Timeline Great Britain 1711-1799
Go to home
1711 Feb 14,
Handel's opera Rinaldo premiered. He composed his opera "Rinaldo," with
the Italian librettist Giacomo Rossi. It was his 1st opera for London.
(LGC-HCS, p.41)(WSJ, 11/13/00, p.A32)(MC, 2/14/02)
1711 Mar 1, "The Spectator" began
publishing in London.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1711 Apr 26, David Hume, English
empiricist, philosopher (Treatise of Human Nature), was born.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1711 Aug 23, A British attempt to
invade Canada by sea failed.
(HN, 8/23/98)
1711 Dec 31, Duke of Marlborough
was fired as English army commander.
(MC, 12/31/01)
1711 Horse racing began at the
Royal Ascot track west of London. The 1st four day royal meeting was
held there in 1768.
(SFC, 6/21/06,
p.A2)(www.icons.org.uk/nom/nominations/royal-ascot)
1711 English ships captured the
Spanish galleon San Joaquin, part of a fleet returning to Spain from
Portobelo under Don Miguel Augustin de Villanueva, who was mortally
wounded. New World wealth was on another ship, which managed to return
to Spain.
(WSJ, 1/31/07, p.D6)
1712 The poem “The Rape of the
Lock” by English poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744) was anonymously
published in Lintot’s Miscellany. It was revised, expanded and reissued
under Pope’s name in 1714.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rape_of_the_Lock)
1712 Jul 12, Richard Cromwell
(85), English Lord Protector (1658-59), died.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1712 English Tories introduced a
stamp tax, which taxed newspapers per sheet. Papers were then published
as broadsheets, single sheets with huge pages
(Econ, 6/12/04, p.18)
1712 Robert Walpole, later British
prime minister, served a spell in the Tower of London on charges of
financial impropriety.
(Econ, 2/10/07, p.89)
1712-1862 England taxed soap with the declaration
that it was a frivolous luxury of the aristocracy.
(SFC, 4/17/99, p.B3)
1713 Apr 11, The Peace of Utrecht
was signed, France ceded Maritime provinces to Britain. The French
colony of Acadia, now Nova Scotia, was ceded to Great Britain. The
Acadians had come from western France to fish and farm. Those who would
not swear allegiance to the crown were deported. Many of these
deportees went to the bayou country of Louisiana.
(WUD, 1994, p.7)(WSJ, 9/4/96, p.A12)(HN, 4/11/98)
1713 Apr 11, Spain ceded the
2.5-sq. mile Gibraltar in perpetuity to Britain under the Treaty of
Utrecht.
(WSJ, 11/29/99, p.A29)(SFC, 2/19/02, p.A2)
1713 May 25, John Stuart 3rd earl
of Bute, English premier (1760-63), was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1713 Jul 7, The 1st performance of
Georg F Handel's "To Deum" & "Jubilate."
(MC, 7/7/02)
1713 Nov 20, Thomas Tompion,
English clock maker (cylinder tunnel), died.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1713-1768 Laurence Sterne, English author: "Free
thinkers are generally those who never think at all."
(AP, 6/19/97)
1714 Jan 7, A typewriter was
patented by Englishman Henry Mill. It was built years later.
(MC, 1/7/02)
1714 Aug 1, Queen Anne (1702-1714)
of Britain died at age 48. By the 1701 Act of Settlement Prince George
Louis (54) of Hanover succeeded her as King George I (d.1727).
(PCh, 1992,
p.279)(www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon53.html)
1714 Oct 20, Georg Ludwig of
Hanover was crowned as George I of England. Queen Anne of England died
and was succeeded by the Elector of Hanover. The Hanoverian
dynasty ruled to 1901. [see Oct 31]
(LGC-HCS, p.36)(HN, 10/20/98)(WUD, 1994, p.644)
1714 Oct 31, Georg Ludwig van
Hanover was crowned as King George I of England. [see Oct 20]
(MC, 10/31/01)
1714 Henrietta Howard
(b.1689-1767) traveled with her husband to Hanover to the court of
George Louis, heir to the English throne. In 1720 she was appointed as
Woman of the Bedchamber to Princess Caroline and in 1723 became a royal
mistress. In 2007 Tracy Borman authored “Henrietta Howard: King’s
Mistress, Queen’s Servant.”
(Econ, 10/6/07,
p.99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Howard,_Countess_of_Suffolk)
1715 Apr 20, Nicholas Rowe's
"Tragedy of Lady Jane Gray," premiered in London.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1715 Jul 20, The Riot Act went
into effect in England.
(HFA, '96, p.34)(HN, 7/20/01)
1715 Nov 13, The English beat the
Scots at the Battle of Sheriffmuir in Scotland.
(HN, 11/13/98)(MC, 11/13/01)
1715 Nov 13, The pro-James Edward
Stuart rebellion surrendered.
(MC, 11/13/01)
1715 Nov 24, The Thames River
froze.
(MC, 11/24/01)
1715 Nov 25, England granted the
1st patent to an American. It was for processing corn.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1715 Mar, William Dampier
(b.1651), English explorer and privateer, died. In 2004 Diana and
Michael Preston authored "A Pirate of Exquisite Mind: Explorer,
Naturalist and Buccaneer," a biography of Dampier.
(WSJ, 4/16/04, p.W8)
1715-1721 Colen Campbell and William Kent built the
Burlington House in London, England. In 1854 the Cavendish family sold
it to the government. Lady Cavendish had complained that its rooms were
too narrow for hooped-skirted ladies to waltz in.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.19)
1715-1770 France reneged on the terms of its debt
five times during this period. Britain never missed an interest payment.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.104)
1716 Dec 26, Thomas Gray, English
poet, was born: Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard: "The paths of
glory lead but to the grave."; also: "...where ignorance is bliss/’Tis
folly to be wise."
(440.com)
1716 Thomas Fairchild brushed with
a feather pollen from a sweet William over the stigma of a carnation,
creating the first human-made hybrid plant.
(www.orangepippin.com/articles/yorkshireapples.aspx)(SSFC, 4/19/09,
Books p.J7)
1717 Jun 4, The Freemasons
established their Grand Lodge in London. They had begun in the 13th
century as a guild of masons, who worked in soft stone called freestone.
(HN, 6/4/98)(WSJ, 2/6/02, p.A16)
1717 Jul 17, Handel's "Water
Music" was played for George I on the occasion of a royal barge trip on
the Thames.
(LGC-HCS, p.40)(Internet)
1717 Sep 24, Horace Walpole
(1797), son of Robert Walpole, author and Fourth Earl of Orford, was
born. He was a life time collector of bibelots and authored one of the
first Gothic novels: "The Castle of Otranto" (1764). "The whole secret
of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand
things well." Wilmarth Lewis (d.1979) later edited Yale's 48-volume
edition of Walpole's correspondence. He created the Gothic novel genre.
(AP, 1/13/98)(WSJ, 10/19/99, p.A24)(HN, 9/24/00)
1717 Isaac Newton, England’s
master of the mint, recommended a temporary freeze on the value of the
gold guinea to establish an appropriate ratio between the prices of
gold and silver and their supply.
(WSJ, 11/9/00, p.A24)
1718 May 15, James Puckle, a
London lawyer, patented the world's 1st machine gun.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1718 Jun 5, Thomas Chippendale,
English furniture maker was baptized.
(MC, 6/5/02)
1718 Nov 22, A force of British
troops under Lt. Robert Maynard captured English pirate Edward Teach
(b.~1682), better known as "Blackbeard" (aka Captain Drummond), during
a battle near Ocracoke Island, off the North Carolina coast. They
beheaded him. The governor of Virginia had put a price of 100 pounds on
his head.
(AP,
11/22/97)(www.outerbankschamber.com/relocation/history/ocracoke.cfm)
1718 Nov 3, John Montague, fourth
Earl of Sandwich and inventor of the sandwich, was born.
(HN, 11/3/98)
1719 Apr 25, Daniel Defoe's novel
"Robinson Crusoe" was published in London. Crusoe was based on the
story of Alexander Selkirk, a man who was voluntarily put ashore on a
desert island.
(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A12)(HN, 4/25/01)
1719 Jun 17, Joseph Addison (47),
English poet, writer, secretary of state, died.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1720 Feb 10, Edmund Halley was
appointed 2nd Astronomer Royal of England.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1720 Jun 10, Mrs. Clements of
England marketed the 1st paste-style mustard.
(MC, 6/10/02)
1720 Dec 31, Charles Edward
Stuart, grandson of James II, known as the Young Pretender and Bonnie
Prince Charlie, was born.
(HN, 12/31/98)
1720 Jan-1720 Aug, Speculators in
London bid up the price of the South Sea Co., which had been granted a
trading monopoly with South America and the Pacific. The South Sea
Bubble burst and London markets crashed. Speculation in government
chartered trading companies had led to artificially inflated equity
prices with high leverage. The average stock dropped 98.5%. It
reportedly took 100 years for markets to recover. In 1999 Edward
Chancellor published "Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial
Speculation." In 2002 Malcolm Balen authored “The Secret History of the
South Sea Bubble.”
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.B2)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)(WSJ,
6/1/99, p.A20)(Econ, 1/3/04, p.42)
1720 England passed a law that
prohibited the emigration of skilled craftsmen and the export of
machinery, models and plans.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R50)
1721 Apr 14, William Augustus duke
of Cumberland, English army leader ("Butcher of Culloden"), was born.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1721 Apr 26, The smallpox
vaccination was 1st administrated. Lady Mary Wortley Montegu had
returned to England following a stay in Turkey with her ambassador
husband. She had learned of a procedure to inoculate against smallpox
and began a campaign to have the procedure established.
(ON, 9/01, p.1)(MC, 4/26/02)
1721 Robert Walpole (1676-1745)
began serving as England’s first lord of the treasury and chancellor of
the exchequer. He shared power with John Carteret (later 1st Earl
Granville) until 1724 and with Townshend, whom he left in charge of
foreign affairs, until 1730. Thereafter his ascendancy was complete
until 1742.
(www.answers.com/topic/robert-walpole)
1722 Mar 29, Emanuel Swedenborg
(b.1688), Swedish scientist and clairvoyant, died in London. In 1744 he
entered into a spiritual phase in which he experienced dreams and
visions. The foundation of Swedenborg's theology was laid down in
“Arcana Cœlestia” (Heavenly Secrets), published in eight volumes from
1749 to 1756.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emanuel_Swedenborg)
1722 Apr 11, Christopher Smart,
English journalist and poet, was born.
(HN, 4/11/01)(MC, 4/11/02)
1722 Jun 16, John Churchill
(b.1650), first Duke of Marlborough, English military strategist, died.
In 2008 Richard Holmes authored “Marlborough: England’s Fragile Genius.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Churchill%2C_1st_Duke_of_Marlborough)(Econ,
6/21/08, p.99)
1722 Nov 7, Richard Steele's
"Conscious Lovers," premiered in London.
(MC, 11/7/01)
1722 Jonathon Swift, author and
pamphleteer, urged his fellow countrymen to boycott English goods and
"burn everything that came from England, except their people and their
Coals."
(SFEC, 12/22/96, zone1 p.6)
1722-1735 Britain’s PM Walpole built his Palladian
house in Norfolk.
(Econ, 2/10/07, p.89)
1723 Jul 10, William Blackstone
(d.1780), English jurist (Blackstone's Commentaries), was born in
England. He wrote that: "Husband and wife are one, and that one is the
husband." His "Commentaries on the Laws of England" were a dominant
source for the men who ratified the US Constitution.
(WUD, 1994, p.155)(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A15)(WSJ,
1/25/99, p.A19)(MC, 7/10/02)
1723 Jul 16, Sir Joshua Reynolds,
British portrait painter and first president of the royal Academy of
Arts, was born.
(HN, 7/16/98)
1723 Britain’s Black Act, under
the government of PM Robert Walpole, directed that anyone convicted of
blackening or disguising his face to hunt dear could be hanged.
(Econ, 2/10/07, p.89)
1723 Sir Christopher Wren
(b.1632), British astronomer and architect, died. He designed the
current St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. In 2003 Lisa Jardine authored
"On a Grander Scale: The Outstanding Life of Sir Christopher Wren."
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.14)(HN, 10/20/98)(SSFC, 2/2/03,
p.M1)
1724 Apr 1, Jonathan Swift
published Drapier's letters.
(OTD)
1724 Jun 8, John Smeaton, English
engineer, was born.
(HN, 6/8/01)
1724 Nov 16, Jack Sheppard,
English robber, was hanged.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1724 Dec 9, Colley Cibber's
"Caesar in Aegypt," premiered in London.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1724 Dec 24, Benjamin Franklin
arrived in London.
(MC, 12/24/01)
1724 Handel composed his operas
"Giulio Cesare" and "Tamerlano." The Julius Caesar opera premiered in
London. [see Mar 2 and Nov 11, 1725]
(LGC-HCS, p.41)(WSJ, 4/15/99, p.A20)(WSJ, 3/1/00,
p.A24)
1725 Mar 2, Georg F. Handel’s
opera "Giulio Cesare in Egitto" premiered in London.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1725 Oct 17, John Wilkes, English
journalist, was born. He became a MP, Lord Mayor of London and called
for independence of Britain's American colonies.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1725 Nov 11, Georg F. Handel's
opera "Tamerlano," premiered in London.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1725-1774 Sir Robert Clive, soldier of fortune. Known
as "Clive of India" he wrested Bengal away from the French on behalf of
the British East India Co. [see 1757]
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)
1725-1809 Paul Sandby, considered to be the father of
English watercolorists.
(Hem., 3/97, p.92)
1726 Bishop George Berkeley wrote
his poem: On the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America,
which included the line "Westward the course of empire takes its way."
The poem was written on behalf of a plan to build an English college in
Bermuda.
(SFC, 3/28/03, p.A3)
1727 Jan 2, James Wolfe, commanded
British Army (captured Quebec), was born.
(MC, 1/2/02)
1727 Mar 20, Sir Isaac Newton
(b.1642), physicist, mathematician and astronomer, died in London.
Michael White wrote the 1998 biography "Isaac Newton" in which he
revealed Newton’s passion for alchemy. In 2003 James Gleick authored
the biography "Isaac Newton."
(AP, 3/20/97)(WSJ, 2/19/98, p.A20)(SSFC, 6/1/03,
p.M1)
1727 May 14, Thomas Gainsborough
(d.1788), English painter, was born (baptized). His work included "The
Blue Boy."
(HN, 5/14/01)(AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994, p.579)(MC,
5/14/02)
1727 Aug 14, William Croft
(b.1678), English composer, died.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1727 Oct 11, George I died on a
journey to Hanover. George II became king of England.
(www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon53.html)
1727 The 1st English-language
recipe for "English Katchop" was published in "E. Smith's Compleat
Housewife, or Accomplished Gentlewoman's Companion."
(SFC, 8/27/03, p.E4)
1727 Georg Friedrich Handel,
German-born composer, became by act of Parliament a naturalized British
citizen.
(LGC-HCS, p.41)(AP, 4/14/97)(SFC, 9/16/97,
p.E1)(Econ, 3/21/09, p.89)
1728 Jan 29, The Beggar’s Opera by
John Gay (d.1732), with music arranged by John Christopher Pepusch, had
its premier at the Lincoln's Inn Fields in London. Gay intended it to
be a parody of Italian opera and a satirization of the Walpole
administration. He wrote new lyrics to popular tunes and his "ballad
opera" was a great success.
(LGC-HCS, p.45)(ON, 2/04, p.11)
1728 Feb 28, Georg F. Handel’s
opera "Siroe, re di Persia," premiered in London.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1728 May 4, Georg F. Handel's
opera "Tolomeo, re di Egitto," premiered in London.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1728 Oct 27, Captain James Cook
(d.1779), explorer, was born in a small village near Middlesbrough,
Yorkshire. He discoveries included the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cook)
1728 Ephraim Chambers (1680-1740)
produced his Cyclopedia, a popular British reference work. An expanded
French translation began in 1746.
(WSJ, 6/29/05,
p.D8)(www.nndb.com/people/027/000094742/)
1729 Jan 12, Edmund Burke
(d.1797), British politician and author, was born in Dublin. Burke
advocated consistent and sympathetic treatment of the American
colonies: "A very great part of the mischiefs that vex this world
arises from words."
(V.D.-H.K.p.224)(AP, 7/20/97)(AP,
11/29/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke)
1729 Jan 19, William Congreve
(58), English dramatist (Love for Love), died.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1730 May 13, Marquess of
Rockingham, British Prime Minister from 1765 to 1766 and 1782, was
born.
(HN, 5/13/99)
1730 May 15, Robert Walpole became
the sole minister in the English cabinet following the resignation of
Lord Townshend.
(HN, 5/15/99)
1730 Jul 12, Josiah Wedgwood
(d.1795), pottery designer, manufacturer (Wedgwood), was baptized in
Burslem, England.
(www.wedgwoodmuseum.org.uk/wedgwood_chronology.htm)
1730 Edward Scarlett, a London
optician, began anchoring eyeglasses to the ears with rigid side pieces
called temples.
(SFEC, 8/2/98, Z1 p.8)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R21)
1730s In Buckinghamshire, England,
the Palladian Bridge was built in the Stowe Landscape Gardens. Lancelot
"Capability Brown did the landscaping.
(SSFC, 3/16/03, p.C6)
1731 Apr 26, Daniel Defoe (~70),
English author, died. His work included the novels "Robinson Crusoe,"
"Roxana" and the pamphlet "The Shortest Way With Dissenters." In
1998 Richard West published the biography "Daniel Defoe: The Life and
Strange Surprising Adventures."
(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A12)(MC, 4/24/02)(MC, 4/26/02)
1731 Oct 10, Henry Cavendish,
English physicist, was born. He later discovered hydrogen.
(HN, 10/10/98)(MC, 10/10/01)
1731 Nov 15, William Cowper,
English lawyer and poet (John Gilpin), was born. [see Nov 26]
(MC, 11/15/01)
1731 Nov 26 William Cowper,
English pre-romantic poet (His Task), was born. [see Nov 15]
(MC, 11/26/01)
1731 A pioneering collection of
graffiti appeared in London titled: “The Merry-Thought: or, the
Glass-Window and Bog-House Miscellany.” The editor used the pseudonym
Hurlo Thrumbo.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.94)
1731-1800 William Cowper, English poet: "No man can
be a patriot on an empty stomach."
