1753
- February 18
- Eleven days (February 18 to March 1) are removed from the calendar, to bring Sweden in line with the rest of Europe. The Julian lunar calendar is replaced with the Gregorian calendar based on the solar year. [234.17] [296.579] [385.17]
1754
-
- A new castle is completed in Stockholm. [51.55]
- December
- The Royal family moves from a palace on the island of Riddarholmen to the newly rebuilt palace in Stockholm. [287.18]
1755
-
- The Riksdag meets. [47.142]
- Council establishes the Ärlig Svensk weekly newspaper. [48.250]
1756
- June
- A coup scheme is revealed to the Government, involving the King and Queen. Eight leaders of the plan are arrested and executed. An act is drawn up threatening that the King and Queen be deposed if they should take part in anything similar again. [47.143]
- (month unknown)
- The government orders all aquavit manufacturing equipment confiscated. About 180,000 illegal distilleries are rounded up. [70.21]
1757
-
- The new royal palace in Stockholm is completed. [47.182]
- Sweden joins the Seven Years' War, against Prussia. [1.264] [47.143] [267.101]
1760
-
- The Riksdag meets. Chancellor Baron Anders von Höpkin retires. [47.144] [48.249]
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- Population of Stockholm: 73,000. [48.261]
1762
- June
- Coup d'etat in Russia, putting Catherine II on throne. [118.45]
- (month unknown)
- Peace with Russia is reached. [1.264] [47.144] [267.101]
1763
- February 15
- At the Château de Hubertsburg, the Treaty of Hubertsburg is signed between the King of Prussia and the Empress and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia. Allies, including Sweden, sign on to the treaty in March. [274.329]
- (month unknown)
- After 15 years, Sweden resumes diplomatic relations with England. [47.142]
- Sweden signs a treaty of friendship and trade with Morocco. [48.262]
1765
- January
- The Riksdag meets, with the session lasting over a year long. The ruling Hats party is defeated, with the Caps party coming into power. [1.273] [47.145] [267.103]
1766
-
- Prince Gustav marries Sofia Magdelena of Denmark. The two had been betrothed in 1751. [48.270] [267.112]
- An Ordinance is passed establishing freedom of the press, removing all censorship for all publications except in matters of theology. [1.273] [48.242,249] [267.103]
1767
-
- The Dagligt Allehanda newspaper is established, the first daily newspaper in Sweden. [48.250]
1768
-
- An Academy of Arts is established. [48.281]
- At a Council meeting King Adolf Fredrik demands a Riksdag be called, or he would boycott his duties. Council refuses, so the king turns his chair around to indicate its vacancy, until Council agrees, a few days later, to call elections and a meeting of the Riksdag. [48.250] [267.105]
1769
- April
- The Riksdag meets in Norrköping. The Hats party wins an overwhelming victory. [47.145] [48.250] [267.105] (1768 [1.273])
- (month unknown)
- Sven Lagerbring publishes a critical history of Sweden. [1.281]
1770
-
- In his voyage of the west coast of North America, Captain James Cook names a small barren rocky island Solander Island, named after Swede Daniel Solander on the voyage with him. (It is located off the west coast of Vancouver Island.) [142.5]
- The Riksdag meets in Stockholm. The Caps party returns to power. The Estates vote three to one to not change the constitution to give the king more power. [1.274] [48.251]
1771
- January 1
- The paper currency is relaced by a silver-based coinage system. The basic unit is the riksdaler. [48.273]
- February 12
- King Adolf Frederick dies. His son Prince Gustav becomes King Gustav III. [1.277] [47.146] [48.251] [267.106]
- (month unknown)
- Prince Gustav returns to Sweden from Paris. [48.271]
- June
- The Estates meet. The king speaks directly to them, for the first time in 100 years. [48.271] [267.107]
- (month unknown)
- King Gustav III founds a Musical Academy. [48.281]
- Population of Sweden: 2 million. [1.284]
1772
- May
- Baron J.M. Sprengtporten submits to the King a comprehensive plan for a coup d'état, involving action in Skåne, Finland, and Stockholm. [1.278]
- (month unknown)
- King Gustav III abolishes All Saints Day as a holiday. [44.17]
- King Gustav III establishes the Order of Vasa. [290.17]
- The right to distil alcohol is revoked. [48.273]
- August 12
- In Kristianstad, J.C. Toll begins a revolt. [1.279]
- August 16
- The Swedish Council learns of the revolt in Kristianstad. [1.279]
