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Historical Timeline

Please note: this is not by any means exhaustive, but is meant to give players and GMs a sense of historical scale and perspective. Please look at the For Further Research page for more information!

1793

• Outbreak of War between Britain and France. The voluntary Board of Agriculture is set up. Commercial depression throughout Britain
• Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette are executed
• Capitol in Washington, DC is designed
• Marquis de Sade publishes "La philosophie dans le boudoir"
• First Coalition against France

1794

• Commune of Paris abolished
• US Navy established
• Habeas Corpus Act suspended in England (through 1804)
• Thomas Paine writes "The Age of Reason"
• "Auld Lang Syne" published
• First telegraph, from Paris to Lille
• France abolishes slavery in colonies

1795

• The 'Speenhamland' system of outdoor relief is adopted in England, making wages up to equal the cost of subsistence
• Bread riots and White Terror, Paris
• Warren Hastings trial finally ends in England
• France occupies Mannheim and Belgium
• Dutch surrender Ceylon to English
• Bramah invents hydraulic press
• Mungo Park explores Niger River

1796

• Vaccination against smallpox is introduced
• Napoleon marries Josephine, numerous victories
• Washington refuses third presidency
• Tennessee becomes US state
• Spain declares war on England
• Empress Catherine II of Russia dies
• Fanny Burney publishes Camilla
• Cuvier founds science of comparative zoology
• Lowitz prepares pure ethyl alcohol
• Freedom of the press in France
• Macrobiotics invented

1797

• Numerous French victories vs. Austrians; peace signed
• Treaty of Polish partition
• Tallyrand becomes French Foreign Minister
• Nelson & Jervis defeat Spanish fleet at Cape St. Vincent
• Naval mutiny at Spithead
• Edmund Burke dies
• Chromium discovered
• First copper pennies minted in England, first one-pound notes issued

1798

• Introduction of a tax of ten percent on incomes over £200.
• T.R. Malthus publishes his 'Essay on Population'
• French capture Rome, declare Roman Republic
• Malta seized by French
• Alexandria occupied by French
• Battle of the Pyramids; Napoleon becomes master of Egypt
• Lithography invented
• Casanova dies

1799

• Trade Unions are suppressed.
• Napoleon is appointed First Consul in France
• French victories: vs. Piedmont, Turks
• Austria declares war on France, is defeated at Bergen op-Zoom
• England allies with Russians and Turks
• George Washington dies
• Beethoven writes Symphony No. 1
• Egyptian Institute founded at Cairo
• Preserved mammoth found in Siberia
• Rosetta Stone found

1799-1801 - Commercial boom in Britain

1800

• Act of Union with Ireland unites Parliaments of England and Ireland
• Napoleon defeats Turks at Heliopolis and Austrians at Biberach, Hoechstaedt and Hohenlinden.
• Jefferson wins US Presidential election
• American capital moves to Washington, DC
• Cowper dies
• Maria Edgeworth publishes "Castle Rackrent"
• Davy publishes "Researches, Chemical and Philosophical, Concerning Nitrous Oxide"
• Royal College of Surgeons founded in London
• Eli Whitney manufactures muskets with interchangeable parts
• Construction of light pressure steam engine
• Herschel discovers infrared solar rays
• Ottawa founded

1801

• Close of Pitt the Younger's Ministry. The first British Census is undertaken
• Act of Union comes into force
• Nelson defeats Danes off Copenhagen
• English enter Cairo, French leave Egypt
• David paints "Napoleon au Grand Sainte-Bernard"
• Robert Fulton produces first submarine, Nautilus
• Union Jack becomes official UK flag

1802

• English peace with France is established.
• Peel introduces the first factory legislation
• Daniel Webster writes "The Rights of Neutral Nations in Time of War"
• Beethoven writes Symphony No. 2
• John Dalton introduces atomic theory
• Herschel discovers binary stars
• Debrett's Peerage published
• West India Docks built in London

1803

• Britain declares war on France.
• Parliament passes the General Enclosure Act, simplifying the process of enclosing common land
• Ohio becomes US state
• Robert Emmet executed for Irish rebellion
• Cerium discovered
• Fulton propels boat using steam power
• Technical College founded in Prague

