1779
Events
<onlyinclude>
January–March
- January 11
- British troops surrender to the Marathas in Wadgaon, India, and are forced to return all territories acquired since 1773.
- January 22 – American Revolutionary War – Claudius Smith is hanged at Goshen, Orange County, New York for supposed acts of terrorism upon the people of the surrounding communities.
- January 29 – After a second petition for partition from its residents, the North Carolina General Assembly abolishes Bute County, North Carolina (established 1764) by dividing it and naming the northern portion Warren County (for Revolutionary War hero Joseph Warren), the southern portion Franklin County (for Benjamin Franklin). The General Assembly also establishes Warrenton (also named for Joseph Warren) to be the seat of Warren County, and Louisburg (named for Louis XVI of France) to be the seat of Franklin County.
- February 12 РLieutenant Colonel Francisco Bouligny arrives with Malague̱o colonists at Bayou Teche, to establish the city of New Iberia, Louisiana.
- February 14 – Captain James Cook is killed on the Sandwich Islands, on his third voyage.
- March 1 – Capture and sack of Vientiane by Siamese forces.
- March 10 РThe Treaty of Aynaḻkavak is signed between Ottoman Turkey and the Russian Empire, regarding the Crimean Khanate.
April–June
July–September
- July 16 – The Great Siege of Gibraltar begins. This is an action by French and Spanish forces to wrest control of Gibraltar from the established British garrison. The garrison, led by George Augustus Eliott (later 1st Baron Heathfield of Gibraltar), survives all attacks and a blockade of supplies.
- July 16
- American Revolutionary War – United States forces, led by General Anthony Wayne, capture Stony Point, New York from British troops.
- Declaratory Rescript of the Illyrian Nation issued in order to regulate organization of Eastern Orthodox Church in Habsburg monarchy.
- July 20 – Tekle Giyorgis I begins the first of his five reigns as Emperor of Ethiopia.
- July 22 – Battle of Minisink: The Goshen Militia is destroyed by Joseph Brant's forces.
- July 24 – American Revolutionary War – American forces, led by Commodore Dudley Saltonstall, launch the Penobscot Expedition in what is now Castine, Maine, resulting in the worst naval defeat in U.S. history, until surpassed by the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
- August 17 – Action of 17 August 1779: The 64-gun British warship HMS Ardent is captured by France in the English Channel off of Plymouth after an ineffective attempt by the British captain to properly aim its cannons at the French frigate Junon.
- August 23 – MartÃÂn de Mayorga, Captain-General of Guatemala, becomes the Spanish Viceroy of New Spain after the death of Antonio MarÃÂa de Bucareli.
- September 14–15 – American Revolutionary War – Little Beard's Town, a loyalist stronghold, is burnt by the Sullivan Expedition.
- September 21 – Battle of Baton Rouge – Spanish troops under Bernardo de Gálvez capture the city from the British.
- September 23 – American Revolutionary War – Battle of Flamborough Head – The American ship Bonhomme Richard, commanded by John Paul Jones, engages the British ship . The Bonhomme Richard sinks, but the Americans board the Serapis and other vessels, and are victorious.
- September 28 – Samuel Huntington is elected as the seventh President of the Continental Congress.
October–December
Date unknown
</onlyinclude>
Births
- January 5 – Stephen Decatur, American naval officer (d. 1820)
- January 18 – Peter Mark Roget, British lexicographer (d. 1869)
- February 1 – Nikolaus von Krufft, Austrian composer and civil servant (d. 1818)
- March 6
- Giovanni Battista Bugatti, Italian executioner (d. 1869)
- Antoine-Henri Jomini, French general (d. 1869)
- March 15 – William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1848)
- March 21 РJos̩ Bernardo de Tagle y Portocarrero, Marquis of Torre Tagle, Peruvian soldier and politician, 2nd President of Peru (d. 1825)
- May 28 – Thomas Moore, Irish poet (d. 1852)
- June 20 – Dorothy Ann Thrupp, British psalmist, hymnwriter, translator (d. 1847)
- July 8 – Giorgio Pullicino, Maltese painter and architect (d. 1851)
- August 1 – Francis Scott Key, American lawyer, lyricist (d. 1843)
- August 8 – Benjamin Silliman, American chemist, educator and abolitionist (d. 1864)
- August 20 РJ̦ns Jacob Berzelius, Swedish chemist (d. 1848)
- August 29 – Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, French painter (d. 1867)
- September 8 – Mustafa IV, sultan of the Ottoman Empire (d. 1808)
- September 18 – Joseph Story, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1845)
- November 14 – Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger, Danish poet (d. 1850)
- December 12 – Madeleine Sophie Barat, French Catholic saint, founder of the Society of the Sacred Heart (d. 1865)
- December 24 – George Washington Lafayette
- date unknown – Giacomo Beltrami, Italian explorer (d. 1855)
Deaths
- January 3 – Claude Bourgelat, French veterinary surgeon (b. 1712)
- January 20 – David Garrick, English actor (b. 1717)
- January 22 – Jeremiah Dixon, English surveyor, astronomer (b. 1733)
- February 7 – William Boyce, English composer (b. 1711)
- February 14 – James Cook, British naval captain and explorer (b. 1728)
- February 24 – Paul Daniel Longolius, German encyclopedist (b. 1704)
- April 7 – Martha Ray (b. 1742), British singer and mistress of John Montagu, Earl of Sandwich (murdered) (b. 1742)
- April 9 – Antonio MarÃÂa de Bucareli y Ursúa, Spanish military officer (b. 1717)
- April 24 – Eleazar Wheelock, American founder of Dartmouth College (b. 1711)
- May 1 – Sarah Clayton, English industrialist (b. 1712)
- May 3 – John Winthrop, American astronomer (b. 1714)
- June 7 – William Warburton, English critic, Bishop of Gloucester (b. 1698)
- June 10 – Jane Gomeldon, English writer, poet and adventurer (b. 1720)
- June 16 – Sir Francis Bernard, 1st Baronet, Colonial governor of New Jersey and Massachusetts Bay (b. 1712)
- June 23 – Ras Mikael Sehul, Enderase of Ethiopia (b. 1692)
- June 28 – Martha Daniell Logan, American botanist (b. 1704)
- June 29 – Anton Raphael Mengs, German-Bohemian painter (b. 1728)
- July 21 – Caleb Fleming, English dissenting minister, polemicist (b. 1698)
- August 26 РHenrika Juliana von Liewen, Swedish political salonni̬re (b. 1709)
- September 12 – Richard Grenville-Temple, 2nd Earl Temple, English politician (b. 1711)
- October 11 – Kazimierz PuÃ
Âaski, veteran commander of Polish, Russian, and American troops (b. 1745)
- November 16 – Pehr Kalm, Finnish explorer and naturalist (b. 1716)
- December 6 РJean-Baptiste-Sim̩on Chardin, French painter (b. 1699)
- December 8 – Nathan Alcock, English physician (b. 1707)
- December 16 – Emperor Go-Momozono of Japan (b. 1758)
- December 17 – Giuseppe Carcani, Italian composer (b. 1703)
- December 23 – Augustus Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol, British admiral and politician (b. 1724)
unknown date
References
Further reading
External links