Song in America |
Politics & Culture
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Politics |
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Culture |
New Nation (1750 - 1799) |
1750- The Beggar’s Opera, a ballad opera by Englishman John Gay, is heard in America
| 1750
- Settlers move outward into Maine, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky
- Johann Sebastian Bach dies
- The University of Pennsylvania is founded
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| 1751 | 1751
- Benjamin Franklin: Experiments and Observations on Electricity, Made at Philadelphia
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| 1752 | 1752
- First general hospital opens in Philadelphia
- Benjamin Franklin invents the lightning rod
- The Liberty Bell cracks on its first trial
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| 1753 | 1753
- First steam engine brought to the colonies in New Jersey
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| 1754 | 1754
- French and Indian War begins
- John Woolman: Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes
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| 1756 | 1756
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart born
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| 1757 | 1757 |
| 1758 | 1758
- First Indian Reservation is formed in New Jersey
- Noah Webster born
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| 1759 | 1759
- Voltaire: Candide
- Robert Burns born
- Thomas Carlyle born
- Johann Friedrich von Schiller born
- George Frederic Handel dies
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| 1760 | 1760
- Benjamin Franklin: The Interest of Great Britain Considered with Regard to Her Colonies
- Benjamin Franklin invents the rocking chair and bifocal glasses
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| 1761 | 1761
- Glass Harmonica (Glassychord) invented by Benjamin Franklin
- Mozart (aged 6) writes his first piece of music
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| 1762 | 1762
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Social Contract
- Christoph Willibald Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice
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| 1764 | 1764
- Mozart: Symphony No. 1
- Immanuel Kant: Observations on the Sense of the Beautiful and the Sublime
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| 1765 | 1765
- Great Britain imposes the Stamp Act on the colonies
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| 1766 | 1766
- The Stamp Act is repealed, but the Declaratory Act is imposed
- Mason-Dixon Line established
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| 1767 | 1767
- Georg Philipp Telemann dies
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| 1768 | 1768 |
| 1770 | 1770
- Ludwig van Beethoven born
- Georg Wilhelm Hegel born
- William Wordsworth born
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| 1771 | 1771 |
| 1772 | 1772
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge born
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1773- Phillis Wheatley's volume Poems on Various Subjects Religious and Moral is published, the first book published by an African American slave. Wheatley is forced to publish the book in London, since no American publisher would accept the book.
| 1773 |
| 1774 | 1774
- First Shakers arrive from England
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| 1775 | 1775
- American Revolution begins with Battles of Lexington and Concord
- Daniel Boone leads settlers into Kentucky
- Pierre Augustin de Beaumarchais: The Barber of Seville (premiere at Comédie Français)
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| 1776 | 1776
- Declaration of Independence
- Thomas Paine: Common Sense
- New Jersey grants women suffrage
- E. T. A. Hoffmann born
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| 1777 | 1777
- The French enter the Revolutionary War on the side of the colonists
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| 1778 | 1778
- La Scala Opera House opens in Milan
- Voltaire dies
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1779- “Amazing Grace," text by John Newton and written in 1773, is published for the first time
- Francis Scott Key born
| 1779 |
| 1780 | 1780 |
| 1781 | 1781
- Johann Friedrich von Schiller: The Robbers
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| 1782 | 1782 |
| 1783 | 1783
- American Revolution ends
- Washington Irving born
- Stendhal born
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| 1784 | 1784 |
| 1785 | 1785 |
1786- Alexander Reinagle, an English musician of Austrian descent, arrives in America and will settle in Philadelphia. His songs include a setting of R. B. Sheridan’s “I Have a Silent Sorrow”
| 1786
- Shay's Rebellion
- Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro
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| 1787 | 1787 |
| 1788 | 1788
- Constitution ratified
- Joseph von Eichendorff born
- Friedrich Rückert born
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Egmont
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| 1789 | 1789
- George Washington inaugurated president
- French Revolution
- William Blake: Songs of Innocence (first half of Songs of Innocence and Experience)
- Johann Friedrich von Schiller: Die Künstler
- James Fennimore Cooper born
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| 1790 | 1790
- Benjamin Franklin dies
- Mozart: Così Fan Tutte
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| 1791 | 1791
- Bill of Rights ratified
- Mozart: The Magic Flute
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dies
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1792- James Hewitt, English musician, arrives in New York. Songs include “In Vain the Tears of Anguish Flow”
- Oliver Holden: "Coronation" (hymn tune "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name")
| 1792 |
1793- Raynor Taylor, an English composer primarily known for his works for piano, arrives in Philadelphia. His songs include “Jockey and Jenny”
- Benjamin Carr, an English composer, arrives in Philadelphia, where he will be a major influence. Memorable songs include “Hymn to the Virgin: Ave Maria”
- Victor Pelissier, a French composer, arrives in New York. He is credited with the first American opera, Edwin and Angelina
- Benjamin Cook: Three Songs From Shakespeare
| 1793
- Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette sent to the guillotine
- Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin
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| 1794 | 1794 |
| 1795 | 1795 |
| 1796 | 1796
- Washington refuses a third term and John Adams is elected President
- Smallpox vaccine introduced
- American painter George Catlin born
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| 1797 | 1797
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner
- Heinrich Heine born
- Franz Schubert born
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1798- Joseph Hopkinson sets "Hail! Columbia" to Phile's "President's March"
- Thomas Paine writes the words of "Adams and Liberty," set to the tune "To Anacreon in Heaven" by John Stafford Smith
- Peter A. Von Hagen, Jr. publishes his song "Adams & Washington," which describes the warlike tension between France and the United States
| 1798 |
1799- Alexander Reinagle: "I Have a Silent Sorrow Here"
- Peter A. Von Hagen, Jr.: "To Arms, Columbia"
- George Washington dies (14 Dec) and several composers write songs and elegies (some in 1800) in his honor
| 1799
- Rosetta Stone discovered in Egypt
- Balzac born
- Pierre Augustin de Beaumarchais dies
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