert Whitehead invents a torpedo. 1866: UK - J. Osterhoudt patents the tin can with a key opener.
227	1867	1867: UK - Derby and Benjamin Disraeli's Second Reform Bill doubles the franchise to two million. 1867: UK - Christopher Scholes invents the first practical and modern typewriter.
228	1868	1868: UK - Benjamin Disraeli succeeds Derby as Prime Minister. William Gladstone becomes Prime Minister for the first time 1868: UK - J P Knight invents traffic lights. 1868: USA - George Westinghouse invents air brakes. 1868: UK - Robert Mushet invents tungsten steel.
229	1869	1869: UK - George M. Beard distinguished neurasthenia, a nervous disease of men, from hysteria, a women's disease, as, in an earlier time, men's hypochondriasis had been distinguished from women's vapeurs. Subforms of neurasthenia came to be called phobias. 1869: Ireland - The Irish Church is disestablished. 1869: Egypt - The Suez Canal is opened 1869: UK - Women obtain municipal franchise 1869: USA - Ulysses Grant president of the USA 1869-1877.
230	1870	1870: UK - Primary education becomes compulsory in Britain through the Forster-Ripon English Elementary Education Act (but poor children still roam streets after school). The Act means labourers, spouses and children of succeeding generations can read and write; women permitted to sit on school boards 1870: UK - Parliament passes the Women's Property Act, extending the rights of married women, and the Irish Land Act 1870: UK - First British postcard devised by Anthony Trollope 1870: USA - Wheeler introduces toilet paper roll 1870: Inauguration of London to Calcutta telegraph line, first electronic link between Europe and India 1870: UK - Volume of Britain's external trade equals France, Germany and Italy combined, 3-4 times greater than US; agricultural wages reach height not surpassed for many years 1870: UK - Religious tests abolished for academic posts, patronage abolished for all public offices, competitive exams introduced for Civil Service 1870: Europe - Prussia defeats France in the Franco Prussian War.
231	1871	1871: UK - Trade Unions are legalized
232	1872	1872: UK - Secret voting is introduced for elections 1872: UK - Parliament passes the Scottish Education Act 1872: USA - A.M. Ward issues the first mail-order catalog. 1872: UK - J.S. Risdon patents the metal windmill. 1872: UK - Period to 1896 sees three economic slumps and two recoveries, said to be due to imported foodstuffs from US depressing Britain's agricultural business 1872: USA - Levi Strauss discovered rugged trousers for miners made out of sturdy brown canvas. Once this resource was exhausted, he turned to denim, which he dyed blue to become what is known now as blue jeans
233	1873	1873: UK - William Gladstone's government resigns after the defeat of their Irish Universities Bill. Benjamin Disraeli declines to take up office instead 1873: UK - Parmalee invents automatic fire sprinklers 1873: UK - Joseph Glidden invents barbed wire. 1873: UK - The Great Depression lasts until 1896
234	1874	1874: UK - Benjamin Disraeli becomes Conservative Prime Minister for the second time 1874: USA - American, C. Goodyear, Jr. invents the shoe welt stitcher.
235	1875	1875: UK - Benjamin Disraeli purchases a controlling interest for Britain in the Suez Canal. 1875: UK - Parliament passes R.A. Cross's Conservative social reforms 1875: UK - Collapse of British agriculture due to cheap grain from US, wheat acreage falls by nearly a million acres
236	1876	1876: USA - Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. 1876: Germany - Nikolas August Otto designed the first four-stroke piston engine 1876: UK - Queen Victoria becomes Empress of India. 1876: Bulgaria - The massacre of Christians in Turkish Bulgaria leads to anti-Turkish campaigns in Britain, led by William Gladstone 1876: UK - Melville Bissell patents the carpet sweeper.
237	1877	1877: South Africa - Confederation of British and Boer states established 1877: USA - Rutherford Hayes president of the USA 1877-1881. 1877: USA - Thomas Edison invents the cylinder phonograph or tin foil phonograph. 1877: UK - Eadweard Muybridge invents the first moving pictures.
238	1878	1878: Berlin, Germany - The Congress of Berlin is held. Benjamin Disraeli announces peace with honour
239	1879	1879: South Africa - The Zulu War is fought. The British are defeated at Isandhlwana, but are victorious at Ulundi 1879: Midlothian, Scotland - Gladstone's Midlothian campaign denounces imperialism in South Africa and Afghanistan 1879: Afghanistan - Second Afghan War gives Britain control
240	1880	1880: UK - William Gladstone establishes his second Liberal government 1880: South Africa - The first Anglo-Boer War begins 1880: UK - British forests now decimated except for bits of the New Forest and the Forest of Dean. 1880: UK - Number of agricultural labourers reduced by about 100,000 in last 10 years 1880: UK - Englishman John Milne invents the modern seismograph. 1880: UK - The British Perforated Paper Company invents a form of toilet paper.
241	1881	1881: London, UK - Savoy Theatre introduces electric lighting 1881: London, UK - Parliament passes the Irish Land Act and the Coercion Act 1881: USA - Death of Billy the Kid 1881: USA - James Garfield president of the USA 1881. Garfield was wounded by an assassin's bullet on 3 Jul 1881 and dies 19 Sep 1881. 1881: UK - David Houston patents the roll film for cameras. 1881: USA - Alexander Graham Bell invents the first crude metal detector. 1881: UK - Edward Leveaux patents the automatic player piano. 19 Sep 1881: USA - Chester A. Arthur president of the USA 1881-1885. Vice president under James Garfield, he is sworn in as president upon the death of Garfield.
