Culture & Society in the 18th century

528 sourced entries, 1700 CE to 1799 CE, oldest first. Also see Culture & Society across every century or everything else in the 18th century.

• 1700January 1 (Julian) (January 11, Gregorian) – The Tsardom of Russia begins numbering its calendar from the birth of Christ (Anno Domini), instead of since the Creation (Anno Mundi).source
• 1700March 1 (Swedish), March 11 (Gregorian), February 29 (Julian) – The Swedish calendar is adopted.source
• 1700March 3 – Shivaji II accedes to the throne of the Maratha Empire as the 4th Chhatrapati after his father Rajaram I's death.source
• 1700March (early) – William Congreve's comedy The Way of the World is first performed in London.source
• 1700April 15 – The coronation of King Frederick IV of Denmark takes place at Frederiksborg Castle in Copenhagen.source
• 1700July 11 – The Prussian Academy of Sciences is founded, with Gottfried Leibniz as president.source
• 1700September 6 – Edmond Halley returns to England after a voyage of almost one year on HMS Paramour, from which he has observed the Antarctic Convergence, and publishes his findings on terrestrial magnetism in General Chart of the Variation of the Compass.source
• 1700November 15 – Louis XIV of France accepts the Spanish crown on behalf of his grandson Philip of Anjou of the House of Bourbon, who becomes Philip V of Spain (reigning for 44 years – with a short break – to 1746), thus triggering the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714).source
• 1700An English translation of the novel Don Quixote, "translated from the original by many hands and published by Peter Motteux", begins publication in London. While popular among readers, it will eventually come to be known as one of the worst translations of the novel, totally betraying the spirit of Miguel de Cervantes's masterpiece.source
• 1701October 9 – The Collegiate School of Connecticut (later renamed Yale University) is chartered in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.source
• 1701November 2 – King Philip V of Spain marries for the first time, to 13-year-old Maria Luisa Gabriella of Savoy, who serves as Queen Consort until her death from tuberculosis at the age of 25.source
• 1701The Philharmonic Society (Academia Philharmonicorum) is established in Ljubljana, Slovenia.source
• 1702March 22 (March 11 Old Style) – The first regular English-language national newspaper, The Daily Courant, begins publication on Fleet Street in the City of London, initially by Elizabeth Mallet; it covers only foreign news.source
• 1702May 6 – Cloudesley Shovell is promoted to full admiral in the English navy.source
• 1702June 25 – The premiere of the opera L'Offendere per amore overo la Telesilla by Johann Joseph Fux takes place in Vienna.source
• 1702July 23 – The first performance of the opera Médus, roi des Mèdes by François Bouvard takes place at the Paris Opera.source
• 1702October 1 – The founding deed of the University of Wrocław is signed by the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I of the House of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia.source
• 1702October 19 – The opera Der Sieg der fruchtbaren Pomona by Reinhard Keiser is premiered at the Hamburg Opera for the birthday of King Frederick IV of Denmark.source
• 1702November 7 – The first performance of the opera Tancrède by André Campra takes place at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris.source
• 1702November 15 – The opera La Clemenza d'Augusto by Johann Joseph Fux is premiered in Vienna.source
• 1702December 14 – John Churchill is created duke of Marlborough.source
• 1702Richard Bentley at Cambridge in England introduces the first written (as opposed to oral) competitive examinations in a Western university.source
• 1702The travel diary Oku no Hosomichi ("Narrow road to the deep north"), a major work of haibun by the Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō and one of the major texts of Japanese literature of the Edo period, is published eight years after Bashō's death.source
• 1703February – Soldiers at Fort Louis de la Mobile celebrate Mardi Gras in Mobile, starting the tradition for Mobile, Alabama.source
• 1703March 20 (February 4 in the Chinese calendar) – 46 of the forty-seven rōnin of Japan carry out an order of seppuku (ritual suicide) for the killing they committed on January 30. The punishment is given by the shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. The story continues to be dramatized more than 300 years later in Chūshingura theater, novels and film.source
• 1703June – The completed 1703 Icelandic census is presented in the Althing, the first complete census of any country.source
• 1704February 28 – Establishment of the first school open to African-Americans in New York City by Frenchman Elias Neau.source
• 1704February – In America, Mardi Gras is celebrated with the Masque de la Mobile in the capital of Louisiana (New France), Mobile, Alabama.source
• 1704April 24 – The first regular newspaper in the Thirteen Colonies of British North America, The Boston News-Letter, is published.source
• 1704The Students' Monument is built in Aiud, Romania.source
• 1704Isaac Newton publishes his Opticks. He also predicts that the world will end in 2060.source
• 1704A Tale of a Tub, the first major satire by Jonathan Swift (written 1694–1697), is published in London, running through three editions this year.source
• 1705January 8 – George Frideric Handel's first opera, Almira, is premiered in Hamburg.source
• 1705February 25 – George Frideric Handel's opera Nero premieres in Hamburg.source
• 1705March 8 – The Province of Carolina incorporates the town of Bath, making it the first incorporated town in modern-day North Carolina. The town becomes the political center and de facto capital of the northern portion of the Province of Carolina until Edenton is incorporated in 1722.source
• 1705April 9 – The Queen's Theatre is opened in London by John Vanbrugh and William Congreve, serving as an opera house, premiering with Gli amori di ergasto ("The Loves of Ergasto"), an Italian language opera by German composer Jakob "Giacomo" Greber. A theatre remains in operation on this site for more than 300 years, becoming Her Majesty's Theatre.source
• 1705April 16 – Queen Anne of England honours Isaac Newton with the title of Knight Bachelor at Trinity College, Cambridge.source
• 1705September 24 (O.S.) – Stanisław Leszczyński is crowned as King of Poland.source
• 1705November 5 – The Dublin Gazette in Ireland publishes its first edition.source
• 1705November 23 – The premiere of the play Ulysses by Nicholas Rowe takes place in London, starring Thomas Betterton.source
• 1705December 29 – The premiere of the play Idoménée by Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon takes place in Paris.source
• 1706November 28 – The royal wedding of Prussia takes place in Berlin between the 18-year-old Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm and his bride Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, the 19-year-old daughter of the future King George I of Great Britain.source
• 1707June 19 – The coronation of Muhammad Mu'azzam as the new Emperor of India, Bahadur Shah I, takes place in Delhisource
• 1707December 24 – The first British Governor of Gibraltar, directly appointed by Queen Anne, Roger Elliott, takes up his residence in the Convent of the Franciscan Friars.source
• 1708April 8 – Easter Sunday: The first performance of George Frideric Handel's oratorio La resurrezione takes place in Rome.source
• 1708April 9 – Ottoman princess Emine Sultan, daughter of Sultan Mustafa II, marries Grand Vizier Çorlulu Ali Pasha.source
• 1708August 23 – Meidingu Pamheiba is crowned King of Manipur.source
• 1708August – The future Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor weds Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.source
• 1708December 14 – The première of Electre by Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon takes place in Paris.source
• 1708Johann Sebastian Bach is appointed as chamber musician and organist, at the court in Weimar.source
• 1709February 1 or 2 – During his first voyage, Captain Woodes Rogers encounters marooned privateer Alexander Selkirk, and rescues him after four years living on one of the Juan Fernández Islands, inspiring Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe. After sacking Guayaquil, he and Selkirk will visit the Galápagos Islands.source
• 1709February – In America, Mardi Gras is celebrated one more time with Masque de la Mobile in the capital of French Louisiana, Mobile, Alabama, before Mobile is moved 27 miles (43 km) down the Mobile River to Mobile Bay in 1711.source
• 1709July 26 – Reinhard Keiser's opera Desiderius, König der Langobarden is premiered in Hamburg.source
• 1709December 26 – The first performance of the opera Agrippina by George Frideric Handel takes place at the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo in Venice.source
• 1709The first modern edition of William Shakespeare's plays is published in London, edited by Nicholas Rowe.source
• 1709Trinity School is founded as the charity school of Trinity Church, in New York City.source
• 1709De Nostri Temporis Studiorum Ratione (On the Study Methods of Our Times) is published by Neapolitan philosopher Giambattista Vico.source
• 1710April 19 – Anne, Queen of Great Britain, meets the Four Mohawk Kings.source
• 1710June 16 – Köprülüzade Numan Pasha becomes the grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire.source
• 1710In Sweden, the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala is founded as the Collegium curiosorum.source
• 1711January 24 – The first performance of Francesco Gasparini's most famous opera Tamerlano takes place at the Teatro San Cassiano in Venice.source
• 1711February 24 – Rinaldo by George Frideric Handel, the first Italian opera written for the London stage, premieres at the Queen's Theatre, Haymarket.source
• 1711February – French settlers at Fort Louis de la Mobile celebrate Mardi Gras in Mobile (Alabama), by parading a large papier-mache ox head on a cart (the first Mardi Gras parade in America).source
• 1711March 1 – The Spectator is founded by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele in London.source
• 1711August 11 – The first horse race is held at the newly founded Ascot Racecourse, which becomes one of the leading racecourses in England.source
• 1711August 13 – Tamachi Raisinhji becomes Jam Sahib (ruling prince) of Nawanagar State in Gujarat, India.source
• 1711October 16 – Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts is established in Brussels.source
• 1712January 12 – The premiere of the opera Idoménée by André Campra takes place at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris.source
• 1712January 16 – A military engineering school is established in Moscow which is to become the A.F. Mozhaysky Military-Space Academy.source
