1749 CE

At a ceremony in San Antonio, Texas (then a part of the New Spain province of Nuevo Santander), four Apache chiefs and Spanish colonial officials and missionaries literally "bury the hatchet", placing weapons of war into a pit and covering it as a symbol that the Apaches and the Spaniards will fight no further war against each other. A delegation of 33 members of the Catawba Indian nation and 73 from the Cherokee nation arrive in Charleston, South Carolina, to discuss a peace treaty with South Carolina's provincial governor, James Glen. Grand Chief Jean-Baptiste Cope, of the Miꞌkmaq Indian nation in Canada, declares war against the British Empire after the building of the fort at Halifax, Nova Scotia and begins hostilities by taking 20 British hostages at Canso.

In the 1740s, the 18th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

January 3 – Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont.source
1 February – two princes of Anamaboe who have been taken prisoners and made slaves are presented to King George II of Great Britain. The British government has paid their ransoms and they are placed in the care of the Earl of Halifax.United Kingdom source
May 19 – King George II of Great Britain grants the Ohio Company 200,000 acres (312½ square miles or 810 km 2 ) of land north of the Ohio River, encompassing most of the modern U.S. state of Ohio and part of West Virginia. The grant is conditioned on the Company being able to attract 100 European families every year, for seven years, to move to the area occupied by Indian tribes, and to build a fort to protect themsource
August 2 – Irish-born trader George Croghan, unaware of the recent British grant of land in the Ohio River valley to the Ohio Company, purchases 200,000 acres of much of the same land from the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, dealing directly with "the three most important Iroquois chiefs resident in that area, in return for an immense quantity of Indian goods." The deal takes place at the Iroquois capital of Onondaga, near present-day Syracuse, New York.source
September 5 – A delegation of 33 members of the Catawba Indian nation and 73 from the Cherokee nation arrive in Charleston, South Carolina, to discuss a peace treaty with South Carolina's provincial governor, James Glen.source
October 16 – At Falmouth, a part of the British Province of Massachusetts Bay that would later be the site of Portland, Maine, a peace treaty is signed between representatives of Massachusetts Bay and 19 sagamores and tribal chiefs of the Wabanaki Confederacy (encompassing the Penobscot, Kennebec, Odanak and Wôlinak tribes of the Abenaki Indians), temporarily settling territorial disputes in Maine during King George's War.source
The land reform of the Great Partition begins in Sweden, and continues until the 19th century.source

Conflict & Security

5 January – James Wolfe is promoted to major in Peyton's Regiment of Foot, at this time stationed in Glasgow.Scotland source
February – Admiralty revises the command structure of the Royal Navy and issues new Fighting Instructions and (from 25 December) Articles of War.United Kingdom source
March 6 – A "corpse riot" breaks out in Glasgow after a body disappears from a churchyard in the Gorbals district. Suspicion falls on anatomy students at the Glasgow Infirmary "had raised a dead body from the grave and carried it to the college" for dissection. The city guard intervenes after a mob of protesters begins breaking windows at random buildings, but groups of citizens begin to make regular patrols of church graveyardssource
6 March – A "corpse riot" breaks out in Glasgow after a body disappears from a churchyard in the Gorbals district. It is suspected that anatomy students at the Glasgow Infirmary "had raised a dead body from the grave and carried it to the college" for dissection. The city guard intervenes after a mob of protesters begin breaking windows at random buildings, and groups of citizens begin to make regular patrols of church graveyards.Scotland source
June 6 – The Conspiracy of the Slaves, which was to have taken place on June 29, is revealed in Malta.source
August 3 – The Battle of Ambur is fought in south India as the Second Carnatic War begins between the French-supported troops of Chanda Sahib of the Mughal Empire and the British-supported defenders of the Arcot State, led by its 77-year old Nawab, Anwaruddin Khan. After marching outside of the walls of Arcot to confront Chanda Sahib and Joseph Dupleix's 4,000 troops, Anwaruddin Khan's numerically superior force is routed and he is killed in the battle.source
September 23 – Grand Chief Jean-Baptiste Cope, of the Miꞌkmaq Indian nation in Canada, declares war against the British Empire after the building of the fort at Halifax, Nova Scotia and begins hostilities by taking 20 British hostages at Canso.source
November 9 – Battle of Penfui on Timor: A large Topass army is defeated by a numerically inferior Dutch East India Company.source
December 30 – Mir Sayyid Muhammad, a grandson of the Shah Suleiman I of Persia, overthrows Shahrokh Shah to become the Shah of Persia, and briefly restores the Safavid dynasty as Suleiman II; his reign ends less than three months later, on March 20, when Kurdish tribesmen restore Shahrokh to the throne.source