242	1882	1882: Europe - A triple alliance is established between Germany, Austria and Italy 1882: USA - Standard Oil controls 95% of oil refining capacity 1882: UK - Stillwell invents brown paper bag 1882: Egypt - Revolt leading to British occupation
243	1884	1884: Vienna, Austria - Sigmund Freud published a paper in which he found cocaine, an alkaloid in coca, effective against fatigue and neurasthenia. 1884: UK - Hilaire de Chardonnet invented the first artificial textile, which was made from cellulose. It was later named rayon 1884: UK - Parliament passes the third Reform Act which further extends the franchise 1884: UK - Fabian Society forms, rejects Marxian theory, embraces Ricardian theory (socialist) 1884: One-third of world's shipping is British, including 4/5 of world's steamships 1884: Burma - Britain annexes Upper Burma 1884: Africa - Britain and Germany partition East Africa 1884: UK - Excess of births over deaths in England is 13.3, in Germany 10.8, and France 1.4. 1884: USA - James Ritty invents the first working, mechanical cash register. 1884: UK - Charles Parson patents the steam turbine. 1884: USA - Lewis Edson Waterman invents the first practical fountain pen. 1884: USA - George Eastman patents paper-strip photographic film.
244	1885	1885: Mesopotamia - Death of General Gordon at Khartoum. 1885: USA - Grover Cleveland president of the USA 1885-1889. 1885: Germany - Karl Benz invents the first practical automobile to be powered by an internal combustion engine. 1885: USA - Harim Maxim invents a machine gun. 1885: Germany - Gottlieb Daimler invents the first gas-engined motorcycle.
245	1886	1886: UK - Gladstone's third Liberal government fails to pass its first Irish Home Rule Bill through the House of Commons. Gladstone resigns as Prime Minister. Split in the Liberal Party. Salisbury establishes his second Conservative-Liberal-Unionist government. 1886: UK - The Royal Niger Company is chartered 1886: South Africa - Gold is discovered in the Transvaal 1886: New York, NY, USA - Statue of Liberty erected in New York Harbour 1886: UK - Local Government Act establishes County Councils as administrative organs of country life, replace Justices of Peace who are preserved as magistrates, creates London County Council (does not cover City); women are included with men in electorate of newly- established County Councils 1886: UK - British South Africa Company, formed by Yorkshireman Cecil Rhodes, colonization of Rhodesia begins 1886: UK - Great Dock Strike of London dockers, led by John Burns and Tom Mann 1886: USA - John Pemberton invents Coca Cola. 1886: USA - Josephine Cochrane invents the dishwasher. 1886: UK - 3,992,880 migrants leave UK for US, 2,235,671 leave UK for British North America during period to 1927
246	1887	1887: Germany - Emile Berliner patents the gramophone 1887: UK - Queen Victoria celebrates her Golden Jubilee 1887: UK - The Independent Labour Party is founded 1887: UK - The British East Africa Company is chartered 1887: UK - Telegraph companies control 107,000 miles of submarine cable 1887: USA - There are estimated to be 5,400 cash registers in US (increases to 16,900 in 1890) 1887: Germany - Heinrich Hertz discovers radio waves. 1887: UK - F.E. Muller and Adolph Fick invent the first wearable contact lenses.
247	1888	1888: UK - Celluloid photographic film introduced 1888: UK - The County Councils' Act establishes representative county based authorities 1888: USA - Kodak box camera 1888: UK - Coin-operated public telephone invented 1888: UK - John Boyd Dunlop patents a commercially successful pneumatic tyre. 1888: USA - Nikola Tesla invents the AC motor and transformer. 1888: USA - Marvin Stone patents the spiral winding process to manufacture the first paper drinking straws.
248	1889	1889: UK - The British South Africa Company is chartered 1889: Paris, France - The Eiffel Tower, designed by French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, is completed for the Paris Exposition. 1889: UK - First Official Secrets Act in UK 1889: USA - Benjamin Harrison president of the USA 1889-1893. 1889: UK - Sir James Dewar and Sir Frederick Abel co-invent Cordite - a type of smokeless gunpowder. 1889: UK - Joshua Pusey invents the matchbook.
249	1890	1890: UK - Starting this decade, women's clothing becomes less voluminous, lawn tennis takes place of croquet as means of meeting opposite sex, bicycle becomes fashionable
250	1891	1891: UK - University of Wales founded; Act permits women to enter medical or other faculty on same terms as men 1891: USA - Jesse W. Reno invents the escalator. 1891: UK - Agricultural depression to 1899 as cheaper frozen meat from Australia, New Zealand and South America floods into Britain, cheaper grain comes in from North America
251	1892	1892: France - Leon Bouly invents cinematographic film camera 1892: UK - William Gladstone forms his fourth Liberal government 1892: UK - Sir James Dewar invents the Dewar flask or vacuum flask. 1892: Germany - Rudolf Diesel invents the diesel-fueled internal combustion engine.
252	1893	1893: USA - Whitcomb L. Judson invented the zip to help a friend with a stiff back who could not bend over to do up his shoes 1893: UK - Second Irish Home Rule Bill fails to pass the House of Lords 1893: New Zealand - First nation to grant women the right to vote 1893: France - Car number plates introduced 1893: USA - Grover Cleveland president of the USA 1893-1897.
253	1894	1894: UK - Rosebery takes power with his minority Liberal government
254	1895	1895: UK - Oscar Wilde jailed for homosexuality 1895: UK - Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, using a Crookes' tube, observed a new form of penetrating radiation, which he named X-rays 1895: Italy - Guglielmo Marconi sent longwave wireless telegraphic, or radio, signals over a distance of more than a mile 1895: UK - Salisbury forms his third Unionist ministry 1895: USA - Kellogg's Corn Flakes go on sale 1895: France - Lumiere Brothers invent a portable motion-picture camera, film processing unit and projector called the Cinematographe. The Lumiere Brothers using their Cinematographe are the first to present a projected motion picture to an audience of more that one person.
