1766





Events

   * January 1 - Bonnie Prince Charlie becomes the new Stuart claimant to
     the throne of Great Britain as King Charles III and figurehead for
     Jacobitism.
   * 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.
   * Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart returns to Salzburg after touring Paris and
     London with his father
   * Christian VII becomes King of Denmark
   * Lorraine becomes French again on the death of Stanislas Leszczyncki
   * The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act, partly due to Franklin's
     persuasion, but the Declaratory Act asserts the right of Britain to
     bind the colonies in all other respects
   * Jean Jacques Rousseau writes Confessions
   * The Burmese begin to invade the Thai kingdom of Ayutthaya.

Births

   * February 14 - Thomas Malthus, economist (+ 1834)
   * April 22 - Anne Louise Germaine de Stael, author (+ 1817)
   * August 6 William Hyde Wollaston was born. In 1802, he discovered a few
     inexplicable black lines when performing an experiment similar to those
     of Sir Isaac Newton. This research eventually led to the discovery of
     the elements in the Sun.
   * September 6 - John Dalton, English chemist and physicist

Deaths

   * January 1 - James Francis Edward Stuart, claimant to the thrones of
     Scotland as King James VIII and of England as King James III.
   * January 14 - Frederick V of Denmark
   * February 23 - Stanislas Leszczyncki, ex-King of Poland
   * April 4 - John Taylor - English Classical Scholar

Monarchs/Presidents

   * China - Qianlong Emperor of China, Qing Dynasty (reigned from October
     18, 1735 to February 9, 1796)
   * Prussia - Frederick II King of Prussia (reigned from 1740 to 1786)
   * Sweden - Adolf Frederick of Sweden King of Sweden (reigned from 1751 to 1771)