Health & Medicine in the 18th century

289 sourced entries, 1700 CE to 1799 CE, oldest first. Also see Health & Medicine across every century or everything else in the 18th century.

• 1700Population of Acadia is 1,400.Canadasource
• 1703March 15 – The landmark English court case of Rose v Royal College of Physicians is decided by the Court of Queen's Bench, beginning the end of the monopoly that the Royal College of Physicians has over the practice of medicine.source
• 170315 March – the landmark case of Rose v Royal College of Physicians is decided in the Court of Queen's Bench, beginning the end of the monopoly that the Royal College of Physicians has over the practice of medicine.Englandsource
• 1703Between 1702 and 1703 – An epidemic of smallpox breaks out in Quebec, in which 2,000-3,000 people die (300-400 in Quebec City).source
• 1705date unknown - Edward Brereton is replaced as MP for Denbigh after having offended the local gentry.Walessource
• 170616 January – Stege Pharmacy is established in the town of Stege on Møn.Denmarksource
• 1706August 18 – King Louis XIV of France makes his last visit to Paris, and gets an update on the construction of the veterans' hospital at the Dome des Invalides, which he had commissioned more than 35 years earlier.source
• 170619 October – an Edinburgh mob opposed to the Union threatens the Lord Provost.Scotlandsource
• 1708The Uppsala University Hospital is founded.Swedensource
• 1710July - The Great Northern War plague outbreak reach Stockholm.Swedensource
• 1710August–September - The Great Northern War plague outbreak spread from the capital to the Swedish country.Swedensource
• 1710Alexis Littré, in his treatise Diverses observations anatomiques, is the first physician to suggest the possibility of performing a lumbar colostomy for an obstruction of the colon.source
• 1710Ladegården is converted into a military hospital.Denmarksource
• 1710A Visitation of the Archdeaconry of Carmarthen to Llandissilio finds that, out of about 120 families in the parish, 40 attend church at Easter, 20 at Whitsuntide and 20 at Christmas and notes that "the Minister suffers in his reputation for being addicted to drinking and swearing".Walessource
• 1711January – An outbreak of plaque his Helsingør.Denmarksource
• 1711May 25 – Helsingør is put under military blockade to prevent an outbreak of plague from spreading to Copenhagen. A total of 1,809, about one third of Helsingør's population, are killed by the disease in 1711. The efforts to keep the disease from spreading fail and a total of 40,000 people in Copenhagen and northern Zealand are killed by the disease during the outbreak. The blockade of Helsingør is not lifted until 25 July 1712.Denmarksource
• 1711October 14 – Yostos kills Tewoflos, becoming Emperor of Ethiopia.source
• 1711Great Northern War plague outbreakSwedensource
• 1711The profession of midwifery is regulated and all future midwives are to be licensed by the Collegium Medicum after having been tutored by an already licensed midwife for a period of two years and passed the examination of a doctor before being allowed to practice their trade (until 1777, this applied only to the capital): the midwives are also banned from using instruments.Swedensource
• 1712March 30 – Anne, Queen of Great Britain administers the Royal touch (a ritual with the intent to cure illness) for the last time; 300 scrofulous people are touched, the last of whom is Samuel Johnson.source
• 171230 March – Queen Anne administers the Royal touch, a ritual with the intent to cure illness, for the last time; 300 scrofulous people are touched, the last of whom is Samuel Johnson.United Kingdomsource
• 1712Royal Hospital School established for seafarers' orphans by charter at the site of Greenwich Hospital, London.United Kingdomsource
• 17132 November - Princess Ulrika Eleonora appointed regent of Sweden in her brothers absence.Swedensource
• 1714February 28 – (February 17 old style) Russia's Tsar Peter the Great issues a decree requiring compulsory education in mathematics for children of government officials and nobility, applying to children between the ages of 10 and 15 years old.source
• 1714May 19 – Anne, Queen of Great Britain, refuses to allow members of the House of Hanover to settle in Britain during her lifetime.source
• 1714September 29 – The Great Hatred: the Cossacks of the Russian Empire kill about 800 people overnight on the Finnish island of Hailuoto.Russiasource
• 1715March - Owen Meyrick, a Whig, challenges the supremacy of the Tory Bulkeley family in Anglesey by being elected to Parliament for the constituency.Walessource
• 1716May 28 – John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, suffers a paralytic stroke.source
• 1716Tsar Peter the Great of Russia studies with the physician Herman Boerhaave, at Leiden University.source
• 1717October 9 – King Philip V of Spain orders the closure of all universities in Catalonia, including the historic Estudi General de Lleida.source
• 1717Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, wife of the British ambassador to Istanbul, has her son inoculated.source
• 1718February - Prince George William of Wales falls ill (later diagnosed as a heart disease); his parents, the Prince and Princess of Wales, are allowed by King George I to visit him at Kensington Palace, despite having been banished from the royal presence a few months earlier.Walessource
• 1718March 18 – Edward Wortley Montagu, the four-year-old son of the British Ambassador to Turkey, becomes the first British person to be inoculated with the smallpox vaccine, administered by Dr. Charles Maitland at the request of Edward's mother, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.source