• 1712March 11 (February 30 Swedish Style, February 29 on the Julian calendar) – Sweden temporarily adopts the rare February 30, as a day to adjust the Swedish Calendar back to the Julian calendar.source
• 1712June 5 – Reus in Catalonia, Spain is given the title of imperial city by Elisabeth Christine, wife of Archduke Charles.source
• 1712July 20 – Jesus College, Oxford, England, inherits the extensive library of its Principal Jonathan Edwards on his death.source
• 1712September – Composer George Frideric Handel re-locates to London with the permission of his patron, the future King George I of Great Britain.source
• 1712October 31 – King Philip V of Spain establishes the Biblioteca Nacional de España as the Palace Public Library (Biblioteca Pública de Palacio) in Madrid.source
• 1712November 22 – The first performance of George Frideric Handel's opera Il pastor fido takes place at the Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket, London.source
• 1712December 27 – The premiere of the opera Callirhoé by André Cardinal Destouches takes place at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris.source
• 1712A translation of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer into Irish, made by John Richardson (1664–1747), is published.source
• 1713February 25 – Frederick William I of Prussia begins his reign.source
• 1713April 14 – First performance, in London, of Joseph Addison's libertarian play Cato, a Tragedy, which will be influential on both sides of the Atlantic.source
• 1713May 13 – King Philip V of Spain issues an auto accordado that changes the order of succession for the Spanish throne allowing a female descendant within the House of Bourbon to rule. The change will allow his great-great-granddaughter to ascend the throne in 1833 as Queen Isabella II.source
• 1713May 17 – Ottone in villa, the first opera by composer Antonio Vivaldi, is given its initial performance, debuting at the Teatro delle Grazie in Vicenzasource
• 1713Ars Conjectandi, a seminal work on probability by Jacob Bernoulli, is published eight years after his death, by his nephew, Niklaus Bernoulli.source
• 1714May 20 – Johann Sebastian Bach leads the first performance of his cantata for Pentecost, Erschallet, ihr Lieder, BWV 172, at the chapel of Schloss Weimar.source
• 1715September 6 – The first major Jacobite rising in Scotland against the rule of King George I of Great Britain breaks out. The Earl of Mar raises the standard of James Edward Stuart, and marches on Edinburgh. James, the son of the deposed King James VII, arrives from France.source
• 1715Around this year, a breech loading firearm is made for Philip V of Spain.source
• 1716The Kangxi Dictionary is published, laying the foundation of most references to Han characters studied in the future.source
• 1717March 2 – Dancer John Weaver performs in the first ballet in Britain, shown at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, The Loves of Mars and Venus.source
• 1717June 24 – The Premier Grand Lodge of England, the Modern and first Free-Masonic Grand Lodge (which merges with the Ancient Grand Lodge of England in 1813 to form the United Grand Lodge of England), is founded in London.source
• 1717July 17 – Water Music by George Frederick Handel is first performed, on a Thames barge in London.source
• 1717September 21 – The first known Druid revival ceremony is held by John Toland at Primrose Hill, in London, at the Autumnal Equinox, to found the Mother Grove, what will later become the Ancient Order of Druids.source
• 1717October 16 – Antonio Vivaldi's opera Tieteberga is performed for the first time, premiering at the Teatro San Moisè in Venicesource
• 1717December 9 (November 29, O.S.) - King George I of Great Britain banishes his son and daughter-in-law, George, Prince of Wales and Caroline of Ansbach, from the royal household after the Prince threatens the King's personal assistant, the Duke of Newcastle, the royal Lord Chamberlain. The altercation takes place at the baptismal ceremony for the Prince's newborn son, George William.source
• 1718March 12 – Anton Florian becomes the new Prince of Liechtenstein, succeeding Joseph Wenzelsource
• 1718July 25 – At the behest of Tsar Peter the Great, the construction of Kadriorg Palace, dedicated to his wife Catherine, began in Tallinn.source
• 1718November 18 – Voltaire's first play, Oedipus, premières at the Comédie-Française in Paris. This is his first use of the pseudonym.source
• 1719March 17 – The coronation of Ulrika Eleonora as Queen of Sweden takes place in Stockholm.source
• 1719April 25 – Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe is published in London. Initially anonymous, by the end of the year it will have run through four editions and is significant in establishing extended realistic fiction as a literary genre.source
• 1719August 20 – Princess Maria Josepha of Austria, at one time the heir presumptive to the throne of Austria's Habsburg Empire, marries Frederick Augustus, Elector of Saxony ten days after renouncing any claim to the Austrian throne.source
• 1719September 3 – The three-story tall Opernhaus am Zwinger, one of the largest opera houses in the world at the time, opens in Dresden by staging Antonio Lotti's Giovi in Argo.source
• 1719December 22 – Andrew Bradford publishes the American Weekly Mercury, Pennsylvania's first newspaper.source
• 1719James Figg opens one of the first indoor venues for combat sports, adjoining the City of Oxford tavern in Oxford Road.source
• 1719Raine's Foundation School, Bethnal Green (founded by Henry Raine), opens in Wapping (closed 2020).source
• 1720May 3 – The coronation of King Frederick I of Sweden takes place in Stockholm, six weeks after his rule began.source
• 1720June 1 – British silversmiths are once again allowed to use sterling silver after 24 years of being limited to a higher quality (but softer) Britannia silver.source
• 1720The Academia Real da Historia is founded in Lisbon, Portugal.source
• 1720Il teatro alla moda, a satirical pamphlet by Benedetto Marcello, is published anonymously in Venice.source
• 1721March 24 – Johann Sebastian Bach's Brandenburg concertos are completed, and dedicated to Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt.source
• 1721December 22 – Philip V of Spain signs a Royal Decree in Lerma, transforming the Seminary of Saint Rose of Lima in Caracas into the Universidad Real y Pontificia de Caracas.source
• 1722January 27 – Daniel Defoe's novel Moll Flanders is published anonymously in London.source
• 1722February 16 – Peter the Great, Emperor of All Russia, announces that his heir to the throne will be his 4-year old grandson, Prince Pyotr Alekseivich.source
• 1722September 6 – Wälättä Giyorgis, a 16-year-old who nursed Ethiopia's Emperor Bakaffa back to health after he fell ill, marries the Emperor and begins her rise to power as the Empress Mentewab. Upon Bakaffa's death in 1730, Mentewab becomes the regent for her son by Bakaffa, Iyasu II.source
• 1722The first public theatre in Denmark, Lille Grønnegade Theatre, is founded in Copenhagen.source
• 1723February 4 – The Kangxi Era ends in Qing dynasty China, and the Yongzheng Era begins, with the coronation of Yinzhen, the Yongzheng Emperor.source
• 1723July 2 – Bach's Magnificat is first performed.source
• 1723July 18 – Johann Sebastian Bach leads the first performance of his cantata Erforsche mich, Gott, und erfahre mein Herz, BWV 136, in Leipzig on the eighth Sunday after Trinity.source
• 1723August 15 – The Peterhof Palace is opened in a formal ceremony just outside Saint Petersburg, capital of the Russian Empire.source
• 1723December 26 – Bach leads the first performance of Darzu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes, BWV 40, his first Christmas Cantata composed for Leipzig.source
• 1724January 28 – Saint Petersburg State University is established in Russia.source
• 1724February 8 – Catherine I of Russia is officially named tsaritsa by her husband, Peter the Great.source
• 1724February 20 – The premiere of Giulio Cesare, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, takes place in London.source
• 1724April 7 – (Good Friday) Bach leads the first performance of his St John Passion,""carefully designed with a great deal of musico-theological intent", on Good Friday.source
• 1724April 10 – Bach leads the first performance of his cantata Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen, BWV 66, his first cantata composed for Easter in Leipzig.source
• 1724April 23 – Johann Sebastian Bach leads the first performance of his cantata Du Hirte Israel, höre, BWV 104, illustrating the topic of the Good Shepherd in pastoral music.source
• 1724June 24 – On the Feast of St. John the Baptist, Bach leads the first performance of his Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam, BWV7, the third cantata of his chorale cantata cycle.source
• 1724July 2 – On the Feast of the Visitation, Bach leads the first performance of his Meine Seel erhebt den Herren, BWV10, the fifth cantata of his chorale cantata cycle.source
• 1724August 13 – Johann Sebastian Bach leads the first performance of Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott, BWV 101, a chorale cantata on a famous tune.source
• 1724August – Longman, the oldest surviving publishing house in England, is founded in London by Thomas Longman.source
• 1724September 10 – Johann Sebastian Bach leads the first performance of Jesu, der du meine Seele, BWV 78, a chorale cantata based on a passion hymn by Johann Rist.source
• 1724September 29 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir, BWV 130, for the feast of archangel Michael, based on Paul Eber's hymn in twelve stanzas.source
• 1724October 15 – The historic Teatro Nuovo opera house is inaugurated in Naples with the premiere of Antonio Orefice's comic opera Lo Simmele.source
• 1724October 22 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele (Adorn yourself, O dear soul) in Leipzig on the 20th Sunday after Trinity, based on the communion hymn of the same name.source
• 1724October 31 – George Frideric Handel's opera Tamerlano is performed for the first time, premiering in London. The opera will be revived as late as 2009.source
• 1724December 25 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ, BWV 91, in Leipzig, based on Luther's 1524 Christmas hymn.source
• 1724The Kaitokudō academy merchant school, part predecessor of Osaka University is founded in Japan.source
• 1725January 1 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of his chorale cantata Jesu, nun sei gepreiset, BWV 41, which features the trumpet fanfares from the beginning also in the end.source
• 1725January 6 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Liebster Immanuel, Herzog der Frommen, BWV 123, a chorale cantata for Epiphany.source
• 1725January 20 – James Figg hosts the first recorded international boxing match, fought between English livestock drover Bob Whitaker and Venetian gondolier Alberto di Carni in London.source
