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   Date  Event(s)
1576 
  • 1576: Arcitic - Frobisher and Locke search unsuccessfully for Northwest Passage (to 1578)
1577 
1578 
1582 
1583 
  • 1583: England - Cesalpino, in De Plantis, classified plants with seeds according to the number, position, and shape of the parts of their fruit.
  • 1583: Italy - Galileo Galilei discovered by experiment that the oscillations of a swinging pendulum took the same amount of time regardless of their amplitude.
  • 1583: Munster, Ireland - Colonised by English
1584 
1585 
1586 
1587 
10 1588 
  • Jun 1588: England - Spanish Armada - 60,000 troops, 30,000 sailors, 77,000 tons of shipping - sails against England, battle lasts one week, decimated by English then by gales
11 1589 
  • 1589: England - William Lee develops the first knitting machine.
  • 1589: France - Catherine de Medici, wife of King Henry II of France died.She is sometimes called the 'mother of French haute cuisine' because the Italian chefs she brought with her from Florence had a strong influence on the development of French cuisine. One of the things they brought with them was ice cream.
12 1590 
13 1592 
  • 1592: England - Plague in London and provincial towns
14 1593 
  • 1593: Italy - Galileo invents a water thermometer.
  • 9 Aug 1593: England - Izaak Walton was born. He is mainly known for The Compleat Angler, or, the Contemplative Man's Recreation, which is one of the most frequently published books in English literature. It is a literary discourse on the pleasures of fishing.
15 1594 
16 1596 
17 1597 
18 1600 
  • 1600: England - William Gilbert, in De Magnete, held that the earth behaves like a giant magnet with its poles near the geographic poles. He coined the word electrica (from the Greek word for amber, elektron), and distinguished electricity from magnetism.
  • 1600: London, England - Population of London about 200,000
  • 1600: Sicily - The blood orange is believed to have developed by natural mutation
  • 1600: England - The British East India Company was incorporated by royal charter. It was created to compete in the East Indian spice trade.
19 1601 
  • 1601: England - Poor Law Act passed, prompted by three successive poor harvests resulting in demonstrations by starving peasants; codifies previous measures, differentiates between able-bodied and weak unemployed; town councils began to tax citizens to pay for alms
  • 1601: England - Essex attempts rebellion, and is executed
20 1602 
21 1603 
22 1604 
23 1605 
24 1606 
25 1607 
26 1608 
27 1609 
28 1610 
  • 1610: Kracow, Poland - Community Regulations of stated that bagels were to be given as a gift to women in childbirth.
29 1611 
  • 1611: England - James I's authorized version of the Bible is completed; English and Scottish Protestant colonists settle in Ulster
30 1612 
31 1614 
32 1615 
  • 1615: England - The first tea is imported to the west
  • 1615: Japan- Furuta Oribe died. His original name was Furuta Shigenari. He was a Japanese master of the tea ceremony who studied under Sen Riky. His ideas influenced the tea ceremony, teahouse architecture, tea-garden landscaping and even flower arrangement.
33 1616 
34 1617 
  • 1617: England - The first one way streets were established in London. Seventeen one way streets were created to regulate 'disorder and rude behaviour of Carmen, Draymen, and others using Cartes'.
35 1618 
36 1620 
37 1621 
  • 8 Sep 1621: France - Prince Louis II de Condé, known as the Great Condé, was born. He was a French general who loved to hunt and had a passion for rice. Several dishes have been named for him, including Consomme Condé and Creme Condé.
38 1622 
  • 1622: England - James I dissolves Parliament for asserting its right to debate foreign affairs
  • 1622: England - Weekly News, first English newspaper, published.
  • 1622: England - Commission to enquire into decline of woollen trade
39 1623 
40 1624 
41 1625 
42 1626 
  • 1626: England - Francis Bacon died. An English statesman, philosopher and author of Novum Organum, a work on scientific inquiry, he died after having stuffing a dressed chicken with snow to see how long the flesh could be preserved by the extreme cold. He caught cold and died from complications about a month later.
  • 1626: England - A large Codfish, split open at a Cambridge market, is found to contain a copy of a book of religious treatises by John Frith.
43 1627 
  • 1627: England - William Harvey was able to confirm his observation that the blood circulates throughout the body, which he inferred from the structure of the venal valves. The following year, in Exercitatio Anatomica, he published these conclusions as well as a description of the heart as a mechanical pump.
  • 1627: Warsaw, Poland - The last known living ancestor of all modern domestic cattle (the aurochs) was killed by a poacher
  • 1627: England - John Ray (Wray) was born. A leading 17th century English naturalist and botanist. He contributed to the advancement of taxonomy, and established the species as the basic unit of taxonomy.
44 1628 
45 1629 
46 1630 
47 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.
48 1634 
  • 1634: Boston, Massachusetts - Samuel Cole supposedly opened the first tavern in the U.S.A.
49 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.
