Useful dates in British history for the local historian or genealogist
. . . with a few others added in for good measure!

Send additions/corrections/comments please to John Owen Smith
My thanks to major contributors , who are acknowledged
Please note disclaimer at end

Frith's postcard dating list – Historical value of money in UK – Imperial measures – Glossary of Terms – English monarchs and their dates – Special days

BC4004

Oct 23: The beginning of Creation, as calculated by James Ussher (1581 –1656), Archbishop of Armagh and believed until Victorian times

BC3952

Mar 18: The beginning of Creation, as calculated by the Venerable Bede (673– 735)

BC551

Birth of Confucius

BC490

Battle of Marathon

BC240

First recorded sighting of Halley's comet

BC55

Aug 27: Caesar's first British expedition (second in BC54)

BC49

Jan 10 (of the Roman calendar): Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, signaling the start of civil war

BC46

Caesar institutes the Julian calendar (came into force in BC45)

BC45

Jan 1: The Julian calendar takes effect for the first time

BC44

Mar 15: Caesar assassinated in Rome

AD43

Roman Conquest of Britain begun by Emperor Claudius – Camulodunum (Colchester) captured and becomes first Roman Base in England

AD47

Fosse Way built

AD60

Revolt of Boudicca (Boadicea)

AD64

Great fire of Rome (Nero fiddles, etc!)

AD69

Year of the four emperors in Rome: Galba, Otho, Vitellius and Vespasian

AD79

Aug 24: Mount Vesuvius erupts

– the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae are buried in volcanic ash

c80-85

Campaign of Agricola in southern Scotland

c85

Battle of Mons Graupius, massive defeat of Caledonians by Roman forces

115

Roman Empire reaches its greatest extent under Trajan

122

Sep: Building of Hadrian's Wall begins (completed AD126)

c140

Antonine Wall built in central Scotland (completed circa AD143)

c150

Around this time, the Christian churches decided to express their divergence from the Roman system by starting the year on a different date, 25th March (this being the 'date of conception' of Christ in order for his birth to have been on 25th December) – see also 1582

180

Beginning of the 'decline of the Roman Empire' (Gibbon) – Defeat of Romans in Caledonia – they retreat behind Hadrian's Wall

207-11

Campaign of Severus in southern Scotland

247

1,000th anniversary of founding of Rome

304

St Alban first Christian martyr in Britain [Bede implies some date between 303 and 313]

321

Emperor Constantine I decrees that Sunday is the day of rest in the Roman Empire

325

Council of Nicaea establishes basic Christian dogma

c350

St Ninian first to preach Christian religion in Scotland, arrives Solway Firth

367

Invasion of northern England by Picts and Scots

406/412

Probable end of Roman military occupation of Britain

418

'The Romans gathered all the gold-hords there were in Britain; some they hid in the earth so that no man might find them, and some they took with them to Gaul' – Anglo-Saxon Chronicles

c400 – c600

Migration and settlement of Angles, Jutes and Saxons

432

St Patrick begins mission to Ireland

449

Beginning of invasions by Jutes, Angles and Saxons – Hengist and Horsa invade

'The Angles were invited here by king Vortigern, and they came to Britain in three longships, landing at Ebbesfleet. [He] gave them territory in the southeast of this land on the condition that they fight the Picts. This they did, and had victory wherever they went. Then they sent to Angel and commanded more aid … they soon sent hither a greater host to help the others. Then came the men of three Germanic tribes: Old Saxons, Angles and Jutes. Of the Jutes come the people of Kent and the Isle of Wight; of the Old Saxons come the East-Saxons, South-Saxons and West-Saxons; of the Angles come the East Anglians, Middle Anglians, Mercians and all Northumbrians. Their war-leaders were two brothers, Hengist and Horsa … first of all they killed and drove away the king's enemies, then later they turned on the king and the British [mid-450s], destroying through fire and the sword's edge.' – Anglo-Saxon Chronicles

467

Chinese observe Halley's comet

c490

British check Anglo-Saxon advance at seige of Mount Badon (site unknown) – date uncertain: other sources say 520 and/or c.495, or simply 'some time in the decade before or after 500'

c500

Irish "Scots" arrived in western Scotland

525

(some say in 526, 532 or 534)

'Dennis the Short' (Dionysius Exiguous) calculates the date of the birth of Christ – concept of AD and BC dates begins

537

Death of King Arthur (some say 542) [Note: He is not mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, and some think he never existed as a real person]

c541

Bubonic plague devastates Europe (some postulate a significant impact from space around this date)

c550

Anglian settlement in south-east, Scotland

563

Columba arrives in Iona and founds the Celtic Christian Church (c565)

570

Birth of Mohammed (Muhammad)

577

Anglo-Saxon victory at Deorham marks resumption of their advance in England

597

Death of Columba, later sanctified

597/8

St Augustine lands in Kent – converts King Ethelbert – introduces Roman Christian Church to England – later becomes first Archbishop of Canterbury

c.600 and for some centuries (some say from AD 500 to AD 850)

The period of the 'Heptarchy': the seven kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex, Sussex, Essex, East Anglia and Kent – the 'top king' at any one time was referred to 'Bretwalda' (overlord of the Britons)

601

Pope Gregory calls Ethelbert of Kent 'rex Anglorum'

604

St Paul's Cathedral in London founded

Death of St Augustine, and pope Gregory I

616

Feb 24: Death of Ethelbert of Kent – suceeded by his son Eadbald, who was not a Christian

617

Edwin becomes king of Northumbria (to 633) – possibly founds Edinburgh? – [He overcame all Britain save Kent alone – Anglo-Saxon Chronicles]

622

Muhammad's flight from Mecca marks the start of the Muslim calendar

642

Aug: Battle of Maserfield: Penda of Mercia defeats Oswald of Northumbria

c650

Sutton Hoo ship-burial

655

Nov: Battle of Winwaed: Oswiu of Northumbria (brother of Oswald) defeats Penda of Mercia

664

Sep: Synod of Whitby: Divisions within the Northumbrian church led to the Synod of Whitby, where Oswiu agreed to settle the Easter controversy by adopting the Roman dating – Roman Christianity triumphs over Celtic

673

Birth of the Venerable Bede, first English historian (d. 735)

First synod of clergy in England (at Hertford) – Roman and Celtic churches came to an agreement on the date to celebrate Easter

685-7

Cuthbert served as Bishop of Lindisfarne

c698

Lindisfarne Gospels

710

Roman Christianity established in Pictland

722

First written version of Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf

731

Bede's Ecclesiastical History

757

Offa became ruler of Mercia (died Jul 796) and effectively ruled much of Britain south of the Humber during the latter part of his reign

c785

King Offa first divided a pound of silver into 240 silver pennies

789

First sighting of Viking ships off Dorset

793

First Viking raids (Lindisfarne and elsewhere)

800

Charlemagne crowned Emperor of the West by Pope Leo III

c800

Book of Kells

802

Norsemen plunder Iona

827

Egbert King of Wessex and Mercia effectively first king of England (d. 839), but see 937 – see also general list of dates for Monarchs of England

838

Norse establish permanent base at Dublin

844

Kenneth I MacAlpin, king of Scots, becomes King of Picts – start of Scottish kingdom

865-874

Danish army conquers north-eastern third of England

871

Jan 4: Battle of Reading – Ethelred of Wessex defeated by a Danish invasion army

Apr: Alfred (the Great) succeeds Ethelred; crowned king of Wessex

872

Curfew (couvre feu) introduced at Oxford by King Alfred to reduce fire risks

878

Battle of Chippenham: Alfred defeated by Danes (shortly after Christmas 877) but escapes and 'burns the cakes'; Battle of Egbert's Stone (Eddington?) in May: Alfred (5–6,000 troops) defeats Danes, who retreat and are beseiged in Chippenham – Danes/Vikings fail in attempt to conquer Wessex – leader Guthram baptised as Athelstan and accepted by Alfred as his Godson

880

Treaty of Wedmore: England divided between Alfred the Great of Wessex (the south and west) and the 'Danelaw' under Guthram (the north and east)

Start of concept of 'Englishness' and growth of 'burghs' in England from this time

889

Donald II, first King of Picts & Scots (d. in battle 900)

891

Beginning of Anglo-Saxon Chronicle marks revival of learning in England

899

Oct 26: Death of King Alfred the Great; succeeded by Edward (the Elder)

917-921

Edward of Wessex conquers southern half of Danelaw

937

Athelstan of Wessex defeats Scots, north Welsh and Norse at Brunanburgh – regarded by some as 'first king of all England' (but see 827)

 

939

Oct 27: Edmund I succeeds Athelstan as King of England

c960

Edinburgh held by King of Alba

971

Jul 15: St Swithun's body moved from his outdoor grave to an indoor shrine in the the Old Minster in Winchester aganst his expressed wishes – legend says this was accompanied by bad weather, from which the popular British weather lore proverb comes, that if it rains on Saint Swithun's day, 15 July, it will rain for 40 days and 40 nights

973

Edgar introduces a new coinage – the royal portrait becomes a regular feature on coins

980

Vikings renew assault on England

987

Hugh Capet crowned King of France, first of the Capetian dynasty which ruled till the French Revolution

991

Aug 10: Battle of Maldon – English, led by Bryhtnoth, defeated by a band of raiding Vikings near Maldon, Essex – celebrated by a poem

1002

Nov 13: St Brice's Day massacre – King Aethelred (Ethelred II, the 'Unready') orders killing of all Danes in England

1003

Sveyn I (Sweyn, Swein) of Denmark devastates England: Ethelred pays him 24,000 pounds of silver to stop

1004

Vikings explore the North American coast

1006

Apr 30: The brightest supernova in recorded history appears in the constellation Lupus

1007

King Ethelred pays Sveyn another 36,000 pounds of silver

1010

London Bridge torn down by Vikings with grappling irons – (Olaf II Haraldsson, later St Olaf, took part) – possibly the origin of "London Bridge is falling Down"

1012

Apr 19: Murder by Danes of Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury, in Greenwich after refusing to be ransomed (canonised 1078 to St Alphege)

King Aethelred pays Sveyn another 48,000 pounds of silver; but next year Sveyn pushes him off the throne

1014

Brian Boru leads the Irish to victory over the Norse at Clontarf

1016

Canute (Knut, son of Sveyn) becomes king of Denmark, Norway and England (d. 1035)

1017

Canute divides England into four Earldoms: Wessex, Mercia, Northumbria and East Anglia

1018

Battle of Carham: Malcolm defeats the Northumbrians adding Lothian to Scotland

c1030

Guido of Arezzo introduces first practical form of musical notation, enabling melodies to be sung on sight

1034

Strathclyde annexed by King of Scots becomes part of Scottish Kingdom

1035

Death of Canute: the Danish empire splits up

1040

Aug 15: Macbeth (Mac Bethad mac Findláich) murders Duncan (Donnchad mac Crínáin) and takes the throne of Scotland (d. 1057)

Lady Godiva, wife of earl of Mercia, rides naked through Coventry as a protest against taxes – [Now why couldn't Shakespeare have written about that instead?]

