AP Units 5 and 6 Historical Events Timeline (35 events)

1760 CE

James Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny in England.

1763 CE

Treaty of Paris is signed ending the Seven Years War, leading to the British gaining control of Canada and parts of India.

1769 CE

Richard Arkwright patents the spinning frame, also known as the water frame.

1770 CE

Captain James Cook claims Eastern Australia for Britain.

1773 CE

The Boston Tea Party takes place in which colonists protest British taxes by throwing tea into Boston Harbor.

1776 CE

The Declaration of Independence is issued by the thirteen British colonies in North America.

1781 CE

The surrender of British troops at Yorktown, effectively ends the Revolutionary War.

1784 CE

The British East India Company is granted a monopoly on trade with the Qing Dynasty.

1789 CE

The French Revolution begins.

1791 CE

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is adopted in France.

1793 CE

Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin in the United States.

1794 CE

The Reign of Terror begins a period of violence and mass killings during the French Revolution.

1798 CE

Henry Cort patents the puddling process for refining iron.

1803 CE

The Louisiana Purchase allows the United States to purchase a vast North American territory from France.

1804 CE

Richard Trevithick builds the first steam-powered road vehicle.

1804 CE

Haiti declares its independence from France, becoming the first black republic in the world.

1807 CE

The British Parliament passes the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act.

1808 CE

Napoleon invades Spain and Portugal, leading to the Peninsular War, and the overthrow of the Spanish monarchy.

1814 CE

George Stephenson opens the first steam-powered railway in England.

1815 CE

The Congress of Vienna marks the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the restoration of monarchies in Europe.

1842 CE

The Opium Wars between the Qing Dynasty and Britain ends in Qing defeat, and the Treaty of Nanking.

1848 CE

The Mexican-American War ends in which the United States expands its territory to its present day borders in the SW

1853 CE

The Crimean War begins in which Russia fights against the alliance of Britain, France, the Ottoman Empire and Sardinia.

1853 CE

The Bessemer process for mass-producing steel is patented.

1858 CE

The British royal government takes control of India from the East India Company after the Sepoy Mutiny

1864 CE

The Taiping Rebellion led by Hong Xiuquan against the Qing dynasty, killed 20 million people.

1876 CE

Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.

1879 CE

The invention of the incandescent light bulb by Thomas Edison.

1884 CE

The Berlin Conference is held to organize how European powers divide Africa among themselves.

1885 CE

The Congo Free State is established under the personal rule of King Leopold II of Belgium.

1895 CE

The First Sino-Japanese War ends with Japan defeating Qing, leading to the cession of Taiwan to Japan.

1896 CE

Ethiopia defeats Italy in the the Battle of Adwa due to its modern military weapons and tactics

1898 CE

The Spanish-American War results in the independence of Cuba, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines from Spain.

1900 CE

The Boxer Rebellion, led by the "Righteous and Harmonious Fists," rises up against foreign influence and control in China.

1901 CE

The first transatlantic radio transmission is sent by Guglielmo Marconi.