1690: Chr. Huygens & wave theory of light
1692-1693: Salem Witchcraft trials
1696: Savery & steam engine
1701–1714: War of the Spanish Succession
1702-1713: Queen Anne's War
1704: Newton, Opticks
1704: Battle of Blenheim
1713: Treaty of Utrecht
1714: George I, England. (1740-1748)
1714: Fahrenheit invents mercury thermometer
1728: Gay, The Beggar's Opera
1732: Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack
1734: Voltaire, Lettres philosophiques
1740: Frederick II (the Great) Elector of Prussia, King
1690: Chr. Huygens & wave theory of light
1692-1693: Salem Witchcraft trials
1696: Savery & steam engine
1701–1714: War of the Spanish Succession
1702-1713: Queen Anne's War
1704: Newton, Opticks
1704: Battle of Blenheim
1713: Treaty of Utrecht
1714: George I, England. (1740-1748)
1714: Fahrenheit invents mercury thermometer
1728: Gay, The Beggar's Opera
1732: Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack
1734: Voltaire, Lettres philosophiques
1740: Frederick II (the Great) Elector of Prussia, King of Poland
1740: Maria Theresa becomes empress of Austria
1741-1748: War of the Austrian Succession
1746: Battle of Culloden
1748: Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle
1751: Diderot, Encyclopédie, Vol. I
1752: Benjamin Franklin & lightning / electricity
1755: Johnson, Dictionary
1756-1763: Seven Years' War
1759: Voltaire, Candide
1759: British capture Quebec
1760: British capture Montreal
1763: Treaties of Hubertsburg and Paris
1763 - 1775: American Revolution
1770: Capt. Cook in Botany Bay, Australia
1774: Louis XVI becomes King of France.
1775: Battle of Bunker Hill
1776: American Declaration of Independence
1781: British army surrenders at Yorktown
1783: First manned flight, in a hot-air balloon
1783: Treaty of Paris
French Revolution.
1788: Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
1819 (24 May) future Queen Victoria born, only child of Duke of Kent (d. 1820), 4th son of George III
1820 George III (ill for many years) succeeded by George IV (hitherto Prince Regent)
1830 George IV dies; succeeded by his brother William IV (hitherto Duke of Clarence)
1830 (November) Lord Grey (Whig) replaces Duke of Wellington (Tory) as Prime Minister
1831 First Reform Bill introduced, April
1831 First cholera outbreak in England (begins at Sunderland, October)
1832 First ("Great") Reform Act passed
1832 General Election under new franchise; overwhelming "reforming" majority
1833 Abolition of slavery in British colonies
1833 First effective Factory Reform Act
1834 Poor Law Amendment Act (amending 1601 Act) - "New Poor Law" - establishing unions of workhouses, abolishing "outdoor" relief
1834 Lord Grey resigns; Lord Melbourne Prime Minister
1834 (Nov.) William IV dismisses Whig Government; Sir Robert Peel (Conservative) Prime Minister
1835 April, Peel defeated, Melbourne returns as Prime Minister
1835 Municipal Reform Act, reforming old corporations, extending municipal franchise; allowing establishment of new, corporations; allowing establishment of municipal police forces
1837 (20 June) Queen Victoria succeeds to throne following death of William IV
Early Victorian Britain, c. 1837-1850
1837 General election; Tories gain, Whigs lose but remain in overall majority
1837 Oliver Twist published
1840 February; Queen marries Prince Albert
1840 War vs. China
1841 Melbourne Govt. defeated on Baring's budget (sugar), and vote of "No Confidence"; general election;
1841 Tories under Peel win general election; Peel Prime Minister, Graham Home Secretary
1842 Poor Law renewed
1842 Webster-Ashburton Treaty settles Maine/Canada boundary
1842 Chadwick's Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Classes
1842 Lord Ashley's Coal Mines Act prevents employment of children under 10, women underground in Coal Mines
1842 Chartist disturbances
1844 Peel's Factory Act
1844 Sugar Act
1845 Disraeli's Sybil published
1845 December; Times announces Peel is to repeal Corn Laws; Cabinet crisis; Peel resigns; Russell fails to form Government; Peel resumes office
1846 Corn Laws suspended
1846 Peel defeated on Irish Coercion; resigns; Lord John Russell becomes Prime Minister; Palmerston Foreign Secretary
1847 Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte); Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte) Tancred (Disraeli) published
1847 Financial crisis; proposal to suspend Bank Charter Act
1847 Worst year of Irish famine
1847 Factory Act (10 Hours)
1848 10 April; Chartist demonstration on Kennington Common
1848 Cholera epidemic - first Public Health Act
1850 Death of Peel
1850 Public Library Act
Mid Victorian Britain, 1850-1870
1851 Great Exhibition
1851 Palmerston dismissed as Foreign Secretary
1852 Russell's Reform Bill; falls with defeat of Government
1852 February; Russell defeated; Earl of Derby Prime Minister; Disraeli Chancellor of the Exchequer
1852 General election
1854 Crimean War
1854 Russell's Reform Bill withdrawn because of war
1856 Peace of Paris concludes Crimean War
1856 County and Borough Police Act
1857 2nd China War
1857 Palmerston defeated; general election; Palmerston returns as PM having defeated the Radicals (Cobden, Bright, etc.) who had opposed the China War
1857 Divorce Act
1857 Financial crisis
1858 Lord Derby Prime Minister
1858 Government of British India assumed by Crown (as opposed to East India Company)
1858 Jews admitted to Parliament
1859 Publication of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species; John Stuart Mill's On Liberty; and Samuel Smiles' Self-Help.
