Directory

1774 CE

The colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations issues the first call for an "Intercolonial Congress" that eventually is set up as the Continental Congress. George Mason and George Washington found the Fairfax County Militia Association, a military unit independent of British control. The government of the Republic of Venice allows adventurer and ladies' man Giacomo Casanova to return home after a 17-year absence.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • February 6 – The Parlement of Paris votes a sentence of civil degradation, depriving Pierre Beaumarchais of all rights and duties of citizenship.source
  • February 24 – The Province of Massachusetts Bay House of Representatives votes, 92 to 8, to impeach Superior Court Chief Justice Peter Oliver, but Provincial Governor Thomas Hutchinson refuses to allow the trial to proceed.source
  • 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."source
  • March 31 – Intolerable Acts: The British Parliament passes the Boston Port Act, closing the port of Boston, Massachusetts, as punishment for the Boston Tea Party.source
  • May 17 – The colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations issues the first call for an "Intercolonial Congress" that eventually is set up as the Continental Congress.source
  • 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 the Ohio River and west to the Mississippi River, in the area now occupied by the U.S. states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio and granting freedom of religion for Roman Catholics.source
  • July 21 – Russia and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca with Russian victory, ending six years of war. The treaty gives Russia the right to intervene in Ottoman politics, to protect its Christian subjects.source
  • September 5 – The First Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia.source
  • September 21 – George Mason and George Washington found the Fairfax County Militia Association, a military unit independent of British control.source
  • October 14 – The Continental Congress in America adopts the Declaration of Rights and Resolves, with 10 principles.source
  • 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."source
  • October 26 – The first Continental Congress adjourns in Philadelphia.source
  • November 10 – 1774 British general election: Voting for the House of Commons concludes in Great Britain, and Lord North retains the office of Prime Minister as his Tory coalition wins 343 of the 558 seats. Henry Seymour Conway's Whig Party wins the other 215 seats.source
  • November 15 – The government of the Republic of Venice allows adventurer and ladies' man Giacomo Casanova to return home after a 17-year absence.source
  • November 20 – Daniel Boone retires from the Virginia colonial militia in order to devote his full time to establishing a settlement in Kentucky.source
  • November 30 – Thomas Paine, a native of England, arrives in America at the age 37 and soon becomes an influential advocate for the colonies' independence.source
  • November 30 – 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.source
  • December 6 – Empress 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.source

Conflict & Security

  • June 20 (June 9 O.S.) – Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774): Battle of Kozludzha – The Imperial Russian Army, led by Alexander Suvorov, routs numerically superior Ottoman Empire forces.source
  • September 1 – Powder Alarm: Thomas Gage, royal governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, orders British soldiers to remove gunpowder from a magazine, causing Patriots to prepare for war.source
  • September 15 – Yemelyan Pugachev, leader of Pugachev's Rebellion against Russia by the Yaik Cossacks, is betrayed by his own men after returning to Yaitsk (now Oral, Kazakhstan).source
  • October 10 – Dunmore's War – Battle of Point Pleasant: Cornstalk is forced to make peace with Dunmore at the Treaty of Camp Charlotte, ceding Shawnee land claims south of the Ohio (modern Kentucky) to Virginia.source
  • November 25 – Salawat Yulayev, the leader of the Bashkirs rebellion against the Russian government, is captured, bringing an end to the insurrection.source
  • 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.source
  • December 9 – The two month long Siege of Melilla begins as armies led by the Sultan of Morocco, Mohammed ben Abdallah, attack the North African Spanish colony of Melilla (which remains a part of Spain into the 21st century).source

Exploration & Expansion

  • May 19 – Shakers Ann Lee and eight followers sail from Liverpool, England for colonial America.source
  • June 2 – Intolerable Acts: A new Quartering Act, requiring American colonists to provide better housing for British soldiers upon demand, is passed.source
  • June 16–17 – English explorer James Cook becomes the first European to sight (and name) Palmerston Island in the South Pacific Ocean.source
  • September 4 – English explorer James Cook becomes the first European to sight (and name) the island of New Caledonia in Melanesia.source
  • October 10 – English explorer James Cook becomes the first European to sight (and name) Norfolk Island in the Pacific Ocean, uninhabited at this date.source
  • October 21 – The word Liberty is first displayed on a flag raised by colonists in Taunton, Massachusetts, in defiance of British rule in Colonial America.source
  • 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.source

