1750s

This is a list of events occurring in the 1750s, ordered by year.

1750

January–June

• January – A fire in Istanbul destroys 10,000 homes.
• April – A second fire devastates Istanbul (see January). A third fire later in the year destroys a further 10,000 homes.
• April 4 – A small earthquake hits Warrington, England.
• May – Riots break out in Paris, fueled by rumors of police abducting children.

July–December

• July – José I takes over the throne of Portugal from his deceased father, João V. King José Manuel appoints the Marquis of Pombal as his Chief Minister, who then strips the Inquisition of its power.
• July 9 – Traveller Jonas Hanway leaves St. Petersburg to return home via Germany and the Netherlands. Later the same year, Hanway reputedly becomes the first Englishman to use an umbrella (a French fashion).
• July 11 – Halifax, Nova Scotia is almost completely destroyed by fire.
• August 23 – A small earthquake hits Spalding, Lincolnshire, England.^{[citation needed]}
• September 30 – A small earthquake hits Northampton, England.^{[citation needed]}
• November 11 – A riot breaks out in Lhasa, Tibet, after the murder of the regent of Tibet.
• November 18 – Westminster Bridge is officially opened in London.^[1]

London: Umbrella used

Date unknown

• Hannah Snell reveals her sex to her Royal Marines compatriots.
• Ahmad Shah Bahadur's army, retreating from Persia, reportedly loses 18,000 men near what is present-day Herat, Afghanistan from cold in a single night.
• The King of Dahomey has income of 250,000 pounds from the overseas export of slaves.
• Maruyama Okyo paints The Ghost of Oyuki.
• Britain produces c. 2% of the entire world's output of industrial goods and the Industrial Revolution begins.^{[citation needed]}
• Galley slavery is abolished in Europe.^[2]
• World population: 791,000,000
  • Africa: 106,000,000
  • Asia: 502,000,000
  • Europe: 163,000,000
  • Latin-America: 16,000,000
  • Northern America: 2,000,000
  • Oceania: 2,000,000

1751

January–June

• March 25
  • For the last time, New Year's Day is legally on March 25 in England and Wales.
  • Upon his death, Frederick I of Sweden is succeeded as king by Adolf Frederick.
• April 20 – The future King George III of the United Kingdom succeeds his father as heir-apparent to the British throne (later that year, he's named Prince of Wales). His mother Augusta of Saxe-Gotha becomes Dowager Princess of Wales.
• May 11 – The Pennsylvania legislature grants a charter to Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Thomas Bond for the establishment in Philadelphia of the first hospital in the Colonies.

July–December

• July 31 – Fire destroys 1,000 houses in Stockholm.
• August 13 – The Academy and College of Philadelphia, predecessor to the private University of Pennsylvania, opens its doors, with Benjamin Franklin as president.
• September 13 – Kalvária Banská Štiavnica in the Kingdom of Hungary is completed.
• October 27 – The Hōreki period begins in Japan.
• December 3 – Battle of Arnee in India (Second Carnatic War): A British East India Company-led force under Robert Clive defeats and routs a much larger Franco-Indian army under the command of Raza Sahib at Arni.

Date unknown

• Adam Smith is appointed professor of logic at the University of Glasgow.
• University of Glasgow School of Medicine is founded.
• The Encyclopédie is first published.
• Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus publishes his Philosophia Botanica, the first textbook of descriptive systematic botanical taxonomy and the first appearance of his binomial nomenclature.
• Maria Theresa thaler minted; it becomes an international currency.^[3]
• 1751–1775 – 13% of appointees to audiencias in the Spanish Empire are Creoles.

1752

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1750s.

Year 1752 (MDCCLII) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and a leap year starting on Wednesday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar. In the British Empire, it was the only year with 355 days, as September 3 through September 13 were skipped.

Events

January–June

• January 1 – The British Empire adopts the Gregorian calendar (to take effect in September).
• February 11 – Pennsylvania Hospital, the first hospital in the U.S., is opened.
• February 27 – The Virginia Assembly passes a law making maiming a felony, in response to the practice of gouging.^[4]
• March 23 – The Halifax Gazette, the first Canadian newspaper, is published.
• June 6 – Fire destroys 18,000 houses in Moscow.
• June 15 – Benjamin Franklin proves that lightning is electricity, using a kite and a key.

July–December

• September 14 – Great Britain and the British Empire adopts the Gregorian calendar, meaning the Julian date of Wednesday, September 2 was followed by the Gregorian date of Thursday, September 14.

Date unknown

• Adam Smith transfers to professor of moral philosophy at the University of Glasgow.
• English scientist Lord John Davies first observes what is later recognised as respiratory collapse

