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Apr 1, 1259
Voltaire publishes Candide
The novella has been widely translated, with English versions titled Candide: or, All for the Best (1759); Candide: or, The Optimist (1762); and Candide: or, Optimism. -
London theaters reopen; actresses appear onstage for the first time
Restoration theatre was truly a unique era of plays and play writing. When Charles Stuart was restored to the throne in 1660, theatres were reopened after an eighteen-year ban. Restoration theatre became a way to celebrate the end of Puritan rule, with its strict moral codes. -
Charles II is proclaimed king of England (crowned in 1661)
Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. -
Plague
Plague claims more than 68,000 people in London -
Great Fire
The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of the English city of London, from Sunday, 2 September to Wednesday, 5 September 1666. -
Glorius (Bloodless): Revolution James II
The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, was the overthrow of King James II of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau. William's successful invasion of England with a Dutch fleet and army led to his ascending of the English throne. -
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. -
Swift publishes A Modest Proposal
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. This satirical hyperbole mocks heartless attitudes towards the poor, as well as British policy toward Ireland in general. -
George III is crowned King of England
He was concurrently Duke and prince-elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire until his promotion to King of Hanover on 12 October 1814. He was the third British monarch of the House of Hanover, but unlike his two predecessors he was born in Britain, spoke English as his first language,and never visited Hanover. -
British Parliament passes Stamp Act for taxing American Colonies
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the UK Parliament, the British Parliament or Parliament, is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories. -
African American poet Phillis Wheatley's
Phillis Wheatley was only seven or eight years old when she was captured and taken from her home in West Africa. A slave ship brought her to Boston in 1761. Knowing nothing of the talents she would soon show the world, John Wheatley, a prosperous tailor, and his wife, Susanna, purchased the young girl directly from the ship and named her Phillis Wheatley.
Wheatley grew up to be a poet. Her collection, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, was published on September 1, 1773. -
Boston Tea Party occurs
The Boston Tea Party (initially referred to by John Adams as "the Destruction of the Tea in Boston") was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, on December 16, 1773. -
Mary Wollstonecraft publishes A Vindication of the Rights 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. In it, Wollstonecraft responds to those educational and political theorists of the 18th century who did not believe women should have an education. -
Naploleon heads revolutionary government in France
The French Revolution (French: Révolution française was a 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.