1042

Edward the Confessor King of England (d. 1066)

First recorded use of moveable type, in China

1045–1050

Building of Westminster Abbey – consecrated 28 Dec 1065, only a week before Edward the Confessor's death and subsequent funeral (rebuilt 1245–1517)

1054

Jul: Supernova observed by Arabian and Chinese astronomers – becomes the Crab Nebula

The Great Schism, when Christianity divided into Western (Latin) and Eastern (Greek) branches

1066

Jan 6: Edward the Confessor dies – Harold II (Godwinson) reigned for 9 months

Sep 25: Battle of Stamford Bridge: Harold II defeats Norwegian invasion

Sep 28: Invasion of England by Duke William of Normandy

Oct 14: Battle of Hastings

– Harold II dies

 

Dec 25: William crowned King of England at Westminster

1069

Northern earls and a Scandanavian army seize York – William replies with the 'Harrowing of the North' – "He made no effort to control his fury and he punished the innocent with the guilty. He ordered that crops and herds, tools and food should be burned to ashes. More than 100,000 people perished of hunger"

[Orderic Vitalis]

King Malcolm Canmore of Scotland marries Margaret (later St Margaret)

1072

King Malcolm III of Scotland submitted to William the Conqueror

c1070

Re-construction of Canterbury Cathedral begins: The Saxon cathedral burned in 1067. Lanfranc, first Norman Archbishop, restored and enlarged its buildings between 1067 and 1077. A new Quire was consecrated in 1130 but burned in 1174, four years after Becket's murder. That was rebuilt by 1184, but the nave wasn't finished until 1405. [others say completed 1495]

1071

Norman conquest of England complete

1077

Possible completion of the Bayeux Tapestry

1079

Construction of Winchester Cathedral begins (consecrated in 1093 but not completed until 1404.)

1081

Building of Tower of London starts [others say 1067]

1086

Completion of Domesday Book

1092

May 9: Lincoln Cathedral consecrated

1095

Nov 27: Pope Urban II declares the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont

1096

First crusade begins

1098

Jun 3: Antioch falls to the Crusaders

Expedition of Magnus Barelegs to Scottish coasts

1099

Jun 7: Seige of Jerusalem begins by the Crusaders

12th & 13th centuries

Climate: A medieval warm period called the 'Little Optimum'

1100

Aug 2: William II found dead in the New Forest with an arrow through his lung

Aug 5: Henry I crowned in Westminster Abbey

c1100

First record of football in England

1102

Synod of Westminster under Anselm forbids clergy to marry

1106

Sep 28: Battle of Tinchebray – Henry I defeats his older brother Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy – England and Normandy remain under a single ruler until 1204

1110

Introduction in England of Pipe Rolls, recording exchequer payments

1119

Military order of the Knights Templar founded

1120

The White Ship sinks in the English Channel, drowning William Adelin, the only legitimate son of Henry I of England – his death caused a succession crisis, culminating in 'The Anarchy' or 'The Nineteen Year Winter' during the reign of Stephen (1135–1154)

1120s

First references in Scotland to Burghs and Sheriffs

1124

Apr 27: David I becomes King of Scotland

c1130

Great age of abbey building in England: Tintern (1131), Rievaulx (1131), Fountains (1132)

1135

Dec 1: Death of Henry I; Stephen seizes the throne of England amid a confusion of Matildas

1138

Aug 22: 'Battle of The Standard' near Northallerton – English forces repelled a Scottish army

1139

Portugal becomes independent from Spain

c1140

Transition from Romanesque to Gothic architecture in Europe (freeing walls from load-bearing functions, thus allowing larger windows); Linguistically, also regarded as the start of the Middle English period (until c.1500)

1141

Only year in which Matilda (or Maude, daughter of Henry I) was the undisputed ruler of England

1152

May 18: Henry Plantagenet (to become King Henry II) marries Eleanor of Aquitaine

1153

Treaty of Wallingford between Stephen and Matilda in which her son Henry Plantagenet would inherit the throne of England on Stephen's death

May 27: Malcolm IV becomes King of Scotland

1154

Oct 25: Death of King Stephen; Henry II becomes King of England – he already has Normandy, Anjou and Aquitaine, and is now the most powerful man in Europe

Dec 4: Nicholas Breakspear (Adrian IV) becomes only English pope (b. circa 1100 at St Albans, d. 1 Sep 1159 at Anagni and buried in the Vatican)

Dec 19: Henry II crowned in Westminster Abbey

1163

Danegeld tax abolished

1165

Letter of Prester John started spreading throughout Europe

1166

Establishment of trial by jury

1170

Dec 29: Murder of Thomas à Becket in Canterbury Cathedral

1172

Pope decrees that Henry II of England is feudal lord of Ireland

1173

Apr: Revolt begins against Henry II by his wife and sons

1174

Jul 12: Henry II did penance for the death of Thomas à Becket, murdered by his knights 3 years previously and already canonised; the following day in a 'seeming act of divine providence', the last supporters of the revolt against him were surprised and captured at Alnwick

1175

Treaty of Falaise signed – William the Lion surrenders Scottish crown to King Henry II of England

1176

London Bridge construction in stone started (from tax on wool) – completed 1209, replaced 1831

Dec 25: First Eisteddfod, at Cardigan Castle

1178

The Leaning Tower of Pisa begins to lean as the third level is completed

1187

Oct: Saladin recaptures Jerusalem – served as the catalyst for the Third Crusade

1188

The original Newgate Prison built in London

'Saladin Tithe' levied in England – exemption for those who joined the Crusade

1189

Jul 6: Henry II dies at the castle of Chinon in Anjou; Richard I 'Lionheart' becomes king of England (d. 1199) – acknowledges the independence of Scotland

Sep 1: Legal Memory dates from accession of Richard I – before that is 'Time Immemorial', see 1275

1190

Mar: Jews of York massacred (150 in number)

Opening of the Third Crusade

'Early English' Gothic period in English architecture (till about 1280)

1192

Dec 20: Richard I held for ransom on his way back from the Crusade by Leopold V of Austria

1199

Apr 6: Richard I dies having spent most of his reign abroad – succeeded by his brother John (to 1216)

1204

Angers and Normandy are captured by Philip II of France

1207

Jul 15: King John expels Canterbury monks for supporting Archbishop Stephen Langton

1208

Winchester Pipe Rolls begin – the financial accounts of the manors or estates belonging to the Bishopric of Winchester – written in medieval Latin until 1599, after that in English – see example of translated contents

1212

Jul: One of the early 'great fires of London'

1215

Jun 15: Magna Carta sealed at Runnymede by King John

Oct 28: First Lord Mayor's Show in London

Nov 11: Fourth Lateran Council defined the doctrine of transubstantiation

1217

Nov 6: 'Charter of the Forest' by Henry III established that all freemen owning land within the forest enjoyed the rights of agistment (grazing cattle) and pannage (grazing pigs)

1220

Start of building current York Minster: Archbishop Walter de Gray started its construction (with the transept) in 1220, working from the design of the Norman cathedral of 1070. Its towers were finally completed in 1472.

