1714

The first English account of inoculation against disease appears in the Philosophical Transactions. The fight against smallpox in the West begins, ending in global eradication by 1979.

1727

Sir Hans Sloane becomes President of the Royal Society. On his death in 1754, Sloane's collections, including much Royal Society-related material, become the core of the British Museum.

1736

The Copley Medal is established from an endowment of £100 received from the estate of Sir Godfrey Copley in 1709. It is Britain's oldest scientific honour, a prestigious forerunner of the Nobel Prize.

1752

Benjamin Franklin demonstrates the electrical nature of lightning using a kite and key in a paper to the Royal Society. It is still the world's most famous scientific experiment.

1768

The Royal Society backs an expedition to observe the transit of Venus from Tahiti. The vessel Endeavour, commanded by Lieutenant James Cook, reaches Australia and New Zealand.

1769

The geologist Rudolf Eric Raspe is elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. His most enduring work relates the fantastic and unreliable Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1785).

1774

The Royal Society publishes letters on ornithology by curate Gilbert White. His systematic records will create the Natural History of Selborne (1784), the most popular nature book of all.

1781

William Herschel discovers a new body in the solar system. Sensationally it is a planet, reported to the Royal Society as Georgium Sidus [George's Star] by 1783 and eventually renamed Uranus.