1740
Samuel Richardson publishes 'Pamela'.
1740 - 1748
War of the Austrian Succession.
1741
Henry Fielding publishes 'An Apology for the Life of Mrs Shamela Andrews'.
1742
First performance of Handel's 'Messiah' at Dublin's Temple Bar.
1742
Ranelagh Pleasure Gardens are opened to the public.
1742
Anders Celsius invents the Celsius scale of temperature.
1742
Edward Young writes 'The Complaint, or Night Thoughts on Life, Death and Immortality.
1742
The Whig politician the Earl of Wilmington becomes Prime Minister.
1743
Selling unstamped newspapers becomes a criminal offence in Britain.
1743
The Whig politician Henry Pelham becomes Prime Minister.
1744
The Thesaurus Musicus publishes 'God Save the Queen'.
1744
Samuel Johnson writes 'Life of Mr Richard Savage'.
1745
The failed Jacobite Rebellion to restore the Stuarts to the throne of Britain is led in Scotland by 'Bonnie Prince Charlie', but is ultimately defeated at the Battle of Culloden by Hanoverian forces.
1746 - 1747
Print run of 'The Museum; or, the Literary and Historical Register'.
1747
David Garrick becomes actor-manager at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in London.
1747
Samuel Richardson publishes 'Clarissa'.
1747
James Lind discovers that citrus fruits help to prevent scurvy.
1747
Edmund Burke sets up his debating club at Trinity College, Dublin, known as 'Edmund Burke's Club'. It will later become the famous College Historical Society.
1748
Excavation of the ancient Roman site of Pompeii begins.
1748
John Cleland's erotic novel 'Fanny Hill, or, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure' leads to the author's arrest for "corrupting the King's subjects".
1748
David Hume publishes 'Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding'.
1748
Charles, Baron de Montesquieu, writes 'The Spirit of the Laws'.
1749
Henry Fielding writes 'Tom Jones'.
1750
Peter Bayle publishes 'The Royal Magazine; Or, Quarterly Bee'.
1750
Overall male literacy in Britain has increased to around 60 per cent; female literacy around 40 per cent.
1751
William Hogarth produces Beer Street and Gin Lane at the height of the so-called London Gin Craze. The Gin Act prohibits gin distillers from selling to unlicensed merchants, and restricts retail licenses.
1751
Thomas Gray publishes 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard'.
1751
Denis Diderot's Encyclopédie is published. Its eventual 35 volumes will attempt to summarise all human knowledge in every intellectual field.
1751
David Hume publishes 'Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals'.
1751
The population of London rises to 650,000. The population of Birmingham rises by 200% to c. 24,000. The population of Leeds rises by 300% to c.28,000.
1751
Carolus Linnaeus writes his 'Philosophica Botanica'.
1752
Benjamin Franklin shows that lightning is a form of electricity through his kite experiment.
1752
Charlotte Lennox publishes 'The Female Quixote, or, The Adventures of Arabella'.
1752
Gregorian calendar reforms are finally implemented in England, bringing the calendar in line with the rest of Europe and Scotland.
1753
The British Museum is founded.
1753
The Jewish Naturalisation Bill is passed by Parliament.
1754
Isaac Newton publishes 'An Historical Account of Two Noble Corruptions of Scripture'.
1754
Horace Walpole publishes 'The Castle of Otranto', the first Gothic novel.
1754
The Duke of Newcastle, a Whig, becomes Prime Minister.
1754 - 1756
Print run of 'The Connoisseur'.
1755
Samuel Johnson publishes his influential book 'A Dictionary of the English Language'.
1755
Johnson's Dictionary defines Grub Street as "a street...in London, much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems, whence any mean production is called grubstreet."
1756
Owen Ruffhead publishes the 'Contest'.
1756
The Duke of Devonshire, a Whig, becomes Prime Minister.
1756 - 1763
The Seven Years War.
1757
The Duke of Newcastle, a Whig, becomes Prime Minister for a second term.
1757
Edmund Burke publishes 'A Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and the Beautiful'.
1757
Patrick Delaney establishes the 'Humanist'.
1758
Robert Dodsley, and Edmund Burke, responsible for the 'Annual Register'.
1758
The first subscription library (specialising in serious non-fiction) opens in Liverpool.
