First Jacobite rising in Scotland

Earliest Artillery Muster Rolls

English and Scottish Parliaments united by an Act of the English Parliament - The Kingdom of Great Britain established - largest free-trade area in Europe at the time

Union with Scotland - Scots agree to send 16 peers and 45 MPs to English Parliament in return for full trading privileges - Scottish Parliament meets for the last time in March

First evening newspaper The Evening Post' issued in London

First workable steam pumping engine devised by Thomas Newcomen (some say c1710 or 1711)

Isaac Newton knighted (for his work at the Royal Mint)

Battle of Blenheim

Penal Code enacted - Catholics barred from voting, education and the military

Climate: Most violent storms of the millennium cause vast damage across southern England - about a third of Britain's merchant fleet lost, and Eddystone lighthouse destroyed on 27 November (Nov 24 - Dec 2)

British take Gibraltar

First English daily newspaper The Daily Courant (till 1735)

Anne Stuart becomes Queen

After being convicted of piracy and murdering William Moore, Captain William Kidd hanged in London

Act of Settlement bars Catholics from the British throne

Population in England and Scotland approx 7.5 million

Eddystone Lighthouse (Henry Winstanley's) first lit; completed 10 days earlier

Most of the Palace of Whitehall in London destroyed by fire

Invention of steam engine by Capt Thomas Savery

Darien Expedition: a disastrous attempt to establish a Scots settlement in Panama

Duties (taxes) on entries in parish registers - repealed after five years

Official opening of St Paul's Cathedral

Freedom of Press in England granted

Bank of Scotland founded

Act of Parliament imposes a fine on all who fail to inform the parish minister of the birth of a child (repealed 1706)

Start of Dissenters' lists in parish registers - children born but not christened in the parish church - some were named 'Papist' and others 'Protestants'

Bank of England founded by William Paterson (a Scot)

National Debt came into effect in England

Stamp Duties introduced into Britain from Holland

Mary II death leaves William III as sole ruler

Triennial Act, new Parliamentary elections every three years

Scotland: Poll Tax imposed on all over sixteen, except the destitute and insane (-1699)

Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Pierre P?rignon 's invention of Champagne

The massacre of Glencoe - Clan Campbell sides with King William and murders members of Clan McDonald

Land Tax introduced - originally designed as an annual tax on personal estate, public offices and land. For practical purposes, however, assessors tended to avoid assessing items of wealth other than landed property so that it became known as the Land Tax.

French intention to invade England came to nothing

England passes Act of Grace, forgiving Roman Catholic followers of James II

Bill of Rights passed by Parliament, ending King's divine right to raise taxes or wage war

Battle of Killiecrankie in Scotland - Jacobites defeated Government troops but at high cost

Toleration Act passed for Protestant non-conformists

Deposed James VII & II flees to Ireland - defeated at the Battle of the Boyne (1 Jul 1690)

William III and Mary II, daughter of James II, jointly take the throne (only William, however, has regal power)

Devonport naval dockyard established

Siege of Londonderry (began Dec 1688; ended 28 Jul 1689)

William of Orange lands at Torbay

The Glorious Revolution: James II abdicates

Edward Lloyd's Coffee House opens - later became Lloyd's of London

British Army raised to 40,000

Bill of Rights limits the powers of the monarchy over parliament

Hearth Tax abolished

Mutiny Act

Newton published his Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica' - written in Latin

James II issues the Declaration of Indulgence, suspending laws against Catholics and non-conformists

Release of all prisoners held for their religious beliefs

James the Second (1685-1689, died 1701) - Monmouth rebellion and battle of Sedgemoor - British Army raised to 20,000 men

Earl of Argyll's Invasion of Scotland

Judge Jeffreys and the Bloody Assizes - 320 executed, 800 transported

Ashmolean Museum opened at Oxford - first museum in Britain

Wild boar become extinct in Britain

Pennsylvania founded by William Penn

Library of Advocates founded in Edinburgh - later National Library of Scotland

Halley observes the comet which bears his name

Second Test Act (against non-conformists) passed by Westminster Parliament

Oil lighting first used in London streets

William Dockwra(y) begins his London Penny Post

Dodo becomes extinct in Mauritius through over-hunting

Habeas Corpus Act becomes law in England - (later repealed from time to time)

Tories first so named

Extension of Test Act to peers

Lee's Collection of Names of Merchants in London' published

Compton Census, named after its initiator Henry Compton, Bishop of London, was intended to discover the number of Anglican conformists, Roman Catholic recusants and Protestant dissenters in England and Wales from enquiries made in individual parishes

Building of Royal Greenwich Observatory started

John Flamsteed appointed first Astronomer Royal of England

Beginning of Whig party under Shaftsbury

Rebuilding of St Paul's started by Wren (completed 1710)

Treaty of Westminster - Netherlands cedes New Netherlands (on the eastern coast of North America) to Britain

First Test Act deprives British Catholics and Non-conformists of Public Office

High Court of Justiciary established in Scotland

War with Holland (to 1674) - British Army increased to 10,000 men