1773 in Great Britain

Events from the year 1773 in the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Incumbents

*Monarch - George III of the United Kingdom
*Prime Minister - Frederick North, Lord North, Tory

Events

* 17 January - Captain James Cook becomes the first European explorer to cross the Antarctic Circle. [cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-141-02715-0|year=2006]
* March - General Turnpike Act 1773 regulates the system of road tolls.
* 15 March - first performance of Oliver Goldsmith's play "She Stoops to Conquer" at the Covent Garden Theatre in London. [cite web|url=http://www.theatrehistory.com/british/goldsmith002.html|title=She Stoops to Conquer or The Mistakes of a Night, theatrehistory.com|accessdate=2007-08-25]
* 27 April - Parliament passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.
* 10 May - Tea Act comes into force.cite book|last=Williams|first=Hywel|title=Cassell's Chronology of World History|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|year=2005|isbn=0-304-35730-8|pages=327–328]
* May - Parliament passes an Act regulating the East India Company's activities in India and bringing them under government control.
* 16 December - American colonists protest against the British at the Boston Tea Party.

Undated

* John Harrison receives the Longitude prize for his invention of the first marine chronometer. [cite web|url=http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/icons-timeline/1750-1800|title=Icons, a portrait of England 1750-1800|accessdate=2007-08-25]
* An informal Stock Exchange opens at Threadneedle Street in London.cite book |last=Palmer |first=Alan & Veronica |year=1992 |title= The Chronology of British History|publisher= Century Ltd|location=London|pages= 226-227|isbn= 0-7126-5616-2]

Publications

* The Jockey Club's first "Racing Calendar", edited by James Weatherby.

Births

* 14 January - William Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst, ambassador to China and Governor-General of India (died 1857)
* 27 January - Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (died 1843)
* 6 April - James Mill, historian, economist, political theorist, and philosopher (died 1836)
* 19 May - Arthur Aikin, chemist and mineralogist (died 1854)
* 13 June - Thomas Young, scientist (died 1829)
* 23 July - Thomas Brisbane, astronomer and Governor of New South Wales (died 1860)
* 23 October - Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey, judge and literary critic (died 1850)
* 6 November - Henry Hunt, politician (died 1835)
* 21 December - Robert Brown, botanist (died 1858)
* 27 December - George Cayley, aviation pioneer (died 1857)

Deaths

* 9 February - John Gregory, physician, medical writer and moralist (born 1724)
* 24 March - Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, statesman and man of letters (born 1694)
* 15 May - Alban Butler, Catholic priest and writer (born 1710)
* 23 July - George Edwards, naturalist (born 1693)
* 24 August - George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton, politician (born 1709)
* 16 November - John Hawkesworth, writer (born c. 1715)

References

ee also