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Significant Historical Happenings: 1756.
- JANUARY, 1756:
- London:
- January 16th, 1756: Westminster Convention is signed which bound Austria and England in a common defence against Prussia and France.
- FEBRUARY, 1756:
- Versailles:
- In February, 1756, the Marquis de Montcalm was appointed the French commander in chief in America.
- APRIL, 1756:
- Nova Scotia:
- April, 1756: Major Prebble is sent to Cape Sable and Port Latour to remove the Acadians found at these places; "to destroy all their buildings and carry them away to Boston."
- April, 1756: A wood gathering party out of Fort Monckton (Fort Gasperaux) at Baie Verte is surprised by Indians, "nine of them are scalped."
- MAY, 1756:
- May 8th, 1756: On an island in Mahone Bay, now Covey Island, members of the Payzant family are murdered and scalped.
- May 12th, 1756: Montcalm arrived at Quebec.
- May 14th, 1756: Proclamation at Halifax: bounty of £30 for every male Indian prisoner brought in above the age of 16 alive, £25 for every Indian woman or child brought in alive, £25 for every male Indian scalp.
- May 20th, 1756: The French fleet engages the badly equipped British fleet under Byng which was charged with bringing relief to the English garrison at Minorca. The French emerge victorious.
- JUNE, 1756:
- June, 1756: "The Blackhole of Calcutta": A prince of India, the Nabob of Bengal, of "a cruel character and ill disposed to the English", shuts up, in the heat of summer, 146 English prisoners in a dungeon some twenty feet square, "by morning all but twenty-three had succumbed to their frightful sufferings."
- June 9th, 1756: War is declared.
- June, 1756: The Mediterranean island of Minorca falls to the French.
- June 15th, Governor and Council authorize a block house at LaHave. (See map.)
- JULY, 1756:
- July, 1756: A new commander in chief for America, the Earl of Loudoun, arrives at New York.
- July 23rd, 1756: Charles Lawrence is officially sworn in as governor and commander in chief of Nova Scotia. The order in Council is dated 22nd Dec., 1755 and sent out with a letter from the Board dated March 25th, 1756.
- July 26-27th, 1756: After having successfully delivered Montcalm (1712-59) and 1300 reinforcements to Quebec a small fleet sails into Louisbourg in order to leave off supplies.
- AUGUST, 1756:
- August 9th, 1756: War with France is formally declared at Halifax.
- August the 7th: Charles Holmes was now on blockade duty off Louisbourg.
- During the summer, fifteen French ships were condemned as prizes of war by the Halifax court and ordered to be auctioned.
- AUTUMN, 1756:
- Fall, 1756: The British experienced so much difficulty with Indian raids at Fort Monckton (Fort Gasperaux) at Baie Verte that they abandon and burn it.
- A young Edmund Burke published A Vindication of Natural Society.
- December 4th, 1756, William Pitt came to the head of the English government.
- [Backward In Time (1755)]
[Forward In Time (1757)] - London:
- JANUARY, 1756:
