Science & Discovery in the 18th century

398 sourced entries, 1700 CE to 1799 CE, oldest first. Also see Science & Discovery across every century or everything else in the 18th century.

• 170018 February – Instigated by Ole Rømer, Denmark adopts the Gregorian calendar, although not the Catholic Church's lunar cycle, in place of the Julian calendar.Denmarksource
• 1700March 1 (Gregorian) – Protestant Germany and Denmark–Norway adopt the Gregorian calendar.source
• 1700An inventory made for the House of Medici of Florence is the first documentary evidence for a piano, invented by their instrument keeper Bartolomeo Cristofori.source
• 1700The first Danish census takes place from 1700 to 17001 but only statistical information about adult men is included. Only about half of it still exists.Denmarksource
• 1700c. March – the Yellow Book of Lecan is acquired by antiquary Edward Lhuyd.Irelandsource
• 1700John Jones – The Mysteries of Opium RevealedWalessource
• 1701English agriculturalist Jethro Tull invents a drill for planting seeds in rows.source
• 1701Ole Rømer proposes the Rømer scale.Denmarksource
• 1701Jethro Tull invents a drill for planting seeds in rows.Englandsource
• 1702January 2 – A total solar eclipse is visible from the southern Pacific Ocean.source
• 1702April 20 – Comet C/1702 H1 is discovered and passes within 0.0435 AU (a little more than four million miles or 6.5 million km) of the Earth.source
• 1702May 5 – Globular cluster Messier 5 (M5, NGC 5904) is discovered by Gottfried Kirch and his wife Maria Margarethe.source
• 1702September 19 – Jupiter occults Neptune.source
• 170314 April – HDMS Elephanten is launched at the Royal Danish Dockyard in Copenhagen.Denmarksource
• 1703Martin Martin publishes A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland.Scotlandsource
• 1704January 7 – A partial solar eclipse, Solar Saros 146, is visible in Antarctica.source
• 170429 February – This date was intended to be skipped in the calendar, but was not. See February 30#Swedish calendar.Swedensource
• 1704May 19–23 – Vigorous Strombolian activity from Mount Vesuvius, Italy is recorded.source
• 1704June 2 – Annular solar eclipse is visible from a region of the Southern Ocean between South Africa and Antarctica.source
• 1704June 17 – Total lunar eclipse takes place, Saros series 125.source
• 1704November 27 – Annular solar eclipse is visible through Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, eastern China, Myanmar and northern Philippines.source
• 1704December 25 – The fall of the meteorite of Barcelona is seen and heard over distances up to hundreds of kilometres and is interpreted as a divine sign.source
• 1704Giancomo Miraldi observes Martian polar ice caps as "white spots" at the Martian poles.source
• 1704Ole Rømer opens his Observatorium Tusculanum in Vridsløselille.Denmarksource
• 1704Vitus Bering enrolls with the Imperial Russian Navy.Denmarksource
• 1705July 20 – The planet Mercury transits Jupiter, as seen by astronomers from Earth. The event happens again on October 4, 1708, but will not be seen again from Earth until October 27, 2088source
• 170520 July – Act of the Parliament of Scotland for the promotion of salmon, white and herring fishing.Scotlandsource
• 1705November 16 – An annular solar eclipse is visible in the southern Atlantic Ocean.source
• 1705Edmond Halley publicly predicts the periodicity of Halley's Comet and computes its expected path of return in 1758.source
• 1706The Tranquebar Mission is established.Denmarksource
• 1706Isaac Watts' verses Horae Lyricae published.Englandsource
• 1706William Jones - Synopsis Palmariorum MatheseosWalessource
• 17071 December – HDMS Justitia is launched at the Royal Danish Dockyard.Denmarksource
• 1707John Oldmixon, The Muses Mercury; or, The Monthly Miscellany, published monthly from January of this year to January 1708United Kingdomsource
• 1707Isaac Newton, Arithmetica UniversalisUnited Kingdomsource
• 1707Anthony Collins, Essay Concerning the Use of ReasonUnited Kingdomsource
• 1707Jonathan Swift, A Critical Essay upon the Faculties of the MindUnited Kingdomsource
• 1708Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico delivers his inaugural lecture to the University of Naples, which will be published in 1709 as his first book, De Nostri Temporis Studiorum Ratione (On the Order of the Scholarly Disciplines of Our Times).source
• 170912 April – first edition of The Tatler magazine published.United Kingdomsource
• 1709August 8 – The hot air balloon of Bartolomeu de Gusmão flies in Portugal.source
• 1709A collapsible umbrella is introduced in Paris.source
• 17091 or 2 February – marooned Lower Largo-born privateer Alexander Selkirk, the original Robinson Crusoe, is rescued after four years living on the Juan Fernández Islands and begins his return to civilisation.Scotlandsource
• 1709Edward Holdsworth - The mouse-trap; or, The Welsh engagement with the mice (a mock-heroic satire on the Welsh people, published anonymously)Walessource
• 1711February 3 – A total lunar eclipse occurs, at 12:31 UT.source
• 1711July 29 – Total lunar eclipse at 17:50 UT.source
• 1711Luigi Ferdinando Marsili shows that coral is an animal rather than a plant as previously thought.source
• 1711John Shore invents the tuning fork.source
• 1711Publication of Choice Collection of Comic and Serious Scots Poems edited by James Watson concludes in Edinburgh.Scotlandsource
• 1711William Jones - Analysis per quantitatum series, fluxiones ac differentiasWalessource
• 1711Thomas Durston begins printing Welsh language books at Shrewsbury.Walessource
• 1711Jonathan Edwards - A Vindication of the Doctrine of Original Sin from the exceptions of Dr. Daniel WhitbyWalessource
• 17128 July – The Royal Navy 50-gun ship HMS Advice is launched at Deptford Dockyard.United Kingdomsource
• 1712August 23 – The British Royal Navy 60-gun ship HMS Rippon is launched at Deptford Dockyard.source
• 171223 August – The Royal Navy 60-gun ship HMS Rippon is launched at Deptford Dockyard.United Kingdomsource
• 1712The series of Welsh Almanacks printed by Thomas Jones is completed. (Jones dies the following year.)Walessource
• 1714Esther Vanhomrigh pursues Jonathan Swift to Ireland.Irelandsource
• 1714The first Regius Professor of Law at the University of Glasgow, William Forbes, is appointed.Scotlandsource
