1748 CE

A congress assembles at Aix-la-Chapelle (now Aachen), with the intent to conclude the War of the Austrian Succession. The treaty is signed on October 18. War of the Austrian Succession: A congress assembles at Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) with the intent to conclude the war. 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.

In the 1740s, the 18th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • 9 April: the Newtown Act, allowing non-resident burgesses in parliamentary boroughs, is given royal assent.Irelandsource
  • April 24 – A congress assembles at Aix-la-Chapelle (now Aachen), with the intent to conclude the War of the Austrian Succession. The treaty is signed on October 18.source
  • June 1 – José de Escandón is designated by the Viceroy of New Spain as the first Royal Governor of Nuevo Santander. The area covered by the Viceroyalty's new province is now part of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, and the part of the U.S. state of Texas south of the Guadalupe River (including San Antonio and Corpus Christi).source
  • 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.source
  • 18 October – 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.Francesource
  • 18 October – the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the War of the Austrian Succession, by which Madras in India is restored to British rule in exchange for the fortress of Louisbourg in Canada with France.United Kingdomsource
  • 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.source
  • 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%.source
  • Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle returns Ile Royale, (Cape Breton Island) Ile Saint-Jean, (Prince Edward Island) and Louisbourg to France.Canadasource
  • Treaty of Logstown (English with Shawnee, Delaware, Wyandot). English later base their claim to the whole Great Lakes and midwest (or Old Northwest as it was later called) on these two treaties.Canadasource
  • Louis XV authorizes a 5% income tax on every individual regardless of social status; the Parlement of Paris protests.Francesource

Conflict & Security

  • January 12 – Ahmad Shah Durrani captures Lahore.source
  • 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.source
  • March 11 – In battle near Manupur (15 km northwest of Sirhind), Mughal forces under Prince Ahmad Shah Bahadur are victorious against Ahmad Shah Durrani.source
  • April 15 – The Siege of the Dutch fortress of Maastricht is started by the French under the command of Maurice de Saxe as part of the War of the Austrian Succession. The fortress falls on May 7 after a little more than three weeks.source
  • 24 April – War of the Austrian Succession: A congress assembles at Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) with the intent to conclude the war.Francesource
  • April – Maastricht is conquered by Maurice de Saxe.Francesource
  • May 10 – As word arrives that the Dutch Republic has agreed to return control of Maastricht to France, the French Army's leader of the siege, Count Löwendal, marches through the opened city gates with his troops and accepts its surrender.source
  • August – Admiral Edward Boscawen commands a Royal Navy siege of Pondicherry.United Kingdomsource
  • October 12 – War of Jenkins' Ear – Battle of Havana: a British Caribbean squadron engages a Spanish squadron based near Havana.source
  • Madras restored to the British by the French who captured the city in 1746.Indiasource

Exploration & Expansion

  • 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.source

Religion & Belief

  • 8 March - With the death of the childless William Herbert, 3rd Marquess of Powis, the title becomes extinct. Henry Arthur Herbert subsequently becomes 1st Earl of Powis.Walessource
  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • 8 December - Røn Church is completed.Norwaysource
  • Clergy of the Scottish Episcopal Church are forbidden to officiate unless ordained by an English (or Irish) bishop.Scotlandsource

Economy & Finance

Technology & Infrastructure

  • April – first uniforms of the Royal Navy introduced for commissioned officers and midshipmen.United Kingdomsource
  • Construction of the Sveaborg fortification begins near Helsinki.source
  • Adam Smith begins to deliver public lectures in Edinburgh.source
  • Construction of Fort George begins.Scotlandsource
  • Garron Bridge on the Inveraray Castle estate, designed by Roger Morris and/or his kin Robert Morris, is completed.Scotlandsource
  • Lewis Morris - Plans of Harbours, Bays, and Roads in St. George's and the Bristol ChannelsWalessource

Science & Discovery

  • August – The Camberwell beauty butterfly is named after specimens found at Camberwell in London.source
  • The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences makes Eva Ekeblad its first female member.source
  • Frederik Christian Eilschov publishes Philosophiske Breve.Denmarksource
  • Joseph Harris becomes Assay-Master at the Royal Mint.Walessource

Health & Medicine

  • John Fothergill's pamphlet Account of the Sore Throat attended with Ulcers contains the first description of diphtheria.United Kingdomsource
  • Henry Fielding organises the forerunner of the Bow Street Runners, with eight men at first.United Kingdomsource

