A former prisoner of war made potatoes popular in France.
Parmentier ate them in Prussian captivity during the Seven Years' War and, legend says, had soldiers guard his potato field by day so Parisians would steal from it at night.
The events
- Parmentier’s potato field1786 · Les Sablons, near Paris. Parmentier came to love potatoes as a prisoner in Prussia and promoted them ever after. Louis XVI gave him a field near Paris; legend says soldiers guarded it by day and left at night so the curious could steal the tubers.
- Seven Years' War1756–1763 · Europe, North America, India. Britain and Prussia fought France, Austria and Russia on several continents, in what is often called the first truly global war. Britain took Canada from France and strengthened its hold on India, while Frederick II's Prussia kept Silesia.
More amazing facts
- 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.
- 1756 · 1763 Winston Churchill called the Seven Years' War the first world war. Between 1756 and 1763 it was fought in Europe, North America, India, Africa and at sea.