(AP, 11/28/99)
1731-1802 Erasmus Darwin, noted physician and
grandfather of biologists Charles Darwin and Francis Galton, explored
evolutionary concepts in his work "Zoonomia" or the "Laws of Organic
Life" that were related to those of French biologist Jean Baptiste
Lamarck. Darwin believed that species modified themselves to their
environment in a purposeful way. Combining 18th Century values of
materialism with simple observations, he is usually noted as a
transitional figure in evolutionary theory.
(HNQ, 9/14/00)
1732 Apr 13, Frederick Lord North,
British prime minister (1770-82) , was born.
(HN, 4/13/98)
1732 Dec 4, John Gay (47), English
poet (Beggar's Opera), died.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1732 Dec 6, Warren Hastings,
England, 1st governor-General of India (1773-84), was born.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1732 Dec 23, Richard Arkwright
(d.1792), English inventor (spinning frame) and industrialist, was born
into a poor family in Preston. He amassed one of the first factory
fortunes. He invented a water-powered cotton-spinning machine that
became the basis for huge cotton mills.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R4,8)(MC, 12/23/01)
1733 Mar 13, Joseph Priestley
(d.1804), English chemist, author and clergyman, was born. He is
credited with the discovery of oxygen.
(HN, 3/13/99)(WUD, 1994 p.1142)
1733 May 17, England passed the
Molasses Act, putting high tariffs on rum and molasses imported to the
colonies from a country other than British possessions.
(MC, 5/17/02)
1733 Voltaire authored his
"Lettres Anglaises" in which he hailed England as a "nation of
philosophers" and recognized the English Enlightenment.
(WSJ, 12/5/00, p.A24)
1733 John Bartram, American
farmer, began sending seed boxes from Philadelphia to Peter Collinson,
a London cloth merchant and passionate plant collector.
(WSJ, 4/25/09, p.W3)
1733 Gen. James Edward Oglethorpe
sailed up the Savannah River with 144 English men, women and children
and in the name of King George II chartered the Georgia Crown Colony.
He created the town of Savannah, to establish an ideal colony where
silk and wine would be produced, based on a grid of streets around six
large squares.
(SFC, 6/25/95, p.T-7)(SFEC,11/30/97, p.T4)
1735 Sep 22, Robert Walpole became
the 1st British PM to live at 10 Downing Street.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1735 William Hogarth made drawings
for "The Rake’s Progress."
(SFEC, 1/25/98, DB p.7)
1735 Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
translated a book on Abyssinia by a Portuguese Jesuit: “A Voyage to
Abyssinia.” In 1759 Johnson authored his prose fiction “The History of
Rasellas, Prince of Abissinia.” In the novel morality and happiness are
shown not as matters of simple alternatives but sometimes impossible
ones.
(www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_se/personal/cjmm/Rasselas.html)(http://tinyurl.com/ld7bp)
1735 Henry Fielding set up his own
theater company at the Little Theater in London's Haymarket. His 1st
production was Pasquin.
(ON, 9/03, p.8)
1735 In London, England, Col. Sir
Thomas De Veil began dispensing justice from a house on Bow Street. De
Veil was succeeded by Henry Fielding.
(SFC, 7/14/06, p.A2)
1736 Feb 19, Georg F. Handel's
"Alexander's Feast," premiered.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1736 May 26, British and Chickasaw
Indians defeated the French at the Battle of Ackia. In northwestern
Mississippi the Chickasaw Indians, supported by the British, defeated a
combined force of French soldiers and Chocktaw Indians, thus opening
the region to English settlement.
(AHD, 1971, p.11)(HN, 5/26/98)
1736 Aug 8, Mahomet Weyonomon, a
Mohegan sachem or leader, died of smallpox while waiting to see King
George II to complain directly about British settlers encroaching on
tribal lands in the Connecticut colony. The tribal chief was buried in
an unmarked grave in a south London churchyard.
(AP, 11/22/06)(http://tinyurl.com/ymbn3c)
1736 Henry Fielding presented his
play "The Historical Register for the Year 1736," a pointed attack on
the British government of PM Walpole.
(ON, 9/03, p.8)
1736 Britain’s Mortmain Act
(literally meaning 'dead hand') was introduced to protect the rights of
heirs and frustrate benefactors determined to disinherit their
families. It invalidated charitable gifts of land or buildings unless
they were made in the last year of the donor's life.
(www.pnnonline.org/article.php?sid=2398&mode=thread&order=0)
1736 Samuel Baldwin of Hampshire,
England, had his body cast into the ocean. He requested this so that
his wife could not carry out her threat to dance on his grave.
(SFEC, 11/14/99, Z1 p.2)
1737 Jan 29, Thomas Paine,
political essayist, was born in England and went on to write "The
Rights of Man" and "The Age of Reason." He lived his final years in
poverty and obscurity, and died June 8, 1809.
(HN, 1/29/99)(HNQ, 9/21/99)
1737 May, Sir Robert Walpole
argued for censorship of a play in the House of Commons of a satire
called "The Golden Rump." Walpole pressed through Parliament a
Licensing Act that lasted over 200 years.
(WSJ, 10/14/97, p.A22)(ON, 9/03, p.8)
1737 The English puppet opera “The
Dragon of Wantley” was written with music by John Frederick Lampe and
libretto by Henry Carey.
(ST, 5/20/04, p.C8)
1637 The Archbishop of Canterbury
launched an effort to revoke the charter of the Massachusetts Bay
Colony, but the boat carrying the English authorities sank on its way.
This period in Pilgrim and Puritan history was covered by Sarah Vowell
in “The Wordy Shipmates” (2008).
(WSJ, 11/25/08, p.A13)
1738 Jun 4, George III was born
(d.1820). He was the King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1760-1820,
and the King of Hanover from 1815-1820. He was responsible for losing
the American colonies. He passed the Royal Marriages Act, which made it
unlawful for his children to marry without his consent.
(HFA, '96, p.32)(AHD, 1971, p.552)(WSJ, 5/23/96,
p.A-10)
1738 Nov 15, Sir William Hershel,
British astronomer who discovered Uranus, was born.
(HN, 11/15/98)
1738 Dec 31, Charles Lord
Cornwallis (d.1805), soldier and statesman, was born. "Fire when ready
Gridley."
(MC, 12/31/01)
1739 Apr 10, Dick Turpin was
executed in England for horse stealing.
(MC, 4/10/02)
1739 Oct 17, King George II
granted Thomas Coram, retired sea captain, a royal charter to establish
"a hospital for the reception, maintenance and education of exposed and
deserted young children."
(ON, 9/02, p.8)
1739 Oct 19, England declared war
on Spain over borderlines in Florida. The War is known as the War of
Jenkins’ Ear because a member of Parliament waved a dried ear and
demanded revenge for alleged mistreatment of British sailors. British
seaman Robert Jenkins had his ear amputated following a 1731 barroom
brawl with a Spanish Customs guard in Havana and saved the ear in his
sea chest.
(EWH, 4th ed, p.555)(HN, 10/19/98)(PCh, 1992, p.292)
1739 Nov 22, Adm. Edward Vernon
captured the Spanish city of Portobello, Panama, with a force of 6
ships.
(PCh, 1992, p.292)
1740 Aug 1, Thomas Arne's song
"Rule Britannia," which celebrated Britain’s military and commercial
prowess, was performed for the 1st time. It grew to become the
unofficial anthem.
(HN, 8/1/98)(Econ, 2/3/07, SR p.3)
1740 Henry Fielding began working
as a lawyer and read "Pamela or Virtue Rewarded" by Samuel Richardson.
Fielding soon authored his satire "Shamela" in response.
(ON, 9/03, p.1)
1740s The domed Radcliffe Camera
at Oxford, designed by James Gibbs, was completed in the late 1740s.
(SSFC, 2/4/01, p.T8)
1740-1914 In 2001 Nicholas A. Brower authored
"British Campaign Furniture, Elegance Under Canvas, 1740-1914."
(SSFM, 4/1/01, p.47)
1741 Mar 4, English fleet under
Admiral Ogle reached Cartagena, Colombia.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1741 Mar 25, The London Foundling
Hospital opened in temporary accommodations in Hatton Garden following
extensive efforts by former sea captain Thomas Coram (1668-1751).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundling_Hospital)
1741 Sep 14, George Frederick
Handel (1685-1759) finished "Messiah" oratorio, after working on it in
London non-stop for 23 days. Messiah premiered April 13, 1742.
(LGC-HCS, p.41)(
http://www.gospelcom.net/chi/GLIMPSEF/Glimpses/glmps147.shtml)
1742 Jan 14, English astronomer
Edmond Halley, who observed the comet that now bears his name, died at
age 85. In 2005 Julie Wakefield authored “Halley’s Quest,” in which she
covered Halley’s travels to Brazil to map the Atlantic’s magnetic
declinations and hopefully solve the problem of calculating longitude.
(AP, 1/14/98)(WSJ, 12/20/05, p.D8)
1742 May 28, 1st indoor swimming
pool opened at Goodman's Fields, London.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1742 Nov 12, The British warship
Centurion, commanded by Commodore George Anson, sailed into Macao with
a crew of some 200 sick with scurvy.
(ON, 4/01, p.7)
1742 Henry Fielding authored his
novel "Joseph Andrews." It dealt seriously with moral issues using a
comic approach and was later regarded as a milestone in English
literature.
(ON, 9/03, p.1)
1742 Sir Robert Walpole resigned
from his duties as British prime minister in order to avoid impeachment.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Walpole)
1743 Mar 23, George Frideric
Handel's oratorio "Messiah" had its London premiere. During the
"Hallelujah Chorus," Britain's King George II, who was in attendance,
stood up — followed by the entire audience.
(AP, 3/23/08)
1743 Jun 20, The British warship
Centurion under Commodore George Anson engaged and overcame the Spanish
treasure galleon, Nuestra Senora de Covadonga, near the Philippines. 58
Spaniards were killed and 83 wounded. Anson captured over 1 million
Spanish silver dollars and 500 pounds of native silver.
(ON, 4/01, p.7)
1743 Jun 27, King George of the
English defeated the French at Dettingen, Bavaria. English armies were
victorious over the French at Dettingen. This event was celebrated by
Handel in his composition "Dettingen Te Deum."
(BLW, Geiringer, 1963 ed. p. 317)(HN, 6/27/98)
1743 Sep 13, England, Austria
& Savoye-Sardinia signed the Treaty of Worms.
(MC, 9/13/01)
1743 "Kitchup" was declared a
kitchen staple in a British housekeeper's guide. Fish, mushroom and
walnut emerged as the 3 main ketchups.
(SFC, 8/27/03, p.A1)
1743 Huguenots in Spitalfields,
England, who had fled persecution in France as Calvinists, built their
Nueve Eglise place of worship at Fournier Street and Brick Lane. Their
community lasted until 1809. The church was later inherited by
Methodists, followed by Jews and then Bangladesh Muslims.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.85)
1743 Gen’l. James Oglethorpe of
England departed Georgia following some small scandal.
(SFEC,11/30/97, p.T4)
1744 Feb 9, Battle at Toulon:
French-Spanish faced the English fleet of Adm. Matthews.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1744 Feb 21, The British blockade
of Toulon was broken by 27 French and Spanish warships attacking 29
British ships.
(HN, 2/21/98)
1744 Apr 4, Sarah Inglish was
arrested and convicted at the Old Bailey for stealing a cloak, three
linen aprons and about 7 yards of cloth from a home where she was
babysitting. She was sentenced to transport for a term of 7 years.
(SFEC, 10/27/96, p.T9)
1744 May 11, Elizabeth Robinson
and 2 other women were tried and convicted at the Old Bailey on charges
of stealing 104 imported China oranges from a grocer’s warehouse with
the intent to sell them. She was sentenced to transport for a term of 7
years. She was pregnant and gave birth on ship.
(SFEC, 10/27/96, p.T9)
1744 May, Jack Campbell, captain
of the Justicia, transported convicted British criminals to the US and
sold them as indentured servants.
(SFEC, 10/27/96, p.T10)
1744 Jun 15, The warship Centurion
under British Commodore George Anson returned to England with a
treasure valued at £800,000. In 1748 Anson authored "A voyage
Around the World."
(WSJ, 9/4/98, p.W12)
1744 Oct 4, The HMS Victory sank
in the English Channel with at least 900 men aboard. The 175-foot
sailing ship had separated from its fleet during a storm. In 2009
Odyssey Marine Exploration reported finding the vessel about 330 feet
beneath the surface and more than 50 miles from where anybody would
have thought it went down.
(AP, 2/1/09)
1744 Rules for cricket set the
wicket to wicket pitch at 22 yards. The 1727 Articles of Agreement had
set the distance at 23 yards.
(www.sca.org.au/laurels/cricket.htm)
1744 This was the era of London’s
gin fever.
(SFEC, 10/27/96, p.T9)
1745 Jan 8, England, Austria,
Saxony and the Netherlands formed an alliance against Russia.
(HN, 1/8/99)
1745 Jan, Handel’s oratorio
"Hercules," written in 1744, premiered at the King’s Theater in London.
The libretto was based on writings by Sophocles and Ovid.
(WSJ, 2/22/06, p.D12)(http://tinyurl.com/gdt6w)
1745 Feb 15, Colley Cibber's
"Papal Tyranny," premiered in London.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1745 Mar 18, Robert Walpole (68),
1st British premier (1721-42), died. In 2007 Edward Pearce authored
“The Great Man – Sir Robert Walpole: Scoundrel, Genius and Britain’s
First Prime Minister.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Walpole)(Econ,
2/10/07, p.89)
1745 May 11, French forces
defeated an Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian army at Fontenoy.
(HN, 5/11/98)
1745 Jun 16, English fleet
occupied Cape Breton on St. Lawrence River.
(MC, 6/16/02)
1745 Jul 23, Charles Stuart
(1720-1788), the Younger, and 7 companions landed at Eriskay Island, in
the Hebrides.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Edward_Stuart)
1745 Aug 31, Bonnie Prince Charlie
reached Blair Castle, Scotland.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1745 Sep 17, Edinburgh was
occupied by Jacobites under Young Pretenders.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1745 Sep 21, A Scottish Jacobite
army commanded by Lord George Murray routed the Royalist army of
General Sir John Cope at Prestonpans. At the Battle at Preston Pans
Bonnie Prince Charles beat the English army.
(HN, 9/21/98)(MC, 9/21/01)
1745 Sep 28, Bonnie Prince Charlie
became "king" of Scotland.
(MC, 9/28/01)
1745 Oct 19, Jonathan Swift
(b.1667), Irish born clergyman and English writer (Gulliver's Travels),
died. In 1963 Prof. Edward Rosenheim (1918-2005) authored “Swift and
the Satirist’s Art.” In 1999 Victoria Glendinning published the
biography: "Jonathan Swift: A Portrait."
(WUD, 1994, p.1437)(SFEC, 8/1/99, BR p.8)(SFC,
12/1/05, p.B7)
1745 Nov 11, Bonnie Prince
Charlie's army entered England.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1745 Nov 18, Bonnie Prince
Charlie's troops occupied Carlisle. [see Nov 29]
(MC, 11/18/01)
1745 Nov 29, Bonnie Prince
Charlie's army moved into Manchester and occupied Carlisle. [see Nov 18]
(MC, 11/29/01)
1745 Dec 4, Bonnie Prince Charles
reached Derby.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1745 Dec 6, Bonnie Prince
Charlie's army retreated to Scotland.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1745 Dec 31, Bonnie Prince
Charlie's army met with de Esk.
(MC, 12/31/01)
1745 William Hogarth made his
print series "Marriage A-la-Mode" in which he made fun of the new
social mobility.
(SFC, 1/28/98, p.E1)
1745-1833 Hannah More, English religious writer:
"The world does not require so much to be informed as reminded."
"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes
off the goal."
(AP, 4/28/97)(AP, 9/9/97)
1746 Jan 8, Bonnie Prince
Charlie's troops occupied Stirling. [see Jan 19]
(MC, 1/8/02)
1746 Jan 17, Charles Edward
Stuart, the young pretender, defeated the government forces at the
battle of Falkirk in Scotland.
(HN, 1/17/99)
1746 Jan 19, Bonnie Prince
Charlie's troops occupied Stirling. [see Jan 8]
(MC, 1/19/02)
1746 Apr 16, Bonnie Prince Charles
was defeated at the battle of Culloden, the last pitched battle fought
in Britain. King George II won the battle of Culloden. Bonnie Prince
Charlie used English rifleman and virtually annihilated the
sword-wielding, rebellious, Highlander clans of Scotland at Culloden.
It was the last major land battle fought on British soil. The Battle of
Culloden was a crushing defeat for Bonnie Prince Charlie and the
Highlander clans that backed him.
(PCh, 1992, p.297)(SFC, 6/25/95, p.T-7)(SFC,
12/4/96, p.B1)(SFEC,12/797, p.T4)(HN, 4/16/99)
1746 Jun 29, Bonnie Prince Charlie
fled in disguise to Isle of Skye.
(PC, 1992, p.297)
1746 William, the Duke of
Cumberland, led an English military force into Scotland to defeat the
rebels there.
(SFC, 10/14/00, p.B3)
1746 A consortium of London
publishers offered Samuel Johnson (36) a modest sum to compose a
dictionary of the English Language. He promised to do the job in 3
years, but didn’t finish the 1st edition until 1755.
(WSJ, 10/12/05, p.D13)
1747 Apr 9, Simon Fraser, 12th
baron Lovat (Jacobite), became the last man to be officially beheaded
in England.
(MC, 4/9/02)
1747 Jul 2, Marshall Saxe led the
French forces to victory over an Anglo-Dutch force under the Duke of
Cumberland at the Battle of Lauffeld.
