istoryworld
All Events
French paper manufacturer Joseph Montgolfier sends a hot-air balloon 3000 feet (1000m) into the air, in front of a crowd in Annonay
Some 40,000 Loyalists flee from British America to the previously French colonies, in particular Nova Scotia
US lexicographer Noah Webster publishes a Spelling Book for American children that eventually will sell more than 60 million copies
The empress Catherine the Great annexes the Crimean peninsula, giving Russia a presence in the Black Sea
20-year-old John Jacob Astor emigrates from Germany to America and sets up in the fur trade
Ten days after the first human ascent in a hot-air balloon the feat is repeated, again in Paris, in a version lifted by hydrogen
In the Treaty of Paris, negotiated by Adams, Franklin and Jay, the British government recognizes US independence
Louis XVI watches through his telescope the first balloon flight with living passengers – a sheep, a cock and a duck
A hot-air balloon rises from a Paris garden, carrying the first human aeronauts – Pilàtre de Rozier and the marquis d'Arlandes
John Michell argues that a star could have a gravitational force so strong that no light could escape - now known to exist as a black hole
Jacques-Louis David, establishing a reputation with his severe classical paintings, is elected to the French academy
Euler, the most prolific mathematician in history, dies after a brilliant career that is unhindered by fifteen years of almost total blindness
Benjamin Franklin, irritated at needing two pairs of spectacles, commissions from a lens-grinder the first bifocals
A 24-year-old, William Pitt the Younger, is appointed Britain's prime minister by George III
English ironmaster Henry Cort patents a process for puddling iron which produces a pure and malleable metal
The first mail coach leaves Bristol for London, introducing a new era of faster transport
Napoleon graduates from his military college and is commissioned in an artillery regiment
Mozart and his friends perform for Haydn the Mozart quartets inspired by Haydn's 'Russian' quartets (op.33), which on publication are dedicated to him
The French queen Marie Antoinette is wrongly implicated in a scandal involving a diamond necklace
French physicist Charles Augustin de Coulomb begins publishing his discoveries in the field of electricity and magnetism
James Hutton describes to the Royal Society of Edinburgh his studies of local rocks , launching the era of scientific geology
William Withering's Account of the Foxglove describes the use of digitalis for dropsy, and its possible application to heart disease
French sculptor Jean Antoine Houdon crosses the Atlantic to sculpt a statue of George Washington from the life at Mount Vernon
Mozart's Marriage of Figaro premieres in Vienna and then has a huge success in Prague
The emperor Joseph II is reported to have told Mozart that his opera The Marriage of Figaro has 'too many notes'