• 1718Jervis Street Hospital, is founded by six surgeons as the Charitable Infirmary in Cook Street, the first public voluntary hospital in the British Isles.Irelandsource
• 1718Greenwich Hospital receives a Royal Charter (revoked in 1829).United Kingdomsource
• 1719Europe's first systematic population census is taken in the Kingdom of Prussia's Margraviate of Brandenburg.source
• 1720May – Great Plague of Marseille begins. The last major outbreak of bubonic plague in western Europe, the disease kill over 100,000 people in the city and surrounding area of France.source
• 172027 July - 1720 års skråordning, the first national guild regulation is introduced, which replaces all the local guild regulations and is in place until the abolition of the guild system by the Fabriks och Handtwerksordning and Handelsordningen of 1846.Swedensource
• 1720The Guild Regulation of 1720 is introduced in Sweden.source
• 1720Outbreak of plague in Marseille; the bishop, Henri François Xavier de Belsunce de Castelmoron, wins approbation by remaining in his diocese.Francesource
• 1720Dr Steevens' Hospital is established at Kilmainham, Dublin.Irelandsource
• 1720The General Regulation was issued . It was the first statute of the state civil serviceRussiasource
• 1721April 21 – The deadliest outbreak of smallpox in the history of Boston begins when the British ship HMS Sea Horse arrives in Boston Harbor with a crew of sailors who had survived a smallpox epidemic. One of the Seahorse crew who had cleared quarantine develops symptoms the next day and infects other people in a lodging house. Over the next 10 months, 5,759 cases of smallpox are recorded in Boston and 844 people die of the disease.source
• 1721April – October, the Attingal Outbreak took placeIndiasource
• 1721May – Prince William, the youngest child of the Prince and Princess of Wales, is taken ill with suspected smallpox; it turns out to be a false alarm, but inoculation becomes popular among aristocratic families as well as the royal family.Walessource
• 1721June 26 – Dr. Zabdiel Boylston of the Harvard University School of Medicine begins the first public inoculation campaign in order to slow the smallpox epidemic in Boston, giving a vaccine to his own son, and then to his slave and the slave's infant son.source
• 1721Chandos Chair of Medicine and Anatomy established at the University of St Andrews.Scotlandsource
• 1721Thomas Guy founds Guy's Hospital in London.United Kingdomsource
• 1721Lady Mary Wortley Montagu introduces smallpox inoculation to Britain: the Princess of Wales is persuaded to test the treatment and the procedure becomes fashionable.United Kingdomsource
• 172217 April - Ditlev Vibe was appointed Governor-general of Norway.Norwaysource
• 1723October 31 – Gian Gastone de' Medici becomes the new Grand Duke of Tuscany upon the death of his father Cosimo III de' Medici; he will be the state's last ruler from the House of Medici. During his reign, the state treasury is depleted and Tuscany becomes one of the poorest nations in Europe.source
• 1723The first portion of Dr Steevens' Hospital is opened at Kilmainham, Dublin.Irelandsource
• 1724May - Alexander Menshikov was removed from the post of Governor-General of the Saint Petersburg Governorate for significant abuses. Pyotr Apraksin was appointed to his place.Russiasource
• 1725January – In Japan, the policy of the Gonin Gumi organizing groups of every five households in a town into units collectively responsible for the good behavior of everyone in the unit, goes into effect as the register of units is completed by the Tokugawa shogunate.source
• 1725February 20 – The first reported case of white men scalping Native Americans takes place in New Hampshire colony.source
• 1725Public bath houses are banned to prevent the spread of syphilis.Swedensource
• 1725The new building of the Danviken Hospital is completed.Swedensource
• 1726October–December – Mary Toft from Godalming causes a sensation by purporting to give birth to rabbits.United Kingdomsource
• 1726A faculty of medicine is formally established at the University of Edinburgh, a predecessor of the University of Edinburgh Medical School. John Rutherford becomes Professor of Practice of Medicine.Scotlandsource
• 1727January 9 – The world-famous Charité Hospital is established in Berlin, to be used for research and to help the poor. Prussia's King Frederick William I had ordered the conversion of a 16-year old institution, originally built in anticipation of an epidemic of the bubonic plague.source
• 1727September 8 – A barn fire during a puppet show in the village of Burwell, Cambridgeshire, England, kills 78 people, many of them children. Another report says that all but six of the 160 persons assembled were killed in the accidental fire.source
• 1727St. James's Hospital, Dublin, opens.Irelandsource
• 1727Outbreak of smallpox on Hirta.Scotlandsource
• 1728April 29 – John Essington, a member of the British House of Commons, is expelled from Commons after a successful petition to have him unseated. Essington, deep in debt, dies in Newgate Prison less than year later.source
• 172831 May – The Royal Bank of Scotland extends the first overdraft (to Edinburgh merchant William Hogg for £1,000).Scotlandsource
• 1729June 8 – The Botanic Gardens of Pamplemousses, one of the most popular tourist attractions on the island republic of Mauritius, are started by Pierre Barmond, who sets aside thousands of acres for the purpose of preservation of the islands flora. The gardens come to occupy 97 square miles or 251 square kilometers.source
• 17296 August – Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh established as the "Hospital for the Sick Poor" or "Physicians' Hospital" in Edinburgh.Scotlandsource
• 1729September–December – influenza outbreak with very high mortality, estimated at more than 6,500 deaths.United Kingdomsource
