Shortly before his death (in 1750) J.S. Bach completes his Mass in B Minor, worked on over many years

Horace Walpole begins to create his own Strawberry Hill, a neo-Gothic fantasy, on the banks of the Thames west of London

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo begins a series of frescoes to decorate the prince bishop's residence in Würzburg

A great French undertaking by Denis Diderot, his 28-volume Encyclopédie, begins publication

The Swedish chemist Alex Cronstedt identifies an impurity in copper ore as a separate metallic element, which he names nickel

English poet Thomas Gray publishes his Elegy written in a Country Church Yard

French painter Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin returns to the subject matter that first took his interest, still life

English gardener Lancelot Brown sets up in business as a freelance 'improver of grounds', and soon acquires the nickname Capablity Brown

Britain is one of the last nations to adjust to the more accurate Gregorian calendar, causing a suspicious public to fear they have been robbed of eleven days

English obstetrician William Smellie introduces scientific midwifery as a result of his researches into childbirth

French painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard wins the cherished Prix de Rome at the age of 20

Scottish chemist Joseph Black identifies the existence of a gas, carbon dioxide, which he calls 'fixed air'

Francesco Guardi, previously a painter of figures, begins to specialize in view of Venice, his native city

Samuel Johnson publishes his magisterial Dictionary of the English Language

Johann Joachim Winckelmann publishes a book on Greek painting and sculpture which introduces a new strand of neoclassicism

In what becomes known as the Diplomatic Revolution, two of Europe's long-standing rivals - France and Austria - sign a treaty of alliance

Frederick the Great again precipitates a European conflict, marching without warning into Saxony and launching the Seven Years' War

William Pitt the Elder becomes secretary of state and transforms the British war effort against France in America

English painter Joseph Wright sets up a studio in his home town, Derby

Joshua Reynolds, by now the most fashionable portrait painter in London, copes with as many as 150 sitters in a year

A comet returns exactly at the time predicted by English astronomer Edmond Halley, and is subsequently known by his name

Liverpool-born artist George Stubbs sets up in London as a painter, above all, of people and horses

Portrait-painter Thomas Gainsborough moves from Suffolk to set up a studio in fashionable Bath

Voltaire publishes Candide, a satire on optimism prompted by the Lisbon earthquake of 1755

The Portuguese expel the Jesuits from Brazil, beginning a widespread reaction against the order in Catholic Europe