1760s

1760s: events by year

Contents: 1760 1761 1762 1763 1764 1765 1766 1767 1768 1769

1760

January–June

June 4: Evangeline and Great Upheaval.

• January 22 – Seven Years' War – At the Battle of Wandiwash in India, British general Sir Eyre Coote is victorious over the French under the Marquis de Bussy-Castelnau.^[1]
• January 28 – Benning Wentworth creates the New Hampshire Grant of Pownal, Vermont.
• February 15 – The British Royal Navy ship HMS Royal Katherine runs aground off Bolt Head in England with the loss of 699 lives.
• February 21–26 – Seven Years' War – At the Battle of Carrickfergus in the north of Ireland, a force of French troops under the command of privateer François Thurot captures and holds the town and castle of Carrickfergus before retiring; the force is defeated (and Thurot killed) in a naval action in the Irish Sea on February 28.^[2]
• February 27 – Seven Years' War – French and Indian War: Cherokee natives allied with French forces attack a North Carolina militia stationed at Fort Dobbs in the western part of the province. The attack is repelled by the militia.
• March 20 – The Great Fire of Boston, Massachusetts, destroys 349 buildings.
• May–July – 'Tacky's War', a slave rebellion, occurs in Jamaica.
• June 4 – Great Upheaval: New England planters arrive to claim land in Nova Scotia taken from the Acadians.

July–December

• July 3 – A lightning strike causes a major fire at Portsmouth Royal Dockyard in England.^[3][4]
• July 8 – Seven Years' War – French and Indian War: Battle of Restigouche: British defeat French forces in the last naval battle in New France.
• July 19 – A formal request is made to the Spanish government as to allow the founding of the later city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.
• July 31 – Seven Years' War – Battle of Warburg: The Anglo-Hanoverian army of Ferdinand of Brunswick storms Warburg, with a heroic role being played by the English commander Lord Granby.

August 15: Frederick the Great.

• August 30 – Seven Years' War – Battle of Legnica: By a series of brilliant maneuvers, Frederick the Great manages to defeat the Austrian army of Marshal Laudon before it can unite with that of Marshal Daun.
• August 21 – The church (later cathedral) of Our Lady of Candlemas of Mayagüez (Puerto Rico) is founded, establishing the basis for the founding of the city.
• September 8 – Seven Years' War: Jeffery Amherst captures Montreal.^[5]
• September 18 – The town (later city) of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, is founded.
• October 9 – Russian troops enter Berlin, but soon withdraw.
• October 16 – Seven Years' War – Battle of Kloster-Kamp: Ferdinand of Brunswick is beaten back from the Rhine by a French army.
• October 25 – George II of Great Britain dies; his grandson George III ascends to the throne.
• November 3 – Seven Years' War – Battle of Torgau: In another extremely hard battle, Frederick defeats Daun's Austrians, who withdraw across the Elbe.

Date unknown

• Dr. James Fordyce's two-volume compendium, Sermons for Young Women, is published.
• Western countries pay 3,000,000 ounces of silver for Chinese goods.
• approximate date – Abu Dhabi is founded.^{[citation needed]}

1761

December 16: Kolberg.

Date unknown

• In Dutch Guyana, a "state" formed by escaped slaves signs a treaty with the local governor.
• Matthew Boulton's Soho Manufactory opens.
• The tune to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is published in France.
• Faber-Castell Company was founded by Kasper Faber in Nuremberg, Germany.

1762

January–June

• January 4 – Britain declares war on Spain and Naples.
• January 5 – Empress Elisabeth of Russia dies and is succeeded by her nephew Peter III. Peter, an admirer of Frederick the Great, immediately opens peace negotiations with the Prussians.
• February 5 – The Great Holocaust of the Sikhs is carried out by the forces of Ahmed Shah Abdali in Punjab. In all, over 500,000 men, women and children perish in this campaign of slaughter.
• May 15 – The Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1762) ends the war between Russia and Prussia.
• May 22 – The Treaty of Hamburg takes Sweden out of the war against Prussia.
• June 24 – Battle of Wilhelmsthal: The Anglo-Hanoverian army of Ferdinand of Brunswick defeats the French forces in Westphalia. The British commander Lord Granby distinguishes himself.