• 1729Zachariah Williams is admitted as a poor brother pensioner of the Charterhouse in London.Walessource
• 1730June 19 – At the urging of Sir William Gooch, the Virginia House of Burgesses passes the Virginia Tobacco Inspection Act to regulate the quality of tobacco in Virginia, 46 to 5.source
• 1730Utrecht sodomy trials, a purge of homosexuals issued by the States of HollandNetherlandssource
• 1730The population of the UK exceeds 10 million for the first time.United Kingdomsource
• 1731February 20 – Louise Hippolyte becomes the second woman to serve as Princess of Monaco, the reigning monarch of the tiny European principality, ascending upon the death of her father Prince Antonio. She reigns only nine months before dying of smallpox on December 29.source
• 1731September – The first successful appendectomy is performed by English surgeon William Cookesley.source
• 1731September – the first successful appendectomy is performed by surgeon William Cookesley.United Kingdomsource
• 1731December 29 – Jacques Grimaldi, the husband of the reigning monarch of Monaco, Louise Hippolyte, succeeds to the throne after Louise's death from smallpox. Jacques I rules until his own death in 1751.source
• 1731Laura Bassi becomes the first official female university teacher, on being appointed professor of anatomy at the University of Bologna, at the age of 21.source
• 1731Christian Rantzau was appointed Governor-General of Norway.Norwaysource
• 1731Publication in Edinburgh of The Poor Man's Physician, or The receipts of the famous John Moncrief of Tippermalloch; being a choice collection of simple and easy remedies for most distempers, very useful for all persons, especially those of a poorer condition ... To which is added The method of curing the small pox and scurvy, by the eminent Dr. Archibald Pitcairn (3rd edition).Scotlandsource
• 17332 July – completion of Dr Steevens' Hospital in Dublin.Irelandsource
• 1733December 25 – The Molasses Act goes into full effect.source
• 173417 August – Mercer's Hospital for the sick and poor in Dublin is founded under a bequest of Mary Mercer.Irelandsource
• 1735September – Griffith Hughes records in his diary that he has broken his "knee pan" while travelling in Pennsylvania on behalf of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.Walessource
• 1735November 30 – The Netherlands becomes the first government to announce a prohibition against citizens joining the Freemasons.source
• 1735December 6 – The second successful appendectomy is performed by naturalised British surgeon Claudius Aymand at St George's Hospital in London (the first was in 1731).source
• 17356 December – the second successful appendectomy is performed by naturalised French-born surgeon Claudius Aymand at St George's Hospital in London (the first was in 1731).United Kingdomsource
• 1736March 31 – Bellevue Hospital is founded in New York.source
• 1736September 29 – The Gin Act 1736 goes into effect, placing a steep tax on the sale of gin and license requirements for its sale, with the intent of reducing consumption of the liquor in Britain. Widely ignored, the Act is repealed in 1743.source
• 173629 September – Gin Act 1736 comes into effect in an attempt to curtail the Gin Craze.United Kingdomsource
• 1736The Haidamakas raid the shtetl of Pavoloch, killing 35.source
• 1736Mandatory confirmation is introduced.Norwaysource
• 1736c. October – Winchester County Hospital, established by Prebendary Alured Clarke, the first voluntary general hospital in the English provinces, begins to function in Hampshire.United Kingdomsource
• 1737June 21 – In Britain, the Theatrical Licensing Act requires plays to be submitted to the Lord Chamberlain for censorship.source
• 1737July 9 – The direct male line of the Medici family becomes extinct, with the death of Gian Gastone de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.source
• 173710 October – King George II expels Frederick, Prince of Wales from the royal court for criticising the government.United Kingdomsource
• 1737December – Bristol Infirmary admits its first patients. This year, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary was founded.United Kingdomsource
• 1737Aberdeen Royal Infirmary founded as Woolmanhill Hospital.Scotlandsource
• 1738August 10 – Russo-Turkish War (1735–1739): The Russian army begins its attempt to cross the Dniester River and fails after three weeks; it is later decimated by plague.source
• 1738Smallpox strikes the Cherokee in the U.S. Southeast, killing almost half the population. Smallpox also reaches tribes in western Canada.Canadasource
• 1739July 9 – The first group purporting to represent an all-England cricket team, consisting of 11 players from various parts of England, comes to Kent and loses to the renowned Kent team, led by Lord John Sackville.source
• 1739October 17 – The Foundling Hospital is created in London by royal charter.source
• 173917 October – the Foundling Hospital in London, established by Thomas Coram, is granted its royal charter.United Kingdomsource
• 1739Census of New France counts 42,801 inhabitants.Canadasource
• 1739A new regulation states that knowledge in the Finnish language should always be considered when someone is employed in a public office in the province of Finland; though all education above basic education and all public servants in Finland remain Swedish speaking, this regulation does increase the use of the Finnish language in public in Finland.Swedensource
• 1739In accordance with the new law of spinning teachers, the linen weaver Elisabeth Forsell are sent to Finland on government support to introduce linen spinning in the province.Swedensource
• 1740April – citizens of Drogheda prevent food being exported from their town to Scotland.Irelandsource
