1759

Events

  • January 11 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first American life insurance company is incorporated.
  • January 13 – The Távora family is executed following the accusation of attempted regicide on Joseph I of Portugal
  • January 15 – The British Museum opens
  • April 13 – a French army defeats Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick at Brunswick
  • June 27 – British Troops under Jeffrey Amherst take Fort Ticonderoga
  • July 25Seven Years' War (French and Indian War): In Canada, British forces capture Fort Niagara from French, who subsequently abandon Fort Rouillé.
  • August 1Battle of Minden – Anglo-Hanoverian forces under Ferdinand of Brunswick defeat the French army of the Duc de Broglie, but due to the disobedience of the English cavalry commander Lord George Sackville, the French are able to withdraw unmolested.
  • August 10Ferdinand VI of Spain dies and is succeeded by his half-brother Charles III. Charles resigns the thrones of Naples and Sicily to his third son, Ferdinand IV.
  • August 12Battle of KunersdorfFrederick the Great is rebuffed in bloody assaults on the combined Austro-Russian army of Peter Soltikov and Gideon von Loudon. This is one of Frederick's greatest defeats.
  • August 18Battle of Lagos – The British fleet of Edward Boscawen defeats a French force under Commodore de la Clue off the Portuguese coast.
  • September 10Battle of Pondicherry – An inconclusive naval battle is fought off the coast of India between the French Admiral d'Aché and the British under George Pocock. The French forces are badly damaged and returned home, never to return.
  • September 13Seven Years' War (French and Indian War): Quebec falls to British forces following General Wolfe's victory in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham just outside the city. Both the French Commander (the Marquis de Montcalm) and the British General James Wolfe are fatally wounded.
  • November 20Battle of Quiberon Bay – The English fleet of Sir Edward Hawke defeats a French fleet under Marshal de Conflans near the coast of Brittany. This is the decisive naval engagement of the Seven Years' War – after this, the French are no longer able to field a significant fleet.
  • November 21Battle of Maxen – the Austrian army of Marshal von Daun cuts off and foces the surrender of a Prussian force under Friedrich von Finck.
  • December 6 – The Germantown Union School (now called "Germantown Academy"), America's oldest nonsectarian day school, is founded.
  • George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis
  • Adam Smith publishes Theory of Moral Sentiments, embodying some of his Glasgow lectures
  • Publication of Voltaire's Candide
  • The town of Egedesminde (modern Aasiaat) is founded in Greenland.
  • Guinness Brewery founded in Dublin.

Births

for more information, see Category:1759 births.

Deaths

for more information, see Category:1759 deaths.
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