Key Events

1760	George III becomes king on the death of his grandfather, George II.
1762	The Earl of Bute is appointed Prime Minister. Bute proves so unpopular that he needs to have a bodyguard.
1763	Peace of Paris ends the Seven Years’ War.
1765	Stamp Act raises taxes in American colonies.
1766	William Pitt the Elder becomes prime minister
1768	Richard Arkwright invents the spinning frame
1769	Captain James Cook’s first voyage to explore the Pacific.
1770	Lord North becomes Prime Minister.
1770	James Cook lands in Botany Bay, South East Australia.
1771	Encyclopaedia Britannica is first published.
1772	John Harrisons H4 clock allows navigators to accurately measure longitude enabling long distance sea travel
1772	Warren Hastings is appointed Governor General of India.
1773	The world’s first cast-iron bridge is constructed over the River Severn at Coalbrookdale.
1773	Boston Tea Party. American colonists protest against British taxes.
1775	American War of Independence begins when colonists fight British troops at Lexington.
1775	James Watt develops the steam engine.
1776	On 4 July, the American Congress passes the Declaration of Independence.
1780	Anti Catholic Gordon riots in London
1781	Americans supported by the French fleet defeat British at Battle of Yorktown.
1782	Ireland obtains a short-lived parliament.
1783	On 3 Sept, The Treaty of Paris ends the American War of Independence. Britain recognizes American independence.
1783	-1801 William Pitt the Younger serves as Prime Minister.
1783	Robert (Robbie) Burns publishes his first book of poetry
1788	George suffers his first attack of porphyria.
1788	Colony of New South Wales established in Australia
1789	Outbreak of the French Revolution. Storming of the Bastille.
1791	Publication of James Boswell’s Life of Johnson and Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man.
1793	King Louis XVI of France executed by guillotine
1793	– 1802 War between Britain and France.
1798	Nelson destroys French fleet at the Battle of the Nile
1798	Wordsworth publishes Lyrical Ballads
1798	Income Tax introduced
1800	Act of Union with Ireland unites Parliaments of England and Ireland.
1803	Beginning of Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon assembles a fleet for the invasion of England.
1805	Nelson defeats French and Spanish fleets off Trafalgar, but is killed during the battle. Napoleon defeats the Russians at Austerlitz.
1807	Slave Trade Act. William Wilberforce is successful in his campaign to abolish slave trade in the British Empire.
1808	-1814 Peninsular War to drive the French out of Spain.
1809	British defeat the French at the Battle of Corunna
1810	Final illness of George III leads to his son becoming Regent in 1811.
1812	Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated in the House of Commons by a disgruntled bankrupt
1812	War of 1812 between the British and Americans. Several naval engagements. American forces stopped from invading Canada.
1813	Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is published.
1813	Monopoly of the East India company is abolished
1814	Napoleon defeated at Laon and Toulouse. He abdicates but returns from Elba.
1815	The defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo marks the end the Napoleonic Wars.
1815	Corn Laws passed by Parliament to protect British agriculture from cheap imports
1818	The King’s wife, Queen Charlotte, dies.
1818	Publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
1819	Peterloo Massacre in Manchester, of political reform campaigners.
1820	Death of King George Ill, aged 81 years