1766 CE
Burmese–Siamese War: Outside of the walls of the Thailand capital of Ayutthaya, tens of thousands of invaders from Burma (under the command of General Ne Myo Thihapate and General Maha Nawatra) are confronted by Thai defenders led by General Phya Taksin. The defenders are overwhelmed and the survivors take refuge inside Ayutthaya. The siege continues for 15 months before the Burmese attackers collapse the walls by digging tunnels and setting fire to debris. The city falls on April 9, 1767, and King Ekkathat is killed. Ferocious wolf attacks occur in France, such as the Beast of Gévaudan or Wolves of Périgord. The Law on the Freedom of Printing abolishes censorship in Sweden and guarantees freedom of the press, making Sweden the first country of the world to introduce constitutional protection of press freedom, and to pass wide-ranging freedom of information legislation.
In the 1760s, the 18th century.
Geopolitics & Diplomacy
- February 23 – Lorraine and Bar become French again, on the death of Stanisław Leszczyński, King of Poland and last Duke of Lorraine.source
- March 18 – American Revolution: The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act, which has been very unpopular in the British colonies; the persuasion of Benjamin Franklin is considered partly responsible. The Declaratory Act asserts the right of Britain to bind the colonies in all other respects.source
- March 18 – The Stamp Act is repealed.Canadasource
- 30 July – Marquess of Rockingham dismissed as Prime Minister by King George III and is succeeded by William Pitt the Elder.United Kingdomsource
- July - Maurice Morgann becomes an under-secretary to the Earl of Shelburne, then Secretary of State for the South. In November he is made secretary of the Province of New Jersey.Walessource
- 9 September – when Christian VII sells most of the royal holdings on the island of Falster (divided into 10 estates) by auction to make payments on Denmark's sovereign debtDenmarksource
- 20 October - Christian Tychsen is appointed as governor of the Danish Gold Coast as the first on a regular basis.Denmarksource
- November 10 – The last Colonial governor of New Jersey, William Franklin, signs the charter of Queen's College (later renamed Rutgers University).source
- December 2 – The Law on the Freedom of Printing abolishes censorship in Sweden and guarantees freedom of the press, making Sweden the first country of the world to introduce constitutional protection of press freedom, and to pass wide-ranging freedom of information legislation.source
- 2 December – The law of the Freedom of the press and the public access to public documents is passed.Swedensource
- Gorodetsk was renamed to Bezhetsk.Russiasource
- Catherine the Great started educational reforms.Russiasource
Conflict & Security
- January 20 – Burmese–Siamese War: Outside of the walls of the Thailand capital of Ayutthaya, tens of thousands of invaders from Burma (under the command of General Ne Myo Thihapate and General Maha Nawatra) are confronted by Thai defenders led by General Phya Taksin. The defenders are overwhelmed and the survivors take refuge inside Ayutthaya. The siege continues for 15 months before the Burmese attackers collapse the walls by digging tunnels and setting fire to debris. The city falls on April 9, 1767, and King Ekkathat is killed.source
- February 5 – An observer in Wilmington, North Carolina reports to the Edinburgh newspaper Caledonian Mercury that three ships have been seized by British men-of-war, on the charge of carrying official documents without stamps. The strict enforcement causes seven other ships to leave Wilmington for other ports.source
- 5 February – an observer in Wilmington, North Carolina, reports to the Edinburgh newspaper Caledonian Mercury that three ships have been seized by British Men of War on the charge of carrying official documents without stamps. The strict enforcement causes seven other ships to leave Wilmington for other ports.United Kingdomsource
- February 15 – Protesting against the Stamp Act 1765, members of the New York City Sons of Liberty travel to Pennsylvania and set fire to a British supply of tax stamps before the stamps can be taken to distributors in the province of Maryland.source
- February 18 – Meermin Slave Mutiny: Captive Malagasy people seize a Dutch East India Company slave ship in the Indian Ocean.source
- February – Ferocious wolf attacks occur in France, such as the Beast of Gévaudan or Wolves of Périgord.source
- March 5 – Antonio de Ulloa, the first Spanish governor of Louisiana, arrives in New Orleans.source
- 4 April - Schack Carl Rantzau was appointed commander-in-chief of the Norwegian army.Norwaysource
- April 9 – African slaves are imported directly into the American colony of Georgia for the first time, as the sloop Mary Brow arrives in Savannah with 78 captives imported from Saint-Louis, Senegal.source
