-
London theaters reopen; actresses appear onstage for the first time
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. -
Charles II is proclaimed king of England (crowned in 1661)
Charles II was born in St James's Palace, London. During the Civil War he lived with his father in Oxford 1642–45, and after the victory of Cromwell's Parliamentary forces he was in exile in France. Accepting the Scottish Covenanters' offer to make him King, he landed in Scotland in 1650, and was crowned at Scone on 1 January 1651. -
Plague claims more than 68,000 people in London
In Europe in the 14th century ,for example ,there were around 25 million deaths out of the a population of roughly 10 million from bubonic plague alone. In the 1665 plague epidemic in London more than 68000 people are thought to have died the emotions triggered by the particular episode automatically captured in Daniel defoe's Journal. -
Glorious (Bloodless) Revolution: James II is succeeded by Protestant rulers William and Mary.
James is best known for his struggles with the English Parliament and his attempts to create religious liberty for English Roman Catholics and Protestant nonconformists, against the wishes of the Anglican establishment.James fled England (and thus was held to have abdicated).[4] He was replaced by his eldest, Protestant daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange. James made one serious attempt to recover his crowns from William and Mary when he landed in Ireland in 1689. -
Alexander Pope publishes part of the Rape of the Lock
On March 4, 1714, Bernard Lintot published Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock in five cantos. In addition to a title page in red and black, Lintot had accommodated the expense of a frontispiece and a plate for each of the five cantos, along with headpieces, initial letters, and a tailpiece. This was highly unusual for books of verse. -
Swift publishes A modest Proposal, protesting English treatment of the Irish poor.
A Modest Proposal” begins with an account of the impoverished state of many in Ireland. The writer expresses sympathy and the need for a solution. This proposal hopefully will decrease the number of abortions performed by poor mothers. -
Voltaire publishes Candide
Voltaire knew that Candide was liable to be censored. And he knew too that it was likely to be pirated. But he turned these apparent constraints into advantages. The ‘first’ edition of Candide was printed early in 1759 by Voltaire’s regular printer in this period, Cramer, in Geneva. But to speak of a first printing is misleading. Before handing over a final manuscript to Cramer, Voltaire went behind Cramer’s back and sent a (slightly different) version of the manuscript. -
George III is crowned king of England; becomes known as the king who lost the American Colonies.
England’s longest-ruling monarch before Queen Victoria, King George III (1738-1820) ascended the British throne in 1760. During his 59-year reign, he pushed through a British victory in the Seven Years’ War, led England’s successful resistance to Revolutionary and Napoleonic France, and presided over the loss of the American Revolution. After suffering intermittent bouts of acute mental illness, he spent his last decade in a fog of insanity and blindness. -
British Parliament passes Stanp Act for taxing American Colonies
Massachusetts politician Samuel Adams organized the secret Sons of Liberty organization to plan protests against the measure, and the Virginia legislature and other colonial assemblies passed resolutions opposing the act. In October, nine colonies sent representatives to New York to attend a Stamp Act Congress, where resolutions of “rights and grievances” were framed and sent to Parliament and King George III. Despite this opposition, the Stamp Act was enacted on November 1, 1765. -
Boston Tea Party
American colonial defiance served as a protest against taxation. Seeking to boost the troubled East India Company, British Parliament adjusted import duties with the passage of the Tea Act in 1773. While consignees in Charleston, New York, and Philadelphia rejected tea shipments, merchants in Boston refused to concede to Patriot pressure. On the night of December 16, 1773, Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty boarded three ships in the Boston harbor and threw 342 chests of tea overboard. -
African American poet Phillis Wheatly's Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral is published in London
Born in Senegal, Africa around 1753, Phillis Wheatley was brought to America in 1761 and sold into slavery to John Wheatley. The Countess of Huntingdon, a friend of the late Reverend, published thirty-nine of Wheatley’s poems in England under the title Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. Phillis Wheatley, at age twenty, was the first African American and, notably, only the second woman in America, to publish a book. -
Mary Wollstonecraft publishes A Vindication of the Rights of women
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. She argues that women ought to have an education commensurate with their position in society, claiming that women are essential to the nation because they educate its children and because they could be "companions" to their husbands. -
Napoleon Heads revolutionary government in France
On November 9, 1799, as frustration with their leadership reached a fever pitch, Bonaparte staged a coup d’état, abolishing the Directory and appointing himself France’s “first consul.” The event marked the end of the French Revolution and the beginning of the Napoleonic era, in which France would come to dominate much of continental Europe.
