The 1770s (pronounced "seventeen-seventies") was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1770, and ended on December 31, 1779. A period full of discoveries, breakthroughs happened in all walks of life, as what emerged at this period brought life to most innovations we know today.

Second voyage of James CookUnited States Declaration of IndependenceBoston Tea PartyRusso-Turkish War (1768–1774)Company rule in IndiaCarl Wilhelm ScheeleAmazing GraceDaniel Rutherford
From top left, clockwise: Englishmen and sailor James Cook concludes his inaugural and embarks on his second voyage, leaving a trail of significant milestones along its way such as the discovery of New Caledonia, Australia, Tahiti, the Antarctic Circle, and becoming the first humans to witness Antarctic waters as pictured; The United States Declaration of Independence was unanimously signed and adopted by the Second Continental Congress, announcing the colonies' intention to separate from Great Britain; Company rule in India establishes governance over India for the first time at Calcutta, giving way for British colonialism over the Indian subcontinent, and eventually Western imperialism in Asia; Nitrogen gas was isolated from air by Scottish scientist Daniel Rutherford; Amazing Grace was sung for the first time as a hymn in Buckinghamshire, England at 1773; Chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele made several breakthroughs in chemistry by discovering five chemical elements, namely oxygen (1771), barium (1772), chlorine (1774), manganese (1774), and molybdenum (1778); The Boston Tea Party protest precipitates anti-British sentiment in the Thirteen Colonies, and subsequently the American Revolutionary War; A Russo-Turkish War lead to now-Russia's first occupation of Crimea; initiating Russia's influence over Crimea that has since persisted today.

From nations such as the United States, birthed through hardships such as the American Revolutionary War and altercations akin to the Boston Tea Party, spheres of influence such as the Russian Empire's sphere from its victorious Crimean claims at the Russo-Turkish War, the Industrial Revolution, and populism, their influence remains omnipresent to this day.

New lands south of the Equator were discovered and settled by Europeans like James Cook, expanding the horizons of a New World to new reaches such as Australia and French Polynesia. Deepened philosophical studies led to the publication of works such as Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations", whose concepts influence much of modern socio-economic thought, and sowed the seeds to the global incumbent neoliberal world order. Studies on chemistry and politics deepen to forge the Age of Reason for centuries to come.

Events

1770

January– March

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April–June

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July– September

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October–December

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Date unknown

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1771

January– March

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April–June

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July–September

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October–December

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Date unknown

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1772

January–March

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April–June

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July–September

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October–December

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Date unknown

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1773

January–March

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April–June

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July–September

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October–December

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Date unknown

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1774

January–March

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April–June

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July–September

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October–December

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Date unknown

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1775

Summary

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The American Revolutionary War began this year, with the first military engagement on April 19 Battles of Lexington and Concord on the day after Paul Revere's ride. The Second Continental Congress took various steps toward organizing an American government, appointing George Washington commander-in-chief (June 14), Benjamin Franklin postmaster general (July 26) and creating a Continental Navy (October 13) and a Marine force (November 10) as landing troops for it, but as yet the 13 colonies have not declared independence, and both the British (June 12) and American (July 15) governments make laws. On July 6, Congress issues the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms and on August 23, King George III of Great Britain declares the American colonies in rebellion, announcing it to Parliament on November 10. On June 17, two months into the colonial siege of Boston, at the Battle of Bunker Hill, just north of Boston, British forces are victorious, but only after suffering severe casualties and after Colonial forces run out of ammunition, Fort Ticonderoga is taken by American forces in New York Colony's northern frontier, and American forces unsuccessfully invade Canada, with an attack on Montreal defeated by British forces on November 13 and an attack on Quebec repulsed December 31.

Human knowledge and mastery over nature advanced when James Watt built a successful prototype of a steam engine, and a scientific expedition continued as Captain James Cook claims the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands in the south Atlantic Ocean for Britain. Nature's power over humanity is dramatically demonstrated when the Independence Hurricane (August 29 – September 13) devastates the east coast of North America, killing 4,173, and a smallpox epidemic begins in New England. Smallpox vaccine was then developed by Edward Jenner. There is no cure for smallpox.

January–June

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July–December

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August 18: Tucson is founded.

Date unknown

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1776

January–February

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March–April

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May–June

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July–August

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September–October

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September 22: British hang spy Nathan Hale in New York City.

