1765 CE

April – George III suffers a malady, perhaps a first manifestation of bipolar disorder. At Saint Petersburg, German engineer Christian Kratzenstein presents to the Russian Academy of Sciences a perfected version of the arithmetical machine originally invented by Gottfried Leibniz. Kratzenstein claims that his machine solves the problem with the Leibniz machine has with calculations above four digits, perfecting the flaw where the machine is "prone to err whenever it is necessary to make a number of 9999 move to 10000", but the machine is not developed further. George Grenville is dismissed as Prime Minister by King George III.

In the 1760s, the 18th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 29 – One week before his death, Mir Jafar, who had been enthroned as the Nawab of Bengal and ruler of the Bengali people with the support and protection of the British East India Company, abdicates in favor of his 18-year-old son, Najmuddin Ali Khan.source
  • March 22 – Royal assent is given to the Duties in American Colonies Act 1765, historically referred to as the Stamp Act, imposing the first direct tax levied from Great Britain on the thirteen American colonies, effective November 1. The revenue measure (which requires the purchase of a stamp to be affixed for validation of all legal documents, but also to licensed newspapers and even playing cards and dice) is made to help defray the costs for British military operations in North America, including the French and Indian War.source
  • 22 March – Parliament passes the Stamp Act which is the first direct tax levied on the American colonies.United Kingdomsource
  • April 4 – At Fort Tombecbe, near what is now the town of Epes, Alabama, representatives of the British Empire and of the Choctaw Indian tribe in Mississippi sign a peace treaty in the wake of French cession of claims to the British. A boundary is fixed between land to be occupied by the Choctaws and for lands which British settlers can use; in addition, the British agree to provide a police official and a gunsmith at Fort Tombecbe for the Choctaws to use for trespassing complaints and for weapons repairs. By 1775, however, the Choctaws are outnumbered in Mississippi.source
  • June 21 – The Isle of Man is brought under British control, the Isle of Man Purchase Act (coming into force 10 May) confirming HM Treasury's purchase of the feudal rights of the Dukes of Atholl, as Lord of Mann over the island, and revesting them into the British Crown.source
  • 21 June – the Isle of Man is brought under British control, the Isle of Man Purchase Act (coming into force 10 May) confirming HM Treasury's purchase of the feudal rights of the Dukes of Atholl as Lord of Mann over the island and revesting them into the British Crown.United Kingdomsource
  • July 10 – King George III dismisses George Grenville from the office of Prime Minister of Great Britain, and replaces him with another Whig Party statesman, Charles Watson-Wentworth, Lord Rockingham.source
  • July 12 – On orders of Chief Pontiac, War Chief Wahpesah of the Kickapoo people releases British Indian Affairs negotiator George Croghan from 35 days of detention. At the same time, Pontiac authorizes a Shawnee Chief, Nanicksah, to sign a treaty with the British on behalf of the Great Lakes tribes, settling the French and Indian War.source
  • July 21 – Having eliminated all of his rivals for leadership of Persia, Karim Khan Zand returns in triumph to his home in Shiraz and makes it his capital then begins construction of citadels, mosques, schools and other buildings.source
  • July 23 – Headed by Odawa Chief Pontiac and George Croghan, a party of Great Lakes tribesmen and British soldiers travel along the Wabash River and obtain the release of all white prisoners of war remaining in the Miami people and Odawa villages between Ouiatenon (near modern-day Granville, Indiana) and Detroit.source
  • July – Henry Herbert, 1st Earl of Powis, resigns from his position as Treasurer of the Household when his former party, the Whigs, are returned to power.Walessource
  • August 16 – The Treaty of Allahabad is signed. The Treaty marks the political and constitutional involvement and the beginning of Company rule in India.source
  • October - A new government is formed by the Caps (party) with support from bribes from the Russian Empire and England, with the French spending more than two and a half million Swedish crowns to uphold the status quo held by the Hats. It was the first Caps government since 1738.Swedensource
  • November 1 – The Stamp Act goes into effect in the thirteen American colonies.source
  • The Stamp Act increases discontent. A Stamp Act Congress meets in New York City to protest the Act.Canadasource
  • Catherine II promulgated the "Manifesto on the Empire’s General Land Survey".Russiasource
  • Alexander Bezborodko was appointed the Chief of the Office of Little Russia Governor-General Count Peter Rumyantsev.Russiasource
  • The special “Gypsy” regiments were abolished and Roma then registered in the existing “sotni” (Cossack squadrons) and regiments, thus they were given civil rights like the rest of the population.Russiasource

