| Country | Leader | From | To | |
| Great Britain | George II (1683-1760) | June 22, 1727 | Oct. 25, 1760 |  |
| France | Louis XV the Well-Beloved (1710-74) | Sept. 1, 1715 | May 10, 1774 |  |
| Austria | Maria Theresa (1717-80) | Oct. 20, 1740 | Nov. 29, 1780 |  |
| Russia | Empress Elizabeth Petrovna Romanov (1709-62) | Dec. 6, 1741 | Jan. 5, 1762 |  |
| Prussia | Frederick II the Great (1712-86) | May 31, 1740 | Aug. 17, 1786 |  |
| Papacy | Pope Benedict XIV (1675-1758) | Aug. 17, 1740 | May 3, 1758 |  |
1750 World pop.: 800M; Europe: 140M; Am. colonies: 1.2M (incl. 236K slaves, 206K living below Penn. in the South) and 1M natives; London: 750K; Beijing: 900K; pop. of Maui, Hawaii: 200K-250K; by 1832 foreign diseases decimate 80% of the native pop. Slaves are purchased in Africa with rum: 100 gal. for an adult male slave, 85 for an adult female, 65 for a child; at the delivery point a slave brings £20 sterling. India's share of global industrial output: 25%; by 1900 it's down to 2%. It takes until the year 1900 for the human technical knowledge in this year to double, according to French economist Georges Anderla (1921-2005); last in 1500. On Jan. 13 the Treaty of Madrid between Joao V of Portugal and Ferdinand VI of Spain gives the Portuguese nuisance colony of Colonia in Argentina to Spain in return for seven Jesuit reducciones (Jesuit settlements for Christianized Guarani Indians) on the E bank of the Uruguay River; meanwhile the Guarani don't like the arrangement. In Jan. Benjamin Franklin's Philadelphia Academy, the first nonsectarian college in North Am. opens, becoming the U. of Penn. in 1791. Early in spring Kunta Kinte (1750-1822) is born in the village of Juffure, four days upriver from the coast of The Gambia; he is bushwhacked by slavers and shipped to North Am. in 1767 :) (Alex Haley's Roots). On June 29 Duke Victor Amadeus III of Savoy marries the Spanish infanta Maria Antonia of Bourbon in Turin, for which occasion the Shroud of Christ (Turin) is trotted out - my passion for math led to my career in architecture? On July 28 German composer Johann Sebastian Bach (b. 1685) dies, ending the Baroque Age of Music (begun 1600); meanwhile Neoclassicism becomes popular in Europe in this decade as a reaction against dickless Bachroque, er, broke Baroque and Rococo - call me old fashioned? On July 31 high-living (but generous to the Church) king (since Dec. 9, 1706) Joao V the Magnanimous, the Portuguese King (b. 1689) dies after obtaining the title "Most Faithful King" from Pope Benedict XIV, and his religiously liberal son Joseph (Jose) I Emanuel (the Reformer) (1714-77) becomes king of Portugal (until Feb. 24, 1777), devoting himself to hunting and the opera, collecting one of the largest collections of scores in Europe; on Aug. 2 finance minister Sebastiao Jose (Sebastião José) de Melo, 1st Marquis of Pombal (1699-1782) becomes secy. of state for internal affairs (until Mar. 4, 1777) and for foreign affairs and war (until May 6, 1756), becoming the virtual ruler of the country, going on to attempt to bring down the Jesuits and secularize the country, claiming allegiance to the ideas of the Enlightenment while really enhancing state power, incl. increasing censorship, curtailing individual liberties, and pushing colonial expansion?; Portugal signs a treaty with Spain on South Am. In Aug. G.F. Handel is seriously injured in a carriage accident en route from Germany to London between The Hague and Haarlem in the Netherlands, and next year the eyesight in one eye begins to fail, progressing to his other eye, leading to his 1759 death. The Huron and the Tobacco Nation end a cent. of wandering, settling in villages near modern-day Detroit, Mich. and Sandusky, Ohio, and becoming known as the Wyandot - and why not? Sheikh Daher el-Omar takes control of Haifa and Tantura, setting up his capital in Deir Hanna and bringing the entire Galilee and Acre under his control, acting as a tax collector for the Ottomans. The Iron Act is passed by the British Parliament, attempting to limit the growth of the American iron industry, prohibiting the Am. colonies from building mills, furnaces and forges, but encourages export of pig and bar iron to Britain; the casting of parts for Franklin stoves stops. Thomas Habersham pushes for admitting more slaves into the colony of Georgia, which banned slavery in 1735 and reinstated it last year - post your resume today and get the job? A typhus outbreak caused by enclosing the court of Old Bailey in London kills 60 incl. the lord mayor and two judges, causing plans for rebuilding to be drawn up (1774). Halifax replaces Annapolis Royal as capital of Nova Scotia (Acadia). The French trading post of Ft. Rouille (Rouillé), named for French secy. of the navy Antoine Louis Rouille is founded on the site of modern-day Toronto at the NW end of Lake Ontario. Scottish Jacobite Alestair Ruadh MacDonnell (1725-61), who was captured by the British in 1745 and spent 22 mo. in the Tower of London turns traitor to Prince Charles Edward (Bonnie Prince Charlie), going under the codename "Pickle", and keeping watch on Jacobite conspiracies for them. Well-fixed German-born French philosopher Paul-Henri Thiry (Paul Heinrich Dietrich), Baron d'Holbach (1723-89), one of the first self-described atheists in Europe opens a salon in Paris that holds biweekly meetings along with fancy dinners (until 1780), attracting the intelligentsia of the day, incl. David Hume (1711-76), Denis Diderot (1713-84), Jean le Rond d'Alembert (1717-83), Horace Walpole (1717-97), Adam Smith (1723-90), and Edward Gibbon (1737-94) - I can get attention and I kind of like this? The French Caribbean colony of Saint-Dominigue becomes the #1 world sugar producer; sugar surprasses grain as the most valuable commodity in Euro trade, making up 20% of all Euro imports. Tea is introduced to Sao Miguel Island, Azores, becoming home to the Gorreana tea co. in 1883, becoming the oldest tea plantation in Europe. In this decade the seaport of Charles Town (Charleston), S.C. (founded 1738) becomes the region's major urban center with a white pop. of 10K. Since their first North Am. landing in 1654, there are now Sephardic (Jewish) congregations in New York City, Newport, R.I., Savannah, Ga., Philadelphia, and Charleston, S.C. In this decade sunflower seeds become a delicacy. In this decade the term "tater" for potato is coined. In this decade the Longhunters of SW Va. begin venturing far into the interior each winter looking for pelts and hides. In this decade the Eastern Shoshone people in Wyo., N Colo., and Mont. begin to be pushed S and W by the Arapaho, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Crow, and Lakota, ending up in E Idaho, W Wyo., and NE Utah. Starting in this decade England waste and common lands begin to be enclosed, increasing pasturage. In this decade the Conestoga Wagon becomes the chief freight carrier in E North Am. In this decade the English phrases "That's the beauty of it", "Let the cat out of the bag", "Bring down the house", "Under someone's thumb", "Someone's ears are burning", and "Bilk someone" are coined. In this decade Polish rabbi Yisrael Baal Shem Tov (Heb. "Master of the Good Name") (1698-1760) founds the Jewish Hasidic (Chasidic) sect in the Carpathian Mts. Cafe Greco, one of Europe's first coffeehouses opens in Rome. Samuel Whitbread (1720-96) founds Hind's Head Brewery on Chiswell St. in London, England, producing only porter and becoming a huge success, becoming the 2nd largest brewery in London (64K barrels/year) in 1760, and the largest in London in 1796 (202K barrels/year), making porter the working man's drink; in 1785 he installs the Whitbread Steam Engine one of the first rotative steam engines ever built, designed by James Watt; in 1787 the brewery is visited by George III and Queen Charlotte; Whitbread goes on to become an MP in 1768-90, supporting the abolition of slavery and a minimum wage law. Dr. Samuel Johnson begins pub. the first of 208 numbers of the semi-weekly essay mag. The Rambler (until 1752). The Journal du Commerce is founded in France (until 1762) to promote the ideas of the Physiocrats incl. Richard Cantillon (1680-1734). In this decade English printer John Baskerville of Birmingham (1706-75) begins producing a series of high quality books "to astonish the librarians of Europe" (Thomas Macaulay), rivaling Antwerp and Paris, incl. eds. of Virgil (1754-7), Milton (1758), Horace, and the Bible (1763); his Baskerville Font becomes a hit. Prudish Puritan Boston, Mass. passes the Puritans' Act of 1750, prohibiting theatrical performances, causing it to lag far behind New York City, Charleston, Providence, and Philly; on Sept. 29, 1769 a brave soul gives a public reading of "The Beggar's Opera", calling it a "moral lecture"; the act is abolished in 1799 after the Board Alley opens in 1792 and takes all the heat. About this year the first Broadway theater is founded on Nassau St. in Manhattan by actor-mgrs. Walter Murray and Thomas Kean, performing Shakespeare plays and ballad operas incl. "The Beggar's Opera" (1728). The Volkov Theater, the first prof. Russian theater is founded in Yaroslavl, Russia's #2 city after Moscow. In this decade the Minuet becomes fashionable in Europe. The Baldwin Apple is discovered by Wilmington, Mass. farmer John Ball, and called the Woodpecker, becoming popular after Am. Rev. War. Col. Loammi Baldwin (1744-1807) begins promoting it - who would want to bite into a Loammi apple? Rev. Griffith Hughes first describes the Grapefruit (Citrus paradisi), a hybrid of the pomelo (Shaddock) (Citrus maxima) and sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) bred in Barbados, calling it the "forbidden fruit of Barbados". In this decade Mozzarella Cheese first becomes common in S Italy. In this decade the first bergamot groves are planted in Reggio, Italy, taking advantage of the 3-mi.-wide 100-mi.-long strip of land in S Italy where they can be grown, the only other location being Ivory Coast, Africa. In this decade the idea of love matches, marriages based on love gains popularity. In this half-cent. Commonplace books (scrapbooks) become popular in Europe and British Am. - the original blogs? Poor Richard's Almanack for 1750. The white Reunion Solitaire (sacred ibis) (incorrectly considered a relative of the Dodo) becomes extinct. Winsted, Conn. at the junction of the Mad and Still Rivers is founded, becoming one of the state's first mill towns, later becoming the business center of the towns of Winchester and Barkhamsted; in 1871 the Gilbert Clock Co. is founded there by William L. Gilbert (1806-90), becoming one of the largest clock manufacturers in the world by 1900. Sports: The Hambledon Cricket Club is founded in Hampshire, England. The Jockey Club is founded in Newmarket, London to create and apply rules of horseracing, becoming the largest commercial org. in British horseracing; it is partially superseded in June 1993 by the British Horseracing Board. Architecture: Lancelot "Capability" Brown (1716-83) designs the gardens of Warwick Castle in England. Dwarf Francois de Cuvillies (Cuvilliès) (1695-1768), court architect to elector Maximilian III Joseph of Bavaria builds the jewel-box Rococo linden wood Residenztheater in Munich (finished 1753); in 1781 Mozart's "Idomeneo" debuts there. The first stone Westminster Bridge between Westminster, Middlesex bank and Lambeth, Surrey bank in London is completed, paid for by Parliament, spurring the development of South London. Inventions: Leipzig music publisher Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf (1719-94) introduces movable type for printing music. Jonas Hanway (1712-86) of London becomes the first to use an umbrella to keep off rain, rather than a newspaper in his hand to keep the rain away, suffering catcalls and jeers as up till now only women used them, and only as sun shades (parasols). Science: Swiss mathematician Gabriel Cramer (1704-52) pub. Cramer's Rule for solving a system of linear equations with matrices and determinants; too bad, Colin Maclaurin beat him to it in 1748? Leonhard Euler introduces coordinates into mathematics. Frankly my dear, I don't give a bolt? Am. brain man Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) presents Two Letters on Lightning to the Royal Society of London, describing an 1749 experiment (which he hasn't tried yet) to see if lightning is really electricity by holding a 20-30-ft. pointed sharp metal rod up from the top of a tower during a thunderstorm, inventing the Lightning Rod; they are excerpted in The Gentleman's Magazine, then pub. as an 86-page booklet next year, causing a (electric?) sensation. French astronomer Abbe Nicolas Louis de Lacaille (La Caille) (1713-62) leads an expedition to the Cape of Good Hope to determine solar and lunar parallax. German astronomer Johann Tobias Mayer (1723-62) pub. a study of the libration (slight oscillation about the axis) of the Moon, followed in 1752 by lunar tables, and in 1775 by a chart of the full Moon, becoming the std. for 50 years. English engineer William Watson (1715-87) analyzes platinum. English astronomer Thomas Wright (1711-86) first describes and expounds the Milky Way; he is actually wrong, thinking it has a spherical shape, but Immanuel Kant guesses the right shape (disc) from a wrong review of his work? Nonfiction: Joseph Bellamy (1719-90), True Religion Delineated; #2 Great Awakening preacher after Jonathan Edwards (1703-58). Gabriel Cramer (1704-52), Introduction a l'Analyse des Lignes Courges Algebriques; introduces Cramer's Rule. Frederick II the Great (1712-86), Oeuvres du Philosophe de Sanssouci. Rev. Griffith Hughes, The Natural History of Barbados. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716), Theodicee (Théodicée) (Essays of Theodicy on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil); his only book pub. during his lifetime; claims that this world is the best of all possible worlds, causing Voltaire to lampoon him in Candide. Alfonso Maria de Liguori (1696-1787), The Glories of Mary. Pierre de Maupertuis (1698-1759), Essai de Cosmologie. Benedictine Monks of St.-Maur, Dictionnaire de l'Art de Verifier les Dates des Faits Historiques (Dictionary of the Art of Verifying Historical Dates). Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78), Discours sur les Arts et Sciences (Discourse on the Arts and Sciences); launches the Romantic Movement in France. Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot (1727-81), A Philosophical Review of the Successive Advances of the Human Mind on Universal History: Reflections on the Formation and the Distribution of Wealth; the first pub. of the idea of progress, incl. the arts, sciences, and culture. Christian Wolff (1679-1754), Philosophia Moralis (1750-3). Thomas Wright (1711-86), An Original Theory or New Hypothesis of the Universe; describes the appearance of the Milky Way from Earth as "an optical effect due to our immersion in what locally approximates a flat layer of stars", which is adopted by Immanuel Kant in his "Universal Natural History and Theory of Heaven" (1755); claims that many faint nebulae are really incredibly distant galaxies: "The many cloudy spots, just perceivable by us, as far without our Starry regions, in which tho' visibly luminous spaces, no one star or particular constituent body can possibly be distinguished; those in all likelihood may be external creation, bordering upon the known one, too remote for even our telescopes to reach"; "In this great Celestial Creation, the Catastrophy of a World, such as ours, or even the total Dissolution of a System of Worlds, may possibly be no more to the great Author of Nature, than the most common Accident in Life with us, and in all Probability such final and general DoomsDays may be as frequent there, as even Birth-Days or Mortality with us upon this Earth." Music: William Boyce (1711-79), Music for John Dryden's "Secular Masque"; Pastoral Interlude from Clive's "The Rehearsal"; libretto by "a gentleman of Bath" ("Rise, tempests, rise, cloud the skies!") G.F. Handel (1685-1759), Alceste (Alcides) (HWV 45) (masque); composes it for a play by Tobias Smollett which is rehearsed in Covent Garden Theatre but never performed. Art: Francois Boucher (1703-70), The Love Letter; The Interrupted Sleep; John the Baptist. Plays: Carlo Goldoni (1707-93), La Famiglia dell'Antiquario (The Antiquarian's Family) (comedy); L'Erede Fortunata (The Lucky Heiress) (comedy); Il Teatre Comico (The Comical Theatre) (comedy) (1750-1); Le Femmine Puntigliose (The Obstinate Women) (comedy) (1750-1); Il Bugiardo (The Liar) (comedy) (1750-1); La Bottega del Caffe (The Coffee Shop) (comedy) (1750-1); L'Avventuriere Onorato (The Honorable Scoundrel) (comedy) (1750-1); I Pettegolezzi delle Donne (The Women's Gossip) (comedy) (1750-1). Col. Robert Munford , The Candidates; or, The Humours of a Virginia Election. Poetry: William Collins (1721-59), The Passions; Ode on the Popular Superstitions of the Highlands; more early Romantic goop? Novels: Charlotte Lennox (1720-1804), The Life of Harriet Stuart. Births: German Romantic painter Johann Friedrich August Tischbein (Leipziger Tischbein) (d. 1812) on Mar. 9 in Maastricht; son of Johann Heinrich Tischbein the Elder (1722-89); brother of Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein (1751-1829). Dutch scientist Martinus van Marum (d. 1837) on Mar. 20 in Delft. British "To Anacreon in Heaven" composer John Stafford Smith (d. 1836) on Mar. 30 in Gloucester; early serious collectors of mss. of works by J.S. Bach. English industrialist and Tory politician Sir Robert Peel, 1st Baronet (d. 1830) on Apr. 25 in Peelfold (near Blackburn), Lancashire; gets rich from child labor in the textile industry, then gets a conscience and goes into politics to campaign for better working conditions; knighted in 1800; father of Sir Robert Peel Jr. (1788-1850) - every fortune contains a crime? English religious prophetess Joanna Southcott (Southcote) d. 1814) in Apr. in Gittisham, Devon, SW England; daughter of a Devonshire farmer; announces in 1792 that she is the Woman Clothed With the Sun in Rev. 12:1-6, and begins charging 12s to 1 guinea to seal followers as one of the 144K elect - the first Jehovah's Witness? British well-hung Maj. John Andre (André) (d. 1780) on May 2 in London; Swiss-French Huguenot parents. Italian anatomist-surgeon ("Father of Italian Ophthalmology") Antonio Scarpa (d. 1832) on May 9 in Lorenzaga di Motta di Livenza; Napoleon's personal surgeon (1804-). Am. financier-philanthropist Stephen ( Étienne) Girard (d. 1831) on May 20 in Bordeaux, France; son of a sea capt., he follows his daddy's footsteps and becomes a capt. at age 23 engaged in the West Indies trade; emigrates to the U.S. in 1776 - every fortune contains a crime? Prussian statesman Prince Karl August von Hardenberg (d. 1822) on May 31 in Essenrode, Brunswick. Am. "Anarchiad", "The Progress of Dulness", "Hartford Wits" poet John Trumbull (d. 1831) on June 6 in Watertown, Conn.; educated at Yale U.; imprisoned for 7 mo. in Tothill Fields Bridewell Prison in London as a retaliation for the hanging of British agent Maj. John Andre; not to be confused with his cousin, painter John Trumbull (1756-). Am. merchant-politician William Rufus Gray (d. 1825) on July 8 (June 27 Old Style) in Lynn, Mass. Am. free mulatto Rev. War soldier Bazabeel (Basil) Norman (d. 1830) on July 12 in Frederick, Md.; great-great-great grandfather of Maria Ewing (1950-2022); great-great-great-great grandfather of Rebecca Hall (1982-). Irish liberal Protestant orator John Philpot "Stuttering Jack" Curran (d. 1817) on July 24 in Newmarket, County Cork; educated at Trinity College, Dublin. Am. Rev. Gen. Henry Knox (d. 1806) on July 25 in Boston, Mass.; Scotch-Irish descent parents; educated at Boston Latin School. French Rev. poet Philippe Francois Nazaire Fabre d'Eglantine (d. 1794) on July 28 in Carcassonne; names the months and days in the French Rev. Calendar. Italian Mozart-hating Venetian composer Antonio Salieri (d. 1825) on Aug. 18 in Legnago (S of Verona), Venice. French gen. Jacques-Francois de Menou, Baron de Boussay (d. 1810) (AKA Abdallah de Menou) on Sept. 3 in Boussay, Indre-et-Loire. Spanish neoclassical poet Tomas de Iriarte (Yriarte) y Oropesa (d. 1791) on Sept. 18 in Madrid. Am. diplomat Thomas Pinckney (d. 1828) on Oct. 23 in Charleston, S.C.; son of Charles Pinckney (-1758) and Eliza Lucas Pinckney (1722-93); brother of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (1746-1825); cousin of Charles Pinckney (1757-1824); educated at Oxford U. Indian Muslim sultan (of Mysore) (1782-99) ("Tiger of Mysore") Tipu (Tippu) Sultan (Sultan Fateh Ali Tippu) (d. 1799) on Nov. 20 in Devanahalli; eldest son of Haidar Ali and 2nd wife Fatima (Fakhr-un-nissa). Am. Rev. War. soldier and gov. #1 of Ky. (1792-6) Isaac Shelby (d. 1826) on Dec. 11 near Hagerstown, Frederick County, Md. Am. writer-playwright Lady Elizabeth Craven (nee Berkeley), Princess Berkeley, Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach (d. 1828) on Dec. 17 in Mayfair, West End, London; 3rd child of Augustus Berkeley, 4th earl of Berkeley (1715-55); wife (1791-) of Charles Alexander, margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1736-1806). German-Bohemian violinist-composer Johann Anton Stamitz (Antonin Stamic) (d. 1809) in Mannheim; son of Johann Stamitz (1717-57). Am. Rev. War loyalist poet Joseph Stansbury (d. 1809) in England. Am. Rev. War soldier (black) Peter Salem (d. 1816) in Framingham, Mass. Am. rebel leader John Fries (d. 1818) in Montgomery County, Penn.; of German descent. Deaths: Dutch still-life painter Rachel Ruysch (b. 1664) on Aug. 12 in Amsterdam; in 1999 a painting of hers is auctioned in Normandy for 2.9M French francs. Italian Capuchin monk St. Crispin of Viterbo (b. 1668) on May 19 in Rome; canonized in 1982: "Let us love God who deserves it." Italian poet-librettist Apostolo Zeno (b. 1668) on Nov. 11 in Venice. Italian historian Ludovico Antonio Muratori (b. 1672) on Jan. 23 in Modena. Venetian composer Alessandro Marcello (b. 1684). German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach (b. 1685) on July 28; fathered 20 children, 10 of whom survived, incl. Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-84), Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-88), Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (1732-82), and Johann Christian Bach (1735-82); wrote more than 200 religious cantatas. English dramatist Aaron Hill (b. 1685). Portuguese king (1706-50) Joao V (b. 1689) on July 31. German sculptor-architect Egid Quirin Asam (b. 1692) on Apr. 29 in Mannheim. French marshal Maurice, Comte de Saxe (b. 1696) Japanese emperor #115 (1735-47) Sakuramachi (b. 1720) on May 28.
