1756 in Great Britain

Events from the year 1756 in Great Britain.

Incumbents

Events

16 January – Treaty of Westminster signed between Britain and Prussia guaranteeing the neutrality of Hanover, the German province controlled by King George II.
12 April – Siege of Fort St Philip begins when the French under Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, Duke of Richelieu, land near Port Mahón on Menorca and besiege the British garrison here in a prelude to the Seven Years' War.
17 May – Seven Years' War formally begins when Britain declares war on France.
20 May – Seven Years' War: Battle of Minorca: The British fleet under John Byng is defeated by the French under Roland-Michel Barrin de La Galissonière.
20 June – a garrison of the British Army in India is imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta.
25 June – foundation of The Marine Society in London, the world's oldest seafarers' charity.
29 June – Seven Years' War: Siege of Fort St Philip at Port Mahón ends when the British garrison in Menorca surrenders to the French under the Duke of Richelieu after two months' siege.
6 October – hurricane hits Britain causing large losses of corn and other crops.
16 November – Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, resigns as Prime Minister after British failure in the Battle of Minorca. He is succeeded by the Pitt–Devonshire ministry formed by William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, and William Pitt.
4 December – Pitt becomes Secretary of State for the Southern Department.
Undated – completion of William Edwards' Old Bridge, Pontypridd. With a span it becomes the longest single-span bridge in Great Britain, remaining so for 40 years.

Publications

Edmund Burke's A Vindication of Natural Society.

Births

Unknown date – Peter William Baker, politician
3 March – William Godwin, writer
4 March – Henry Raeburn, Scottish painter
April – William Gifford, satirist, critic, editor, poet, and controversialist
13 June – Edmund Lodge, writer
21 September – John Loudon McAdam, highway engineer
7 October – Jemmy Wood, banker and miser
13 November – Edward Rushton, abolitionist and pioneer of education for the blind
18 November – Thomas Burgess, Bishop, author and philosopher
22 November – Gilbert Wakefield, scholar

Deaths

25 February – Eliza Haywood, actress and writer
24 July – George Vertue, engraver and antiquary
31 August – John Dandridge, distinguished colonel, planter
28 October – Charles Somerset, 4th Duke of Beaufort
8 December – William Stanhope, 1st Earl of Harrington, statesman and diplomat