1764 CE

John Wilkes is expelled from the House of Commons for seditious libel for his article criticising King George III in The North Briton; he is in exile in France. A solar eclipse occurs. On the same day, the undefeated Thoroughbred racehorse Eclipse, named after the event, is foaled at Keats Gore, near East Ilsley in Berkshire. The Treaty of Fort Niagara is signed between Great Britain and 44 North American Indian nations, bring an end to the ongoing war that had started in 1756 with most of the northern Indian tribes. Sir William Johnson appears on behalf of Britain, and principal chiefs appear for the Iroquois Confederacy, Wabash Confederacy, Illini Confederacy, Haudenosaunee, Seneca, Wyandot, Menominee, Algonquin, Nipissing, Ojibwa, Mississaugas, Mohawk, Abenaki, Huron, and Onondaga.

In the 1760s, the 18th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

January – South Wales industrialist Anthony Bacon succeeds John Wilkes as MP for Aylesbury.Wales source
March 31 – A mutual defense treaty between the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia is signed in Saint Petersburg between representatives of Russia's Empress Catherine the Great and Prussia's King Frederick the Great. By agreement, each nation agrees (for an eight-year period) to commit 10,000 soldiers and 2,000 horses to the defense of the other in case of an attack, and secretly agree to maintain security within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.source
5 April – Parliament passes the Sugar Act.United Kingdom source
April 21 – Residents of French Louisiana are informed for the first time that they will come under Spanish rule as the result of a secret agreement of November 13, 1762 whereby France has ceded all of its North American territory west of the Mississippi River. The Spanish, however, do not take possession until August 17, 1769.source
21 April – Residents of French Louisiana are informed for the first time that they will come under Spanish rule (from 1769) as the result of a secret agreement of 13 November 1762, whereby France has ceded all of its North American territory west of the Mississippi River.France source
May 3 – Baden, one of the member states of the Confederation of Switzerland, declares a policy of remaining neutral in future conflicts, a model that is soon followed by other members of the Confederation and which eventually becomes the basis for Swiss neutrality from 1815 onward.source
July 20 – King George, on advice of the Privy Council, issues the Royal Determination of the disputed boundary between the colonial provinces of New York and New Hampshire. The King-in-Council "doth hereby order and declare the western banks of the river Connecticut from where it enters the province of Massachusetts Bay, as far north as the 45th degree of north latitude to be the boundary line between the two provinces of New Hampshire and New York."source
August 1 – The Treaty of Fort Niagara is signed between Great Britain and 44 North American Indian nations, bring an end to the ongoing war that had started in 1756 with most of the northern Indian tribes. Sir William Johnson appears on behalf of Britain, and principal chiefs appear for the Iroquois Confederacy, Wabash Confederacy, Illini Confederacy, Haudenosaunee, Seneca, Wyandot, Menominee, Algonquin, Nipissing, Ojibwa, Mississaugas, Mohawk, Abenaki, Huron, and Onondaga.source
August – protests begin in Boston, Massachusetts against Britain's colonial policies.United Kingdom source
September 7 – Stanisław August Poniatowski is elected as the King of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.source
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.source
1764–1765: The Sugar Act and Stamp Act, by which Britain aims to recover revenue from the American colonies, arouses local opposition.Canada source
The English-born painter William Ashford arrives in Dublin; he will spend most of the rest of his life in Ireland.Ireland source
The finances of the state forces the government of the Hats (party) to assemble the Riksdag of the Estates.Sweden source
Rowland Jones – The Origin of Language and NationsWales source