255	1896	1896: Vienna, Austria - Sigmund Freud suggested analyzing childhood conflicts in the study of neuroses. He also devised a psychoanalytic technique called free association which allows emotionally-charged, repressed material to be consciously recognized 1896: Sudan - British conquest of the Sudan begins 1896: USA - Lightner Witmer establishes at the University of Pennsylvania a clinic of psychology, the first psychological clinic in America and perhaps in the world 1896: UK - Items considered luxuries in 1837 are now common comforts; food, clothing, bedding, furniture, are all far more abundant; gas and oil lighting being replaced by electricity; seaside holidays no longer rare 1896: UK - Howard publishes Garden Cities of Tomorrow, forerunner of modern city planning 1896: York, UK - Seebohm Rowntree (of chocolate fame) studies poor, determines poverty due to inadequate wages, not shiftlessness 1896: USA - American, H. O'Sullivan invents the rubber heel.
256	1897	1897: UK - Queen Victoria celebrates her Diamond Jubilee 1897: USA - Telephone penetration in US is 7 per 1,000 people 1897: USA - William McKinley president of the USA 1897-1901. William McKinley dies in Buffalo, NY, 1901.
257	1898	1898: UK - Christopher Latham Sholes patented the typewriter. His QWERTY keyboard is still with us today. 1898: Sudan - British rule over Sudan fully established 1898: USA - Campbell's soups first appear with red and white labels, colors suggested by Cornell University's football uniforms. 1898: USA - Spanish-American War: United States vs Spain 1898. 1898: UK - Edwin Prescott patents the roller coaster.
258	1899	1899: Germany - German Naval expansion begins 1899: South Africa - Boer War begins and lasts three years, sparked when Englishman dies in Boer police custody. Scandalous British concentration camps cause many deaths of woman and children 1899: Australia - Unification of Australia as Commonwealth 1899: UK - Judges again declare trade unions illegal 1899: UK - J.S. Thurman patents the motor-driven vacuum cleaner. 1899: UK - I.R. Johnson patents the bicycle frame. 1899: UK - Education is now compulsory to age 12. 1 in 8 receives education after age 14
259	1900	1900: UK - Salisbury wins the Khaki election. The Labour Representation Committee is formed 1900: UK - Max Planck proposes quantum theory 1900: UK - There are reckoned to be 6,000 accountants in England 1900: China - Boxer Rebellion 1900: Italy - King Assassinated 1900: USA - Kodak Introduces $1 Brownie Cameras 1900: Vienna, Austria - Sigmund Freud Publishes The Interpretation of Dreams 1900: UK - Birmingham University founded 1900: Germany - The zeppelin invented by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. 1900: USA - Charles Seeberger redesigned Jesse Reno's escalator and invented the modern escalator.
260	1901	1901: USA - Willis H. Carrier invented the industrial air conditioner 1901: UK - Vacuum Cleaner invented by Hubert Cecil Booth 1901: Atlantic - Guglielmo Marconi sends wireless message from Cornwall to Newfoundland, a distance of over 2,000 miles 1901: Stockholm, Sweden - First Nobel Prizes Awarded 1901: USA - Theodore Roosevelt president of the USA 1901-1909. Vice president under William McKinley, he is sworn in as president upon death of McKinley. 1901: USA - King Camp Gillette invents the double-edged safety razor. 1901: UK - Edward VII, ruler of England to 1910. House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha: Eldest son of Queen Victoria, married Alexandra, Princess of Denmark. 22 Jan 1901: UK - Death of Queen Victoria, aged 81, over 63 years as Queen
261	1902	1902: UK - Invention of the Teddy Bear 1902: South Africa - Boer War Ends 1902: UK - Mount Pelée Erupts 1902: UK - Balfour's Education Act provides for secondary education 1902: France - French physicist George Claude invents neon light.
262	1903	1903: USA - Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright achieved flight in a manned, gasoline power-driven, heavier-than-air flying machine at Kitty Hawk. 1903: UK - First Silent Movie, The Great Train Robbery 1903: India - Plague strikes 1903: Ireland - Irish land purchase bill, Wyndham's Act, permits Irish to buy land from landlords with £150 million of loans included 1903: UK - Liverpool University, Sheffield University and Leeds University founded 1903: UK - Balfour's Licensing Act reduces number of houses selling alcohol 1903: UK - Trade depression - unemployment results; Act sets up local committees to find employment, voluntary contributions give small stipend to unemployed 1903: UK - Act of Parliament secures highly privileged immunity for trades unions; Labour Party formed 1903: UK - Free school meals for poor children, Children's Act deals with cruelty to children, prohibits imprisonment of children under 14 1903: UK - 72 British ships have Marconi's radio, 1912 - 450, 1914 - 879 1903: UK - Beginning of Old Age Pension scheme 1903: UK - Trade depression - unemployment results; William Beveridge publishes Unemployment, a Problem of Industry, which prompts creation of Labour Exchanges 1903: Europe - Louis Bleriot flies across the English Channel 1903: UK - Edward Binney and Harold Smith co-invent crayons. 1903: UK - Bottle-making machinery invented by Michael J. Owens. 1903: UK - Mary Anderson invents windshield wipers. 1903: USA - William Coolidge invents ductile tungsten used in lightbulbs.
263	1904	1904: UK - First telephone answering machine 1904: UK - Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Benjamin Bunny is published 1904: Panama - Ground Broken on the Panama Canal 1904: New York, NY, USA - New York City Subway Opens 1904: Russia - Russo-Japanese War Begins 1904: Russia - Trans-Siberian Railway Completed 1904: UK - Teabags invented by Thomas Suillivan. 1904: UK - Benjamin Holt invents a tractor.
264	1905	1905: Berne, Switzerland - Albert Einstein evolved the Special Theory of relativity. 1905: UK - Aliens Act in Britain tries to control immigration 1905: Russia - Bloody Sunday - Russian Revolution of 1905 1905: Vienna, Austria - Sigmund Freud Publishes His Theory of Sexuality
265	1906	1906: Finland - First European Country to Give Women the Right to Vote 1906: San Francisco, USA - San Francisco Earthquake 1906: USA - Upton Sinclair Writes The Jungle 1906: USA - William Kellogg invents Cornflakes.