- September 1 – The revolt in Quito (at this time part of Spain's Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada; the modern-day capital of Ecuador) is ended peacefully as royal forces enter the city under the command of Guayaquil Governor Pedro Zelaya. Rather than seeking retribution from the Quito citizens over their insurrection that has broken the monopoly over the sale of the liquor aguardiente, Zeleaya oversees a program of reconciliation.source
- November 27 – A British sloop-of-war is searching all vessels passing near Cape Lookout, North Carolina, and some vessels have been seized, according to an observer in New York City, in the Province of New York, reporting to the Pennsylvania Gazette.source
- 27 November – an observer in New York City reports to the Pennsylvania Gazette that a British sloop of war is searching all vessels passing near Cape Lookout, North Carolina, and that some vessels have been seized.United Kingdomsource
- December 25 – Mapuches in Chile launch a series of surprise attacks against the Spanish starting the Mapuche uprising of 1766.source
Exploration & Expansion
- September 23 – John Penn, the Colonial Governor of Pennsylvania and one of the four Penn family owners of the Pennsylvania land grant, issues a proclamation forbidding British American colonist residents from building settlements on lands in the west "not yet purchased of the Nations" of the Iroquois Indians.source
- Orupgaard is sold to Christian Hincheldey.Denmarksource
- Gjedsergaard is sold to Frederik Holck-Winterfeldt-Denmarksource
- October 4 – The kingdom of France formally cedes its rights to the Malouines Islands to Spain. On March 24, Spain renames the islands the Malvinas, and in 1833, the United Kingdom re-colonises the recently abandoned territory and renames it the Falkland Islands.source
- 8 October - Sophia Magdalena of Denmark arrives in Sweden.Swedensource
Religion & Belief
- 1 January – Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie", "the young Pretender") becomes the new Stuart claimant to the throne of Great Britain as King Charles III and figurehead for Jacobitism, on the death of his father James Francis Edward Stuart in Rome.Scotlandsource
- 1 January – Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie") becomes the new Stuart claimant to the throne of Great Britain as King Charles III and figurehead for Jacobitism, on the death of his father James Francis Edward Stuart, Pretender since 1701. However, the papacy does not recognise his claim, leading to an improvement in British relations with the Holy See.United Kingdomsource
- January 14 – Christian VII becomes King of Denmark-Norway.source
- 14 January – Crown Prince Christian becomes King Christian VII of Denmark.Denmarksource
- 4 March – The funeral of Frederick V of Denmark takes place at Roskilde Cathedral.Denmarksource
- 1 July – establishment of the first Volunteers of Ireland corps.Irelandsource
- September 13 – The position of Patriarch of the Serbs, established on April 9, 1346 as the authority over the Serbian Orthodox Church, is abolished by order of Sultan Mustafa III of the Ottoman Empire; the patriarchate is not re-established until 1920 following the creation of Yugoslavia at the end of World War One.source
- Elis Roberts - Oliffernes a JiwdathWalessource
- John Roberts (Siôn Robert Lewis) - Drych y CristionWalessource
- David Jones of Trefriw (ed.) - Cydymaith DiddanWalessource
Economy & Finance
Technology & Infrastructure
- 19 February - Thomas Kymer is granted an Act of Parliament allowing him to construct the Kidwelly and Llanelly Canal.Walessource
- April 3 – Seventeen days after the Stamp Act's repeal in London, news reaches America of the decision.source
- May 29 – In a paper read to the Royal Society, British theoretical chemist Henry Cavendish first describes his process of producing what he refers to as "inflammable air" by dissolving base metals such as iron, zinc and tin in a flask of sulfuric acid or hydrochloric acid, drawing the conclusion that the vapor that was released is different from air. Seven years later, French chemist Antoine Lavoisier bestows the name "hydrogen" on the gas.source
- 26 July – construction of the Trent and Mersey Canal begins to connect the River Trent and River Mersey.United Kingdomsource
- 28 October – Coldstream Bridge across the River Tweed on the Northumberland border, designed by John Smeaton, is opened to traffic.Scotlandsource
- Holger Jacobaeus, a Danish merchant, constructed a large wooden house in Keflavík.Icelandsource
- Gatchina Palace started construction.Russiasource
Science & Discovery
- April 9 – American botanist John Bartram completes his first exploration and cataloging of North American plants after more than nine months.source
