1588-11-23 04:39:45

Thomas Hobbes

Philosopher

1596-11-02 22:17:27

René Descartes

Philosopher

1600-12-01 00:00:00

Charles I

King of England, Scotland, and Ireland

1607-09-01 00:00:00

First performance of Hamlet

First performance of Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' by the crew of the ship Red Dragon.

1608-12-01 00:00:00

John Milton

Poet and polemicist

1623-12-01 00:00:00

Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle

Writer

1628-12-01 00:00:00

John Bunyan

Author and Baptist minister

1631-12-01 00:00:00

John Dryden

Poet, playwright, and critic

1632-01-14 13:14:36

John Locke

Philosopher

1632-04-15 23:53:53

Baruch Spinoza

Philosopher

1633-02-23 07:41:44

Birth of Samuel Pepys

1634-12-01 00:00:00

Sir George Etherege

Playwright and diplomat

1640-12-01 00:00:00

Aphra Behn

Writer

1641-12-01 00:00:00

William Wycherley

Playwright

1641-12-01 00:00:00

Irish Rebellion

1643-12-01 00:00:00

Sir Isaac Newton

Natural philosopher and mathematician

1647-12-01 00:00:00

John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

Poet and courtier

1649-01-30 04:39:45

Beheading of Charles I

Charles I was beheaded on this date, effectively ending the English Civil War which began in 1642.

1660-05-29 00:00:00

Reign of Charles II

Charles II's father, Charles I, was executed in 1649 during the English Civil War. Nine years later Cromwell died, the 'Restoration' of the monarchy took place, and Charles II was finally coronated in 1660.

1660-12-01 00:00:00

Daniel Defoe

Writer

1663-12-01 00:00:00

James Shirley invents the first reflecting telescope

1667-12-01 00:00:00

Jonathan Swift

Writer and dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin

1670-12-01 00:00:00

William Congreve

Playwright and poet

1671-12-01 00:00:00

Anthony Ashley Cooper, third Earl of Shaftesbury

Philosopher and author

1672-12-01 00:00:00

Joseph Addison

Writer and politician

1674-02-04 06:39:39

Isaac Watts

Independent minister, writer and poet

1678-12-01 00:00:00

George Farquhar

Playwright

1685-12-01 00:00:00

George Berkeley

Church of Ireland bishop of Cloyne and philosopher

1685-12-01 00:00:00

John Gay

Poet and playwright

1688-09-28 21:00:03

The Glorious Revolution

1688-12-01 00:00:00

Alexander Pope

Poet

1689-12-01 00:00:00

Samuel Richardson

Printer and author

1694-12-01 00:00:00

Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet)

Writer and philosopher

1700-12-01 00:00:00

James Thomson

Poet

1703-12-01 00:00:00

John Wesley

Church of England clergyman and a founder of Methodism

1707-01-01 00:00:00

Mount Fuji erupts in Japan

Mount Fuji erupts in Japan for the first time in the 1700's.

1707-12-01 00:00:00

Henry Fielding

Author and magistrate

1707-12-01 00:00:00

Charles Wesley

Church of England clergyman and a founder of Methodism

1709-12-01 00:00:00

Samuel Johnson

Author and lexicographer

1711-08-31 02:19:22

David Hume

Philosopher and historian

1712-12-01 00:00:00

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Philosopher, composer and writer

1713-01-01 00:00:00

Laurence Sterne

Anglo-Irish novelist and Anglican clergyman

1713-02-24 16:36:44

Laurence Sterne

Writer and Church of England clergyman

1713-12-01 00:00:00

Denis Diderot

French philosopher, art critic, and writer

1714-08-01 04:39:45

Reign of George I

George I ascended the throne after the death of Queen Anne in 1714

1714-12-01 00:00:00

The Scriblerus Club

1716-02-24 16:36:44

Thomas Gray

Poet and literary scholar

1716-10-05 09:17:54

Lancelot 'Capability' Brown

Landscape gardener and architect

1720-09-13 13:10:47

South Sea Bubble

1721-12-01 00:00:00

William Collins

Poet