1769

Year 1769 (MDCCLXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1769

January - June

April 13: Cook in Tahiti on Endeavour.

• April 13 - James Cook arrives in Tahiti on the ship HM Bark Endeavour, preparing to observe the solar eclipse of the planet Venus, which took place on June 3. After the voyage, the data was found to be inaccurate in determining the distance between the Sun and Earth.
• May 14 - Charles III of Spain sends Spanish missionaries, who found California missions in San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Monterey and begin the settlement of California.
• May 19 - Pope Clement XIV succeeds Pope Clement XIII as the 249th pope.
• June 3 - (O.S.) A transit of Venus is followed five hours later by a total solar eclipse, the shortest such interval in the historical past. The predicted transit was viewed by King George III of Great Britain at Kew Observatory.

June 7: Daniel Boone in Kentucky.

• June 7 - Frontiersman Daniel Boone first began to explore the present-day Bluegrass State, Kentucky.

July - December

• July 16: Father Junípero Serra founds Mission San Diego de Alcalá, the first of the 21 California missions.
• August 3: The party of Gaspar de Portolà became the first white group to set foot in the area now known as Santa Monica, California.
• September 6 through September 9: David Garrick holds the first Shakespeare Festival at Stratford-upon-Avon.
• September 10: Russo-Turkish War, 1768-1774: Russian forces take the Ottoman fortress of Chocim in Bukovina.
• December 13: Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire is established as John Wentworth, the Royal Governor, conveys a charter from King George III of England.

Undated

• James Watt demonstrates the first practical steam engine, an invention which inaugurated the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain.

Cugnot\'s steam-wagon in 1769.

• Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot demonstrates a steam-powered artillery tractor (see drawing) in France.
• Famine in Bengal kills 10 million people, a third of the population, in the worst natural disaster in human history (in terms of lives lost).
• The Maharajah of Mysore forces the British to agree a treaty of mutual assistance in view of the famine, but the British East India Company increases its demands on the Bengali people to keep profits up.

"Mechanical Turk" chess machine.

• Richard Arkwright invents the spinning frame.
• The city of Brescia, Italy is devastated when the Church of San Nazaro, near Venice, is struck by lightning. The resulting fire ignites 200,000 lb (90,000 kg) of gunpowder being stored there, causing a massive explosion which destroys one sixth of the city and kills 3,000 people. The disaster prompts the Roman Catholic Church to abandon their religious objection to using lightning rods to protect their property.

Ongoing events

• Russo-Turkish War, 1768-1774.
• War of the Regulation (1764-1771).
• Captain James Cook\'s first voyage (1768-1771).

Births

• January 10 - Michel Ney, French marshal (died 1815)
• March 1 - François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers, French general (died 1796)
• March 10 - Joseph Williamson, philanthropist and builder of the Williamson\'s tunnels (died 1840)
• March 23 - William Smith, English geologist and cartographer (died 1839)
• March 29 - Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult, French marshal (died 1851)
• April 3 - Christian Gunther von Bernstorff, Danish and Prussian statesman and diplomat (died 1835)
• April 9 - Jakob Heinrich Laspeyres, German lepidopterist (died 1809)
• April 11 - Jean Lannes, French marshal (died 1809)
• April 13 - Thomas Lawrence, English painter (died 1830)
• May 1 - Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, British general and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1852)
• May 6 - Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany (died 1824)
• June 18 - Viscount Castlereagh, British statesman, diplomat, and soldier (died 1822)
• August 15 - Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French (died 1821)
• September 14 - Karl Salomo Zachariae Von Lingenthal, German jurist (died 1843)
• October 6 - Isaac Brock, British general and administrator (died 1812)
• December 13 - James Scarlett Abinger, English judge (died 1844)
• date unknown - James Dadford, English canal engineer

See also Category: 1769 births.

Deaths

• February 2 - Pope Clement XIII (born 1693)
• March 28 - Johann Friedrich Endersch, cartographer (born 1705)
• April 20 - Chief Pontiac, Ottawa chief (murdered) (born c.1719)
• June 1 - Edward Holyoke, American President of Harvard University (born 1689)
• August 2 - Daniel Finch, 8th Earl of Winchilsea, English politician (born 1689)
• August 29 - Edmond Hoyle, English game expert (born 1672)
• September 22 - Antonio Genovesi, philosopher (born 1712)
• November 23 - Constantine Mavrocordatos, Prince of Wallachia and Prince of Moldavia (born 1711)
• November 27 - Kamo no Mabuchi, poet and philologist (born 1697)
• December 13 - Christian Fürchtegott Gellert, German poet (born 1715)
• December 30 - Nicholas Taaffe, 6th Viscount Taaffe, Austrian soldier (born 1685)
• date unknown - Suramphaa - King of Assam

See also Category: 1769 deaths.

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