Marquess of Queensbury (boxing rules) dies
Creation of the Labour Party Relief of Mafeking Paris International Exhibition – Metro system opens Campaign for pure beer Coca-Cola arrives in the UK Oscar Wilde dies |
1900 |
Planck proposes quantum theory
Arthur Evans starts work at Blood types A, B & C discovered Sigmund Freud publishes “The Interpretation of Dreams” |
Queen Victoria dies Toulouse-Lautrec dies Boxing legalised Walt Disney born (d.1966)
|
1901 |
Nobel Prizes first awarded
Willhelm Roentgen wins Nobel Physics prize for discovery of X-rays Gillette launches first disposable razor 1st diesel motor car goes on show in UK 1st Transatlantic wireless message sent by Guglielmo Marconi |
Masefield’s “Salt-Water Ballads“
End of Boer War Ban on women bar staff in Glasgow overturned by appeal court New York State bans flirting in public Beatrix Potter’s “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” HG Wells’s “The First Men on the Moon” Conan-Doyle revives Sherlock Holmes in “The Hound of the Baskervilles” Emile Zola dies |
1902 |
London smallpox outbreak brings calls for national vaccination programme
1st special effects movie “A Trip to the Moon” produced by George Melies Barbituric acid (sleeping pills) patented |
Tour de France cycle race launched
Paul Gaugin dies James McNeill Whistler dies Barbara Hepworth (sculptor) born (d.1975) George Orwell born (d. 1950) |
1903 |
Wilber and Orville Wright make first powered flight
Richard Gatling dies Kew Bridge opens over River Thames London’s first electric trams Marie Curie wins Nobel Prize |
Henry Morton Stanley dies
Salvador Dali born (d.1989) |
1904 |
1st attempt at talking pictures
Metropolitan Underground line electrified in London |
Automobile Association founded
Dr Thomas John Barnardo dies Jules Verne dies |
1905 |
Einstein’s Miracle year including Special Theory of Relativity
First successful cornea transplant takes place in Olomouc (Czech |
Mt Vesuvius erupts
San Francisco earthquake Paul Cezanne dies Henrik Ibsen dies |
1906 |
Position of magnetic north established
Pierre Curie dies in road accident Sonar invented 1st picture transmitted by telegraph |
Finland elects worlds first women MPs
Rudyard Kipling gets Nobel Prize for literature Herge born (Creator of Tintin. d.1983) Baden-Powell forms the Boy Scout movement Edvard Grieg (Norwegian composer) dies |
1907 |
Pavlov’s dogs experiment |
Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss”
Kenneth Grahame’s “The Wind in the Willows” W G Grace plays his last season NSPCC founder Rev Benjamin Waugh dies Jack Johnson becomes the first black world heavyweight boxer |
1908 |
First Model T Ford
1st person to die in a plane crash is Lt Thomas Selfridge (26) Ernest Rutherford wins Nobel chemistry prize Physicist Henri Becquerel dies |
1st closed top double decker buses arrive in Widnes
1st old age pension paid in the UK – 5/- a week |
1909 |
Bakelite first manufactured commercially
Louis Bleriot is first man to fly across the Channel |
Crippen hanged
Girl Guides formed Mount Etna erupts Edward VII dies Florence Nightingale dies Mark Twain dies (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) Holman Hunt dies Leo Tolstoy dies |
1910 |
Wicken Fen drainage engine built
Marie Curie isolates pure radium The Daylight Comet |
Royal Liver Building, Liverpool built
“Spirit of Ecstasy” figurine commissioned for Rolls-Royce Work completed on saving Winchester Cathedral from the “flood” Joseph Pulitzer (journalist and publisher) dies |
1911 |
Middlesborough Transporter Bridge opens Marie Curie receives (her second) Nobel Prize for Chemistry |
Both boats sink in University Boat Race
First aeroplane parachute jump made Royal Flying Corps (later RAF) founded 1st Keystone Cops film Samuel Taylor Coleridge dies |
1912 |
Titanic sinks
Marconi invents wireless compass Continental drift theory proposed by Alfred Wegener Joseph Lister (antiseptic pioneer) dies |
Suffragette Emily Davison dies
Robert Falcon Scott and team found dead in Antarctica |