• 174021 August – First issue of grog in the Royal Navy.United Kingdomsource
• 174117 May – George Watson's College opens in Edinburgh as George Watson's Hospital.Scotlandsource
• 1741Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh moves to a new building designed by William Adam.Scotlandsource
• 1741The punishment of Uppenbar kyrkoplikt (Public Church Duty), a form of public humiliation were criminals are pilloried by being placed on a stool during sermon and repent their criminal act, are abolished for sexual crimes, such as having sex outside marriage, in order to spare unmarried mothers the social stigma which are viewed as a contributing factor of infanticide. The reason is to spare unmarried mothers the social stigma which results in infanticide, as the Uppenbar kyrkoplikt in practice exposed them and makes their indiscretion impossible to hide.Swedensource
• 1742February–November – Cambuslang Work, an outbreak of Christian revival at Cambuslang.Scotlandsource
• 1742July – Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 3rd Baronet vacates his Montgomeryshire seat when the result of the previous year's election for Denbighshire is overturned in his favour.Walessource
• 1742August 17 – Irish author and poet Dean Jonathan Swift is declared by a court to be "of unsound mind and memory" and confined to home treatment for the remaining three years of his life.source
• 1742September 16 – Construction starts on the Foundling Hospital in London.source
• 174216 September – construction starts on the Foundling Hospital in London.United Kingdomsource
• 174423 May – the Hospital for Incurables is opened in Dublin as a charitable institution.Irelandsource
• 174448 members of the free church of Zionittene flees from Norway to Altona in Holstein.Norwaysource
• 1744Northampton General Hospital established as Northampton Infirmary.United Kingdomsource
• 1745Bartholomew Mosse establishes the Dublin Lying-In Hospital.Irelandsource
• 174611 April – preventing Irish subjects in the service of France or Spain from holding property.Irelandsource
• 1746August 1 – The wearing of the kilt is banned in Scotland by the Dress Act, which comes into force one year later, on August 1, 1747.source
• 17461 August – Dress Act 1746 proscribes wearing of the tartan.Scotlandsource
• 17461 August – wearing of the kilt is banned in Scotland by the Dress Act.United Kingdomsource
• 1746Typhoid fever epidemic breaks out among the Micmac of Nova Scotia.Canadasource
• 1747January 31 – The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital.source
• 174731 January – the first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital.United Kingdomsource
• 1747James Lind's experiment begins to prove that citrus fruits prevent scurvy.source
• 1747James Lind undertakes one of the first controlled experiments in clinical medicine, on the effect of citrus fruit as a cure for scurvy.Scotlandsource
• 1748John Fothergill's pamphlet Account of the Sore Throat attended with Ulcers contains the first description of diphtheria.United Kingdomsource
• 1748Henry Fielding organises the forerunner of the Bow Street Runners, with eight men at first.United Kingdomsource
• 1749April 27 – The first official performance of Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks in London finishes early, due to the outbreak of fire. The piece had been composed by Handel to commemorate the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, which ended the War of the Austrian Succession in 1748.source
• 174927 April – the first official performance of Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks finishes early due to the outbreak of fire. The piece was composed by Handel for a display in London's Green Park to commemorate the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle which ended the War of the Austrian Succession in 1748.United Kingdomsource
• 1749November 24 – The Province of South Carolina House of Assembly votes to free African-American slave Caesar Norman, and to grant him a lifetime pension of 100 British pounds per year, in return for Caesar's agreement to share the secret of his antidote for poisonous snake venom. Caesar then makes public his herbal cure of juice from Plantago major (the common plantain) and Marrubium vulgare (horehound), combined with "a leaf of good tobacco moistened with rum".source
• 1750March 5 – The Murray-Kean Company, a troupe of actors from Philadelphia, gives the first performance of a play announced in advance in a newspaper, presenting Richard III at New York City's Nassau Street Theatre.source
• 1751April – the Gin Act requires government inspection of distilleries and restricts sale to licensed premises.United Kingdomsource
• 1751May 11 – The Pennsylvania Hospital, first hospital in the American colonies, is chartered in Philadelphia by the Pennsylvania legislature, which grants the right to Benjamin Franklin and to Dr. Thomas Bond.source
• 1751November 17 – Future United States President George Washington becomes seriously ill with smallpox while he and his older brother Lawrence are visiting the island of Barbados during an epidemic Washington, 19 years old, survives the virus but is bedridden for almost a month.source
• 1751The Medical School is founded.source
• 1751Newcastle Infirmary founded in Newcastle upon Tyne.United Kingdomsource
• 1752February 10 – Pennsylvania Hospital, the first hospital in the United States, and the first to offer medical treatment to the mentally ill, admits its first patients at a temporary location in Philadelphia.source
• 1752The first modern hospital, Serafimerlasarettet, is founded.Swedensource
• 1752Foundation of what will become the Manchester Royal Infirmary as a cottage hospital in Garden Street, Manchester, by Charles White (surgeon).United Kingdomsource
