13 March – The Royal Navy brings 180 warships, frigates and transport vessels, led by Admiral Edward Vernon, to threaten Cartagena, Colombia, with more than 27,000 crew against the 3,600 defenders.[7]
4/5 August–9 December – Vernon captures Guantánamo Bay and renames it Cumberland Bay. His troops hold it but are resisted by local guerrilla forces and withdraw.[citation needed]
22 August–14 September – George Frideric Handel composes the oratorio Messiah in London to a libretto compiled by Charles Jennens,[13] completing the "Hallelujah Chorus" on 6 September.[14] It receives a private rehearsal in Chester in November while Handel is en route to Dublin.
12 October – George II, as Elector of Hanover, signs the Neustadt Protocol with France, but fails to inform his British government until after his return from Germany.[15]
19 October – Actor David Garrick makes his London stage debut, in the title role of Shakespeare's Richard III,[13] having made his professional debut at Ipswich in Oroonoko earlier in the year.
11 December – At 11 a.m. a "fire-ball" and explosion, perhaps resulting from a meteor, is heard over southern England.[16]
Drake, James D. (2008). "Cartagena, Expedition against". In Tucker, Spencer (ed.). The Encyclopedia of North American Colonial Conflicts to 1775. Harper Collins.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. "a countryman ... saw a flash of Lightning Before he heard the Noise ... The sound was double ... a Ball of Fire ... took its Course to the East ... over Westminster ... it divided into Two Heads [and] left a Train of Smoke ... which continued ascending for 20 minutes".
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