1859 Tory Reform Bill defeated; general election; Lord Derby's Government defeated; Palmerston resumes as Prime Minister;
1860 Cobden Treaty with France
1860 Publication of George Elliot's Mill on the Floss; Wilkie Collins' Woman in White; Charles Dickens' Great Expectations; and John Ruskin's Unto This Last.
1861 Russell's Reform Bill
1861 Death of Prince Albert from typhoid
1861 Newcastle Commission on elementary education
1864 Albert Memorial (Giles Gilbert Scott) unveiled
1865 Jamica Revolt - Governor Eyre controversy begins
1865 General election - Palmerston wins; many candidates stand as "Palmerstonians"; little discussion of parliamentary reform
1865 Death of Palmerston; Lord John Russell becomes Prime Minister
1865 Antiseptic surgery established by Lister
1865 Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland published
1865 Death of Cobden; Mrs. Gaskell; Cardinal Wiseman; Charles Greville
1865 St. Pancras Station completed
1866 Russell/Gladstone Reform bill defeated by Adullamite/Tory opposition
1866 Russell resigns as PM; Lord Derby's third administration
1866 Financial crisis; collapse of banking house of Overend and Gurney; cholera epidemic
1866 Sheffield "outrages" - bombs against "scab" labour
1866 Hyde Park riots
1867 Second Reform Act
1867 Walter Bagehot's English Constitution published
1868 Disraeli succeeds Derby as Prime Minister
1868 Gladstone's resolutions on the Irish Church; Disraeli government defeated
1868 General election; Liberals win in each country of UK; Disraeli resigns before Parliament meets; Gladstone's first ministry
1869 Publication of John Stuart Mill's Subjection of Women
1869 Foundation of Girton College, Cambridge
1869 Publication of Matthew Arnold's Culture and Anarchy
1870 Forster's education act
1870 First Married Woman's Property Act
1870 First School Board elections (Mrs Garrett Anderson, Miss Emily Davies elected)
1870 Gladstone's first Irish Land Act
Later Victorian Britain, 1871-1901
1871 Alice Through the Looking Glass published
1871 Trade Union Act; Criminal Law Amendment Act
1871 Newnham College, Cambridge founded
1871 Abolition of purchase of commissions in the army
1872 Ballot Act
1872 Publication of Samuel Butler's Erewhon; George Eliot's Middlemarch
1873 Death of John Stuart Mill; publication of his Autobiography
1874 General election; Conservative victory; Disraeli succeeds Gladstone as P.M.
1874 Publication of Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd
1875 Artisans' Dwelling Act
1875 Disraeli's Trade Union Act
1876 Bulgarian atrocities
1877 Queen Victoria made Empress of India
1878 Congress of Berlin
1878 Afghan War
1879 Richmond Commission on agricultural distress
1879 Zulu War; battlles of Isandhlwana, Rorke's Drift
1880 General election; Beaconsfield [Disraeli] defeated, retires; Gladstone Prime Minister
1880 Irish "Land War"
1882 Invasion of Egypt
1883 Fabian Society founded
1884 3rd Reform Act
1885 Redistribution Act
1885 Gladstone government defeated, resigns; Lord Salisbury Prime Minister
1885 General Election; no overall majority; Liberals + Irish = Tories
1886 Salisbury resigns; Gladstone Prime Minister
1886 First Irish Home Rule Bill; defeated; Gladstone calls general election
1886 General Election; Gladstone defeated; Salisbury returns as Prime Minister
1887 Independent Labour party founded
1888 Parnell Commission
1889 London Dock Strike
1891 William Morris's News from Nowhere published
1891 Liberal "Newcastle Programme"
1892 General election; Salisbury's Government defeated; Gladstone again Prime Minister
1893 Defeat of Gladstone's Second Home Rule Bill in House of Lords
1893 Sherlock Holmes appears
1894 Gladstone resigns; Lord Rosebery becomes Prime Minister
1895 Liberal defeat on "cordite"; general election; Tory "landslide"; Salisbury Prime Minister
1897 Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee
1899 Havelock Ellis's Psychology of Sex published
1899 Outbreak of South African War
1900 Formation of the Labour Representation Committee
1900 Queen Victoria visits Ireland
1900 "Khaki" election; Tory victory
1901 Death of Queen Victoria
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