266	1907	1907: UK - Electric washing machine - The Thor - goes on sale 1907: Netherlands - Ten Rules of War Established at the Second Hague Peace Conference 1907: Spain - Picasso Introduces Cubism 1907: UK - Typhoid Mary Captured for the First Time 1907: France - Colour photography invented by Auguste Lumiere and Louis Lumiere. 1907: UK - The very first piloted helicopter was invented by Paul Cornu.
267	1908	1908: USA - Henry Ford created the Model T automobile 1908: UK - Electric iron and toaster patented 1908: UK - Earthquake in Italy Kills 150,000 1908: China - Three Year-Old Pu Yi Becomes Emperor of China 1908: Turkey - Revolt in the Ottoman Empire 1908: USA - The gyrocompass invented by Elmer A. Sperry. 1908: USA - Cellophane invented by Jacques E. Brandenberger. 1908: UK - J W Geiger and W Müller invent the geiger counter. 1908: UK - Fritz Haber invents the Haber Process for making artificial nitrates.
268	1909	1909: UK - Pianos reach maximum market penetration in UK households at one per ten people 1909: UK - 800 million postcards sold in England 1909: Japan - Prince Ito is Assassinated 1909: UK - Plastic Is Invented 1909: Arctic - Robert Peary Becomes the First to Reach the North Pole 1909: USA - William Taft president of the USA 1909-1913. 1909: UK - Instant coffee invented by G. Washington.
269	1910	1910: UK - Georges Claude discovered that electricity conducted through a tube of the rare inert gas, neon, gives a bright red glow and that other gases gave off other colors, e.g., argon gives blue, helium gives yellow and white, etc. 1910: UK - First live opera broadcast 1910: UK - Halley's Comet Makes an Appearance 1910: UK - The Tango Catches On 1910: South Africa - Formation of Union of South Africa 1910: UK - Death of Edward VII 1910: UK - Population of England/Wales 36,070, Scotland - 4,761, N. Ireland - 1,251 1910: UK - Contributory National Insurance Scheme introduced by David Lloyd George, provides medical care, maternity benefits and sick pay 1910: UK - Parliament Act reduces House of Lords' veto to delaying power; House of Commons begins to pay members a stipend 1910: UK - There are 146,000 female clerical workers in England, up from 22,000 in 1891, 7,000 in 1881, and 19 in 1851 1910: USA - Thomas Edison demonstrated the first talking motion picture. 1910: UK - Infant mortality now 110 per 1000 live births, declines steadily to 24.4 in 1956; emigration reaches about 464,000/year; divorces average 823/year, go to 3,619/year in 1920-1922, 7,955/year in 1939 (latter rise because willful desertion, cruelty and incurable insanity added to causes in 1937) 1910: UK - Strikes of seaman, dock and transport workers, general railway strike for higher wages during period to 1912 20 Jan 1910: UK - George V, ruler of England to 1936. House of Windsor (name adopted Jul 17, 1917): 2nd son of Edward VII, married Princess Mary of Teck.
270	1911	1911: China - The Chinese Revolution 1911: UK - Ernest Rutherford Discovers the Structure of an Atom 1911: UK - Greenwich Mean Time Adopted 1911: Peru - The Incan City of Machu Picchu Discovered 1911: Paris, France - Mona Lisa Is Stolen 1911: Antarctica - Roald Amundsen Reaches the South Pole 1911: USA - Standard Oil Company Broken Up 1911: USA - Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Catches on Fire 1911: USA - Charles Franklin Kettering invents the first automobile electrical ignition system
271	1912	1912: North Sea - The Sinking of the Titanic: 1,515 people lose their lives. 1912: UK - Parachutes Invented 1912: UK - Piltdown Man, the 'Missing Link,' Discovered but later revealed as a fraud 1912: SOS Accepted as Universal Distress Signal 1912: UK - Motorized movie cameras invented, and replaced hand-cranked cameras. 1912: UK - The first tank patented by Australian inventor De La Mole. 1912: USA - Clarence Crane created Life Savers candy
272	1913	1913: USA - Leo Baekeland invented a plastic laminate, known as Bakelite, and later as Formica 1913: Detroit, MI, USA - First assembly line introduced in Ford automobile factory 1913: New York, NY, USA - The Armory Show, an international display of some 1600 works of modern art, and one of the more important U.S. art exhibitions ever held, opens at the 69th-regiment armory. It arouses public curiosity, generates sensational news coverage, and helps change the direction of American art 1913: USA - Personal Income Tax introduced 1913: Washington, DC, USA - Woodrow Wilson president 1913-1921. 1913: UK - The crossword puzzle was invented by Arthur Wynne. 1913: USA - The Merck Chemical Company patented what is now known as ecstasy. 1913: USA - Mary Phelps Jacob invents the bra 1913: USA - Gideon Sundback invents the modern zipper.
273	1914	1914: UK - Battle of the Marne 1914: USA - Charlie Chaplin First Appeared as the Little Tramp 1914: UK - First Traffic Light 1914: Panama - Panama Canal Officially Opened 1914: Egypt - Britain proclaims protectorate over Egypt 1914: France - Stunning British casualty figures come from Loos -60,000; in on the Somme, 60,000 in one day; total for 5-month offensive - 400,000; Germans use poison gas at Ypres 1914: Ireland - Easter Monday Irish rebellion, Irish Volunteers (later Irish Republican Army) proclaim Irish Republic; German submarine lands Sir Roger Casement who is arrested, German ship with rifles intercepted off Irish coast, Casement executed; Sinn Fein and Ulster cannot agree on partition 1914: France - Passchendaele, British advance of 5 miles costs 400,000 casualties 1914: UK - Balfour Declaration promises Jews home in Palestine 1914: UK - First use of massed tanks (Battle of Cambrai) 1914: UK - King George V adopts Windsor as Royal Family's English surname in place of family's German name 1914: USA - Garrett A. Morgan invents the Morgan gas mask 4 Aug 1914: World War I begins and lasts until 1918, because Germany violates a treaty to respect neutrality of Belgium; Turkey enters war on Germany's side
274	1915	1915: Armenia - Armenian Genocide 1915: USA - D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation is Released 1915: UK - Lusitania Sunk by German U-Boat 1915: Ypres, France - Second Battle of Ypres 1915: New York, NY, USA - Eugene Sullivan and William Taylor co-invent Pyrex
275	1916	1916: UK - Navy employs animal trainer 'Captain' Joseph Woodward's music hall sea lions for U-boat sabotage. 1916: USA - Coca-Cola adopts a distinctive bottle which identifies the company internationally 1916: France - Battle of the Somme 1916: Verdun, France - Battle of Verdun 1916: Ireland - Easter Rising 1916: USA - First Self-Service Grocery Store Opens 1916: UK - Radio tuners invented that received different stations. 1916: UK - Stainless steel invented by Henry Brearly.