• 175323 October – first naval patients admitted to Royal Hospital Haslar in Hampshire. When the main building is completed in 1762 this will be the world's largest hospital and Europe's largest brick building.United Kingdomsource
• 1753November 12 – Spain's King Fernando VI issues a set of 25 regulations and restrictions for theatrical performances, including a requirement that the directors of the acting troupes "take the greatest care that the necessary modesty is preserved" and that the actors should be reminded that chastity requires that "indecent and provocative" dances should be avoided.source
• 175418 April–20 May – General election increases the Whig Party's majority. Corruption is particularly notorious in the Oxfordshire election.United Kingdomsource
• 1754County of Meath Infirmary established at Navan.Irelandsource
• 1755Demographic history of Scotland: First reliable national census conducted by Rev. Alexander Webster, showing the country's population as 1,265,380. Four towns have populations of over 10,000, with Edinburgh the largest with 57,000 inhabitants.Scotlandsource
• 1756A syphilis outbreak is reported in Iceland.Icelandsource
• 1757March 30 – The Rigshospitalet, national hospital of Denmark, is founded at Copenhagen.source
• 17576 May – asylum confinement of Christopher Smart: poet Christopher Smart is confined to St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics in London.United Kingdomsource
• 1757September 26 – St Patrick's Hospital for Imbeciles, Dublin, established under the will of Jonathan Swift, accepts its first patientsIrelandsource
• 1757December 8 – the Rotunda Hospital opens in Dublin.Irelandsource
• 1757Physician Francis Home publishes The Principles of Agriculture and Vegetation, an early presentation of the chemical principles underlying plant nutrition, in Edinburgh.Scotlandsource
• 1758February 23 – Jonathan Edwards, the famed English theologian who had assumed the presidency of what is now Princeton University only a week earlier, sets an example for students and faculty by publicly receiving an inoculation against smallpox. Unfortunately, the vaccine contains live smallpox; Edwards develops the disease and dies on March 22 at the age of 54.source
• 1758October – Evan Evans (Ieuan Fardd) becomes curate of Llanllechid.Walessource
• 1758Physician Francis Home makes the first attempt to deliver a measles vaccine.Scotlandsource
• 1758circa December – the first Magdalene institution in Britain, Magdalen Hospital for the Reception of Penitent Prostitutes, is founded in Whitechapel, London, by Robert Dingley, Jonas Hanway, and John Fielding.United Kingdomsource
• 1759September: Bjarni Pálsson becomes the first Icelander to complete a medical degree.Icelandsource
• 176018 March: The Directorate of Health is established. Jón Sveinsson is appointed the Director of Health.Icelandsource
• 1760April 30 – Swiss mathematician Daniel Bernoulli presents a paper at the French Academy of Sciences in Paris in which "a mathematical model was used for the first time to study the population dynamics of infectious disease."source
• 1760Rinderpest epidemic and the beginning of the rinderpest eradication.Denmarksource
• 1761April 4 – A severe epidemic of influenza breaks out in London and "practically the entire population of the city" is afflicted; particularly contagious to pregnant women, the disease causes an unusual number of miscarriages and premature births.source
• 1761April 14 – Thomas Boone is transferred south to become the Royal Governor of South Carolina after proving to be unable to work with the local assembly as the Royal Governor of New Jersey.source
• 1761October 5 – William Pitt is dismissed from his position as Secretary of State for the Southern Department after having been a powerful part of a coalition government with the Prime Minister, the Duke of Newcastle.source
• 1762April 5 – France issues a new ordinance requiring all black and mixed-race Frenchmen to register their identity information with the offices of the Admiralty Court, upon the advice of Guillaume Poncet de la Grave, adviser to King Louis XV. The new rule, which requires both free and enslaved blacks and mulattoes to list data including their age, surname, purpose for which they are residing in France, whether they have been baptized as Christians, where they emigrated from in Africa and the name of the ship upon which they arrived. Previously, the Declaration of 1738 required slave-owners to register their slaves, but placed no requirement on free people.source
• 17625 April – France issues a new ordinance requiring all black and mixed-race Frenchmen to register their identity information with the offices of the Admiralty Court, upon the advice of Guillaume Poncet de la Grave, adviser to Louis XV, requiring both free and enslaved blacks and mulattoes to list data including their age, surname, purpose for which they are residing in France, whether they have been baptized as Christians, where they emigrated from in Africa and the name of the ship upon which they arrived (the declaration of 1738 required slave-owners to register their slaves, but had placed no such requirement on free people)Francesource
• 1763The Prussian education system is instituted as a compulsory system for boys and girls from age 5 to 13–14 by the Generallandschulreglement (General School Regulation), a decree of Frederick the Great authored by Johann Julius Hecker.source
• 1763Rhododendron ponticum introduced to Britain from the Iberian Peninsula.United Kingdomsource
• 1764January 19 – John Wilkes is expelled from the House of Commons of Great Britain, for seditious libel.source
• 1764April 5 – The Sugar Act is passed in Great Britain.source
