The 1770s (pronounced "seventeen-seventies") was a
decade of the
Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1770, and ended on December 31, 1779. A period full of discoveries, breakthroughs happened in all walks of life, as what emerged at this period brought life to most innovations we know today.
March 21 – King Prithvi Narayan Shah shifts to the newly constructed
Basantapur Palace in the capital Kathmandu as the first King of Unified Kingdom of Nepal
April 12 – The
Townshend Acts are repealed by Britain's Parliament by the efforts of Prime Minister
Frederick North, with the exception of the increased duties on imported tea. The American colonists, in turn, stop their embargo on British imports.[4]
April 18 (
April 19 by Cook's log)[5] 18:00 – First voyage of James Cook: English explorer Captain
James Cook and his crew become the first recorded Europeans to encounter the eastern coastline of the
Australian continent. Land is sighted at
Point Hicks, and named after Lieutenant Hicks who first observes landform at 6am.
April 29 –
First voyage of James Cook: Captain Cook drops anchor on
HMS Endeavour in a wide bay, about 16 km (10 mi) south of the present city of
Sydney, Australia. Because the young
botanist on board the ship,
Joseph Banks, discovers 30,000 specimens of plant life in the area, 1,600 of them unknown to European science, Cook names the place
Botany Bay on
May 7.
July 1 –
Lexell's Comet (D/1770 L1) passes the
Earth at a distance of 2,184,129 kilometres (1,357,155 mi), the closest approach by a
comet in recorded history.[8]
July 5 –
Battle of Chesma and
Battle of Larga: The
Russian Empire defeats the
Ottoman Empire in both battles. When the news of the defeat reaches the Ottoman city of Smyrna (
July 8), the crowd attacks the
Greek community of the city (perceived as favourable to the Russian cause) and kills an estimated 200 Greeks and three Western Europeans (although some reports estimate the number of victims at 3,000 or even 5,000 including "3 or 4 thousands who die due to the fright").[9][10]
February 12 – Upon the death of
Adolf Frederick, he is succeeded as King of
Sweden by his son
Gustav III. At the time, however, Gustav is unaware of this, since he is abroad in Paris. The news of his father's death reaches him about a month later.
May 11 – War of the Regulation: North Carolina Governor William Tryon marches his military out of
Hillsborough, to come to the aid of General Hugh Waddell's beleaguered forces. Tryon's army stops at Alamance Creek, 5 miles (8.0 km) away from the Regulator army.
May 16 – War of the Regulation –
Battle of Alamance: Regulators reject an appeal by Governor Tryon to peacefully disperse. Governor Tryon's forces crush the rebellion, causing many Regulators to move to frontier areas outside of North Carolina.
November 16 – During the night the
River Tyne, England, floods, destroying many bridges and killing several people; the replacement main bridge at
Newcastle upon Tyne will not be completed until
1781.
December 3 – The cause of action in
Sommersett's Case, which eventually leads to the end of slavery in Great Britain, begins when escaped slave James Somerset is found imprisoned on the ship Ann and Mary.[22]
December 31 – Men, women and children of the
Choctaw and
Chickasaw tribes begin a 23-day encampment at
Mobile, part of the British colony of
West Florida, at the invitation of British Southern Indian superintendent John Stuart, as their leaders negotiate a treaty.[23]
The trade monopoly with
Iceland is transferred to the Danish crown.
The North Carolina General Assembly passes an act establishing the town of
Martinsborough, named for Royal Governor
Josiah Martin, on the land of Richard Evans, which will serve as the
seat of
Pitt County.
March 8 –
Biela's Comet is first discovered by French astronomer Jacques Leibax Montaigne, but not proven to be a periodic comet until 1826, when
Wilhelm von Biela correctly identifies its return.[26]
April 8 –
Massachusetts legislator
Samuel Adams persuades his colleagues to approve his plan for creating a Committee of Correspondence to begin a dialogue with the other American colonies concerning mutual problems with England.[28][29]
May 8 – The
Watauga Association Compact is signed in what is now East
Tennessee by a group of white settlers led by William Bean, creating the first non-colonial government body in British North America.[31]
Second voyage of James Cook: The crew of
HMS Resolution finds that the
ice floes encountered on their journey south are a source of fresh water, a "discovery... of utmost importance to the success of the voyage."[38]
February 8 – The Grand Council of Poland meets in Warsaw, summoned by a circular letter from King
Stanisław August Poniatowski to respond to the Kingdom's threatened partition between three foreign powers.[43]
Daniel Boone leads the first attempt by British colonists to establish a settlement in
Kentucky, but is turned back in an attack by
Native Americans, in which his son is killed.
November 10 – Four ships – the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, the Beaver and the William – depart Britain for America, carrying the first Indian tea to be subject to the newly enacted taxes. The William is lost in a storm; the Dartmouth is the first ship to reach
Boston, docking on
November 28.[49]
Istanbul Technical University is established (under the name of Royal School of Naval Engineering) as the world's first comprehensive institution of higher learning dedicated to engineering education.
