1775

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	17th century – 18th century – 19th century
Decades:	1740s  1750s  1760s  – 1770s –   1780s   1790s   1800s
Years:	1772 1773 1774 – 1775 – 1776 1777 1778

1775 by topic:

Arts and Sciences

Archaeology – Architecture – Art – Literature ( Poetry) – Music – Science

Countries

Canada – France – Great Britain –

Lists of leaders

Colonial governors – State leaders

Birth and death categories

Births – Deaths

Establishments and disestablishments categories

Establishments – Disestablishments

Works category

Works

1775 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1775 MDCCLXXV
Ab urbe condita	2528
Armenian calendar	1224 ԹՎ ՌՄԻԴ
Assyrian calendar	6525
Bahá'í calendar	-69–-68
Bengali calendar	1182
Berber calendar	2725
British Regnal year	15 Geo. 3 – 16 Geo. 3
Buddhist calendar	2319
Burmese calendar	1137
Byzantine calendar	7283–7284
Chinese calendar	甲午年十一月三十日 (4411/4471-11-30) — to — 乙未年十一月初十日 (4412/4472-11-10)
Coptic calendar	1491–1492
Ethiopian calendar	1767–1768
Hebrew calendar	5535–5536
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1831–1832
- Shaka Samvat	1697–1698
- Kali Yuga	4876–4877
Holocene calendar	11775
Igbo calendar
- Ǹrí Ìgbò	775–776
Iranian calendar	1153–1154
Islamic calendar	1188–1189
Japanese calendar	An'ei 4 (安永4年)
Juche calendar	N/A (before 1912)
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 11 days
Korean calendar	4108
Minguo calendar	137 before ROC 民前137年
Thai solar calendar	2318

Year 1775 (MDCCLXXV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Thursday of the 11-day later Julian calendar.

Events

Summary

The American Revolution begins this year, with the first military engagement being the April 19 Battles of Lexington and Concord on the day after Paul Revere's now-legendary ride. The Second Continental Congress takes various steps toward organizing an American government, appointing George Washington commander-in-chief (June 14), Benjamin Franklin postmaster general (July 26) and creating a Continental Navy (October 13) and a Marine force (November 10) as landing troops for it, but as yet the 13 colonies have not declared independence, and both the British (June 12) and American (July 15) governments make laws. On July 6, Congress issues the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms and on August 23, King George III of England declares the American colonies in rebellion, announcing it to parliament on November 10. On June 17, two months into the colonial siege of Boston, at the Battle of Bunker Hill, just north of Boston, British forces are victorious, but only after suffering severe casualties and after Colonial forces run out of ammunition, Fort Ticonderoga is taken by American forces in New York Colony's northern frontier, and American forces unsuccessfully invade Canada, with an attack on Montreal defeated by British forces on November 13 and an attack on Quebec repulsed December 31.

Human knowledge and mastery over nature advances when James Watt builds a successful prototype of a steam engine, and a scientific expedition continues as Captain James Cook claims the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands in the south Atlantic Ocean for Britain. Nature's power over humanity is dramatically demonstrated when the Independence Hurricane (August 29 – September 13) devastates the east coast of North America, killing 4,173, and when, on the western side of the North American continent, Tseax Cone erupts in the future British Columbia, as well as when a smallpox epidemic begins in New England. Smallpox was then cured by Edward Jenner.

January–June

• January 5 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart finishes Sonata in C for Keyboard.
• January 17 – Second voyage of James Cook: Captain James Cook takes possession of South Georgia for Great Britain.
• February 9 – American Revolution: The Parliament of Great Britain declares Massachusetts in rebellion.
• February 15 – Pope Pius VI succeeds Pope Clement XIV as the 250th pope.
• March 23 – American Revolution: Patrick Henry, a delegate to the Second Virginia Convention after the Virginia House of Burgesses was disbanded by the Royal Governor, delivers his " Give me Liberty, or give me Death!" speech at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia.
• April 18 – American Revolution: Paul Revere and William Dawes, instructed by Dr. Joseph Warren, ride from Boston to Lexington to warn John Hancock and Sam Adams that British forces are coming to take them prisoner and to seize colonial weapons and ammunition in Concord.
• April 19 – American Revolution: Hostility between Britain and its American colonies explodes into bloodshed at the Battles of Lexington and Concord on the 19th, which ignites the American Revolution.
• May 10
  • American Revolution: The Second Continental Congress meets, elects John Hancock president, raises the Continental Army under George Washington as commander and authorizes the colonies to adopt their own constitutions.
  • American Revolution: Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, leading the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont, capture Fort Ticonderoga.
• May 17 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress bans trade with Canada.
• June 12
  • American Revolution: The British forces offer a pardon to all colonists who lay down their arms.
  • U.S. Merchant Marine (no central administration).
• June 14 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress names George Washington as commander of the Continental Army.
• June 16 – Post of Chief Engineer of the Continental Army created.
• June 17 – American Revolution: Two months into the colonial siege of Boston, British open fire on Breed's Hill on Charles Town Peninsula. After 3 charges, the British take the hill in the misnamed Battle of Bunker Hill.
• June 19 – Post of Commanding General was created by the Continental Congress.

