Media History Timeline: 1700s CE

18th Century

Gallery

Jean Antoine Watteau's
"The Concert," 1716

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo's
Apollo Pursuing Daphne,
1765

Voltaic pile,
the first battery, 1799

1700-1799

1700: Protestant German nations adopt the Gregorian calendar promulgated in 1582.; 1700: Japan's Chikamatsu Monzaemon writes first tragedies about common people.; 1702: Jakob Le Blon produces a multi-colored engraving.; 1702: The first daily newspaper in the English language, the Daily Courant.; 1703: Antonio Vivaldi begins composing sonatas, 550 concertos, more than 20 operas.; 1703: A newspaper starts publication in Peter the Great's Russia.; 1704: Isaac Newton writes on Opticks.; 1704: John Harris' Lexicon Technicum, the first modern encyclopedia.; 1704: In the American colonies city of Boston, a newspaper prints advertising.; 1709: In London, The Tatler, first major magazine.; 1709: English Parliament passes Copyright Act.; 1709: George Berkeley argues that material objects exist only in our minds.
: 1710: Berkeley's Principles of Human Knowledge explains his "idealism."; 1710: German engraver Le Blon develops three-color printing.; 1710: England's copyright act is the basis for protection of intellectual property.; 1710: Florence harpsichord maker Bartolommeo Cristofori invents the piano.; 1711: Joseph Addison and Richard Steele's The Spectator replaces The Tatler.; 1711: The tuning fork.; 1711: Alexander Pope's Essay on Criticism.; 1712: Invention of steam engine sets the basis for the Industrial Revolution.; 1713: Fran�ois Couperin publishes the first of his harpsichord suites.; 1714: Pope's mock-epic poem, "The Rape of the Lock."; 1714: Henry Mill receives patent in England for a typewriter; does not build it.; 1717: George Friederic Handel's Water Music.; 1719: French scientist Rene de Réaumur proposes using wood to make paper.; 1719: Jakob Le Blon produces color printing.; 1719: Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.
: 1720: Johann Sebastian Bach composes the Brandenburg Concertos.; 1721: James Franklin jailed after publishing New England Courant; brother Ben takes over.; 1722: Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders.; 1722: Jean-Philippe Rameau, Treatise of Harmony, lays modern music foundation.; 1725: Scottish printer develops stereotyping system.; 1725: Vivaldi composes The Four Seasons.; 1726: Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels satirizes aspects of life in England.; 1727: Johann Schulze sees silver nitrate darken, begins science of photochemistry.; 1728: An epic poem is written in Swahili.; 1728: John Gay's The Beggar's Opera is staged.; 1729: Swift's sarcastic A Modest Proposal suggests eating Irish babies.; 1729: J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion is performed in Leipzig.
: 1730: John Peter Zenger prints first arithmetic text in American colonies.; 1731: In England, Gentleman's Magazine calls itself a "magazine".; 1732: In Philadelphia, Ben Franklin starts a circulating library.; 1732: Franklin begins publication of Poor Richard's Almanack. It will run until 1758.; 1733: In Madrid, Domenico Scarlatti, son of Allesandro, writes keyboard sonatas.; 1733: In Paris, Jean-Philippe Rameau's opera Hippolyte et Aricie draws praise, contempt.; 1733: The John Peter Zenger libel trial in New York colony supports press freedom.; 1734: Age of Enlightenment begins with Voltaire's Lettres philosophiques.; 1734: Alexander Pope's Essay on Man.; 1735: Viennese musicians begin development of the symphonic form.; 1735: Artist William Hogarth completes scenes of The Rake's Progress.; 1737: The Biblical Concordance.; 1739: David Hume expresses empirical philosophy in Treatise of Human Nature.; 1740: Samuel Richardson's novel, Pamela, follows the trials of a virtuous servant girl.; 1741: Ben Franklin and William Bradford publish first American magazines.; 1742: Hume writes Essays Moral and Political.; 1742: In Dublin, the premiere of Handel's Messiah.; 1742: Henry Fielding's novel, Joseph Andrews.; 1742: John Wesley, Character of a Methodist.; 1748: Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding challenges faith.; 1748: French philosopher Montesquieu will influence American founding fathers.; 1749: Henry Fielding's comic masterpiece, Tom Jones.; 1749: Encyclopedist George Leclerc suggests Earth is older than the Bible indicates.