(HN, 7/2/98)
1747 Dec 9, England and
Netherlands signed a military treaty.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1747 Mark Catesby, English
naturalist, used his 220 watercolors for etchings in his work on the
flora and fauna of North America. The paintings were purchased by
George III in 1768 and preserved in the Royal Library. In 1997 they
were reproduced in the book: "Mark Catesby’s Natural History of
America: Watercolors from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle" by
Henrietta McBurney.
(NH, 6/97, p.12)
1747 In Britain a tax was imposed
on carriages.
(SFC, 4/22/00, p.E3)
1748 Feb 15, Jeremy Bentham
(d.1832), philosopher, originator (Utilitarian), was born in London,
England.
(www.britannica.com)
1748 Mar 19, English
Naturalization Act was passed granting Jews right to colonize US.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1748 Apr 12, William Kent, English
sculptor, architect (Kensington Palace), died.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1748 British Commodore George
Anson published an account of his trip to China.
(WSJ, 9/4/98, p.W12)
1749 Feb 28, The 1st edition of
"The History of Tom Jones: A foundling" was published. Henry Fielding
(1707-1754) wrote the book and a film based on the novel was made in
1963. A TV production premiered in 1998.
(SFEM, 11/24/96, p.59)(SFC, 4/2/98, p.E1)(MC,
2/28/02)(ON, 9/03, p.9)
1749 May 19, George II granted a
charter to the Ohio Company to settle Ohio Valley.
(DTnet 5/19/97)
1749 Jul 20, Earl of Chesterfield
said: "Idleness is only refuge of weak minds."
(MC, 7/20/02)
1749 Henry Fielding (1707-1754)
wrote "Tom Jones." A film based on the novel was made in 1963. A TV
production premiered in 1998.
(SFEM, 11/24/96, p.59)(SFC, 4/2/98, p.E1)
1749 Henry Fielding, novelist and
former magistrate, commissioned a half dozen constables known as the
Bow Street Runners. The runners vanished in 1829 with the creation of
the Metropolitan Police, who established their headquarters at Scotland
Yard.
(SFC, 7/14/06, p.A2)
c1750 By this time the British
East India Company had gained virtual control of India.
(SFEC, 8/3/97, p.A15)
1751 Feb 16, Thomas Gray's poem
"Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard" was 1st published.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1751 Aug 24, Thomas Colley was
executed in England for drowning a supposed witch.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1751 Aug 31, English troops under
sir Robert Clive occupied Arcot, India.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1751 William Hogarth made his
print series "The Four Stages of Cruelty." It illustrated that
indulgence in vice caused corruption and cruelty.
(SFC, 1/28/98, p.E1)
1751 In England Henry Pelham’s
Whig government created the 3% consol. It paid 3% and consolidated the
terms on a variety of previous issues with no maturity date.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.105)
1751-1816 Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Irish-born
statesman and dramatist, spent most of life in England. His plays
included "The Rivals" and "the Critic." He also wrote the comic opera
"The Duenna." In 1998 Fintan O’Toole wrote the biography "A Traitor’s
Kiss: The Life of Richard Brinsley."
(SFEC, 11/1/98, BR p.4)(WSJ, 1/7/00, p.W4)
1752 Jun 13, Fanny Burney, English
writer, was born.
(HN, 6/13/01)
1752 Jul 20, John C. Pepusch (85),
English composer (Beggar's Opera), died.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1752 Sep 3, The Gregorian
Adjustment to the calendar was put into effect in Great Britain and the
American colonies followed. At this point in time 11 days needed to be
accounted for and Sept. 2 was selected to be followed by Sept. 14.
(K.I.-365D, p.97)(SFEC, 9/27/98, BR p.5)
1752 Nov
3, Georg Friedrich Handel underwent eye surgery to remove a cataract by
William Bromfield, Surgeon to the Princess of Wales, to restore his
sight. The operation was only a short-term success.
(http://gfhandel.org/)
1752 Nov 20, Thomas Chatterton
(d.1770), English poet (Christabel), was born. His early death marked
him as the "prototype of the fragile poet withered by the hostility of
philistines."
(WSJ, 1/15/98, p.A17)(MC, 11/20/01)
1752-1840 Fanny Burney, English writer. Her books
included "Evelina." In 1911 she underwent a mastectomy without
anesthesia. In 2001 Claire Harman authored the biography: "Fanny
Burney."
(SSFC, 12/23/01, p.M5)
1753 Mar 26, Benjamin Thompson
(d.1814), Count Rumford, English physicist and diplomat, was born. He
was a Tory spy in the American Revolution and discovered that heat
equaled motion, which led to the 2nd law of thermodynamics.
(WUD, 1994, p.1477)(WSJ, 7/28/98, p.A16)(SS, 3/26/02)
1753 Apr 5, British Museum formed.
It opened in 1759.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R53)(MC, 4/5/02)
1753 Jun 7, Britain's King George
II gave his assent to an Act of Parliament establishing the British
Museum [see Apr 5].
(AP, 6/7/04)
1753 Jul 7, English parliament
granted Jews English citizenship.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1753 Aug 3, Charles Earl Stanhope,
radical politician, scientist, was born in England.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1753 Aug 12, Thomas Bewick
(d.1828), artist (British Birds, Aesop's Fables) was born in England.
(http://www.nndb.com/people/067/000094782/)
1753 Oct 12, Sir Danvers Osborn
(b.1715), British colonial governor of New York, hanged himself 5 days
after arriving in NYC. His wife had recently died and the New York
assembly refused to support him in the style he felt his rank deserved.
(Econ, 1/12/08,
p.75)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danvers_Osborn)
1753 Dec 3, Samuel Crompton,
English inventor (mule-jenny spinning machine), was born.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1753 The observation by Dr. James
Lind, British naval surgeon, that fresh fruits and vegetables could
cure scurvy marked the beginning of nutritional epidemiology. He
conducted tests that showed the beneficial effects of lemons and
oranges in treating the disease.
(MT, Fall ‘96, p.4)(ON, 4/01, p.8)
1754 Sep 10, William Bligh, was
born. He was the British naval officer who was the victim of two
mutinies, the most famous on the HMS Bounty which was taken over by
Fletcher Christian in 1789.
(HN, 9/10/98)
1754 Oct 8, Henry Fielding
(b.1707), English lawyer and author, died at 47. He wrote "Tom Jones"
in 1749. A film based on the novel was made in 1963. A TV production
premiered in 1998.
(SFEM, 11/24/96, p.59)(SFC, 4/2/98, p.E1)(MC,
10/8/01)
1754 Thomas Chippendale published
the first English book on furniture designs. He was also an upholsterer
and a cabinetmaker.
(SFC,12/17/97, Z1 p.16)
1754 The Royal Society of Arts was
established in Britain. Its mission statement was: “the encouragement
of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, in Great Britain, by bestowing
Rewards, from Time to Time, for such Productions, Inventions, or
Improvements, as shall tend to the Employing of the Poor, to the
Increase of Trade, and to the Riches and Honour of this Kingdom, by the
Promoting Industry and Emulation.”
(www.adelphicharter.org/RSA_and_Intellectual_Property.asp)
1755 Feb 20, General Edward
Braddock arrived from Great Britain to assume command of British forces
in America and to lead the Virginia troops against the French and
Indians in the Ohio Valley.
(PCh, 1992, p.303)
1755 Apr 15, Dr. Samuel Johnson,
English writer, published his “Dictionary of the English Language,” a
selective English dictionary, after 9 years of work. The 1st edition
had 42,773 entries. In 2005 Henry Hitchings authored “Defining the
World,” an account of Johnson’s work.
(WSJ, 9/14/98, p.A30)(HN, 4/15/01)(WSJ, 10/12/05,
p.D13)
1755 Jun 14, In England work began
on a 2nd edition of Dr. Johnson's "Dictionary" for publication in
weekly installments.
(http://www.lib.washington.edu/Preservation/saveabook4.html)
1755 Jun 16, British captured Fort
Beausejour and expelled the Acadians. The Accadians of Nova Scotia were
uprooted by an English governor and forced to leave. Some 10,000 people
moved to destinations like Maine and Louisiana. Some moved to
Iles-de-la-Madeleine off Quebec. The Longfellow story "Evangeline" is
based on this displacement.
(SFEC, 8/22/99, p.T8,9)(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.C7)(MC,
6/16/02)
1755 Jul 5, Sarah Siddons
(d.1831), actress, was born at the Leg of Mutton Inn in Wales. She rose
to fame as a protégé of Richard Brinsley Sheridan at the
Drury Lane Theater and gained fame playing Lady Macbeth in Macbeth.
(HN, 7/5/98)(WSJ, 7/27/99, p.A21)
1755 Jul 6, John Flaxman, the
English sculptor who designed much of Wedgwood's original pottery, was
born.
(MC, 7/6/02)
1755 Jul 8, Britain broke off
diplomatic relations with France as their disputes in the New World
intensified.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1755 Jul 9, General Edward
Braddock was mortally wounded when French and Indian troops ambushed
his force of British regulars and colonial militia, which was on its
way to attack France's Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh). Gen. Braddock's
troops were decimated at Fort Duquesne, where he refused to accept
George Washington's advice on frontier style fighting. British Gen'l.
Braddock gave his bloody sash to George Washington at Fort Necessity
just before he died on Jul 13.
(A & IP, ESM, p.11)(HN, 7/9/98)(WSJ, 1/5/98,
p.A20)
1755 Jul 13, Edward Braddock (60),
British general, died following the July 9, 1755 battle at Fort
Duquesne (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). Out of the 1,400 British soldiers
who were in involved in the battle, 900 of them died. Future President
George Washington carried Braddock from the field and officiated at his
burial ceremony. The general was buried in a road his men had built.
The army then marched over the grave to obliterate any traces of it and
continued to eastern Pennsylvania. After the French and Indian War
(1754-1763), the Braddock Road remained a main road. In 1804, some
workmen discovered human remains in the road near where Braddock was
supposed to have been buried. The remains were re-interred on a small
knoll adjacent to the road. In 1913 the marker was placed there.
Braddock was born in Perthshire, Scotland, about 1695, the son of
Major-General Edward Braddock (died 1725).
(www.nps.gov/fone/braddock.htm)
1755 Sep 8, British forces under
William Johnson and 250 Indians defeated the French and their allied
Indians at the Battle of Lake George, NY.
(HN, 9/8/98)(SSFC, 4/23/06, p.G6)
1755 Oct 24, A British expedition
against the French held Fort Niagara in Canada ended in failure.
(HN, 10/24/98)
1755 William Russell Birch
(d.1834), artist, was born in Warwickshire. He settled in Philadelphia
with his son in 1794 and in 1800 published 28 drawn and engraved
hand-colored images of Philadelphia.
(SFC, 5/18/02, p.E6)
1755 The “last specimen” of a dodo
bird, a stuffed but rotted relic, was burned at the Ashmoleum Museum at
Oxford, England. Fortunately, someone removed the head and the foot of
the specimen and saved them. In 1996 by David Quammen authored
The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions. In
2003 Clara Pinto-Correia authored “Return of the Crazy Bird.” The
London Museum of natural History later displayed a mounted specimen of
Raphus cucullatus.
(www.complete-review.com/reviews/divsci/pintocc.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/c9zpyw)
1756 Mar 3, William Godwin
(d.1836), English philosopher, novelist, essayist, political writer
(Caleb Williams), was born. He was the husband of Mary Wollstonecraft.
Wordsworth as a young man was a follower of the radical philosopher
Godwin.
(WUD, 1994, p.606)(WSJ, 6/23/98, p.A18)(SC, 3/3/02)
1756 May 17, After a year and a
half of undeclared war Britain declared war on France, beginning the
French and Indian War. England hoped to conquer Canada. The final
defeat of the French came in 1763 with the British victory at the
Battle of Quebec on the Plains of Abraham.
(HN, 5/17/98)(HNPD,
9/13/98)(http://tinyurl.com/afbze)
1756 Jun 20, In India rebels
defeated the British army at Calcutta. British soldiers were imprisoned
in a suffocating cell that gained notoriety as the "Black Hole of
Calcutta." Most of them died. The exact circumstances of this incident,
such as the number of prisoners, originally put at 146, are disputed.
(HN, 6/20/98)(AP, 6/20/07)
1756 Aug 14, French commander
Louis Montcalm took Fort Oswego, New England, from the British.
(HN, 8/14/98)
1756 Aug 31, The British at Fort
William Henry, New England, surrendered to Louis Montcalm of France.
(HN, 8/31/98)
1756 Dec 6, British troops under
Robert Clive occupied Fulta, India.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1756 The British government gave
money to the London Foundling Hospital on condition that it accept all
children under two months old, with no questions asked. Many unwanted
babies soon began to arrive and some three-quarters of the 15,000
babies that reached the hospital died before the government ended its
support in 1760.
(Econ, 10/17/09, p.99)
1756-1763 The Seven Years War. France and Great
Britain clashed both in Europe and in North America. In 2000 "Crucible
of War" by Fred Anderson was published. France, Russia, Austria,
Saxony, Sweden and Spain stood against Britain, Prussia and Hanover.
Britain financed Prussia to block France in Europe while her manpower
was occupied in America.
(V.D.-H.K.p.223)(SFC, 7/7/96, BR p.7)(WSJ, 2/10/00,
p.A16)
1757 Jan 2, British troops
occupied Calcutta, India.
(MC, 1/2/02)
1757 Mar 14, John Byng (52),
British Admiral, was executed by a firing squad on board HMS Monarch
for neglect of duty. Early in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), Byng
was called on to relieve a British fort on the Mediterranean island of
Minorca which was being attacked by French forces. He was sent with a
small, undermanned fleet. Several ship were badly damaged in subsequent
skirmishes with the French, prompting Byng to turn back to Gibraltar.
The fort was eventually forced to capitulate. He was brought home,
court-martialled and executed for breach of Articles of War. In 2007
his descendants sought a posthumous pardon.
(HN, 3/14/99)(Reuters,
3/15/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Byng)
1757 Apr 6, English king George II
fired minister William Pitt, Sr.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1757 Jun 23, Forces of the East
India Company led by Robert Clive (1725-1774) defeated Indians at
Plassey and won control of Bengal. Lord Clive defeated Siraj-ud-daula,
the Nawab of Bengal and exacted a payment of $140 million from Moghul
ruler Mir Jafar and a Moghul title of nobility and rights to land
around Calcutta. This effectively marked the beginning of British
colonial rule in India. Clive served 2 terms as the governor of Bengal.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)(SSFM, 4/1/01, p.40)(AP, 6/23/07)
1757 Jul 26, Benjamin Franklin
(51) arrived in London and soon established himself at a house on
Craven Street, which served as home, except for 2 intervals, for the
next 16 years.
(Sm, 3/06, p.98)
1757 Aug 9, English Ft. William
Henry, NY, surrendered to French and Indian troops.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1757 Nov 28, William Blake
(1757-1827), English artist-printer, was born in London. He wrote
"Songs of Innocence" and "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell." His last
book was "Jerusalem," of which he made only five copies. In 1996 Peter
Ackroyd published : "Blake: A Biography."
(LSA,Spg,1995,p.17)(WUD,1994,p.155)(WSJ,4/9/96,p.A16)(WSJ,4/2397,p.A16)(HN,
11/28/98)
1757 Benjamin Franklin sailed for
England. He spent almost two decades there as colonial agent, a
combination lobbyist, ambassador, and banker, for Pennsylvania and,
eventually Georgia, New Jersey and Massachusetts. He lived in London at
36 Craven St.
(WSJ, 8/8/95, p. A12)(USAT, 9/22/03, p.16A)
1758 Jun 23, British and
Hanoverian armies defeated the French at Krefeld in Germany.
(HN, 6/23/98)
1758 Jul 8, During the French and
Indian War a British attack on Fort Carillon at Ticonderoga, New York,
was foiled by the French. Some 3,500 Frenchmen defeated the British
army of 15,000, which lost 2,000 men.
(HN, 7/8/98)(AH, 10/02, p.27)
1758 Jul 26, British battle fleet
under Gen. James Wolfe captured France's Fortress of Louisbourg on Ile
Royale (Capre Breton Island, Nova Scotia) after a 7-week siege, thus
gaining control of the entrance to the Saint Lawrence River.
(HN, 7/26/98)(MC, 7/26/02)
1758 Sep 18, James Abercromby
[was] replaced as supreme commander of British forces after his defeat
by French commander, the Marquis of Montcalm, at Fort Ticonderoga
during the French and Indian War.
(HN, 9/18/98)
1758 Sep 29, Horatio Nelson
(d.1805), British naval commander who defeated the French and her
allies on numerous occasions during the age of Napoleon, was born in
Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk. He was made post-captain at the young age of
21. Nelson died at the moment of his greatest victory at the Battle of
Trafalgar. Although a national hero, he displayed common human frailty.
His colorful private life, coupled with his genius and daring as a
naval commander, seem to make the Nelson story irresistible to every
generation.
(AP, 9/29/97)(HN, 9/29/98)(HNQ, 6/3/01)
1759 Apr 14, Georg Friedrich
Handel (74), German-born composer, died in London. He had
composed some 30 oratorios.
(LGC-HCS, p.41)(AP, 4/14/97)(SFC, 9/16/97, p.E1)
1759 Apr 23, British seized
Basse-Terre and Guadeloupe in the Antilies from France.
(HN, 4/23/99)
1759 Apr 27, Mary Wollstonecraft
Godwin (d.1797), English writer, feminist (Female Reader), was born.
"The mind will ever be unstable that has only prejudices to rest on,
and the current will run with destructive fury when there are no
barriers to break its force."
(AP, 11/10/97)(MC, 4/27/02)
1759 May 1, British fleet occupied
Guadeloupe, in the West Indies. [see Apr 23]
(MC, 5/1/02)
1759 May 26, Mary Wollstonecraft
Godwin, writer, mother of Mary Shelley, was born.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1759 May 28, William Pitt the
Younger, prime minister of England from 1783-1801, was born. He has
been considered England's greatest prime minister.
(HN, 5/28/99)
1759 Jul 25, British forces
defeated a French army at Fort Niagara in Canada. During their 7 Years'
War.
(HN, 7/25/98)(SC, 7/25/02)
1759 Jul 26, The French
relinquished Fort Carillon in New York, to the British under General
Jeffrey Amherst. The British changed the name to Fort Ticonderoga, from
the Iroquois word Cheonderoga (land between the waters).
