timelines

  • Dutch defeat the Portuguese

    Dutch defeat the Portuguese
    in a naval battle in the Indonesian Archipelago
  • William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare
    wrote our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, which we ascribe to heaven
  • Queen Elizabeth

    Queen Elizabeth
    She dies at the age of 69. James 1 becomes king
  • Bible

    Bible
    James request translation of the Bible to be known as the Authorized King James bible
  • discover

    discover
    the Dutch discover northern Australia
  • defeat

    defeat
    the Dutch defeat a Spanish fleet at Gibraltar
  • Mars

    Johann Kepler has learned that Mars is moving about the sun and not in a perfect circle
  • Tabaco

    the first barreled Tabaco reached England from the colony of Virginia
  • Western Australia

    Western Australia
    A Dutch sea Captain, Dirk Hartog, was blown off course and discovered Western Australia
  • slaves

    slaves are being transported to the west Indies to replace those Africans who have died there
  • rule

    in England the slide rule is invented
  • Massachusetts

    Puritans were blown off course and land in Massachusetts
  • Pilgrims

    they have a meal with the Wampanoag
  • Galileo

    he published his ideas about the universe. Intellectual applause him but the church prohibited further sale of the book.
  • Boston

    Boston
    the town of Boston was founded
  • Roger Williams

    Roger Williams
    he arrives in what is now Rhode Island, where he is to establish a settlement
  • raid

    raid
    a raid by the Pequot Indians kills 600 members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
  • painter

    painter
    the Dutch painter Rembrandt Van Rijn paints The Rabbi
  • French

    The French establish an outpost at the mouth of Africa's Senegal river where they trade gum and slaves
  • armies

    Cromwell defeats Scottish armies
  • Charles

    he decided to join Louis XIV of France in another war against the Dutch
  • Africa

    Africa the English destroy the French fort on the Senegal river
  • growing

    the world is populated by between 600 and 680 million people, up from between 540 to 580 in 1600 roughly calculated
  • tax

    hardship increased taxation and misconception provoke rebellion by russia
  • pox

    small pox brought to the cape town region decimates khoikhoi people and kills many whites
  • plague

    arrives at the port of Marseilles
  • death

    Peter the Great dies at the age of 52 after plunging into icy waters to save a solider
  • coffee

    In Brazil, Europeans begin planting coffee
  • books

    Benjamin Franklin agricultural handbook, Poor Richards Almanac was published
  • trade

    George Hadley published the first explanation of trade winds
  • school

    A science Academy was made in Denmark
  • trade

    Seafaring trade between Europe to the East around Africa's the Cape of Good Hope had by now ended the overland caravan spice trade. The Middle East's share in world trade had been declining.
  • growing

    An average of 60,000 slaves are being exported from Africa per year.
  • governor

    Portugal appoints its first governor to its coastal and inland possessions in East Africa, called Mozambique, and Portugal declares Mozambique a colony.
  • destruction

    destruction
    Earthquake, tsunami and fire destroys much of Lisbon and, it is said, kills over 100,000 people. People wonder how God could have allowed so much suffering. The German mathematician-philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz defends God, claiming that with God as the author of nature everything works out for the best, that God's wisdom is supreme.
  • victory

    victory
    British arms have succeeded against the French in North America. French resistance there ends.
  • invention

    A Scottish instrument maker, James Watt, creates a condenser for steam engines. It will be eleven years before it will be put to use.
  • crop

    Monsoon rains have not arrived, leaving grain crops in Bengal diminished. Famine appears, killing perhaps a third of Bengal's population.
  • river

    The Dutch claim the Gamtoos River, 700 kilometers east of Cape Town, as their eastern border in South Africa.
  • discovery

    Oxygen is discovered by the Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele. Europeans have been investigating the properties of gasses.
  • church

    church
    A Baptist Church for black slaves is founded is South Carolina Colony.
  • vermont

    vermont
    Vermont establishes itself as a colony with a constitution that abolishes slavery, institutes universal manhood suffrage and requires support for public education.
  • becoming

    South Carolina becomes the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation
  • saving

    saving
    The state of Pennsylvania passes a law freeing children born of slaves. Those born prior to the Act are to remain enslaved for life.
  • conflict

    George Washington's most trusted general, General Gates, is chasing the British through the woods of South Carolina, into Virginia and back again into North Carolina. The British are low on supplies, stealing from the Americans and enraging them.
  • treaties

    treaties
    The United States signs the Treaty of Hopewellwith the Cherokees (November 28). It lays out boundaries of land that is supposed to belong to the Cherokees.
  • state