1913 |
Panama Canal opens
Edison invents telephone recorder |
First World War starts
Sir John Tenniel (Alice illustrator) dies |
1914 |
Edison patents electric miners’ safety lamp |
Timeline 1850-1899

Wm Wordsworth dies
Tennyson becomes Poet Laureate |
1850 |
Peterborough Railway Bridge opens
Cast iron railway bridge opened in Newcastle Britannia Bridge opens across Menai Straits |
JMW Turner dies
John James Audubon dies Saltaire construction begun |
1851 |
Great Exhibition
Isaac Singer produces the first sewing machine |
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”
Great Western Royal Hotel opens in Paddington Kew Waterlily House built Augustus Pugin dies |
1852 |
Physicist Henri Becquerel born |
Vincent Van Gogh born
Levi Strauss sells jeans to US miners Scarborough market hall Salt’s Mill opens at Saltaire |
1853 |
Smallpox vaccination made compulsory |
Crimean War » 1856
Battles of Alma, Balaclava and Inkerman
Florence Nightingale arrives at Scutari William West dies |
1854 |
British Medical Association founded |
Daily Telegraph founded | 1855 |
|
Ellen Terry appears on stage for the 1st time
End of Crimean War Oscar Wilde born
Sigmund Freud born |
1856 |
|
2nd Opium War
Indian Mutiny Victoria and Albert Museum opens “The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands” published |
1857 |
Great Western dismantled
Brunel’s Tamar Bridge Opened |
The Great Stink – London |
1858 |
Netherton Tunnel opens
Delph “Nine” Locks reconstructed Donati’s Comet |
John Stuart Mill’s “On Liberty”
George Eliot’s “Adam Bede” Jerome K Jerome born Arthur Conan Doyle born
|
1859 |
Darwin‘s “Origin of Species”
Brunel’s Royal Albert Bridge opens at Saltash I K Brunel dies |
Abraham Lincoln made US president |
1860 |
British Association for the Advancement of Science meets at OxfordHenry Bessemer patents the converter to make steel from iron |
Prince Albert dies
Hawley Harvey Crippen born |
1861 |
First horse-drawn trams in London
Daily weather forecasts |
Henry David Thoreau dies
George Borrow’s “Wild Wales” John Merrick born |
1862 |
|
Edvard Munch born » 1944
Henri Toulouse-Lautrec born Tom King becomes the first world heavyweight boxing champion |
1863 |
Runcorn Railway Bridge opens
Blackpool North Pier opens Work starts on London |
Albert Memorial built
Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” Eugene Delacroix (artist) dies Poet John Clare dies in Northampton Asylum |
1864 |
|
Diamonds discovered in South Africa
Ford Madox Brown’s Work exhibited for the first time Abraham Lincoln assassinated Isabella Beeton dies Joseph Paxton dies |
1865 |
Scarborough Valley Bridge opens
Aberystwyth Pier opens |
Beatrix Potter born
J W Penfold designs the red pillarbox |
1866 |
Great Eastern lays the first transatlantic cableBrighton West Pier built |
Lime juice ration becomes a legal requirement in the merchant navy to fight scurvy
Rose’s Lime Juice Cordial first produced by Lauchlan Rose |
1867 |
First bicycle built
Nobel produces dynamite Michael Faraday dies |
Flogging in peacetime and transporation abolished
Last public execution outside Newgate Prison, London Charles Rennie Mackintosh born (d.1928) |
1868 |
|
Imprisonment for debt abolished |
1869 |
Suez Canal opens
Cutty Sark launched
Periodic Table of the |
Charles Dickens dies
1st Dr Barnado’s Home opens |
1870 |
Loughborough gets its first public water supply |
Stanley finds Livingstone
Bank Holidays introduced Royal Albert Hall opens |
1871 |
Souter Lighthouse built
Ernest Rutherford born Charles Babbage dies |
Aubrey Beardsley born
Piet Mondrian born (d. 1944) Wm Heath Robinson born |
1872 |
|
Sir Edwin Landseer dies
Derby’s first public swimming pool Jules Verne’s “Around the World in 80 Days” |
1873 |
Colour photographs first developed
Horse-drawn tram system opens in Sheffield |
Levi Strauss patents blue jeans |
1874 |
Barbed wire invented by Joseph Glidden
Caudwell’s Mill built |
Hans Christian Andersen dies
