1700

1709 First piano is built

The invention of the piano is credited to Bartolomeo Cristofori of Padua, Italy, who was employed by Ferdinando de’ Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany, as the Keeper of the Instruments. Cristofori was an expert harpsichord maker and was well acquainted with the body of knowledge on stringed keyboard instruments. This knowledge of keyboard mechanisms and actions helped him to develop the first pianos. It is not known when Cristofori first built a piano. An inventory made by his employers, the Medici family, indicates the existence of a piano by 1700.  The three Cristofori pianos that survive today date from the 1720s (see picture above). Cristofori named […]

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Events 1700s – Saint Petersburg is founded

1703 Saint Petersburg is founded    Events 1700–1721: Great Northern War between the Russian and Swedish Empires. 1701: Kingdom of Prussia declared under King Frederick I. 1701: The Battle of Feyiase marks the rise of the Ashanti Empire. 1701–1714: The War of the Spanish Succession is fought, involving most of continental Europe. 1702–1715: Camisard rebellion in France. 1703: Saint Petersburg is founded by Peter the Great; it is the Russian capital until 1918. 1703–1711: The Rákóczi uprising against the Habsburg monarchy. 1704: End of Japan’s Genroku period. 1704: First Javanese War of Succession. 1706–1713: The War of the Spanish Succession: French troops defeated at the Battle of Ramillies and the Siege of Turin. 1707: Death of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb leads to the fragmentation of the Mughal Empire. 1707: The Act of Union is passed, merging […]

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1707 The Association, struck Gilstone Rock and sank

The splendidly named Cloudesley Shovell came from a prosperous Norwich family. Cloudesley was his maternal grandmother’s surname. His family had useful naval connections and he was already at sea as a cabin-boy in his early teens. At seventeen he became a midshipman on the Royal Prince, the flagship of the Duke of York, the future James II.  Highly capable and well liked, he saw action from his teens on and his family cherished a story of him as a boy swimming under enemy fire carrying despatches in his mouth. William III was told that Shovell was ‘the best officer of […]

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