Exploration & Expansion

July 9 – The British naval fort at Halifax is founded on mainland Nova Scotia as a defense against the New France Fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, less than 100 mi away.source
9 July – British settlement of Halifax, Nova Scotia is founded.United Kingdom source
August 3 – French explorer Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville, commissioned by New France to explore the Ohio Territory claimed by both France and Britain, buries the first of six engraved lead markers claiming the land for King Louis XV. The first plate is buried on the banks of the Allegheny River, near a rock with petroglyphs, in what is now Venango County, Pennsylvania.source
August 15 – Four Russian sailors— Aleksei Inkov, Khrisanf Inkov, Stepan Sharapov and Fedor Verigin— are rescued after having been marooned on the Arctic Ocean island of Edgeøya for more than six years. They are the only survivors of a crew of 14 whose koch had been blown off course in May 1743 and then broken up by ice. The four are returned home on September 28.source
August 19 – At a ceremony in San Antonio, Texas (then a part of the New Spain province of Nuevo Santander), four Apache chiefs and Spanish colonial officials and missionaries literally "bury the hatchet", placing weapons of war into a pit and covering it as a symbol that the Apaches and the Spaniards will fight no further war against each other.source
August–September – Charles Wesley makes his second visit to Ireland.Ireland source
October 19 – Two months after Pierre Céloron begins his inspection of the Ohio territory on behalf of France, Christopher Gist starts his survey of the lands along the right bank of the Ohio River on behalf of the British grant to the Ohio Company.source
December 7 – Father Junípero Serra begins his missionary work in the New World, 100 days after departing on a voyage from Spain and a day after his arrival at Veracruz in Mexico. During the period from 1769 to 1782, Serra will be the founder of nine missions in the Province of Las Californias, including the sites around which future California cities will be built, including Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcalá in 1769 and Mission San Francisco de Asís in 1776.source
French agricultural settlement established in what would become Windsor, Ontario.Canada source
A stagecoach service opens between Edinburgh and Glasgow.Scotland source

Religion & Belief

24 June - The first Masonic lodge is established in Norway (Lodge St. Olaus to the white Leopard).Norway source
October 4 – What is later described as "the least examined yet most influential" of clerical reforms, by the Spanish Bourbon monarchs of the 18th century, begins when King Ferdinand VI approves a royal cédula, removing control of the Roman Catholic parishes of Latin America from religious orders. Henceforward, jurisdiction over parishioners in the archdioceses of Lima, Mexico City and Bogotá is with the secular clergy.source
December 1 – Sultan Azim ud-Din I, recently forced to flee to Manila after being driven from the throne of Sultanate of Sulu elsewhere in the Philippine Islands, announces his intention to convert from Sunni Islam to become baptized as a Christian within the Roman Catholic Church. He changes his name to Fernando after being baptized.source
La Vérendrye was awarded the cross of Saint Louis, in honour of his career.Canada source
Pope Pope Benedict XIV gave John V of Portugal the title "His Most Faithful Majesty"Portugal source

Economy & Finance

December - Benjamin Franklin notes that printer Hugh Meredith owes him money.Wales source
Halifax, capital of Nova Scotia, is founded by British General Edward Cornwallis to counter French presence at Louisbourg.Canada source

