1751 1752 1753 1754 1755 1756 1757 1758 1759 1760
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The Battle of Landshut June 23 in Bavaria ends with Austrian forces under the command of Field Marshal Gideon Loudon defeating and capturing a Prussian army. But Friedrich II (the Great) prevents a linkup of Russian and Austrian forces, fights his way out of a trap, and defeats the Austrians August 15 at the Battle of Liegnitz 35 miles of Breslau in Silesia. Some 6,000 of Loudon's 30,000-man army are taken prisoner, 4,000 are killed or wounded, and 82 of his guns are captured (Prussian losses total about 1,000).
A Russian army surprises Berlin October 9 and burns it in 3 days before retreating at news that Friedrich II (the Great) is rushing to relieve the city. Friedrich marches north, finds a 65,000-man Austrian army under the command of Marshal Leopold Jozef, graf von Daun, in a strong position at Torgau, 65 miles south of Berlin on the Elbe. Von Daun sustains a severe wound and Friedrich narrowly defeats the Austrians with his 44,000-man army November 3, forcing them to fall back east of the Elbe; he takes 7,000 prisoners and the Austrians sustain 4,200 casualties (dead and wounded), but Prussian losses are heavier: 13,120 dead and wounded. Both sides retire to winter quarters.
Former Jacobite general Lord George Murray of 1745 Battle of Falkirk fame dies at Medemblik in the Netherlands October 11 at age 66.
Britain's Hanoverian king George II dies of a heart attack while sitting on his commode at London October 25 at age 77 after a 33-year reign in which he has lost support by favoring Hanover's interests over those of Britain. His son Frederick Louis was killed by a cricket ball in 1751 so his 22-year-old grandson George William Frederick assumes the throne as George III of Great Britain and Ireland and Elector of Hanover to begin a 60-year reign that will prove disastrous.
The Battle of Barari Ghat 10 miles north of Delhi January 9 ends in victory for Afghan forces under the command of Ahmad Shah Durrani (see 1759); they conceal themselves in high reeds and cross the Jumna (later Yamuna) River at the ferry station to surprise the Maratha chief Dattaji Sindhia, who has been retreating from Ahmad Shah's army in the Punjab. Dattaji is killed, his army scattered, and the Afghan victory removes the major obstacle to Afghan occupation of Delhi.
British East India Company forces under the command of Irish-born Lieutenant Colonel Eyre Coote, 33, defeat a French army under the command of General Thomas-Arthur, 58, comte de Lally, at Wandiwash January 22 (see Dupleix recall, 1754). Admiral d'Aché's fleet has withdrawn, leaving Lally without naval support, and despite lack of funds and dissension in his ranks, he has tried to recover the fort of Wandiwash near Pondicherry. General Coote has attacked him with about 1,700 troops and routed Lally's superior force of about 2,000, capturing Lally's best general, the marquis de Bussy. Coote lays siege to Pondicherry, a port the French will hold for nearly a year despite terrible privation (see 1761).
The British East India Company ousts its incompetent puppet Mir Jafar, who as nabob of Bengal has failed to pay his dues (see 1757); he is replaced by his more competent son-in-law Mir-Qasim, who will pay the dues but move his capital from Murshidabad to Monghyr, in Bihar, and try to reorganize his own army (see 1764).
Burma's king Alaung Alompra (or Alaungpaya) surrounds the Siamese capital of Ayutthaya in April but is driven off and fatally wounded while retreating; he dies at Kinywa April 13 at age 45 after an 8-year reign in which he has unified his country and founded a dynasty that will hold power until 1886 (see 1767).
The Japanese shōgun Ieshige Tokugawa abdicates at age 49, drunken and ill after 15 years in power. He is succeeded by the 23-year-old son of the late shōgun Yoshimune, who will rule until 1786 as the shōgun Ieharu despite his mental incompetence.
British forces under the command of General Sir Jeffery Amherst take Montreal from the French, and Sir Jeffery becomes governor general of British North America, with headquarters at New York. He will hold the position until 1763 (see Pontiac, 1763). Major Robert Rogers and his Rangers have helped the British, who treat them as inferiors, and some of them quit after the French capitulate; Rogers's lieutenant John Stark, 32, resigns after a dispute with his superiors (born at Londonderry in the New Hampshire colony, Stark has helped Amherst build a road from Crown Point to Fort No. 4 at Charlestown but now returns to his wife, Molly (née Elizabeth Page), at Derryfield (later Manchester Bunker Hill, 1775).