Births

• January 1 – Betsy Ross, American entrepreneur (d. 1836)
• January 2 – Nicholas Owen (clergyman), Welsh Anglican priest and antiquarian (d. 1811)
• January 2 – Philip Morin Freneau, American poet (d. 1832)
• January 3 – Johannes von Müller, Swiss historian (d. 1809)
• January 4 – David Hall (Delaware governor), American judge (d. 1817)
• January 4 – Harry Innes, United States federal judge (d. 1816)
• January 6 – Pierre Bouchet, French physician (d. 1794)
• January 10 – Laurent Jean François Truguet, French admiral (d. 1839)
• January 12 – George Baylor, officer in the Continental Army (d. 1784)
• January 13 – Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel, Italian poet and revolutionary (d. 1799)
• January 13 – Sir Philip Anstruther-Paterson, 3rd Baronet, Scottish politician (d. 1808)
• January 16 – John Davenport (Connecticut politician), American politician (d. 1830)
• January 16 – Nicolas-François Guillard, French librettist (d. 1814)
• January 17 – William Stephens (judge), United States federal judge (d. 1819)
• January 18 – Alexander Kurakin, Russian diplomat (d. 1818)
• January 18 – John Nash, English architect (d. 1835)
• January 18 – Francesco Caracciolo, admiral and revolutionist (d. 1799)
• January 18 – Alexander Lindsay, 6th Earl of Balcarres, British Army general (d. 1825)
• January 18 – Louis Dufresne, French ornithologist and taxidermist (d. 1832)
• January 19 – James Morris III, Continental Army officer from Connecticut (d. 1820)
• January 20 – Jean-Baptiste Radet, French playwright (d. 1830)
• January 22 – Robert Smith, 1st Baron Carrington (d. 1838)
• January 22 – William Lewis (judge), American politician (d. 1819)
• January 24 – Muzio Clementi, Italian composer and pianist (d. 1832)
• January 25 – Sir William Curtis, 1st Baronet, Member of Parliament (d. 1829)
• January 29 – Pierre Martin (French Navy officer), French Navy officer and admiral (d. 1820)
• January 29 – John Macleod (British Army officer), British Army general (d. 1833)
• January 31 – Gouverneur Morris, American diplomat and politician (d. 1815)
• February 4 – Gerrit Paape, Dutch politician and writer (d. 1803)
• February 5 – Anton Walter, Austrian piano maker (d. 1826)
• February 5 – Samuel Phillips, Jr., Massachusetts lieutenant governor (d. 1802)
• February 8 – Victurnien-Jean-Baptiste de Rochechouart de Mortemart, French general and politician (d. 1812)
• February 9 – Ebenezer Sproat, Continental Army officer, pioneer to the Ohio Country (d. 1805)
• February 9 – George Handley (politician), American politician (d. 1793)
• February 12 – John Smith, American politician (d. 1816)
• February 12 – Josef Reicha (d. 1795)
• February 12 – Dorothea Ackermann, German actress (d. 1821)
• February 13 – Luise von Göchhausen (d. 1807)
• February 13 – Giovanni Fabbroni, Italian scientist (d. 1822)
• February 16 – Friedrich Karl Wilhelm, Fürst zu Hohenlohe, Austrian general (d. 1814)
• February 17 – Friedrich Maximilian Klinger, German writer (d. 1831)
• February 19 – Francesco Ruspoli, 3rd Prince of Cerveteri (d. 1829)
• February 19 – Simone Assemani, Italian Orientalist (d. 1821)
• February 21 – Nathaniel Rochester, American politician (d. 1831)
• February 23 – Simon Knéfacz, Croatian writer (d. 1819)
• February 25 – John Graves Simcoe, first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada (d. 1806)
• February 26 – James Winchester, American general and politician (d. 1826)
• February 27 – William Linn (d. 1808)
• February 28 – William Washington, United States soldier (d. 1810)
• March 3 – Thomas Hardy (political reformer) (d. 1832)
• March 5 – Leendert Viervant the Younger, Dutch architect (d. 1801)
• March 8 – William Bingham, American Continental congressman, senator for Pennsylvania (d. 1804)
• March 8 – Johann David Schoepff, German biologist (d. 1800)
• March 8 – Robert Clifford (cricketer), Cricketer (d. 1811)
• March 11 – Sir Charles Hastings, 1st Baronet, British Army officer (d. 1823)
• March 11 – Joseph Malboeuf, dit Beausoleil, Member of Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada (d. 1823)
• March 14 – Claude-Jean Martin, French Navy officer (d. 1827)
• March 14 – Jean-François-Auguste Moulin, member of the French Directory (d. 1810)
• March 16 – Antoine Joseph Santerre, French general (d. 1809)
• March 19 – Giuseppe Colucci (antiquarian), historian of the Marche and writer (d. 1809)
• March 20 – Robert Newman (sexton), American sexton at the Old North Church in Boston (d. 1804)
• March 21 – Louis d'Elbée (d. 1794)
• March 21 – Mary Dixon Kies, the first recipient of a U.S. patent (d. 1837)
• March 23 – Friedrich Wilhelm von Reden, German pioneer in mining and metallurgy (d. 1815)
• March 24 – Antoine Joseph Gorsas (d. 1793)
• March 25 – Carlos Fitz-James Stuart, 4th Duke of Liria and Jérica, Spanish duke (d. 1787)
• March 31 – Panoutsos Notaras, Greek politician (d. 1849)
• April 4 – Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli, Italian composer (d. 1837)
• April 4 – Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours, Swiss artist (d. 1809)
• April 5 – Sébastien Érard (d. 1831)
• April 6 – Meno Haas, German-born copperplate engraver (d. 1833)
• April 9 – Rudolph Zacharias Becker, German educator and author (d. 1822)
• April 13 – Joseph Drapeau, Canadian politician (d. 1810)
