Early Modern
Leyden Jar (1745): The First Device to Store Electricity
The Leyden jar became the standard tool of electrical research and the ancestor of the modern capacitor.
Era · c. 1500 – 1800
Early Modern
Voyages of exploration, the Reformation and the age of revolutions that reshaped Europe and the wider world.
Early Modern
Battle of Culloden (1746): The Last Pitched Battle in Britain
Decisive government victory; the Jacobite army was destroyed in under an hour, ending the 1745 rising and the Stuart cause as a military force.
Early Modern
Ahmad Shah Durrani and the Founding of Afghanistan (1747)
Ahmad Shah founded the Durrani Empire, the state from which modern Afghanistan developed, and made it the leading power between Persia and India.
Early Modern
James Lind's Scurvy Trial (1747): An Early Clinical Trial
Oranges and lemons produced rapid recovery, but the Royal Navy did not issue lemon juice routinely until 1795.
Early Modern
Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws (1748): Separation of Powers
The book made the separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers a central principle of modern constitutional government.
Early Modern
Karim Khan Zand: The Ruler Who Governed Iran from Shiraz
Karim Khan reunited most of Iran after the Afsharid collapse and gave it about three decades of relative peace before the Qajars took power.
Early Modern
Diderot's Encyclopédie (1751-1772): The Enlightenment in Print
Completed in 17 volumes of text and 11 of plates, the Encyclopédie became the defining work of the French Enlightenment.
Early Modern
Benjamin Franklin's Kite Experiment (1752): Taming Lightning
The experiments of 1752 showed that lightning is an electrical discharge and led to the spread of the lightning rod.
Early Modern
Jumonville Glen and Fort Necessity (1754): Washington's First War
Washington's ambush killed Jumonville and nine or more of his men; on 3 July 1754 Washington surrendered Fort Necessity, and the clashes helped start the French and Indian War.
Early Modern
French and Indian War (1754–1763): Struggle for North America
British victory; by the Treaty of Paris of 1763 France gave up Canada and its lands east of the Mississippi, and Spain ceded Florida to Britain.
Early Modern
Qing Conquest of the Dzungar Khanate (1755-1758): War in Xinjiang
The Dzungar Khanate was destroyed, most Dzungars died or fled, and the Qing annexed the region later named Xinjiang.
Early Modern
Samuel Johnson's Dictionary (1755): Defining English
Johnson's two-volume Dictionary became the leading authority on English vocabulary until the Oxford English Dictionary appeared in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.