The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century: 1660-1800

  • London Theaters reopen

    London Theaters reopen
    For nearly 20 years, the London theatres were closed to the public, but in 1660, when King Charles II at last returned from exile in Europe, the theatre started up again. The new King enjoyed theatre and he issued a licence re-opening the theatres the moment he was back in England. One such licence went to William Davenport, who opened a theatre at Covent Garden, and another went to Thomas Killigrew, who opened a theatre not far away in Drury Lane.
  • Charles II is proclaimed kind of England (Crowned in 1661)

    Charles II is proclaimed kind of England (Crowned in 1661)
    Charles II's father, Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War. Although the Parliament of Scotland proclaimed Charles II King on 5 February 1649, England entered the period known as the English Interregnum or the English Commonwealth, and the country was a de facto republic, led by Oliver Cromwell.
  • Plague claims more than 68,000 people in London

    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. It happened within the centuries-long time period of the Second Pandemic, an extended period of intermittent bubonic plague epidemics which began in Europe in 1347, the first year of the Black Death, an outbreak which included other forms such as pneumonic plague, and lasted until 1750.
  • Great Fire destroys much of London

    Great Fire destroys much of London
    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. The fire gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall. It threatened, but did not reach, the aristocratic district of Westminster, Charles II's Palace of Whitehall, and most of the suburban slums
  • Glorious: Revolution James II is succedded by Protestant rulers of William and Mary

    Glorious: Revolution James II is succedded 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 (William of Orange).
  • Alexander Pope publishes part of The Rape of the Lock

    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
  • Swift publishes A Modest Proposal

    Swift publishes 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.
  • Voltaire publishes Candide

    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 (1759); Candide: or, The Optimist (1762)
  • George III is crowned king of England

    George III is crowned king of England
    George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 1738[a] – 29 January 1820) 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 Parliament passes Stamp Act

    British Parliament passes Stamp Act
    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.
  • Phillis Wheatleys Poeams on Various Subject, Religious and Moral is published

    Phillis Wheatleys Poeams on Various Subject, Religious and Moral is published
    oems 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 (1753 – December 5, 1784?) the first professional African-American woman poet in America and the first African-American woman whose writings were published
  • Boston Tea Party

    Boston Tea Party
    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 Windication of the Rights of Woman

    Mary Wollstonecraft publishes A Windication 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, and to convince them that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonimous [sic] with epithets of weakness.”
  • Napoleon heads revolutionary government in France

    Napoleon heads revolutionary government in France
    The French Revolution (French: Révolution française [ʁevɔlysjɔ̃ fʁɑ̃sɛːz]) 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