(HN, 7/26/98)(AH, 10/02, p.26)
1759 Aug 1, British and Hanoverian
armies defeated the French at the Battle of Minden, Germany. The
marquis de Lafayette was killed by a British cannonball and his son,
Gilbert du Motier (2), inherited the title. In 1777 Lafayette joined
the American Continental Army.
(HN, 8/1/98)(ON, 2/09, p.1)
1759 Aug 18, The French fleet was
destroyed by the British under "Old Dreadnought" Boscawen at the battle
of Lagos Bay.
(HN, 8/18/98)
1759 Aug 24, William Wilberforce
(d.1833), was born in Hull, Yorkshire, England. He became best known
for his efforts relating to the abolition of slavery in the British
Empire.
(www.nndb.com/people/824/000049677/)(HNQ, 12/6/02)
1759 Sep 13, During the final
French and Indian War, the Battle of Quebec [Canada] was fought.
British Gen. James Wolfe’s army defeated Commander Louis Joseph de
Montcalm’s French forces on the Plains of Abraham overlooking Quebec
City. "Measured by the numbers engaged," wrote historian Francis
Parkman, the Battle of Quebec "was but a heavy skirmish; measured by
results, it was one of the great battles of the world." Fought on the
rainy morning of September 13, 1759, the armies of England and France
clashed outside the walls of Quebec City and altered the balance of
power of an entire continent. The battle on the Plains of Abraham
lasted less than half an hour. By the time the rain had washed away the
blood, Quebec had surrendered to the British. Four years later, the
Treaty of Paris gave England sole dominion over most of the land that
Quebec City had governed, from Cape Breton Island in the Gulf of St.
Lawrence to the Mississippi River.
(CFA, '96, p.54)(SFC, 7/7/96, BR p.7)(AP,
9/13/97)(HNQ, 9/8/98)
1759 Sep 18, Quebec surrendered to
the British after a battle which saw the deaths of both James Wolfe and
Louis Montcalm, the British and French commanders.
(AP, 9/18/97)(HN, 9/18/98)
1759 Samuel Johnson (1709-1784),
English lexicographer, authored his novel “History of Rasselas,” on the
elusive nature of happiness.
(WSJ, 9/18/08, p.A23)
1759 John Smeaton built the
Eddystone Lighthouse near Plymouth, England. It was the 3rd one erected
at the site over 60 years.
(WSJ, 6/27/00, p.A28)(ON, 5/06, p.5)
1759 Dr. Samuel Johnson denounced
advertisements as over exaggerated and false.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
1759 Britain triumphed over France
in the naval victory at Quiberon Bay.
(WSJ, 3/14/00, p.A28)
1759 A group of 9 English
merchants launched a new ironworks in Dowlais, Wales, using the regions
abundant coal. By 1902 the firm, known as Guest, Keen & Nettlefolds
Ltd., was the world's largest producer of nails. By 2004 GKN PLC had
become a major auto parts supplier and had a new aerospace division. In
1987 Edgar Jones authored "A History of GKN." Volume 2 was published in
1990.
(WSJ, 3/16/04, p.A1,8)
1759 Josiah Wedgwood opened his
first factory in Stoke-on-Trent, central England. It began making bone
china in the 19th century.
(SFC, 2/22/06, p.G6)(AP, 1/4/09)
1760 Apr 6, Charlotte Charke
(b.1713), actress and writer, died. In 2005 Kathryn Shevelow authored
“Charlotte: Being a True Account of an Actress’s Flamboyant Adventures
in Eighteenth-Century London’s Wild and Wicked Theatrical World.”
(SSFC, 4/3/05, p.F3)(http://tinyurl.com/5jnfh)
1760 Apr 16, In England Laurence,
4th Earl Ferrers, was executed for the murder of his steward. [see May
5]
(MC, 4/16/02)
1760 Apr 28, French forces
besieging Quebec defeated the British in the second battle on the
Plains of Abraham.
(HN, 4/28/98)
1760 May 5, The fourth Earl
Ferrers was driven from the Tower of London to be hanged as a felon,
the last English nobleman to be executed this way.
(HN, 5/5/99)
1760 Sep 8, The French surrendered
the city of Montreal to the British. [see Sep 18, 1759]
(HN, 9/8/98)
1760 Oct 25, George II (August),
king of Great-Britain (1727-60), died at 76.
(MC, 10/25/01)
1760 Oct 25, King George III of
Britain was crowned. He succeeded his late grandfather, George II and
ruled until 1820. With the rule of George III the civil list
(government officers, judges, ambassadors and royal staff) was paid by
the Parliament in return for the king's surrender of the hereditary
revenues of the crown.
(AHD, 1971, p.552)(AP, 10/25/97)(HN, 10/25/01)
1760 Nov 29, Major Roger Rogers
took possession of Detroit on behalf of Britain. French commandant
Belotre surrendered Detroit.
(HN, 11/29/98)(MC, 11/29/01)
1760 Thomas Gainsborough
(1727-1788), English artist, painted a portrait of Ann Ford playing a
musical instrument with her legs crossed.
(WSJ, 12/19/02, p.D10)
1760 The British government ended
its support for the London Foundling Hospital.
(Econ, 10/17/09, p.99)
1760-1820 George III, King of England and Ireland.
[see 1738]
(HFA, '96, p.32)(AHD, 1971, p.552)(WSJ, 5/23/96,
p.A-10)
1761 Feb 3, Richard Nash (b.1674),
the “Master of Ceremonies” for Bath, England, died. Celebrated author,
Oliver Goldsmith wrote “The Life of Richard Nash” in 1762. In 2005 John
Eglin authored “The Imaginary Autocrat: Beau Nash and the Invention of
Bath.”
(Econ, 6/18/05,
p.81)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beau_Nash)
1761 Apr 17, Thomas Bayes
(b.1702), English theologian and mathematician, died. He established a
mathematical basis for probability inference based on sparse data.
Sampling from a large population (the frequentist school) came to
dominate the field in the modern era. In 2006 researchers suggested
that the human brain might work in a Bayesian manner drawing strong
inferences from sparse data.
(www.britannica.com)(Econ, 1/7/06, p.70)
1761 Jul 4, Samuel Richardson,
English novelist, died at 72 in London.
(WUD, 1994, p.1231)
1761 Sep 21, King George III of
England was crowned. George was German and had been Elector of Hanover.
Coincidentally, the composer Handel, who was working in London when
King George was crowned, had gone to London after skipping out on his
last job...working for George in Hanover. Fortunately for Handel, King
George forgave him.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1761 In western North Carolina
British soldiers razed Kituwha, the heart of the Cherokee Nation.
Punitive raids here were repeated in 1776.
(Arch, 9/02, p.70)
1762 Feb 2, Thomas Arne's opera
"Ataxerxes," premiered in London.
(MC, 2/2/02)
1762 Jun 5, English
parliamentarian John Wilkes began publishing his North Briton journal.
(www.lib.monash.edu.au/exhibitions/recent/xrecent.html)
1762 Aug 12, George IV, King of
England (1820-1830), was born. He was named Prince Regent in 1810 when
his father was declared insane.
(HN, 8/12/98)(WSJ, 4/5/02, p.W12)
1762 Aug 12, The British captured
Cuba from Spain after a two month siege.
(HN, 8/12/98)
1762 Oct 5, The British fleet
bombarded and captured Spanish-held Manila in the Philippines.
(HN, 10/5/98)
1762 Nov 1, Spencer Perceval,
British Prime Minister, was born.
(HN, 11/1/98)
1762 Barings PLC, a British
banking firm was founded [1763 also given]. It later financed the
Louisiana Purchase [1803] and provided economic counseling to Queen
Elizabeth II. The operation went bust in 1995.
(WSJ, 2/27/95, p.A-10)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1762-1763 James Boswell experienced his 1st extended
trip to London. His "London Journal" later recounted his meeting with
Samuel Johnson numerous amorous affairs.
(WSJ, 11/29/00, p.A24)
1763 Feb 10, Britain, Spain and
France signed the Treaty of Paris ending the Seven Years’ War, aka the
French-Indian War. France ceded Canada to England and gave up all her
territories in the New World except New Orleans and a few scattered
islands including St. Pierre and Miquelon off the coast of
Newfoundland.
(HN, 2/10/97)(AP, 2/10/97)(AP, 2/10/08)(AH, 2/06,
p.55)
1763 Apr 23, John Wilkes published
issue No. 45 of his North Briton newspaper. His attacks on the
government upset King George III and led to Wilkes’ prosecution for
seditious libel.
(www.eastlondonhistory.com/wilkes.htm)
1763 May 16, The English
lexicographer, author and wit Samuel Johnson first met his future
biographer, James Boswell.
(AP, 5/16/97)
1763 Oct 7, George III of Great
Britain issued a royal proclamation reserving for the crown the right
to acquire land from western tribes. This closed lands in North America
north and west of Alleghenies to white settlement and ended the
acquisition efforts of colonial land syndicates. The Royal Proclamation
of 1763 guaranteed Indian rights to land and self-government.
(www.bloorstreet.com/200block/rp1763.htm)(SSFC,
8/29/04, p.M5)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.46)
1763 Nov 16, John Wilkes (b.1725),
English journalist, MP, and friend of American Colonies, was injured in
duel. John Wilkes’ protest of the Treaty of Paris of 1763 appeared in
The North Briton No. 45. Silversmith and legendary Patriot Paul Revere
crafted his Liberty Bowl to commemorate the two "Patriotic numbers" 92
and 45. The bowl, which weighed 45 ounces and held 45 gills, was
inscribed with "Ninety-Two." The numbers had special significance to
American Patriots, representing resistance to British taxation. The
Massachusetts colonial assembly voted in 1768 92-17 to refuse British
demands for repeal the Massachusetts Circular Letter, which had been
penned by Samuel Adams in protest of the Townshend Revenue Act.
Reference to the numbers 92 and 45 in songs and toasts helped solidify
opposition throughout the 13 colonies.
(MC, 11/16/01)(HNQ, 3/19/99)
1763 Mary Saunders (16), a
servant, killed her boss with a cleaver. In 2001 the novel "Slammerkin"
by Emma Donoghue was based on this event.
(WSJ, 6/22/01, p.W12)
1764 Feb 21, John Wilkes was
expelled from the English House of Commons for his "Essay on Women."
(MC, 2/21/02)
1764 Mar 13, Charles Earl Grey
(Whig), British Prime Minister (1830-1834), was born.
(HN, 3/13/98)(MC, 3/13/02)
1764 Apr 3, John Abernethy,
surgeon, was born in London.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1764 Apr 19, The English
Parliament banned the American colonies from printing paper money.
(HN, 4/19/97)
1764 Horace Walpole (1717-1797),
son of Sir Robert Walpole and 4th earl of Orford, authored "The Castle
of Otranto," the 1st gothic novel.
(WUD, 1994 p.1607)(SSFC, 8/11/02, p.M1)
1765 Mar 22, Britain enacted the
Stamp Act to raise money from the American Colonies. This was the first
direct British tax on the colonists. The Act was repealed the following
year. The tax covered just about everything produced by the American
colonists and began the decade of crisis that led to the American
Revolution. The Stamp Act taxed the legal documents of the American
colonists and infuriated John Adams.
(AP, 3/22/97)(HN, 3/22/97)(A&IP, p.13,18)
1765 Mar 24, Britain enacted the
Quartering Act, requiring American colonists to provide temporary
housing to 10,000 British soldiers in public and private buildings.
(AP, 3/23/97)(HN, 3/24/98)
1765 Apr 5, Edward Young (81),
English poet (Love of Fame), died.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1765 May 7, Adm. Nelson's flagship
HMS Victory ran aground.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1765 Jul 16, Prime Minister of
England Lord Greenville resigned and was replaced by Lord Rockingham.
(HN, 7/16/98)
1765 Aug 21, William IV (d.1837),
king of England (1830-37) the "sailor king," was born.
(WSJ, 4/27/00, p.A24)(SC, 8/21/02)
1765 Oct 20, William August (44)
duke of Cumberland, English supreme commander, died. [see Oct 31]
(MC, 10/20/01)
1765 Oct 31, Duke of Cumberland,
English politician and general, died. He butchered Scots at Culloden.
[see Oct 20]
(MC, 10/31/01)
1765 Nov 1, The Stamp Act went
into effect, prompting stiff resistance from American colonists.
(AP, 11/1/97)(HN, 11/1/98)
1765 Nov 23, Frederick County,
Md., became the first colonial entity to repudiate the British Stamp
Act.
(AP, 11/23/07)
c1765 A group of men began meeting
at one another’s houses in Birmingham, England, and helped develop over
time new technologies that helped transform England to an industrial
power; they included Josiah Wedgwood, Erasmus Darwin, Matthew Boulton,
James Watt, and Joseph Priestley. In 2002 Jenny Uglow authored "The
Lunar Men," and account of their work.
(WSJ, 11/14/02, p.D6)
1765 John Taylor and Sampson Lloyd
established a bank in Birmingham that grew to become Britain’s Lloyds
TSB.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.105)
1765 Scotsman James Watt further
refined Thomas Newcomen’s piston system steam engine innovation by
adding a separate condenser. Watt took out a patent on his improved
engine in 1769.
(HNQ, 1/18/01)
1765 James Smithson (d.1829),
English scientist, was born. He bequeathed his entire estate to the
United States to found an establishment for the increase and diffusion
of knowledge, to be named the Smithsonian Institution. Smithson had the
mineral smithsonite (carbonate of zinc) named for him. Alexander Graham
Bell, scientist and inventor, escorted the remains of James Smithson,
founder of the Smithsonian Institution, to the United States in 1904
for interment in the original Smithsonian building.
(HNQ, 6/26/99)
1766 Jan 1, James Francis Edward
Stuart (b.1688), son of James III, died. The English prince was known
as the Old Pretender.
(HN, 1/1/99)(WUD, 1994 ed., p.1410)
1766 Jan, Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
philosopher and writer, arrived in London with Theresa Levasseur, his
governess and mistress. He was able to receive a modest pension from
George III.
(WSJ, 2/18/97, p.A18)
1766 Feb 13, Thomas Robert Malthus
(d.1834), English economist, population expert (Law of Malthus), was
born.
(V.D.-H.K.p.253)(Internet)
1766 Feb 24, Samuel Wesley
(d.1837), composer, organist (Exultate Deo), was born in Bristol,
England. He studied, played, and preached Bach.
(LGC-HCS, p.32)(MC, 2/24/02)
1766 Mar 18, Britain repealed the
Stamp Act of 1765.
(AP, 3/18/97)(PCh, 1992, p.311)
1766 Dec 5, London auctioneers
Christie's held their 1st sale. The British auction house Christie’s
was sold in 1998 to Francois Pinault, a French businessman and art
collector.
(HT, 3/97, p.74)(WSJ, 5/15/98, p.W12)(WSJ, 5/19/98,
p.B10)(MC, 12/5/01)
1766 In London the first paved
sidewalk was laid at Westminster.
(SFC, 7/14/99, p.3)
1766 Henry Cavendish isolated
hydrogen during experiments with H2O in England.
(NH, 7/02, p.32)
1766-1841 Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin. He
arranged for the 5th century BCE frieze sculpture of the Greek
Parthenon, supposedly made under Phidias, to be sold to the British
Museum for 35,000 pounds. This was arranged when Greece was under
Ottoman rule. The marbles, originally painted, were unwittingly cleaned
in the 1930s and their original patina removed.
(SFC, 6/19/98, p.A12)(WUD, 1994, p.463)
1766-1848 Isaac D'Israeli, English author: "The wise
make proverbs and fools repeat them."
(AP, 2/26/00)
1767 May 14, British government
disbanded the import duty on tea in America.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1767 Jun 29, The British
Parliament approved the Townshend Revenue Acts, sponsored by statesman
Charles Townshend (1725-1767), which imposed import duties on glass,
lead, paint, paper and tea shipped to America. Colonists bitterly
protested, prompting Parliament in 1770 to repeal the duties on all
goods, except tea.
(WUD, 1994, p.1499)(HN, 6/29/98)(AP, 6/29/07)
1767 Dec 8, In a London, England,
cemetery: Ann Mann: Here lies Ann Mann, Who lived an old maid But died
an old Mann.
(e-mail, 5/16/99)
1767 Robert Clive returned from
India to England with a huge fortune and was accused of embezzlement.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)
1767 English slave traders
captured 2 native nobles, Little Ephraim Robin John and Ancona Robin
Robin John on the west coast of Africa and took them in chains to
Dominica. They soon escaped but were resold into slavery in Virginia.
Some 4 years later they were taken to England and again resold and
returned to Virginia. They later made it back to their home on the
Calabar River (SE Nigeria) and became slave merchants themselves. In
2004 Randy J. Sparks authored “The Princes of Calabar.”
(WSJ, 5/21/04, p.W4)
1767 George Hodgeson, British
entrepreneur, cut a deal with the East India Company to start providing
beer to the British Civil-service and merchant classes in the India
colonies. He doubled the hop content to help preserve the beer on its
long voyage.
(WSJ, 8/13/04, p.W6)
1767-1849 Maria Edgeworth, English novelist: "A
straight line is the shortest in morals as in mathematics."
(AP, 6/25/99)
1768 Jan 9, English cavalry
sergeant Philip Astley staged the first modern circus, performing
elaborate feats on the backs of horses racing around a ring.
(MC, 1/9/02)
1768 May 10, The imprisonment of
the journalist John Wilkes as an outlaw provoked violence in London,
England. Wilkes was returned to parliament as a member for Middlesex.
(HN, 5/10/99)
1768 Aug 26, Capt James Cook
departed from Plymouth with Endeavour to the Pacific Ocean. Daniel
Solander and Joseph Banks accompanied Cook to catalog plants and
animals of Australia and New Zealand on the 3-year journey.
(www.artstor.org/what-is-artstor/w-html/col-endeavour-london.shtml)(SSFC,
4/19/09, Books p.J7)
1768 Oct 1, English troops under
general Gage landed in Boston.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1768 The 1st four day royal
meeting was held at the Royal Ascot track west of London. Horse racing
there had begun in 1711.
