1775 by whatever quirk of history or cosmology,
was one heck of a ride around the sun.

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Many facts are taken virbadium with some variations from Wikipedia.

1775

This was a year in which

Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel and statue of David exist.
Leonardo’s Mona Lisa and The Last Supper exist.
William Shakespeare’s plays exist
The music of Johann Sebastian Bach exists.
The novels Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver’s Travels exists.

Marie-Suzanne Giroust – Self-portrait with an image of Maurice Quentin de La Tour (approximate date)

Births

Charles Lamb (February 10, 1775 – December 27, 1834) author of Tales from Shakespeare (1807) along with his sister Mary Anne Lamb (December 3,1764 – May 20, 1847)

Deaths

Paul of the Cross (January 3, 1694 – October 18, 1775) was an Italian Roman Catholic mystic, and founder of the Passionists.

Publications

Samuel Johnson A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland
Pierre Beaumarchais – The Barber of Seville
Geoffrey Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer (Thomas Tyrwhitt, editor). Originally published in between 1387 and 1400.

Strictly Catholic Stuff

February 15 – Pope Pius VI succeeds Pope Clement XIV as the 250th pope.

For the same reason you should undoubtedly always give special attention to the beauty of the house of God and the splendor and dignity of objects dedicated to the divine service. Such beauty and splendor often greatly inspire the faithful, and draw them to the veneration of sacred realities. It would be very improper for the bishop’s house to be cleaner and furnished more tastefully than the abode of holiness, the palace of the living God. It would make no sense to see holy vestments, adornments for the altar and all the furniture in the church worn out with age and torn or dirty, while the bishop’s table is well laden, the priest’s clothing very clean and finely coordinated.5.
Pope Pius VI – Inscrutabile – On the Problems of the Pontificate, December 25, 1775

Revolutionary War

“Keep in mind that when we were founded by those Americans of the eighteenth century, none had had any prior experience in revolutions or nation making. They were, as we would say, winging it. They were idealistic and they were young. We see their faces in the old paintings done later in their lives or looking at us from the paper money in our wallets, and we see the awkward teeth and the powdered hair, and we think of them as elder statesmen.

But George Washington, when he took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge in 1775, was forty-three, and he was the oldest of them. Jefferson was thirty-three when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. John Adams was forty. Benjamin Rush – one of the most interesting of them all – was thirty when he signed the Declaration. They were young people, feeling their way, improvising, trying to do what would work. They had no money, no navy, no real army. There wasn’t a bank in the entire country.

It was a country of just 2,500,000 people, 500,000 of whom were held in slavery. And think of this: Few nations in the world know when they were born. We know exactly when we began and why we began and who did it.”
— David McCullough (The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For)

February 9 – The Great and Powerful Parliament of Great Britain declares the Province of Massachusetts Bay (my birth state) to be in rascally radical rebellion.
March 23 – Patrick Henry, a delegate to the Second Virginia Convention after the Virginia House of Burgesses was disbanded by the Royal Governor, delivers his not yet famous historical “Give me Liberty, or give me Death!” epic speech at St. John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia.

If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come. It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

April 18 – Paul Revere and William Dawes, instructed by Dr. Joseph Warren, ride from Boston to Lexington to warn John Hancock and Sam Adams that British forces are coming to take them prisoner and to seize colonial weapons and ammunition in Concord.

“LISTEN, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, “If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light, —
One, if by land, and two, if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Paul Revere’s Ride

April 19 – Battles of Lexington and Concord:Hostility between Britain and its American colonies explodes into bloodshed, igniting the American Revolutionary War which officially ends on February 3, 1783 when Great Britain acknowledges the independence of the United States of America. At this time, the Spanish government does not grant diplomatic recognition.

Another problem was that the guns they used in those days, called muskets, took forever to load. First you had to put your powder in, then you had to put in a little piece of flint, then you had to ram some wadding down there, then you had to put in about a quarter teaspoon of paprika, and finally you had to put in your musket ball, which usually popped right back out again because there was hardly any room.

It took so long to complete the Battle of Lexington that the two sides were nearly four hours late to the next scheduled event, the Battle of Concord. This was where the Americans invented the innovative guerrilla tactic of rushing up to the British, who were still dithering around with their formation (‘‘Dammit, Nigel! You’re supposed to be part of the ‘O’!’’), and bonking them manually over the heads with their unloaded muskets.
Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States by Dave Barry | Goodreads

June 17 – Two months into the colonial siege of Boston, British open fire on Breed’s Hill on Charles Town Peninsula. After 3 charges, the British take the hill in the misnamed Battle of Bunker Hill.
July 3 – George Washington takes command of the 17,000-man Continental Army at Cambridge. He wouldn’t become our first president until 14 years later in 1789 and it would last till 1797.
July 4- One Year away from The United States Declaration of Independence being adopted by the Second Continental Congress in 1776.
July 6 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress issues Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, which contains the words: “Our cause is just. Our union is perfect… being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves…”.
July 26 – The Second Continental Congress appoints Benjamin Franklin to be the first Postmaster General of what later becomes the United States Post Office Department.
August 23 – American Revolution: Refusing to even look at the Olive Branch Petition, King George issues a Proclamation of Rebellion against the American colonies.
October 13 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress orders the establishment of the Continental Navy (later the United States Navy).
October 26 – American Revolution: George III announces to Parliament that the American colonies are in an uprising and must be dealt with accordingly.
December 31 – American Revolution: Battle of Quebec – British forces repulse an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at Quebec; Montgomery is killed.

While The Colonists Were Rebelling Against Mother England,
This Also Happened

January 17 – Second voyage of James Cook: Captain James Cook takes possession of South Georgia for the Kingdom of Great Britain.
March 17 – Catherine the Great of Russia issues a manifesto prohibiting freed serfs from being returned to serfdom.
July 30 – Second voyage of James Cook: HMS Resolution (1771) anchors off the south coast of England, Captain Cook having completed the first eastbound global circumnavigation.
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton SC turns 1 year old. (August 28, 1774 – January 4, 1821)
August 29 – September 12 – The Independence Hurricane from South Carolina to Nova Scotia kills 4,170, mostly fishermen and sailors.

Some Cultural Milestones

James Watt‘s 1769 steam engine patent is extended to June 1800 by Act of Parliament and the first engines are built under it.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composing music.
- Violin Concertos No. 3, No. 4 & No. 5
- Symphony No.52 in C major, K.102/213c
- Serenade in D major, K.204/213a
- Church Sonata in B-flat major, K.212
- Misericordias Domini, K.222/205a
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach the fifth child and second surviving son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach was composing music.
- Symphony in D major, H.663
- Symphony in F major, H.665
Johann Christian Bach the eighteenth child of Johann Sebastian Bach, and the youngest of his eleven sons was composing music.
– Sinfonia concertante, W.C 34

What a year.

EXTRA ADDED BONUS

Here is What Happened.

A Decade Later

1785

Angelika Kauffmann October 30, 1741 – November 5, 1807)
Pliny the Younger and His Mother at Miseno