Directory

1775 CE

The Habsburg monarchy forces the Ottoman Empire to cede Bukovina to its rule. American Revolution: Battle of Montreal – American forces under Brigadier General Richard Montgomery capture Montreal. British General Guy Carleton escapes to Quebec. The city of Kuopio, Finland (belonging to Sweden at this time) is founded by King Gustav III of Sweden.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 17 – Second voyage of James Cook: Captain James Cook takes possession of South Georgia for the Kingdom of Great Britain.source
  • March 6 – Raghunathrao, Peshwa of the Maratha Empire in India, signs the Treaty of Surat with the British Governor-General Warren Hastings in Bombay ceding the territories of Salsette and Bassein to the British East India Company along with part of the revenues from Surat and Bharuch districts in return for military assistance. This leads to the First Anglo-Maratha War fought between the British and the Marathas, ending with the Treaty of Salbai in 1782.source
  • June 14 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress names George Washington as commander of the Continental Army.source
  • June 19 – The post of Commanding General is created by the Continental Congress.source
  • July 26 – The Second Continental Congress appoints Benjamin Franklin to be the first Postmaster General of what later becomes the United States Post Office Department.source
  • October 13 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress orders the establishment of the Continental Navy (later the United States Navy).source
  • November 7 – American Revolution: John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, British royal governor of the Colony of Virginia, signs Dunmore's Proclamation, declaring martial law and offering freedom to slaves of Patriots who run away from their owners and join the Loyalist forces (formal proclamation November 15) thus losing the support of planters who see slaves as their vital livelihood.source
  • 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).source
  • The Calcutta Theatre is inaugurated.source
  • 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.source
  • The Second Continental Congress meets, elects John Hancock president, raises the Continental Army under George Washington as commander and authorizes the colonies to adopt their own constitutions.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 14 – Siamese conquest of Chiang Mai and the Lan Na Kingdom.source
  • January – The Habsburg monarchy forces the Ottoman Empire to cede Bukovina to its rule.source
  • February 9 – American Revolution: The Parliament of Great Britain declares the Province of Massachusetts Bay to be in rebellion.source
  • March 23 – American Revolution: Patrick Henry, a delegate to the Second Virginia Convention after the Virginia House of Burgesses was disbanded by the Royal Governor, delivers his "Give me Liberty or give me Death!" speech at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia.source
  • April 18 – American Revolution: Paul Revere and William Dawes, instructed by Dr. Joseph Warren, ride from Boston to Lexington to warn John Hancock and Sam Adams that British forces are coming to take them prisoner and to seize colonial weapons and ammunition in Concord.source
  • April 19 – American Revolution – Battles of Lexington and Concord: Hostility between Britain and its American colonies explodes into bloodshed, igniting the American Revolutionary War.source
  • June 11 – American Revolutionary War – Battle of Machias: In the first naval engagement of the American Revolution, Patriot forces capture the schooner HMS Margaretta.source
  • June 12 – American Revolution:source
  • June 17 – American Revolution: Two months into the colonial siege of Boston, British open fire on Breed's Hill on Charles Town Peninsula. After 3 charges, the British take the hill in the Battle of Bunker Hill.source
  • July 3 – American Revolution: George Washington takes command of the 17,000-man Continental Army at Cambridge.source
  • July 5 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress sends the Olive Branch Petition, hoping for a reconciliation.source
  • 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...".source
  • August 21 – American Revolution – Siege of Fort St. Jean: American rebels launch an invasion of Canada.source
  • August 23 – American Revolution: Refusing to even look at the Olive Branch Petition, King George issues a Proclamation of Rebellion against the American colonies.source
  • September 25 – American Revolution: Siege of Fort St. Jean – Battle of Longue-Pointe: Thirteen Colonies revolutionary forces under Maj. Ethan Allen attack Montreal in Quebec, commanded by British General Guy Carleton. Allen's forces are defeated, and Allen himself is captured and held on British ships until he is released.source
  • October 26 – American Revolution: George III announces to Parliament that the American colonies are in an uprising and must be dealt with accordingly.source
  • November 13 – American Revolution: Battle of Montreal – American forces under Brigadier General Richard Montgomery capture Montreal. British General Guy Carleton escapes to Quebec.source
  • November – American Revolution: Colonel Richard Richardson's South Carolina revolutionaries march through Ninety-Six District in what becomes known as the Snow Campaign, effectively ending all major support for the Loyalist cause in the backcountry of South Carolina.source
  • December 5 – American Revolution: Henry Knox begins his journey to Cambridge, Massachusetts with the artillery that has been captured from Fort Ticonderoga.source
  • December 31 – American Revolution: Battle of Quebec – British forces repulse an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at Quebec; Montgomery is killed.source
  • Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, leading the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont, capture Fort Ticonderoga.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • July 30 – Second voyage of James Cook: anchors off the south coast of England, Captain Cook having completed the first eastbound global circumnavigation.source
  • Action by citizens of Machias, Maine, in capturing British ships recognises the existence of a United States Merchant Marine.source
  • The British forces offer a pardon to all colonists who lay down their arms.source
  • Probable date – Jeanne Baret returns to France, becoming the first woman to complete a circumnavigation of the globe.source