Samuel Taylor Coleridge born John Buchan born (d.1940 “39 Steps” “Prester John”) Capt Matthew Webb swins the English Channel Bizet’s “Carmen” first performed |
1875 |
Anderton Boat Lift opens
London’s sewer system Excavation begins at |
Victoria proclaimed Empress of India Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Tom Sawyer”Compulsory school attendance in the UKTitus Salt dies Custer’s Last Stand |
1876 |
Plimsoll Line introduced
Death of Samuel Plimsoll Bell patents the telephone Bissell patents the carpet sweeper |
Queen Victoria becomes Empress of India |
1877 |
Edison invents the phonograph
Fox Talbot dies |
John Masefield born
Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” Salvation Army named Gilbert & Sullivan’s “HMS Pinafore” George Gilbert Scott dies |
1878 |
Swan demonstrates the electric lightbulb
Downham Market clock erected Invention of the microphone |
Bournville construction begun |
1879 |
Albert Einstein born (d.1955)Forth Bridge (railway bridge) construction beginsBlackpool installs the world’s first electric arc street lighting » 1897 |
George Eliot dies
1st Boer War First cricket Test Match between England and Australia Giles Gilbert Scott born Jacob Epstein (sculptor) born (d.1959) Start of Arts and Crafts
|
1880 |
First street lighting in New York |
Thomas Carlyle dies (Scottish essayist and historian)
Pablo Picasso born. (d.1973) Mary Seacole dies Ernest Bevin born (d. 1951 WWII politician introduced “Bevin Boys” miners) |
1881 |
Natural History Museum opens in South Kensington, London |
Eric Gill (sculptor) born (d.1942) |
1882 |
Charles Darwin dies |
Fitzgerald dies
Edouard Manet (painter) dies Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” Matthew Webb dies |
1883 |
Brighton West Pier extended
First skyscraper built (10 storeys) in Chicago |
The Great English Earthquake |
1884 |
Gregor Mendel dies
Edwin A Abbott’s “Flatland” Papplewick Pumping Station opens Eugenius Birch dies |
General Gordon dies at KhartoumGilbert and Sullivan’s “The Mikado” |
1885 |
Louis Pasteur dies |
Thomas Hardy’s “Mayor of Casterbridge”Statue of Liberty dedicated |
1886 |
Thomas Burrow’s apology
Clarence Birdseye, inventor of the deep-freeze process, born |
Victoria’s Golden Jubilee LS Lowry born » 1976Wightwick Manor, Wolverhampton builtRupert Brooke born in Rugby, Warwickshire.(d.1915)Sherlock Homes first appears in “A Study in Scarlet” by Arthur Conan Doyle Bloody Sunday (Demonstration in Trafalgar Sq for the release of Irish Nationalist William O’Brien. Dispersed by police) |
1887 |
Esperanto international language invented
Barnes Wallis born in Ripley, Derbyshire. Inventor of the “bouncing bomb” (d.1979) Coal Mines Regulation Act prevents boys under 13 working below ground |
De Beers Consolidated Mines established at Kimberley, South Africa
Jack the Ripper murders Port Sunlight begun Financial Times first Edward Lear dies |
1888 |
John Boyd Dunlop patents the pneumatic tyre
Electric chair first used in New York George Eastman introduces the Kodak box camera |
Jerome’s “Three Men in a Boat”
Federal laws introduced in the US to protect the buffalo |
1889 |
Southend Pier built
Paris Exhibition – Eiffel Igor Sikorsky – helicopter pioneer – born |
Vincent Van Gogh commits suicide Queen Victoria grants Crown Derby the right to add “Royal” to its nameJohn Merrick diesMassacre at Wounded Knee |
1890 |
First moving pictures shown in New York Forth Bridge opens |
Oscar Wilde publishes “The Portrait of Dorian Gray” | 1891 |
Zips invented |
Conan Doyle’s “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”J R R Tolkien born (d. 1973)Walt Whitman diesThomas Cook (Travel agent) diesLiverpool University’s Victoria Building completed |
1892 |
Bridgnorth Funicular Railway opens
John William Alcock born. (d.1919 Alcock and Brown were the first to fly non-stop across the Atlantic – 1919) |
Beatrix Potter’s “Peter Rabbit”
Edvard Munch’s “The Scream”
Ford Madox Brown dies
New Zealand gives women the vote
Sheffield granted city staus
Wilfred Owen born in Oswestry, Shropshire (d. 1918)
|
1893
|
