Directory

1768 CE

Five days after the signing of the treaty, a group of the szlachta, Polish nobles, establishes the Bar Confederation, to defend the internal and external independence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth against Russian influence, and against King Stanisław August Poniatowski. Prithvi Singh begins a reign of 10 years as the new Raja of Jaipur (part of the modern-day Indian state of Rajasthan), 12 days after the death of Madho Singh. The first of the weekly numbers of the Encyclopædia Britannica, edited by William Smellie, are published in Edinburgh; one hundred are planned.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • 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 dissolution of the Massachusetts Assembly, and (from October) incur the institution of martial law to prevent civil unrest.source
  • February 24 – With Russian troops occupying the nation, opposition legislators of the national legislature having been deported, the government of Poland signs a treaty virtually turning the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth into a protectorate of the Russian Empire.source
  • February 27 – The first Secretary of State for the Colonies is appointed in Britain, the Earl of Hillsborough.source
  • February 29 – Five days after the signing of the treaty, a group of the szlachta, Polish nobles, establishes the Bar Confederation, to defend the internal and external independence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth against Russian influence, and against King Stanisław August Poniatowski.source
  • March 17 – Britain's Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Sir William Johnson, concludes a peace agreement with the leaders of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy (the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora tribal nations) of the northern American lands, and with Chiefs Oconostota and Attakullakulla of the Cherokee nation in the southern American lands.source
  • May 15 – After the Treaty of Versailles, the island of Corsica is ceded by Genoa to France.source
  • August 27 – Almost all merchants and traders in the British colony of New York sign a pact not to import British manufactured goods as long as the Townshend Acts are in effect, nor to do business with nonassociators to the pact.source
  • September 16 – Louis XV appoints René de Maupeou as Grand Chancellor of France (an office he will hold until 1790), and orders him to crush the judicial opposition.source
  • October 14 – William Pitt resigns from his position as Prime Minister of Great Britain.source
  • October 17 – Representatives of the Cherokee nation sign the Treaty of Hard Labour with British representative John Stuart and relinquish all claims to the land between the Ohio River and the Allegheny Mountains, now the United States state of West Virginia.source
  • November 5 – The Treaty of Fort Stanwix is signed between the five nations of the Iroquois Confederacy (the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, and Seneca) relinquishing their claims to territory south of the Ohio River to the British.source
  • December 15 – The king's refusal to sign state documents results in the December Crisis (1768) in Sweden.source

Conflict & Security

  • March 27 – Catherine the Great of Russia dispatches troops under General Pyotr Krechetnikov to intervene in a civil war in Poland, at the request of Poland's King Stanisław August Poniatowski, a move that will ultimately lead to the Partitions of Poland.source
  • May 10 – Massacre of St George's Fields: John Wilkes is imprisoned for writing an article for The North Briton, severely criticising King George III. This action provokes protesters to riot; in the Southwark district of London, troops fire on the mob, killing seven.source
  • June 20 – Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774): Russia captures the fortress of Bar.source
  • July 14 – The massacre of Polish people (most likely by the Russians) at the village of Balta, now a part of Ukraine but at the time an Ottoman Empire town on the frontier with Poland, leads to the Russo-Turkish War.source
  • September 22–29 – The Massachusetts Convention of Towns, assembling in Boston, resolves on a written objection to the impending arrival of British troops rather than more militant action but causes panic in London.source
  • October 1 – The British Army's 29th Infantry Regiment of foot soldiers, which will carry out the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770, arrives in Boston Harbor along with three other regiments. The 700 foot soldiers march through the Massachusetts colony's capital as a show of force and begin their occupation. Within a year, there will be "nearly 4,000 armed redcoats in the crowded seaport of 15,000 inhabitants."source
  • October 4 – The Sultan Mustafa III of the Ottoman Empire begins the Russo-Turkish War after the Russians refuse to withdraw troops from Poland.source
  • October 29 – French colonists in Louisiana refuse to accept the colony's acquisition by Spain and begin an uprising that forces Spanish Governor Antonio de Ulloa to flee.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • April 5 – The New York Chamber of Commerce, first of its kind in the American colonies, is founded by 20 New York merchants at Bolton and Sigel's Tavern at 54 Pearl Street in New York City. Former New York City mayor John Cruger Jr. is elected the Chamber's first president.source
  • July 1–3 – Louis Antoine de Bougainville, on his circumnavigation westbound, sails through the Bougainville Strait and along the north shore of Bougainville Island in the Solomons.source
  • August 26 – James Cook departs from Plymouth aboard on his first voyage of discovery.source
  • New Smyrna, Florida, the largest attempt at colonization by the British in the New World, is founded by Dr. Andrew Turnbull.source

Religion & Belief

  • June 14 – The largest mass meeting ever held in New England, up to this time, takes place at the Old South Church to support a petition demanding that the British remove a ship which has been hindering navigation in Boston Harbor.source
  • Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, the founder of the Al Khalifa dynasty, constructed Qal'at Murair in the town of Zubarah in present-day Qatar. The fortress served to consolidate his control over Zubarah and neighboring tribes.source