1804

• Napoleon crowned emperor
• 12th Amendment to US Constitution
• Spain declares war on Britain
• Alexander Hamilton killed in duel with Aaron Burr
• Beethoven writes his Eroica (third) Symphony
• Palladium discovered
• First dahlias in England

1805

• Nelson destroys the French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar, but is killed in the process
• Arthur Wellesley resigns in India
• Jefferson begins second term as US President
• Establishment of modern Egypt
• Break between Britain & US over trade with West Indies
• Schiller dies
• Turner paints "Shipwreck"
• Rockets reintroduced into British army as weapons
• Morphine isolated

1806

• Pitt the Younger dies
• Charles James Fox dies
• Prussia declares war on France
• French army enters Warsaw
• End of Holy Roman Empire
• Davy discovers electrolytic method for preparation of potassium and soda

1807

• Treaty between Napoleon, Czar and King of Prussia
• US Embargo Act vs. England and France
• France invades Portugal, royal family flees to Brazil
• Byron writes "Hours of Idleness"
• David paints "Coronation of Napoleon"
• Fulton's paddle steamer navigates Hudson River
• Charles Bell writes "System of Comparative Surgery"
• English abolishes slave trade
• Streets lit by gas in London

1808

• US prohibits importation of slaves from Africa
• Goethe writes Faust, Part I
• Dalton writes "New System of Chemical Philosophy"
• Napoleon abolishes Spanish and Italian Inquisitions
• Iron anchor chains for ships patented by Captain S. Brown, RN
• Source of Ganges "discovered"
• Men stop wearing their hair in pigtails
• Goethe and Napoleon meet in Erfurt
• Peninsular War to drive the French out of Spain begins
• Excavations at Pompeii begin

1809-10 - Commercial boom in Britain

1809

• Treaty of Dardanelles between Britain and Turkey
• War between France and Austria
• French army takes Vienna
• King of Sweden deposed
• Arthur Wellesley defeats French at Oporto and Talavera, created Duke of Wellington
• Napoleon divorces Josephine
• Ecuador gains independence from Spain
• Washington Irving writes "Rip van Winkle"
• Thomas Paine dies
• Joseph Hayden dies
• Water voltameter telegraph invented

1810

• Final illness of George III begins
• Napoleon marries Marie Louise of Austria
• Venezuela breaks from Spain; Simon Bolivar emerges as major figure in rebellions
• Scott writes "The Lady of the Lake
• Krupp works open in Essen
• US population is 7,239,881
  

1811

• Depression caused by Orders of Council.
• Massacre of Mamelukes at Cairo
• British occupy Java
• W.H. Harrison defeats Tecumseh at Tippecanoe, Indiana
• Luddite disturbances in Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire.
• The King's illness leads to his son, the Prince of Wales, becoming Regent
• Great Schism of Welsh Protestants; 2/3 leave CofE
• Avogadro develops hypothesis of the molecular composition of gases
• Swiss mountaineer Johann Meyer climbs the Jungfrau

1812

• Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated in the House of Commons by a disgruntled bankrupt
• Napoleon enters Russia; retreats with heavy loss of life
• Louisiana becomes US state
• US declares war on Britain
• Wellington enters Madrid
• Madison becomes US President
• Present Drury Lane Theatre built
• Jews in Prussia emancipated
• Elgin Marbles brought to England
• Goya's "Portrait of the Duke of Wellington" painted
• 25-ton steamship, Comet on the Clyde River
• Burckhardt discovers Great Temple of Abu Simbel

1813

• Prussia declares war on France (I am so tired of typing "so-and-so declares war on France! Jeez, will Napoleon just abdicate already?!)
• Austria declares war on France (Arg!)
• French expelled from Holland, William of Orange returns
• HMS Shannon captures USS Chesapeake
• US captures York (Toronto) and Fort St. George
• US forces defeated near Montreal, burn Newark; British take Fort Niagara and burn Buffalo
• Simon Bolivar becomes Venezuelan dictator
• Mexico declares independence
• Southey's Life of Nelson published
• Shelley's "Queen Mab" published
• Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is published.
• Methodist Missionary Society founded
• David Livingstone (I presume) born
• Last gold guinea coins issued in England
• Waltz becomes popular in Europe
• The monopolies of the East India Company are abolished

