Directory

1740 CE

Frederick II becomes King in Prussia upon the death of his father, Frederick William I. 22 – Batavia Massacre: Troops of the Dutch East India Company massacre at least 10,000 Chinese Indonesians in Batavia. Frederick II of Prussia invades the Habsburg possession of Silesia, starting the War of the Austrian Succession.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • March 16 – King Edward of the Miskito Indians signs a treaty making his kingdom, located on the coast of modern-day Nicaragua, a protectorate of Great Britain.source
  • June 1 – Plantation Act 1740 or Naturalization Act 1740 of the Parliament of Great Britain comes into effect providing for Protestant alien immigrants (including Huguenots, and also Jews) residing in the American colonies for 7 years to receive British nationality.source

Conflict & Security

  • April 8 – War of the Austrian Succession: The Royal Navy captures the Spanish ship of the line Princesa off Cape Finisterre and takes her into British service.source
  • June 26 – War of Jenkins' Ear: Siege of Fort Mose – A Spanish column of 300 regular troops, free Black militia and Indian auxiliaries storms Britain's strategically crucial position of Fort Mose, Florida.source
  • July 11 – Pogrom: Jews are expelled from Little Russia.source
  • October 9–22 – Batavia Massacre: Troops of the Dutch East India Company massacre at least 10,000 Chinese Indonesians in Batavia.source
  • December 16 – Frederick II of Prussia invades the Habsburg possession of Silesia, starting the War of the Austrian Succession.source

Religion & Belief

  • August 17 – Pope Benedict XIV succeeds Pope Clement XII, as the 247th pope.source
  • The fairy-tale Beauty and the Beast by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve was published.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • March 25 – Construction begins on Bethesda Orphanage for boys near Savannah, Georgia, founded by George Whitefield.source
  • Spain begins construction on Fort Matanzas in the Matanzas Inlet, approximately 15 mi km south of St. Augustine, Florida.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • January 8 – All 237 crewmen on the Dutch East India Company ship Rooswijk are drowned when the vessel strikes the shoals of Goodwin Sands, off of the coast of England, as it is beginning its second voyage to the Indies. The wreckage is discovered more than 250 years later, in 2004.source

Culture & Society

  • February 20 – The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates the town of Newton as Wilmington, North Carolina, named for Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington and patron of Royal Governor Gabriel Johnston.source
  • June 16 – Pour le Mérite first awarded in Prussia as a military honour.source
  • July 7 – Adam Smith sets out from Scotland to take up a scholarship at Balliol College, Oxford.source
  • August 1 – The song Rule, Britannia! is first performed at Cliveden, the country home of Frederick, Prince of Wales, in England.source
  • September 8 – Hertford College, Oxford, England, is founded for the first time.source
  • November 6 – Samuel Richardson's popular and influential epistolary novel, Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded, is published anonymously in London.source
  • November 14 – The University of Pennsylvania is officially established.source
  • Enfield, North Carolina, is founded.source

Births

  • February 4 – Carl Michael Bellman, Swedish poet, composer (d. 1795)source
  • February 16 – Giambattista Bodoni, Italian publisher and engraver (d. 1813)source
  • February 17 – John Sullivan, American General in the American Revolutionary War, delegate in the Continental Congress (d. 1795)source
  • March – Johann van Beethoven, German musician, father of Ludwig van Beethoven (d. 1792)source
  • April 7 – Haym Salomon, Polish-Jewish American financier of the American Revolution (d. 1785)source
  • April 14 – Anna Strong, Patriot spy during the American Revolutionary War (d. 1812)source
  • June 2 – Marquis de Sade, French author, for whom sadism is named (d. 1814)source
  • June 24 – Juan Ignacio Molina, Spanish-Chilean Jesuit priest, naturalist, historian, translator, geographer, botanist, ornithologist and linguist (d. 1829)source
  • June 27 – James Woodforde, English clergyman and diarist (d. 1803)source
  • July 27 – Jeanne Baret, French explorer (d. 1807)source
  • September 23 – Empress Go-Sakuramachi of Japan (d. 1813)source
  • September 25 – Hercules Mulligan, tailor and spy during the American Revolutionary War (d. 1825)source
  • October 29 – James Boswell, Scottish author (d. 1795)source
  • December – Elisabeth Olin, Swedish opera singer (d. 1828)source

Deaths

  • January 5 – Antonio Lotti, Italian composer (b. 1667)source
  • January 20 – Niccolò Comneno Papadopoli, Italian jurist of religious law and historian (b. 1655)source
  • January 21 – Nicholas Trott, colonial magistrate, South Carolina Chief Justice (b. 1663)source
  • January 27 – Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon, Prime Minister of France (b. 1692)source
  • January – Louise Élisabeth de Joybert, politically active Canadian governors' wife (b. 1673)source
  • March 23 – Olof Rudbeck the Younger, Swedish scientist and explorer (b. 1660)source
  • April 28 – Bajirao I, Great Maratha warrior and Prime Minister of Marartha Empire (b.1700)source
  • May 31 – Frederick II becomes King in Prussia upon the death of his father, Frederick William I.source
  • June 1 – Samuel Werenfels, Swiss theologian (b. 1657)source
  • June 6 – Alexander Spotswood, British governor of Virginia Colony (b. 1676)source
  • June 17 – Theophilus of Corte, Italian Roman Catholic priest, preacher and missionary, canonized (b. 1676)source
  • June 17 – William Wyndham, English politician (b. 1687)source
  • October 11 – Princess Magdalena Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst, Duchess of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (b. 1679)source
  • December 20 – Richard Boyle, 2nd Viscount Shannon, British military officer and statesman (b. 1675)source