WHAT HAPPENED IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE 18. CENTURY
Find out what all happened in the first half of the 18. century

War of the Austrian Succession: A British fleet under Admiral George Anson defeats the French at the First Battle of Cape Finisterre. (14. May 1747)

The War of the Spanish Succession begins. (15. May 1701)

James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the world's first machine gun. (15. May 1718)

Jean-Pierre Christin developed the centigrade temperature scale. (19. May 1743)

King George II of Great Britain grants the Ohio Company a charter of land around the forks of the Ohio River. (19. May 1749)

The Order of St. Alexander Nevsky is instituted in Russia by Empress Catherine I. It would later be discontinued and then reinstated by the Soviet government in 1942 as the Order of Alexander Nevsky. (21. May 1725)

After being convicted of piracy and of murdering William Moore, Captain William Kidd is hanged in London, England. (23. May 1701)

Battle of Ramillies: John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, defeats a French army under Marshal François de Neufville, duc de Villeroi. (23. May 1706)

John Wesley is converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day and a church service is generally held on the preceding Sunday. (24. May 1738)

A treaty between Pennsylvania and Maryland ends the Conojocular War with settlement of a boundary dispute and exchange of prisoners. (25. May 1738)

Battle of Ackia: British and Chickasaw soldiers repel a French and Choctaw attack on the Chickasaw village of Ackia, near present-day Tupelo, Mississippi. The French, under the governor of Louisiana, Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, had sought to link Louisiana with Acadia and the other northern colonies of New France. (26. May 1736)

Tsar Peter the Great founds the city of Saint Petersburg. (27. May 1703)

Peter II becomes Czar of Russia. (29. May 1727)

The right of Canadians to keep Indian slaves is upheld at Quebec City. (29. May 1733)

Battle of Hohenfriedberg: Frederick the Great's Prussian army decisively defeated an Austrian army under Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine during the War of the Austrian Succession. (4. June 1745)

James Oglethorpe is granted a royal charter for the colony of the future U.S. state of Georgia. (9. June 1732)

Jacobite Rising: Battle of Glen Shiel. (10. June 1719)

Georgia provincial governor James Oglethorpe begins an unsuccessful attempt to take Spanish Florida during the Siege of St. Augustine. (13. June 1740)

British troops take Cape Breton Island, which is now part of Nova Scotia, Canada. (16. June 1745)

War of the Austrian Succession: New England colonial troops under the command of William Pepperell capture the French Fortress of Louisbourg in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia (Old Style). (16. June 1745)