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Year 1766 (MDCCLXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1766

January - June

• January 1 - Bonnie Prince Charlie becomes the new Stuart claimant to the throne of Great Britain as King Charles III and figurehead for Jacobitism.
• January 14 - Christian VII becomes King of Denmark.
• February 5 - 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.
• February 20 - 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-Ferocious wolf attacks occur in France, such as the Beast of Gevaudan or Wolves of Périgord
• March 5 - Antonio de Ulloa, the first Spanish governor of Louisiana, arrives in New Orleans.
• March 18 - American Revolution: The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act which was very unpopular in the British colonies. The persuasion of Benjamin Franklin is considered partly responsible. The Declaratory Act asserts the right of Britain to bind the colonies in all other respects.

July - December

• November 10 - The last Colonial governor of New Jersey, William Franklin, signs the charter of Queen's College (later renamed Rutgers University).
• November 27 - An observer in New York City, New York 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.

Undated

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart returns to Salzburg after touring Paris and London with his father.
• Lorraine becomes French again on the death of Stanislaus I Leszczy?ski, King of Poland.
• The Burmese begin to invade the Thai kingdom of Ayutthaya.
• What is now England's oldest surviving Georgian theatre was constructed in Stockton-on-Tees.
• Childsburgh, the Orange County, North Carolina county seat laid out as Corbin Town in 1754 and renamed in 1759, is renamed Hillsborough in honor of Wills Hill, Earl of Hillsborough.

Ongoing events

• War of the Regulation (1764-1771).

Births

• February 14 - Thomas Malthus, English demographer and economist (died 1834)
• April 6 - Charles Louis de Fourcroy, Chevalier de la Légion D'honneur, French Mathematician and Scholar (death unknown)
• April 22 - Anne Louise Germaine de Stael, French author (died 1817)
• May 30 - Robert Darwin, Medical doctor and father of Charles Darwin (died 1848)
• June 13 - Jean-Frédéric Waldeck (died 1875).
• July 8 - Dominique Jean Larrey, French surgeon (died 1842)
• July 21 - Thomas Charles Hope, Scottish chemist and discoverer of Strontium (died 1844)
• August 6 - William Hyde Wollaston, English chemist (died 1828)
• September 6 - John Dalton, English chemist and physicist (died 1844)
• October 23 - Emmanuel, marquis de Grouchy, French marshal (died 1847)
• November 2 - Joseph Radetzky von Radetz, Austrian field marshal (died 1858)
• December 3 - Barbara Fritchie, U.S. patriot in Civil War (died 1862)

See also Category: 1766 births.

Deaths

• January 1 - James Francis Edward Stuart, "The Old Pretender" (born 1688)
• January 9 - Thomas Birch, English historian (born 1705)
• January 13 - King Frederick V of Denmark (born 1723)
• January 19 - Giovanni Niccolo Servandoni, French architect and painter (born 1695)
• January 21 - James Quin, English actor (born 1693)
• February 5 - Leopold Josef Graf Daun, Austrian field marshal (born 1705)
• February 23 - Stanislaus I Leszczy?ski, King of Poland (born 1677)
• April 4 - John Taylor, English classical scholar (born 1704)
• April 7 - Tiberius Hemsterhuis, Dutch philologist and critic (born 1685)
• May 5 - Jean Astruc, French physician and scholar (born 1684)
• May 8 - Samuel Chandler, English non-conformist minister (born 1693)
• June 24 - Adrien-Maurice, 3rd duc de Noailles, French soldier (born 1678)
• July 9 - Jonathan Mayhew, American minister and patriot (born 1720)
• July 11 - Elizabeth Farnese, queen of Philip V of Spain (born 1692)
• July 14 - Franti?ek Maxmilián Ka?ka, Czech architect (born 1674)
• September 3 - Archibald Bower, Scottish historian (born 1686)
• September 13 - Benjamin Heath, English classical scholar (born 1704)
• November 9 - Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer, Dutch composer (born 1692)
• December 12 - Johann Christoph Gottsched, German writer (born 1700)

See also Category: 1766 deaths.

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