Henry Ford’s first automobile produced |
1894 |
Tower Bridge, London completed
Blackpool Tower opens Marconi’s first radio message |
|
National Trust founded
H G Wells’s “The Time Machine” |
1895 |
T.H Huxley dies
Rontgen discovers X rays |
William Morris dies
Daily Mail newspaper founded Kew Gardens employs women gardeners for the first time |
1896 |
Aberystwyth Cliff Railway opensNobel Prizes first announced >> 1901 |
Tate Gallery opens in London |
1897 |
Blackpool’s first illuminations
Discovery of the electron |
Edward Burne-Jones dies |
1898 |
Samuel Plimsoll dies
Pierre and Marie Curie discover radium Liverpool University opens the world’s first School of Tropical Medicine UK’s first speeding fine |
Noel Coward born (d. 1973) Ernest Hemingway born (d. 1961)
L Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”
Bassett’s Liquorice
Allsorts “invented” Start of Boer War
|
1899 |
Aspirin registered as a trade mark
Brighton Pier opens Electric trams introduced in Sheffield
|
Timeline 1800-1849

William Cowper (poet and hymn writer) dies |
1800 |
Alessandro Volta invents the first chemical battery
Fox Talbot born William Herschel discovers infrared radiation |
Union with Ireland – Union Flag adopted
First official British Census (population of England 8.3 million) |
1801 |
|
Peace with France
Peel introduces first Factory Legislation Sir Edwin Landseer born Thomas Girtin (English painter) dies Madame Tussaud arrives in UK |
1802 |
West India Docks completed in London
Erasmus Darwin dies
John Dalton produces atomic theory and tables of atomic weights Telford builds the road through the Highlands |
Napoleonic War
Titus Salt born Enclosure Act Joseph Paxton born |
1803 |
Caledonian Canal opens
Robert Stephenson born |
George Romney (English painter) dies
Napoleon declared Royal Horticultural Society founded |
1804 | Joseph Priestley dies
The Great Comet Closure of Moira Furnace |
Battle of Trafalgar – Death of Nelson Mary Seacole born Hans Christian Andersen born |
1805 |
Grand Junction Canal completed |
George Stubbs (painter – well known for animal pictures) dies |
1806 |
East India Docks completed in London
Trevithick’s railway completed at Coalbrookdale I K Brunel born Francis Beaufort devises the wind force scale |
Lamb’s “Tales from Shakespeare” |
1807 |
Royal Military Canal opens |
Thomas Cook (Travel agent) born |
1808 |
Captain Manby experiments with maritime rescue lines |
Fitzgerald born
Preventative Water Guard formed (Early coastguard) Haydn dies |
1809 |
Matthew Boulton dies
Charles Darwin born |
George III becomes insane |
1810 |
|
George (PoW) made Prince Regent
Throckmorton Coat made George Gilbert Scott born |
1811 |
Luddite disturbances in Notts and Yorks |
Charles Dickens born
Parthenon Marbles shipped to London Napoleon marches on Moscow Brighton Pavilion begun Augustus Pugin born
|
1812
|
Foxton Locks open |
Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”
Nash begins work on Regent Street |
1813 |
Wooten Wawen aqueduct opens
Gun Barrel Proof House opens in Birmingham |
1814 |
Street lighting installed in St Margaret’s Parish, Westminster | |
Battle of Waterloo |
1815 |
Tardebigge Locks open
Blisworth to Northampton branch canal opens Waterloo Bridge, Betws-y-Coed built Humphrey Davy invents the miners’ safety lamp |
Jane Austen’s “Emma” | 1816 |
|
“The Scotsman” newspaper founded
William Bligh dies Henry David Thoreau born
|
1817 |
|
Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”
US-Canada border established at 49th parallel |
1818 |
Institution of Civil Engineers founded with Telford as president
Eugenius Birch born Vulcan ship built Cantlop Bridge plans drawn |
Queen Victoria born
Albert (later Prince Albert) born George Eliot born John Ruskin born Walt Whitman born Peterloo Massacre Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds opens Picadilly Circus built in London |
1819 |
James Watt dies
Canal system reaches Sheffield |
George III dies
Accession George IV Sir John Tenniel (Alice illustrator) born Shelley’s “Prometheus Unbound” |