• 1765January–April – George III suffers a malady, perhaps a first manifestation of bipolar disorder.United Kingdomsource
• 1765October 17 – The Pennsylvania Gazette reports that a Mr. McCullough, the Distributor of Stamps for the Royal Colony of North Carolina, has resigned his post in protest at the Stamp Act. A Dr. Huston is appointed to the position.source
• 1765December 12 – The Pennsylvania Gazette reports that Dr. Huston, the recently instated Distributor of Stamps for the Royal Colony of North Carolina, has resigned his post in protest at the Stamp Act.source
• 1766April 17 – King Carlos III of Spain issues a royal cédula from Aranjuez to round up all ethnic Chinese in the Philippines and to move them to ghettoes in various provinces.source
• 1766October – Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, completed.United Kingdomsource
• 1767October 12 – At the Foundling Hospital in London, Dr. William Watson becomes the first physician to conduct a controlled clinical trial, selecting 32 boys and girls of similar age who have not yet had smallpox. He divides them into three groups in order to test treatments before inoculation for smallpox, with one group receiving a mixture of mercury and jalap, another senna glycoside, and the third getting no pre-treatment at all.source
• 176712 October – Dr William Watson, at the Foundling Hospital in London, conducts an early planned and controlled clinical trial (on treatments for smallpox).United Kingdomsource
• 1767November 9 – At the new King's College medical school in New York City (later the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons), Dr. John Jones gives the first lecture by a surgical professor in North America.source
• 1768March 1 – King Louis XV decrees that all cities and towns in France will be required to post house numbering on all residential buildings, primarily to facilitate the forced quartering of troops in citizens' homes.source
• 17681 March – King Louis XV decrees that all cities and towns in the kingdom will be required to post house numbering on all residential buildings, primarily to facilitate the forced quartering of troops in citizens' homesFrancesource
• 176814 October – Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, succeeds William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, as Prime Minister after Pitt's resignation due to ill health.United Kingdomsource
• 1768Catherine II was inoculated against smallpox, setting an example for her subjects and marking an important moment in Russian medical history.Russiasource
• 176921 January – first of the Letters of Junius, criticising the government, appears in the Public Advertiser.United Kingdomsource
• 176915 August – The first census in Denmark-Norway to attempt completely covering all citizens (including women and children who had previously been listed only as numbers) takes place. At that point, Norway included, there 797,584 citizens in Denmark.Denmarksource
• 176914 September – The outbreak of the Danish-Algerian War.Denmarksource
• 1769The population of Iceland is recorded as being 46,201.Icelandsource
• 1769Daniel Rowland turns down the living of Newport, Pembrokeshire, to stay with his congregation at Llangeitho.Walessource
• 1770January – Russian troops in Focșani witness the first signs of a plagueRussiasource
• 177018 October – Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, admits its first patients.United Kingdomsource
• 17711 March - The news of the King's death reach Gustav III of Sweden in Paris.Swedensource
• 1771April 4 – The first quarantines are started in Moscow and Saint Petersburg to fight the bubonic plague epidemic. Over the next 12 months, more than 52,000 people die from the plague in Moscow alone.source
• 1771September 15–17 – The Moscow plague riot results from an outbreak of bubonic plague, which kills 57,000.source
• 1771Norfolk and Norwich Hospital founded.United Kingdomsource
• 1772March 18: Björn Jónsson becomes the first fully licensed pharmacist in Iceland.Icelandsource
• 17728 December - The Sahlgrenska University Hospital is founded.Swedensource
• 1772December 14 – Russian government offices reopen at Moscow and Saint Petersburg after being closed for 15 months because of an epidemic of bubonic plague.source
• 1772Warren Hastings appointed governor of Bengal.Indiasource
• 1773October 12 – America's first insane asylum opens for Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds in Williamsburg, Virginia.source
• 1773Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau proposes the use of "muriatic acid gas" (hydrogen chloride) for fumigation of buildings.Francesource
• 1773Penny Post introduced in Edinburgh.Scotlandsource
• 1774July - Dr Samuel Johnson accompanies Hester Thrale and her husband on a visit to North Wales.Walessource
• 17741 August – Joseph Priestley, working independently at Bowood House, Wiltshire, isolates oxygen in the form of a gas.United Kingdomsource
• 1774Maria Christina Bruhn presents her invention, a package for gunpowder to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.Swedensource
• 177518 September - Dr Samuel Johnson accompanies Hester Thrale and her husband Henry on a visit to France.Walessource
• 1775A smallpox epidemic begins in New England.source
• 1775Magnús Ketilsson publishes an article in the magazine Islandske Maanedestidende and encouraged Icelanders to make use of slaughter products from horses.Icelandsource
• 1775The power of the burgh of Stirling to manage its own affairs is suspended when the Black Bond comes to light.Scotlandsource
• 1775The first maternity hospital, Allmänna BB, is opened in the capital.Swedensource
• 17751775–76 Winter – Unusually deadly influenza epidemic in London kills nearly 40,000.United Kingdomsource