• 1715May 3 – A total solar eclipse is seen across southern England, Sweden and Finland (the last total eclipse visible in London for almost 900 years). English astronomer Edmond Halley (who is using the old style Julian calendar date of April 22) records the first observation noted of the phenomenon of "Baily's beads", in which higher elevations on the moon can be observed obscuring portions of the light moments before and after totality.source
• 17153 May – A total solar eclipse is seen across southern England and Scandinavia, the last total eclipse visible in London for almost 900 years.United Kingdomsource
• 1715Colen Campbell begins publication of his pattern book Vitruvius Britannicus, or the British Architect.Scotlandsource
• 1715John Roderick - Welsh almanack (first in the series)Walessource
• 1716March 6 – At night, an aurora borealis is seen throughout Europe, from Ireland to Italy.source
• 1716Chalybeate mineral springs are discovered in Cheltenham.United Kingdomsource
• 1717Thomas Fairchild, a nurseryman at Hoxton in the East End of London, becomes the first person to produce a successful scientific plant hybrid, Dianthus Caryophyllus barbatus, known as Fairchild's Mule.source
• 171830 April – the proper motion of stars is demonstrated by Edmond Halley.United Kingdomsource
• 1718The white potato reaches New England from England.source
• 1718The Speigelberg Company perform in Denmark.Denmarksource
• 1719Browne Willis – Survey of LlandaffWalessource
• 1720February 10 – Edmond Halley is appointed as Astronomer Royal for England.source
• 172010 February – Edmond Halley is appointed Astronomer Royal by George IUnited Kingdomsource
• 1720Jonathan Swift publishes Proposal for Universal Use of Irish Manufacture.Irelandsource
• 1721John Prichard Prys – Difyrwch CrefyddolWalessource
• 1722Modern music theory finds definition in Jean-Philippe Rameau's Traité de l'harmonie réduite à ses principes naturels (Treatise on Harmony), published in Paris.source
• 1722HDMS Dronning Anna Sophia is launched at Nyholm in Copenhagen.Denmarksource
• 1722Pheasant introduced to Scotland.Scotlandsource
• 17237 May - Lewis Morris arrives in London from Anglesey.Walessource
• 1723Christmas Samuel - Llun AgrippaWalessource
• 172422 May – a total solar eclipse crosses Ireland around 6:30 p.m.Irelandsource
• 1724December 24 – Francesco Valesio resumes writing his Diario di Roma, 13 years after he ceased his recording of daily life in Rome.source
• 1724China expels foreign missionaries.source
• 1724Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky introduced.Russiasource
• 172525 April – HDMS Slesvig is launched at Nyholm in Copenhagen.Denmarksource
• 1725November 26 – British astronomers James Bradley and Samuel Molyneux set up a telescope in Molyneux's private observatory to begin their observations of stellar parallax of the star Gamma Draconis. The observations, which start on December 3, lead to Bradley's pioneering discovery of the aberration of light.source
• 1725Silvanus Bevan is elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on the recommendation of Sir Isaac Newton.Walessource
• 1726October 27 – Rev. Dr. Caleb Threlkeld publishes Synopsis Stirpium Hibernicarum .....Dispositarum sive Commentatio de Plantis Indigenis praesertim Dublinensibus instituta in Dublin, the first flora of Ireland.Irelandsource
• 1726The Complete Classics Collection of Ancient China, an immense Chinese encyclopedia, is printed using copper-based movable type printing.source
• 1726James Thomson begins publication of his poem cycle The Seasons with "Winter".Scotlandsource
• 1726Invention of the gridiron pendulum by John Harrison.United Kingdomsource
• 1726date unknown - Poet Anna Williams and her father Zachariah move into the London Charterhouse while he experiments in using magnetism in pursuit of the longitude prize.Walessource
• 1728March 14 – Jean-Jacques Rousseau leaves Geneva for the first time.source
• 1728September – Astronomer James Bradley uses stellar aberration (first observed in 1725) to calculate the speed of light.United Kingdomsource
• 1728English astronomer James Bradley uses stellar aberration (first observed in 1725) to calculate the speed of light, and observes nutation of the Earth's axis.source
• 1728James Bradley observes nutation of the Earth's axis.United Kingdomsource
• 1729August 1 – The Comet of 1729, possibly the largest comet based on the absolute magnitude, on record, is discovered by Fr. Nicolas Sarrabat, a professor of mathematics at Marseille.source
• 1729Mackintosh of Borlum publishes An essay on ways and means for inclosing, fallowing, planting, &c. Scotland; and that in sixteen years at farthest, "by a lover of his country", in Edinburgh.Scotlandsource
• 1729Opening of Dr Williams's Library in London as a research centre for nonconformist theology.United Kingdomsource
• 1729Christmas Samuel - Golwg ar y Testament NewyddWalessource
• 1730The naval ships HDMS Svanen and HDMS Tre Kroner are launched at Nyholm in Copenhagen.Denmarksource
• 1730James Lewis & Christmas Samuel - Y Cyfrif Cywiraf o'r Pechod GwreiddiolWalessource
• 1731November 25 – Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler announces his use of the irrational number e (approximately 2.71828) as the base for the concept of the natural logarithm, describing it in a letter to German mathematician Christian Goldbach.source
• 1731John Bevis observes the Crab Nebula for the first time in the modern era.United Kingdomsource
• 1731Humphrey Lhuyd - Britannicae Descriptionis CommentariolumWalessource
• 1732December 19 – Benjamin Franklin, in the Pennsylvania Gazette, first advertises the publication of Poor Richard's Almanack, purportedly written by "Richard Saunders", a pen name used by Franklin. The book goes on sale on December 28. The annual publication will continue until 1758.source
• 1732Herman Boerhaave publishes the authorized edition of his Elementa chemiae, recognised as the first text on chemistry.source
• 1732The world's first lightship is moored at the Nore, in the Thames Estuary of England.source
• 1732The Speigelberg Company performs in Norway.Norwaysource
• 1732A mineral spring is discovered at Llanwrtyd Wells by the Rev. Theophilus Evans.Walessource
• 1733William Thomson publishes Orpheus caledonius: or, A collection of Scots songs.Scotlandsource
• 173430 March – First entry in the diary of William Bulkeley.Walessource
• 1734Anton Wilhelm Amo becomes the first African to receive a doctorate in Europe and begins teaching at the University of Halle.source
• 1734The shorter of the two Golden Horns of Gallehus is found close to the place where the first one had been found in 1639.Denmarksource
