Eighteenth-Century Chronology: 1754

Literature

• William Cowper called to the bar
• Samuel Johnson, The Life of Cave
• Thomas Warton, Observations on the Fairy Queen of Spenser
• Edward Young, The Centaur not Fabulous

Theatre

• Frances Brooke, Virginia
• W. Whitehad, Creusa, Queen of Athens

Art

• George Stubbs visits Rome
• William Hogarth, The Election

Music

• Johann Christian Bach becomes music director to Count Litta in Milan

Science, Technology, & Medicine

Politics & Law

• Anson becomes First Lord of the Admiralty
• Henry Fox becomes Secretary at War, then Secretary of State
• Newcastle becomes Lord Treasurer
• Battle at Fort Necessity, Ohio
• The French take Fort Duquesne as the Anglo-French War (also known as the French and Indian War) begins in North America
• David Hume, The History of Great Britain (through 1763)
• The Philippines sign a treaty with Sultan Muhammad Alimudin

Philosophy & Theology

Milestones

• Death of Coventry
• Birth of Crabbe
• Death of Henry Fielding
• Death of James Gibbs, Scottish architect
• Death of Hamilton of Bangour
• Death of Henry Pelham
• Death of John Wood the Elder, architect

Miscellaneous

• Thomas Chippendale, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director
• Eruption of the Taal Volcano destroys Tall, Tanaúan, Sala, and Lipa in the Philippines