1766 - 1790 (23 years)
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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1766 | - 1766: Chatham ministry. Repeal of the American Stamp Act
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| 2 | 1768 | - 1768: Grafton ministry. The Middlesex Election Crisis occurs
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| 3 | 1769 | - 1769: James Watt patented a new type of steam engine with a separate condensing chamber and an air pump to bring steam into the chamber and equipped it with a simple 'governor' for safety: if the engine started to go too fast, the power would be automatically cut back. He coined the term 'horsepower' and later loaned his name to the unit of power, or work, done per unit of time
- 1769: Captain James Cook's first voyage to explore the Pacific begins
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| 4 | 1770 | - 1770: Lord North begins service as Prime Minister. The Falkland Island Crisis occurs. Edmund Burke publishes his 'Thoughts on the Present Discontents'
- 1770: James Cook documents the location of Australia
- 1770: Gum pencil eraser invented
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| 5 | 1771 | - 1771: The Encyclopedia Britannica is first published
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| 6 | 1773 | - 1773: American colonists protest at the East India Company's monopoly over tea exports to the colonies, at the so-called 'Boston Tea Party'. The World's first cast-iron bridge is constructed over the River Severn at Coalbrookdale
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| 7 | 1774 | - 1774: Franz Anton Mesmer began the psychotherapeutic practive of hypnotism, which he called 'animal magnetism' and conceived it to be an actual fluid. Apparently he had some success with psychosomatic illnesses. Part of his technique seems to have been used earlier by exorcists.
- 1774: Parliament passes the Coercive Acts in retaliation for the 'Boston Tea Party'
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| 8 | 1775 | - 1775: American War of Independence begins when colonists fight British troops at Lexington.
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| 9 | 1776 | - 1776: Adam Smith, in 'The Wealth of Nations', advanced the idea that businesses survive through successful trading in pursuit of their self-interest, and that the resulting equilibrium was not by design.
- 1776: On 4 JUL, the American Congress passes their Declaration of Independence from Britain. Edward Gibbons' publishes his 'Decline and Fall'
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| 10 | 1778 | - 1778: Cook explores Hawaiian Islands. He fails to locate Northwest Passage from Alaskan side and is killed in Hawaii the following year
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| 11 | 1779 | - 1779: The rise of Wyvill's Association Movement
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| 12 | 1780 | - 1780: The Gordon Riots develop from a procession to petition parliament against the Catholic Relief Act
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| 13 | 1781 | - 1781: Frederick William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus by its movement, although at the time he supposed it to be a comet
- 1781: The Americans obtain a great victory of British troops at the surrender of Yorktown
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| 14 | 1782 | - 1782: End of Lord North's time as Prime Minister. He is succeeded by Rockingham in his second ministry. Ireland obtains short-lived parliament
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| 15 | 1783 | - 1783: William Bentinck, Duke of Portland Prime minister (Whig)
- 1783: Joseph Michel Montgolfier and Jacques ?tienne Montgolfier invented the first practical hot air balloon.
- 1783: Shelburne's ministry, followed by that of William Pitt the Younger. Britain recognises American independence at the Peace of Versailles. Fox-North coalition established
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| 16 | 1784 | - 1784: Parliament passes the East India Act
- 1784: First edition of 'The Times' newspaper
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| 17 | 1785 | - 1785: Pitt's motion for Parliamentary Reform is defeated
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| 18 | 1786 | - 1786: The Eden commercial treaty with France is drawn up
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| 19 | 1788 | - 1788: George III suffers his first attack of 'madness' (caused by porphyria)
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| 20 | 1789 | - 1789: Outbreak of the French Revolution
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| 21 | 1790 | - 1790: Edmund Burke publishes his 'Reflections on the Revolution in France'
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