July–December

• July 9 – Catherine II becomes empress of Russia upon the deposition of her husband Peter III. The incipient Russo-Prussian alliance falls apart, but Russia does not rejoin the war.
• July 21 – Battle of Burkersdorf: In his last major battle, Frederick defeats Marshal Daun in Silesia.

October 5: British East India Company seizes Manila.

• September – Empress Go-Sakuramachi succeeds her brother Emperor Momozono on the throne of Japan.
• September 15 – Battle of Signal Hill: British troops defeat the French.
• September 24–October 5 – Battle of Manila: Troops of the British East India Company take Manila from the Spanish, leading to the British occupation of Manila and its being made an open port.
• October 29 – Battle of Freiberg: Prince Henry of Prussia, Frederick's brother, defeats the Austrian army of Marshal Serbelloni.
• November 13 – Treaty of Fontainebleau, a secret agreement in which Louis XV of France cedes Louisiana (New France) to Charles III of Spain.

Date unknown

• Louis XV orders the construction of the Petit Trianon, in the park of the Palace of Versailles, for his mistress Madame de Pompadour.
• Neolin, a Delaware tribe prophet, begins to preach in America.
• The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates Kingston, named for King George III of the United Kingdom, as the county seat of Dobbs County, North Carolina. The name is later shortened to Kinston in 1784.
• The town of Charlottesville, Virginia is founded.
• The town of Hummelstown, Pennsylvania is founded.
• Building of the Plymouth Synagogue in Plymouth, England, the oldest built by Ashkenazi Jews in the English-speaking world.
• French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau publishes his famous books, The Social Contract and Émile, or On Education
• James Stuart and Nicholas Revett's architectural treatise Antiquities of Athens.

1763

January–June

• February 1 – The Royal Colony of North Carolina officially creates Mecklenburg County from the western portion of Anson County. The county is named for Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who married King George III in 1761.
• February 10 – French and Indian War/Seven Years' War: The 1763 Treaty of Paris ends the war and France cedes Canada to Great Britain.
• February 15 – The Treaty of Hubertusburg puts an end to the Seven Years' War between Prussia and Austria and their allies.
• February 23 – The Berbice Slave Uprising starts in the former Dutch colony of Berbice.
• March 1 – Charles Townshend becomes President of the Board of Trade in the British government.
• May 7 – Chief Pontiac begins the "Conspiracy of Pontiac" by attacking British forces at Fort Detroit.
• June 2 – Pontiac's Rebellion: At what is now Mackinaw City, Michigan, Chippewas capture Fort Michilimackinac by diverting the garrison's attention with a game of lacrosse, then chasing a ball into the fort.
• June 28 – A massive earthquake occurs on the same day in Komárom in Hungary, in Komárno in Slovakia and in Zsámbék in Hungary.

July–December

• August 5 – Pontiac's War – Battle of Bushy Run: British forces led by Henry Bouquet defeat Chief Pontiac's Indians at Bushy Run in the Pennsylvania backcountry.
• September 1 – Catherine II of Russia endorses Ivan Betskoy's plans for a Foundling Home in Moscow.
• October 7 – The Royal Proclamation of 1763 is issued by King George III, restricting American settlement westward.

Date unknown

• Bayes' theorem is first published.
• Joseph Haydn wrote Symphony No. 13.
• Fire in Smyrna, Turkey destroys 2,600 houses.
• Little Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey, damaged in an earthquake.
• Mir Qasim of Bengal destroys the English garrison in Patna.
• The English defeat Mir Qasim at Katwah, Murshidabad, Giria, Sooty, Udayanala and Monghyr.
• The seat of colonial administration in the Viceroyalty of Brazil is moved from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro.