Conflict & Security

  • March 24 – Great Britain passes the Quartering Act, requiring private households in the thirteen American colonies to house British soldiers if necessary.source
  • April 14 – Three days after getting the news that the Stamp Act has passed, American colonists invade the British Army arsenal near the New York City Hall and sabotage guns inside by spiking them.source
  • 18 April — Strilekrigen in Bergen, a farmer's rebellion in Bergen.Norwaysource
  • July 30 – At Yale College, eight students attack the residence of Yale's President Thomas Clap because of his promotion of "New Light" Calvinist doctrine; and "with Evil Intent" and "with Strong hand burst and take off the gates of the yard of the mansion house and Carry away and with Screaming and Shouting... throw into said House Numbers of large stones with Cattles Horns into the windows of said House." The students plead guilty and pay nominal fines, and Clap resigns at the end of the 1765–66 school year.source
  • 7 August – armed mutiny at Maidstone County Gaol.United Kingdomsource
  • In Lisbon, the auto-da-fé parade (often an excuse for violence against Jews or Christian 'heretics') is abolished.source
  • Allahabad occupied by the British.Indiasource

Exploration & Expansion

  • February 8 – Isaac Barré, a member of the British House of Commons for Wycombe and a veteran of the French and Indian War in the British American colonies, coins the term "Sons of Liberty" in a rebuttal to Charles Townshend's derisive description of the American colonists during the introduction of the proposed Stamp Act. Barré notes that "They fled from your tyranny to a then uncultivated and unhospitable country... And yet, actuated by the principles of true English liberty, they met all these hardships with pleasure, compared with those they suffered in their own country, from the hands of those who should have been their friends." American colonists adopt the term for their own organization after reading the accounts of Barré's speech.source
  • February 14 – Spain's five-member "special junta", appointed by Prime Minister Jerónimo Grimaldi, delivers its report regarding "ways to address the backwardness of Spain's commerce with its colonies and with foreign nations". The report provides detailed orders to be delivered to José de Gálvez, the visitador general in charge of New Spain.source
  • April 5 – After completing the portion of the Mason–Dixon line marking the semi-circular boundary between Pennsylvania and Delaware, English surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon begin the two-and-a-half-year process of plotting out the 230-mile boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland along the latitude of 39°43′20″ N.source
  • The first chocolate factory in the Thirteen Colonies is established by Dr. James Baker at Dorchester, Massachusetts.source
  • It is believed that the first true restaurant opens in Paris, where a tavern-keeper named Boulanger sells cooked dishes at an all-night place on the Rue Bailleul.source
  • Sculptor Christopher Hewetson settles in Rome.Irelandsource
  • The town of Langesund was founded.Norwaysource
  • Settlement at Grantown-on-Spey planned.Scotlandsource
  • Taylors & Lloyds Bank established in Birmingham.United Kingdomsource

Religion & Belief

  • August 18 – Joseph II becomes Holy Roman Emperor.source
  • Desai Atash Behram is established in Navsari, India.source
  • The Icelandic Manuscript, SÁM 66 was written.Icelandsource
  • First Magdalene asylum (for Protestant girls) in Ireland opens on Leeson Street in Dublin, founded by Lady Arabella Denny.Irelandsource
  • Gracehill established in County Antrim as a Moravian community.Irelandsource
  • John Jones – Catholic Faith and PracticeWalessource

Economy & Finance

  • 12 July – George Grenville is dismissed as Prime Minister by King George III.United Kingdomsource
  • 12 August – Robert Clive secures the rights for the East India Company to collect taxes in Bengal from Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II.United Kingdomsource
  • The Hennessy cognac house foundedFrancesource
  • National income - ₹9,571 millionIndiasource
  • Free Economic Society was founded.Russiasource
  • Cyfarthfa Ironworks is founded by Anthony Bacon.Walessource

Technology & Infrastructure

  • April 26 – At Saint Petersburg, German engineer Christian Kratzenstein presents to the Russian Academy of Sciences a perfected version of the arithmetical machine originally invented by Gottfried Leibniz. Kratzenstein claims that his machine solves the problem with the Leibniz machine has with calculations above four digits, perfecting the flaw where the machine is "prone to err whenever it is necessary to make a number of 9999 move to 10000", but the machine is not developed further.source
  • 7 May – HMS Victory is launched at Chatham Dockyard; at the beginning of the 21st century it remains the oldest naval ship still in commission.United Kingdomsource
  • May 26 – During a stroll in the park "on a fine Sabbath afternoon" at Glasgow Green, Scottish engineer James Watt receives the inspiration that provides the breakthrough in his development of the steam engine; he recounts later that "The idea came into my mind, that as steam was an elastic body it would rush into a vacuum, and if a communication was made between the cylinder and an exhausted vessel, it would rush into it, and might be there condensed without cooling the cylinder... I had not walked further than the Golf-house when the whole thing was arranged in my mind."source
  • May – James Watt makes a breakthrough in the development of the steam engine by constructing a model with a separate condenser, an idea which has come to him in a walk on Glasgow Green.Scotlandsource
  • August 9 – Russian Empress Catherine II issues a decree authorizing the new way to produce vodka (by freezing).source
  • Sugar refinery at Greenock opened.Scotlandsource

