1760 CE

26 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Carrickfergus in the north of Ireland – A force of French troops, under the command of privateer François Thurot, captures and holds the town and castle of Carrickfergus before retiring; the force is defeated (and Thurot killed) in the naval Battle of Bishops Court in the Irish Sea on February 28. Expulsion of the Acadians: New England planters arrive to claim land in Nova Scotia taken from the Acadians. A lightning strike causes a major fire at Portsmouth Royal Dockyard in England.

In the 1760s, the 18th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 28 – Benning Wentworth creates the New Hampshire Grant of Pownal, Vermont.source
  • April 3 – Great Britain and Prussia agree to begin peace negotiations to end the Seven Years' War.source
  • April 29 – Representatives of the remaining Penobscot Indian tribes in Maine and New Brunswick make peace with the British at Fort Pownal in Newfoundland.source
  • June 19 – The British create Cumberland County and Lincoln County in Maine.source
  • July 19 – A formal request is made to the Spanish government, to allow the founding of the later city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.source
  • 25 October – George III becomes King of Great Britain and Ireland upon the death of George II.Irelandsource
  • Western countries pay 3,000,000 ounces of silver for Chinese goods.source
  • The articles of capitulation are agreeable to the French, except that they do not concede "all the honors of war" or "perpetual neutrality of Canadiens."Canadasource
  • The East India Company had gained political and economic power over India.Indiasource
  • The assembly of the Riksdag of the Estates.Swedensource
  • Lewis Morris settles his long-standing legal appeal and is appointed JP for Cardiganshire.Walessource

