1751 May 0
Philippe Thomas Joncaire, with a troop of Indians, passed by en route to Logstown to establish a French trading house there.

1752 May 28
Joshua Fry, James Patton, and Lunsford Lomax, Virginia agents chosen to treat with the Indians at Logstown, held a conference with Chief Shannopin.

1753 November 23
The 21-year old Major George Washington (1732-99), emissary from Virginia's Governor Robert Dinwiddie to the French commandant at Fort LeBoeuf on French Creek (now Waterford, Pa.), observed the land at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers (where Pittsburgh is today) and described it as "extremely well situated for a Fort; as it has the absolute Command of both Rivers. The Land at the Point is 20 or 25 Feet above the common Surface of the Water; and a considerable Bottom of flat, well timbered Land all around it very convenient for Building."

1753 December 30
George Washington and his guide, Christopher Gist, were stranded on Garrison Island in the Allegheny River after their raft had been dashed to pieces by floating ice.

1754 February 17
William Trent (1715-87), the Indian trader, came to the forks. When the militiamen whom he had enlisted in the Monongahela Valley arrived, Trent began to build a fort and named it Fort Prince George.

1754 April 13
Ensign Edward Ward, temporarily in charge of Fort Prince George, learned that French troops were on the march against him.

1754 April 17
When the French force of about 500 men, under Commandant Pierre de Contreoeur, arrived at the forks, Ensign Ward and his 41 men had to surrender their building. The French began to build a large fort on the spot and named it Fort Duquesne, after the Marquis de Duquesne (1700-78), governor general of New France from 1752 to 1755.

1754 July 4
The French subdued Colonel Washington at Fort Necessity.

1754 July 28
The Scotsman Robert Stobo, a friend of Governor Dinwiddie, was one of two hostages taken to Fort Duquesne after the battle at Fort Necessity. During his imprisonment he sent out letters and a sketch of the fort to the English.

Courtesy of the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania

1755 May 24
The French commandant announced that Fort Duquesne was completed.

1755 July 9
A British expedition under General Edward Braddock, marching to attack Fort Duquesne, was defeated not far from the fort by an army of French and Indian warriors. Some of the English captives were burned alive by the Indians.

1756 January 0
Spring Fort Duquesne was damaged by a flood.

1758 August 30
The French commandant at Fort Duquesne learned that a British force led by General John Forbes was at Loyalbanna (the present Ligonier) and was planning to advance against the fort.

1758 September 14
Major James Grant, with Forbes's army, received permission to attack Fort Duquesne. He led his force of 800 into disaster; one third of his men were killed.

1758 November 24
General Forbes's army took possession of the remnants of Fort Duquesne, which the French had burned and evacuated earlier in the day.