January 19 » Bolle Willum Luxdorph records in his diary that a mail bomb, possibly the world's first, has severely injured the Danish Colonel Poulsen, residing at Børglum Abbey.
January 19 » John Wilkes is expelled from the British House of Commons for seditious libel.
February 15 » The city of St. Louis is established in Spanish Louisiana (now in Missouri, USA).
September 7 » Election of Stanisław August Poniatowski as the last ruler of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Day of death March 17, 1778
The temperature on March 17, 1778 was about 5.0 °C. Wind direction mainly west-southwest. Weather type: zeer betrokken. Source: KNMI
February 5 » South Carolina becomes the second state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.
May 12 » Heinrich XI, count of the Principality of Reuss-Greiz, is elevated to Prince by Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor.
July 3 » American Revolutionary War: Iroquois allied to Britain kill 360 people in the Wyoming Valley massacre.
July 4 » American Revolutionary War: U.S. forces under George Clark capture Kaskaskia during the Illinois campaign.
August 3 » The theatre La Scala in Milan is inaugurated with the première of Antonio Salieri's Europa riconosciuta.
September 7 » American Revolutionary War: France invades Dominica in the British West Indies, before Britain is even aware of France's involvement in the war.
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: Johan Decloedt, "Family tree Decloedt", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/stamboom-decloedt/I19045.php : accessed February 21, 2026), "Gilles MAERTEN (1708-1778)".
Copy warning
Genealogical publications are copyright protected. Although data is often retrieved from public archives, the searching, interpreting, collecting, selecting and sorting of the data results in a unique product. Copyright protected work may not simply be copied or republished.
Please stick to the following rules
Request permission to copy data or at least inform the author, chances are that the author gives permission, often the contact also leads to more exchange of data.
Do not use this data until you have checked it, preferably at the source (the archives).
State from whom you have copied the data and ideally also his/her original source.