Religion & Belief

  • February 15 – Pope Pius VI succeeds Pope Clement XIV as the 250th pope.source
  • March 17 – Catherine the Great of Russia issues a manifesto prohibiting freed serfs from being returned to serfdom.source
  • Shneur Zalman of Liadi founds the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic Jewish dynasty.source

Economy & Finance

  • May 17 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress bans trade with Canada.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • June 16 – The post of chief engineer of the Continental Army is created.source
  • Breguet, one of the oldest Swiss luxury watch brands, clock and jewelry manufacturers is founded by Abraham-Louis Breguet in Paris.source
  • Industrial Revolution in Great Britain.source
  • John Wilkinson invents and patents a new kind of boring machine.source
  • James Watt's 1769 steam engine patent is extended to June 1800 by Act of Parliament and the first engines are built under it.source

Science & Discovery

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart writes his five violin concertos in Salzburg at about this date.source

Health & Medicine

  • A smallpox epidemic begins in New England.source

Crime & Justice

  • October – The Sayre Plotters attempt to kidnap George III of the United Kingdom.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • February 26 – The British East India Company factory on Balambangan Island is destroyed by Moro pirates.source

Climate & Environment

  • August 29 – September 12 – The Independence Hurricane from South Carolina to Nova Scotia kills 4,170, mostly fishermen and sailors.source
  • Typhoon Liengkieki devastates the Pacific atoll of Pingelap.source

Culture & Society

  • January 5 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart finishes a Sonata for Keyboard in C.source
  • June 11 – Coronation of Louis XVI takes place in Reims. The last coronation of the Ancien Regime before the French Revolutionsource
  • November 17 – The city of Kuopio, Finland (belonging to Sweden at this time) is founded by King Gustav III of Sweden.source

Births

  • January 27 – Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, German philosopher (d. 1854)source
  • February 20 – Israel Gregg, first captain of the historic American steamboat Enterprise (1814) (d. 1847)source
  • March 12 – Henry Eckford, Scottish-born American shipbuilder, naval architect, industrial engineer, entrepreneur (d. 1832)source
  • March 17 – Ninian Edwards, founding political figure of the state of Illinois (d. 1833)source
  • April 23 – J. M. W. Turner, English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker (d. 1851)source
  • April 25 – Carlota Joaquina of Spain, Queen consort of Portugal (d. 1830)source
  • May 10 – Antoine Charles Louis de Lasalle, French cavalry general during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (d. 1809)source
  • June 9 – Georg Friedrich Grotefend, German epigraphist and philologist (d. 1853)source
  • July 24 – Eugène François Vidocq, French criminal and private detective agent (d. 1857)source
  • August 6 – Daniel O'Connell, Ireland's predominant political leader (d. 1847)source
  • September 13 – Laura Secord, Canadian heroine of the War of 1812 (d. 1868)source
  • October 12 – Lyman Beecher, American Presbyterian minister and patriarch (d. 1863)source
  • October 15 – Bernhard Crusell, Swedish-Finnish clarinetist and composer 1838)source
  • December 28 – Pierre François Étienne Bouvet de Maisonneuve, French admiral (d. 1860)source

Deaths

  • January 1 – Ahmad Shah Bahadur, 13th Mughal Emperor (b. 1725)source
  • January 10 – Yemelyan Pugachev, leader of a Russian peasant uprising (b. 1742)source
  • January 10 – Stringer Lawrence, Early British military leader in India (b. 1697)source
  • January 21 – Isaac de Forcade de Biaix, Prussian colonel (b. 1704)source
  • March 21 – Thomas Penn, son of William Penn, founder of the Province of Pennsylvania (b. 1702)source
  • April 19 – Isaac Davis, American gunsmith and militia officer (b. 1745)source
  • May 10 – Caroline Matilda of Great Britain, Queen consort of Denmark and Norway, 1766–1772 (b. 1751)source
  • June 17 – Andrew McClary, soldier and major in the Continental Army during the American Revolution (b. 1730)source
  • August 9 – Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky, Prussian merchant, art dealer and diplomat (b. 1710)source
  • August 21 – Zahir al-Umar, Arab ruler of northern Palestine (b. 1689)source
  • October 13 – James Cholmondeley, British Army officer, Member of Parliament (b. 1708)source
  • October 22 – Peyton Randolph, planter and public official from the Colony of Virginia (b. 1721)source
  • November 9 – Francisco Ximénez de Tejada, Spanish knight, 69th Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (b. 1703)source
  • December 31 – Richard Montgomery, American general (killed in battle) (b. 1738)source