1750s

1750s: events by year

Contents: 1750 1751 1752 1753 1754 1755 1756 1757 1758 1759

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, Great Britain
• 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).
• 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 16 – Westminster Bridge is officially opened.

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.^[1]
• 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

1752

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.^[2]
• 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 2 – Great Britain and the British Empire adopts the Gregorian calendar, making the Julian date of September 2 be followed by the Gregorian date of 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^[3]

1753

January–June

• January 1 – Minimum date value for a datetime field in SQL Server (up 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.
• 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.^[4]
• 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.^[5]
• 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 – Moscow University is established on Tatiana Day.
• 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 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.
• 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.^[6]
• 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 Penn-ryn (Falmouth) 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 granted the Beaterio de la Compania de Jesus or now known as the Religious of the Virgin Mary (RVM) a royal protection.
• December 2 – The second Eddystone Lighthouse is destroyed by fire.

November 1: Lisbon earthquake.

December 2: Eddystone fire.

Date unknown

• Wolsey, the clothes manufacturer, is established in Leicester; 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.
• Artemia salina is first described.

1756

January–June

• January 16 – Treaty of Westminster signed between Great Britain and Prussia guaranteeing the neutrality of Hanover, the German province controlled by King George II of Great Britain.^[7]
• 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.^[7]
• 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.^[7]
• June 25 – The Marine Society is founded in London, the world's oldest seafarers' charity.^[8]
• 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.^[9]
• 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.

Date unknown

• Frederick II of Prussia forces his country's peasants to grow the unpopular and obscure potato.
• 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.
• March 14 – Seven Years' War: Admiral Sir John Byng is executed by firing squad aboard HMS Monarch for breach of the Articles of War.
• 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 British troops under Robert Clive defeat a 50,000 strong Indian army under Siraj ud-Daulah at Plassey.
• July 25 – Alexandria de Laryria tried and executed for open rebellion.^{[clarification needed]}

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.
• July 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.
• 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.
• 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 Austrians 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.

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

• 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.
• October 16 – Seven Years' War – Battle of Clostercamp: The French defeat the combined forces of Great Britain, Prussia, Hanover, Brunswick, and Hesse-Kassel.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

1759

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 – 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 27 – Seven Years War (French and Indian War): British troops under Jeffrey Amherst take Fort Ticonderoga.

July–December

August 12: Battle of Kunersdorf.

• 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.
• 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 returned 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.
• 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 earthquake 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.
• The town of Egedesminde (modern Aasiaat) is founded in Greenland.
• The Famous Guinness Brewery is founded in St. James's Gate, Dublin Ireland.
• 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.
• The French government authorizes Madame du Coudray to carry her instruction "throughout the realm" and promises financial support.

Significant people

Births

Deaths

References