Conflict & Security

  • January 9 – Battle of Barari Ghat: Afghan forces defeat the Marathas.source
  • January 22 – Seven Years' War – Battle of Wandiwash, India: British general Sir Eyre Coote is victorious over the French under the Marquis de Bussy-Castelnau.source
  • January – 88th Regiment of Foot (Highland Volunteers) raised at Stirling.Scotlandsource
  • February 21–26 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Carrickfergus in the north of Ireland – A force of French troops, under the command of privateer François Thurot, captures and holds the town and castle of Carrickfergus before retiring; the force is defeated (and Thurot killed) in the naval Battle of Bishops Court in the Irish Sea on February 28.source
  • February 27 – Seven Years' War: French and Indian War & Anglo-Cherokee War – Cherokee natives attack a North Carolina militia stationed at Fort Dobbs, in the western part of the province. The attack is repelled by the militia, under the command of General Hugh Waddell.source
  • April 7 – 'Tacky's War', a slave rebellion, begins in Jamaica and lasts for 18 months. During the uprising, 60 white residents are killed and more than 400 black rebels die in the suppression of the revolt. Another 500 are deported to British Honduras.source
  • April 11 – The Burmese Army, under the command of King Alaungpaya, reaches the outskirts of Siam's capital, Ayutthaya, but then retreats rather than laying siege to the city.source
  • April 20 – France's Marshal François Gaston de Lévis departs from Montreal up the St. Lawrence River with 7,000 troops on a plan to retake Quebec City from the British.source
  • April 26 – Marshal Lévis and his troops land at Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, adjacent to Quebec City, and prepares to lay siege to the British occupying force.source
  • April 27 – British Army Brigadier General James Murray marches a force of 3,500 men toward Saint-Augustin to confront Marshal Lévis and the French Army.source
  • April 28 – British defenders and the French Army clash at the Battle of Sainte-Foy to determine the future control of Quebec. General Murray is forced to retreat after the British suffer 259 deaths and 845 wounded, while the French under Marshal Lévis suffer 193 deaths and 640 wounded.source
  • May 16 – Three British Royal Navy ships under the command of Commodore Robert Swanton on HMS Vanguard arrive to break the siege of Quebec before Marshal Lévis can recapture the city from the British.source
  • June 11 – Robert Rogers and his Rangers launch a strike from Lake Champlain against French military posts along the Richelieu River – they strike at Fort Sainte Thérèse and destroy the settlement.source
  • June 22 – Britain's Captain John Byron, commanding HMS Fame, locates France's Captain Giraudais but runs aground on June 25 before it can attack.source
  • June 23 – Russian forces overpowered a Prussian force in what is now Kamienna Góra, Poland, as part of the Seven Years' War.Russiasource
  • July 8 – Seven Years' War: French and Indian War – Battle of Restigouche: The British defeat French forces, in the last naval battle in New France.source
  • July 31 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Warburg – The Anglo-Hanoverian army of Ferdinand of Brunswick storms Warburg, with a heroic role being played by the English commander Lord Granby.source
  • August 30 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Legnica – By a series of brilliant maneuvers, Frederick the Great manages to defeat the Austrian army of Marshal Laudon before it can unite with that of Marshal Daun.source
  • September 8 – Seven Years' War: Jeffery Amherst and his British troops capture Montreal from the French, effectively bringing Canada completely under British control.source
  • October 9 – Seven Years' War: Russian troops enter Berlin.source
  • 15 October – Battle of Kloster KampenFrancesource
  • October 16 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Kloster-Kamp – Ferdinand of Brunswick is beaten back from the Rhine by a French army.source
  • 25 October – George III ascends to the throne following the death of his grandfather George II. He will reign until 29 January 1820. He surrenders the income from the Crown Estate to the government in exchange for a civil list contribution to maintaining the Royal Household.United Kingdomsource
  • 25 October – George Cholmondeley, 3rd Earl of Cholmondeley, surrenders the lord lieutenancy of North Wales, to be replaced by a different holder in each individual county of North Wales.Walessource
  • November 3 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Torgau – In another extremely hard battle, Frederick defeats Daun's Austrians, who withdraw across the Elbe.source
  • November 3 – Seven Years' War – Battle of Torgau: The Prussian army defeats Daun's Austrians, who withdraw across the Elbe.Austriasource
  • November 29 – French Army Colonel François-Marie Picoté de Belestre formally surrenders Detroit to British Army Major Robert Rogers, and the British Union Jack is raised over Fort Detroit.source
  • December 4 – For the first time since the surrender of Fort Detroit by France, British authorities meet nearby at a Native American council house with delegates from various Indian tribes that had fought as allies of the French Army, such as the Wyandot and Ottawa Indians, and with tribes that had formerly been allies of the British. The European and Native American representatives open the peace conference with the presentation by the Indians to the British of a wampum belt, and the pronouncement from the principal chief that "The ancient friendship is now renewed, and I wash the blood off the earth that had been shed during the present war, that you may bury the war hatchet in the bottomless pit."source
  • December 6 – The siege of Pondicherry, a stronghold of France in India, is begun by British Army Lieutenant General Eyre Coote. The French commander, General Thomas Lally, is finally forced to surrender Pondicherry to the British on January 15, 1761.source
  • December 18 – In the wake of Tacky's War by African-born rebels, the Assembly of the British colony of Jamaica outlaws the African religious practice of obeah, with penalties ranging from banishment from the colony to execution. The legislation specifically bans use of contraband associated with obeah, including "animal blood, feathers, parrots' beaks, dogs' teeth, alligators' teeth, broken bottles, grave dirt, rum, and eggshells".source
  • Fall of Montreal and surrender of Great Lakes and Ohio Valley French forts to English. Lord Jeffery Amherst starts a "get tough with Indians" policy, including the first biological warfare --smallpox-infested blankets. Amherst granted some Seneca (originally his allies) lands to his officers. Odawa chief Pontiac (and the Delaware Prophet) organize a resistance preaching return to traditional Indian customs. The 1761 draft Proclamation (to English governors), and the Royal Proclamation of 1763 (with a large Indian country in what's now the U.S. Great Lakes/Midwest) were part of the English Crown's attempt to mollify the Indians. Neither proclamation of undisturbed Indian lands was followed by settlers or the Crown.Canadasource
  • French defeat at the Battle of Wandewash.Indiasource