November–December

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December 26: Capture of the Hessians at Trenton

Date unknown

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1777

January–March

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April–June

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June 14: US Flag (had various star patterns)

July–December

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Date unknown

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1778

January–March

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April–June

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July–September

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October–December

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  • October 12 – The Continental Congress advises the 13 member states to suppress "theatrical entertainments, horse-racing, gaming, and such other diversions as are productive of idleness, dissipation, and general depravity of principles and manners."[102]
 
November 26: Captain Cook lands on Maui.

Undated

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1779

January–March

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April–June

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July–September

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October–December

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Date unknown

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Births

1770

 
Manuel Belgrano
 
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
 
Ludwig van Beethoven

1771

 
Robert Owen
 
Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover

1772

 
William I of the Netherlands
 
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

1773

 
Robert Fullerton
 
William Henry Harrison
 
Klemens von Metternich
 
Louis Philippe I

1774

 
André Marie Constant Duméril born 1 January
 
Pietro Giordani born 1 January
 
Anna Bunina born 7 January
 
William Stewart born 10 January
 
Tryphosa Jane Wallis born 11 January
 
Marie-Thérèse Figueur born 17 January
 
William Blake (economist) born 31 January
 
Thomas Veazey born 31 January
 
Edward Cross (zoo proprietor) born 3 February
 
Valentin Stanič born 12 February
 
Roswell Weston born 24 February
 
William Farquhar born 26 February
 
Magdalene of Canossa born 1 March
 
David Semyonovich Abamelik born 10 March
 
Johann Caspar Horner born 12 March
 
Rose Fortune born 13 March
 
Matthew Flinders born 16 March
 
Claudine Thévenet born 30 March
 
Sophie Thalbitzer born 15 April
 
Franz Hegi born 16 April
 
Madhavrao II born 18 April
 
Jean-Baptiste Biot born 21 April
 
Anna Gottlieb born 29 April
 
Samuel Owen (engineer) born 12 May
 
Friederike von Reden born 12 May
 
Joseph Bouchette born 14 May
 
Johann Nepomuk von Fuchs born 15 May
 
Francis Beaufort born 27 May
 
Robert Tannahill born 3 June
 
Henry Philip Hope born 8 June
 
Carl Haller von Hallerstein born 10 June
 
Pavel Alexandrovich Stroganov born 18 June
 
Princess Amalie of Hesse-Homburg born 29 June
 
Marcia Arbuthnot born 9 July
 
Robert Jameson born 11 July
 
Axel Otto Mörner born 11 July
 
Charles de Graimberg born 30 July
 
Diodata Saluzzo Roero born 31 July
 
Robert Southey born 12 August
 
Meriwether Lewis born 18 August
 
Ludvig Frederik Brock born 20 August
 
Anton Ludwig Ernst Horn born 24 August
 
Elizabeth Ann Seton born 28 August
 
Caspar David Friedrich born 5 September
 
Anne Catherine Emmerich born 8 September
 
Johnny Appleseed born 26 September
 
Adolf Müllner born 18 October
 
Sarah Thompson, Countess Rumford born 18 October
 
Ignaz Heinrich von Wessenberg born 4 November
 
Charles Bell born 12 November
 
Wilhelmine of Prussia, Queen of the Netherlands born 18 November
 
Vasile Moga born 19 November
 
Elisabeth Canori Mora born 21 November
 
Peter Frederik Wulff born 26 November
 
Princess Maria Antonia of Parma born 28 November
 
William Henry (chemist) born 12 December
 
Eline Heger born 13 December

1775

 
Stanisław Kostka Zamoyski born 13 January
 
Walter Savage Landor born 30 January
 
Gurun Princess Hexiao born 2 February
 
Charles Lamb born 10 February
 
William Hall (governor) born 11 February
 
Miguel Ramos Arizpe born 15 February
 
Simmons Jones Baker born 15 February
 
Jean-Baptiste Girard (soldier) born 21 February
 
