Eighteenth-Century Chronology: 1759

Literature

• Sarah Fielding, The Countess of Dellwyn
• Edward Gibbon becomes a captain in the militia
• Oliver Goldsmith, The Present State of Polite Learning, The Bee
• Samuel Johnson, Rasselas, Introduction to The World Displayed
• ??? Lessing, Letters on Literature (published through 1765)
• Christopher Smart committed to a private madhouse
• Laurence Sterne, A Political Romance
• Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy, vol. 1
• Edward Young, Conjectures on Original Composition

Theatre

• Macklin, Love à la Mode

Art

Music

• Thomas Arne granted an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Oxford

Science, Technology, & Medicine

• The Bavarian Academy of Science is founded in Germany

Politics & Law

• Fear of a French invasion of Britain are high
• Edmund Burke founds The Annual Register
• August: The Battle of Minden
• September: The British take Quebec in the Siege of Quebec
• November: The English defeat the French army at Lagos and Quiberon Bay
• Robertson, The History of Scotland
• The Modern Universal History (through 1766)

Philosophy & Theology

• Jesuits expelled from Brazil
• Gerard, An Essay on Taste
• Hurd, Moral and Political Dialogues
• Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments

Milestones

• Birth of Robert Burns
• Death of William Collins
• 14 April: Death of George Freederick Händel (or Handel)
• Death of Sarah Johnson, mother of Samuel Johnson
• Birth of Mary Wollstonecraft

Miscellaneous

• The British Museum opens