276	1917	1917: Russia - Bolshevik revolution installs a new government headed by V.I. Lennin 1917: New York, NY, USA - French artist Marcel Duchamp submits a porcelain urinal, signed 'R. Mutt' and titled Fountain, to the New York Independents Exhibition; it is rejected. 1917: UK - First Pulitzer Prizes Awarded 1917: Germany - Mata Hari Executed for Being a Spy Apr 1917: USA - The United States joined World War I on the side of the Triple Entente
277	1918	1918: UK - Influenza Epidemic 1918: Russia - Czar Nicholas II and his family are killed 1918: UK - Summer:Great Influenza Epidemic begins, reaches height end of year, new outbreak first quarter of 1919: England and Wales lose 150,000 (15,000 in London alone) 1918: UK - Final casualties for World War I - almost 1 million British Empire men killed, about 3 million maimed (744,000 killed are from UK) 1918: UK - Women over 30 given the vote (complete voting equality with men comes in 1928), all men over 21 (except peers, lunatics and felons) given vote 1918: UK - Consumer purchasing power now about 1/3 of what it was in 1914 1918: USA - Charles Jung invented fortune cookies. 1918: UK - Police strikes this year and the next 9 Nov 1918: Europe - Kaiser abdicates, peace signed two days later at Treaty of Versailles, ending World War I
278	1919	1919: UK - Eddington and Frank W. Dyson measured the bending of starlight by the gravitational pull of the sun, thus confirming Einstein's general theory of relativity 1919: USA - Prohibition Begins in the U.S. 1919: Ireland - Irish Republican Army begins terrorist campaign against police ('Black and Tans') and their families 1919: London, UK - First woman in House of Commons, Viscountess Astor 1919: Ireland - Alcock and Brown arrive after flying across the Atlantic 1919: UK - Strikes and riots in Glasgow for 40- hour week; National Industrial Conference convenes, trades union representatives resign in disgust 1919: Europe - Regular air service commences across the English Channel 1919: UK - Post-war boom collapses, unemployment problem, 1920 Act provides small payment under National Insurance Scheme 1919: UK - Most war-time rationing ends 1919: UK - One-week railway strike - Emergency Powers Act passed to give government war-time powers to deal with threats from 'Triple Alliance' of miners, railwaymen and dockers, re high prices, shortage of housing 1919: UK - The pop-up toaster invented by Charles Strite. 1919: UK - Short-wave radio invented. 1919: UK - The arc welder invented. 1919: UK - Runaway inflation; Coal Mines Act (1919) and Mining Industry Act (1920) create 7-hour day for miners plus minor reforms Jun 1919: UK - Sir Ernest Rutherford publishes account of splitting atom
279	1920	1920: India - Bubonic Plague strikes 1920: UK - League of Nations Established 1920: UK - Population of England/Wales - 37,887, Scotland - 4,882, N.Ireland - 1,258 1920: UK - Economic slump, 2,170,000 unemployed 1920: Palestine - Serious clashes between Jews and Arabs 1920: USA - US restricts immigration 1920: Ireland - Southern Irish parliament passes Government of Ireland Act, civil war effectively ends (until 1968) 1920: UK - Lloyd George sells honours in return for party contributions, partly responsible for downfall of Coalition government 1920: Egypt - Britain recognizes Egyptian independence 1920: UK - British Broadcasting Company (BBC) begins transmission of speech over air to public 1920: Italy - Benito Mussolini becomes fascist dictator 1920: UK - First football cup final at Wembley 1920: UK - Greyhound racing becomes popular 1920: UK - Radio and cinema begin growth (by 1929, 3,000 cinemas in Britain) 1920: UK - Convictions for drunkenness fall from 189,000 in 1913 to 53,000 in 1930 1920: France - Tuberculosis vaccine developed 1920: UK - The tommy gun patented by John T Thompson. 1920: USA - The Band-Aid invented by Earle Dickson 1920: Ireland - Irish Republican Army begins Civil War with raids on police barracks and income tax offices all over Ireland 1920: UK - Communist Party of Great Britain founded; affiliation with Labour Party rebuffed = schism between communism and socialism 1920: UK - Population of Great Britain has grown by 5 per cent, emigration overseas declines from 256,000 in 1923 (post-war peak) to 92,000 in 1930 and many return to offset those leaving; British population gravitates to south and away from depressed areas of South Wales and northern England, Greater London is now over 8 million Dec 1920: Ireland - New Government of Ireland Act proposes partition of Ireland into Ulster (north) and Irish Free State (south), each to have its own government
280	1921	1921: UK - Stage debut of John Gielgud 1921: Germany - Extreme Inflation sets in 1921: Ireland - Irish Free State Proclaimed 1921: Washington, DC, USA - Warren Harding president in 1921. He dies of an embolism in San Francisco. He had taken ill on 31 Jul 1921 1921: Washington, DC, USA - Calvin Coolidge president 1921-1929. Vice president under Warren Harding, he was sworn in as president the day after Harding dies. 1921: UK - The first robot is built. 1921: CA, USA - John Larson, a University of California medical student, invented the modern lie detector (polygraph), used by police since 1924.
