1750

Year 1750 (MDCCL) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar).

January - June

• January - A fire in Istanbul destroys 10,000 houses.
• March 2 - A small earthquake hits London, England.
• April 4 - A small earthquake hits Warrington, England.
• April - A second fire devastates Istanbul (see January). A third fire later in the year destroys a further 10,000 homes.
• May - Riots break out in Paris, fueled by rumors of police abducting children.

July - December

• July - José I takes over the throne of Portugal from his deceased father, João V. King José Manuel appoints the Marquis of Pombal as his Chief Minister, who then strips the Inquisition of its power.
• July 9 - Traveller Jonas Hanway leaves St. Petersburg to return home via Germany and the Netherlands. Later the same year, Hanway reputedly becomes the first Englishman to use an umbrella (a French fashion).
• August 23 - A small earthquake hits Spalding, Lincolnshire, England.
• September 30 - A small earthquake hits Northampton, England.
• November 16 - Westminster Bridge is officially opened.

Undated

• James Gray reveals her sex to her Royal Marines compatriots.
• Ahmad Shah Bahadur's army, retreating from Persia, reportedly loses 18,000 men near what is present-day Herat, Afghanistan from cold in a single night.
• The King of Dahomey has income of 250,000 pounds from the overseas export of slaves.
• Britain produces c. 2% of the entire world's output of industrial goods.
• Galley slavery is abolished in Europe.

Population Figures

• World population: 791,000,000
• Africa: 106,000,000
• Asia: 502,000,000
• Europe: 163,000,000
• Latin-America: 16,000,000
• Northern America: 2,000,000
• Oceania: 2,000,000
• Manchester: 20,000.

Notable Births

• January 1 - Frederick Muhlenberg, first speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d. 1801)
• April - Joanna Southcott, British religious fanatic (d. 1814)
• April 17 - François de Neufchâteau, French statesman and intellectual figure (d. 1828)
• May 2 - John André, British Army officer of the American Revolutionary War (d. 1780)
• May 31 - Karl August von Hardenberg, Prussian politician (d. 1822)
• August 18 - Antonio Salieri, Italian composer (d. 1825)
• September 26 - Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood, British admiral (d. 1810)
• November 7 - Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg, German poet (d. 1819)
• December 10 - Tipu Sultan, Sultan of Mysore (d. 1799)
• December 23 - Frederick Augustus I of Saxony (d. 1827)
• date unknown - Adwaita, Oldest tortoise (d. 2006) (alleged birth year; awaiting C-14 verification)

Notable Deaths

• January 16 - Ivan Trubetskoy, Russian field marshal (b. 1667)
• January 22 - Franz Xaver Josef von Unertl, Bavarian politician (b. 1675)
• January 23 - Ludovico Antonio Muratori, Italian historian and scholar (b. 1672)
• January 26 - Albert Schultens, Dutch philologist (b. 1686)
• February 8 - Aaron Hill, English writer (b. 1685)
• May 3 - John Willison, Scottish minister and writer (b. 1680)
• May 28 - Emperor Sakuramachi of Japan (b. 1720)
• June 15 - Marguerite De Launay, Baronne Staal, French writer (b. 1684)
• July 28 - Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer (b. 1685)
• July 31 - King John V of Portugal (b. 1689)
• August 12 - Rachel Ruysch, Dutch painter (b. 1664)
• September 15 - Charles Theodore Pachelbel, German composer (b. 1690)
• October 16 - Sylvius Leopold Weiss, German composer and lutenist (b. 1687)
• December 1 - Johan Gabriel Doppelmayr, German mathematician, astronomer, and cartographer (b. 1671)