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The 1770s

1,305 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 18th century. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

1770 CE120 entries

  • 21 March – the College Historical Society, a debating society at Trinity College Dublin, founded by Edmund Burke, holds its first meeting when Burke's Club (founded 1747) merges with the Historical Club (1753).
  • March 26 – First voyage of James Cook: English explorer Captain James Cook and his crew aboard HMS Endeavour complete the circumnavigation of New Zealand.
  • June 3 – Gaspar de Portolà and Father Junípero Serra establish Monterey, the presidio of Alta California territory for Spain from 1777–1822, United Mexican States 1824–1846, until the California Republic.

1771 CE106 entries

  • January 5 – The Great Kalmyk (Torghut Migration) is led by Ubashi Khan, from the east bank of the Lower Volga River back to the homeland of Dzungaria, at this time under Qing dynasty rule.
  • September 8 – In California, Fathers Pedro Cambon and Angel Somera found Mission Vieja, later called, Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, in what becomes San Gabriel, California.
  • October 17 – The opera Ascanio in Alba by Wolfgang Mozart, age 15, premieres in Milan.

1772 CE118 entries

  • January 17 – Johann Friedrich Struensee and Queen Caroline Matilda are arrested, leading to his execution and her banishment from Denmark.
  • June 22 – Somersett's Case: Lord Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, delivers the decision that leads to the end of slavery in England.
  • August 5 – The first Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth begins. The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria becomes part of the crown lands of the Habsburg monarchy.

1773 CE124 entries

  • 15 March – first performance of Oliver Goldsmith's comedy She Stoops to Conquer at the Covent Garden Theatre in London.
  • July 29 (Feast of St Martha) – Guatemala earthquake: The Santa Marta earthquake hits, with an estimated epicentral magnitude of 7.5 M i , striking Guatemala; numerous aftershocks last until December. The city of Antigua Guatemala is virtually destroyed, leading to the decision to move the country's capital to La Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción.
  • October 14 – The Komisja Edukacji Narodowej (Polish for National Education Committee), formed in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, is considered to be the world's first ministry of education.

1774 CE143 entries

  • May 17 – The colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations issues the first call for an "Intercolonial Congress" that eventually is set up as the Continental Congress.
  • September 21 – George Mason and George Washington found the Fairfax County Militia Association, a military unit independent of British control.
  • November 15 – The government of the Republic of Venice allows adventurer and ladies' man Giacomo Casanova to return home after a 17-year absence.

1775 CE143 entries

  • January – The Habsburg monarchy forces the Ottoman Empire to cede Bukovina to its rule.
  • January – The Habsburg monarchy forces the Ottoman Empire to cede Bukovina.
  • November 13 – American Revolution: Battle of Montreal – American forces under Brigadier General Richard Montgomery capture Montreal. British General Guy Carleton escapes to Quebec.

1776 CE162 entries

  • June 11 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress appoints a Committee of Five to draft a Declaration of Independence.
  • July 9 – American Revolution: An angry mob in New York City topples and beheads the equestrian statue of George III in Bowling Green; much of its metal content will be used to make musket balls.
  • October 31 – In his first speech before British Parliament since the Declaration of Independence that summer, King George III acknowledges that all is not going well for Britain in the war with the United States.

1777 CE134 entries

  • January 2 – American Revolutionary War – Battle of the Assunpink Creek: American general George Washington's army repulses a British attack by Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis, in a second battle at Trenton, New Jersey.
  • June 14 – The Stars and Stripes is adopted by the Continental Congress as the flag of the United States.
  • November 29 – San Jose, California, is founded. It is the first pueblo in Spanish Alta California.

1778 CE134 entries

  • March 29 – April 26 British Captain James Cook explores Alaskan coast, seeking Northwest Passage back to the Atlantic. On the last of three voyages to the west coast, he travels as far north as the Bering Strait and claims Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island for the British. While there, he trades for sea otter pelts. On the way back to England his crew almost mutinied, desperately wanting to go back to the Pacific Northwest, after stopping in China and discovering how much sea otter pelts were worth.
  • June 28 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Monmouth – George Washington's Continental Army battles British general Sir Henry Clinton's army to a draw, near Monmouth County, New Jersey.
  • June 28 – American Revolutionary War – Battle of Monmouth: George Washington's Continental Army battles the British general Sir Henry Clinton's army to a draw near Monmouth, New Jersey.

1779 CE121 entries

  • January 22 – American Revolutionary War – Claudius Smith is hanged at Goshen, Orange County, New York for supposed acts of terrorism upon the people of the surrounding communities.
  • 24 June – American Revolutionary War: start of the Great Siege of Gibraltar (fourteenth and last military siege). This is an action by French and Spanish forces to wrest control of Gibraltar from the established British Garrison. The garrison, led by George Augustus Eliott, later 1st Baron Heathfield of Gibraltar, survives all attacks and a blockade of supplies.
  • September – Battle of Baton Rouge: Spanish troops under Bernardo de Galvez capture the city from the British.