• 1735May 22 – George Hadley publishes the first explanation of the trade winds.source
• 173522 May – George Hadley publishes the first explanation of the trade winds.United Kingdomsource
• 1735Cobalt is discovered and isolated by Georg Brandt, the first metal element found since ancient times.source
• 1736June 8 – Leonhard Euler writes to James Stirling describing the Euler–Maclaurin formula, providing a disconnection between integrals and sums.source
• 1736October 3 – French scientist Charles Marie de La Condamine and a team of surveyors begin the first measurements at the Equator to determine the exact meridian arc measurement of distance between points separated by one degree of longitude in order to make a precise calculation of the Earth's circumference. The initial measurements of this French Geodesic Mission to the Equator, made in what is now Ecuador, last until November 3. The same year the French Geodesic Mission to Lapland took place. Both confirm Isaac Newton's prediction that the Figure of the Earth is flattened at the poles.source
• 1736Charles Marie de La Condamine, with François Fresneau Gataudière, makes the first scientific observations of rubber, in Ecuador.source
• 1736Leonhard Euler produces the first published proof of Fermat's "little theorem".source
• 1737February 27 – French scientists Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau and Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon publish the first study correlating past weather conditions with an examination of tree rings.source
• 1737February 27 – Scientists Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau and Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon publish the first study on dendrochronology.Francesource
• 17372 March – Samuel Johnson and his former pupil David Garrick leave Lichfield to seek their fortunes in London.United Kingdomsource
• 1737May 28 – The planet Venus passes in front of Mercury. The event is witnessed during the evening hours, by the amateur astronomer John Bevis, at the Royal Greenwich Observatory. As of 2006, it is still the only such planet/planet occultation that has been directly observed.source
• 173728 May – the planet Venus passes in front of Mercury. The event is witnessed during the evening by amateur astronomer John Bevis at the Royal Greenwich Observatory. As of 2006, it is the only such planet/planet occultation to be directly observed.United Kingdomsource
• 1737Allan Ramsay co-writes and edits the last volume of The Tea-Table Miscellany, a collection of Scots songs.Scotlandsource
• 1738Pierre Louis Maupertuis publishes Sur la figure de la terre, which confirms Newton's view that the earth is an oblate spheroid, slightly flattened at the poles.source
• 174018 September – George Anson sets out on his voyage around the world from Spithead.United Kingdomsource
• 17406 November - Charles Wesley records in his diary a visit to the Glascott family home at Cardiff.Walessource
• 174131 March - The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is given its rules.Swedensource
• 17416 May – HDMS Elephanten is launched at the Royal Danish Dockyard.Denmarksource
• 1741December 25 – Anders Celsius develops his own thermometer scale, Centigrade, the predecessor of the Celsius scale.source
• 1741Uppsala Astronomical Observatory is inaugurated.Swedensource
• 1741Et ankommit bref om såningsmachinen under namn af Lotta Triven by Charlotta Frölich (who thereby becomes the first woman to be published by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences).Swedensource
• 1742June 7 – Christian Goldbach first describes Goldbach's conjecture ("Every even number is the sum of two primes") in a letter to fellow mathematician Leonhard Euler.source
• 1742First scientific report on the North Pacific fur seal.Canadasource
• 1742Christian Goldbach becomes a staff member of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and proposes what will become known as Goldbach's conjecture in a letter to Leonhard Euler.Russiasource
• 1742Anders Celsius construct the Celsius thermometer.Swedensource
• 1743July 23 – James Oglethorpe departs from Georgia to England and returns there in September.source
• 1743October 21 – Benjamin Franklin's view of a lunar eclipse from Philadelphia is spoiled by a rainstorm; several days later, he learns that residents of Boston received the same storm hours after the eclipse, demonstrating that weather moves from west to east.source
• 1743November 5 – Coordinated scientific observations of the transit of Mercury are organized by Joseph-Nicolas Delisle.source
• 1743December 9 – At Haarlem, Dutch astronomer Dirk Klinkenberg becomes the first to observe the Great Comet of 1744. Swiss astronomer Jean-Philippe de Cheseaux discovers it independently on December 13. Both scientists are given credit for its discoverysource
• 1743Robert Foulis becomes printer to the University of Glasgow.Scotlandsource
• 1744March 1 (approximately) – The Great Comet of 1744, one of the brightest ever seen, reaches perihelion.source
• 1744April – The Female Spectator (a monthly) is founded by Eliza Haywood in England, the first periodical written for women by a woman.source
• 1744June 15 – Commodore George Anson's voyage around the world concludes after four years as HMS Centurion returns to England at Spithead and Anson is greeted as a hero.source
• 1744October 12 – The creator of binomial nomenclature for the identification of plant and animal species, Carl Linnaeus, is selected as president of the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, succeeding the late Anders Celsius, who had devised the centigrade measurement of temperature.source
• 1744Den danske Spectator is first published.Denmarksource
• 1745February 27 – Pierre Bouguer appears before the French Academy of Sciences to deliver his report of the data gathered in the French Geodesic Mission, including the first precise measurement of the Earth's circumference. His determination that the circumference is 24854.85 mi and that the distance from the pole to equator is roughly 6,214 mi eventually leads to the Academy's calculation of the metre and the metric system.source
• 1745August 6 (July 26 Old Style) – The first recorded women's cricket match takes place in Surrey, England.source
• 1745Hortus Upsaliensis by Carl von LinnéSwedensource
• 1746Eva Ekeblad reports her discovery, of how to make flour and alcohol from potatoes, to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.source
