Verena Gerber

Female 1843 - Abt 1885  (42 years)


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   Date  Event(s)
1537 
1539 
  • 1539: England - Remaining monasteries dissolved; wealth taken and used for Oxford and Cambridge, among other things; result almost 1/4 of land in England given to new owners, creates buyer's market
  • 1539: America - Hernando De Soto claimed Florida for Spain
  • 15 Nov 1539: Glastonbury, England - Dissolution of Glastonbury Abbey; buildings torched and looted by king's men; Abbot Richard Whyting is executed by hanging atop Glastonbury Tor.
1540 
1541 
1542 
1543 
1544 
  • 1544: Europe - Tomatoes reach Europe. It is unclear where tomatoes may have been first domesticated but the two main possibilities are Peru and Mexico. The wild forms may have originated in either area, but it was the indigenous peoples of Mexico that first cultivated them. In fact, the common name tomato comes from tomatl, the word for this plant in the Nahuatl language of Mexico.
  • 1544: France - Henry VIII and Charles V invade France
  • 1544: England - Henry VIII orders English translation of Bible placed in every parish church; Litany said in English for first time; Pope declares Henry deposed, supported by all Catholic princes, particularly France and Scotland; Henry builds 70-ship navy, arms people, fortifies coast
1546 
  • 1546: England - Girolamo Fracastoro published the idea that diseases were caused by disease-specific seeds that could multiply within the body and be transmitted directly from person to person or directly on contaminated objects, even over long distance; moreover, he proposed that variations in the intensity of epidemics could be attributed to changes in the virulence of germs
1547 
10 1548 
11 1549 
12 1550 
13 1551 
14 1552 
15 1553 
16 1554 
  • 1554: England - Laws against burning heretics repealed
17 1555 
  • 1555: England - Protestants are persecuted and about 300, including Archbishop Cranmer, are burned at the stake
  • 1555: England - Michel de Notredame or Nostradamus published his book of prophecies Centuries Asrtologiques and Excellent er Moult Utile Opuscule a tous necessaire qui desirent avoir connaissance de plusieurs exq uises recettes ('An excellent and most useful little work essential to all who wish to become acquainted with some exquisite recipes').
18 1558 
  • 1558: France - Philip drags England into war with France, Calais is lost; Mary I dies of dropsy, leaving no heir
  • 1558: England - Elizabeth I, ruler of England to 1603. House of Tudor: Daughter of Henry VIII, by Anne Boleyn.
  • 1558: England - William Cecil (later Lord Burghley), the Queen's closest advisor, assists Elizabeth in passing laws making monarch head of Church, making English prayer book only one, and generally laying foundations of Church of England as known today
  • 5 Mar 1558: England - Francisco Fernandes supposedly introduced smoking tobacco to Europe.
19 1559 
20 1560 
21 1561 
22 1562 
23 1563 
  • 1563: England - The Thirty-nine Articles, which complete establishment of the Anglican Church
  • 1563: England - Statute of Artificers: planned recruitment and control of labour and wages
24 1564 
25 1565 
26 1567 
27 1568 
28 1569 
29 1575 
  • 1575: England - English trade booms (to 1585)
30 1576 
  • 1576: Arcitic - Frobisher and Locke search unsuccessfully for Northwest Passage (to 1578)
31 1577 
32 1578 
33 1582 
34 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
35 1584 
36 1585 
37 1586 
38 1587 
39 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
40 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.
41 1590 
42 1592 
  • 1592: England - Plague in London and provincial towns
43 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.
44 1594 
45 1596 
46 1597 
47 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.
48 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
49 1602 
50 1603 
51 1604 
52 1605 
53 1606 
54 1607 
55 1608 
56 1609 
57 1610 
  • 1610: Kracow, Poland - Community Regulations of stated that bagels were to be given as a gift to women in childbirth.
58 1611 
  • 1611: England - James I's authorized version of the Bible is completed; English and Scottish Protestant colonists settle in Ulster
59 1612 
60 1614 
61 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.
62 1616 
63 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'.
64 1618 
65 1620 
66 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.
67 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
68 1623 
69 1624 
70 1625 
71 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.
72 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.
73 1628 
74 1629 
75 1630 
76 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.
77 1634 
  • 1634: Boston, Massachusetts - Samuel Cole supposedly opened the first tavern in the U.S.A.
78 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.
79 1637 
80 1638 
81 1639 
82 1640 
83 1641 
84 1642 
85 1643 
86 1644 
87 1645 
88 1646 
  • 1646: England - Charles I surrenders to the Scots
89 1647 
90 1648 
91 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
92 1650 
93 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
94 1652 
95 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
96 1654 
97 1655 
98 1656 
99 1657 
100 1658 
101 1659 
102 1660 
103 1661 
104 1662 
105 1663 
106 1664 
107 1665 
108 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.