- 17 April – James Craig's plan for the New Town, Edinburgh, wins the prize offered by the city council in January.Scotlandsource
- 29 May – Henry Cavendish presents his paper "On Factitious Airs". This is generally credited to show the discovery of hydrogen, since it describes the density of 'inflammable air', which forms water on combustion.United Kingdomsource
- Leonhard Euler returned to the St. Petersburg Academy.Russiasource
- unknown date - The Welsh-language periodical Yr Awstralydd is launched by William Meirion Evans in Australia.Walessource
Health & Medicine
- April 17 – King Carlos III of Spain issues a royal cédula from Aranjuez to round up all ethnic Chinese in the Philippines and to move them to ghettoes in various provinces.source
- October – Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, completed.United Kingdomsource
Crime & Justice
- February 20 – The Pennsylvania Gazette reports that a British sloop off Wilmington, North Carolina, has seized a sloop sailing from Philadelphia, and another sailing from Saint Christopher, on the charge of carrying official documents without stamps. In response, local residents threaten to burn a Royal Man-of-War attempting to deliver stamps to Wilmington, forcing the ship to return to the mouth of the Cape Fear River.source
- 20 February – the Pennsylvania Gazette reports that a British sloop outside of Wilmington, North Carolina seized one sloop sailing from Philadelphia and one sloop sailing from Saint Christopher on the charge of carrying official documents without stamps. In response, local residents threaten to burn a Royal Man of War attempting to deliver stamps to Wilmington, forcing the ship to return to the mouth of the Cape Fear River.United Kingdomsource
- 15 March – Nicholas Sheehy, the Roman Catholic priest of Clogheen, County Tipperary, and an open opponent of the Penal Laws against Catholics, having been tried on dubious evidence as an accessory to murder, is hanged, drawn and quartered at Clonmel.Irelandsource
- 13 June – two soldiers and a civilian found guilty in Aberdeen of theft during an earlier meal riot in Banff are rescued from custody by a mob.Scotlandsource
- July 1 – François-Jean de la Barre, a young French nobleman, is tortured and beheaded, before his body is burnt on a pyre, along with a copy of Voltaire's Dictionnaire philosophique nailed to his torso, supposedly for the crime of not saluting a Roman Catholic religious procession in Abbeville, and for other sacrileges, including desecrating a crucifix.source
- August 10 – During the occupation of New York, members of the 28th Foot Regiment of the British Army chop down the liberty pole that was erected by the Sons of Liberty on June 4. The Sons of Liberty put up a second pole the next day, and that pole is cut down on August 22.source
- Klodskov (Estate No. 7, later Vennerslund) is sold to Peter Thestrup for 59724 rigsdale.Denmarksource
- December 5 – James Christie holds the first sale at Christie's auction house in London.source
- Saint Peter Attempting to Walk on Water, oil painting by François BoucherFrancesource
- Lord Mansfield decides the landmark case of Carter v Boehm in English contract law, establishing the duty of utmost good faith (uberrima fides) in insurance contracts.United Kingdomsource
- Richard Wilson - Meleager and AtalantaWalessource
- William Williams Pantycelyn - Ffarwel Weledig, part 2Walessource
Climate & Environment
- August 13 – A hurricane sweeps across the French island colony of Martinique, killing more than 400 people and destroying the plantation owned by Joseph-Gaspard de La Pagerie, the father of the future French Empress Joséphine.source
- September – "Bread and butter riots": civil unrest across England following a poor harvest.United Kingdomsource
- Hekla erupted, producing the second largest lava flow, 1.3 km 3 (0.31 cu mi) covering 65 km 2 (25 sq mi), and third largest tephra volume, 0.24 km 3 (0.058 cu mi), of any Icelandic volcano during the inhabited era.Icelandsource
Culture & Society
- January 1 – Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie") becomes the new Stuart claimant to the throne of Great Britain, as King Charles III, and figurehead for Jacobitism.source
- February 13 – John Mills is elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, with Benjamin Franklin as one of his sponsors.source
- February – American Revolution: Parliament repeals the Stamp Act which is very unpopular in the British colonies. The persuasion of Benjamin Franklin is considered partly responsible.United Kingdomsource
- 12 March – the Blunden Baronetcy, of Castle Blunden, in the County of Kilkenny is created in the Baronetage of Ireland for John Blunden, a member of the Irish House of Commons.Irelandsource
- May 30 – The Theatre Royal, Bristol, opens in England. Also this year in England, the surviving Georgian Theatre (Stockton-on-Tees) opens as a playhouse.source