1751 atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration is measured retroactively back to this year at the Law Dome Ice Core: 277 in 1751-71, 278 in 1772-1784, 279 in 1785-88, and 280 in 1789-91. On Mar. 25 Fredrick I (b. 1676) dies, and his brother-in-law Adolf Fredrick (Adolphus Frederick) I (1710-71) becomes king of Sweden (until Feb. 12, 1771); meanwhile his brother William VIII (1682-1760) becomes landgrave of Hesse-Cassel (Hesse-Kassel) (until Feb. 1, 1760). On May 11 the Pennsylvania Hospital is founded in Philly by Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Thomas Bond (1712-84), becoming the first Am. public secular hospital; meanwhile Philly founds the first police force in the U.S. - that's mightly brotherly of you? In June vice-adm. George Anson, 1st Baron Anson (1697-1762) is becomes First Lord of the Admiralty, going on to clean up corruption among defense contractors, improve medical care, transfer the Marines from the army to the navy, institute a rating system for ships based on the number of guns, require uniforms for commissioned officers, and submit a revised Articles of War to Parliament to tighten discipline before overseeing the British Navy for much of the Seven Years' War. On Aug. 24 English chimney sweep Thomas Colley is hung for killing suspected witch Ruth Osborne (b. 1680) on Apr. 22 via the ducking test; the rest of the mob of 10K gets away, but he's the one who did the dirty work and collected donations afterward while they applauded? On Nov. 1 the Liberty Bell is ordered to be cast and placed in the new Penn. Statehouse (later named Independence Hall) (begun 1731) to celebrate the 50th anniv. of Pennsylvania's Charter of Privileges; it is inscribed with the motto "Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof Lev. XXV X by order of the assembly of the province of Pennsylvania for the State House in Philada Pass and Stow Philada MDCCLIII"; John Dock Pass and John Stow did the casting; it cracks on the first ringing, and is recast twice over the next two years, and ends up with the word "Pennsylvania" misspelled. In Dec. one of the members of the Pennsylvania Assembly dies, and Benjamin Franklin (a clerk of the assembly since 1736) readily accepts election to his seat, launching his career in politics. England joins the Austro-Russian alliance of 1746 against Prussia. William IV of Holland dies, and his widow Anne (daughter of George II of England) becomes regent. Glasgow, Scotland-born Robert Dinwiddie (1692-1770) becomes British lt. gov. of Va. (until 1758). The British govt. reverses itself on gin, greatly increasing duties, causing heeby-geevies aplenty. The British Parliament forbids the New England colonies from making their currency legal tender. After urging by Lord Chesterfield et al., the British Parliament alters the British calendar, making Jan. 1 the beginning of the new year. China invades Tibet. The Spanish-Sulu War in the S Philippines begins, with Sulu forces raiding Luzon and the Visayas and tying the Spanish up, causing the gov.-gen. of Manila to issue a decree ordering "the extermination of the Moslems of Mindanao and Sulu with fire and sword and no quarter for Moros of any age or either sex"; meanwhile a royal Spanish decree gives provincial govs. a commercial trade monopoly; after a year of bloody fighting, the Spanish give up, leaving the Moros in control for the next 20 years. Karamoko Alifa (Ibrahim Musa) Muslim leader (alamami) of the jihad in the Futa Jallon region of West Africa (modern-day Guinea) dies; in 1776 Ibrahim Sori succeeds him, creating an Islamist state, with the movement spreading to Futa Toro in modern-day Senegal in 1776, led by Abd al-Qadir (-1806); the movement ends with French occupation. French economist Jacques Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay (1712-59) is appointed intendant du commerce, coining the terms "bureaucratie" (bureaucracy) (Fr. "government by desks") and "laissez faire" (Fr. "let it be"). The Toulouse School of Economics is founded by the U. of Toulouse in France, becoming one of the top in Europe. Anne-Catherine de Ligniville (d'Autricourt) (1722-1800 marries French tax collector and philosopher Claude Adrien Helvetius, maintaining a salon in Paris that attracts famous brain men and women incl. Count Volney, Baron d'Holbach, Turgot, Buffon, Condillach, d'Alembert, Madame Roland, Lavoisier, Talleyrand, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin (who proposes to her after her hubby dies), even Napoleon. Swedish lit. giant Olof von Dalin (1708-63) (who introduces French and English lit. to Sweden after being educated by Bishop Rydelius of Lund) becomes tutor to Crown Prince Gustav (later Gustav III), and in 1755 becomes royal historiographer. The Gran Louis, the first steam-powered ocean-going ship leaves La Havre, France for Port au Prince, Haiti; avg. speed: 9 knots. Robert Wood and James Dawkins visit the ruins of Palmyra (Tadmor) in modern-day Syria, destroyed in 272 C.E. by the Romans. Bermuda grass is introduced to the Am. colonies from Africa. Scottish philosopher David Hume moves to Edinburgh, staying 12 years, becoming librarian of the Advocates' Library. Benjamin Franklin sells his slave couple, telling his mother that he did not like having "Negro servants", and that they are uneconomical. 19-y.-o. cherry popper, er, cherry tree chopper George Washington visits Barbados, becoming his only trip abroad. The powers of the Portuguese Inquisition are curtailed by the govt. The Ecole Superieure de Guerre (École supérieure de guerre) (superior school of warfare) is founded in Paris, going on to become the staff college of the French army in 1876-1993. The Wissenschaftliche Akademie (*Akademie der Wissenschaften) is founded in Gottingen. The first mental asylums open in London - hello, doggie? Poor Richard's Almanack for 1751. The War of the Operas (La Guerre des Bouffons) divides Paris into pro-Italian and pro-French music lovers. The 180-ft. Cerne Abbas Giant (Rude Man) in Dorset in SW England, a giant man with a huge erect phallus holding a 120-ft. club, carved out of the chalk hillside is first mentioned by Dorset historian John Hutchins, who claims it was recut in the mid-1600s for a 3-shilling payment by the church warden; going back to pagan times, women wanting to become pregnant spend the night camped out on the phallus and/or have sex on it with their mate; it is then recut every 25 years; on July 15, 2007 a 180-ft. Drawing of Homer Simpson Clad in Underpants and Holding a Giant Doughnut is drawn facing it with 50 gal. of biodegradable white paint to promote the new Simpsons movie, pissing off the local pagans, but lucky for them England experiences its rainiest summer in 60 years, soon washing it away. Architecture: French architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel (1698-1782) designs the Ecole Militaire in Paris, which turns poor gentlemen into poor men, going on to produce Napoleon Bonaparte in 1784. Inventions: Jacques de Vaucanson of France, having switched from robots to less controversial machine tools invents an all-medal slide rest lathe with adjustable screw. Science: Swedish chemist Axel Frederik Cronstedt (1722-65), pupil of cobalt discoverer Georg Brandt discovers the hard silvery white metallic element nickel (Ni) (#28) in kupfernickel (niccolite), meaning "Old Nick's (Satan's) copper" or false copper because it colors glass green. German physician Johann Gottlob Leidenfrost (1715-94) discovers the Leidenfrost Effect, in which a liquid dropped on a surface hotter than its boiling point produces an insulating vapor layer that causes it to hover over the surface. Nonfiction: Heinrich von Cocceji, Code Frederic; compiled by the Prussian justice minister. Denis Diderot (1713-84) and Jean Baptiste le Ronde d'Alembert (1717-83), Encyclopedie (Encyclopédie) ou Dictionnaire Raisonne (Raisonné) des Sciences, des Arts et des Metiers (Métiers), Vol. 1 (Paris); the Bible of the French Enlightenment bringing Enlightenment thought tot he masses; history articles by Voltaire; pub. despite hounding by govt. censors and condemnation by the Church and other enemies, who to try to prevent pub., getting it delayed in 1752 and 1757, and suppressed in 1759-65; it eventually comprises 34 vols. (last vol. pub. 1772) - I know, I memorized them all? Henry Fielding (1707-54), An Enquiry into the Causes of the Late Increase of Robbers. John Fothergill (1712-80) (ed.), Experiments and Observations on Electricity by Benjamin Franklin; five letters sent to English botanist Peter Collinson (1694-1768), fellow of the Royal Society, ed. by Franklin's Quaker physician in London. Benjamin Franklin (1706-90), Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc.; observes that in the New World land is plentiful and cheap while labor is scarce and dear, which is the opposite of the situation in the Old World; he then correctly predicts that America's pop. will double every 20 years and surpass England's in a cent.; he urges that America be settled by whites of English descent, decrying both German immigrants and blacks, with the soundbyte: "The number of purely white people in the world is proportionately very small. Why increase the sons of Africa by planting them in America, when we have so far an opportunity, by excluding all blacks and tawneys, of increasing the lovely white and red?" (red meaning Indians); he omits this section when he reprints it 18 years later. Francesco Geminiani, The Art of Playing on the Violin. David Hume (1711-76), Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals; how our moral sense makes the ultimate distinction between vice and virtue, while reason judges what is useful to us or others; Political Discourses. Johann Gottlob Leidenfrost (1715-94), A Tract About Some Qualities of Common Water; describes the Leidenfrost Effect. Carl Linnaeus (1707-78), Philosophia Botanica; first textbook on systematic botany and botanical Latin. Pierre de Maupertuis (1698-1759), Systeme de la Nature; challenges the spontaneous generation of life, and proposes the idea of dominant and recessive genes by discussing polydactyly in families, attributing it to a mutation in the "hereditary particles". Christoph Martin Wieland (1733-1813), Die Nature der Dinge; his summer 1750 love affair with love machine cousin Sophie Gutermann before he goes to the U. of Tubingen to study law. Voltaire (1694-1778), The Age of Louis XIV. Music: G.F. Handel (1685-1759), Jephta, HWV 70 (oratorio) (last all-new composition); incl. Ye House of Gilead. Art: Francois Boucher (1703-70), The Toilet of Venus II; Venus Consoling Love. Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin (1699-1779), Still Life with Glass Flask and Fruit. William Hogarth (1697-1764), Beer Street; The Reward (Four Stages) of Cruelty; shows an executed murderer being dissected and feasted on by dogs - grr grr guerdon? Pietro Longhi (1701-85), Clara the Rhinoceros. J.B. Pigalle, Mme. de Pompadour (sculpture). Giambattista Piranesi (1720-78), Carceri d'Invenzione; 14 16" x 21 " prints depicting cool imaginary subterranean vaults with weird machines, later influencing Romanticism and Surrealism; a 2nd ed. in 1761 has 16 prints. Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770), Ceiling of the Wurzburg Residenz. Poetry: Johann Jakob Bodmer (1698-1783), Die Sundflutz; Noah; imitations of Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock's "Messias". Thomas Gray (1716-71), Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (Feb. 15); finished in 1750 after eight years, and sent to his friend Horace Walpole (1717-97), who talks him into pub. it; inspired by Stoke Poges in Buckinghamshire, a village near London, where he writes the poem sitting under a yew tree; "Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,/ And waste its sweetness on the desert air/ The paths of glory lead but to the grave"; coins the phrases "far from the madding crowd", "celestial fire", "kindred spirit", and "the unlettered muse". Novels: Henry Fielding (1707-54), Amelia. Eliza Haywood (1693-1756), The History of Miss Betty Thoughtless. Robert Paltock (1697-1767), The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins, a Cornish Man; a wanna Robinson Crusoe, featuring the gawry, a flying woman, whom Wilkins marries; "The description of Nosmnbdsgrutt, the country of the flying people, is a dull imitation of Swift, and much else in the book is tedious." (John W. Cousin) Tobias Smollett (1721-71), The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle - picklesque? Births: Spanish duke of Parma (1765-1802) Frerdinand Maria Philip Louis Sebastian Francis James (d. 1802) on Jan. 20 in Parma; only son of Duke Philip of Parma and Louise Elisabeth of France (eldest daughter of Louis XV). Dutch patriotic leader Cornelis "Kees" de Gijselaar (d. 1815) on Feb. 9 in Gorinchem; educated at Leiden U.; namesake of the double-coated Keeshond dog breed AKA Dutch Barge Doge and Wolfspitz. German Romantic "Goethe in the Campagna" painter Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein (Goethe-Tischbein) (d. 1829) on Feb. 15 in Haina; brother of Friedrich August Tischbein (1750-1812). Am. Rev. War leader, politician, and physician (U.S. Dem.-Repub. secy. war #5, 1801-9) Gen. Henry Dearborn (d. 1829) on Feb. 23 in North Hampton, N.H. U.S. 5'4" (shortest) pres. #4 (1809-17) and U.S. secy. of state (1801-9) (Freemason) ("Father of the Constitution and Bill of Rights") James Madison Jr. (d. 1836) on Mar. 16 (Mar. 5 Old Style) in Port Conway, Va.; educated at Princeton U.; known for his Montpelier tobacco plantation in Va. near Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. Am. Rev. leader Ira Allen (d. 1814) on Apr. 21 in Cornwall, Conn.; founder of the U. of Vt.; younger brother of Ethan Allen (1738-89). Irish independence leader Archibald Hamilton Rowan (d. 1834) on May 1 in London, England; educated at Queens' College and Jesus College, Cambridge U. German Sturm und Drang writer (Freemason) Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz (d. 1792) on May 24/June 4 in Sesswegen (Cesvaine), Livonia. Danish-Norwegian queen (1766-72) Caroline Matilda (d. 1775) on July 11; daughter of Frederick Louis (1707-51), (eldest son of George II of England) and Augusta of Saxe-Gotha (1719-72); wife of mad king Christian VII. Scottish politician-judge William Adam of Blair Adam (d. 1839) on Aug. 2; son of John Adam (1721-92); introducer of trial by jury in civil cases in Scotland. Indian Cochin maharaja (1769-1805) Rama Varma IX (Rama Varma Kunhjipilla Thampuran) (Sakthan Thampuran) (d. 1805) on Aug. 28 in Kaladi; nephew of Rama Varma VIII. Irish composer-dramatist Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan (d. 1816) on Oct. 3 in Dublin. English Gordon Riots neverneverland politician Lord George Gordon (d. 1793) on Dec. 26 in London; son of Cosmo George Gordon, 3rd Duke of Gordon (1750-52); educated at Eton School. English cabinetmaker Thomas Sheraton (d. 1806) in Stockton-on-Tees; simple form, straight lines, and classical chaste decoration? Sicilian Bourbon king #2 (1759-1825) Ferdinand I (IV) of the Two Sicilies (d. 1825); 3rd son of Charles II of Spain (1716-88); father of Francis I (1777-1830). Deaths: English clockmaker ("Father of the Chronograph") George Graham (b. 1673). Swedish king (1720-51) Frederick I (b. 1676) on Mar. 25 in Stockholm. Italian monk St. Leonard of Port Maurice (b. 1676) on Nov. 26 in Rome; canonized on June 29, 1867. English statesman Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke (b. 1678) on Oct. 1 in Battersea. English astronomer John Machin (b. 1686) on June 9 in London. Scottish-born Am. painter John Smybert (b. 1688) in Boston, Mass. Bohemian architect Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer (b. 1689) on Dec. 18. German-born Irish architect Richard Cassels (b. 1690). Italian Trevi Fountain architect Nicola Salvi (b. 1697) on Feb. 8 in Rome. German Prussian gen. Leopold II Maximilian, prince of Anhalt-Dessau (b. 1700) on Dec. 16 in Dessau. French philosopher Julien Offray de la Mettrie (b. 1709) on Nov. 11. Dutch stadtholder Prince William IV of Orange (b. 1711) on Oct. 22 in Huis ten Bosch, The Hague; namesake of Orangeburg, S.C. Swiss astronomer Philippe Loys de Cheseaux (b. 1718) on Nov. 30. English nonconformist divine Philip Doddrige on Oct. 26.
1752 Eleven days that never existed? Oh, we believe they do, sir - the colonel had the logbooks doctored? In Jan. the Gregorian Calendar is introduced in Great Britain and its possessions, incl. the Am. colonies, causing Sept. 14 (Thur.) to follow Sept. 2, dropping 11 days (one more than in 1582 because after 170 years the Julian system has slipped another day); the year now ends on Dec. 31 (Sun.) rather than Mar. 24; as usual with the ignorant Anglo masses, the belief that the govt. has stolen 11 days of their lives causes riots; Sweden follows suit next year sans riots. On Mar. 6 Lahore gov. Mir Mannu (Muin-ul-Malk) orders the Massacre of the Sikh Innocents, gruesomely killing 300 infants and children of Sikh women for refusing to convert to Islam; next Nov. 4 Mir Mannu dies after massacring thousands of Sikhs, and the surviving women are rescued. On Mar. 23 the Halifax Gazette, the first English newspaper in Canada begins pub. by John Bushnell. On May 10 after Louis VI requests that Benjamin Franklin's proposed lightning rod experiments be attempted, naturalists Comte de Buffon and Thomas Francois D'Alibard dragoon a retired soldier to hold a 40-ft. iron rod in a storm and draw sparks in the village of Marly on the N outskirts of Paris; the experiment is then repeated dozens of times across France, making Franklin a celeb; meanwhile, having waited for the steeple of Philly's Christ Church to be finished, 46-y.-o. Franklin performs his famous kite experiments with lightning from a shed in June, using a silk kite flown by his 22-y.-o. son William; news of his fame in France reaches him in July-Aug., and he doesn't report his own experiments until Oct.; the first lightning rods to be put in service are erected in Philadelphia in late June and early July. On June 14 the Treaty of Aranjuez is signed between Spain and the HRE, normalizing relations and agreeing to acknowledge their respective interests in Italy, securing its neutrality. On June 21 after Marquis Duquesne arrives at Quebec to be gov.-gen. of New France, the Ohio Indian village of Pickawillany is attacked by a party of Indians led by Charles Michel de Langlade (1729-1802) of New France to prevent them from trading with the English. On Aug. 1 Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's 1733 opera buffa "The Servant Mistress" (La Serva Padrona) is performed at Academie Royale de Musique in Paris, causing the Quarrel/War of the Comic Actors or Comedians (Querelle/Guerre des Bouffons) between supporters of serious French opera and supporters of the new Italian comic opera buffa, which lasts two years (until 1754). On Oct. 12 Madame de Pompadour, now "just friends" with Louis XV is given the title of duchess, retaining her political power, and retires to her 17 estates with $200M. On Nov. 4 after 6'2" 20-y.-o. George Washington is appointed adjutant in the Va. militia (resigns 1759), with Thomas Jefferson later calling him "the best horseman of his time", he is initiated into the Freemasons at Fredericksburg, Va. Lodge #4, then is passed next Mar. 3 and raised next Aug. 4; the Freemaons at this time are still fairly pro-Christian (until after the U.S. Civil War); Washington is only known to attend four meetings in his life. The pissed-off Guarani Indians around the Uruguay River revolt against the 1750 Treaty of Madrid, beginning the War of the Seven Reductions (Reducciones) (ends 1756). Louis XV issues an edict declaring marriages and baptisms by Protestant clergymen null and void; recalled by Louis XVI in 1787. Catherine II the Great begins a salty affair with tall, handsome married courtier Count Sergei Vasilievich Saltykov (1726-85) in an effort to produce an heir after hubby Peter III Fedorovich proves impotent; on Oct. 1, 1754 her son son Paul I Petrovich is born, and she has it made; who was the real father, only her hairdresser knows for sure? The first Halifax and Dartmouth Ferry is established, becoming the oldest saltwater ferry system in North Am. to survive to modern times. Pittsfield in Berkshire County, Mass. on the Housatonic River in the Berkshire Hills 50 mi. NW of Springfield is resettled after the original 1743 Boston Plantation (Pontoosuc) was abandoned because of Indian attacks; it is named after British PM William Pitt the Elder, and later becomes the home of authors Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. and Herman Melville. Henry Fielding founds the Covent Garden Journal under the alias Sir Alexander Drawcansir. Poor Richard's Almanack for 1752. Manchester Royal Infirmary is founded in Withy Grove, with 12 beds. The royal decree granting permission for the "Encyclopedie" to proceed is revoked uner pressure of its opponents (until 1753). The British Parliament passes a law making theft of graphite punishable by imprisonment or banishment - or we'll give you the lead? Va. passes a law making it a felony to "put out an eye, slit the nose, bite or cut off a nose, or lip"; in 1772 they amend it to include "gouging, plucking or putting out an eye". After his competitor Drury Lane Theatre, run by David Garrick puts him out of biz, English theater mgr. William Hallam (1712-58) sends 12 actors under the dir. of his brother Lewis Hallam (1714-56) to Williamsburg, Va., touring from the Carolinas to New England and introducing Garrick's acting style; in 1754 Lewis Hallam builds a theater in Manhattan, N.Y. on Nassau St., touring all 13 colonies. Sports: The first Steeplechase is allegedly held in Doneraile, Cork, Ireland by Cornelius O'Callaghan and Edmund Blake, who race their Irish hunters 4 mo. between the Buttevant Church and St. Leger Church in a straight line so they could see the steeple, causing them to jump over fences, gates, streams, etc. Architecture: The Baroque Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo of St. Petersburg, Russia, designed by Italian-born Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli is begun (finished in 1756). The Georgian Mansion House in London (begun 1739) is completed, becoming the official residence of the lord mayor of London. Inventions: James Ayscough (-1759) of London perfects Eyelasses with double-hinged sidepieces, which become the fashion. Francis Nixon of Ireland comes up with a way to print chintz (brightly colored cloth) using copperplates. Science: Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler (1707-83) pub. the Polyhedron Face-Vertex-Edge Formula f+v=e+2 (e.g., f=6, v=8, e=12 for a cube, f=32, v=60, e=90 for a buckyball). German physicist Johann Tobias Mayer (1723-1830) pub. new solar tables which improve navigation, giving longitude at sea to 0.5 deg. Rene Antoine Ferchault de Reaumur (1683-1757) proves that gastric juice dissolves meat - and thus all animals are meat machines? Nonfiction: The Authorized Version of the Bible is first pub. in the Am. colonies in Philly by Robert Aitken, becoming the first Bible printed there in the English language; it excludes the Apocrypha. Charles Avison (1709-70), Essay on Musical Expression; the first music criticism pub. in English. Jacques-Francois Blondel (1705-74), L'Architecture Francaise (1752-6). Antoine Court (1696-1760), An Historical Memorial of the Most Remarkable Proceedings Against the Protestants in France from 1744-51 (London). Jonathan Edwards (1703-58), Misrepresentations Corrected and Truth Vindicated; reply to Rev. Solomon Williams' book "The True State of the Question Concerning the Qualifications Necessary to Lawful Communion in the Christian Sacraments". William Law (1686-1761), The Way to Divine Knowledge. Bishop Erik Pontoppidian (1698-1764), Natural History of Norway (2 vols.) (1752-3); by a bishop of Bergen, Norway; vol. 2 describes Krakens, giant 1.5-mi. long sea monsters who appear and disappear like floating islands in the northern seas; "Far below the thunders of the upper deep;/ Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea/ His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep/ The kraken sleepeth" (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1830); Desmond Davis' 1981 film Clash of the Titans shows a disappointingly small kraken getting killed by Harry Hamlin using Medusa's head to turn him to stone rubble; in 2012 scientists discover a giant squid that could be it. Thomas Simpson (1710-61), Select Exercises in Mathematics. Art: Francois Boucher (1703-70), Allegory of Music; The Setting of the Sun; Marie-Louise O'Murphy; nude Irish babe on stomach on couch sans visible bush. Plays: Carlo Goldoni (1707-93), La Moglie Saggia (The Wise Wife) (comedy); Le Donne Gelose (The Jealous Women) (comedy); La Serva Amorosa (The Loving Maid) (comedy). Poetry: Christoph Martin Wieland (1733-1813), Zwolf Moralische Briefe in Versen; Anti-Ovid; this summer he heads for Zurich to be with Swiss lit. reformer J.J. Bodmer, and stays until 1760. Novels: Charlotte Lennox (1720-1804), The Female Quixote. Voltaire (1694-1778), Micromegas (Micromégas); about 20K-ft.-tall aliens Saturn and Sirius, who visit Earth and become amused at how self-important miniscule earthlings are, pioneering sci-fi. Births: Am. seamstress-flagmaker Betsy Ross (Mrs. Elizabeth Griscom Ross) (d. 1836) on Jan. 1 in Philadelphia, Penn. Am. poet-journalist ("Poet of the American Revolution") Philip Morin Freneau (d. 1832) on Jan. 2 in New York City; educated at Princeton U. English Buckingham Palace architect John Nash (d. 1835) on Jan. 18 in Lambeth, London. Italian "Gradus ad Parnassum" composer-pianist Muzio Clementi (d. 1832) on Jan. 23. Am. statesman-diplomat-atty.-merchant Gouverneur Morris (d. 1816) on Jan. 31 in Morrisania Estate, Bronx, N.Y.; educated at King's College (Columbia U.); wears a plain wooden pegleg after an accident; gives the most speeches at the Constitutional Convention and writes the final draft of the U.S. Constitution, with the preamble "We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union"; marries for the first time at 57 and becomes a daddy at age 62. French gen.-adventurer Jean-Antoine Le Clerc (Louis Le Clerc Milfort or Milford) (d. 1820) on Feb. 2 in Thin-le-Moutier (near Mezieres); known for leading Creek Indians against the rebels during the Am. Rev. War. Am. educator (founder of Phillips Academy) Samuel Phillips Jr. (d. 1802) on Feb. 5 in North Andover, Mass.; educated at Harvard U.; nephew of John Phillips (1719-95), founder of Phillips Exeter Academy. German dramatist Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger (d. 1831) on Feb. 17 in Frankfurt-am-Main; namer of the Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) anti-classicist pro-Romantic movement. Am. Rev. War col. Nathaniel Rochester (d. 1831) on Feb. 21 in Westmoreland County, Va.; founder (1811) of Rochester, N.Y. British lt. gov. #1 of Upper Canada (1791-6) (Freemason) Gen. John Graves Simcoe (d. 1806) on Feb. 25 in Cotterstock, Oundle; educated at Eton College, and Merton College, Oxford U. Am. brig. gen. James Winchester (d. 1826) on Feb. 26 in Carroll County, Md. Am. Rev. War. gen. (co-founder of Memphis, Tenn.) William Washington (d. 1810) on Feb. 28 in Stafford County, Va.; 2nd cousin of George Washington (1732-99). Italian opera composer Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli (d. 1837) on Apr. 4 in Naples; choirmaster of St. Peter's in Rome. French pianoforte inventor Sebastien (Sebastian) Erard (d. 1831) on Apr. 5 in Strasbourg. German white supremacy biologist ("father of anthropology") Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (d. 1840) on May 11 in Gotha, Saxony; prof. of medicine at Gottingen U. 1776-. Am. educator-orator-poet and Congregationalist minister Timothy Dwight IV (d. 1817) on May 14 in Northampton, Mass; grandson of Jonathan Edwards Sr.; educated at Yale U.; pres. #8 of Yale College (1795-1817); grandfather of Timothy Dwight V (1828-1916); brother of Theodore Dwight Sr. (1764-1846); uncle of Theodore Dwight Woolsey (1801-89) and Theodore Dwight Jr. (1796-1866). Prussian Napoleonic Wars statesman (Protestant) Count Christian August Heinrich Kurt von Haugwitz (d. 1832) on June 11 in Peucke-bei-Ols (near Oels), Silesia. English "Evelina" novelist-diarist Frances "Fanny" Burney (Madame D'Arblay) (d. 1840) on June 13 in King's Lynn, Norfolk; daughter of Dr. Charles Burney (1726-1814); marries Gen. Alexandre D'Arblay in 1793. German "The Cloud Upon the Sanctuary" Roman Catholic mystic Karl von Eckartshausen (d. 1803) on June 28 in Haimhausen, Bavaria. French Jacquard loom inventor Joseph Marie Charles Jacquard (d. 1834) on July 7 in Lyon; starts out making straw hats, then moves to silk. Russian gen. Count Alexander Petrovich Tormasov (d. 1819) on Aug. 11. Italian queen of Naples (1768-1806) and Sicily (1768-1814) (Freemason) Marie Caroline (Maria Carolina Louise Josepha-Johanna Antonio) of Austria (d. 1814) on Aug. 13; daughter of Austrian empress Maria Theresa; sister of Marie Antoinette (1755-93). Austrian gen. Baron ("the Unfortunate Mack") Karl Mack von Leiberich (d. 1828) on Aug. 25 in Nennslingen, Ansbach. French mathematician Adrien-Marie Legendre (d. 1833) on Sept. 18 in Paris; educated at College Mazarin. Am. statesman-philanthropist James Bowdoin III (d. 1811) on Sept. 22 in Boston, Mass.; son of James Bowdoin II (1726-90); educated at Harvard U, and Oxford U.; founder of Bowdoin College German writer (Freemason) Adolph Franz Friedrich Ludwig Knigge (d. 1796) on Oct. 16 in Bredenbeck, Hannover. Am. Rev. leader and frontiersman ("Conqueror of the Old Northwest") George Rogers Clark (d. 1818) on Nov. 19 in Albemarle County, Va.; English-Scottish ancestry. English poet-forger Thomas Chatterton (d. 1770) on Nov. 20 in Bristol. Am. Quaker religious leader ("Publick Universal Friend") Jemima Wilkinson (d. 1819) on Nov. 29. Am. politician George Cabot (d. 1823) on Dec. 3 in Salem, Mass.; educated at Harvard U.; great-grandfather of Henry Cabot Lodge Sr. (1850-1924). Swedish Swedenborgian entomologist Leonard Gyllenhaal (d. 1840) on Dec. 3 in Vastergotland; ancestor of actor Jake Gyllenhaal (1980-). U.S. Supreme Court "most insignificant" justice #17 (1811-35) Gabriel Duvall (d. 1844) on Dec. 6 in Prince Georges County, Md. English politician Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby (d. 1834) on Dec. 12 in Preston; son of James Smith-Stanley, Lord Strange (1716-71), the son of Edward Stanley, 11th earl of Derby (1689-1776); educated at Eton College, and Trinity College, Cambridge; founder (1779) of Epsom Oaks horserace; father of the 13th earl of Derby (1775-1851). German Saxon king (1763-1827) Frederick Augustus I (the Just) (d. 1827) on Dec. 23 in Dresden; son of elector Frederick Christian. English "Hannibal Crossing the Alps" watercolor painter John Robert Cozens (d. 1797); son of artist Alexander Cozens, reputed son of Peter the Great. English architect Thomas Hardwick Jr. (d. 1825) in Brentford, Middlesex; father of Philip Hardwick (1792-1870); pupil of Sir William Cambers. English printer Luke Hansard (d. 1828). Deaths: English-born Am. printer William Bradford (b. 1663) on May 23 in New York City; dies wealthy. Italian cardinal-statesman Giulio Alberoni (b. 1664) on June 26. German composer Johann Christoph Pepusch (b. 1667) on July 20 in London. English scientist William Whiston (b. 1667) on Aug. 22 in Lyndon Hall, Rutland. German-born Portuguese architect Joao Frederico Ludovice (b. 1673). German scholar Johann Albrecht Bengel (b. 1687) on Nov. 2 in Stuttgart. Italian Jesuit writer Giovanni Battista Scaramelli (b. 1687) on Jan. 11 in Macerata. Italian sculptor Giovanni Battista Maini (b. 1690) on July 29. English Anglican theologian Bishop Joseph Butler (b. 1692). Swiss mathematician Gabriel Cramer (b. 1704) on Jan. 4 in France.
