1701 - 1800 AD

1700 - 1800 Age of Enlightenment
1706 Benjamin Franklin is born
1711 Birth of David Hume
   Birth of Mikhail Lomonosov
1712 Birth of Rousseau
1722 Birth of Samuel Adams
1723 Birth of Adam Smith, the economist
1724 Birth of Immanuel Kant
   Birth of Ahmad Shah Durani - Founder and first monarch of Afghanistan
1732 Birth of George Washington
   Birth of Haydn
   Invention of Sextant
1733 Birth of Joseph Priestley
1734 End of Spanish Inquisition
1740 Industrial revolution begins in England with the first factories (textiles)
1743 Birth of Thomas Jefferson
1744 Birth of Abigail Adams
1746 Birth of Francisco de Goya
1749 Birth of Goethe
1750 British defeat the French and establish themselves as the dominant foreign power in India
   Beginning of Neo-classical period
1754 - 1763 Anglo-French war in North America
1755 Birth of Hannah Adams - first American woman to support herself by writing
1756 Mozart is born
1757 British empire extends to India
   Birth of William Blake
   Birth of Alexander Hamilton
1762 - 1796 Catherine the Great rules in Russia, spreads serfdom and modernizes the country
1765 Steam engine is invented
1768 - 1771 English Captain James Cook sails the Pacific
   Cook discovers bits of Australia, Alaska, Antarctica
1769 Birth of Mohammed Ali - Viceroy of Egypt
   Birth of Alexander von Humboldt
1770 Birth of Hegel
   Birth of Beethoven
   Birth of William Wordsworth
1771 Joseph Priestley shows that plants convert carbon dioxide into oxygen
1773 Captain James Cook reaches furthest southern point of any explorer, crosses Antarctic circle
   Boston Tea Party
1775 - 1783 American Revolution
1775 Birth of Jane Austen
1776 Declaration of Independence is signed by U.S. Congress
1778 Captain James Cook maps the coast of Alaska
   Birth of Thomas More
1782 Birth of Paganini
1783 First hot-air balloon
1787 Constitution of the U.S. is signed
   Birth of Sacagawea
1788 Birth of Shopenhauer
   Birth of Lord Byron
   Captain Robert Gray discovers the Colombia River
1789 French Revolution
1792 Percy Bysshe Shelley is born
1793 Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin
   Friedrich Accum pioneers the invention of gas lighting
1796 Napoleon Rises to power
   Attacks and is defeated by Russia. Russia gains new respect in Europe
1797 Birth of Mary Wolstonecraft (Mary Shelley)
1799 Birth of Aleksander Pushkin
1800 Greenland is mapped by numerous explorers and navigators
   William Blake (English poet) argues that industry will ruin the environment
   Beginning of Romantic style
   Library of Congress founded
   Anaesthetic properties of nitrous oxide proposed