• 1725February 2 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of his chorale cantata Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin, BWV 125, based on Luther's paraphrase of the Nunc dimittis.source
• 1725February 23 – J. S. Bach leads his Tafel-Music Shepherd Cantata for the birthday of Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels.source
• 1725March 25 – Bach's chorale cantata Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BWV 1, is first performed on the Feast of the Annunciation, coinciding with Palm Sunday.source
• 1725March 30 – The second performance of Johann Sebastian Bach's St John Passion, BWV 245 (including 5 movements from his Weimarer Passion), takes place at St. Thomas Church, Leipzig.source
• 1725April 1 – J. S. Bach's later Easter Oratorio in its first version is performed at the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig on Easter Sunday.source
• 1725April 2 – J. S. Bach's cantata Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden, BWV 6, is first performed in Leipzig on Easter Monday.source
• 1725May 21 – On the day of the grand wedding of her daughter Anna to the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, Empress Catherine I of Russia creates the Order of Saint Alexander Nevskysource
• 1725July 15 – Sir Richard Everard becomes the 4th Governor of North Carolina.source
• 1725August 15 – The civil marriage of King Louis XV of France and Princess Maria Leszczyńska of Poland is held at Strasbourg. The King is not present, and his cousin, the Duke of Orléans, serves as his proxy.source
• 1725August 19 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren, BWV 137, a cantata setting the unchanged text of Neander's hymn.source
• 1725September 5 – The day after they meet for the first time, the wedding ceremony of King Louis and Marie takes place in Fontainebleau, making her the Queen Consort of France. Their marriage lasts for almost 43 years until her death in 1768.source
• 1725November 8 – The first newspaper in the Province of New York, the New-York Gazette, is introduced by William Bradford as a weekly publication.source
• 1725November 22 – Chief Chicagou of the Mitchigamea tribe, and chiefs of five other tribes of the Illini Confederation, are received as guests of King Louis XV in Paris. Chicagou pledges the Illini's support of the French presence in North America.source
• 1725December 25 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of the Christmas cantata Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, BWV 110, making laughter audible in singing.source
• 1725The Four Seasons, a set of violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi, is published.source
• 1725Gradus ad Parnassum, a seminal work on counterpoint, laying out rules of constructing music, is published by Johann Joseph Fux.source
• 1726January 1 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Herr Gott, dich loben wir, BWV 16, his church cantata for New Year's Day to a libretto by Georg Christian Lehms.source
• 1726January 27 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Alles nur nach Gottes Willen, BWV 72, concluding his third Christmas season in Leipzig on the Third Sunday after Epiphany.source
• 1726September 8 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Geist und Seele wird verwirret, BWV 35, a solo cantata for alto voice.source
• 1726October 27 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56, one of the few works he calls a cantata.source
• 1726November 8 (October 28 Old Style) – Jonathan Swift's satirical novel Gulliver's Travels is first published (anonymously) in London; it sells out within a week.source
• 1727February 2 – Johann Sebastian Bach's solo cantata, Ich habe genug, BWV 82, premieres in Leipzig.source
• 1727April 11 – Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion (BWV 244b) premieres at St. Thomas Church, Leipzig.source
• 1727August 13 – History of the Moravian Church: The 18th century renewal: The Moravian Church community at Herrnhut undergoes a Pentecostal experience.source
• 1727August 30 – Anne, eldest daughter of King George II of Great Britain, is given the title Princess Royal.source
• 1727October 11 – George II of Great Britain is crowned. Handel's Coronation Anthems are composed for the event, including Zadok the Priest, which has been played at every subsequent Coronation of the British monarch.source
• 1727December 17 – The London Evening Post, a conservative newspaper, publishes its first issue. It continues in regular publication for 70 years.source
• 1728January 5 – The Real y Pontificia Universidad de San Gerónimo de la Habana, the oldest university in Cuba, is founded in Havana.source
• 1728January 9 – The coronation of Peter II as the Tsar of the Russian Empire takes place in Moscow.source
• 1728January 29 – The Beggar's Opera, the most popular theatrical production of the 18th century, is performed for the first time. The premiere takes place at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre in London. Written by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch, the ballad opera is a satire of Italian opera.source
• 1728July 17 – At the age of 8, Prince Teruhito, son of Emperor Nakamikado, is named as the Crown Prince of Japan. Teruhito becomes the Emperor Sakuramachi at age 15, upon his father's death.source
• 1728August 29 – The City of Nuuk is founded in Greenland, as Fort Godt-Haab, by royal governor Claus Paarss.source
• 1729January 19 – At the age of 14, Joseph (José), Prince of Brazil, son of King John V of Portugal, is married to the 10-year-old Princess Mariana Victoria of Spain, eldest daughter of King Philip V of Spain. In 1750, the couple become King Joseph I and Queen Consort Mariana Victoria of Spain.source
• 1729March 23 – Johann Sebastian Bach's First Köthen Funeral music premieres at St. Jakob, Köthen, in honor of the funeral of his former employer Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen. The next morning, Bach's funeral cantata Klagt, Kinder, klagt es aller Welt, BWV 244a premieres at St. Jakob, marking the same occasion.source
• 1729December 2 – George Frideric Handel's famous opera Lotario is given its first performance, premiering at the King's Theatre in London.source
• 1729Jonathan Swift (anonymously) publishes his satire A Modest Proposal.source
• 1730May 9 (April 28 O.S.) – The coronation of Anna of Russia as Empress of Russia takes place in Saint Petersburg.source
• 1730December 9 – The first documented notice in North America about freemasonry is published in The Pennsylvania Gazette in an article by its publisher, Benjamin Franklin.source
• 1731August 23 – The oldest known sports score in history is recorded in the description of a cricket match at Richmond Green in England, when the team of Thomas Chambers of Middlesex defeats the Duke of Richmond's team by 119 to 79.source
• 1732February 14 – Henry Fielding's comedy The Modern Husband premieres at the Royal Theatre on Drury Lane in London.source
• 1732December 7 – The original Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, London (the modern-day Royal Opera House) is opened.source
• 1732The Portsmouth Grammar School is founded in England under the will of Dr. William Smith, a physician and former Mayor of Portsmouth, by Christ Church, Oxford.source
• 1733January 27 – George Frideric Handel's classic opera, Orlando is performed for the first time, making its debut at the King's Theatre in London.source
• 1733June 12 – At Schloss Salzdahlum, Prince Frederick of Prussia, the 21-year-old heir to the throne reluctantly marries Duchess Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Bevern in order to avoid prosecution for desertion from the Prussian Army and to be guaranteed the throne. Despite the unhappy marriage Frederick and Elisabeth later reign as King and Queen Consort of Prussia.source
• 1734April 25 – Easter occurs on the latest possible date (the next time is in 1886).source
• 1734May 15 – Prince Charles of Spain (later King Charles III) becomes the new King of Naples and Sicily, five days after his arrival in Naples.source
• 1735January 8 – George Frideric Handel's opera Ariodante is premièred at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London.source
• 1735February 14 – The Order of St. Anna is established in Russia, in honor of the daughter of Peter the Great.source
• 1735April 16 – Alcina, George Frideric Handel's Italian opera, premieres at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London.source
• 1735June 25 – In Great Britain, the Engraving Copyright Act 1734, the first of a series of copyright protection laws, takes effect after being given royal assent by King George II.source
• 1735November 25 – The largest bell in the world, the 22 foot diameter Tsar Kolokol, is successfully cast in Moscow within the Kremlin.source
• 1735Linnaeus publishes his Systema Naturae.source
• 1736January 12 – George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney, becomes the Second Field Marshal of Great Britain.source
• 1736February 12 – Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor marries Maria Theresa of Austria, ruler of the Habsburg Empire at the Augustinian Church in Vienna.source
• 1736March 8 – Nader Shah, founder of the Afsharid dynasty, is crowned Shah of Iran on a date selected by court astrologers.source
• 1736April – The Genbun era begins in Japan. The era of Kyōhō Reforms ends.source
• 1736May 8 – Frederick, Prince of Wales, marries Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha.source
• 1736May 22 – King George II of Great Britain departs for Europe as part of his duties as Elector of Hanover; his wife, Caroline, Queen Consort rules on his behalf as the Regent for the last time until his return on January 14, 1736.source
• 1737September 1 – The oldest existing English language newspaper in the world, The News Letter, is founded in Belfast, Ireland.source
• 1737October 11 – The first national stage in Sweden opens, when Carl Gyllenborg's play Den svenska sprätthöken is performed in the Swedish language, by the first native actors, on the stage of Bollhuset in Stockholm.source
• 1737November 4 – The Teatro di San Carlo, the oldest working opera house in Europe, is inaugurated in Naples, Italy.source
• 1737The Georg August University of Göttingen in Lower Saxony is opened to students.source
• 1738January 3 – George Frideric Handel's opera Faramondo is given its first performance.source
• 1738April 15 – Serse, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, premieres in London.source
• 1738April 18 – Spain's Royal Academy of History (Real Academia de la Historia) is established by decree of King Philip V of Spain.source
• 1738May 4 – The Imperial Theatrical School, in modern times known as Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, is founded under the reign of Empress Anna. It is the first ballet school in Russia and second in the world.source
