istoryworld
All Events
English prison reformer John Howard is shocked into action by the conditions he sees in Bedford gaol
The London brokers who meet to do business in Jonathan's coffee house decide to call themselves the Stock Exchange
Oliver Goldsmith's play She Stoops to Conquer is produced in London's Covent Garden theatre
Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele isolates oxygen but does not immediately publish his achievement
Samuel Johnson and James Boswell undertake a journey together to the western islands of Scotland
Some fifty colonists, disguised as Indians, tip a valuable cargo of tea into Boston harbour as a protest against British tax
Responding to pressure from the Catholic monarchs of Europe, Clement XIV abolishes the Jesuit Order
A tontine is launched in Richmond to raise money for the construction of a bridge across the Thames
As a retaliation for the Boston Tea Party, the British parliament closes Boston's port with the first of its Coercive Acts
Goethe's romantic novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, brings him an immediate European reputation
Goethe's play Götz von Berlichingen, a definitive work of Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress), has its premiere in Berlin
Britain's new Coercive (or Intolerable) Acts include the requirement that Massachusetts citizens give board and lodging to British troops
The Spanish, now in sole occupation of the Falkland Islands, call them Las Islas Malvinas
Encouraged by Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine emigrates to America and settles in Philadelphia
In the treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji, ending the recent Russo-Turkish war, the Ottoman empire cedes the Crimea to Russia
The treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji grants Russia special rights in relation to the Christian Holy Places under Ottoman control
Illiterate visionary Ann Lee, leader of an English sect, the 'Shaking Quakers', crosses the Atlantic to spread the word
English chemist Joseph Priestley isolates oxygen, but he believes it to be 'dephlogisticated air'
Delegates from twelve American colonies meet in Philadelphia and agree not to import any goods from Britain
Thomas Gainsborough moves from Bath to set up a studio in London
Dutch nomads, pressing far north from Cape Town, become known as the Trekboers
Pioneer Daniel Boone and other backwoodsmen cut the road west that will bring settlers to Kentucky
Patrick Henry makes a stirring declaration – 'Give me liberty or give me death' – to the Virginia Assembly
John Singleton Copley, already established as America's greatest portrait painter, moves to London
General Gage sends a detachment of British troops to seize weapons held by American Patriots at Concord
