Accession of Catherine the Great
The guards depose Peter III, opening Catherine's 34-year reign
.jpg?width=640)
In July 1762 the guards overthrew Emperor Peter III and placed his wife Catherine on the throne. During her 34-year reign Russia expanded south and west, and reforms were pursued in the spirit of the Enlightenment.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Did you know
Catherine II corresponded with Voltaire and Diderot and offered to publish the Encyclopédie, banned in France, in Riga.
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake — 7 years earlier
- 1756–1763 Seven Years' War — 6 years earlier
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — 2 years earlier
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — 7 years later
- 1783–1784 Laki eruption — 21 years later
Middle East
- 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — 15 years earlier
Asia
- 1757 Battle of Plassey — 5 years earlier
Americas
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — 14 years later
- 1787 US Constitution — 25 years later
Oceania
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — 6 years later
Alive at the time
- Voltaire (aged 68)
- Benjamin Franklin (aged 56)
- Mikhail Lomonosov (aged 51)
- James Cook (aged 34)
- Catherine the Great (aged 33)
- George Washington (aged 30)
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (aged 13)
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (aged 6)
- Carl Linnaeus (aged 55)
- Leonhard Euler (aged 55)