| 1730–1807 | UK [newspapers] | The Daily Advertiser is launched in London, England. With its dependence on advertisements, this may be regarded as the first modern newspaper. |
| 1743–1760 | North America [town planning] | Paving city streets in the North American colonies becomes common, making the colonial streets drier and smoother than those in Britain. |
| 1749 | England [poetry] | The English writer Samuel Johnson publishes his long poem The Vanity of Human Wishes. |
| 1749 | France [thought and scholarship] | French philosopher Etienne Bonnot, Abbé de Condillac, publishes Traité des systèmes/Treatise on Systems. |
| 1749 | England [art] | English artist Thomas Gainsborough paints Mr and Mrs Robert Andrews. |
| 1749 | France [earth sciences] | French naturalist Georges-Louis de Buffon publishes the first book of his 36-volume Histoire naturelle, genérale et particulière/Natural History, General and Particular, the first attempt to bring together the various fields of natural history. |
| 1749 | Sweden [law and government] | Sweden is the first country to introduce a regular national census: it will be taken every three years. |
| 1749 | England [literature and language] | The English writer Henry Fielding publishes his novel The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling, widely considered one of the finest novels of the century. |
| 1749 | Germany [music] | The German composer Johann Sebastian Bach completes Die Kunst der Fuge/The Art of Fugue. |
| 1749 | UK [music] | Music for Royal Fireworks by the German-born English composer George Frideric Handel is performed in Green Park, London, England, to celebrate the Peace of Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle). |
| 24 January 1749 | England [births and deaths] | Charles James Fox, first foreign secretary of Britain (1782, 1783, and 1806), born in London, England (–1806). |
| 17 May 1749 | England [births and deaths] | Edward Jenner, English surgeon who discovered and developed a smallpox vaccination, born in Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England (–1823). |
| 28 August 1749 | Germany [births and deaths] | Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet, novelist, dramatist, and philosopher, born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany (–1832). |
