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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1724 | - 29 May 1724—21 Feb 1730: Pope Benedict XIII
Pierfrancesco Orsini, O.P., born 2 February 1649 in Gravina in Puglia, Kingdom of Naples
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| 2 | 1730 | - 12 Jul 1730—6 Feb 1740: Pope Clement XII
Lorenzo Corsini, born 7 April 1652 in Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany
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| 3 | 1732 | - 1732—1733: 1733 New France smallpox epidemic
An outbreak originating in Boston hit Louisbourg, on present-day Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. Nearly 200 people died, many of them children. The rest of New France also suffered from a smallpox epidemic during this time.
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| 4 | 1740 | - 17 Aug 1740—3 May 1758: Pope Benedict XIV
Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini, born 31 March 1675 in Bologna, Papal States
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| 5 | 1755 | - 1755—1775: Smalpox epidemic
From 1755 to 1775, smallpox struck again. This epidemic even affected the Seven Years' War, derailing captain Vaudreuil's military plans to attack New England. Over 2,500 cases were reported in Québec City in the first two years, with a mortality rate approaching 20% of the city. The smallpox that ravaged the country during this two-year period is considered the worst smallpox epidemic in Canadian history.
Incredibly, smallpox may have been used as a biological weapon against Indigenous people in the 1760s. Correspondence uncovered between Jeffery Amherst, commander in chief of the British forces in North America and one of his colonels, discuss the tactic of giving contaminated blankets to the Indigenous. We don't know for certain that Amherst's directives were followed, but the outrage it caused in recent years was enough to see Amherst's name removed from a Montreal street. It is now called Atateken Street, meaning "brothers and sisters" in the Kanienʼkéha language.
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| 6 | 1758 | - 6 Jul 1758—2 Feb 1769: Pope Clement XIII
Carlo della Torre di Rezzonico, born 7 March 1693 in Venice, Republic of Venice
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