1764

January–June

• January 7 – Siculicidium: Hundreds of innocent Székely people are murdered by the Austrians in a massacre at Madéfalva (Transylvania, Kingdom of Hungary).
• January 19 – John Wilkes is expelled from the House of Commons of Great Britain for seditious libel.
• February 15 – The American city of St Louis is established.
• April 6 – The Sugar Act is passed.
• June 21 – The English-language Quebec Gazette is established in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. As of 2008, it is the oldest surviving newspaper in North America.
• June 29 – A Level 5 tornado hits Woldegk, Germany.

July–December

• September 7 – Stanisław August Poniatowski is elected as the King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
• October 15 – English scholar Edward Gibbon conceives the idea of writing The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire "as I sat musing amid the ruins of the Capitol".
• October 22 – Battle of Buxar: The British East India Company defeats the combined armies of Mir Kasim, the Nawab of Bengal, the Nawab of Awadh, and Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II.
• November 9 – Mary Campbell, a captive of the Lenape during the French and Indian War, is turned over to forces commanded by Colonel Henry Bouquet.
• November 16 – Chief Pontiac surrenders to the British.

Date unknown

• The Royal Colony of North Carolina establishes a new county from the eastern portion of Granville County and names it Bute County for John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, who had recently resigned his post as Prime Minister of Great Britain. In 1779 the State of North Carolina abolishes the county when it forms Warren County from the northern portion and Franklin County from the southern portion.
• The French government withdraws the wartime taxes.

1765

January–June

• January 23 – Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor marries Princess Maria Josepha of Bavaria in Vienna.
• March 9 – After a public campaign by the writer Voltaire, judges in Paris posthumously exonerate Jean Calas of murdering his son. Calas had been tortured and executed in 1762 on the charge, though his son may have committed suicide.
• March 22 – The British Parliament passes the Stamp Act, which is the first direct tax levied from Great Britain on the American colonies.
• March 24 – Great Britain passes the Quartering Act, requiring the 13 American colonies to house British troops.
• May 18 – Fire destroys one quarter of the town of Montreal, Quebec.
• June 21 – The Isle of Man is brought under British control.

July–December

• August 9 – Russian Empress Catherine II issues a decree authorizing the new way to produce vodka (by freezing
• August 14 – In protest of the Stamp Act, Bostonians attack home of official Andrew Oliver.
• August 18 – Josef II becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
• August 26 – In protest of the Stamp Act, Bostonians destroy home of lieutenant governor Thomas Hutchinson
• September 6 – Jean-Jacques Rousseau's house in Switzerland is stoned by a mob.
• September 21 – François Antoine (also wrongly titled Antoine de Beauterne) announces he has killed the Beast of Gévaudan.
• October 17 – The Pennsylvania Gazette reports that a Mr. McCullough, the Distributor of Stamps for the Royal Colony of North Carolina, has resigned his post in protest of the Stamp Act. A Dr. Huston is appointed to the position.
• November 1 – The Stamp Act goes into effect in the 13 colonies, in order to help pay for British military operations in North America.
• December 12 – The Pennsylvania Gazette reports that Dr. Huston, the recently instated Distributor of Stamps for the Royal Colony of North Carolina, has resigned his post in protest of the Stamp Act.

Date unknown

• The first chocolate factory in the United States is established by Dr. James Baker at Dorchester, Massachusetts.
• The first true restaurant opens in Paris, where a tavern-keeper named Boulanger sells cooked dishes at an all-night place on the Rue Bailleul.
• James Watt makes a breakthrough in the development of the steam engine by constructing a model with a separate condenser.
• In Lisbon, the auto-da-fé parade (often an excuse for violence against Jews or Christian 'heretics') is abolished.
• Desai Atash Behram is established in Navsari, India.
• Horace Walpole publishes The Castle of Otranto.