Adolf Stieler born 26 February
 
Sophie Tieck born 28 February
 
Adam Elias von Siebold born 5 March
 
Constance Mayer born 9 March
 
Pauline Auzou born 24 March
 
Adam Albert von Neipperg born 8 April
 
J. M. W. Turner born 23 April
 
Alexander Johnston (1775–1849) born 25 April
 
George Kinloch (politician) born 30 April
 
Angélique Mongez born 1 May
 
Alexander McNair born 5 May
 
Pablo Morillo born 5 May
 
Jacob Brown born 9 May
 
Antoine Charles Louis de Lasalle born 10 May
 
Micah Brooks born 14 May
 
Johann Baptist Malfatti von Monteregio born 12 June
 
Judah Touro born 16 June
 
Lucy Mack Smith born 8 July
 
Matthew Lewis (writer) born 9 July
 
Richard Westmacott born 15 July
 
John Andrew Shulze born 19 July
 
Anna Harrison born 25 July
 
Emmanuel Dupaty born 31 July
 
George Tucker (politician) born 20 August
 
Vasily Orlov-Denisov born 8 September
 
Guillaume Capelle born 9 September
 
Murray Maxwell born 10 September
 
John Henry Hobart born 14 September
 
Giuseppe Rosaroll born 16 September
 
Philip Milledoler born 22 September
 
Robert Adrain born 30 September
 
Bahadur Shah Zafar born 24 October
 
Pierre Capelle born 4 November
 
Achille Fontanelli born 8 November
 
Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach born 14 November
 
James Carnahan born 15 November
 
Philander Chase born 14 December
 
Phineas Riall born 15 December

1776

1777 * JanuaryWilliam Barton, English cricketer (d. 1825)

 
Roger B. Taney
 
Carl Friedrich Gauss
 
Paavo Ruotsalainen
 
Hans Christian Ørsted
 
Heinrich von Kleist
 
Alexander I of Russia

1778 * January 1

 
Thomas Lincoln
 
José de San Martín
 
William Hazlitt
 
Harry Croswell
 
Friedrich Ludwig Jahn
 
Bernardo O'Higgins
 
Clemens Brentano
 
Giovanni Battista Belzoni
 
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac
 
Humphry Davy
 
Joseph Grimaldi

1779

 
Stephen Decatur
 
Francis Scott Key

Deaths

1770

 
George Whitefield

1771

 
Rev. Samuel Phillips
 
Christopher Smart
 
Giovanni Battista Morgagni

1772

 
Emanuel Swedenborg
 
Jean-Joseph de Mondonville

1773

 
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
 
Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz

1774

 
Mustafa III died 21 January
 
Countess Palatine Caroline of Zweibrücken died 30 March
 
Oliver Goldsmith died 4 April
 
Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich died 23 April
 
Maria Machteld van Sypesteyn died 26 April
 
William Hewson died 1 May
 
Louis XV died 10 May
 
Joseph Gerrish died 3 June
 
Joshua Kirby died 20 June
 
Anna Morandi Manzolini died 9 July
 
Caroline Fox, 1st Baroness Holland died 24 July
 
Johann Jakob Reiske died 14 August
 
Imperial Noble Consort Qinggong died 21 August
 
Johann Friedrich Meckel, the Elder died 18 September
 
Pope Clement XIV died 22 September
 
Willem Bentinck van Rhoon died 13 October
 
Robert Fergusson died 16 October
 
Abraham Tucker died 20 November
 
Johann Siegmund Popowitsch died 21 November
 
Henry Baker died 25 November
 
Deborah Read died 19 December
 
Paul Whitehead (satirist) died 20 December

1775

 
John Baskerville died 8 January
 
Yemelyan Pugachev died 10 January
 
Shuja-ud-Daula died 26 January
 
Claude Pouteau died 10 February
 
William Small died 25 February
 
Empress Xiaoyichun died 28 February
 
Anne Catherine Hoof Green died 23 March
 
Jan Caspar Philips died 24 April
 
Peter Boehler died 27 April
 
Benjamin Dass died 5 May
 
Caroline Matilda of Great Britain died 10 May
 
Samuel of Constantinople died 10 May
 
Egidio Duni died 11 June
 
Ignaz Günther died 27 June
 
Szymon Czechowicz died 21 July
 
Zahir al-Umar died 21 August
 
Felipe de Castro died 25 August
 
John Parker (captain) died 17 September
 
Polixénia Daniel died 24 September
 
Fukuda Chiyo-ni died 2 October
 
Christian August Crusius died 18 October
 
Maria Wilhelmina von Neipperg died 21 October
 
Gabriel François Venel died 29 October
 
Guillaume de Barrême de Châteaufort died 6 November
 
Giovanni Bianchi (physician) died 3 December
 
Marie-Angélique Memmie Le Blanc died 15 December

1776

 
James Gabriel Montresor
 
John Harrison
 
Jacques Saly
 
Duchess Maria Anna Josepha of Bavaria
 
Countess Palatine Francisca Christina of Sulzbach
 
David Hume

1777

 
Enrichetta d'Este
 
Pierre-Herman Dosquet
 
Cornelia Schlosser
 
Consort Shu
 
Infante Philip, Duke of Calabria
 
Charles Antoine de La Roche-Aymon