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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1697 | - 2 Dec 1697—2 Dec 1697: Official opening of St Paul's Cathedral
|
| 2 | 1698 | - 1698—1698: Invention of steam engine by Capt Thomas Savery
- 1698—1698: Darien Expedition: a disastrous attempt to establish a Scots settlement in Panama
- 1698—1698: Duties (taxes) on entries in parish registers - repealed after five years
- 4 Jan 1698—4 Jan 1698: Most of the Palace of Whitehall in London destroyed by fire
- 14 Nov 1698—14 Nov 1698: Eddystone Lighthouse (Henry Winstanley's) first lit; completed 10 days earlier
|
| 3 | 1700 | - 1700—1700: Population in England and Scotland approx 7.5 million
|
| 4 | 1701 | - 1701—1701: Act of Settlement bars Catholics from the British throne
- 23 May 1701—23 May 1701: After being convicted of piracy and murdering William Moore, Captain
William Kidd hanged in London
|
| 5 | 1702 | - 8 Mar 1702—8 Mar 1702: Anne Stuart becomes Queen
- 11 Mar 1702—11 Mar 1702: First English daily newspaper The Daily Courant (till 1735)
|
| 6 | 1703 | - 4 Aug 1703—4 Aug 1703: British take Gibraltar
- 24 Nov 1703—24 Nov 1703: Climate: Most violent storms of the millennium cause vast damage
across southern England - about a third of Britain's merchant fleet lost, and Eddystone
lighthouse destroyed on 27 November (Nov 24 - Dec 2)
|
| 7 | 1704 | - 1704—1704: Penal Code enacted - Catholics barred from voting, education and the military
- 13 Aug 1704—13 Aug 1704: Battle of Blenheim
|
| 8 | 1705 | - 1705—1705: First workable steam pumping engine devised by Thomas Newcomen (some say c1710
or 1711)
- 1705—1705: Isaac Newton knighted (for his work at the Royal Mint)
|
| 9 | 1706 | - 1706—1706: First evening newspaper The Evening Post' issued in London
|
| 10 | 1707 | - 16 Jan 1707—16 Jan 1707: Union with Scotland - Scots agree to send 16 peers and 45 MPs to English
Parliament in return for full trading privileges - Scottish Parliament meets for the last time in
March
- 1 May 1707—1 May 1707: English and Scottish Parliaments united by an Act of the English Parliament -
The Kingdom of Great Britain established - largest free-trade area in Europe at the time
|
| 11 | 1708 | - 1708—1708: First Jacobite rising in Scotland
- 1708—1708: Earliest Artillery Muster Rolls
|
| 12 | 1709 | - 1709—1709: Second Eddystone lighthouse completed
- 1709—1709: First Copyright Act pass
- 1709—1709: Bad harvests throughout Europe - bread riots in Britain
- 2 Feb 1709—2 Feb 1709: Alexander Selkirk rescued from shipwreck on a desert island, inspiring the book
Robinson Crusoe (published in 1719) by Daniel Defoe
|
| 13 | 1710 | - 1710—1710: Tax on Apprentice Indentures introduced
|
| 14 | 1711 | - 1711—1711: Incorporation of South Sea Company, in London
- 11 Aug 1711—11 Aug 1711: First race meeting at Ascot
|
| 15 | 1712 | - 1712—1712: Imposition of Soap Tax (abolished 1853)
- 1712—1712: Last trial for witchcraft in England (Jane Wenham)
- 1712—1712: Toleration Act passed - first relief to non-Anglicans
|
| 16 | 1713 | - 1713—1713: By this year there are some 3,000 coffee houses in London
|
| 17 | 1714 | - 1714—1714: Longitude Act: prize of ?20,000 offered to the inventor of a workable method of
determining a ship's longitude (won by John Harrison in 1773 for his chronometer).
- 1714—1714: Schism Act, prevents Dissenters from being schoolmasters in England
- 1714—1714: Landholders forced to take the Oath of Allegiance and renounce Roman Catholicism
- 1 Aug 1714—1 Aug 1714: Queen Anne Stuart dies - George I Hanover becomes king (1714-1727).
|
| 18 | 1715 | - 1715—1715: Second Jacobite rebellion in Scotland, under the Old Pretender ('The Fifteen')
- 1 Aug 1715—1 Aug 1715: Riot Act passed
|
| 19 | 1716 | - 1716—1716: The Septennial Act of Britain leads to greater electoral corruption - general elections
now to be held once every 7 years instead of every 3 (until 1911)
- 1716—1716: Climate: Thames frozen so solid that a spring tide lifted the ice bodily 13ft without
interrupting the frost fair
|
| 20 | 1717 | - 1717—1717: First Masonic Lodge opens in London
- 1717—1717: Value of the golden guinea fixed at 21 shillings
|
| 21 | 1719 | - 1719—1719: Third abortive Jacobite rising
|
| 22 | 1720 | - 1720—1720: South Sea Bubble, a stock-market crash on Exchange Alley - government assumes
control of National Debt
- 1720—1720: Manufacturing towns start to increase in population - rise of new wealth
- 1720—1720: Wallpaper becomes fashionable in England
|
| 23 | 1721 | - 2 Apr 1721—2 Apr 1721: Robert Walpole (Whig) becomes first Prime Minister (to 1742)
|
| 24 | 1722 | - 1722—1722: Last trial for witchcraft in Scotland
- 1722—1722: Knatchbull's Act, poor laws
|
| 25 | 1723 | - 1723—1723: Excise tax levied for coffee, tea, and chocolate
- 1723—1723: The Waltham Black Acts add 50 capital offences to the penal code - people could be
sentenced to death for theft and poaching - repealed in 1827
- 1723—1723: The Workhouse Act or Test - to get relief, a poor person has to enter Workhouse
|
| 26 | 1724 | - 1724—1724: Rapid growth of gin drinking in England
- 1724—1724: Longman's founded (Britain's oldest publishing house)
|
1697 - 1724 (27 years) 
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