Religion & Belief

  • 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.source
  • April 17 – The first avowedly Unitarian congregation, Essex Street Chapel, is founded in London by Theophilus Lindsey.source
  • 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."source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January 27 – British industrialist John Wilkinson patents a method for boring cannon from the solid, subsequently utilised for accurate boring of steam engine cylinders.source
  • 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.source
  • German cobbler Johann Birkenstock creates the first Birkenstock sandals.source

Science & Discovery

  • 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).source
  • November 26 – English chemist Joseph Priestley becomes the first person to discover and identify sulfur dioxide.source
  • A revision of the laws of cricket introduces a leg before wicket rule.source

Crime & Justice

  • January 27 – An angry crowd in Boston, Massachusetts seizes, tars, and feathers British customs collector and Loyalist John Malcolm, for striking a boy and a shoemaker, George Hewes, with his cane.source

Climate & Environment

  • To avoid severe flooding, Martinsborough, North Carolina is moved to higher ground 3 mi km west. The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates Martinsborough as the new seat of Pitt County, 3 years after its founding.source

Culture & Society

  • April 19 – The premiere of Iphigénie en Aulide by Christoph Willibald Gluck sparks a huge controversy, almost a war, such as has not been seen in Paris since the Querelle des Bouffons.source
  • August 6 – Ann Lee and the Shakers arrive in America and settle in New York.source
  • September 29 – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's semi-autobiographical epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (Die Leiden des jungen Werthers) (written January–March) is published anonymously in Leipzig, Germany; it is influential in the Sturm und Drang movement and Romanticism.source
  • October 25 – The Edenton Tea Party takes place in North Carolina, marking the first major gathering of women in support of the American cause.source
  • 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.source

Births

  • February 24 – Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, British and Hanoverian Royal (d. 1850)source
  • February 26 – William Farquhar, first British Resident and Commandant of colonial Singapore (d. 1839)source
  • June 2 – William Lawson, English-born Australian explorer and politician (d. 1850)source
  • June 21 – Daniel D. Tompkins, American politician; sixth vice president of the United States (d. 1825)source
  • August 13 – Hipólito da Costa, Brazilian journalist and diplomat (d. 1823)source
  • August 18 – Meriwether Lewis, American explorer, soldier and public administrator (d. 1809)source
  • August 28 – Elizabeth Ann Seton, co-founder of Mount St. Mary's University in the United States, founder of the Sisters of Charity (d. 1821)source
  • September 7 – Vedanayagam Sastriar Tamil Lutheran hymnwriter and court poet (d. 1864)source
  • September 8 – Anne Catherine Emmerich, German Augustinian Canoness, mystic, Marian visionary, ecstatic and stigmatist (d. 1824)source
  • September 14 – Lord William Bentinck, First Governor General of India, British soldier and statesman (d. 1839)source
  • September 26 – Johnny Appleseed, (John Chapman), American nurseryman and Swedenborgian missionary (d. 1845)source
  • October 8 – Henry Duncan, British geologist, priest and social reformer (d. 1846)source
  • October 12 – George J. F. Clarke, prominent citizen of East Florida (d. 1836)source
  • October 15 – John Boit, one of the first Americans involved in the maritime fur trade (d. 1829)source

Deaths

  • January 21 – Mustafa III, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, dies and is succeeded by his brother Abdul Hamid I.source
  • February 4 – Charles Marie de La Condamine, French explorer, geographer, and mathematician (b. 1701)source
  • February 18 – Karl Michael von Attems, Austrian Catholic archbishop and prince of the Holy Roman Empire (b. 1711)source
  • April 4 – Oliver Goldsmith, Anglo-Irish writer, poet, and physician (b. 1728)source
  • April 29 – Eland Mossom, lawyer, recorder of the City of Kilkenny and representative in the Parliament of Ireland (b. 1709)source
  • May 3 – Heinrich August de la Motte Fouqué, German general (b. 1698)source
  • May 10 – Timothy Woodbridge, Superintendent of Indian Affairs (b. 1709)source
  • July 1 – Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, British politician (b. 1705)source
  • July 9 – Anna Morandi Manzolini, internationally known Italian anatomist and anatomical wax modeller (b. 1714)source
  • July 11 – Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet, Anglo-Irish official of the British Empire (b. 1715)source
  • July 14 – James O'Hara, 2nd Baron Tyrawley, Irish officer in the British Army (b. 1682)source
  • July 24 – Caroline Fox, 1st Baroness Holland, British baroness; eldest of the Lennox sisters (b. 1723)source
  • October 23 – Michel Benoist, French Jesuit missionary, scientist (b. 1715)source
  • December 21 – Thomas Broughton, English clergyman, biographer and miscellaneous writer (b. 1704)source