1766

Events in 1766 4

• 1766 Cavendish discovers hydrogen Inflammable air — the lightest element In 1766, Henry Cavendish described hydrogen as a distinct element (he called it "inflammable air"), demonstrating its properties by producing it from metal and acid. In 1783 he showed that water is formed when hydrogen burns in oxygen — overturning the ancient idea of water as an element and establishing the chemical composition of the most abundant compound on Earth.
• 1766 – 1842 Dominique Jean Larrey (1766-1842) Died 25 July 1842, aged 76 French surgeon Dominique Jean Larrey was surgeon-in-chief of Napoleon's Grande Armée. He introduced the "flying ambulance" to carry wounded men from the battlefield, and he pioneered battlefield triage. He is regarded as a founder of modern military medicine.
• 1766 – 1844 John Dalton (1766-1844) Died 27 July 1844, aged 77 English chemist and physicist who developed modern atomic theory and proposed that each element is made of atoms of a distinct weight. He also gave the first scientific description of colour blindness, which is sometimes called Daltonism.
• 1766 – 1858 Josef Radetzky von Radetz (1766-1858) Died 5 January 1858, aged 91 Radetzky was an Austrian field marshal who commanded imperial forces in northern Italy for decades, notably suppressing revolutions in Lombardy-Venetia in 1848-49. Johann Strauss Sr.'s Radetzky March was composed in his honor and remains a staple of the Vienna New Year's Concert.