281	1922	1922: London, UK - BBC launched as limited company 1922: Turkey - Kemal Atatürk Founds Modern Turkey 1922: Ireland - Michael Collins Killed in Ambush 1922: Rome Italy - Benito Mussolini Marches on Rome 1922: USA - The Reader's Digest is first published 1922: UK - Insulin invented by Sir Frederick Grant Banting 1922: USA - The first 3-D movie (spectacles with one red and one green lens) is released. Nov 1922: Thebes, Egypt - Tomb of Tun-ankh-amen discovered
282	1923	1923: USA - Electrolux produced the first electric refrigerator 1923: USA - Kodak introduces home movie equipment 1923: UK - Charleston Dance Becomes Popular 1923: Germany - Adolf Hitler Jailed After Failed Coup 1923: Ruhr, Germany - Ruhr Occupied by French and Belgian Forces 1923: USA - Teapot Dome Scandal 1923: USA - Garrett A. Morgan invents a traffic signal 1923: USA - Early television or iconoscope invented by Vladimir Kosma Zworykin. 1923: UK - John Harwood invented the self-winding watch. 1923: UK - Clarence Birdseye invents frozen food.
283	1924	1924: UK - First Olympic Winter Games 1924: USSR - V.I. Lenin Dies 1924: UK - First Labour government headed by Ramsay MacDonald 1924: UK - The dynamic loudspeaker invented by Rice and Kellogg. 1924: UK - Notebooks with spiral bindings invented. Aug 1924: UK - Housing Act to produce 2.5 million houses by 1939 becomes law 4 Nov 1924: London, UK - Government falls due to purported link with Communists in Russia, known as Red Letter scare, Stanley Baldwin forms new government
284	1925	1925: UK - Flapper Dresses in Style 1925: Germany - Adolf Hitler Publishes Mein Kampf 1925: UK - Infants' Custody Act, women finally secure same rights as men with regard to custody of children
285	1926	1926: UK - General Strike paralyses transport, mining and many other areas of the economy 1926: Wolverhampton, UK - The first automatic traffic light was installed. It remained in service until 1968 1926: UK - A.A. Milne Publishes Winnie-the-Pooh 1926: UK - Houdini Dies After Being Punched 1926: USA - Robert Goddard Fires His First Liquid-Fuel Rocket 1926: A Woman Swims the English Channel 1926: UK - Imperial Conference sets stage for colonies and dominions to become Commonwealth of Nations
286	1927	1927: USA - The Jazz Singer - first film talking movie released 1927: London, UK - John Logie Baird demonstrates electro-mechanical television system 1927: USA - Babe Ruth Makes Home-Run Record 1927: Atlantic - Charles Lindbergh Flies Solo Across the Atlantic 1927: London, UK - Trade Disputes and Trade Union Act makes sympathetic striking illegal and prohibits political use of Union funds 1927: UK - JWA Morrison invents the first quartz crystal watch. 1927: USA - Philo Taylor Farnsworth invents a complete electronic TV system. 1927: USA - Technicolor invented. 1927: UK - Erik Rotheim patents an aerosol can. 1927: UK - Philip Drinker invents the iron lung. 4 Jun 1927: London, UK - Stanley Baldwin resigns, Ramsay MacDonald forms another Labour government, includes first female Cabinet Minister, Margaret Bondfield, Minister of Labour
287	1928	1928: Los Angeles, USA - First Mickey Mouse cartoon 1928: Oxford, UK - First Oxford English Dictionary Published 1928: UK - Kellogg-Briand Treaty Outlaws War 1928: London, UK - Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin. 1928: USA - Bubble gum invented by Walter E. Diemer. 1928: UK - Jacob Schick patented the electric shaver. 1928: UK - Long, critical illness of George V this year and the next
288	1929	1929: UK - Economic upturn this year and the next 1929: UK - First UK television broadcast 1929: UK - Frank Whittle, combining the concepts of rocket propulsion and gas turbines, invented jet propulsion. Independently, Hans von Ohain put together the same combination in 1933 1929: Antarctica - Byrd and Bennett Fly Over South Pole 1929: USA - First Academy Awards 1929: USA - New York Stock Market Crashes 1929: USA - St. Valentine's Day Massacre 1929: UK - Further serious clashes between Jews and Arabs in Palestine 1929: USA - Herbert Hoover president 1929-1933. 1929: USA - Paul Galvin invents the car radio. 1929: USA - Yo-Yo re-invented as an American fad. 1929: UK - Great Depression (to 1932), British segment hits worst in 1931, when unemployment surges quickly to more than 3.25 million in 1931, then more slowly to a high of 3.75 million in September 1932
289	1930	1930: UK - Gandhi's Salt March 1930: USA - Clyde Tombaugh discovers planet Pluto 1930: UK - Sliced Bread Available 1930: USSR - Stalin Begins Collectivizing Agriculture 1930: UK - Sir Oswald Mosely, former Conservative MP and now Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, resigns and forms New Party (Fascist) 1930: USA - Scotch tape patented by 3M engineer Richard G. Drew. 1930: Boston, MA, USA - The differential analyzer, an analog computer, is invented by Vannevar Bush at MIT
290	1931	1931: UK - Housing Act passes, provides subsidies for slum clearance 1931: USA - Al Capone Imprisoned for Income Tax Evasion 1931: UK - Auguste Piccard Reaches Stratosphere 1931: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - Christ Monument Built on Hilltop 1931: New York, NY, USA - Empire State Building Completed 1931: USA - First official US National Anthem 1931: UK - Census shows British professional workers now number .75 million (8 per cent); up from 80,000 in 1921 Census: population: England/Wales - 39,952, Scotland - 4,842, N. Ireland - 1,243 1931: USA - Harold Edgerton invented stop-action photography. 1931: Germany - Germans Max Knott and Ernst Ruska co-invent the electron microscope. 24 Aug 1931: UK - Resignation of Labour government accepted by King, asks Ramsay MacDonald to form National Government (Coalition) to deal with economic crisis 21 Oct 1931: UK - General Election, vote for National Government overwhelming, more votes for Conservatives, Liberal party in disarray
291	1932	1932: UK - Agricultural Marketing Act passed, regulates quality of produce 1932: USA - Air Conditioning Invented 1932: Amelia Earhardt First Woman to Fly Solo Across the Atlantic 1932: Cambridge, UK - Scientists Split the Atom 1932: USA - Zippo Lighters Introduced 1932: Ireland - De Valera succeeds Cosgrave as Prime Minister of Irish Free State, ousts British Governor-General, abolishes senate, alters law re citizenship to distinguish Irish nationality from British, but still claims Commonwealth membership 1932: USA - Polaroid photography invented by Edwin Herbert Land. 1932: UK - Unemployment falls from 3 million to below 2 million in July 1935; production rises, but imports steady, exports decline; new industries booming - chemicals, rayon, cars, radio, cost of living falls Sep 1932: UK - 6-7 million living on 'dole', worse in Tyne and Tees and Welsh valleys
