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London thesters reopen; actresses appear onstage for the first time.
With the reopening of the theatres after the Restoration, women were for the first time allowed to act on the stage. Previously, female roles had been performed by young boys. -
Charles II is procliamed king of England (crowded in 1661).
Although the Parliament of Scotland proclaimed Charles II King on 5 February 1649, England entered the period known as the English Interregnum or the English Commonwealth, and the country was a de facto republic, led by Oliver Cromwell. -
Plague cliams more than 68,000 people in London.
In the 1665 plague epidemic in London, more than 68000 people are thought to have died. -
Great Fire destroys much of London.
The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of the English city of London, from Sunday, September to Wednesday, 5 September 1666. -
Glorious (Bloodless): Revolution James II is succeeded by Protestant rulers of William and Mary. (1688-1689)
The Glorious Revolution of 1688-1689 replaced the reigning king, James II, with the joint monarchy of his protestant daughter Mary and her Dutch husband, William of Orange. -
Alexander Pope publishes part of The Rape of the Lock.
The Rape of the Lock is a mock-heroic narrative poem written by Alexander Pope, first published anonymously in Lintot's Miscellaneous Poems and Translations in May 1712 in two cantos, but then revised, expanded and reissued in an edition "Written by Mr. Pope" on 4 March 1714, -
Swift publishes A Modest Proposal, protesting English treatment of the Irish poor.
Swift goes to great lengths to support his argument, including a list of possible preparation styles for the children, and calculations showing the financial benefits of his suggestion. He uses methods of argument throughout his essay which lampoon the then-influential William Petty and the social engineering popular among followers of Francis Bacon. -
Voltaire publishes Candide.
Candide is characterised by its sarcastic tone as well as by its erratic, fantastical and fast-moving plot. A picaresque novel with a story similar to that of a more serious Bildungsroman, it parodies many adventure and romance clichés, the struggles of which are caricatured in a tone that is mordantly matter-of-fact. -
George III is crowned king of England; becomes known as the king thst lost the American colonies.
He became heir to the throne on the death of his father in 1751, succeeding his grandfather, George II, in 1760. He was the third Hanoverian monarch and the first one to be born in England and to use English as his first language. -
British Parliament passes Stamp Act for taxing American Colonies.
The Stamp Act was a direct tax on the colonists and led to an uproar in America over an issue that was to be a major cause of the Revolution: taxation without representation. -
African American poet Phillis Wheatley's Poems on Various Subject, Religious and Moral is published in London.
Phillis Wheatley broke barriers as the first American black woman poet to be published, opening the door for future black authors. -
Boston Tea Party
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. -
Mary Wollstonecraft publishes A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was the first great feminist treatise. Wollstonecraft preached that intellect will always govern and sought “to persuade women to endeavour to acquire strength, both of mind and body, and to convince them that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonimous with epithets of weakness.” -
Napoleon heads revolutionary government in France.
Napoleon created a new form of government in France, reshaped the boundaries of Europe, and influenced revolutionaries and nationalists the world over. Since his first days in power he aroused controversies that continue today.