Salisbury Cathedral: started (replacing the Norman cathedral at Old Sarum) by Bishop Poore in 1220, consecrated in 1258, and its great spire finished in 1334

1222

Introduction of a poll tax in England

King Alexander II of Scotland conquers Argyll

1228

First recorded mention of the Royal Mint

1231

Cambridge University organised and granted Royal Charter

1235

Statute of Merton – authorised manorial lords to enclose portions of commons and wastes provided that sufficiant pasture remained for his tenants

1237

Treaty of York signed by Henry III of England and Alexander II of Scotland – set the border between England and Scotland, which remains to this day except round Berwick

1247

Foundation of Bedlam (Bethlehem Hospital), London, by Simon Fitzmary

1248

Charter granted to Oxford University by Henry III

Aug 15: Foundation stone of Cologne cathedral laid – building not completed until 1880

c1250

Royal Proclamations by Henry III are first government documents issued in English

1256

Decreed in England that in leap years, the leap day and the day before are to be reckoned as one day for the purpose of calculating when a full year has passed

1259

Dec 4: Treaty of Paris between Henry III and Louis IX of France – Henry agreed to renounce control of Normandy (except for the Channel Islands), Maine, Anjou and Poitou, which had been lost under the reign of King John. He was able to keep Gascony and parts of Aquitaine but only as a vassal to Louis. In exchange, Louis withdrew his support for English rebels. Said to be one of the indirect causes of the Hundred Years War

1260

Chartres cathedral dedicated

1263

Oct 2: Battle of Largs, Ayrshire – King Alexander III said to have defeated Norwegian invaders under King Haakon IV

1264

First recorded reference to Justice of the Peace in England (but see 1285)

May 12-14: Battle of Lewes: Henry III captured by Simon de Montfort

1265

Jan 20: First elected English parliament (De Montfort's Parliament) conducts its first meeting, in the Palace of Westminster

Aug 4: Battle of Evesham: Simon de Montfort killed (death of chivalry? - but this also claimed for Crécy, see 1346)

1266

Western Isles acquired by Scotland

1272

Eighth (and last) crusade

Nov 20: Edward I (who was away on the Crusade) declared king of England following the death of his father Henry III on Nov 16

1274

Aug 19: Edward I crowned on his return from the Crusades

1275

Apr 22: First Statute of Westminster passed by the English parliament – fixed the reign of Richard I as the time limit for bringing certain types of action – see 'Time Immemorial' 1189 (others say there was also the concept of 'before the memory of man' being 113 years)

Scottish rule established on the Isle of Man

1277

Edward I embarks on the conquest of Wales

1279

A major re-coinage introduced new denominations. In addition to the penny, the halfpenny and farthing were minted, and also a fourpenny piece called a 'groat' (from the French 'gross')

1280

'Decorated' Gothic period in English architecture (till about 1370)

Climate: 1280–1311 peak of the medieval warm period

1282

Dec 10: Llewellyn, last native Prince of Wales, killed

1283

Annexation of Wales to England by Edward I

1285

Statute of Winchester and Second Statute of Westminster – first Justices of the Peace installed in England? (but some say they derive from 1361, in the reign of Edward III) – among other things, authorised manorial lords to enclose commons and wastes where the common rights belonged to tenants from other manors

1290

Oct: Death of the 'maid of Norway,' heiress to the Scottish crown – led to the Wars of Scottish Independence 1296–1328

Jul 18: Jews expelled from England by Edward I

Dec: Death of Queen Eleanor, wife of Edward I – he had 12 'Eleanor crosses' erected between Lincolnshire (where she died) and London (where she was buried in Westminster Abbey)

Statute of 'Quia Emptores' – prevented tenants from leasing their lands to others and allowed the sale of freehold

Spectacles introduced in Italy

1291-2

Competition for the Scottish Crown between some eleven "Competitors" (including John Baliol, John Comyn and Robert Bruce the elder) all claiming the right to succeed

1292

Nov 17: King Edward I awards Scottish crown to John Baliol ('Toom Tabard', or 'empty coat')

1295

Oct 23: Signing of the "Auld Alliance" in Paris between Scotland and France – one of the world's oldest mutual defence treaties

1296

Annexation of Scotland by England – Scotland's Coronation Stone the "Stone of Destiny" or "Stone of Scone" was removed to Westminster Abbey by the English King Edward I, temporarily 'returned' to Scotland in 1950, and permanently returned in 1996

Mar 30: Berwick-upon-Tweed sacked by Edward I

Apr 27: Battle of Dunbar: Scots defeated

Jul 10: John Baliol dethroned by Edward I

Beginning of uprising led by William Wallace (the Guardian of Scotland)

1297

Sep 11: Battle of Stirling Bridge, defeat of English Army

1298

Jul 22: Battle of Falkirk, Edward I defeats William Wallace – early use of the long bow by the English

c1300

Earliest western reference to manufacture of gunpowder

1301

Feb 7: Son of Edward I created first Prince of Wales

1305

Trial of William Wallace in London, execution at Smithfield

1306

Mar 25: Robert the Bruce crowned King Robert I of Scots

Jun 19: Battle of Methven – a 'fortunate defeat' for Bruce

1307

Jul 7: Edward I dies – succeeded by his son, Edward II

Nov 18: According to legend, William Tell shoots an apple off of his son's head

1311

Ordinances laid on Edward II by the peerage and clergy of England to restrict his power – twenty-one signatories referred to as the Ordainers – Thomas of Lancaster their leader was executed in 1322

1312

Knights Templars suppressed in France

1313–1321

Climate: Sequence of cold and wet summers – harvests ruined

1314

Jun 24: Battle of Bannockburn – Scots under Robert the Bruce routed the English led by Edward II – resulted in Scottish independence

Edward II banned football in London (possibly to encourage people to practice their archery instead)

Great European famine

– population of Britain had peaked at around 5 million before declining

c1320

Invention of escapement clocks, and first practical guns

1320

Declaration of Arbroath; a statement of Scottish independence

1326

First Scottish Parliament (at Cambuskenneth)

1327

Deposition and regicide of King Edward II of England (in an apparently unfortunate manner): Edward III rules for 50 years till 1377

1328

Jan 24: Edward III marries Philippa of Hainault

May 1: Treaty of Northampton, formalised peace between England and Scotland

1329

Jun 7: Death of Robert the Bruce; succeeded by infant David II of Scots

1332

Climatic catastrophe in eastern Asia – 7 million people drowned – black rats driven west (one theory says that this caused the Black Death in Europe – but see note 1349)

1338

Edward III asserts his claim to the French throne – 'Hundred Years War' begins (to 1453)

1340

Jun 24: Edward III personally commands the English fleet in their victory over the French off Sluys (who were trying to blockade English export of wool to Flanders)

1346

Aug 26: Battle of Crecy (Crécy) – military supremacy of the English longbow established, and that of 'peasant' archers over knights on horseback

Oct 17: Battle of Neville's Cross; English capture King David II (held until 1357)

1348

Jun 24: Order of the Garter founded by King Edward III of England – motto 'Honi soit qui mal y pense'

1349

Black Death ('The Pestilence') reaches England (entered Europe in 1346/7; lasted until 1351) – this was the first return of plague to Europe for almost 400 years, but it reappeared more than once during the next three centuries – some estimate that where it struck, up to a quarter of the population perished – theories that it was spread by rat fleas have been questioned, as it seems to have travelled too fast for that to have been the agent, and a bacterial disease possibly from Africa is now suspected – for an example of effect of the Black Death on architecture, see Winchester Cathedral

1350

Black Death first appears in Scotland

Aug 29: Battle of Winchelsea – English naval fleet under King Edward III defeats a Castilian fleet of 40 ships

1351

Statute of Labourers – attempt to regulate wages and prices at 1340 levels following labour shortages caused by the Black Death – it set a precedent that distinguished between labourers who were "able in body" to work and those who could not work for other reasons

1352

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge founded

1353

Giovanni Boccaccio The Decameron

1355

Feb 10: St Scholastica's Day riot, Oxford – armed clashes between locals and students (Town versus Gown)

1356

Sep 19: Battle of Poitiers: Black Prince (son of Edward III) captures the French king, John II (the Good)

1357

Oct: King David II of Scotland released by the English in return for a ransom

1360

May 8: Treaty of Brétigny marked the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) – ratified on Oct 24 at Calais – by this treaty Edward III and John II (still in captivity, though with many privileges) make peace, but it only lasted for 9 years

The French franc introduced by John II

1361

Edward, the Black Prince, marries his cousin Joan, the 'Fair Maid of Kent'

Second severe outbreak of of the Black Death

1362

English becomes official language in English Parliament and Law Courts

Quarter Sessions established by statute

William Langland Vision of Piers Ploughman

1364

Charles V (the Wise) becomes King of France

1366

Statues of Kilkenny belatedly forbid intermarriage of English and Irish – Gaelic culture unsuccessfully suppressed

1369

Hundred Years War restarts

1370

'Perpendicular' Gothic period in English architecture (till about 1550) – great East Window in Gloucester first example

1371

Feb: Accession of Robert II, the first Stewart king of Scots

1372

Naval battle off La Rochelle: Castilians defeat the English fleet – tide begins to turn against the English in Aquitaine

1375

Truce in the Hundred Years War – England lost most of her possessions in France

1377

Edward III dies, age 65: Richard II rules till deposed in 1399

May 22: Pope Gregory XI issues five papal bulls to denounce the doctrines of John Wycliffe

1378

Start of the Papal Schism (until 1417) when three men simultaneously claimed to be the true pope

1381

Jun 15: Wat Tyler killed at Smithfield, London, during Peasants' Revolt in protest against poll tax of 1380

1382

First translation of the Bible into English, by John Wycliffe

Winchester College founded by William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester

May 21: Great earthquake in Kent [? can't find confirmation of this one]

– see 1580

1383

Regular series of wills starts in Prerogative Court of Canterbury

1386

Treaty of Windsor between Britain and Portugal – "The British have an alliance with Portugal unbroken since the year 1384, and which produced fruitful results at a critical moment in the recent war." Iron Curtain Speech by Winston Churchill, 1946

1387

Chaucer (d. 1400) begins writing The Canterbury Tales

1388

Aug 5: Battle of Otterburn, Northumberland (Chevy Chase)

1389

June 15: Battle of Kosovo; The Ottoman Empire defeats Serbs and Bosnians

1392

Wells Cathedral clock

1397

Apr: Geoffrey Chaucer tells the Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II

Dick Whittington (d. 1423) first becomes Lord Mayor of London

1399

Sep: Deposition of King Richard II; Henry IV establishes Lancastrian dynasty

1400

Oct 25: Geoffrey Chaucer dies in London

Sep 16:

Owen Glendower declared Prince of Wales – start of rebellion of against Henry IV

Average life expectancy had dropped to 38 years (had been 48 years in 1300)

c.1400

This is the date at which the 'great vowel shift' (shortening of vowel sounds) in the English language is regarded as starting

