1769

Years: 1766 1767 1768 - 1769 - 1770 1771 1772
Decades: 1730s 1740s 1750s - 1760s - 1770s 1780s 1790s
Centuries: 17th century - 18th century - 19th century 1769 in art 1769 in literature 1769 in music 1769 in science List of state leaders in 1769 List of religious leaders in 1769

Table of contents

1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths

Events

Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen exhibits the "Mechanical Turk", a chess-playing machine
May 14 - Charles III of Spain sends Spanish missionaries, who found California missions in San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Monterey and begin the settlement of California
Famine in Bengal kills 10 million people, a third of the population, in the worst natural disaster in human history (in terms of lives lost).
The Maharajah of Mysore forces the British to agree a treaty of mutual assistance in view of the famine, but the British East India Company increases its demands on the Bengali people to keep profits up
David Garrick holds the first Shakespeare Festival at Stratford-upon-Avon
Richard Arkwright invents the spinning frame
April 13 - James Cook arrives in Tahiti on the ship HM Bark Endeavour, preparing to observe the solar eclipse of the planet Venus, which took place on June 3rd. After the voyage, the data was found to be inaccurate in determining the distance between the Sun and Earth.
The city of Brescia, Italy was devastated when the Church of San Nazaro, near Venice, was struck by lightning. The resulting fire ignited 200,000 lb (90,000 kg) of gunpowder being stored there, causing a massive explosion which destroyed one sixth of the city and killed 3,000 people. The disaster prompted the Roman Catholic Church to abandon their religious objection to using lightning rods to protect their property.