First steamboat demonstrated in Scotland
Law passed requiring that chimney sweepers be a minimum of 8 years old (not enforced)
First slave carrying act, the Dolben Act of 1788, regulates the slave trade - stipulates more humane conditions on slave ships
King George III's mental illness occasions the Regency Crisis - Edmund Burke and Charles James Fox attack ministry of William Pitt - trying to obtain full regal powers for the Prince of Wales
Gibbon completes Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) established at Thomas Lord's ground in London
Sunday School Society founded to educate poor children (by 1851, enrols more than 2 million)
John Walter publishes first edition of The Times (called The Daily Universal Register for 3 years)
First mail coaches in England (4pm Bristol / 8am London)
Pitt's India Act - the Crown (as opposed to officers of the East India Company) has power to guide Indian politics
Wesley breaks with the Church of England
First golf club founded at St Andrews
Invention of threshing machine by Andrew Meikle
Last public execution at Tyburn in London (John Austin, a highwayman)
Treaty of Versailles (Britain/US)
Duty payable on Parish Register entries (3d per entry - repealed 1794) - led to a fall in entries!
Gilbert's Act establishes outdoor poor relief - the way of life of the poor beginning to alter due to industrialisation - New factories in rapidly expanding towns required a workforce that would adjust to new work patterns
James Watt patents his steam engine
Jun 2- 8: The Gordon Riots - Parliament passes a Roman Catholic relief measure - for days, London is at the mercy of a mob and destruction is widespread
First Derby run at Epsom (some say 2nd June)
Male Servants Tax
The English Reform Movement - until now, only landowners and tenants (freeholders with 40 shillings per year or more) allowed to vote, and in open poll books
Fountain pen invented
About this time the word 'Quiz' entered the language, said to have been invented as a wager by Mr Daly, a Dublin theatre manager
Naval engagement between Britain and USA off Flamborough Head
Capt James Cook killed on Hawaii
Marc Isambard Brunel opens the first steamdriven sawmill at Chatham Dockyard in Kent
First iron bridge built, over the Severn by John Wilkinson
First Spinning Mills operational in Scotland
Samuel Miller of Southampton patents the circular saw.
First attack on a warship by a submarine - David Bushnell's ?Turtle' attacked HMS Eagle in New York harbour. The attack was perhaps spectacular (a charge did detonate beneath the ship) but was nevertheless unsuccessful. 'Turtle' was a one man Affair man-powered [Les Moore]
American Declaration of Independence
Somerset House in London becomes the repository of records of population
Watt and Boulton produce their first commercial steam engine
Battle of Lexington: first action in American War of Independence (1775- 1783)
Cook arrives on Easter Island
Judge Mansfield rules that there is no legal basis for slavery in England
First Travellers' Cheques issued by the London Credit Exchange Company
Morning Post' first published (until 1937)
Right to report Parliamentary debates established in England
Capt James Cook lands in Australia (Botany Bay) ? Aug 21: formally claims Australia for Britain
Clyde Trust created to convert the River Clyde, then an insignificant river, into a major thoroughfare for maritime communications
David Garrick organises first Shakespeare festival at Stratford-upon-Avon
Arkwright invents water frame (textile production)
Capt James Cook maps the coast of New Zealand
The first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica' published in Edinburgh by William Smellie
Philip Astley starts his circus in London
Newcomen's steam pumping engine perfected by James Watt
Christie's auction house founded in London by James Christie
Start of 'composite' national records on rainfall in the UK
Stamp Act passed - imposed a tax on publications and legal documents in the American colonies (repealed the following year)
The potato becomes the most popular food in Europe
Lloyd's Register of shipping first prepared
Practice of numbering houses introduced to London
James Hargeaves invents the Spinning Jenny (but destroyed 1768)
Mozart produces his first symphony at age eight
Treaty of Paris - gives back to France everything Pitt fought to obtain - (Newfoundland [fishing], Guadaloupe and Martininque [sugar], Dakar [gum]) - but English displaces French as the international language
Cigars introduced into Britain from Cuba
British capture Pondicherry, India from the French
George II dies - George III Hanover, his grandson, becomes king. The date conventionally marks the start of the so-called first Industrial Revolution'
First use of hangman's drop
Carron Iron Works in operation in Scotland
Third Eddystone Lighthouse (John Smeaton's) completed
British Museum opens to the public in London
Wesley builds 356 Methodist chapels
India stops being merely a commercial venture - England begins dominating it politically - The East India Company retains its monopoly although it ceased to trade
The Nawab of Bengal tries to expel the British, but is defeated at the battle of Plassey (Palashi, June 23) - the East India Company forces are led by Robert Clive
Admiral Byng shot at Portsmouth for failing to relieve Minorca
The foundation laid for the Empire of India
Black Hole of Calcutta - 146 Britons imprisoned, most die according to British sources
The Seven Years War with France (Pitt's trade war) begins
Second Eddystone Lighthouse destroyed by fire
Publication of Dictionary of the English Language' by Dr Samuel Johnson
Period of canal construction began in Britain (till 1827)
Hardwicke Act (1753): Banns to be called, and Printed Marriage Register forms to be used - Quakers & Jews exempt
In the General Election, the Cow Inn at Haslemere, Surrey caused a national scandal by subdividing the freehold to create eight votes instead of one
First British troops not belonging to the East India Company despatched to India
Publication of ?Species Plantarum' by Linnaeus and the formal start date of plant taxonomy
Private collection of Sir Hans Sloane forms the basis of the British Museum
Julian Calendar dropped and Gregorian Calendar adopted in England and Scotland, making this Sep 14
Benjamin Franklin invents the lightning conductor
Beginning of the year 1752 [Scotland had adopted January as the start of the year in 1600, and some other countries in Europe had adopted the Gregorian calendar as early as 1582]