Count down year by year with real world facts!

1761

The Third Battle of Panipat in India, in which a coalition lead by the Afghan Durrani Empire narrowly defeated the Maratha Empire. One of the bloodiest battles of in Indian—and indeed global—history the battle took the lives of an estimated 60,000–70,000 in the battle, with most likely at least another 40,000 massacred the following day. The Marathas retreated from Northern India, while the Durranis, themselves having suffered heavy casualties and fearing further conflict with the Marathas, withdrew to Afghanistan. The military and political power vacuum that remained in Northern India, to many, opened the door for colonization by the British.

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1760

Great fire of Boston destroys 349 buildings.
 
1759- George Washington gets married to Martha Dandridge Curtis.

On that same year, Haley's Comet passed by the Earth for the 27th time in recorded history.
 
1758

Zoologist Carolus Linnaeus proposes a system for grouping animals, the starting point for standardized species names used ever since. Well played, Carolus, well played.

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1757

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Robert-François Damiens makes an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Louis XV of France, who is slightly wounded by the knife attack. On March 28 Damiens is publicly executed by burning and dismemberment, the last person in France to suffer this punishment

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1756:

March 17 – St. Patrick's Day is celebrated in New York City for the first time (at the Crown and Thistle Tavern)

....

Shut up the party's over:

May 18 – Seven Years' War: The Seven Years' War formally begins, when Great Britain declares war on France.
 
1757

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Robert-François Damiens makes an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Louis XV of France, who is slightly wounded by the knife attack. On March 28 Damiens is publicly executed by burning and dismemberment, the last person in France to suffer this punishment

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You should have posted that in the 'worst ways to die' thread.
 
1755:

Nov 1 – The Great Lisbon Earthquake.

A series of earthquakes that occurred on the morning of Nov. 1, 1755, killing an estimated 60,000 people in Lisbon. Violent shaking demolished large public buildings and about 12,000 dwellings. Because November 1 is All Saints’ Day, a large part of the population was attending mass at the moment the earthquake struck; the churches, unable to withstand the seismic shock, collapsed, killing or injuring thousands of worshippers.Modern research indicates that the main seismic source was faulting of the seafloor along the tectonic plate boundaries of the mid-Atlantic. The earthquake generated a tsunami that produced waves about 20 feet (6 metres) high at Lisbon and 65 feet (20 metres) high at Cádiz, Spain. The waves traveled westward to Martinique in the Caribbean Sea, a distance of 3,790 miles (6,100 km), in 10 hours and there reached a height of 13 feet (4 metres) above mean sea level. Damage was even reported in Algiers, 685 miles (1,100 km) to the east. The total number of persons killed included those who perished by drowning and in fires that burned throughout Lisbon for about six days following the shock. Depictions of the earthquakes in art and literature continued for centuries, making the “Great Lisbon Earthquake,” as it came to be known, a seminal event in European history

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1754

Osman III becomes Ottoman Emperor. Osman III lived most of his life as a prisoner in the palace, and as a consequence on becoming Sultan he had some behavioural peculiarities. Unlike previous Sultans, he hated music, and banished all musicians from the palace.
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1753

The First official St. Patrick's day is observed. The event is to pay tribute to the catholic st. Patrick. Patrick was a 5th-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Much of what is known about Saint Patrick comes from the declaration, which was allegedly written by Patrick himself. It is believed that he was born in in the fourth century, into a wealthy Romano-British family. His father was a deacon and his grandfather was a priest in the Christian church. According to the declaration, at the age of sixteen, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Gaelic Ireland. It says that he spent six years there working as a shepherd and that during this time he "found God". The declaration says that God told Patrick to flee to the coast, where a ship would be waiting to take him home. After making his way home, Patrick went on to become a priest.

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1752

Benjamin Franklin proves lightning is electricity via the kite experiment. The kite experiment is a scientific experiment in which a kite with a pointed, conductive wire attached to its apex is flown near thunder clouds to collect electricity from the air and conduct it down the wet kite string to the ground.

Franklin’s Statement

Philadelphia, October 19

As frequent Mention is made in the News Papers from Europe, of the Success of the Philadelphia Experiment for drawing the Electric Fire from Clouds by Means of pointed Rods of Iron erected on high Buildings, &c. it may be agreeable to the Curious to be inform’d, that the same Experiment has succeeded in Philadelphia, tho’ made in a different and more easy Manner, which any one may try, as follows.

Make a small Cross of two light Strips of Cedar, the Arms so long as to reach to the four Corners of a large thin Silk Handkerchief when extended; tie the Corners of the Handkerchief to the Extremities of the Cross, so you have the Body of a Kite; which being properly accommodated with a Tail, Loop and String, will rise in the Air, like those made of Paper; but this being of Silk is fitter to bear the Wet and Wind of a Thunder Gust without tearing. To the Top of the upright Stick of the Cross is to be fixed a very sharp pointed Wire, rising a Foot or more above the Wood. To the End of the Twine, next the Hand, is to be tied a silk Ribbon, and where the Twine and the silk join, a Key may be fastened. This Kite is to be raised when a Thunder Gust appears to be coming on, and the Person who holds the String must stand within a Door, or Window, or under some Cover, so that the Silk Ribbon may not be wet; and Care must be taken that the Twine does not touch the Frame of the Door or Window. As soon as any of the Thunder Clouds come over the Kite, the pointed Wire will draw the Electric Fire from them, and the Kite, with all the Twine, will be electrified, and the loose Filaments of the Twine will stand out every Way, and be attracted by an approaching Finger. And when the Rain has wet the Kite and Twine, so that it can conduct the Electric Fire freely, you will find it stream out plentifully from the Key on the Approach of your Knuckle. At this Key the Phial may be charg’d; and from Electric Fire thus obtain’d, Spirits may be kindled, and all the other Electric Experiments be perform’d, which are usually done by the Help of a rubbed Glass Globe or Tube; and thereby the Sameness of the Electric Matter with that of Lightning compleatly demonstrated.

The standard account of Franklin's experiment is disputed by science historian Tom Tucker in 2003. According to Tucker, Franklin never performed the experiment, and the kite as described is incapable of performing its alleged role.

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1751

Fire destroys 1,000 houses in Stockholm!!

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1750

Westminster Bridge is officially opened in London.

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1749

Something Canadian:

The naval settlement of Halifax, Nova Scotia is founded as the British answer to Louisbourg.

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1748
The ruins of Pompeii were rediscovered, due to military excavations ordered by Spanish engineer Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre

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1747

The first venereal disease clinic opens up in London Lock Hospital.
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1746

Dress act bans kilts in Scottland wtf




repealed 1782
 
1745

King George's War: The British capture Cape Breton Island in North America from the French



Siege of Louisbourg

- hey that's where my whole family is from!! I never had a chance to visit Fort Louisboug tho and have to do it
 
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