Conflict & Security

January 7 – The Siculicidium is carried out as hundreds of the Székely minority in Transylvania are massacred by the Austrian Army at Madéfalva.source
19 January – John Wilkes is expelled from the House of Commons for seditious libel for his article criticising King George III in The North Briton; he is in exile in France.United Kingdom source
January – Waldemar Hermann Schmettau was appointed commander-in-chief of the Norwegian army.Norway source
July 6 – The last British troops depart Havana, Cuba, two years after having captured it from Spain during the Seven Years' War. The removal of troops follows the treaty between the two Kingdoms, with Spain ceding West Florida to Great Britain in return for the Havana withdrawal.source
July 26 – In what is described 250 years later as "The first documented United States school shooting", a group of four Delaware Indians invade a schoolhouse near what is now Greencastle, Pennsylvania and kill ten schoolchildren and their teacher, Enoch Brown. The massacre happens in the course of Pontiac's War, as retaliation against white settlement of Indian lands in central Pennsylvania. One student, Archie McCullough, manages to escape the carnage; a memorial is erected 120 years later on August 4, 1884.source
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.source
22 October – deposed Nawab of Bengal Mir Qasim defeated at the Battle of Buxar by the British East India Company.United Kingdom source
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.source
December 1 – Siege of Darbar Sahib (1764): 30 Sikhs defend the holy site of Golden Temple against 30,000 Afghans.source
The French government withdraws wartime taxes.source
Chief Pontiac, participating in an armed conflict with other native tribes against British military, participates in a dialogue and exchange with the military of Britain, resulting eventually in a negotiated peace treaty.source
James Murray becomes civil governor of Quebec, but his attempts to appease French Canadians are disliked by British merchants.Canada source
The government withdraws wartime taxes.France source

Exploration & Expansion

February 15 – The settlement of St. Louis is established.source
March 15 – The day after his return to Paris from a nine-year mission, French explorer and scholar Anquetil Du Perron presents a complete copy of the Zoroastrian sacred text, the Zend Avesta, to the Bibliothèque Royale in Paris, along with several other traditional texts. In 1771, he publishes the first European translation of the Zend Avesta.source
15 March – The day after his return to Paris from a nine-year mission, French explorer and scholar Anquetil Du Perron presents a complete copy of the Zoroastrian sacred text, the Zend Avesta, to the Bibliothèque Royale.France source
March 20 – After the British victory in the French and Indian War, the first post-war British expedition to explore the newly acquired territories east of the Mississippi River comes under attack by Tunica warriors. The 340 British Army men, under the command of Major Arthur Loftus, were at a spot south of Natchez, Mississippi and were forced to flee in their boats back toward the port of New Orleans while under fire from an unknown number of Tunicas firing from both banks.source
March 23 – Following lobbying by George Johnstone, the Governor of British West Florida, Britain's Lords of Trade vote to recommend the northern boundary for the new province to run from the confluence of the Yazoo River and the Mississippi (at modern-day Vicksburg, Mississippi) to the Chattahoochee River (at modern-day Phenix City, Alabama), and the Privy Council soon approves, bringing about 38,000 sq mi under the West Florida's jurisdiction.source
21 June – Humphrey Edwards, physician, begins a voyage round the world as physician on HMS Tamar.Wales source
July 11 – Conditional repatriation of the Acadians in Canada, French colonists who took up arms against the British during the war, is approved by order of King George III on advice of the Privy Council. The Council offers settlement to any Acadians willing to take an oath of allegiance to the British Crown and that those living in New Brunswick are to "be allowed to settle in Nova Scotia, but that they should be dispersed in small numbers in various localities."source
Almenna Handelsfélagið took over the trade monopoly in Iceland.Iceland source
The turnip is first cultivated in Scotland as a field crop, by Dawson of Frogden (Roxburghshire).Scotland source
New Byth established as a planned village in Aberdeenshire by the local laird.Scotland source
Gabriel Powell – Survey of GowerWales source
David Powell – Sail yr Athrawiaeth GatholicWales source