- June 4 – On the occasion of the 28th birthday of King George III, members of the Sons of Liberty in Manhattan erect a liberty pole as a protest for the first time. The historic symbol, a tall "wooden pole with a Phrygian cap" is placed "on the Fields somewhere between Broadway and Park Row". British soldiers cut down the pole in August.source
- 4 July - Charles of Hesse was appointed Steward of Norway.Norwaysource
- October 1 – Crown Prince Gustav of Sweden weds Princess Sophia Magdalena of Denmark. They become King Gustav III and Queen Consort Sophia of Sweden upon his ascension to the throne in 1771.source
- 4 November – The wedding between Crown Prince Gustav and Sophia Magdalena of Denmark in Stockholm.Swedensource
- 8 November – The wedding of Christian VII and Caroline Matilda of Great Britain takes place at Christiansborg Palace accompanied by extensive celebrations throughout the city. The couple has already been married by proxy in London on 1 October.Denmarksource
- 12 November - John, Lord Mountstuart marries Charlotte Jane, granddaughter of Thomas Windsor, 1st Viscount Windsor.Walessource
- November 29 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart returns to Salzburg, after the Mozart family grand tour of Europe.source
- November – Raja Lumu consolidates his claim to the Selangor Sultanate by marriage to the niece of the Sultan of Perak.source
- Childsburgh, the Orange County, North Carolina seat laid out as Corbin Town in 1754, and renamed in 1759, is renamed Hillsborough, in honor of Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire, Earl of Hillsborough.source
- Dr. James Fordyce's two-volume compendium Sermons to Young Women is published in London.source
- The Swing (commissioned 1766, painted 1767), oil painting by Jean-Honoré FragonardFrancesource
- Assembly of the Nobility was founded.Russiasource
Births
- January 1 – Magdalena Rudenschöld, Swedish conspirator (died 1823)source
- January 3 – Nguyễn Du, Vietnamese poet (died 1820)source
- January 6 – José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, Supreme Leader of Paraguay (died 1840)source
- February 14 – Thomas Malthus, English demographer, economist (died 1834)source
- 23 March - Ole Paus, ship's captain, shipowner and land owner (died 1855)Norwaysource
- April 22 – Germaine de Staël, French author (died 1817)source
- July 8 – Dominique Jean Larrey, French surgeon, innovator in battlefield medicine (died 1842)source
- July 21 – Thomas Charles Hope, Scottish chemist, discoverer of strontium (died 1844)source
- August 6 – William Hyde Wollaston, English chemist (died 1828)source
- September 6 – John Dalton, English chemist and physicist (died 1844)source
- September 25 – Armand-Emmanuel de Vignerot du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu, Prime Minister of France (died 1822)source
- October 3 – John Walbach, French baron and officer in the United States Army, with a military career spanning over 57 years (died 1857)source
- October 23 – Emmanuel de Grouchy, Marquis de Grouchy, French marshal (died 1847)source
- November 2 – Joseph Radetzky von Radetz, Austrian field marshal (died 1858)source
- December 3 – Barbara Fritchie, U.S. patriot in the Civil War (died 1862)source
- 25 December - Christmas Evans, preacher (died 1838)Walessource
- Victor von Prendel, The Austro-Russian Major (died 1852)Austriasource
- Nikolay Karamzin, Russian historian (died 1826)Russiasource
Deaths
- January 1 – James Francis Edward Stuart, The Old Pretender to the British throne (born 1688)source
- 1 January - James Francis Edward Stuart, 77, nominally Prince of Wales from his birth until 1701Walessource
- January 9 – Thomas Birch, English historian (born 1705)source
- January 14 – King Frederick V of Denmark (born 1723)source
- 14 January – Frederick V, Danish king (born 1723)Denmarksource
- January 21 – James Quin, English actor (born 1693)source
- February 5 – Count Leopold Joseph von Daun, Austrian field marshal (born 1705)source
- February 23 – Stanisław Leszczyński, King of Poland (born 1677)source
- March 10 – Jane Colden, American botanist (born 1724)source
- 25 March - Anna Krefting, businesswoman (born 1683).Norwaysource
- May 8 – Samuel Chandler, English non-conformist minister (born 1693)source
- May 20 – Malhar Rao Holkar, Indian nobleman (born 1693)source
- July 9 – Jonathan Mayhew, American minister, patriot (born 1720)source
- July 11 – Elisabeth Farnese, queen of Philip V of Spain (born 1692)source
- July 17 – Samuel Finley, American clergyman and educator (born 1715)source
- July 17 – Giuseppe Castiglione, Italian missionary to China (born 1688)source
- September 23 – John Brown, English divine and author (born 1715)source
- Alexey Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Russian diplomat and chancellorRussiasource