istoryworld
Events relating to europe
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
Jacques-Louis David, establishing a reputation with his severe classical paintings, is elected to the French academy
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
Napoleon graduates from his military college and is commissioned in an artillery regiment
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
Francisco de Goya is appointed painter to the king of Spain, Charles III
French chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier publishes a system for classifying and naming chemical substances
The French finance minister, Charles Alexandre de Calonne, is dismissed when his proposed reforms meet aristocratic opposition
The Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade is founded in London, with a strong Quaker influence
The First Fleet (eleven ships carrying about 750 convicts) leaves Portsmouth for Australia
A British ship lands a party of freed slaves as the first modern settlers in Sierra Leone, on the west coast of Africa
Scottish engineer James Watt devises the governor, the first example of industrial automation
After a journey of eight months from England the First Fleet reaches Australia, anchoring in Botany Bay
Arthur Phillip, selecting a suitable coastal site for the first penal colony in Australia, names the place Sydney Cove
The ministers of Louis XVI reluctantly announce that the estates general will meet in 1789, for the first time since 1614
Spain's affairs are controlled by Manuel de Godoy, lover of the queen, Maria Luisa
England's champion pugilist, the Jewish prize-fighter Daniel Mendoza, publishes The Art of Boxing
A pamphlet published in France by Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès asks a challenging question, What is the Third Estate?