• 1746Jean-Étienne Guettard presents the first mineralogical map of France to the Académie des sciencesFrancesource
• 17472 July – Benjamin Robins presents a paper to the Royal Society describing the physics of a spinning projectile following his investigation of rifle barrels.United Kingdomsource
• 1747Samuel Johnson begins work on A Dictionary of the English Language in London.source
• 1748August – The Camberwell beauty butterfly is named after specimens found at Camberwell in London.source
• 1748The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences makes Eva Ekeblad its first female member.source
• 1748Frederik Christian Eilschov publishes Philosophiske Breve.Denmarksource
• 1748Joseph Harris becomes Assay-Master at the Royal Mint.Walessource
• 175017 January – John Canton reads a paper in the presence of the Royal Society of London on a method of making artificial magnets.United Kingdomsource
• 1750March 20 – The first number of Samuel Johnson's The Rambler appears.source
• 175020 March – Samuel Johnson begins publication of the periodical The Rambler.United Kingdomsource
• 1750August 20 – French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille, by way of the Foreign Minister, the Marquis de Puisieulx and Netherlands ambassador to Paris Mattheus Lestevenon, sends a letter that ultimately persuades the States-General of the Dutch Republic to allow and partially finance Lacaille's stellar trigonometry mission to the Cape of Good Hope. The expedition departs Lorient on October 21.source
• 175020 August – French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille, by way of the Foreign Minister, the Marquis de Puisieulx and Netherlands ambassador to Paris Mattheus Lestevenon, sends a letter that ultimately persuades the States-General of the Dutch Republic to allow and partially finance Lacaille's stellar trigonometry mission to the Cape of Good Hope. The expedition departs Lorient on 21 October.Francesource
• 1750Captain Henry Delamain takes over the World's End Pottery in Dublin, bringing his expertise in the manufacture of Delftware.Irelandsource
• 1750James Short's Gregorian telescope (38 cm (14″) aperture reflector), the world's largest at this date, is constructed.Scotlandsource
• 1750Griffith Hughes - Natural History of BarbadosWalessource
• 1751Adam Smith is appointed professor of logic.source
• 1751Axel Fredrik Cronstedt discovers nickel.Swedensource
• 1752February 23 – Messier 83 (M83), the "Southern Pinwheel Galaxy" and the first to be cataloged outside the "Local Group" of galaxies nearest to Earth's galaxy, the Milky Way, is discovered by French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille. Lacaille, who observes M83 during a research voyage in the Southern Hemisphere, is the first to identify the body as a nebulous object rather than a star. M83, 15 million light-years away, is the most distant object to be identified up to that time.source
• 1752May 10 – At Marly-la-Ville in France, physicist Thomas-François Dalibard successfully conducts the kite experiment proposed by Benjamin Franklin in the 1750 book Franklin's Experiments and Observations on Electricity.source
• 1752Adam Smith transfers to professor of moral philosophy at the University of Glasgow.Scotlandsource
• 1752John Parry – A Collection of Welsh, English & Scotch AirsWalessource
• 175317 February – Sweden replace the Julian calendar with the Gregorian calendar.Swedensource
• 1753March 1 – Sweden adopts the Gregorian calendar, by skipping the 11 days difference between it and the Julian calendar, and letting February 17 be followed directly by March 1.source
• 17531 May - Species Plantarum by Carl Linnaeus.Swedensource
• 175320 September – Inauguration of the new observatory of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.Swedensource
• 1753November 25 – The Russian Academy of Sciences announces a competition among chemists and physicists to provide "the best explanation of the true causes of electricity including their theory", with a deadline of June 1, 1755 (on the Julian calendar used in Russia, June 12 on the Gregorian calendar used in Western Europe and the New World).source
• 1753The chemical element bismuth discovered by Claude François GeoffroyFrancesource
• 1754January 28 – Horace Walpole, in a letter to Horace Mann, coins the word serendipity.source
• 175428 January – Horace Walpole, in a letter to Horace Mann, coins the word serendipity.United Kingdomsource
• 1754Marian apparition at Las Lajas in Colombia.source
• 1754Chemist Joseph Black discovers "carbonic acid gas", i.e. carbon dioxide.Scotlandsource
• 1755June – Joseph Black's discovery of carbon dioxide and magnesium is communicated in a paper to the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh.Scotlandsource
• 1755September 6 – The Russian Academy of Sciences awards its prize for "the best explanation of the true causes of electricity including their theory" to Switzerland's Johann Euler for his paper Disquisitio de causa physica electricitatis.source
• 1755The brine shrimp Artemia salina is first described, in Linnaeus' Systema Naturæ.source
• 1756January 27 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is born in Salzburg, Austria, to Anna Maria and Leopold Mozart.source
• 1756Physician Francis Home publishes Experiments on Bleaching in Edinburgh.Scotlandsource
• 1756Edmund Burke's (anonymous) A Vindication of Natural Society.United Kingdomsource
• 1757April 16 – The works of astronomer Galileo Galilei espousing heliocentrism are removed (with the approval of Pope Benedict XIV) from the Index Librorum Prohibitorum list of books banned by Roman Catholic Church, along with "all books teaching the earth's motion and the sun's immobility". Other works of heliocentrists Galileo, Nicolaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Diego de Zúñiga and Paolo Foscarini remain on the list.source
• 1757December 6 – In Buddhist tradition, Jigme Lingpa discovers the Longchen Nyingthig terma through a meditative vision, which brings him to Boudhanath. The Longchen Nyingtig is a popular cycle of teachings in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.source
• 1757Macfarlane Observatory established at the University of Glasgow; its instruments are set up by James Watt in his new capacity as the university's instrument maker.Scotlandsource
• 1757Joseph Harris – An Essay Upon Money and CoinsWalessource
• 175815 April – Samuel Johnson begins publishing the series of essays The Idler (1758–1760) in the Universal Chronicle.United Kingdomsource
