1730

Decade opens with Peace in Europe

Benjamin Franklin begins Poor Richard's Almanack in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

John Kay patents flying shuttle, a major landmark in textile mass production, leading to textile mills in England

Voltaire writes Lettres sur les Anglais championing democratic government

David Hume creates empiricist philosophy in his Treatise on Human Nature

War of Jenkins' Ear begins when England declares war on Spain

1740

War of the Austrian Succession breaks out among major European powers

War of Jenkins' Ear spreads to Florida and Georgia

Johann Sebastian Bach issues second volume of The Well-Tempered Clavier

The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends War of the Austrian Succession. Major powers again at peace in Europe

David Hartley writes Observations on Man, arguing that one's moral sense is derived from an association of ideas

1750

Interest on Britain's national debt falls from 10% to 3%

Denis Diderot and Jean d'Alembert begin publishing Encyclopedia

Ben Franklin flies kite with key proving that lightning is like an electric spark

Samuel Johnson publishes Dictionary of the English Language.

Economist Francois Quesnay founds the Physiocrats, who advocate laissez-faire economic policies

Claude-Adrien Helvetius publishes De'l'esprit arguing that self-interest is the primary motive of human conduct

1760

Seven Years' War ends with the Treaty of Paris and the Treaty of Hubertusberg

J. J. Rousseau published The Social Contract arguing that government must rest on the consent of the governed

Joseph Priestley issues an Essay on First Principles of Government anticipating Jeremy Bentham's ideal of "greatest happiness for the greatest number"

Boycott of imports begins in Boston to oppose tax on lead, paint, paper and tea

1770

Boston Tea Party protests tea tax in America after its repeal in England

First Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia and writes a Declaration of Rights and Grievances

Revolutionary War begins in Concord, Massachusetts

Continental Congress on July 4, 1776 adopts the Declaration of Independence

Adam Smith writes Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

1780

Revolutionary troops defeat British at Yorktown, Virginia to gain independence

Immanuel Kant publishes Critique of Pure Reason

Britain, USA, France and Spain sign the Treaty of Versailles recognizing the independence of the United States of America

First paddle wheel steamboat sails on the Saone River, France

U.S. Constitution signed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and ratified within a year

French Revolution begins in 1789 with the storming of the Bastille Prison

1790

Dollar becomes the currency unit of USA

Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin

Thomas Paine writes The Age of Reason

Napoleonic Wars rage throughout Europe following the end of the French Revolution

British Government introduces income tax

Thomas Malthus completes Essay on the Principle of Population

1800

Napoleonic Code, a system of laws, is introduced in France

USA buys Louisiana Territory from France

Jean-Baptiste Say writes Treatise on Political Economy

Lewis and Clark expedition explores and maps western continental USA

Ludwig von Beethoven publishes 5th and 6th Symphonies

1810

Spain's South American colonies struggle to gain independence

Walter Scott publishes Waverley beginning popularity of historical romance novel

British invade USA and burn Washington DC in War of 1812. Treaty of Ghent ends war

Wellington defeats Napoleon at Waterloo. Napoleonic Wars end with the Congress of Vienna deciding the future map of Europe

David Ricardo publishes Principles of Political Economy and Taxation

1820

Thomas Robert Malthus publishes Principles of Political Economy

Michael Faraday develops primitive electric motor

The Monroe Doctrine expresses USA's opposition to extension of European influence in the Western hemisphere

Erie Canal is opened for shipping

Webster publishes American Dictionary of the English Language

Western Australia colonized by British

The Workingman's Party formed in New York

1830

The Baltimore and Ohio becomes first railroad in USA

Louis Jacques Daguerre invents the first practical photographic process

Cyrus McCormick patents a mechanical reaper

Samuel Colt patents his revolver

Samuel Morse develops telegraph and Morse Code for sending/receiving messages

Isaac Pitman develops a system of shorthand writing

Victoria becomes Queen of England

1840

John Stuart Mill publishes Principles of Political Economy

Potato crop failure in Europe causes an estimated 2.5 million to starve

Gold is discovered in California

Factory Act in Britain limits the working day of women and children to 10 hours

Series of republican revolutions in Europe end in failure and repression

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish Communist Manifesto

John Deere invents plow with a steel mold-board

Amelia Bloomer introduces trousers for women called Bloomers

1850

Old-Age insurance introduced in France

Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom's Cabin

Elisha Otis demonstrates safety elevator at New York Fair of 1854

Florence Nightingale pioneers modern nursing during the Crimean War

Henry Bessemer revolutionizes steel industry with new converter process

Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of the Species by means of Natural Selection

First oil well in USA is drilled in Titusville, Pennsylvania

1860

Civil War begins at Fort Sumter, South Carolina

Issue of Greenbacks to help finance the Civil War marks the beginning of modern currency in USA