1820 |
|
John Keats dies
Ford Madox Brown born |
1821 |
|
Percy Bysshe Shelley dies
Antonio Canova (sculptor) dies Royal Academy of Music founded |
1822 |
Gregor Mendel born |
Oxford Union Society founded
Rugby first played at the public school Work begins on British Museum extension buildings (current structure) >> 1847 Pimm’s invented Brighton Pavilion completed
|
1823 |
Edmund Cartwright dies
Edward Jenner dies Charles Babbage starts work on the first “computer” Charles Macintosh invents |
Byron dies
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals founded in UK
|
1824 |
Samuel Plimsoll born |
Trade Unions legalised |
1825 |
Stockton & Darlington railway completed
Thomas Henry (T.H.) Huxley born Telford completes Menai Bridge |
Joseph Arch born (d.1922)
1st Edition Burke’s Peerage published |
1826 |
Longstone Lighthouse built
|
Holman Hunt (painter) born
William Blake dies Beethoven dies Burke and Hare murders begin >> 1829 |
1827 |
Scarborough Spa Bridge opens
Joseph Lister (antiseptic pioneer) born Ohm’s Law established |
Dante Gabriel Rossetti born
Jules Verne born Leo Tolstoy born Henrik Ibsen born |
1828 |
Zoological Society of London opens zoo in Regent’s Park |
Catholic emancipation
Millais born Metropolitan Police formed Rotunda Museum opens in Scarborough Barclay imports first Cavendish banana plant William Burke hanged Robert Abbot dies |
1829 |
Stephenson’s”Rocket”
Galton Bridge opens over Telford’s canal at Smethwick Humphry Davy dies
|
George IV dies
Accession William IV Camille Pissarro (painter) born 1st cholera epidemic » 1832 |
1830 |
Faraday begins work on electricity
Darwin’s 1st voyage on Beagle |
Isle of Lewis chess set found |
1831 |
London Bridge opens
Sir James Clark Ross discovers position of magnetic North Pole Henry Maudslay dies Faraday demonstrates |
Edouard Manet (painter) born
End of 1st cholera |
1832 |
G F Muntz patents Muntz’s Metal |
Factory Act limits child labourSlavery abolished in British EmpireEdward Burne-Jones bornWilliam Wilberforce diesBirmingham Town Hall completedMold cape discovered |
1833 |
Richard Trevithick dies |
Coleridge dies
Dickens’s “Sketches by Boz” Poor Law amendment introduces Union Workhouses Tolpuddle Martyrs transported William Morris born Edgar Degas (painter) born James McNeill Whistler (painter) born |
1834 |
Telford dies
Chance’s Glassworks established Charles Babbage develops the analytic engine |
Mark Twain born (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
Hans Christian Andersen publishes his first children’s story John Nash dies |
1835 |
|
First civil marriages allowed in Britain
Sheffield’s botanical gardens open |
1836 |
|
William IV dies
Accession of Queen Victoria John Constable dies Isabella Beeton born
|
1837 |
Brunel’sGreat Western launched |
Public Record Office establishedGrace and William Darling rescue survivors from the ForfarshireNational Gallery opens in London |
1838 |
Robert Stephenson’s London & Birmingham Railway opens
First public demonstration of the electric telegraph by Samuel Morse |
1st Opium War
Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin begin work on the new Houses of Pugin’s St Mary’s Church completed in Derby NSPCC founder Rev Benjamin Waugh born Paul Cezanne born |
1839 |
Fox Talbot‘s first photographs
Derby gets a railway line Sheffield gets a railway line |
Penny post introduced by Sir Rowland Hill
Charles Dickens publishes The Old Curiosity Shop New Zealand proclaimed a British colony Beau Brummel dies penniless in France Victoria marries Albert |
1840 |
|
Saxophone invented
Kew Gardens opens |
1841 |
|
The Rebecca Riots
Derby gets a new town hall John Sell Cotman dies George Bassett sets up his confectionery business in Sheffield >> 1899 |
1842 |
|
Wordsworth becomes Poet Laureate
Edvard Grieg (composer) born United Free Church of Scotland formed Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol Nelson’s Column erected in Trafalgar Square |
1843 |
Brunel’sSS Great Britain launched
“The Great Comet” |