Technology & Infrastructure

A census is conducted in Finland.source

Health & Medicine

April 27 – The first official performance of Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks in London finishes early, due to the outbreak of fire. The piece had been composed by Handel to commemorate the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, which ended the War of the Austrian Succession in 1748.source
27 April – the first official performance of Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks finishes early due to the outbreak of fire. The piece was composed by Handel for a display in London's Green Park to commemorate the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle which ended the War of the Austrian Succession in 1748.United Kingdom source
November 24 – The Province of South Carolina House of Assembly votes to free African-American slave Caesar Norman, and to grant him a lifetime pension of 100 British pounds per year, in return for Caesar's agreement to share the secret of his antidote for poisonous snake venom. Caesar then makes public his herbal cure of juice from Plantago major (the common plantain) and Marrubium vulgare (horehound), combined with "a leaf of good tobacco moistened with rum".source

Crime & Justice

July 30 - Great Gypsy Round-upSpain source
23 September - Harris finds "Madam Griffith" awaiting him at Trevecka, with the news that her husband, now bankrupt, has beaten her and thrown her out of the house for refusing to give him any more money.Wales source
October 2 – Edward Cornwallis, the British Governor of Nova Scotia, commands his militia and local citizens "to annoy, distress, take or destroy the Savage commonly called Micmac, wherever they are found" and promises a reward of ten guineas (21 British shillings) for every Mi'kmaq scalp brought in.source
16 October – the Irish House of Commons threatens Charles Lucas with prosecution and he is forced to flee.Ireland source
Sheriff Kristján Drese dismissed due to drunkenness and disorder.Iceland source
The Treason Outlawries (Scotland) Act is passed.Scotland source
Undated – Henry Fielding, newly appointed as a magistrate at Bow Street in London first enlists the help of the "Bow Street Runners", an early police force.United Kingdom source
John Jones - Free and Candid DisquisitionsWales source

Disasters & Accidents

April 14 – British Royal Navy ship HMS Namur is wrecked in a storm near Fort St. David, India, with the loss of 520 lives.source
14 April – second-rate HMS Namur is wrecked in a storm near Fort St. David, India, with the loss of 520 lives.United Kingdom source
June 4 – A fire in Glasgow leaves 200 families homeless.source
4 June – A fire in Glasgow leaves 200 families homeless.Scotland source
September 28 – Three Russian survivors of the shipwreck on Edgeøya return to their homeland after more than six years, as the ship Nikolai i Andrei brings them to the port of Arkhangelsk. A fourth survivor, Fedor Veriginare, died of scurvy during the six-week voyage home.source

Climate & Environment

An earthquake occurred in Southern Iceland.Iceland source
Lewis Evans - A Map of Pensilvania, New Jersey, New York and the three Delaware counties, including notes on thunder and lightningWales source

Culture & Society

January 3 – The first issue of Berlingske, Denmark's oldest continually operating newspaper, is published.source
3 January — The newspaper Berlingske is first published by Ernst Henrich Berling, making it the oldest Danish newspaper still in printing.Denmark source
January 21 – The Teatro Filarmonico, the main opera theater in Verona, Italy, is destroyed by fire. It is rebuilt in 1754.source
February 28 – Henry Fielding's comic novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling is published in London. Also this year, Fielding becomes magistrate at Bow Street, and first enlists the help of the Bow Street Runners, an early police force (eight men at first).source
February – The second part of John Cleland's erotic novel Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) is published in London. The author is released from debtors' prison in March.source
March 17 – At London's Covent Garden, composer George Frideric Handel conducts the first performance of his new oratorio, Solomon. More than 250 years later, an instrumental from Solomon, "The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba"; will be featured in the 2012 London Summer Olympics opening ceremony.source
8 April - Charles Wesley marries Sarah Gwynne of Garth.Wales source
12 April – the Radcliffe Camera in Oxford, designed by James Gibbs, is opened as an academic library.United Kingdom source
12 May – Frederick V visits Roskilde on his grand tour of Denmark and Norway.Denmark source
3 June – radical apothecary Charles Lucas begins publication of The Censor, or Citizens' Journal in Dublin.Ireland source
19 July - "Madam" Sidney Griffith accompanies Howell Harris to the Llangeitho association - the beginning of a relationship that would cause considerable controversy.Wales source
August 7 – Mary Musgrove Bosomworth, a woman of mixed British and Creek Indian ancestry, presents herself as Coosaponakeesa, Queen of the Creek Indians and marches with 200 Creek Indians into the town of Savannah, Georgia. During her confrontation with British colonial authorities, she and her husband Thomas Bosomworth demand payment of "nearly twenty-five thousand dollars" in compensation for property taken from the Creek Indians, before the British authorities determine that she doesn't have the authority to speak for the tribe.source
September 12 – The first recorded game of baseball is played, by Frederick, Prince of Wales, at Kingston upon Thames in England.source
12 September – the first recorded game of baseball is played, by Frederick, Prince of Wales, at Kingston upon Thames.United Kingdom source
November 12 – In response to the increasing number of starving people moving into Paris from rural parts of France, King Louis XV issues an ordinance that "all the beggars and vagabonds who shall be found either in the streets of Paris, or in churches or church doorways, or in the countryside around Paris, of whatever age or sex, shall be arrested and conducted into prisons, to stay there as long as shall be necessary."source
December 5 – French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau premieres his new opera, Zoroastre, at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris, but the first version is not a success. After five years of rewriting, Rameau will revive Zoroastre on January 19, 1756 and the opera will continue to be performed more than two centuries later.source
James Simon's An essay towards an historical account of Irish coins is published in Dublin.Ireland source

