Samiksha Jaiswal (Editor)

1773

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1773 (MDCCLXXIII) was a common year starting on Friday (dominical letter C) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Tuesday (dominical letter F) of the Julian calendar, the 1773rd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 773rd year of the 2nd millennium, the 73rd year of the 18th century, and the 4th year of the 1770s decade. As of the start of 1773, the Gregorian calendar was 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

Contents

January–June

  • January 17 – Second voyage of James Cook: Captain Cook in HMS Resolution (1771) becomes the first European explorer to cross the Antarctic Circle.
  • January 18 – The first opera performance in the Swedish language, Thetis and Phelée, performed by Carl Stenborg and Elisabeth Olin in Bollhuset in Stockholm, Sweden, marks the establishment of the Royal Swedish Opera.
  • Spring – Second voyage of James Cook: Tobias Furneaux in HMS Adventure (1771) explores the coast of Van Diemen's Land.
  • April 27 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade, coming into force on May 10.
  • May – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Regulating Act creating the office of governor general, with an advising council, to exercise political authority over the territory under British East India Company rule in India.
  • May 8 – In Egypt, Ottoman rebels revolt, killing Ali Bey, Mamluk Sultan of Egypt.

    • July–December

  • July 21 – Under pressure from the Bourbon courts, Pope Clement XIV suppresses the Society of Jesus (brief Dominus ac Redemptor). Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, expels the order from his territories.
  • July 29 (Feast of St Martha) – Guatemala earthquake: Santa Marta earthquake, with an estimated epicentral magnitude of 7.5 Mi, strikes 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.
  • August 11 – Second voyage of James Cook in the Tuamotus: Captain Cook discovers Tekokota which he names as "Doubtful Island".
  • August 12 – Second voyage of James Cook in the Tuamotus: Captain Cook discovers Marutea Nord which he names as "Furneaux Island".
  • September 11 – The Public Advertiser publishes a satirical essay titled Rules By Which A Great Empire May Be Reduced To A Small One, written by Benjamin Franklin.
  • October 10
  • Daniel Boone leads the first attempt by British colonists to establish a settlement in Kentucky, but is turned back in an attack by Native Americans in which his son is killed.
  • Paul Revere marries Rachel Walker, his second wife.
  • October 12 – America's first insane asylum opens for Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds in Williamsburg, Virginia.
  • October 13 – French astronomer Charles Messier discovers the Whirlpool Galaxy, an interacting, grand design spiral galaxy located at a distance of approximately 23 million light-years in the constellation Canes Venatici.
  • October 14 – The Komisja Edukacji Narodowej (Polish for Commission for the Education of the People), formed in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, is considered to be the world's first ministry of education.
  • December 16 – Boston Tea Party: A group of American colonists, dressed as Mohawk Indians, steal aboard ships of the East India Company and dump their cargo of tea into Boston Harbor in protest against British tax policies.

    • Date unknown

  • Russo-Turkish War, 1768-1774: Russian forces fail to take Silistria.
  • Emelian Pugachev starts Pugachev's Rebellion in Russia, attacking and occupying Samara.
  • John Harrison's wins the Longitude prize for his invention of the marine chronometer.
  • Hilaire Rouelle discovers urea.
  • Istanbul Technical University is established (under the name of Royal School of Naval Engineering) as the world's first comprehensive institution of higher learning dedicated to engineering education.
  • In China, written work begins on the Siku Quanshu, the largest literary compilation of books in China's history (surpassing the Yongle Encyclopedia of the 15th Century). Upon completion in 1782, the books are bound in 36,381 volumes (册) with more than 79,000 chapters (卷), comprising about 2.3 million pages, and approximately 800 million Chinese characters.
  • Scottish judge James Burnett, Lord Monboddo, begins publication of Of the Origin and Progress of Language, a contribution to evolutionary ideas of the Enlightenment.
  • Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock publishes the last five cantos of his epic poem Der Messias in Hamburg.

    • Births

  • January 14 – William Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst, British ambassador to China and Governor-General of India (d. 1857)
  • January 27 – Prince Augustus of Great Britain, Duke of Sussex (d. 1843)
  • January 29 – Friedrich Mohs, German geologist and mineralogist (d. 1839)
  • February 9 – William Henry Harrison, American military leader and 9th President of the United States (d. 1841)
  • March 14 – John Holmes, American politician (d. 1843)
  • March 16 – Juan Ramón Balcarce, Argentine military leader and politician (d. 1836)
  • March 26 – Nathaniel Bowditch, American mathematician (d. 1838)
  • April 4 – Étienne Maurice Gérard, Marshal of France and Prime Minister of France (d. 1852)
  • April 9 – Étienne Aignan, French writer, librettist, and playwright (d. 1824)
  • April 9 –Marie Boivin, French midwife, inventor and obstetrics writer (d. 1841)
  • April 24 – Edmund Cartwright, English inventor and Fellow of the Royal Society (d. 1823)
  • May 2 – Henrik Steffens, Norwegian philosopher (d. 1845)
  • May 3 – Giuseppe Acerbi, Italian explorer (d. 1846)
  • May 15 – Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, Austrian statesman (d. 1859)
  • May 19 – Arthur Aikin, English chemist and mineralogist (d. 1854)
  • May 31 – Ludwig Tieck, German writer (d. 1853)
  • June 13 – Thomas Young, English scientist (d. 1829)
  • July 23 – Thomas Brisbane, Scottish astronomer and Governor of New South Wales (d. 1860)
  • August 12 – Karl Faber, German historian (d. 1853)
  • August 22 – Aimé Bonpland, French explorer and botanist (d. 1858)
  • September 17 – Jonathan Alder, American settler (d. 1849)
  • October 6 – Louis Philippe, King of the French (d. 1850)
  • November 6 – Henry Hunt, British politician (d. 1835)
  • December 9 – Armand Augustin Louis de Caulaincourt, French general and diplomat (d. 1827)
  • December 17 – Sylvain Charles Valée, Marshal of France (d. 1846)
  • December 21 – Robert Brown, Scottish botanist (d. 1858)
  • December 27 – Sir George Cayley, English aviation pioneer (d. 1857)
  • Unknown – Johann Gottfried Arnold, German cellist (d. 1806)

    • Deaths

  • January 21 – Alexis Piron, French writer (b. 1689)
  • January 23 – Manuel Pinto da Fonseca, 68th Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (b. 1681)
  • February 20 – King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia (b. 1701)
  • March 1 – Luigi Vanvitelli, Italian architect (b. 1700)
  • March 24 – Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, English statesman and man of letters (b. 1694)
  • May 8 – Ali Bey Al-Kabir, Mamluk Sultan of Egypt (b. 1728)
  • May 15 – Alban Butler, English Catholic priest and writer (b. 1710)
  • June 27 – Mentewab, dowager Empress of Ethiopia (b. c. 1706)
  • July 5 – Francisco José Freire, Portuguese historian and philologist (b. 1719)
  • July 12 – Johann Joachim Quantz, German flutist and composer (b. 1697)
  • July 23 – George Edwards, English naturalist (b. 1693)
  • August 3 – Stanisław Konarski, Polish writer (b. 1700)
  • August 20 – Enrique Florez, Spanish historian (b. 1701)
  • September 23 – Johan Ernst Gunnerus, Norwegian bishop and botanist (b. 1718)
  • October 30 – Philippe de La Guêpière, French architect (b. 1725)
  • November 8 – Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, Prussian general (b. 1721)
  • November 16 – John Hawkesworth, English writer
  • November 19 – James FitzGerald, 1st Duke of Leinster, Irish politician (b. 1722)

    • References

    1773 Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA