Events, Verisoph

1640 Portuguese revolt against Spanish rule ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Moreover, a revolt by the Portuguese in 1640 diverted a steady flow of Spanish troops and resources from northern Europe to much nearer home, although they were never enough to achieve the reunificati ●●

1640 Hobbes publishes Elements of Law ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Hobbes publishes Elements of Law, his first major work on political philosophy. ●●

1641 Dutch VOC captures Melaka from the Portuguese ai_extracted 1 cit. no story After establish ing a base in the small town of Jayakarta, renamed Batavia (now Jakarta) , on the island ofJava in 1619, the VOC's breakthrough came in 1641 when it captured Melaka... ●●

1642 Massachusetts enacts the 'Old Deluder Satan' school law ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Gatto notes early compulsion-school proclamations, including the Massachusetts 'Old Deluder Satan' law of 1642 and its 1645 extension. He argues these earlier laws were largely unenforceable. ●●

1642 Blaise Pascal builds his adding machine ai_extracted 1 cit. no story calculating devices worthy of the name machine, for adding and—through repetition of the adding—multiplying. Blaise Pascal made an adding machine in 1642 with a row of revolving disks, one for each de ●●

1643 French victory at the Battle of Rocroi ai_extracted 1 cit. no story At Rocroi (1643), although surrounded by the French, the Spaniards fought to the death. Here, indeed, was one of the strongest pillars in the Habsburg edifice; and it is significant that Spanish power ●●

1645 Manchu rule established over China ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Jamieson dates the founding of the resistance networks that became Chinese secret societies to the fall of the native Ming dynasty, writing that in 1645 'the Manchow rule was finally established,' driving discontented and disaffected people to band together in secret. ●●

1646 Elias Ashmole inducted into a Masonic order ai_extracted 1 cit. no story British esotericist and antiquarian Elias Ashmole wrote in his diaries about being inducted into an order of Masons in 1646, describing the induction ceremony as having spiritual and esoteric qualities. This is one of the earliest explicit references to Freemasonic practice. ●●

1647 Massachusetts School Law of 1647 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Gatto cites the Massachusetts School Law of 1647 as an early attempt to establish a government-ordered system of schools with means to enforce it. ●●

1648 Spain recognizes Dutch independence ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Spain suddenly made peace with the Dutch early in 1648, finally recognizing their full independence; but this was done to deprive France of an ally, and the Franco-Habsburg struggle continued. It beca ●●

1648 Peace of Westphalia severs inland German trade ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years War but severed sea access for inland German states, disrupting trade and prompting relocation to coastal centers. ●●

1649 First English translation of the Qur'an published ai_extracted 1 cit. no story First English translation of Qur'an published, meeting storm of abuse from Parliament and clergy. ●●

c. 1650 Age-set and generation-set systems order society 1 cit. Many communities organized public life through age-sets, groups of men initiated together who moved through stages of warrior and elder as a body. Among the Maasai and Kalenjin, age-sets provided warriors and, in time, ruling elders. The Kikuyu generation-set system, whose handover ceremony was called ituika, was said to pass authority from one generation to the next at long intervals. Details survive mainly in oral tradition and vary between communities. culture / politics / society ●●

1651 Hobbes publishes Leviathan ai_extracted 3 cit. no story Thomas Hobbes published Leviathan, his major work of political philosophy. The work was composed in Paris and dedicated to Francis Godolphin. It represents Hobbes's complete theory of the commonwealth and sovereignty. ●●

6 April 1652 Founding of the Cape Colony 1 cit. The VOC established a supply station under Jan van Riebeeck to resupply ships on the route to Asia. It grew into a settler colony that displaced local Khoikhoi people and used enslaved labor, seeding modern South Africa. politics / society ●●●●

1657 Comenius's Orbis Pictus ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Gatto references Comenius's 1657 Orbis Pictus, whose picture-based approach influenced later look-say reading methods. ●●

1657 Stockholms Banco founded ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The Stockholms Banco was established in Stockholm as a bank that engaged in lending as well as payment facilitation, pioneering fractional reserve banking. ●●

1657 Bramhall publishes Castigations of Hobbes ai_extracted 1 cit. no story John Bramhall publishes his critical response to Hobbes on liberty and necessity. ●●

