Melo), orders a harsh punishment against the perpetrators. Of 478 people arrested, 442 of them (including 50 women and young boys) are condemned to various sentences carried out in October. March 14 – British Royal Navy Admiral John Byng is executed by firing squad on board ship after his court martial conviction for failing in the Battle of Minorca (1756) to save British troops who had been besieged by a numerically superior French force in the Siege of Fort St Philip (1756). General Edward Cornwallis, the ranking British Army officer at the battle, is exonerated of charges of dereliction of duty, but his career is ruined. Byng's execution is the origin of the phrase "In this country, it is wise to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others", coined by Voltaire in his novel Candide. March 21 – Sweden signs an alliance treaty with France and Austria in the multinational effort to remove King Frederick the Great, even though Queen Consort Ulrika of Sweden is Frederick's sister. Sweden agrees to contribute 25,000 troops to the French and Austrian force. March 23 – The British East India Company takes control of Chandannagar and forces out the French Indian administrators. March 28 – Robert François Damiens is burned to death in public for his January 5 assassination attempt on King Louis XV of France. March 30 – The Rigshospitalet, national hospital of Denmark, is founded at Copenhagen. April–June April 6 – William Pitt is dismissed from the government, following several military reverses in Britain's fight against France in America. After a public outcry, Pitt is called back to conduct Britain's foreign and military affairs and given greater control. April 16 – The works of astronomer Galileo Galilei espousing heliocentrism are removed (with the approval of Pope Benedict XIV) from the Index Librorum Prohibitorum list of books banned by Roman Catholic Church, along with "all books teaching the earth's motion and the sun's immobility". Other works of heliocentrists Galileo, Nicolaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Diego de Zúñiga and Paolo Foscarini remain on the list. In the wake of public unrest in France, the King's Council issues a decree that bars anyone from writing, printing anything that would tend toward émouvoir les esprits (stir up popular sentiment) against the government, with violations punishable by death. April 17 – The Spanish mission of Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá is founded by