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London theaters reopen; actresses appear onstage for the first time
With the reopening of the theatres after the Restoration, women were for the first time allowed to act on the stage. Previously, female roles had been performed by young boys. The advent of women actors opened up a world of titillation and scandal, appreciated by audiences from all levels of society; from merchants to nobles and even King Charles II himself. It also brought about a variety of changes to the theatre. -
Charles II is proclaimed king of england (crowned in 1661)
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Plague claims more than 68,000 people in London
The Great Plague, lasting from 1665 to 1666, was the last major epidemic of the bubonic plague to occur in England. -
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. -
Revolutionary James II is succeeded by Protestant rulers of William and Mary
William III of Orange-Nassau (William of Orange). William's successful invasion of England with a Dutch fleet and army led to his ascending of the English throne as William III of England jointly with his wife Mary II of England. -
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 (334 lines), but then revised, expanded and reissued in an edition "Written by Mr. Pope" on 4 March 1714, A five-canto version (794 lines) accompanied by six engravings. Pope boasted that the poem sold more than three thousand copies in its first four days. The final form of the poem was available in 1717 with -
Swift publishes A Modest Proposal, protesting English treatment of the 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, 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. -
Volatire Publishes Candide
Candide is characterised by its sarcastic tone as well as by its erratic, fantastical and fast-moving plot. -
George III is crowned king of England; becomes known as the king who lost the American Colonies
George III was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death. -
British Parliment passes Stamp Act for taxing American Colonies
The Stamp Act of 1765 was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain that imposed a direct tax on the colonies of British America and required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London, carrying an embossed revenue stamp. -
African American poet Phillis Wheatley's Poems on Various Subject, Religious and Moral is pblished in London
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. During Wheatley's visit to England with her master's son, the African-American poet Jupiter Hammon praised her work in his own poem. -
Boston Tea Party occurs
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 Rights of Woman
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: In it, Wollstonecraft responds to those educational and political theorists of the 18th century who did not believe women should have an education. -
Napoleon heads revolutionary government in France
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.