• 1776Physician Andrew Duncan proposes establishment of the institution that becomes the Royal Public Dispensary of Edinburgh.Scotlandsource
• 1777In the St. Louis region, a brood of 13-year cicadas emerges at the same time as a large brood of 17-year cicadas.United Statessource
• 1778October 12 – The Continental Congress advises the 13 member states to suppress "theatrical entertainments, horse-racing, gaming, and such other diversions as are productive of idleness, dissipation, and general depravity of principles and manners."source
• 1778Société royale de médecine established by a decree of King Louis XVI.Francesource
• 1778Inhabited House Tax first imposed.Scotlandsource
• 1778Infanticide Act (Barnamordsplakatet) secures the right to anonymity for, and bans persecution of, unwed mothers to protect them from the social stigma which could cause infanticide.Swedensource
• 1780March 1 – The Pennsylvania General Assembly passes An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, prohibiting the further importation of adults and children into the Commonwealth for the purposes of enslaving themUnited Statessource
• 1780June 2 – An Anti-Catholic mob led by Lord George Gordon marches on the Parliament of Great Britain, leading to the outbreak of the Gordon Riots in London.source
• 17802 June – an Anti-Catholic mob led by Lord George Gordon marches on Parliament leading to the outbreak of the Gordon Riots in London.United Kingdomsource
• 1780September – outbreak of the Second Anglo-Mysore War in India.United Kingdomsource
• 1780The Kingdom of Great Britain reaches c.9 million population.source
• 1781Montrose Lunatic Asylum, Infirmary & Dispensary, predecessor of Sunnyside Royal Hospital, founded by Susan Carnegie.Scotlandsource
• 1782May – first patient admitted to Montrose Lunatic Asylum, the first such institution to be founded in Scotland, largely due to Susan Carnegie of Charleton.Scotlandsource
• 1782September – Nottingham General Hospital opens to patients.United Kingdomsource
• 1782Saint Petersburg, Russia has 300,000 inhabitants.source
• 17821782–83: A smallpox epidemic hits the Sanpoil of Washington.Canadasource
• 1782Relief of the Poor Act ("Gilbert's Act") provides for organisation of poor relief on a county basis, coming into effect 25 March 1783.United Kingdomsource
• 1783November 24 – Royal Cedula of PopulationSpainsource
• 1784Madame du Coudray, pioneer of modern midwifery, retires.source
• 1784A huge locust swarm hits South Africa.source
• 1784A dispute arising at the University of Glasgow between Professor John Anderson, the Principal William Leechman and others leads to the self-expulsion of Thomas Muir.Scotlandsource
• 1785Louis XVI signs a law that a handkerchief must be square.source
• 1785The decision to move Skálholtsskóli to Reykjavík is made, with teaching beginning at Hólavallaskóli a year later.Icelandsource
• 1785London Hospital Medical College opens as England's first chartered medical school.United Kingdomsource
• 1785Griffith Rowlands becomes surgeon to Chester city hospital.Walessource
• 1786June 2 – The Tignon law is enacted by Spanish Governor of Louisiana Esteban Rodríguez Miró, to force black women to wear a tignon headscarf.source
• 17862 August – a delusional needlewoman, Margaret Nicholson, attempts to stab the king outside St James's Palace in London; she will be confined for the remaining 42 years of her life in Bethlehem Hospital for the insane.United Kingdomsource
• 1786August – British Cabinet approves the establishment of a penal colony at Botany Bay to serve as "a remedy for the evils likely to result from the late alarming and numerous increase of felons in this country and more particularly in the metropolis" (London).United Kingdomsource
• 1786Malaria epidemic in Barcelona ends after killing nearly 100,000 people.Spainsource
• 178728 May – Governors General Maria Christina and Albert suspend implementation of Joseph II's reforms.Belgiumsource
• 1787The Scotch Distilling Act imposes a tax on gin exported from Scotland to England.Scotlandsource
• 1787The first Cymmrodorion Society is disbanded.Walessource
• 178828 June - The outbreak of the Russo-Swedish War (1788–90).Swedensource
• 1788October – King George III of the United Kingdom becomes deranged; the Regency Crisis of 1788 starts.source
• 1788November 20 – In the United Kingdom, the Houses of Parliament are given the first formal report by Prime Minister Pitt of the mental illness of King George III. Parliament adjourns for two weeks, to await the results of examinations by royal physicians.source
• 1788Late October – a period of a mental instability for the King, George III, begins the Regency Crisis of 1788 only averted by his sudden recovery the following February.United Kingdomsource
• 17893 February – Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger introduces a Regency Bill to Parliament so that the Prince of Wales may serve as regent for his father George III during a period of mental illness, but the King recovers before the Bill becomes law.United Kingdomsource
• 1789April – An outbreak of smallpox at the Sydney Cove settlement kills many local Eora Aboriginals, including Arabanoo.Australiasource
• 1789July 11 – Louis XVI of France dismisses popular Chief Minister Jacques Necker.source
• 1789October 10 – Physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin proposes to the French National Assembly the adoption of more humane and egalitarian forms of capital punishment, including use of the guillotine.source
• 178921 November – James Ruse, a convict, provisionally given land at Parramatta to establish Experiment Farm.Australiasource
• 1789December 23 – A leaflet circulated in France accuses the Marquis de Favras of plotting to rescue the royal family.source