• 1738May 24 – John Wesley, newly returned from America, experiences a spiritual rebirth at a Moravian Church meeting in Aldersgate, in the City of London, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day (his younger brother Charles had a similar experience three days earlier).source
• 1738Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, having completed a law degree, is hired as a court musician by Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia, the future Frederick the Great (Bach will remain in Frederick's service until 1768).source
• 1739June 13 – (June 2 Old Style); The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is founded in Stockholm, Sweden.source
• 1739The first Bible in Estonian is published.source
• 1740February 20 – The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates the town of Newton as Wilmington, North Carolina, named for Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington and patron of Royal Governor Gabriel Johnston.source
• 1740June 16 – Pour le Mérite first awarded in Prussia as a military honour.source
• 1740July 7 – Adam Smith sets out from Scotland to take up a scholarship at Balliol College, Oxford.source
• 1740August 1 – The song Rule, Britannia! is first performed at Cliveden, the country home of Frederick, Prince of Wales, in England.source
• 1740September 8 – Hertford College, Oxford, England, is founded for the first time.source
• 1740November 6 – Samuel Richardson's popular and influential epistolary novel, Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded, is published anonymously in London.source
• 1740November 14 – The University of Pennsylvania is officially established.source
• 1740Enfield, North Carolina, is founded.source
• 1741February 14 – Irish-born actor Charles Macklin makes his London stage debut as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, pioneering a psychologically realistic style with Shakespeare's text revived, replacing George Granville's melodramatic adaptation The Jew of Venice. Kitty Clive plays the travesti role of Portia.source
• 1741June 25 – Maria Theresa of Austria is crowned Queen Regnant of Hungary in Bratislava.source
• 1741Stemmatographia by Hristofor Zhefarovich, regarded as the first Serbian and Bulgarian secular printed book, is printed in Vienna.source
• 1742February 12 – John Carteret, 2nd Lord Carteret becomes Secretary of State for the Northern Department in Great Britain.source
• 1742February 22 – Henry Fielding publishes his picaresque novel Joseph Andrews anonymously in London when "the first edition... reached the bookstalls" in the city.source
• 1742March 29 – Acting in his capacity of Grand Duke of Lithuania, Poland's King Stanisław August Poniatowski issues a proclamation allowing Jews in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius to live anywhere except for two public streets, the Pilies street and the Galves Street.source
• 1742April 13 – George Frideric Handel's oratorio The Messiah is first performed, in Dublin, Ireland in aid of local charities.source
• 1742July 14 – William Pulteney is created 1st Earl of Bath in Great Britain.source
• 1742August 19 – Voltaire's controversial play Fanatacism, or Mahomet the Prophet is first performed, in Paris, to a theatre audience filled with French nobility.source
• 1742November 13 – The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters is founded.source
• 1742December 2 – The Pennsylvania Journal first appears in the United States.source
• 1742Anders Celsius publishes his proposal for a centigrade temperature scale originated in 1741.source
• 1742The University of Erlangen is founded in Bavaria.source
• 1742Charles Jervas's English translation of Don Quixote is published posthumously. Through a printer's error, the translator's name is printed as 'Charles Jarvis', leading the book to forever be known as the Jarvis translation. It is acclaimed as the most faithful English rendering of the novel made up to this time.source
• 1742Colin Maclaurin publishes his Treatise on Fluxions.source
• 1743February 21 – George Frideric Handel's oratorio, Samson, premieres in London.source
• 1743April 18 – The trustees of the English Province of Georgia vote to inaugurate public schools in the corporate territory.source
• 1743September 11 – Russian noble Natalia Lopukhina is flogged in front of the Twelve Collegia building in Saint Petersburg, bringing a conclusion to the "Lopukhina Affair" plotted by France and the Duchy of Holstein.source
• 1743December 10 – King Louis XV of France informs King Philip V of Spain of his intent to try to restore the House of Stuart to the throne of the United Kingdom. James Francis Edward Stuart was briefly the Crown Prince of England and Scotland until his father, King James II, was deposed in 1688 and, as Pretender to the Throne, would become King James III if the attack, planned for January 1, 1744 succeeds.source
• 1743December 11 – Princess Louise of Great Britain, daughter of King George II, weds Frederick, Crown Prince of Denmark and Norway.source
• 1744April 2 – The first Rules of golf are drawn up at Leith, for the first golf competition.source
• 1744June 13 – Alexey Bestuzhev-Ryumin is named as the new Chancellor of the Russian Empire by the Empress Elizabeth.source
• 1744June 28 – At the age of 15, Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, the future Empress of Russia, is received into the Russian Orthodox Church after converting from the Lutheran faith. Upon her conversion to the Russian Orthodox religion, she is given the name Yekaterina (Catherine). In 1762, she takes the throne as the Empress Catherine II, later known as Catherine the Great.source
• 1744Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, sequel to Tommy Thumb's Song Book, containing the oldest version of many well-known and popular rhymes, is published in London.source
• 1745August 19 – The Jacobite rising of 1745 begins at Glenfinnan in Scotland, where Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie") raises his standard in a campaign to enforce his father James Francis Edward Stuart (the "Old Pretender")'s claim to be King James III of England.source
• 1745September 1 – Catherine the Great marries Peter III of Russia, in Saint Petersburg.source
• 1745September 11 – Jacobite rising of 1745: Jacobites enter Edinburgh; six days later, Charles Edward Stuart proclaims his father as James VIII of Scotland.source
• 1745September 14 – Madame de Pompadour is officially presented at the court of Louis XV.source
• 1746February 1 – Jagat Singh II, the ruler of the Mewar Kingdom, inaugurates his Lake Palace on the island of Jag Niwas in Lake Pichola, in what is now the state of Rajasthan in northwest India.source
• 1746September 20 – Bonnie Prince Charlie flees to the Isle of Skye from Arisaig, after the unsuccessful Jacobite rising of 1745, marked by the Prince's Cairn on the banks of Loch nan Uamh.source
• 1746October 22 – The College of New Jersey is founded in Princetown, New Jersey. In 1896, it is renamed Princeton University.source
• 1746Charles Batteux's Les beaux-arts réduits à un même principe is published in Paris, putting forward for the first time the idea of "les beaux arts": "the fine arts".source
• 1747November 9 – Rioters in Amsterdam demand governmental reform.source
• 1748September 24 – Shah Rukh becomes ruler of Greater Khorasan.source
• 1749January 3 – The first issue of Berlingske, Denmark's oldest continually operating newspaper, is published.source
• 1749January 21 – The Teatro Filarmonico, the main opera theater in Verona, Italy, is destroyed by fire. It is rebuilt in 1754.source
• 1749February 28 – Henry Fielding's comic novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling is published in London. Also this year, Fielding becomes magistrate at Bow Street, and first enlists the help of the Bow Street Runners, an early police force (eight men at first).source
• 1749February – The second part of John Cleland's erotic novel Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) is published in London. The author is released from debtors' prison in March.source
• 1749March 17 – At London's Covent Garden, composer George Frideric Handel conducts the first performance of his new oratorio, Solomon. More than 250 years later, an instrumental from Solomon, "The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba"; will be featured in the 2012 London Summer Olympics opening ceremony.source
• 1749August 7 – Mary Musgrove Bosomworth, a woman of mixed British and Creek Indian ancestry, presents herself as Coosaponakeesa, Queen of the Creek Indians and marches with 200 Creek Indians into the town of Savannah, Georgia. During her confrontation with British colonial authorities, she and her husband Thomas Bosomworth demand payment of "nearly twenty-five thousand dollars" in compensation for property taken from the Creek Indians, before the British authorities determine that she doesn't have the authority to speak for the tribe.source
• 1749September 12 – The first recorded game of baseball is played, by Frederick, Prince of Wales, at Kingston upon Thames in England.source
• 1749November 12 – In response to the increasing number of starving people moving into Paris from rural parts of France, King Louis XV issues an ordinance that "all the beggars and vagabonds who shall be found either in the streets of Paris, or in churches or church doorways, or in the countryside around Paris, of whatever age or sex, shall be arrested and conducted into prisons, to stay there as long as shall be necessary."source
• 1749December 5 – French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau premieres his new opera, Zoroastre, at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris, but the first version is not a success. After five years of rewriting, Rameau will revive Zoroastre on January 19, 1756 and the opera will continue to be performed more than two centuries later.source
• 1750October 14 – The Louvre Museum is created in Paris four years after art critic Lafond de Saint-Yenne calls on the King to allow the display of the royal art collection to the general public. Abel-François Poisson, the Marquis de Marigny, arranges for the display of 110 of the Crown's paintings at the Palais du Luxembourg.source
• 1750December 3 – What is described later as "The first documented presentation of a musical in New York" takes place one block east of Broadway, at the Nassau Street Theatre, when a resident company of actors stages The Beggar's Opera.source
• 1750Hannah Snell reveals her sex to her Royal Marines compatriots.source
• 1751January 7 – The University of Pennsylvania, conceived 12 years earlier by Benjamin Franklin and its other trustees to provide non-denominational higher education "to train young people for leadership in business, government and public service". rather than for the ministry, holds its first classes as "The Academy and Charitable School in the Province of Pennsylvania" in Philadelphia.source