292	1933	1933: UK - First Mars bar 1933: USA - Singing telegrams introduced 1933: Germany - Adolf Hitler Becomes Chancellor of Germany 1933: Germany - First Nazi Concentration Camp Established 1933: Loch Ness, Scotland - Loch Ness Monster First Spotted 1933: USA - Prohibition Ends 1933: Wiley Post Flies Around the World in 8.5 Days 1933: UK - Special Areas Act passes, designed to encourage workers to move to more prosperous Midlands or expanding light industries of South, not very effective 1933: USA - Franklin Roosevelt president 1933-1945, Launches New Deal. 1933: USA - Frequency modulation (FM radio) invented by Edwin Howard Armstrong. 1933: UK - Stereo records invented. Feb 1933: Oxford, UK - Oxford Union Society passes its famous motion This House will in no circumstances fight for its King and Country. Peace societies become popular
293	1934	1934: UK - Communist and Fascist disorders, especially in London's East End, cause Incitement to Disaffection (1934) and Public Order Acts (1936), extending police powers, suppressing wearing of political uniforms and limiting holding of provocative processions 1934: Munich, Germany - Konrad Zuse built a series of computers, Z1 through Z4, utilizing binary arithmetic and stored programs. Along the way he invented the first programming language and began to analyze methods by which a computer could play chess 1934: USA - The first comic books appear on newsstands 1934: USA - Bonnie and Clyde Killed by Police 1934: USA - Cheeseburger Created 1934: USA - The Dust Bowl 1934: China - Mao Zedong Begins the Long March 1934: UK - Parker Brothers Sells the Game Monopoly 1934: UK - Charles Darrow claims he invented the game Monopoly 1934: UK - Joseph Begun invents the first tape recorder for broadcasting - first magnetic recording.
294	1935	1935: USA - First successful three-color roll film available to amateur photographers as Kodachrome, for slides, this year, and as Kodacolor (for prints) in 1942. 1935: UK - First Kit Kat sold 1935: USA - Alcoholics Anonymous Founded 1935: Germany - Anti-Jewish Nuremberg Laws issued 1935: UK - John Maynard Keynes Suggests New Economic Theory 1935: USA - Wallace Carothers and DuPont Labs invent nylon 1935: USA - The first canned beer made.
295	1936	1936: UK - Edward VIII, ruler of England 1936. House of Windsor (name adopted Jul 17, 1917): Eldest son of George V. 1936: UK - BBC starts regular TV broadcasts 1936: USA - Dale Carnegie Publishes How to Win Friends and Influence People 1936: Germany - Nazi Olympics in Berlin 1936: Spain - Spanish Civil War Begins. Germany and Italy help rebels against government, Soviet Union aids government, as do International Brigade with volunteers from European countries and US during period to 1939 1936: UK - Arabs attack Jews and British troops and police, riots, strikes, outbursts of great violence, Jews attack Arabs and British, disorder continues through beginning of World War II 1936: USA - Bell Labs invents the voice recognition machine. 1936: USA - Samuel Colt patents the Colt revolver. 1936: Germany - Hitler and Mussolini make Rome-Berlin Axis agreement to conduct aggression together, followed by German agreement with Japan which Italy signs later 20 Jan 1936: UK - Death of King George V 12 May 1936: UK - George VI, ruler of England 1936-1952. House of Windsor (name adopted Jul 17, 1917): 2nd son of George V, Duke of York; married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. 16 Nov 1936: UK - Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin learns Edward VIII wants to marry twice-divorced Mrs.Simpson and will abdicate if necessary, public storm breaks on 2- 3 December, King abdicates on 5 December, announces 10 December, Abdication Act rushes through 11 December; Duke of York (father of Queen Elizabeth II) becomes George VI
296	1937	1937: Guernica, Spain - German planes, aiding insurgents in the Spanish Civil War, bomb the historic Basque town of Guernica in Northern Spain, killing women and children and inflaming world opinion against facism. 1937: USA - Hindenburg airship crash - broadcast coast to coast in US 1937: UK - Aviator Amelia Earhart Vanishes 1937: San Francisco, CA, USA - Golden Gate Bridge Opened 1937: USA - Chester F. Carlson invents the photocopier. May 1937: Ireland - Irish Free State becomes republic of Eire, Northern Ireland remains part of United Kingdom 27 May 1937: UK - Joseph Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister Jul 1937: China - Japan suddenly attacks China, by end of year Japanese have captured Shanghai and Nanking
297	1938	1938: UK - UK's first weekly radio comedy series, Band Wagon 1938: USA - Broadcast of The War of the Worlds Causes Panic 1938: UK - Neville Chamberlain Announces Peace in Our Time 1938: UK - Extinct Fish Found 1938: Germany - Kristallnacht - The Night of Broken Glass 1938: UK - The ballpoint pen invented by Ladislo Biro. 1938: UK - Roy J. Plunkett invented tetrafluoroethylene polymers (Teflon) 1938: USA - Nescafe or freeze-dried coffee invented. 12 Mar 1938: Austria - Hitler annexes Austria; Neville Chamberlain decides not to help Czechoslovakia or French, who have treaty obligations to Czechs, Hitler tells Chamberlain if he can have Czechoslovakia he will not annex other countries, Chamberlain falls for it
298	1939	1939: UK - First Commercial Flight Over the Atlantic 1939: Europe - German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact Signed 1939: UK - Refugees on the St. Louis Refused Entry Everywhere 1939: Europe - World War II begins. Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan vs. Major Allied Powers: Great Britain, France, and Russia. 1939-1945. 1939: USA - Igor Sikorsky invents the first successful helicopter. Sep 1939: UK - UK declares war on Germany
299	1940	1940: London, UK - London Blitz 1940: USA - Disney's Fantasia 1940: UK - Battle of Britain 1940: USSR - Leon Trotsky Assassinated 1940: USA - Nylon Stockings on the Market 1940: France - Stone Age Cave Paintings Found 1940: USA - Peter Goldmark invents modern colour television system. 1940: UK - Karl Pabst invents the jeep.
