1774 The port of Boston shut up by an act of parliament. Civil war commences in America. A violent storm, by which 40 ships were lost near Yarmouth. Humane Society for the recovery of drowned persons instituted.
1775 Trade with America prohibited. The battles of Lexington and Bunker’s hill. The Americans invade Canada and besiege Quebec.
1776 America declared itself independent.
1777 General Burgoyne and his army surrender to the Americans at Saratoga.
1778 War declared against France. Pondicherry taken from the French. Admiral Keppel fights the French fleet off Ushant. The Earl of Chatham died, and interred in Westminster Abbey.
1779 Ireland admitted to a free trade. The French make a fruitless attempt on the island of Jersey. Their shipping destroyed in Concale Bay. An American fleet totally destroyed off Penobscot. Pitch and tar made from pit-coal at Bristol.
1780 Admiral Rodney defeats the Spanish fleet near Cape St. Vincent, and takes their Admiral Laugara prisoner. Dreadful riots in London. War with Spain and Holland. Torture abolished in France. His Majesty’s ships Andromeda, Laurel, Deal-Castle, Thunderer, Stirling-Castle, Cameleon, and many others, lost in a dreadful hurricane in the West Indies.
1781 Lord Cornwallis and his army surrender to the Americans and French at York-Town. Sir Eyre Coote defeats Hyder Ally. Ceylon taken from the Dutch. Florida conquered by the Spaniards. Engagement between Admiral Parker and the Dutch fleet off Dogger Bank. St. Eustatius, St. Martin, and other Dutch settlements, captured.
1782 Batavia taken by the English. The memorable attack of Gibraltar by the French and Spaniards;—their gun-boats totally destroyed, and the garrison relieved by a squadron of 33 ships of the line, under Lord Howe, in the face of the combined fleets of France and Spain, consisting of 47. Admiral Rodney defeats the French fleet in the West Indies; takes Admiral Count de Grasse and five ships of the line. The Ville de Paris and other French prizes lost at sea.
1783 Great Britain declares the United States of America independent. A new planet discovered by Mr. Herschell, and called the Georgium Sidus. A new island rose out of the ocean near Iceland.