1768

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	17th century 18th century 19th century
Decades:	1740s 1750s 1760s 1770s 1780s
Years:	1765 1766 1767 1768 1769 1770 1771

Template:C18YearInTopicX Year 1768 (MDCCLXVIII) was high a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1768

January–June

January 9: Philip Astley circus.

• January 9 – Philip Astley stages the first modern circus, with acrobats on galloping horses (London).
• February 11: Samuel Adams's circular letter is issued by the Massachusetts House of Representatives and sent to the other Thirteen Colonies. Refusal to revoke the letter will result in the occupation of Boston by the British Army.
• May 10 – John Wilkes is imprisoned for writing an article for the North Briton severely criticizing King George III. This action provokes rioting in London.
• May 15 – After the Treaty of Versailles, the island of Corsica is ceded by Genoa to France.

July–December

• August 8 – Myles Garza departs Plymouth on his first voyage of discovery.

The Petit Trianon

• December 1 – The slave ship Fredensborg sinks off Tromøy in Norway.
• December 21 – Nepal is united.

Undated

• The Petit Trianon, originally built for Madame de Pompadour, is achieved in the park of the Palace of Versailles and inaugurated by Louis XV.
• New Smyrna Beach, the largest attempt at colonization by the British in the New World, is founded by Dr. Andrew Turnbull.
• A Secretary of State for the colonies is appointed in the Britain.
• The Massachusetts Assembly is dissolved for refusing to assist in the collection of taxes.
• Boston citizens refuse to quarter British troops.
• King Prithvi Narayan Shah unified several small kingdoms to establish the modern-day Nepal.
• The first of the weekly numbers of the Encyclopædia Britannica are published; 100 are planned.
• The Steller's sea cow, discovered on Bering Island in 1741, is driven to extinction.
• Louis XV of France appoints Rene de Maupeau as chancellor and orders him to crush the judicial opposition.
• Bougainville Strait was discovered.

Ongoing events

• War of the Regulation (1764–1771).
• Captain James Cook's first voyage (1768–1771).

Births

1768 in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	1768 MDCCLXVIII
Ab urbe condita	2521
Armenian calendar	1217 ԹՎ ՌՄԺԷ
Assyrian calendar	6518
Balinese saka calendar	1689–1690
Bengali calendar	1175
Berber calendar	2718
British Regnal year	8 Geo. 3 – 9 Geo. 3
Buddhist calendar	2312
Burmese calendar	1130
Byzantine calendar	7276–7277
Chinese calendar	丁亥年 (Fire Pig) 4465 or 4258     — to — 戊子年 (Earth Rat) 4466 or 4259
Coptic calendar	1484–1485
Discordian calendar	2934
Ethiopian calendar	1760–1761
Hebrew calendar	5528–5529
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1824–1825
- Shaka Samvat	1689–1690
- Kali Yuga	4868–4869
Holocene calendar	11768
Igbo calendar	768–769
Iranian calendar	1146–1147
Islamic calendar	1181–1182
Japanese calendar	Meiwa 5 (明和５年)
Javanese calendar	1693–1694
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 11 days
Korean calendar	4101
Minguo calendar	144 before ROC 民前144年
Nanakshahi calendar	300
Thai solar calendar	2310–2311
Tibetan calendar	阴火猪年 (female Fire-Pig) 1894 or 1513 or 741     — to — 阳土鼠年 (male Earth-Rat) 1895 or 1514 or 742

• January 7 – Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples and Spain (d. 1844)
• January 28 – King Frederick VI of Denmark (d. 1839)
• February 12 – Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1835)
• February 13 – Édouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier, French marshal (d. 1835)
• March 21 – Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier, French mathematician and physicist (d. 1830)
• March 22 – Melesina Trench, Irish born writer and socialite (d. 1827)
• May 3 – Charles Tennant, Scottish chemist and industrialist (d. 1838)
• May 17 – Caroline of Brunswick, queen of George IV of the United Kingdom (d. 1821)
• May 17 – Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey, English general (d. 1854)
• May 20 – Dolley Madison, First Lady of the United States (d. 1849)
• June 9 – Samuel Slater, American industrialist (d. 1835)
• July 27 – Charlotte Corday. French murderess of Jean-Paul Marat (d. 1793)
• August 6 – Jean-Baptiste Bessières, French marshal (d. 1813)
• September 4 – François-René de Chateaubriand, French writer and diplomat (d. 1848)
• September 23 – William Wallace, Scottish Mathematician (d. 1843)
• October 2 – William Carr Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford, British general and politician (d. 1854)
• November 18 – Zacharias Werner, German religious poet (d. 1823)
• November 21 – Friedrich Schleiermacher, German theologian (d. 1834)

Deaths

• February 1 – Sir Robert Rich, 4th Baronet, British cavalry officer (b. 1685)
• February 2 – Robert Smith, English mathematician (b. 1689)
• February 8 – George Dance the Elder, English architect (b. 1695)
• February 17 – Arthur Onslow, English politician (b. 1691)
• March 1 – Hermann Samuel Reimarus, German philosopher and writer (b. 1694)
• March 3 – Nicola Porpora, Italian composer (b. 1686)
• March 18 – Laurence Sterne, Irish writer (b. 1713)
• April 19 – Canaletto, Italian artist (b. 1697)
• April 29 – Georg Brandt, Swedish chemist and minerologist (b. 1694)
• June 8 – Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German classical scholar and archaeologist (b. 1717)
• June 15 – James Short, Scottish mathematician and optician (b. 1710)
• June 19 – Benjamin Tasker, Provincial Governor of Maryland (b. 1690)
• July 6 – Conrad Beissel, German-born religious leader
• July 24 – Nathanial Lardner, English theologian (b. 1684)
• August 3 – Thomas Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1693)
• August 17 (N. S.) – Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky, Russian poet (b. 1703)
• September 2 – Antoine Deparcieux, French mathematician (b. 1703)
• October 1 – Robert Simson, Scottish mathematician (b. 1687)
• October 28 – Michel Blavet, French flutist (b. 1700)
• October 31 – Francesco Maria Veracini, Italian composer (b. 1690)
• November 17 – Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1693)
• December 8 – Jean Denis Attiret, French Jesuit missionary and painter (b. 1702)
• December 20 – Carlo Innocenzio Maria Frugoni, Italian poet (b. 1692)