1753 On Feb. 1 French troops from Canada take the Ohio Valley, intending to build a chain of forts along the Ohio River from Canada to La. in order to confine the British settlers to the east coast; late in the year brash young 21-y.-o. George Washington (1732-99) is sent to talk to their cmdr., protest their occupation and warn them to leave; after they refuse, he ambushes them in peacetime, and is almost wiped out, being branded an assassin, but his vivid self-serving account of his mission (and he cannot tell a lie, right?) makes him a hero and gets him a promotion to chicken colonel. Speaking of chicken colonel? On Apr. 10 the name "Kentucky" is first mentioned in a letter by William Trent sent to Va. Gov. George Hamilton. On June 7 King George II gives assent to an act of Parliament establishing the British Museum in London (opens in 1759), based on the extensive collection bequeathed by Irish Ulster-Scot (read Irish Protestant) physician Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet (1660-1753) of chocolate fame. In the summer 47-y.-o. retired (since 1748) Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) of Penn. is given honorary degrees by Harvard and Yale, and also receives the Royal Society medal for his experiments with electricity; along with William Hunter of Va. he is appointed to share the top post office job in British Am., known as the Deputy (Joint) Postmaster for the Colonies; nepotism-loving Franklin proceeds to give jobs to his son, brothers, and other relatives, but he establishes the first home-delivery system and dead letter office, cutting to one day the delivery time of a letter from New York City to Philly within a year of taking office; of course now his own pubs. can reach a wider audience, killing two birds with one stone, early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise, a penny saved is a penny earned, yada yada yada; meanwhile in Oct. 1 after being appointed one of three commissioners from Penn. to attend a summit conference with Delaware and Six Nation Indian leaders at Carlisle, halfway between Philly and the Ohio River, who are sore over the Walking Purchase, Franklin gets to observe their unity and explanation of their Great Law, causing him to get his idea of "Join, or Die", which he pub. next year; too bad, the conference doesn't satisfy them, so they drift to the French side, eventually attacking frontier settlements and driving Scots-Irish (read Protestant Irish) and German refugees eastward. On July 3 English barrister Sir William Blackstone (1723-80) gives up his practice to embark on a series of lectures on English common law, the first of their kind, becoming a big hit and making him a celeb. On July 7 after Jews show their loyalty to the British govt. during the 1745 Jacobite Rising, causing Henry Pelham to introduce it, the Jewish Naturalization Act of 1753 (Jew Bill) is given royal assent in England, requiring personal application to Parliament; too bad, after the Tories protest the "abandonment of Christianity" it is repealed next year after - there goes the neighborhood, or, Chariots of Fire right ahead? On Sept. 25 the first steam engine is imported into the colonies (N.J.). The trustees' charter expires, and Georgia becomes the last royal colony - in No Way Jose, with its own royal C-E-No - Nunca? Immigrants from Britain, Germany, and Switzerland revolt against British policies in Nova Scotia, causing the British authorities to begin suspecting the French Acadians too. Are you still free to move about the country? Eager dicks go on the lam to sheep-loving Scot Scot Scotland? The Irregular Marriage Act of Lord Hardwicke proscribes Fleet Marriages, requiring marriage licenses, plus parental consent when either party is under 21; since hillbilly Scotland only requires age 16 and no residency, the village of Gretna Green in Dumfries County, Scotland .75 mi. from the Sark River boundary with England becomes a haven for runaway "quickie" underage marriages, usually officiated by the village blacksmith (until 1856). Frederick II the Great fights the Austrian-Russian agreement of 1746. The Al-Sabah Dynasty in Kuwait is founded by Sheikh Sabah I bin Jaber (1700-62); the sheikdom is nominally under Ottoman rule, but has de facto independence. A land tax of two shillings on the pound is instituted in England and Wales. The town of Brattleboro on the Connecticut River in Vt. about 10 mi. N of the Mass. boundary on the site of Ft. Dummer (first English settment in Vt.) (built 1724) is chartered, named after loyalist gen. William Brattle Jr. (1702-76), son of William Brattle (1662-1717), going on to become a winter sports resort and home of one of the largest pipe organ factories in the world; Rudyard Kipling and his wife later live there. Louis XV gives permission to found the Grey Nuns in Montreal, Canada, led by "tipsy nun" (St.) Marguerite d'Youville (1701-71), who house and care for ill and needy women. Waterford, Ireland begins producing crystal (until 1851). The Vienna Stock Exchange (Wiener Borse) is founded by Empress Maria Theresa. The secret Linonian Society is founded at Yale U., which becomes rivals with the Brothers in Unity (founded 1768). Poor Richard's Almanack for 1753. Sports: The Jockey Club establishes a racetrack in Newmarket; "Every body is dressed so perfectly alike, that it is extreamly difficult to distinguish between his Grace and his Groom; I have heard a stranger ask a man of quality how often he dressed, and watered his horses?"; two horseraces a year at Newmarket, England in spring and Oct. are added to the Second Spring and July, followed in 1762 by the Second October, in 1770 by the Third October or Houghton, and in 1771 by the Craven on Easter Monday, giving seven. Architecture: Jean Baptiste Pigalle begins the Tomb of Comte Hermann Maurice de Saxe (Marechal de Saxe) in the Church of St. Thomas in Strasbourg (finished 1776). The Georgian Gothic revival Strawberry Hill Mansion in Richmond, London on the Thames River near Twickenham, designed by Horace Walpole is begun (finished 1776), known for its vast stained glass, cool towers and battlements, and interior decoration by his Committee of Taste. Science: Scottish physician James Lind (1716-94) discovers that heating salt water produces steam that is fresh, and proposes solar energy distillation of water for ships, but nothing is done until 1810. Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (1707-78) first distinguishes plants via species and genera, causing him to become known as "the Father of Taxonomy"; he gives the tea plant a scientific name. Nonfiction: Joao da Silva Guimaraes, Manuscript 512; claims to have found the ruins of the ancient Lost City of Z in the Mato Grosso region of Brazil. William Hogarth (1697-1764), The Analysis of Beauty; proposes standards for aesthetics. William Kenrick (1725-79), The Whole Duty of a Woman; or, A Guide to the Female Sex, from the Age of Sixteen to Sixty, &c.; pub. under the alias "A Lady"; big hit, going through 20 eds., making him "one of London's most despised, drunken, and morally degenerate hack writers in the later eighteenth century." Alfonso de Liguori (1696-1787), Theologia Moralis; repub. in 1755 as "Homo Apostolicus". Dr. James Lind (1716-94), A Treatise of the Scurvy. Carl Linnaeus (1707-78), Species Plantarum; first attempt to distinguish plants via species and genera. Robert Lowth (1710-87), De Sacra Poesi Hebraeorum. Johann Lorenz von Mosheim (1693-1755), Historical Commentaries on the State of Christianity in the First Three Centuries. Music: Carlo Goldoni (1707-93), Il Filosofo di Campagna (The Country Philosopher) (opera bouffe); music by Galuppi. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78), Devin du Village (Paris and Fontainebleau). Art: Francois Boucher (1703-70), The Rising of the Sun. Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-92), Commodore Keppel. The 2nd cent. C.E. stone Molossian Guard Dog Statue AKA the Jennings (Duncombe) (Alcibiades) Dog Statue, a copy of a 2nd cent. B.C. bronze statue taken by the Romans after they conquered the Molossian city of Epirus is discovered by English antiquarian Henry Constantine Jennings (1731-1819) in the workshop of Italian sculptor Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (1716-99), causing him to become known as Dog Jennings. Plays: Charles Simon Favart, Ninette a la Cour. Carlo Goldoni (1707-93), La Locandiera (The Innkeeper Woman) (comedy); Le Donne Curiose (The Curious Women) (comedy); La Sposa Persiana (The Persian Wife) (tragicomedy). Edward Young (1683-1765), The Brothers (tragedy) (Drury Lane, London). Poetry: Thomas Gray (1716-71), Poems; the last expression in English verse of the classicism of Alexander Pope and John Dryden?; incl. The Bard - A Pindaric Ode, Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College (1747); "To each his suff'rings; all are men,/ Condemn'd alike to groan,/ The tender for another's pain;/ Th' unfeeling for his own./ Yet ah! why should they know their fate?/ Since sorrow never comes too late,/ And happiness too swiftly flies./ Thought would destroy their paradise./ No more; where ignorance is bliss/ 'Tis folly to be wise"; Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes (about his friend Horace Walpole's cat Selima, who you know what in a tub of you know what); "Not all that tempts your wandering eyes/ And heedless hearts, is lawful prize/; Nor all that glisters, gold." Christoph Martin Wieland (1733-1813), Der Geprufte Abraham. Novels: Eliza Haywood (1693-1756), The History of Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy. Samuel Richardson (1689-1761), Sir Charles Grandison. Tobias Smollett (1721-71), The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom (picaresque). Births: Scottish surgeon (pres. of the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh) James Gregory (d. 1821) in Jan. in Aberdeen; great-grandson of James Gregory (1638-75); educated at the U. of Aberdeen, U. of Edinburgh, and Christ Church, Oxford. Dutch "Julia" novelist-poet-playwright Rhijnvis Feith (d. 1824) on Feb. 7 in Zwolle; collaborator of Willem Leevend (1724-85); known for morbid melancholy. French vice-adm. Francois-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers, Comte de Brueys 9d. 1798) on Feb. 12 in Uzes, Gard. French marshal Louis Alexandre Berthier, 1st Duke of Wagram, 1st Duke of Valengin, 1st Sovereign Prince of Neuchatel (d. 1815) on Feb. 20 in Versailles. English diplomat Alleyne FitzHerbert, 1st Baron St. Helens (d. 1839) on Mar. 1 in Derby, Derbyshire; educated at Derby School, Eton College, and St. John's College, Cambridge U.; friend of George Vancouver; namesake of Mount St. Helens. English "The Butterfly's Ball, and the Grasshopper's Feast" abolitionist poet-historian William Roscoe (d. 1831) on Mar. 8 in Livepool. French gen. Jean Baptiste Kleber (d. 1800) on Mar. 9 in Strasbourg. Am.-born British physicist and adventurer Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford of the Holy Roman Empire on Mar. 26 in Woburn, Mass.; a Tory, he spies for the British during the Am. Rev. War. German sugar beet chemist Franz Karl (Carl) Achard (d. 1821) on Apr. 28 in Berlin; student of Andreas Sigismund Marggraf (1709-82). Mexican "The Cry of Dolores" rev. priest Miguel Hidalgo (Sp. "noble one") y Costilla (Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo-Costilla y Gallaga Mandare Villasenor) (d. 1811) on May 8 in Guanajuato; educated at Valladolid. French Rev. engineer-mathematician (Freemason) ("Organizer of Victory") Lazare (Lazar) Nicolas Marguerite, Count Carnot (d. 1823) on May 13 in Nolay, Cote-d'Or; father of Sadi Carnot (1796-1832) and Lazare Hippolyte Carnot (1801-88); grandfather of Marie Francois Sadi Carnot (1837-94). German economist August Friedrich Wilhelm Crome (d. 1833) on June 8 in Sengwarden. Am. politician-gen. William Hull (d. 1825) on June 24 in Derby, Conn.; educated at Yale U. French balloonist Jean-Pierre Francois Blanchard (d. 1809) on July 4; husband of balloonist Sophie Blanchard (1778-1819). English inventor (steam power pioneer) Jonathan Carter Hornblower (d. 1815) on July 5 in Chacewater, Cornwall. Am. Rev. War. surgeon (Freemason) John Warren (d. 1815) on July 27 in Roxbury, Mass.; brother of Joseph Warren (1741-75); educated at Harvard U. English Liberal statesman-scientist Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope (d. 1816) on Aug. 3; son Philip Stanhope, 2nd earl Stanhope (1714-86); educated at Eton School, and the U. of Geneva; husband of Louisa Grenville (1758-1829), son of Barbados gov. Henry Grenville (1717-84); father of Lady Hester Stanhope (1776-1839) and Philip Henry Stanhope, 4th Earl Stanhope (1781-1855). Am. statesman (U.S. atty. gen. #1, 1789-94) (U.S. secy. of state #2, 1794-5) Edmund Jennings Randolph (d. 1813) on Aug. 10 in Williamsburg, Va.; educated at the College of William and Mary; gov. of Va. (1786-8). (d. 1825) in Whitton, Middlesex; son of Nathaniel Pigott (1725-1804). English engraver ("Father of Wood Engraving") Thomas Bewick (d. 1828) on Aug. 11 in Mickley, Northumberland. Czech philologist ("Patriarch of Slavic Philology") Josef Dobrovsky (d. 1829) on Aug. 17 in Balassagyarmat, Kingdom of Hungary; bucks Hapsburg oppression to prove the richness and coolness of the classical Czech language, causing a revival. Belgian prince Auguste Marie Raymond d'Arenberg, Count de La Marck (d. 1833) on Aug. 30 in Brussels; 2nd son of Charles, 5th duke of Arenberg. English Neoclassical architect Sir John Soane (d. 1837) on Sept. 10 in Goring-on-Thames. Danish regent (1772-84) Frederick, Hereditary Prince of Denmark (d. 1805) on Oct. 11 in Christiansborg Palace, Cophenhagen; son of Frederick VI and Juliana Maria of Braunschweig-Wolfenbuttel; husband of Sophia Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1758-94); father of Christian VIII; half-uncle of Frederick VI (1768-1839). English dramatist-actress-writer Elizabeth Inchbald (d. 1821) on Oct. 15. French statesman Jean-Jacques Regis (Régis) de Cambaceres (Cambacérès), Duke of Parma (d. 1824) on Oct. 18 in Montpellier. Russian sculptor Mikhail Ivanovich Kozlovsky (d. 1802) on Sept. 18 in St. Petersburg. Am. physician and U.S. war secy. #3 (1796-1800) (DOI signer) James McHenry (d. 1816) on Nov. 16 in Ballymena, Ulster, Ireland; emigrates to the U.S. (Philly) in 1771; namesake of Ft. McHenry in Baltimore, Md. Scottish Enlightenment philosopher-mathemtician Dugald Stewart (d. 1828) on Nov. 22 in Edinburgh; educated at the U. of Edinburgh. Austrian composer Johann Baptist Schenk (d. 1836) on Nov. 30 in Wiener Neustadt. English spinning mule inventor Samuel Crompton (d. 1827) on Dec. 3 in Firwood, Bolton, Lancashire. English portraitist Sir William Beechey (d. 1839) on Dec. 12 in Burford, Oxfordshire; father of Richard Brydges Beechey (1808-95) and Frederick William Beechey (1796-1856); knighted in 1798. Am. poet (black) Phyllis Wheatley (d. 1784); imported to Boston, Mass. on a slave ship at age 8; owner John Wheatley and his wife teach her to read and write - a literate slave? - who messed up? Japanese painter Kitagawa Utamaro (d. 1806). English peerage expert John Debrett (d. 1822). English astronomer Edward Pigott (d. 1825); son of Nathaniel Pigott (1725-1804). Am. frontier hero ("the Savior of Greenbrier") Phillip Hamman Sr. (d. 1832) in the Rhine Palatinate. Am. celeb slave (black) Mary Hemings (Bell) (d. 1835) in Charles City County, Va.; eldest child of planter John Wayles (1715-73) and slave Elizabeth Hemings (1735-1807); sister of Sally Hemings (1773-1835); common-law wife of white merchant Thomas Bell; first of the Hemings family to gain freedom; recognized in 2007 as a patriot of the DAR for being taken POW during the Am. Rev. German jurist-writer-poet Johann Christian Siebenkees (d. 1841); cousin of Johann Philipp Siebenkees (1759-96). Deaths: Irish physician Sir Hans Sloane (b. 1660) on Jan. 11 in Chelsea, London; bequeaths his collection to Britain, becoming the foundation of the British Museum. Swiss scientist Nicolas Fatio de Duillier (b. 1664) on May 12 Madresfield, England. Am. silversmith-soldier Edward Winslow Jr. (b. 1669) on Dec. 1 in Boston, Mass. German organ-piano builder Gottfried Silbermann (b. 1683) on Aug. 4. Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley (b. 1685) on Jan. 14 in Oxford, England: "All the choir of heaven and furniture of earth - in a word, all those bodies which compose the frame of the world - have not any subsistence without a mind." German architect Johann Balthasar Neumann (b. 1687) on Aug. 19. Anglo-Irish architect Richard Boyle, 3rd earl of Burlington (b. 1694) on Dec. 15 in Chiswick House, London. German architect Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff (b. 1699) on Sept. 16 in Berlin. Russian physicist Georg Wilhelm Richmann (b. 1711); killed when lightning hits his lightning rod while he is trying to read an atmospheric measuring device, and a spark jumps to his head.