300	1941	1941: USA - Japanese Attack Pearl Harbor 1941: USA - Manhattan Project Begins 1941: USA - Mount Rushmore Completed 1941: UK - Nazi Rudolf Hess Flies to Britain on a Peace Mission 1941: Leningrad, USSR - Siege of Leningrad
301	1942	1942: USA - Battle of Midway 1942: Stalingrad, USSR - Battle of Stalingrad 1942: USA - Japanese-Americans Held in Camps 1942: UK - Nazis Raze Town in Retaliation for Reinhard Heydrich's Death 1942: USA - T-shirt Introduced 1942: USA - John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry built an electronic digital computer.
302	1943	1943: USA - Autism identified 1943: France - French Resistance Leader Jean Moulin Killed 1943: Italy - Italy Joins the Allies 1943: Poland - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 1943: USA - Richard James invents the slinky. 1943: USA - James Wright invents silly putty. 1943: USA - Swiss chemist, Albert Hofmann discovered the hallucinogenic properties of LSD. 1943: UK - Emile Gagnan and Jacques Cousteau invent the aqualung.
303	1944	1944: France - D-Day landings 1944: France - First German V1 and V2 Rockets Fired 1944: Berlin, Germany - Hitler Escapes Assassination Attempt 1944: USA - The kidney dialysis machine invented by Willem Kolff. 1944: USA - Synthetic cortisone invented by Percy Lavon Julian.
304	1945	1945: Germany - Allied troops liberate Nazi death camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau (January 26), Buchenwald (April 11), and Dachau (April 24), providing the world with the first photographic evidence of the horrific atrocities committed there 1945: Berlin, Germany - Hitler Commits Suicide 1945: Germany - Germans Surrender 1945: USA - United Nations Founded 1945: Japan - The Atomic Age begins with atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending World War II 1945: USA - Harry Truman president of the USA 1945-1953.
305	1946	1946: USA - ENIAC computer makes 5,000 additions in one second 1946: USA - Bikinis Introduced 1946: UK - Dr. Spock Publishes The Common Book of Baby and Child Care 1946: Argentina - Juan Perón Becomes President 1946: Nuremberg, Germany - Nazi War crime Trials 1946: UK - Winston Churchill Gives His Iron Curtain Speech 1946: UK - The microwave oven invented by Percy Spencer.
306	1947	1947: USA - Chuck Yeager Breaks the Sound Barrier 1947: Egypt - Dead Sea Scrolls Discovered 1947: UK - Jewish Refugees Aboard the Exodus Turned Back by British 1947: USA - Marshall Plan 1947: UK - British/Hungarian scientist, Dennis Gabor, developed holography 1947: USA - Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley invent the transistor. 1947: USA - Earl Silas Tupper patented the Tupperware seal.
307	1948	1948: USA - Life magazine makes painter Jackson Pollock an overnight celebrity by devoting a three-page spread with color photographs to him and his paintings under the headline, Jackson Pollock: Is He the Greatest Living Painter in the United States?; Abstract Expressionism becomes a subject of widespread popular ridicule. 1948: Berlin, Germany - Berlin Airlift 1948: UK - Big Bang Theory Formulated 1948: India - Gandhi Assassinated 1948: South Africa - Policy of Apartheid Begun 1948: Israel - State of Israel Founded 1948: USA - The Frisbee® invented by Walter Frederick Morrison and Warren Franscioni. 1948: USA - Velcro® invented by George de Mestral. 1948: USA - Robert Hope-Jones invented the Wurlitzer jukebox
308	1949	1949: China - Mao Zedong proclaims Peoples Republic of China - China Becomes Communist 1949: First Non-Stop Flight Around the World 1949: UK - George Orwell Publishes Nineteen Eighty-Four 1949: USA - NATO Established 1949: USSR - Soviet Union Has Atomic Bomb 1949: USA - Cake mix invented.
309	1950	1950: UK - UK's longest running soap, The Archers, first airs on BBC Midlands Home Service 1950: USA - First Modern Credit Card Introduced 1950: UK - First Organ Transplant 1950: USA - First Peanuts Cartoon Strip 1950: Korea - Korean War Begins: United States (as part of the United Nations) and South Korea vs. North Korea and Communist China 1950-1953. 1950: USA - Senator Joseph McCarthy Begins Communist Witch Hunt 1950: USA - President Truman Orders Construction of Hydrogen Bomb 1950: USA - The first credit card (Diners) invented by Ralph Schneider. 26 May 1950: UK - Drivers cheer end of fuel rations.
310	1951	1951: USA - The word brainwashing is coined 1951: USA - Color TV Introduced 1951: South Africa - Citizens Forced to Carry ID Cards Identifying Race 1951: USA - Truman Signs Peace Treaty With Japan, Officially Ending World War II 1951: UK - Winston Churchill Again Prime Minister 1951: UK - Super glue invented. 1951: USA - Power steering invented by Francis W. Davis. 1951: USA - Charles Ginsburg invented the first videotape recorder (VTR).

Gerber Family of Switzerland

Elsbeth Gerber

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