Chatsworth’s Emperor Fountain
constructed YMCA founded 8th Marquess Queensbury (boxingrules) born Work begins on KewPalm House>> 1848 |
1844 |
Samuel Morse sends first telegraphJohn Dalton dies |
Irish Famine » 1846Dr Thomas John Barnardo bornEdgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” |
1845 |
First submarine cable under the English Channe
lNorthampton gets its first railway line |
Irish Famine » 1848 |
1846 |
Planet Neptune discovered |
Dickens’s “Dombey & Son”
Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre” Wm Thackeray’s “Vanity Fair” Marx & Engels’s “Communist Manifesto” British Museum completed Joseph Pulitzer (journalist and publisher) born |
1847 |
Institution of Mechanical Engineers founded with George Stephenson as presidentDee Bridge disasterThomas Edison bornAlexander Graham Bell born Chloroform first used as an |
Pre-Raphaelites formed
Paul Gaugin born 2nd cholera epidemic Irish Famine Hymn “All Things Bright and Beautiful” written in Dunster, Somerset Kew’s Palm House completed Matthew Webb born
|
1848 |
Robert Stephenson’s Conway Bridge opens |
Abolition
of the Corn Laws Beau Brummel dies |
1849 |
Timeline 1750-1799
Gray’s “Elegy”
“Capability” Brown lays out Two earthquakes hit London |
1750 |
|
Thomas Sheraton (furniture designer) born
Hogarth’s “Gin Lane” produced |
1751 |
|
John Nash born |
1752 |
Gregorian calendar adopted
Lizard Lighthouse built Benjamin Franklin flies his |
British Museum founded
|
1753 |
|
Chippendale’s”The Gentleman & Cabinet-maker’s Director”
Capt William Bligh born |
1754 |
|
Samuel Johnson’s dictionary published | 1755 |
Dyfi Furnace constructed |
Start of Seven Years War
Black Hole of Calcutta |
1756 |
|
William Blake born
Antonio Canova (sculptor) born Robert Abbot born |
1757 |
Thomas Telford born |
Horatio Nelson born |
1758
|
Halley’s Comet appears
Jedediah Strutt patents ribbing machine for hosiery manufacture |
Robert Burns born
William Wilberforce (social reformer) born Robert Adam completes Harewood House British Museum moves to London Battle of Quebec |
1759 |
Harrison’s third chronometer
|
Accession George III
Kew Gardens opens
|
1760 |
Harrison’s fourth chronometer (the watch)Start of the Northumbrian lime industry |
Sterne’s “Tristram Shandy”
Osterley Park begun |
1761 |
Bridgewater Canal opens
River Nene made navigable from King’s Lynn to Northampton |
Chinese pagoda built on the Kew estate
The birth of the sandwich |
1762 |
Matthew Boulton founds the Soho Manufactory |
End of the Seven Years War | 1763 |
|
William Hogarth dies |
1764 |
Hargreaves invents the Spinning Jenny |
1765 |
Watt devises the separate condenser |
|
Wright’s “The Orrery”
Christie’s auctioneers founded. |
1766 |
John Dalton born |
Bath’s Royal Crescent begun | 1767 |
|
Capt. Cook’s Voyage to the South Seas » 1771
Royal Academy founded Wright’s “The Air Pump” Laurence Sterne dies |
1768 |
|
1769 |
Watt’s 1st patent
Venetian blinds patented in London Arkwright’s waterframe 1st stretch of James Brindley’s Birmingham Canal opens Wedgwood opens Etruria |
|
William Wordsworth born
Beethoven born Cook discovers Botany Bay |
1770 |
|
Capt. Cook returns from South Seas
Oliver Goldsmith’s “She Stoops to Conquer” Thomas Gray dies |
1771 |
Richard Trevithick born
Henry Maudslay born Arkwright’s Cromford Mill opens |
Samuel Taylor Coleridge born
Cook’s second voyage starts » |
1772 |
James Brindley dies |
Boston Tea Party
Cook reaches Antarctic
|
1773 |
Birmingham Assay Office opens
George III grants Derby the |
1774 |
Priestley isolates Oxygen
Bingley Five Rise opens Practical diving suit first demonstrated in the River Thames by Andrew |
|
Bath’s Royal Crescent finished
JMW Turner born Thomas Girtin (English artist) born American War of Independence begins > 1783 Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s “The Rivals” Cook’s second voyage ends » |
1775 |
Official adoption of the name “Lunar Society” |
American Declaration of Independence – July 4
