Significant Events
- Jun 22 Somerset v Stewart court case finds slavery unsupported by English common law, encouraging the abolitionist movement
- Jul 13 Captain James Cook begins 2nd voyage aboard the Resolution to the South Seas to search for Terra Australis (Southern continent)
- Aug 21 King Gustav III of Sweden completes coup d'etat by adopting a new Constitution and installing himself as an enlightened despot - ends 50 years of parliamentary rule
World Leaders in 1772
Frederick North
British Prime Minister
Frederick the Great
King of Prussia
Samuel Taylor ColeridgeFamous Weddings
- Jan 1 US founding father Thomas Jefferson (30) marries Martha Wayles Skelton (23)
Famous Deaths
- Feb 10 Jozef Wenceslas, monarch of Liechtenstein/general, dies at 75
- Feb 18 Johann Hartwig Ernst, Count von Bernstorff, Danish statesman (b. 1712)
- Mar 2 Robert J Pothier, French lawyer, dies at 73
- Mar 11 Johann George Reutter, composer, dies at 63
- Mar 21 Jacques-Nicolas Bellin, French cartographer (b. 1703)