In
China, written work begins on the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries, the largest literary compilation of books in China's history (surpassing the
Yongle Encyclopedia of the 15th Century). Upon completion in
1782, the books are bound in 36,381 volumes (册) with more than 79,000 chapters (卷), comprising about 2.3 million pages, and approximately 800 million
Chinese characters.
February 3 – The
Privy Council of Great Britain, as advisors to King George III, votes for the King's abolition of free land grants of North American lands. Henceforward, land is to be sold at auction to the highest bidder.[55]
February 7 – The volunteer fire company of
Trenton, New Jersey, predecessor to the paid Trenton Fire Department created in 1892, is founded. In 1905, at 131 years, it claims to be the oldest continuously serving department in the U.S.[57]
March 10 – The Boston Journal makes the first reference to the "
Stars and Stripes" flag to symbolize the American colonies, reporting that "The American ensign now sparkles a door which shall shortly flame from the skies."[59]
June 22 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the
Quebec Act, setting out rules of governance for the colony of
Quebec in British North America, enlarging its territory as far south as Ohio[59] and granting freedom of religion for Roman Catholics.
August 1 – The element
oxygen is discovered for the third time (the second quantitatively, following the somewhat earlier work of
Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1771–72) by
Joseph Priestley, who publishes the fact in
1775, and so names the element (and usually gets all the credit, because his work was published first).
August 6 –
Ann Lee and the Shakers arrive in America and settle in New York.[59]
October 20 – The
First Continental Congress passes the
Continental Association, a colony-wide boycotting of British goods. Theater performances in the American colonies are also halted, on the Congress's recommendation that the member colonies "discountenance and discourage all horse racing and all kinds of gaming, cock fighting, exhibitions of shows, plays, and other expensive diversions and entertainments."[59]
November 4 – The
Maryland Jockey Club follows a recommendation of the Continental Congress and cancels its race schedule. The decision sets a precedent for other jockey clubs in the colonies, and no major races are held until the end of the American Revolution.[62]
November 20 –
Daniel Boone retires from the Virginia colonial militia in order to devote his full time to establishing a settlement in
Kentucky.[64]
November 25 –
Salawat Yulayev, the leader of the
Bashkirs rebellion against the Russian government, is captured, bringing an end to the insurrection.[65]
November 27 – Spanish Navy Captain
Domingo de Bonechea arrives at
Tahiti in the ship Aguila and tries unsuccessfully to claim it for Spain and to convert the Tahitians to the Roman Catholic faith.[67]
Parliament adjourns in Great Britain, but declines to authorize any action against the rebellious American colonies, despite an address the day before by
King George III and
Prime Minister North.[68]
Thomas Paine, a native of England, arrives in America at the age 37 and soon becomes an influential advocate for the colonies' independence.[69]
December 1 – A boycott called by the Continental Congress goes into effect, as participating merchants and supporters cease the importation or consumption of products from Great Britain, Ireland or the British West Indies.[70]
December 6 – Archduchess
Maria Theresa, the ruler of Austria, Hungary and Croatia, signs the General School Ordinance providing for education for both males and females and setting compulsory education for children aged six through 12.[71]
December 23 – King
Louis XVI of France issues a declaration that, for the first time, protects "the free commerce of meat during
Lent" to support the needs of "the poor whose infirmity requires them to eat meat."[73]
The
American Revolutionary War began this year, with the first military engagement on April 19
Battles of Lexington and Concord on the day after
Paul Revere's ride. The
Second Continental Congress took various steps toward organizing an American government, appointing
George Washington commander-in-chief (June 14),
Benjamin Franklin postmaster general (July 26) and creating a
Continental Navy (October 13) and a Marine force (November 10) as landing troops for it, but as yet the 13 colonies have not declared independence, and both the British (June 12) and American (July 15) governments make laws. On July 6, Congress issues the
Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms and on August 23,
King George III of Great Britain declares the American colonies in rebellion, announcing it to Parliament on November 10. On June 17, two months into the colonial
siege of Boston, at the
Battle of Bunker Hill, just north of Boston, British forces are victorious, but only after suffering severe casualties and after Colonial forces run out of ammunition,
Fort Ticonderoga is taken by American forces in New York Colony's northern frontier, and American forces unsuccessfully
invade Canada, with an attack on
Montreal defeated by British forces on November 13 and an attack on
Quebec repulsed December 31.
Human knowledge and mastery over nature advanced when
James Watt built a successful prototype of a steam engine, and a scientific expedition continued as Captain
James Cook claims the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands in the south Atlantic Ocean for Britain. Nature's power over humanity is dramatically demonstrated when the
Independence Hurricane (August 29 – September 13) devastates the east coast of
North America, killing 4,173, and when, on the western side of the North American continent,
Tseax Cone erupts in the future
British Columbia, as well as when a
smallpox epidemic begins in New England. Smallpox vaccine was then developed by
Edward Jenner. There is no cure for smallpox.
July 3 – American Revolution: George Washington takes command of the 17,000-man Continental Army at Cambridge.
