18th Century History Timeline1700s1710s1720s1730s1740s1750s1760s
1770s1780s1790s1800s1810s1820s1830s
1770The Boston Massacre
11 June Captain James Cook Discovers the Great Barrier Reef off Australia by running his ship the Endeavor on it,
by accident.
James Cook discovers Botany Bay
Thomas Jefferson begins building Monticello, his house in Virginia.
Louis, the future king of France, marries Marie Antoinette.
Lord North becomes Prime Minister of England.
Gainsborough paints The Blue Boy.
British explorer James Bruce discovers the source of the Blue Nile.
16 May Marie Antoinette, age 14, married the future King Louis XVI of France, who was 15.
1771North Carolina Regulators Rebellion ends.
Gustav III succeeds his father as king of Sweden.
17721 January 1st traveler's checks issued (London)
James Cook crosses the Antarctic Circle and circumnavigates Antarctica.
The First Partition of Poland
American artist Benjamin West paints The Death of Wolfe.
177316 December - The Boston Tea Party
Pope Clement XIV suppresses Jesuits
Peasant uprisings in Russia (ends 1775)
She Stoops to Conquer written by Anglo-Irish author Oliver Goldsmith.
Calcutta becomes the capital of British India.
Don Cossack Yemelian Pugachev leads the Peasant's Revolt in Russia.
1774Louis XVI becomes King of France (to 1792)
Treaty of Kutchuk-Kainardji ends the Russo-Turkish War.
The Coercive Acts are passed by Parliament.
1 August - British clergyman and scientist Joseph Priestley identified a gas which he called "dephlogisticated air," later known as oxygen.
5 September - The First Continental Congress opens for business.
14 October - Declaration and Resolves by the First Continental Congress
Warren Hastings appointed Governor-General of India.
Rhode Island becomes the first Colony to abolish slavery.
Joseph Priestly discovers oxygen.
177523 March - Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death Speech by Patrick Henry
19 April - The American Revolution begins with the battles of Lexington and Concord.
10 May Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys captured the British-held fortress at Ticonderoga, N.Y.
14 June The United States Army is Founded by the Continental Congress.
Battle of Bunker and Breeds Hill
26 December - Battle of Trenton
War between the British and Marathas in India (ends 1782)
17761 January General George Washington hoists Continental Union Flag.
14 February - Common Sense written by Thomas Paine
7 June Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed to the Continental Congress a resolution calling for a Declaration of Independence.
11 June Continental Congress formed a committee to draft a Declaration of Independence from Britain.
12 June - The Virginia Declaration of Rights adapted by the Virginia Convention. Drafted by George Mason
2 July - Declaration of Independence approved by the Continental Congress and signed by John Hancock, the other Delegates sign two days later.
23 December - The American Crisis written by Thomas Paine.
1777Christianity introduced in Korea
Burgoyne's invasion from Canada begins. It ended in failure at the Battle of Saratoga.
14 June the Continental Congress in Philadelphia adopted the Stars and Stripes as the national flag.
15 November - Articles of Confederation written.
1778Treaty of Paris signed by Paris and the United States.
War of Bavarian Succession (ends 1779)
24 June David Rittenhouse observes a total solar eclipse in Philadelphia.
17795 Jan. United States Naval hero, Stephen Decatur is born
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