John Constable born Gibbons “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s “The School for Scandal” Cook’s third voyage starts » |
1776 |
|
Thomas Linley’s “The Beggar’s Opera” | 1777 |
|
Thomas Arne dies (Rule Britannia)
Beau Brummel born |
1778 |
Humphry Davy born
|
Cook killed in Hawaii |
1779 |
Iron Bridge made at Coalbrookdale
Crompton’s Spinning Mule |
Osterley Park completed
1st Epsom Derby
|
1780 |
Watt patents copying press |
American victory at Yorktown |
1781 |
Watt patents rotary adaptor
William Herschel discovers uranus Horseley Ironworks established |
Fuseli’s “The Nightmare”
John Sell Cotman born Richard Wilson (Welsh painter) dies |
1782 |
Luigi Galvani discovers “animal electricty” |
American colonies recognised – end of American Revolution
“Capability” Brown dies William West born
|
1783 |
Montgolfier Brothers launch hot air balloon |
Samuel Johnson dies
East India Act |
1784 |
|
1st edition of the Daily Universal Register » 1788
John James Audubon born |
1785 |
Cartwright patents the power loom |
Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro” | 1786 |
|
William Etty born | 1787 |
|
Byron born
Thomas Gainsborough dies Regency Crisis Daily Universal Register becomes The Times First British convicts arrive in Port Jackson (Sydney, Australia) |
1788 |
Gilbert White’s “Natural History of Selborne”Thomas Boulsover dies |
French Revolution
Washington elected US President Blake’s “Songs of Innocence” Mutiny on the Bounty |
1789 |
Cartwright produces the wool combing machine |
Culzean Castle completed |
1790 |
Benjamin Franklin dies
|
Paine’s “Rights of Man” “The Observer” newspaper established |
1791 |
Ordnance Survey established
Michael Faraday born Charles Babbage born Heage Windmill built |
Percy Bysshe Shelley born
Robert Adam dies Joshua Reynolds dies Louvre opens as a public museum in Paris Mary Wollestonecraft’s “Rights of Women” |
1792 |
Richard Arkwright dies |
War with France Louis XVI executed |
1793 |
|
1794 |
John Smeaton dies
|
|
John Keats (poet) born
Admiralty issues daily lemon juice ration to the RN to eliminate scurvy Thomas Carlyle born. (Scottish essayist and historian) |
1795 |
Josiah Wedgwood dies
Nicholas Conte |
Robert Burns dies |
1796 |
Jenner’s cowpox vaccination tested and smallpox vaccination discovered
Soho Foundry opens Lune Aqueduct completed Grand Junction Canal open as far as Blisworth |
Joseph Wright of Derby dies
First £1 banknotes issued |
1797 |
|
Malthus “Essay on Population”
Napoleon invades Egypt |
1798 |
Beadnell harbour limekiln built |
Napoleon appointed First Consul in France
Rosetta Stone found by Eugene Delacroix (artist) born Greene, King Brewery founded Income Tax introduced in Britain |
1799 |
William Withering dies |
Timeline Pre 1750
1653 | River Wey opens to barge traffic | |
Samuel Johnson Born | 1709 | Abraham Darby converts 1st furnace |
Laurence Sterne born | 1713 | |
Lancelot “Capability” Brown born | 1715 | |
Joshua Reynolds born | 1723 | |
Robert Adam born | 1728 | Matthew Boulton born |
Josiah Wedgwood born | 1730 | |
William Cowper (poet and hymn writer) born | 1731 | Erasmus Darwin born |
Joseph Haydn born | 1732 | Richard Arkwright born |
1733 | Joseph Priestley born | |
Joseph Wright of Derby born | 1734 | |
Rob Roy dies | 1735 | |
Witchcraft no longer a crime | 1736 | James Watt born |
Construction of Radcliffe Camera begun in Oxford | 1737 | Harrison’s first chronometer |
John Wesley’s conversion | 1738 | |
Rule Britannia composed (Arne) | 1740 | |
1741 | Harrison’s second chronometer
William Withering born |
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First performance Handel’s “Messiah” | 1742 | |
Stourhead gardens begun | 1743 | Edmund Cartwright born |
War with France
1st recorded cricket match |
1744 | |
Jonathan Swift dies
Hogarth’s “Marriage a la Jacobite Rebellion |
1745 | |
Battle of Culloden | 1746 | |
Glasse’s “Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy” | 1747 | First clock maker opens in Coventry |
1748 | Excavations begun at Pompeii | |
Fielding’s “Tom Jones” | 1749 |