| |
Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1788 | - 1788: First steamboat demonstrated in Scotland
- 1788: Law passed requiring that chimney sweepers be a minimum of 8 years old (not
enforced)
- 1788: First slave carrying act, the Dolben Act of 1788, regulates the slave trade stipulates
more humane conditions on slave ships
- 1788: 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
- 1788: Gibbon completes "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"
- 26 Jan 1788: 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
|
| 2 | 1789 | - 28 Apr 1789: Mutiny on HMS Bounty Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors are set adrift
and the rebel crew ends up on Pitcairn Island
|
| 3 | 1790 | - 1790: Forth and Clyde Canal opened in Scotland
|
| 4 | 1791 | - 1791: John Bell, printer, abandons the "long s" (the "s" that looks like an "f")
- 1791: Establishment of the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain
- 4 Dec 1791: First publication of The Observer world's oldest Sunday newspaper
|
| 5 | 1792 | - 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
- 1792: Boyle's Street Directory published
- 1792: Coal-gas lighting invented by William Murdock, an Ayrshire Scot
- 1 Oct 1792: Introduction of Money Orders in Britain
- 1 Dec 1792: King's Proclamation drawing out the British militia
|
| 6 | 1793 | - 11 Feb 1793: Britain declares war on France (1793-1802)
- 15 Apr 1793: £5 notes first issued by the Bank of England
|
| 7 | 1794 | - 1794: Abolition of Parish Register duties
- 6 Oct 1794: 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
|
| 8 | 1795 | - 1795: The Famine Year
- 1795: Foundation of the Orange Order
- 1795: 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
- 1795: 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.
- 1795: Consumption of lime juice made compulsory in Royal Navy
|
| 9 | 1796 | - 1796: Pitt's "Reign of Terror": More treason trials leading radicals emigrate
- 1796: Legacy Tax on sums over £20 excluding those to wives, children, parents and
grandparents
- 14 May 1796: Dr Edward Jenner gave first vaccination for smallpox in England
|
| 10 | 1797 | - 1797: England in Crisis, Bank of England suspends cash payments
- 1797: Mutinies in the British Navy at Spithead and Nore
- 1797: Tax on newspapers (including cheap, topical journals) increased to repress radical
publications
- 1797: The first copper pennies were produced ('cartwheels') by application of steam power to
the coining press
- 22 Feb 1797: French invade Fishguard, Wales; last time UK invaded; all captured 2 days later
- 26 Feb 1797: First £1 (and £2) notes issued by Bank of England
|
| 11 | 1798 | - 1798: First planned human experiment with vaccination, to test theories of Edward Jenner
- Feb 1798: The Irish Rebellion; 100,000 peasants revolt; approximately 25,000 die Irish
Parliament abolished (Feb-Oct)
- 1 Aug 1798: Battle of the Nile (won by Nelson)
|
| 12 | 1799 | - 1799: Foundation of Royal Military College Sandhurst by the Duke of York
- 1799: Foundation of the Royal Institution of Great Britain
- 9 Jan 1799: Pitt brings in 10% income tax, as a wartime financial measure
- 12 Jul 1799: 'Combination Laws' in Britain against political associations and combinations
- 15 Jul 1799: "Rosetta Stone" discovered in Egypt, made possible the deciphering (in 1822) of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics
|
| 13 | 1800 | - 1800: Electric light first produced by Sir Humphrey Davy
- 1800: Use of high pressure steam pioneered by Richard Trevithick (1771-1833)
- 1800: Royal College of Surgeons founded
- 1800: Herschel discovers infra-red light
- 1800: Volta makes first electrical battery
- 2 Jul 1800: Parliamentary union of Great Britain and Ireland
|
| 14 | 1801 | - 1801: Grand Union Canal opens in England
- 1801: Elgin Marbles brought from Athens to London
- 1 Jan 1801: Union Jack becomes the official British flag
- 10 Mar 1801: First census puts the population of England and Wales at 9,168,000. Population of Britain nearly 11 million (75% rural)
- 24 Dec 1801: Richard Trevithick built the first self-propelled passenger carrying road loco
|
| 15 | 1802 | - 25 Mar 1802: Treaty of Amiens signed by Britain, France, Spain, and the Netherlands the "Peace of Amiens," as it was known, brought a temporary peace of 14 months during the Napoleonic Wars one of its most important cultural effects was that travel and correspondence across the English Channel
became possible again
|
| 16 | 1803 | - 1803: Poaching made a Capital offence in England if capture resisted
- 1803: Richard Trevithick built another steam carriage and ran it in London as the first
self-propelled vehicle in the capital and the first London bus
- 1803: Semaphore signalling perfected by Admiral Popham
- 30 Apr 1803: Louisiana Purchase: Napoleon sells French possessions in America to United States
- 12 May 1803: Peace of Amiens ends resumption of war with France The Napoleonic Wars (1803-18l5)
- 23 Jul 1803: First public railway opens (Surrey Iron Railway, 9 miles from Wandsworth to
Croydon, horse-drawn)
|
| 17 | 1804 | - 1804: Matthew Flinders recommends that the newly discovered country, New Holland, be renamed "Australia"
- 21 Feb 1804: Richard Trevithick runs his railway engine on the Penydarren Railway (9.5 miles
from Pen-y-Darren to Abercynon in South Wales) this hauled a train with 10 tons of
iron and 70 passengers. It was commemorated by the Royal Mint in 2004 in the form of
a £2.00 coin.
