French and Bavarian armies join the war against Austria, marching through upper Austria into Bohemia

French and Bavarian forces enter Prague, one of the most important cities in the Austrian empire

An Austrian army captures the Bavarian capital city, Munich

Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius proposes 100 degrees between the freezing and boiling points of water

Edmond Hoyle publishes the definitive rules of whist

George II leads a British army to victory over the French at Dettingen

France formally declares war on Britain half way through the War of the Austrian Succession

J.S. Bach publishes another set of 24 Preludes and Fugues, as an addition to his previous Well-Tempered Clavier

Bad weather causes the French to abandon a plan to invade Britain with the Scottish pretender Charles Edward Stuart

Maurice de Saxe, with a French army including an Irish brigade, defeats British, Austrian and Dutch forces at Fontenoy

The principle of the Leyden jar is discovered by an amateur German physicist, Ewald Georg von Kleist, dean of the cathedral in Kamin

Charles Edward Stuart lands at Eriskay in the Hebrides, launching the Forty-Five Rebellion

Charles Edward Stuart gathers support for the Forty-Five Rebellion on his way south from the Hebrides and reaches Edinburgh

Charles Edward Stuart marches as far south as Derby, but then turns back

Frederick the Great's Prussian soldiers, advancing in shallow disciplined formation, outclass other armies of the time

Frederick II's three victories in 1745 cause him to be known by his contemporaries as Frederick the Great

Frederick the Great begins to build the summer palace of Sans Souci at Potsdam

Charles Edward Stuart and his 5000 Scots are routed at Culloden, bringing the Forty-Five Rebellion to an abrupt end

Tartan and Highland dress are banned by the British government, in a prohibition not lifted until 1782

Monsieur Passemont constructs in Paris a millennium clock which can record the date in any year up to AD 9999

The French commander Maurice de Saxe succeeds in occupying the entire Austrian Netherlands

Samuel Richardson's Clarissa begins the correspondence which grows into the longest novel in the English language

Systematic digging begins near Vesuvius, in an area where ancient fragments are often unearthed - soon discovered to be Pompeii

The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the War of the Austrian Succession, but only postpones the continuation of hostilities (in the Seven Years' War)

Henry Fielding introduces a character of lasting appeal in the lusty but good-hearted Tom Jones