: 1750: Russia gets a professional theater.; 1750: J.S. Bach dies.; 1750: European aristocracy dance to the minuet.; 1750: Start of Classic music era, referring to music without folk or popular origins.; 1751: Thomas Gray's, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.; 1751: In France, Denis Diderot produces first volume of an encyclopedia.; 1751: Hogarth's engraving, Gin Lane, lampoons the drunkenness of London's poor.; 1752: Handel composes his final oratorio, Jephtha.; 1752: Britain, colonies finally adopt Gregorian calendar.; 1752: Canada gets its first newspaper, the Halifax Gazette.; 1753: Founding of the British Library.; 1754: Ben Franklin creates first American cartoon, the "Join, or Die" snake.; 1755: Regular mail ship runs between England and the colonies.; 1755: Moscow State University is the first institute of higher education in Russia.; 1755: Samuel Johnson publishes the great Dictionary of the English Language.; 1756: In Austria, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is born. He will die in poverty in 1791.; 1758: Dutch-Japanese dictionary makes Japan more accessible.; 1759: Voltaire's Candide laughs at the philosophical optimism of Leibniz.
: 1760: The quadrille born in Paris, a dance for two couples. Partners barely touch hands.; 1761: The "father" of symphony, Franz Joseph Haydn, begins career.; 1762: Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Emile argues for a "natural" education of children.; 1762: Rousseau's The Social Contract identifies "compact" between men, government.; 1762: Christoph Gluck's Orpheus and Eurydice transforms opera by emphasizing drama.; 1763: English printer John Baskerville publishes a Bible.; 1764: Horace Walpole creates the gothic novel with The Castle of Otranto.; 1764: In Italy, Cesare Beccaria publishes first argument for rehabilitating criminals.; 1765: William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England.; 1765: The British Stamp Act taxes newspapers, documents angers American colonists.; 1765: English publisher John Newbery brings out a book of Mother Goose rhymes.; 1766: Rousseau's quoted "Let them eat cake" is ascribed to Marie-Antoinette, age 11.; 1766: Oliver Goldsmith's novel, The Vicar of Wakefield.; 1766: One year after passage, British Parliament repeals unpopular Stamp Act.; 1767: Laurence Sterne's, Tristram Shandy, gives expanded structure to the novel.; 1768: The first of three volumes of the first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.; 1769: Watt patents steam engine that will change everything, including communication.
: 1770: The eraser.; 1770: Artist Thomas Gainsborough paints The Blue Boy.; 1770: In Germany, Ludwig von Beethoven is born.; 1770: Goldsmith's poem "The Deserted Village" mourns places ruined by enclosures.; 1771: Tobias Smollett's novel, The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker.; 1772: In France, final volume (28th) of Encyclopédie, by Denis Diderot, others.; 1773: Goldsmith's witty play, She Stoops to Conquer.; 1774: Chlorine is discovered; will be used to bleach paper.; 1774: Hansard Reports of the British House of Commons begin.; 1775: Continental Congress authorizes post office.; 1775- Benjamin Frankli is first Postmaster General under Continental Congress; 1776: Scotsman Adam Smith writes An Enquiry into the Wealth of Nations.; 1776: German writers develop "sturm und drang" (storm and stress) movement.; 1776: Thomas Jefferson drafts a Declaration of Independence.; 1776: Tom Paine stirs the colonists with his pamphlet "Common Sense."; 1777: Richard Brinsley Sheridan's comedy of manners, School for Scandal.; 1777: Capt. James Cook, Voyage towards the South Pole in 1772-5.; 1777: Ammonia is used to block the darkening of silver salts.; 1778: Mozart composes the Paris Symphony. He is 22.; 1778: In Milan, one of the world's great opera houses, La Scala, is built.; 1779: Thomas Jefferson argues unsuccessfully for tax-funded education.; 1779: In Germany, Gotthold Lessing's drama Nathan the Wise is a plea for tolerance.; 1779: In Vienna, Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride continues to emphasize drama in opera.
