Scheele produces phosphoric acid in 1777 by the action of nitric acid on phosphorus.

The personal attacks on the French queen's character cause her to plunge further into the costly diversions of buying her dresses from Rose Bertin and gambling, simply to enjoy herself.

On one famed occasion, she plays for three days straight with players from Paris, straight up until her twenty-first birthday.

She has also begun to attract various male admirers whom she accepts into her inner circles, including the baron de Besenval, the duc de Coigny, and Count Valentin Esterházy.

Marie Antoinette has been given free rein to renovate the Petit Trianon, a small château on the grounds of Versailles, which Louis had given to her as a gift on August 15, 1774; she concentrates mainly on horticulture, redesigning the garden in the English fashion, which in the previous reign had been an arboretum of introduced species, and adding flowers.

Although the Petit Trianon had been built for Louis's mistress, Madame de Pompadour, it becomes associated with Marie Antoinette's perceived extravagance.

With the "English garden", Marie Antoinette and her court adopt the English dress of indienne, of percale or muslin, breaking the tradition of costume at the court at Versailles that had prevailed for more than a decade.

Rumors circulate that she has plastered the walls with gold and diamonds.

Her lady-in-waiting Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan replies to such rumors that the queen visits the workshops of the village in a simple dress of white percale with a gauze scarf and a straw hat.

Antoine Lavoisier, a French chemist, first classifies sulfur as an element in 1777.

Elector Maximilian III Joseph dies in 1777, ending the direct line of the Wittelsbachs; his successor to the Duchy of Bavaria is the Elector Palatine Charles IV Theodore of the Sulzbach line.

Charles, duke of Zweibrucken, heir presumptive of the Elector Palatine, protests the cession of Lower Bavaria to Austria by Charles Theodore’s secret treaty with Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, in exchange for which he is to receive the Austrian Netherlands.

Maximilian's consort Maria Anna Sophia of Saxony opens negotiations with Prussia to secure Bavaria's independence and the succession of the Wittelsbach branch Palatinate Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld in Bavaria after Charles Theodore's death.

Count Karl-Wilhelm Finck von Finckenstein, Prussian First Minister under Frederick the Great, believes that Austria's acquisitions in Bavaria would rebalance the gain of Silesia to Prussia three decades earlier, thus reestablishing Austria's hegemony in German-speaking lands and undermining Prussia's own position.

He therefore constructs an alliance with Saxony and both countries declares war on Austria in July 1788, ostensibly to defend the rights of Charles II August, Duke of Zweibrücken, Charles Theodore's heir, and thus initiating the War of Bavarian Secession.

The code duello, adopted at the Clonmel Summer Assizes as the form for pistol duels in Ireland, is quickly denounced but nevertheless widely adopted throughout the English-speaking world.

The principal purpose of Captain Cook’s third voyage is an attempt to discover the famed Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific around the top of North America.

Cook's orders from the Admiralty are driven by a 1745 Act which, when extended in 1775, promises a £20,000 prize for whoever discovered the passage.

Initially the Admiralty had wanted Charles Clerke to lead the expedition, with Cook, who was in retirement following his exploits in the Pacific, acting as a consultant.

However, Cook has researched Bering's expeditions, and the Admiralty ultimately places their faith in the veteran explorer to lead with Clerke accompanying him.

The arrangement is to make a two-pronged attack, Cook moving from the Bering Strait in the north Pacific with Richard Pickersgill in the frigate Lyon taking the Atlantic approach.

They plan to rendezvous in the summer of 1778.

In August 1773 Omai, a young Ra'iatean man, had embarked from Huahine, traveling to Europe on Adventure, commanded by Tobias Furneaux who had touched at Tahiti as part of James Cook's second voyage of discovery in the Pacific.

He had arrived in London in October 1774 and was introduced into society by the naturalist Sir Joseph Banks and has become a favorite curiosity in London.

Ostensibly, the third voyage is planned to return Omai to Tahiti; this is what the general public believes.

George III had declared Americans in arms against royal authority to be traitors to the Crown in August 1775.

Following their surrender at the Battles of Saratoga in October 1777, there are thousands of British and Hessian soldiers in American hands.

Although Lord Germain takes a hard line, the British generals on the scene will never hold treason trials; they treat captured enemy soldiers as prisoners of war.

The dilemma is that tens of thousands of Loyalists are under American control and American retaliation would be easy.

The British build much of their strategy around using these Loyalists, and therefore, no Americans are put on trial for treason.

The British maltreat the prisoners whom they hold, resulting in more deaths to American sailors and soldiers than from combat operations.

At the end of the war, both sides will release their surviving prisoners.

The British send General John Burgoyne's invasion force from Canada south to New York in 1777 to seal off New England.

Their aim is to neutralize the Yankees, whom the British perceive as the primary source of agitators.

The British army in New York City goes to Philadelphia in a major case of mis-coordination, capturing it from Washington.

The invasion army under Burgoyne is much too slow and becomes trapped in northern New York state.

It surrenders after the Battles of Saratoga in October 1777.

From early October 1777 until November 15, a siege distracts British troops at Fort Mifflin, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and allows Washington time to preserve the Continental Army by safely leading his troops to harsh winter quarters at Valley Forge.

The British plan two major operations for the 1777 campaign season.

The first is an ambitious plan to gain control of the Hudson River valley, whose central thrust is a move along Lake Champlain by the army from Quebec under General John Burgoyne.

Execution of this plan ultimately fails, ending with the surrender of Burgoyne's army at Saratoga, New York, in October.

The second operation is General Howe's plan to take Philadelphia, which, after a difficult start, meets with success in September.

The British gain control of New York harbor and the surrounding agricultural areas, and will hold New York City and Long Island until the war ends in 1783.

The Americans have suffered significant casualties and lost important supplies, but Washington has managed to retain the core of his army and avoid a decisive confrontation that could end the war.

With the bold strokes of Trenton and Princeton, he has regained initiative and boosted morale.

The areas around New York City in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut will be an ongoing battleground for the rest of the war.