- Baron J.M. Sprengtporten begins a revolt in Finland. [1.279]
- August 19
- In the early morning, King Gustav reviews the guard. He gathers a small group of officers, and asks if they would protect him, as he was in danger. They agree. Then the troops in the courtyard are asked and they agree. [1.xix] [48.271] [267.108]
- King Gustav and his guard troops march through the streets of Stockholm. The Council is arrested, and they are forced to resign. [47.146] [48.271] [267.108]
- August 21
- The Riksdag is assembled in the state hall. King Gustav III explains the coup, and presents a new constitution. It is immediately accepted. The King appoints Council, and they are responsible to him alone. The King and Estates are responsible for making laws, each with a veto. Consent of parliament is requires for taxation, wars of aggression, and declaring war. [47.146] [48.271] [267.108] (August 20 [1.279,283])
- (month unknown)
- Ulrik Scheffer becomes the new chancellor. [48.274]
- Landholders: free tax peasants 46.9%. [1.254]
1773
- January 18
- King Gustav III founds the Royal Swedish Ballet, and the Royal Theater in Stockholm. [173.13] [238.246]
- (month unknown)
- Sweden and France conclude a treaty, granting Sweden monetary subsidies. [47.151]
- The Academy of Arts is reorganized as the Royal Painters and Sculptors Academy. [48.281]
- Denmark and Russia conclude a treaty, with a secret agreement to restore the Swedish Constitution of 1720 at some time. [1.286] [267.110]
1774
-
- A cache of fifteen pounds of gold is discovered buried on Gotland. [48.27]
- A new Press Law is enacted, allowing the Government to tighten censorship. [47.150]
1776
-
- Banknotes sine the 1720s are redeemed at half value; the silver standard is revived; the medieval coinage system is abolished; the unit of currency is made the riksdaler, equal to 48 shillings. [267.113]
1777
-
- King Gustav III visits Catharine the Great in St. Petersburg. [267.115]
1778
-
- The King calls a Riksdag meeting. [1.287] [47.149] [267.114]
- Gustav Adolf is born to King Gustav III and Sofia Magdalena. (He will become king in 1796.) [1.288] [48.270] [267.112]
- Carl von Linné dies. [47.179]
1780
-
- Sweden joins the League of Armed Neutrality with Denmark and Russia. [47.151] [267.115]
1781
-
- Religious freedom is extended to foreigners. [48.273]
- August 20
- 200 families leave Dagö island (near Estonia), moving to the Ukraine. The families first moved to the island in about 1230. (About half survive the 1200-mile trip, forming the village of Gammelsvenskby.) [308.26]
1782
-
- An opera house, designed by Carl Fredrik Adelcrantz, opens, across from the royal palace in Stockholm. [47.183] [48.285]
- Jews are allowed to settle and build synagogues in certain large towns, but cannot buy land. [47.149] [48.273]
1783
-
- Chancellor Ulrik Scheffer resigns. [47.151] [48.274] [267.115]
- Sweden signs a treaty of friendship and commerce with the United States of America, the first of the neutral countries to do so. [48.275] [66.27] [129.18]
1785
- March 7
- France gives Sweden the island of St. Bartholomew in the West Indies. [48.274] [67.21] [292.34]
- (month unknown)
- King Gustav III signs the "By-laws for the Swedish Academy". [43.7]
1786
-
- The Swedish West India Company is founded. [47.170] [48.275]
- The Swedish Academy is founded. [47.183] [48.281]
- King Gustav III establishes the Literary, Historical, and Antiquities Academy. [48.281]
1787
-
- King Gustav III visits Copenhagen, receiving assurances of friendship, but no coalition against Russia. [48.276] [267.117]
- October
- Peter Price of England gives the first circus performances in Sweden, in Stockholm. [282.17]
1788
- March
- King Gustav III decides to start a war against Russia, without informing Council. [267.117]
- (month unknown)
- The Royal Theatre opens in Stockholm. [47.183]
- June
- King Gustav III has a troop of Swedish soldiers dress up like Russian Cossacks and attack the Finnish outpost at Puumala in Savolax, because the king could not declare agressive war. [47.152] [48.276] [267.117]
- (month unknown)
- An ultimatum is delivered to St. Petersburg, demanding the return of all Finnish territory to Sweden. Russia refuses. [47.152]
- Sweden declares war on Russia. [1.291] [48.276]
- July
- A Swedish-Russian naval battle off Hogland in the Gulf of Finland is indecisive. [267.117]
- (month unknown)
- Russia calls on Denmark-Norway for assistance against Sweden. [48.277]
- Denmark sends troops from Norway into Göteborg. [47.152] [48.277]