109 1667 
  • 1667: Medway River, Kent - Dutch fleet defeats the English
110 1668 
111 1669 
  • 1669: England - Isaac Newton circulated a manuscript, De analysi per aequationes numero terminorum infinitas, the first notice of his calculus.
112 1670 
113 1671 
114 1672 
115 1673 
116 1674 
117 1675 
118 1676 
119 1677 
120 1678 
121 1679 
122 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
123 1681 
124 1685 
125 1686 
126 1687 
127 1688 
128 1689 
129 1690 
130 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
131 1692 
132 1693 
133 1694 
134 1695 
135 1697 
136 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
137 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.
138 1700 
139 1701 
140 1702 
141 1703 
  • 1703: Epworth, Lincolnshire, England - Birth of John Wesley. By 1784, 356 Methodist chapels built in places lacking church
142 1704 
143 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
144 1707 
  • 1707: Great Britain - The Act of Union unites the kingdoms of England and Scotland and transfers the seat of Scottish Government to London
145 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
146 1709 
147 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
148 1711 
149 1712 
150 1713 
151 1714 
152 1715 
153 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.
154 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
155 1719 
156 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.
157 1721 
158 1722 
159 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
160 1724 
161 1725 
  • 30 Apr 1725: Great Britain - Treaty of Vienna: Austria and Spain resolve differences
162 1726 
163 1727 
164 1728 
  • 1728: France - Pierre Fauchard, in The Surgeon Dentist, described preventive measures to keep teeth healthy as well as inventing the word dentist.
165 1729 
166 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.
167 1731 
168 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.
169 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.
170 1734 
  • 1734: Great Britain - Walpole returned to power with smaller majority, power weakened
171 1736 
172 1737 
173 1738 
174 1739 
175 1740 
176 1741 
  • 1741: Ireland - Further famine, population about 4 million
177 1742 
178 1743 
179 1744 
180 1745 
181 1746 
182 1747 
183 1748 
184 1749 
  • 1749: Great Britain - Deaths among women 1 in 41, children 1 in 15 during period to 1758
185 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
186 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
187 1752 
188 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
189 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.
190 1755 
191 1756 
192 1757 
193 1758 
194 1759 
195 1760 
196 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
197 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
198 1763 
199 1764 
200 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
201 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.
202 1767 
203 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
204 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
205 1770 
206 1771 
207 1772 
208 1773 
209 1774 
210 1775 
211 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.
212 1777 
213 1778 
214 1779 
  • 1779: Great Britain - The rise of Wyvill's Christopher Wyvill's radical Yorkshire Association Movement
215 1780 
216 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
217 1782 
  • 1782: Ireland - Ireland obtains short-lived parliament
  • 22 Mar 1782: Great Britain - Lord North's government collapses
218 1783 
219 1784 
220 1785 
221 1786 
  • 1786: Great Britain - The Eden commercial treaty with France is drawn up
  • 1786: Pennsylvania, USA - John Fitch invents a steamboat.
222 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
223 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)
224 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.
225 1790 
226 1791 
227 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.
228 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
229 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
230 1795 
231 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
232 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.
233 1798 
234 1799 
235 1800 
236 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.
237 1802 
238 1803 
239 1804 
240 1805 
241 1806 
242 1807 
243 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
244 1809 
245 1810 
246 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
247 1812 
248 1813 
249 1814 
250 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)
251 1816 
252 1817 
253 1818 
254 1819 
255 1820 
256 1821 
257 1822 
  • 1822: France - First prototype Espresso machine
  • 1822: Ireland - Famine in Ireland prompts migration to US and Canada
258 1823 
259 1824 
260 1825 
261 1826 
262 1827 
263 1828 
264 1829 
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281 1846 
282 1847 
283 1848 
284 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.
285 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.
286 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
287 1852 
288 1853 
289 1854 
290 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
291 1856 
292 1857 
293 1858 
294 1859 
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304 1869 
305 1870 
306 1871 
307 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
308 1873 
309 1874 
310 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
311 1876 
312 1877 
313 1878 
314 1879 
315 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.
316 1881 
317 1882 
318 1884 
319 1885 
320 1886 
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324 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
325 1891 
326 1892 
327 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.
328 1894 
  • 1894: UK - Rosebery takes power with his minority Liberal government
329 1895 
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332 1898 
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343 1909 
344 1910 
345 1911 
346 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
347 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.
348 1914 
349 1915 
350 1916 
351 1917 
352 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
353 1919 
354 1920 
355 1921 
356 1922 
357 1923 
358 1924 
359 1925 
360 1926 
361 1927 
362 1928 
363 1929 
364 1930 
365 1931 
366 1932 
367 1933 
368 1934 
369 1935 
370 1936 
371 1937 
372 1938 
373 1939 
374 1940 
375 1941 
376 1942 
377 1943 
378 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.
379 1945 
380 1946 
381 1947 
382 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
383 1949 
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400 1966