• 1751March 25 – For the last time, New Year's Day is legally on March 25, in England and Wales and "in all his Majesty's Dominions in Europe, Asia, Africa and America" due to the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750. The months of January 1751, February 1751 and most of March 1751 did not exist in British territories: those months were recorded as the last three of 1750 according to the Old Style dating system; the equivalent months a year later were recorded as the first three of 1752 under the New Style system.source
• 1751April 19 – The Qianlong Emperor of China visits the southern capital of Nanjing for the first time, bringing with him 3,000 staff and 6,690 horses and stays for four days.source
• 1751April 29 – The sport of cricket is first played in the American colonies, as a team of New Yorkers plays against a team of Englishmen and defeats them, 167 to 80, in a match in Greenwich Village. Tom Melville, The Tented Field: A History of Cricket in America (Popular Press, 1998) p5source
• 1751May 27 (May 13 Old Style) – Adoption of the Gregorian calendar: Royal assent is given to An Act for Regulating the Commencement of the Year; and for Correcting the Calendar now in Use (the "Calendar Act") passed by the Parliament of Great Britain, introducing the Gregorian Calendar, correcting the eleven-day difference between Old Style and New Style dates and making 1 January legally New Year's Day from 1752 in the British Empire. It is largely promoted by George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield.source
• 1751June 28 – The first volume of Denis Diderot's Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, often referred to as le Encyclopédie, is publishedsource
• 1751August 13 – The Academy and College of Philadelphia, predecessor to the private University of Pennsylvania, opens its doors, with Benjamin Franklin as president.source
• 1751September 13 – Kalvária Banská Štiavnica in the Kingdom of Hungary is completed.source
• 1751November 26 – Adolf Frederick is formally crowned as the King of Sweden. The coronation ceremony takes place almost eight months after he assumed the throne.source
• 1751December 14 – The Theresian Military Academy is founded in Wiener Neustadt, Austria.source
• 1751Zand Iran is established by Karim Khan Zand.source
• 1751Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus publishes his Philosophia Botanica, the first textbook of descriptive systematic botanical taxonomy, and the first appearance of his binomial nomenclature.source
• 1752March 23 – The Halifax Gazette, the first Canadian newspaper, is published.source
• 1752April 12 – The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Spain's Royal Academy of the Fine Arts, is formally established in Spain, eight years after first being proposed to King Fernando VI by Jeronimo Antonio Gil as a small school in Madrid. The foundation of the Royal Academy is considered by historians to be "an essential step in modernizing Spain" during the Spanish Enlightenment.source
• 1752July 1 – In Istanbul, Divitdar Mehmed Emin Pasha is dismissed from his position as Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire by the Ottoman Sultan, Mahmud I. The Sultan appoints Çorlulu Ali Pasha as the new Grand Vizier.source
• 1752December 5 – The first presentation of a Shakespearean play in America is performed when a company of players stages The Merchant of Venice in Williamsburg, Virginia.source
• 1753May 1 – Species Plantarum is published by Linnaeus (adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature as the formal start date of the scientific classification of plants).source
• 1753June 7 – The British Museum is established in London, by Act of Parliament.source
• 1754March 25 – The Clandestine Marriages Act 1753 comes into force in England and Wales, placing marriage in that jurisdiction on a statutory basis for the first time.source
• 1754May 14 – The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews is founded in Scotland.source
• 1754July 17 – Classes begin at Columbia University, founded on October 31 as King's College by royal charter of King George II of Great Britain. The college is originally located in Lower Manhattan in the Province of New York. Instruction is suspended in 1776, and the school reopens in 1784 as Columbia College. With the college's growth in the 19th century, it is renamed Columbia University in 1896.source
• 1754October 31 – What will become Columbia University is chartered as "a College in the Province of New York... in the City of New York in America... named King's College", with the charter submitted by New York's colonial governor, James De Lancey.source
• 1755January 23 (O. S. January 12, Tatiana Day, nowadays celebrated on January 25) – Moscow University is established.source
• 1755April 15 – A Dictionary of the English Language is published by Samuel Johnson (he had begun the work nine years earlier, in 1746).source
• 1755June 5 – Scottish chemist Joseph Black describes his discovery of carbon dioxide (fixed air) and magnesium, in a paper to the Medical Society of Edinburgh. The paper is published in 1756 with the title Experiments upon Magnesia alba, Quicklime, and some other alkaline Substances.source
• 1755October 25 – Yirmisekizzade Mehmed Said Pasha becomes the new Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, the fifth person to serve as the Empire's Vizier in 1755.source
• 1756March 17 – St. Patrick's Day is celebrated in New York City for the first time (at the Crown and Thistle Tavern).source
• 1756June 25 – The Marine Society is founded in London, the world's oldest seafarers' charity.source
• 1756July 30 – Bartolomeo Rastrelli presents the newly built Catherine Palace at Tsarskoye Selo to Empress Elizabeth of Russia and her court.source
• 1756Leopold Mozart publishes his book on his method for learning to play the violin, Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule.source
• 1757April 29 – Inside the house at Stratford-upon-Avon in England known as Shakespeare's Birthplace, a bricklayer, identified only as "Mosely", re-tiling the roof, discovers a supposed pro-Catholic testament of John Shakespeare, father of William Shakespeare, more than 150 years after the elder's death. The finding starts "what remains one of the most controversial topics in Shakespeare studies" because of disagreements over its authenticity and date.source
• 1758Rudjer Boscovich publishes his atomic theory, in Theoria philosophiae naturalis redacta ad unicam legem virium in nalura existentium.source
• 1759January 6 – George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis.source
• 1759January 15 – Voltaire's satire Candide is published simultaneously in five countries.source
• 1759January 15 – The British Museum opens at Montagu House in London after six years of development.source
• 1759December 6 – The Germantown Union School (later called Germantown Academy), America's oldest nonsectarian day school, is founded.source
• 1759December 31 – The Guinness Brewery is leased by Arthur Guinness in St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, for the brewing of Guinness.source
• 1759The Kew Gardens are established in England by Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, the mother of George III.source
• 1759Adam Smith publishes his Theory of Moral Sentiments, embodying some of his Glasgow lectures.source
• 1760October 5 – The wedding of Princess Isabella of Parma and Prince Joseph of Austria takes place at Hofburg Palace's Redoute Hall (Redoutensaele), at the former imperial palace in Vienna.source
• 1760Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée opens a school for deaf education in Paris which becomes the Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris, the world's first free school for the deaf; Thomas Braidwood establishes Braidwood's Academy for the Deaf and Dumb in Edinburgh, the first school for the deaf in Britain.source
• 1761May 9 – Exhibition of 1761, the innaugaral exhibition of the Society of Artists of Great Britain opens at Spring Gardens in Londonsource
• 1761August 15 – The Third Family Compact is executed by King Charles III of Spain and King Louis XV of France, as well as representatives of members of the House of Bourbon, King Ferdinand IV of Naples and Philip, Duke of Parma.source
• 1761September 8 – George III marries Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.source
• 1761September 22 – George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz are crowned.source
• 1761The music for "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman" ("Ah, would I tell you Mom?") is first published in France by a Monsieur Bouin in his book Les Amusements d'une Heure et Demy; in 1806, English poet Jane Taylor publishes her poem, The Star, whose words fit the rhythm of the tune and become the children's song Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.source
• 1761l'Ordre des Chevaliers Maçons Élus Coëns de l'Univers is founded.source
• 1762March 17 – The first Saint Patrick's Day Parade in New York City takes place in lower Manhattan, inaugurating an annual tradition; the Ancient Order of the Hibernians organization later becomes the sponsor of the event, which attracts as many a 300,000 marchers in some years.source
• 1762March 20 – Innovative publisher Samuel Farley launches the weekly newspaper The American Chronicle, the seventh in New York City.source
• 1762October 5 – Orfeo ed Euridice by Cristoph Willibald Gluck was given its first performance.source
• 1762Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya is finished by Paisius of Hilendar.source
• 1762James "Athenian" Stuart and Nicholas Revett's architectural treatise Antiquities of Athens is published.source
• 1762The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates Kingston, named for King George III, as the county seat of Dobbs County, North Carolina. The name is later shortened to Kinston in 1784.source
• 1762Philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau's The Social Contract (Du Contrat social, ou Principes du droit politique) and Emile, or On Education (Émile, ou De l’éducation) are published in Amsterdam and The Hague respectively. In Rousseau's native Republic of Geneva they are publicly burned and prohibited in Paris.source
• 1763April 6 – The Théâtre du Palais-Royal, home to the Paris Opera for almost 90 years, is destroyed in an accidental fire.source
• 1763April 23 – The controversial Issue 45 of John Wilkes's satirical newspaper The North Briton is published as a response to a speech four days earlier by King George III praising the end of the Seven Years' War. In what will become a test case for freedom of speech, Wilkes, a member of Parliament, is arrested for libel of the King and imprisoned, then flee to France.source
