The Thunder Stone reaches Saint Petersburg

Name: The Thunder Stone reaches Saint Petersburg
Start: 1770
End: 1782
Location: Saint Petersburg, Senate Square

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1770–1782 · Saint Petersburg, Senate Square · Eastern Europe & Russia · Culture

The largest stone ever moved by human beings

The Thunder Stone reaches Saint Petersburg — Godot13 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

For the Bronze Horseman's pedestal a granite boulder of some 1,500 tonnes was found at Lakhta. It took almost two years to drag it overland and float it on a purpose-built barge to the city in 1770 — the largest stone ever moved by humans. The monument was unveiled in 1782.

State: Russian Empire

Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century

Did you know

While the Thunder Stone for the Bronze Horseman was being hauled to the Neva, Cook was charting Australia. He landed at Botany Bay in April 1770, and that same year the 1,500-tonne boulder reached Saint Petersburg. Share →

Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)

Europe

1755 Lisbon earthquake — 15 years earlier
c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — 10 years earlier
1769 Watt's steam engine — 1 year earlier
1783–1784 Laki eruption — 13 years later
1789 Storming of the Bastille — 19 years later

Middle East

1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — 23 years earlier

Asia

1755–1758 The Dzungar genocide — 15 years earlier
1757 Battle of Plassey — 13 years earlier
1761 Third Battle of Panipat — 9 years earlier

Americas

1776 US Declaration of Independence — 6 years later
1787 US Constitution — 17 years later
1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — 21 years later

Oceania

1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — 2 years earlier
1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — 18 years later