One of Europe's last 'witches' was executed 30 years after Franklin caught lightning with a kite.
Anna Göldi was beheaded in Glarus, Switzerland, in 1782; Franklin described his kite experiment in 1752.
The events
- Franklin's kite experiment1752 · Philadelphia. In the summer of 1752, by his own account, Benjamin Franklin flew a kite with a metal point into a thunderstorm and drew a spark from a key on the wet string. It showed that lightning is electricity and made his lightning rod famous.
- Execution of Anna Göldi, Europe's 'last witch'1782 · Glarus, Switzerland. Anna Göldi, a maid, was accused of bewitching her employer's daughter and confessed under torture. She was beheaded in Glarus in 1782; the trial outraged enlightened Europe, and in 2008 the canton declared her innocent.
More amazing facts
- 1748 · 1772 France banned growing potatoes in 1748, believing they caused leprosy.
- 1751 · 1762 Catherine II corresponded with Voltaire and Diderot and offered to publish the Encyclopédie, banned in France, in Riga.
- 1752 Britain's tax year starts on 6 April because of the 1752 calendar reform.
- 1755 In January 1755 Moscow University was founded; that November an earthquake destroyed Lisbon and shook all of Europe.
- 1755 Moscow University was founded in January 1755.
- 1755 Russia's Students' Day is St Tatiana's Day because Elizabeth signed the decree founding Moscow University on that day in 1755 — which was also the name day of the mother of its co-founder Ivan Shuvalov.