Economy & Finance

  • December 21 – King Prithvi Narayan Shah unifies several small kingdoms to establish modern-day Nepal; this dynasty will end in 2008.source

Science & Discovery

  • December 10 – The first of the weekly numbers of the Encyclopædia Britannica, edited by William Smellie, are published in Edinburgh; one hundred are planned.source

Health & Medicine

  • March 1 – King Louis XV decrees that all cities and towns in France will be required to post house numbering on all residential buildings, primarily to facilitate the forced quartering of troops in citizens' homes.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • August 7 – The palace of the Ottoman Grand Vizier is destroyed by a fire in Constantinoplesource
  • August 30 – A fire burns much of the Library of the Vatican.source
  • December 1 – The slave ship Fredensborg sinks off Tromøya, Norway.source

Climate & Environment

  • April 4 – The Cotopaxi volcano erupts in what is now Ecuador, at the time part of the Spanish Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada, covering the towns of Hambato and Tacunga with ash, but not causing fatalities.source
  • October 15 – A powerful hurricane sweeps across Cuba during the Festival of Santa Teresa, killing hundreds of people. Spain's King Carlos III begins a precedent of ordering the colonial government to fund disaster relief, a task previously left to the Catholic Church.source
  • The Steller's sea cow, discovered on Bering Island in 1741, is driven to extinction.source

Culture & Society

  • January 9 – Philip Astley stages the first modern circus, with acrobats on galloping horses, in London.source
  • July 18 – "The Liberty Song", the first American patriotic song, is published in the Boston Gazette and includes the refrain "In freedom we're born".source
  • July 25 – The Imperial Court of China's Emperor Qianlong and his three senior grand councilors, Fuheng, Yenjisan and Liu T'ung-hsun, issues a directive to officials in the Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shandong provinces warning them about the need to respond to rumors of sorcery.source
  • December 10 – The Royal Academy is founded in London, with Joshua Reynolds as its first President.source
  • The Petit Trianon, originally designed for Madame de Pompadour, is completed in the park of the Palace of Versailles, and inaugurated by Louis XV.source
  • The Complete Farmer: Or, a General Dictionary of Husbandry, written by "A Society of Gentlemen", a group of members of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts in Britain, concludes publication in weekly numbers and is first published in book form.source

Births

  • January 1 – Maria Edgeworth, Irish novelist (d. 1849)source
  • January 17 – Smith Thompson, American politician, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1843)source
  • February 13 – Édouard Mortier, Duke of Trévise, French marshal (d. 1835)source
  • March 21 – Joseph Fourier, French mathematician, physicist (d. 1830)source
  • March – Tecumseh, Native American (Shawnee) chief (d. 1813)source
  • May 17 – Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey, English general (d. 1854)source
  • July 20 – Praskovia Kovalyova-Zhemchugova, Russian serf, actress and opera soprano (d. 1803)source
  • July 27 – Charlotte Corday, French murderer of Jean-Paul Marat (d. 1793)source
  • August 6 – Jean-Baptiste Bessières, French marshal (d. 1813)source
  • September 4 – François-René de Chateaubriand, French writer, diplomat (d. 1848)source
  • October 2 – William Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford, British general and politician (d. 1854)source
  • October 6 – Josef Madersperger, Austrian tailor, inventor and sewing machine pioneer (d. 1850)source
  • November 3 – Karađorđe Petrović, leader of the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire, founder of the Serbian Karađorđević dynasty (d. 1817)source
  • November 21 – Friedrich Schleiermacher, German theologian (d. 1834)source

Deaths

  • February 1 – Sir Robert Rich, 4th Baronet, British cavalry officer (b. 1685)source
  • February 29 – John Mitchell, colonial American physician and botanist (b. 1711)source
  • March 1 – Hermann Samuel Reimarus, German philosopher, writer (b. 1694)source
  • March 3 – Francis Fauquier, English statesman and Royal Governor of Virginia since 1758 (b. 1703)source
  • March 17 – Prithvi Singh begins a reign of 10 years as the new Raja of Jaipur (part of the modern-day Indian state of Rajasthan), 12 days after the death of Madho Singh.source
  • March 18 – Laurence Sterne, Irish writer (b. 1713)source
  • April 9 – Sarah Fielding, English writer (b. 1710)source
  • April 19 – Canaletto, Italian artist (b. 1697)source
  • June 8 – Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German classical scholar, archaeologist (b. 1717)source
  • June 28 – George Hadley, English lawyer and amateur meteorologist (b. 1685)source
  • July 6 – Conrad Beissel, German-born American religious leader (b. 1691)source
  • August 3 – Thomas Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1693)source
  • September 11 – Joseph-Nicolas Delisle, French astronomer (b. 1688)source
  • October 31 – Francesco Maria Veracini, Italian composer (b. 1690)source