1775 in Great Britain

Incumbents

• Monarch – George III
• Prime Minister – Frederick North, Lord North

Events

• 17 January – first performance of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's comedy of manners The Rivals at the Covent Garden Theatre in London.
• 9 February – American Revolution: British Parliament declares Massachusetts in rebellion.
• 22 March – American Revolution: Edmund Burke's speech before the British Parliament on conciliation with the American colonies.
• 3 April – Muzio Clementi makes his London debut as a harpsichordist.
• 19 April – the American Revolutionary War begins with the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
• 10 May – American Revolution: Capture of Fort Ticonderoga by Patriot forces.
• 12 May – American Revolution: Battle of Crown Point.
• 12 June – American Revolution: British forces offer a pardon to all colonists who would lay down their arms.
• 16 June – American Revolution: Battle of Bunker Hill.
• 5 July – American Revolution: the Continental Congress sends the Olive Branch Petition to King George III, hoping for a reconciliation.
• 30 July – second voyage of James Cook: anchors at Spithead, Captain Cook having completed the first eastabout global circumnavigation.
• 12 August–3 November – American Revolution: Battle of Fort St. Jean.
• 23 August – American Revolution: refusing even to look at the Olive Branch Petition, King George issues a Proclamation of Rebellion against the American colonies.
• 24 September – American Revolution: Battle of Longue-Pointe.
• 9 December – American Revolution: Battle of Great Bridge – victory by the Virginia's Second Regiment and the Culpeper Minuteman Battalion, leads to withdrawal of the British from the port of Norfolk Borough.
• 30–31 December – American Revolution: Battle of Quebec – British forces repulse an attack by the American Continental Army.
• 1775–76 Winter – Unusually deadly influenza epidemic in London kills nearly 40,000.

Undated

• Industrial Revolution
• * John Wilkinson (industrialist) invents and patents a new kind of boring machine.
• * The 1769 Watt steam engine patent is extended to June 1800 by Act of Parliament and the first engines are built under it.
• * Josiah Wedgwood introduces jasperware pottery.
• Actress Sarah Siddons makes her debut at the Drury Lane Theatre as Portia in The Merchant of Venice but is not well received.

Publications

• Samuel Johnson's A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland.
• Augustus Toplady's hymn "Rock of Ages".

Births

• 24 January – John Buonarotti Papworth, architect
• 30 January – Walter Savage Landor, writer
• 10 February
• *Charles Lamb, writer
• *James Smith, author
• 12 February – Louisa Adams, First Lady of the United States
• 12 March – Joseph Chitty, lawyer and legal writer
• 23 April – J. M. W. Turner, painter
• 13 May – Henry Crabb Robinson, man of letters, lawyer and diarist
• 5 July – William Crotch, composer
• 31 August – Agnes Bulmer, poet
• 25 November – Charles Kemble, actor
• 14 December – Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, admiral
• 16 December – Jane Austen, novelist

Deaths

• 8 January – John Baskerville, printer
• 6 February – William Dowdeswell, politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer
• 7 March – Thomas Nuthall, politician and attorney
• 28 May – Barlow Trecothick, merchant and politician
• 17 June – Major John Pitcairn, marine
• 16 September – Allen Bathurst, 1st Earl Bathurst, privy councillor
• 21 November – John Hill, botanist and writer
• 7 December – Charles Saunders, admiral