1770

January 1

• Date of action in the opera "Madeleine". [1]

January 13

• De Beaumarchais' "Les Deux Amis" premieres in Paris. [1]

January 19

• Battle of Golden Hill (Lower Manhattan). [1]

February 22

• Christopher Snider 11, Boston, becomes first martyr of US Revolution. [1]

February 26

• François Hanot composer, dies at age 72. [1]
• Giuseppe Tartini Italian composer/violinist, dies at age 77. [1]

March 5

• Blanche Kelso Bruce sworn in as a US Senator (Mississippi). [1]
• Boston Massacre, British troops kill five in crowd; Crispus Attackus becomes first black to die for American freedom. [1]
• Crispus Attuks slave, is first of five killed during Boston Massacre. [1]

March 27

• Giovanni B Tiepolo Italian painter (Banquet of Cleopatra), dies at age 73. [1]

April 9

• Captain James Cook discovers Botany Bay (Australia). [1]

April 12

• Townsend Acts repealed. [1]

April 19

• Amsterdam buys Van Aerssens family 1/3 part of Suriname. [1]
• Captain James Cook first sees Australia. [1]
• Esprit Joseph Antoine Blanchard composer, dies at age 74. [1]

April 20

• Captain Cook arrives in New South Wales. [1]

April 28

• Marie AC de Camargo Spanish/Italian/Belgian dancer, dies at age 60. [1]

April 29

• Captain James Cook in the Endeavor arrives at and names Botany Bay, Australia. [5] (April 28 [1])

May 4

• Christian Gottfried Krause composer, dies at age 51. [1]

May 9

• Charles Avison composer, dies at age 61. [1]

May 10

• Charles Avison composer, dies at age 61. [1]

May 16

• Marie Antoinette (14) marries future King Louis XVI (15) of France. [1]

June 3

• Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo founded in California. [1]

June 11

• Captain Cook runs aground on Australian Great Barrier Reef. [1]

June 28

• Quakers open a school for blacks in Philadelphia. [1]

August 21

• James Cook formally claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales. [5]

December 5

• James Stirling Scottish mathematician (Formula of Stirling), dies at age 78. [1]

December 9

• Gottlieb Theophil Muffat composer, dies at age 80. [1]

December 10

• Theophil "Gottlieb" Muffat German court organist/composer, dies at age 80. [1]

1771

January 11

• Jean-Baptiste de Boyer marquis d'Argens, French author, dies at age 66. [1]

January 22

• Spain cedes the Falkland Islands to Britain. [1]

February 8

• Augusta von Saxen-Gotha German prince Frederick Louis of Wales, dies. [1]

February 12

• King Adolf Frederick of Sweden dies. His son Prince Gustav becomes King Gustav III. [1] [7]

February 16

• Messier presents his original list of 45 M-objects to French Academy. [1]

March 1

• Isfrid Kayser composer, dies at age 58. [1]

March 22

• Gottlieb W Rabener German author (Bremer Beiträge), dies at age 56. [1]

May 7

• Samuel Hearne explores the Copper Mine River of Canada. [1]

July 14

• Mission San Antonio de Padua founded in California. [1]

September 8

• Mission San Gabriel Archangel forms in California. [1]

December 26

• Claude A Helvétius French encyclopedist (L'esprit), dies at age 56. [1]

1772

January 1

• First traveler's checks issued (London). [1]

February 10

• Jozef Wenceslas monarch of Liechtenstein/general, dies at age 75. [1]
• Louis Tocqué French painter, dies at age 75. [1]

February 12

• Yves de Kerguelen of France discovers Kerguelen Archipelago, India. [1]

February 17

• First partition of Poland-Russia and Prussia, joined later by Austria. [1]

March 2

• Robert J Pothier French lawyer, dies at age 73. [1]

March 11

• George Reuter composer, dies at age 63. [1]

March 13

• Gotthold Lessing's "Emilia Calotti" premieres in Brunswick. [1]

April 15

• Karel Jozef ruler of Batthyányi, dies at age 73. [1]

April 19

• Johann Peter Kellner composer, dies at age 66. [1]

April 30

• John Clais patents first scale. [1]

May 1

• Gottfried Achenwall German lawyer/statistics/economist, dies at age 52. [1]

May 11

• Amsterdam theater destroyed by fire, 18 killed. [1]
• Joseph Kerckhoff Limburg surgeon/robber captain, hanged. [1]

June 9

• First Protestant church west of Penn (in Ohio) holds communion. [1]

June 10

• Burning of the Gaspée, British revenue cutter, by Rhode Islanders. [1]

June 22

• Slavery outlawed in England. [1]

August 5

• First partition of Poland, between Austria, Prussia and Russia. [1]

August 11

• Explosive eruption blows 4,000' off Papandayan Java, kills 3,000. [1]

August 31

• Hurricane destroy ships off Dominica. [1]

September 1

• Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa forms in California. [1]

