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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1690 | - 20 May 1690: England passes Act of Grace, forgiving Roman Catholic followers of James II
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| 2 | 1692 | - 1692: Land Tax introduced – originally designed as an annual tax on personal estate, public
offices and land. For practical purposes, however, assessors tended to avoid assessing items of
wealth other than landed property so that it became known as the Land Tax.
- 1692: French intention to invade England came to nothing
- 13 Feb 1692: The massacre of Glencoe – Clan Campbell sides with King William and
murders members of Clan McDonald
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| 3 | 1693 | - 4 Aug 1693: Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Pierre Pérignon 's invention of Champagne
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| 4 | 1694 | - 1694: National Debt came into effect in England
- 1694: Stamp Duties introduced into Britain from Holland
- 1694: Mary II death leaves William III as sole ruler
- 1694: Triennial Act, new Parliamentary elections every three years
- 1694: Scotland: Poll Tax imposed on all over sixteen, except the destitute and insane (-1699)
- 27 Jul 1694: Bank of England founded by William Paterson (a Scot)
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| 5 | 1695 | - 1695: Freedom of Press in England granted
- 1695: Bank of Scotland founded
- 1695: Act of Parliament imposes a fine on all who fail to inform the parish minister of the
birth of a child (repealed 1706)
- 1695: Start of "Dissenters" lists in parish registers – children born but not christened in the
parish church – some were named "Papist" and others "Protestants"
|
| 6 | 1697 | - 2 Dec 1697: Official opening of St Paul's Cathedral
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| 7 | 1698 | - 1698: Invention of steam engine by Capt Thomas Savery
- 1698: Darien Expedition: a disastrous attempt to establish a Scots settlement in Panama
- 1698: Duties (taxes) on entries in parish registers – repealed after five years
- 4 Jan 1698: Most of the Palace of Whitehall in London destroyed by fire
- 14 Nov 1698: Eddystone Lighthouse (Henry Winstanley's) first lit; completed 10 days earlier
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| 8 | 1700 | - 1700: Population in England and Scotland approx 7.5 million
|
| 9 | 1701 | - 1701: Act of Settlement bars Catholics from the British throne
- 23 May 1701: After being convicted of piracy and murdering William Moore, Captain
William Kidd hanged in London
|
| 10 | 1702 | - 8 Mar 1702: Anne Stuart becomes Queen
- 11 Mar 1702: First English daily newspaper The Daily Courant (till 1735)
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| 11 | 1703 | - 4 Aug 1703: British take Gibraltar
- 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)
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| 12 | 1704 | - 1704: Penal Code enacted – Catholics barred from voting, education and the military
- 13 Aug 1704: Battle of Blenheim
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| 13 | 1705 | - 1705: First workable steam pumping engine devised by Thomas Newcomen (some say c1710
or 1711)
- 1705: Isaac Newton knighted (for his work at the Royal Mint)
|
| 14 | 1706 | - 1706: First evening newspaper "The Evening Post" issued in London
|
| 15 | 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: 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
|
| 16 | 1708 | - 1708: First Jacobite rising in Scotland
- 1708: Earliest Artillery Muster Rolls
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| 17 | 1709 | - 1709: Second Eddystone lighthouse completed
- 1709: First Copyright Act pass
- 1709: Bad harvests throughout Europe – bread riots in Britain
- 2 Feb 1709: Alexander Selkirk rescued from shipwreck on a desert island, inspiring the book
Robinson Crusoe (published in 1719) by Daniel Defoe
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| 18 | 1710 | - 1710: Tax on Apprentice Indentures introduced
|
| 19 | 1711 | - 1711: Incorporation of South Sea Company, in London
- 11 Aug 1711: First race meeting at Ascot
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| 20 | 1712 | - 1712: Imposition of Soap Tax (abolished 1853)
- 1712: Last trial for witchcraft in England (Jane Wenham)
- 1712: Toleration Act passed – first relief to non-Anglicans
|
| 21 | 1713 | - 1713: By this year there are some 3,000 coffee houses in London
|
| 22 | 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: Schism Act, prevents Dissenters from being schoolmasters in England
- 1714: Landholders forced to take the Oath of Allegiance and renounce Roman Catholicism
- 1 Aug 1714: Queen Anne Stuart dies – George I Hanover becomes king (1714-1727).
