1699: The French Academy of Sciences holds its first official meeting under its new royal statutes. This institutionalisation of research transformed science into a state profession, fostering the great geodetic expeditions and advances in celestial mechanics that would influence the whole of Europe.

1770: British explorer James Cook discovers Botany Bay in Australia during his first voyage around the world. This expedition, initially motivated by the observation of the transit of Venus in Tahiti to measure the Earth–Sun distance, enabled the mapping of unknown lands and the recording of fundamental astronomical data.

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