1766

January–June

• January 1 – Bonnie Prince Charlie becomes the new Stuart claimant to the throne of Great Britain as King Charles III and figurehead for Jacobitism.
• January 14 – Christian VII becomes King of Denmark.
• February 5 – An observer in Wilmington, North Carolina reports to the Edinburgh newspaper Caledonian Mercury that three ships were seized by British men-of-war on the charge of carrying official documents without stamps. The strict enforcement causes seven other ships to leave Wilmington for other ports.
• February 20 – The Pennsylvania Gazette reports that a British sloop outside of Wilmington, North Carolina seized 1 sloop sailing from Philadelphia and 1 sloop sailing from Saint Christopher on the charge of carrying official documents without stamps. In response, local residents threaten to burn a Royal Man-of-War attempting to deliver stamps to Wilmington, forcing the ship to return to the mouth of the Cape Fear River.
• February – Ferocious wolf attacks occur in France, such as the Beast of Gévaudan or Wolves of Périgord.
• March 5 – Antonio de Ulloa, the first Spanish governor of Louisiana, arrives in New Orleans.
• March 18 – American Revolution: The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act which is very unpopular in the British colonies. The persuasion of Benjamin Franklin is considered partly responsible. The Declaratory Act asserts the right of Britain to bind the colonies in all other respects.

July–December

• November 10 – The last Colonial governor of New Jersey, William Franklin, signs the charter of Queen's College (later renamed Rutgers University).
• November 27 – An observer in New York City, in the Province of New York reports to the Pennsylvania Gazette that a British Sloop of War is searching all vessels passing near Cape Lookout, North Carolina and that some vessels have been seized.
• December 2 – Sweden introduces its Freedom of the Press Act, becoming the first country of the world to protect freedom of the press in the Constitution, and the first country in the world to grant a wide-ranging freedom of information.

Date unknown

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart returns to Salzburg after touring Paris and London with his father.
• Lorraine becomes French again on the death of Stanislaus I Leszczyński, King of Poland.
• The Burmese begin to invade the Thai kingdom of Ayutthaya.
• What is now England's oldest surviving Georgian theatre is constructed in Stockton-on-Tees.
• Childsburgh, the Orange County, North Carolina county seat laid out as Corbin Town in 1754 and renamed in 1759, is renamed Hillsborough in honor of Wills Hill, Earl of Hillsborough.

1767

January–June

• January 1 – The Nautical Almanac for the first time gives mariners the means to find their longitude while at sea, using tables of lunar distances.
• January 9 – William Tryon, governor of the Royal Colony of North Carolina, signs a contract with architect John Hawks to build Tryon Palace, a lavish Georgian style governor's mansion on the New Bern waterfront.
• June 18 – First confirmed sighting of Tahiti by a European, Samuel Wallis, an English sea captain.^[6]

July–December

• July 3
  • Pitcairn Island is discovered by Midshipman Robert Pitcairn on an expeditionary voyage commanded by Philip Carteret.
  • Norway's oldest newspaper still in print, Adresseavisen, is first published.

Ayutthaya.

• August 26 – Construction begins on Tryon Palace in New Bern, North Carolina. The construction proves more expensive than initially expected, leading the government to increase local taxes. This stirs resentment among some North Carolinians and helps prolong the War of the Regulation.
• Autumn – North Carolina woodsman Daniel Boone goes through the Cumberland Gap and reaches Kentucky, in defiance of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 issued by King George III. He discovers a rich hunting ground, contested by several Native American tribes.

1768

January–June

January 9: Philip Astley circus.

• January 9 – Philip Astley stages the first modern circus, with acrobats on galloping horses (London).
• February 11 – Samuel Adams's circular letter is issued by the Massachusetts House of Representatives and sent to the other Thirteen Colonies. Refusal to revoke the letter will result in the occupation of Boston by the British Army.
• May 10 – John Wilkes is imprisoned for writing an article for the North Briton severely criticizing King George III. This action provokes rioting in London.
• May 15 – After the Treaty of Versailles, the island of Corsica is ceded by Genoa to France.

July–December

• August 8 – Myles Garza departs Plymouth on his first voyage of discovery.

