January 20 – Less than two weeks after the disastrous Battle of Amberg leaves Bavaria undefended, the electorate's ruler (and Holy Roman Emperor) Karl VII Albrecht dies from gout at the age of 47, leaving the duchy without an adult to lead it. His 17-year-old son, Maximilian III Joseph, signs terms of surrender in April.
February 22 – The ruling white colonial government on the island of Jamaica foils a conspiracy by about 900 black slaves, who had been plotting to seize control and to massacre the white residents.[3]
February 27 – Pierre Bouguer appears before the French Academy of Sciences to deliver his report of the data gathered in the French Geodesic Mission, including the first precise measurement of the Earth's circumference.[5] His determination that the circumference is 24,854.85 miles (40,000.00 km) and that the distance from the pole to equator is roughly 6,214 miles (10,000 km) eventually leads to the Academy's calculation of the metre and the metric system.
April 4 – (March 24, old style); Under the command of British Army General William Pepperrell, the first 4,300 American colonists in the New England Army depart Boston to liberate the French North American colony of Nova Scotia. The flotilla of 80 military transports and 18 armed escorts is scattered by a storm, but the first troops disembark at Canso, Nova Scotia, on April 15 and begin training while waiting for the arrival of the Royal Navy squadron commanded by Admiral Peter Warren[7]
April 29 – The heavily-armed French NavyfrigateRenommée approaches the French colony of Nova Scotia, after having been dispatched to warn French forces at Louisbourg of the impending attack by British American forces. However, the Massachusetts privateer HMS Shirley Galley, commanded by John Rous, attacks the Renommée and forces it to sail away. The command at Louisbourg is not warned of the impending attack [7]
November 1 – Pope Benedict XIV issues the encyclical Vix pervenit, referred to in English as "On Usury and Other Dishonest Profit", condemning the charging of interest on loans as a sin against the Roman Catholic Church [14]
November 8 – Jacobite rising of 1745: Charles Edward Stuart, known popularly as "Bonnie Prince Charlie", crosses from Scotland into England for the first time since beginning his quest to place his father on the English throne as the pretender King James III. Charles arrives at Longtown in Cumbria and spends the night at a nearby village, the Riddings, then leads his army south along the right bank of the River Eden the next day [15]
December 4 – Jacobite rising of 1745: The Scottish Jacobite army reaches as far south as Derby in England, causing panic in London; two days later it begins to retreat.[9]
^"War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748)", in Wars That Changed History: 50 of the World's Greatest Conflicts: 50 of the World's Greatest Conflicts, ed. by Spencer C. Tucker (ABC-CLIO, 2015) p214
^"Treaty of Quadruple Alliance", International Military Alliances, 1648-2008, ed. by Douglas M. Gibler (Congressional Quarterly Press, Oct 15, 2008) p94
^William Reed, The History of Sugar and Sugar-yielding Plants (Longmans, Green, and Co., 1866) p50
^Marion F. Godfroy, Kourou and the Struggle for a French America (Springer, 2015) p193
^Larrie D. Ferreiro, Measure of the Earth: The Enlightenment Expedition That Reshaped Our World (Basic Books, 2011) p253
^ abcMaureen Cassidy-Geiger, Fragile Diplomacy (Yale University Press, 2007) p66-74
^ abSpencer Tucker, Almanac of American Military History (ABC-CLIO, 2013) p137
^"War of the Austrian Succession (1740—1748)" in Wars That Changed History: 50 of the World's Greatest Conflicts, by Spencer C. Tucker (ABC-CLIO, 2015) p214