(SFC, 6/21/06,
p.A2)(www.icons.org.uk/nom/nominations/royal-ascot)
1768 Seamen in London formed a
union and imposed a port strike that virtually halted all shipping.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R27)
1768 British academicians formed
the Royal Academy of Arts. In 2006 James Fenton authored “School of
Genius: A History of the Royal Academy of Arts.”
(Econ, 4/22/06, p.81)
c1768 William Smellie, a young
Edinburgh botanist, was given the task of editing the first edition of
the Encyclopedia Britannica.
(NH, 5/96, p.3)(WSJ, 4/22/99, A1)
1768-1771 Capt. James Cook charted the coasts of both
the north and south islands of New Zealand and Australia. Cook made his
historic voyages in colliers, slow but strong ships designed primarily
for carrying coal. His ship was named the Endeavour. Cook's voyage to
Australia kept a botanical record called the Banks Florilegium. The 738
original plates commissioned by Sir Joseph Banks was not printed until
a 100 set limited edition in 1989.
(SFC, 6/18/96, p.D1)(WSJ, 10/5/99, p.A24)
1769 Apr 24, Arthur Wellesley,
general, Duke of Wellington, was born. [see May 1]
(HN, 4/24/98)
1769 May 1,
Arthur Wellsley, Duke of Wellington "Iron Duke," was born. He defeated
Napoleon at Waterloo and later became the British prime minister
(1828-30). [see Apr 24]
(HN, 5/1/99)(MC, 5/1/02)
1769 The Swinford toll bridge in
Oxfordshire was built across the River Thames. In 2009 it was up for
auction offering buyers a tax-free investment with a bit of historic
charm. It has been free of income tax since the 18th century, when
Parliament granted ownership of the bridge and its tolls to the Earl of
Abingdon and "to his heirs and assignees for ever."
(AP, 11/18/09)
1770 March 5, British troops
taunted by a crowd of colonists fired on an unruly mob in Boston and
killed five citizens in what came to be known as the Boston Massacre.
The fracas between a few angry Boston men and one British sentry ended
with five men dead or dying in the icy street corner of King Street and
Shrimton’s Lane. Captain Thomas Preston did not order the eight British
soldiers under his command to fire into the hostile crowd. The nervous
soldiers claimed to be confused by shouts of "Why do you not fire?"
coming from all sides. Versions of the event rapidly circulated through
the colonies, bolstering public support for the Patriot cause. The
British Captain Preston and seven soldiers were defended by John Adams.
The captain and five of the soldiers were acquitted, the other two
soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter and were branded on the hand
with a hot iron. The first colonist killed in the American Revolution
was the former slave, Crispus Attucks, shot by the British at the
Boston Massacre. The event was later illustrated by Boston engraver
Paul Revere.
(HFA, '96, p.26)(A&IP, Miers, p.18)(SFC,
12/18/96, p.A25)(AP, 3/5/98)(HN, 3/5/98)(HNPD, 3/5/99)(WSJ, 4/12/08,
p.W14)
1770 Apr 7, William Wordsworth,
English poet laureate, was born. He wrote "The Prelude" and "Lyrical
Ballads." In 1998 Kenneth R. Johnston published "The Hidden Wordsworth:
Poet, Lover, Rebel, Spy." The biography covered the first 30 years of
the poet’s life. In 1896 Emile Legouis also published a biography of
the poet’s youth. The poet was responsible for such phrases as: "love
of nature," "love of man," and "emotion recollected in tranquility."
(V.D.-H.K.p.230) (WSJ, 6/23/98, p.A18)(SFEC,
8/23/98, BR p.5)(HN, 4/7/99)
1770 Apr 11, George Canning,
British prime minister (1827) , was born.
(HN, 4/11/98)
1770 Apr 12, British Parliament
repealed the 1967 [Townshend] Townsend Acts that put duties on certain
products imported to the US.
(WUD, 1994, p.1499)(HN, 4/12/98)
1770 Jun 7, Earl of Liverpool, (C)
British PM (1812-27), was born.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1770 Jun 11, Capt. James Cook,
commander of the British ship Endeavour, discovered the Great Barrier
Reef off Australia by running onto it.
(AP, 6/11/97)(HN, 6/11/98)
1770 Aug 24, Thomas Chatterton
(b.1752), English poet (Revenge), committed suicide.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1770 Nov 13, George Grenville
(58), British premier (1763-65), Stamp Act, died.
(MC, 11/13/01)
1770 George Stubbs, Britain’s
finest painter of animals, did a portrait of the Duke of Richmond’s
imported yearling bull moose. It was commissioned by anatomist William
Hunter (1718-1783) to see if the moose was related to the fossil Irish
giant deer.
(NH, 8/96, p.17)
1770s Shakers originated in
England as the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second
Appearance.
(SFC, 6/21/01, p.C2)
1771 Apr 13, Richard Trevithick,
inventor of the steam locomotive, was born in Cornwall, England.
(ON, 4/04, p.4)
1771 May 14, Robert Owen, English
factory owner, socialist, was born.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1771 May 14, Thomas Wedgwood,
English physicist, was born. He is acknowledged as the first
photographer.
(HN, 5/14/99)
1771 Jun 3, Sydney Smith,
preacher, reformer, author, was born in Woodford, Essex.
(MC, 6/3/02)
1771 Jul 12, James Cook sailed
Endeavour back to Downs, England.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1771 Jul 30, Thomas Gray (54),
English poet, died. His work included "Elegy Written in a Country
Church Yard" (1751).
(MC, 7/30/02)
1771 Britain’s Parliament named
Benjamin Franklin to a committee to investigate how lightning rods
might help protect gunpowder.
(WSJ, 8/15/05, p.D8)
1771 By this time some 50,000
British convicts were dumped on American shores. Most of them came from
Middlesex, the county that includes London.
(SFEC, 10/27/96, p.T9)
1771 A group of 79 underwriters
established their Society of Lloyd's, Lloyd's of London, at the Lloyd's
coffee shop.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.89)
1771 Joseph Priestley, English
minister, grasped the rudiments of the carbon cycle after his
experiments showed that mint in a sealed jar refreshed the air.
(NG, Feb, 04, p.28)
1772 May 10, British Parliament
passed the Tea Act, taxing all tea in the colonies. [see Apr 27, 1973]
(HN, 5/10/98)
1772 May 20, William Congreve
(d.1828), English officer (design fire rocket), was born.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1772 Jun 9, The 1st naval attack
of Revolutionary War took place when residents of Providence, RI.,
stormed the British revenue cutter HMS Gaspee, burned it to the
waterline and shot the captain.
(WSJ, 6/24/03, p.A1)
1772 Jun 22, Slavery was in effect
outlawed in England by Chief Justice William Murray, First Earl of
Mansfield, following the trial of James Somersett. In 2005 Steven Wise
authored “Though the Heavens May Fall: The Landmark Trial that Led to
the End of Human Slavery.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somersett%27s_Case)(Econ, 2/5/05,
p.76)(ON, 12/08, p.9)
1772 Jul 13, Capt James Cook began
a 2nd trip on the ship Resolution to South Seas.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1772 Oct 21, Samuel Taylor
Coleridge (d.1834), English poet and author, was born. His work
included "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (1797) and "Kubla Khan."
(AP, 9/12/97)(HN, 10/21/00)
1772 Shoelaces were invented in
England.
(SFC, 8/28/98, p.B4)
1772-1823 David Ricardo, English Economist and
stockbroker. He postulated that landlords become rich at the expense of
society.
(V.D.-H.K.p.253)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R20)
1773 Apr 6, James Mill (d.1836),
English philosopher, historian (Hist of British India) and economist,
was born in Scotland.
(V.D.-H.K.p.253)(WUD, 1994 p.909)(MC,
4/6/02)
1773 Apr 27, British Parliament
passed the Tea Act. [see May 10, 1772]
(HN, 4/27/98)
1773 May 10, To keep the troubled
East India Company afloat, Parliament passed the Tea Act, taxing all
tea in the American colonies.
(HN, 5/10/99)
1773 Oct 14, Britain's East India
Company tea ships' cargo was burned at Annapolis, Md.
(HN, 10/14/98)
1773 Nov 22, Robert Clive (~48),
English occupier (India), died.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1773 Dec 16, Some 50-60 "Sons of
Liberty" of revolutionary Samuel Adams disguised as Mohawks defied the
3 cents per pound tax on tea boarded a British East India Tea
Company ship and dumped more than 300 chests of British tea into the
Boston Harbor in what became known as the Boston Tea Party. Parliament
had passed the 1773 Tea Act not to regulate trade or make the colonies
pay their own administrative costs, but to save the nearly bankrupt
British East India Tea Company. The Tea Act gave the company a monopoly
over the American tea trade and authorized the sale of 17 million
pounds of tea in America at prices cheaper than smuggled Dutch tea. In
spite of the savings, Americans would not accept what they considered
to be taxation without representation. Overreacting to the Boston Tea
Party, the British attempted to punish Boston and the whole colony of
Massachusetts with the Intolerable Acts of 1774--another in the series
of events that ultimately led to American independence. A bill for the
tea ($196) was paid Sep 30, 1961.
(HFA, '96, p.44)(A&IP, Miers,
p.18)(SFEC,11/23/97, Par p.14)(AP, 12/16/97) (HNPD, 12/16/98)(MC,
9/30/01)
1773 Dec 27, George Cayley,
founder of the science of aerodynamics, was born in England.
(MC, 12/27/01)
1773 Sir Robert Clive was
acquitted of embezzlement.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)
1773 The Samuel Deacon & Co.
ad agency opened in London.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1773 A group of English traders
broke away from Jonathan's coffee house and moved to a new building.
This became the forerunner of the London Stock Exchange (f.1801).
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.89)
1773-1785 Warren Hastings served as the British
governor-general of India.
(WSJ, 5/1/00, p.A24)
1774 Feb 22, English House of
Lords ruled that authors do not have perpetual copyright.
(MC, 2/22/02)
1774 Mar 7, A 2nd Boston tea party
was held.
(SFEC,11/23/97, Par p.14)
1774 Mar 7, The British closed the
port of Boston to all commerce.
(HN, 3/7/98)
1774 Mar 28, Britain passed the
Coercive Act against Massachusetts. [see May 20]
(HN, 3/28/98)
1774 May 19, Ann Lee and eight
Shakers sailed from Liverpool to New York. The religious group
originated in Quakerism and fled England due to religious persecution.
(They become the first conscientious objectors on religious grounds and
were jailed during the American Revolution in 1776.) In 1998 Suzanne
Skees published "god Among the Shakers."
(DTnet 5/19/97)(WSJ, 3/26/98, p.W10)
1774 May 20, The British
Parliament passed the Coercive Acts to punish the colonists for their
increasingly anti-British behavior. The acts closed the port of Boston.
[see Mar 28]
(HN, 5/20/99)
1774 Mar 25, English Parliament
passed the Boston Port Bill.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1774 Jun 2, The Quartering Act,
requiring American colonists to allow British soldiers into their
houses, was reenacted.
(HN, 6/2/98)
1774 Aug 1, British scientist
Joseph Priestley succeeded in isolating oxygen from air in Calne,
England. He called his new gas "dephlogisticated air.”
(ON, 10/05, p.2)(AP, 8/1/07)
1774 Aug 12, Robert Southey,
English poet laureate (1813-1843) and biographer of Nelson, was born.
(HN, 8/12/98)(SC, 8/12/02)
1774 The Privy Council subjected
Ben Franklin to a ritual of humiliation for distributing the private
letters of Gov. Thomas Hutchinson of Massachusetts.
(WSJ, 8/8/95, p. A12)
1774 Nicholas Cresswell,
Englishman, arrived in the US and spent 3 years traveling and meeting
prominent Americans of the time including George Washington, Thomas
Jefferson and British Gen. William Howe. Cresswell kept a journal and
in 2009 it was published as “A Man Apart: The Journal of Nicholas
Cresswell 1774-1781.”
(WSJ, 4/11/09, p.W9)
1774 Georgiana Spencer (1757-1806)
married William Cavendish, the 5th Duke of Devonshire. Spencer was the
great-great-great-great-aunt of Princess Diana.
(WSJ, 1/7/00, p.W4)
1774 Sir Robert Clive (b.1725),
considered by some as the richest man ever, committed suicide.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)
1774 A Scottish printer finally
overturned a copyright monopoly that had allowed English booksellers to
lock up the works of Shakespeare and other authors for nearly 2
centuries.
(WSJ, 3/26/04, p.W6)
1774-1852 George Chinnery, watercolorist. He lived
and worked in Hong Kong, Macao and Canton.
(Hem., 3/97, p.92)
1775 Jan 8, John Baskerville (68),
English printer, type designer, died.
(MC, 1/8/02)
1775 Feb 9, English Parliament
declared the Mass. colony is in rebellion.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1775 Feb 10, Charles Lamb
(d.1834), critic, poet, essayist, was born in London, England.
(AP,
12/31/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lamb)
1775 Mar 22, British statesman
Edmund Burke made a speech in the House of Commons, urging the
government to adopt a policy of reconciliation with America.
(AP, 3/22/99)
1775 April 19, The American
Revolutionary War began with the Battle of Lexington-Concord in the US.
The war between the British and the American colonists began.
(HFA, '96, p.28)(V.D.-H.K.p.224)(AP, 4/19/97)
1775 Apr 20, British troops began
the siege of Boston.
(HN, 4/20/98)
1775 Apr 23, Joseph Mallord
William Turner, landscape painter, was born in England.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._M._W._Turner)
1775 May 20, North Carolina became
the first colony to declare its independence. Citizens of Mecklenburg
County, NC, declared independence from Britain.
(HN, 5/20/98)(MC, 5/20/02)
1775 Jun 12, In the 1st naval
battle of Revolution the US ship Unity captured the British ship
Margaretta.
(MC, 6/12/02)
1775 Jun 17, The Battle at
Bunker’s Hill was actually fought on Breed’s Hill near Boston. It
lasted less than 2 hours and was the deadliest of the Revolutionary
War. The British captured the hill on their third attempt but suffered
over 1,000 casualties vs. about 400-600 for the Americans. Patriotic
Joseph Warren died in the battle. Patriot General William Prescott
allegedly told his men, "Don't one of you fire until you see the whites
of their eyes!" British casualties were estimated at 226 dead and
828 wounded, while American casualties were estimated at 140 dead and
301 wounded.
(HT, 3/97, p.33)(SFC, 4/2/97, Z1 p.6)(AP,
6/17/98)(MC, 6/17/02)(HNQ, 4/1/99)
1775 Jul 5, The Olive Branch
Petition was adopted by the Continental Congress and professed the
attachment of the American people to George III. It expressed hope for
the restoration of harmony and begged the king to prevent further
hostile actions against the colonies. The following day, Congress
passed a resolution written by Thomas Jefferson and John Dickinson, a
"Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms," which
rejected independence but asserted that Americans were ready to die
rather than be enslaved. King George refused to receive the Olive
Branch Petition on August 23 and proclaimed the American colonies to be
in open rebellion.
(HNQ, 7/2/99)
1775 Jul 30, Captain Cook returned
to England.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1775 Aug 23, Britain's King George
III refused the American colonies' offer of peace and proclaimed the
American colonies in a state of "open and avowed rebellion."
(HN, 8/23/98)(AP, 8/23/07)
1775 Oct 16, Portland, Maine, was
burned by British.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1775 Nov 7, Lord Dunmore promised
freedom to male slaves who would join the British army.
(MC, 11/7/01)
1775 Dec 16, Jane Austin (d.1817),
novelist, was born in [Steventon] Hampshire, England, as the 6th of 7
children [7th of 8]. Her well-educated parents encouraged reading and
writing. Her work included "Sense and Sensibility" (1811), "Pride and
Prejudice" (1812), "Mansfield Park" (1814) "Lady Susan" and "Emma"
(1815). Her books "Persuasion" (1817) and "Northanger Abbey" were
published posthumously. Austin’s witty, well-constructed stories about
realistic middle-class characters challenged the limits of women
writers. Although she called herself a "merely domestic" novelist, she
greatly influenced the development of the modern novel. Austin’s most
famous works were published between 1811 and 1816, shortly before she
died in July 1817. Later in the 19th century critics appreciated
Austin’s writing more, and her novels remain popular today--for both
literary critics and moviegoers, as they are widely read and adapted
for the silver screen. "One does not love a place the less for having
suffered in it unless it has all been suffering, nothing but
suffering." Two biographies were published in 1997 with the same title:
"Jane Austen: A Life," one by Calire Tomalin and the other by David
Nokes.
(SFEC, 5/11/97, BR p.10)(Hem., 5/97, p.102)(AP,
5/31/97)(SFEC, 11/9/97, BR p.4)(WSJ, 11/17/97, p.A24)(HN,
12/16/98)(HNPD, 12/18/98)
1775 Dec 31, The British repulsed
an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict
Arnold at Quebec; Montgomery was killed.
(AP, 12/31/97)
1775 Joseph Priestley published
his book “Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air.” He
refuted some opinions of Lavoisier, who had recently named oxygen based
on experiments modeled after Priestley’s work. In 1777 German chemist
Karl Wilhelm Schele verified that he had independently isolated oxygen
in 1772.
(www.woodrow.org/teachers/chemistry/institutes/1992/Priestley.html)(ON,
10/05, p.2)
1775 Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s
wrote "The Duenna." In 1940 Prokofiev composed the opera "Betrothal in
a Monastery," based on Sheridan’s work. The Prokofiev work had its
premiere in Prague.
(WSJ, 5/7/98, p.A21)(SFC, 11/25/98, p.D1)
1775-1781 The Royal Welch Fusiliers, a British
regiment, was among the British troops that fought in the American
Revolution during this period. In 2007 mark Urban authored “Fusiliers:
the Saga of a British Redcoat Regiment in the American Revolution.
(WSJ, 11/15/07, p.D6)
1775-1851 J.M.W. Turner, English painter.
