1757

1757 (MDCCLVII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar, the 1757th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 757th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 18th century, and the 8th year of the 1750s decade. As of the start of 1757, the Gregorian calendar was 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

Events

April–June

• April 6 – William Pitt resigns from the government of Great Britain after Prince William, Duke of Cumberland refuses to command the British forces in Germany in the Seven Years' War and following several military reverses in Britain's fight against France in America. A Caretaker Ministry takes power, led by William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire. Pitt is recalled to the government in early July.
• April 16
  • The works of astronomer Galileo Galilei espousing heliocentrism are removed (with the approval of Pope Benedict XIV) from the Index Librorum Prohibitorum list of books banned by Roman Catholic Church, along with "all books teaching the earth's motion and the sun's immobility". Other works of heliocentrists Galileo, Nicolaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Diego de Zúñiga and Paolo Foscarini remain on the list.
  • In the wake of public unrest in France, the King's Council issues a decree that bars anyone from writing or printing anything that would tend toward émouvoir les esprits (stir up popular sentiment) against the government, with violations punishable by death.
• April 17 – The Spanish mission of Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá is founded by Spanish missionary families on the banks of the San Saba River near modern-day Menard, Texas. Less than two years later, the European settlement is destroyed by the native Comanche Indians who lives in the area.
• April 21 – Battle of Reichenberg: Marshal Augustus William von Bevern enters Bohemia with a Prussian army (some 15,000 men). In Reichenberg he encounters the Austrians under the command of General Christian Moritz von Königsegg. Von Bevern defeats the Austrian troops and captures large quantities of supplies. He continues his advance on Prague.
• April 29 – Inside the house at Stratford-upon-Avon in England known as Shakespeare's Birthplace, a bricklayer, identified only as "Mosely", re-tiling the roof, discovers a supposed pro-Catholic testament of John Shakespeare, father of William Shakespeare, more than 150 years after the elder's death. The finding starts "what remains one of the most controversial topics in Shakespeare studies" because of disagreements over its authenticity and date.
• May 1 – France and Austria sign a second Treaty of Versailles, committing France to sending an additional 105,000 troops to the war against Prussia, and to pay expenses to Austria at the rate of 12 million florins annually.
• May 6 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Prague – Frederick the Great defeats an Austrian army, and begins to besiege the city.
• June 18 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Kolín – Frederick is defeated by an Austrian army under Marshal Daun, forcing him to evacuate Bohemia.
• June 23 – Battle of Plassey: 3,000 troops serving with the British East India Company under Robert Clive defeat a 50,000 strong Indian army under Siraj ud-Daulah with the help of Mir Jafar, at Plassey in India, marking the first victory of the East India Company over India, which lasts until 1857.
• June 25
  • The Duke of Devonshire resigns as Prime Minister of Great Britain after being unable to conduct governmental affairs without William Pitt.
  • The 1755 rebellion against the Chinese Empire by Mongolian Oirat Prince Amursana is met by a Chinese army of 10,000 attackers against Amursana's 2,500 man force at their capital at Bor Tal. The rebels hold out until July 17.

October–December

• October 4 – Bearing British flags, two French privateers sail up the Gambia River and attempt to capture the British fort on James Island, but their ruse is discovered the next day before they can stage their attack. The two ships are captured by the Royal Navy after retreating
• October 14 – Of the 478 people arrested, and 442 (including 50 women and young boys) convicted, for their roles in the Porto riot in February, 13 men and one woman are hanged; afterwards, their bodies are then quartered, and the severed limbs are publicly displayed on spikes. Another 49 men and 10 women are exiled to Portuguese colonies in Africa and India, and the other convicts are either flogged, imprisoned, or pressed into service rowing galley ships.
• October 16 – Seven Years' War: Raid on Berlin – Hungarian raiders (3,400 horseman) under Count András Hadik plunder Berlin. He demands that the city council pay a ransom of 200,000 thalers and a dozen pairs of gloves for Empress Maria Theresa. The Hungarians leave the Prussian capital after they received messages about a Prussian relief force under Prince Dietrich von Anhalt-Dessau, marching towards Berlin.
• October 24 (10 Safar 1171 A.H.) – 1757 Hajj caravan raid: Bedouin warriors of the Bani Sakher confederacy conduct a massive assault against a caravan of thousands of Muslim travelers who are on their way back to Damascus after the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. The attack, made at Hallat Ammar after the group has been resupplied at Tabuk, leads to the annihilation of 20,000 of the pilgrims. Those who are not killed outright die later in the desert from thirst and starvation. According to one Arabic source, the largest attack takes place on October 24.
• October 30 – Osman III dies, and is succeeded as Ottoman Sultan by Mustafa III.
• October 31 – News of the massacre of Muslim pilgrims first reaches Damascus; the Ottoman officials who had been in charge of protecting the pilgrimage are executed by beheading.
• November 5 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Rossbach – Frederick defeats the French-Imperial army under the Duc de Soubise and Prince Joseph of Saxe-Hildburghausen, forcing the French to withdraw from Saxony.
• November 10 – King Abdallah IV of Morocco dies and is succeeded by his son, who takes the throne as King Mohammed III and reigns until 1790.
• November 22 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Breslau – An Austrian army under Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine defeats the Prussian army of Wilhelm of Brunswick-Bevern, and forces the Prussians behind the Oder.
• December 5 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Leuthen – Frederick defeats Prince Charles's Austrian army, in what is generally considered the Prussian king's greatest tactical victory.
• December 6 – In Buddhist tradition, Jigme Lingpa discovers the Longchen Nyingthig terma through a meditative vision, which brings him to Boudhanath. The Longchen Nyingtig is a popular cycle of teachings in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.
• December 14 – Battle of Khresili: King Solomon I of Imereti defeats the Ottoman army and an allied faction of nobles, in what becomes western Georgia.
• December 24 – The Pratt-Yorke opinion distinguishes British overseas territories acquired by conquest from those acquired by private treaty: while the Crown of Great Britain enjoys sovereignty over both, only the property of the former is vested in the Crown.
• December 30 – James Abercrombie replaces James Mure-Campbell, 5th Earl of Loudoun as supreme commander in the British American colonies. Abercrombie is replaced himself, after failing to take the fort at Ticonderoga.