Religion & Belief

March 27 – The prince-electors, a group of nine German princes who select the next leader of the Holy Roman Empire, vote for the last time as the health of the Emperor Francis I declines. The electors (including Britain's King George III, who also rules as Elector of Hanover) approve Francis's son, Prince Joseph of Austria as King of the Romans. Upon the death of Francis in 1765, Prince Joseph becomes the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II.source
French Carthusian monks at Grande Chartreuse perfect a commercial recipe for Chartreuse (liqueur).source
Carthusian monks at Grande Chartreuse perfect a commercial recipe for Chartreuse (liqueur).France source
Porsgrunn prestegjeld (parish) was separated from the ancient rural parishes of Eidanger, Solum, and Gjerpen.Norway source
New liturgy for the Scottish Episcopal Church published in Edinburgh.Scotland source
Evan Evans (Ieuan Fardd) – Some Specimens of the Poetry of the Antient Welsh BardsWales source

Economy & Finance

19 April – the Currency Act passed which prohibits the American colonies from issuing paper currency of any form.United Kingdom source

Technology & Infrastructure

Fort Erie is constructed. It is the first British fort to be constructed in the Canadian territories which were newly annexed from the French.Canada source
Approximate date – Yair Bridge built across the River Tweed by William Mylne.Scotland source
Howden Bridge built at Mid Calder.Scotland source
Industrial Revolution: James Hargreaves invents the Spinning Jenny.United Kingdom source

Science & Discovery

April 1 – A solar eclipse occurs. On the same day, the undefeated Thoroughbred racehorse Eclipse, named after the event, is foaled at Keats Gore, near East Ilsley in Berkshire.source
12 April – HDMS Prindsesse Wilhelmine Carolina is launched at Nyholm in Copenhagen.Denmark source
Cesare Beccaria - On Crimes and Punishments (Dei delitti e delle pene), a founding work of penologysource
Immanuel Kant - Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime (Beobachtungen über das Gefühl des Schönen und Erhabenen)source
Old Moore's Almanac first published by Theophilus Moore of Milltown, Dublin.Ireland source
Specific and latent heats are described by Joseph Black.United Kingdom source
Morgan Rhys – Golwg o Ben NeboWales source

Health & Medicine

January 19 – John Wilkes is expelled from the House of Commons of Great Britain, for seditious libel.source
April 5 – The Sugar Act is passed in Great Britain.source

Crime & Justice

Canada is divided into two chief judicial districts (Quebec and Montreal). Martial law, in Canada, terminates.Canada source
Beast of Gévaudan first appears.France source
Pompeo Batoni paints portraits of Thomas Dundas and Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon in Rome.Scotland source
The rock pillar called "Lot's Wife" amongst The Needles off the Isle of Wight collapses into the sea during a storm.United Kingdom source

Disasters & Accidents

The old city (original core) of Fredrikstad burns down.Norway source

Climate & Environment

June 29 – One of the strongest tornadoes ever recorded hits Woldegk, Germany.source
Voltaire - Dictionnaire philosophiquesource

Culture & Society

3 January – the Brooke Baronetcy, of Colebrooke in the County of Fermanagh, is created in the Baronetage of Ireland for Arthur Brooke, a member of the Irish House of Commons.Ireland source
February – Thomas Nowell, the new principal of St Mary Hall, Oxford, marries Sarah Munday, daughter of the Mayor of Oxford.Wales source
March 17 – Francisco Javier de la Torre arrives in Manila to become the new Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines.source
31 March – "Jones" performs on the Welsh harp at a benefit concert in Dublin, "in the true Spirit and Taste peculiar to the Genius of his Country".Wales source
23 April – Mozart family grand tour: 8-year-old W. A. Mozart settles in London for a year where he composes his Symphony No. 1.United Kingdom source
April 27 – Eight-year-old child prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart performs a private concert before King George III and Queen Charlotte in Great Britain, and has an encore on May 19.source
June 21 – The English-language Quebec Gazette is established in Quebec City, Canada (the oldest surviving newspaper in North America).source
July 8 – The Niagara Conference begins at the invitation of Sir William Johnson, the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the northern district, who hosts "one of the largest conventions of red men ever held on the continent" to negotiate the end of the hostilities from the French and Indian War. Reportedly, 2,000 representatives of the North American tribes meet at upstate New York coming from distances ranging "From Dakota to Hudson's Bay, and from Maine to Kentucky."source
July 31 – Johnson arrives at the Niagara River site to meet with the representatives of the Indian nations.source
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".source
November – The Speculative Society established in Edinburgh as a debating group, part of the Scottish Enlightenment.Scotland source
Horace Walpole - The Castle of Otranto "a story, translated by William Marshal, Gent., from the original Italian of Onuphrio Muralto", the first Gothic novelsource
Catherine the Great establishes the first secondary education school for females in Russia – The Smolny Institute, for girls of the nobility in St. Petersburg.source
Foundation of the Smolny Institute.Russia source
St Lucia day celebration was started at a Manor in the Västergötland provinceSweden source
Landscape gardener Lancelot "Capability" Brown is appointed Chief Gardener at the royal palace of Hampton Court; redesigns the gardens of Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire; and works at Broadlands in Hampshire.United Kingdom source

