Born in 1747:

• Polish patriot and American Revolutionary leader Casimir Pulaski (d. 1779).
• German astronomer Johann Elert Bode, whose empirical law led to the discovery of the asteroids.
• American naval pioneer John Paul Jones, in Scotland.
• American revolution-era privateer Gustavus Conyngham, in Ireland.
• English poet Susanna Blamire.
• English poet Anna Seward.
• Future Austrian emperor Leopold II Hapsburg.
• Japanese painter Shiba Kokan.
• Japanese mathematician Aida Ammei. (Aida Yasuaki?)
• French violin maker Francis Tourte.

Died in 1747:

• Nadir, Shah of Persia, killed by his own military commanders.
• Italian painter Francesco Solimena.
• Italian painter Giovanni Domenico Ferretti.
• Japanese confucian philosopher Dazai Shundai.

Events of 1747:

• Ahmed Shah unites Afghanistan into the Durrani Empire.
• Johann Sebastian Bach publishes his Musikalisches Opfer.
• Georg Friederic Handel publishes his oratorio Judas Maccabeus.  The libretto, written by the Reverend Thomas Morrell, was intended as a compliment to the Duke of Cumberland who had recently crushed the Jacobite uprising in Scotland.
• Parliament passes the Abolition of Heritable Jurisdictions (Scotland) Act removing all power from Scottish clan chieftains.  The wearing of kilts and tartans is also banned.
• Francois Arouet. aka Voltaire, falls out of favor with King Louis XV, when the former's affair with Gabrielle du Chatelet becomes known.
• The War of the Austrian Succession/King George's War:
• (July 2) French Marshal Saxe defeats the British and Dutch under the Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Lauffeld.
• French Canadians and Mikmaq Indian allies defeat a force of New England troops at Grand Pré in Nova Scotia, forcing them to return to Annapolis Royal.
• William IV uses the French invasion to be named hereditary ruler of all of The Netherlands.
• (September) The British navy defeats the French fleet off Cape Finnisterre in Spain and later at Belle-Isle in Brittany.
• Saxe completes his conquest of the Austrian Netherlands by capturing Bergen-op-Zoom.
• French and Spanish privateers raid the East Coast of North America.  This was called the Spanish Alarm.

1746 - 1747 - 1748

How They Were Made - 18th Century