Historical
1769-1770: New Zealand, Australia - James Cook explores and maps New Zealand and Australia
1769-1773: India - The Bengal famine of 1770 killed one third of the Bengal population
1769: United States - James Watt invents the steam engine, this begins the Industrial Revolution
1769: United States - Spanish missionaries established the first of twenty one missions in California
1770-1771: Czech Republic - Famine in Czech lands killed hundreds of thousands
1770: Australia, England - James Cook claims the East Coast of Australia (New South Wales) for Great Britain
1770: United States - Boston Massacre occurs when British troops fire into a crowd of snowball throwers, killing five. John Adams later defends in court the British troops involved, this actually boosts John Adams' reputation because it demonstrates to the British that the Americans are fair
1771: England - Richard Arkwright and his partners build the first water-powered mill at Cromford
1771: Russia - The Plague Riot in Moscow
1772-1779: England, India - Maratha Empire fights Britain and the forces of Raghunathrao during the First Anglo-Maratha War
1772-1795: Poland - The Partitions of Poland ended the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and erased Poland from the map for 123 years
1772: Denmark - Reformer Johann Friedrich Struensee executed in Denmark
1772: Poland - Partitions of Poland marks the end of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
1772: Sweden - Gustav III of Sweden stages a coup d etat, becoming almost an absolute monarch
1773-1775: Russia - Pugachev Rebellion was the largest peasant revolt in the history of Russia
1773: India, China - East India Company starts operations in Bengal to smuggle Opium into China
1775-1783: United States, England - American Revolutionary War
1775: United States - Daniel Boone begins to clear the Wilderness Road to Kentucky
1775: globe - John Harrison H4 and Larcum Kendall K1 Marine chronometers are used to measure longitude by James Cook on his Second voyage (1772-1775)
1776: Germany - Order of Illuminati founded by German philosopher Adam Weishaupt
1776: United States - United States Declaration of Independence is written by Thomas Jefferson and others then is adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia
1778: United States - James Cook becomes first European on the Hawaiian Islands
1778: Vietnam - Tây So-n Dynasty established in Vietnam
1779-1879: England, South Africa - Xhosa Wars between British and Boer settlers and the Xhosas in South African Republic
1780: Peru - Outbreak of Indigenous rebellion led by Túpac Amaru II in Peru
1781-1785: Austria - Serfdom abolished in the Austrian monarchy (first step, second step in 1848)
1781: United States, Spain - Spanish settlers founded Los Angeles
1783: Iceland - Famine in Iceland caused by the eruption of the Laki volcano
1783: Ukraine, Russia - Russian Empire annexed the Crimean Khanate
1783: United States, England - The Treaty of Paris formally ends the American War of Independence
1785-1791: Russia - Imam Sheikh Mansur, a Chechen warrior and Muslim mystic, led a coalition of Muslim Caucasian tribes from throughout the Caucasus in a holy war against the Russian Invaders
1785-1795: United States - Northwest Indian War between the United States and Native Americans
1787-1792: Russia, Turkey - Russo-Turkish War (seventh of ten), Russian victory
1787: Japan - Kansei Reforms Instituted in Japan by Matsudaira Sadanobu
1787: Sierra Leone - Freed slaves from London founded Freetown in present-day Sierra Leone
1787: United States - United States Constitution was written in Philadelphia and submitted to the states for ratification, the Bill of Rights ratified four years later
1788-1789: Brazil - Inconfidencia Mineira, conspiracy against the colonial authorities in Brazil
1788: Astralia - First European settlement established in Australia at Sydney, Australia is the only Western country with no Bill of Rights
1788: France - First French Quaker community established in Congenies
1788: United States - New Hampshire ratifies the United States Constitution as the ninth state, and by the terms of Article VII, the constitution goes into effect
1789-1799: France - The French Revolution
1789: Canada, England, Spain - Great Britain and Spain dispute the Nootka Sound during the Nootka Crisis
1789: Unites States - George Washington unanimously elected President of the United States, he serves two four-year terms