Cook Crosses Antarctic Circle
Jan 17 Captain James Cook becomes the first to cross Antarctic Circle (66° 33' S)
- Feb 26 State of Pennsylvania approves construction of Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia; it will become the first experiment with the practice of solitary confinement in the United States
- Mar 12 Jeanne Baptiste Pointe de Sable found settlement now known as Chicago
- Mar 18 Oliver Goldsmith's "She Stoops to Conquer" premieres in London
- Apr 27 British Parliament passes Tea Act (Boston won't like this)
- Jun 17 Cúcuta, Colombia is founded by Juana Rangel de Cuéllar
- Jul 20 Scottish settlers arrive at Pictou, Nova Scotia (Canada)
- Jul 21 Pope Clemens XIV bans Jesuits
- Jul 29 1st schoolhouse west of Allegheny Mountains completed, Schoenbrunn, Ohio
- Jul 29 Santa Marta earthquakes destroy much of the capitol city of Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala, New Spain (now Antigua, Guatemala); over 500 killed instantly, and 600 more die later from resulting disease and starvation
- Sep 1 "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral" by American slave Phillis Wheatley published in the UK - first known book of poetry published by a Black woman [1]
Good War or Bad Peace
Sep 11 Benjamin Franklin writes "There never was a good war or bad peace"
- Sep 22 Benjamin Franklin publishes a hoax letter "An Edict by the King of Prussia" in the Public Advertiser, criticising Britain's colonial policies in the American colonies
- Oct 12 America's first asylum opens for 'Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds' in Virginia
Whirlpool Galaxy
Oct 13 The Whirlpool Galaxy discovered by French astronomer Charles Messier
- Oct 14 American Revolutionary War: The United Kingdom's East India Company tea ships' cargo are burned at Annapolis, Maryland
- Oct 14 The first recorded Ministry of Education, the Komisja Edukacji Narodowej (Polish for Commission of National Education), is formed in Poland
Boston Tea Declaration
Nov 5 John Hancock is elected as moderator at a Boston town meeting that resolves that anyone who supports the Tea Act is an "Enemy to America"
Boston Tea Party
Dec 16 Boston tea party incident - Sons of Liberty protesters throw tea shipments into Boston harbor in protest against British imposed Tea Act
- Dec 18 A skirmish at Grass Cove in Queen Charlotte Sound results in the deaths of two Māori and nine members of James Cook's expedition, New Zealand
- Dec 26 Expulsion of tea ships from Philadelphia
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
Kings
Revolutionaries
Scientists