1765

Events of 1765

January 23 - Marriage of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor to Princess Maria Josepha of Bavaria in Vienna.
March 9 - After a public campaign by the writer Voltaire, judges in Paris posthumously exonerate Jean Calas of murdering his son. Calas had been tortured and executed in 1762 on the charge, though his son may have committed suicide.
March 22 - The British Parliament passes the Stamp Act which is the first direct tax levied from Great Britain on the American colonies.
March 24 - Great Britain passes the Quartering Act that requires the 13 American colonies to house British troops.
May 18 - Fire destroys one quarter of town of Montreal, Quebec.
June 21 - The Isle of Man is brought under British control.

August - Josef II becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
August 9 - Russian Empress Catherine II issued a decree, authorizing the new way to produce vodka (by freezing).
September 6 - Jean-Jacques Rousseau's house in Switzerland is stoned by a mob.
September 21 - François Antoine (also wrongly titled Antoine de Beauterne) announces he has killed the Beast of Gévaudan.
October 17 - The Pennsylvania Gazette reports that a Mr. McCullough, the Distributor of Stamps for the Royal Colony of North Carolina, has resigned his post in protest of the Stamp Act. A Dr. Huston is appointed to the position.
November 1 - The British Parliament enacts the Stamp Act on the 13 colonies in order to help pay for British military operations in North America.
December 12 - The Pennsylvania Gazette reports that Dr. Huston, the recently instated Distributor of Stamps for the Royal Colony of North Carolina, has resigned his post in protest of the Stamp Act.

Sons of Liberty are created.
The first true restaurant opens in Paris, where a tavern-keeper named Boulanger sells cooked dishes at an all-night place on the Rue Bailleul.
Nicholas Cugnot pioneers the automobile with a three-wheel gun tractor.
James Watt supersedes the 1705 Newcomen engine with a more effective steam engine.
In Lisbon, the auto-da-fe parade (often an excuse for violence against Jews or Christian 'heretics') is abolished.
Horace Walpole publishes The Castle of Otranto.

January 11 - Antoine Alexandre Barbier, French librarian (died 1825)
February 1 - Charles Hatchett, English chemist (died 1847)
March 7 - Nicéphore Niépce, French inventor (died 1833)
March 27 - Franz Xaver von Baader, German philosopher and theologian (died 1841)
April 1 - Luigi Schiavonetti, Italian engraver (died 1810)
April 6 - Duke Charles Felix of Savoy (died 1831)
April 26 - Emma, Lady Hamilton, English mistress of Horatio Nelson (died 1815)
June 15 - Henry Thomas Colebrooke, English orientalist (died 1831)
July 11-Abigail Adams Smith, firstborn daughter of Abigail Adams and John Adams (d.1813)
July 26 - Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Count d'Erlon, French marshal (died 1844)
August 21 - King William IV of the United Kingdom (died 1837)
September 18 - Pope Gregory XVI (died 1837)
October 8 - Harman Blennerhassett, Irish-American lawyer (died 1831)
October 17 - Henri Jacques Guillaume Clarke, duc de Feltre, French marshal and politician (died 1818)
October 24 - James Mackintosh, Scottish publicist (died 1832)
November 14 - Robert Fulton, American inventor (died 1815)
November 17 - Étienne-Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre MacDonald, French marshal (died 1840)
November 20 - Sir Thomas Fremantle, British captain and politician (died 1819)
December 8 - Eli Whitney, American inventor (died 1825)
date unknown

Pyotr Bagration, Russian general (died 1812)
Mary Bryant, one of the first successful escapees from the fledging Australian penal colony.
James Smithson, British mineralogist and chemist who left a bequest in his will to the United States of America which was used to initially fund the Smithsonian Institution (died 1829).

March 3 - William Stukeley, English archaeologist (born 1687)
March 27 - Arthur Dobbs, Irish politician and governor of the Royal Colony of North Carolina (born 1689)
April 5 - Edward Young, English poet (born 1683)
April 15 - Mikhail Lomonosov, Russian author and scientist (born 1711)
April 20 - Abigail Williams, American accuser in the Salem witch trials (born 1681)
May 17 - Alexis Claude Clairault, French mathematician (born 1713)
July 15 - Charles-André van Loo, French painter (born 1705)
August 18 - Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor (born 1708)
September 2 - Henry Bouquet, Swiss-born British army officer (born 1719)
October 10 - Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (born 1688)
October 21 - Giovanni Paolo Pannini, Italian painter and architect (born 1691)
October 31 - Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, English military leader (born 1721)
November 30 - George Glas, Scottish merchant and adventurer (born 1725)
December 3 - Lord John Philip Sackville, English cricketer (born 1713)
December 16 - Peter Frederick Haldimand, Swiss-born military officer and surveyor
December 25 - Vaclav Prokop Divis, Czech scientist (born 1698)