1764 in Great Britain
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{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}
{{Year in Great Britain|1764|cricket=yes}}
Events from the year 1764 in Great Britain.
Incumbents
Events
- 19 January – John Wilkes is expelled from the House of Commons for seditious libel for his article criticising King George III in The North Briton.{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Hywel|title=Cassell's Chronology of World History|url=https://archive.org/details/cassellschronolo0000will/page/322|url-access=registration|location=London|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|year=2005|isbn=0-304-35730-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/cassellschronolo0000will/page/322 322–323]}}
- 5 April – Parliament passes the Sugar Act.[http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/related/sugaract.htm The American Revenue Act of 1764.] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051202092649/http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/related/sugaract.htm |date=2 December 2005 }}
- 19 April – the Currency Act passed which prohibits the American colonies from issuing paper currency of any form.
- 23 April – Mozart family grand tour: 8-year-old W. A. Mozart settles in London for a year{{cite web|title=Mozart in London|url=http://www.thewordtravels.com/Mozart-London.html|work=thewordtravels.com|accessdate=2011-11-30|archive-date=2012-03-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120321123527/http://www.thewordtravels.com/Mozart-London.html|url-status=dead}} where he composes his Symphony No. 1.
- August – protests begin in Boston, Massachusetts against Britain's colonial policies.
- 22 October – deposed Nawab of Bengal Mir Qasim defeated at the Battle of Buxar by the British East India Company.
=Undated=
- Specific and latent heats are described by Joseph Black.{{cite book|title=The Hutchinson Factfinder|publisher=Helicon|year=1999|isbn=1-85986-000-1 }}
- Industrial Revolution: James Hargreaves invents the Spinning Jenny.{{cite web|url=http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/icons-timeline/1750-1800|title=Icons, a portrait of England 1750–1800|accessdate=2007-08-25| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20070817164134/http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/icons-timeline/1750-1800| archivedate= 17 August 2007 }}
- Holkham Hall, Norfolk, completed in the Palladian style by William Kent.{{cite book|last=Summerson|first=John|authorlink=John Summerson|year=1954|title=Architecture in Britain, 1530 to 1830|publisher=Penguin}}
- Landscape gardener Lancelot "Capability" Brown is appointed Chief Gardener at the royal palace of Hampton Court; redesigns the gardens of Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire; and works at Broadlands in Hampshire.{{cite book|first=Thomas|last=Hinde|authorlink=Thomas Hinde (novelist)|title=Capability Brown: the Story of a Master Gardener|location=London|publisher=Hutchinson|year=1986|isbn=0-09-163740-6|pages=100, 119, 123}}
- The rock pillar called "Lot's Wife" amongst The Needles off the Isle of Wight collapses into the sea during a storm.{{cite web|url=http://www.theneedles.co.uk/history.php|title=The history and geology of The Needles|publisher=The Needles Park|accessdate=2011-08-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728172838/http://www.theneedles.co.uk/history.php|archive-date=2011-07-28|url-status=dead}}
Publications
- James Ridley's pastiche Oriental stories The Tales of the Genii (supposedly translated by Sir Charles Morell from Persian).
- Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, the first Gothic novel (supposedly translated by William Marshal from Italian).
Births
- Early – James Smithson, mineralogist, chemist and benefactor (died 1829)
- February – George Duff, Scottish naval officer (died 1805)
- 13 March – Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1845)
- 1 April – Eclipse, racehorse (died 1789)
- 3 April – John Abernethy, surgeon (died 1831)
- 29 April – Ann Hatton, née Kemble, novelist (died 1838)
- 2 May – Robert Hall, Baptist minister (died 1831)
- 4 May – Joseph Carpue, surgeon (died 1846)
- 5 May – Robert Craufurd, Scottish general (killed at Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo (1812))
- 25 May – John Mason Good, writer (died 1827)
- 19 June – Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet, author and statesman (died 1848)
- 21 June – Sidney Smith, admiral (died 1840)
- 5 July – Daniel Mendoza, boxer (died 1836)
- 9 July – Ann Radcliffe, née Ward, novelist (died 1823)
- 27 July – John Thelwall, radical (died 1834)
- 17 September – John Goodricke, astronomer (died 1786)
- 25 September – Fletcher Christian, sailor and mutineer (died 1793 in Pitcairn Islands)
- October – William Symington, Scottish mechanical engineer and steamboat pioneer (died 1831)
- 3 December – Mary Lamb, writer and matricide (died 1847)
- Approximate date – Alexander Mackenzie, Scottish explorer of northern Canada (died 1820)
Deaths
- 6 March – Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, Lord Chancellor (born 1690)
- 17 March
- William Oliver, physician (born 1695)
- George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield, astronomer (born c. 1696)
- 15 April – John Immyns, attorney and lutenist (born c. 1700)
- 29 June – Ralph Allen, businessman and politician (born 1693)
- 7 July – William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath, politician (born 1683)
- 2 September – Nathaniel Bliss, Astronomer Royal (born 1700)
- 23 September – Robert Dodsley, writer (born 1703)
- 2 October – William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, Prime Minister (born 1720)
- 26 October – William Hogarth, painter and satirist (born 1697)
- 4 November – Charles Churchill, poet and satirist (born 1732)