Editing 1754 (section)

=== July&ndash;September ===
* [[July 3]] &ndash; [[French and Indian War]] &ndash; [[Battle of Fort Necessity]]:  [[George Washington]] surrenders [[Fort Necessity National Battlefield|Fort Necessity]] to French Capt. [[Louis Coulon de Villiers]], the only surrender in Washington's military career.
* [[July 10]] &ndash; The [[Albany Plan of Union]] is given official approval by the delegates from New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, with Connecticut opposing. The plan approved at the meeting in [[Albany, New York]] is based on [[Benjamin Franklin]]'s suggestions of "a general union of the British colonies on the continent" for a common defense policy. As amended at the assembly, the proposed union calls for the British Parliament to approve the arrangement, which would encompass all of the British North American colonies except for [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] and [[Nova Scotia]]. The plan, to be considered by the individual colonies for ratification, provides for an inter-colonial legislature (the Grand Council) composed of between two and seven representatives for each colony, depending on population. It also provides for a "President General" who can veto Grand Council legislation, a common defense budget with colonies contributing proportionately to their representation, and an inter-colonial army whose officers would be selected by the Grand Council.<ref name=Rogers>Alan Rogers, ''Empire and Liberty: American Resistance to British Authority, 1755-1763'' (University of California Press, 1974) pp13-19</ref>
* [[July 17]] &ndash; Classes begin at [[Columbia University]], founded on October 31 as King's College by [[royal charter]] of King [[George II of Great Britain]].<ref name="columbia_history">Robert McCaughey, ''Stand, Columbia: A History of Columbia University'' (Columbia University Press, 2003) p21</ref>  The college is originally located in Lower Manhattan in the [[Province of New York]]. Instruction is suspended in [[1776]], and the school reopens in [[1784]] as Columbia College. With the college's growth in the 19th century, it is renamed Columbia University in [[1896]].
* [[August 6]] &ndash; The British North American [[Province of Georgia]] is created. Originally established in [[1732]] as a place for impoverished English citizens and debt prison parolees to make a new life, is given its first royal government. Administered for 22 years by the Board of [[Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America]], chaired by philanthropist [[James Oglethorpe]], the colony is transferred by the Trustees to the British crown's [[Board of Trade and Plantations]]. [[George II of Great Britain|King George II]], for whom the colony was named, follows the Board's recommendation by proclaiming Georgia a royal province, and appointing Royal Navy Captain [[John Reynolds (Royal Navy officer)|John Reynolds]] as the first Royal Governor.<ref>Farris W. Cadle, ''Georgia Land Surveying History and Law'' (University of Georgia Press, 1991) p29</ref>  Reynolds arrives in [[Savannah, Georgia|Savannah]] on October 29 to take office.<ref>Edward J. Cashin, ''Governor Henry Ellis and the Transformation of British North America'' (University of Georgia Press, 2007) p61</ref> 
* [[August 17]] &ndash;  Pennsylvania becomes the first of the British colonies to address Benjamin Franklin's [[Albany Plan]] for an inter-colonial union. With Franklin absent from [[Philadelphia]], [[Province of Pennsylvania#Government|Pennsylvania's House of Representatives]] votes against to not consider the Plan at all, and to not refer it to the next legislative session for debate.<ref name=Rogers/>
* [[August 19]] &ndash; Lieutenant Colonel [[George Washington]] is forced to confront his first [[mutiny]] as 25 members of his Virginia militia refuse to obey orders from their officers.  Washington, who is attending church services at the time, quickly suppresses the rebellion and the mutineers are imprisoned before more join.<ref>John A. Nagy, ''George Washington's Secret Spy War: The Making of America's First Spymaster'' (St. Martin's Press, 2016) p37</ref>
* [[August 30]] &ndash; [[New Hampshire]] settlers [[Susannah Willard Johnson]] and her family are taken hostage by the [[Abenaki]] Indians during an attack near [[Charlestown, New Hampshire|Charlestown]].  Nine months pregnant at the time of their capture, Johnson gives birth two days later to a child, whom she names Elizabeth Captive Johnson.  For the next two years, the family is held for ransom in Canada before she is released.  In 1796, she will recount the story in a popular memoir, '' A Narrative of the Captivity of Mrs. Johnson''.<ref>"Johnson, Susannah", by Marcia Schmidt Blaine, in ''An Encyclopedia of American Women at War: From the Home Front to the Battlefields'', ed. by Lisa Tendrich Frank (ABC-CLIO, 2013) pp332-333</ref>
* [[September 2]] &ndash; A powerful [[earthquake]] strikes [[Constantinople]] shortly after 9 o'clock in the evening.  A Scottish physician, Mordach Mackenzie, reports in a letter that the tremor damaged or destroyed numerous buildings and comments, "Some say there were 2000 people destroyed by this calamity, in the town and suburbs; some 900; and others reduce them to 60, who, by what I have seen, are nearer the truth."<ref>Charles Hutton, et al., ''The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, from Their Commencement, in 1665, to the Year 1800'', Volume X: From 1750 to 1755 (C. and R. Baldwin, 1809) p549</ref>
* [[September 11]] &ndash; [[Anthony Henday]], an English explorer, becomes the first white man to reach the [[Canadian Rockies]], after climbing a ridge above the [[Red Deer River]] near what is now [[Innisfail, Alberta]].<ref>Andrew Hempstead, ''Canadian Rockies: Including Banff & Jasper National Parks'', Moon Handbooks (Avalon Publishing, 2016)</ref>