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| 23 | 1715 | - 1715: Second Jacobite rebellion in Scotland, under the Old Pretender ('The Fifteen')
- 1 Aug 1715: Riot Act passed
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| 24 | 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: Climate: Thames frozen so solid that a spring tide lifted the ice bodily 13ft without
interrupting the frost fair
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| 25 | 1717 | - 1717: First Masonic Lodge opens in London
- 1717: Value of the golden guinea fixed at 21 shillings
|
| 26 | 1719 | - 1719: Third abortive Jacobite rising
|
| 27 | 1720 | - 1720: South Sea Bubble, a stock-market crash on Exchange Alley – government assumes
control of National Debt
- 1720: Manufacturing towns start to increase in population – rise of new wealth
- 1720: Wallpaper becomes fashionable in England
|
| 28 | 1721 | - 2 Apr 1721: Robert Walpole (Whig) becomes first Prime Minister (to 1742)
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| 29 | 1722 | - 1722: Last trial for witchcraft in Scotland
- 1722: Knatchbull's Act, poor laws
|
| 30 | 1723 | - 1723: Excise tax levied for coffee, tea, and chocolate
- 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: The Workhouse Act or Test – to get relief, a poor person has to enter Workhouse
|
| 31 | 1724 | - 1724: Rapid growth of gin drinking in England
- 1724: Longman's founded (Britain's oldest publishing house)
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| 32 | 1726 | - 1726: First circulating library opened in Edinburgh
- 1726: Invention of the chronometer by John Harrison
|
| 33 | 1727 | - 1727: Board of Manufacturers established in Scotland
- 11 Jun 1727: George I dies – George II Hanover becomes king
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| 34 | 1729 | - 9 Nov 1729: Treaty of Seville signed between Britain, France and Spain – Britain maintained
control of Port Mahon and Gibraltar
|
| 35 | 1730 | |
| 36 | 1731 | - 1731: Invention of seed drill by Jethro Tull [others say 1701]
- 1731: Invention of sextant by John Hadley
|
| 37 | 1732 | - 7 Dec 1732: Covent Garden Opera House opens
|
| 38 | 1733 | - 1733: Excise crisis: Sir Robert Walpole wanted to add excise tax to tobacco and wine –
Pulteney and Bolingbroke oppose the excise tax
- 1733: Law forbidding the use of Latin in parish registers generally obeyed – some continued in
Latin for a few years
- 1733: John Kay invents the flying shuttle, revolutionised the weaving industry
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| 39 | 1734 | - 1734: Kent's Directory published
|
| 40 | 1737 | - 1737: Licensing Act restricts the number of London theatres and subects plays to censorship
of the Lord Chamberlain (till 1950s)
|
| 41 | 1738 | - 24 May 1738: John Wesley has his conversion experience
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| 42 | 1739 | - 1739: Wesley and Whitefield commence great Methodist revival
- 7 Apr 1739: Dick Turpin, highwayman, hanged at York
- 23 Oct 1739: War of Jenkins' Ear starts: Robert Walpole reluctantly declares war on Spain
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| 43 | 1741 | - 1741: Benjamin Ingham founded the Moravian Methodists or Inghamites – Earliest Moravian
registers
|
| 44 | 1742 | - 1742: England goes to war with Spain – incited by William Pitt the Elder (Earl of Chatham)
for the sake of trade
|
| 45 | 1743 | - 16 Jun 1743: (June 27 in Gregorian calendar): Battle of Dettingen – last time a British
sovereign (George II) led troops in battle
|
| 46 | 1744 | - 1744: Tune 'God Save the King' makes its appearance
|
| 47 | 1745 | - 1745: Jacobite rebellion in Scotland ('The Forty-five')
- 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
|
| 48 | 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
|
| 49 | 1747 | - 1747: Abolition of Heritable Jurisdictions in Scotland
- 1747: Act for Pacification of the Highlands
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| 50 | 1749 | - 27 Apr 1749: First performance of Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks (in Green Park,
London)
|
| 51 | 1750 | - Feb 1750: Series of earthquakes in London and the Home Counties cause panic with
predictions of an apocalypse (Feb/Mar)
- 16 Nov 1750: Original Westminster Bridge opened (replaced in 1862 due to subsidence)
|
| 52 | 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
Majesty's Dominions and Countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, belonging or
subject to the Crown of Great Britain, the said Supputation, according to which the Year of
