January 5 » Louis XV of France survives an assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, the last person to be executed in France by drawing and quartering, the traditional and gruesome form of capital punishment used for regicides.
May 6 » English poet Christopher Smart is admitted into St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics in London, beginning his six-year confinement to mental asylums.
June 18 » Battle of Kolín between Prussian forces under Frederick the Great and an Austrian army under the command of Field Marshal Count Leopold Joseph von Daun in the Seven Years' War.
June 23 » Battle of Plassey: Three thousand British troops under Robert Clive defeat a 50,000-strong Indian army under Siraj ud-Daulah at Plassey.
November 5 » Seven Years' War: Frederick the Great defeats the allied armies of France and the Holy Roman Empire at the Battle of Rossbach.
December 31 » Empress Elizabeth I of Russia issues her ukase incorporating Königsberg into Russia.
Day of death January 28, 1779
The temperature on January 28, 1779 was about 2.0 °C. Wind direction mainly south-southeast. Weather type: betrokken mist. Source: KNMI
February 14 » American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Kettle Creek is fought in Georgia.
May 13 » War of the Bavarian Succession: Russian and French mediators at the Congress of Teschen negotiate an end to the war. In the agreement Austria receives the part of its territory that was taken from it (the Innviertel).
June 24 » American Revolutionary War: The Great Siege of Gibraltar begins.
July 6 » Battle of Grenada: The French defeat British naval forces during the American Revolutionary War.
September 23 » American Revolution: John Paul Jones, naval commander of the United States, on board the USSBonhomme Richard, wins the Battle of Flamborough Head.
October 18 » American Revolutionary War: The Franco-American Siege of Savannah is lifted.
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: Charles Olson, "Olson's Tree", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/olsons-tree/P21077.php : accessed January 9, 2026), "William Johnson (1757-1779)".
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