1657 Quakers arrive in Massachusetts ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Quakers arrive in Massachusetts determined to spread message of freedom and inner light, raising fears. ●●

1660 György II Rákóczi dies of battle wounds ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Prince György II Rákóczi dies from battle wounds after failed campaigns, leading to principality's ruin. ●●

1661 Louis XIV takes personal control of France ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The Winning of Wars, 1660–1763 When Louis XIV took over full direction of the French government in March 1661, the European scene was particularly favorable to a monarch determined to impose his views ●●

1665 Great Plague strikes London ai_extracted 1 cit. no story During the bubonic plague outbreak in London, residents developed practical survival strategies including relocating to the countryside or isolating indoors. These intuitive approaches proved effective despite people's incorrect understanding of plague transmission. ●●

16 September 1666 Sabbatai Zevi converts to Islam 1 cit. Faced with execution by the Ottoman authorities, Sabbatai Zevi converted to Islam, stunning his followers and collapsing the mainstream of the movement. Some believers reinterpreted the conversion as a hidden stage of redemption. religion / society ●●●●

c. 1666 to c. 1667 The Great Schism of the Russian Church 1 cit. Patriarch Nikon's reforms to church ritual and texts split the Russian Orthodox Church and produced the Old Believers, who rejected the changes. Many Old Believers were persecuted and fled to the empire's edges. religion / society ●●●

1667 Thomas Sprat publishes History of the Royal Society ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Thomas Sprat publishes the authoritative History of the Royal Society with frontispiece designed by John Evelyn and engraved by Wenceslas Hollar. ●●

1668 Latin edition of Leviathan published ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The Latin edition of Leviathan is published, differing in some respects from the English version. ●●

1670 Kangxi issues the sixteen Sacred Maxims ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The Kangxi emperor worked to integrate the Han cultural corpus into his official pronouncements, issuing sixteen Sacred Maxims in 1670. ●●

1680 Treatise of the Three Impostors written in the Netherlands ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Anonymous Treatise of the Three Impostors written in Netherlands, circulated widely in manuscript. ●●

1682 Hobbes publishes Behemoth ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Hobbes publishes Behemoth, a dialogue examining causes of the English Civil War. ●●

1683 Oxford University condemns Leviathan ai_extracted 1 cit. no story On July 21, 1683, the University of Oxford formally passes a judgment condemning Leviathan as pernicious and destructive to princes and society. ●●

1685 Louis XIV revokes the Edict of Nantes ai_extracted 1 cit. no story King Louis XIV revokes Edict of Nantes, forcing Huguenots into continent-wide exile. ●●

1688 The Glorious Revolution ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In 1688 James II, the last Catholic king of England and Scotland, was driven from the throne after trying to restore Roman Catholicism. Parliament invited the Protestants Mary and William of Orange to rule in his place. ●●

1688 Glorious Revolution constitutional settlement ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The former succeeded in fighting the latter to a standstill in the course of the seventeenth century, an impasse that eventually resulted in the constitutional settlement of 1688–1689, the Glorious Revolution. ●●

1688 Glorious Revolution ejects a Catholic king ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Roman Catholic king ejected from British throne, securing Protestant settlement of British Isles. ●●

1689 Peter and Catherine the Great as reformers ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Quigley identifies Peter the Great (1689-1725) and Catherine the Great (1762-1796) as the westernizing, reforming rulers in Russia's alternating cycle of reform and reaction. ●●

1689 Russia and the Qing sign the Treaty of Nerchinsk ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In 1689, with the help of the Qing's Jesuit advisors and Mongolian transla tors, Russian and Qing delegations signed a treaty at N erchinsk, drew up a... ●●

1690 Qing attack Galdan with rival Mongol leaders ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The Qing attacked Galdan in 1690, with the help of rival Mongol tribal leaders . ●●

1691 Colonial law banishes those in interracial marriages ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In 1691 , a law required banishment from the colony of a white man or woman, of any status, who married "a negroe, mulatto or Indian man or woman bond... ●●

1694 Founding of the Bank of England, 1694 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Quigley calls the 1694 founding of the Bank of England by William Paterson one of the great dates in world history, marking England's mastery of credit. ●●

1694 Bank of England created ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The Bank of England was created primarily to assist government war finance, becoming distinctive through its note-issuing privileges. ●●

1694 Creation of the Bank of England ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The creation of the Bank of England in 1694 (at first as a wartime expedient) and the slightly later regularization of the national debt on the one hand and the flourishing of the stock exchange and g ●●

1698 Omani Arabs capture Fort Jesus 5 cit. After a siege that lasted nearly three years, forces of the Sultanate of Oman took Fort Jesus, breaking Portuguese power north of Mozambique. The victory brought the Swahili coast under Omani influence, exercised through local Mazrui and other governors. It set the stage for later Omani and Zanzibari rule over Kenya's coastal towns. politics / war ●●

1699 Ottoman losses to the Habsburgs, 1699 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story As early as 1699 the sultan lost Hungary, Transylvania, Croatia, and Slavonia to the Habsburgs, western Balkan lands to Venice, and northern districts to Poland. ●●

1699 Savery patents the 'miner's friend' pump ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Gatto traces the steam engine to coal mining's drainage problem. Savery patented the 'miner's friend' pump in 1699, which became Newcomen's steam pump for draining British coal mines. ●●

c. 1700 Councils of elders govern the Kikuyu 1 cit. Among the Kikuyu, day-to-day authority lay with councils of elders, known as kiama, who judged disputes, oversaw land, and guarded custom. Membership came with age, initiation, and standing, so power was earned over a lifetime rather than inherited from a crown. Similar councils governed many neighboring communities. This picture is drawn from oral tradition and from what early observers recorded. politics / society ●●

c. 1700 The high god Ngai and the abode on Mount Kenya 2 cit. The Kikuyu worshipped a single high god, Ngai, also called Mwene Nyaga, the possessor of brightness, who was believed to rest upon Mount Kenya, which they named Kirinyaga. People faced the mountain in prayer and sacrifice at moments of need, thanksgiving, and crisis. Related communities such as the Kamba, Embu, and Meru held similar beliefs in a creator god tied to the great peak. These beliefs are recorded from oral tradition and early accounts. culture / religion ●●

c. 1700 Enkai, the god of the Maasai 1 cit. The Maasai looked to Enkai, or Engai, a single god with two aspects, a benevolent black god of rain and life and a vengeful red god of drought and lightning. In Maasai belief Enkai gave cattle to their people at creation, a conviction that shaped both their pastoral life and their attitude to their neighbors' herds. Prayer, sacrifice, and the blessings of the laibon addressed this god. The tradition is known chiefly from oral sources. culture / religion ●●

c. 1700 The Meru crossing from Mbwaa legendary 1 cit. The Ameru tell of an ancestral home called Mbwaa, where they lived under oppression by cruel outsiders remembered as the red people. In the tradition they fled and reached a wide red water that opened to let them pass before closing on their pursuers. The story is a founding epic, and scholars still argue over whether Mbwaa was a real coastal place and who the red people were. culture / society ●●●

c. 1700 No central kingship among the Kenyan Luo contested 5 cit. Unlike their River-Lake kin the Shilluk, whose reth was a sacred king, or the Alur with their rain-making chiefs, the Kenyan Luo never built a single centralized kingship. Power stayed spread across many lineages and their ruodhi, held in check by elders and clan balance. Scholars still debate why the southern branch stayed decentralized while northern branches grew divine kings, which keeps this reconstruction contested. politics ●●

c. 1700 Pokomo farmers and the gasa council on the Tana 3 cit. The Pokomo are Bantu farmers strung out in villages along the Tana River, living off its floods to grow bananas, rice and other crops on the banks. Their society was ordered by age-sets and by the gasa, a council of senior elders that settled disputes and spoke for the community. They were riverbank cultivators in a land otherwise ruled by herders. economy / society ●●

c. 1700 The Ilwana of the middle Tana 3 cit. The Ilwana, also called Malakote, are a small Bantu-speaking farming people of the middle Tana around Bura and Hola. Living among the far more numerous Cushitic Orma, they took on much of their herder neighbours' language and custom. They are one of the river's least-known communities, easily lost between larger groups. culture / society ●

c. 1700 The Mbwaa origin narrative legendary 2 cit. In the Mbwaa story the Ngaa, ancestors of the Meru, are held under a people called the Nguo Ntune, the "red clothes" or red people, who impose a series of absurd, impossible tasks. A diviner cuts open a volunteer warrior named Aita, examines and heals him, and the reborn Aita strikes a great water so it parts, letting the fugitives cross on dry land before they disperse into the Tigania, Igembe, Imenti, Mwimbi, and Tharaka. Anne-Marie Peatrik records nine variants gathered between 1910 and the 1990s. culture / religion / society ●●●●