• 1758December 25 – Halley's Comet is sighted by Johann Georg Palitzsch, confirming Edmund Halley's 1705 prediction of its periodicity.source
• 1759English clockmaker John Harrison produces his "No. 1 sea watch" (H4), the first successful marine chronometer.source
• 1759Madame du Coudray publishes Abrégé de l'art des accouchements (The Art of Obstetrics), and the French government authorizes her to carry her instruction "throughout the realm" and promises financial support.source
• 1759Madame du Coudray publishes Abrégé de l'art des accouchements (The Art of Obstetrics), and the government authorizes her to carry her instruction "throughout the realm" and promises financial supportFrancesource
• 1759Halley's Comet returns; a team of three mathematicians, Alexis Clairaut, Jérome Lalande and Nicole Reine Lepaute, have – for the first time – predicted the dateFrancesource
• 1759Clockmaker John Harrison produces his "No. 1 sea watch" ("H4"), the first successful marine chronometer.United Kingdomsource
• 1759John Wesley – Primitive Physick, translated by John Evans of BalaWalessource
• 17607 March – HDMS Amack and HDMS Falster are launched at Nyholm in Copenhagen.Denmarksource
• 1760Saturday September 6 – Amherst arrives at Montreal.Canadasource
• 1760The office of Regius Professor of Practical Astronomy in the University of Glasgow is established, with Alexander Wilson as first holder.Scotlandsource
• 1760Approximate date – piper Joseph MacDonald’s Compleat Theory of the Scots Highland Bagpipe is written, the first study of the subject.Scotlandsource
• 1761June 6 – (May 26 old style); A transit of Venus occurs, and is observed from 120 locations around the Earth. In his observations by telescope at St. Petersburg, Mikhail Lomonosov notes a ring of light around the planet's silhouette as it begins the transit, and becomes the first astronomer to discover that the planet Venus has an atmosphere.source
• 1761Marine chronometer invented as a means to accurately determine longitude.source
• 1761Johann Heinrich Lambert finds a proof that π is irrational.source
• 1761Georg Christian Oeder begins the publication of Flora DanicaDenmarksource
• 1761Johan Jacob Bruun begins the publication of his Novus Atlas DaniæDenmarksource
• 1761John Parry – A Collection of Welsh, English and Scotch AirsWalessource
• 1761Thomas Pennant – British Zoology, volume 1Walessource
• 1762November – first recorded mention of the sandwich.United Kingdomsource
• 1762The Académie française produces a new edition of its dictionary of the French language, the fourth to be publishedFrancesource
• 1762Joseph Black first makes known his discoveries on latent heat, in Glasgow.Scotlandsource
• 176316 April – HDMS Prindsesse Sophia Magdalenaø is launched at Nyholm in Copenhagen.Denmarksource
• 1763November 24 – Bayes' theorem is first announced.source
• 176324 November – Thomas Bayes's theorem is first announced (posthumously).United Kingdomsource
• 1764April 1 – A solar eclipse occurs. On the same day, the undefeated Thoroughbred racehorse Eclipse, named after the event, is foaled at Keats Gore, near East Ilsley in Berkshire.source
• 176412 April – HDMS Prindsesse Wilhelmine Carolina is launched at Nyholm in Copenhagen.Denmarksource
• 1764Cesare Beccaria - On Crimes and Punishments (Dei delitti e delle pene), a founding work of penologysource
• 1764Immanuel Kant - Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime (Beobachtungen über das Gefühl des Schönen und Erhabenen)source
• 1764Old Moore's Almanac first published by Theophilus Moore of Milltown, Dublin.Irelandsource
• 1764Specific and latent heats are described by Joseph Black.United Kingdomsource
• 1764Morgan Rhys – Golwg o Ben NeboWalessource
• 17658 February – Nevil Maskelyne becomes Astronomer Royal.United Kingdomsource
• 1766April 9 – American botanist John Bartram completes his first exploration and cataloging of North American plants after more than nine months.source
• 176617 April – James Craig's plan for the New Town, Edinburgh, wins the prize offered by the city council in January.Scotlandsource
• 176629 May – Henry Cavendish presents his paper "On Factitious Airs". This is generally credited to show the discovery of hydrogen, since it describes the density of 'inflammable air', which forms water on combustion.United Kingdomsource
• 1766Leonhard Euler returned to the St. Petersburg Academy.Russiasource
• 1766unknown date - The Welsh-language periodical Yr Awstralydd is launched by William Meirion Evans in Australia.Walessource
• 1767January 1 – The first annual volume of The Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris, produced by British Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, gives navigators the means to find longitude at sea, using tables of lunar distance.source
• 176822 November – HDMS Den Prægtige is launched at Nyholm in Copenhagen.Denmarksource
• 1768December 10 – The first of the weekly numbers of the Encyclopædia Britannica, edited by William Smellie, are published in Edinburgh; one hundred are planned.source
• 1768Joseph Wright of Derby's painting An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump.United Kingdomsource
• 1769June 3 – A transit of Venus is followed five hours later by a total solar eclipse, the shortest such interval in historical times. The transit is viewed by King George III of Great Britain, at the Kew Observatory.source
• 1769First recorded use of 'literally' as a metaphorical intensifier.source
• 1769Maximilian Hell and his assistant János Sajnovics traveled to Vardø to observe the 1769 transit of Venus.Norwaysource
• 17709 March – Haggis is served on board Captain James Cook's ship HMS Endeavour, anchored off New Zealand, in celebration of the birthday of a Scottish officer on board, Cook himself having a Scottish father.Scotlandsource
• 177014 June–3 October – Charles Messier observes Lexell's Comet as it passes closer to Earth than any other in recorded historyFrancesource
• 1770July 1 – Lexell's Comet (D/1770 L1) passes the Earth at a distance of 2,184,129 km, the closest approach by a comet in recorded history.source
• 1770Joseph-Louis Lagrange proves Bachet's conjecture.source
• 1770Daines Barrington - Some Account of Two Musical Instruments Used in WalesWalessource
• 1770John Walters - A Dissertation on the Welsh LanguageWalessource
• 177117 August – Edinburgh botanist James Robertson makes the first recorded ascent of Ben Nevis.Scotlandsource
