The 18th century

In 1701, Jethro Tull developed the seed drill, an early step in agricultural mechanisation (England).

In 1702, The Daily Courant began in London, the first daily newspaper in English (England).

In 1703, Saint Petersburg was founded by Peter the Great (Russia).

In 1704, Newton published Opticks, setting out his experiments on light in English rather than Latin (England).

In 1705, Edmond Halley predicted the return of the comet that now bears his name (England).

In 1706, William Jones introduced the symbol π for the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter (Wales).

In 1707, the Acts of Union created the Kingdom of Great Britain (Britain).

In 1708, Abraham Darby began smelting iron with coke at Coalbrookdale (England).

In 1709, Abraham Darby smelted iron with coke rather than charcoal, removing the limit that forests had placed on iron production (England).

In 1710, the Statute of Anne gave authors a time-limited right in their work, the first modern copyright law (Great Britain).

In 1711, the Ascot racecourse held its first meeting (England).

In 1712, Thomas Newcomen built the first commercially successful steam engine (England).

In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht ended the War of the Spanish Succession and transferred Gibraltar to Britain (Europe).

In 1714, the Hanoverian succession brought George I to the British throne (Britain).

In 1715, the first major Jacobite rising took place in Scotland and northern England (Great Britain).

In 1716, the Eddystone Lighthouse's second tower was completed, an early attempt at a light on an open rock (England).

In 1717, the first Grand Lodge of Freemasons was formed in London (England).

In 1718, New Orleans was founded by the French on the lower Mississippi (North America).

In 1719, Daniel Defoe published Robinson Crusoe (England).

In 1720, the South Sea Bubble collapsed, ruining investors including Isaac Newton and prompting the first British company legislation (Great Britain).

In 1721, Robert Walpole became in effect Britain's first prime minister (Britain).

In 1722, a Dutch expedition reached Easter Island on Easter Sunday, which is how it acquired its European name (Pacific).

In 1723, Adam Smith was born in Kirkcaldy; Bach completed his first year as cantor at Leipzig (Europe).

In 1724, Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit published the temperature scale that carries his name (Low Countries).

In 1725, Vivaldi's The Four Seasons was published, among the earliest programme music to become widely known (Italy).

In 1726, Jonathan Swift published Gulliver's Travels (Ireland).

In 1727, Isaac Newton died and was buried in Westminster Abbey (England).

In 1728, Vitus Bering sailed the strait between Asia and North America, establishing that the continents are separate (North Pacific).

In 1729, James Bradley explained the aberration of starlight, the first direct evidence that the Earth moves (England).

In 1730, the sextant was developed independently by John Hadley and Thomas Godfrey, making accurate latitude routine at sea (England and North America).

In 1731, the Library Company of Philadelphia was founded by Benjamin Franklin, an early subscription library (North America).

In 1732, George Washington and Joseph Haydn were both born (Europe and North America).

In 1733, John Kay patented the flying shuttle, accelerating weaving (England).

In 1734, Voltaire's Letters Concerning the English Nation was published (France).

In 1735, Linnaeus published Systema Naturae, founding modern biological classification (Sweden).

In 1736, Euler solved the Seven Bridges of Königsberg, the problem generally taken to begin graph theory (Prussia).

In 1737, the University of Göttingen was founded, becoming a major centre of mathematics (Germany).

In 1738, Daniel Bernoulli published Hydrodynamica, relating the speed of a fluid to its pressure (Switzerland).

In 1739, David Hume published A Treatise of Human Nature (Scotland).

In 1740, the War of the Austrian Succession began (Europe).

In 1741, Handel composed Messiah in about three weeks (England).

In 1742, Anders Celsius proposed the centigrade temperature scale, originally with 0 for boiling and 100 for freezing (Sweden).

In 1743, the American Philosophical Society was founded in Philadelphia to promote useful knowledge (North America).

In 1744, the first known printed edition of the rules of cricket was issued by the London club (England).

In 1745, the Leyden jar was described, the first practical way of storing an electrical charge (Low Countries).

In 1746, the Jacobite army was destroyed at Culloden, the last pitched battle fought on British soil (Scotland).

In 1747, James Lind ran a controlled trial showing citrus cured scurvy (Britain).

In 1748, systematic excavation began at Pompeii, revealing a Roman town preserved by volcanic ash (Italy).

In 1749, Buffon began his Histoire Naturelle, which questioned a young Earth on physical grounds (France).

In 1750, Johann Sebastian Bach died in Leipzig (Holy Roman Empire).