Etienne Lenoir invents internal combustion engine in France

National Banking Act establishes a system of federally-chartered banks in the USA

Civil War ends when South surrenders at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia

Karl Marx begins writing Das Kapital

Alfred Nobel invents dynamite

Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads meet in Utah

1870

The Standard Oil Company is founded by John D. Rockefeller

City of Chicago destroyed by fire

Germany adopts the mark as its currency

Financial panic in Europe spreads to USA, causing withdrawal of foreign capital

Alexander Graham Bell invents telephone

Thomas Alva Edison invents the phonograph and electric light bulb

1880

American Federation of Trades and Labor is founded

William LeBaron Jenney builds first skyscraper in Chicago, Illinois

France presents the Statue of Liberty to the USA

Louis Pasteur successfully uses vaccination against rabies

Heinrich Hertz identifies radio waves

Gottlieb Daimler builds first automobile

Eiffel Tower is built in Paris for World Exposition of 1889

1890

Labor unrest erupts in USA when workers strike the Carnegie Steel Company

Alfred Marshall publishes Principles of Economics

The Sierra Club is founded by John Muir

Sigmund Freud establishes psychoanalysis with publishing of Studien uber Hysterie

Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen discovers X-rays

U.S. Congress enacts Income Tax Act, but Supreme Court declares it unconstitutional

Henry Ford produces his first automobile

1900

Guglielmo Marconi transmits messages across Atlantic with wireless telegraph

Orville and Wilbur Wright make first heavier-than-air machine flight

Albert Einstein publishes Theory of Relativity

Earthquake and fire destroy much of San Francisco

Financial panic in 1907 begins with the fall of the Stock Market and causes many banks to close

Gold Standard Act enacted in USA

Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act raises tariffs on imports into USA

1910

Marie Curie discovers radium

Federal Reserve Act creates central bank for the USA

Assassination of Austria's Archduke Francis Ferdinand brings about World War I

Gilbert Lewis develops electron theory of valency explaining structure of atoms

Revolution overthrows monarchy in Russia

Paris Peace Conference redraws map of Europe after World War I and establishes the League of Nations

1920

Women in USA receive the right to vote

Prohibition begins in the USA as sale of all alcoholic beverages becomes illegal

Germany suffers financial collapse as hyperinflation destroys value of mark

U.S. Steel Company abolishes twelve hour work day and seven day work week

Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin

Charles Lindbergh makes first solo airplane flight across the Atlantic

Collapse of Stock Market ushers in decade of economic hardship

1930

Worldwide Depression worsens, fostering the rise of political extremists

Hawley-Smoot Tariff Bill sets highest duties in US history, hurting world trade

James Chadwick discovers the neutron, Carl Anderson discovers the positron

U.S. repeals Prohibition Amendment

President Franklin Roosevelt begins New Deal government spending programs

Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany

Wallace Carothers produces Polymer 66, or nylon

Germany invades Poland starting World War II

1940

Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor and USA enters war against Japan, Germany and Italy

By 1944 war rages throughout the world

"D Day" offensive by USA, Britain and allies begins end of war in Europe

Germany surrenders in April 1945

USA drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japanese surrender

The United Nations is formed

John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley invent the transistor

Communist forces seize power in China

1950

Cold War between USA and Russia develops as Russia builds an atomic bomb

Korean War breaks out as North Korea invades south Korea. War ends in 1953

Electricity produced by atomic power in USA

James Watson and Francis H. C. Crick describe the "double helix" structure of DNA

UNIVAC is first mass produced computer

Jonas Salk develops anti-polio vaccine

Russia launches Sputnik I, the Earth's first spacecraft

U.S. Supreme Court orders desegregation of public schools

1960

Russia launches first man into space

President Kennedy establishes Peace Corps to assist underdeveloped countries

Rachel Carson writes Silent Spring marking concern with environmental pollution

Martin Luther King leads massive Civil Rights demonstration in Washington, D.C.

President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas

Vietnam War intensifies as USA begins massive military buildup. Anti-war movement begins on college campuses

Israel defeats Arab forces in Six-Day War

USA lands astronauts on the moon

1970

Equal Rights Amendment to US Constitution passes Congress but fails to be ratified by the necessary number of states

President Nixon resigns in the wake of the Watergate scandal

Following Israeli-Arab War in 1973, oil-producing countries double oil prices causing energy crisis and economic hardship

Vietnam War ends as South Vietnam surrenders and USA evacuates troops

Egypt and Israel sign historic peace accord

1980

Personal computers change the way businesses do business

Environmental issues become a major concern for most Americans

AIDS, a disease destroying the human immune system, becomes pandemic

U.S. sees rise of the largest federal budget deficit in history

Free market emphasized; deregulation of airlines and S&L's; stock market boom