Births

January 16 – Vittorio Alfieri, Italian dramatist (died 1803)source
January 24 – Charles James Fox, English politician (died 1806)source
January 29 – King Christian VII of Denmark (died 1808)source
March 9 – Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, French politician (died 1791)source
March 10 – Lorenzo Da Ponte, Italian librettist (died 1838)source
March 23 – Ulla von Höpken, Swedish courtier, influential socialite (died 1810)source
March 23 – Pierre-Simon Laplace, French mathematician, astronomer (died 1827)source
April 11 – Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, French portrait painter (died 1803)source
May 17 – Edward Jenner, English physician (died 1823)source
August 24 – Madame Mère (Letizia Ramolino Bonaparte) mother of Napoleon I (died 1836)source
August 28 – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer and politician (died 1832)source
September 21 - Mariano Álvarez de Castro (died 1810)Spain source
29 September – Catarina de Lencastre, Viscountess of Balsemão, noblewoman, poet and playwright (died 1824).Portugal source
November 17 – Nicolas Appert French inventor (died 1841)source
8 December - Peder Anker, businessman and politician (died 1824)Norway source
December 17 – Domenico Cimarosa, Italian composer (died 1801)source
December 25 – Samuel Jackson Pratt (known as Courtney Melmoth), English writer, poet and actor (died 1814)source
Joel Stone, founder of Gananoque, Ontario (died 1833)Canada source

Deaths

February 1 – Françoise Marie de Bourbon, youngest daughter of Louis XIV (born 1677)source
February 8 – Jan van Huysum, Dutch painter (born 1682)source
February 11 – Philip Livingston, American politician (born 1686)source
April 14 – Balthasar Denner, German artist (born 1685)source
May 11 – Catharine Trotter Cockburn, English novelist, dramatist, and philosopher (born 1674)source
May 28 – Pierre Subleyras, French painter (born 1699)source
29 May – Jaime Álvares Pereira de Melo, 3rd Duke of Cadaval, nobleman and statesman (born 1684).Portugal source
June 18 – Ambrose Philips, English poet (born 1675)source
July 1 – William Jones, Welsh mathematician (born 1675)source
July 12 – George Carpenter, 2nd Baron Carpenter of England (born 1702)source
August 29 – Matthias Bel, Hungarian pastor, polymath (born 1684)source
September 10 – Émilie du Châtelet, French mathematician, physicist (born 1706)source
September 14 – Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham, English soldier, politician (born 1675)source
14 September – Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham, soldier and politician (born 1675)United Kingdom source
October 4 – Baron Franz von der Trenck, Austrian soldier (born 1711)source
December 5 – Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye, French-Canadian explorer and trader (born 1685)source
December 5 - Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye, French Canadian military officer, fur trader and explorer (born 1685).Canada source
22 December - Richard Smalbroke, former Bishop of St David's, 77Wales source