1785
Lavoisier Disproves Phlogiston
In a series of elegant sealed-vessel experiments, Antoine Lavoisier proved that combustion was combination with oxygen, not the release of some mysterious fire-substance. He renamed the gases, wrote a new chemistry textbook, and in doing so made chemistry modern. His wife Marie-Anne drew the diagrams. Nine years later the Revolution would guillotine him, prompting Lagrange's famous lament that it took a moment to cut off a head that a century could not replace.
Warren Hastings Recalled from India
Bengal's brilliant, controversial governor-general returned to England after thirteen years. He faced impeachment in the Lords for crimes of extortion and cruelty. The trial, opened by Burke and Sheridan, would drag on for seven years and become the empire's conscience on public display. Hastings was acquitted, and exhausted. The proceeding established the principle that British officials in India could be held accountable at home for their conduct abroad.
Qing Vietnam Campaign
Qianlong sent a Qing army into Vietnam to restore the Le dynasty against the Tay Son brothers. The Qing entered Hanoi; the Tay Son leader Nguyen Hue counterattacked on the Tet holiday, routing them at the battle of Ngoc Hoi. Humiliated, the Qing withdrew. It was counted as one of the 'Ten Great Campaigns' anyway.
First Channel Crossing by Balloon
Jean-Pierre Blanchard and the American doctor John Jeffries crossed from Dover to Calais in a hydrogen balloon, throwing out ballast including their clothes as they sagged toward the waves. They landed in a French forest in their underthings. A new kind of travel was possible, if not yet practical. The crossing proved that the English Channel, England's ancient shield against invasion, could be overflown by anyone with nerve and gas.
Abigail Adams in London
As wife of the first U.S. minister to Britain, Abigail Adams curtsied to George III in a London drawing room. She wrote home sharp letters about frivolous Englishwomen and costly mutton. Her correspondence with her husband and Jefferson remains the most vivid portrait of the founding generation's domestic and political inner life.