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London theaters reopen; actresses appear onstage for first time
Parliament restores British monarchy, and the king decides art is needed again in a new manner. -
Charles II is proclaimed king of England (crowned in 1661)
Well known king during the 18th century. -
Plague claims more than 68,000 people in London.
Over more than 68,000 poeple in London are thought to have died by the plague. -
Great Fire destroys much of London
The Great Fire of London began on the night of September 2, 1666, as a small fire on Pudding Lane, in the bakeshop of Thomas Farynor, baker to King Charles II. At one o'clock in the morning, a servant woke to find the house aflame, and the baker and his family escaped, but a fear-struck maid perished in the blaze. -
Glorious (bloodless) revolution james II is succeeded by protestant rulers of william and mary
These events were called the Glorious Revolution because they were relatively bloodless in contrast to the civil wars in the mid-1600s. -
Alexander Pope publishes part of The Rape of the Lock
The Rape of the Lock is a mock-heroic narrative poem written by Alexander Pope, first published anonymously in Lintot's Miscellaneous Poems and Translations in May 1712 in two cantos. -
Swift publishes A Modest Proposal, protesting English treatment of the irish poor.
A Modest Proposal was written by Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), who is well-known as the author of the satirical political fantasy, Gulliver's Travels. Swift published the Modest Proposal in 1729 as a pamphlet (a kind of essay in an unbound booklet). At this time, and for many years afterward, Ireland (not an independent country) was far poorer than England. Most people born there were Roman Catholics and employed as agricultural labourers or tenant farmers. The landlords (landowners) were paid fro -
Voltaire publishes Candide
Candide, ou l'Optimisme is a French satire first published in 1759 by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment. -
George III is crowned king of England; becomes known as the king who lost the American Colonies.
England’s longest-ruling monarch before Queen Victoria, King George III (1738-1820) ascended the British throne in 1760. During his 59-year reign, he pushed through a British victory in the Seven Years’ War, led England’s successful resistance to Revolutionary and Napoleonic France, and presided over the loss of the American Revolution. After suffering intermittent bouts of acute mental illness, he spent his last decade in a fog of insanity and blindness. -
British parliament passes Stamp Act for taxing American Colonies
The Stamp Act was passed by the British Parliament on March 22, 1765. The new tax was imposed on all American colonists and required them to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used. Ship's papers, legal documents, licenses, newspapers, other publications, and even playing cards were taxed. The money collected by the Stamp Act was to be used to help pay the costs of defending and protecting the American frontier near the Appalachian Mountains. -
African American poet Phillis Wheatley's Poems on Various Subject, Religious and Moral is published in London.
The first published African-American female poet. Born in West Africa, she was sold into slavery at the age of seven and transported to North America. She was purchased by the Wheatley family of Boston, who taught her to read and write, and encouraged her poetry when they saw her talent. The publication of her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773) brought her fame both in England and the American colonies; figures such as George Washington praised her work. -
Boston Tea Party occurs
The Boston Tea Party took place on December 16, 1773. The Boston Tea Party happened in 3 British ships in the Boston Harbor. The Boston Tea Party took place because the colonists did not want to have to pay taxes on the British tea. -
Mary Wollstonecraft publishes A Vindication of the Rightd of Woman.
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, written by the 18th-century British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, is one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy. -
Napoleon heads revolutionary government in France.
period of far-reaching social and political upheaval in France that lasted from 1789 until 1799, and was partially carried forward by Napoleon during the later expansion of the French Empire. The Revolution overthrew the monarchy, established a republic, experienced violent periods of political turmoil, and finally culminated in a dictatorship under Napoleon that rapidly brought many of its principles to Western Europe and beyond.