(SFC, 4/29/97, p.B5)
1776 Jan 10, Thomas Paine
(1737-1809), British émigré and propagandist, anonymously
published "Common Sense," a scathing attack on King George III's reign
over the colonies and a call for complete independence. It sold some
120,000 copies in just a few months, greatly affecting public sentiment
and the deliberations of the Continental Congress leading up to the
Declaration of Independence. He advocated an immediate declaration of
independence from Britain. An instant bestseller in both the colonies
and in Britain, Paine baldly stated that King George III was a tyrant
and that Americans should shed any sentimental attachment to the
monarchy. America, he argued, had a moral obligation to reject monarchy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine)(AP,
1/10/98)
1776 Feb 17, Edward Gibbon
(1737-1794), English historian, published his 1st volume of " The
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." He completed the
6-volume classic in 1788.
(WUD, 1994 p.596)(WSJ, 5/26/07, p.P6)
1776 Mar 2, Americans began
shelling British troops in Boston.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1776 Mar 17, British forces
evacuated Boston to Nova Scotia during the Revolutionary War. In some
of the bloodiest fighting of the Revolutionary War, American and French
troops failed to take Savannah.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1776 Apr 12, North Carolina's
Fourth Provincial Congress adopted the Halifax Resolves, which
authorized the colony's delegates to the Continental Congress to
support independence from Britain.
(AP, 4/12/07)
1776 Jun 11, John Constable
(d.1837), English landscape painter (Hay Wain), was born.
(SFC, 4/29/97, p.B5)(SC, 6/11/02)
1776 Jun 28, Colonists repulsed a
British sea attack on Charleston, South Carolina.
(HN, 6/28/98)
1776 Jul 4, The Continental
Congress approved adoption of the amended Declaration of Independence,
prepared by Thomas Jefferson and signed by John Hancock--President of
the Continental Congress--and Charles Thomson, Congress secretary,
without dissent. However, the New York delegation abstained as directed
by the New York Provisional Congress. On July 9, the New York Congress
voted to endorse the declaration. On July 19, Congress then resolved to
have the "Unanimous Declaration" inscribed on parchment for the
signature of the delegates. Among the signers of the Declaration of
Independence, two went on to become presidents of the United States,
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.
(HNQ, 7/4/98)(AP, 7/4/97)(HN, 7/4/98)(HNQ, 5/15/99)
1776 Jul 4, The Declaration
of Independence was signed by president of Congress John Hancock and
secretary Charles Thomson. John Hancock said, "There, I guess King
George will be able to read that." referring to his signature on the
Declaration of Independence. Other signers later included Benjamin Rush
and Robert Morris. Of the 56 signers of the Declaration of
Independence, eight were born outside North America.
(SFC,12/19/97,p.B6)(SFC,2/9/98, p.A19)(HNQ,
7/4/99)(HNQ, 2/1/00)(HNQ, 9/10/00)
1776 Jul 12, Capt. Cook departed
with Resolution for 3rd trip to Pacific Ocean.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1776 Aug 27, The Americans were
defeated by the British at the Battle of Long Island, New York.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1776 Sep 11, An American
delegation consisting of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Edward
Rutledge met with British Admiral Richard Lord Howe to discuss terms
upon which reconciliation between Britain and the colonies might be
based. The talks were unsuccessful. In 2003 Barnet Schecter authored
“The Battle for New York: The City at the Heart of the American
Revolution.”
(AH, 6/03,
p.61)(www.patriotresource.com/people/howe/page2.html)
1776 Sep 15, British forces
occupied New York City during the American Revolution. British forces
captured Kip's Bay, Manhattan, during the American Revolution.
(AP, 9/15/97)(HN, 9/15/99)
1776 Sep 22, Nathan Hale was
hanged as a spy by the British during the Revolutionary War.
(AP, 9/22/97)
1776 Oct 11, The first naval
battle of Lake Champlain was fought during the American Revolution.
American forces led by Gen. Benedict Arnold suffered heavy losses, but
managed to stall the British.
(AP, 10/11/97)
1776 Oct 13, Benedict Arnold was
defeated at Lake Champlain by the British.
(HN, 10/13/98)
1776 Nov 16, British troops
captured Fort Washington during the American Revolution.
(AP, 11/1697)
1776 Nov 20, The British invaded
New Jersey.
(NH, 5/97, p.76)
1776 Nov 30, Captain Cook began
his 3rd and last trip to the Pacific South Seas.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1776 Dec 26, The British suffered
a major defeat in the Battle of Trenton during the Revolutionary War.
After crossing the Delaware River into New Jersey, George Washington
led an attack on Hessian mercenaries and took 900 men prisoner.
(AP, 12/26/97)(HN, 12/26/98)
1776 Sir William Chambers began
building Somerset House on the site of a palace built by Edward
Seymour, Protector Somerset, in the 1540s. It was designed to house
public offices and the 3 learned societies: the Royal Academy of Arts,
the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries. In 2000 the royal
society of Literature was housed there.
(WSJ, 6/15/00, p.A24)
1776-1781 It is estimated that 30,000 Hessian
soldiers fought for the British during the American Revolution. After
Russia refused to provide troops for the war, the German states of
Brunswick, Hesse-Cassel, Hesse-Hanau, Waldeck, Anspach-Bayreuth and
Anhalt-Zerbst supplied mercenary soldiers, collectively referred to as
Hessians. Seven thousand Hessians died in the war and another 5,000
deserted and settled in America. The British paid the German rulers for
each soldier sent to North America and an additional sum for each
killed.
(HNQ, 3/31/99)
1777 Jan 3, Gen. George
Washington's army routed the British in the Battle of Princeton,
N.J.
(AP, 1/3/98)
1777 Apr 16, New England's minute
men, Green Mountain Boys, routed British regulars at the Battle of
Bennington.
(HN, 4/16/98)(MC, 4/16/02)
1777 May 1, Richard Brinsley
Sheridan's "School for Scandal," premiered in London with Georgiana
Cavendish as Lady Teazle. "Its assumptions are that lust and greed -
when allied with beauty and cunning - deserve to triumph over dullness
and age." He also wrote "A Trip to Scarborough," a rewrite of a
Restoration original.
(WSJ,11/24/95, p.A-6)(WSJ, 11/20/98, p.W6)(MC,
5/1/02)
1777 Jul 6, During the American
Revolution, British forces captured Fort Ticonderoga.
(AP, 7/6/97)
1777 Aug 22, With the approach of
General Benedict Arnold's army, British Colonel Barry St. Ledger
abandoned Fort Stanwix and returned to Canada.
(HN, 8/22/98)
1777 Sep 11, General George
Washington and his troops were defeated by the British under General
Sir William Howe at the Battle of Brandywine in Pennsylvania. Posing as
a gunsmith, British Sergeant John Howe served as General Gage's eyes in
a restive Massachusetts colony.
(HN, 9/11/98)
1777 Sep 19, During the
Revolutionary War, American soldiers won the first Battle of Saratoga,
aka Battle of Freeman's Farm (Bemis Heights). American forces under
Gen. Horatio Gates met British troops led by Gen. John Burgoyne at
Saratoga Springs, NY.
(AP,
9/19/97)(www.americanrevolution.com/BattleofSaratoga.htm)
1777 Sep 20, British Dragoons
massacred sleeping Continental troops at Paoli, Pa.
(MC, 9/20/01)
1777 Sep 25, English general
William Howe conquered Philadelphia. [see Sep 26]
(MC, 9/25/01)
1777 Sep 26, The British army
launched a major offensive during the American Revolution, capturing
Philadelphia.
(HN, 9/26/99)(AP, 9/26/97)
1777 Sep 27, At the Battle of
Germantown the British defeated Washington's army. English General
William Howe occupied Philadelphia. [see Sep 25,26]
(MC, 9/27/01)
1777 Oct 4, George Washington's
troops launched an assault on the British at Germantown, Penn.,
resulting in heavy American casualties. British General Sir William
Howe repelled Washington's last attempt to retake Philadelphia,
compelling Washington to spend the winter at Valley Forge.
(AP, 10/4/97)(HN, 10/4/98)
1777 Oct 7, The second Battle of
Saratoga began during the American Revolution. During the battle
General Benedict Arnold was shot in the leg. Another bullet killed his
horse, which fell on Arnold, crushing his leg. The "Boot Monument" sits
close to the spot where Arnold was wounded, and is a tribute to the
general’s heroic deeds during that battle. Although Arnold’s
accomplishments are described on the monument, it pointedly avoids
naming the man best known for betraying his country. The British
forces, under Gen. John Burgoyne, surrendered 10 days later.
(AP, 10/7/97)(HNQ, 7/20/01)
1777 Oct 7, Simon Fraser, English
general, died in the battle of Saratoga, NY.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Simon_Fraser_of_Balnian)
1777 Dec 12, Rev. Benjamin Russen
was hanged at Tyburn, England, for rape.
(MC, 12/12/01)
1778 Jan 18, English navigator
Captain James Cook discovered the Hawaiian Islands, which he dubbed the
"Sandwich Islands" after the First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord
Sandwich. About 350,000 Hawaiians inhabited them. Cook first landed on
Kauai and then Niihau where his men introduced venereal disease.
(Wired, 8/95, p.90)(AP, 1/18/98)(HN, 1/18/99)
1778 Feb 6, England declared war
on France.
(MC, 2/6/02)
1778 Mar 5, Thomas A. Arne (67),
English composer (Alfred, Rule Britannia), died.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1778 Apr 10, William Hazlitt
(d.1830), essayist, critic, was born in Maidstone, Kent, England.
(AP,
11/10/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hazlitt)
1778 Apr 18, John Paul Jones
attacked the British revenue cutter Husar near the Isle of Man, but it
escaped. Soon thereafter he raided Whitehaven and burned one coal ship.
(ON, 2/04, p.6)
1778 Apr 23, US Captain John Paul
Jones attempted to kidnap the Earl of Selkirk, but he only got Lady
Selkirk's silverware.
(ON, 2/04, p.6)
1778 Apr 24, US Ranger Captain
John Paul Jones captured the British ship Drake.
(ON, 2/04, p.6)(Internet)
1778 May 11, William Pitt Sr.
(69), English premier (1756-61, 66-68), died.
(MC, 5/11/02)
1778 Jun 7, George Byran "Beau"
Brummell (d.1840), English wit, was born. He influenced men's fashion
and introduced trouser to replace breeches.
(HN, 6/7/99)
1778 Jul 10, In support of the
American Revolution, Louis XVI declared war on England.
(HN, 7/10/98)
1778 Jul 27, British and French
fleets fought to a standoff in the first Battle of Ushant.
(HN, 7/27/98)
1778 Aug 9, Captain Cook reached
Cape Prince of Wales in the Bering straits.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1778 Aug 14, Augustus Montague
Toplady (b.1740), English Calvinist hymn writer (Rock of Ages), died.
His best prose work is the "Historic Proof of the Doctrinal Calvinism
of the Church of England" (London, 1774).
(MC, 8/14/02)(Wikipedia)
1778 Nov
11, British redcoats, Tory rangers and Seneca Indians in central New
York state killed more than 40 people in the Cherry Valley Massacre. A
regiment of 800 Tory rangers under Butler (1752-1781) and 500 Native
forces under the Mohawk war chief Joseph Brant (1742-1807), fell upon
the settlement, killing 47, including 32 noncombatants, mostly by
tomahawk.
(www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Cherry-Valley-Massacre)(AP, 11/11/07)
1778 Dec 17, Humphrey Davy
(d.1829), English chemist who discovered the anesthetic effect of
laughing gas (1799), was born.
(HN, 12/17/98)(Dr, 7/17/01, p.2)(ON, 12/01, p.7)
1778 Dec 29, British troops,
attempting a new strategy to defeat the colonials in America, captured
Savannah, the capital of Georgia.
(HN, 12/29/98)
1778 In England the Catholic
Relief Act was enacted. It inspired London riots in Jun 1780.
(HNQ, 2/24/99)
1778 Botanist Joseph Banks
(1743-1820) became president of the British Royal Society. He had
accompanied Capt. Cook to catalog plants and animals of Australia and
New Zealand on the 3-year journey (1768-1771).
(Econ, 7/11/09,
p.87)(www.nndb.com/people/077/000100774/)
1778 Benjamin Franklin, on a
diplomatic mission in France, approved a plan by John Paul Jones to
disrupt British merchant shipping along Britain's undefended west coast.
(ON, 2/04, p.6)
1779 Feb 14, Captain James Cook
(b.1728), English explorer, was killed on the Big Island in Hawaii. In
2002 Tony Horwitz authored "Blue Latitudes," and Vanessa Collingridge
authored "Captain Cook: A Legacy Under Fire."
(WSJ, 10/2/02,
p.D12)(www.royal-navy.mod.uk/static/pages/3521.html)
1779 Feb 16, William Boyce,
English organist, composer (Cathedral Music), died.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1779 Feb 25, The British
surrendered the Illinois country to George Rogers Clark at Vincennes.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1779 Jun 15, General Anthony Wayne
captured Stony Point, New York, from the British.
(HN, 6/15/98)
1779 Jun 16, Spain, in support of
the US, declared war on England.
(MC, 6/16/02)
1779 Jun 16, Vice-Admiral Hardy
sailed out of Isle of Wight against the Spanish fleet.
(MC, 6/16/02)
1779 Sep 23, During the
Revolutionary War, the American navy under John Paul Jones, commanding
from Bonhomie Richard, defeated and captured the British man-of-war
Serapis. An American attack on a British convoy pitted the British
frigate HMS Serapis against the American Bon Homme Richard. The
American ship was commanded by Scotsman John Paul Jones, who chose to
name the ship after Benjamin Franklin's “Poor Richard’s Almanack.”
Fierce fighting ensued, and when Richard began to sink, Serapis
commander Richard Pearson called over to ask if Richard would surrender
and Jones responded, "I have not yet begun to fight!"--a response that
would become a slogan of the U.S. Navy. Pearson surrendered and Jones
took control of Serapis. The Bonhomie Richard sank 2 days after the
battle. In 1959 the film Jean Paul Jones starred Robert Stack.
(TVM, 1975, p.294)(AP, 9/23/97)(HN, 9/23/98)(HNPD,
9/23/98)(Arch, 9/02, p.17)
1779 Sep 27, From the US John
Adams was named to negotiate the Revolutionary War's peace terms with
Britain.
(AP, 9/27/97)
1779 Oct 9, The Luddite riots
being in Manchester, England in reaction to machinery for spinning
cotton. [see 1811]
(HN, 10/9/00)
1779 Nov 13, Thomas Chippendale
(61), English furniture maker, died.
(MC, 11/13/01)
1779 Richard Samuel (d.1787),
British painter, sent the Royal Academy exhibition his “Nine Living
Muses of Great Britain.” The 1778 painting featured a group of female
writers and artists that included the Swiss-Austrian painter Angelica
Kauffman (1741-1807).
(Econ, 3/22/08,
p.97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelica_Kauffmann)
1779 Frances Trollope was born the
daughter of a clergyman and raised near Bristol. She produced 35 novels
and 5 travel books. In 1998 Pamela Neville-Sington wrote the biography
"Fanny Trollope: The Life and Adventures of a Clever Woman."
(WSJ, 12/11/98, p.W10)
1779 Richard Brinsley Sheridan
wrote his play "The Critic." It was a rewrite of a Restoration original.
(WSJ, 11/20/98, p.W6)
1779 Catherine the Great of Russia
bought the art collection of Sir Robert Walpole from Walpole’s grandson.
(WSJ, 1/04/00, p.A16)
1780 Feb 14, William Blackstone
(56), English lawyer, died.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1780 Mar 26, The 1st British
Sunday newspaper appeared as the British Gazette and Sunday Monitor.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1780 Jun, The London riots led by
George Gordon in opposition to the Catholic Relief Act of 1778 took
place.
(HNQ, 2/24/99)
1780 Aug 16, American troops were
badly defeated by the British at the Battle of Camden, South Carolina.
(HFA, '96, p.36)(HN, 8/16/98)
1780 Aug 22, HMS Resolution
returned to England without Capt Cook.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1780 Sep 23, British spy John
Andre was captured along with papers revealing Benedict Arnold's plot
to surrender West Point to the British.
(AP, 9/23/97)
1780 Sep 25, American General
Benedict Arnold joined the British.
(MC, 9/25/01)
1780 Oct 2, British spy John Andre
was hanged in Tappan, N.Y., for conspiring with Benedict Arnold.
(AP, 10/2/97)
1780 Oct 7, Colonial patriots
slaughtered a loyalist group at the Battle of King's Mountain in South
Carolina. Patrick Ferguson (36), English Major in South Carolina, died
in the battle along with some 200 Loyalists. Patriot losses numbered 30
with 62 wounded.
(HN, 10/7/99)(ON, 12/07, p.7)
1780 Oct 31, The HMS Ontario was
lost with barely a trace and as many as 130 people aboard during a gale
on Lake Ontario. In 2008 explorers found the 22-gun British warship.
Canadian author Arthur Britton Smith chronicled the history of the HMS
Ontario in a 1997 book, "The Legend of the Lake."
(AP, 6/14/08)
1780 George Stubbs, British
painter, created his portrait of a poodle.
(SFC, 6/25/99, p.A3)
1780 William Wilberforce (21)
entered Parliament as an independent from Hull.
(ON, 4/05, p.1)
1780 Richard Brinsley Sheridan,
playwright, entered Parliament as a supporter of the Whig politician
Charles James Fox, who supported the American colonies against George
III.
(WSJ, 11/20/98, p.W6)(WSJ, 1/7/00, p.W4)
1780 US Gen’l. Benedict Arnold,
newly married and strapped for cash to maintain an extravagant
lifestyle, began providing information to the British. He eventually
joined the British as a brigadier general.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A3)
1780-1783 A 4-year war between England and the Dutch
was fought.
(SFC, 3/31/98, p.F4)
1781 Jan 5, A British naval
expedition led by Benedict Arnold burned Richmond, Va.
(AP, 1/5/98)
1781 Jan 17, Daniel Morgan’s
Continental regiments routed British forces at Cowpens, South Carolina.
Some 100 British soldiers were killed, 299 wounded and 600 taken
prisoner. 12 American were killed.
