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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1737 | |
| 2 | 1738 | |
| 3 | 1739 | |
| 4 | 1740 | |
| 5 | 1741 | - 1741: Ireland - Further famine, population about 4 million
|
| 6 | 1742 | |
| 7 | 1743 | |
| 8 | 1744 | |
| 9 | 1745 | |
| 10 | 1746 | |
| 11 | 1747 | |
| 12 | 1748 | |
| 13 | 1749 | - 1749: Great Britain - Deaths among women 1 in 41, children 1 in 15 during period to 1758
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| 14 | 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
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| 15 | 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
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| 16 | 1752 | |
| 17 | 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
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| 18 | 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.
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| 19 | 1755 | |
| 20 | 1756 | |
| 21 | 1757 | |
| 22 | 1758 | |
| 23 | 1759 | |
| 24 | 1760 | |
| 25 | 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
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| 26 | 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
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| 27 | 1763 | |
| 28 | 1764 | |
| 29 | 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
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| 30 | 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.
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| 31 | 1767 | |
| 32 | 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
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| 33 | 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
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| 34 | 1770 | |
| 35 | 1771 | |
| 36 | 1772 | |
| 37 | 1773 | |
| 38 | 1774 | |
| 39 | 1775 | |
| 40 | 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.
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| 41 | 1777 | |
| 42 | 1778 | |
| 43 | 1779 | - 1779: Great Britain - The rise of Wyvill's Christopher Wyvill's radical Yorkshire Association Movement
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| 44 | 1780 | |
| 45 | 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
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| 46 | 1782 | - 1782: Ireland - Ireland obtains short-lived parliament
- 22 Mar 1782: Great Britain - Lord North's government collapses
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| 47 | 1783 | |
| 48 | 1784 | |
| 49 | 1785 | |
| 50 | 1786 | - 1786: Great Britain - The Eden commercial treaty with France is drawn up
- 1786: Pennsylvania, USA - John Fitch invents a steamboat.
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| 51 | 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
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| 52 | 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)
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| 53 | 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.
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| 54 | 1790 | |
| 55 | 1791 | |
| 56 | 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.
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| 57 | 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
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Abt 1737 - 1793 (56 years)