Births

• January 11 – Alexander Hamilton, first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (most cited date of birth) (d. 1804)
• January 16 – Richard Goodwin Keats, British admiral, Governor of Newfoundland (d. 1834)
• February 3 – Joseph Forlenze, Italian ophthalmologist (d. 1833)
• February 20 – John 'Mad Jack' Fuller, English philanthropist (d. 1834)
• April 9 – Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, British admiral (d. 1833)
• April 28 – Edmund Butcher, English Unitarian minister (d. 1822)
• May 6 – Veronika Gut, Swiss rebel heroine (d. 1829)
• May 7 – Ludwig von Brauchitsch, Prussian general (d. 1827)
• May 25 – Louis-Sébastien Lenormand, French chemist, physicist and inventor (d. 1837)
• May 30 – Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1844)
• June 18 – Gervasio Antonio de Posadas, Argentine leader (d. 1833)
• June 22 – George Vancouver, British explorer (d. 1798)
• July 20 – Garsevan Chavchavadze, Georgian diplomat, politician (d. 1811)
• August 9 – Elizabeth Schuyler, wife of Alexander Hamilton, co-founder of New York's first orphanage (d. 1854)
• August 9 – Thomas Telford, Scottish-born civil engineer, architect (d. 1834)
• August 23 – Marie Magdalene Charlotte Ackermann, German actress (d. 1775)
• September 6 – Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, French soldier, statesman (d. 1834)
• September 20 – Esther de Gélieu, Swiss educator (d. 1817)
• October 9 – King Charles X of France (d. 1836)
• October 21 – Charles-Pierre Augereau, Marshal of France and duc de Castiglione (d. 1816)
• November 1 – Antonio Canova, Italian sculptor (d. 1822)
• November 28 – William Blake, English poet and artist (d. 1827)
• December 7 – José Antonio Pareja, Spanish admiral (d. 1813)
• December 30 – Sebastián Kindelán y O'Regan, Spanish colonial governor (d. 1826)
• Date unknown
  • Agnes Ibbetson, English plant physiologist (d. 1823)
  • John Leamy, Irish–American merchant (d. 1839)

Deaths

• January 9 – Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle, French scientist, man of letters (b. 1657)
• January 19 – Thomas Ruddiman, Scottish classical scholar (b. 1664)
• February 5 – Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole, English diplomat (b. 1678)
• March 1 – Edward Moore, English writer (b. 1712)
• March 8 – Thomas Blackwell, Scottish classical scholar (b. 1701)
• March 12 – Giuseppe Galli Bibiena, Italian architect/painter (b. 1696)
• March 14 – John Byng, British admiral (executed) (b. 1704)
• March 27 – Johann Stamitz, Czech-born composer (b. 1717)
• March 28 – Robert-François Damiens, French domestic servant, executed for the attempted assassination of Louis XV (b. 1715)
• April 4 – Spencer Phips, Acting governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (b. 1685)
• April 20 – Paul Alphéran de Bussan, French bishop (b. 1684)
• May 6
  • Maximilian Ulysses Count Browne, Austrian field marshal (b. 1705)
  • Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton, British politician (b. 1683)
  • Kurt Christoph Graf von Schwerin, Prussian field marshal (b. 1684)
• June 28 – Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, queen consort of Frederick William I (b. 1687)
• July 2 – Siraj ud-Daulah, the last independent ruler of Bengal of undivided India (b. 1733)
• July 8 – Daniel Parke Custis, American planter (b. 1711)
• July 23 – Domenico Scarlatti, Italian composer (b. 1685)
• August 3 – Charles William Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach (b. 1712)
• August 17 – Aaron Cleveland, American clergyman (b. 1715)
• August 28 – David Hartley, English philosopher (b. 1705)
• August 30 – Bulleh Shah, Sufi poet (b. 1680)
• September 24 – Aaron Burr Sr., President of Princeton University (b. 1716)
• October 2 – Aloysius Centurione, Italian Jesuit (b. 1686)
• October 17 – René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, French scientist (b. 1683)
• October 25 – Antoine Augustin Calmet, French theologian (b. 1672)
• October 30
  • Osman III, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1699)
  • Edward Vernon, English naval officer (b. 1684)
• December 11
  • Colley Cibber, English poet laureate, actor-manager (b. 1671)
  • Edmund Curll, English bookseller, publisher (b. 1675)
• December 14 – Levan Abashidze, Georgian politician
• December 15 – John Dyer, Welsh poet (b. 1699)
• December 28 – Princess Caroline of Great Britain, fourth child and third daughter of George II (b. 1713)
• Date unknown – Rika Maja, Sami shaman (b. 1661)

References

External links

• Media related to 1757 at Wikimedia Commons