John Wilkinson invents a boring machine that becomes perhaps humanity’s first machine tool
John “Iron-Mad” Wilkinson invented precision boring machine that could bore cast iron cylinders, such as those used in steam engines of James Watt.
Europe
Captain James Cook becomes first human known to cross Antarctic Circle
In 1773, James Cook and his crew crossed the Antarctic Circle for the first time; however, although they discovered nearby islands, they did not catch sight of Antarctica itself.
James Watts invents the steam engine
The firm of Boulton and Watt became famous and Watt lived until August 19, 1819, long enough to see his steam engine become the greatest single factor in the upcoming new industrial era.
Jacob Roggeveen of The Netherlands becomes the first European to visit several South Pacific islands
Jacob Roggeveen was a Dutch explorer who was sent to find Terra Australis, but instead became the first European to visit Easter Island, Bora Bora, Maupiti of the Society Islands, and Samoa.
United Kingdom formally comes together as a unified sovereign state
“What began as a hostile merger would end in a full partnership in the most powerful going concern in the world… it was one of the most astonishing transformations in European history.”
Edmond Halley predicts the return of the world’s most famous comet
Edmond Halley, in his 1705 Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets, used Newton’s new laws to calculate the gravitational effects of Jupiter and Saturn on cometary orbits.
Bartolomeo Cristofori invents the piano
The piano is an acoustic, stringed musical instrument invented in Italy by Bartolomeo Cristofori around the year 1700 (the exact year is uncertain), in which the strings are struck by hammers.
The Ladies’ Mercury, the first known periodical specifically for women, is published in London
The Ladies Mercury was a weekly publication promising to respond to “all the most nice and curious questions concerning love, marriage, behaviour, dress and humour of the female sex, whether virgins, wives, or widows.”
Elena Cornaro Piscopia becomes the first woman ever to receive a university doctoral degree or PhD
The Venetian was proclaimed Magistra et Doctrix Philosophiae at the University of Padua thus becoming the first women known to have received an academic degree from a university and the first to receive a Doctor of Philosophy degree.
Ole Rømer demonstrates that the speed of light is finite, for the first time
By timing the eclipses of the Jupiter moon Io, Rømer estimated that light would take about 22 minutes to travel a distance equal to the diameter of Earth’s orbitaround the Sun.