The year 1759 in science and technology involved several significant events.
Astronomy Halley's Comet returns; a team of three mathematicians, Alexis Clairaut, Jérome Lalande and Nicole Reine Lepaute, have – for the first time – predicted the date.
Biology Caspar Friedrich Wolff's dissertation at the University of Halle Theoria Generationis supports the theory of epigenesis.
Botany Kew Gardens established in England by Augusta of Saxe-Coburg, the mother of George III.
Geology Giovanni Arduino proposes dividing the geological history of Earth into four periods: Primitive, Secondary, Tertiary and Volcanic, or Quaternary.
Medicine June 15 – The first vascular surgery in history is performed by a Dr. Hallowell at Newcastle upon Tyne in England, who uses suture repair rather than a tying off with a ligature to repair an aneurysm on a patient's brachial artery. The new procedure of reconstructing a damaged artery replaces the practice of ligation that had risked the amputation of a limb or organ failure. Angélique du Coudray publishes Abrégé de l'art des accouchements ("The Art of Obstetrics").
Physics Posthumous publication of Émilie du Châtelet's French translation and commentary on Newton's Principia, Principes mathématiques de la philosophie naturelle.
Technology English clockmaker John Harrison produces his "No. 1 sea watch" ("H4"), the first successful marine chronometer.
Transport James Brindley is engaged by the Duke of Bridgewater to construct a canal to transport coal to Manchester from the duke's mines at Worsley, in North West England. October 16 – Smeaton's Tower, John Smeaton's Eddystone Lighthouse off the coast of South West England, is first illuminated.
Awards Copley Medal: John Smeaton
Births January 29 – Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc, French botanist (died 1828) July 19 – Jacques Anselme Dorthès, French physician, entomologist and naturalist (died 1794) August 12 – Thomas Andrew Knight, English horticulturalist (died 1838) September 19 – William Kirby, English entomologist (died 1850) December 2 – James Edward Smith, English botanist (died 1828) Date unknown – Maria Petraccini, Italian anatomist and physician (died 1791)
Deaths February 16 – Bartholomew Mosse, Irish surgeon (born 1712) April 6 – Johann Gottfried Zinn, German anatomist and botanist (born 1727) July 27 – Pierre Louis Maupertuis, French mathematician (born 1698) September 10 – Ferdinand Konščak, Croatian explorer (born 1703) November 29 – Nicolaus I Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (born 1687)
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