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The Cascadia Earthquake
The Cascadia earthquake, located off the coast of the Pacific Northwest along the Juan de Fuca plate, occurs. The magnitude 9 (8.7 to 9.2) quake caused a tsunami to hit the coast of Japan. -
The Queen Anne's War ends
The Queen Anne's War ends with the French signing a treaty in the series of Treaties of Utrecht to give Nova Scotia to the British. -
Invention: Mercury Thermometer
Gabriel Fahrenheit invents the first mercury thermometer. -
Invention: Lightning Rod
Benjamin Franklin invents the lightning rod after earlier in the year proving that lightning was electricity by flying a kite in a thunderstorm. -
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French and Indian War
This New World conflict marked another chapter in the long imperial struggle between Britain and France. When France’s expansion into the Ohio River valley brought repeated conflict with the claims of the British colonies, a series of battles led to the official British declaration of war in 1756. In 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed and the British received Canada from France and Florida from Spain, but permitted France to keep its West Indian sugar islands and gave Louisiana to Spain. -
The Sugar Act
The Sugar Act places a duty on various commodities, including lumber, food, molasses, and rum in the British colonies. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre occurs when British troops fire into a Boston mob, who were demonstrating against British troops at the customs commission. The first to fall was Crispus Attucks, a fugitive slave and merchant seaman near the front, followed by four other men amongst the forty-fifty patriots. This event was later credited as the first battle in the American Revolution, which began five years later, and was used as an incident to further the colonists cause of rebellion. -
The Boston Tea Party
England allows the East India Company to ship surplus tea to America at low cost. American colonists resented the implementation of a single company controlling the tea trade, as well as the right of the British government to tax the colonies without their consent. Bostonians led by Josiah Quincy and Samuel Adams discussed the new British tax on tea and boarded three ships in the nearby harbor, tossing the 342 chests of tea overboard. This caused Parliament to close the port of Boston. -
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Revolutionary War
The Revolutionary War (1775-83), also known as the American Revolution, arose from growing tensions between residents of Great Britain’s 13 North American colonies and the colonial government, which represented the British crown. After French assistance helped the Continental Army force the British surrender at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781, the Americans had effectively won their independence, though fighting would not formally end until 1783. -
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence, from the pen of Thomas Jefferson and his committee, is approved in the Second Continental Congress of the United States of America, held in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Liberty and freedom was celebrated amongst commoners and soldiers, who would soon fight to solidify its hold on the thirteen colonies.
