Cook Timeline: 1728 to 1799
Date | Event |
|---|
| 27 October 1728 | Birth of James Cook at Marton, Yorkshire, England |
| 22 October 1729 | Birth of Johann Reinhold Forster, at Dirschau (Tschew), Polish Prussia |
| 26 November 1754 | Birth of Georg Forster (JR Forster's son) at Nassenhüben, near Danzig, Germany |
| 1758 | During service in the Royal Navy along the Canadian coastline, James Cook learns military surveying using the plane table |
| 1763-1767 | James Cook surveys the cost of Newfoundland during a number of summer voyages |
| April 1768 | Lt. James Cook appointed to lead British expedition to the Pacific in HMB Endeavour |
| August 1768 | Cook's first Pacific voyage begins HMB Endeavour departs from Plymouth - visits Tahiti, New Zealand, and Australia |
| 3 June 1769 | Observation of the transit of Venus at Tahiti |
| 1769-1770 | Circumnavigation of New Zealand |
| 28 April 1770 | Cook anchors at Botany Bay, Australia |
| 10 June 1770 | HMB Endeavour strikes the Great Barrier Reef, repaired at site of Endeavour River, near Cooktown |
| 13 September 1770 | At Possession Island, James Cook claims British possession of the east coast of the Australian continent |
| July 1771 | Cook's first Pacific voyage ends |
| June 1772 | Following the withdrawal of Joseph Banks, Johann Reinhold Forster is appointed naturalist for Cook's second Pacific voyage |
| July 1772 | Cook's second Pacific voyage begins. HMS Resolution and HMS Adventure depart - travels in Antarctic Circle, New Zealand, Polynesia and Melanesia |
| 1773 | Publication of official account of first voyage - edited by John Hawkesworth |
| July 1775 | Second voyage ends with arrival of HMS Resolution in England |
| July 1776 | Cook's third Pacific voyage begins. HMS Resolution and HMS Discovery depart from Plymouth - search for Northwest passage in northern Pacific passage visits New Zealand, Hawaii, Polynesia |
| March 1777 | Publication of George Forster's 'Voyages round the world' |
| May 1777 | Publication of official account of second voyage - written by James Cook, edited by John Douglas |
| 1778 | Publication of JR Forster's 'Observations made during a voyage round the world' |
| May 1777 | Publication of official account of second voyage - written by James Cook, edited by John Douglas |
| 14 February 1779 | James Cook killed at Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii |
| January 1780 | News of Cook's death reaches London |
| October 1780 | Cook's third Pacific voyage ends HMS Resolution and HMS Discovery arrive back in England |
| 1782 | With the assistance of King George III, Göttingen University acquires a large Pacific ethnographic collection from England |
| 1784 | Publication of official account of third voyage - written by James Cook, edited by John Douglas |
| 10 January 1794 | Death of Georg Foster in Paris, France |
| 9 December 1798 | Death of Johann Reinhold Forster in Halle, Germany (Prussia) |
| 1799 | Göttingen University purchases a Pacific ethnographic collection from Johann Reinhold Forster's estate |
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