1754 German immigrants bring "shipboard fever" (typhus) to Philadelphia. On Jan. 28 Horace Walpole writes a letter coining the word "serendipity" after reading the 1722 book The Travels and Adventures of Three Princes of Serendip about heroes from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) who continually make discoveries by accident. On Mar. 6 British PM (since Aug. 27, 1743) Henry Pelham (b. 1694) dies, and on July 2 his weak, incompetent brother Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle (1693-1768) becomes British PM (until Nov. 11, 1756). The French and Indian War (Seven Years' War) in North Am. begins (ends 1763); the British Board of Trade asks each colony to send delegates to a conference to be held in Albany, N.Y. in June to reaffirm the allegiance of the Six Nations Iroquois Confederation and discuss ways among themselves of unifying their colonial defense against the Frogs; in Feb. some Va. militia begin building a fort at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers (where they unite to form the Ohio River), which on Apr. 17 is attacked by a large French and Indian force, causing the Virginians to withdraw; the French then finish building Ft. Duquesne on the site of modern-day Pittsburgh, Penn.; on May 9 Benjamin Franklin pub. an editorial in the Penn. Gazette blaming the French success "on the present disunited state of the British colonies"; next to the article he prints the first and most famous editorial cartoon in U.S. history, a snake cut into pieces, labelled with names of the colonies, bearing the caption, "Join, or Die" (head=N.E., N.Y., N.J., Penn., Mass., Va., N.C., S.C.=tail); on May 28 the first bloodshed is at Uniontown, Penn.; in June the British build Ft. Necessity in Penn., which the French attack on July 3, and on July 4 (bad day?) George Washington surrenders it after the Mingos desert; Penn. Quakers show how racism trumps pacifism when they withdraw from the Penn. Assembly to allow the war party to vote the money and laws needed to prosecute the war without dirtying their own hands? On June 19-July 10 against the prospect of war between France and Britain, reps. from Md., N.Y., Penn., Mass., Conn., R.I. and N.H. meet in Albany, N.Y., where the Six Nations, led by Mohawk chief Tiyanoga (Hendrick Peters) (1680-1755) accept £500 ($90K) worth of wampum, and renew their alliance with the English, leaving at the beginning of July; Benjamin Franklin and wealthy Mass. shipping merchant Thomas Hutchinson draw up the Albany Plan of Union, calling for a federal "general government" that would handle nat. defense and westward expansion, with a nat. congress composed of reps. selected by each state in proportion to pop. and wealth, and a pres.-gen. appointed by the king; it is approved, then sent to the colonial assemblies and Parliament for approval, but is rejected by all; Franklin is convinced to the end of his life that this plan could have prevented the Am. Rev. - figure out how to blame this on the Illuminati or Jews? On Aug. 2 sultan (since 1730) Mahmud I (b. 1696) dies, and on Dec. 13 his caged brother Osman (Othman) III (1699-1757) becomes Ottoman sultan #25 (until Oct. 30, 1757), suffering from dementia, incl. wearing iron shoes so that the harem women can hear him coming and run before he has to see or smell them; his Russian or Serbian mother Sehsuvar (1682-1756) (real name Mary) is valide sultan, er, cracking down on non-Muslims, requiring them to wear distinctive clothes or badges. Ft. Elisabetgrad (Yelizavetgrad) in Ukraine on the E bank of the Ingul River 155 mi. SE of Kiev is founded, named after Empress Elizabeth; it is later renamed after Bolshevik leader G.E. Zinoviev in 1917, and after Sergei Kirov in 1935 as Kirovograd. Ft. Western is erected on the site of the old Cushnoc trading post, beginning permanent settlement in the Augusta, Maine area; Capt. James Howard, cmdr. of Ft. Western becomes the first settler in Augusta. After British gens. Robert Clive and Henry M. Lawrence frustrate all hopes of a French empire in India, Louis XV recalls and repudiates Marquis Dupleix in order to negotiate peace with England, signaling the end of official French imperial hopes there; the Second Carnatic War (begun 1749) ends - with France's popped cherry? Jean-Jacques Rousseau (b. 1712) returns to his hometown of Geneva, reconverts to Calvinism, gains Genevan citizenship, and begins writing his major works, which are antiestablishment and antireligious in content, and at the same time Romantic? The Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Manufactures is founded in England. The Anglican King's College (renamed Columbia U. in 1784) is founded in New York City in Morningside Heights with a charter granted by George II; pres. #1 is Stratford, Conn. Episcopal Church rector (since 1723) Dr. Samuel Johnson (1696-1772) (until 1763); not to be confused with English biographer Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-84). The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen is founded on Mar. 30, the 31st birthday of King Frederik V; in 1771 it becomes the Royal Danish Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. The U. of Halle in Germany awards the first ever female an M.D. The first iron rolling mill is built at Fareham, Hampshire, England. Poor Richard's Almanack for 1754. George Washington enters a beer recipe in his notebook - don't worry, it's coming? Sports: The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews (originally the Society of St. Andrews Golfers) is founded in St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland, becoming the first golf club; 11 holes, and you go around twice? Architecture: On May 18 Palladian architect John Wood the Elder (b. 1704) caps off his career by laying the first stone for The Circus in Bath in Barton Fields outside the city walls, then (takes a bath and?) dies five days later on May 23, leaving his son John Wood the Younger (1728-82) to finish it by 1764. Stockholms Castle in Sweden is built for Adolf Fredrik. Italian architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli (1700-71) designs the new improved Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia, incl. the Jordan Staircase. Inventions: On Dec. 12 free African-Am. inventor Benjamin Banneker completes the first clock made entirely in the Americas. Science: Bordeaux-born Scottish chemist Joseph Black (1728-99) discovers carbon dioxide (carbonic acid) (CO2) gas by heating calcium carbonate (CaCO3 ); he calls it "fixed air" because it is denser than air and can't sustain fire or animal life, and discovers its function in the "causticization of lime", which helps disprove the phlogiston theory. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) of Germany discovers the retardation of the rotation of the Earth by frictional resistance of tidal currents, and concludes that time is not a thing in itself, but an unavoidable framework of the human mind; his discovery isn't noticed by scientists until 1840 when the idea of energy is being developed. Nonfiction: Thomas Birch (1705-66), Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth from 1581. Anton Busching, Erdbeschreibung (1754-61). Thomas Chippendale, The Gentleman and Cabinetmaker's Directory. Etienne Bonnot de Condillac (1715-80), Traite des Sensations (Treatise on Sensations); claims that all human mental processes derive from the senses, founding the philosophy of Sensationalism, later taken up by James Mill, John Stuart Mill, and Herbert Spencer. Denis Diderot (1713-84), Thoughts on the Interpretation of Nature; is he an atheist, Deist, or pantheist? Jonathan Edwards (1703-58), Inquiry into Freedom of the Will. David Hume (1711-76), The History of England (6 vols.) (1744-61); covers "from the invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution of 1688", becoming a perennial bestseller (100 eds.) and std. work, making him financially independent for life; written after the 1745 Jacobite Rising freaks him out, taking 15 years; vols. 5-6 are titled "The History of Great Britain", covering from the 1603 union of England and Scotland, written first, after which he works backwards; writes the soundbyte about the Puritans: "The court of king's bench was called the court of public bench. So cautious on this head were some of the republicans, that, it is pretended, in reciting the Lord's prayer, they would not say, 'thy kingdom come,' but always, 'thy commonwealth come'"; the initial reception is hostile: "I was assailed by one cry of reproach, disapprobation, and even detestation; English, Scotch, and Irish, Whig and Tory, churchman and sectary, freethinker and religionist, patriot and courtier, united in their rage against the man, who had presumed to shed a generous tear for the fate of Charles I, and the Earl of Strafford"; "The period, in which the people of Christendom were the lowest sunk in ignorance, and consequently in disorders of every kind, may justly be fixed at the eleventh century, about the age of William the Conqueror"; too bad, he abandons straight chronological history for a description of the psychic and economic factors that drive it - giving later writers like TLW something to fix? Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), A Treatise on Good Manners and Good Breeding (posth.); "Good manners is the art of making those people easy with whom we converse. Whoever makes the fewest persons uneasy is the best bred in the company"; "Pride, ill nature, and want of sense, are the three great sources of ill manners"; "Pedantry is properly the over-rating of any kind of knowledge we pretend to"; "I can discover no political evil in suffering bullies, sharpers, and rakes, to rid the world of each other by a method of their own; where the law hath not been able to find an expedient." Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770), Trattato di Musica Secondo la Vera Scienza dell'Armonia; first description of sum and difference tones on stringed instruments. John Woolman (1720-72), Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes; a Quaker preacher writes one of the first abolitionist documents in North Am., convincing many Quakers to abandon slaveholding. Art: Francois Boucher (1703-70), Venus and Cupid; Venus; Venus and Mars; The Captive Cupid; The Billet-Doux; Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan; The Judgment of Paris; done for Mme. de Pompadour. William Hogarth (1697-1764), The Election. Jacob de Wit (1695-1754), On Writing History; an allegory showing naked Truth keeping watch on a history writer while Pallas Athena (Wisdom) gives advice. Plays: Prosper Jolyot de Crebillon (1674-1762), Le Triumvirat (tragedy) (last play). Poetry: John Duncombe (1729-86), The Feminead, or Female Genius; in praise of women writers - it's sure to wake up the trailblazer in you? Salomon Gessner (1730-88), Daphnis. Novels: Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crebillon (1707-77), Les Heureux Orphelins. Wu Jingzi (1701-54), Unofficial History of the Confucians, or the Scholars (Rulin Waishi); first Chinese satirical novel. Births: French rev. journalist Jacques Pierre Brissot (de Warville) (d. 1793) on Jan. 15 in Chartres. Irish politician and animal rights activist ("the Wilberforce of Hacks") Col. Richard "Humanity Dick" Martin (d. 1834) on Jan. 15 in Ballynahinch, County Galway. Am. surveyor (Quaker) Andrew Ellicott (d. 1820) in Bucks County, Penn.; son of Joseph Ellicott (1732-80); brother of Joseph Ellicott (1760-1826) and Benjamin Ellicott (1765-1827). Am. surveyor Moses Cleaveland (OE "hilly area") (d. 1806) on Jan. 29 in Canterbury, Conn.; founder of Cleveland, Ohio (1796); educated at Yale U. Spanish viceroy of New Spain (1816-21) Adm. Juan Jose Ruiz de Apodaca yEeliza Gaston de Iriarte Lopez de Letona y Lasqueti, 1st Count of Venadito (d. 1835) on Feb. 3 in Cadiz; born into a family of Basque merchats. French statesman-diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord (Talleyrand-Pèrigord), Prince of Benevento, Bishop of Autun (d. 1838) on Feb. 13 in Paris. Italian poet-playwright Vincenzo Monti (d. 1828) on Feb. 19 in Alfonsine, Ravenna; educated at the U. of Ferrara. Scottish surgeon-naturalist Archibald Menzies (d. 1842) (pr. MING-iss) on Mar. 15 in Easter Styx, Weem, Perthshire. Am. poet-diplomat Joel Barlow (d. 1812) on Mar. 24 in Redding, Conn.; educated at Dartmouth College and Yale U. French physicist-balloonist Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier (d. 1785) on Mar. 30 in Metz. French ultra-conservative Savoyard philosopher-diplomat (Roman Catholic) (Freemason) Joseph-Marie, Comte de Maistre (d. 1821) on Apr. 1 in Chambery, Savoy; brother of Xavier de Maistre (1763-1852); educated at the U. of Turin. Spanish opera-ballet composer Vicente Martin y Soler (d. 1806) on May 2 in Valencia. French moralist-essayist Joseph Joubert (d. 1824) on May 7 in Montignac (Correze), Perigord. Am. Baptist minister John Leland (d. 1841) on May 14 in Grafton, Mass.; Congregationalist parents. French gen. Claude Francois de Malet (d. 1812) on June 28 in Jura (Dole). English physician and bowdlerizing editor Thomas Bowdler (d. 1825) on July 11 in Bath, Somerset. Am. Rev. military engineer (maj.) and Washington D.C. architect Pierre Charles "Peter" L'Enfant (d. 1825) on Aug. 2 in Paris; educated at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. U.S. Suptd. of Indian Affairs (1796-1816) Benjamin Hawkins (d. 1816) on Aug. 15 in Granville County, N.C. Scottish engineer-inventor William Murdock (d. 1839) on Aug. 21 in Lugar; inventor of the sun and planet gear, D slide valve, steam gun, and pneumatic tube message system. British gen. Banastre (Bannister) "Bloody Ban" "the Green Dragoon" "the Butcher" Tarleton, 1st Baronet (d. 1833) on Aug. 21 in Liverpool. French king (1774-93) Louis XVI "le Dernier" (the Last) (d. 1793) on Aug. 23 in Versailles; 3rd son of Louis Ferdinand, dauphin of France (1729-65) and Marie-Josephe of Saxony (1731-67); grandson of Louis XV (1710-74). English mutiny-prone naval officer William Bligh (d. 1817) on Sept. 9 in Plymouth, Devon; cmdr. of HMS Bounty (1787-9); signs up for the Royal Navy at age 7. French chemist Joseph Louis Proust (d. 1826) on Sept. 26 in Angers; discoverer of the law of constant proportions (compounds always contain certain elements in the same proportion). Russian liberal (oxymoron?) Romanov tsar #13 (1796-1801) Paul I Petrovich Romanov (d. 1801) on Oct. 1; son of Catherine II the Great (1729-96); father of Alexander I (1777-1825) and Nicholas I (1796-1855). French conservative counter-rev. philosopher Vicomte Louis Gabriel Ambroise, Vicomte de Bonald (d. 1840) on Oct. 2 in Le Monna (near Millau), Aveyron; father of French sociology. Spanish viceroy of New Spain #59 (1810-13) Gen. Francisco Javier Venegas de Saavedra y Raminez (Ramínez) de Arenzana (d. 1838) on Dec. 2 in Zafra. English "The Village", "The Borough" poet-entomologist George Crabbe (d. 1832) on Dec. 24 in Aldeburgh, Suffolk; becomes rector of Aldeburgh in 1781, then chaplain to the duke of Rutland in 1782. U.S. marshal (Freemason) Robert Forsyth (d. 1794) in Scotland; emigrates to Va. in 1774; first U.S. marshal KIA in the line of duty; father of John Forsyth Sr. (1780-1841). English antiquarian William Cunnington (d. 1810) in Heytesbury, Wiltshire; collaborator of Sir Richard Hoare (1758-1838). French "L'Art du Cuisinier" restaurateur (chef to Louis XIII) Antoine B. Beauvilliers (d. 1817). Nigerian Sunni Muslim leader Usman dan Fodio (Usuman bii Foduye) (d. 1817) in Gobir. French Trappist abbot Augustin (Louis Henri) de Lestrange (d. 1827) in Ardeche. English porcelain manufacturer Josiah Spode Jr. (d. 1827); son of Josiah Spode Sr. (1733-97). Deaths: French architect Gabriel Boffrand (b. 1667) on Mar. 19 in Paris. French-born mathematician Abraham de Moivre (b. 1667) on Nov. 27 in London; predicts the exact date of his death by extrapolating, based on sleeping 15 min. more each day, until he reaches the 24-hour limit? Italian mathematician Jacopo Francesco, Count Ricatti (b. 1676) on Apr. 15. German philosopher Christian Wolff (b. 1679) on Apr. 9 in Halle. British architect James Gibbs (b. 1682) on Aug. 5 in London. Danish dramatist-poet Ludvig Holberg (b. 1684) on Jan. 28. Dutch artist Jacob de Wit (b. 1695) on Nov. 12 in Amsterdam. Ottoman sultan (1730-54) Mahmud I (b. 1696) on Dec. 13. Chinese novelist Wu Jingzi (b. 1701) on Dec. 11. English architect John Wood the Elder (b. 1704) on May 23 in Bath. English "Tom Jones" novelist Henry Fielding (b. 1707) on Oct. 8 in Lisbon, Portugal.
1755 The first foot-and-mouth disease panzootic appears in Europe, then reappears on-and-off for the next half cent. On Apr. 14 as the French and Indian War continues, with the British and Americans fighting the French, Canadians and Indians, the govs. of the British provinces of Va. (Dinwiddle), N.C. (Dobbs), Penn., Md. (Sharpe), N.Y. (Delancy), and Mass. (William Shirley) meet in Alexandria, Va. with newly-arrived (with two regiments of regulars, but no horses and wagons) British CIC Gen. Edward Braddock (1695-1755) to plan a strategy to force the French from North Am., deciding on a 4-fold attack; after the Wagon Affair, where he personally travels all over Penn. to talk farmers into lending horses and wagons for them, 1.4K British and Am. forces under Gen. Braddock, led by volunteer staff officer Col. George Washington hack a road through the wilderness to take Ft. Duquesne (on the site of modern-day Pittsburgh, Penn.), reaching the Monongahela River (branch of the Ohio River) on July 8; meanwhile 2.1K troops from New England under Col. George Scott (-1767) and Maj.-Gen. John Winslow (1703-74) (great-grandson of Mayflower passenger Edward Winslow) sail from Boston up the coast on three warships and 33 transports to the Isthmus of Chignecto in late May, landing on June 3 at Ft. Lawrence in Nova Scotia, housing a few hundred British regulars, the combined force under Col. Robert Monckton (1726-82) (who is far younger than Winslow but a true Brit not a Yankee, hence is given command) marching for Ft. Beausejour (Beauséjour) on June 4, taking it from the French on June 16 and renaming it Ft. Cumberland (abandoning inferior Ft. Lawrence for it), followed on June 18 by Ft. Gaspereau near the mouth of the Gaspareaux River SE of Port Elgin, New Brunswick at Baie Verte on the Northumberland Strait, and on June 30 by St. John; by the end of June all of N Arcadia is under English control; on July 6 the retreating French from Fts. Beausejour and Gaspereaux reach at Baie Verte on the Northumberland Strait, and on June 30 by St. John; by the end of June all of N Arcadia is under English control; on July 6 the retreating French from Fts. Beausejour and Gaspereaux reach Ft. Louisbourg (constructed in 1720-40), which is one of the most extensive forts in North Am. but is fortified for sea-based assaults only; on July 9 disregarding the warnings of his Am. officers that there might be an ambush, Braddock is surprised and defeated 7 mi. E of the fort at the Battle of the Monongahela (Wilderness) (Braddock's Field) by a smaller force of Indians and French in Indian costume, and Braddock and every officer except Washington are KIA or mortally wounded, along with more than half the force (500 killed and 500 wounded of 1.3K); the Indian chief orders his men to aim specially at 6'2" proud strutting Washington on his white horse, but he isn't wounded despite taking two bullets in his hat, four in his coat, and having two horses shot out from under him?; in 1770 Washington revisits the site, along with the Indian chief, who extols him, saying, "My rifles but for you knew not how to miss... You were protected by the Great Spirit and can never die in battle, and will become the ruler of a great nation"; Washington orders Braddock buried in the road and gives the funeral sermon as enemy forces approach, then has the wagons and cannons rolled over the grave to hide its location, and they retreat to Philadelphia after abandoning most of their artillery and supplies; 21-y.-o. Daniel Boone, who was born near modern-day Reading, Penn. and moved with his family to Holman's Ford on the Yadkin River in N.C. in 1753 serves with the Am. forces. On May 15 the town of Laredo, Tex. (modern-day pop. 244.7K/259.1K) on the S border of modern-day Tex. is founded as Villa de San Augustin de Laredo in New Spain by Capt. Don Tomas Sanchez (Tomás Sánchez) de la Barrera (1709-96), named in honor of Laredo, Cantabria, Spain and St. Augustine of Hippo; by modern times it becomes 95% Hispanic-Latino. On July 28 the Acadian Expulsion (Great Upheaval) (1755-63) sees the British decide to forcefully relocate 6K French Acadians who won't swear allegiance to the British crown from Nova Scotia to British colonies from Mass. to S.C., first neutralizing their military threat with the Bay of Fundy Campaign; on Aug. 10 after Maj.-Gen. John Winslow (1703-74) leads his men to the Isthmus of Minas, they seize 400 unsuspecting Acadian men from Ft. Cumberland (Beausejour) and oversee their deportation by ship at Grand Pre, with Winslow calling it "very disagreeable to my natural make and temper"; over the next six years 11K Acadians are deported from Canada; Acadians don't begin arriving on the Golden Coast of La. until 1764 - kershaw? In July notorious 30-y.-o. skirt-chaser Jacques (Giacomo) Casanova (1725-98) is jailed in the Piombi (Ital. "Leads") Prison in the Doge's Palace in Venice on trumped-up charges of sorcery and disturbing the piece, er, peace; on Nov. 1, 1756 he makes a daring escape after 15 mo. (first to escape), ending up in Paris on Jan. 5, 1757, followed by London. On Sept. 2 the Battle of Petticodiac near Hillsborough is a V for the Acadians and Mikmaqs led by French gen. Charles Deschamps de Boishebert (Boishébert) et de Raffetot (1727-97) over the British, who skedaddle after three hours and the loss of only one man (vs. 50 KIA and 60 injured on the Acadian side), allowing 200 families to escape deportation and resettle between Shediac and Cocagne. On Sept. 21 the name of Ft. Lyman (founded as Ft. Lydius in 1731, then Ft. Lyman in 1755) S of Lake George and N of Saratoga Springs near Hudson River Falls (where Indians start carrying their canoes to the headwaters of Lake Champlain) is changed to Ft. Edward in honor of George III's brother Edward, duke of York and Albany. Santa Claus, rated J? On Sept. 8 the Battle of Lake George sees British forces under new supt. of Indian affairs N of the Carolinas and Ohio River maj. gen. Sir William Johnson (1715-74) (who as supt. of Six Nations affairs since 1744 was instrumental in getting them to fight against the French) score their first V over the French, led by Baron Ludwig August von Dieskau (Jean-Armand Dieskau, Baron de Dieskau) (1701-67), and the Indians, led by Mohawk chief King Hendrick, who is KIA; Dieskau is captured and his life spared by Johnson, who is made a baronet with a 5K pound grant and a 100K acre land grant, going on to establish a personal inland empire centered on New York's Mohawk Valley N of the Mohawk River, where he builds Johnson Hall, the site of Johnstown, N.Y.; in Sept. British army surgeon Richard Shuckburgh writes the verses to Yankee Doodle as he cares for the British wounded at the Battle of Lake George; meanwhile colonial forces led by Ephraim Williams Jr. (b. 1715) incl. 200 Mohawk allies walk into an ambush en route to Lake George, and are driven back while suffering heavy losses; Williams is KIA, after which in 1793 after he leaves funds in his will Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. is named after him. On Nov. 1 (Sat.) (All Saints' Day) (9:40 a.m.) the 9.0 Great Lisbon Earthquake followed by a tsunami and fires kills 10K-100K, bringing out the religious prophets who call it divine retribution for Portugal's sins; the earthquake causes King Joseph I to develop severe claustrophoba, causing him to move the royal court to a tent complex in Ajuda; Portuguese PM (secy. of state for internal and foreign affairs) (since Aug. 2, 1750) Sebastiao Jose (Sebastião José) de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquis of Pombal, 1st Count of Oeiras (1699-1782) rebuilds Lisbon (modern-day Lisbon Baixa) laid out in rectangular patterns, becoming known as the Pombaline Architectural Style, featuring prefabricated bldg. methods and other anti-seismic design features incl. a forest of buried poles, inter-terrace walls built higher than roof timbers to reduce the spread of fire, and the symmetrical wood lattice Pombaline cage (gaiola) to distribute earthquake force, with army troops marched around town to test the new bldgs.' strength. On Nov. 1 an earthquake in N Persia kills 40K; an earthquake in Casa Branca in Morocco causes the Portuguese to finally abandon it (occupied since 1575), and in 1757 Sidi Mohammed III ben Abdallah (-1790) takes it over, and rebuilds it Muslim-style (with a mosque et al.), and renames it Darl al-Beida (the White House), causing the Spanish to call it Casablanca. On Nov. 18 (4:00 a.m.) a 6.0 earthquake in Cape Ann, Mass. (24 mi. N of Boston) strikes while people are in their beds, causing 1K chimneys to fall from rooftops in Boston. The English-Austrian alliance ends; Sir. Charles Hanbury-Williams arrives in Russia and negotiates an agreement whereby Russia will keep 50K men at the Livonian frontier ready to march into Prussia in return for England paying £100K a year, and more if the soldiers are ever used; the Landgrave of Hesse sells mercenaries to England for the defense of Hanover. Corsican patriot Pasquale de Paoli (1725-1807) is elected gen. in Corsica, and leads a revolt against Genoa (ends 1769), founding the Corsican Repub. (ends 1769), pissing off Genoa causing them to sell it to France - they get Napoleon in the bargain? China conquers Turkestan. Ang Tong becomes king of Cambodia for the 2nd time (until 1758). After the British conquer Lower Burma and move the capital there from Moulmein, Aloung P'Houra (1711-60) founds Rangoon, Burma. The city of Charlotte, N.C. (originally Charlotte Town) E of the Catawba River, named after British queen consort Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (modern-day pop. 731K/2.4M) is settled on land depleted by smallpox of the native Catawba tribe by Thomas Spratt and Thomas Polk (grand-uncle of U.S. pres. James K. Polk) (who marries his daughter), followed by a large number of Scots-Irish Presbyterians and a smaller number of Germans, with the city flag based on the St. Andrews Flag of Scotand; it is incorporated in 1768; it later gets the nicknames "Queen City" and "the Hornet's Nest" after British Gen. Charles Cornwallis calls it "a hornet's nest of rebellion". The Spanish expel non-Christian Chinese from the Philippines in order to increase control over the Galleon trade, leaving Chinese mestizos to take their place in the economy. The first law instruction in the U.S. begins at King's College in New York City. Mikhail Lomonosov (1711-65) and Ivan Shuvalov (1727-97) ("the Maecenas of the Russian Enlightenment") get Empress Elizabeth I to decree the establishment of Moscow State U., Russia's first univ.; it is renamed after Lomonosov in 1940. Future U.S. pres. John Adams graduates from Harvard College, 14th in a class of 24, with rank based on social standing. Benjamin Edes (1732-1803) and John Gill (1732-85) found the pro-Am. Rev. Boston Gazette and Country Journal in Mass. French choreographer Jean Georges Noverre (1727-1810) becomes ballet master at Drury Lane in London; in 1758 he returns to Lyon (until 1760), revolutionizing the ballet. London-born Frances "Fanny" Abington (nee Barton) (1737-1815) debuts as Miranda in Susanna Centlivre's "Busybody" in Haymarket, London, getting her a recommendation by Samuel Foote to join the Drury Lane co., remaining for 18 years and becoming the first to play 30+ important chars., incl. Shakespeare's Beatrice, Desdemonia, Ophelia, and Portia, and Lady Teazle in 1777. Poor Richard's Almanack for 1755. Architecture: Neurathen Castle is built near Rathen and Pirna (SE of Dresden) in Saxon Switzerland near the Bastei (Bastion) rock formation overlooking the Elbe River. The Baroque St. Nicholas Church in Prague, Czech. (begun 1704 by Christoph Dientzenhofer) is finished by his son Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer (b. 1751). The moat-skirted octagon-shaped Place de la Concorde (Place Louis XV) at the E end of the Champs-Elysees next to the Tuileries Gardens, designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel (1698-1782) is begun (finished 1772), becoming the largest in Paris; it originally features an equestrian statue of Louis XV commissioned in 1748 by the city of Paris, sculpted by Edme Bouchardon and Jean-Baptiste Pigalle; during the French Rev. the statue is torn down and the area renamed Place de la Revolution, where Louis XVI becomes its first neckless guest on Jan. 21, 1793. The Marble Boat is built in the Summer Palace in Beijing by emperor Qian Long as a place for afternoon tea; it burns down in 1860, and in 1893 empress Cixi rebuilds it with embezzled naval funds so she can enjoy tea on rainy days. The Royal Palace of Madrid (begun 1738) is finished. Inventions: M. Garvin develops the first iron girder bridge. Science: German brain man Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) pub. his doctoral thesis Gen. Natural History and Theory of the Celestial Bodies, conceding the existence of life on other planets like Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for, and advancing the nebular hypothesis, describing nebulae as "island universes". Sebastian Menghini studies the action of camphor on animals. Charles LeRoy demonstrates that an electrical charge delivered to a blind eye produces a sensation of light. Nonfiction: Joseph Black (1728-99), Experiments upon Magnesia, Quicklime, and other Alkaline Substances. Richard Cantillon, Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en General. Etienne Bonnot de Condillac (1714-80), Traite des Animaux. Benjamin Franklin (1706-90), Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc.; argues that Europe is too crowded, and that Britain should expand into North Am. to increase their pop. and power, and that the Anglo-Saxons are the best race to do it, because "the number of purely white people in the world is proportionably very small", hence the importation of Africans is undesirable because they will darken the white pop., which should remain "lovely", along with the red; "All Africa is black or tawny. Asia chiefly tawny. America (exclusive of the new Comers) wholly so. And in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians and Swedes, are generally of what we call a swarthy Complexion; as are the Germans also, the Saxons only excepted, who with the English, make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth"; "Why increase the Sons of Africa, by Planting them in America, where we have so fair an Opportunity, by excluding all Blacks and Tawneys, of increasing the lovely White and Red?"; too bad, he adds "Why should the Palatine Boors [Dutch and Germans] be suffered to swarm into our Settlements?", causing the Penn. Dutch to turn against him, helping him lose the Oct. 1764 Penn. Provincial Assembly election. James Hervey, Theron and Aspasio; Calvinist work claiming that faith is a work of man which earns salvation, pissing-off Robert Sandeman (1718-71), who creates the Sandemanian sect of Bible-thumpers. Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746), A System of Moral Philosophy; postulates a moral sense, and advocates calm benevolence over simple self-interest; coins the phrase "The greatest happiness for the greatest number." Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-84), A Dictionary of the English Language (2 vols.) (1755-73); standardizes the methods for dictionaries, incl. using quotations from established literary works; makes him famous but not rich?; he loves to zing the Scots, e.g., "Oats: A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland appears to support the people". Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), Universal Natural History and Theory of the Celestial Bodies; or, An Attempt to Account for the Constitutional and Mechanical Origin of the Universe upon Newtonian Principles; adopts the ideas of English astronomer Thomas Wright, advancing the nebular hypothesis; "In the universal silence of nature and in the calm of the senses the immortal spirit's hidden faculty of knowledge speaks an ineffable language and gives [us] undeveloped concepts, which are indeed felt, but do not let themselves be described." Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78), L'Inegalite par les Hommes: Discours (Discourse on the Origins of Inequality); how civilization ruined man's natural state of equality with the concepts of property, division of labor, mutual dependence, and arbitrary power? - wasn't he pleased to meet him and guess his name? J.J. Wincklelmann, Gedanken uber die Nachahmung der Grieschischen Werke. Music: Egidio Romoaldo Duni, Ninette a la Cour (opera-comique). Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764), La Naissance d'Osiris, ou La Fete Pamilie (The Birth of Osiris, or The Festival of Pamylia) (opera) (Fontainebleau) (Oct. 12); celebrates the birth of Louis XVI; libretto by Louis de Cahusac; Premier w/Two Tambourines; Anacreon (Anacréon) (opera) (Fontainebleau) (Oct. 23); libretto by Louis de Cahusac; incl. Contredanse. John Christopher Smith (1712-95), The Fairies (opera); written for David Garrick based on Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream". Art: Francois Boucher (1703-70), Landscape with Watermill; The Four Seasons. Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88), Milkmaid and Woodcutter. Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805), Father Reading the Bible to His Children; breaks from Rococo painting, making him an overnight success in France. Plays: Carlo Goldoni (1707-93), Le Donne de Casa Soa (The Women from His Own Home) (comedy). Gotthold Lessing (1729-81), Miss Sara Sampson (tragedy); first middle-class drama in German? Voltaire (1694-1778), La Pucelle d'Orleans; Joan of Arc. Novels: Henry Fielding (1707-54), Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon (posth.). Births: Am. Rev. hero, statesman, and U.S. treasury secy. #1 (1789-95) (face on the U.S. $10 bill) Alexander Hamilton (d. 1804) on Jan. 11 in Nevis, Leeward Islands, British West Indies (b. 1757?). German physicist-anatomist Samuel Thomas von Sommering (Sömmerring) (d. 1830) on Jan. 28 in Thorn (Torun), Prussia; educated at the U. of Gottingen; discoverer of the macula in the human retina. German margrave Charles Louis, Hereditary Prince of Baden (d. 1801) on Feb. 14 in Karlsruhe; husband (1774-) of Landgravine Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt (1754-1832); father of Karoline (1776-1841), Charles, 2nd grand duke of Baden (1786-1818) and Wilhelmina (1788-1836); ancestor of Franz Joseph I of Austria, Nicholas II of Russia, Lord Mountbatten, and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. English gen.-statesman Henry Edward Fox (d. 1811) on Mar. 4; 4th son of Sir Henry Fox (1705-74); educated at Westminster School. Am. political leader (Freemason) Rufus King (d. 1827) on Mar. 24 in Scarboro, Maine; educated at Harvard U.; too late for the Am. Rev., he is big in the 1787 Constitutional Convention, introducing the resolution calling for it; first U.S. Sen. from N.Y. French "The Physiology of Taste" gastronomomy writer ("Shakespeare of the Cooking Pot") Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (d. 1826) on Apr. 1 in Belley, Ain. German physician (founder of Homeopathy) Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann (d. 1843) on Apr. 10 in Meissen, Saxony; born into a family of porcelain painters; speaks 9 languages. English "Parkinson's disease" surgeon-paleontologist (Freemason) James Parkinson (d. 1824) on Apr. 11 in Shoreditch, London. French Rococo-Neoclassical painter (#1 female painter of the 18th cent.?) Marie Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun ((Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun) (d. 1842) on Apr. 16 in Paris; daughter of portraitist Louis Vigee; court painter to Marie Antoinette (1779-89). Am. explorer capt. Robert Gray (d. 1806) on May 10 in Tiverton, R.I. Italian violinist-composer Giovanni Battista Viotti (d. 1824) on May 12 in Fontanetto Po (Vercelli), Piedmont. French astronomer (Honore Flaugergues) Pierre-Gilles-Antoine-Honoré Flaugergues (d. 1835) on May 16 in Viviers, Ardeche. U.S. Supreme Court justice #12 (1800-04) Alfred Moore (d. 1810) on May 21 in New Hanover County, N.C. English hostess-heiress Jane Stanhope (nee Fleming), Countess of Harrington (d. 1824) on May 23; daughter of Charles FitzRoy, 2nd duke of Grafton and Lady Henrietta Somerset, daughter of Charles Somerset, marquess of Worcester; wife (1789-) of Charles Stanhope, 3rd earl of Harrington (1753-1829); mother of Charles Stanhope, 4th earl of Harrington (1780-1851); known for love of tea-drinking. Am. Rev. soldier-spy-martyr Nathan Hale (d. 1776) on June 6 in Coventry, Conn.; educated at Yale U.; teaches school in 1773-5, then becomes a lt. in the Continental Army, making it easy to impersonate a schoolmaster as a spy. French politician Paul Francois Jean Nicolas, Vicomte de Barras (d. 1829) on June 30 in Fox-Amphoux. Swiss chemist-physicist (Argand lamp inventor) Francois Pierre Aime (Aimé) (Ami) Argand (d. 1803) on July 5 in Geneva. Welsh tragic actress Sarah Kemble (Mrs. Sarah Siddons) (d. 1831) on Juyl 5 in Brecon, Wales; wife (1773-) of William Siddons; aunt of Fanny Kemble (1809-93). English Neoclassical sculptor-illustrator John Flaxman (d. 1826) on July 6 in York; hired by potter Josiah Wedgwood in 1775. French Prony Brake mathematician-engineer Gaspard Clair Francois Marie Riche de Prony (d. 1839) on July 22 in Chamelet, Beaujolais. French graphite pencil inventor Nicolas Jacques Conte (d. 1805) on Aug. 4 in Aunou-sur-Orne (near Sees). English painter-illustrator Thomas Stothard (d. 1834) on Aug. 17 in London. Swedish soldier-diplomat-statesman Count Hans Axel von Fersen the Younger (d. 1810) on Sept. 4 in Stockholm; son of Axel von Fersen the Elder (1719-94). French Rev. leader Bertrand Barere (Barère) de Vieuzac (d. 1841) on Sept. 10 in Tarbes, Gascony. Am. inventor Oliver Evans (d. 1819) on Sept. 13 in Newport, Del. U.S. Supreme Court chief justice #4 (1801-35) and U.S. Supreme Court justice #13 (Freemason) John Marshall (d. 1835) on Sept. 24 near Germantown (Midland), Fauquier County, Va.; descendant of William Randolph; cousin of Thomas Jefferson. Am. writer Miss Hannah Adams (d. 1832) on Oct. 2 in Medfield, Mass.; first prof. woman writer. Spanish (Basque) chemist Fausto Fermin de Elhuyar (Delhuyar) y De Lubice (d. 1833) on Oct. 11 in Logrono; brother of Juan Jose Elhuyar (1754-96). Welsh Calvinistic Methodist clergyman Rev. Thomas Charles (d. 1814) on Oct. 14 in Longmoor. French marshal (1804-) Francois Joseph Lefebvre, 1st Duc de Dantzig (d. 1820) on Oct. 25 in Alsace; father is a Hussar; created duke in 1807. French queen (1774-92) and cake snacker Marie Antoinette (Maria Antonia Josefa Johanna von Hapsburg-Lothringen) (d. 1793) on Nov. 2 in Hofburg Palace, Vienna [Scorpio]; daughter of Austrian empress Maria Theresa; sister of Marie Caroline of Austria (1752-1814); wife of Louis XVI (1754-93); her birth horoscope forecasts such calamity that her natal celebration is canceled. Am. Rev. War soldier-politician William Stephens Smith (d. 1816) on Nov. 8 in Long Island, N.Y.; husband of Abigail Adams (daughter of Pres. John Adams); brother-in-law of John Quincy Adams; educated at Princeton U. Prussian lt. gen. (chief of staff) Gerhard Johann David Waitz von Scharnhorst (d. 1813) on Nov. 12 in Bordenau (near Hanover); teacher of Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831). French king (1814-24) Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier de France) (d. 1824) on Nov. 17; brother of Louis XVI (1754-93); uncle of Louis XVII (1785-95). Am. "The Athenaeum" portrait painter ("Father of American Portraiture") Gilbert Charles Stuart (Stewart) (d. 1828) on Dec. 3 in Saunderstown (near Newport), R.I.; paints the first six U.S. presidents, incl. old man Washington's wrinkled neck portrait on the $1 bill. French Rev. leader Georges Couthon (d. 1794) in Orcet, Clermont, Auvergne. Spanish lt.-gen. Vincente Maria Canas (Cañas) y Portocarrero, VII Duke del Parque (d. 1824). French "La Belle Frascatane" artist Philibert Louis Debucourt (d. 1832) in Paris. English enamel painter Henry Bone (d. 1834) in Truro, Cornwall. Deaths: French courtier-writer Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon (b. 1675). Mohawk chief Hendrick (b. 1680) on Sept. 7; KIA while fighting with the English against the French. French painter Jean-Baptiste Oudry (b. 1686) on Apr. 30 in Beauvais. French philosopher-jurist Baron de Montesquieu (b. 1689) on Feb. 10 in Paris: "Government should be set up so that no man need be afraid of another." German historian Johann Lorenz von Mosheim (b. 1693) on Sept. 9 in Gottingen; leaves An Ecclesiastical History, From The Birth of Christ to the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century: in which The Rise, Progress And Variation of Church Power Are Considered In Their Connection With the State Of Learning And Philosophy, and The Political History of Europe During that Period (2 vols.), which is posth. pub. in London in 1842. Scottish-born British gen. Edward Braddock (b. 1695) on July 18 near Pittsburgh, Penn. English organist-composer Maurice Greene (b. 1696) on Dec. 1 in London. Italian organist-composer Giovanni Battista Sammartini (b. 1698). Portuguese composer Francisco Antonio de Almeida (b. 1702). Am. historian William Stith (b. 1707). Am. landowner Ephraim Williams Jr. (b. 1715) on Feb. 24 near Lake George, N.Y. (KIA); namesake/benefactor of Williams College.
1756 On Jan. 16 after the War of the Austrian Succession convinces Britain that Austria is no longer powerful enough to check French power, making it want to build up smaller states incl. Prussia, the Convention (Treaty) of Westminster is signed between Prussia and Hanover (owned by the king of Britain), stating that neither will allow the entry of a foreign army onto German soil; Britain promises not to aid Austria in a renewed conflict for Silesia as long as Prussia protects Hanover from France, causing Maria Theresa to seek an alliance with France to help her reclaim Silesia from Prussia; the Diplomatic Rev. AKA the Great Change of Partners (Britain and Austria vs. France and Prussia becoming France and Austria vs. Britain and Prussia) begins. On Feb. 17 incompetent ("indecision was one of his strongest features" - Benjamin Franklin), arrogant, sluggish and tyrannical Scottish earl John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun (1705-82) is appointed capt.-gen and gov.-in-chief of Va., followed on Mar. 20 by CIC of British forces in North Am. (until Mar. 1758), going on to bring in scummy soldiers recruited from jails and poorhouses, or even shanghaied off the streets of New York City, and force citizens to quarter them in their homes, even after they build barracks for them, and bring his lavish aristocratic lifestyle with him, throwing lavishly liquored parties and showing no respect for churches or churchgoers, causing grievances that are remembered when the Declaration of Independence is written in 1776. On May 15 England declares war on France (although fighting had been going on in America for two years?); the French Canadians drive the British out of the Great Lakes; the British lose Fort Oswego on Lake Ontario. On May 17 Britain declares war on France, launching the Seven Years' War (ends Feb. 15, 1763). On May 20 the Battle of Minorca sees 15K French troops under marshal Louis Francois Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788) and Gen. Rochambeau take Minorca from the English after Adm. John Byng (1704-57) refuses to close his ships on the French ships, settling for a lossless battle (43 British sailors KIA and 168 injured vs. 38 French KIA and 175 injured), getting Byng charged with treason for failing to "do his utmost", and shot on Mar. 14, 1757 at Portsmouth aboard HMS Monarch, after which the public suspects he's a scapegoat and swings opinion in his favor, making him the last British adm. executed in this fashion; after the successful siege of Port Mahon, capital of Minorca, mayonnaise (oil and egg yolks) is allegedly invented by Richelieu's chef to celebrate; it doesn't catch on in the U.S. until 1905. In May the Treaty of Versailles, a defensive alliance is signed between Austria and France. White Euros get ideas about death camp design from India? On June 20 after another war breaks out between the French and British in S India, and Mirza Mohammad Siraj-ud-Daulah (Dawla) (1733-57), last independent Muslim Nawab of Bengal attacks Calcutta, attempting to drive all British out of Bengal, he captures the British East India Co. stronghold of Ft. William, allegedly confining the 146-man British garrison in the 20-sq.-ft. (18 ft. x 14 ft. x 10 in.) Black Hole of Calcutta (only two small windows), killing all but 23 of them overnight; later investigations find that 114 of the men were actually killed defending the fort, and only nine officers were confined, of which three died, two from wounds, and that it was all fabricated by survivor English surgeon (temp. gov. of Bengal in 1760) John Zephaniah Holwell (1711-98); on Dec. 6 Robert Clive relieves British fugitives in Fulta 20 mi. S of Calcutta. On Aug. 27 Frederick II the Great of Prussia leads 67K men into Saxony in a surprise attack (blitzkrieg?), causing the small Saxon army to flee on Aug. 29 to between Festung Konigstein and Schloss Sonnenstein, starting the Seven Years' (Third Silesian) War (ends Feb. 15, 1763) (the first world war and the beginning of the British Empire, or World War IV after the War of the League of Augsburg, the War of the Spanish Succession, and King George's War?); on Oct. 1 Frederick II defeats the Austrians at the Battle of Lobositz (Lobosik) in Bohemia, and on Oct. 16 the Saxon army capitulates to Frederick II at Pirna; the Prussians take Dresden, causing Austria, France, Russia, Sweden, and Saxony to declare war on Prussia and Britain; British Whig leader William Pitt the Elder, Earl of Chatham (1708-78) comes to power in England, becoming secy. of war after British PM (since Mar. 16, 1754) Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle resigns on Nov. 11 then returns to power, offering him the position; "England has long been in labour, but at last she has brought forth a man" (Frederick II the Great); Britain subsidizes Prussia while taking advantage of the diversion of France to strength their holdings in Canada and India; on Nov. 16 former lord lt. of Ireland (1755-7) William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire (1720-64) becomes first lord of the treasury (same thing as PM) (until June 25, 1757). On Oct. 7 The New Hampshire Gazette is founded in Portsmouth, N.H. by printer Daniel Fowle (1715-87), becoming the first newspaper in N.H.; in 1839 after the Maryland Gazette ceases pub., it is recognized as the oldest newspaper in the U.S., causing it to trademark the phrase "The Nation's Oldest Newspaper". On Oct. 28 Gordon Shumway, AKA ALF (Alien Life Form) is born on the Lower East side of Planet Melmac, located 6 parsecs past the Hydra-Centaurus Supercluster, with a purple sun, green sky, and blue grass; he attends high school for 122 years, captaining the Bouillabaisseball team, then escapes before a nuclear war blows it up, following a ham radio signal to Earth, where he crash-lands in the garage of the Tanner family, who own yummy cat Lucky :). The gov. of Penn. and his council break with Quaker tradition and declare war on the Delaware and Shawnee, offering a bounty of 130 Spanish dollars for "the scalp of every male Indian enemy above the age of twelve years produced as evidence of their being killed", causing six leading Quakers to resign from the Penn. Assembly; William Penn's 1681 dream of a "holy experiment" is kaput after 75 years? The War of the Seven Reductions (begun 1752) ends with a Portuguese V and severe repression; Portugal retains Colonia and voids the 1750 treaty with Spain. The Afghanis under Ahmed Shah Durrani seize Delhi. Samuel Adams becomes a tax collector in Boston, Mass. Prussian-born Gebhard Blucher (b. 1742) joins the Swedish army, but is later captured by the Prussians during the Seven Years' War and joins their army, reaching the rank of major by 1787. A prize ristra-winning ghost story in Old Spanish New Mexico? Fray Juan Jose Padilla dies in Isleta Pueblo, New Mexico, and is buried in a wooden coffin beneath the altar of the St. Augustine (formerly St. Anthony of Padua) Church in a wooden coffin; in 1826 the coffin is discovered risen through the dirt floor, the priest's body showing little deterioration, and the rumor spreads that he is looking for sinners; he is reburied, resurfaces in 1889, still with little wear and tear, then threepeats in 1962, when they lay him to rest under a concrete slab - something about the water table? Swedish poet Olof von Dalin is exiled from the Swedish court for complicity in a plot to overthrow king Adolf Fredrick, and doesn't clear himself and return until 1761. Voltaire issues the soundbyte that the Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire - it's shoe week at where? Cotton velvet is first made in Bolton in Lancashire, England (where the cotton industry was introduced around 1600), causing cotton to become fashionable, after which Lancashire's exports to increase from £46K this year to £200K in 1764; most of the spinning and weaving is still done by cottage industry, who finally adopt John Kay's flying shuttle of 1733. The first chocolate factory opens in Germany. A porcelain factory is founded in Sevres, France. Poor Richard's Almanack for 1756. The New Hampshire Gazette newspaper is founded in Portsmouth. Architecture: "Father of Civil Enginering" John Smeaton (1724-92) begins Smeaton's Tower on Eddystone Lighthouse on the Eddystone Rocks in Plymouth; the light is first lit on Oct. 15, 1759; in 1877 it is dismantled and moved to Plymouth Hoe on top of the limestone cliffs. Nassau Hall in Princeton, N.J., designed by Independence Hall architect Robert Smith and Dr. William Shippen opens. The Royal Court Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia is founded. The Great Palace in Tsarskoe Selo, Russia (begun 1749) is completed. The 140-ft. Old Stone Bridge in Pontypridd (pr. "PONT-ee-preathe"), Wales over the Taf River in Welsh coal country is built by Welsh Methodist minister William Edwards (1719-89), becoming the longest stone single-arch bridge in Europe, featuring three funky holes at each end to reduce the weight; too bad, it proves too steep for carts, causing the Victoria Bridge to be built in 1857. Nonfiction: Louis Pierre Anquetil (1723-1808), Histoire Civile et Politique de Reims (3 vols.). Thomas Birch (1705-66), History of the Royal Society of London (1756-7). Sir William Blackstone (1723-80), An Analysis of the Laws of England (Clarendon Press); bestseller. Edmund Burke (1729-97), Vindication of Natural Society; pub. anon. as a satire of Lord Bolingbroke, making Burke a star; The Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas on the Sublime and Beautiful; gets good buzz from Dr. Samuel Johnson and Gotthold Lessing, getting Burke a pass into the lit. society of London (David Hume), David Garrick (1717-79), Joshua Reynolds et al.). Father Alban Butler (1710-73), Butler's Lives (The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints) (4 vols.) (1756-9) (London); his opus magnus, an English version of the "Acta Sanctorum", downsizing their superhuman status; "They were once what we are now, travelers on earth. They had the same weaknesses we have. We have difficulties; so had the saints." Pierre Francois Xavier de Charlevoix (1682-1761), Histoire de Paraguay. Arthur Collins, The Peerage of England (1709-56). Robert Dodsley and James Dodsley, Theatrical Records. James Ferguson (1710-76), Astronomy Explained Upon Sir Isaac Newton's Principles. Marquis de Mirabeau (1715-89), Ami des Hommes ou Traite de la Population. Leopold Mozart (1719-87), Treatise on Violin Playing; becomes the std. textbook. Voltaire (1694-1778), An Essay on Universal History, the Manners and Spirit of Nations: From the Reign of Charlemagne to the Age of Louis XIV (Essai sur les Moeurs et l'Esprit des Nations); breaks from the tradition of narrating only diplomatic and military events, going into social history, arts, sciences, and customs, treating Europe as a whole, becoming the first Euro scholar to try to write a secular history of the world sans divine miracles, which he rejects as contradicting the normal course of Nature; he acknowledges the debt owed by European civilization to the Muslim World, but is otherwise weak on the Middle Ages, although he seldom misses a chance to expose the dirty laundry of the Church; "One demands of modern historians more details, better ascertained facts, precise dates, more attention to customs, laws, mores, commerce, finance, agriculture, population" (his article on History in Diderot's "Encyclopedie"); too bad, in Chapter 4 ("Of Persia, Arabia, and Mahomet") he reverses his view about Muhammad being a murderous fanatic in his 1741 play Mahomet the Prophet; or, Fanaticism (Le Fanatisme, ou Mahomet le Prophet), and extols him as one of the greatest lawmakers in history along with Confucius and Zoroaster, claiming that Muslim countries had more religious tolerance than Christian ones, while seemingly oblivious to the fact that Muslim tolerance comes with the price of total subjugation of mind, body, and property, the acknowledgement of eternal inferiority, and the payment of a yearly ransom (jizya) to keep from being executed as an infidel, acknowledging the propriety of violence by Muslims, making Islam an ideology he should have fought as hard as he did the Church. Music: Leopold Mozart (1719-87), Versuch einer Grundlichen Violinschule. Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764), Zoroastre (Zoroaster) (opera) (Paris Opera) (Jan. 19); libretto by Louis de Cahusac; a rev. of the flop 1749 opera, which is a big hit this time; first French opera to dispense with Greek-Roman mythology and go for Persian; "A thinly disguised portrayal of Freemasonry" (Graham Sadler); incl. Regne Amour. John Christopher Smith (1712-95), The Tempest (opera); written for David Garrick based on Shakespeare's "The Tempest". Art: Francois Boucher (1703-70), Portrait of Madame Pompadour; Vulcan Presenting Arms to Venus for Aeneas; Fountain of Venus. Domenico Corvi (1721-1803), Oratorio del Gonfalone (fresco). Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-92), Admiral Holbourne and His Son. Johann Zoffany (1733-1810), Self-Portrait as David with the Head of Goliath. Plays: Carlo Goldoni (1707-93), Il Campiello (The Little Square) (comedy). Voltaire (1694-1778), Desastre de Lisbonne. Poetry: William Mason, Odes. Christoph Martin Wieland (1733-1813), Sympathien. Fiction: Voltaire (1694-1778), Plato's Dream; about Demiurgos the Eternal Geometer, who tasks "lesser superbeings" to create their own worlds, with Demogorgon creating Earth, which the other superbeings laugh at as imperfect, embarrassing Demiurgos, who had declared himself the only being capable of creating perfection and had obviously goofed with his lesser superbeings. Births: Spanish adm. Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros y de la Torre (d. 1829) on Jan. 6 (Epiphany) in Cartagena; named after one of the three Magi. Austrian "Cosi Fan Tutte", "The Magic Flute" composer-performer-prodigy (Freemason) ("the Immortal") Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart (AKA Amadeus) (d. 1791) on Jan. 27 in Salzburg; born at No. 9 Getreidegasse; son of Leopold Mozart (1719-87), violinist and concertmeiser for the archbishop of Salzburg, and Anna Maria Walburga Mozart (nee Pertl) (1720-78); younger brother of Maria Anna (AKA Nannerl) (1751-1829) - where did they film "The Sound of Music"? Am. Rev. soldier-statesman Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee (d. 1818) on Jan. 29; father of Gen. Robert E. Lee (1807-70). U.S. Repub. vice-pres. #3 (1801-5) and statesman-adventurer (sure shot?) Aaron Burr (d. 1836) on Feb. 6 in Newark, N.J.; son and namesake of a prominent Presbyterian minister who is pres. of the College of N.J. (Princeton); grandson of Jonathan Edwards; graduates from the College of New Jersey at age 16; the only feminist among the early leaders of the U.S. (although a womanizer). English journalist-novelist, and political philosopher (Romantic movement founder) William Godwin (d. 1836) (AKA Edward Baldwin) on Mar. 3 in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire; husband of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (1759-97); father of Mary Shelley (1797-1851); first modern proponent of anarchism. Scottish "The MacNab" Romantic portraitist Sir Henry Raeburn (d. 1823) on Mar. 4 in Stockbridge; knighted in 1822. Spanish Roman Catholic Church historian Juan Antonio Llorente (d. 1823) on Mar. 30 in Rincon de Soto (La Rioja); gen. secy. of the Spanish Holy Office (Inquisition) (1789-); first to pub. a candid history of the proceedings. French prince Louis Henri de Bourbon-Conde (Bourbon-Condé) (d. 1830) on Apr. 13; only son of Louis Joseph, prince de Conde (1736-1818) and Charlotte-Godefried de Rohan-Soubise. Am. George Washington's personal secy. in Philly Peter Wallace Gallaudet (d. 1843) on Apr. 21; father of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (1787-1851). English poet-critic-satirist William Gifford (d. 1826) in Apr. in Ashburton, Devonshire; educated at Exeter College, Oxford U. German Bavarian Wittelsbach king (1806-25) Maximilian I Joseph (d. 1825) on May 27 in Schwetzingen, Baden. French physician-chemist Jean-Antoine Chaptal, Comte de Chanteloup (d. 1832) on June 5 in Nojaret (Lozere); coiner of the word "nitrogen". Am. "Declaration of Independence on the $2 bill" painter ("the Painter of the Revolution") Col. John Trumbull (d. 1843) on June 6 in Lebanon, Conn.; son of Conn. Gov. (1776-84) Jonathan Trumbull (1710-85); brother of John Trumbull (1737-78) and Jonathan Trumbull Jr. (1740-1809); educated at Harvard U.; loses one eye in childhood; not to be confused with the other John Trumbull (b. 1750) of Westbury, Conn. Venezuelan liberator ("the first Universal Venezuelan") ("the Great Universal American") Francisco Miranda (Sebastian Francisco de Miranda y Rodríguez de Espinoza) (d. 1816) on June 9 in Caracas. English caricaturist-painter Thomas Rowlandson (d. 1827) on July 14 in Old Jewry, London. Scottish writer-poet Elizabeth Hamilton (d. 1816) on July 25 in Belfast, Ireland; Scottish parents. English royal non-queen wife (1785-) Maria Anne Fitzherbert (Smythe) (d. 1837) on July 26 in Brambridge, Hampshire; morganatic wife of George IV - he gets the milk without buying the cow? French politician-adm. Jean Baptiste de Nompere (Nompère) de Champagny, 1st Duc de Cadore (d. 1834) on Aug. 4 in Roanne. German field marshal (for the Hapsburgs) Count Heinrich von Bellegarde, Viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia (d. 1845) on Aug. 29 in Dresden, Saxony. British abolitionist Whig statesman (Unitarian) William Smith on Sept. 22 in Clapham, London; maternal grandfather of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910). Scottish surveyor and road engineer John Loudon(Lowdon) McAdam (d. 1836) on Sept. 23 in Ayr; ancestor of Sir Richard McCreery (1898-1967). Austrian bishop of Munster (1784-), grandmaster of the Teutonic Knights (1780-), and archbishop-elector of Cologne archduke (Freemason?) Maximilian Francis of Austria (d. 1801) on Dec. 8 in Hofburg Palace, Vienna; youngest son of HRE Francis I and Maria Theresa; brother of Marie Antoinette and Maria Carolina; nephew of Charles Alexander of Lorraine; patron of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. French naturalist Bernard-Germain-Etienne de la Ville-sur-Illon, Comte de Lacepede (Lacépède) (d. 1825) on Dec. 26 in Agen, Guienne. French Rev. leader Jean Baptiste Carrier (d. 1794) in Yolet (near Aurillac), Auvergne. Scottish watercolor painter-caricaturist Isaac Cruikshank (d. 1811) (b. 1764?) in Edinburgh; father of George Cruikshank (1792-1878). Am. Rev. heroine Molly Pitcher (Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley) (d. 1823) in Carlisle, Penn. Dutch poet (sci-fi pioneer) Willem Bilderdijk (d. 1831); leader of the Reveil religious-political movement. Deaths: French astronomer Jacques Cassini (b. 1677) on Apr. 16. English scholar Elizabeth Elstob (b. 1683) in May in Westminster, London. Dutch dramatist Pieter Langendijk (b. 1683) on July 9 in Haarlem. English novelist-playwright Eliza Haywood (b. 1693) on Feb. 25 in London. French dancer Marie Salle (b. 1707).