Benjamin Franklin publishes a pamphlet under the title, "The Interest of Great Britain Considered with Regard to Her Colonies, and the Acquisitions of Canada and Guadeloupe." Franklin has been at London since 1757 and will remain there until 1762 (see 1764).
Afrikaner elephant hunter Jacobus Coetsee fords southern Africa's 1,300-mile-long Groot (Orange) River near its mouth on the Atlantic Ocean, becoming the first white man known to do so.
Photometria by Alsatian-born mathematician-astronomer-physicist Johann H. (Heinrich) Lambert, 32, establishes the young man's reputation.
French astronomer Jean-Sylvain Bailly, 23, establishes an observatory where he can study Jupiter's four known satellites. He computed the orbit of Halley's Comet last year (see 1705; politics, 1789).
On the Seats and Causes of Disease by Padua physician Giovanni Morgagni, now 78, introduces the anatomical concept that will become the chief element in medical diagnosis. Founder of pathological anatomy, Morgagni has conducted hundreds of postmortem operations, and he shows the importance of recording a patient's life history, the history of his disease, the events connected with a final illness, and the manner of death (see 1719).
"Some Account of the Success of Inoculation for the Smallpox in England and America" by Benjamin Franklin is published at London (see Lady Montagu, 1721; Jenner, 1796).
Pietist Moravian Church leader Niolaus, graf von Zinzendorf, dies at Herrnhut in Saxony May 9 at age 59, having tried to create an ecumenical Protestant movement; the charismatic Polish founder of Jewish hasidism Israel ben Eliezer dies at age 60. Known as the Ba'al Shem Tov, or Besht, he has not been a scholar but has preached a popular people's movement outside the synagogue, reviving the idea of the zaddik, or superior mortal (see 1772).
Nonfiction: The Sermons of Mr. Yorick by English clergyman Laurence Sterne, 46, whose book is actually a collection of his own sermons as prebendary of York. Sterne's wife, Elizabeth, went insane 2 years ago, having become disturbed by his "small quiet attentions" to other women.
Fiction: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne, published in its first two volumes, represents a bold and brilliant departure in the art of the novel.
Poetry: Fragments of Ancient Poetry Collected in the Highlands of Scotland by schoolmaster James Macpherson, 24, whose alleged translations from a 3rd century Gaelic poet will be much admired for their romantic rhythm and passages of beauty but will be exposed as fraudulent by Samuel Johnson.
Painting: Mrs. Philip Thicknesse by Thomas Gainsborough; Giorgiana by Joshua Reynolds. London's Royal Society of Art holds its first exhibition of contemporary art.
Theater: The Boors (I rusteghi) by Carlo Goldoni 2/16 at Venice's Teatro San Luca.
Actress Peg Woffington dies at London March 26 at age 42 (approximate) (see Reade novel, 1853).
First performances: Symphonies No. 2, 3, 4, and 5 by Viennese composer Franz Joseph Haydn, 28, who started as a choir boy at St. Stephen's Cathedral.
Opera: La Cecchine, osia la buona 2/6 at Rome's Teatro delle Dame, with music by composer Niccolo Piccinni, 32, libretto by Carlo Goldoni based on the 1740 Samuel Richardson novel Pamela.
The first practical roller skates are introduced at London by Belgian musical-instrument maker Joseph Merlin, who rolls into a masquerade party at Carlisle House in Soho Square playing a violin. Strapped to his feet, his skaites each have two wheels in line attached to their soles, but the wheels have no ball bearings and are almost impossible to control. Unable to stop or turn, Merlin crashes into a large mirror valued at more than £500, smashes it to pieces, breaks his fiddle, and severely injures himself (see 1863).
English traveler Andrew Burnaby tours the American colonies and says of Benjamin Franklin's lightning rod, "I believe no country has more certainly proved the efficacy of the electrical rods than this. Before the discovery of them these gusts were frequently productive of melancholy consequences: but now it is rare to hear of such instances. It is observable that no house was ever struck, where they were fixed" (see 1752).
London's Botanical Gardens open at Kew.
Robert Bakewell in Leicestershire begins experiments in the improvement of beef cattle (see 1755; 1769).
English pigs are crossed for the first time with Chinese pigs (year approximate). The English pigs are slim and long-legged like their wild-boar ancestors, the Chinese pigs smaller, plump, and short-legged.
Dutch merchants burn large quantities of cloves and nutmegs at Amsterdam to maintain high price levels.
Britain's 13 American colonies have an estimated population of 1.6 million.
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