In 1751, the first volume of the Encyclopédie appeared in France, an attempt to organise all human knowledge (France).

In 1752, Britain and its colonies adopted the Gregorian calendar, dropping eleven days (Britain).

In 1753, the British Museum was established by Act of Parliament, the first national public museum (Great Britain).

In 1754, the French and Indian War began in North America, the conflict that became the Seven Years' War (North America).

In 1755, the Lisbon earthquake and tsunami destroyed the city and shook European thought (Portugal).

In 1756, the Seven Years' War began, fought across Europe, the Americas and Asia.

In 1757, the East India Company's victory at Plassey began British territorial rule in Bengal (South Asia).

In 1758, the tenth edition of Linnaeus's Systema Naturae fixed the starting point for zoological naming (Sweden).

In 1759, the British Museum opened to the public (England).

In 1760, the Industrial Revolution is conventionally dated from around this year in Britain (Great Britain).

In 1761, John Harrison's H4 marine chronometer was tested at sea, solving the longitude problem (Great Britain).

In 1762, Rousseau published The Social Contract, opening with the claim that man is born free and is everywhere in chains (France).

In 1763, the Treaty of Paris ended the Seven Years' War and transferred New France to Britain (Europe and North America).

In 1764, the spinning jenny was developed, letting one worker spin several threads at once (England).

In 1765, James Watt conceived the separate condenser, transforming the steam engine (Scotland).

In 1766, Henry Cavendish identified hydrogen as a distinct substance (England).

In 1767, the spinning jenny was developed, multiplying yarn output (England).

In 1768, James Cook's first voyage set out, tasked with observing the transit of Venus from Tahiti (Pacific).

In 1769, James Cook observed the transit of Venus from Tahiti and charted New Zealand (Pacific).

In 1770, Ludwig van Beethoven was born (Germany).

In 1771, the first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica was completed in Edinburgh (Scotland).

In 1772, Daniel Rutherford isolated nitrogen, which he called 'noxious air' (Scotland).

In 1773, colonists threw tea into Boston harbour in protest at taxation, an event that hardened both sides (North America).

In 1774, Joseph Priestley isolated oxygen (England).

In 1775, fighting at Lexington and Concord began the American War of Independence (North America).

In 1776, the United States declared independence, and Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations (North America).

In 1777, the American victory at Saratoga persuaded France to enter the war on the American side (North America).

In 1778, Voltaire and Rousseau both died within weeks of one another (France).

In 1779, the Iron Bridge at Coalbrookdale was erected, the first large bridge built of cast iron (England).

In 1780, Luigi Galvani observed that a frog's leg twitched when touched by metal, opening the study of bioelectricity (Italy).

In 1781, William Herschel discovered Uranus, the first planet found with a telescope (England).

In 1782, James Watt patented the double-acting rotative steam engine, making steam power usable for machinery rather than only pumping (Great Britain).

In 1783, the Treaty of Paris recognised American independence, and the Montgolfier brothers flew the first hot-air balloons (Europe and North America).

In 1784, the first British mail coach ran between Bristol and London, replacing post-boys on horseback (Great Britain).

In 1785, the power loom was patented, mechanising weaving (England).

In 1786, William Jones proposed a common ancestor for Sanskrit, Greek and Latin, the beginning of comparative linguistics (South Asia).

In 1787, the United States Constitution was drafted at Philadelphia (North America).

In 1788, the First Fleet established a British penal colony at Sydney Cove (Australia).

In 1789, the French Revolution began with the storming of the Bastille (France).

In 1790, France adopted the decimal metric system in principle, and the first US patent and census laws were enacted (France and United States).

In 1791, the United States Bill of Rights was ratified (North America).

In 1792, the French Republic was proclaimed and a new calendar was introduced counting Year I from that autumn (France).

In 1793, the cotton gin was patented, which made short-staple cotton profitable and entrenched slavery in the American South (North America).

In 1794, the Chappe optical telegraph carried its first official message between Lille and Paris (France).

In 1795, France legally adopted the metre and the kilogram, the basis of the modern SI system (France).

In 1796, Edward Jenner demonstrated vaccination against smallpox (England).

In 1797, the first recorded parachute descent was made from a balloon over Paris by André-Jacques Garnerin (France).

In 1798, Malthus published his Essay on the Principle of Population, and Cavendish measured the density of the Earth (England).

In 1799, the Rosetta Stone was found, later enabling the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs (Egypt).

In 1800, Alessandro Volta described the electric battery (Italy).