Editing 1754 (section)

=== January&ndash;March ===
* [[January 28]] &ndash; [[Horace Walpole]], in a letter to Horace Mann, coins the word ''[[serendipity]]''.
* [[February 22]] &ndash; Expecting an attack by Portuguese-speaking militias in the [[Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata]], the indigenous [[Guarani people]] residing in the [[Misiones Orientales]] stage an attack on a small Brazilian Portuguese settlement on the [[Pardo River (Rio Grande do Sul)|Rio Pardo]] in what is now the Brazilian state of [[Rio Grande do Sul]].  The attack by 300 Guarani soldiers from the missions at San Luis, San Lorenzo and San Juan Bautista is repelled with a loss of 30 Guarani and is the opening of the [[Guarani War]]<ref>Barbara Anne Ganson, ''The Guarani Under Spanish Rule in the Rio de la Plata'' (Stanford University Press, 2005) p104</ref>
* [[February 25]] &ndash; [[Captaincy General of Guatemala|Guatemala]]n Sergeant Major Melchor de Mencos y Varón departs the city of Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala with an infantry battalion to fight British pirates that are reportedly disembarking on the coasts of Petén (modern-day [[Belize]]), and sacking the nearby towns.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.inforpressca.com/melchordemencos/historia.php|title=Aspectos Históricos del Municipio|publisher=Melchor de Mencos|location=Petén|date=2008-05-09|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080510034049/http://www.inforpressca.com/melchordemencos/historia.php|archive-date=2008-05-10|access-date=2018-05-28}}</ref>
* [[March 16]] &ndash; Ten days after the death of British Prime Minister [[Henry Pelham]], his brother [[Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle]], forms a government as the new [[Prime Minister of Great Britain]]. 
* [[March 25]] &ndash; The [[Clandestine Marriages Act 1753]] comes into force in [[England and Wales]], placing marriage in that jurisdiction on a statutory basis for the first time.