BRITAIN: PAST AND PRESENT - London 2015 - page 803

1741 George Frideric Handel (a German-born resident of London) composes
one of the world's best-known choral works, The Messiah.
1755 Dr. Samuel Johnson publishes the first great English dictionary. The
writer of a magazine column on everyday London life, Johnson is known
to us today for witty remarks captured by his friend and biographer, James
Boswell.
1763-1775 Scientist James Watt makes advances in engineering steam engines, lay-
ing the groundwork for a coming Industrial Revolution.
1776 Britain fights 13 of its colonies in the American War of Independence
(1775-1783).
1779 On his final of three naval voyages to explore the South Pacific, Captain
James Cook is killed by Hawaiian natives.
1789 The French Revolution sparks decades of war with France.
1800s-1830s John Constable paints the English countryside with an almost Impression-
istic flair, specializing in cloudy skies.
1805 Admiral Nelson defeats the French navy at Trafalgar (Spain), ending the
threat of invasion by Napoleon.
1815 The Duke of Wellington defeats Napoleon for good at Waterloo (Belgi-
um); he later serves as a domineering prime minister. Britain becomes
Europe's No. 1 power.
Related Sights
• Nelson's Column at Trafalgar Square
• Apsley House (Wellington Museum) and adjacent Wellington Arch
• Portraits by Reynolds and Gainsborough, slices of life by Hogarth, and cloudy skies by
Constable in the Tate Britain
• Royal Observatory and National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
• Dr. Johnson's House in The City
• Georgian architecture in Bath