Exploration & Expansion

  • April 10 – France's Minister of the Navy Nicolas René Berryer finally receives permission to send ships to assist French forces at Quebec, and a fleet of six ships under the command of Captain François Chenard de la Giraudais of the French frigate Machault departs Bordeaux, albeit too late to prevent the loss of New France to the British.source
  • May 17 – Captain Giraudais's French fleet reaches the Gaspé Peninsula of northeast Quebec and captures seven British merchant ships, but Giraudais learns that the British have already preceded him up the St. Lawrence River and diverts to Chaleur Bay at Newfoundland.source
  • June 4 – Expulsion of the Acadians: New England planters arrive to claim land in Nova Scotia taken from the Acadians.source
  • June–October – James Macpherson is sponsored to make his first tour of the Higlands and Islands to seek out traditional Gaelic poetry, following his publication in Edinburgh of Fragments of Ancient Poetry collected in the Highlands of Scotland.Scotlandsource
  • Edinburgh City Chambers is opened as the Royal Exchange, to a design by John Adam.Scotlandsource

Religion & Belief

  • June – Scottish Presbyterian preacher Dr. James Fordyce moves to London.United Kingdomsource
  • August 21 – The church (later cathedral) of Our Lady of Candlemas of Mayagüez (Puerto Rico) is founded, establishing the basis for the founding of the city in the following month.source
  • September 6 to September 7 – A council of war, at Montreal, favors capitulation.Canadasource
  • September 18 – The town (later city) of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, is founded.source
  • approximate date – Abu Dhabi is founded.source
  • Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters was founded in Trondheim by the bishop of Nidaros Johan Ernst Gunnerus, headmaster at the Trondheim Cathedral School Gerhard Schøning and Councillor of State Peter Frederik Suhm under the name Det Trondhiemske Selskab (the Trondheim Society).Norwaysource
  • Llangeitho's noted Methodist chapel is built.Walessource
  • William Lloyd – Y Sacrament a'r Aberth CristionogolWalessource

Economy & Finance

Technology & Infrastructure

  • 26 December – Carron Company produces its first cast iron at Falkirk.Scotlandsource
  • Construction of a new Glasgow town hall is completed.Scotlandsource
  • George Ross acquires Cromarty and begins the process of developing it as a planned town.Scotlandsource
  • First wellhouse built at St Bernard's Well, Stockbridge, Edinburgh.Scotlandsource

Science & Discovery

  • 7 March – HDMS Amack and HDMS Falster are launched at Nyholm in Copenhagen.Denmarksource
  • Saturday September 6 – Amherst arrives at Montreal.Canadasource
  • The office of Regius Professor of Practical Astronomy in the University of Glasgow is established, with Alexander Wilson as first holder.Scotlandsource
  • Approximate date – piper Joseph MacDonald’s Compleat Theory of the Scots Highland Bagpipe is written, the first study of the subject.Scotlandsource

Health & Medicine

  • 18 March: The Directorate of Health is established. Jón Sveinsson is appointed the Director of Health.Icelandsource
  • April 30 – Swiss mathematician Daniel Bernoulli presents a paper at the French Academy of Sciences in Paris in which "a mathematical model was used for the first time to study the population dynamics of infectious disease."source
  • Rinderpest epidemic and the beginning of the rinderpest eradication.Denmarksource

Crime & Justice

  • April 22 – Belgian entertainer Joseph Mervin is said to have given the first demonstration of roller skates, in a performance at the Carlisle House in London, but the stunt ends in disaster.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • February 15 – The British Royal Navy ship HMS Royal Katherine runs aground off Bolt Head in England, with the loss of 699 lives.source
  • 15 February – HMS Royal Katherine runs aground off Bolt Head, South Devon, with the loss of 699 lives.United Kingdomsource
  • March 20 – The Great Fire of Boston, Massachusetts, destroys 349 buildings and marks the biggest conflagration in the American colonies up to this time.source
  • April 12 – Two of six French ships run into a British blockade led by Britain's Admiral Edward Boscawen. Of the remaining four, one sinks before it can reach North America.source

Climate & Environment

  • July 3 – A lightning strike causes a major fire at Portsmouth Royal Dockyard in England.source
  • 3 July – a lightning strike causes a major fire at Portsmouth Royal Dockyard; substantial rebuilding follows.United Kingdomsource
  • A Patriot Party under the leadership of Henry Flood, appears in the Irish House of Representatives.Irelandsource

