April 4 – A severe epidemic of
influenza breaks out in
London and "practically the entire population of the city" is afflicted; particularly contagious to pregnant women, the disease causes an unusual number of miscarriages and premature births. [4]
April 14 –
Thomas Boone is transferred south to become the Royal Governor of South Carolina after proving to be unable to work with the local assembly as the Royal Governor of New Jersey. [5]
May 4 – The first multiple death tornado in the 13 American colonies strikes
Charleston, South Carolina, killing eight people and sinking five ships in harbor. [6]
June 6 – (May 26 old style); A
transit of Venus occurs, and is observed from 120 locations around the Earth. In his observations by telescope at
St. Petersburg,
Mikhail Lomonosov notes a ring of light around the planet's silhouette as it begins the transit, and becomes the first astronomer to discover that the planet Venus has an atmosphere. [7]
August 6 – The
Parlement of Paris votes to close all colleges, associations and seminaries associated with the
Jesuit Order, following a long campaign by Louis-Adrien Le Paige. [9]
August 11 – Two years after his marriage to
Martha Custis and his move to
Mount Vernon, American military officer and politician
George Washington advertises a reward in the Maryland Gazette for the capture of four fugitive slaves who ran away from him: Cupid, Peros, Jack and Neptune, claiming in the gazette that they had escaped "without the least suspicion, provocation, or difference with anybody".[10]
October 30 – Colonel
Henry Bouquet issues the first proclamation against Anglo-American settlement on Indian lands in America. [15]
November 7 – The
New London Harbor Light is first lit to guide ships into the Connecticut harbor; the lighthouse, only the fourth to be built has been in continuous operation for more than 250 years.
November 26 – A 500-man force from the Army of
Spain brings the revolt of Mexico's
Maya population to an end, capturing the
Yucatan village of Cisteil, killing about 500 of the 2,500 Mayan defenders and losing 40 of their own. [17] The Spaniards arrest 254 people, including
Jacinto Canek, who had proclaimed himself as King Canek Montezuma of the Mayas. Canek and eight other rebellion leaders are executed less than three weeks later.
The music for "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman" ("Ah, would I tell you Mom?") is first published in
France by a Monsieur Bouin in his book Les Amusements d'une Heure et Demy; in 1806, English poet
Jane Taylor publishes her poem, The Star, whose words fit the rhythm of the tune and become the children's song Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.[18]
^Herbert J. Redman, Frederick the Great and the Seven Years’ War, 1756–1763 (McFarland, 2015) p422
^"Relation of Influenza to Pregnancy and Labor", by Dr. P. Brooke Bland, in The American Journal of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children (February 1919) pp185-186
^"Thomas Boone", by Larry R. Gerlach, in The Governors of New Jersey: Biographical Essays, ed. by Michael J. Birkner, et al. (Rutgers University Press, 2014) p87
^T. P. Grazulis, The Tornado: Nature's Ultimate Windstorm (University of Oklahoma Press, 2003) p217
^Govert Schilling, Atlas of Astronomical Discoveries (Springer, 2011) p41
^ William R. Nester, The First Global War: Britain, France, and the Fate of North America, 1756-1775 (Greenwood, 2000) p213
^William R. Reynolds, Jr., The Cherokee Struggle to Maintain Identity in the 17th and 18th Centuries (McFarland, 2015) p96
^Stan Hoig, The Cherokees and Their Chiefs: In the Wake of Empire (University of Arkansas Press, 1998) p43
^Thomas Carlyle, On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History (University of California Press, 1993) p304
^
abAlfred P. James, The Ohio Company: Its Inner History (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1959) p118
^"Cherokee War", by John C. Frederiksen, in The Encyclopedia of North American Indian Wars, 1607–1890: A Political, Social, and Military History, ed. by Spencer Tucker (ABC-CLIO, 2011) p157
^Micheal Clodfelter, Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492-2015 (McFarland, 2017) p139
^Stokes, Richard (2016). The Penguin Book of English Song: Seven Centuries of Poetry from Chaucer to Auden. Penguin. p. xiiv.