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

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

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

Scottish engineer James Watt devises the governor, the first example of industrial automation

England's champion pugilist, the Jewish prize-fighter Daniel Mendoza, publishes The Art of Boxing

William Blake publishes Songs of Innocence, a volume of his poems with every page etched and illustrated by himself

In his Principles Jeremy Bentham defines 'utility' as that which enhances pleasure and reduces pain

Joseph Haydn sets off for England, where impresario Johann Peter Salomon presents his London symphonies

Anglo-Irish politician Edmund Burke publishes Reflections on the Revolution in France, a blistering attack on recent events across the Channel

English painter J.M.W. Turner is only 15 when a painting of his, a watercolour, is first exhibited at the Royal Academy

Scottish poet Robert Burns publishes Tam o' Shanter, in which a drunken farmer has an alarming encounter with witches

Naval officer George Vancouver sails from Britain on the voyage which will bring him to the northwest coast of America

Thomas Paine publishes the first part of The Rights of Man, his reply to Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France

Scottish painter Henry Raeburn depicts the Reverend Robert Walker skating on Duddingston Loch

English author Mary Wollstonecraft publishes a passionately feminist work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Thomas Paine moves hurriedly to France, to escape a charge of treason in England for opinions expressed in his Rights of Man

George III sends Lord Macartney on an embassy to the Chinese emperor Qianlong

Britain joins other European nations in war against France, mainly in naval engagements in the West Indies and Atlantic

The treaty agreed by US envoy John Jay restores some degree of friendship between the USA and Britain

William Blake's volume Songs of Innocence and Experience includes his poem 'Tyger! Tyger! burning bright'

Thomas Paine publishes his completed Age of Reason, an attack on conventional Christianity

In Berkeley, Gloucestershire, Edward Jenner inoculates a boy with cowpox in the pioneering case of vaccination