• April 17 – John Austin (inventor) (d. 1830)
• April 18 – Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 9th Baronet (d. 1794)
• April 19 – John Henniker-Major, 2nd Baron Henniker, British politician (d. 1821)
• April 19 – Friederike Brion, first great love of Johann Wolfgang Goethe (d. 1813)
• April 21 – Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait, French engineer (d. 1807)
• April 21 – Humphry Repton, English garden designer (d. 1818)
• April 23 – John Willett Payne, British Royal Navy admiral (d. 1803)
• April 24 – Henry Latimer (senator), American politician (d. 1819)
• April 28 – Matsumura Goshun, Japanese artist (d. 1811)
• April 29 – Theodore Foster, American politician (d. 1828)
• May 4 – John Brooks (governor), Massachusetts doctor, military officer, governor (d. 1825)
• May 4 – François Adriaan van der Kemp, Dutch politician (d. 1829)
• May 5 – Johann Tobias Mayer, German physicist (d. 1830)
• May 9 – Johann Anton Leisewitz, German lawyer and dramatic poet (d. 1806)
• May 9 – Antonio Scarpa, Italian anatomist (d. 1832)
• May 10 – Amalie of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld, First Queen of Saxony/Duchess of Warsaw (d. 1828)
• May 10 – Pierre de Ruel, marquis de Beurnonville, French general (d. 1821)
• May 11 – Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, German anthropologist (d. 1840)
• May 12 – Infante Gabriel of Spain (d. 1788)
• May 13 – Michael Hughes (industrialist), Welsh industrialist (d. 1825)
• May 14 – Albrecht Thaer, German agronomist (d. 1828)
• May 14 – Timothy Dwight IV, American academic and educator (d. 1817)
• May 14 – Juliane Reichardt, Pianist, singer and composer (d. 1783)
• May 16 – Samuel Denny Street, Canadian politician (d. 1830)
• May 17 – Thomas Boude, American politician (d. 1822)
• May 20 – William Wrightson, British politician (d. 1827)
• May 20 – Charles-Louis Antiboul, French Girondist politician (d. 1793)
• May 22 – Louis Legendre, French politician of the Revolution period (d. 1797)
• May 24 – Oliver Cromwell (American soldier), African-American soldier (d. 1853)
• May 24 – Thomson J. Skinner, American politician (d. 1809)
• May 26 – Antoine Brice, painter (d. 1817)
• May 26 – William Badger (shipbuilder), master shipbuilder operating in Kittery (d. 1830)
• May 28 – Robert Carr Brackenbury (d. 1818)
• May 29 – Charles Whitworth, 1st Earl Whitworth, British diplomat (d. 1825)
• May 31 – John Marsh (composer), English music composer (d. 1828)
• June 4 – Charles Finch (MP), British politician (d. 1819)
• June 4 – John Eager Howard, American politician (d. 1827)
• June 5 – George Burder, English Nonconformist divine (d. 1832)
• June 5 – Hardy Murfree, American soldier (d. 1809)
• June 6 – John Gabriel Jones, Kentucky pioneer and statesman (d. 1776)
• June 8 – Sir James Lamb, 1st Baronet (d. 1824)
• June 11 – Christian Graf von Haugwitz, German statesman (d. 1832)
• June 11 – Eliphalet Pearson (d. 1826)
• June 13 – Fanny Burney, English novelist and diarist (d. 1840)
• June 15 – Paul Cobb Methuen, British politician (d. 1816)
• June 19 – Lord Richard Cavendish (1752–1781), second son of William Cavendish (d. 1781)
• June 20 – Zulkarnain Bin Ismail (1987– ), son of Ismail Bin Latiff
• June 24 – Horatio Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford (d. 1822)
• June 27 – Hannah Mather Crocker, American essayist, advocate of women's rights in America (d. 1829)
• June 29 – Christopher Frederik Lowzow, Danish-Norwegian army officer (d. 1829)
• July 1 – Thomas Pelham-Clinton, 3rd Duke of Newcastle, British Army general (d. 1795)
• July 3 – Heinrich Philipp Konrad Henke, German Lutheran theologian (d. 1809)
• July 4 – Ignace-Michel-Louis-Antoine d'Irumberry de Salaberry, Canadian politician (d. 1828)
• July 5 – Peter Swart, American politician (d. 1829)
• July 5 – Luke Hansard, English printer (d. 1828)
• July 7 – Joseph Marie Jacquard, French inventor (d. 1834)
• July 8 – Morton Eden, 1st Baron Henley, British diplomat (d. 1830)
• July 10 – David Humphreys (soldier), American diplomat (d. 1818)
• July 10 – St. George Tucker, United States federal judge (d. 1827)
• July 14 – Andreas Joseph Hofmann, German philosopher and revolutionary (d. 1849)
• July 17 – Barnaba Oriani, Italian priest (d. 1832)
• July 20 – Guillaume-Jean-Noël de Lavillegris, French Navy officer (d. 1807)
• July 23 – Marc-Auguste Pictet, physicist (d. 1825)
• July 27 – Samuel Smith (Maryland), American politician (d. 1839)
• July 29 – John Manners-Sutton (1752–1826), British politician (d. 1826)
• July 30 – Valentine Quin, 1st Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl, Irish politician (d. 1824)
• August 6 – Princess Louise of Saxe-Meiningen, Landgravine of Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld (d. 1805)
• August 11 – Alexander Tormasov, Russian general (d. 1819)
• August 13 – Queen Marie Caroline of Naples and Sicily (d. 1814)
• August 19 – Herman Bultos, Belgian wine merchant and theatre director (d. 1801)
• August 20 – Peter Ochs (politician), Swiss politician (d. 1821)
• August 20 – Landgravine Friederike of Hesse-Darmstadt (d. 1782)
• August 21 – Antonio Cavallucci, Italian painter (d. 1795)
• August 21 – Jacques Roux, French priest (d. 1794)
• August 21 – Michel Ange Bernard Mangourit, French diplomat (d. 1829)
• August 23 – Ebenezer Elmer, American politician (d. 1843)