50 1637 
51 1638 
52 1639 
53 1640 
54 1641 
55 1642 
56 1643 
57 1644 
58 1645 
59 1646 
  • 1646: England - Charles I surrenders to the Scots
60 1647 
61 1648 
62 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
63 1650 
64 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
65 1652 
66 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
67 1654 
68 1655 
69 1656 
70 1657 
71 1658 
72 1659 
73 1660 
74 1661 
75 1662 
76 1663 
77 1664 
78 1665 
79 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.
80 1667 
  • 1667: Medway River, Kent - Dutch fleet defeats the English
81 1668 
82 1669 
  • 1669: England - Isaac Newton circulated a manuscript, De analysi per aequationes numero terminorum infinitas, the first notice of his calculus.
83 1670 
84 1671 
85 1672 
86 1673 
87 1674 
88 1675 
89 1676 
90 1677 
91 1678 
92 1679 
93 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
94 1681 
95 1685 
96 1686 
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98 1688 
99 1689 
100 1690 
101 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
102 1692 
103 1693 
104 1694 
105 1695 
106 1697 
107 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
108 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.
109 1700 
110 1701 
111 1702 
112 1703 
  • 1703: Epworth, Lincolnshire, England - Birth of John Wesley. By 1784, 356 Methodist chapels built in places lacking church
113 1704 
114 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
115 1707 
  • 1707: Great Britain - The Act of Union unites the kingdoms of England and Scotland and transfers the seat of Scottish Government to London
116 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
117 1709 
118 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
119 1711 
120 1712 
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122 1714 
123 1715 
124 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.
125 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
126 1719 
127 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.
128 1721 
129 1722 
130 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
131 1724 
132 1725 
  • 30 Apr 1725: Great Britain - Treaty of Vienna: Austria and Spain resolve differences
133 1726 
134 1727 
135 1728 
  • 1728: France - Pierre Fauchard, in The Surgeon Dentist, described preventive measures to keep teeth healthy as well as inventing the word dentist.
136 1729 
137 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.
138 1731 
139 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.
140 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.
141 1734 
  • 1734: Great Britain - Walpole returned to power with smaller majority, power weakened
142 1736 
143 1737 
144 1738 
145 1739 
146 1740 
147 1741 
  • 1741: Ireland - Further famine, population about 4 million
148 1742 
149 1743 
150 1744 
151 1745 
152 1746 
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154 1748 
155 1749 
  • 1749: Great Britain - Deaths among women 1 in 41, children 1 in 15 during period to 1758
156 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
157 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
158 1752 
159 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
160 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.
161 1755 
162 1756 
163 1757 
164 1758 
165 1759 
166 1760 
167 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
168 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
169 1763 
170 1764 
171 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
172 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.
173 1767 
174 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
175 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
176 1770 
177 1771 
178 1772 
179 1773 
180 1774 
181 1775 
182 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.
183 1777 
184 1778 
185 1779 
  • 1779: Great Britain - The rise of Wyvill's Christopher Wyvill's radical Yorkshire Association Movement
186 1780 
187 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
188 1782 
  • 1782: Ireland - Ireland obtains short-lived parliament
  • 22 Mar 1782: Great Britain - Lord North's government collapses
189 1783 
190 1784 
191 1785 
192 1786 
  • 1786: Great Britain - The Eden commercial treaty with France is drawn up
  • 1786: Pennsylvania, USA - John Fitch invents a steamboat.
193 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
194 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)
195 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.
196 1790 
197 1791 
198 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.
199 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
200 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
201 1795 
202 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
203 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.
204 1798 
205 1799 
206 1800 
207 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.
208 1802 
209 1803 
210 1804 
211 1805 
212 1806 
213 1807 
214 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
215 1809 
216 1810 
217 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
218 1812 
219 1813 
220 1814 
221 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)
222 1816 
223 1817 
224 1818 
225 1819 
226 1820 
227 1821 
228 1822 
  • 1822: France - First prototype Espresso machine
  • 1822: Ireland - Famine in Ireland prompts migration to US and Canada
229 1823 
230 1824 
231 1825 
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233 1827 
234 1828 
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255 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.
256 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.
257 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
258 1852 
259 1853 
260 1854 
261 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
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278 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
279 1873 
280 1874 
281 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
282 1876 
283 1877 
284 1878 
285 1879 
286 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.
287 1881 
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295 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
296 1891 
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298 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.
299 1894 
  • 1894: UK - Rosebery takes power with his minority Liberal government
300 1895 
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316 1911 
317 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
318 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.
319 1914 
320 1915 
321 1916 
322 1917 
323 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
324 1919 
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348 1943 
349 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.
350 1945 
351 1946 
352 1947 
353 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
354 1949 
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396 1991 
397 1992 
  • 1992: Waco, TX, USA - Cult Compound in Waco, Texas Raided
398 1993 
399 1994 
400 1995 
401 1996 
402 1997 
403 1998 
  • 1998: UK - Titanic Most Successful Movie Ever
  • 1998: USA - U.S. President Clinton Impeached
  • 1998: USA - Viagra on the Market
  • 1998: Europe - The Euro the New European Currency
404 1999 
405 2000 
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408 2003