1764

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1764 (MDCCLXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday (dominical letter AG) of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Thursday (dominical letter DC) of the Julian calendar, the 1764th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 764th year of the 2nd millennium, the 64th year of the 18th century, and the 5th year of the 1760s decade. As of the start of 1764, the Gregorian calendar was 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1918.

Events

January–June

• January 7 – Siculicidium: Hundreds of innocent Székely people are murdered by the Austrians in a massacre at Madéfalva (Transylvania, Kingdom of Hungary).
• January 19 – John Wilkes is expelled from the House of Commons of Great Britain for seditious libel.
• February 15 – The American city of St. Louis is established.
• April 5 – The Sugar Act is passed in Great Britain.
• June 21 – The English-language Quebec Gazette is established in Quebec City, Canada. As of 2014, it is the oldest surviving newspaper in North America.
• June 29 – A Level 5 tornado hits Woldegk, Germany.

July–December

• September 7 – Stanisław August Poniatowski is elected as the King of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
• October 15 – English scholar Edward Gibbon conceives the idea of writing The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire "as I sat musing amid the ruins of the Capitol".
• October 22 – Battle of Buxar: The British East India Company defeats the combined armies of Mir Qasim, the Nawab of Bengal, the Nawab of Awadh, and Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II.
• November 9 – Mary Campbell, a captive of the Lenape during the French and Indian War, is turned over to forces commanded by Colonel Henry Bouquet.
• November 16 – Chief Pontiac surrenders to the British.

Date unknown

• The Royal Colony of North Carolina establishes a new county from the eastern portion of Granville County and names it Bute County for John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, who had recently resigned his post as Prime Minister of Great Britain. In 1779 the State of North Carolina abolishes the county when it forms Warren County from the northern portion and Franklin County from the southern portion.
• The French government withdraws the wartime taxes.

Publications

• Immanuel Kant - Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime (Beobachtungen über das Gefühl des Schönen und Erhabenen)
• Voltaire - Dictionnaire philosophique
• Horace Walpole - The Castle of Otranto "a story, translated by William Marshal, Gent., from the original Italian of Onuphrio Muralto", the first Gothic novel

Births

• Beginning of the year – James Smithson, British mineralogist, chemist and posthumous founder of the Smithsonian Institution (d. 1829)
• January 17 – Princess Maria Carolina of Savoy, crown princess of Saxony, died of smallpox (d. 1782)
• February 11 – Joseph Chénier, French poet (d. 1811)
• March 13 – Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1845)
• April 3 – John Abernethy, English surgeon (d. 1831)
• April 13 – Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr, French marshal (d. 1830)
• April 20 – Rudolph Ackermann, German-born entrepreneur (d. 1834)
• May 3 – Princess Élisabeth of France, sister of Louis XVI (executed 1794)
• May 5 – Robert Craufurd, Scottish general (k. 1812)
• May 7 – Therese Huber, German writer and scholar (d. 1829)
• May 26 – Edward Livingston, American jurist and statesman (d. 1836)
• June 19 – José Gervasio Artigas, Uruguayan hero of independence (d. 1850)
• June 21 – Sidney Smith, British admiral (d. 1840)
• August 13 – Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers, French general (d. 1813)
• September 5 – Henriette Herz, German salonniére (d. 1847)
• September 7 – Pierre Lorillard II, American businessman and real estate tycoon (d. 1843)
• September 17 – John Goodricke, English astronomer (d. 1786)
• September 25 – Fletcher Christian, English sailor (d. 1793)
• December 7 – Claude Victor-Perrin, Duc de Belluno, Marshal of France (d. 1841)
• date unknown – Maria Medina Coeli, Italian physician (d. 1846)
• date unknown – Sophie de Condorcet, politically active French salonist and feminist (d. 1822)
• Approximate date – Alexander Mackenzie (explorer), Scottish explorer of northern Canada (d. 1820)

Deaths

• March 6 – Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, Lord Chancellor of England (b. 1690)
• March 17 – George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield, English astronomer (b. c.1696)
• March 30 – Pietro Locatelli, Italian composer (b. 1695)
• April 15 – Madame de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV of France (b. 1721)
• April 17 – Johann Mattheson, German composer (b. 1681)
• May 3 – Francesco Algarotti, Italian philosopher (b. 1712)
• June 29 – Ralph Allen, English businessman and politician (b. 1693)
• July 7 – William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath, English politician (b. 1683)
• July 16 – Tsar Ivan VI of Russia (murdered in prison) (b. 1740)
• July 23 – Gilbert Tennent, Irish-born religious leader (b. 1703)
• September 2 – Nathaniel Bliss, English Astronomer Royal (b. 1700)
• September 12 – Jean-Philippe Rameau, French composer (b. 1683)
• September 23 – Robert Dodsley, English writer (b. 1703)
• September 26 – Benito Jerónimo Feijóo y Montenegro, Spanish scholar (b. 1676)
• October 2 – William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1720)
• October 22 – Jean-Marie Leclair, French composer and violinist (murdered) (b. 1697)
• October 23 – Emmanuel-Auguste de Cahideuc, Comte Dubois de la Motte, French naval officer (b. 1683)
• October 26 – William Hogarth, English painter and satirist (b. 1697)
• November 20 – Christian Goldbach, Prussian mathematician (b. 1690)

References