    On November 21, North Carolina becomes the twelfth state to ratify the US Constitution.
  • progress

    On May 29, Rhode Island becomes the last and thirteenth state to ratify the US Constitution.
  • hardship

    hardship
    In England, executing women for treason by burning them at the stake is abolished.
  • events

    Russia, Austria and Prussia participate in the Third Partition of Poland.
  • supplies

    The first graphite pencils are introduced.
  • invading

    Napoleon invades Egypt with a plan to cut Britain's trade route to India (although the Suez Canal has yet to be been built). A British naval force, led by Admiral Horatio Nelson, smashes the French navy at anchor at Abu Qir bay, near Alexandria, Egypt – the French losing 6,200 men as casualties and prisoners.
  • treaty

    treaty
    In a secret treaty with Spain, the Treaty of San Ildefonso, France regains Louisiana.
  • life

    Britain is rising as an industrial power. The average life expectancy is around 40. A fictional "better-off" family will be described as drinking water that has a cow taste because it is taken from a brook from which cows drink. Meat is rare. Dental care is poor. The family eats with wooden spoons. Candles are rarely used because they cost too much. The father "visited the city once, but the travel cost him a week's wages... The children sleep two to a bed on straw mattresses on the floor.
  • creating

    A German makes morphine from opium. Physicians are delighted that opium has been tamed. Morphine is lauded for its reliability and safety.
  • kicked out

    the French are driven from Portugal.
  • return

    The British return to the Dutch their empire in Indonesia.
  • cotton

    the US has becomes the world's biggest cotton producer of raw cotton.
  • sighned treaty

    A treaty is signed between the United States and the declining power of Spain. The US buys Florida for 5 million dollars, money the US government gives to US citizens with claims against Spain. Spain receives an established line separating the US from its territory in North America.
  • invetion

    invetion
    In Vienna the accordion is invented.
  • state laws

    state laws
    New York passes a state law emancipating slaves.
  • tape

    tape
    Scotch tape is invented.
  • slavery

    Mexico abolishes slavery in its territories, hoping to discourage migration into Texas from the United States.
  • railroad

    railroad
    The first railway station opens in the United States – in Baltimore Maryland.
  • sighns

    President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act, which rips the Cherokee and other eastern tribes from their homes and banishes them to areas west of the Mississippi River.
  • organize

    organize
    joseph Smith Jr. of New York organizes the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
  • england

    england
    In England the lawn mower is invented.
  • sewing

    sewing
    A Frenchman patents a sewing machine.
  • colony

    Britain makes New Zealand a colony.
  • congress

    The Congress of the United States approves the annexation of Texas. Mexico breaks relations with the United States. President Polk sends troops to Texas.
  • lock-stitch

    lock-stitch
    In the United States, Elias Howe invents a "lock-stitch" sewing machine.
  • saxaphone

    saxaphone
    In Belgium, Adolphe Sax invents the saxaphone.
  • gold rush

    gold rush
    A gold rush begins in Central California.
  • dynasty

    Louis-Napoleon is declared Emperor Napoleon III. He would like to create a dynasty. France is no longer a republic. It is called the Second Empire.
  • workers

    In Germany, workers making mirrors have lost all of their teeth. A professor of medicine discovers they are victims of mercury poisoning. His findings lead to government regulations requiring alternative mirror making processes.
  • money

    money
    In the United States the first paper money is issued.
  • problem solving

    Thirty-eight Lakota Sioux are hanged before a crowd of angry whites in the town of Mankato, Minnesota. President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation becomes law. Slavery ends in Dutch ruled Indonesia. Cambodia become a French protectorate, with the approval of its king, Norodom. In Britain, legislators respond to air pollution from the chemical industry by creating the Alkali Act for reducing hydrogen chloride emissions during alkali production.
  • rights

    The Territory of Utah allows women to vote.
  • mines

    Pennsylvania a coal mine fire suffocates 179 men. The state responds by passing mine safety laws.
  • title

    In Canada the light bulb is invented. Thomas Edison buys the patent. Britain has bought into part ownership of the Suez Canal enterprise. Southern Africa has became the largest diamond producing area in the world. Prospectors discover gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota, an area that the US government has promised the Sioux would be theirs forever.