1750:
§ Dr. Johnson is busy writing his dictionary.
1751:
§ Adam Smith is made a professor of Logic at Glasgow.
1752:
§ Adam Smith takes the Chair of Logic at the University of Glasgow, a post he was to hold until 1763.
§ Hume becomes the Keeper of the Advocates' Library in Edinburgh.
1756:
§ Start of the Seven Years War.
§ Edmund Burke published A Vindication of Natural Society.
1758:
§ Quesnay writes The Economical Table.
1759:
§ The British Conquest of America and the death of Wolfe.
§ Adam Smith publishes his Theory of Moral Sentiments.
1760:
§ George III becomes the king.
1763:
§ End of the Seven Years War and the signing of the Treaty Of Paris.
1764:
§ Smith gives up the Chair of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow so that he might become the tutor to the young Duke of Buccleuch; and tours France during the years 1764-1766.
1765:
§ The Stamp Act is passed by the British parliament.
1766:
§ Smith returns from his continental tour.
§ Adam Smith is elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
1769:
§ At around this time, Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780) brings out his Commentaries on the Law of England.
1770:
§ The members of the "Long Parliament" take their seats, it sat for 15 years, until 1785.
1775:
§ Burke brings out On Conciliation with the American Colonies.
1776:
§ July 2nd, 1776, the Continental Congress carries a motion for the independence of the 13 states on the East coast of America. Two days later the Declaration of Independence is adopted.
§ Gibbon gives forth with his first volume of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
§ David Hume dies.
§ Smith moves to London and clubs around with Reynolds, Garrick and Johnson.
§ The Wealth of Nations is published.
1778:
§ Appointed as Commissioner of Customs for Scotland and of Salt Duties, Smith moves back to Edinburgh.
1781:
§ October 19th, British troops under Cornwallis surrender at Yorktown.
1783:
§ December 13th, penal laws against Roman Catholics repealed.
§ British evacuate New York.
§ Smith becomes a founding-member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
1784:
§ Pitt, the younger, defeats Fox and North at the polls.
§ At age 18, Malthus comes up to Cambridge (Jesus College).
1785:
§ Igniting The Big Bang of the Industrial Revolution in England, steam engines are used to power spinning machinery.
1788:
§ Impeachment of Warren Hastings.
1790:
§ Burke writes Reflections on the French Revolution.
§ July 17th, 1790, Adam Smith dies.