Useful dates in British history
03/01/2009 12:12
our Lord beginneth on the 25th Day of March, shall not be made use of from and after the
last Day of December 1751; and that the first Day of January next following the said last Day
of December shall be reckoned, taken, deemed and accounted to be the first Day of the Year
of our Lord 1752"
|
| 53 | 1752 | - 1752: Benjamin Franklin invents the lightning conductor
- 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: Julian Calendar dropped and Gregorian Calendar adopted in England and
Scotland, making this Sep 14
|
| 54 | 1753 | - 1753: Private collection of Sir Hans Sloane forms the basis of the British Museum
- 1 May 1753: Publication of "Species Plantarum" by Linnaeus, and the formal start date of plant
taxonomy
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| 55 | 1754 | - 1754: Hardwicke Act (1753): Banns to be called, and Printed Marriage Register forms to be
used – Quakers & Jews exempt
- 1754: In the General Election, the Cow Inn at Haslemere, Surrey caused a national scandal by
subdividing the freehold to create eight votes instead of one
- 1754: First British troops not belonging to the East India Company despatched to India
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| 56 | 1755 | - 1755: Publication of "Dictionary of the English Language" by Dr Samuel Johnson
- 1755: Period of canal construction began in Britain (till 1827)
- 2 Dec 1755: Second Eddystone Lighthouse destroyed by fire
|
| 57 | 1756 | - 15 May 1756: The Seven Years War with France (Pitt's trade war) begins
- Jun 1756: Black Hole of Calcutta – 146 Britons imprisoned, most die according to British
sources
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| 58 | 1757 | - 1757: The foundation laid for the Empire of India
- 14 Mar 1757: Admiral Byng shot at Portsmouth for failing to relieve Minorca
- 23 Jun 1757: The Nawab of Bengal tries to expel the British, but is defeated at the battle of
Plassey (Palashi, June 23) – the East India Company forces are led by Robert Clive
|
| 59 | 1758 | - 1758: India stops being merely a commercial venture – England begins dominating it
politically – The East India Company retains its monopoly although it ceased to trade
|
| 60 | 1759 | - 1759: Wesley builds 356 Methodist chapels
- 15 Jan 1759: British Museum opens to the public in London
- 16 Oct 1759: Third Eddystone Lighthouse (John Smeaton's) completed
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| 61 | 1760 | - 1760: Carron Iron Works in operation in Scotland
- 5 May 1760: First use of hangman's drop
- 25 Oct 1760: George II dies – George III Hanover, his grandson, becomes king. The date conventionally marks the start of the so-called "first Industrial Revolution"
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| 62 | 1761 | - 16 Jan 1761: British capture Pondicherry, India from the French
|
| 63 | 1762 | - 1762: Cigars introduced into Britain from Cuba
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| 64 | 1763 | - 1763: Treaty of Paris – gives back to France everything Pitt fought to obtain – (Newfoundland
[fishing], Guadaloupe and Martininque [sugar], Dakar [gum]) – but English displaces French
as the international language
|
| 65 | 1764 | - 1764: Lloyd's Register of shipping first prepared
- 1764: Practice of numbering houses introduced to London
- 1764: James Hargeaves invents the Spinning Jenny (but destroyed 1768)
- 1764: Mozart produces his first symphony at age eight
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| 66 | 1765 | - 1765: The potato becomes the most popular food in Europe
- 22 Mar 1765: Stamp Act passed – imposed a tax on publications and legal documents in the
American colonies (repealed the following year)
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| 67 | 1766 | - 1766: Start of 'composite' national records on rainfall in the UK
- 5 Dec 1766: Christie's auction house founded in London by James Christie
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| 68 | 1767 | - 1767: Newcomen's steam pumping engine perfected by James Watt
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| 69 | 1768 | - 9 Jan 1768: Philip Astley starts his circus in London
- 6 Dec 1768: The first edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" published in Edinburgh by
William Smellie
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| 70 | 1769 | - 1769: Arkwright invents water frame (textile production)
- 1769: Capt James Cook maps the coast of New Zealand
- 6 Sep 1769: David Garrick organises first Shakespeare festival at Stratford-upon-Avon
