1756

Year 1756 (MDCCLVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Monday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1756

July 30: In Russia, Empress Elizabeth at the porch of the newly built Catherine Palace, painting (1905) by Eugene Lanceray (in Tretyakov Gallery).

January–June

• March 17 – St. Patrick's Day is celebrated in New York City for the first time (at the Crown and Thistle Tavern).
• April 12 – Seven Years' War: The French invade Minorca, then under British control.
• May 15 – Seven Years' War: The Seven Years' War formally begins when Great Britain declares war on France.
• May 20 – Seven Years' War – Battle of Minorca: The British fleet under John Byng is defeated by the French under Roland-Michel Barrin de La Galissonière.
• May 28 – Seven Years' War: The British garrison in Minorca surrenders to the French.
• June 25 – The Marine Society is founded in London (the world's oldest seafarers' charity).

July–December

• July 30 – Bartolomeo Rastrelli presents the newly built Catherine Palace to Empress Elizabeth and her courtiers.
• August 14 – Seven Years' War- French and Indian War: Fort Oswego falls to the French.
• August 29 – Frederick II of Prussia invades Saxony, beginning the war on the continent.
• October 1 – Seven Years' War – Battle of Lobositz: Frederick defeats an Austrian army under Marshal Maximilian Ulysses Count Browne.
• December – Seven Years' War – French and Indian War: Militias of the Royal Colony of North Carolina build a fort on the province's western frontier to protect it against natives allied with the French. The fort is named Fort Dobbs in honor of North Carolina Governor Arthur Dobbs, who persuaded the North Carolina legislature to fund the construction a year earlier.

Undated

• Frederick II of Prussia forces his country's peasants to grow the unpopular and obscure potato.
• First chocolate-candy factory begins operations in Germany.
• Leopold Mozart publishes his book on his method for learning to play the violin.

Ongoing events

• French and Indian War (1754–1763)

Births

• January 19 – Guillaume-Antoine Olivier, French entemologist (d. 1814)
• January 27 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer (d. 1791)
• February 6 – Aaron Burr, Vice President of the United States (d. 1836)
• March 3 – William Godwin, English writer (d. 1836)
• March 4 – Sir Henry Raeburn, Scottish painter (d. 1823)
• May 18 – Ignaz Aurelius Fessler, court councillor and minister to Alexander I (d. 1839)
• May 27 – Maximilian I of Bavaria (d. 1825)
• June 6 – John Trumbull, American painter (d. 1843)
• June 20 – Joseph Martin Kraus, German-Swedish composer (d. 1792)
• July 7 – Gustaf Adolf Reuterholm, Swedish statesman (d. 1813)
• july 31 – Dheeran Chinnamalai, Tamil king (d. 1805)
• August 1 – Pierre Louis Prieur, French politician (d. 1827)
• August 29 – Heinrich Graf von Bellegarde, Austrian field marshal and statesman (d. 1845)
• September 7 – Willem Bilderdijk, Dutch author (d. 1831)
• October 28 – Alf, Fictional alien
• November 3 – Pierre Laromiguière, French philosopher (d. 1837)

See also Category: 1756 births.

Deaths

• January 18 – Francis George of Schönborn-Buchheim (b. 1682)
• February 25 – Eliza Haywood, English actress and writer (b. 1693)
• April 10 – Giacomo Antonio Perti, Italian composer (b. 1661)
• April 18 – Jacques Cassini, French astronomer (b. 1677)
• July 24 – George Vertue, English engraver and antiquary (b. 1684)
• October 26 – Roland-Michel Barrin de La Galissonière, governor of New France (b. 1693)
• October 28 – Charles Somerset, 4th Duke of Beaufort (b. 1709)
• December 8 – William Stanhope, 1st Earl of Harrington, English statesman and diplomat (b. c. 1690)
• date unknown – Bernard Accama, Dutch painter (b. 1697)

See also Category: 1756 deaths.