• 1771Elis Roberts - Tair Rhan Oes DynWalessource
• 1772March 8 – Biela's Comet is first discovered by French astronomer Jacques Leibax Montaigne, but not proven to be a periodic comet until 1826, when Wilhelm von Biela correctly identifies its return.source
• 177212 September – Daniel Rutherford demonstrates the method of distinguishing nitrogen from other gases.United Kingdomsource
• 1772Scottish scientist Daniel Rutherford discovers nitrogen gas, isolating it from air.source
• 1772Fingal's Cave is brought to the attention of the English-speaking world by English naturalist Sir Joseph Banks.Scotlandsource
• 1772Evan Evans (Ieuan Fardd) - The Love of our CountryWalessource
• 1772Williams Evans - A New English-Welsh dictionary: Containing All Words Necessary for Reading an English AuthorWalessource
• 1773June – John Harrison receives the Longitude prize for his invention of the first marine chronometer.United Kingdomsource
• 1773October 13 – French astronomer Charles Messier discovers the Whirlpool Galaxy, an interacting, grand design spiral galaxy located at a distance of approximately 31 million light-years, in the constellation Canes Venatici.source
• 177313 October – Astronomer Charles Messier discovers the Whirlpool Galaxy, an interacting, grand design spiral galaxy located at a distance of approximately 31 million light-years, in the constellation Canes Venatici.Francesource
• 1773Hilaire Rouelle discovers urea.source
• 1773Scottish judge James Burnett, Lord Monboddo, begins publication of Of the Origin and Progress of Language, a contribution to evolutionary ideas of the Enlightenment.source
• 1773John Harrison wins the Longitude prize, for his invention of the marine chronometer.source
• 1773Lagrange presents his work on the secular equation of the Moon to the Académie Française, introducing the idea of the potential of a body. He also publishes on the attraction of ellipsoids and other mathematical matters.Francesource
• 1773David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes, publishes Remarks on the History of Scotland.Scotlandsource
• 1774Lundbygård is sold for 34,000 rigsdaler to Casper Wilhelm von Munthe af Morgenstierne.Denmarksource
• 1774November 26 – English chemist Joseph Priestley becomes the first person to discover and identify sulfur dioxide.source
• 1774A revision of the laws of cricket introduces a leg before wicket rule.source
• 1774The Schiehallion experiment is carried by Nevil Maskelyne out to determine the mean density of the Earth.Scotlandsource
• 1775Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart writes his five violin concertos in Salzburg at about this date.source
• 1775Manganese is isolated by Johan Gottlieb Gahn.Swedensource
• 1775Edward Jones (Bardd y Brenin) arrives in London.Walessource
• 177622 July – Empress Catherine the Great issues a revised Instruction (Nakaz), refining Enlightenment-inspired proposals for Russia’s legal code.Russiasource
• 1776Common Sense by Thomas Paine (1737–1809) appears.Canadasource
• 1776HDMS Indfødsretten is launched at the Royal Danish Dockyard in Copenhagen.Denmarksource
• 1776Hugh Jones (Maesglasau) – Gardd y CaniadauWalessource
• 1776Aaron Williams - Collection of hymn-tunesWalessource
• 17772 September – HD;S Justitia is launched at Orlogsværftet on Nyholm in Copenhagen.Denmarksource
• 1777David Thompson enters Grey Coat SchoolCanadasource
• 1777Rev. Thomas Campbell publishes the first edition of A Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland in a series of letters to John Watkinson, M.D. anonymously in London.Irelandsource
• 1777Thomas Pennant - British Zoology, vol. 4Walessource
• 1777William Williams Pantycelyn - Ductor Naptiarum: Neu Gyfarwyddwr PriodasWalessource
• 1778June 24 – A total solar eclipse takes place across parts of North America, from Texas to Virginia.source
• 1778June 24 – A total solar eclipse takes place across parts of the U.S. from Texas to Virginia.United Statessource
• 1778Nikolas Novikov takes over the Moscow University Press and begins publishing "The Drone" for which he is later imprisoned by Catherine II.Russiasource
• 177923 March – astronomer Edward Pigott discovers the Black Eye Galaxy.United Kingdomsource
• 1779David Hume's Dialogues concerning Natural Religion are published posthumously and anonymously.Scotlandsource
• 1779Carl Wilhelm Scheele creates Glycerol.Swedensource
• 1779Spinning Mule invented by Samuel Crompton.United Kingdomsource
• 1780Jeremy Bentham's Introduction to Principles of Morals and Legislation, presenting his formulation of utilitarian ethics, is printed (but not published) in London.source
• 1780John Walters - Poems with NotesWalessource
• 1781March 13 – Sir William Herschel discovers the planet Uranus. Originally he calls it Georgium Sidus (George's Star), in honour of King George III.source
• 178113 March – Sir William Herschel discovers the planet Uranus. Originally he calls it Georgium Sidus (George's Star) in honour of King George III.United Kingdomsource
• 1781Charles Messier publishes the final catalog of Messier objects.source
• 1781Carl Wilhelm Scheele discovers tungsten.source
• 1781Messier 87, a supergiant elliptical galaxy, was discovered by French astronomer Charles Messier.Francesource
• 178222 June – HDMS Det Store Bælt is launched at Bodenhoffs Plads in Copenhagen.Denmarksource
• 1782December 14 – The Montgolfier brothers first test fly a hot air balloon in France; it floats nearly 2 km.source
• 178214 December – The Montgolfier brothers first test fly a hot air balloon in France; it floats nearly 2 kmFrancesource
• 1782Princess Yekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova is the first woman in the world to direct a scientific academy, the Imperial Academy of Arts and Sciences.source
• 1782William Gilpin's Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. relative chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the summer of the year 1770.United Kingdomsource
• 1782Edmund Malone's Cursory Observations on the Poems Attributed to Thomas Rowley (debunking Chatterton's hoax).United Kingdomsource
• 1782William Gilpin - Observations on the River Wye and several parts of South Wales, etc. relative chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the summer of the year 1770Walessource
• 17835 July – HDMS Friderichsværn is launched at Bodenhoffs Plads in Copenhagen.Denmarksource
• 1783August 18 – The 1783 Great Meteor passes on a 1,000-mile track across the North Sea, Great Britain and France, prompting scientific discussion.source