c. 1700 The Yaaku as Cushitic cave-dwelling foragers of Mukogodo 1 cit. The Yaaku lived by hunting, gathering, and beekeeping in the Mukogodo forest of Laikipia, sheltering in rock caves that gave rise to the name Mukogodo, roughly people who live in the rocks. They spoke Yaakunte, an Eastern Cushitic language unrelated to the Maa of surrounding pastoralists. Honey and forest game anchored their economy. culture / environment / society ●●

c. 1700 Aweer use honeyguide birds to find wild honey 3 cit. The Aweer are known for working with the greater honeyguide bird, following its calls and answering with whistles to locate wild bees' nests in the forest. Honey was both a staple food and a trade good. This partnership with a wild bird is one of the best-known human-animal cooperations in Africa. culture / economy / environment ●●

c. 1700 Sabaot settle the slopes of Mount Elgon contested 1 cit. The Sabaot are a Kalenjin cluster on the Kenyan slopes of Mount Elgon, made up of groups including the Kony, Bok and Bongomek, and kin to the Sabiny or Sebei on the Ugandan side. Older writers sometimes called them the Elgon Maasai, though they are Southern Nilotic and Kalenjin-speaking. Their homeland straddles the mountain and the border, and mixing with neighbours was normal. society ●●

1704 Marlborough wins the Battle of Blenheim ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Marlborough’s decisive victory at Blenheim (1704) severely hurt the Franco-Bavarian armies and freed Austria from a French invasion threat. The later battle of Ramillies (1706) gave the Anglo-Dutch fo ●●

1706 Birth of Benjamin Franklin ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Gatto recounts that Benjamin Franklin was born on Milk Street in Boston on January 17, 1706, the youngest son of a candlemaker. ●●

1706 Battle of Ramillies gives Anglo-Dutch the Netherlands ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The later battle of Ramillies (1706) gave the Anglo-Dutch forces most of the southern Netherlands, and that at Oudenarde (1708) brutally stopped the French effort to regain ground there.52 At sea, wit ●●

1707 John Mill documents thirty thousand biblical variants ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Distinguished English biblical scholar John Mill determines approximately thirty thousand variant readings exist. ●●

1708 Mazepa allies with Sweden against Peter the Great ai_extracted 1 cit. no story But when Hetman Ivan Mazepa, one of the richest men in Europe, allied with the king of Sweden against Peter the Great in 1708, Russia, with its own Co... ●●

1708 Battle of Oudenarde halts the French offensive ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The later battle of Ramillies (1706) gave the Anglo-Dutch forces most of the southern Netherlands, and that at Oudenarde (1708) brutally stopped the French effort to regain ground there.52 At sea, wit ●●

1709 Russia defeats Sweden at Poltava ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Russia’s stunning defeat of the Swedes at Poltava (1709) alerted the other powers to the fact that the hitherto distant and somewhat barbarous Muscovite state was intent upon playing a role in Europea ●●

1714 Leibniz writes the Monadology ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Leibniz’s reflections on the nature of mind culminated in his Monadology of 1714, a short text describing a universe of elementary mental particles th ●●

1714 First pipe organ installed in New England ai_extracted 1 cit. no story First pipe organ in New England acquired by Anglican church in Boston, seen as popish by Congregationalists. ●●

24 June 1717 Grand Lodge of England Founded 2 cit. Four London lodges met at the Goose and Gridiron Ale-house to form the Grand Lodge of England, the first Masonic Grand Lodge in the world. This is the conventional founding date of organized, institutional Freemasonry, as distinct from the older stonemasons' guilds it grew out of. The new Grand Lodge later built and rebuilt purpose-made halls, starting a tradition of grand Masonic architecture. Nearly every Masonic building discussed in later history traces its institutional lineage back to this meeting. culture / society ●●●

1719 Treatise of the Three Impostors published in print ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Treatise of Three Impostors finally published in print after circulating as manuscript for decades. ●●

1720 Collapse of the South Sea Bubble ai_extracted 1 cit. It was upon these solid foundations that Britain’s “credit” rested, despite early uncertainties, considerable political opposition, and a financial near-disaster like the collapse of the famous South ●●

