History Appreciation Tours

Timeline

One line through the centuries.

Our letters are in red. Everything else is the world carrying on around them, and this almanac grows with every piece we publish.

70s

  1. 79The Post · Misenum, Bay of NaplesThe Letter That Named a Kind of Volcano
  2. 23 June 79RomeThe emperor Vespasian dies, and his son Titus succeeds him. He'll have Vesuvius to deal with within months.
  3. 79Luoyang, ChinaThe Han court summons scholars to the White Tiger Hall to settle disputes over the Confucian classics.

80s

  1. 80RomeTitus opens the Flavian Amphitheatre, the Colosseum, with a hundred days of games.

1690s

  1. 1697The Post · The HagueBefore Envelopes
  2. 13 March 1697Petén, GuatemalaNojpetén, the last independent Maya city, falls to a Spanish expedition.
  3. 1697AmsterdamPeter the Great tours western Europe with his Grand Embassy, and for a while works in the shipyards under a false name.
  4. 11 September 1697Zenta, SerbiaPrince Eugene of Savoy routs an Ottoman army at the Battle of Zenta.
  5. September 1697Rijswijk, HollandThe Peace of Ryswick ends the Nine Years' War.

1730s

  1. 1739Letters from the Tour · Mont CenisWhy Did Everyone Hate Mountains Until About 1750?
  2. March 1739DelhiNader Shah of Persia sacks Delhi and carries off the Peacock Throne.
  3. January 1739LondonDavid Hume publishes the first volumes of his Treatise of Human Nature. It 'fell dead-born from the press', he said later.
  4. 9 September 1739South CarolinaEnslaved people rise near the Stono River in the largest revolt in the British mainland colonies.
  5. 23 October 1739LondonBritain declares war on Spain: the War of Jenkins' Ear.

1750s

  1. 15 April 1755LondonSamuel Johnson publishes his Dictionary of the English Language.
  2. 1 November 1755LisbonAn earthquake, then a tsunami and fires, destroy most of Lisbon on All Saints' morning.

1760s

  1. 1764LondonEight-year-old Mozart, on tour with his family, writes his first symphony in Chelsea.
  2. 1769The Cabinet · The Lake DistrictThe Mirror You Looked Into With Your Back to the View
  3. 3 June 1769TahitiCook's expedition watches the Transit of Venus to help measure the size of the solar system.
  4. 1769GlasgowJames Watt patents his separate condenser for the steam engine.

1770s

  1. 1770Natural Philosophy · ViennaThe Chess Machine With a Man Inside
  2. 5 March 1770BostonBritish soldiers fire into a crowd, killing five: the Boston Massacre.
  3. 29 April 1770Botany BayCook's Endeavour lands on the east coast of Australia.
  4. 1770BengalFamine kills millions under East India Company rule.
  5. December 1770BonnLudwig van Beethoven is born.
  6. 1772Letters from the Tour · FlorenceThe Most Beautiful Statue in the World (Allegedly)
  7. June 1772LondonIn Somerset v Stewart, Lord Mansfield rules that an enslaved man cannot be forcibly removed from England.
  8. 5 August 1772PolandRussia, Prussia and Austria carve off a third of Poland in the First Partition.
  9. 1776Natural Philosophy · NaplesThe Ambassador Who Kept Climbing the Volcano
  10. 17 February 1776LondonThe first volume of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is published.
  11. 9 March 1776LondonAdam Smith publishes The Wealth of Nations.
  12. 4 July 1776PhiladelphiaThe Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence.
  13. 14 February 1779HawaiʻiCaptain Cook is killed at Kealakekua Bay.
  14. 1779ShropshireThe Iron Bridge is cast and raised over the Severn, the first of its kind.

1780s

  1. 1786Meanwhile · EverywhereMeanwhile, 1786
  2. 1786Letters from the Tour · RomeUnder the Porta del Popolo
  3. 1 May 1786ViennaMozart's The Marriage of Figaro premieres at the Burgtheater.
  4. 13 July 1786Lituya Bay, AlaskaTwenty-one men of La Pérouse's French expedition drown in the tidal race.
  5. 31 July 1786KilmarnockRobert Burns publishes Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect.
  6. 1 August 1786SloughCaroline Herschel finds her first comet.
  7. 8 August 1786ChamonixJacques Balmat and Michel-Gabriel Paccard reach the summit of Mont Blanc.
  8. 11 August 1786PenangFrancis Light takes possession of the island for the East India Company.
  9. 17 August 1786PotsdamFrederick the Great dies at Sanssouci.
  10. 18 August 1786LondonThe government settles on Botany Bay for a convict colony.
  11. 29 August 1786Northampton, MassachusettsFarmers shut the county court, the start of Shays' Rebellion.
  12. September 1786EdoShogun Ieharu dies, and his chief minister Tanuma Okitsugu falls from power in the middle of the Tenmei famine.
  13. 1786TaiwanLin Shuangwen's uprising against Qing rule begins.
  14. 13 May 1787PortsmouthThe First Fleet sails for Australia.
  15. 17 September 1787PhiladelphiaThe United States Constitution is signed.
  16. 29 October 1787PragueDon Giovanni premieres at the Estates Theatre.
  17. 14 July 1789ParisA crowd storms the Bastille.

1800s

  1. 21 October 1805Cape TrafalgarNelson defeats the French and Spanish fleets and dies in the battle.
  2. 12 February 1809Shrewsbury and KentuckyCharles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln are born on the same day.

1810s

  1. 10 April 1815SumbawaMount Tambora erupts, the most powerful eruption in recorded history. Next year Europe has no summer.
  2. 18 June 1815WaterlooNapoleon is defeated for the last time.

1840s

  1. 10 January 1840BritainThe Uniform Penny Post begins: one penny per letter, paid by the sender.
  2. 6 February 1840Waitangi, New ZealandMāori chiefs and the British Crown sign the Treaty of Waitangi.
  3. 6 May 1840BritainThe Penny Black becomes valid, the world's first adhesive postage stamp.

1850s

  1. 1 May 1851LondonThe Great Exhibition opens in the Crystal Palace.
  2. 1852The Cabinet · BristolThe Clock With Two Minute Hands
  3. 8 July 1853Uraga, JapanCommodore Perry's Black Ships arrive to force Japan open to trade.
  4. 1854CrimeaBritain and France go to war with Russia. Florence Nightingale sails for Scutari in October.

1880s

  1. 24 May 1883New YorkThe Brooklyn Bridge opens.
  2. 27 August 1883Sunda StraitKrakatoa explodes. Its sunsets colour skies around the world for months.
  3. 15 November 1884BerlinEuropean powers meet at the Berlin Conference to carve up Africa.