istoryworld
Events relating to europe
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
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
The first shot of the American Revolution is fired in a skirmish between redcoats and militiamen at Lexington, on the road to Concord
Delegates from the states reassemble in Philadelphia, with hostilities against the British already under way in Massachusetts
Delegates in Philadelphia select George Washington as commander-in-chief of the colonial army
At Bunker Hill, overlooking Boston from the north, the American militiamen prove their worth against British professional soldiers
Delegates to the Continental Congress make a final bid for peace, sending the Olive Branch Petition to George III
Britain declares the colonies to be in a state of rebellion, and sets up a naval blockade of the American coastline
Yankee Doodle is the most popular song with the patriot troops in the American Revolution
Figaro makes his first appearance on stage in Beaumarchais' The Barber of Seville
Talleyrand begins an extremely varied career by becoming an abbot at the age of twenty-one
Captain Cook publishes his discovery of a preventive cure against scurvy, in the form of a regular ration of lemon juice
Francisco de Goya begins a series of designs for tapestries to be made in Spain's Royal Tapestry Factory
George Washington raises on Prospect Hill a new American flag, the British red ensign on a ground of thirteen stripes – one for each colony
In Common Sense, an anonymous pamphlet, English immigrant Thomas Paine is the first to argue that the American colonies should be independent
Two Boulton and Watt engines are installed, the first of many in the mines and mills of England's developing industrial revolution
The revolutionary convention of Virginia votes for independence from Britain, and instructs its delegates in Philadelphia to propose this motion
Virginia's motion for independence from Britain is passed at the Continental Congress of the colonies with no opposing vote
Thomas Jefferson's text for the Declaration of Independence is accepted by the Congress in Philadelphia