• 1783August 27 – Jacques Charles and Les Frères Robert launch the world's first hydrogen-filled balloon, Le Globe, in Paris.source
• 1783November 21 – In Paris, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent, marquis d'Arlandes, make the first untethered hot air balloon flight (flight time: 25 minutes, Maximum height: 900 m).source
• 1783November 27 – English rector John Michell concludes that some stars might have enough gravity force to prevent light escaping from them, so he calls them "dark stars".source
• 178327 November – English rector John Michell concludes that some stars might have enough gravity force to prevent light escaping from them, so he calls them "dark stars".United Kingdomsource
• 1783December 1 – Jacques Charles and Nicolas-Louis Robert make the first manned flight in a hydrogen-filled gas balloon in Paris.source
• 1783December 31 – Louis-Sébastien Lenormand makes the first ever recorded public demonstration of a parachute descent, by jumping from the tower of the Montpellier Observatory in France, using his rigid-framed model, which he intends as a form of fire escape.source
• 1783Princess Yekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova is elected an honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the first female foreign member and its second female member, after Eva Ekeblad.source
• 1783The first balloon ascent takes place on Leinster House grounds in DublinIrelandsource
• 1783John Goodricke presents his conclusions that the variable star Algol is what comes to be known as an eclipsing binary to the Royal Society of London.United Kingdomsource
• 1783Erasmus Darwin begins publication of A System of Vegetables, a translation of Linnaeus in which he coins many common English language names of plants.United Kingdomsource
• 1784January 15 – Henry Cavendish's paper to the Royal Society of London, Experiments on Air, reveals the molecular composition of water.source
• 178415 January – Henry Cavendish's paper Experiments on Air reveals the composition of water.United Kingdomsource
• 178415 September – the Italian Vincenzo Lunardi makes the first hydrogen balloon flight in Britain, from Moorfields in London to South Mimms.United Kingdomsource
• 1784September 19 – In France, the Robert brothers (Anne-Jean Robert and Nicolas-Louis Robert) and a Mr. Collin-Hullin (whose first name is lost to history) become the first people to fly more than 100 km or 100 miles in the air, lifting off from Paris and landing 6 hours and 40 minutes later near Bethune after a journey of 186 km.source
• 17844 October – the Englishman James Sadler makes the first hot air balloon flight in England, from Oxford to Woodeaton.United Kingdomsource
• 1784November 27 – The phenomenon of black holes is first posited in a paper by John Michell, in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.source
• 1784Antoine Lavoisier pioneers quantitative chemistry.source
• 1784Carl Friedrich Gauss pioneers the field of summation with the formula summing at the age of 7.source
• 1784Benjamin Franklin invents bifocal spectacles.source
• 1784James Cook's journal of his last voyage published in London.Canadasource
• 1784Royal Commission on Animal Magnetism appointed in Paris.Francesource
• 178425 & 27 August – apothecary James Tytler makes the first balloon ascents in Great Britain, in a hot air balloon from Edinburgh.Scotlandsource
• 1784"Wash Act" reduces excise duty on Scotch whisky and provides a definition of the Highland Line.Scotlandsource
• 178425 & 27 August – Scottish apothecary James Tytler makes the first balloon ascents in Britain, in a hot air balloon from Edinburgh.United Kingdomsource
• 178519 January – Richard Crosbie successfully flies in a hot air balloon from Ranelagh Gardens to Clontarf. He goes on to makes several unsuccessful attempts to cross the Irish Sea in a hydrogen-filled balloon.Irelandsource
• 1785March 7 – Scottish geologist James Hutton first presents his landmark work, Theory of the Earth; or an Investigation of the Laws observable in the Composition, Dissolution, and Restoration of Land upon the Globe to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.source
• 17857 March – geologist James Hutton proposes the theory of uniformitarianism to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.Scotlandsource
• 17857 March – James Hutton proposes the theory of uniformitarianism to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.United Kingdomsource
• 1785April 28 – Astronomer William Herschel begins his second series of surveys of the stars, published in 1789.source
• 1785October 5 – Vincenzo Lunardi of Italy becomes the first person to pilot a balloon over Scotland.source
• 17855 October – flight by Florentine aeronaut Vincenzo Lunardi in a gas balloon from George Heriot's School, Edinburgh, across the Firth of Forth to Ceres, Fife (32 mi (51.5 km) in 1.5 hrs).Scotlandsource
• 178523 November – Lunardi flies from St Andrew's Square, Glasgow, to Hawick.Scotlandsource
• 1785Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi publishes Letters on the Teachings of Spinoza, and starts the Pantheism controversy of the 1780s.source
• 1785Dunsink Observatory established.Irelandsource
• 1785In an anonymous work, Christian Kølle introduced the written feminine grammatical gender in Norway.Norwaysource
• 1785Nathaniel Williams - Darllen Dwfr a MeddyginiaethWalessource
• 1786April 27 – British astronomer William Herschel publishes his first list of his discoveries, Catalogue of One Thousand New Nebulae and Clusters of Stars; two additional books are published in 1789 and 1802.source
• 1786August 1 – Caroline Herschel discovers a comet (the first discovered by a woman) from England.source
• 17861 August – Caroline Herschel discovers a comet, the first discovered by a woman, from Datchet.United Kingdomsource
• 1786Date unknown - The first hot air balloons are released in Sweden by the popular acrobat Antonio Bartolomeo Spinacuta.Swedensource
• 1786Abraham Rees completes his edition of Chambers 's Encyclopaedia, and is elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of his work.Walessource
• 1787January 11 – William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus.source
• 178711 January – William Herschel discovers the Uranian moons Titania and Oberon.United Kingdomsource
• 178719 February – William Herschel first uses the 40-foot telescope under construction for him at Slough.United Kingdomsource
