January–March •
January 12 –
Ahmad Shah Durrani captures
Lahore. •
January 27 – A fire at the prison and barracks at
Kinsale, in
Ireland, kills 54 of the prisoners of war housed there. An estimated 500 prisoners are safely conducted to another prison. •
February 7 – The San Gabriel mission project begins with the founding of the first Roman Catholic missions further northward in the
Viceroyalty of New Spain, in what is now central
Texas. On orders of the Viceroy,
Juan Francisco de Güemes,
Friar Mariano Marti establish the San Francisco Xavier mission at a location on the
San Gabriel River in what is now
Milam County. The mission, located northeast of the future site of
Austin, Texas, is attacked by 60
Apache Indians on May 2, and San Xavier is abandoned after a few years. •
March 11 – In battle near Manupur ( northwest of
Sirhind), Mughal forces under Prince
Ahmad Shah Bahadur are victorious against
Ahmad Shah Durrani. •
March 25 – A fire in the
City of London starts at
Change Alley in
Cornhill and continues for two days. Dr.
Samuel Johnson later writes, "The conflagration of a city, with all its turmoil and concominant distress, is one of the most dreadful spectacles which this world can afford to human eyes". •
June 1 • A fire in
Moscow kills 482 people and destroys 5,000 buildings. and 14 ships of the British East India Company. Altogether, Boscawen has 3,580 sailors under his command. He then launches an offensive to destroy the French fort at
Pondicherry and drive France from the subcontinent. •
August 26 – The first
Lutheran Church body in America is founded at a conference in
Philadelphia, organized by German-born evangelist
Henry Muhlenberg and attended by pastors of orthodox and pious Lutheran communities. The two groups agree to create a common
liturgy to govern public worship. •
August – The
Camberwell beauty butterfly is named after specimens found at Camberwell in London. •
September 24 –
Shah Rukh becomes ruler of
Greater Khorasan.
October –December •
October 12 –
War of Jenkins' Ear –
Battle of Havana: a
British Caribbean squadron engages a
Spanish squadron based near
Havana. •
October 18 –
War of the Austrian Succession: The
Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle is signed to end the war. Great Britain obtains
Madras, in India, from France, in exchange for the
fortress of
Louisbourg in Canada. •
November 22 – The
Electorate of Hanover (now occupied by most of the northwestern German state of
Niedersachsen or Lower Saxony) issues a decree banishing all adherents of the
Moravian Church. •
December 4 – Austria and Spain sign a second treaty to settle the
War of the Austrian Succession, and Austria agrees to remove its troops from Modena and Genoa.
Date unknown •
Leonhard Euler publishes
Introductio in analysin infinitorum, an introduction to pure analytical mathematics, in Berlin. •
Montesquieu publishes ''
De l'esprit des lois''. •
Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock publishes the first three
cantos of his
epic poem Der Messias in
hexameters (anonymously), in
Bremer Beiträge (
Leipzig). •
Adam Smith begins to deliver public lectures in
Edinburgh. • The
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences makes
Eva Ekeblad its first female member. • Construction of the
Sveaborg fortification begins near
Helsinki. • The ruins of
Pompeii are rediscovered. •
Louis XV breaks his promise to eliminate the
income tax, after the
Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the war. The
Parlement of Paris protests, so he reduces the tax to 5%. == Births ==