1403

Jul 21: Battle of Shrewsbury: Henry IV defeats rebels

1405

Jun 8: Execution of Richard le Scrope, Archbishop of York and Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Norfolk for insurrection against Henry IV

1412

Foundation of the University of St Andrews

1413

Mar 21: Henry V to the throne

1415

Oct 25 (St Crispin's Day): Battle of Agincourt

1420

Dec 1: Henry V of England enters Paris

1422

Infant Henry VI (9 months old) on throne of England

1429

Feb 12: Battle of the Herrings just north of Orleans

1431

May 30: Death of Joan of Arc

Dec 16: Henry VI of England crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris

1432–1438

Climate: Britain snowbound for 6 of these 7 winters

1437

Assassination of King James I of Scots at Perth

1440

Eton College founded by Henry VI

1450

May 8: Jack Cade's Rebellion: Kentishmen revolt against Henry VI

1451

University of Glasgow founded

1453

End of Hundred Years' War (Battle of Castillon, Jul 17)

1455

Feb 23: Johannes Gutenberg starts printing the bible, using movable type [some say 1450, 1453 or 1454]

May 22: Battle of St Albans, first in Wars of the Roses (1455–87); Richard, Duke of York, defeats and captures Henry VI

Fall of the Black Douglases in Scotland

1456

Aug 24: Printing of Gutenberg Bible completed [some say 1454 or 1455]

1457

First recorded mention of golf in Scotland

1460

Aug 3: King James II of Scots killed by an exploding cannon at Kelso

1461

Mar: Henry VI flees to Scotland; Edward, Duke of York, crowned as Edward IV on 1st Aug

1465

Irish living near English settlements made to take English surnames

1468/69

Orkney and Shetland Islands acquired from Norway by Scotland (but Wikepedia says 20th Feb 1472)

1470

Oct 30: Henry VI (Lancastrian) restored to the throne

1471

Apr 14: Yorkists defeat the Lancastrians at Barnet; Edward IV resumes the throne

May 4: Battle of Tewkesbury – Edward IV defeats a Lancastrian Army and kills Edward, Prince of Wales

May 21: Henry VI murdered in the Tower of London

1472

St Andrews made a bishopric

1475

Aug 29: Treaty of Picquigny ends a brief war between France and England

1476

Caxton sets up a printing press in Westminster

1477

Edward IV bans cricket

1480

Spanish Inquisition begins (did nobody really expect it?)

1483

Murder of the princes (Edward V and his younger brother Richard of Shrewsbury) in the Tower; their uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester becomes king (Richard III)

1484

Introduction of bail for defendants in legal courts

English first used for parliamentary statutes

1485

Aug 22: Battle of Bosworth Field; Richard III killed – end of the War of the Roses and beginning of the Tudor dynasty (Henry VII)

Formation of the Yeomen of the Guard

1486

Jan 18: Henry VII marries Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV and sister of Edward V

Boke of St Albans printed – includes collective nouns for animals and people

1487

May 24: Imposter Lambert Simnel crowned as "King Edward VI" at Dublin

Jun 16: Battle of Stoke Field – Henry VII's final victory in War of the Roses

1489

A pound coin (the 'sovereign') minted for the first time. A shilling coin was minted for the first time a few years later

1492

Nov 9: Peace of Etaples between Henry VII and Charles VIII of France – improvement in relations continued until the end of Henry's reign

Dec 5: Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola (West Indies)

Papermaking introduced to Britain – John Tate opens a paper mill at Stevenage soon after this

Moors driven from Grenada

1494

June 7: Treaty of Tordesillas – Spain and Portugal divide the world between them (along the great diameter 51°W and 129°E longditude) – see 1529

1495

Foundation of the University of Aberdeen (as King's College)

1497

Jun 17: Battle of Deptford Bridge – end of the Cornish rebellion against Henry VII

Jul 8: Vasco da Gama sets sail on first direct European voyage to India.

Parish registers instituted in Spain by Cardinal Ximenes

Cabot reaches North America

1499

Nov 16: Perkin Warbeck, pretender to the throne, executed

1503

May 28: Marriage of King James IV of Scots and Margaret Tudor

1503-5

Leonardo da Vinci paints Mona Lisa

1505-6

Royal College of Surgeons founded in Edinburgh

1506

Jan 22: First contingent of 150 Swiss Guards arrives at the Vatican

1507

First printing press in Scotland set up in Edinburgh by Andrew Myllar

Apr: Suggestion put forward that the New World be named America in honour of Amerigo Vespucci (on Martin Waldseemüller's world map)

1509

Naturalisation papers start in England

Apr 22: Henry VIII becomes king of England (to 1547) at 17 years old

Jun 11: Henry VIII marries Catherine of Aragon

1512

Admiralty founded in London

The "Auld Alliance" treaty with France – all Scottish citizens became French and vice versa

Nov: Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, exhibited to the public for the first time

1513

Aug 16: Battle of the Spurs – English troops under Henry VIII defeat a French force at Guinegate

Sep 9: Battle of Flodden, defeat of Scottish Army – death of King James IV of Scots

Machiavelli writes The Prince

1514

Recording of Testaments (wills) begins in Scotland

1515

Nov 15: Thomas Wolsley invested as Cardinal

1516

Thomas More writes Utopia

1517

Oct 31: Martin Luther fixes his 95 theses on church door at Wittenburg – regarded as start of the Reformation

1518

Treaty of London, a non-aggression pact between the major European nations: France, England, Holy Roman Empire, the Papacy, Spain, Burgundy and the Netherlands – sponsored by Cardinal Wolsey

1520

Cortes conquers Mexico

Nov: Three ships under the command of Ferdinand Magellan negotiate the Strait of Magellan, becoming the first Europeans to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific

1521

Apr 17: Martin Luther speaks to the assembly at the Diet of Worms, refusing to recant his teachings

May 17: Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, executed for treason

May 25: Diet of Worms ends when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor issues the Edict of Worms, declaring Martin Luther an outlaw

1522

Sep 6: The Victoria, one of the surviving ships of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition, becomes the first ship known to circumnavigate the world

1525

New Testament translated into English by William Tyndale

1527

Bishop Vesey's Grammar School founded in Sutton Coldfield

1528

St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle completed

1529

Apr 22: Treaty of Zaragoza specified the anti-meridian of the Treaty of Tordesillas which stated that everything west of 46° 37' was given to Spain whereas everything east of 46° 37' was given to Portugal

Diet of Speyer: origin of the word Protestant

1531

Feb 11: Henry VIII recognised as Supreme Head of the Church of England

1532

Foundation of the Court of Session in Scotland

1533

Jan 25: Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn secretly, wife #2 (she was crowned as Queen on 1st June)

Mar 30: Thomas Cranmer becomes Archbishop of Canterbury

May 23: Henry VIII's marriage with Catherine of Aragon officially declared annulled

Jul 11: Henry VIII excommunicated by Pope Clement VII

Sep 17: Anne Boleyn gives birth to a daughter Elizabeth, to become Queen Elizabeth I

1534

Reformation of the Catholic Church in England church (Henry VIII)

1535

Sir Thomas More executed

1536

Dissolution of monasteries starts in England (to 1540)

Wales and England legally united by the Laws in Wales Act of 1535

May 19: Anne Boleyn executed

May 30: Henry VIII marries Jane Seymour, wife #3 (she was crowned as Queen on 29th October)

Jul 18: The authority of the Pope is declared void in England

1537

Oct 24: Jane Seymour dies from complications in giving birth to a son, the future Edward VI

1538

English and Welsh parish registers start

Henry VIII issues English Bible

Dec 17: Henry VIII excommunicated by Pope Paul III

1540

Statute of Wills allows freehold land to be bequeathed

Jan 6: Henry VIII marries Anne of Cleves, the 'Flanders Mare', wife #4

Feb 9: First recorded horse racing event in Britain, at Chester

Jul 9: Henry VIII divorces Anne of Cleves

Jul 28: Thomas Cromwell executed; Henry VIII marries Catherine Howard the same day, wife #5

1541

Henry VIII proclaimed king (rather than feudal lord) of Ireland

1542

Feb 13: Catherine Howard executed

Nov 24: The Rout of Solway Moss

Dec 14: Death of King James V of Scots; his baby daughter Mary "Queen of Scots" succeeds him, just 6 days old

1543

Jul 12: Henry VIII marries Catherine Parr, wife #6, who survives him

Sep 9: Mary Stuart, at nine months old, is officially crowned "Queen of Scots" in Stirling (spelling of the royal house changes from Stewart to Stuart)

1544-5

Mary of Guise, Regent of Scotland

Henry's VIII's "Rough Wooing" of the Scottish Borders

1545

Jul 20: Mary Rose, flagship of Henry VIII, sinks in the Solent – raised in 1982

Dec 13: Start of the Council of Trent (Trento, Italy) – convened by the Catholic Church three times, ending 4 Dec 1563, as a response to the Protestant Reformation

1546

Trinity College, Cambridge founded by Henry VIII

1547

Jan 28: Death of Henry VIII (succeeded by Edward VI, aged 9, to 1553)

Feb 20: Coronation of Edward VI in Westminster Abbey

English replaced Latin in church services in England and Wales

Sep 10: Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, said to be the first 'modern' battle to be fought in the British Isles

The injunction to keep parish registers is reiterated

Vagrants Act passed (able-bodied tramps can be detained as slaves)

Ivan the Terrible takes title 'Tsar of all the Russias'

1548

Priests in England allowed to marry (about a third then did so)