• August 25 – Lodovico Gallina, Italian painter (d. 1787)
• August 25 – Karl Mack von Leiberich (d. 1828)
• September 8 – Carl Stenborg, Swedish opera singer (d. 1813)
• September 13 – Benedikte Naubert (d. 1819)
• September 18 – Adrien-Marie Legendre, French mathematician (d. 1833)
• September 20 – Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern, wife of Charles Edward Stuart (d. 1824)
• September 21 – Antoine de Bosc de la Calmette, Danish statesman, landscape architect (d. 1803)
• September 22 – Elisha Clark, American politician (d. 1838)
• September 22 – James Bowdoin III, American philanthropist and statesman (d. 1811)
• September 22 – Jeongjo of Joseon, Ruler of Joseon (d. 1800)
• September 27 – Marie-Gabriel-Florent-Auguste de Choiseul-Gouffier, French diplomat (d. 1817)
• September 27 – Nathaniel Curzon, 2nd Baron Scarsdale, British Baron (d. 1837)
• September 30 – Justin Heinrich Knecht, German composer, organist and music theorist (d. 1817)
• September 30 – William Adams (British politician) (d. 1811)
• October 2 – Samuel Story, Dutch admiral (d. 1811)
• October 2 – Joseph Ritson, English antiquary (d. 1803)
• October 6 – Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan (d. 1822)
• October 10 – Lucy Jefferson Lewis (d. 1810)
• October 13 – William Grant (British politician), British lawyer, politician and judge (d. 1832)
• October 16 – Adolph Freiherr Knigge, German writer and Freemason (d. 1796)
• October 16 – Joseph Papineau, Canadian politician (d. 1825)
• October 17 – Jacob Broom, American businessman and politician (d. 1810)
• October 20 – Fabian Gottlieb von Osten-Sacken (d. 1837)
• October 22 – Ambrogio Minoja, Composer and professor of music (d. 1825)
• October 23 – Maria Anna Adamberger, Austrian stage actress (d. 1804)
• October 28 – Jean Henri Simon, engraver, soldier (d. 1834)
• November 1 – Józef Zajączek, Polish general and politician (d. 1826)
• November 2 – Andrey Razumovsky, Russian diplomat (d. 1836)
• November 2 – Thomas Carpenter (glassmaker) (d. 1847)
• November 4 – George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea, Cricketer (d. 1826)
• November 4 – Jean-Gérard Lacuée, count of Cessac (d. 1841)
• November 5 – Jens Holmboe (bailiff), Norwegian bailiff (d. 1804)
• November 5 – Richard Richards (judge), British politician (d. 1823)
• November 8 – Claude-Augustin Tercier, French general (d. 1823)
• November 10 – Duke Wilhelm in Bavaria, Great-grandfather of Empress Elisabeth of Austria (d. 1837)
• November 11 – John McMillan (pastor), Presbyterian minister and missionary in Pennsylvania (d. 1833)
• November 11 – Thomas Cutler, Canadian politician (d. 1837)
• November 15 – Jacques Defermon des Chapelieres, French politician (d. 1831)
• November 15 – Nathaniel Chipman, United States federal judge (d. 1843)
• November 17 – Caspar Voght, German businessman (d. 1839)
• November 18 – Joseph Hiester, American politician (d. 1832)
• November 18 – P. H. Frimann, Norwegian-Danish poet (d. 1839)
• November 19 – George Rogers Clark, American soldier and officer (d. 1818)
• November 20 – Robert Wright (politician), American politician (d. 1826)
• November 20 – John Reeves (activist), British judge (d. 1829)
• November 20 – Thomas Chatterton, English poet (d. 1770)
• November 21 – George Pozer (d. 1848)
• November 23 – Maksimilijan Vrhovac, Croatian Roman Catholic bishop (d. 1827)
• November 25 – Johann Friedrich Reichardt, German composer (d. 1814)
• November 26 – María Josefa Pimentel, Duchess of Osuna (d. 1834)
• November 29 – Philippe-André Grandidier, French priest and historian (d. 1787)
• November 29 – Jemima Wilkinson, American preacher (d. 1819)
• November 30 – François Viger, Canadian politician (d. 1824)
• December 2 – Angélique Victoire, Comtesse de Chastellux, French comtesse (d. 1816)
• December 3 – George Cabot, American politician (d. 1823)
• December 3 – Leonard Gyllenhaal, Swedish military officer and entomologist (d. 1840)
• December 5 – Francis Fane of Spettisbury, Member of the Parliament (d. 1813)
• December 6 – Robert de Lamanon, French botanist (d. 1787)
• December 6 – Gabriel Duvall, United States federal judge (d. 1844)
• December 8 – Sir John Barrington, 9th Baronet (d. 1818)
• December 8 – Placidus a Spescha, Swiss mountain climber (d. 1833)
• December 8 – Vicesimus Knox, English essayist and minister (d. 1821)
• December 10 – Sir Richard Sullivan, 1st Baronet, British politician (d. 1806)
• December 12 – Thomas Bulkeley, 7th Viscount Bulkeley, English aristocrat and politician (d. 1822)
• December 12 – Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby (d. 1834)
• December 12 – Pedro Andrés del Alcázar, Spanish and later Chilean Army officer and war hero (d. 1820)
• December 14 – Christoph August Tiedge, German poet (d. 1841)
• December 16 – John Faucheraud Grimké, American politician (d. 1819)
• December 17 – John Kilby Smith, Continental army officer (d. 1842)
• December 19 – François Isaac de Rivaz, inventor and a politician (d. 1828)
• December 21 – Jean-François Houbigant, French perfumer (d. 1807)
• December 24 – Joseph Delaunay, French deputy (d. 1794)
• December 28 – Conrad Tanner, Swiss abbot (d. 1825)
• December 29 – Nathan Dane, American politician (d. 1835)
• December 30 – Sir Charles Malet, 1st Baronet, British East India Company official (d. 1815)

