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Lodon theateres reopen; actresses appear onstage for the first time
One of Charles II's first actions upon his restoration to the throne in May 1660 was to reopen the playhouses, which had been outlawed under the repressive regime of Oliver Cromwell. -
Charles II is proclaimed king of England (crowned in 1661)
Charles II was king of England, Scotland and Ireland, whose restoration to the throne in 1660 marked the end of republican rule in England. Charles was born on 29 May 1630, the eldest surviving son of Charles I. He was 12 when the Civil War began and two years later was appointed nominal commander-in-chief in western England -
Plague claims more than 68,000 people in London
also known as The Black Death, Many thought it was a punishment from a wrathful god, who was displeased with sin of man -
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
The Glorious Revolution,[b] also called the Revolution of 1688, was the overthrow of King James II of England (James VII of Scotland and James II of Ireland) by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau. W -
Alexander Pope publishes part of The Rape of the Lock
One of Charles II's first actions upon his restoration to the throne in May 1660 was to reopen the playhouses, which had been outlawed under the repressive regime of Oliver Cromwell. -
Swift publishes A Modest Proposal, protesting English treatment of Irish poor.
A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People From Being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick,[1] commonly referred to as A Modest Proposal, is a Juvenalian satirical essay written and published anonymously by Jonathan Swift in 1729. Swift suggests that the impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food for rich gentlemen and ladies. -
Voltaire publishes Candide
Candide, ou l'Optimisme is a French satire first published in 1759 by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment. The novella has been widely translated, with English versions titled Candide: or, All for the Best; Candide: or, The Optimist and Candide: or, Optimism . -
George III is crowned king of England; becomes known as the king who lost the American Colonies
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 -
British Parliament passes Stamp Act for taxing American Colonies.
The Stamp Act of 1765 was the first internal tax levied directly on American colonists by the British government. The act, which imposed a tax on all paper documents in the colonies, came at a time when the British Empire was deep in debt from the Seven Years’ War (1756-63) and looking to its North American colonies as a revenue source. -
Boston Tea Party Occurs
Boston Harbor, a group of Massachusetts colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians board three British tea ships and dump 342 chests of tea into the harbor. The midnight raid, popularly known as the “Boston Tea Party,” was in protest of the British Parliament’s Tea Act of 1773, a bill designed to save the faltering East India Company by greatly lowering its tea tax and granting it a virtual monopoly on the American tea trade. -
African American poet Phillis Wheatley's Poems on Various Subject, Religious and Moral is published in London
Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral by Phillis Wheatley, Negro Servant to Mr. John Wheatley, of Boston, in New England (published 1773) is a collection of 39 poems written by Phillis Wheatley the first professional African-American woman poet in America and the first African-American woman whose writings were published -
Mary Wollstonecraft publishes A Vindication of the Rights Of Woman
Published in 1792, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was the first great feminist treatise. Wollstonecraft preached that intellect will always govern and sought “to persuade women to endeavour to acquire strength, both of mind and body -
Napolean heads revolutionary government in France
Boston Harbor, a group of Massachusetts colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians board three British tea ships and dump 342 chests of tea into the harbor. The midnight raid, popularly known as the “Boston Tea Party,” was in protest of the British Parliament’s Tea Act of 1773, a bill designed to save the faltering East India Company by greatly lowering its tea tax and granting it a virtual monopoly on the American tea trade.
