The 1770s (pronounced "seventeen-seventies") was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1770, and ended on December 31, 1779. A period full of discoveries, breakthroughs happened in all walks of life, as what emerged at this period brought life to most innovations we know today.
From nations such as the United States, birthed through hardships such as the American Revolutionary War and altercations akin to the Boston Tea Party, spheres of influence such as the Russian Empire's sphere from its victorious Crimean claims at the Russo-Turkish War, the Industrial Revolution, and populism, their influence remains omnipresent to this day.
New lands south of the Equator were discovered and settled by Europeans like James Cook, expanding the horizons of a New World to new reaches such as Australia and French Polynesia. Deepened philosophical studies led to the publication of works such as Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations", whose concepts influence much of modern socio-economic thought, and sowed the seeds to the global incumbent neoliberal world order. Studies on chemistry and politics deepen to forge the Age of Reason for centuries to come.
The American Revolutionary War began this year, with the first military engagement on April 19 Battles of Lexington and Concord on the day after Paul Revere's ride. The Second Continental Congress took 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 Great Britain 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 advanced when James Watt built a successful prototype of a steam engine, and a scientific expedition continued 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 vaccine was then developed by Edward Jenner. There is no cure for smallpox.
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1777 * January – William Barton, English cricketer (d. 1825)
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The American Revolution began on April 19, 1775, with the Battles of Lexington and Concord.