- 3 Mar 1804: John Wedgwood (eldest son of the potter Josiah Wedgwood) founds The Royal
Horticultural Society
- 2 Dec 1804: Napoleon declares himself Emperor of the French
- 12 Dec 1804: Spain declares war on Britain
|
| 18 | 1805 | - 1805: London docks opened
- 21 Oct 1805: Admiral Nelson's victory at Trafalgar
- 2 Dec 1805: Battle of Austerlitz; Napoleon defeats Austrians and Russians
|
| 19 | 1806 | - 1806: Dartmoor Prison opened (built by French prisoners)
- 9 Jan 1806: Nelson buried in St Paul's cathedral, London
|
| 20 | 1807 | - 25 Mar 1807: Parliament passes Act prohibiting slavery and the importation of slaves from 1808 but does not prohibit colonial slavery
|
| 21 | 1808 | - 1808: Gas lighting in London streets
- 13 Jul 1808: 'Hot Wednesday' temperature of 101°F in the shade recorded in London
- 20 Dec 1808: Beethoven premieres his Fifth Symphony, Sixth Symphony, Fourth Piano Concerto and Choral Fantasy together in Vienna
|
| 22 | 1809 | - 12 Feb 1809: Birth of Charles Darwin
- 18 Sep 1809: Royal Opera House opens in London
|
| 23 | 1810 | - 1810: John McAdam begins road construction in England, giving his name to the process of
road metalling
|
| 24 | 1811 | - 5 Feb 1811: Prince of Wales (future George IV) made Regent after George III deemed insane
|
| 25 | 1812 | - 11 May 1812: Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, assassinated shot as he entered the House of Commons by a bankrupt Liverpool broker, John Bellingham, who was subsequently hanged
- 18 Jun 1812: Start of American "War of 1812" (to 1814) against England and Canada
- Oct 1812: Napoleon retreats from Moscow with catastrophic losses
|
| 26 | 1813 | - 1813: Ireland: First recorded "12th of July" sectarian riots in Belfast
- 1813: Jane Austen wrote "Pride and Prejudice"
|
| 27 | 1814 | - 1 Jan 1814: Invasion of France by Allies
- 6 Apr 1814: Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to Elba
- 13 Aug 1814: Convention of London signed, a treaty between the UK and the Dutch
- 24 Aug 1814: The British burn the White House
- 29 Nov 1814: "The Times" first printed by a 'mechanical apparatus' (at 1,100 sheets per hour)
- 24 Dec 1814: Treaty of Ghent signed ending the 1812 war between Britain and the US
|
| 28 | 1815 | - 1815: Trial by Jury established in Scotland
- 1815: Davy develops the safety lamp for miners
- 18 Jun 1815: The Battle of Waterloo: Napoleon defeated and exiled to St. Helena
|
| 29 | 1816 | - 1816: Income tax abolished
- 1816: For the first time British silver coins were produced with an intrinsic value substantially
below their face value the first official 'token' coinage
- 1816: Climate: the 'year without a summer' followed a volcanic explosion of the mountain "Tambora" in Indonesia the previous year, the biggest volcanic explosion in 10,000 years
- 1816: Large scale emigration to North America
- 1816: Trans-Atlantic packet service begins
|
| 30 | 1817 | - 1817: March of the Manchester Blanketeers; Habeas Corpus suspended
- 1817: Constable painted "Flatford Mill"
|
| 31 | 1818 | - 1818: Manchester cotton spinners' strike
- 20 Oct 1818: 'Convention of 1818' signed between the United States and the United Kingdom
which, among other things, settled the US-Canada border on the 49th parallel for most of its
length
|
| 32 | 1819 | - 1819: Primitive bicycle, the Dandy Horse, becomes popular
- 1819: Britain returns to gold standard
- 1819: Singapore founded by Sir Stamford Raffles
- May 1819: SS "Savannah" first steamship to cross Atlantic, reaching Liverpool 20 June 1819 (26
days, mostly under sail)
- 16 Aug 1819: Peterloo Massacre at Manchester a large, orderly group of 60,000 meets at St.
Peter's Fields, Manchester demand Parliamentary Reform mounted troops charge on the
meeting, killing 11 people and and maiming many others
|
| 33 | 1820 | - 1820: Cato Street Conspiracy plot to assissinate British cabinet
- 1820: Abolition of the Spanish Inquisition
- 29 Jan 1820: Accession of George IV, previously Prince Regent
- 1 Aug 1820: Regent's Canal in London opens
- 17 Aug 1820: Trial of Queen Caroline to prove her infidelities so George IV can divorce her
George tries to secure a Bill of Pains and Penalties against her Caroline is virtually acquitted
because bill passed by such a small majority of Lords
|
1788 - 1820 (32 years)
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