Deaths

• January 4 – Gabriel Cramer, Swiss mathematician (b. 1704)
• January 16 – Francis Blomefield, English topographer (b. 1705)
• February 9 – Fredric Hasselquist, Swedish naturalist (b. 1722)
• May 3 – Samuel Ogle, British provincial Governor of Maryland (b. 1694)
• May 23 – William Bradford, British-born printer (b. 1663)
• June 16
  • Giulio Alberoni, Italian cardinal (b. 1664)
  • Joseph Butler, English priest and theologian (b. 1692)
• June 21 – Old Briton, Piankashaw chieftain
• July 20 – Johann Christoph Pepusch, German composer (b. 1667)
• July 29 – Peter Warren, British admiral (b. 1703)
• August 22 – William Whiston, English mathematician (b. 1667)
• November 2 – Johann Albrecht Bengel, German scholar (b. 1687)
• November 5 – Carl Andreas Duker, German classical scholar (b. 1670)
• November 6 – Ralph Erskine, Scottish minister (b. 1685)
• date unknown – Jacopo Amigoni, Italian painter (b. 1675)

References

1753

January–June

• January 1 – Minimum date value for a datetime field in SQL Server (up to version 2005) due to it being the first full year after Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar.
• January 29 – After a month's absence, Elizabeth Canning returns to her mother's home in London and claims that she was abducted. The following criminal trial causes uproar.
• March 1 – Sweden adopts the Gregorian calendar by skipping the 11 days difference between it and the Julian calendar and letting February 17 be followed directly by March 1.
• March 17 – First official Saint Patrick's Day.
• April 5 – The founding charter of the British Museum is enacted.

• May 1 – Species Plantarum is published by Linnaeus (adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature as the formal start date of the scientific classification of plants).

July–December

• July 7 – Royal assent to the Jewish Naturalization Act: The British Parliament extends citizenship to Jews
• October 31 – Virginia Lieut. Gov. Robert Dinwiddie commissions 21-year-old militia Maj. George Washington to dissuade the French from occupying the Ohio Country.

Date unknown

• James Lind writes A Treatise of the Scurvy.
• Robert Wood publishes The ruins of Palmyra; otherwise Tedmor in the desart in English and French, making the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra known to the West.
• The Cramer family starts a brewing operation including the current major brand Warsteiner.
• Marriage Act 1753 (Parliament of Great Britain)
• Coining of the term "anthropomorphism"

1754

January–June

• January 28 – Horace Walpole, in a letter to Horace Mann, coins the word serendipity.
• February 25 – Guatemalan Sergeant Major Melchor de Mencos y Varón departs the city of Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala with an infantry battalion, to fight British pirates that reportedly disembarked on the coasts of Petén (today Belize) and were sacking the nearby towns.^[1]
• March 25 – The Clandestine Marriages Act of 1753 comes into force in England and Wales, placing marriage in that jurisdiction on a statutory basis for the first time.
• April 30 – Guatemalan Sergeant Mayor Melchor de Mencos y Varón and his troops defeat the British pirates in the battle of San Felipe and the Cobá Lagoon.^[2]
• May 28 – The Battle of Jumonville Glen begins the French and Indian War in North America.
• June 19 – The Albany Congress of New England Colonies proposes an American Union.

July–December

• July – Columbia University is founded as King's College by royal charter of King George II of England. The college is originally located in Lower Manhattan. Instruction is suspended in 1776 and the school reopens in 1784 as Columbia College. With the college's growth in the 19th Century, it is renamed Columbia University in 1896.
• July 3 – French and Indian War: George Washington surrenders Fort Necessity to French Capt. Louis Coulon de Villiers.
• December 13 – Osman III (1754–1757) succeeds Mahmud I as Ottoman Emperor.

Date unknown

• Surveyor William Churton lays out what will become the county seat of Orange County, North Carolina. The town is named Corbin Town for Francis Corbin, a member of the North Carolina governor's council. Corbin Town is renamed Childsburgh in 1759 and finally Hillsborough in 1766.

1755

January–June

• January 25 (Tatiana Day) – Moscow University is established.
• February 13 – The kingdom of Mataram on Java is divided in two, creating the sultanate of Yogyakarta and the sunanate of Surakarta.
• February 20 – General Braddock lands in Virginia to take command of the British forces against the French in North America.
• April 2 – A naval fleet led by Commodore William James of the East India Company captures Tulaji Angre's fortress Suvarnadurg from the Marathas.
• April 15 – A Dictionary of the English Language is published by Samuel Johnson (he had begun the work 9 years earlier, in 1746).

July–December

• July 9 – French and Indian War – Braddock Expedition: British troops and colonial militiamen are ambushed and suffer a devastating defeat inflicted by French and Indian forces. During the battle, British General Edward Braddock is mortally wounded. Colonel George Washington survives.^[3]
• July 17 – In a convoy of ships from Great Britain, returning to India for the East India Company, the lead ship Dodington wrecks at Port Elizabeth, losing a chest of gold coins from Robert Clive, worth £33,000. In 1998, 1,400 coins are offered for sale, and in 2002 a portion is given to the South African government.^[4]
• July 25 – The decision to deport the Acadians is made during meetings of the Nova Scotia Council meeting in Halifax. From September 1755 to June 1763 the vast majority of Acadians are deported to one of the following British Colonies in America: Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia. Contrary to popular belief, no Acadians are sent to Louisiana. Those sent to Virginia are refused and then sent on to Liverpool, Bristol, Southampton and Penryn in England. In 1758 the Fortress of Louisbourg falls and all of the civilian population of Isle Royal (Cape Breton Island) and Isle St. Jean (Prince Edward Island) are repatriated to France. Among them were several thousand Acadians who had escaped the deportation by fleeing into those areas. Very few Acadians successfully escape the deportation and do so only by fleeing into some of the northern sections of present day New Brunswick. The event inspires Longfellow to write the epic poem Evangeline.