The Petit Trianon

• December 1 – The slave ship Fredensborg sinks off Tromøy in Norway.
• December 21 – Nepal is united.

Date unknown

• The Petit Trianon, originally built for Madame de Pompadour, is achieved in the park of the Palace of Versailles and inaugurated by Louis XV.
• New Smyrna Beach, the largest attempt at colonization by the British in the New World, is founded by Dr. Andrew Turnbull.
• A Secretary of State for the colonies is appointed in Britain.
• The Massachusetts Assembly is dissolved for refusing to assist in the collection of taxes.
• Boston citizens refuse to quarter British troops.
• King Prithvi Narayan Shah unified several small kingdoms to establish the modern-day Nepal.
• The first of the weekly numbers of the Encyclopædia Britannica are published; 100 are planned.
• The Steller's sea cow, discovered on Bering Island in 1741, is driven to extinction.
• Louis XV of France appoints Rene de Maupeau as chancellor and orders him to crush the judicial opposition.
• Bougainville Strait was discovered.

1769

January–June

• March 16 – Louis Antoine de Bougainville returns to Saint-Malo following a three-year circumnavigation of the world with the ships La Boudeuse and Étoile, with the loss of only seven out of 330 men; among the returning crew is Jeanne Baré, the first woman known to have circumnavigated the globe.
• April 13 – James Cook arrives in Tahiti on the ship HM Bark Endeavour, preparing to observe the transit of the planet Venus, which takes place on June 3. After the voyage, the data is found to be inaccurate in determining the distance between the Sun and Earth.
• April 29 – James Watt is granted a patent for improvements to the steam engine, an invention which helps inaugurate the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain.
• May 9 – France conquers Corsica
• May 14 – Charles III of Spain sends Spanish missionaries, who found California missions in San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Monterey and begin the settlement of California.
• May 19 – Pope Clement XIV succeeds Pope Clement XIII as the 249th pope.
• June 3 – (O.S.) A transit of Venus is followed five hours later by a total solar eclipse, the shortest such interval in the historical past. The transit is viewed by King George III of Great Britain at the Kew Observatory.

June 7: Daniel Boone in Kentucky.

• June 7 – Frontiersman Daniel Boone first begins to explore the present-day Bluegrass State, Kentucky.

July–December

• July 16 – Father Junípero Serra founds Mission San Diego de Alcalá, the first of the 21 California missions.
• August 3 – The party of Gaspar de Portolà becomes the first white group to set foot in the area now known as Santa Monica, California.
• September – Massive droughts in Bengal, which lead to the Bengal famine of 1770 in which ten million people, a third of the population, will die, the worst natural disaster in human history (in terms of lives lost).
• September 6–September 9 – David Garrick holds the first Shakespeare Festival at Stratford-upon-Avon.
• September 10 – Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774): Russian forces take the Ottoman fortress of Chocim in Bukovina.
• October 7– James Cook lands in New Zealand at Poverty Bay.
• December 13 – Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire is established as John Wentworth, the Royal Governor, conveys a charter from King George III of England.

Date unknown

Cugnot's steam-wagon in 1769.

• Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot demonstrates a steam-powered artillery tractor (see drawing) in France.
• The Maharajah of Mysore forces the British to agree a treaty of mutual assistance in view of the famine, but the British East India Company increases its demands on the Bengali people to keep profits up.

"Mechanical Turk" chess machine.

• Richard Arkwright invents the spinning frame.
• The city of Brescia, Italy is devastated when the Church of San Nazaro, near Venice, is struck by lightning. The resulting fire ignites 200,000 lb (90,000 kg) of gunpowder being stored there, causing a massive explosion which destroys 1/6 of the city and kills 3,000 people. The disaster prompts the Roman Catholic Church to abandon their religious objection to using lightning rods to protect their property.^{[citation needed]}
• Authorized King James Version of the Bible in the Oxford standard text edited by Benjamin Blayney.

Significant people

Births

Deaths

References