1757 On Jan. 5 Robert-Francois Damiens (b. 1715) attempts the life of Louis XV; Jacques Casanova arrives in Paris minutes afterwards?; Damiens becomes the last person in France to be executed by drawing and quartering in a hideous drawn-out fun-in-the-sun day at the Place de Greve. On Jan. 10 the HRE declares war on Frederick II the Great of Prussia, while Hanover, Hesse, Brunswick, and Gotha continue to ally with Prussia; in Jan. Austria and Russia strike an agreement to partition the Prussian monarchy. On Jan. 25 the first public concert in the growing cultural center of Philadelphia, Penn. is held. On Mar. 14 British Adm. John Byng (b. 1704) is executed for treason for losing Minorca to the French; the days of Marlborough have now degenerated to a feeling of malaise, and William Pitt the Elder begins using the soundbyte: "This almost degenerate England." On Apr. 6 after he opposes the king's continental policy and the execution of Adm. Byng, "the Great Commoner" William Pitt the Elder (1708-78) is dismissed by the king as leader of the House of Commons (since Dec. 4, 1756), along with his brother-in-law Lord Temple as first lord of the admiralty, with Whig William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire as first lord of the treasury on Nov. 16 (until June 29, 1757), in charge of the weak ineffectual 1757 Caretaker Ministry, but after massive universal public acclaim incl. the first-ever honorary freedom of the city award by London, Pitt returns as secy. of state for the Southern Dept. on June 27. In Apr. two French armies invade Germany to draw Prussian forces invading in four columns under Frederick II the Great away from the Bohemian theater; on May 1 Austria and France sign an offensive treaty against Prussia; on May 6 Frederick II's 67K Prussians defeat 64K Austrians under Charles of Lorraine at the Battle of Prague (Sterboholy) with 10K casualties on each side, then siege Prague until a relief army led by field marshal Leopold Josef, Count von Daun (Dhaun) (1705-66) defeats him for the first time in his Great Life on June 18 at the desperation-time Battle of Kolin, forcing him to leave Bohemia; Austrian empress Maria Theresa is so happy at the V that she institues a military order bearing her name, and names Daun for its first grand cross. On June 13 scholarly Pope (since 1740) Benedict XIV issues a decree on the unwonderful Roman Catholic Index of Prohibited Works, finally permitting readings of vernacular versions of the Bible "approved by the Holy See and published under the direction of bishops", and annulling the infamous anti-Copernican decree of 1616; Antonio Martini, later archbishop of Florence begins to trans. the Vulgate into Italian, and pub. it in 1769-81. On June 23 the British East India Co. gets revenge for the Black Hole and gains control of Bengal (until 1947) when Maj.-gen. Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive (1725-74) wins the decisive Battle of Plassey (a village in West Bengal N of Calcutta); Siraj-ud-Daulah escapes to Patna via Murshidabad, is arrested by his former #2 man, traitor army chief (of Arab descent) Mir Jafar (Syed Mir Muhammed Jafar Ali Khan) (1691-1765) (who got pissed-off at his elevation of a Hindu to supreme diwan), and brutally executed on July 2 by Mohammad Ali Beg on his orders, and he becomes the first British puppet Nawab of Bengal (until 1765); Ft. William in Calcutta on the E bank of the Hooghly River is built by the British after the Battle of Plassey; Clive names the strong-smelling tasty fish Bombay duck after the Bombay Daak (Mail) train, which carries stinky newspapers. On June 29 Robert Walpole Whig protege Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle (1693-1768) becomes British first lord of the treasury (official PM) (until May 26, 1762), joining with de facto PM William Pitt to form the Pitt-Newcastle Ministry, with Pitt deciding to take charge of the war in America and drive the French out; House of Commons leader and secy. of state Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland of Foxley (1705-74), who caused a scandal by eloping with Lady Catherine Lennox in 1744 is excluded from the govt. and made paymaster gen. of the armed forces, a position he uses to acquire a large fortune during the Seven Years' War - there's a crime behind every fortune? In June after Earl Loudoun masses his Highlander forces (9.4K soldiers in six battalions plus 90+ ships) at Halifax with the object of capturing Ft. Louisbourg on the St. Lawrence, then suddenly calls it off when he learns of superior enemy forces, causing William Pitt to decide to dump him. In July the July 1757 Heat Wave in Europe becomes the hottest summer in Europe until 2003. On July 26 the Hanoverian army under the incompetent Duke of Cumberland is defeated by the French at the Battle of Hastenbeck after Cumberland is almost captured, and saved by a rear-guard action organized by obscure staff officer Col. Jeffrey Amherst; on Sept. 8 the British army signs the Convention (Treaty) of Kloster-Zeven, capitulating, and the French occupy Hanover, though the British govt. rejects the treaty. On Aug. 3 Christian Frederick Charles Alexander (1736-1806) becomes the last margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach (until Dec. 2, 1791), living in his Red Castle while giving his White Castle to mistress Hippolyte Clairon, his Villa Sandrina to mistress Fraulein Kurz, and his Villa Rotunda to his mistress-wife Elizabeth Craven. On Aug. 9 French Gen. Louis-Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm (1712-59), CIC of French forces in North Am. captures Ft. William Henry on Lake George (Lac Sainte Sacrament) in Upstate N.Y., commanded by Irish-born Lt. Col. George Monro (1700-57) (while Monro's daughter Cora's loverboy Hawkeye is held in chains awaiting execution and Magua plans a bloodthirsty revenge on White-Hair?); the returning British soldiers are viciously ambushed and massacred by the Abenaki (Abnaki) (allies of the French), and the incident becomes notorious as a French violation of the internat. laws of war. On Aug. 19 after Russia signs the Treaty of Versailles (which Austria and France signed last year), and a Russian army attacks East Prussia, t he Russians under Gen. Piotr Alexeievich, Count Apraxin (1728-57) defeat the Prussians under Gen. Hans von Lehwald (1685-1768) at the Battle of Grossjagerndorf, then withdraw from East Prussia, while the Swedes begin occupying Pomerania as promised by the Russians in return for their participation in the war. On Oct. 30 sultan (since 1754) Osman III (b. 1699) dies, and Ahmed II's son Mustafa III (1717-74) becomes Ottoman sultan #26 (until Jan. 21, 1774), going on to attempt a catch-up program with the West, attempting to modernize the antiquated army and Janissary-imam structure, encountering mucho resistance; when he tries to correspond with Voltaire and Catherine II the Great, they ridicule his backwardness, with Voltaire calling him "fat and ignorant". On Nov. 5 after regrouping, Frederick II makes a rousing comeback and wins the Battle of Rossbach in Saxony, surprising the French army on its way to join the imperial army in the liberation of Saxony. The original white men can't jump? On Nov. 12 Colley Cibber (b. 1671) dies, and after Thomas Gray declines it, William Whitehead (1715-85) becomes poet laureate of England, immediately producing A Pathetic Apology for All Laureates, Past, Present, And to Come, going on to be the first to deny any requirement to "defend the king or support the government", and spending 28 years grinding out boring crap, causing Charles Churchill (1731-64) to call him "the heir of Dullness and Method". On Nov. 22 the Russians win the Battle of Breslau, causing Austria to attempt to regain Silesia on Dec. 5 at the Battle of Leuthen, but Frederick II the Great scores his greatest V instead, causing the Austrians to retreat from Silesia. In Dec. Lord Loudoun is recalled to England by William Pitt, and French-born John (Jean Louis) Ligonier, 1st Earl Loginier (1680-1770), veteran of the 1746 Battle of Roucoux becomes British CIC in North Am., and recommends his aide-de-camp Lord Jeffrey Amherst for his job, but George II balks at promoting an obscure col. (with an insane wife, Jane Dalyson) until his mistress the Countess of Yarmouth (put up to it by Pitt) changes his mind, but the king forces Pitt to accept wealthy Scottish-born incompetent Gen. James Abercrombie (1706-81) as cmdr. of the Ft. Ticonderoga expedition in exchange; Pitt counters by getting brilliant Lord George Howe appointed as Abercrombie's 2nd in command. Emperor Qian Long decrees the Closed Door Policy for Westerners in China. In Poland Jacob Frank (1726-91), leader of the anti-Talmud Zoharistic Jews talks Bishop Mikolaj Dembowski of Kaminiec Podolski into ordering all 10K copies of the Talmud in the city burned, after which the rabbis begin persecuting him and he responds by declaring himmself the successor of Sabbatai Zevi and Osman Baba, converting to the Christian religion, causing Roman Catholics and Protestants to vie for their allegiance, and in 1759 Frank and his followers are baptized in the churches of Lwow, with members of the Polish nobility (szlachta) acting as godparents; on Sept. 17, 1759 Frank is baptized in Lwow under the name Joseph (Jozef), and again on Sept. 18 in Warsaw, with Augustus II as his godfather. Too bad, on Feb. 6, 1760 Frank is arrested in Warsaw for heresy, and imprisoned for 13 years in the Czestochowa Monastery, turning him into a martyr while he proclaims his new religion of Daas (Heb. "knowledge"); after his release in Aug. 1772, he lives in Brno, Moravia until 1786, receiving royal visitors incl. Tsar Paul I of Russia and Emperor Joseph II of Austria while making fans of Maria Theresa, until he gets to uppity and is exiled to Offenbach, Germany with his daughter Eve Frank (-1816), who takes over after he dies; the mothers of Frederic Chopin, Adam Mickiewicz, and Julius Slowacki are converted Frankist Jews? Ottoman sultan Osman III isues the Status Quo firman, dividing ownership and responsibilities of various Christian holy places in Jerusalem and Bethlehem; he follows with firmans in 1852 and 1853 requiring consensus from all six Christian communities for changes; the firmans receive internat. recognition in Article 9 of the 1856 Treaty of Paris. The Royal Library in London is transferred to the British Museum. The London Chronicle begins pub. (until 1823). Poor Richard's Almanack for 1757. The royal decree to pub. the French "Encyclopedie" is again revoked (until 1758). The first debt-free fiat colonial scrip is issued in the U.S., with Benjamin Franklin uttering the soundbyte: "In the colonies we issue our own money. It is called colonial scrip. We issue it in proper proportion to the demands of trade and industry to make the products pass easily from the producers to the consumers. In this manner, creating for ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power and we have no interest to pay no one." Architecture: Earl Verney begins Claydon House in Buckinghamshire, England (finished 1771), becoming the future home of Florence Nightingale. Inventions: Capt. John Campbell (1720-80) of England invents the Vernier Sextant. James Whatman (1702-59) of Kent, England invents Wove Paper (Papier Velin), featuring a uniform surface free of ribs and watermarks. French aristocrat Gaston Charles Pierre de Levis (Lévis) (1699-1757) dies ""an incompetent and mediocre individual... who owed his vast fortune to the affection Louis XV felt toward his wife and who had but one claim to fame: he gave his name to a sauce made of all kinds of meat and a variety of seasonings" (Pierre Larousse), giving his name to Mirepoix, the "holy trinity" of onions, carrots, and celery, cooked on gentle heat with butter in orderrto sweeten it without carmelizing; the Cajuns and Creoles change the holy trinity to onions, bell peppers, and celery. Science: Conches (near Geneva), Switzerland-born geologist Horace-Benedict de Saussure (1740-99) makes his first tour of Mont Blanc in the Alps of Savoy, carrying out physics experiments and devising an electrometer; in 1774 he tries to ascend Mont Blanc on the Italian side, settling for the Crammont in 1774 and 1778, the Buet in 1776, and Roche Michel above Mount Cenis Pass in 1780; in 1785 after making another unsuccessful attempt on Mont Blanc, he offers a reward, becoming known as "the Father of Alpinism". South Am. cinchona being so expensive, and assuming that since malaria comes from marshy places, the cure must ditto, English clergyman Edward Stone substitutes willow bark, and thinks it cures malaria as well, although all it does is reduce fever, which becomes known as the Willow Bark Fallacy. Nonfiction: John Bevis (1695-1771), The History and Philosophy of Earthquakes; used by John Michell in 1761. James Buchanan, Linguae Britannicae: Dictionary with Guide to Pronunciation. Edward Burke and William Burke (cousins), An Account of the European Settlements in America. Thomas Gray (1716-71), The Progress of Poesy. Albrecht von Haller (1708-77), Elementa Physiologiae Corporis (Elements of the Physiology of the Human Body) (1757-66); distinguishes irritability, a property of all living tissue, with sensibility, limited to tissues supplied with nerves. Richard Price (1723-91), Review of the Principal Questions in Morals. Thomas Simpson, Miscellaneous Tracts on Some Curious Subjects in Mechanics, Physical Astronomy and Speculative Mathematics. William Smith (1728-93), A Review of the Military Operations in North America, 1753-1756; The History of the Province of New York from its Discovery in 1532 (London). Art: John Singleton Copley (1738-1815), Mrs. Daniel Rea and Child. Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88), The Artist's Daughter with a Cat. Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805), La Paresseuse Italienne. Pietro Longhi, The Charlatan. Plays: Denis Diderot (1713-84), Entretiens sur le Fils Natural (not performed). John Home, Douglas (tragedy). Poetry: J.J. Bodmer (1698-1782) (ed.), Das Nibelungenlied. John Dyer, The Fleece. Christian Gellert (1715-69), Geistliche Oden und Lieder. Christoph Martin Wieland (1733-1813), Empfindungen eines Christen. Novels: Marie-Jeanne Riccoboni (1713-92), Letters of Mistress Fanni Butlerd (Lettres de Mistriss Fanni Butlerd). Births: English naturalist (Quaker) (blind) (epileptic) John Gough (pr. like gof) (Gow) (d. 1825) on Jan. 17 in Kendal, Westmorland. English tragedian (Roman Catholic) John Philip Kemble (d. 1823) on Feb. 1 in Prescot, Lancashire; eldest son of Roger Kemble (1721-1802); uncle of actress Fanny Kemble (1809-93). French orientalist historian-philosopher-politician Count Constantin Francois de Chasseboeuf, Comte de Volney (d. 1820) on Feb. 3 in Craon (Mayenne); creates the name Volney from Voltaire and Ferney. U.S. traitor gen. James Wilkinson (d. 1825) on Mar. 24 near er, Benedict, Calvert County, Md.; real plotter behind the Aaron Burr plot? British adm. Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth (d. 1833) on Apr. 19 in Dover; brother of Israel Pellew (1758-1832). English famous brother and Anglican clergyman William Nelson, Earl Nelson of Trafalgar and Merton (d. 1835) on Apr. 20; elder brother of Adm. Horatio Nelson (1758-1805); created earl on Nov. 20, 1805. French physicist-inventor-parachutist Louis Sebastien Lenormand (d. 1837) on May 25 in Montpellier; first parachutist (1783); coiner of the word "parachute" (French "parasol" + "chute" = sun shield + fall). French-Austrian composer and pianoforte maker Ignaz Joseph Pleyel (d. 1831) on June 18 in Ruppersthal, Lower Austria; pupil of Franz Joseph Haydn. English caricaturist ("Father of the Political Cartton) ")James Gillray (Gilray) (d. 1815) (b. 1756?) on Aug. 13 in Chelsea. U.S. Rev. War and War of 1812 Gen. Green Clay (d. 1828) on Aug. 14 in Powhatan County, Va.; father of Cassius Marcellus Clay (1810-1903); cousin of Henry Clay (1777-1852). German grand duke (Goethe's patron) Karl August of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (d. 1828) on Sept. 3 in Weimar; father of grand duke Karl Friedrich (1783-1853). French "stack of love" gen.-statesman (hero of the Am. Rev.) (Freemason) Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (d. 1834) on Sept. 6 in Chavaniac; becomes a U.S. maj. gen. at age 19. French king (1824-30) Charles X, Count of Artois (d. 1836) on Oct. 9 in Versailles; youngest son of Dauphin Louis and Dauphine Marie Josephe; brother of Louis XVI and Louis XVIII; uncle of Louis XVII. Prussian statesman and PM Baron Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein (d. 1831) on Oct. 25 near Nassau. Am. Dem.-Repub. politician-diplomat (U.S. Constitution signer) Charles Pinckney (d. 1824) on Oct. 26 in Charleston, S.C.; son of Col. Charles Pinckney (1731-82); 2nd cousin of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (1746-1825); father of Henry L. Pinckney (1794-1863). Italian #1 Neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova (d. 1822) on Nov. 1 in Passagno, Venice; known for his lifelike marble skin. German Rappist founder Johann Georg Rapp (d. 1847) on Nov. 1 in Iptingen, Wurttemberg. U.S. navy sec. #2 (1801-9) and state secy. #6 (1809-11) Robert Smith (d. 1842) on Nov. 3 in Lancaster, Penn.; educated at Princeton U. French Rev. leader Jacques Rene Hebert (René Hébert) (AKA Pere Duchesne) (d. 1794) on Nov. 15 in Alencon, Orne. Am. soldier-diplomat and U.S. Supreme Court justice #15 (1806-23) Henry Brockholst Livingston (d. 1823) on Nov. 25 in New York City; son of William Livingston (1723-90); cousin of Robert R. Livingston (1746-1813); educated at Princeton U. English "The Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in the Sun", "Songs of Innocence" Romantic mystic visionary poet-painter-engraver William Blake (d. 1827) on Nov. 28 in Soho, London; at age 8 sees a vision of angels near a tree, runs home and tells his parents, and mommy saves him from a thrashing by daddy, affecting him for life?; begins writing poetry at age 12; at age 14 is apprenticed to a London engraver; lives his entire life in London except for three years in Felpham; claims that imagination is "the body of God" and "human existence itself". English theater composer-organist William Reeve (d. 1815) in London. Am. Dem.-Repub. Ga. gov. #26 (1802-6), U.S. Rep. (1792-9), and U.S. Sen. (1806-9) John Milledge (d. 1818) in Savannah; founder of Athens, Ga. and the U. of Ga. Deaths: French author Bernard Fontenelle (b. 1657) on Jan. 9. English actor-dramatist-poet Colley Cibber (b. 1671). English diplomat-politician Sir Paul Methuen (b. 1672) on Apr. 11; buried next to his father John Methuen in Westminster Abbey; names his cousin Paul Methuen (1723-95) as his heir; namesake of Methuen, Mass. British colonial gov. Jonathan Belcher (b. 1682) on Aug. 31. French scientist Rene Antoine Ferchault de Reaumur (b. 1683). British adm. Edward Vernon (b. 1684) on Oct. 30 in Nacton; of Mount Vernon and Old Grog fame. Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti (b. 1685) on July 23 in Madrid; leaves 550 keyboard sonatas. Scottish merchant Colin Campbell (b. 1686); dies rich. Prussian queen Sophie Dorothea (b. 1687); mother of Frederick II the Great. French publisher Francois Didot (b. 1689). English poet Mary Barber (b. 1690). Austrian painter Daniel Gran (b. 1694) on Apr. 16 in St. Polten. English poet John Dyer (b. 1699). Ottoman sultan (1754-7) Osman III (b. 1699) on Oct. 30. English physiologist David Hartley (b. 1705) on Aug. 28 in Bath. Prussian gen. Hans Karl von Winterfeldt (b. 1707) on Sept. 8. German mathematician Johann Samuel Konig (b. 1712) on Aug. 21 in the Netherlands. Czech violinist-composer Johann Stamitz (b. 1717) on Mar. 30 in Mannheim. Italian "Thoroughbass Made Easy" violinist-composer Niccolo Pasquali (b. ?).