• 1763July 9 – The Mozart family grand tour of Europe began, lifting the profile of child prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus.source
• 1763September 1 – Empress Catherine the Great of Russia endorses Ivan Betskoy's plans for a Foundling Home in Moscow.source
• 1763Joseph Haydn writes his Symphony No. 12 and Symphony No. 13 (August–December) for Nikolaus I, Prince Esterházy; also, at about this date, his Symphony No. 40.source
• 1764March 17 – Francisco Javier de la Torre arrives in Manila to become the new Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines.source
• 1764April 27 – Eight-year-old child prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart performs a private concert before King George III and Queen Charlotte in Great Britain, and has an encore on May 19.source
• 1764June 21 – The English-language Quebec Gazette is established in Quebec City, Canada (the oldest surviving newspaper in North America).source
• 1764July 8 – The Niagara Conference begins at the invitation of Sir William Johnson, the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the northern district, who hosts "one of the largest conventions of red men ever held on the continent" to negotiate the end of the hostilities from the French and Indian War. Reportedly, 2,000 representatives of the North American tribes meet at upstate New York coming from distances ranging "From Dakota to Hudson's Bay, and from Maine to Kentucky."source
• 1764July 31 – Johnson arrives at the Niagara River site to meet with the representatives of the Indian nations.source
• 1764October 15 – English scholar Edward Gibbon conceives the idea of writing The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, "as I sat musing amid the ruins of the Capitol".source
• 1764Horace Walpole - The Castle of Otranto "a story, translated by William Marshal, Gent., from the original Italian of Onuphrio Muralto", the first Gothic novelsource
• 1764Catherine the Great establishes the first secondary education school for females in Russia – The Smolny Institute, for girls of the nobility in St. Petersburg.source
• 1765January 23 – Prince Joseph of Austria marries Princess Maria Josepha of Bavaria in Vienna.source
• 1765February 8 – Frederick the Great, the King of Prussia, issues a decree abolishing the historic punishments against unmarried women in Germany for "sex crimes", particularly the Hurenstrafen (literally "whore shaming") practices of public humiliation.source
• 1765July 13 – Qianlong, the Emperor of China issues a decree that copper engravings be made to depict all of his victories in battle. In the interest of amity with the Chinese, King George III of Great Britain gives priority to the sale of British copper, and King Louis XV of France assents to the use of French artisans.source
• 1765Catherine the Great establishes the first secondary education school for non-noble females in Russia: the Novodevichii Institute, for the daughters of commoners.source
• 1766January 1 – Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie") becomes the new Stuart claimant to the throne of Great Britain, as King Charles III, and figurehead for Jacobitism.source
• 1766February 13 – John Mills is elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, with Benjamin Franklin as one of his sponsors.source
• 1766May 30 – The Theatre Royal, Bristol, opens in England. Also this year in England, the surviving Georgian Theatre (Stockton-on-Tees) opens as a playhouse.source
• 1766June 4 – On the occasion of the 28th birthday of King George III, members of the Sons of Liberty in Manhattan erect a liberty pole as a protest for the first time. The historic symbol, a tall "wooden pole with a Phrygian cap" is placed "on the Fields somewhere between Broadway and Park Row". British soldiers cut down the pole in August.source
• 1766October 1 – Crown Prince Gustav of Sweden weds Princess Sophia Magdalena of Denmark. They become King Gustav III and Queen Consort Sophia of Sweden upon his ascension to the throne in 1771.source
• 1766November 29 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart returns to Salzburg, after the Mozart family grand tour of Europe.source
• 1766November – Raja Lumu consolidates his claim to the Selangor Sultanate by marriage to the niece of the Sultan of Perak.source
• 1766Childsburgh, the Orange County, North Carolina seat laid out as Corbin Town in 1754, and renamed in 1759, is renamed Hillsborough, in honor of Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire, Earl of Hillsborough.source
• 1766Dr. James Fordyce's two-volume compendium Sermons to Young Women is published in London.source
• 1767July 3 – Norway's oldest newspaper still in print, Adresseavisen, is first published.source
• 1767November 29 – The Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria, in her capacity as Queen of Hungary, issues an edict against the Romani people (commonly called the "gypsies"), prohibiting them from marrying and calling for gypsy children to be taken away by the government so that they can be brought up by Christian families, a proclamation that "produced little or no effect in comparison with the trouble involved".source
• 1768January 9 – Philip Astley stages the first modern circus, with acrobats on galloping horses, in London.source
• 1768July 18 – "The Liberty Song", the first American patriotic song, is published in the Boston Gazette and includes the refrain "In freedom we're born".source
• 1768July 25 – The Imperial Court of China's Emperor Qianlong and his three senior grand councilors, Fuheng, Yenjisan and Liu T'ung-hsun, issues a directive to officials in the Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shandong provinces warning them about the need to respond to rumors of sorcery.source
• 1768December 10 – The Royal Academy is founded in London, with Joshua Reynolds as its first President.source
• 1768The Petit Trianon, originally designed for Madame de Pompadour, is completed in the park of the Palace of Versailles, and inaugurated by Louis XV.source
• 1768The Complete Farmer: Or, a General Dictionary of Husbandry, written by "A Society of Gentlemen", a group of members of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts in Britain, concludes publication in weekly numbers and is first published in book form.source
• 1769August 3 – The party of Gaspar de Portolà becomes the first white group to set foot in the area now known as Santa Monica, California.source
• 1769September 6–9 – David Garrick holds a Shakespeare Jubilee festival at Stratford-upon-Avon in England.source
• 1769December 13 – Dartmouth College is established in Hanover, New Hampshire, as John Wentworth, the Royal Governor, conveys a charter from King George III of Great Britain.source
• 1769The Authorized King James Version of the Bible is published in England in the Oxford standard text, edited by Benjamin Blayney.source
• 1770March 21 – King Prithvi Narayan Shah shifts to the newly constructed Basantapur Palace, in the capital Kathmandu, as the first King of the Unified Kingdom of Nepal.source
• 1770May 16 – 14-year-old Marie Antoinette of Austria marries Louis-Auguste (who in 1774 becomes King Louis XVI) at the Palace of Versailles.source
• 1771March 12 – The North Carolina General Assembly establishes Wake County (named for Margaret Wake, the wife of North Carolina Royal Governor William Tryon) from portions of Cumberland, Johnston and Orange counties. Bloomsberry (later known as Wake Courthouse) is made the informal county seat.source
• 1771June 11 – The Society of Gentlemen Supporters of the Bill of Rights meets in the London Tavern and changes its platform to a comprehensive program for British parliamentary reform in advance of the next election.source
• 1771August 8 – The first recorded town cricket match is played, at Horsham, England.source
• 1771October 17 – The opera Ascanio in Alba by Wolfgang Mozart, age 15, premieres in Milan.source
• 1772April 13 – Warren Hastings begins his service for the British East India Company as Governor of Bengal, arriving at the company's headquarters at Fort William, outside of Calcutta, and including what are now parts of northeast India and Bangladesh. Hastings serves for two years, then later becomes Governor-General of India.source
• 1773January 12 – The first museum in the American colonies is established in Charleston, South Carolina; in 1915, it is formally incorporated as the Charleston Museum.source
• 1773January 18 – The first opera performance in the Swedish language, Thetis and Phelée, performed by Carl Stenborg and Elisabeth Olin in Bollhuset in Stockholm, Sweden, marks the establishment of the Royal Swedish Opera.source
• 1773March 15 – The popular (and enduring) comedy She Stoops to Conquer, by Irish playwright Oliver Goldsmith, is performed for the first time, premiering at London's Covent Garden Theatre.source
• 1773October 10 – Paul Revere marries Rachel Walker, his second wife.source
• 1773October 14 – The Komisja Edukacji Narodowej (Polish for National Education Committee), formed in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, is considered to be the world's first ministry of education.source
• 1773December 23 – Moscow State Academy of Choreography was founded under the reign of Catherine II. It is the second ballet school in Russia after Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet.source
• 1773Istanbul Technical University is established (under the name of Royal School of Naval Engineering) as the world's first comprehensive institution of higher learning dedicated to engineering education.source
• 1773In China, written work begins on the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries, the largest literary compilation of books in China's history (surpassing the Yongle Encyclopedia of the 15th Century). Upon completion in 1782, the books are bound in 36,381 volumes (册) with more than 79,000 chapters (卷), comprising about 2.3 million pages, and approximately 800 million Chinese characters.source
• 1774April 19 – The premiere of Iphigénie en Aulide by Christoph Willibald Gluck sparks a huge controversy, almost a war, such as has not been seen in Paris since the Querelle des Bouffons.source
• 1774August 6 – Ann Lee and the Shakers arrive in America and settle in New York.source
• 1774September 29 – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's semi-autobiographical epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (Die Leiden des jungen Werthers) (written January–March) is published anonymously in Leipzig, Germany; it is influential in the Sturm und Drang movement and Romanticism.source
• 1774October 25 – The Edenton Tea Party takes place in North Carolina, marking the first major gathering of women in support of the American cause.source
