1748

Year 1748 (MDCCXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Friday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1748

January - June

• March 28 - A fire in the City of London causes over a million pounds worth of damage.
• April - Maastricht is conquered by Maurice de Saxe.
• April 24 - War of the Austrian Succession: A congress assembles at Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) with the intent to conclude the war.

July - December

• September 24 - Shah Rukh becomes ruler of Greater Khorasan.
• October 18 - War of the Austrian Succession: The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle is signed to end the war.

Undated

• Great Britain obtains Madras, in India, from France, in exchange of the fortress of Louisbourg in Canada.
• Leonhard Euler publishes Introductio in analysin infinitorum.
• Montesquieu publishes De l'Esprit des lois.
• Adam Smith begins to deliver public lectures in Edinburgh.
• The building of Sveaborg begins near Helsinki.
• Henry Fielding organizes the forerunner of the Bow Street Runners (8 men at first).
• Ahmad Shah Bahadur captures Lahore.
• The ruins of Pompeii are discovered.
• Louis XV of France authorizes a 5% income tax on every individual regardless of social status; the Parlement of Paris protests.

Births

• January 1 - Gottfried August Bürger, German poet (d. 1794)
• January 19 - Antonio Carnicero, Spanish painter (d. 1814)
• February 2 - Adam Weishaupt, German founder of the Order of the Illuminati (d. 1811)
• February 9 - Luther Martin, American politician (d. 1826)
• February 15 - Jeremy Bentham, English philosopher and writer (d. 1832)
• February 22 - Timothy Dexter, American businessman (d. 1806)
• February 27 - Anders Sparrman, Swedish naturalist (d. 1820)
• March 5 - William Shield, English violinist and composer (d. 1829)
• March 5 - Jonas C. Dryander, Swedish botanist (d. 1810)
• March 8 - Prince William V of Orange (d. 1806)
• March 10 - John Playfair, Scottish scientist (d. 1819)
• April 12 - Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, French botanist (d. 1836)
• April 27 - Pierre-Louis Ginguené, French author (d. 1815)
• April 27 - Adamantios Korais, Greek scholar (d. 1833)
• May 3 - Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, French cleric and constitutional theorist (d. 1836)
• May 7 - Olympe de Gouges, French playwright (d. 1793)
• May 10 - Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot, French ornithologist (d. 1831)
• May 28 - Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle (d. 1825)
• June 8 - William Few, American politician (d. 1828)
• June 30 - Jacques Dominique, comte de Cassini, French astronomer (d. 1845)
• August 8 - Johann Friedrich Gmelin, German naturalist (d. 1804)
• August 30 - Jacques-Louis David, French painter (d. 1825)
• October 7 - King Charles XIII of Sweden (Charles II of Norway) (d. 1818)
• October 13 - Johann Dominicus Fiorillo, German painter and art historian (d. 1821)
• October 19 - Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, wife of Thomas Jefferson (d. 1782)
• November 11 - King Charles IV of Spain (d. 1819)
• November 13 - William Chalmers, Swedish merchant (d. 1811)
• December 9 - Claude Louis Berthollet, French chemist (d. 1822)
• December 14 - William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire (d. 1811)
• date unknown - James Sayers, English caricaturist (d. 1823)
• Timur Shah, Afghan king (d. 1793)

See also Category: 1748 births.

Deaths

• January 1 - Johann Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (b. 1667)
• January 16 - Arnold Drakenborch, Dutch classical scholar (b. 1684)
• February 18 - Otto Ferdinand von Abensperg und Traun, Austrian field marshal (b. 1677)
• March 14 - George Wade, British military leader (b. 1673)
• March 23 - Johann Gottfried Walther, German music theorist, organist, and composer (b. 1684)
• April 12 - William Kent, English architect (b. c. 1685)
• May 12 - Thomas Lowndes, British astronomer (b. 1692)
• August 27 - James Thomson, Scottish poet (b. 1700)
• September 6 - Edmund Gibson, English jurist (b. 1669)
• September 10 - Mother Ignacia del Espiritu Santo, foundress (b. 1663)
• September 12 - Anne Bracegirdle, English actress (b. c. 1671)
• September 21 - John Balguy, English philosopher (b. 1686)
• November 25 - Isaac Watts, English hymn writer (b. 1674)
• December 2 - Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, English politician (b. 1662)

See also Category: 1748 deaths.