-
1751 - 1752 Publication of the Encyclopédie begins in France, the “bible” of the Enlightenment.
The aim of the Encyclopédie was to gather all available knowledge, to examine it critically and to use it for social advancement. Research, production and publication took over 40 years. -
1765 James Watt invents the steam engine.
The Watt engine, like the Newcomen engine, operated on the principle of a pressure difference created by a vacuum on one side of the piston to push the steam piston down. However, Watt's steam cylinder remained hot at all times. -
1770 Captain James Cook sets foot in where Sydney is now.
Almost 250 years ago, Captain James Cook sailed on the voyage where he discovered Australia. On the 26th of August 1768, The Endeavour set sail from England's Plymouth Harbour, under the command of Captain James Cook, an accomplished astronomer, navigator and surveyor. He landed on the 22nd of August 1770. -
1776 Declaration of Independence.
The United States Declaration of Independence is the statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia on July 2nd, 1776. The Declaration said that the thirteen American colonies, Then at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain, would now regard themselves as thirteen independent states no longer under British rule. With the Declaration these states formed a new nation the United States of America. -
1804 Napoleon Makes Himself Emperor Of France
On the 2nd of December 1804 Napoleon crowned himself Emperor Napoleon 1 at Notre Dame de Paris. According to legend, during the coronation he took the crown from the hands of Pope Pius VII and crowned himself, displaying his rejection of the authority of the Pontiff. As the nineteenth century progressed, Napoleon turned the armies of the French Empire against every major European power and came to be known as ‘the scourge of Europe’. -
1830 Polish Rebellion Against Russia Defeated
November Insurrection, (1830–31), Polish rebellion that unsuccessfully tried to overthrow Russian rule in the Congress Kingdom of Poland as well as in the Polish provinces of western Russia and parts of Lithuania, Belorussia, (now Belarus), and Ukraine. -
1865 End Of American Civil War
The war began when the Confederates bombarded Union soldiers at Fort Sumter, South Carolina on April 12th, 1861. The war ended in Spring, 1865. Robert E. Lee surrendered the last major Confederate army to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865. The last battle was fought at Palmito Ranch, Texas, on May 13, 1865. Approximately 620,000 soldiers died from combat, accident, starvation, and disease during the Civil War. -
1890 Death Of Vincent Van Gogh
On the 29th of July, Vincent Van Gogh who was a world renowned artist was killed due to a gunshot wound in his room at the Auberge Ravoux in the village of Auvers-sur-Oise in northern France. -
1901 Queen Victoria Dies
Queen Victoria died on January 22, 1901, ends an era in which most of her British subjects know no other monarch. Her 63-year reign, the longest in British history, saw the growth of an empire on which the sun never set. Victoria restored dignity to the English monarchy and ensured its survival as a ceremonial political institution. The cause of her death was Intracerebral hemorrhage. -
1914 Charlie Chaplin Make His First Silent Movies
Charlie Chaplin's first ever appearance on film - Making A Living 1914. Famous for his character "The Tramp," the sweet little man with a bowler hat, mustache and cane, Charlie Chaplin was an iconic figure of the silent-film era and one of film's first superstars, elevating the industry in a way few could have ever imagined.