July 5 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress sends the
Olive Branch Petition, hoping for a reconciliation.
July 6 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress issues
Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, which contains the words: "Our cause is just. Our union is perfect... being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves...".
August 23 – American Revolution: Refusing to even look at the Olive Branch Petition, King George issues a
Proclamation of Rebellion against the American colonies.
November 10 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress passes a resolution creating the
Continental Marines to serve as landing troops for the recently created Continental Navy (the Marines are disbanded at end of the war in April
1783 but reformed on
July 11,
1798 as the
United States Marine Corps).
Catherine the Great decrees a Statute for the Administration of the Provinces of the Russian Empire dividing the country into provinces and districts for efficient government.[75]
February 27 –
American Revolution –
Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge: Scottish
North Carolina Loyalists charge across Moore's Creek Bridge near
Wilmington, to attack what they mistakenly believe to be a small force of rebels. Several bad leaders are killed in the ensuing battle. The patriot victory[80] virtually ends all British authority in the province.
July 2 –
American Revolution – The final U.S. Declaration of Independence (with minor revisions) is written. The Continental Congress passes the
Lee Resolution.
July 29 –
Domínguez–Escalante expedition: Francisco Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, Francisco Atanasio Domínguez, and eight other Spaniards set out from Santa Fe, on an eighteen-hundred mile trek through the American Southwest. They are the first Europeans to explore the vast region between the Rockies and the Sierras.[83]
August – The guild organisation Marchandes de modes is founded in Paris. Along the act of slavery founded by George Washington
September–October
September 1 –
Cherokee–American wars: The invasion of the Cherokee Nation by 6,000 patriot troops from Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina begins. The troops destroy 36 Cherokee towns.[83]
October 31 – In his first speech before British Parliament since the Declaration of Independence that summer, King
George III acknowledges that all is not going well for Britain, in the war with the United States.
January 15 –
Vermont declares its independence from New York, becoming the
Vermont Republic, an independent country, a status it retains until it joins the United States as the 14th state in
1791.
January 21 – The Continental Congress approves a resolution "that an unauthentic copy, with names of the signers of the
Declaration of independence, be sent to each of the United States.[96]
December 18 – The United States celebrates its first
Thanksgiving, marking October's victory by the American rebels over British General
John Burgoyne at Saratoga.
The
code duello is adopted at the
Clonmel Summer
Assizes as the form for pistol
duels by gentlemen in Ireland. It is quickly denounced, but nevertheless widely adopted throughout the English-speaking world.
April 7 – Former British Prime Minister
William Pitt delivers his last speech to Parliament, and speaks to the House of Lords "passionately but incoherently against the granting of independence" to the American colonies, but collapses during the debate, and dies five weeks later.[103]
April 12 – King George III appoints the five-member
Carlisle Peace Commission to present peace terms to negotiate an end to the rebellion of Britain's 13 American colonies.[104]
April 30 – The 1,800 feet (550 m) long
Hudson River Chain, designed to prevent British ships from moving up the river toward
West Point, New York is stretched across the river and anchored by an engineering team under the direction of Captain Thomas Machin.[105]
August 26 –
Triglav, at 2,864 metres (9,396 ft) above sea level the highest peak of
Slovenia, is ascended for the first time by four men: Luka Korošec, Matevž Kos, Štefan Rožič, and Lovrenc Willomitzer, on
Sigmund Zois' initiative.
October 12 – The Continental Congress advises the 13 member states to suppress "theatrical entertainments, horse-racing, gaming, and such other diversions as are productive of idleness, dissipation, and general depravity of principles and manners."[102]
Phillips Academy is founded in Massachusetts by Samuel Phillips Jr.
The term thoroughbred is first used in the United States, in an advertisement in a
Kentuckygazette, to describe a
New Jersey stallion called Pilgarlick.
Thomas Kitchin's The Present State of the West-Indies: Containing an Accurate Description of What Parts Are Possessed by the Several Powers in Europe is published in London.[109]
The city of
Ulaanbaatar is settled at its present location, having functioned as a mobile monastic settlement since 1639.
April 12 –
Spain and
France secretly sign the
Convention of Aranjuez, with Spain joining an alliance against Great Britain in return for France's pledge to recover all Spanish territory lost to the British.[110]
July – The
Great Siege of Gibraltar (fourteenth and last military siege) begins. This is an action by French and Spanish forces to wrest control of
Gibraltar from the established British garrison. The garrison, led by
George Augustus Eliott (later 1st Baron Heathfield of Gibraltar), survives all attacks and a blockade of supplies.
A joint Spanish-Portuguese survey of the
Amazon basin begins to determine the boundary between the colonial possessions in South America; it continues until
1795.
Wilhelmine of Prussia, Queen of the Netherlands, Dutch queen consort (from 1815 to 1837); second daughter and fourth child of Frederick William II of Prussia and Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt (d.
1837)
Hugh Hornby Birley, leading Manchester Tory, reputed to have led the fatal charge of the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry, at the
Peterloo Massacre (d.
