1771 - Encyclopaedia Britannica first published
1773 - first cast-iron bridge erected in England; Boston Tea Party
1775-1781 - American colonies revolt (War of Independence, 1776)
1788 - George III's first attack of madness; Prime Ministers and Parliament take on new importance
1789-1799 - French Revolution causes widespread panic among British aristocracy
1793-1815 - various disputes with France
1797 - Horatio Nelson emerges as a major figure in the British fleet
1799 - Napoleon Bonaparte seizes power in France
1802 - Peace of Amiens puts Britain and France formally at peace, though peace is short-lived
1803-1815 - Napoleonic Wars
1803 - failed Irish Rebellion against British rule
1805 - British fleet, led by Horatio Nelson (who dies in battle), destroys French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar
1811 - North English "Luddites" protest working conditions by destroying machines; George III's son becomes regent
1812-1814 - Britain and America at war (War of 1812)
1815 - Duke of Wellington emerges as a hero, defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo
1819 - Peterloo Massacre: British troops kill eleven and wound 500 people during a meeting of supporters of parliamentary reform in Manchester
1820-1830 - George IV is king
1821 - British West Africa is founded
1823 - work begins on the British Museum, the first public museum in the world
1824 - National Gallery is established; ban on unions of workers is lifted
1825 - Stockton and Darlington Railway is opened
1826 - University College, London, is founded
1828 - Duke of Wellington becomes Prime Minister
1830-1837 - William IV is king
1832 - Reform Act of 1832 gave more men the vote and redistributed seats in Parliament
1833 - Slavery is abolished throughout the British Empire; British Factory Act attempts to regulate abuses of industrial workers
1834 - Poor Law Amendment Act provides workhouses;
Houses of Parliament destroyed by fire