August 15: Acadians.

• August – The Great Expulsion of the Acadians begins.
• November 1 – 1755 Lisbon earthquake: In Portugal, Lisbon is destroyed by a massive earthquake and tsunami, killing 60,000–90,000 people.
• November 18 – An earthquake occurs in the vicinity of Cape Ann, Massachusetts, causing extensive damage.
• November 25 – King Ferdinand IV of Spain grants the Religious of the Virgin Mary in the Philippines royal protection.
• December 2 – The second Eddystone Lighthouse off the coast of England is destroyed by fire.

November 1: Lisbon earthquake.

December 2: Eddystone fire.

Date unknown

• Wolsey, the clothes manufacturer, is established in Leicester, England; the business celebrates its 250th anniversary in 2005.
• Construction of the Puning Temple complex in Chengde, China is complete, during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor.
• Joseph Black describes his discovery of carbon dioxide ("fixed air") and magnesium in a paper to the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh.^[5]
• The brine shrimp Artemia salina is first described, in Linnaeus' Systema Naturæ.

1756

January–June

• January 16 – Treaty of Westminster signed between Great Britain and Prussia guaranteeing the neutrality of the German province of Hanover controlled by King George II of Great Britain.^[6]
• March 17 – St. Patrick's Day is celebrated in New York City for the first time (at the Crown and Thistle Tavern).
• April 12 – Seven Years' War: The French invade Minorca, at this time under British control.
• May 15 – Seven Years' War: The Seven Years' War formally begins when Great Britain declares war on France.^[6]
• May 20 – Seven Years' War – Battle of Minorca: The British fleet under John Byng is defeated by the French under Roland-Michel Barrin de La Galissonière.
• 20 June – A garrison of the British Army in India is imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta.^[6]
• June 25 – The Marine Society is founded in London, the world's oldest seafarers' charity.^[7]
• June 29 – Seven Years' War – Siege of Fort St Philip at Port Mahon: The British garrison in Minorca surrenders to the French after two months' siege by Armand de Vignerot du Plessis.

July–December

July 30: In Russia, Empress Elizabeth at the porch of the newly built Catherine Palace, painting (1905) by Eugene Lanceray (in Tretyakov Gallery).

• July 30 – Bartolomeo Rastrelli presents the newly built Catherine Palace to Empress Elizabeth and her courtiers.
• August 14 – Seven Years' War – French and Indian War: Fort Oswego falls to the French.
• August 29 – Frederick II of Prussia invades Saxony, beginning the Seven Years' War on the continent.
• October 1 – Seven Years' War – Battle of Lobositz: Frederick defeats an Austrian army under Marshal Maximilian Ulysses Count Browne.
• October 14 – An Agreement of Friendship and Trade is signed by the Sultan Osman III and the King Frederick V. Denmark has appointed an extraordinary representative to the Ottoman Empire.^[8]
• December – Seven Years' War – French and Indian War: Militias of the Royal Colony of North Carolina build a fort on the province's western frontier to protect it against natives allied with the French. The fort is named Fort Dobbs in honor of North Carolina Governor Arthur Dobbs, who persuaded the North Carolina legislature to fund the construction a year earlier.
• December 14 The play Douglas is performed for the first time in Edinburgh, with overwhelming success, in spite of the opposition of the local church presbytery, who summoned Alexander Carlyle to answer for having attended its representation. However, it fails in its early promise to set up a new Scottish dramatic tradition.

Date unknown

• Frederick II of Prussia forces his country's peasants to grow the unpopular and obscure potato.
• The town of Gus-Khrustalny is established in Russia with the setting up of a crystal glass factory.^[9]
• First chocolate-candy factory begins operations in Germany.
• Leopold Mozart publishes his book on his method for learning to play the violin, Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule.

1757

January–June

• January 2 – Britain captures Calcutta (part of the fighting in the Seven Years' War).
• January 5 – Robert-François Damiens makes an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Louis XV of France. On March 28 Damiens is publicly executed by dismemberment.
• March 14 – Seven Years' War: British Admiral Sir John Byng is executed by firing squad aboard HMS Monarch for breach of the Articles of War in failing to "do his utmost" at the Battle of Minorca (1756).
• May 6 – Seven Years' War – Battle of Prague (1757): Frederick the Great defeats an Austrian army and begins to besiege the city.
• June 18 – Seven Years' War – Battle of Kolin: Frederick is defeated by an Austrian army under Marshal Daun, forcing him to evacuate Bohemia.
• June 23 – Battle of Plassey: 3,000 troops serving with the British East India Company under Robert Clive defeat a 50,000 strong Indian army under Siraj ud-Daulah at Plassey in India.

