1766 in Great Britain:

Other years

1764 | 1765 | 1766 | 1767 | 1768

Sport

1766 English cricket season

Events from the year 1766 in Great Britain.

Incumbents

• Monarch - King George III
• Prime Minister - Marquess of Rockingham, Whig (to 30 July), William Pitt the Elder, Whig

Events

• 1 January - Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie") becomes the new Stuart claimant to the throne of Great Britain as King Charles III and figurehead for Jacobitism.
• 5 February - An observer in Wilmington, North Carolina, reports to the Edinburgh newspaper Caledonian Mercury that three ships were seized by British Men of War on the charge of carrying official documents without stamps. The strict enforcement causes seven other ships to leave Wilmington for other ports.
• 20 February - The Pennsylvania Gazette reports that a British sloop outside of Wilmington, North Carolina seized one sloop sailing from Philadelphia and one sloop sailing from Saint Christopher on the charge of carrying official documents without stamps. In response, local residents threaten to burn a Royal Man of War attempting to deliver stamps to Wilmington, forcing the ship to return to the mouth of the Cape Fear River.
• February - American Revolution: Parliament repeals the Stamp Act which is very unpopular in the British colonies.^[1] The persuasion of Benjamin Franklin is considered partly responsible.
• 18 March - The Declaratory Act asserts the right of Britain to make laws binding in the colonies.^[1]
• 30 May - Opening of Theatre Royal, Bristol.
• 26 July - Construction of the Trent and Mersey Canal begins to connect the River Trent and River Mersey.^[1][2]
• 30 July - Marquess of Rockingham dismissed as Prime Minister by King George III and is succeeded by William Pitt the Elder.^[3]
• October Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, completed.
• 27 November - An observer in New York City reports to the Pennsylvania Gazzette that a British Sloop of War is searching all vessels passing near Cape Lookout, North Carolina and that some vessels have been seized.
• 5 December - Christie's auction house founded in London.^[1]

Undated

• What is now England's oldest surviving Georgian theatre constructed in Stockton-on-Tees.
• Henry Cavendish publishes his paper "On Factitious Airs". This is generally credited to show the discovery of hydrogen, since it describes the density of 'inflammable air', which formed water on combustion.
• The first golf club in England opens, at Blackheath in Kent.^[4]

Publications

• Oliver Goldsmith's novel The Vicar of Wakefield.^[4]
• George Stubbs' study The Anatomy of the Horse.

Births

• 15 January - Nathan Drake, essayist and physician (died 1836)
• 14 February - Thomas Malthus, demographer and economist (died 1834)
• 11 May - Isaac D'Israeli, author (died 1848)
• 3 August - Jeffry Wyattville, architect and garden designer (died 1840)
• 6 August - William Hyde Wollaston, chemist (died 1828)
• 6 September - John Dalton, chemist and physicist (died 1844)
• 29 December - Charles Macintosh, chemist (died 1843)

Deaths

• 1 January - James Francis Edward Stuart, "The Old Pretender" (born 1688)
• 9 January - Thomas Birch, English historian (born 1705)
• 21 January - James Quin, English actor (born 1693)
• 4 April - John Taylor, English classical scholar (born 1704)
• 8 May - Samuel Chandler, English non-conformist minister (born 1693)
• 3 September - Archibald Bower, Scottish historian (born 1686)
• 13 September - Benjamin Heath, English classical scholar (born 1704)
• 29 November - John Wyatt, inventor (born 1700)
• unknown date - John Brown, essayist (born 1715)

References

See also