Eighteenth-Century Chronology: 1755

Literature

• Dosley, A Collection of Poems, vol. 4
• Henry Fielding, Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon (posthumous)
• Grainger, An Ode on Solitude
• Eliza Haywood, The Invisible Spy
• Samuel Johnson, Dictionary of the English Language
• Samuel Johnson receives an honorary Master of Arts from Oxford
• 7 February: Samuel Johnson's famous letter to Lord Chesterfield on the patronage of the Dictionary
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discours sur l'Inégalité (Discourse on the Origin of Inequality)
• Shebbeare, Lydia
• Smollett, translation of Cervantes, Don Quixote
• Voltaire, Orpheline de la Chine

Theatre

• J. Browne, Barbarossa

Art

• Salon ???
• Sir William Chambers, architect, returns to London from Italy, and secures the patronage of the Prince and Princess of Wales

Music

• William Boyce is appointed Master of the King's Musick

Science, Technology, & Medicine

Politics & Law

• The French defeat Braddock
• Lyttelton becomes Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Pitt attacks the Russian and Hessian subsidy treaties
• Pitt and Grenville are dismissed
• The Corsicans rise against Genoa, led by Paoli
• Benjamin Franklin unsuccessfully proposes a union of the British colonies in North America to resist the French
• The Philippines banish over 2,000 Chinese

Philosophy & Theology

Milestones

• Death of Durante, composer

Miscellaneous

• A major earthquake strikes Lisbon
• Amory, Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain
• The University of Moscow is founded in Russia