Compiled by Sara E. Lewis
From an index to the Virginia Gazette, produced in 1950 by Lester J. Cappon and Stella F. Duff of the Institute of Early American History and Culture (Omohundro Institute) with additional Gloucester material not captured by the indexers. Kingston Parish (Mathews) was part of Gloucester County when the Virginia Gazette was published in Williamsburg. Occasional posts about world and local events that captured the bloggers fancy are included to put local listings in context. Please review primary source material before citing.

Monday, July 26, 2010

1747-1751 Events from Around the World

There are no known surviving copies of Virginia Gazette newspapers printed between late 1746 and early 1751.

1747

During 1747, James Lind discovers that citrus fruits prevent scurvy. Samuel Johnson begins work on a Dictionary of the English Language. Liverpool became the busiest slave trading port in Britain, overtaking Bristol.

January 31 - The first venereal disease clinic opens in London.

May 14 and October 25 - In the War of Austrian Succession, a first and second battle of Cape Finisterre is fought between French and British fleets.

May 16 - Prince Willem V becomes admiral-general of Netherlands.

December 9 - England and Netherlands sign military treaty.

1748

April 1 - Ruins of Pompeii found.

August 15 - United Lutheran Church of US organized.

October 18 - Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends War of Austrian Succession.

1749

In 1749, George Washington received his first official appointment- as surveyor of Culpepper County, Virginia.

April 27 - First performance of Handel's Fireworks Music in Green Park, London.

May 19 - George II grants charter to Ohio Company to settle Ohio Valley.

1750

1750 is the year in which the Industrial Revolution is deemed to have begun and the world population is approximately 791 million people. In 1750, Benjamin Franklin sent up a kite during a thunderstorm and established that lightning is a form of electricity. A Welshman opened the first modern shoe factory in Lynn, Massachusetts. The population of the United States in about 18 million people. The Spanish treasure ship La Galga sank; it is believed that the wild ponies of Chincoteague Island, Virginia, came from this ship. William Randolph III began Wilton mansion on the James River in Virginia.

May 25 - Khurasan is renamed Afghanistan.

July 28 - Composer Johann Sebastian Bach died in Leipzig, Germany, and the age of 65.

1751

March 16 - James Madison (d.1836), Jefferson’s successor as secretary of state and fourth president of the United States (1809-17), was born in Port Conway, Virginia.

April 20 - George III succeeds his father as heir-apparent to the British throne.

September 28 - George Washington, age 19, accompanies his sick older half-brother Lawrence to Barbados because they were advised that the island’s climate might help restore Lawrance's ill health. The brothers left Virginia on September 28 and arrived at Bridgetown, Barbados, November 3. George, who survived the smallpox while in Barbados, left Lawrence on December 21 and arrived back in Virginia on January 28, 1752.

November 11 - The F.H.C. Society, also known as the Flat Hat Club, was formed at Raleigh Tavern, Williamsburg, Virginia. It was the first college fraternity.