1845)
^Mathes, W. Michael (1985). "The Camino Real: California's Mission Trail". Pioneer Trails West. Caxton Press. p. 82.
^"The Revenue Administration of Bengal, 1765-86", by R. B. Ramsbotham, in The Cambridge History of the British Empire, H. H. Dodwell, ed. (Cambridge University Press Archive, 1929) p. 413
^Samuel Fallows, Samuel Adams: A Character Sketch, with Anecdotes, Characteristics and Chronology (The University Association, 1898) p. 110
^Jaswant Lal Mehta, Advanced Study in the History of Modern India 1707-1813 (Sterling Publishers, 2005) p. 510
^Lewis L. Laska, The Tennessee State Constitution: A Reference Guide (Greenwood Publishing Group, 1990) p. 1
^Persen, William (1955). "The Russian occupations of Beirut, 1772–74". Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society. 42 (3–4): 275–286.
doi:
10.1080/03068375508731555.
^Price, A. Grenfell, ed. (1971). The Explorations of Captain James Cook in the Pacific, as Told by Selections of His Own Journals, 1768-1779. Courier Corporation. p. 107.
^John T. Alexander, Catherine the Great: Life and Legend (Oxford University Press, 1989) p159
^"Anders Sparrman, 1748—1820", in Oceanographic History: The Pacific and Beyond, ed. by Keith R. Benson and Philip F. Rehbock (University of Washington Press, 2002) p230
^Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006.
ISBN0-14-102715-0.
^Burke, Edmund, ed. (1774). The Annual Register, or a View of the History, Politics and Literature for the Year 1773. J. Dodsley. p. 25.
^Cook, James (1821). The Three Voyages of Captain James Cook round the World. Vol. III: Being the First of the Second Voyage. London: Longman, Hurst and Rees. pp. 122–128.
^Corman, Brian (2013). The Broadview Anthology of Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Comedy. Broadview Press. p. 359.
^du Quenoy, Paul (2014). "Arabs under Tsarist Rule: The Russian Occupation of Beirut, 1773–1774". Russian History. 41 (2): 128–141.
doi:
10.1163/18763316-04102002.
^Keith R. Dawson, Caroline Princess of Wales & Other Forgotten People of History (Strategic Book Publishing, 2010) p67
^Woody Holton, Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves, and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia (University of North Carolina Press Books, 2011) p32
^"Beaumarchais", in The Cornhill Magazine (August 1884) p142
^"Fire News of the Week", in Fire and Water Engineering (December 9, 1905) p337
^Clifford Kenyon Shipton, New England Life in the Eighteenth Century: Representative Biographies from Sibley's Harvard Graduates (Harvard University Press, 1995) p324
^
abcdefghiGordon Carruth, ed., The Encyclopedia of American Facts and Dates 3rd Edition (Thomas Y. Crowell, 1962) pp80-82
^Robert K. Massie, Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman (Random House, 2011) p406
^Ann Fairfax Withington, Toward a More Perfect Union: Virtue and the Formation of American Republics (Oxford University Press, 1996) p197
^"Giacomo Casanova", by Mattia Begali, in Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies (Taylor & Francis, 2007) p402
^Robert Morgan, Boone: A Biography (Algonquin Books, 2008) p152
^Charles R. Steinwedel, Threads of Empire: Loyalty and Tsarist Authority in Bashkiria, 1552–1917 (Indiana University Press, 2016) p73
^Joe Jackson, A World on Fire: A Heretic, an Aristocrat, and the Race to Discover Oxygen (Penguin, 2007) p114
^Robert W. Kirk, Paradise Past: The Transformation of the South Pacific, 1520-1920 (McFarland, 2012) p27
^William Edward Hartpole Lecky, A History of England in the Eighteenth Century, Volume 3 (D. Appleton and Company, 1891) p456
^Richard R. Beeman, Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred Honor: The Forging of American Independence, 1774-1776 (Basic Books, 2013) p xi
^Spencer Tucker, Almanac of American Military History (ABC-CLIO, 2013) p211
^James B. Collins and Karen L. Taylor, Early Modern Europe: Issues and Interpretations (John Wiley & Sons, 2008) p57
^Karen Racine, Francisco de Miranda, a Transatlantic Life in the Age of Revolution (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003) p13
^Jennifer J. Davis, Defining Culinary Authority: The Transformation of Cooking in France, 1650-1830 (LSU Press, 2013)
^Warren, James Francis (1981). The Sulu Zone, 1768-1898: The Dynamics of External Trade, Slavery, and Ethnicity in the Transformation of a Southeast Asian Maritime State. Singapore: NUS Press. p. 36.
^"Battles of Lexington and Concord", Britannica Student Encyclopedia, 2006, p. 454, The American Revolution began on April 19, 1775, with the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
^
abHarper's Encyclopaedia of United States History from 458 A. D. to 1909, ed. by Benson John Lossing and, Woodrow Wilson (Harper & Brothers, 1910) p166
^Hulse David K (1999): "The early development of the steam engine"; TEE Publishing, Leamington Spa, U.K., ISBN, 85761 107 1 p. 127 et seq.