Births

March 13 – Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, 26th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1845)source
13 March – Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1845)United Kingdom source
April 13 – Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr, French marshal (died 1830)source
April 20 – Rudolph Ackermann, German-born English entrepreneur (died 1834)source
29 April – Ann Hatton ("Ann of Swansea"), English novelist (died 1838)Wales source
May 3 – Princess Élisabeth of France, sister of Louis XVI (executed 1794)source
May 5 – Robert Craufurd, Scottish general (k. 1812)source
May 26 – Edward Livingston, American jurist, statesman (died 1836)source
June 5 – James Smithson, British mineralogist, chemist and posthumous founder of the Smithsonian Institution (died 1829)source
June 19 – José Gervasio Artigas, Uruguayan hero of independence (died 1850)source
June 21 – Sidney Smith, British admiral (died 1840)source
July 9 – Ann Radcliffe, English Gothic novelist (died 1823)source
10 July – Carl Wilhelm Jessen, naval officer (died 1823)Denmark source
August 18 – Judah Leib Ben-Ze'ev, Galician Jewish modern Hebrew philologist, lexicographer, Biblical scholar and poet (died 1811)source
31 August – Johan August Sandels, soldier and politician (died 1831)Norway source
September 7 – Pierre Lorillard II, American businessman, real estate tycoon (died 1843)source
September 25 – Fletcher Christian, English sailor and mutineer (died 1793)source
December 7 – Claude-Victor Perrin, Duc de Belluno, Marshal of France (died 1841)source

Deaths

March 6 – Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, Lord Chancellor of England (born 1690)source
March 30 – Pietro Locatelli, Italian composer (born 1695)source
April 15 – Madame de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV (born 1721)source
May 3 – Francesco Algarotti, Italian philosopher (born 1712)source
23 May – William Grant, Lord Prestongrange, politician and judge (born 1701; died at Bath)Scotland source
22 June – Sir John Philipps, 6th Baronet, 63Wales source
June 29 – Ralph Allen, English businessman and politician (born 1693)source
July 7 – William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath, English politician (born 1683)source
July 16 – Tsar Ivan VI of Russia (murdered in prison) (born 1740)source
July 23 – Gilbert Tennent, Irish-born religious leader (born 1703)source
September 12 – Jean-Philippe Rameau, French composer (born 1683)source
September 23 – Robert Dodsley, English writer (born 1703)source
October 2 – William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, Prime Minister of Great Britain (born 1720)source
October 22 – Jean-Marie Leclair, French composer and violinist (murdered) (born 1697)source
October 26 – William Hogarth, English painter and satirist (born 1697)source
26 October – William Hogarth, painter and satirist (born 1697)United Kingdom source
November 20 – Christian Goldbach, Prussian mathematician (born 1690)source
20 December – Erik Pontoppidan, author, bishop, historian and antiquary (born 1698)Denmark source