July–December

• July 26 – Seven Years' War – Battle of Hastenbeck: An Anglo-Hanoverian army under the Duke of Cumberland is defeated by the French under Louis d'Estrées and forced out of Hanover.
• August 3 – August 9 – French and Indian War: A French army under Louis-Joseph de Montcalm forces the English to surrender Fort William Henry. The French army's Indian allies slaughter the survivors for unclear reasons.
• August 30 – Seven Years' War – Battle of Gross-Jägersdorf: A Prussian army under Hans von Lehwald is defeated by the Russian army of Marshal Stepan Apraksin.
• October 16 – Seven Years' War: Hungarian raiders plunder Berlin.
• October 30 – Osman III dies and is succeeded as Ottoman Sultan by Mustafa III.
• November 5 – Seven Years' War – Battle of Rossbach: Frederick defeats the French-Imperial army under the Duc de Soubise and Prince Joseph of Saxe-Hildburghausen, forcing the French to withdraw from Saxony.
• November 22 – Seven Years' War – Battle of Breslau: An Austrian army under Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine defeats the Prussian army of Wilhelm of Brunswick-Bevern and forces the Prussians behind the Oder.
• December 6
  • Seven Years' War – Battle of Leuthen: Frederick defeats Prince Charles's Austrian army in what is generally considered the Prussian king's greatest tactical victory.
  • Jigme Lingpa discovers the Longchen Nyingtig ter through a meditative vision which brought him to the Boudhanath Stupa. The Longchen Nyingtig is a popular cycle of teachings in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.
• December 14 – Battle of Khresili: King Solomon I of Imereti defeats the Ottoman army and an allied faction of nobles in what is now western Georgia.

Date unknown

• Conclusion of Nam tiến, the southward expansion of the territory of Vietnam into the Indochina Peninsula.^[10]
• Robert Wood publishes The ruins of Balbec, otherwise Heliopolis in Coelosyria in English and French, making the ancient city of Baalbek in Syria known to the West.
• Emanuel Swedenborg claims to have witnessed the Last Judgement occurring in the spiritual world.^[11]

1758

January–June

• March – James Abercrombie replaces the Earl of Loudoun as supreme commander in the American colonies. He is replaced himself after failing to take the fort at Ticonderoga.
• April 29 – Battle of Cuddalore: A British fleet under Sir George Pocock engages the French fleet of Anne Antoine d'Aché indecisively near Madras.
• May 21 – Seven Years' War – French and Indian War: Mary Campbell is abducted from her home in Pennsylvania by Lenape.
• June 12 – Seven Years' War – French and Indian War: Siege of Louisbourg: James Wolfe's attack at Louisbourg, Nova Scotia commences.
• June 23 – Seven Years' War – Battle of Krefeld: Anglo-Hanoverian forces under Ferdinand of Brunswick defeat the French.
• June 30 – Seven Years' War – Battle of Domstadtl: Austrian forces under Ernst Gideon von Laudon and Joseph von Siskovits rout an enormous convoy with supplies for the Prussian army, guarded by strong troops of Hans Joachim von Zieten.

July–December

• July 6
  • Pope Clement XIII succeeds Pope Benedict XIV as the 248th pope.
  • Seven Years' War – Battle of Bernetz Brook: British troops defeat the French.
• July 8 – Seven Years' War: French and Indian War: French forces hold Fort Carillon against the British at Ticonderoga, New York.
• July 25 – Seven Years' War – French and Indian War: The island battery at Fortress Louisbourg is silenced and all French warships are destroyed or taken.
• August 3 – Seven Years' War – Battle of Negapatam: Off the coast of India, Admiral Pocock again engages d'Aché's French fleet, this time with more success.
• August 25 – Seven Years' War – Battle of Zorndorf: Frederick defeats the Russian army of Count Wilhelm Fermor near the Oder.
• September 3 – Tavora affair: attempted assassination of Joseph I of Portugal.
• September 14 – Seven Years' War – French and Indian War: Battle of Fort Duquesne: A British attack on Fort Duquesne (present day Pittsburgh) is defeated.
• October 14 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Hochkirch: Frederick loses a hard-fought battle against the Austrians under Marshal Leopold von Daun, who besieges Dresden.
• November 25 – Seven Years' War: French and Indian War: French forces abandon Fort Duquesne to the British, who then name the area Pittsburgh.
• December 25 – Halley's Comet appears for the first time after Halley's discovery of it.

Date unknown

• First European settlement in what is now Erie County by the French at the mouth of Buffalo Creek.
• Rudjer Boscovich publishes his atomic theory in Theoria philosophiae naturalis redacta ad unicam legem virium in nalura existentium.
• Fire destroys part of Oslo, then called Christiania.
• Carolus Linnaeus publishes the first volume (Animalia) of the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae, the starting point of modern zoological nomenclature.
• The first Isakov family member (Trifun Isakov) is mentioned in Melenci.
• Marquis Gabriel de Lernay, a French officer captured during the Seven Years' War, establishes a military lodge in Berlin with the help of Baron de Printzen, master of The Three Globes Lodge at Berlin, and Philipp Samuel Rosa, a disgraced former pastor.

1759

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1750s.

Year 1759 (MDCCLIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Friday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar). In Great Britain, this year was known as the Annus Mirabilis because of British victories in the Seven Years' War.

Events

January–June

January 15: British Museum.

• January 6 – George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis.
• January 11 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first American life insurance company is incorporated.
• January 13 – Távora affair: The Távora family is executed following accusations of the attempted regicide of Joseph I of Portugal.
• January 15 – The British Museum opens (after 6 years of development).
• April 14 – Seven Years War – Battle of Bergen: A French army defeats Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick.
• May 1 – Josiah Wedgwood founds the Wedgwood pottery company in Great Britain.

July–December

August 12: Battle of Kunersdorf.