1722 Afghan tribesmen invade Iran and sack Isfahan ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Afghan tribesmen sweep down from the north and overrun Iran, even sacking Isfahan, the capital city, in a significant military invasion. ●●

1723 Johann Peter Rockefeller immigrates to America ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Johann Peter Rockefeller, a miller, immigrates from Germany to Philadelphia and settles on farms in Somerville and Amwell, New Jersey, acquiring large landholdings. This marks the beginning of the Rockefeller family in America. ●●

1727 Russia and the Qing sign the Kiakhta treaty ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The principles of Nerchinsk were firmed up by the Kiakhta treaty, signed in 1727, and the frontier marked with boundary stones. ●●

1727 The Scottish kilt invented by Thomas Rawlinson ai_extracted 1 cit. Trevor-Roper shows the modern kilt was not ancient Highland dress but a recent design. It was created around 1727 by Thomas Rawlinson, an English Quaker ironmaster, who had the belted plaid cut down into a separate short garment so his Highland workers could tend furnaces more easily. ●●●

1729 Fleet and Marshalsea debtors' prison scandal ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In 1729 the horrific conditions of London's Fleet and Marshalsea debtors' prisons were exposed, where poor debtors were left to die of hunger and jail fever. ●●

1729 Emperor Yongzheng bans opium in China ai_extracted 1 cit. no story This was a practice that the Emperor Yongzheng had prohibited over a century before, in 1729, because of the high social costs of opium addiction. ●●

c. 1735 Linnaeus divides humans into ranked races 1 cit. In Systema Naturae, Carl Linnaeus sorted humans into four varieties and attached character traits to each, an early step toward ranking races. The scheme gave a veneer of science to European claims of superiority. science / society ●●

1735 States of Holland proscribe Masonic Lodges ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Pike claims that because true Masonry bore the banners of Freedom and Equal Rights and rebelled against temporal and spiritual tyranny, the Lodges were proscribed by an edict of the States of Holland in 1735. ●●

1737 Louis XV forbids Masonic Lodges in France ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Pike reports that Louis XV forbade Masonic Lodges in France in 1737, as part of governmental and ecclesiastical suppression of Masonry. ●●

1738 Pope Clement XII condemns Freemasonry ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Pike records that Pope Clement XII issued a famous Bull of Excommunication against Freemasonry in 1738, empowering bishops and inquisitors to punish Freemasons as suspects of heresy. ●●

1740 War of the Austrian Succession begins ai_extracted 2 cit. no story The War of the Austrian Succession began in 1740, coinciding with the First Silesian War and the accession of Frederick II (the Great). Clausewitz used this date as the beginning of his historical examples. ●●

1740 British national anthem as the earliest of its kind ai_extracted 1 cit. Hobsbawm notes that many national symbols are recent constructs tied to the rise of the nation-state. He dates the British national anthem to around 1740, calling it seemingly the earliest national anthem, while the national flag descended from the French revolutionary tricolour. ●

c. 1741 Omani rule and the Mazrui governors of Mombasa 5 cit. After Omani forces took Fort Jesus from the Portuguese, Oman appointed governors over the coast, and at Mombasa the Mazrui family turned their post into a near-independent dynasty that resisted control from Muscat. Through the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the Mazrui ruled Mombasa and fought to hold their autonomy. Their independence ended when the Busaidi sultans of Oman, moving their seat to Zanzibar, brought the coast under closer control. politics / war ●●

1743 The Rothschild banking dynasty ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Quigley asserts that the greatest of the international banking dynasties descended from Meyer Amschel Rothschild (1743-1812) of Frankfurt, whose sons ran coordinated branches across Europe. ●●

1743 Council of Berne proscribes Freemasonry ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Pike notes that in 1743 the Council of Berne proscribed Masonry, continuing the ecclesiastical suppression initiated by the papal bull five years earlier. ●●

1747 Nadir Shah assassinated, Qajar dynasty rises ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Nadir Shah is assassinated, and after a series of power struggles lasting nearly fifty years, the Qajar dynasty comes to power. ●●

1748 Franklin sells his business to pursue study ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Gatto notes that in 1748 Franklin, then wealthy at forty-two, sold his printing business to devote himself to study, soon earning a scientific reputation in Europe. ●●