– but see 1554

1549

Jun 9: First Book of Common Prayer sanctioned by English Parliament

Wedding ring finger changed from right to left hand

First Act of Uniformity in England made Catholic Mass illegal

English Parliament declares enclosures legal

1550–1700

Climate: Referred to as the 'Little Ice Age' – severe gales became more frequent

1550

Walloon Protestants arrive as refugees from the Low Countries

1551

Scotland: General Provincial Council orders each parish to keep a register of baptisms and banns of marriage

1552

Mar: An 'Act of Uniformity' imposes the Protestant prayerbook of 1552 in England

1553

Jul 6: Edward VI dies; Lady Jane Grey queen for a few days only

Jul 19: Mary Tudor ('Bloody Mary') comes to the throne

1554-1558

Brief Catholic restoration under Queen Mary Tudor – married priests forced to separate at least 30 miles from their wives

1554

Feb 12: Lady Jane Grey beheaded

1555

Michel Nostradamus publishes his prophecies

1556

Mar 21: Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer burned at the stake in Oxford

1557

Dec: The First Covenant signed in Scotland (foundation of the Presbyterian Church)

Index librorum prohibitum (index of prohibited books) instituted by the Vatican – repealed in 1966

1558

Scottish parish registers start

Chancery Proceedings Indexes begin

Jan 7: French take Calais, last English possession in France

Apr 24: Marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots to François the Dauphin of France in Paris

Nov 17: Queen Mary Tudor of England dies and is succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth – Protestantism restored in England

1558-1603

Policy of Plantation begins

System of Counties adopted

1559

Jan 15: Elizabeth crowned in Westminster Abbey by Owen Oglethorpe, the Bishop of Carlisle

Apr 29: Acts of Supremacy passed in Parliament, ending papal jurisdiction over England & Wales; established Church of England

John Knox returns from Continent – strengthens case for Presbyterianism in Scotland

Tobacco introduced to Europe

1560

Feb 27: Treaty of Berwick between Duc du Chatelherault (as governor of Scotland) and the English, agreeing to act jointly to expel the French from Scotland

Establishment of Protestantism in Scotland – commissary courts thrown into confusion – some records lost

1561

Spire of St Paul's, highest in England, destroyed by fire

The first coins produced by machinery (known as a 'mill') rather than by hand, but it was a slow process and did not replace hand struck coinage until new machinery was introduced in 1663

1562

Mar 1: Over 1,000 Huguenots massacred in Wassy-sur-Blaise – start of the First War of Religion in France (and see 1572)

Earliest English slave-trading expedition, under John Hawkins – between Guinea and the West Indies

1563

Jul 28: The English surrender Le Havre to the French after a siege

Papal recusants heavily fined for non-attendance at Church

The Test Act excludes Roman Catholics from governmental office

1564

Apr 26: Shakespeare baptised – he is said to have been born on Apr 23, St George's Day; he certainly died on Apr 23, 1616

1565

Jul 29: Marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots to Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, her first cousin

1566

Mar 9: Murder of David Riccio (or Rizzio) in Holyrood House

1567

Feb 10: Murder of Darnley outside Holyrood House in an explosion

May 15: Marriage of Mary Queen of Scots to James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell

Jul 24: Mary Queen of Scots deposed and replaced by her 1 year old son James VI

Earliest date in the French Protestant and Walloon registers

1568

May 13: Battle of Langside – Mary's flight to England and her imprisonment by Queen Elizabeth I

1569

Elizabeth I approved Sunday sports

1570

Feb 25: Pope Pius V issued the papal bull 'Regnans in Excelsis' to excommunicate Elizabeth I and her followers in the Church of England

1571

Beginning of penal legislation against Catholics in England

Jan 23: Opening of the Royal Exchange in London, founded by Sir Thomas Gresham – this building destroyed in Great Fire of London 1666

Repeal of Act prohibiting lending of money on interest – gradual change from 'subsistence economy' to 'cash economy' resulted

1571-1572

Presbyterianism introduced into England by Thomas Cartwright

1572

Slaughter of Huguenots in Paris (massacre of St Bartholomew, started 24 Aug)

1574

Colonial State Papers published – continued to 1738

1577

James Burbage opens first theatre in London

1579

Act of Uniformity in matters of religion enforced

1580

Apr 6: Dover Straits earthquake, largest in the recorded history of England, mentioned by Shakespeare – dozens of ships sunk and a tsunami hit Calais

Colonisation of Ireland

Congregational movement founded by Robert Browne about this time

1581

Jan 16: English Parliament outlaws Roman Catholicism

Apr 4: Francis Drake knighted by Elizabeth I aboard the Golden Hind after circumnavigating the world (see 1967)

English Levant Company founded

1582

Gregorian calendar introduced to replace Julian calendar in some countries: Spain and Portugal, France, Low Countries, part of Italy, Denmark. Pope Gregory suppressed 10 days by altering 5 Oct to 15 Oct, thus making the Spring equinox fall on 21 March 1583. Dates relating to the Julian calendar were then referred to as 'Old Style', and those relating to the Gregorian calendar as 'New Style'. See 1600 and 1751 for its adoption in Britain.

1583

Aug: Sir Humphrey Gilbert attempts to establish English authority at St John's, Newfoundland

Foundation of Cambridge University Press by Thomas Thomas

University of Edinburgh founded

1584

Jun 4: Sir Walter Raleigh establishes first English colony in the New World, on Roanoke Island, Virginia (now in North Carolina) – the so-called 'Lost Colony' [but see 1583].

1585

Foundation of Oxford University Press

Shakespeare started seriously to write about this time

1586

Camden Britannia, first topographical survey of England

1587

Feb 8: Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, at Fotheringay Castle, near Peterborough

Apr 19: Sir Francis Drake sinks the Spanish fleet in Cadiz harbour

Aug 11: Raleigh's second expedition to New World lands in North Carolina – first child born in the New World of English parents was Virginia Dare (Aug 18)

Introduction of potatoes to England

1588

Jul 19: Spanish Armada sighted off the Lizard (had set sail from Lisbon in late May)

Jul 29: Defeat of Spanish Armada off Gravelines

Invention of shorthand by Dr Timothy Bright

1591

Trinity College, Dublin, founded

1592

A Congregational (or Independent) Church formed in London

Scotland: Presbyterian Church formally established – all ministers equal – no bishops – secular commissaries appointed by the Crown

1593

British statute mile established by law

1594-1603

Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, leads Irish rebellion against English rule

1597

Poor Law Act for erection of parish workhouses for the Poor – Poor Rate collection allowed

1598

Bishop's transcripts of English and Welsh parish registers start – parish records were to be kept in 'great decent books of parchment' and copies or 'Bishop's Transcripts' of new entries were to be sent each month to the diocesan centre

Edict of Nantes gives Huguenots toleration in France (but see 1685)

1600

The early 1600s often known as the period of the 'Rebuilding of England'

Memoirs of Officers of the Royal Navy begin

Jan 1: Scotland adopts New Year beginning 1st January (previously 25th March) - see 1752

Dec 31: British East India Company founded

1601

Great English Poor Law Act passed

First use of fruit juice as a preventative for scurvy by James Lancaster

1602

Mar 20: Dutch East India Company founded

Nov 8: Bodleian Library at Oxford University opened to the public

1603

Mar 24: Death of Elizabeth I: union of Scottish and English crowns – under King James VI of Scots and I of England (d. 1625)

Jul 25: Coronation – James VI of Scotland is crowned first king of Great Britain

1604

Robert Cawdrey A Table Alphabeticall – first English dictionary

Nov 1: Shakespeare: Othello first presented

1605

Nov 5: Gunpowder plot at Westminster (Guy Fawkes, etc)

1606

Jan 31: Guy Fawkes and co-conspirators executed

Apr 12: Adoption of Union Flag as the flag of "Great Britain" (the term Union Jack is used officially only when the Union Flag is flown from the Jack Mast of a Royal Naval vessel)

The London Company chartered to colonise Virginia: the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery leave England on 19th De

c taking 144 days to reach America

Episcopacy established in Scotland (against wishes of the Scots)

1607

May 14: Jamestown, Virginia settled – to become the first permanent British colony in North America

Sep: Flight of the Earls from Ireland – leading Ulster families go into exile

1608

First use of telescope by Galileo – he observed the moons of Jupiter two years later in Jan 1610

1610

James VI & I established the Episcopal Church in Scotland – Prebyterians persecuted and many of their records lost

1611

Plantation of Ulster with English and Scottish colonists

Authorised (King James) Version of Bible in Britain

May 22: James VI & I created the title of baronet

Nov 1: Shakespeare: The Tempest first presented

1613

Jun 29: The Globe Theatre in London burns during a performance of Henry the Eighth

(finally pulled down in 1644)

A copper farthing was produced, as a silver coin would be too small

1616

Saturday Apr 23 (Gregorian calendar): Death of Miguel de Cervantes (of Don Quixote fame) in Madrid

Tuesday Apr 23 (Julian calendar): Death of Shakespeare

Ben Jonson becomes first Poet Laureate

1617

Register of Sasines (land leases) established in Scotland – record of the transfer of land and property

1618

Sir Walter Raleigh beheaded for allegedly conspiring against James I

1619

Dec 4 (Nov 24 old style): Colonists from Berkeley Parish in England disembark in Virginia and give thanks to God (considered by many to be the first Thanksgiving in the Americas)

1620

Dec 21 (Dec 16 old style): The Mayflower reaches America – founds Plymouth, New England (had initially set sail from Southampton on Aug 5)

Manufacture of coke (the fuel, not the drink!) patented by Dud Dudley

1621

Chimneys to be made of brick and to be four and a half feet above the roof

Shakespeare's First Folio published

1622

First English newspaper appeared Weekly News

1624

Monopoly Act in England: patents protected

Edmund Gunter introduces the surveyor's chain (measurement of length)