• Thursday July 19: The Great Stockholm Fire 1759 broke out at Södermalm.
• July 25 – Seven Years' War (French and Indian War): In Canada, British forces capture Fort Niagara from French, who subsequently abandon Fort Rouillé.
• July 26 – Seven Years' War (French and Indian War): At the southern end of Lake Champlain, British forces capture Fort Carillon from French, and rename it Fort Ticonderoga.
• July 27 – Seven Years War (French and Indian War): British troops under Jeffrey Amherst take Fort Ticonderoga.
• August 1 – Battle of Minden: Anglo–Hanoverian forces under Ferdinand of Brunswick defeat the French army of the Duc de Broglie, but due to the disobedience of the English cavalry commander Lord George Sackville, the French are able to withdraw unmolested.
• August 10 – Ferdinand VI of Spain dies and is succeeded by his half–brother Charles III. Charles resigns the thrones of Naples and Sicily to his third son, Ferdinand IV.
• August 12 – Battle of Kunersdorf: Frederick the Great is rebuffed in bloody assaults on the combined Austro–Russian army of Pyotr Saltykov and Ernst von Laudon. This is one of Frederick's greatest defeats.
• August 18 – Battle of Lagos: The British fleet of Edward Boscawen defeats a French force under Commodore Jean-François de La Clue-Sabran off the Portuguese coast.

Sept. 13: Battle – Plains of Abraham.

• September 10 – Battle of Pondicherry: An inconclusive naval battle is fought off the coast of India between the French Admiral d'Aché and the British under George Pocock. The French forces are badly damaged and sail home, never to return.
• September 13 – Seven Years' War (French and Indian War): Quebec falls to British forces following General Wolfe's victory in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham just outside the city. Both the French Commander (the Marquis de Montcalm) and the British General James Wolfe are fatally wounded.
• September 14 – Carrington Bowles publishes A Journey Through Europe, a board game designed by John Jefferys, the earliest board game whose designer's name is known.
• October 16 – Smeaton's Tower, John Smeaton’s Eddystone Lighthouse off the coast of South West England, is first illuminated.^[12]
• November 20 – Battle of Quiberon Bay: The British fleet of Sir Edward Hawke defeats a French fleet under Marshal de Conflans near the coast of Brittany. This is the decisive naval engagement of the Seven Years' War – after this, the French are no longer able to field a significant fleet.

November 20: Battle of Quiberon Bay.

• November 21 – Battle of Maxen: The Austrian army of Marshal von Daun cuts off and forces the surrender of a Prussian force under Friedrich von Finck.
• November – Near East earthquakes of 1759
• December 6 – The Germantown Union School (now called "Germantown Academy"), America's oldest nonsectarian day school, is founded.

Date unknown

• Adam Smith publishes his Theory of Moral Sentiments, embodying some of his Glasgow lectures.
• Voltaire's Candide is published.

Harrison's marine chronometer

• The town of Egedesminde (modern Aasiaat) is founded in Greenland.
• English clockmaker John Harrison produces his "No. 1 sea watch" ("H4"), the first successful marine chronometer.^[13]
• The Guinness Brewery is founded by Arthur Guinness in St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland.
• Kew Gardens established in England by Augusta of Saxe-Coburg, the mother of George III.^[14]
• Churton Town, the Orange County, North Carolina county seat laid out in 1754, is renamed Childsburgh in honor of North Carolina attorney general Thomas Child. It is later renamed Hillsborough in 1766.
• Fire destroys 250 houses in Stockholm.
• Madame du Coudray publishes Abrégé de l'art des accouchements ("The Art of Obstetrics") and the French government authorizes her to carry her instruction "throughout the realm" and promises financial support.

Births

• January 25 – Robert Burns, Scottish poet (d. 1796)
• February 15 – Friedrich August Wolf, German philologist and archaeologist (d. 1824)
• February 22 – Claude Lecourbe, French general (d. 1815)
• April 22 – James Freeman, first clergyman in America to call himself a Unitarian (d. 1835)
• April 27 – Mary Wollstonecraft, feminist author (d. 1797)
• May 20 – William Thornton, American architect (d. 1828)
• May 28 – William Pitt the Younger, statesman and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1806)
• June 21 – Alexander J. Dallas, American statesman and financier (d. 1817)
• August 24 – William Wilberforce, British abolitionist (d. 1833)
• September 19 – William Kirby, English entomologist (d. 1850)
• October 25 – Sophie Marie Dorothea of Württemberg, empress of Paul I of Russia (d. 1828)
• October 25 – William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1834)
• October 26 – Georges Danton, French Revolutionary leader (d. 1794)
• November 10 – Friedrich Schiller, German writer (d. 1805)
• November 23 – Felipe Enrique Neri, legislator and colonizer of Texas (d. 1820)

Deaths

• January 12 – Anne, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange, regent of Friesland (b. 1709)
• March 11 – John Forbes, British general (b. 1707)
• April 6 – Johann Gottfried Zinn (b. 1727)
• April 14 – George Frideric Handel, German composer (b. 1685)
• May 12 – Lambert-Sigisbert Adam, French sculptor (b. 1700)
• July 27 – Pierre Louis Maupertuis, French mathematician (b. 1698)
• August 6 – Eugene Aram, English philologist (b. 1704)
• August 8 – Carl Heinrich Graun, German composer (b. 1704)
• August 10 – King Ferdinand VI of Spain (b. 1713)
• August 24 – Ewald Christian von Kleist, German poet (b. 1715)
• September 10 – Ferdinand Konščak, Croatian explorer (b. 1703)
• September 13 – James Wolfe, British general (b. 1727)
• September 14 – Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, French general (b. 1712)
• October 13 – John Henley, English minister (b. 1692)
• November 14 – Grégoire Orlyk, Ukrainian-born French Lieutenant General (b. 1702)
• November 29 – Nicolaus I Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (b. 1687)
• date unknown – King Thipchakre of the Realm of Lampang

References

Significant people

Births

Deaths

References