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London Theaters 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 proclaimed king of England.
Charles II's father, Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War. -
Plauge claims more than 68,000 people in London
Plague is an infectious disease that is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. -
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. The fire gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall. -
1688-1689 Glorious (bloodless): Revolution James II is succeeded by protestant rulers of William and Mary.
The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, was the overthrow of King James II of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III. William's successful invasion of England with a Dutch fleet and army led to his ascending of the English throne as William III of England jointly with his wife Mary II of England. -
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. -
Swift publishes A Modest Proposal, protesting English treatement of the Irish poor.
A Modest Proposal for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the public. -
Voltaire publishes Candide
Candide, ou l'Optimisme is a French satire first published in 1759 by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment. -
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 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. -
British Parliament passes Stamp Act for taxing American Colonies
The Stamp Act of 1765 was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain that imposed a direct tax on the colonies of British America and required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper. -
African American poet Phillis Wheatly's Poems on Various Subject, Religous and Moral is published in London
Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral by Phillis Wheatley, Negro Servant to Mr. John Wheatley, of Boston, in New England is a collection of 39 poems written by Phillis Wheatley the first professional African-American woman poet in America and the first African-American woman whose writings were published. -
Boston Tea Party occurs
The Boston Tea Party was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, on December 16, 1773. The demonstrators, some disguised as Native Americans, in defiance of the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company. They boarded the ships and threw the chests of tea into Boston Harbor. -
Mary Wollstonecraft publishes A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Published in 1792, 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
The French Revolutionwas a period of far-reaching social and political upheaval in France that lasted from 1789 until 1799, and was partially carried forward by Napoleon during the later expansion of the French Empire.
