1768

{{year nav|
Year '1768' ('MDCCLXVIII') was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar).

Contents

Events of 1768

January - June

July - December

Undated

Ongoing events

Births

Deaths

Events of 1768

January - June

★ January 9 - Philip Astley stages the first modern circus, with acrobats on galloping horses (London).

★ May 10 - John Wilkes is imprisoned for writing an article for the ''North Briton'' severely criticizing King George III. This action provokes rioting in London

★ May 15 - After the Treaty of Versailles, the island of Corsica is ceded by Genoa to France.

July - December

★ August 8 - James Cook departed Plymouth on his first voyage of discovery.


★ December 1 - The slave ship Fredensborg sinks off Tromøy in Norway.

★ December 21 - Nepal is united.

Undated

★ The Petit Trianon, originally built for Madame de Pompadour, is achieved in the park of the Palace of Versailles and inaugurated by Louis XV.

★ New Smyrna Beach, the largest attempt at colonization by the British in the New World in founded by Dr. Andrew Turnbull.

★ Samuel Adams' circular letter was sent around the colonies.

★ Secretary of State for colonies appointed in Britain.

★ Massachusetts Assembly dissolved for refusing to assist collection of taxes.

★ Boston citizens refuse to quarter British troops.

★ Gurkhas conquer Nepal.

★ First of the weekly numbers of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' are published; 100 are planned.

★ Steller's sea cow, discovered on Bering Island in 1741, is driven to extinction.

Ongoing events

★ War of the Regulation (1764-1771).

★ Captain James Cook's first voyage (1768-1771).

Births

★ January 7 - Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples and Spain (d. 1844)

★ January 28 - King Frederick VI of Denmark (d. 1839)

★ February 12 - Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1835)

★ February 13 - Édouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier, French marshal (d. 1835)

★ March 21 - Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier, French mathematician and physicist (d. 1830)

★ March 22 - Melesina Trench, Irish born writer and socialite (d. 1827)

★ May 3 - Charles Tennant, Scottish chemist and industrialist (d. 1838)

★ May 17 - Caroline of Brunswick, queen of George IV of the United Kingdom (d. 1821)

★ May 17 - Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey, English general (d. 1854)

★ May 20 - Dolley Madison, First Lady of the United States (d. 1849)

★ June 9 - Samuel Slater, American industrialist (d. 1835)

★ July 27 - Charlotte Corday. French murderess of Jean-Paul Marat (d. 1793)

★ August 6 - Jean-Baptiste Bessières, French marshal (d. 1813)

★ September 4 - François-René de Chateaubriand, French writer and diplomat (d. 1848)

★ October 2 - William Carr Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford, British general and politician (d. 1854)

★ November 18 - Zacharias Werner, German religious poet (d. 1823)

★ November 21 - Friedrich Schleiermacher, German theologian (d. 1834)
: ''See also .''

Deaths

★ February 1 - Sir Robert Rich, 4th Baronet, British cavalry officer (b. 1685)

★ February 2 - Robert Smith, English mathematician (b. 1689)

★ February 8 - George Dance the Elder, English architect (b. 1695)

★ February 17 - Arthur Onslow, English politician (b. 1691)

★ March 1 - Hermann Samuel Reimarus, German philosopher and writer (b. 1694)

★ March 3 - Nicola Porpora, Italian composer (b. 1686)

★ March 18 - Laurence Sterne, Irish writer (b. 1713)

★ April 10 - Canaletto, Italian artist (b. 1697)

★ April 29 - Georg Brandt, Swedish chemist and minerologist (b. 1694)

★ June 8 - Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German classical scholar and archaeologist (b. 1717)

★ June 15 - James Short, Scottish mathematician and optician (b. 1710)

★ June 19 - Benjamin Tasker, Provincial Governor of Maryland (b. 1690)

★ July 6 - Conrad Beissel, German-born religious leader

★ July 24 - Nathanial Lardner, English theologian (b. 1684)

★ August 3 - Thomas Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1693)

★ August 17 (N. S.) - Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky, Russian poet (b. 1703)

★ September 2 - Antoine Deparcieux, French mathematician (b. 1703)

★ October 1 - Robert Simson, Scottish mathematician (b. 1687)

★ October 28 - Michel Blavet, French flutist (b. 1700)

★ October 31 - Francesco Maria Veracini, Italian composer (b. 1690)

★ November 17 - Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1693)

★ December 8 - Jean Denis Attiret, French Jesuit missionary and painter (b. 1702)

★ December 20 - Carlo Innocenzio Maria Frugoni, Italian poet (b. 1692)
: ''See also .''