• 1787March - Hester Piozzi returns from Italy with her second husband.Walessource
• 1787April 19 – British astronomer Sir William Herschel notices three red glowing spots on the dark part of the Moon.source
• 1787Antoine Lavoisier is the first to suggest that silica is an oxide of a hitherto unknown metallic chemical element, later isolated and named silicon.source
• 1787Caroline Herschel is granted an annual salary of £50, by King George III of Great Britain, for acting as assistant to her brother William in astronomy.source
• 1787A fossil bone recovered from Cretaceous strata at Woodbury, New Jersey is discussed by the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.source
• 1787Prince William Henry (future William IV) lands at Quebec.Canadasource
• 1787A law was passed on the protection of reindeer, which had been imported in 1784 and 1787.Icelandsource
• 178820 May – Marylebone Cricket Club publishes revised Laws of Cricket, establishing its position as the final arbiter of the rules of the game.United Kingdomsource
• 1788William Collins publishes Ode on the Popular Superstitions of the Highlands of Scotland.Scotlandsource
• 1789August 28 – William Herschel discovers Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons.source
• 178928 August – William Herschel discovers Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons.United Kingdomsource
• 178917 September – William Herschel discovers Mimas, another of Saturn's moons.United Kingdomsource
• 178922 September – (Today's New South Wales) Commonly cited as the first white child or the first white female born in Australia, Rebecca Small (22 September 1789 – 30 January 1883), was born in Port Jackson, the eldest daughter of John Small a boatswain in the First Fleet which arrived at Botany Bay in January 1788.Australiasource
• 17899 October – the first recorded cricket century to be scored in Scotland is made by the Hon. Colonel Charles Lennox: he scores 136 not out.Scotlandsource
• 1789German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth discovers the element uranium, while studying the mineral pitchblende.source
• 1789Andreas Hjorth founds what will later become known as Emil Hjorth & Sønner.Denmarksource
• 1789Robert Burns is appointed an exciseman.Scotlandsource
• 1790December 17 – The Aztec calendar stone is discovered at El Zócalo, Mexico City.source
• 1790Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow by Alexander Radishchev publishedRussiasource
• 1790The mineral element strontium is discovered near Strontian by chemists Adair Crawford and William Cruickshank.Scotlandsource
• 1790Den nya skapelsen by Johan Henric KellgrenSwedensource
• 1790Thomas Pennant - Indian ZoologyWalessource
• 1790David Williams - Lessons to a Young Prince (published anonymously)Walessource
• 1791John Williams - An enquiry into the truth of the tradition concerning the discovery of America by Prince Madog ab Owen Gwynedd, about the year 1170Walessource
• 17921 December – HDMS Nidelven is launched at Nyholm in Copenhagen.Denmarksource
• 17927 December – HDMS Skjold is launched in Copenhagen.Denmarksource
• 179224 December – The American ship Hope arrives in Sydney; Grose is forced to buy alcohol to obtain other cargo.Australiasource
• 1792Hungarian astronomer Franz Xaver von Zach publishes The Tables of the Sun, an essential early work for navigation.source
• 1792Om det allmänna förståndets frihet by Thomas Thorild.Swedensource
• 1793January 9 – Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first to fly in a gas balloon in the United States.source
• 1793January 9 – Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first to fly in a gas balloon in the Western Hemisphere, from Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia to Deptford Township, New Jersey. George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe are among the spectators.United Statessource
• 179313 April – The Bank of England issues the first £5 note.United Kingdomsource
• 1793Westminster Quarters first written, for the bells of a new clock at the Church of St Mary the Great, Cambridge, by Prof. Joseph Jowett, probably with Prof. John Randall or William Crotch.United Kingdomsource
• 1793Physician Matthew Baillie publishes The Morbid Anatomy of Some of the Most Important Parts of the Human Body, a key text on pathology.United Kingdomsource
• 179425 June – Burns sets out on his second Galloway tour.Scotlandsource
• 1794Mary Leadbeater publishes Extracts and Original Anecdotes for the Improvement of Youth anonymously in Dublin.Irelandsource
• 1794Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason published.United Kingdomsource
• 1794Erasmus Darwin's Zoönomia published, anticipating later theories of evolution.United Kingdomsource
• 1795April 7 – The metric system is adopted in France.source
• 17957 April – France adopts the metre as the unit of length.Francesource
• 17961 February – Wolfe Tone arrives in France.Irelandsource
• 1796July 10 – Carl Friedrich Gauss discovers that every positive integer is representable as a sum of at most 3 triangular numbers.source
• 1796Vsevolod, a 74-gun ship of the line, launchedRussiasource
• 1796Uvedale Price - An Essay on the PicturesqueWalessource
• 1797October 22 – André-Jacques Garnerin makes the first parachute descent, at Parc Monceau, Paris; he uses a silk parachute to descend approximately 3,000 ft from a hot air balloon.source
• 1797Publication of Encyclopædia Britannica Third Edition is completed in Edinburgh.Scotlandsource
• 1797Arthur Aikin - Journal of a Tour through North Wales and Part of Shropshire with Observations in Mineralogy and Other Branches of Natural HistoryWalessource
• 1798Alois Senefelder invents lithography.source
• 1798The platypus is first discovered by Europeans.source
• 1798The Gwyneddigion Society launches its project of publishing ancient Welsh manuscripts.Walessource
• 1799February 7 – Marc Isambard Brunel leaves the United States.United Statessource
• 1799April 10 – Ellicott's Stone is placed by a U.S.-Spanish survey party headed by Andrew Ellicott.United Statessource
• 1799October 12 – Jeanne Geneviève Labrosse becomes the first woman to jump from a balloon with a parachute, from an altitude of 900 m over France.source
• 1799William Wallace becomes the first to publish the concept of the Simson line in mathematics.Scotlandsource
• 1799The quarterly periodical Trysorfa Ysprydol is launched by Thomas Charles.Walessource
• 1799Japanner John Pyrke relocates to Usk from London.Walessource