Chronology of Robert Burns
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CHRONOLOGY

Life of Robert Burns

Contemporary Events

  1732
Haydn born
  1737
Thomas Paine born
 

1750
Death of Bach
Lacaille draws up star catalogue

 

1752
Gregorian calendar adopted in Britain

 

1754
Black identifies carbon dioxide

 

1755
Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language

 

1756
Mozart born
Black Hole of Calcutta
Beginning of Seven Years War (to 1763)

  1757
William Blake born
British defeat French at Plessey
  1758
Nelson born
Halley's Comet returns as predicted
1759
Born at Alloway, 25th January
1759
Handel dies
British capture Quebec
Mary Wollstonecraft born
British Museum opens
Harrison Completes Number Four (Prize- winning chronometer)
Candide by Voltaire
Arthur Guinness establishes first brewery
Wedgwood sets up business
1760
Gilbert Burns born
1760
George II dies
Benjamin Franklin erects lightning rods in Philadelphia
Identification of hydrogen by Cavendish
  1761
Black discovers latent heat in ice
  1762
Chippendale publishes Cabinetmakers' Directory
Rousseau's Discours
Gluck's Orfeo et Eurydice
Ossian's Fingal proved a forgery
  1763
Boswell meets Johnson
Jeremiah Dixon and Charles Mason begin their survey
  1764
Hargreaves develops spinning jenny
Voltaire publishes Dictionnaire Philosophique
Catherine founds The Hermitage in St. Petersburg
1765
Robert and Gilbert taught by John Murdoch
1765
James Watt develops efficient steam engine
1766
William Burnes leases farm at Mount
Oliphant
1766
Giant bones found near the Meuse river,
later identified as remains of a mosasaur
  1767
Work begins on Edinburgh's New Town
  1768
Laurence Sterne dies
Foundation of the Royal Academy
Publication of Encyclopaedia Britannica begins
Cook sails for the Pacific
Reynolds becomes first president of the Royal Academy
Arkwright introduces spinning frame in England
  1769
Watt's steam engine patented
Napoleon born
Wellington born
  1770
Wordsworth born
Hegel born
Goethe completes first part of Faust
Beethoven born
James Hogg born
d'Holbach's Le Systeme de la Nature published
Bruce finds source of Blue Nile
  1771
Tobias Smollett dies
Christopher Smart dies
1772
Robert and Gilbert attend Dalrymple School
1772
Final volume of L'Encyclopédie published
Thomas Gray dies
Samuel Taylor Coleridge born
First partition of Poland between Russia and Austria
1773
Burns receives tuition in English grammar, French and Latin from Murdoch in Ayr
Introduced to the work of Alexander Pope
1773
Boston Tea Party
Cook crosses Antarctic Circle
Stock Exchange established in Jonathan's coffee-house
1774
First song, Handsome Nell, written for Helen Blair
1774
Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen
Joseph Wright of Derby witnesses eruption of Vesuvius
Louis XV dies
Formulation of the rules of cricket
1775
Burns studies mathematics with Hugh Rodger at Kirkoswald
1775
Richard Sheridan's The Rivals opens
 

1776
Declaration of Independence
David Hume dies
Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations published
James Cook begins last voyage
Klinger's Sturm und Drang
Pennsylvania frees slaves

