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Britain declares war on Spain January 2 as the Seven Years' War threatens to engulf all of the European powers and their colonies.
The Russian czarina Elizabeth Petrovna dies January 5 at age 52 after a 20-year reign and is succeeded by her imbecilic 33-year-old son, who ascends the throne as Peter III and withdraws his troops from the Seven Years' War. An admirer of Prussia's Friedrich II (the Great), the new czar makes peace in the Treaty of St. Petersburg May 15, returns Pomerania to Prussia, and offers his support against Sweden, which makes peace with Prussia May 22 in the Treaty of Hamburg. A military coup overthrows Peter III in July; put to death July 18, he is succeeded by his 33-year-old widow, the former Sophia-Augusta of Anhalt Zerbst who has converted to the Orthodox Church and changed her name to Catherine (Ekaterina Alekseevna). She will reign with "benevolent despotism" until 1796 as Catherine II ("the Semiramis of the North," in Voltaire's phrase).
The Battle of Wilhelmsthal June 24 gives Ferdinand of Brunswick's allied army a victory over French forces commanded by Marshal d'Estrées and Marshal de Soubise, forcing the French to withdraw across the Fulda River. The Battle of Burkersdorf in Silesia July 21 pits Friederich the Great's 25,000 Prussian troops against 25,000 Austrians under the command of Leopold Daun, who leaves the field after an indecisive struggle in which neither side has sustained many casualties. Ferdinand of Brunswick defeats a French-Saxon contingent under the command of the comte de Lusace July 23 in the Second Battle of Lutterberg, but French forces commanded by Marshal de Soubise and General Condé defeat him August 30 at the Battle of Nauheim (or Johannisberg). Friedrich lays siege in August to the Austrian fortress of Schweidnitz held by 10,000 men; the Austrians surrender October 9 after the Prussians have used an innovative underground mine devised by engineer Simon Lefebvre.
Ferdinand of Brunswick lays siege beginning October 12 to Kassel with upwards of 12,000 Allied troops and 70 siege guns; some 5,300 French forces commanded by General Diesbach surrender November 1. The Battle of Freiburg in Saxony October 29 ends in victory for a 30,000-man Prussian army under the command of Friedrich II's brother Prince Heinrich; General Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz confounds critics by leading not only Heinrich's cavalry but one wing of his infantry as well, using boldness and strategy to win the day. Austria signs a truce November 24 with Friedrich II (the Great).
France signs a treaty with Spain December 3 that cedes all French lands west of the Mississippi (Upper Louisiana) to Spain (see 1763).
British rear admiral George (Brydges) Rodney, 43, captures the Caribbean island of Martinique from its French colonial garrison February 5 (see Guadeloupe, 1759). He goes on to take Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent in the West Indies. First Lord of the Admiralty George Anson, Baron Anson, dies at Moor Park, Hertfordshire, June 6 at age 65, having reorganized the fleet, revised the Articles of War, and created a permanent marine corps.
Britain's Tories come to power May 29 for the first time since 1714 (see 1761). A new ministry headed by John Stuart, 48, 3rd earl of Bute, will rule until next year.
A French force of 800 men seizes St. John's, Newfoundland, from the British June 24 and uses it as a bargaining chip in peace talks (see 1763). Newfoundland's new governor Thomas Graves, 36, was court-martialed in 1756 for failing as commander of H.M.S. Sheerness to confront a French ship that gave challenge in the first year of the war but was let off with a reprimand (see Graves, 1780).
A British fleet takes Havana August 2 after a 2-month siege despite the loss of more than half the men in its crews to fever and dysentery. British regulars and provincials commanded by George Keppel, 38, 3rd earl of Albemarle and Admiral Sir George Pocock, 56, capture the city from Spanish forces under the command of Don Juan de Prado (but see 1763). A British fleet in the Pacific bombards Manila in October and captures the city from its Spanish colonial defenders (see Rodney, 1781).
The Boston Gazette for January 4 carries an article asking, "[W]hat reason can there be, that a free people should be expos'd to all the insult and abuse and even the fatal consequences which may arise from the execution of a writ of assistance, only to put fortunes into private pockets? . . . [Can] a community be safe with an uncontroll'd power lodg'd in the hands of such officers . . .?" Author of the article is probably local lawyer James Otis, 36 (see 1764).
The Equitable Life Assurance Society is founded at London (see 1583). It will be the first company to grade premium rates according to age.
H.M.S. Deptford arrives at Port Royal, Jamaica, January 19 after an 81-day voyage in which John Harrison's chronometer has lost only 5 seconds (see 1761). The ship's captain pronounces the chronometer a success and presents William Harrison with an octant. Harrison arrives home aboard another ship March 2 with the chronometer still ticking despite having nearly been soaked by seawater (it is off by only 15 seconds upon the ship's return to port), but the Board of Longitude does not immediately award John Harrison its £20,000 prize. His clergyman-astronomer rival Nevil Maskelyne, 30, arrives home from St. Helena in May, having voyaged to the South Atlantic island to observe last year's transit of the planet Venus (see 1763). The Board of Longitude issues a report in August stating about Harrison's chronometer that "the Experiments already made of the Watch have not been sufficent to determine the Longitude at Sea," but awards Harrison £1,500 because his instrument "tho' not yet found to be of such great use for discovering the Longitude . . . is nevertheless an invention of considerable utility to the Public" (see 1764; Leroy, 1765).
English engineer Matthew Boulton, 34, opens a foundry at Soho near his native Birmingham; his firm Boulton and Fothergill has been producing fine enamelware but now turns to making Sheffield silverplate, using the method pioneered by Thomas Boulsover 20 years ago (see energy, 1774).
