American revivalism is inflamed by Jonathan Edwards' vivid sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

Benjamin Franklin drafts in Philadelphia the founding document for the American Philosophical Society

Franklin publishes his design for an improved stove in Account of the New Invented Pennsylvania Fire Place

New England militiamen achieve an unexpected success in capturing the fortress of Louisbourg from the French

A French official travels down the Ohio valley, placing markers to claim it for France

The French seize or evict every English-speaking trader in the region of the upper Ohio

Benjamin Franklin flies a kite into a thunder cloud to demonstrate the nature of electricity

George Washington undertakes a difficult and ineffectual journey to persuade the French to withdraw from the Ohio valley

In Freedom of Will American evangelist Jonathan Edwards makes an uncompromising defence of orthodox against liberal Calvinism

Benjamin Franklin's chopped-up snake, urging union of the colonies with the caption 'Join or Die', is the first American political cartoon

Quaker minister John Woolman publishes the first part of Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes, an essay denouncing slavery

George Washington kills ten French troops at Fort Duquesne, in the first violent clash of the French and Indian war

Benjamin Franklin proposes to the Albany Congress that the colonies should unite to form a colonial government

The British colonies negotiate with the Iroquois at the Albany Congress, in the face of the French threat in the Ohio valley

A British force under Edward Braddock lands in America to provide support against the French in the Ohio valley

The first Conestoga wagons are acquired by George Washington for an expedition through the Alleghenies

The army led by Edward Braddock and George Washington is ambushed at Fort Duquesne and Braddock is killed

The French in America, under the marquis of Montcalm, begin two highly successful years of campaigning against the British

George Washington, the future president, inherits Mount Vernon from his half-brother Lawrence

In the treaty of Paris France cedes to Britain all its territory north of the Great Lakes and east of the Mississippi river, except the district of New Orleans

In the treaty of Paris, Spain cedes Florida to Britain, completing British possession of the entire east coast of north America

Pontiac, an Ottawa chief, leads an uprising of the Indian tribes in an attempt to drive the British east of the Appalachians

American campaigners against the Stamp Act organize themselves as the Sons of Liberty in Massachusetts and New York

Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon complete a four-year survey to establish the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland

Franciscan missionary Junipero Serra begins work at San Diego de Cala, the first of his nine California missions