Culture & Society

  • 27 July? – the Trustees Drawing Academy of Edinburgh, predecessor of Edinburgh College of Art, is established.Scotlandsource
  • September 5 - The Marriage of Josef II and Isabella of ParmaAustriasource
  • October 5 – The wedding of Princess Isabella of Parma and Prince Joseph of Austria takes place at Hofburg Palace's Redoute Hall (Redoutensaele), at the former imperial palace in Vienna.source
  • 25 October – The Prince of Wales succeeds his grandfather, King George II, on the throne of Great Britain, as King George III.Walessource
  • Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée opens a school for deaf education in Paris which becomes the Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris, the world's first free school for the deaf; Thomas Braidwood establishes Braidwood's Academy for the Deaf and Dumb in Edinburgh, the first school for the deaf in Britain.source
  • The first Icelandic children's book was published, Barna-Liood : med Ljuflings-Lag by Reverend Vigfús Jónsson in Hítardalur.Icelandsource
  • Thomas Braidwood establishes Braidwood's Academy for the Deaf and Dumb in Edinburgh, the first school for the deaf in Britain.United Kingdomsource

Births

  • January 11 – Zofia Potocka, Greek slave courtesan, agent for Russia and Polish noble (died 1822)source
  • 4 March – Gabriel Schanche Kielland, businessman and ship owner (died 1821)Norwaysource
  • March 28 – Thomas Clarkson, English abolitionist (died 1846)source
  • May 10 – Johann Peter Hebel, German poet (died 1826)source
  • May 29 – Charlotte Slottsberg, Swedish ballerina (died 1800)source
  • June 12 – Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai, French novelist, playwright, journalist, politician and diplomat (died 1797)source
  • June 26 - Johann I Joseph Prince of Liechtenstein (died 1836)Austriasource
  • 6 July – Thomas Phillips, surgeon and educational benefactor (died 1851)Walessource
  • August 22 – Pope Leo XII, (born Annibale Francesco Clemente Melchiore Girolamo Nicola Sermattei della Genga), Italian priest (died 1829)source
  • September 14 – Luigi Cherubini, Italian composer (died 1842)source
  • October 7 (bapt.) – Fredrica Löf, Swedish actress (died 1813)source
  • October 17 – Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon, French economist, political theorist (died 1825)source
  • October 27 – August von Gneisenau, Prussian field marshal (died 1831)source
  • October 31? – Hokusai, born Katsushika Tokitarō, Japanese Edo period artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker (died 1849)source
  • November 10 – William Black, Methodist minister (d.1834)Canadasource
  • November 13 – Jiaqing Emperor of China (died 1820)source
  • November 21 – Joseph Plumb Martin, American Revolutionary soldier and narrative author (died 1850)source
  • December 17 – Deborah Sampson, first American female soldier (died 1827)source

Deaths

  • January 22 : Paul Mascarene, governor of Nova ScotiaCanadasource
  • February 17 - Franz Anton Danreiter was a renowned architect, court gardener, and draftsman.Austriasource
  • February 22 – Anna Magdalena Bach, accomplished German singer, second wife of Johann Sebastian Bach (born 1701)source
  • April 3 – John Rous, Royal Navy officer during King George's War and the Seven Years' War (born 1702)source
  • April 6 – Charlotte Charke, British actor and writer (born 1713)source
  • April 18 – Mary Alexander, influential colonial-era merchant in New York City (born 1693)source
  • 29 April – James Davies, Independent ministerWalessource
  • May 5 – Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers, English murderer (hanged) (born 1720)source
  • May 9 – Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf, German religious and social reformer (born 1700)source
  • May 10 – Christoph Graupner, German composer (born 1683)source
  • May 11 – King Alaungpaya of Burma dies during a retreat from Ayutthaya after stopping at the village of Kinywa while en route to Martaban. His son Naungdawgyi becomes the new King of Burma.source
  • May 15 – King Alaungpaya of Burma (born 1711)source
  • May 22 – Israel ben Eliezer aka Baal Shem Tov, Polish-born mystical rabbi, founder of Hasidic Judaism (born 1698)source
  • May 30 – Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp, German duchess (born 1712)source
  • July 13 – Conrad Weiser, Pennsylvania's ambassador to the Iroquois Confederacy (born 1696)source
  • October 25 – King George II of Great Britain (born 1683)source
  • 25 October – King George II of Great Britain (born 1683, Hanover)United Kingdomsource
  • November 30 – Friederike Caroline Neuber, German actress (born 1697)source