day of Shawwal, 1160 A.H., Pashtun chieftains in Kandahar, meeting in a special council (a loya jirga) vote to make Ahmad Shah Durrani their leader in Afghanistan and beginning the Durrani Empire. October 21 – King George II transfers Thomas Herring, Archbishop of York, to become the new Archbishop of Canterbury, three days after the death of John Potter October 24 – A Caribbean Sea hurricane sweeps across Saint Kitts, sinking 12 British freighters and one from France. October 25 – War of the Austrian Succession – Second battle of Cape Finisterre: The British Navy again defeats a French fleet. November 9 – Rioters in Amsterdam demand governmental reform. November 17–19 – The Knowles Riot breaks out in Boston, Massachusetts, protesting impressment into the British Royal Navy, . November 22 – End of Second Stadtholderless period: Prince William IV of Orange becomes stadtholder of all the United Provinces. December 7 – Benjamin Franklin forms the Pennsylvania Associators, the first militia in the colony of Pennsylvania, which had no standing militia because of its foundation by pacifistic Quakers. December 13 – The ordeal of the Maryland freighter sloop Endeavour begins when the ship departs Annapolis for the West Indies and encounters a hurricane. With its masts and rigging torn away, the ship drifts for six months before finally ending up at the island of Tiree off the coast of Scotland December 27 – The Parliament of Great Britain amends its Naturalisation Act of 1740 to extend recognition to all non-Anglican Protestant denominations in its colonies. Date unknown James Lind's experiment begins to prove that citrus fruits prevent scurvy. War of the Austrian Succession: Spanish troops invade and occupy the coastal towns of Beaufort and Brunswick in the Royal Colony of North Carolina, during what becomes known as the Spanish Alarm. They are later driven out by the local militia. Samuel Johnson begins work on A Dictionary of the English Language in London. Births January 10 – Abraham-Louis Breguet, Swiss horologist, inventor (d. 1823) January 15 – John Aikin, English doctor and writer (d. 1822) January 19 – Johann Elert Bode, German astronomer (d. 1826) February 21 – Eugenio Espejo, Ecuadorian scientist (d. 1795) February 28 – Justin Morgan, American horse breeder and composer (d. 1798) May 5 – Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1792) May 7 – Judith van Dorth, Dutch Orangist (d. 1799) June 23 – Michele Troja, Italian