Russian Academy of Sciences announces a competition among chemists and physicists to provide "the best explanation of the true causes of electricity including their theory", with a deadline of June 1, 1755 (on the Julian calendar used in Russia, June 12 on the Gregorian calendar used in Western Europe and the New World).<ref>"Hallerstein and Gruber's Scientific Heritage", by Stanislav Joze Juznic, in The Circulation of Science and Technology: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science (Societat Catalana d'Història de la Ciència i de la Tècnica, 2012) p358</ref> December 11 – Major George Washington and British guide Christopher Gist arrive at Fort Le Boeuf (near modern-day Waterford, Pennsylvania and the city of Erie), a French fortress built in territory claimed by the British Crown Colony of Virginia. Washington presents the fort's commander, French Army Captain Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, a message from Virginia's Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie advising that "The lands upon the Ohio River are so notoriously known to be the property of the Crown of Great Britain that it is a matter of equal concern and surprise... to hear that a body of French fortresses and making settlements upon that river, within His Majesty's dominions," adding that "It becomes my duty to require your peaceable departure." Captain Legardeur provides a reply for Washington to take to Dinwiddie, declaring that the rights of France's King Louis XV to the land "are incontestable", and refuses to back down, leading to beginning of the French and Indian War in 1754. Date unknown James Lind writes A Treatise of the Scurvy. Robert Wood publishes The ruins of Palmyra; otherwise Tedmor in the desart in English and French, making the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra known to the West. The Cramer family starts a brewing operation at Warstein in North Rhine-Westphalia, originating the Warsteiner brand. Births February 12 – François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers, French admiral (d. 1798) March 8 – William Roscoe, English writer (d. 1831) March 9 – Jean-Baptiste Kléber, French general (d. 1800) March 26 – Benjamin Thompson, American physicist and inventor (d. 1814) April 3 – Simon Willard, American horologist (d. 1848) April 28– Franz Karl Achard, German chemist, physicist and biologist (d. 1821) May 13 – Lazare Carnot, French general, politician and mathematician (d. 1823) June 5 – Johann Friedrich August Göttling, German chemist (d. 1809) July 9 – William Waldegrave, 1st Baron Radstock,