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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 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)
|
| 2 | 1704 | - 1704—1704: Penal Code enacted - Catholics barred from voting, education and the military
- 13 Aug 1704—13 Aug 1704: Battle of Blenheim
|
| 3 | 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)
|
| 4 | 1706 | - 1706—1706: First evening newspaper The Evening Post' issued in London
|
| 5 | 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
|
| 6 | 1708 | - 1708—1708: First Jacobite rising in Scotland
- 1708—1708: Earliest Artillery Muster Rolls
|
| 7 | 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
|
| 8 | 1710 | - 1710—1710: Tax on Apprentice Indentures introduced
|
| 9 | 1711 | - 1711—1711: Incorporation of South Sea Company, in London
- 11 Aug 1711—11 Aug 1711: First race meeting at Ascot
|
| 10 | 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
|
| 11 | 1713 | - 1713—1713: By this year there are some 3,000 coffee houses in London
|
| 12 | 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).
|
| 13 | 1715 | - 1715—1715: Second Jacobite rebellion in Scotland, under the Old Pretender ('The Fifteen')
- 1 Aug 1715—1 Aug 1715: Riot Act passed
|
| 14 | 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
|
| 15 | 1717 | - 1717—1717: First Masonic Lodge opens in London
- 1717—1717: Value of the golden guinea fixed at 21 shillings
|
| 16 | 1719 | - 1719—1719: Third abortive Jacobite rising
|
| 17 | 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
|
| 18 | 1721 | - 2 Apr 1721—2 Apr 1721: Robert Walpole (Whig) becomes first Prime Minister (to 1742)
|
| 19 | 1722 | - 1722—1722: Last trial for witchcraft in Scotland
- 1722—1722: Knatchbull's Act, poor laws
|
| 20 | 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
|
| 21 | 1724 | - 1724—1724: Rapid growth of gin drinking in England
- 1724—1724: Longman's founded (Britain's oldest publishing house)
|
| 22 | 1726 | - 1726—1726: First circulating library opened in Edinburgh
- 1726—1726: Invention of the chronometer by John Harrison
|
| 23 | 1727 | - 1727—1727: Board of Manufacturers established in Scotland
- 11 Jun 1727—11 Jun 1727: George I dies - George II Hanover becomes king
|
| 24 | 1729 | - 9 Nov 1729—9 Nov 1729: Treaty of Seville signed between Britain, France and Spain - Britain maintained
control of Port Mahon and Gibraltar
|
| 25 | 1730 | |
| 26 | 1731 | - 1731—1731: Invention of seed drill by Jethro Tull [others say 1701]
- 1731—1731: Invention of sextant by John Hadley
|
| 27 | 1732 | - 7 Dec 1732—7 Dec 1732: Covent Garden Opera House opens
|
| 28 | 1733 | - 1733—1733: Excise crisis: Sir Robert Walpole wanted to add excise tax to tobacco and wine -
Pulteney and Bolingbroke oppose the excise tax
- 1733—1733: Law forbidding the use of Latin in parish registers generally obeyed - some continued in
Latin for a few years
- 1733—1733: John Kay invents the flying shuttle, revolutionised the weaving industry
|
| 29 | 1734 | - 1734—1734: Kent's Directory published
|
| 30 | 1737 | - 1737—1737: Licensing Act restricts the number of London theatres and subects plays to censorship
of the Lord Chamberlain (till 1950s)
|
| 31 | 1738 | - 24 May 1738—24 May 1738: John Wesley has his conversion experience
|
| 32 | 1739 | - 1739—1739: Wesley and Whitefield commence great Methodist revival
- 7 Apr 1739—7 Apr 1739: Dick Turpin, highwayman, hanged at York
- 23 Oct 1739—23 Oct 1739: War of Jenkins' Ear starts: Robert Walpole reluctantly declares war on Spain
|
| 33 | 1741 | - 1741—1741: Benjamin Ingham founded the Moravian Methodists or Inghamites - Earliest Moravian
registers
|
| 34 | 1742 | - 1742—1742: England goes to war with Spain - incited by William Pitt the Elder (Earl of Chatham)
for the sake of trade
|
| 35 | 1743 | - 16 Jun 1743—16 Jun 1743: (June 27 in Gregorian calendar): Battle of Dettingen - last time a British
sovereign (George II) led troops in battle
|
| 36 | 1744 | - 1744—1744: Tune 'God Save the King' makes its appearance
|
| 37 | 1745 | - 1745—1745: Jacobite rebellion in Scotland ('The Forty-five')
- 19 Aug 1745—19 Aug 1745: Bonnie Prince Charlie (The Young Pretender) lands in the western Highlands -
raises support among Episcopalian and Catholic clans - The Pretender's army invades Perth,
Edinburgh, and England as far as Derby
|
| 38 | 1746 | - 16 Apr 1746—16 Apr 1746: Battle of Culloden - last battle fought in Britain - 5,000 Highlanders routed by
the Duke of Cumberland and 9,000 loyalists Scots - Young Pretender Charles flees to
Continent, ending Jacobite hopes forever - the wearing of the kilt prohibited
|
| 39 | 1747 | - 1747—1747: Abolition of Heritable Jurisdictions in Scotland
- 1747—1747: Act for Pacification of the Highlands
|
| 40 | 1749 | - 27 Apr 1749—27 Apr 1749: First performance of Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks (in Green Park,
London)
|
| 41 | 1750 | - Feb 1750—Feb 1750: Series of earthquakes in London and the Home Counties cause panic with
predictions of an apocalypse (Feb/Mar)
- 16 Nov 1750—16 Nov 1750: Original Westminster Bridge opened (replaced in 1862 due to subsidence)
|
| 42 | 1751 | - Mar 1751—Mar 1751: Chesterfield's Calendar Act passed - royal assent to the bill was given on 22
May 1751 - decision to adopt Gregorian Calendar in 1752: In and throughout all his
|
| 43 | 1752 | - 1752—1752: Benjamin Franklin invents the lightning conductor
- 1 Jan 1752—1 Jan 1752: Beginning of the year 1752 [Scotland had adopted January as the start of the year
in 1600, and some other countries in Europe had adopted the Gregorian calendar as early as
1582]
- 3 Sep 1752—3 Sep 1752: Julian Calendar dropped and Gregorian Calendar adopted in England and
Scotland, making this Sep 14
|
| 44 | 1753 | - 1753—1753: Private collection of Sir Hans Sloane forms the basis of the British Museum
- 1 May 1753—1 May 1753: Publication of ?Species Plantarum' by Linnaeus and the formal start date of plant
taxonomy
|
1703 - 1753 (50 years) 
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