1770

1770 (MDCCLXX) was a common year beginning on a Monday according to the Gregorian calendar.

Events

March

• March 5: in the USA. The U.S., British soldiers murder five Americans at the Boston Massacre, which will trigger the U.S. Independence War five years later.

April

• 16 April: The regime of King Charles III establishes the prohibition by Royal Clause of the use of indigenous languages, the determination of the extinction of native languages originates the communal movements prior to Independence (in the virreinates of Virreinato of New Granada and Peru).

May

• May 7: María Antonieta arrives at the French court.
• May 16: María Antonieta married Louis-Auguste, 15 (who would become Louis XVI of France). At the wedding, fireworks cause a fire: 800 dead.

June

• June 3: Gaspar de Portolá and Father Junípero Serra are established in Monterrey, which was the capital of California between 1777 and 1849.
• June 3: An earthquake of 7.5 shakes the Haitian city of Port-au-Prince.

July

• 1 July: comet Lexell (D/1770 L1, discovered by Anders Johan Lexell) passes near the Earth.
• 21 July: In the Russian-Turkish War (1768-1774), Russian commander Piótr Rumiantsev sent 150 000 Turks to the Battle of Kagul.

August

• August 22: James Cook invades the eastern coast of New Holland (Australia) and covers the city of Sydney.

September

• September 3: King Charles III declared a march of honor to the Marcha Granadera, the current anthem of Spain.
• 8 September: the Oratorio Morante (in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina) is founded.
• General Phya Tak frees from Siam from Burmese invaders, and proclaims himself king.
• Uprising of the Greeks against the Turks.
• End of the maura Peul vassal (Mali) by the kings of Segu.
• The Radcliffe hospital (in Oxford, England), designed by Stiff Leadbetter and John Sanderson, is opened.
• The Shire Hall (Nottingham, England) is opened, designed by James Gandon and Joseph Pickford.

December

• December 16: one of the greatest musicians in history, Ludwig van Beethoven, son of Johann van Beethoven and Mary Magdalene Keverich, was born in Bonn, Germany.

The Boston MassacrePaul Revere's print.

Science and technology

• Joseph Priestley, British chemist, invents the eraser with the American rubber tree resin
• Joseph Louis Lagrange tests Bachet conjecture (theorem of the four squares).
• Forster describes for the first time the boreal muzzle (Hyperoodon ampulatus)

Art and literature

Painting

The Death of General Wolfe Benjamin West.

• Benjamin West: The Death of General Wolfe.
• Paret: Real couples.

Literature

• James Beattie: An Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth.
• Michael Bruce: Poems on Several Occasions.
• Concolorcorvo (Peru): Lazarillo of blind walkers.
• Holbach Baron: The System of Nature.
• Jean Jacques Rousseau: Les Confessions (Confessions).
• Tobias Smollett: The Expedition of Humphry Clinker.

Theater

• Pierre de Beaumarchais: Les Deux Amis.
• Johannes Ewald: Rolf Krage.
• December 26: Opera premiere Mitridate, re di Ponto from Mozart in Milan.

Births

March

• 5 March: Frederic von Franquemont, General of Infantry of the Army of Napoleon (f. 1842)
• 20 March: Friedrich Hölderlin, German poet (f. 1843)

April

• April 16: Félix Joaquín de la Encina y Fernández de Mesa, first Barón de Santa Bárbara, Mayor de Onteniente, Concejal de Valencia

June

• June 3: Manuel Belgrano, Argentine lawyer, politician and military (f. 1820)
• June 10: George Caley, United Kingdom botanist and explorer (f. 1829)

August

• August 27: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, German philosopher (f. 1831)

November

• 19 November: Bertel Thorvaldsen, Danish sculptor (f. 1844)

December

• 16 December: Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer (f. 1827)

Deaths

• 26 February: Giuseppe Tartini, Italian composer and violinist (n. 1692)