December 12

• Johann Gottfried Seyfert composer, dies at age 41. [1]

December 22

• Moravian missionary constructs first schoolhouse west of Allegheny. [1]

December 28

• Ernst J Earl van/of Biron Russian duke of Courland, dies at age 82. [1]

1773

January 6

• Massachusetts slaves petition legislature for freedom. [1]

January 12

• First US public museum established (Charleston South Carolina). [1]

January 17

• Captain James Cook becomes first to cross Antarctic Circle (66 degrees 33' S). [1]

February 20

• Charles Emanuel I King of Sardinia/Duke of Savoy (CE III), dies at age 71. [1]

February 26

• Construction authorized for Walnut Steet jail (Philadelphia) (first solitary). [1]

March 1

• Jan Wagenaar Dutch historian, dies at age 63. [1]
• Luigi Vanvitelli [Louis van Wittel], Italian architect, dies at age 72. [1]

March 12

• Jeanne Baptiste Pointe de Sable found settlement now known as Chicago. [1]

March 18

• Oliver Goldsmith' "She Stoops to Conquer" premieres in London. [1]

April 19

• Florian Johann Deller composer, dies at age 43. [1]

April 27

• British Parliament passes the Tea Act (eventually leads to Boston Tea Party on December 16). [1]

May 8

• Ali Bey Egyptian Mameluk head, dies. [1]

May 24

• Jan Zach composer, dies at age 73. [1]

July 20

• Scottish settlers arrive at Pictou, Nova Scotia (Canada). [1]

September 11

• Benjamin Franklin writes "There never was a good war or bad peace.". [1]

December 16

• In Boston Harbor, a group of Massachusetts colonists board three British tea ships and dump 342 chests of tea into the harbor. The "Boston Tea Party" was in protest of the British Parliament's Tea Act of 1773, greatly lowering the tea tax on the East India Company. [1] [129]

December 26

• Expulsion of tea ships from Philadelphia. [1]

1774

January 11

• Messier adds M51 (spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici) to his catalog. [1]

January 21

• Mustapha III sultan of Turkey (1957-74), dies at age 56. [1]

January 30

• Captain Cook reaches 71 degrees 10' S, 1820 km from South pole (record). [1]
• Frantisek Ignac Antonin Tuma composer, dies at age 69. [1]
• Jean-Pierre Guignon composer, dies at age 71. [1]

February 10

• Andrew Becker demonstrates diving suit. [1]
• Florian Leopold Gassmann composer, dies at age 44. [1]

February 22

• English House of Lords rules authors do not have perpetual copyright. [1]

March 4

• William Herschel becomes the first to sight the Orion Nebula. [1] [5]

March 7

• British close port of Boston to all commerce. [1]

March 25

• English Parliament passes Boston Port Bill. [1]

March 28

• Britain passes Coercive Act against Massachusetts. [1]

April 4

• Oliver Goldsmith Irish poet (She Stoops to Conquer), dies at age 17. [1]

April 19

• CW Glucks opera "Iphigenia in Aulis", premieres in Paris France. [1]

April 23

• Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich painter, dies. [1]

April 30

• Pope Clement XIV proclaims a universal jubilee. [1]

May 3

• Heinrich A Fouqué Prussian general (7 year war), dies at age 76. [1]

May 10

• Louis XV king of France (1715-74), dies at age 64. [1]
• Louis XVI ascends to throne of France. [1]

May 20

• Britain gives Québec, Labrador and territory north of the Ohio. [1]

May 23

• Chestertown tea party occurs (tea dumped into Chester River). [1]

May 28

• First Continental Congress convenes (Virginia). [1]

June 1

• British government orders Port of Boston closed. [1]

June 13

• Rhode Island becomes first colony to prohibit importation of slaves. [1]

July 12

• Citizens of Carlisle, Penn. pass a declaration of independence. [1]

August 1

• The element oxygen is discovered for the third (and last) time. [1] [5]

September 5

• First Continental Congress assembles, in Philadelphia. [1]

October 14

• First Continental Congress is first to declare colonial rights (Philadelphia). [1]

October 26

• First Continental Congress adjourns in Philadelphia. [1]

November 27

• The Great Council of Venice votes 720 to 21 to close the Ridotto, ending legal public gambling, due to growing impoverishment of its aristocratic families. [187.95]

December 2

• Johann Friedrich Agricola German (court)composer/organist, dies at age 54. [1]

December 13

• First incident of the Revolution-400 attack Fort William and Mary, New Hampshire. [1]
• Susanne K von Klettenberg German friend of Goethes mother, dies at age 50. [1]

December 14

• Massachusetts militiamen successfully attacked arsenal of Fort William and Mary. [1]

December 16

• François Quesnay French personal physician of Louis XIV, dies at age 80. [1]

December 18

• Jews expelled from Prague, Bohemia and Moravia by Empress Maria Theresa. [1]