1777
Family moves to Lochlea or Lochlie at
Tarbolton
Burns attends dancing classes
 
  1778
Thomas Arne dies
Humphrey Davy born
Carolus Linnaeus dies
Rousseau dies
Voltaire dies
Bramah invents water-closet
  1779
William Boyce dies
David Garrick dies
Comte de Buffon argues that the Earth is
much older than Biblical evidence suggests
Crompton produces spinning mule
1780
Tarbolton Bachelors' Club formed by Burns and six others
Mary Morison
1780
Spallanzani develops artificial insemination
Gordon riots
1781
Inducted into St David's Lodge, Tarbolton
Learns the trade of flax-dressing at Irvine
Pays court to Elizabeth Gebbie
1781
William Herschel discovers Uranus
George Stephenson born
Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
Schiller's Die Rauber
British surrender to Washington at Yorktown
Messier produces star catalogue
1782
Flax shop at Irvine destroyed by fire
John Barleycorn
1782
Last witch-burning in Europe (Switzerland)
1783
Green Grow The Rashes
The Rigs O' Barley
1783
Luigi Galvani develops the electric cell
Lancelot "Capability" Brown dies
Mongolfier makes balloon ascent
1784
William Burnes dies
Gilbert and Robert Burns rent Mossgiel Farm from Gavin Hamilton
Man Was Made To Mourn
1784
Diderot dies
Franklin commissions bifocal spectacles
Pitt the Younger becomes Prime Minister
First Bristol to London mail coach
1785
Burns meets Jean Armour at a dance in April
Daughter Elizabeth born in May; her mother is Elizabeth Paton
Burns "attests" his marriage to Jean Armour in September
Address To The Deil
The Cotter's Saturday Night
Death And Doctor Hornbook
Halloween
The Holy Fair
Holy Willie's Prayer
The Jolly Beggars
Rantin', Rovin' Robin
To A Mouse
1785
Hutton introduces scientific geology
Cartwright patents power loom
1786
Death of "Highland" Mary Campbell
Publication of the Kilmarnock Edition
First visit to Edinburgh
Jean Armour gives birth to twins, Robert and Jean
Address To A Haggis
The Lass Of Ballochmyle
To A Louse
To A Mountain Daisy
The Twa Dogs
1786
First ascent of Mont Blanc
Klaproth discovers uranium
1787
Tours of Scotland
Second visit to Edinburgh
First Edinburgh Edition published
May Cameron advises Burns of her pregnancy
Collaborates with Johnson in "The Scots Musical Museum"
Meets Agnes Maclehose ("Clarinda")
The Birks Of Aberfeldy
Bonie Dundee
A Rose-Bud By My Early Walk
Selkirk Grace
1787
Lavoisier publishes Method of Chemical Nomenclature
1788
Burns moves to Ellisland
Excise commission issued to Burns
Authenticity of Burns’s marriage to Jean recognised by Mauchline Kirk Session
Auld Lang Syne
Comin' Thro' The Rye
O' A' The Airts The Wind Can Blaw
A Mother's Lament
1788
Byron born
Penal colony founded in Botany Bay
1789
Begins work as excise officer
The Braes O' Killiecrankie
John Anderson, My Jo
My Love, She's But A Lassie Yet
Ca' The Yowes
Willie Brew'd A Peck O' Maut
1789
French Revolution
Thomas Paine's Rights of Man
Blake's Songs of Innocence
Mutiny on the Bounty
Washington becomes first president of USA
1790
Tam O'Shanter
1790
Adam Smith dies
Benjamin Franklin dies
Galvani carries out electrical experiments
Cartwright introduces steam-powered loom
1791
Burns moves to Dumfries
Ann Park gives birth to Burns's daughter, Elizabeth
Attends Gilbert's wedding
Meets Agnes Maclehose for the last time (6thDecember)
Ae Fond Kiss sent to Agnes (27th December)
Bonie Wee Thing
Sweet Afton
Ye Jacobites By Name
1791
Mozart dies
Michael Faraday born
Samuel Morse born
1792
Made an Honorary Member of the Royal Company of Archers
Attempts to send the captured brig Rosamund's carronades to French revolutionaries
Burns investigated as "a person disaffected to Government"
The Deil's Awa' Wi' The Exciseman
Highland Mary
Willie Wastle
1792
Robert Adam dies
Percy Shelley born
Raeburn's Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch
Foundation of French Republic
Rouget de Lisle composes La Marseillaise
1793
Second Edinburgh Edition published
Bonie Jean
The Soldier's Return
Whistle, And I'll Come To You, My Lad
1793
Execution of Louis XVI
Assassination of Marat
1794
Charlie, He's My Darling
My Nanie's Awa';
My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose
1794
Edward Gibbon dies
1795
Founder Member of Dumfries Volunteers
The Lass Of Ecclefechan
A Man's A Man For A' That
Does Haughty Gaul Invasion Threat?
1795
John Keats born
British seize Cape Town
Mungo Park reaches Niger river
1796
Burns dies on July 21st; his son Maxwell is born on the day of his funeral: July 25 th
Fifth volume of Scots Musical Museum published
Inscription to Miss Jessy Lewars;
O Wert Thou In The Cauld Blast
1796
Catherine the Great dies
Edward Jenner discovers smallpox vaccine
Senefelder invents lithography
  1797
Horace Walpole dies
Edmund Burke dies
MacArthur introduces merino sheep to Australia
  1798
Napoleon invades Egypt
Irish rebellion suppressed
Nelson defeats French at Aboukir Bay
Wordsworth and Coleridge publish Lyrical Ballads
Malthus publishes Essay on the Principle of Population
  1799
George Washington dies
Beethoven writes first symphony
Napoleon becomes First Consul
  1800
Act of Union between Britain and Ireland
Volta makes first battery
  1801
First paddle steamer (Scotland)
Trevithick builds steam carriage


1825


The Club was established in 1825; some other events of that year:

Dutch North Sea coast floods

John Qunicy Adams elected 6th US president

Russia & Britain establish Alaska-Canada boundary

Charles X becomes King of France

Portugal recognizes the Independence of Brazil

Decembrist uprising in Russia against Tsar Nicholas I begins

Erie Canal opens

First public steam locomotive journey between Stockton and Darlington

Gregor MacGregor issues a £300,000 loan for the fictitious Central American republic of Poyais
leading to the Panic of 1825, the first modern stock market crash

PS Comet II sinks off Gourock with the loss of 62 lives

Nicholas I of Russia succeeds his older brother Alexander I

The first horse-drawn omnibuses established in London

Hans Christian Ørsted reduces aluminium chloride to produce metallic aluminium

The city of Brisbane is founded by Thomas Brisbane of Largs

London becomes the largest city in the world, taking the lead from Beijing

R M Ballantyne born

T H Huxley born

Eduard Hanslick born

Paul Kruger born

Johann Strauss II born

Antonio Salieri dies

Jacques-Louis David dies