^R. L. Hills, James Watt: II The Years of Toil, 1775–1785 (Landmark, Ashbourne, 2005), 58–65.
^
abcdLossing, Benson John; Wilson, Woodrow, eds. (1910). Harper's Encyclopaedia of United States History from 458 A.D. to 1909. Harper & Brothers. p. 166.
^Harris, Michael (2014). Brandywine: A Military History of the Battle that Lost Philadelphia but Saved America, September 11, 1777. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatiuùuù hie. p. 55.
ISBN978-1-61121-162-7.
^
abcdHarper's Encyclopaedia of United States History from 458 A. D. to 1909, ed. by Benson John Lossing and, Woodrow Wilson (Harper & Brothers, 1910) p166
^"Pitt, William (The Elder; Earl of Chatham)", by Philip Woodfine, in British Political Leaders: A Biographical Dictionary, ed. by
Keith Laybourn (ABC-CLIO, 2001) p264
^Barry Alan Shain, The Declaration of Independence in Historical Context (Yale University Press, 2014) p657
^Raymond C. Houghton, A Revolutionary War Road Trip on US Route 9 (Cyber Haus, 2003) pp37-38
^Kozina, N. I. (1995).
"З історії переселення греків з Криму на Маріупольщину: Митрополит Ігнатій (Газадінов)" [From the history of the relocation of the Greeks from the Crimea to the Mariupol region: Metropolitan Ignatius (Gazadinov)]. Регіональне і загальне в історії: Тези міжнародної наукової конференції, присвяченої 140-річчю від дня народження Д.І.Яворницького та 90-літтю XIII Археологічного з'їзду (9 листопада 1995 р.) [Regional and general in history: Abstracts from the international scientific conference dedicated to the 140th anniversary of the birth of D.I. Yavornytsky and the 90th anniversary of the XIII Archaeological Congress (9 November 1995)]. By Beketov, V. M. (in Ukrainian). Dnipro:
Institute of History of Ukraine. pp. 262–264.
ISBN5-7707-8671-X. Retrieved 13 March 2023 – via
Dmytro Yavornytsky National Historical Museum of Dnipropetrovsk.
The 1770s (pronounced "seventeen-seventies") was a
decade of the
Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1770, and ended on December 31, 1779. A period full of discoveries, breakthroughs happened in all walks of life, as what emerged at this period brought life to most innovations we know today.
March 21 – King Prithvi Narayan Shah shifts to the newly constructed
Basantapur Palace in the capital Kathmandu as the first King of Unified Kingdom of Nepal
April 12 – The
Townshend Acts are repealed by Britain's Parliament by the efforts of Prime Minister
Frederick North, with the exception of the increased duties on imported tea. The American colonists, in turn, stop their embargo on British imports.[4]
April 18 (
April 19 by Cook's log)[5] 18:00 – First voyage of James Cook: English explorer Captain
James Cook and his crew become the first recorded Europeans to encounter the eastern coastline of the
Australian continent. Land is sighted at
Point Hicks, and named after Lieutenant Hicks who first observes landform at 6am.
April 29 –
First voyage of James Cook: Captain Cook drops anchor on
HMS Endeavour in a wide bay, about 16 km (10 mi) south of the present city of
Sydney, Australia. Because the young
botanist on board the ship,
Joseph Banks, discovers 30,000 specimens of plant life in the area, 1,600 of them unknown to European science, Cook names the place
Botany Bay on
May 7.
July 1 –
Lexell's Comet (D/1770 L1) passes the
Earth at a distance of 2,184,129 kilometres (1,357,155 mi), the closest approach by a
comet in recorded history.[8]
July 5 –
Battle of Chesma and
Battle of Larga: The
Russian Empire defeats the
Ottoman Empire in both battles. When the news of the defeat reaches the Ottoman city of Smyrna (
July 8), the crowd attacks the
Greek community of the city (perceived as favourable to the Russian cause) and kills an estimated 200 Greeks and three Western Europeans (although some reports estimate the number of victims at 3,000 or even 5,000 including "3 or 4 thousands who die due to the fright").[9][10]
February 12 – Upon the death of
Adolf Frederick, he is succeeded as King of
Sweden by his son
Gustav III. At the time, however, Gustav is unaware of this, since he is abroad in Paris. The news of his father's death reaches him about a month later.
May 11 – War of the Regulation: North Carolina Governor William Tryon marches his military out of
Hillsborough, to come to the aid of General Hugh Waddell's beleaguered forces. Tryon's army stops at Alamance Creek, 5 miles (8.0 km) away from the Regulator army.
May 16 – War of the Regulation –
Battle of Alamance: Regulators reject an appeal by Governor Tryon to peacefully disperse. Governor Tryon's forces crush the rebellion, causing many Regulators to move to frontier areas outside of North Carolina.
November 16 – During the night the
River Tyne, England, floods, destroying many bridges and killing several people; the replacement main bridge at
Newcastle upon Tyne will not be completed until
1781.
