France, joining the American colonies in their fight against Britain, sends a large fleet across the Atlantic

The American naval hero John Paul Jones makes successful raids around the coasts of Britain

15-year-old Elisabeth-Louise Vigée-Lebrun earns enough from painting portraits to support the rest of her family

Joseph Banks tells a committee of the House of Commons that the east coast of Australia is suitable for the transportation of convicted felons

The world's first iron bridge is assembled in a few months across the Severn at Coalbrookdale

Samuel Crompton perfects the mule, a machine for spinning that combines the merits of Hargreave's jenny and Arkwright's water frame

U.S.S. Bonhomme Richard, commanded by John Paul Jones, fights H.M.S. Serapis near England's Flamborough Head

In developing the Haskalah, the German philosopher Moses Mendelssohn reconciles Judaism and the Enlightenment

Six days of riot in London are triggered by Lord George Gordon leading a march to oppose any degree of Catholic emancipation

William Herschel discovers Uranus, the first planet to be found by means of a telescope, and names it the Georgian star

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, now 25, leaves Salzburg to settle in Vienna

Joseph II passes an Edict of Toleration, for the first time allowing Protestant worship in Habsburg territories

German philosopher Immanuel Kant publishes the first of his three 'critiques', The Critique of Pure Reason

The reforming emperor Joseph II emancipates the serfs in the Habsburg territories

Italian sculptor Antonio Canova sets up his studio in Rome and begins producing finely modelled nudes in the Greek style

Friedrich von Schiller's youthful and anarchic play The Robbers causes a sensation when performed in Mannheim

12-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven publishes his first composition, Piano Variations on a March by Dressler

French paper manufacturer Joseph Montgolfier sends a hot-air balloon 3000 feet (1000m) into the air, in front of a crowd in Annonay

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

Jacques-Louis David, establishing a reputation with his severe classical paintings, is elected to the French academy