1625

The size of bricks standardised in England around this time

Mar 27: Death of King James VI & I

1625-1649

Carolean Age

1628

Mar 1: Writs issued by Charles I that every county in England (not just seaport towns) pay ship tax by this date

1629

Mar 10: Parliament dissolved by King Charles I – did not meet for another 11 years

1630-1750

Baroque Period (Art & Antiques)

1630-1750

Renaissance Period (Art & Antiques)

1633

Jun: Galileo summoned by Inquisition for publishing in favour of Copernican theory

1635

Letter Office of England & Scotland started

Flintlock small arms invented around this time (replaces matchlock)

L'Academie Française founded in France by Richelieu

1636

Hackney Carriages in use by now in London

1637

Scottish Prayer Book published

'Tulipomania' in Holland, leads to classic market collapse

1638

Charles regarded protests against the prayerbook as treason – forced Scots to choose between their church and the King – a "Covenant", swearing to resist these changes to the death, was signed in Greyfriars Church, Edinburgh and was accepted by hundreds of thousands of Scots (revival of Presbyterian Church)

1639

Act of Toleration in England established religious toleration

Dec 4 (Nov 24 old style): Jeremiah Horrocks makes the first observation of a transit of Venus

1640

Nov 3: Charles I forced to recall Parliament (the 'Long Parliament') due to Scottish invasion

1641

Charles I's policies cause insurrection in Ulster and Civil War in England

Oct 23: 50,000 Irish killed in an uprising in Ulster

Charles I and the English Parliament acknowledge the Prebyterian Church in Scotland

1642

The Civil War interrupted the keeping of parish registers

English theatres closed by Puritans (till 1660)

Aug 22: Charles I raises his standard at Nottingham – First Civil War in England (to 1649) – first engagement at Edgehill (23 Oct) – Scottish Covenanters side with the English rebels who take power – the Earl of Montrose sided with King Charles, strife spilled into Scotland

Nov 13: Battle of Turnham Green – Royalist forces withdraw in face of the Parliamentarian army and fail to take London

Nov 24: Abel Janszoon Tasman discovers Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania)

Dec 18: Abel Janszoon Tasman first European to set foot in New Zealand

1643

Dec 13: Battle of Alton – victory for Parliamentarians – Sir Richard Bolle killed in St Lawrence's church

Solemn League and Covenant signed in Scotland

1644

Jun 29: Battle of Cropredy Bridge – Royalists beat the Parliamentarian forces

Jul 2: Battle of Marston Moor, near York – Parliamentarian forces beat the Royalists

Earliest Independent (Congregational) registers

Earliest Presbyterian registers

1644-5

Montrose's Venture (Montrose executed in 1650)

1645

Jun 14: Battle of Naseby: Parliament's New Model Army crushes the Royalist forces

Battle of Philiphaugh in Scotland

Inquisitions Post Mortem end

Scotland: Each county and burgh ordered to raise and maintain a number of foot soldiers, according to population, to serve as militia – population of Scotland estimated at 420,000

Plague made its last appearance in Scotland

1646

May 5: Charles I surrenders to the Scottish Army at Newark

Jun 20: Royalists sign articles of surrender at Oxford

1647

Earliest Baptist registers survive from this year

1648

Society of Friends (Quakers) founded by George Fox

First practical thermometers made

1649

Jan 6: 'Rump' Parliament votes to put Charles I on trial

Jan 30: King Charles I executed (see 1660 for Regicides)

May 19: Commonwealth declared

Dec 20: Theatres banned by Cromwell

Christmas banned by Cromwell

Cromwell's Irish campaign starts

King Charles II proclaimed King of Scots and England in Scotland

1649-1660

Commonwealth Period – Oliver Cromwell

1650

Term 'Quaker' first used for Society of Friends

Coffee brought to England about this time

1651-1652

The second English Civil War
Sep 3: Battle of Worcester – see Oak-apple Day 1664

Scottish prisoners transported to the British settlements in America

1653

Commonwealth registers start

Apr 20: Cromwell dissolves the Rump Parliament

Dec 16: Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland

Under the Act of Settlement Cromwell's opponents stripped of land (in Ireland?)

Isaak Walton The Compleat Angler

1653-1660

Provincial probate courts abolished – probates granted only in London

1657

Post Office established by Act of Parliament [others say 1660]

A few Jews permitted to settle in England

1658

Sep 3: Death of Oliver Cromwell

Huygens pendulum clock

1658-1660

Richard Cromwell (son of Oliver) Lord Protector

1659

Feb 6: date of first known cheque to be drawn

Start of national meteorological Temperature records in the UK

1660s

Quaker-Scottish colony was established in East New Jersey

1660–

Restoration Period

1660

Jan 1: Samuel Pepys starts his diary

May 29: Restoration of British monarchy (Charles II) – 'Oak Apple Day' – theatres reopened

Commonwealth registers ended, Parish Registers resumed

Provincial Probate Courts re-established

Oct 17: Ten Regicides are executed at Charing Cross or Tyburn: Thomas Harrison, John Jones, Adrian Scrope, John Carew, Thomas Scot and Gregory Clement, who had signed the death warrant; the preacher Hugh Peters; Francis Hacker and Daniel Axter, who commanded the soldiers at the trial and the execution of the king; and John Cook the solicitor who directed the prosecution [Encyclopedia Britannica]

Nov 28: Twelve men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir Robert Moray decide to found what is later known as the Royal Society

Dec 8: First actress plays in London (Margaret Hughes as Desdemona)

Clarendon code restricts Puritans' religious freedom

Composition of light discovered by Newton

Honourable East India Company founded by British

First British in Japan

Scotland adopts Gregorian calendar

1661

Jan 30: Oliver Cromwell formally 'executed', having been dead for over two years!

Persecution of Non-conformists in England

Restoration of Episcopacy in Scotland

Board of Trade founded in London

Hand-struck postage stamps first used

Corporation Act prevents non-Anglicans from holding municipal office

1662

Hearth Tax

– until 1689 (1690 in Scotland)

Poor Relief Act or "Act of Settlement" – gave JPs the power to return any wandering poor to the parish of origin (repealed 1834)

Aug 24: Act of Uniformity – Acceptance of Book of Common Prayer required – About 2,000 vicars and rectors driven from their parishes as nonconformists (Presbyterians and Independents) – Persecution of all non-conformists – Presbyterianism dis-established – Episcopalian Church of England restored

Tea introduced to Britain

1663

Earliest Roman Catholic registers

1664

May 29: Oak Apple Day – the birthday of Charles II and the day when he entered London at the Restoration; commanded by Act of Parliament in 1664 to be observed as a day of thanksgiving. A special service (expunged in 1859) was inserted in the Book of Common Prayer and people wore sprigs of oak with gilded oak-apples on that day. It commemorates Charles II's concealment with Major Careless in the 'Royal Oak' at Boscobel, near Shifnal, Shropshire, after his defeat at Worcester on 3 Sept 1651.

Aug 27: Nieuw Amsterdam becomes New York as 300 English soldiers under Col. Mathias Nicolls take the town from the Dutch under orders from Charles II. The town is renamed after the King's brother James, Duke of York

1665

Great Plague of London (July-October) kills over 60,000

Nov 7: The London Gazette first published – one of the official journals of record of the United Kingdom government, and the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United Kingdom

Five-mile Act restricts non-conformist ministers in Britain

1666

Sep 2-6: Great Fire of London, after a drought beginning 27 June

Use of semaphore signalling pioneered by Lord Worcester

Act of Parliament – burials to be in woollen

Newton formulated Laws of Gravity

1666-1689

Considerable religious unrest on Scotland (The Covenanters) – Covenanters Rising at St John's Town of Dalry

1667

John Milton Paradise Lost

1668

British East India Company obtains control of Bombay

Newton constructs reflecting telescope

1669

May 31: Last entry in Pepys's diary (see 1825 for publication)

Earliest Lutheran registers survive from this year

1670

Earliest Synagogue registers – Bevis Marks

Dryden appointed Poet Laureate

May 2: Start of Hudson's Bay Company in Canada

May 26: King Charles II and King Louis XIV of France sign the Secret Treaty of Dover

1671

May 9: Thomas Blood caught stealing the Crown Jewels

1672

High Court of Justiciary established in Scotland

War with Holland (to 1674) – British Army increased to 10,000 men

1673

First Test Act deprives British Catholics and Non-conformists of Public Office

1674

Nov 8: John Milton dies in London

Nov 10: Treaty of Westminster – Netherlands cedes New Netherlands (on the eastern coast of North America) to Britain

1675

Beginning of Whig party under Shaftsbury

Mar 4: John Flamsteed appointed first Astronomer Royal of England

Aug 10: Building of Royal Greenwich Observatory started

Rebuilding of St Paul's started by Wren (completed 1710)

1676

Compton Census, named after its initiator Henry Compton, Bishop of London, was intended to discover the number of Anglican conformists, Roman Catholic recusants and Protestant dissenters in England and Wales from enquiries made in individual parishes

1677

Lee's "Collection of Names of Merchants in London" published

1678

Extension of Test Act to peers

1679

May 27: Habeas Corpus Act becomes law in England – (later repealed from time to time)

Jun 22: Battle of Bothwell Brig in Scotland – Covenanter rebels routed

Tories first so named

Burial in Woollen more strictly enforced

1680

William Dockwra(y) begins his London Penny Post

Dodo becomes extinct in Mauritius through over-hunting

1680-1770

Chinoiserie Period (Art & Antiques)