December 3 – The cause of action in
Sommersett's Case, which eventually leads to the end of slavery in Great Britain, begins when escaped slave James Somerset is found imprisoned on the ship Ann and Mary.[22]
December 31 – Men, women and children of the
Choctaw and
Chickasaw tribes begin a 23-day encampment at
Mobile, part of the British colony of
West Florida, at the invitation of British Southern Indian superintendent John Stuart, as their leaders negotiate a treaty.[23]
The trade monopoly with
Iceland is transferred to the Danish crown.
The North Carolina General Assembly passes an act establishing the town of
Martinsborough, named for Royal Governor
Josiah Martin, on the land of Richard Evans, which will serve as the
seat of
Pitt County.
March 8 –
Biela's Comet is first discovered by French astronomer Jacques Leibax Montaigne, but not proven to be a periodic comet until 1826, when
Wilhelm von Biela correctly identifies its return.[26]
April 8 –
Massachusetts legislator
Samuel Adams persuades his colleagues to approve his plan for creating a Committee of Correspondence to begin a dialogue with the other American colonies concerning mutual problems with England.[28][29]
May 8 – The
Watauga Association Compact is signed in what is now East
Tennessee by a group of white settlers led by William Bean, creating the first non-colonial government body in British North America.[31]
Second voyage of James Cook: The crew of
HMS Resolution finds that the
ice floes encountered on their journey south are a source of fresh water, a "discovery... of utmost importance to the success of the voyage."[38]
February 8 – The Grand Council of Poland meets in Warsaw, summoned by a circular letter from King
Stanisław August Poniatowski to respond to the Kingdom's threatened partition between three foreign powers.[43]
Daniel Boone leads the first attempt by British colonists to establish a settlement in
Kentucky, but is turned back in an attack by
Native Americans, in which his son is killed.
November 10 – Four ships – the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, the Beaver and the William – depart Britain for America, carrying the first Indian tea to be subject to the newly enacted taxes. The William is lost in a storm; the Dartmouth is the first ship to reach
Boston, docking on
November 28.[49]
Istanbul Technical University is established (under the name of Royal School of Naval Engineering) as the world's first comprehensive institution of higher learning dedicated to engineering education.
In
China, written work begins on the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries, the largest literary compilation of books in China's history (surpassing the
Yongle Encyclopedia of the 15th Century). Upon completion in
1782, the books are bound in 36,381 volumes (册) with more than 79,000 chapters (卷), comprising about 2.3 million pages, and approximately 800 million
Chinese characters.
February 3 – The
Privy Council of Great Britain, as advisors to King George III, votes for the King's abolition of free land grants of North American lands. Henceforward, land is to be sold at auction to the highest bidder.[55]
February 7 – The volunteer fire company of
Trenton, New Jersey, predecessor to the paid Trenton Fire Department created in 1892, is founded. In 1905, at 131 years, it claims to be the oldest continuously serving department in the U.S.[57]
March 10 – The Boston Journal makes the first reference to the "
Stars and Stripes" flag to symbolize the American colonies, reporting that "The American ensign now sparkles a door which shall shortly flame from the skies."[59]
June 22 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the
Quebec Act, setting out rules of governance for the colony of
Quebec in British North America, enlarging its territory as far south as Ohio[59] and granting freedom of religion for Roman Catholics.
August 1 – The element
oxygen is discovered for the third time (the second quantitatively, following the somewhat earlier work of
Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1771–72) by
Joseph Priestley, who publishes the fact in
1775, and so names the element (and usually gets all the credit, because his work was published first).