• 1774November 4 – The Maryland Jockey Club follows a recommendation of the Continental Congress and cancels its race schedule. The decision sets a precedent for other jockey clubs in the colonies, and no major races are held until the end of the American Revolution.source
• 1775January 5 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart finishes a Sonata for Keyboard in C.source
• 1775June 11 – Coronation of Louis XVI takes place in Reims. The last coronation of the Ancien Regime before the French Revolutionsource
• 1775November 17 – The city of Kuopio, Finland (belonging to Sweden at this time) is founded by King Gustav III of Sweden.source
• 1776January 10 – American Revolution: Thomas Paine publishes his pamphlet Common Sense, arguing for independence from British rule in the Thirteen Colonies.source
• 1776March 28 – Foundation of the ballet troupe which becomes the world-renowned Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, Russian Empire.source
• 1776July 4 - The Albertina art museum is founded in Vienna, Austria.source
• 1776July 21 – Mozart's Serenade No. 7 (the "Haffner") is first performed in Salzburg, Austria.source
• 1776August – The guild organisation Marchandes de modes is founded in Paris.source
• 1776September 17 – The Presidio of San Francisco is founded in New Spain.source
• 1776September 24 – The Bolshoi Theatre company hosts its first annual opera season, with the opening of the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia.source
• 1776September 24 – The first running of the St Leger Stakes horse race (not yet named) in England, first of the British Classic Races, devised by Anthony St Leger (British Army officer), takes place on Cantley Common at Doncaster. The winner is a filly (later named Allabaculia) owned by the organiser, the 2nd Marquess of Rockingham.source
• 1776October 7 – Crown Prince Paul of Russia marries Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg.source
• 1776December 5 – The Phi Beta Kappa society is founded at the College of William & Mary in Virginia.source
• 1776December 19 – American Revolution – Thomas Paine, living with Washington's troops, publishes the first in the series of pamphlets on The American Crisis in The Pennsylvania Journal, opening with the stirring phrase, "These are the times that try men's souls."source
• 1777April 1 – Friedrich Maximilian Klinger's play Sturm und Drang is premiered by the Seyler Theatre Company in Leipzig, giving its name to the whole Sturm und Drang movement in German literature.source
• 1777May 8 – Richard Brinsley Sheridan's comedy of manners, The School for Scandal, is first performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London.source
• 1777June 21 – Encyclopædia Britannica Second Edition begins publication in Edinburgh.source
• 1777Kunsthochschule Kassel is founded in Germany as a fine arts academy.source
• 1777Det Dramatiske Selskab is founded in Copenhagen (Denmark) as an acting academy.source
• 1777George II Frederic is crowned as king of the Miskito Kingdom.source
• 1778May 12 – Heinrich XI, Prince Reuss of Greiz is elevated to Prince of the Principality of Reuss-Greiz by Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor. This year sees the first appearance of the modern-day national colors of Germany on a flag that closely resembles the modern flag of Germany, to occur anywhere within modern-day Germany.source
• 1778August 3 – The La Scala Opera House opens in Milan, with the première of Antonio Salieri's Europa riconosciuta.source
• 1778Thomas Kitchin's The Present State of the West-Indies: Containing an Accurate Description of What Parts Are Possessed by the Several Powers in Europe is published in London.source
• 1778Phillips Academy is founded in Massachusetts by Samuel Phillips Jr.source
• 1779October 1 – The city of Tampere, Finland (belonging to Sweden at this time) is founded by King Gustav III of Sweden.source
• 1779December 13 – Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais marries Joséphine Tascher.source
• 1780March 26 – The British Gazette and Sunday Monitor, the first Sunday newspaper in Britain, begins publication.source
• 1780April 16 – The University of Münster in Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany is founded.source
• 1780May 4 – The first Epsom Derby horse race is run on Epsom Downs, Surrey, England. The victor is Diomed.source
• 1780December 14 – Alexander Hamilton marries Elizabeth Schuyler Hamiltonsource
• 1780The amateur dramatic group Det Dramatiske Selskab is founded in Christiania, Norway.source
• 1781September 4 – Los Angeles is founded as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Ángeles de Porciuncula ("City of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula"), by a group of 44 Spanish settlers in California.source
• 1781October 12 – The first bagpipes competition is held in the Masonic Arms, Falkirk, Scotland.source
• 1781November 29 – Henry Hurle officially founds the Ancient Order of Druids in London, England.source
• 1781December – A school is founded in Washington County, Pennsylvania that will later be known as Washington & Jefferson College.source
• 1781Immanuel Kant publishes his Critique of Pure Reason.source
• 1781Reverend Samuel Peters publishes his General History of Connecticut, using the term blue law for the first time.source
• 1781'Journalisme' appears for the first time (in French).source
• 1781Phillips Exeter Academy is founded in New Hampshire.source
• 1782July 16–August 29 – The Masonic Congress of Wilhelmsbad, Germany, one of the most important secret society congresses in history, takes place. High-degree Freemasons from the whole of Europe spend the time deliberating the fate of the rite of Strict Observance, and hierarchy of the governing bodies of world Freemasonry, at the Hanau-Wilhelmsbad spa.source
• 1782July 16 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail premieres at the Burgtheater in Vienna.source
• 1782August 7 – Étienne Maurice Falconet's Bronze Horseman statue of Tsar Peter the Great is unveiled in Saint Petersburg.source
• 1782October 10 – Welsh actress Sarah Siddons, the pre-eminent star of the English stage, makes a triumphant return to the theatre in the title role of David Garrick's new play, Isabella, or The Fatal Marriage.source
• 1782The first theater in the Baltic, the Riga City Theater, is founded.source
• 1782In China, the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries is completed, the largest literary compilation in China's history (surpassing the Yongle Encyclopedia of the 15th century). The books are bound in 36,381 volumes (册) with more than 79,000 chapters (卷), comprising about 2.3 million pages, and approximately 800 million Chinese characters.source
• 1783May 13 – The Society of the Cincinnati, a fraternal organization for American veterans of the American Revolution, is formed in Newburgh, New York.source
• 1783May 26 – A Great Jubilee Day, celebrating the end of the American Revolution, is held in Trumbull, Connecticut.source
• 1783June 4 or June 5 – The Montgolfier brothers publicly demonstrate their hot air balloon at Annonay, France.source
• 1783September 9 – Dickinson College is chartered in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.source
• 1783October 17 – Mozart's Great Mass is first performed, in Salzburg, Austria.source
• 1783December 4 – At Fraunces Tavern in New York City, U.S. General George Washington formally bids his officers farewell.source
• 1784April 27 – The Marriage of Figaro, written by playwright Pierre Beaumarchais as a sequel to The Barber of Seville, premieres at the Comédie-Française in Paris.source
• 1784June 4 – Élisabeth Thible is the first woman to ascend in a hot-air balloon, at Lyon, France.source
• 1784December – Immanuel Kant's essay "Answering the Question: What Is Enlightenment?" is published.source
• 1784The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates the town of Morgansborough, named for Daniel Morgan. The town is designated as the county seat for Burke County, North Carolina and is subsequently renamed Morgan, later shortened to Morganton.source
• 1784Princess Yekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova is named first president of the newly created Russian Academy.source
• 1784Foundation of the first theater in Estonia, the Tallinna saksa teater.source
• 1785January 1 – The first issue of the Daily Universal Register, later known as The Times, is published in London.source
• 1785January 27 – The University of Georgia in the United States is chartered by the Georgia General Assembly meeting in Savannah. The first students are admitted in Athens, Georgia in 1801.source
• 1785July 16 – The Piper-Heidsieck Champagne house is founded by Florens-Louis Heidsieck in Reims, France.source
• 1785October 13 – The first newspaper in British India, the English-language Madras Courier, is published. It continues publication as a weekly until 1794.source
• 1785Belfast Academy (later Belfast Royal Academy) is founded by Rev. James Crombie in Belfast, Northern Ireland.source
• 1785Cabinet des Modes, the first fashion magazine, is published in France.source
• 1785The University of New Brunswick is founded in Fredericton, New Brunswick.source
• 1786April 11 – Columbia College (modern-day Columbia University) holds its first graduation, with eight students, including DeWitt Clinton.source
• 1786May 1 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera The Marriage of Figaro premieres in Vienna.source
• 1786July 31 – The 'Kilmarnock volume' of Robert Burns' Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect is published in Scotland.source
• 1786August 17 – Frederick William II, the paternal nephew of Frederick the Great, becomes King of Prussia.source
• 1786November 7 – The oldest musical organization in the United States, the Stoughton Musical Society, is founded.source
• 1786November 30 – Peter Leopold Joseph of Habsburg-Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany, promulgates a penal reform, making his country the first state to abolish the death penalty. This day is therefore commemorated by 300 cities around the world as Cities for Life Day.source
• 1787January 19 – Mozart's Symphony No. 38 is premièred in Prague.source
• 1787February 28 – A charter is granted, establishing the institution which will become the University of Pittsburgh.source
• 1787May 31 – The original Lord's Cricket Ground in London holds its first cricket match; Marylebone Cricket Club founded.source
• 1787September 4 – The first secondary school open to girls in Denmark, J. Cl. Todes Døtreskole, is founded in Copenhagen.source
• 1787September 24 – Washington Academy (later Washington & Jefferson College) is chartered by the Pennsylvania General Assembly.source
• 1787October 27 – The first of The Federalist Papers, a series of essays calling for ratification of the U.S. Constitution, is published in The Independent Journal, a New York newspaper.source