1681

Second Test Act (against non-conformists) passed by Westminster Parliament

Oil lighting first used in London streets

1682

Pennsylvania founded by William Penn

Library of Advocates founded in Edinburgh – later National Library of Scotland

Halley observes the comet which bears his name

1683

Jun 6: Ashmolean Museum opened at Oxford – first museum in Britain

Climate: Coldest 'Frost fair' in London

Wild boar become extinct in Britain

1684

Presbyterian settlement in Stuart's Town in South Carolina

Huguenot registers begin in London

1685

Earl of Argyll's Invasion of Scotland

James the Second (1685-1689, died 1701) – Monmouth rebellion and battle of Sedgemoor – British Army raised to 20,000 men

Judge Jeffreys and the Bloody Assizes – 320 executed, 800 transported

Oct 18: Revocation of the Edict of Nantes – drove thousands of Protestants (Huguenots) from France – many settled in England

1686

Release of all prisoners held for their religious beliefs

1687

Apr 4: James II issues the Declaration of Indulgence, suspending laws against Catholics and non-conformists

Jul 5: Newton published his Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica – written in Latin

Sep 26: The Parthenon in Athens, used as a gunpowder magazine by the Ottomans, exploded during an attack by the Venetians

1688

Feb: Edward Lloyd's Coffee House opens – later became Lloyd's of London

Nov: The Glorious Revolution: James II abdicates – William of Orange lands at Torbay on 5 Nov – William III and Mary II, daughter of James II, jointly take the throne 13 Feb 1689 – (only William, however, has regal power)

British Army raised to 40,000

Bill of Rights limits the powers of the monarchy over parliament

Hearth Tax abolished

Mutiny Act

1689

Mar 12: Deposed James VII & II flees to Ireland – defeated at the Battle of the Boyne (1 Jul 1690)

May 24: Toleration Act passed for Protestant non-conformists

Jul 27: Battle of Killiecrankie in Scotland – Jacobites defeated Government troops but at high cost

Siege of Londonderry (began Dec 1688; ended 28 Jul 1689)

Dec 16: Bill of Rights passed by Parliament, ending King's divine right to raise taxes or wage war

Earliest Royal Dutch Chapel registers

Devonport naval dockyard established

1690

Great Synagogue founded

Presbyterianism finally established in Scotland

May 20: England passes Act of Grace, forgiving Roman Catholic followers of James II

Jul 1 (New Style, 12 Jul): Battle of the Boyne – Jacobite forces defeated by William

1691

Earliest date in known German Lutheran registers

1692

Feb 13: The massacre of Glencoe – Clan Campbell sides with King William and murders members of Clan McDonald

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. Counties were assessed at a fixed sum and the parish quotas were rarely altered. No systematic revaluation of properties was ever made after 1698 so that assessments tended to reflect the initial late-seventeenth century values. Its records in detail are usually available between 1780 and 1831.

French intention to invade England came to naught

1693

Aug 4: Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Pierre Pérignon 's invention of Champagne

Some Thoughts Concerning Education published by John Locke

1693–1700

Climate: Oat harvest failed repeatedly in Scotland – widespread starvation

1694

National Debt came into effect in England

Stamp Duties introduced into Britain from Holland

Jul 27: Bank of England founded by William Paterson (a Scot)

Mary II death leaves William III as sole ruler

Triennial Act, new Parliamentary elections every three years

1694-1699

Scotland: Poll Tax imposed on all over sixteen, except the destitute and insane

1695

Freedom of Press in England

Bank of Scotland founded

Act of Parliament imposes a fine on all who fail to inform the parish minister of the birth of a child (repealed 1706, but see 1783)

Start of "Dissenters" lists in parish registers – children born but not christened in the parish church – some were named "Papist" and others "Protestants"

1696

Act of Parliament establishes Workhouses

Education Act passed by Scottish Parliament

Window Tax (replaced Hearth Tax; increased in 1747; abolished 1851 when it was replaced by House Duty)

1697

Dec 2: Official opening of St Paul's Cathedral

1698

Jan 4: Most of the Palace of Whitehall in London destroyed by fire

Invention of steam engine by Capt Thomas Savery

Darien Expedition: a disastrous attempt to establish a Scots settlement in Panama

Duties (taxes) on entries in parish registers – repealed after five years

Nov 14: Eddystone Lighthouse (Henry Winstanley's) first lit; completed 10 days earlier (but see 1703)

1700

Population in England and Scotland approx 7.5 million

1701

Act of Settlement bars Catholics from the British throne

May 23: After being convicted of piracy and murdering William Moore, Captain William Kidd hanged in London

1702-1714

Queen Anne Period (Art & Antiques)

1702

Mar 8: Anne Stuart becomes Queen

Mar 11: First English daily newspaper The Daily Courant (till 1735)

War of Spanish Succession (1702-1713)

1703

Repeal of Duties on entries in Parish Registers

Nov 24–Dec 2: 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 Nov (see 1759); it "produced so deep an impression upon the people of the period that it was familiarly spoken of as 'The Storm' throughout the whole of the eighteenth century"—Grant Allen, in his notes to the 1900 edition of Gilbert White's 'Natural History of Selborne'

1704

Aug 4: British take Gibraltar

Aug 13: Battle of Blenheim

Penal Code enacted – Catholics barred from voting, education and the military

Newton Optics, his theories of light and colour – written in English

1705

First workable steam pumping engine devised by Thomas Newcomen (some say c1710 or 1711)

Isaac Newton knighted (for his work at the Royal Mint)

1706

May 23: Battle of Ramillies

First evening newspaper The Evening Post issued in London

1707

Jan 16: 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

May 1: 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

Last use of veto by a British sovereign

1708

First Jacobite rising in Scotland

Earliest Artillery Muster Rolls

1709

Feb 2: Alexander Selkirk rescued from shipwreck on a desert island, inspiring the book Robinson Crusoe (published in 1719) by Daniel Defoe

First Copyright Act passed

Bad harvests throughout Europe – bread riots in Britain

1710

Tax on Apprentice Indentures

1711

Aug 11: First race meeting at Ascot

Incorporation of South Sea Company, in London

1712

Imposition of Soap Tax (abolished 1853)

Last trial for witchcraft in England (Jane Wenham)

Toleration Act passed – first relief to non-Anglicans

Patronage Act – patronage of ministers restored

1713

Treaty of Utrecht concludes the War of the Spanish Succession

By this year there are some 3,000 coffee houses in London

1714

Aug 1: Queen Anne Stuart dies – George I Hanover becomes king (1714-1727).

Chancery Proceedings filed under Six Clerks.

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).

Schism Act, prevents Dissenters from being schoolmasters in England.

Landholders forced to take the Oath of Allegiance and renounce Roman Catholicism.

Quarter Sessions Records from this date often mention Protestant dissenters and Roman Catholic recusants.

Handel Water Music

1715

Aug 1: Riot Act passed

Second Jacobite rebellion in Scotland, under the Old Pretender ('The Fifteen')

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)

Climate: Thames frozen so solid that a spring tide lifted the ice bodily 13ft without interrupting the frost fair

1717

First Masonic Lodge opens in London

Value of the golden guinea fixed at 21 shillings

1719

Third abortive Jacobite rising

Defoe Robinson Crusoe

1720

South Sea Bubble, a stock-market crash on Exchange Alley – government assumes control of National Debt

Manufacturing towns start to increase in population – rise of new wealth

Wallpaper becomes fashionable in England

1721

Apr 2: Robert Walpole (Whig) becomes first Prime Minister (to 1742)

Bailey's Northern Directory

1722

Last trial for witchcraft in Scotland [but Wikipedia gives 1727 as last execution for witchcraft in Scotland]

Knatchbull's Act, poor laws

1723

Excise tax levied for coffee, tea, and chocolate

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

The Workhouse Act or Test – to get relief, a poor person has to enter Workhouse

1724

Rapid growth of gin drinking in England

Longman's founded (Britain's oldest publishing house)

1725-1726

Treaty of Hanover: France, Prussia, Britain v. Spain, Austria

1726

First circulating library opened in Edinburgh

Invention of the chronometer by John Harrison

Swift Gulliver's Travels

1727

Board of Manufacturers established in Scotland

Jun 11: George I dies – George II Hanover becomes king

1729

Methodists begin at Oxford

Nov 9: Teaty of Seville signed between Britain, France and Spain – Britain maintained control of Port Mahon and Gibraltar

Bach St Matthew Passion

1730

Irish famine

1730-1750

Rococo Period (Art & Antiques)

1731

Invention of seed drill by Jethro Tull [others say 1701]

Invention of sextant by John Hadley

1732

Jun 9: James Oglethorpe is granted a royal charter for the colony of Georgia

Dec 7: Covent Garden Opera House opens

Earliest Cavalry and Infantry Muster Rolls

1733

Feb 12: James Oglethorpe founds Savannah, Georgia

Excise crisis: Sir Robert Walpole wanted to add excise tax to tobacco and wine – Pulteney and Bolingbroke oppose the excise tax

Law forbidding the use of Latin in parish registers generally obeyed – some continued in Latin for a few years

John Kay invents the flying shuttle, revolutionised the weaving industry

1734

Kent's Directory

1737

Licensing Act restricts the number of London theatres and subects plays to censorship of the Lord Chamberlain (till 1950s)

1738

Earliest Calvinistic Methodist registers

May 24: John Wesley has his conversion experience

1739

Apr 7: Dick Turpin, highwayman, hanged at York

Oct 23: War of Jenkins' Ear starts: Robert Walpole reluctantly declares war on Spain

Wesley and Whitefield commence great Methodist revival

1741

Benjamin Ingham founded the Moravian Methodists or Inghamites – Earliest Moravian registers

Earliest Scotch Church registers

Handel The Messiah (first performed in Dublin 13 Apr 1742)

1742

England goes to war with Spain – incited by William Pitt the Elder (Earl of Chatham) for the sake of trade

1743

Jun 16 (June 27 in Gregorian calendar): Battle of Dettingen – last time a British sovereign (George II) led troops in battle

1744

Church of Scotland split over taking of Burgess' Oath – Burghers and Anti-Burghers

First Methodist Conference

Tune God Save the King makes its appearance

1745

Jacobite rebellion in Scotland ('The Forty-five')

Aug 19: 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

1746

Apr 16: 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

1747

Abolition of Heritable Jurisdictions in Scotland

Act for Pacification of the Highlands

1748-1756

Countess of Huntington's (Calvinistic) Methodist Connexion founded

1749

Apr 27: First performance of Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks (in Green Park, London) – to celebrate the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ending the War of the Austrian Succession

1750-1770

Gothic Revival Period (Art & Antiques)

1750-1805

Neo-Classical Period (Art & Antiques)

1750

Feb/Mar: Series of earthquakes in London and the Home Counties cause panic with predictions of an apocalypse

Nov 16: Original Westminster Bridge opened (replaced in 1862 due to subsidence)

1751

March: 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 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" — i.e. 1752 started on 1 January, so that 1751 was a short year.