August 6 –
Ann Lee and the Shakers arrive in America and settle in New York.[59]
October 20 – The
First Continental Congress passes the
Continental Association, a colony-wide boycotting of British goods. Theater performances in the American colonies are also halted, on the Congress's recommendation that the member colonies "discountenance and discourage all horse racing and all kinds of gaming, cock fighting, exhibitions of shows, plays, and other expensive diversions and entertainments."[59]
November 4 – The
Maryland Jockey Club follows a recommendation of the Continental Congress and cancels its race schedule. The decision sets a precedent for other jockey clubs in the colonies, and no major races are held until the end of the American Revolution.[62]
November 20 –
Daniel Boone retires from the Virginia colonial militia in order to devote his full time to establishing a settlement in
Kentucky.[64]
November 25 –
Salawat Yulayev, the leader of the
Bashkirs rebellion against the Russian government, is captured, bringing an end to the insurrection.[65]
November 27 – Spanish Navy Captain
Domingo de Bonechea arrives at
Tahiti in the ship Aguila and tries unsuccessfully to claim it for Spain and to convert the Tahitians to the Roman Catholic faith.[67]
Parliament adjourns in Great Britain, but declines to authorize any action against the rebellious American colonies, despite an address the day before by
King George III and
Prime Minister North.[68]
Thomas Paine, a native of England, arrives in America at the age 37 and soon becomes an influential advocate for the colonies' independence.[69]
December 1 – A boycott called by the Continental Congress goes into effect, as participating merchants and supporters cease the importation or consumption of products from Great Britain, Ireland or the British West Indies.[70]
December 6 – Archduchess
Maria Theresa, the ruler of Austria, Hungary and Croatia, signs the General School Ordinance providing for education for both males and females and setting compulsory education for children aged six through 12.[71]
December 23 – King
Louis XVI of France issues a declaration that, for the first time, protects "the free commerce of meat during
Lent" to support the needs of "the poor whose infirmity requires them to eat meat."[73]
The
American Revolutionary War began this year, with the first military engagement on April 19
Battles of Lexington and Concord on the day after
Paul Revere's ride. The
Second Continental Congress took various steps toward organizing an American government, appointing
George Washington commander-in-chief (June 14),
Benjamin Franklin postmaster general (July 26) and creating a
Continental Navy (October 13) and a Marine force (November 10) as landing troops for it, but as yet the 13 colonies have not declared independence, and both the British (June 12) and American (July 15) governments make laws. On July 6, Congress issues the
Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms and on August 23,
King George III of Great Britain declares the American colonies in rebellion, announcing it to Parliament on November 10. On June 17, two months into the colonial
siege of Boston, at the
Battle of Bunker Hill, just north of Boston, British forces are victorious, but only after suffering severe casualties and after Colonial forces run out of ammunition,
Fort Ticonderoga is taken by American forces in New York Colony's northern frontier, and American forces unsuccessfully
invade Canada, with an attack on
Montreal defeated by British forces on November 13 and an attack on
Quebec repulsed December 31.
Human knowledge and mastery over nature advanced when
James Watt built a successful prototype of a steam engine, and a scientific expedition continued as Captain
James Cook claims the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands in the south Atlantic Ocean for Britain. Nature's power over humanity is dramatically demonstrated when the
Independence Hurricane (August 29 – September 13) devastates the east coast of
North America, killing 4,173, and when, on the western side of the North American continent,
Tseax Cone erupts in the future
British Columbia, as well as when a
smallpox epidemic begins in New England. Smallpox vaccine was then developed by
Edward Jenner. There is no cure for smallpox.
July 3 – American Revolution: George Washington takes command of the 17,000-man Continental Army at Cambridge.
July 5 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress sends the
Olive Branch Petition, hoping for a reconciliation.
July 6 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress issues
Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, which contains the words: "Our cause is just. Our union is perfect... being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves...".
August 23 – American Revolution: Refusing to even look at the Olive Branch Petition, King George issues a
Proclamation of Rebellion against the American colonies.
November 10 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress passes a resolution creating the
Continental Marines to serve as landing troops for the recently created Continental Navy (the Marines are disbanded at end of the war in April
1783 but reformed on
July 11,
1798 as the
United States Marine Corps).
Catherine the Great decrees a Statute for the Administration of the Provinces of the Russian Empire dividing the country into provinces and districts for efficient government.[75]
February 27 –
American Revolution –
Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge: Scottish
North Carolina Loyalists charge across Moore's Creek Bridge near
Wilmington, to attack what they mistakenly believe to be a small force of rebels. Several bad leaders are killed in the ensuing battle. The patriot victory[80] virtually ends all British authority in the province.
July 2 –
American Revolution – The final U.S. Declaration of Independence (with minor revisions) is written. The Continental Congress passes the
Lee Resolution.
July 29 –
Domínguez–Escalante expedition: Francisco Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, Francisco Atanasio Domínguez, and eight other Spaniards set out from Santa Fe, on an eighteen-hundred mile trek through the American Southwest. They are the first Europeans to explore the vast region between the Rockies and the Sierras.[83]
August – The guild organisation Marchandes de modes is founded in Paris. Along the act of slavery founded by George Washington
September–October
September 1 –
Cherokee–American wars: The invasion of the Cherokee Nation by 6,000 patriot troops from Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina begins. The troops destroy 36 Cherokee towns.[83]
October 31 – In his first speech before British Parliament since the Declaration of Independence that summer, King
George III acknowledges that all is not going well for Britain, in the war with the United States.
January 15 –
Vermont declares its independence from New York, becoming the
Vermont Republic, an independent country, a status it retains until it joins the United States as the 14th state in
1791.
January 21 – The Continental Congress approves a resolution "that an unauthentic copy, with names of the signers of the
Declaration of independence, be sent to each of the United States.[96]
December 18 – The United States celebrates its first
Thanksgiving, marking October's victory by the American rebels over British General
John Burgoyne at Saratoga.
The
code duello is adopted at the
Clonmel Summer
Assizes as the form for pistol
duels by gentlemen in Ireland. It is quickly denounced, but nevertheless widely adopted throughout the English-speaking world.
