February 22. The House of Lords decides that copyright must not last for the entire life of an author.
June 1. Boston harbour is closed until the colony doesn’t refund the East India Company for the tea thrown in the sea.
August 1. Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen and names it “dephlogisticated air”
September 5. The first Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia.
Goethe publishes The Sorrows of Young Werther.
German cobbler Johann Birkenstock produces the first pair of sandals.