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| 71 | 1770 | - 1770: Clyde Trust created to convert the River Clyde, then an insignificant river, into a major
thoroughfare for maritime communications
- 28 Apr 1770: Capt James Cook lands in Australia (Botany Bay) — Aug 21: formally claims
Australia for Britain
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| 72 | 1771 | - 1771: Right to report Parliamentary debates established in England
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| 73 | 1772 | - 1772: First Travellers' Cheques issued by the London Credit Exchange Company
- 1772: "Morning Post" first published (until 1937)
- 14 May 1772: Judge Mansfield rules that there is no legal basis for slavery in England
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| 74 | 1774 | - 13 Sep 1774: Cook arrives on Easter Island
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| 75 | 1775 | - 19 Apr 1775: Battle of Lexington: first action in American War of Independence (1775–1783)
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| 76 | 1776 | - 1776: Somerset House in London becomes the repository of records of population
- 1776: Watt and Boulton produce their first commercial steam engine
- 4 Jul 1776: American Declaration of Independence
- 7 Sep 1776: First attack on a warship by a submarine – David Bushnell's "Turtle" attacked
HMS Eagle in New York harbour. The attack was perhaps spectacular (a charge did
detonate beneath the ship), but was nevertheless unsuccessful. "Turtle" was a one man
affair, man-powered [Les Moore]
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| 77 | 1777 | - 1777: Samuel Miller of Southampton patents the circular saw.
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| 78 | 1779 | - 1779: Marc Isambard Brunel opens the first steamdriven sawmill at Chatham Dockyard in Kent
- 1779: First iron bridge built, over the Severn by John Wilkinson
- 1779: First Spinning Mills operational in Scotland
- 14 Feb 1779: Capt James Cook killed on Hawaii
- 23 Sep 1779: Naval engagement between Britain and USA off Flamborough Head
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| 79 | 1780 | - 1780: Male Servants Tax
- 1780: The English Reform Movement – until now, only landowners and tenants (freeholders
with 40 shillings per year or more) allowed to vote, and in open poll books
- 1780: Fountain pen invented
- 1780: About this time the word 'Quiz' entered the language, said to have been invented as a
wager by Mr Daly, a Dublin theatre manager
- 4 May 1780: First Derby run at Epsom (some say 2nd June)
- 2 Jun 1780: Jun 2–8: The Gordon Riots – Parliament passes a Roman Catholic relief measure – for
days, London is at the mercy of a mob and destruction is widespread
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| 80 | 1782 | - 1782: Gilbert's Act establishes outdoor poor relief – the way of life of the poor beginning to
alter due to industrialisation – New factories in rapidly expanding towns required a workforce
that would adjust to new work patterns
- 1782: James Watt patents his steam engine
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| 81 | 1783 | - 1783: Duty payable on Parish Register entries (3d per entry – repealed 1794) – led to a fall in
entries!
- 3 Sep 1783: Treaty of Versailles (Britain/US)
- 3 Nov 1783: Last public execution at Tyburn in London (John Austin, a highwayman)
|
| 82 | 1784 | - 1784: Pitt's India Act – the Crown (as opposed to officers of the East India Company) has
power to guide Indian politics
- 1784: Wesley breaks with the Church of England
- 1784: First golf club founded at St Andrews
- 1784: Invention of threshing machine by Andrew Meikle
- 2 Aug 1784: First mail coaches in England (4pm Bristol / 8am London)
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| 83 | 1785 | - 1785: Sunday School Society founded to educate poor children (by 1851, enrols more than 2
million)
- 1 Jan 1785: John Walter publishes first edition of The Times (called The Daily Universal
Register for 3 years)
|
| 84 | 1787 | - 1787: MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) established at Thomas Lord's ground in London
|
| 85 | 1788 | - 1788: First steamboat demonstrated in Scotland
- 1788: Law passed requiring that chimney sweepers be a minimum of 8 years old (not
enforced)
- 1788: First slave carrying act, the Dolben Act of 1788, regulates the slave trade – stipulates
more humane conditions on slave ships
- 1788: King George III's mental illness occasions the Regency Crisis – Edmund Burke and
Charles James Fox attack ministry of William Pitt – trying to obtain full regal powers for the