1758
Andrew Meikle invents the first threshing machine.
1759
Adam Smith publishes 'The Theory of Moral Sentiments'.
1759
Laurence Sterne publishes 'The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy'.
1759
The Botanical Gardens at Kew are opened.
1760
George III is crowned King of Great Britain.
1760
The 'British Magazine; Or, Monthly Repository for Gentlemen and Ladies' is published.
1761
James Brindley's Bridgewater Canal opens, connecting the Duke of Bridgewater's coal mines in Worsley to Manchester, halving the price of coal in the city.
1762
The 'Universal Museum' is published.
1762
James Macpherson writes 'Fingal, an Ancient Epic Poem'.
1762
The Earl of Bute, a Tory, becomes Prime Minister.
1762
Jean Jacques Rousseau writes 'Emile; Or, On Education and The Social Contract'.
1763
Johann Joachim Winckelmann produces his influential 'History of Ancient Art', which establishes Classical Greece as the pinnacle of artistic achievement and paves the way for Neoclassicism.
1763
George Grenville, a Whig, becomes Prime Minister.
1764
Mozart performs on the harpsichord at Ranelagh Pleasure Gardens.
1764
Dr Johnson's Literary Club is established on the suggestion of Sir Joshua Reynolds.
1764
Voltaire publishes his 'Dictionnaire Philosophique'.
1764
James Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny, a hand-operated tool for the multiple spinning of wool.
1765
A new Stamp Act is enforced in the American colonies to help pay for the British military presence there. It is met with fierce resistance and adds fuel to the movement for American independence.
1765
The Marquess of Rockingham, a Whig, becomes the Prime Minister.
1765
Sir William Blackstone writes 'Commentaries on the Laws of England'.
1766
Oliver Goldsmith writes 'The Vicar of Wakefield'.
1766
William Pitt 'the Elder', a Whig, becomes Prime Minister.
1767
Adam Ferguson writes 'An Essay on the History of Civil Society'.
1767
Astley's Amphitheatre, the first modern circus, is established in London by Philip Astley.
1767
Publication of the 'Political Register', edited by John Almon.
1768
The Royal Academy of Arts is established.
1768
The Duke of Grafton, a Whig, becomes Prime Minister.
1768
Publication of the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica' begins.
1768
Richard Arkwright patents the 'water' or spinning frame, the first powered textile machine.
1769
Sir Joshua Reynolds paints 'Colonel Acland and Lord Sydney, the Archers'.
1769
David Garrick's play 'The Jubilee', opens at the Theatre Royal, enjoying the longest run of any eighteenth-century theatrical production.
1769
James Watt produces a far more efficient steam engine than the Newcomen model.
1770
Thomas Gainsborough paints 'The Blue Boy'.
1770
The 'Whisperer', edited by William Moore.
1770
Lord North, a Tory, becomes Prime Minister.
1770
James Cook claims the East coast of Australia for George III, naming it New South Wales.
1772
The London firm Flight and Kelly produce the first barrel organs.
1772
The 'London Packet, or New Lloyd's Evening Post' is first published.
1772 - 1773
Print run of the 'York Chronicle'.
1773
James Watt goes into partnership with Matthew Boulton to commercially produce his steam engines.
1773
The first edition of the Newgate Calendar is published.
1773
The 'Vauxhall Affray' attracts much negative publicity towards the riotous behaviour of visitors to the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens.
1774
Henry Home, Lord Kames, writes 'Sketches of the History of Man'.
1775
Robert Adam, one of the most successful and fashionable architects of eighteenth-century Britain, builds Osterley Park, London for Child & Co. Bank.
1775
Samuel Johnson and James Boswell write 'A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland'.
1775 - 1783
The American War of Independence, also known as the American Revolutionary War.
1776
Thomas Paine writes 'Common Sense'.
1776
Adam Smith writes 'An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations'.
1776
Edward Gibbon writes 'The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'.
1776
The Declaration of Independence is signed in America.
1778
Publication of the 'Vocal Magazine'.
1778
Frances Burney writes 'Evelina'.
1779 - 1790
The 'Political Magazine and Parliamentary, Naval, Military, and Literary Journal' is first published in 1779, with the main print run being 1780-1790.
1779
John Wesley publishes 'Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists'.
1779
Robert Raikes begins the Sunday School Movement.