July–December

• July 3 – American Revolution: George Washington takes command of the 17,000-man Continental Army at Cambridge.
• July 5 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress sends the Olive Branch Petition, hoping for a reconciliation.
• July 6 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress issues Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, which contains the words: "Our cause is just. Our union is perfect... being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves...".
• July 26 – The Second Continental Congress appoints Benjamin Franklin to be the first Postmaster General of what later becomes the United States Post Office Department.
• July 30 – Second voyage of James Cook: HMS Resolution (1771) anchors off the south coast of England, Captain Cook having completed the first eastabout global circumnavigation.
• August 18 – Tucson was founded.
• August 21 – American Revolution – Battle of Fort St. Jean: American rebels launch an invasion of Canada.
• August 23 – American Revolution: Refusing to even look at the Olive Branch Petition, King George issues a Proclamation of Rebellion against the American colonies.
• August 29 – September 12 – The Independence Hurricane from South Carolina to Nova Scotia kills 4,170, mostly fishermen and sailors.
• September 25 – American Revolution – Battle of Montreal: Patriot revolutionary forces under Maj. Ethan Allen attack Montreal, commanded by British General Guy Carleton. Allen's forces are defeated, and Allen himself is captured and held on British ships until he is later released.
• October – The Sayre Plotters attempt to kidnap George III of the United Kingdom.
• October 13 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress orders the establishment of the Continental Navy (later the United States Navy).
• October 26 – American Revolution: George III announces to Parliament that the American colonies are in an uprising and must be dealt with accordingly.
• November – American Revolution: Colonel Richard Richardson's South Carolina revolutionaries march through Ninety-Six District in what becomes known as the Snow Campaign, effectively ending all major support for the Loyalist cause in the backcountry of South Carolina.
• November 10 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress passes a resolution creating the Continental Marines to serve as landing troops for the recently created Continental Navy (the Marines are disbanded at end of the war in April 1783 but reformed on July 11, 1798 as the United States Marine Corps).
• November 13 – American Revolution – Battle of Montreal: American forces under Brigadier General Richard Montgomery capture Montreal. British General Guy Carleton escapes to Quebec.
• 17 November - John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore offers freedom to slaves who join the loyalist army, thus losing the support of most planters, who see slaves as their vital livelihood
• December 5 – American Revolution: Henry Knox begins his journey to Cambridge, Massachusetts with the artillery that has been captured from Fort Ticonderoga.
• December 31 – American Revolution: British forces repulse an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at Quebec.

Date unknown

• First Anglo-Maratha war fought between the British and the Marathas in India. It ended with the Treaty of Salbai(1782).
• Industrial Revolution in Great Britain
  • James Watt's 1769 steam engine patent is extended to June 1800 by Act of Parliament and the first engines are built under it.
  • John Wilkinson invents and patents a new kind of boring machine.
• Austria forces the Ottoman Empire to cede Bukovina.
• Catherine the Great gives the nobles absolute control over their serfs.
• A smallpox epidemic begins in New England.
• Tseax Cone in northwestern British Columbia erupts.
• Typhoon Liengkieki devastates the Pacific atoll of Pingelap.

Births

• January 20 – André-Marie Ampère, French physicist (d. 1836)
• January 27 – Friedrich Schelling, German philosopher (d. 1854)
• February 10 – Charles Lamb, English writer (d. 1834)
• February 12 – Louisa Adams, First Lady, wife of President John Quincy Adams (d. 1852)
• March 12 – Henry Eckford, Scottish-born American shipbuilder, naval architect, industrial engineer, and entrepreneur (d. 1832)
• March 17 – Ninian Edwards, Governor of Illinois and Senator from Illinois (d. 1833)
• April 30 – Guillaume Dode de la Brunerie, Marshal of France, (d. 1851)
• May 10 – Antoine Charles Louis Lasalle, French cavalry general (d. 1809)
• June 12 – Karl Freiherr von Müffling, Prussian field marshal (d. 1851)
• June 13 – Antoni Radziwiłł, Polish politician (d. 1833)
• July 23 – Eugène François Vidocq, French criminal and private detective agent (d. 1857)
• August 6 – Daniel O'Connell, Ireland's predominant political leader and national treasure (d. 1847)
• September 1 – Honouré Charles Reille, Marshal of France (d. 1860)
• December 14
  • Philander Chase, American university founder (d. 1852)
  • Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, British admiral (d. 1860)
• December 16
  • Jane Austen, English novelist (d. 1817)
  • François-Adrien Boïeldieu, French composer (d. 1834)

Deaths

• January 8 – John Baskerville, English printer (b. 1706)
• January 13 – Johann Georg Walch, German theologian (b. 1693)
• February 5 – Eusebius Amort, German Catholic theologian (b. 1692)
• February 6 – William Dowdeswell, English politician (b. 1721)
• February 15 – Peter Dens, Belgian Catholic theologian (b. 1690)
• April 27 – Col. Thomas Gardner, political figure and heroic soldier (b. 1724)
• May 10 – Marie Magdalene Charlotte Ackermann, German actress (b. 1757)
• June 17 – Major John Pitcairn, British marine (killed in battle) (b. 1722)
• June 23 – Karl Ludwig von Pöllnitz, German adventurer and writer (b. 1692)
• July 11 – Simon Boerum, American Continental Congressman (b. 1724)
• August 27 – James Burgh, British Whig politician and writer (b. 1714)
• September 6 – Jean-Baptiste Bullet, French writer (b. 1669)
• September 16 – Allen Bathurst, 1st Earl Bathurst, English privy councillor (b. 1684)
• October 2 – Chiyo-ni, Japanese poet (b. 1703)
• October 18 – Christian August Crusius, German philosopher and theologian (b. 1715)
• October 21 – Peyton Randolph, American president of the Continental Congress (b. 1721)
• November 9 – Francisco Ximenes de Texada, 69th Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (b. 1703)
• November 21 – John Hill, English writer
• November 24 – Lorenzo Ricci, Italian Jesuit leader (b. 1703)
• December 7 – Charles Saunders, British admiral
• December 31 – Richard Montgomery, American general (killed in battle) (b. 1738)