Astronomer James Bradley dies at Chalford, Gloucestershire, July 13 at age 69, having been the first to provide observational proof that the Earth revolves about the sun and the first to discover the shift in the Earth's axis caused by lunar gravity.
An epidemic of typhus that will continue through most of the decade sweeps across the Italian states, whose people are suffering famine (see 1764).
The Diseases of Children and Their Remedies by Swedish physician Nils von Rosenstein, 59, is the first systematic modern treatise on pediatric medical care and establishes the science of pediatrics.
France expels her Jesuits, who have been engaging in commerce and industry (see Portugal, 1759); they have made themselves unpopular by interfering in politics, but the atheistic philosopher Paul-Henri Dietrich, baron d'Holmbach, sets aside his views and offers his home as a refuge to them (see Clement XIV, 1773).
Nonfiction: The Social Contract (Du Contrat Social) by Jean Jacques Rousseau expresses antimonarchist views that arouse such passions that Rousseau takes refuge in Switzerland to escape prosecution. "Man is born free yet everywhere is in chains"; "The body politic, like the human body, begins to die from its birth and bears in itself the causes of its destruction."
Philosopher Alexander Baumgarten dies at Frankfurt an-der-Oder May 26 at age 47; Lady Mary Wortley Montagu of breast cancer at London August 21 at age 73 (she returned to England in mid-January after nearly 23 years abroad).
Fiction: Emile, ou Traité de l'education by Jean Jacques Rousseau contains the line, "I hate books, for they only teach people to talk about what they do not understand" (I), but Rousseau goes on to say, "There exists one book, which, to my taste, furnishes the happiest treatise of natural education. What then is this marvelous book? Is it Aristotle? Is it Pliny, is it Buffon? No—it is Robinson Crusoe" (III) (see 1719). Rousseau blames English "barbarism" on high meat consumption.
Painting: Frescoes for Madrid's Royal Palace by Giambattista Tiepolo; Garrick in 'The Farmer's Return' by German-born, Italian-trained English painter Johann Zoffany, 29; Mares and Foals by English painter George Stubbs, 38.
Rome's Trevi fountain is completed to designs by architect Niccolo Salvi.
Theater: The Chioggian Brawls (La baruffe chiozzotte) by Carlo Goldoni in January at Venice's Teatro San Luca; Turandot by Carlo Gozzi 1/22 at Venice's Teatro San Samuele.
Playwright Prosper Jolyot, sieur de Crébillon, dies at Paris June 17 at age 88.
Opera: Artaxerxes 2/2 at London's Covent Garden, with music by Thomas Arne, arias that include "The Soldier Tired," "Water Parted from the Sea"; Orfeo ed Euridice 10/8 at Vienna's Hofburgtheater, with music by Christoph Gluck, whose expressive and dramatically forceful music will revolutionize opera, making music and drama interdependent; Love in a Village 12/8 at London's Covent Garden, with music by Thomas Arne, libretto by Irish playwright Isaac Bickerstaffe, 27, songs that include "There was a jolly miller once/ Lived on the River Dee."
English dandy Richard "Beau" Nash dies at Bath February 3 at age 87 after a career as social arbiter in which he has made Bath a popular watering place, abolished the habit of wearing swords in places of public amusement, brought dueling into disrepute, and induced gentlemen to wear shoes and stockings rather than boots in parades and assemblies. Nash has lived on a small pension and by selling snuff boxes and trinkets since 1745, when Parliament made gambling illegal.
New York's first St. Patrick's Day parade steps off March 17 to celebrate a man historians will agree was not named Patrick, was not Irish, did not drive the snakes from Ireland, did not bring Christianity to Ireland, and was not born March 17. Irish-Americans will grow in number until New York has a larger Irish population than Dublin, the parade will grow to become an event of paralyzing proportions, and it will never be canceled on account of inclement weather.
Le Petit Trianon goes up at Versailles as a gift from Louis XV to his mistress, Mme. de Pompadour, who has diverted the king by installing at Trianon a farmyard and dairy, a menagerie, and a botanical garden that includes a conservatory planted with specimens brought from all over the world, including orange, lemon, olive, and oleander trees and the first strawberries grown in France (see 1768).
Frenchmen discover a kaolin deposit that will lead to increased production of porcelain (see 1753; 1754).
English potter Josiah Wedgwood, 32, receives an appointment from George III, who names him "Potter to the Queen" (Charlotte). The 13th son of a potter, Wedgwood began his career at age 8 by repairing Delft porcelain after his father's death. An attack of smallpox at age 15 left him so weak that an older brother refused to take him into the family firm, so he concentrated on design and technique; he has presented a set of his own pottery to the queen and will go on to create superior tableware (see 1763; Cookworthy, 1754; 1768).
Dutch ironworkers at Mary Ann Furnaces in the Pennsylvania colony cast the first American iron cookstove.
The sandwich is invented this year by some accounts at London's Beef Steak Club, above the Covent Garden Theatre, where John Montagu, 44, 4th earl of Sandwich, has spent 24 hours at the gaming tables without stopping to eat. He orders some beef or fowl and—not wishing to get his fingers greasy—demands some slices of bread; holding the meat between the slices, he is able to eat as he goes on with his gambling (see Sandwich Islands, 1778).
London's Boodles Club is founded with a membership that will soon include dandy Beau Brummel and philosopher Adam Smith.
New England's white colonist population reaches 500,000, having doubled since 1734 (see 1790).
Russia's population will increase in the next 34 years from 19 million to 29 million, partly because the potato has made food cheaper and more abundant, partly through annexation of new territory.
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