1759

1759 (MDCCLIX) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar, the 1759th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 759th year of the 2nd millennium, the 59th year of the 18th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1750s decade. As of the start of 1759, the Gregorian calendar was 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	17th century – 18th century – 19th century
Decades:	1720s  1730s  1740s  – 1750s –  1760s  1770s  1780s
Years:	1756 1757 1758 – 1759 – 1760 1761 1762

1759 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1759 MDCCLIX
Ab urbe condita	2512
Armenian calendar	1208 ԹՎ ՌՄԸ
Assyrian calendar	6509
Balinese saka calendar	1680–1681
Bengali calendar	1166
Berber calendar	2709
British Regnal year	32 Geo. 2 – 33 Geo. 2
Buddhist calendar	2303
Burmese calendar	1121
Byzantine calendar	7267–7268
Chinese calendar	戊寅年 (Earth Tiger) 4455 or 4395     — to — 己卯年 (Earth Rabbit) 4456 or 4396
Coptic calendar	1475–1476
Discordian calendar	2925
Ethiopian calendar	1751–1752
Hebrew calendar	5519–5520
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1815–1816
- Shaka Samvat	1680–1681
- Kali Yuga	4859–4860
Holocene calendar	11759
Igbo calendar	759–760
Iranian calendar	1137–1138
Islamic calendar	1172–1173
Japanese calendar	Hōreki 9 (宝暦９年)
Javanese calendar	1684–1685
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 11 days
Korean calendar	4092
Minguo calendar	153 before ROC 民前153年
Nanakshahi calendar	291
Thai solar calendar	2301–2302
Tibetan calendar	阳土虎年 (male Earth-Tiger) 1885 or 1504 or 732     — to — 阴土兔年 (female Earth-Rabbit) 1886 or 1505 or 733

Events

• January 11 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first American life insurance company is incorporated.
• January 13 – The Távora family is executed following the accusation of attempted regicide on Joseph I of Portugal
• January 15 – The British Museum opens
• April 13 – a French army defeats Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick at Brunswick
• June 27 – British Troops under Jeffrey Amherst take Fort Ticonderoga
• July 25 – Seven Years' War (French and Indian War): In Canada, British forces capture Fort Niagara from French, who subsequently abandon Fort Rouillé.
• August 1 – Battle of Minden – Anglo-Hanoverian forces under Ferdinand of Brunswick defeat the French army of the Duc de Broglie, but due to the disobedience of the English cavalry commander Lord George Sackville, the French are able to withdraw unmolested.
• August 10 – Ferdinand VI of Spain dies and is succeeded by his half-brother Charles III. Charles resigns the thrones of Naples and Sicily to his third son, Ferdinand IV.
• August 12 – Battle of Kunersdorf – Frederick the Great is rebuffed in bloody assaults on the combined Austro-Russian army of Peter Soltikov and Gideon von Loudon. This is one of Frederick's greatest defeats.
• August 18 – Battle of Lagos – The British fleet of Edward Boscawen defeats a French force under Commodore de la Clue off the Portuguese coast.
• September 10 – Battle of Pondicherry – An inconclusive naval battle is fought off the coast of India between the French Admiral d'Aché and the British under George Pocock. The French forces are badly damaged and returned home, never to return.
• September 13 – Seven Years' War (French and Indian War): Quebec falls to British forces following General Wolfe's victory in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham just outside the city. Both the French Commander (the Marquis de Montcalm) and the British General James Wolfe are fatally wounded.
• November 20 – Battle of Quiberon Bay – The English fleet of Sir Edward Hawke defeats a French fleet under Marshal de Conflans near the coast of Brittany. This is the decisive naval engagement of the Seven Years' War – after this, the French are no longer able to field a significant fleet.
• November 21 – Battle of Maxen – the Austrian army of Marshal von Daun cuts off and foces the surrender of a Prussian force under Friedrich von Finck.
• December 6 – The Germantown Union School (now called "Germantown Academy"), America's oldest nonsectarian day school, is founded.
• George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis
• Adam Smith publishes Theory of Moral Sentiments, embodying some of his Glasgow lectures
• Publication of Voltaire's Candide
• The town of Egedesminde (modern Aasiaat) is founded in Greenland.
• Guinness Brewery founded in Dublin.

Births

for more information, see Category:1759 births.

• January 25 – Robert Burns, Scottish poet (d. 1796)
• April 27 – Mary Wollstonecraft, feminist writer (d. 1797)
• May 28 – William Pitt the Younger, statesman and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1806)
• August 24 – William Wilberforce, British abolitionist (d. 1833)
• October 25 – William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1834)
• November 10 – Friedrich Schiller, German writer (d. 1805)

Deaths

for more information, see Category:1759 deaths.

• April 14 – George Frideric Handel, German composer (b. 1685)
• August 10 – King Ferdinand VI of Spain (b. 1713)