1758 Early in the year Frederick II of Prussia campaigns in Moravia and blockades Olmutz, but fails to take it. In Jan. Jonathan Edwards (b. 1703) becomes pres. of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton U.), 3 mo. before his Mar. 22 death. On Mar. 3 Col. Lord Jeffrey Amherst (1717-97), aide-de-camp to the incompetent Duke of Cumberland is promoted by William Pitt to the rank of maj.-gen., with a commission to be English CIC at the siege of the formidable French fortress of Ft. Louisbourg on the St. Lawrence River; he arrives in May from the Elbe River in Halifax Harbor on a foggy day to take command of the British army, joining Cornish Adm. Edward Boscawen (1711-61) and brig. gen. James Wolfe (1727-59), then leading 12K British and colonial forces (plus 13K seamen) to French-held Ft. Louisbourg in Nova Scotia, which is defended by 3K French regulars, 1K militia, 2.6K seamen, and a large band of Indians, all under Chevalier Augustin de Drucour (1703-62), and falls on July 27 after a 7-week siege, becoming the final triumph of British power in North Am.; Lord Amherst's aide-de-camp Billy Amherst is sent to London with the news, causing a big celebration with fireworks and parades; Wolfe is promoted to maj. gen., and becomes the first to use the word "Yankee" (from the Dutch word "Janke" meaning Little John, slang for a pirate) to refer to New England soldiers under his command, with the soundbyte: "I can afford you two companies of Yankees, and the more because they are better for ranging and scouting than either work or vigilance." In Mar. Lord Loudon departs from North Am., and is replaced as British Am. CIC by Gen. James Abercrombie (until 1759), going on to earn the nickname "Mrs. Nannycromby" for his vacillating leadership, although he is good at organization, moving 15K troops through the wilderness to get their butts kicked. On Apr. 19 after invading Punjab, the Marathas drive out the army of Ahmed Shah Abdali from Lahore, then station armies in Attock, Multan, and Peshawar, evicting the last remnants of the Afghan army, becoming their most northwesternly penetration of the Punjab, lasting 14 mo., after which the phrase "Atakepaar jhende" (Flags beyond Attock) becomes a slogan of pride. On May 3 Pope (since 1740) Benedict XIV (b. 1675) dies, and on July 6 Carlo Della Torre Rezzonico is elected Pope (#248) Clement XIII (1693-1769). On June 23 the French under Louis de Bourbon-Conde (Bourbon-Condé), Comte de Clermont (1709-71) (great-grandson of the Great Conde, and grandmaster #5 of the Grand Masonic Lodge of France) lose the Battle of Krefeld (Crefeld) in Germany to the allied Prussian-Hanoverian army of duke Ferdinand of Brunswick-Luneburg (1721-92) after he drives them back over the Rhine River; the Russians occupy East Prussia again, and on Aug. 25 the Battle of Zorndorf between Prussia and Russia is a V for the Prussians (a push?); the Austrians then invade Lusatia and siege Neisse, causing Frederick II to rush to the aid of his brother Henry, relieving it on Nov. 6. On July 8 3K French under the Marquis de Montcalm defeat 15K attacking British under bumbling "Mrs. Nabbycromby" (Gen. James Ambercrombie) at the Battle of Ticonderoga after a hopeless frontal attack with bayonets, losing 2K in six hours after his brain man Lord George Howe is killed in a preliminary skirmish, until they panic and flee to their camp S of Lake George; the Mohawk Valley is now open for Indian raids in New York and New England, causing Gen. Amherst and his troops to rush to Ambercrombie's aid, first stopping on Sept. 13 in Boston, Mass., where they receive a hero's welcome; "Thousands of People came to see them and would give them Liquor and make the men Drunk in Spite of all that could be done" (Amherst); on Nov. 9 Abercrombie is recalled, and Amherst becomes CIC of British forces in North Am., wintering in Albany, N.Y. On Aug. 25-27 French-controlled Ft. Frontenac on Lake Ontatio (built 1673) falls to the British under Col. John Bradstreet (1711-74), whose expedition is guided by 16-y.-o. Mohawk chief John Brant. On Oct. 10 the First Battle of Lutterberg (Lutternburg) (Lauterbach) is a V for 42K French and Saxons under the prince of Soubise over 14K Allied troops under Gen. Oberg, earning Soubise a marshal's baton. On Oct. 14 the Austrians under Gen. Baun defeat the Prussians under Frederick II at the Battle of Hochkirch, but are unable to drive them out of Saxony and Silesia. On Oct. 20 after delivering lectures bucking the monopoly of Roman civil law, Sir William Blackstone (1723-80) becomes the first Vinerian Prof. of Common (later English) Law at Oxford U., endowed by Charles Viner (1678-1756). On Nov. 24 the British led by Fife, Scotland-born Gen. John Forbes (1707-59) retake Ft. Duquesne in Penn. from the British after the French defeat their advance party then give up and destroy and abandon it; on Nov. 27 after occupying it on Nov. 25 Forbes renames it Pittsburgh (pr. PITS-buh-rah) (modern-day pop. 306K/2.66M) in honor of PM William Pitt the Elder, then construct the new smaller Ft. Pitt during the winter of 1758-9; it is incorporated as a township in 1771, and as a borough on Apr. 22, 194; Pittsburgh goes on to become known as Steel City for its 300 steel-related businesses, and the City of Bridges for its 446 bridges along the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers. After engineering the alliance between France and Austria, Etienne Francois, Duc de Choiseul (1719-85) replaces Cardinal de Bernis as French foreign minister, going on to direct French foreign policy during the Seven Years' War (until 1770). The Dutch capitulate at Chinsura, and Robert Clive becomes the first British gov. of Bengal. King Augustus III of Poland requests from the Russian Empress Elizabeth that his son Charles be given the Dukedom of Courland, and Elizabeth agrees. The Horeki Scandal in Japan sees a large number of young court nobles attempt restoration of direct imperial rule under Momozono and get their butts kicked by the shogunate. China occupies E Turkestan. New Englanders begin fishing in Battle Harbor on the Labrador coast. The first provincial parliament of Nova Scotia meets in Halfax. After intoxicating voters with 39 pounds worth of alcohol, wealthy connected George Washington is elected to the Va. House of Burgesses despite being a military officer, spending 16 years there then bragging that he isn't a politician? Outey Reachea II (1739-77) becomes king of Cambodia (until 1775). The Shaker sect in England is joined by Mother Ann Lee (1736-84), a young convert from Manchester, who has revelations that she is the female Christ. The British navy orders that Cheshire and Gloucester cheeses be stocked on ships - next stop Nocturn Alley, grab the pea soup? Harvard grad. John Adams (b. 1735) is admitted to the bar. Raphael Santi's remains are relocated to the Roman Pantheon as part of a historic tribute to eminent Italians. German cobbler's son Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-68) gets interested in the ruins of Pompeii and bribes a foreman to look at the site, writing a systematic reconstruction of six cents. of life there, until he is murdered by a chance gay bud in Trieste. After Indians scalp her entire family in Penn. (except younger brother Daniel), 16-y.-o. Mary Jemison (1743-1833) is kidnapped by six Shawnees and four Frenchmen and given to two Seneca sisters as a replacement for their brother who had been killed earlier by whites; she grows up with the Senecas, marries and has children; a statue to her is later erected near Gettysburg, Penn. Dr. Samuel Johnson begins contributing a series of essays to the Universal Chronicle called The Idler (until 1760). Poor Richard's Almanack for 1758 pub. its last ed. (first issue 1732). The Serjeant's Inn (London Court) is founded, becoming the legal center of Britain; it is destroyed by the 1666 Great London Fire. Benjamin Jackson of Globe Mills, Germantown, Philadelphia, Penn. becomes the first to sell bottled mustard in Am. Architecture: After earlier versions burned down or were demolished in 1381, 1450, and 1761 the King's Bench Prison in St. George's Fields, Southwark, South London near Horsemonger Lane Gaol is built to house convicts of the King's Bench court, mainly convicted of defamation, bankruptcy and other misdemeanors, becoming known for dirty overcrowded conditions incl. typhus outbreaks; debtors have to provide their own food, drink, and bedding; those with money could purchase the Liberty of the King's Bench Rules, allowing them to live within a 3 m. radius; it is mentioned in Charles Dickens' novels "David Copperfield" and "Nicholas Nickleby", and in Herman Melville's novel "Billy Budd"; in 1842 it is renamed the Queen's Prison, later Southwark Convict Prison; after debtor's prisons are abolished in the 1860s, it is closed in 1880. French architect Jacques Germain Soufflot (1713-80), who was appointed dir. gen. of royal bldgs. in Paris in 1755 begins the neoclassical Church of St. Genevieve in the Latin Quarter in Paris (finished 1790), based on the Pantheon in Rome, with strict lines, firm form, simple countours, and rigorously architectonic detail. Redwood Library in Newport, R.I. (begun 1749) is completed. Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater (1736-1803) begins a 7.5-mi. canal between Liverpool and Manchester for his coal mines in Worsley, Lancashire, (finished 1761), engineered by James Brindley (1716-72), becoming the first true canal in the modern world, causing a canal boom that leads to Britain's Industrial Rev.? Christ Church in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass. is built. John Carr and Robert Adam begin building Harewood House (pr. like harwood) (finished 1771) near Leeds, West Yorkshire, England for rich Barbados-born slave trader Edwin Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood (1713-95), who furnishes it with stuff from neighbor Thomas Chippendale of Otley; in modern times it becomes one of the nine Treasure Houses of England. Inventions: In 1758 John Dollond (1706-61) and Chester Moor Hall (1703-71) of England independently invent the Achromatic Lens for telescopes after taking Leonhard Euler's 1747 suggestion of glass and water lenses and switching to crown and flint glass, countering Newton's belief that chromatic aberration is present in all lenses; after finding that optician George Bass made achromatic lenses without patenting them in 1733, Dolland refrains from enforcing his patent, but when he dies his son Peter Dollond (1730-1820) goes after everybody and gets the patent upheld, ruining several opticians until it expires in 1772. Jedediah Strutt (1726-97) of Derbyshire, England invents a Derby Rib Machine for ribbed stocking manufacture, becoming the first improvement on Rev. William Lee's 1589 stocking frame - strut around in ribbed hose by Jedediah Strutt? Japanese playwright Namiki Shoza introduces the Revolving Stage (mawaributai) to Kabuki in Osaka, inspired by a child's spinning top. Science: On Dec. 25 Halley's Comet is located on the predicted return date by German astronomer Johann Georg Palitzsch (1723-88), making English astronomer royal Edmund Halley (d. 1742) a superstar; its closest approach is next Mar., as predicted by Alexis Clairaut - proof that 1759 is Britain's year? French astronomer Charles Messier (1730-1817) rediscovers the Crab Nebula in the constellation Taurus, first seen by Chinese astronomers in 1054, and decides that it isn't a comet since it doesn't move, causing him to begin compiling his Messier Star Catalog, with this as M1 (actually a catalog of celestial objects that shouldn't be mistaken for comets). Nonfiction: William Battie (1703-58), Treatise on Madness; the first lengthy treatment of mental illness, suggesting treatments for mental patients housed in asylums, and advocating the same treatments for the rich and poor, helping make psychiatry a respectable specialty; in 1764 he becomes the first psychiatrist pres. of the Royal College of Physicians. Sir William Blackstone (1723-80), A Discourse on the Study of the Law. Roger Joseph Boscovich (1711-87), A Theory of Natural Philosophy Reduced to a Single Law of the Actions Existing in Nature (Theoriam Philosophiae Naturalis Redacta ad Unicam Legem Virium in Natural Existentium); Jesuit mathematician in Dalmatia questions Newtonian action at a distance and pioneers field theory, later influencing Michael Faraday. Axel Fredrik Cronstedt, Essay on the New Mineralogy; claims four classes of minerals: earths, bitumens, salts, and metals, and attempts to classify them by chemical structure not just appearance. Claude Adrien Helvetius (1715-71), De l'Esprit; or, Essays on the Mind, and Its Several Faculties (English tr. 1810); his magnum opus, attempting to refute Montesquieu's 1748 "Spirit of the Laws: and its theory that climate influences nat. character, declares that all human faculties are attributes of mere physical sensation, and that the only real motive is self-interest, and therefore there is no good and evil, only competitive pleasures, hence hedonism rules; pisses-off the theological faculty of the Sorbonne, who publicly burn his work in 1759, causing him to travel in England, then Germany, where Frederick II the Great receives him with honor, allowing him to retire to his country estate back in France. Henry Home, Lord Kames (1696-82), Historical Law-Tracts,; first book describing human social evolution in four stages, incl. hunter-gatherer, herder, farmer, and commerce (market towns), founding the fields of anthropology and sociology along with the modern study of history. William Kenrick (1725-79), Epistles, Philosophical and Moral, An Avowed Defence of Infidelity. Duhamel du Monceau, La Physique des Arbres (The Physics of Trees); structure and physiology - how do they suck that water all the way up into the top branches? Jean Etienne Montucla (1725-99), Histoire des Mathematiques (Mathématiques) (4 vols) (1758-1802); completed by Jeome Lalande; "His first volume covered Greek, Roman, and Eastern traditions, while the second covered geometry, mechanics and optics up to the seventeenth century. Forty years later the second edition began to appear, although the author then died and task of completion fell to Jérôme Lalande. With the help of various colleagues, he completed the third volume and wrote the fourth within four years. The first two volumes covered the same material as before, while the other two handled all aspects of the eighteenth century; the whole encompassed around 3000 pages, including indexes (themselves an excellent feature)... One curious feature of the work, especially in chapters on applied mathematics, is the lack of mathematical symbolism in the text: Montucla and Lalande were often content with a verbal account of the work without entering into symbolic renderings. Of course many basic aspects of the history of mathematics were thus left out." (Ivor Grattan-Guinness) Francois Quesnay (1694-1774), Tableau Economique; claims that only agriculture can yield products of greater value than the resources used for production, and attempts to show how the wealth circulates throughout the economy in a zig-zag (circular) flow between economic sectors, founding the Physiocrat (Gk. "govt. of Nature") School of Economics; first description of the multiplier in economics; pioneers the analysis of tax incidence, the tracing of whom a tax ultimately falls on. Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), Heaven and Hell (Heaven and its Wonders and Hell from Things Heard and Seen); written after going from an inventor-scientist to a visionary on Apr. 6, 1744 (Easter), receiving a revelation that he was appointed by Jesus Christ to reform Christianity, with the power to freely visit heaven and hell and converse with angels and demons, claiming to give a detailed description of the afterlife, where we go through several spiritual reincarnations; claims that the Last Judgment occurred last year; Of the New Jerusalem (De Nova Hierosolyma); promotes the Church of the New Jerusalem; Earths in the Universe; claims to have been in contact with beings from other planets for over a decade. Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), The History of the Four Last Years of the Queen (posth.). Emerich de Vattel, Le Droit des Gens. The first English Manual on Guitar Playing is pub. - let's see, that's EADGB, every atheist describes God badly? Art: Francois Boucher (1703-70), Portrait of Madame Pompadour. Allan Ramsay (1713-84), Portrait of Dr. William Hunter. Plays: Denis Diderot (1713-84), Le Pere (Père) de Famille (drama) (not performed). Salomon Gessner, Der Tod Abels; Cain and Abel. Christoph Martin Wieland (1733-1813), Lady Johanna Gray (tragedy). Poetry: Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim (1719-1803), Preussische Kriegslieder von Einem Grenadier; inspired by Frederick II the Great's campaigns; first noble political poem in modern German lit.? James Macpherson (1736-96), The Highlander. Christoph Martin Wieland (1733-1813), Cyrus. Novels: Charlotte Lennox (1720-1804), The History of Henrietta. Marie-Jeanne Riccoboni (1713-92), Story of the Marquis de Cressy (Histoire du Marquis de Cressy). Births: French statesman-financier Count Nicolas-Francois Mollien (d. 1850) on Feb. 28 in Rouen; created count in 1808; namesake of the molly (mollie) aquarium fish. German physician (founder of phrenology) Franz Joseph (Josef) Gall (d. 1828) on Mar. 9 in Baden. English portraitist John Hoppner (d. 1810) on Apr. 4 in Whitechapel, London; influenced by Sir Joshua Reynolds; of German descent, causing George III to take a shine to him as a boy. French "Crucifixion", "The King of Rome" Romantic painter Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (d. 1823) on Apr. 4 in Cluny, Saone-et-Loire, Burgundy. U.S. Dem.-Repub. pres. #5 (1817-25) (Freemason) James Monroe (d. 1831) on Apr. 28 in Westmoreland County, Va.; educated at William and Mary College. French Rev. leader (Rousseau nut) and atty. Maximilien Francois Marie Isidore de Robespierre (d. 1794) on May 6 in Arras, Artois; of Irish descent. French marshal (#2 greatest French gen. after Napoleon I?) Jean-Andre Massena (Jean-André Masséna) (Andrea Massena), 1st Duc de Rivoli, 1st Prince d'Essling (d. 1817) on May 6 in Nice, Sardinia, Italy. English Neoplatonist scholar ("the English Platonist") Thomas Taylor (d. 1835) on May 15 in London; educated at St. Paul's School, London; first to translate the complete works of Plato and Aristotle into English; so hepped up on ancient pagan Greece that he only speaks to his wife in classical Greek. Am. New York City Hall, Newgate Prison architect Joseph-Francois Mangin (d. ?) on June 10 in Dompaire, Vosges, France; educated at the U. of Nancy; becomes a U.S. citizen in 1796. Italian "Da Vinci's Last Supper" engraver Raffaello Sanzio Morghen (d. 1833) on June 19 in Naples; of German descent. Japanese emperor #118 (1771-9) Go-Momozono (Hidehito) (d. 1779) on Aug. 5; eldest son of Momozono (1741-62); 2nd cousin of Kokau (1771-1840). French painter Carle Antoine Charles Horace Vernet (d. 1836) on Aug. 14 in Bordeaux; youngest child of Claude Joseph Vernet; father of Horace Vernet; student of Nicolas-Bernard Lepicie. English Whig politician (of Spencer jacket fame) George John Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer (d. 1834) on Sept. 1 in Wimbledon; son of John Spencer, 1st Earl Spencer (1734-83); father of John Spencer, 3rd earl Spencer (1782-1845). Am. banker-warden (Quaker) Thomas Eddy (d. 1827) on Sept. 5 in Philadelphia, Penn.; Irish Quaker immigrant parents. Scottish landscape painter ("Father of Scottish Landscape Painting") Alexander Nasmyth (d. 1840) on Sept. 9 in Edinburgh; father of steam hammer inventor James Nasmyth (1808-90); known for his portrait of Robert Burns; loses commissions to aristocrats after he can't keep his mouth shut about his liberal opinions. Haitian leader (black) Gen. Jean Jacques Dessalines (d. 1806) on Sept. 20 in Cormiers. French orientalist-linguist Antoine Isaac, Baron Silvestre de Sacy (d. 1838) on Sept. 21 in Paris; father of Ustazade Silvestre de Sacy (1801-79). English super hero vice-adm. Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson (d. 1805) on Sept. 29 in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk; younger brother of William Nelson, 1st earl Nelson (1757-1835); lover (1793-) of Lady Emma Hamilton (1761-1815). French Creole fur trader Jean-Pierre Chouteau (d. 1849) on Oct. 10 in New Orleans, La. German Olbers' Paradox astronomer-physician Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias (Matthaus) (Matthäus) Olbers (d. 1840) on Oct. 11 in Arbergen (near Bremen). German "Ariadne on the Panther" sculptor Johann Heinrich von Dannecker (d. 1841) on Oct. 16 in Waldenbuch (near Stuttgart). Am. Blue-Backed Speller lexicographer ("Father of American Scholarship and Education") Noah Webster Jr. (d. 1843) on Oct. 16 in Hartford, Conn.; never goes to college; rival of Joseph Emerson Worcester (1784-1865). French gen. Louis Andre (André) Bon (d. 1799) on Oct. 25 in Romans-sur-Isere, Dauphine. French botanist Louis-Marie Aubert du Petit-Thouars (d. 1831) on Nov. 5 in Bournois, Anjou; brother of Aristide Aubert Du Petit Thouars (1760-98). Am. statesman-gen. John Armstrong Jr. (d. 1843) on Nov. 25 in Carlisle, Penn.; son of Irish-born Gen. John Armstrong Sr. (1717-95); of Scottish descent; brother of James Armstrong (1748-1828); educated at Princeton U. British Adm. Sir Eliab Harvey (d. 1830) on Dec. 5 in Rolls Park, Chigwell, Essex; knighted in 1815; distant relative of William Harvey (1578-1657); known for recklessly gambling his inheritance in London. English antiquarian Sir Richard Colt Hoare, 2nd Baronet (d. 1838) on Dec. 9 in Barnes, Surrey; patron of William Cunnington (1754-1810). German Romantic composer-conductor Karl (Carl) Friedrich Zelter (d. 1832) on Dec. 11 in Berlin; friend and musical adviser of of Goethe. Am. Old Republican Dem.-Repub. politician Nathaniel Macon (d. 1837) on Dec. 17 near Warrenton, Edgecome (Warren) County, N.C.; educated at Princeton U. Am. Seneca Indian leader Red Jacket (Sa-Go-Ye-Wat-Ha) (d. 1830). Deaths: German painter Johann Baptist Zimmermann (b. 1680) on Mar. 2 in Munich. Scottish poet Allan Ramsay (b. 1686) on Jan. 7. Swedish composer Johan Helmich Roman (b. 1694). French scientist Pierre Bouguer (b. 1698) on Aug. 15. Am. theologian Jonathan Edwards (b. 1703) on Mar. 22 in Princeton, N.J.