Gin Act passed

1752

Jan 1: 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]

Sep 3: Julian Calendar dropped and Gregorian Calendar adopted in England and Scotland, making this Sep 14 – "Give us back our 11 days!"

Benjamin Franklin invents a lightning conductor

1753

Earliest Inghamite registers

May 1: Publication of Species Plantarum by Linnaeus, and the formal start date of plant taxonomy

Private collection of Sir Hans Sloane forms the basis of the Brtish Museum

1754

Hardwicke Act (1753): Banns to be called, and Printed Marriage Register forms to be used – Quakers & Jews exempt

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

First British troops not belonging to the East India Company despatched to India

First printed Annual Army Lists

1755

Publication of Dictionary of the English Language by Dr Samuel Johnson

Period of canal construction began in Britain (till 1827)

Nov 1: Earthquake and tsunami destroys Lisbon – up to 90,000 dead

1756

May 15: The Seven Years War with France (Pitt's trade war) begins

Jun: Black Hole of Calcutta – 146 Britons imprisoned, most die according to British sources

1757

Mar 14: Admiral Byng shot at Portsmouth for failing to relieve Minorca – or as the French put it: "Les anglais tuent de temps à temps un amiral pour encourager les autres"

India: 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

The foundation laid for the Empire of India

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

1759

Jan 15: British Museum opens to the public in London

Mar: First predicted return of Halley's comet

Sep 13: Gen James Woolfe killed at Quebec (Battle of the Plains of Abraham)

Oct 16: Eddystone Lighthouse (John Smeaton's) completed

Wesley builds 356 Methodist chapels

1760

Oct 25: George II dies – George III Hanover, his grandson, becomes king

The date conventionally marks the start of the so-called "first Industrial Revolution"

Carron Iron Works in operation in Scotland

May 5: First use of hangman's drop – last nobleman to be executed (Laurence, Earl Ferrers) at Tyburn

Beginning of intense Inclosure Acts in England

1761

Jan 16: British capture Pondicherry, India from the French

1762

Earliest Unitarian registers

France surrenders Canada and Florida

Cigars introduced into Britain from Cuba

Robert Lowth Short Introduction to English Grammar

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

1764

Lloyd's Register of shipping first prepared

Practice of numbering houses introduced to London

James Hargeaves invents the Spinning Jenny (but destroyed 1768)

Mozart produces his first symphony at age eight

1765

Mar 22: Stamp Act passed – imposed a tax on publications and legal documents in the American colonies (repealed the following year)

The potato becomes the most popular food in Europe

1766

Start of 'composite' national records on rainfall in the UK

Dec 5: Christie's auction house founded in London by

James Christie

1767

First iron railroads built for mines by John Wilkinson

Newcomen's steam pumping engine perfected by James Watt

1768

Jan 9: Philip Astley starts his circus in London

Dec 6: The first edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" published in Edinburgh by William Smellie

1769

Sep 6: David Garrick organises first Shakespeare festival at Stratford-upon-Avon

Arkwright invents water frame (textile production)

Capt James Cook maps the coast of New Zealand

1770

Apr 28: Capt James Cook lands in Australia (Botany Bay) — Aug 21: formally claims Australia for Britain

Clyde Trust created to convert the River Clyde, then an insignificant river, into a major thoroughfare for maritime communications

1771

Right to report Parliamentary debates established in England

1772

May 14: Judge Mansfield rules that there is no legal basis for slavery in England

First Navy Lists published

First Travellers' Cheques issued by the London Credit Exchange Company

Morning Post first published (until 1937)

1773-1858

The East India Company governs Hindustan

1773

Government prize for accurate determination of Longitude (first offered in 1714) won by John Harrison for his chronometer

Dec 16: Boston Tea Party

Waltz becomes fashionable in Vienna

1774

First recorded cricket match (some say 1719, Londoners v Kentish Men – Wikipedia disagrees with both!)

Sep 13: Cook arrives on Easter Island

1775

Apr 19: Battle of Lexington: first action in American War of Independence (1775–1783)

1776

Jul 4: American Declaration of Independence

Somerset House in London becomes the repository of records of population

Watt and Boulton produce their first commercial steam engine (see 1782)

Sep 7: 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] (see 1864)

1777

Samuel Miller of Southampton patents the circular saw.

1779

Feb 14: Capt James Cook killed on Hawaii

Crompton's mule invented (textile production)

Marc Isambard Brunel opens the first steamdriven sawmill at Chatham Dockyard in Kent

First iron bridge built, over the Severn by John Wilkinson

First Spinning Mills operational in Scotland

Sep 23: Naval engagement between Britain and USA off Flamborough Head

1780

May 4: First Derby run at Epsom (some say 2nd June)

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

Earliest Wesleyan registers

Male Servants Tax

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

Circular saw and Fountain pen invented

About this time the word 'Quiz' entered the language, said to have been invented as a wager by Mr Daly, a Dublin theatre manager

1781

Oct 19: Lord Cornwallis's army surrenders to George Washington; ends the American War of Independence

Sir William Herschel discovers Uranus

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

James Watt patents his steam engine

1783

Duty payable on Parish Register entries (3d per entry – repealed 1794) – led to a fall in entries!

Jun 4: Montgolfier brothers launch first hot-air balloon (unmanned), at Annonay, France

Jul: Climate: hottest month on record until 1983; Gilbert White in his 'Natural History of Selborne' says: "The summer of 1783 was an amazing and portenteous one, and full of horrible phenomena; for, besides the alarming meteors and tremendous thunder storms that affrighted and distressed the different counties of this kingdom, the peculiar haze or smoky fog that prevailed for many weeks in this island and in every part of Europe, and even beyond its limits, was a most extraordinary appearance unlike anything known within the memory of man"—he put it down to volcanic activity. Apparently it was caused by the eruption of Laki in Iceland which continued from 8th Jun 1783 to 7th February 1784

Sep 3: Treaty of Versailles (Britain/US)

Nov 3: Last public execution at Tyburn in London (John Austin, a highwayman)

Nov 21: First untethered hot-air balloon flight with humans aboard, in Paris

Blake Poetical Sketches

1784

Pitt's India Act – the Crown (as opposed to officers of the East India Company) has power to guide Indian politics

Wesley breaks with the Church of England

Aug 2: First mail coaches in England (4pm Bristol / 8am London)

First golf club founded at St Andrews

Invention of threshing machine by Andrew Meikle

1785

Jan 1: John Walter publishes first edition of The Times (called The Daily Universal Register for 3 years)

Sunday School Society founded to educate poor children (by 1851, enrols more than 2 million)

1786

Mozart Marriage of Figaro

1787

Earliest known Swedenborgian (Church of the New Jerusalem or Jerusalemite) registers

MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) established at Thomas Lord's ground in London

1788

Jan 26: 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

First steamboat demonstrated in Scotland [but see 1802]

Law passed requiring that chimney sweepers be a minimum of 8 years old (not enforced)

First slave carrying act, the Dolben Act of 1788, regulates the slave trade – stipulates more humane conditions on slave ships

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

Gibbon completes Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

1789

Apr 28: Mutiny on HMS Bounty – Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors are set adrift and the rebel crew ends up on Pitcairn Island

Jul 14: The French Revolution begins – storming of the Bastille

Publication of Gilbert White's 'Natural History of Selborne'

1790

Forth and Clyde Canal opened in Scotland

1791

Sugar prices rise steeply

John Bell, printer, abandons the "long s" (the "s" that looks like an "f")

Establishment of the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain

Dec 4: First publication of The Observer – world's oldest Sunday newspaper

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

Boyle's Street Directory published

Oct 1: Introduction of Money Orders in Britain

Coal-gas lighting invented by William Murdock, an Ayrshire Scot

Dec 1: King's Proclamation drawing out the British militia

1793

Feb 11: Britain declares war on France (1793-1802)

Execution of Louis XVI – Reign of Terror starts in France

Apr 15: £5 notes first issued by the Bank of England

Jun 26: Gilbert White, naturalist, dies at Selborne, Hampshire

1794

Abolition of Parish Register duties

Mar 14: Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin (in America)

Jun 1: Battle of Glorious First of June

Oct 6: 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

Lindley Murray English Grammar

1795

The Famine Year

Foundation of the Orange Order

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

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

Consumption of lime juice made compulsory in Royal Navy

France adopts the metric system

1796

May 14: Dr Edward Jenner gave first vaccination for smallpox in England

Holden's Triennial Directory published

Pitt's "Reign of Terror": More treason trials – leading radicals emigra