1780
William Herschel discovers Uranus.
1780
Emmanuel Kant writes 'Critique of Pure Reason'.
1780
The Catholic population of Great Britain is 70,000.
1782
Thomas Gainsborough's 'Giovanna Baccelli' is exhibited. It is an example of British Rococo art.
1782
George Crabbe writes 'The Village'.
1782
Between 27th March and 1st July the Marquess of Rockingham, a Whig, is Prime Minister for a second term, but he dies in office. On the 4th July the Earl of Shelburne, a Whig, becomes Prime Minister.
1782
Richard Arkwright begins using Boulton and Watts' steam engines in his textile factories.
1783
On 2nd April the Duke of Portland, a Whig, becomes Prime Minister. On 19th December William Pitt 'the Younger', a Tory, takes over as Prime Minister.
1783
John Wesley issues the 'Deed of Declaration', outlining rules and regulations for the guidance of Methodists.
1783
The India Act establishes a parliamentary Board of Control to oversee the East India Company.
1783
Arthur Young publishes 'The Annals of Agriculture'.
1784
John Pendred publishes the first guide to English publishing, 'The London and Country Printers, Booksellers and Stationers Vade Mecum'.
1784
Edmund Cartwright patents the first power loom.
1785
Sibbald's Library in Edinburgh offers over 6,000 titles to patrons.
1785
Robert Burns writes 'Poems, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect'.
1787
The US Constitution is completed.
1787
Mozart's opera 'Don Giovanni' is premiered in Prague.
1787
Publication of the 'Dublin Chronicle'.
1788
The Times, Britain's oldest surviving newspaper, is created.
1788
Sir John Soane is appointed architect and surveyor to the Bank of England, the exterior of which becomes his most famous work.
1788
The 'First Fleet' of around 1,400 convicts, arrive in Botany Bay, Australia.
1789
William Blake writes 'Songs of Innocence'.
1789
The French Revolution begins.
1789
The dechristianisation of France during the French Revolution begins.
1789
Jeremy Bentham writes 'Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation'.
1790
Publication of The 'Bee; Or, Literary Weekly Intelligencer'.
1790
Edmund Burke writes his 'Reflections on the Revolution in France'.
1791
The 'Establishment' clause is the First Amendment of the US Constitution. It forbids the establishment of a state religion.
1791
Thomas Paine writes 'The Rights of Man'.
1791
Benjamin Franklin's autobiography is published a year after his death.
1791
The waltz becomes a fashionable dance in England.
1791
Thomas Sheraton publishes 'The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book', which influences the development of a neoclassical style of furniture.
1792
Mary Wollstonecraft writes 'A Vindication of the Rights of Women'.
1793
William Godwin writes 'Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Modern Morals and Manners'.
1793
Louis XVI of France is guillotined.
1793 - 1802
French Revolutionary Wars.
1793
The Louvre Museum opens in Paris.
1794
Publication of the 'Morning Advertiser'.
1794
Publication of the 'Morning Post and Fashionable World'.
1794
Ann Radcliffe, the most successful novelist of the century, publishes 'The Mysteries of Udolpho', which sets the standard for Gothic fiction.
1794
Thomas Paine writes 'The Age of Reason'.
1794
Erasmus Darwin publishes 'Zoonomia'.
1795
The Paris Conservatoire de Musique is established.
1796
Edward Jenner performs an inoculation against Smallpox using Cowpox for the first time.
1796
Matthew Lewis publishes his early Gothic novel 'The Monk'. Its sensational content provokes an attempted legal action to protect public morality, but this merely adds to its popular success.
1796
J. M. W. Turner exhibits his first work at the Royal Academy, 'Fishermen at Sea'.
1798
Thomas Malthus writes 'An Essay on the Principle of Population'.
1798
William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge publish their 'Lyrical Ballads', marking the beginning of the Romantic movement in literature.
1798 - 1799
Print run of the Oeconomist.
1799
The Rosetta Stone is found, aiding the interpretation of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.
1799
By the end of the century there are over 1,000 libraries in Britain.
1799
First publication of Mungo Park's 'Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa...in the Years 1795, 1796 and 1797'.
1799
Napoleon is appointed First Consul of France.
1799
The Church Missionary Society is founded.
1800
40% of Britain's population earn their living from the land.