Science & Discovery

Health & Medicine

  • January–April – George III suffers a malady, perhaps a first manifestation of bipolar disorder.United Kingdomsource
  • October 17 – The Pennsylvania Gazette reports that a Mr. McCullough, the Distributor of Stamps for the Royal Colony of North Carolina, has resigned his post in protest at the Stamp Act. A Dr. Huston is appointed to the position.source
  • December 12 – The Pennsylvania Gazette reports that Dr. Huston, the recently instated Distributor of Stamps for the Royal Colony of North Carolina, has resigned his post in protest at the Stamp Act.source

Crime & Justice

  • March 9 – After a public campaign by the writer Voltaire, judges in Paris posthumously exonerate Jean Calas of murdering his son. Calas had been tortured and executed in 1762 on the charge, though his son may have committed suicide.source
  • August 14 – In protest of the Stamp Act, Bostonians attack the home of official Andrew Oliver.source
  • August 26 – In protest of the Stamp Act, Bostonians destroy the home of lieutenant governor Thomas Hutchinson.source
  • September 6 – Jean-Jacques Rousseau's house in Switzerland is stoned by a mob.source
  • September 21 – François Antoine announces he has killed the Beast of Gévaudan.source
  • Coercion Act against the Whiteboys.Irelandsource
  • Lord Mansfield decides the landmark case of Pillans v Van Mierop in English contract law in relation to the doctrine of consideration.United Kingdomsource

Disasters & Accidents

  • May 18 – Not long after British rule has started over the formerly French colony of Quebec, an accidental fire destroys one quarter of the town of Montreal.source
  • 18 May – Fire destroys a large part of the town of Montreal, Quebec.Canadasource

Climate & Environment

  • Reserve system in Canada begins with the provision of a tract of land for the Maliseet tribe.Canadasource

Culture & Society

  • January 23 – Prince Joseph of Austria marries Princess Maria Josepha of Bavaria in Vienna.source
  • February 8 – Frederick the Great, the King of Prussia, issues a decree abolishing the historic punishments against unmarried women in Germany for "sex crimes", particularly the Hurenstrafen (literally "whore shaming") practices of public humiliation.source
  • July 13 – Qianlong, the Emperor of China issues a decree that copper engravings be made to depict all of his victories in battle. In the interest of amity with the Chinese, King George III of Great Britain gives priority to the sale of British copper, and King Louis XV of France assents to the use of French artisans.source
  • 12 August – The Royal Shepherd, by Richard Rolt, is performed in Dublin to celebrate the birthday of the Prince of Wales.Walessource
  • 8 October — Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra was founded.Norwaysource
  • 6 December – The Penrhyn estate comes into the possession of the Pennant family, through the marriage of Richard Pennant with the heiress of the Warburton family.Walessource
  • Catherine the Great establishes the first secondary education school for non-noble females in Russia: the Novodevichii Institute, for the daughters of commoners.source
  • École nationale vétérinaire d'Alfort foundedFrancesource
  • Foundation of the Novodevichii Institute.Russiasource
  • First publication of the ballad "Sir Patrick Spens".Scotlandsource
  • Walter Scott's novel Redgauntlet (1824) presents an alternate history of this year.Scotlandsource
  • Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire completed.United Kingdomsource

Births

Deaths

  • 21 January – Christian Braunmann Tullin, businessman and poet (born 1728).Norwaysource
  • February 9 – Elisabetta de Gambarini, English composer (born 1730)source
  • March 3 – William Stukeley, English archaeologist (born 1687)source
  • 18 March – Jens Kraft, philosopher (born 1720 in Norway)Denmarksource
  • March 27 – Arthur Dobbs, Irish politician and governor of the Royal Colony of North Carolina (born 1689)source
  • April 5 – Edward Young, English poet (born 1683)source
  • April 15 – Mikhail Lomonosov, Russian author and scientist (born 1711)source
  • April 20 – Abigail Williams, American accuser in the Salem witch trials (born 1681)source
  • May 17 – Alexis Clairaut, French mathematician (born 1713)source
  • July 4 – Claude-Godefroy Coquart, missionary (born 1706)Canadasource
  • July 18 – Philip, Duke of Parma, Spanish prince (born 1720)source
  • August 17 – Timothy Cutler, rector of Yale College (born 1684)source
  • August 18 – Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor (born 1708)source
  • September 2 – Henry Bouquet, Swiss-born British army officer (born 1719)source
  • October 21 – Giovanni Paolo Panini, Italian painter and architect (born 1691)source
  • October 31 – Prince William, Duke of Cumberland, English military leader (born 1721)source
  • December 20 – Louis, Dauphin of France, heir apparent to the French throne (born 1729)source
  • 29 December – Prince Frederick William of Wales, son of the former Prince and Princess of Wales, 15Walessource