Death of George I; his son George II ascends to the throne

Birth of
Thomas Gainsborough

Work begins on the Temple of British Worthies at Stowe, designed by architect William Kent

Start of the War of Austrian Succession

David Garrick plays Richard III to great critical acclaim

Robert Walpole resigns as prime minister

William Hogarth completes his Marriage à la Mode paintings

Death of Alexander Pope

Jacobite rebels, led by Charles Edward Stuart, defeat the English at the battle of Prestonpans

Jacobite rebellion defeated at the battle of Culloden

The Venetian painter Canaletto arrives in England

Birth of the Spanish painter Francisco de Goya

Publication of Samuel Richardson's novel Clarissa Harlowe

Publication of Henry Fielding's novel Tom Jones

Gregorian calendar accepted in Britain, moving New Year's Day from 25 March to 1 January

Founding of the British Museum

Samuel Johnson publishes A Dictionary of the English Language

Start of Seven Years War between Britain and France

William Pitt (the Elder) becomes secretary of state

William Pitt becomes prime minister

Birth of William Blake

Edmund Burke publishes A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origins of our ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful

General Wolfe captures Quebec from the French, securing Canada as an English colony

Publication of Voltaire's Candide

Death of George II; his grandson becomes George III

Laurence Sterne publishes first volumes of Tristram Shandy

London's first public exhibition of contemporary British art

George III marries Charlotte of Meckenburg-Strelitz

William Pitt resigns as secretary of state

Giovanni Battista Piranesi re-works his etching series Carceri d'Invenzione (Imaginary Prisons)

Birth of George, Prince of Wales

Catherine the Great assumes power in Russia

Rousseau's Emile is published

The Seven Years War between Britain and France ends with the Peace of Paris

William Hogarth dies

The Stamp Act is passed to raise taxes in the American colonies

Samuel Johnson's edition of Shakespeare is published

Angelica Kauffmann settles in London

Oliver Goldsmith's novel The Vicar of Wakefield is published

James Cook begins first of three voyages to the Pacific, accompanied by botanist Joseph Banks

The Royal Academy of Arts is founded

Death of Canaletto

Laurence Sterne publishes A Sentimental Journey

The Royal Academy's first annual exhibition

The Italian painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo dies

Publication of Oliver Goldsmith's poem The Deserted Village

The 'Boston Tea Party': tea worth thousands of pounds destroyed in American protest against tax on tea

Samuel Johnson and James Boswell journey to the Scottish Highlands and Hebrides

Omai arrives in England from Tahiti and begins a two-year stay

Death of Oliver Goldsmith

Start of the American War of Independence (until 1783)

Birth of Jane Austen

Birth of JMW Turner

Sheridan's comedy The Rivals performed at Covent Garden

4 July: American Declaration of Independence

Birth of John Constable

Edward Gibbon begins publication of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Defeat of British forces under General Burgoyne at the battle of Saratoga

First performance of Sheridan's The School for Scandal, at Drury Lane Theatre

France joins America in war against Britain

Admiral Keppel is acquitted at a court martial

Death of Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Fanny Burney's Evelina published

Siege of Gibraltar (to 1783)

Publication begins of Johnson’s Lives of the English Poets

Death of David Garrick

Death of Captain Cook

Violent anti-Catholic riots break out in London, lasting several days, and resulting in around 850 deaths

The Royal Academy moves into its new building, Somerset House, on the Strand

Boswell publishes his Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson

Peace Treaty: Britain recognises American independence

Charles James Fox becomes joint secretary of state; is later dismissed

General Election: Pitt the Younger becomes prime minister

George, Prince of Wales, marries Mrs Fitzherbert in secret

Death of Samuel Johnson

Jacques-Louis David's Oath of the Horatii is exhibited in Rome

The Abolition Society, an anti-slavery lobby, is formed in England

Mozart's Don Giovanni performed

George III begins to suffer periods of illness, probably caused by porphyria

Death of Thomas Gainsborough

Outbreak of the French Revolution; fall of the Bastille

Publication of Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution

James Boswell publishes Life of Samuel Johnson

Thomas Paine publishes part I of The Rights of Man

Abolition of the French monarchy; proclamation of the First French Republic