1769

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	17th century – 18th century – 19th century
Decades:	1730s 1740s 1750s – 1760s – 1770s 1780s 1790s
Years:	1766 1767 1768 – 1769 – 1770 1771 1772

1769 in topic:
Subjects: Archaeology – Architecture –
Art – Literature (Poetry) – Music – Science
Countries: Canada – Great Britain –
Leaders: State leaders – Colonial governors
Category: Establishments – Disestablishments
Births – Deaths – Works v • d • e

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 earlier Julian calendar).

Events of 1769

April 13 – James Cook arrives in Tahiti on the ship HM Bark Endeavour, preparing to observe the solar eclipse of the planet Venus, which takes place on June 3. After the voyage, the data is 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 5 hours later by a total solar eclipse, the shortest such interval in the historical past. The predicted transit is viewed by King George III of Great Britain at the Kew Observatory.

June 7 – Frontiersman Daniel Boone first begins to explore the present-day Bluegrass State, Kentucky.
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 becomes the first white group to set foot in the area now known as Santa Monica, California.
September – Massive droughts in Bengal, which eventually lead to the Bengal famine of 1770.
September 6 – 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.
October 7– James Cook lands in New Zealand at Poverty Bay.
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.

James Watt demonstrates the first practical steam engine, an invention which inaugurates 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.

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 1/6 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.
The last wild wolf in the british isles is killed by hunters.

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

Categories: 1769

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