1748 La Mettrie takes refuge with Frederick of Prussia, 1748 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Gatto notes that the materialist writer La Mettrie fled the Netherlands in 1748 and accepted the protection of Frederick of Prussia. ●●

1748 War of the Austrian Succession ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The first was the War of the Austrian Succession, from 1740 to 1748. ●●

1750 Hasidism emerges in Eastern Europe ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Popular Hasidic movement emerges in Eastern Europe, transforming Kabbalah into mass movement centered on Zaddik leaders ●●

c. 1750 The Kamba ivory caravans 3 cit. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the Kamba became the great long-distance traders of the region, moving ivory, cattle, and iron goods between the interior and the coast. Kamba caravans, led by big men such as Kivoi wa Mwendwa, opened routes that later coastal traders and the first European travellers followed. Their dry lands, poor for farming, pushed them into a trade that linked Mount Kenya to the ocean. economy / society ●●●

c. 1750 Kilumi and Kamba social life 2 cit. Kamba society ran on clans, age-sets, and councils of elders, with no chief above them. The kilumi was a dance and spirit ritual, often led by women, used to heal the sick and deal with the spirits of the dead. Ritual specialists and diviners held real influence, guiding families through sickness, drought, and disputes. culture / religion ●●

c. 1750 The Nandi and Kipsigis cattle economy and raiding 4 cit. The Nandi and their southern cousins the Kipsigis built their wealth and pride on cattle, herding on the highland grasslands and measuring standing in stock. Warriors raided neighbors, above all the Luo, Luhya, and the Maasai, to seize herds and win reputation. Success at raiding fed a fierce military tradition that later made the Nandi one of the hardest peoples for the British to subdue. economy / war ●●

c. 1750 The Turkana split from the Jie and enter the basin contested 5 cit. The Turkana are among the most recent Nilotic arrivals in Kenya, an Eastern Nilotic people of the Ateker cluster who broke away from the Jie and Karamojong of northeastern Uganda. Over the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries they expanded into the harsh arid basin west of the lake that now bears their name. The exact timing is reconstructed from tradition and language and remains debated. society ●●●

c. 1750 The Ogiek and their honey economy of the Mau Forest 4 cit. Honey sits at the centre of Ogiek subsistence, ritual, and exchange. Families keep named beehive sites in the forest, tapping different flowering zones through the year, and honey served as both food and a form of currency. Hunting and gathering rounded out a livelihood tied closely to the forest's seasons. culture / economy / environment ●●

1755 Braddock's defeat at the Monongahela ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Gatto recounts General Edward Braddock's July 9, 1755 crossing of the Monongahela and the ambush that followed, a defeat he argues proved the British could be beaten. ●●

1755 Braddock's army defeated on the Monongahela, 1755 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Gatto recounts Braddock's 1755 defeat, which drove frontier conflict and pushed wealthy Pennsylvania Quakers toward the Anglican camp. ●●

1756 Nawab of Bengal moves against the East India Company ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In 1756 the nawab <?f Bengal nearly threw the East India Company out; this became the occasion for the company to make use of its military capabilitie... ●●

1756 Frederick the Great launches preemptive war ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Frederick the Great, perceiving in 1756 that war was unavoidable and that he was lost unless he could forestall his enemies, became the first to initiate hostilities. This was an act of boldness, as few men in his position would have dared to act in this way. ●●

1756 Joseph Black identifies fixed air ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Joseph Black demonstrates that fixed air (carbon dioxide) is consistently distinguishable from normal air. This discovery marks a turning point in pneumatic chemistry and leads to the investigation of gases as distinct substances. ●●

1757 Franklin sent to England over the Penns ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Gatto reports that in 1757 Franklin was sent to England to protest the influence of the Penns in Pennsylvania's government, remaining there five years. ●●

1759 Britain's annus mirabilis of 1759 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In 1759, the annus mirabilis, French colonies were falling into British hands right across the globe, nicely complementing the considerable victory of the Anglo-German troops over two French armies at ●●

1759 Portugal expels the Jesuits ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Accordingly, Catholic monarchs beginning with King José I of Portugal in 1759 brought mounting pressure on successive popes to dissolve the whole Society of Jesus, because they resented its vision of priorities wider than their own, including its loy ●●