(ON, 12/01, p.10)(AH, 2/06, p.71)
1781 Feb 25, American General
Nathanael Greene crossed the Dan River on his way to his March 15th
confrontation with Lord Charles Cornwallis at Guilford Court House,
N.C.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1781 Apr 29, French fleet stopped
Britain from seizing the Cape of Good Hope.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1781 May 13, British Gen. William
Phillips died of a fever Petersburg, Va., as his forces confronted the
American army under Lafayette. Phillips had commanded the artillery
battery whose fire had killed Lafayette’s father at the Battle of
Minden (1759).
(ON, 2/09, p.5)
1781 Jun 9, George Stephenson,
English engineer, inventor of the steam locomotive, was born in
Newcastle, England.
(HN, 6/9/01)(MC, 6/9/02)
1781 Aug 1, English army under
Lord Cornwallis occupied Yorktown, Virginia.
(MC, 8/1/02)
1781 Sep 5, The British fleet
arrived off the Virginia Capes and found 26 French warships in three
straggling lines. Rear Adm. Thomas Graves waited for the French to form
their battle lines and then fought for 5 days. Outgunned and unnerved
he withdrew to New York. The French had some 37 ships and 29,000
soldiers and sailors at Yorktown while Washington had some 11,000 men
engaged. French warships defeated British fleet, trapping Cornwallis in
Yorktown.
(NG, 6/1988, p.763)(SFEC,11/23/97, Par p.19)(MC,
9/5/01)
1781 Oct 16, Gen. Washington took
Yorktown.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1781 Oct 17, Cornwallis was
defeated at Yorktown. [see Oct 16,19]
(MC, 10/17/01)
1781 Oct 19, Major General Lord
Charles Cornwallis, surrounded at Yorktown, Va., by American and French
regiments numbering 17,600 men, surrendered to George Washington and
Count de Rochambeau at Yorktown, Va. Cornwallis surrendered 7,157
troops, including sick and wounded, and 840 sailors, along with 244
artillery pieces. Losses in this battle had been light on both sides.
Cornwallis sent Brig. Gen. Charles O'Hara to surrender his sword. At
Washington's behest, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Lincoln accepted it. Washington
himself is seen in the right background of “The Surrender of Lord
Cornwallis at Yorktown” by artist John Trumbull. After conducting an
indecisive foray into Virginia, Lt. Gen. Charles Lord Cornwallis
retired to Yorktown on August 2, 1781. On August 16, General Washington
and Maj. Gen. Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau,
began marching their Continental and French armies from New York to
Virginia. The arrival of a French fleet, and its victory over a British
fleet in Chesapeake Bay, sealed the trap.
(NG, 6/1988, p.808)(AP, 10/19/97)(HNPD,
10/19/98)(HN, 10/19/98)
1781 Nov, British Capt. Luke
Collingwood, commander of the slave ship Zong, in the face of endemic
dysentery that had already killed 7 crewmen and 60 of 470 slaves,
ordered his crew to throw sick slaves overboard in order to claim
insurance money at the end of the voyage. Over 100 slaves were cast
overboard. In 2007 Marcus Rediker authored “The Slave Ship,” an account
of this and the slave trade from 1700-1808.
(WSJ, 10/11/07,
p.D8)(www.umich.edu/~ece/student_projects/slavery/the_zong.html)
1781 Samuel Johnson (1709-1784),
English lexicographer, essayist and poet, authored “Lives of the
English Poets.”
(ON, 11/06, p.9)(WSJ, 9/18/08, p.A23)
1781 Asprey of London was founded.
They established themselves based on accouterments and paraphernalia
for tea parties.
(SFEM,10/26/97, p.4)
1782 Apr 12, The British navy won
its only naval engagement against the colonists in the American
Revolution at the Battle of Les Saintes in the West Indies off
Dominica. A British fleet beat the French.
(HN, 4/12/99)(MC, 4/12/02)
1782 Sep 13, The British fortress
at Gibraltar came under attack by French and Spanish forces.
(HN, 9/13/98)
1782 Nov 30, The United States and
Britain signed preliminary peace articles in Paris, recognizing
American independence and ending the Revolutionary War.
(AP, 11/30/97)(HN, 11/30/98)
1782 Dec 14, Charleston, SC, was
evacuated by British.
(MC, 12/14/01)
1783 Jan 19, William Pitt became
the youngest Prime Minister of England at age 24.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1783 Jan 20, The fighting of the
Revolutionary War ended. Britain signed a peace agreement with France
and Spain, who allied against it in the American War of Independence.
(HFA, '96, p.22)(HN, 1/20/99)
1783 Feb 4, Britain declared a
formal cessation of hostilities with its former colonies, the United
States of America.
(AP, 2/4/97)
1783 Apr 11, After receiving a
copy of the provisional treaty on 13 March, the US Congress proclaimed
a formal end to hostilities with Great Britain.
(HN, 4/11/99)
1783 Apr 29, David Cox (d.1857),
English watercolorist, was born. He books included “Treatise on
Landscape Painting” (1813).
(SFC, 4/29/97,
p.B5)(www.chrisbeetles.com/pictures/artists/Cox_David/Cox_David.htm)
1783 Jun 1, Last British troops
sailed from New York. (MC, 6/1/02)
1783 Aug 7, John Heathcoat
(d.1861), English inventor of lace-making machinery (1809), was born.
In 1816 Luddites burned down his Nottingham factory.
(MC, 8/7/02)(Internet)
1783 Sep 3, The Treaty of Paris
between the United States and Great Britain officially ended the
Revolutionary War. The Treaty of 1783, which formally ended the
American Revolution, is also known as the Definitive Treaty of Peace,
the Peace of Paris and the Treaty of Versailles. Under the treaty,
Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States. The
treaty bears the signatures of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and John
Jay.
(AP, 9/3/97) (HNQ, 7/19/98)(HN, 9/3/98)(MC, 9/3/01)
1783 Dec 9, The 1st execution at
English Newgate-jail took place.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1783 In Britain William Pitt (24)
became prime minister and the youngest leader of the Tories. He was one
of Great Britain‘s greatest peacetime leaders and served a prime
minister from 1783-1801 and from 1804 until his death in 1806. Pitt was
the son of William Pitt the Elder, who served as prime minister from
1766 to 1768.
(SFC, 6/20/97, p.A22)(WSJ, 3/26/99, p.W10)(HNQ,
1/29/00)
1783 English Architect Thomas
Leverton (1795-1885) designed the fanlight window above an entry in
London’s Bedford Square.
(WSJ, 11/18/06,
p.P11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Leverton_Donaldson)
1783 Executions were moved from
Tyburn Gallows in Hyde Park to Newgate Prison.
(SFEM, 3/21/99, p.24)
1784 Jan 14, The United States
ratified a peace treaty with England, the Treaty of Paris, ending the
Revolutionary War.
(HFA, '96, p.22)(AP, 1/14/98)
1784 Feb 28, John Wesley
(1703-1791) chartered the Methodist Church. His teaching emphasized
field preaching along with piety, probity and respectability. In 2003
Roy Hattersley authored "A Brand from the Burning: The Life of John
Wesley."
(MC, 2/28/02)(WSJ, 6/13/03, p.W19)
1784 Mar 1, E. Kidner opened the
1st cooking school in Great Britain.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1784 May 20, Peace of Versailles
ended the war between France, England, and Holland.
(HN, 5/20/98)
1784 Oct 19, Leigh Hunt (d.1859),
English journalist, essayist, poet and political radical, was born. He
was a friend and advisor to Shelley and Lord Byron and wrote the poems
"Abou Ben Adhem" and "Jenny Kissed Me."
(HN,
10/19/99)(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRleigh.htm)
1784 Nov 29, American Dr. John
Jeffries paid Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard £100 pounds for a
balloon flight in England during which he made some atmospheric
measurements.
(ON, 10/03, p.6)
1784 Dec 13, Samuel Johnson
(b.1709), English lexicographer, essayist, poet and moralist best known
for "The Dictionary of the English Language," died. "Patriotism is the
last refuge of a scoundrel." -- (To which Ambrose Bierce replied, "I
beg to submit that it is the first.") Johnson, an antagonist of
slavery, left behind an annuity and much of his personal property to
his black valet, Francis Barber (b.1735-1801). In 1791 Boswell wrote
the celebrated "The Life of Samuel Johnson." In 1955 Walter Jackson
Bate (1918-1999) published "The Achievement of Samuel Johnson" and in
1977 the biography "Samuel Johnson." In 2000 Adam Potkay authored "The
Passion for Happiness," in which he argued that Samuel Johnson should
be included in the Anglo-Scottish Enlightenment along with David Hume,
Adam Smith and Edward Gibbon. In 2000 Peter Martin authored "A Life of
James Boswell." In 2008 Peter Martin authored “Samuel Johnson: A
biography.”
(AP, 10/8/97)(WSJ, 11/29/00, p.A24)(ON, 11/06,
p.10)(SSFC, 10/28/07, p.M3)(WSJ, 9/18/08, p.A23)
1785 Jan 1, "Daily Universal
Register" (Times of London) published its 1st issue. [see Jan 1, 1788]
(MC, 1/1/02)
1785 Jul 17, France limited the
importation of goods from Britain.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1785 May 9, British inventor
Joseph Bramah patented a beer-pump handle.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1785 Aug 15, Thomas De Quincey,
English writer (Confessions of English Opium Eater), was born.
(MC, 8/15/02)
1785 Romney painted Emma, Lady
Hamilton, the passion of sea-hero Nelson.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T8)
1785 William Paley (1743-1805), an
orthodox Anglican and conservative moral and political thinker,
published “The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy.”
(www.wmcarey.edu/carey/paley/paley.htm)
1785 Prince George of England
after mentioning to his wife that he liked her right eye, was presented
with a Christmas painting of the eye. It started a London fad and eye
paintings flourished for a brief time.
(SFEC, 10/5/97, Z1 p.6)
1785 John Adams, the new US
ambassador to Britain, presented himself to King George.
(Econ, 1/28/06, p.80)
1786 Feb 24, Charles Cornwallis,
whose armies had surrendered to US at Yorktown, was appointed
governor-general of India. [see Sep 12]
(MC, 2/24/02)
1786 Apr 16, Sir John Franklin,
arctic explorer, was born. He discovered the North-West Passage.
(HN, 4/16/99)
1786 Apr 20, John Goodricke (21),
English deaf and dumb astronomer, died.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1786 Sep 12, Despite his failed
efforts to suppress the American Revolution, Lord Cornwallis was
appointed governor general of India. [see Feb 24]
(HN, 9/12/98)
1786 Sep 26, France and Britain
signed a trade agreement in London.
(HN, 9/26/99)
1786 Meg Nicholson (d.1828)
attempted to stab King George III. She was sent to Bedlam and died
there at age 77.
(WSJ, 1/29/03, p.D10)
1786 William Playfair, Scottish
draughtsman for James Watt, produced an “atlas” of Britain using 44
charts and no maps.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.75)
1786 Capt. Francis Light landed in
Penang and built Fort Cornwallis. Light, acting on behalf of the East
India Company, swindled the island from the ruling sultan with a
promise of protection. The British usurped the land to break the Dutch
monopoly on the spice trade.
(SFEC, 8/3/97, p.T8)(SFEM, 12/19/99, p.8)(SFC,
12/8/05, p.E7)
1787 May 10, The British
Parliament impeached Warren Hastings. There was an effort to impeach
the governor-general of India. Edmund Burke indicted Warren Hastings,
governor-general of India (1773-1785), on 21 charges for high crimes
and misdemeanors. The trial lasted 7 years and Hastings was acquitted
on all charges.
(SFEC, 11/1/98, BR p.11)(WSJ, 5/1/00, p.A24)(MC,
5/10/02)
1787 May 13, Arthur Phillip set
sail from Portsmouth, Great Britain, with 11 ships of criminals to
Australia. By year’s end some 50,000 British convict servants were
transported to the American colonies in commutation of death sentences.
After the American Revolution, Britain continued dumping convicts in
the US illegally into 1787. Australia eventually replaced America for
this purpose. Penal transports continued until 1853, which left a
remarkable legacy: an almost totally unexplored continent settled
largely by convicted felons.
(HNQ,
1/24/99)(www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item.asp?dID=35)
1787 Dec, William Wilberforce, on
the suggestion of PM William Pitt, introduced a motion in British
Parliament for the abolition of the slave trade.
(ON, 4/05, p.2)
1787 Granville Sharp, English
abolitionist, formed the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the
Slave Trade.
(ON, 12/08, p.9)
1787 Thomas Clarkson, deacon in
the Church of England, led the formation of the original abolitionist
committee, the interdenominational “Committee to Effect the Abolition
of the Slave Trade.” His anti-slavery committee distributed 1,000
copies of “A Letter to our Friends in the Country, to inform them of
the state of the Business.” This was later considered as possibly the
1st direct-mail fund-raising letter. In 2004 Adam Hochschild authored
“Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire’s
Slaves.”
(SSFC, 1/23/05, p.F1)(ON, 4/05, p.1)
1787 Henry Hobhouse, a Bristol
slave trader, bought the Hadspen country house in Somerset, England,
and rebuilt it.
(Econ, 5/3/08, p.23)
1787 English ships transported
some 38,000 slaves this year.
(Econ, 12/23/06, p.93)
1787 British settlers bought land
from African tribal leaders in Sierra Leone and used it as a haven for
freed African slaves. The indigenous community, dominated by the Mende,
wiped out the first settlers. A 2nd group followed in 1792. The
settlers intermarried but held themselves aloof, monopolized power and
discriminated against the original population. In 2005 Simon Schama
authored “Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American
Revolution.”
(SFC, 3/11/98, p.A10)(SFC, 2/14/98, p.A8)(WSJ,
5/31/00, p.A26)(Econ, 8/27/05, p.66)(MT, summer 2003, p.8)
1787 Gen. Thomas Gage, former
commander of British forces in North America, died at age 66. In 1948
John Richard Alden authored "General Gage in America."
(ON, 3/01, p.4)
1788 Jan 1, The Times, London's
oldest running newspaper, was first published. [see Jan 1, 1785]
(HN, 1/1/99)
1788 Jan 22, George Gordon
(d.1824), (6th Baron Byron) aka Lord Byron, English poet, was born with
a deformed foot. His work included "Lara," "Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage"
and "Don Juan." He died in Greece at Missolonghi on the gulf of Patras
preparing to fight for Greek independence. In 1997 the biography:
"Byron: The flawed Angel" by Phyllis Grosskurth was published.
(WUD, 1994, p.204,917)(SFC, 6/9/97, p.D3)(SFEC,
11/15/98, Z1 p.10)(HN, 1/22/99)
1788 Jan 26, The 1st fleet of
ships carrying 736 convicts from England landed at Sydney Cove, New
South Wales, Australia. The first European settlers in Australia, led
by Capt. Arthur Phillip, landed in present-day Sydney. The day is since
known as Australia’s national day. In 2006 Thomas Keneally authored
“The Commonwealth of Thieves: The Story of the Founding of Australia.”
(AP, 1/26/98)(HN, 1/26/99)(WSJ, 9/19/00, p.A1)(Econ,
7/15/06, p.83)
1788 Jan 31, Charles Edward
Stuart (67), The Young Pretender, died.
(HN, 1/31/99)(MC, 1/31/02)
1788 Feb 5, Sir Robert Peel
(d.1850), British prime minister through the early 1800s, was born. He
founded the Conservative Party and the London Police Force whose
officers were called "bobbies."
(HN, 2/5/99)(Econ, 6/30/07, p.93)
1788 May 9, English parliament
abolished slave trade.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1788 Jun 11, The 1st British ship
to be built on Pacific coast was begun at Nootka Sound, BC.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1788 Aug 2, Thomas Gainsborough
(61), English painter, died. His work included the 1771 portraits of
the Viscount and Viscountess Ligonier and "Blue Boy."
(HN, 5/14/01)(AAP, 1964)(MC, 5/14/02)(WSJ, 12/19/02,
p.D10)(MC, 8/2/02)
1788 Sep 15, An alliance between
Britain, Prussia and the Netherlands was ratified at the Hague.
(HN, 9/15/99)
1788 Sep 22, Theodore Hook,
English novelist best known for "Impromptu at Fulham," was born.
(HN, 9/22/98)
1788-1789 King George III suffered a mental breakdown.
(WSJ, 1/29/03, p.A1)
1789 Apr 28, Fletcher Christian
lead a mutiny on the Bounty as the crew of the British ship set Captain
William Bligh and 18 sailors adrift in a launch in the South Pacific.
Richard Hough later authored: "Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian."
http://www.visi.com/~pjlareau//bounty1.html
(AP, 4/28/97)(HN, 4/28/98)(SFC, 10/9/99, p.A20)(MC,
4/28/02)
1789 May 12, In England William
Wilberforce laid out his case for the abolition of slavery to the House
of Commons. This speech directly led to Britain’s abolition of slavery
in 1807.
(WSJ, 5/12/07, p.P14)
1789 Jun 14, Captain William Bligh
of the HMS Bounty arrived in Timor in a small boat.
(HN, 6/14/98)
1789 Sep 1, Lady Marguerite
Blessington, beautiful English socialite and author, was born. She
wrote a biography of Lord Byron.
(HN, 9/1/99)
1789 Edward IV was exhumed and he
was found to have been 6’3" tall.
(MH, 12/96)
1789 Part of the art collection,
181 paintings, of Sir Robert Walpole was sold by his heirs to Catherine
the Great for 40,000 Pounds.
(WSJ, 3/3/97, p.A16)
1789 English Thomas Clarkson and
his fellow abolitionists published 700 posters with the image of the
slave ship Brookes loaded with 482 slaves. The ship, owned by the
Brookes family of Liverpool, operated between the Gold Coast of Africa
and Jamaica.
(Econ, 2/24/07, p.72)
1789-1837 Ben Wilson covered this period in his 2007
book “The Making of Victorian Values: Decency and Dissent in Britain,
1789-1837.”
(WSJ, 3/24/07, p.P12)(Econ, 4/7/07, p.81)
1789-1854 John Martin, British artist. He was known
as "Mad Martin" for his paintings of monumental disasters. His work
included "Assuaging of the Waters," "The Eve of the Deluge," and "The
Deluge."
