Lisbon earthquake
The ruin of Portugal's capital shakes Enlightenment thinkers
On All Saints' Day 1755 an earthquake, tsunami and fires destroyed much of Lisbon, killing an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 people. The disaster shook Enlightenment thinkers; Voltaire responded with a poem and later with Candide.
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In January 1755 Moscow University was founded; that November an earthquake destroyed Lisbon and shook all of Europe.
Moscow University was founded in January 1755. That November an earthquake destroyed Lisbon and shook the philosophers of the Enlightenment.
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — 7 years later
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — 9 years later
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — 13 years later
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — 17 years later
Middle East
- 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — 8 years earlier
Asia
- 1757 Battle of Plassey — 2 years later
Americas
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — 21 years later
Oceania
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — 13 years later
Alive at the time
- Voltaire (aged 61)
- Benjamin Franklin (aged 49)
- Mikhail Lomonosov (aged 44)
- James Cook (aged 27)
- Catherine the Great (aged 26)
- George Washington (aged 23)
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (aged 6)
- Carl Linnaeus (aged 48)
- Leonhard Euler (aged 48)
- Elizabeth (aged 46)