1814

• Napoleon abdicates (yahoo!) and Louis XVIII takes throne
• Congress of Vienna opens
• US defeats British at Chippewa
• British burn Washington DC
• British flotilla captured on Lake Champlain
• Lord Hastings declares war on the Gurkhas
• Jane Austen publishes Mansfield Park
• Byron publishes "The Corsair"
• Scott publishes "Waverley"
• First Anglican bishop in India
• Pope Pius VII restores the Inquisition (nobody expected that)
• Frances Scott Key writes the poem which will ultimately become our esteemed, unsingable national anthem
• George Stephenson constructs the first practical steam locomotive
• London Times printed by steam-operated press
• St. Margaret's, Westminister is illumnated by gas

1815

• The defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo marks the end of the Napoleonic Wars (thank heaven).
• Peace is established in Europe at the Congress of Vienna.
• The Corn Laws are passed by Parliament to protect British agriculture from cheap imports
• Treaty of Ghent marks end of US/British war
• Brazil declares itself an independent empire
• Scott publishes Guy Mannering
• Nash rebuilds Brighton Pavilion in "oriental" style (takes until 1823)
• Davy invents miner's safety lamp
• Apothocaries Act restricts medical practitioners in Britain to qualified doctors
• British income tax ends
• Sumbawa Volcano erupts in Indonesia and kills more than 50,000
• First steam warship, USS Fulton (38 tons)
• Prout publishes hypothesis on relationship between specific gravity and atomic weight

1816

• Indiana becomes US State
• Java restored to Netherlands
• Argentina declares independence
• Jane Austen publishes Emma
• Coleridge publishes Kubla Khan
• Sheridan dies
• American Bible Society founded
• Elgin Marbles bought for British Museum
• Kaleidoscope invented
• English economic crisis causes emigration to US & Canada

1817

• Economic slump in Britain leads to the 'Blanketeers' March' and other disturbances
• Attempt on life of Prince Regent at opening of Parliament
• James Monroe becomes US President
• Simon Bolivar establishes independent Venezuelan government
• Mississippi becomes US state
• Jane Austen dies
• Selenium and Lithium discovered
• US begins construction of Erie Canal
• Opening of Waterloo Bridge in London

1818

• Death of the King's wife, Queen Caroline.
• Act suspending Habeus Corpus in England repealed
• Chile declares independence
• Illinois becomes US state
• Mary Shelley publishes 'Frankenstein'
• Keats publishes "Endymion"
• Words to "Stille Nacht" written
• Berzelius publishes molecular weights of 2,000 chemical compounds
• Chubb invents detector lock
• Cadmium discovered
• British Order of St. Michael and St. George instituted
• First steamship crosses the Atlantic in 26 days

1819

• Troops intervene at a mass political reform meeting in Manchester, killing and wounding four hundred people at the 'Peterloo Massacre'
• British settlement in Singapore
• Florida purchased by US from Spain
• Simon Bolivar becomes President of Columbia
• Sanskrit-English dictionary published
• Beethoven deaf
• Flatbed cylinder press invented
• Mehemet Ali presents Cleopatra's Needle to Britain
• Maximum 12-hour working day for juveniles in England
• Washington Colonization Society founds Liberia for repatriation of blacks

1820

• Death of the blind and deranged King George III. He is succeeded by his son, the Prince Regent, who becomes King George IV.
• A radical plot to murder the Cabinet, known as the Cato Street Conspiracy, fails.
• Trial of Queen Caroline, in which George IV attempts to divorce her for adultery
• Monroe begins second term as US President
• Reign of Terror between Greeks and Turks
• Missouri becomes US state
• Peru, Guatemala, Panama, and Santo Domingo declared independent of Spain
• Scott publishes "Kenilworth"
• Faraday discovers electromagnetic rotation
• Wheatstone demonstrates sound reproduction
• Population of US: 9.6 million; Population of Great Britain: 20.8 million

 

(Thanks to Britannia.com and the Timetables of History)