Events of 1775

January - June

• January 17 - James Cook takes possession of South Georgia for Britain.
• February 9 - American Revolution: British Parliament declares Massachusetts in rebellion.
• February 15 - Pope Pius VI succeeds Pope Clement XIV as the 250th pope.
• March 23 - American Revolution: Patrick Henry, a delegate to the Second Virginia Convention after the Virginia house of Burgess had been disbanned by the Royal Governor, delivers his "give me liberty or give me death" speech at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia.
• April 18 - American Revolution: Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Joseph Warren ride from Boston to Concord in an attempt to warn John Hancock and Sam Adams that the British Armies were coming to seize their weapons and ammunition.
• April 19 - American Revolution: Hostility between Britain and its American colonies explode into bloodshed at the Battles of Lexington and Concord on the 19th, which ignites the American Revolution.
• May 10 - American Revolution: The Continental Congress meets, elects John Hancock president, raises the Continental army under George Washington as commander and authorizes the colonies to adopt their own constitutions.
• May 10 - American Revolution: Fort Ticonderoga is taken by a small force called the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont, led by Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen.
• May 17 - American Revolution: The Continental Congress bans trade with Canada.
• June 12 - American Revolution: The British forces offered a pardon to all colonists who would lay down their arms.
• June 14 - American Revolution: Delegates of the Continental Congress nominate George Washington as commander of the Continental Army -- defeating John Hancock.
• June 17 - American Revolution: Two months into the colonial siege of Boston, British open fire on Breed's Hill on Charles Town peninsula. After three charges, the British take the hill in the misnamed Battle of Bunker Hill.

July - December