Major 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 his second voyage to the South Seas aboard HMS Resolution to search for Terra Australis (Southern continent)
- Aug 21 King Gustav III of Sweden completes a coup d'etat by adopting a new Constitution and installing himself as an enlightened despot, ending 50 years of parliamentary rule
- More 1772 Events
Samuel Taylor ColeridgeMore People Born in 1772
Fun Fact About 1772
Catherine the Great Empress of Russia, ends tax on men with beards, enacted by Tsar Peter the Great in 1698
Who Died in 1772
- Jan 14 Princess Mary of Great Britain, dies at 48
- Feb 8 Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Princess of Wales by marriage to Frederick, Prince of Wales, dies at 52
- Feb 10 Joseph Wenzel I, Prince of Liechtenstein and general, dies at 75
- Feb 15 Christian Gottlieb Ziegler, German organist, kapellmeister, and composer, dies at 69
- Feb 18 Johann Hartwig Ernst, Count von Bernstorff, Danish statesman (b. 1712)
More 1772 Deaths
Famous Weddings in 1772
- Jan 1 US founding father Thomas Jefferson (30) marries Martha Wayles Skelton (23)
- Mar 28 Charles Edward Stuart 'the Young Pretender' (52) marries by proxy Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern (20)
Frederick North
Frederick the Great