• 1787October 29 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Don Giovanni (libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte) premieres in the Estates Theatre in Prague.source
• 1787November 1 – The first secondary school open to girls in Sweden, Societetsskolan, is founded in Gothenburg.source
• 1788January 1 – The first edition of The Times, previously The Daily Universal Register, is published in London.source
• 1788June 7 – France: Day of the Tiles, which some consider the beginning of the French Revolution.source
• 1788June 9 – The African Association, an exploration group dedicated to plotting the Niger River and finding Timbuktu, is founded in England.source
• 1788June 26 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in Vienna, completes his antepenultimate symphony, the Symphony No. 39 in E-flat.source
• 1788July 28 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in Vienna, completes his penultimate symphony, the Symphony No. 40 in G Minor.source
• 1788August 8 – King Louis XVI agrees to convene the Estates-General meeting in May 1789, the first time since 1614.source
• 1788August 10 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in Vienna, completes his final symphony, the Symphony No. 41 in C Major, and nicknamed (after his death) The Jupiter.source
• 1789January 21 – The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth, is printed in Boston, Massachusetts. The anonymous author is William Hill Brown.source
• 1789January 23 – Georgetown University is founded in Georgetown, Maryland (part of modern-day Washington, D.C.), as the first Roman Catholic college in the United States.source
• 1789January – Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès publishes the pamphlet What Is the Third Estate? (Qu'est-ce que le tiers-état?), influential on the French Revolution.source
• 1789May 5 – In France, the Estates-General convenes for the first time in 175 years, taken as the start of the French Revolution (1789–1799).source
• 1789June 20 – The Tennis Court Oath is taken in Versailles.source
• 1789June 23 – Louis XVI of France makes a conciliatory speech urging reforms to a joint session, and orders the three estates to meet together.source
• 1789September 2 – The United States Department of the Treasury is founded.source
• 1789September 22 – The United States Department of the Post Office is established.source
• 1789October 5 – Women's March on Versailles: Some 7,000 women march 12 mi km from Paris to the royal Palace of Versailles to demand action over high bread prices.source
• 1789December 11 – The University of North Carolina, the oldest public university in the United States, is founded.source
• 1789The Traité Élémentaire de Chimie (Elementary Treatise of Chemistry), an influential chemistry textbook by Antoine Lavoisier, is published; translated into English in 1790, it comes to be considered the first modern chemical textbook.source
• 1789Former slave Olaudah Equiano's autobiography The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, one of the earliest published works by a black writer, is published in London.source
• 1790January 26 – Mozart's opera Così fan tutte premieres in Vienna.source
• 1790July 14 – French Revolution: Citizens of Paris celebrate the unity of the French people and the national reconciliation, in the Fête de la Fédération.source
• 1790September 25 – The Peking Opera is born, when the Four Great Anhui Troupes introduce Anhui opera to Beijing, in honor of the Qianlong Emperor's 80th birthday.source
• 1790September 30 – Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor starts to rule.source
• 1791January 1 – Austrian composer Joseph Haydn arrives in England, to perform a series of concerts.source
• 1791March 13 – Thomas Paine's chief work Rights of Man (first part) is published in London.source
• 1791June 21 – The Ordnance Survey is founded in Great Britain for the production of maps.source
• 1791July 8 – Austrian composer Joseph Haydn, on his visit to England, is awarded an honorary doctorate of music at the University of Oxford.source
• 1791September 5 – An ordinance is written barring the game of baseball within 80 yards of the Meeting House in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, the first known reference to the game of baseball in North America.source
• 1791September 6 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera seria, La clemenza di Tito, premières at the Estates Theatre in Prague with Mozart conducting to mark the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia.source
• 1791September 12 – The first serious secondary education school open to girls in Denmark, the Døtreskolen af 1791, is founded in Copenhagen.source
• 1791September 30 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's singspiel opera The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte) premières at the Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna with Mozart conducting.source
• 1791October 28 – French Revolution: The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen is published in France.source
• 1791December 4 – The first issue of The Observer, the world's first Sunday newspaper, is published in London.source
• 1791The Dar Hassan Pacha (palace) in the Casbah of Algiers is completed.source
• 1791The School for the Indigent Blind, the oldest continuously operating specialist school of its kind in the world, is founded in Liverpool, England, by blind ex-merchant seaman, writer and abolitionist Edward Rushton.source
• 1791The first printed manuscript of Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin, one of the Classic Chinese Novels, begins publication posthumously.source
• 1792January 25 – The London Corresponding Society is founded.source
• 1792September 12 – The town of Fort Borbon is founded by Governor Joaquín Alós y Bru. Nowadays it is called Fuerte Olimpo.source
• 1792October 12 – The first Columbus Day celebration in the United States is held in New York City, 300 years after his arrival in the New World.source
• 1792Johann Georg Albrechtsberger becomes Kapellmeister in Vienna.source
• 1792The composer Ludwig van Beethoven moves to Vienna from Bonn to study with Haydn. He would live in Vienna for the rest of his life.source
• 1792Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, one of the earliest works of feminist literature, is published in London.source
• 1792The first written examinations in Europe are held at the University of Cambridge in England.source
• 1793January 2 – Premiere of Mozart's Requiem (completed after the composer's death in 1791 by Franz Xaver Süssmayr) in a performace for the benefit of Mozart's widow, Constanze.source
• 1793June 10 – French Revolution: The Jardin des Plantes and the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle are created by the National Convention. The museum opens in Paris the following year, and the garden houses one of the first public zoos.source
• 1793August 10 – French Revolution – Feast of Unitysource
• 1793September 8 – The first Círio de Nazaré is celebrated in Belém.source
• 1793December 9 – New York City's first daily newspaper, the American Minerva, is established by Noah Webster.source
• 1793The Louvre in Paris opens to the public as an art museum.source
• 1793Lawrence Academy (Groton, Massachusetts) is chartered.source
• 1793Niccolò Paganini debuts as a violin virtuoso at age 11 in his birthplace of Genoa.source
• 1794February 4 – French Revolution: The National Convention of the French First Republic abolishes slavery.source
• 1794March 11 – Canonsburg Academy (modern-day Washington & Jefferson College) is chartered by the Pennsylvania General Assembly.source
• 1794June 24 – Bowdoin College is founded in Brunswick, Maine.source
• 1794August 1 – Aristocrats in Sweden gather to mourn the demise of coffee after the beverage is forbidden by royal decree.source
• 1794August 29 – Stonyhurst College is finally established as a Roman Catholic school in Lancashire, England, having had several European locations.source
• 1794September 10 – The University of Tennessee is established at Knoxville.source
• 1794November 14 – The first recorded meeting of the Franklin Literary Society is held at Canonsburg Academy (modern-day Washington & Jefferson College).source
• 1794The Ayrshire (Earl of Carrick's Own) Yeomanry, a British Yeomanry Cavalry Regiment, is formed by the Earl of Cassillis at Culzean Castle, Ayrshire.source
• 1795January 14 – The University of North Carolina opens to students at Chapel Hill, becoming the first state university in the United States.source
• 1795March 29 – Ludwig van Beethoven makes his public debut in Vienna performing his Second Piano Concerto under the baton of his teacher Antonio Salieri.source
• 1795April 8 – George, Prince of Wales, marries Caroline of Brunswick.source
• 1795June 3 – The Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies are founded at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.source
• 1796March 9 – Widow Joséphine de Beauharnais marries General Napoleon Bonaparte.source
• 1796October – Jane Austen begins writing her first draft of Pride and Prejudice, under the title First Impressions (the book will not be published until 1813).source
• 1796Robert Burns's version of the Scots poem Auld Lang Syne is first published, in this year's volume of The Scots Musical Museum.source
• 1797February 12 – "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" is first performed, with the music composed in January by Joseph Haydn, and it also becomes the tune of the Deutschlandlied, the German national anthem (Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, later Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit).source
• 1797March 13 – Médée, an opera by Luigi Cherubini, is premiered in Paris.source
• 1797May 30 – English abolitionist William Wilberforce marries Barbara Ann Spooner about six weeks after their first meeting.source
• 1797November 16 – The Prussian heir apparent, Frederick William, becomes King of Prussia as Fredrick William III.source
• 1797Joseph-Louis Lagrange publishes his treatise on differential calculus, entitled Théorie des fonctions analytiques.source
• 1797Shinyukan Cram School (進修館) founded by Masataka Okudaira (奥平昌孝) in Nakatsu, Buzen Province (now Oita Prefecture), Kyushu Island, as predecessor of Keio-Gijyuku University in Japan.source
• 1798January 4 – Constantine Hangerli enters Bucharest, as Prince of Wallachia.source
• 1798September 18 – Lyrical Ballads is published anonymously by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, inaugurating the English Romantic movement in literature.source
• 1798September – Charles Brockden Brown publishes the first significant American novel, the Gothic fiction Wieland: or, The Transformation; an American Tale.source
• 1799March 14 – The public premiere of Haydn’s oratorio The Creation takes place at the Burgtheater in Vienna.source
• 1799March 29 – New York passes a law aimed at gradually abolishing slavery in the state.source