1749. George II grants a charter to the Ohio Company.
1750. Bounties granted and a company formed in England to encourage the herring and cod fisheries.
1751. Clive begins his successful career in India.
1752. Change from the Old to the New (or Gregorian) style of calendar in England.
1753. Founding of the British Museum, due to the legacy of Sir Hans Sloane, who bequeaths his library, antiquities, and collection of natural curiosities for that purpose.
1754. Encroachments of the French in North America; Washington, colonel of a provincial regiment, sent from Virginia to drive them from the Ohio, is defeated and made prisoner.
King's College, now Columbia, founded at New York.
A congress of the American colonies at Albany; union discussed.
1755. Braddock defeated and slain near Fort Duquesne. See "Braddock's Defeat," [xiii], [163].
Great earthquake at Lisbon, Portugal, November 1st.