1759 This is the Annus Mirabilus (Lat. "Year of Wonders") of Britain, with a string of big Vs over France in the Seven Years' War. On Jan. 6 Swedish gen. Lantinghausen is driven back to Straslund by a united Prussian force under Gen. Dohna and Gen. Manteuffel. On Jan. 6 Port Royal, Martinique is bombarbed by the English under Gen. Hopson and Commodore Moore, who unsuccessfully attempt to capture it. A rich widow - a smart way to keep moving forward? Lucky George Dubya I gets a beautiful rich babe with benefits and has it made for life? On Jan. 6 after giving up on his married neighbor Sally Cary Fairfax, wife of his wealthy friend George William "Will" Fairfax (-1787) (whom he was sponging off of?) destitute George Washington (b. 1732), newly-resigned from the militia marries beautiful wealthy widow (richest in Va.) Martha Dandridge "Patsy" Custis (1731-1802) (8 mo. older than him), who has two small children, John "Jacky" "Jackie" Parke Custis (1754-1781) and Martha "Patsy" Parke Custis (1756-1773), and settles down as a gentleman farmer at her large plantation and 6-room house in Mount Vernon, Va.; they have no children; he gains 17K acres of prime farmland and 286 slaves from his new wife, and harvests his first tobacco crop, but it is of such low quality that he almost goes bankrupt, and switches to wheat, inventing a 2-story 16-sided "treading barn" where horses on the 2nd story trample it and the kernels fall to storage bins on the first story; he spends 45 years improving the plantation, increasing the number of rooms in the house to 20, having pine panels painted to look like mahogany; he thinks big and forms plans to make the Potomac River into the #1 commercial artery of Am.; meanwhile she brings the Booke of Cookery and Booke of Sweetmeats, which the Custis family gave her at her 1749 marriage, using it to personally supervise the preparation of every meal by her servants. On Jan. 12 British Gen. Lord Amherst issues a gen. pardon for all deserters from Gen. Ambercromby's loser army if they rejoin by Mar.; he assigns the taking of Quebec to Gen. James Wolfe, Oswego and Ft. Niagara to brig. gen. Sir John Prideaux (1718-59), leaving Ticonderoga, the hardest nut to crack for himself. On Jan. 17 the Prussians capture Demmin from the Swedes, followed on Jan. 21 by Anklam, then siege Stralsund. On Jan. 23 the English navy under Commodore Moore bombard French-held Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe, and on Jan. 24 an invasion force under Gen. Hopson captures it; too bad, on Feb. 23 Hopson dies, and is succeeded by Gen. Barrington, who goes on to take it on May 1. On Feb. 23 Prussian Gen. Wobersnow leads 46 cavalry and 29 infantry battalions from Glogau, Silesia to sever Russian supply lines in Poland, penetrating past pesky Cossacks to Posen, destroying a Russian magazine, then returning to Silesia on Apr. 18. In Mar. 2.5K English troops under Col. Forde attack French-held Masulipatam, India, commanded by Marshal de Conflans, and take it after a 2-hour bombardment and token fight. In Mar. the French resume their western offensive, and on Apr. 13 their 35K-man French-Saxon force led by Victor-Francois, 2nd Duc de Broglie (1718-1804) defeat a 24K-man Hanoverian-Hessian-Brunswicker-English force led by Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick at the Battle of Bergen in W Germany near Frankfurt, and the Germans retreat N to the Wesel River, allowing the French to advance to Minden; de Broglie is promoted to marshal by Louis XV and prince (Reichsfurst) by HRE Francis I. In Apr. the Prussians recapture Peenemunde from the Swedes. On May 15 after receiving news of massive Russian maneuvers, the Prussians under Prince Henry lift their siege of Stralsund to take them on, and on May 16 they capture Bamberg in Franconia. On May 26 the English capture Marie Galante Island in the Guadeloupe Archipelago from the French (until 1763). In May British brig. gen. Sir John Prideaux leaves Albany with a British army, reaching Oswego, and rebuilding the fort destroyed by the French in 1756. Having burned what I learned I was spurned? In the summer Benjamin Franklin travels to Scotland and meets the greats of the Scottish Enlightenment, economist Adam Smith, skeptical philosopher David Hume, scientist Sir Alexander Dick, and jurist-historian Lord Kames - just say the two words with a powerful scientific punch: thank you? On June 26 a British force of 9K men under Gen. James Wolfe, supported by a flotilla under Adm. Sir Charles Saunders (1713-75) arrives and sets up HQ on the Isle of Orleans in the St. Lawrence River 5 mi. to the NE, beginning a siege on June 27 (ends Sept. 17), with Saunders positioning his ships so that French supplies and reinforcements are blocked, a winning strategy which gets him knighted in 1761 and appointed first lord of the admiralty in 1761. In June the British under Gen. Amherst arrive at Lake George with a force less than half that of Ambercromby's the year before, braving the summer heat and sailing up the lake on July 22 (using sails made from army blankets) into Lake Champlain, landing 3 mi. from star-shaped Ft. Ticonderoga, then slogging through bogs and thickets to the site of last year's massacre, finding a large grave with a copper plate reading, "Bury their generals here, like Oreb and Zeeb, Zebah and Zalmunna" (Book of Judges); the British force now incl. colonial Maj. Robert Rogers (Rodgers) (1731-95) and his Rogers' Rangers, Israel Putnam, Ethan Allen, John Stark, and Benedict Arnold; the 3K French are commanded by Chevalier Francois-Charles de Bourlamaque (1716-64), who follows prior orders from former French La. gov. (1743-52) and new gov.-gen. of New France (1755-60) Pierre de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil de Cavagnial (1698-1778) to abandon Ticonderoga with 2.5K men for the more defensible fortified Isle aux Noix (Nut Island), leaving the fort to Capt. Francois de Hebecourt and a garrison of 400; on July 26 they too evacuate, blowing up the powder magazine at 11 p.m., setting the barracks on fire, but the British move in and save the rest, taking the fort with a loss of 16 KIA and 51 wounded. On July 1 Sir John Prideaux leads part of his force (2.5K Brits plus 900 Iroquois) from Oswego to Ft. Niagara, avoiding French ships and landing 4 mi. E of it on July 6, surrounding it, then sieging and digging trenches toward the walls while bombarding it 24 hours a day, coming within 80 yards of the walls by July 24; after Prideaux is accidentally killed, his 2nd in command, Dieskau hero Sir William Johnson (1715-74) takes over; on July 24 a relief force of 1.3K French and Indians from the Ohio under Col. Ligneris are defeated 1 mi. S of the fort at the bloody Battle of La Belle Famille, and on July 25 French Capt. Pouchot surrenders Ft. Niagara and its garrison of 600 French troops. On July 23 the Battle of Kay (Paltzig) (Zullichau) (Sulechow) near Kay (Kije), Neumark, Poland on the Prussian-Polish border sees 26K Prussians under Gen. von Wedell defeated by 41K Russians under Count Pyotr Semyonovich Saltykov (1700-72) and retreat across the Oder River, while the Russians go on to occupy Frankfurt-an-der-Oder. On July 24 Sir William Johnson (who succeeds Gen. Prideaux after being KIA by a shell fragment) captures Ft. Niagara; meanwhile brig. gen. Thomas Gage succeeds Prideaux, and fails to take Oswego by winter. On July 25 the French under Gen. d'Armentieres capture Munster, Germany and take 4K POWs. On July 31 brash British Gen. James Wolfe attacks the French left flank positions on a rocky gorge at the Battle of Montmorency (Montmorenci) Falls (Gorge) (Beauport) near Quebec with 4K men, and is repulsed with heavy losses (210 KIA, 233 wounded vs 60 French casualties); Wolfe's brigadiers then counsel a landing on the N shore of the St. Lawrence River. On Aug. 1 a 37K-man Hanoverian-Hessian-English army under Prussian field marshal (1758-66) Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick defeats 44K French troops under Marquis de Contades at the Battle of Minden in Brunswick, W Germany, with 7K French KIA vs. 2,762 Anglo-German casualties, after which the French cross back over the Rhine, and English Gen. George Sackville is sacked for failing to use his cavalry to exploit the French retreat and turn it into a rout, and is replaced by Gen. John Manners, Marquess of Granby (1721-70). On Aug. 10 Spanish king (since 1746) Ferdinand VI (b. 1713) dies, and his Francophile half-brother Charles III (1716-88) becomes Bourbon king #3 of Spain (until Dec. 14, 1788), finally bringing some enlightenment to Spain, incl. French art and lit., although it doesn't penetrate too far into the people; on Oct. 6 he hands the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Naples and Sicily) over to his 8-y.-o. 3rd son Ferdinand IV (1751-1825) via a Pragmatic Sanction under the titles Ferdinand IV of Naples and Ferdinand III of Sicily, with Bernardo Tanucci (1698-1793) as regent, who bernards to institute tanucci liberal reforms and consider a military alliance with France - a chicken sandwich is a chicken sandwich is a chicken sandwich? On Aug. 12 after Frederick II the Great is unable to prevent the union of the Austrians and French the Battle of Kunersdorf in E Germany, the first battle where regular units of horse artillery are deployed sees his 40K-man Prussian army receive its worst-ever defeat after attacking a fortified position of 80K Russians and Austrians under Gen. Saltykov and Gen. Ernst Gideon, Baron von Loudon (1717-90); the battle freaks Freddy Not-So-Great so much that he turns over command to his brother Prince Henry and flirts with suicide, but luckily the Russians and Austrians fail to exploit their V and soon part ways. On Aug. 18 the Battle of Lagos Bay off the coast of Portugal sees a French squadron of 12 ships under Commodore de la Clue defeated by 14 British ships under Adm. "Old Dreadnought" Boscawen, destroying all but five ships, who retreat to Cadiz, foiling French plans to invade England and Scotland. In Aug. after the French abandon Ft. St. Frederic at Crown Point on Lake Champlain (15 mi. to the N), the British fortify it, and build Crown Point Military Road over Vt. hill country to Ft. Number Four (later Charlestown, N.H.), and prepare to take the Isle aux Noix, which is defended by four small French warships; meanwhile Amherst refuses spoils, accepting only the governorship of Va. on the condition he would never have to go there and could return to Kent and be with his mad wife. On Aug. 25-Sept. 3 the Battle of Trincomalee off the coast of India sees 12 English ships under Adm. Sir George Pocock (1706-92) defeat 14 French ships under Comte d'Ache (d’Aché). On Sept. 9 the Battle of Hoyerswerda NW of Bautzen in Lower Lusatia sees Prussian Prince Henry defeat 5K-6K Austrians under Gen. Vehla, capturing him and 1.8K of his men. On Sept. 11 French-held Marburg in Germany surrenders to the allies, who take 900 POWs. On Sept. 12 (night) 5K men under Gen. James Wolfe move downstream, landing 1.5 mi. SW of Quebec, then scale the steep 300-ft. Cape Diamond cliff at the confluence of the St. Charles and St. Lawrence Rivers, leading to the citadel of Quebec on the Plains of Abraham (named for landowner Abraham Martin) overlooking Quebec City; on Sept. 13 the British draw out the French under Gen. Louis Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm (1712-59) and decisively defeat them, then capture the city; both Wolfe and Montcalm die in the 15-min. battle which helps found Canada, making Wolfe a British hero. On Sept. 14 Prussian Gen. von Schmettau surrenders Dresden to allied troops under Gen. McQuire, causing pissed-off Frederick II the Great to court-martial and force him to retire with a meager pension. In Sept. the Swedish fleet defeats the pathetic Prussian fleet. On Oct. 4 in retribution for the 1757 Abenaki massacre of British soldiers at Ft. William Henry in Upstate N.Y., "White Devil" Maj. Robert Rogers and his force of 150-200 Rangers attack and destroy the Abenaki village of Saint-Francis-du-Lac in Quebec, then undergo a nightmarish trek home, resorting to cannibalism to survive until relieved by the British, as depicted in the 1940 Spencer Tracy film Northwest Passage - I feel naughty doing this? On Oct. 21 Prussian Maj. von Knobelsdorf raids the Swedish-held outpost of Demmin in Pomerania, causing the Swedish army to retreat to Anklim, reaching the Peene River by Nov. 6. On Nov. 20 21 French line ships and three frigates under Marshal de Conflans are defeated by 23 British line ships and 10 frigates under Adm. Hawke at the Battle of Quiberon Bay, eliminating French plans for the invasion of Britain and reinforcement of their army in North Am., and puts the French navy out of action for the duration of the Seven Years' War. On Nov. 20 the allies capture Munster from the French. On Nov. 20 the Battle of Maxen in Saxony sees 42K Austrians under Marshal Leopold von Daun attack 12K Prussians under Gen. von Finck, mauling them and causing their surrender, after which Finck is court-martialled and imprisoned by Frederick II the Great for dereliction of duty. On Nov. 30 the Battle of Fulda in W Germany sees 5.5K imperial troops under Duke Karl Eugen von Wurttemberg defeated by 7K allied troops under the Erbprinz of Hesse-Cassel (hereditary prince) and retreat. On Dec. 31 after hops are introduced to Ireland, and his godfather Archbishop of Cashel (since 1744) Arthur Price (1678-1752) leaves him £100 in his will in 1752, which he uses in 1755 to buy a brewery at Leixlip (10 mi. from Dublin) at the confluences of the Liffey and Rye Water Rivers, Sir Arthur Guinness (1725-1803) founds the Guinness Brewery at St. James' Gate in Dublin, Ireland, and secures a modest 9K-year lease at £45/year; the logo features an Irish harp; at first only ales are produced; in 1760 the thermometer is introduced to control quality, followed by the hydrometer in 1770; on May 19, 1769 the first ale is exported, 6-1/2 barrels to Britain; in 1778 the first well-hopped brown malt porter is introduced, evolving into single stout, double stout, and the the main product Guinness Extra Stout; in 1801 extra-hoppy Guinness Foreign Extra Stout is first produced for export; during the Napoleonic War (1803-15), a malt tax is passed, causing less malt to be used; in 1816 a law is passed controlling purity, mandating that only malt and hops be used in beer production; in 1817 black patent malt (kilned at 200C) is invented by Daniel Wheeler, which makes it possible to use up to 95% cheaper pale malt to obtain the required flavor; about 1800 it is discovered that aged porter (6-18 mo. old) can be diluted 2:1 with young porter and still be accepted by consumers; after Guinness and several other brewers and distillers are raised to the peerage, they become known as the Beerage; in 1932 the HQ is moved to London; in 1960 they introduce Harp Lager; in 1997 it merges with Grand Metropolitan to form Diageo; by 2016 stout accounts for 34% of the beer market in Ireland, with lager at 60% and ale at 6%. On Dec. 4 the Battle of Meissen sees a Prussian rear guard guarding an Elbe River crossing under Gen. Dierecke defeated by a larger Austrian force, with 3K Prussians captured or killed. The Jesuits are expelled from Portugal and Brazil. The British retake Machilipatnam (Bandar) on the Bay of Bengal from the French. The Kalmucks (Kalmucks) (Kalmyks) (Eluths) in lesser Bucharia are vanquished by the Chinese, who advance as far as Badakshan near the Hindu Kush sources of the Oxus (Amu Darya) River. The British trading outpost in Bandar Abbas, Persia is destroyed by the French. An earthquake in Lebanon and Syria kills 40K; seismologists predict another one along the Dead Sea System fault line in 250-300 years. British Capt. Dawkins buries the Treasure of Kalaniopu'u in Hawaii :) - TV series Magnum: PI. Ft. Pitt in Penn. is replaced with a larger structure. The Bavarian Academy of Science is founded. The British Museum, created by act of Parliament in 1753 opens at Montagu (Montague) House, designed by Sir Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke (until 1823). The Annual Register, ed. by Robert Dodsley and Edmund Burke begins pub. The Conseil du Roi formally suppresses vols. 1-10 of the "Encyclopedie" (1751-9), and forbids further pub., causing Diderot to pub. the next 10 vols. secretly (until 1765); meanwhile he founds Les Salons (until 1779), commenting on the annual exhibitions of paintings in Paris. Rev. Frances Gastrell demolishes Shakespeare's old house New Place in Stratford-upon-Avon after getting pissed off at all the unexpected visitors, first chopping down a mulberry tree in the garden, then razing the house after they smash his windows, after which he is driven out of town and anybody with his name forever banned. Lessing is more for a gay guy in Germany? After living in Leipzig from 1755-8, becoming friends with poet Ewald Christian von Kleist, and returning to Berlin in 1758, Gotthold Lessing founds the critical journal Briefe, die Neueste Literatur Betreffend with Moses Mendelssohn and Christoph Friedrich Nicolai, which pub. essays promoting Shakespeare as a model for German dramatists in preference to Frenchies such as Corneille, Racine, and Voltaire, causing German literati to cast off French influence? Black paper silhouettes, invented by penny-pinching former French finance minister Etienne de Silhouette (1709-67) to save money on home decorations become a craze after an exhibition in Paris. Architecture: Peter Harrison begins Touro Synagogue in Newport, R.I. (finished 1763). Nonfiction: Franz Aepinus, Testamen Theoriae Electricitatis et Magnetesmi. Joseph Ames (1680-1759), Typographical Antiquities; history of printing in England from 1471-1600. Sir William Chambers (1723-96), A Treatise on Civil Architecture; 2nd ed. 1768. Alexander Gerard, An Essay on Taste. Oliver Goldsmith (1730-74), An Enquiry Into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe. Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (1609-74), The Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon, Written by Himsself (autobio.) (2 vols.) (posth.). Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728-77), Treatise on Optics; Treatise on Perspective; causes the unit of brightness to later be named after him. William Robertson (1721-93), The History of Scotland, 1542-1603 (3 vols.); gets him appointed historiographer royal of Scotland in 1764. Adam Smith (1723-90), Theory of Moral Sentiments. Thomas Wilkes, A General View of the Stage. Caspar Friedrich Wolff (1734-94), Theoria Generationis; founds modern embryology. Music: Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), Symphony No. 1 in D major; from now on all symphonies must have four movements? Art: Francois Boucher (1703-70), Pan and Syrinx; Madame Pompadour. Jean Honore Fragonard (1732-1806), Landscape with Three Washerwomen (1759-61). Carlo Goldoni (1707-93), Il Mercato di Malmantile (The Malmantile Market) (opera bouffe); music by Fischietti. Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805), The Bookseller Babutti. William Hogarth (1697-1764), Sigismonda. Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-92), The 7th Earl of Lauderdale. Plays: Thomas Godfrey, The Prince of Parthia. Carlo Goldoni (1707-93), Gli Amori de Alessandro Magno (tragedy); L'Impresario delle Smime (The Businessman from Smyrna) (comedy); Gli Innamorati (The Lovers) (comedy). Gotthold Lessing (1729-81), Philotas (tragedy). Poetry: Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (ed.), Hinterlassene Werke von Margareta Klopstock; poems by his dead wife (d. 1758). Novels: Samuel Butler (1612-80), Genuine Remains in Verse and Prose of Mr. Samuel Butler (posth.). Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-84), The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia (Apr.). Gotthold Lessing (1729-81), Fabeln (3 vols.); preface contains a great essay on the fable. Marie-Jeanne Riccoboni (1713-92), Letters of Milady Juliette Catesby (Lettres de Milady Juliette Catesby), which makes a fan of Voltaire; English trans. by Frances Brooke pub. in 1760. Laurence Sterne (1713-68), A Political Romance (satire); The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, vols. 1-2; a life story with mucho detours; wealthy father Walter; Uncle Toby, who spends his time reconstructing Marlborough's campaigns in his garden; Widow Waldman, who vainly makes advances on Toby; the first postmodern (unreadable?) novel, written before there was a modern?; makes him an internat. star. Voltaire (1694-1778), Candide; or, Optimism; a satire of Leibniz's statement that "All is for the best in this the best of all possible worlds", starring Candide (Lat. "candidus" = shining white), nephew of Baron Thunder-ten-Tronckh of Westphalia, who is in love with the baron's daughter Lady Cundegone, and is being taught Leibnizian optimism by his syphilitic tutor Pangloss (Lat. "all tongues") while experiencing the horrible real world, incl. the Seven Years' War, the Inquisition, and the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake with his companions Cundegone, chambermaid Paquette, Martin, and Brother Giroflee, visiting Buenos Aires, Paraguay, El Dorado, Suriname, Cadiz, Venice, Bordeaux, Transylvania, and Bonnie Prince Charlie, finally settling on the motto "We must cultivate our garden." Births: Scottish "Auld Lang Syne", "A Red, Red Rose", "To a Mouse" poet ("Scotland's Bard") ("the Ploughman Poet") ("the Bard of Ayrshire") ("Scotland's Favorite Son") Robert "Rabbie" Burns (d. 1796) on Jan. 25 in Alloway, Ayrshire (on the coast of the Firth of Clyde); son of tenant farmer William Burness (d. 1784) and his semiliterate wife Agnes Broun Burness; eldest of seven children. German clasical scholar and philologist Friedrich August Wolf (d. 1824) on Feb. 15 in Haynrode, Hanover; educated at the U. of Gottingen; prof. of philosophy at the U. of Halle in 1783-1807, until the French force him to Berlin. German physician (coiner of the term "psychiatry") Johann Christian Reil (d. 1813) on Feb. 20 in Rhauderfehn. French Rev.-Napoleonic gen. Claude Jacques Lecourbe (d. 1815) on Feb. 22 in Besancon. Am. Rev. War. Maj. William Jackson (d. 1828) on Mar. 9 in Cumberland, England; emigrates to S.C.; secy. to the U.S. Constitutional Convention; personal secy. to Pres. George Washington; 40th signer of the U.S. Constitution. German actor-dramatist August Wilhelm Iffland (d. 1814) on Apr. 19. English writer Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (d. 1797) on Apr. 27; wife (1797-) of William Godwin (1756-1836); mother of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851). Am. atty. (Quaker) (abolitionist) William Rawle (d. 1836) on Apr. 28 in Philadelphia, Penn; of Cornish descent. Am. Christian leader Jacob Albright (Jakob Albrecht) (d. 1808) on May 1 in Pottstown, Penn.; German immigrant parents. Am. U.S. Capitol architect William Thornton (d. 1828) on May 20 in Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands. English "Independent Tory" PM (1783-1801, 1804-6) William Pitt the Younger (d. 1806) on May 28 in Hayes (near Bromley) (OE "broom meadow"), Kent; 4th of five children; 2nd son of William Pitt the Elder (1708-78) and Hester Pitt; maternal nephew of George Grenville (1712-70). Spanish artillery gen. Martin Garcia-Loygorri (nee Garcia-Edge) e Ichaso (d. 1824) on June 5 in Corella, Navarra. Am. statesman and U.S. treasury secy. #6 (1814-6) Alexander James Dallas (d. 1817) on June 21 in Kingston, Jamaica; son of a British resident in the West Indies; emigrates to the U.S. in 1783; father of George Mifflin Dallas (1792-1864). Sardinian king (1802-24) Victor Emmanuel I, Duke of Aosta (d. 1824) on July 24 in Turin; 2nd son of Victor Amadeus III (1726-96) and Maria Antoinetta of Spain (1729-85) (daughter of Philip IV and Elizabeth Farnese). English horticulturist Thomas Andrew Knight (d. 1838) on Aug. 12 in Wormsley Grange, Herefordshire; educated at Balliol College, Oxford U. English Wesleyan minister Charles Atmore (d. 1826) on Aug. 17 in Heacham (near King's Lynn), Norfolk. Spanish marshal Joaquin Blake y Joyes (d. 1827) on Aug. 19 in Velez-Malaga; Irish father, Galician mother. English 4'11" (hunchback) philanthropist and evangelical antislavery politician-orator William Wilberforce (d. 1833) on Aug. 24 in Hull, Yorkshire; son of prosperous merchant Robert Wilberforce (1728-68), among the richest families in England; attends Cambridge U. with William Pitt; husband (1792-) of Barbara Spooner Wilberforce (1771-1847); father of Samuel Wilberforce (1805-73). German Bavarian statesman Maximilian Josef Garnerin, Count von Montgelas (d. 1838) on Sept. 12 in Munich; son of John Sigmund Garnerin, Baron Montgelas; grandfather of Max Montgelas (1860-1938); husband of Countess Ernestine von Montgelas (Countess von Arco). Scottish engineer-economist William Playfair (d. 1823) on Sept. 23 near Dundee; brother of John Playfair (1748-1819) and James Playfair (1755-94). Prussian field marshal Hans David Ludwig, Count Yorck (York) von Wartenburg (d. 1830) on Sept. 26 in Potsdam; son of Dawid Jonatan Jark von Gostkowski of Butow, Pomerania (Bytow, Poland). Am. "The Life of Washington" historian-minister (Episcopal) Parson Mason Locke Weems (d. 1825) on Oct. 11 in Anne Arundel County, Md. Am. free trade political philosopher (Deist) Thomas Cooper (d. 1840) on Oct. 22 in London; educated at Oxford U.; emigrates to the U.S. in 1794. English Whig PM (1806-7) William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville (d. 1834) on Oct. 25 in Wotton House, Buckinhamshire; son of George Grenville (1712-70); educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford U. French Rev. leader Georges Jacques Danton (d. 1794) on Oct. 26 in Arcis-sur-Aube; "Danton's height was colossal, his make athletic, his features strongly marked, coarse, and displeasing; his voice shook the domes of the halls". German "The Robbers" Sturm und Drang dramatist-poet (Freemason?) Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (d. 1805) on Nov. 10 in Marbach am Neckar, Wurttemberg; likes to smell rotting apples for inspiration; friend of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). Am. diarist Anna Green Winslow (d. 1780) on Nov. 29 in Nova Scotia, Canada; daughter of Joshua Winslow (1726-1801); descendant of John Winslow (brother of Edward Winslow) and Mary Chilton, also Percival Green. English classical scholar Richard Porson (d. 1808) on Dec. 25 in East Ruston (near North Walsham), Norfolk; educated at Eaton and Trinity College, Cambridge U. German philosopher Johann Philipp Siebenkees (d. 1796); cousin of Johann Christian Siebenkees (1753-1841); inventor of the Iron Maiden concept (1793)? Polish actor-playwright Wojciech Boguslawski (d. 1829) in Glinno; founder of Polish nat. drama; introducer of opera in Poland. Deaths: English writer Joseph Ames (b. 1689) on Oct. 7 in Wapping. German-born British composer Georg Friedrich Handel (b. 1685) on Apr. 14 in London; the last performance he attended was his 1742 "Messiah"; 3K attend his funeral; buried in Westminster Abbey; dies unmarried and childless, leaving his £20K fortune to his niece in Germany et al. and paying for his own memorial; "Handel is the greatest composer who ever lived. I would bare my head and kneel at his grave" (Ludwig von Beethoven, 1824). Swiss mathematician Nicolaus Bernoulli (b. 1687) on Nov. 29. French scientist Pierre de Maupertuis (b. 1698) on July 27 in Basel, Switzerland. French sculptor Lamberg-Sigisbert Adam (b. 1700) on May 12. German composer Carl Heinrich Graun (b. 1704) on Aug. 8 in Berlin. French librettist Louis de Cahusac (b. 1706) on June 22 in Paris. Scottish-born British gen. John Forbes (b. 1707) on Mar. 11 in Philadelphia, Penn.; namesake of Forbes Field, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Pittsburgh Steelers. French gen. Marquis de Montcalm (b. 1712) on Sept. 13 outside Quebec City, Canada (KIA). Spanish king Ferdinand VI (b. 1713) on Aug. 10. German poet Ewald Christian von Kleist (b. 1715) on Aug. 24 in Frankfurt on the Oder; dies from wounds in the Battle of Kunersford on Aug. 12. English "Ode to Evening" poet William Collins (b. 1721). British gen. James Wolfe (b. 1727) on Sept. 13 outside Quebec City, Canada (KIA); buried in Greenwich, England, with a monument erected in his honor in Westminster Abbey. German botanist J.G. Zinn (b. ?); namesake of the Zinnia (native to the Americas).