- Swedish troops enter Russia. [47.152]
- Swedes take the Russian fortress of Nyslott. Russian forces counterattack. [48.276]
- The Swedish fleet battles the Russian fleet indecisively. [47.152]
- August
- Denmark signs an armistice with Sweden. [48.279]
- A group of 112 Finnish noble officers form the Anjala Confederation, and offer to open peace negotiations with Russia. [47.152] [48.276] [267.117]
- October
- The Anjala Confederation is dissolved. [48.276]
1789
- February
- King Gustav III draws up the Act of Union and Security. A riksdag is summoned, and the council is abolished. [48.277] [186.106]
- (month unknown)
- King Gustav III arrests or bribes nobles to limit their opposition in the upcoming riksdag meeting. [48.279]
- February
- The Riksdag meets in Stockholm. The king dismisses the nobles, and proposes to the other Estates an amendment to the constitution, limiting the privileges of the nobility. The Act of Union and Security is illegally enacted without the consent of the nobility. The king sets the number of Council members to be zero. The Council had existed since the 1200s. [1.293] [48.279] [267.118] (January [47.153])
- (month unknown)
- Turkey agrees to pay monetary subsidies to Sweden to keep it in the war with Russia. [48.279]
- Prussia offers to help Sweden if it is granted Swedish Pomerania. [48.279]
- July
- Denmark declares neutrality. [48.279]
- (month unknown)
- The Skerries fleet suffers a heavy defeat at Svensksund. [1.294]
1790
- July
- The Swedish navy breaks out of a blockade at Viborg with serious losses. [1.294] [47.154]
- July 9
- The Swedish navy is victorious over the Russian navy at Svenskund. Over two days, Swedes sink or capture 50-64 Russian ships, killing or capturing 7,000-9,000 men. Swedes lose only four ships and under 200 men. [1.294] [47.154] [48.279] [186.107] [267.119]
- July 31
- England and Prussia join with Sweden in a treaty of friendship and monetary subsidies. [48.279]
- August 14
- Sweden and Russian come to peace at Värälä. Neither side gains any territory. Russia agrees to not interfere with Sweden's constitution. [1.294] [47.154] [48.279] [267.119] [270.272]
- (month unknown)
- Johan Sergel casts a bronze statue on honor of King Gustav III. [47.182]
1791
-
- An eight-year treaty is signed with Russia, promising monetary subsidies to Sweden. [48.280] [267.120]
1792
- January
- The Riksdag meets at Gävle, on the Gulf of Bothnia. [1.295] [47.155] [186.109] [267.120]
- March
- Several Swedish enemies of the King meet to discuss his overthrow and possible revolution. [1.295]
- March 16
- Jakob Johan Anckarström, former Captain of the Lifeguards, makes an assassination attempt on the King at the Stockholm Opera House. King Gustav III is shot just above the hip. Anckarström was hired by a group of nobles. [1.295] [47.155] [48.280] [186.109] [192.13] [231.16] [267.121]
- March 17
- Jakob Johan Anckarström is arrested, and later executed. (Two others, Claes Horn and Adolf Ribbing are given life exiles from the country.) [192.13]
- March 29
- King Gustav III dies. [1.295] [47.155] [48.280] [267.121]
- April
- Duke Karl, younger brother of Gustav III, becomes Regent until Prince Gustav IV Adolf comes of age. [1.296] [47.156]
1794
-
- The last edict regulating special materials for wearing is removed, allowing people to dress as they like. [42.24]
- Sweden and Denmark conclude an agreement for protection of trade and neutrality. [47.160] [48.287] [267.123] [268.161]
- November 1
- In Stockholm, Abraham Edelcrantz demonstrates his invention of a visual telegraph to Prince Gustav. (By 1809, 50 stations are operating. The system is dismantled in 1881.) [67.7]
1795
-
- Sweden becomes the first monarchy to recognize the French Republic. A treaty is concluded granting Sweden large monetary subsidies. [48.287] [267.123]
1796
-
- The Musical Academy is reestablished. [48.282]
- The alliance with France is dissolved. [267.123]
- November 1
- Prince Gustav is declared of age, and becomes King Gustav IV Adolf. [1.297] [47.158] [48.287]
1797
-
- King Gustav marries Fredrika Dorotea Wilhelmina of Baden, sister-in-law of the Grand Duke Alexander of Russia. [47.158] [267.124]
1798
-
- Home distilling is legalized. [1.336]
- Censorship is tightened. [47.159]
1799
-
- Gustav is born to King Gustav and Fredrika. [267.124]
- Sweden forms an alliance with Emperor Paul of Russia. [1.301] [47.160]
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