• 1789Influenced by Benjamin Rush's argument against the excessive use of alcohol, about 200 farmers in a Connecticut community form a temperance movement in the United States.source
• 1789An angry Parisian crowd, inflamed by a speech from journalist Camille Desmoulins, demonstrates against the King's decision to dismiss Necker.Francesource
• 1789Andrew Duncan delivers the first lectures on forensic medicine in Britain, at the University of Edinburgh.Scotlandsource
• 1789The Aberdeen Medico-Chirurgical Society is founded by James McGrigor and James Robertson.Scotlandsource
• 1789Andrew Pears introduces Pears soap in London.United Kingdomsource
• 1789Influenced by Dr. Benjamin Rush's argument against the excessive use of alcohol, about 200 farmers in a Connecticut community form a temperance association.United Statessource
• 17905.1% of Americans are living in centers of 2,500 or more people.United Statessource
• 1790Calvinistic Methodist clergyman Thomas Charles of Bala attempts to preach at Corwen but is driven out of town by a mob.Walessource
• 1791Population of Lower Canada is 160,000. Population of Upper Canada is 14,000.Canadasource
• 1793February – In Manchester, Vermont, the wife of a captain falls ill, probably with tuberculosis. Some locals believe that the cause of her illness is that a demon vampire is sucking her blood. As a cure, Timothy Mead burns the heart of a deceased person in front of a crowd of a few hundred people.source
• 1793April 9 – Edmond-Charles Genêt, France's new Minister to the United States, arrives at Charleston, South Carolina.source
• 17939 April – Edmond-Charles Genêt, France's new Minister to the United States, arrives at Charleston, South Carolina.Francesource
• 1793August 1–November 9 – The yellow fever epidemic of 1793 hits Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; 5,000 die.source
• 1793August 1 – The yellow fever epidemic of 1793 starts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.United Statessource
• 1793August 23 – French Revolution: The following universal conscription decree is enacted in France: "The young men shall go to battle and the married men shall forge arms. The women shall make tents and clothes and shall serve in the hospitals; children shall tear rags into lint. The old men will be guided to the public places of the cities to kindle the courage of the young warriors and to preach the unity of the Republic and the hatred of kings."source
• 179323 August – French Revolution: The following universal conscription decree is enacted in France: "The young men shall go to battle and the married men shall forge arms. The women shall make tents and clothes and shall serve in the hospitals; children shall tear rags into lint. The old men will be guided to the public places of the cities to kindle the courage of the young warriors and to preach the unity of the Republic and the hatred of kings."Francesource
• 1793November 9 – George Washington visits Philadelphia to announce end of the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia; around 5,000 people have been killed by the fever.United Statessource
• 17948 May – Robert Burns' song Scots Wha Hae published in The Morning Chronicle.Scotlandsource
• 179410 June – Law of 22 Prairial enacted, also known as the loi de la Grande Terreur.Francesource
• 17941 August - A new sumptuary law (the last sumptuary law in Sweden) introduced a number of restrictions, among them notably the ban of the use of coffee, an extremely unpopular law, as coffee had by then been an everyday habit for all classes for decades, official farewell parties are held for coffee the days before the law is enforced (the law was abolished in 1796).Swedensource
• 179426 November – French authorities order requisitioning and stockpiling of food.Belgiumsource
• 1794December – Glasgow Royal Infirmary opens.Scotlandsource
• 1794Hospitals pass to ownership of the state.Francesource
• 1794Hester Thrale - British Synonymy: or an attempt at regulating the choice of words in familiar conversationWalessource
• 17956 May – introduction of Speenhamland system of outdoor relief for the poor (originally by magistrates meeting at the Pelican Inn, Speenhamland, Berkshire).United Kingdomsource
• 1795The British Royal Navy makes the use of lemon juice mandatory, to prevent scurvy.source
• 179623 January – The distillation of spirits is prohibited.Australiasource
• 1796May 14 – Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox vaccination, in England.source
• 179614 May – Edward Jenner successfully administers the smallpox vaccine to James Phipps in Gloucestershire.United Kingdomsource
• 1796The Retreat established in York; it pioneers the humane treatment of people with mental disorders.United Kingdomsource
• 179811 March – Dundee Infirmary opened.Scotlandsource
• 1798July 16 – The Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen Act is signed into law, creating the Marine Hospital Service, the forerunner to the current United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.source
• 1798September 5 – Conscription is made mandatory in France by the Jourdan Law.source
• 1798The first census in Brazil counts 2 million blacks in a total population of 3.25 million.source
• 1798Edward Jenner publishes An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolæ Vaccinæ, describing the smallpox vaccine, in London.source
• 1798Newspaper Publication Act 1798 restricts newspaper circulation.United Kingdomsource
• 1799February 7 – The Jiaqing Emperor of China comes into his full powers on the death of his father, the Qianlong Emperor. He prosecutes corrupt court official Heshen and issues a decree prohibiting the import of opium to China.source
• 179912 July – The Combination Act to outlaw trade unions.United Kingdomsource