(SFEC, 5/4/97, DB p.9)
1790 Mar 14, Captain Bligh
returned to England with news of the mutiny on the Bounty.
(ON, 3/04, p.9)
1790 Mar 24, King George ordered
the Admiralty to capture Fletcher Henderson for the mutiny on the
Bounty.
(ON, 3/04, p.9)
1790 Nov 11, Chrysanthemums were
introduced into England from China.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1790 Dec 19, Sir William Parry,
England, Arctic explorer, was born.
(HN, 12/19/98)
1790 Thomas Rowlandson, English
artist, painted "The Lock-Up."
(WSJ, 4/1/99, p.A20)
1790 Gustavus Brander, a collector
of books and antiquities, sold a fair copy of sections of the inventory
of Henry VIII to the Society of Antiquaries.
(AM, Jul/Aug ‘97 p.20)
1791 Apr, William Wilberforce
again introduced a motion in British Parliament for the abolition of
the slave trade, but lost by a vote of 163 to 88.
(ON, 4/05, p.2)
1791 May 16, James Boswell’s
celebrated 2-volume work, "The Life of Samuel Johnson," was published.
In 2001 Adam Sisman authored "Boswell’s Presumptuous Task," an account
of how Boswell came to write the Johnson biography.
(WSJ, 8/24/01, p.W8)(ON, 11/06, p.10)
1791 Jul 14-1791 Jul 17, Riots
took place in Birmingham, England. The houses of Joseph Priestley and
other political dissenters were burned to the ground. Priestley had
rejected various supernatural elements of Christianity, criticized the
Church of England, and supported the French Revolution.
(SFC, 1/9/09,
p.E3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priestley_Riots)
1791 Aug 29, The Pandora under
Capt. Edward Edwards sank in Endeavour Strait (later Torres Strait)
between Australia and New Guinea. 33 crewmen and 4 prisoners died. They
managed to use small boats and arrived in Timor on Sep 16.
(ON, 3/04, p.9)
1791 Sep 22, Michael Faraday
(d.1867), English physicist, was born in London. He demonstrated that a
magnetic field induces a current in a moving conductor. He invented the
dynamo, the transformer and the electric motor.
(V.D.-H.K.p.269)(HN, 9/22/00)
1791 Dec 4, Britain's Observer,
oldest Sunday newspaper in world, was 1st published.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1791 John Wesley (b.1703), English
evangelist and theologian, died. He founded the Methodist movement.
(WUD, 1994, p.1622)(WSJ, 6/13/03, p.W19)
1792 Feb 23, Joseph Hayden’s 94th
Symphony in G premiered.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1792 Feb 23, Joshua Reynolds (68),
English portrait painter (Simplicity), died.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1792 Mar 10, John Stuart (78), 3rd
earl of Bute, English premier (1760-63), died.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1792 Mar 23, Franz Joseph Haydn’s
"Symphony No. 94 in G Major," also known as the "Surprise Symphony,"
was performed publicly for the first time, in London.
(AP, 3/23/97)
1792 Apr 30, John Montague (73),
4th Earl of Sandwich, English Naval minister, died.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1792 May 8, British Capt. George
Vancouver sighted and named Mt. Rainier, Wash.
(MC, 5/8/02)
1792 Jun 4, Captain George
Vancouver claimed Puget Sound for Britain. Englishman George Vancouver
sailed into the SF Bay on his ship Discovery. He explored the Santa
Clara Valley. Vancouver sailed the Inside Passage, the 1000-mile
waterway between Puget Sound and Alaska.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)(HN, 6/4/98)(WSJ, 11/5/99,
p.W12)
1792 Aug 4, Percy Bysshe Shelley
(d.1822), English poet and author who wrote "Prometheus Unbound," was
born in Field Place, England. He married Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin,
author of "Frankenstein." He wrote the poem "Adonais."
(WUD, 1994, p.1314)(HN, 8/4/98)
1792 Aug 5, Frederick 7th baron
Lord North (60), English premier, died. He presided over Britain's loss
of its American colonies (1770-82).
(MC, 8/5/02)
1792 Aug 18, Lord John Russel,
Prime Minister of England from 1846 to 1852 and 1865 to 1866, was born.
(HN, 8/18/98)
1792 Aug 29, The English warship
Royal George capsized in Spithead and 900 people were killed.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1892 Sep 18, At Spithead, England,
verdicts and sentences were announced for the 10 prisoners from the
mutiny on the Bounty. 4 men were acquitted, and 6 were found guilty and
condemned to death. 2 of the condemned were pardoned and another was
freed on a technicality. 3 were later hanged.
(ON, 3/04, p.9)
1792 Sep 27, George Cruikshank,
London, caricaturist (Oliver Twist), was born.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1792 Nov 13, Edward John
Trelawney, traveler and author (Adventure of a Younger Son), friend of
Byron and Shelley, was born in England.
(MC, 11/13/01)
1792 Dec 26, Charles Babbage
(d.1871), English inventor of the calculating machine, was born.
(HN, 12/26/98)
1792 Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin)
wrote her essay "Vindication of the Rights of Woman." She married
Godwin in 1797 after learning that she was pregnant and died in
childbirth.
(SFEM, 6/28/98, p.28)(Econ, 2/26/05, p.84)
1792 In England consumers began an
organized boycott against West Indian sugar. The Anti-Saccharine
Society displayed a cross-section of a slave ship with men shackled
head-to-toe like sardines.
(Econ, 12/23/06, p.94)
1792 William Wilberforce
introduced a new motion in British Parliament for the gradual abolition
of the slave trade. The “gradual” wording, proposed by home office
minister Henry Dundas, led to passage of the bill in the House of
Commons 230 to 85.
(ON, 4/05, p.2)
1792 James Penny, Liverpool slave
trader, was presented with a magnificent silver epergne for speaking in
favor of the slave trade to a parliamentary committee. Liverpool’s
Penny Lane was named after him.
(SSFC, 7/9/06,
p.A2)(www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/slavery/liverpool.asp)
1792 Arthur Phillip, the 1st
governor of New South Wales, Australia, returned to England accompanied
by Bennelong, an Aboriginal who had earlier attacked and wounded him.
Philip later gave Bennelong a house on a point in Sydney Cove. In 1973
it became the site of the Sydney Opera House.
(Econ, 7/15/06, p.83)
1792 The British St. George’s Bay
Company transported a 2nd group of settlers to Freetown. This included
1,196 Blacks from Nova Scotia, 500 Jamaicans and dozens of rebellious
slaves from other colonies.
(MT, summer 2003, p.8)
1793 Feb 1, France declared war on
Britain and the Netherlands.
(HN, 2/1/99)
1793 Jul 13, John Clare, English
poet, was born. He was discovered in 1819 and spent his last 30 years
in an asylum. In 2003 Jonathan Bate authored "John Clare: A Biography."
(HN, 7/13/01)(Econ, 10/11/03, p.85)
1793 Sep 6, French General Jean
Houchard and his 40,000 men began a three-day battle against an
Anglo-Hanoverian army at Hondschoote, southwest Belgium, in the wars of
the French Revolution.
(HN, 9/6/98)
1793 Sep, The 1st British soldiers
came ashore at St. Domingue.
(SFCM, 5/30/04, p.10)
1793 Dec 19, French troops
recaptured Toulon from the British.
(HN, 12/19/9)
1793 The British took over the
island of St. Vincent. A series of wars ensued against the black Caribs.
(SFC, 7/25/07, p.E2)
1793 The Minton dishware company
was established in Stoke, Staffordshire, England.
(SFC,11/5/97, Z.1 p.3)(SFC, 3/19/08, p.G6)
1793-1795 The British engaged in the ill-fated
Flanders Campaign.
(SSFM, 4/1/01, p.42)
1793-1835 Felicia Dorothea Browne Hemans, English
poet: "Though the past haunt me as a spirit, I do not ask to forget."
(AP, 12/31/98)
1794 Feb 10, Joseph Hayden’s 99th
Symphony in E, premiered.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1794 Jun 1, English fleet under
Richard Earl Howe defeated the French. (MC, 6/1/02)
1794 Jun 18, George Grote, British
historian, was born.
(MC, 6/18/02)
1794 Aug 21, France surrendered
the island of Corsica to the British.
(HN, 8/21/98)
1794 Sep 28, The
Anglo-Russian-Austrian Alliance of St. Petersburg, which was directed
against France, was signed.
(HN, 9/28/98)
1794 Nov 19, The United States and
Britain signed the Jay Treaty, which resolved some issues left over
from the Revolutionary War. This was the 1st US extradition treaty.
(AP, 11/19/97)(MC, 11/19/01)
1794 British Admiral Earl Howe
defeated the French fleet.
(SFEC,10/26/97, p.T4)
1794-1815 An anthology of first hand reports on the
naval war between France and Britain was edited by Dean King and John
B. Hattendorf and published in 1997.
(SFEC,11/2/97, Par p.10)
1795 Jan 3, Josiah Wedgwood
(b.1730), British ceramics manufacturer, died. His daughter, Susannah,
was the mother of Charles Darwin. In 2004 Brian Dolan authored
“Wedgwood: The First Tycoon.”
(SSFC, 12/5/04,
p.E5)(www.wedgwoodmuseum.org.uk/wedgwood_chronology.htm)
1795 Feb 2, Joseph Haydn’s 102nd
Symphony in B premiered.
(MC, 2/2/02)
1795 Apr 8, The Prince of Wales,
later England’s King George IV, married his German cousin, Caroline, to
produce an heir and increase his income. On their wedding night the
drunken bridegroom spent the night "under the grate, where he fell, and
where I left him." The story is told by Flora Fraser in her book: "The
Unruly Queen: The Life of Queen Caroline." Masterpiece Theater made a
TV presentation in 1997.
(SFC, 7/14/96, DB p.3)(WSJ, 1/9/97,
p.A8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_of_Brunswick)
1795 Apr 23, In Britain the trial
to impeach Warren Hastings, governor-general of India (1773-1785), on
21 charges for high crimes and misdemeanors ended after 7 years.
Hastings was acquitted on all charges.
(SFEC, 11/1/98, BR p.11)(WSJ, 5/1/00, p.A24)(MC,
4/23/02)
1795 James Boswell (54), friend
and biographer of Samuel Johnson, died. His 1791 biography, the Life of
Samuel Johnson,” changed the way biographies were written by its
emphasis on character and careful research.
(ON, 11/06, p.10)
1795 May, Mungo Park, Scottish
surgeon, sailed from England on behalf of the British African
Association to search for the Niger River.
(ON, 7/00, p.10)
1795 Aug 15, Franz Joseph Haydn
left England for the last time.
(MC, 8/15/02)
1795 Oct 31, John Keats (d.1821),
English poet, was born in London.
(WUD, 1994, p.781)(AP, 10/31/97)(HN, 10/31/98)
1795 Britain reinforced its forces
in St. Domingue. It was the largest expedition that had ever left
England.
(SFCM, 5/30/04, p.12)
1795 Lime juice was issued to all
British sailors to aid in prevention of scurvy. Captain James Cook
(d.1779) had prepared a paper detailing his groundbreaking work against
scurvy. He was awarded the gold Copley Medal-one of the highest honors
of England's Royal Society. Scurvy epidemics were once common among
sailors on long voyages. Cook was the first to beat the problem,
recognizing the need for an appropriate diet for his sailors.
(HNQ, 7/21/98)
1795 In England the Coalport
Porcelain Works began operations about this time.
(SFC, 5/28/08,
p.G2)(www.thepotteries.org/allpotters/283.htm)
1796 May 14, English physician
Edward Jenner administered the first vaccination against smallpox to
his gardener's son, James Phipps (8). A single blister rose up on the
spot, but James later demonstrated immunity to smallpox. Jenner
actually used vaccinia, a close viral relation to smallpox. [see July
21, 1721]
(Econ, 11/22/03, p.77)(AP, 5/14/08)
1796 Jun 1, In accordance with
the Jay Treaty, all British troops were withdrawn from U.S. soil.
(DTnet 6/1/97)
1796 Jane Austen began her novel
“Pride and Prejudice.”
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.104)
1796 Cuba exported Havana cigars
to Britain.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)
1796 Mary Lamb (31) killed her
mother with a carving knife. England deemed her a lunatic and released
into the custody of her brother Charles. In 1806 they published “Tales
From Shakespeare.” In 2005 Susan Tyler Hitchcock authored “Mad Mary
Lamb.”
(WSJ, 2/18/05, p.W6)
1797 Feb 14, The Spanish fleet was
destroyed by the British under Admiral Jervis (with Nelson in support)
at the battle of Cape St. Vincent, off Portugal.
(HN, 2/14/99)
1797 Feb 21, Trinidad, West Indies
surrendered to the British.
(HN, 2/21/98)
1797 Feb 22, The last invasion of
Britain took place when some 1,400 Frenchmen landed at Fishguard, in
Wales.
(HN, 2/22/99)
1797 Feb 26, Bank of England
issued 1st £1-note.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1797 Mar 2, The Directory of Great
Britain authorized vessels of war to board and seize neutral vessels,
particularly if the ships were American.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1797 Mar 2, Horace [Horatio]
Walpole (79), British horror writer, died.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1797 Apr, A British armada of 68
vessels and 7,000 men under Scotsman Sir Ralph Abercromby attacked San
Juan, Puerto Rico. The Spanish defenses held.
(HT, 4/97, p.34)
1797 May 2, A mutiny in the
British navy spread from Spithead to the rest of the fleet.
(HN, 5/2/99)
1797 Jul 9, Edmund Burke (b.1729),
Irish-born British statesman, parliament leader, died. His writing
included “Reflections on the Revolution in France,” 1790.
(WUD, 1994
p.198)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke)
1797 Aug 30, Mary Wollstonecraft
(Godwin) Shelley (d.1851), the creator of "Frankenstein," or the Modern
Prometheus, was born in London. Her mother died in childbirth.
(AHD, p.1193)(AP, 8/30/97)(HN, 8/30/98)(Econ,
2/26/05, p.84)
1797 Jun, Hatchards bookstore on
Piccadilly was founded.
(Hem., 5/97, p.99)
1797 Oct 16, Lord Cardigan, leader
of the famed Light Brigade which was decimated in the Crimean War, who
eventually had a jacket named after him, was born.
(HN, 10/16/98)
1797 Dec 29, John Wilkes (b.1725),
British journalist and politician, died. He opposed King George’s
policies in Massachusetts.
(WSJ, 8/31/05,
p.B1)(www.eastlondonhistory.com/wilkes.htm)
1797 French forces attacked
Britain at the port of Fishguard. The event was depicted in the
tapestry "The Last Invasion of Britain."
(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.T5)
1798 May 2, The black General
Toussaint L'ouverture forced British troops to agree to evacuate the
port of Santo Domingo. After 5 years of fighting over 60% of 20,000
British troops were buried on St. Domingue.
(HN, 5/2/99)(SFCM, 5/30/04, p.12)
1798 May 10, George Vancouver
(40), British explorer, (Voyage of Discovery), died.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1798 May 26, British killed about
500 Irish insurgents at the Battle of Tara.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1798 Jul 13, English poet William
Wordsworth visited the ruins of Tintern Abbey.
(HN, 7/13/01)
1798 Aug 1, Admiral Horatio Nelson
routed the French fleet in the Battle of the Nile at Aboukir Bay,
Egypt.
(HN, 8/1/98)
1798 Nov 16, The British boarded
the U.S. frigate Baltimore and impressed a number of crewmen as alleged
deserters, a practice which contributed to the War of 1812.
(HN, 11/16/98)
1798 Dec 24, Russia and England
signed a Second anti-French Coalition.
(MC, 12/24/01)
1798 Thomas Robert Malthus
authored his “An Essay on the Principle of Population As it affects the
future improvement of society with remarks on the speculations of Mr.
Godwin, M. Condorcet, and other writers.” His forecast for a population
crash was based on the calculation that it was impossible to improve
wheat yields as fast as people make babies. His 2nd edition in 1803
introduced the idea of moral restraint.
(www.faculty.rsu.edu/~felwell/Theorists/Malthus/essay2.htm)(Econ,
12/24/05, p.29)(Econ, 5/17/08, p.94)
1798 Samuel Solomon published
“Guide to Health or, advice to both sexes with an essay on a certain
disease, seminal weakness, and a destructive habit of private nature.
Also an address to parents, tutors, and guardians of youth. To which
one added, observations on the use and abuse of cold bathing” gave
advice on topics including abortion, onanism, asthma, barrenness and
bleeding. The main remedy for all ailments was Dr Solomon’s "Cordial
Balm of Gilead."
(http://tinyurl.com/2rrttq)(www.erudit.org/revue/ron/2001/v/n23/005993ar.html)
1798 In Northern Ireland there was
a rebellion against England. It was put down by the Orange yeomanry who
were enlisted by the government to restore peace. The slogan "Croppies
lie down" originated here after some of the rebel Catholics had their
hair cropped in the French revolutionary manner.
(SFEC, 7/12/98, p.A15)
1798 Samuel Taylor Coleridge and
William Wordsworth published "Lyrical Ballads." In 2006 Adam Sisman
authored “The Friendship: Wordsworth and Coleridge.”
(WSJ, 4/15/99, p.A20)(Econ, 9/30/06, p.94)
1798-1799 Wordsworth spent time in Germany and it was
later alleged that he acted as a spy for Pitt’s government.
(WSJ, 6/23/98, p.A18)
1799 May 4, In India Tipu Sultan
was killed in a battle against 5,000 British soldiers who stormed and
razed his capital, Seringapatanam. British forces defeated the sultan
of Mysore at the Battle of Seringapatam.
(www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080048779)(SSFM,
4/1/01, p.42)
1799 May 23, Thomas Hood (d.1845),
English poet, composer (Song of the Shirt), was born. "I saw old Autumn
in the misty morn Stand shadowless like silence, listening To silence."
(AP, 9/23/98)(MC, 5/23/02)
1799 Jul 17, Ottoman forces,
supported by the British, captured Aboukir, Egypt from the French.
(HN, 7/17/99)
1799 Richard Sheridan wrote his
play "Pizzaro." It implied an equivalence between persecuted Indians
and the Irish.
(WSJ, 11/20/98, p.W6)
Go to GB
1800