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

Admiral John Byng is shot on the deck of a ship in Portsmouth harbour for 'neglect of duty' in failing to relieve Minorca

Robert Clive defeats the nawab of Bengal at the battle of Plassey, and places his own man on the throne

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

British general James Wolfe sails up the St Lawrence river with 15,000 men to besiege Quebec

Frederick the Great suffers his first major defeat, by a Russian and Austrian army at Kunersdorf

Wolfe defeats Montcalm and captures Quebec, but both commanders die in the engagement

A British defeat of the French in Quiberon Bay prompts David Garrick to write Heart of Oak

A succession of victories cause 1759 to be known in Britain as annus mirabilis, the wonderful year

A treaty signed in Paris ends the Seven Years' War between Britain, France and Spain

In the treaty of Paris, Spain cedes Florida to Britain, completing British possession of the entire east coast of north America

A border incident at Balta, in the southern Ukraine, sparks a war between Russia and Turkey that will last six years

In the treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji, ending the recent Russo-Turkish war, the Ottoman empire cedes the Crimea to Russia

The first shot of the American Revolution is fired in a skirmish between redcoats and militiamen at Lexington, on the road to Concord

Delegates from the states reassemble in Philadelphia, with hostilities against the British already under way in Massachusetts

Delegates in Philadelphia select George Washington as commander-in-chief of the colonial army

At Bunker Hill, overlooking Boston from the north, the American militiamen prove their worth against British professional soldiers

Delegates to the Continental Congress make a final bid for peace, sending the Olive Branch Petition to George III

Britain declares the colonies to be in a state of rebellion, and sets up a naval blockade of the American coastline

George Washington raises on Prospect Hill a new American flag, the British red ensign on a ground of thirteen stripes – one for each colony

George Washington drives the British garrison from Boston, and moves south to protect New York

George Washington, driven from New York by the British, retreats towards Philadelphia

George Washington defeats the British at Trenton at a psychologically important moment in the course of the war

George Washington, heavily defeated in a battle at Brandywine, is forced to relinquish Philadelphia to the British

The American general Horatio Gates captures the army of General Burgoyne near Saratoga