Historical Events
Historic Event
Jan 1 English potter Josiah Wedgwood writes that he has developed his famous 'wedgwood blue' color in a letter to Thomas Bentley [1]
- Jan 11 Francis Salvador becomes 1st Jew elected to office in America (SC)
- Jan 17 9 old women burnt as witches for causing bad harvests in Kalisk, Poland
- Jan 17 Richard Brinsley Sheridan's play "The Rivals" premieres in London
- Jan 18 The West India Committee founded in London by London sugar merchants and Caribbean planters. Initially instrumental in promoting slavery, later aided campaign to end slavery. [1]
- Jan 22 Marshal Oscar von Lubomirski expels Jews from Warsaw, Poland
Famous Birthdays
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling
Jan 27 Friedrich von Schelling, German philosopher (Views on Christianity), born in Leonberg, Württemberg, Holy Roman Empire (d. 1854)
Famous Deaths
- Jan 8 John Baskerville, English printer and type designer, dies at 68
- Jan 10 Jemeljan Pugatshov, Russian kosak leader/"Tsar Peter III", dies
- Jan 11 Yemelyan Pugachov, Don Cossack rebel, executed by tsarist Russia
- Jan 11 Prithvi Narayan Shah, began the unification of modern Nepal (b. 1723)
- Jan 13 Johann Georg Walch, German theologian, dies at 81
- Jan 15 Giovanni Battista Sammartini, Italian composer and musician, dies (b. c. 1700)