Prince of Wales
- 1788: Gibbon completes "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"
- 26 Jan 1788: First convicts (and free settlers) arrive in New South Wales (left Portsmouth 13
May 1787) — the 'First Fleet'; eleven ships commanded by Captain Arthur Phillip
|
| 86 | 1789 | - 28 Apr 1789: Mutiny on HMS Bounty – Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors are set adrift
and the rebel crew ends up on Pitcairn Island
|
| 87 | 1790 | - 1790: Forth and Clyde Canal opened in Scotland
|
| 88 | 1791 | - 1791: John Bell, printer, abandons the "long s" (the "s" that looks like an "f")
- 1791: Establishment of the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain
- 4 Dec 1791: First publication of The Observer – world's oldest Sunday newspaper
|
| 89 | 1792 | - 1792: Repression in Britain (restrictions on freedom of the press) – Fox gets Libel Act through
Parliament, requiring a jury and not a judge to determine libel
- 1792: Boyle's Street Directory published
- 1792: Coal-gas lighting invented by William Murdock, an Ayrshire Scot
- 1 Oct 1792: Introduction of Money Orders in Britain
- 1 Dec 1792: King's Proclamation drawing out the British militia
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| 90 | 1793 | - 11 Feb 1793: Britain declares war on France (1793-1802)
- 15 Apr 1793: £5 notes first issued by the Bank of England
|
| 91 | 1794 | - 1794: Abolition of Parish Register duties
- 6 Oct 1794: The prosecutor for Britain, Lord Justice Eyre, charges reformers with High
Treason – he argued that, since reform of parliament would lead to revolution and revolution
to executing the King, the desire for reform endangered the King's life and was therefore
treasonous
|
| 92 | 1795 | - 1795: The Famine Year
- 1795: Foundation of the Orange Order
- 1795: Speenhamland Act proclaims that the Parish is responsible for bringing up the labourer's
wage to subsistence level – towards the end of the eighteenth century, the number of poor and
unemployed increased dramatically – price increases during the Napoleonic Wars
(1793-1815) far outstripped wage rises – many small farmers were bankrupted by the move
towards enclosures and became landless labourers – their wages were often pitifully low
- 1795: Pitt and Grenville introduce "The Gagging Acts" or "Two Bills" (the Seditious Meetings and Treasonable Practices Bills) – outlawed the mass meeting and the political lecture.
- 1795: Consumption of lime juice made compulsory in Royal Navy
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| 93 | 1796 | - 1796: Pitt's "Reign of Terror": More treason trials – leading radicals emigrate
- 1796: Legacy Tax on sums over £20 excluding those to wives, children, parents and
grandparents
- 14 May 1796: Dr Edward Jenner gave first vaccination for smallpox in England
|
| 94 | 1797 | - 1797: England in Crisis, Bank of England suspends cash payments
- 1797: Mutinies in the British Navy at Spithead and Nore
- 1797: Tax on newspapers (including cheap, topical journals) increased to repress radical
publications
- 1797: The first copper pennies were produced ('cartwheels') by application of steam power to
the coining press
- 22 Feb 1797: French invade Fishguard, Wales; last time UK invaded; all captured 2 days later
- 26 Feb 1797: First £1 (and £2) notes issued by Bank of England
|
| 95 | 1798 | - 1798: First planned human experiment with vaccination, to test theories of Edward Jenner
- Feb 1798: The Irish Rebellion; 100,000 peasants revolt; approximately 25,000 die – Irish
Parliament abolished (Feb-Oct)
- 1 Aug 1798: Battle of the Nile (won by Nelson)
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| 96 | 1799 | - 1799: Foundation of Royal Military College Sandhurst by the Duke of York
- 1799: Foundation of the Royal Institution of Great Britain
- 9 Jan 1799: Pitt brings in 10% income tax, as a wartime financial measure
- 12 Jul 1799: 'Combination Laws' in Britain against political associations and combinations
- 15 Jul 1799: "Rosetta Stone" discovered in Egypt, made possible the deciphering (in 1822) of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics
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| 97 | 1800 | - 1800: Electric light first produced by Sir Humphrey Davy
- 1800: Use of high pressure steam pioneered by Richard Trevithick (1771-1833)
- 1800: Royal College of Surgeons founded
- 1800: Herschel discovers infra-red light
- 1800: Volta makes first electrical battery
- 2 Jul 1800: Parliamentary union of Great Britain and Ireland
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1690 - 