April 7 – Former British Prime Minister
William Pitt delivers his last speech to Parliament, and speaks to the House of Lords "passionately but incoherently against the granting of independence" to the American colonies, but collapses during the debate, and dies five weeks later.[103]
April 12 – King George III appoints the five-member
Carlisle Peace Commission to present peace terms to negotiate an end to the rebellion of Britain's 13 American colonies.[104]
April 30 – The 1,800 feet (550 m) long
Hudson River Chain, designed to prevent British ships from moving up the river toward
West Point, New York is stretched across the river and anchored by an engineering team under the direction of Captain Thomas Machin.[105]
August 26 –
Triglav, at 2,864 metres (9,396 ft) above sea level the highest peak of
Slovenia, is ascended for the first time by four men: Luka Korošec, Matevž Kos, Štefan Rožič, and Lovrenc Willomitzer, on
Sigmund Zois' initiative.
October 12 – The Continental Congress advises the 13 member states to suppress "theatrical entertainments, horse-racing, gaming, and such other diversions as are productive of idleness, dissipation, and general depravity of principles and manners."[102]
Phillips Academy is founded in Massachusetts by Samuel Phillips Jr.
The term thoroughbred is first used in the United States, in an advertisement in a
Kentuckygazette, to describe a
New Jersey stallion called Pilgarlick.
Thomas Kitchin's The Present State of the West-Indies: Containing an Accurate Description of What Parts Are Possessed by the Several Powers in Europe is published in London.[109]
The city of
Ulaanbaatar is settled at its present location, having functioned as a mobile monastic settlement since 1639.
April 12 –
Spain and
France secretly sign the
Convention of Aranjuez, with Spain joining an alliance against Great Britain in return for France's pledge to recover all Spanish territory lost to the British.[110]
July – The
Great Siege of Gibraltar (fourteenth and last military siege) begins. This is an action by French and Spanish forces to wrest control of
Gibraltar from the established British garrison. The garrison, led by
George Augustus Eliott (later 1st Baron Heathfield of Gibraltar), survives all attacks and a blockade of supplies.
A joint Spanish-Portuguese survey of the
Amazon basin begins to determine the boundary between the colonial possessions in South America; it continues until
1795.
Wilhelmine of Prussia, Queen of the Netherlands, Dutch queen consort (from 1815 to 1837); second daughter and fourth child of Frederick William II of Prussia and Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt (d.
1837)
Hugh Hornby Birley, leading Manchester Tory, reputed to have led the fatal charge of the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry, at the
Peterloo Massacre (d.
1845)
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^Keith R. Dawson, Caroline Princess of Wales & Other Forgotten People of History (Strategic Book Publishing, 2010) p67
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^"Beaumarchais", in The Cornhill Magazine (August 1884) p142
^"Fire News of the Week", in Fire and Water Engineering (December 9, 1905) p337
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^
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^"Giacomo Casanova", by Mattia Begali, in Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies (Taylor & Francis, 2007) p402
^Robert Morgan, Boone: A Biography (Algonquin Books, 2008) p152
^Charles R. Steinwedel, Threads of Empire: Loyalty and Tsarist Authority in Bashkiria, 1552–1917 (Indiana University Press, 2016) p73
^Joe Jackson, A World on Fire: A Heretic, an Aristocrat, and the Race to Discover Oxygen (Penguin, 2007) p114
^Robert W. Kirk, Paradise Past: The Transformation of the South Pacific, 1520-1920 (McFarland, 2012) p27
^William Edward Hartpole Lecky, A History of England in the Eighteenth Century, Volume 3 (D. Appleton and Company, 1891) p456
^Richard R. Beeman, Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred Honor: The Forging of American Independence, 1774-1776 (Basic Books, 2013) p xi
^Spencer Tucker, Almanac of American Military History (ABC-CLIO, 2013) p211
^James B. Collins and Karen L. Taylor, Early Modern Europe: Issues and Interpretations (John Wiley & Sons, 2008) p57
^Karen Racine, Francisco de Miranda, a Transatlantic Life in the Age of Revolution (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003) p13
^Jennifer J. Davis, Defining Culinary Authority: The Transformation of Cooking in France, 1650-1830 (LSU Press, 2013)
^Warren, James Francis (1981). The Sulu Zone, 1768-1898: The Dynamics of External Trade, Slavery, and Ethnicity in the Transformation of a Southeast Asian Maritime State. Singapore: NUS Press. p. 36.
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^R. L. Hills, James Watt: II The Years of Toil, 1775–1785 (Landmark, Ashbourne, 2005), 58–65.
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"З історії переселення греків з Криму на Маріупольщину: Митрополит Ігнатій (Газадінов)" [From the history of the relocation of the Greeks from the Crimea to the Mariupol region: Metropolitan Ignatius (Gazadinov)]. Регіональне і загальне в історії: Тези міжнародної наукової конференції, присвяченої 140-річчю від дня народження Д.І.Яворницького та 90-літтю XIII Археологічного з'їзду (9 листопада 1995 р.) [Regional and general in history: Abstracts from the international scientific conference dedicated to the 140th anniversary of the birth of D.I. Yavornytsky and the 90th anniversary of the XIII Archaeological Congress (9 November 1995)]. By Beketov, V. M. (in Ukrainian). Dnipro:
Institute of History of Ukraine. pp. 262–264.
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