Crime & Justice

  • 1 April – under the Sheriffs (Scotland) Act 1747, trials for treason in Scotland can take place outside the shire in which the crime is committed.Scotlandsource
  • The ruins of Pompeii are rediscovered.source
  • Leinster House (at this time called Kildare House) in the unfashionable south side of Dublin is completed as a residence for James FitzGerald, Earl of Kildare by Richard Cassels.Irelandsource
  • A window tax is levied in Scotland.Scotlandsource
  • The Treason Outlawries (Scotland) Act 1748 comes into effect retrospectively.Scotlandsource
  • Richard Wilson paints the two eldest sons of Frederick, Prince of Wales.Walessource

Disasters & Accidents

  • 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". Another history notes more than a century later that "the fire led to a great increase in the practice of fire insurance", after the blaze causes more than £1,000,000 worth of damage.source
  • 28 March – a fire in the City of London causes over a million pounds worth of damage.United Kingdomsource
  • June 1 – A fire in Moscow kills 482 people and destroys 5,000 buildings.source

Culture & Society

  • 11 June - The Dannebrog became the only official merchant flag in Norway. The royal standard flag became forbidden to be used on merchant ships.Norwaysource
  • 24 June – on the death of his father William, John Adam inherits his architectural practice in Scotland and the position of Master Mason to the Board of Ordnance, immediately taking his brother Robert into partnership.Scotlandsource
  • July 29 – Royal Navy Admiral Edward Boscawen arrives at the coast of southeastern India with 28 ships, to defend Fort St. David from attacks by armies of French India. Historian Francis Grose later writes that Boscawen had brought the largest fleet "ever seen together in the East Indies", with nine ships of the line, two frigates, a sloop, and two tenders" 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.source
  • September 24 – Shah Rukh becomes ruler of Greater Khorasan.source
  • 18 December – Niels Eigtved's new theatre of Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen opens with a repertoire of Danish plays and Italian operas.Denmarksource
  • 27 December – Ernst Henrich Berling receives a license to publish newspapers.Denmarksource
  • Montesquieu publishes De l'esprit des lois.source
  • Leonhard Euler publishes Introductio in analysin infinitorum, an introduction to pure analytical mathematics, in Berlin.source
  • Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock publishes the first three cantos of his epic poem Der Messias in hexameters (anonymously), in Bremer Beiträge (Leipzig).source
  • David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding is published.Scotlandsource
  • Holywell Music Room, Oxford, the first purpose-built concert hall in Europe, is opened.United Kingdomsource
  • William Williams Pantycelyn marries Mary Francis of Llansawel.Walessource
  • The Salusbury family leave Lleweni Hall.Walessource

Births

Deaths

  • January 1 – Johann Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (born 1667)source
  • March 7 – Élisabeth Thérèse de Lorraine, French noblewoman, Princess of Epinoy by marriage (born 1664)source
  • 8 March - William Herbert, 3rd Marquess of Powis, 50Walessource
  • March 14 – George Wade, British military leader (born 1673)source
  • March 23 – Johann Gottfried Walther, German music theorist, organist and composer (born 1684)source
  • April 8 – Empress Xiaoxianchun of Qing dynasty (born 1712)source
  • April 12 – William Kent, English architect (born c. 1685)source
  • April 16 – Muhammad Shah, Mughal emperor of India (born 1702)source
  • June 16 – Jean Philippe d'Orléans, illegitimate son of future French regent Philippe d'Orleans (born 1702)source
  • August 12: Jean Jeantot, Canadian Catholic brother and schoolmaster (born c. 1666)Canadasource
  • August 27 – James Thomson, Scottish poet (born 1700)source
  • September 6 – Edmund Gibson, English jurist (born 1669)source
  • September 10 – Mother Ignacia del Espíritu Santo, Filipino founder of the Congregation of the Religious of the Virgin Mary (born 1663)source
  • September 12 – Anne Bracegirdle, English actress (born c. 1671)source
  • November 25 – Isaac Watts, English hymn writer (born 1674)source
  • 25 November – Isaac Watts, hymn writer (born 1674)United Kingdomsource
  • December 2 – Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, English politician (born 1662)source
  • Þorleifur Skaftason – Priest and Galdrmaster (born 1683)Icelandsource