: 1780: Steel pen points begin to replace quill feathers.; 1780: Richard Challoner's translation of Douay Bible, standard for English Catholics.; 1782: Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Liaisons dangereuses.; 1782: Noah Webster publishes an American speller.; 1783: Under Catherine the Great, Russia allows private printing presses.; 1783: Pensylvania Evening Post, the first daily newspaper in America.; 1783: Heinrich Grellman's Die Zigeuner is a rare sympathetic report on Gypsy life.; 1784: French book paper is made from vegetation without rags.; 1784: Artist Joshua Reynolds, Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse.; 1784: Capt. James Cook, Voyage to the Pacific Ocean in 1776-80.; 1784: William Wordsworth starts writing poetry.; 1784: Benjamin Franklin invents bifocals.; 1784: First mail delivery by coaches, between London and Bristol.; 1785: Panorama art reportedly invented in debtor's jail by Robert Barker.; 1785: Stagecoaches carry the mail between towns in the United States.; 1786: Robert Burns' Poems include: "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men�"; 1786: Mozart, The Marriage of Figaro.; 1787: Mozart, Don Giovanni, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.; 1787: Antonio Salieri's best known composition, the opera Tarare.; 1788: In three months Mozart composes three symphonies, including the Jupiter.; 1788: In London, the Times.; 1788: Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason, explores "categorical imperative."; 1788: Edward Gibbon completes The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.; 1789: Jeremy Bentham's Principles: the greatest good for the greatest number.; 1789: The French National Assembly votes the Declaration of the Rights of Man.; 1789: In England, the narrative of a former slave is published.; 1789: William Blake's Songs of Innocence.; 1789- Samuel Osgood, first Postmaster General under Constitution; 1789: Abingdon Press is founded.
: 1790: In England, the hydraulic press is invented.; 1790: Mozart, Cos� fan tutte.; 1790: The first U.S. copyright law, protection for 14 years.; 1790: Edmund Burke writes conservative Reflections on the Revolution in France.; 1790: British adopt secret ship-to-ship code using 10 colored flags, code book.; 1791: Congress passes the First Amendment.; 1791: Philadelphia to N.Y. coded light messages of financial news beats horses.; 1791: In the new United States, the Bill of Rights, with freedom of faith, speech, press.; 1791: James Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson.; 1791: Mozart, The Magic Flute.; 1791: The Marquis de Sade shocks France with Justine.; 1791: England gets a new newspaper, the Observer.; 1791: Tom Paine defends the French Revolution in The Rights Of Man.; 1791: The Surprise Symphony, one of more than 100 symphonies by Haydn.; 1792: Alien and Sedition Acts limit freedom to publish in recently born U.S.; 1792: French revolutionary government establishes a ministry of propaganda.; 1792: In Britain, postal money orders.; 1792: J.B. Lippincott begins to publish books.; 1792: Mary Wollstonecraft's feminist treatise, "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman".; 1792: The Farmer's Almanac begins more than 200 years of annual publication.; 1792: Postal Act promises mail regularity throughout U.S.; 1793: In Germany, business schools for young women.; 1793: Johann Schiller's On Grace and Dignity criticizes Kant's ethical theories.; 1793: In Munich, Alois Senefelder begins experiments in lithography.; 1793: The Louvre palace becomes a museum.; 1793: William Blake, "The Songs of Experience".; 1793: Jacques-Louis David paints The Death of Marat.; 1794: First letter carriers appear on American city streets.; 1794: In Revolutionary France, Claude Chappe sets up semaphore signaling system.; 1794: Opening of the first Panorama, forerunner of movie theaters.; 1795: Tom Paine, The Age of Reason.; 1796: Madame de Sta�l's essays inform French nation about the Enlightenment.; 1796: American Cookery, the first cookbook by an American, Amelia Simmons.; 1796: Burns' "Auld Lang Syne" is published. Sung on New Year's Eve.; 1797: Paine's Essays on Religion see deism as alternative to traditional religion.; 1797: In England, a heavy tax is levied on newspapers to limit the radical press.; 1798: Aloys Senefelder in Munich invents lithography. He will write about it in 1818.; 1798: In England, Thomas Malthus writes his "Essay on the Principles of Population".; 1798: Samuel Johnson's great nephew publishes the first American dictionary.; 1798: Nickolas Robert in France invents the "Fourdrinier" paper-making machine.; 1798: Coleridge and Wordsworth jointly publish book containing now famous poetry.; 1799: Allesandro Volta's battery provides first long-term source of electricity.; 1799: From the French Academy of Science, the metric system.