Directory

1741 CE

Sir Robert Walpole, the prime minister of Great Britain, popularizes the term "the balance of power" in a speech in Parliament. Nader Shah, Emperor of Persia, narrowly escapes an assassination attempt. Raja Marthanda Varma of Travancore defeats the Dutch East India Company in the Battle of Colachel, ending the Dutch colonial rule in India and marking the first "major" defeat of a European colonial military power in India.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 13 – Lanesborough, Massachusetts is created as a township.source
  • February 13 – Sir Robert Walpole, the prime minister of Great Britain, popularizes the term "the balance of power" in a speech in Parliament.source
  • June 11 – 1741 British general election, begun on April 30, concludes with Prime Minister Robert Walpole's Whigs retaining their majority in the House of Commons but losing 44 seats to candidates who have defected to the new Patriot Whigs to oppose his policies.source
  • October 12 – George II, as Elector of Hanover, signs the Neustadt Protocol with France, but fails to inform his British government until after his return from Germany.source
  • December 7 – War of the Austrian Succession: Charles Albert of Bavaria has himself proclaimed King of Bohemia.source

Conflict & Security

  • March 9 – War of the Austrian Succession: Prussian troops bring down the Austrian fortress of Glogau (modern-day Głogów in Poland).source
  • March 13 – The British Royal Navy takes 180 warships, frigates and transport vessels, led by Admiral Edward Vernon, to threaten Cartagena, Colombia, with more than 27,000 crew against the 3,600 defenders.source
  • April 6 – The New York Slave Insurrection, a plot to set fire to New York City, is discovered.source
  • April 10 – War of the Austrian Succession: An Austrian army is defeated by Prussian troops of Frederick the Great in the Battle of Mollwitz.source
  • May 9 – War of Jenkins' Ear: Battle of Cartagena de Indias – Spain's defenders in New Grenada, under the command of General Blas de Lezo, defeat Edward Vernon's Royal Navy force, leading to a British retreat to Jamaica.source
  • May 15 – Nader Shah, Emperor of Persia, narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.source
  • May 21 – War of the Austrian Succession: King George II of Great Britain orders the British Army to prepare for an invasion of Prussia to defend his Electorate of Hanover.source
  • August 4–5 – War of Jenkins' Ear: Invasion of Cuba – British Admiral Edward Vernon captures Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, which he renames Cumberland Bay, but which his forces are forced to abandon on December 9.source
  • August 10 – Raja Marthanda Varma of Travancore defeats the Dutch East India Company in the Battle of Colachel, ending the Dutch colonial rule in India and marking the first "major" defeat of a European colonial military power in India.source
  • September 11 – War of the Austrian Succession: Linz falls to the Bavarian Army.source
  • November 25–26 – War of the Austrian Succession: Franco-Bavarian troops commanded by Maurice of Saxony storm in Battle of Prague city Prague.source
  • December 6 (November 25, O.S.) – Elizabeth of Russia becomes czarina after a palace coup.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • May 4 – Vitus Bering sets out from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to map the coasts of Siberia and Alaska.source
  • July 15 – Alexei Chirikov sights land in Southeast Alaska, and sends some men aboard his ship ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska.source
  • December 7 – Aleksei Chirikov of Russia presents the first written description of the northwest coast of North America.source

Religion & Belief

  • January 13 – Conventicle Act of 1741 is introduced in Denmark-Norway.source
  • July 8 – Jonathan Edwards repeats his Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God sermon at Enfield, Connecticut.source

Economy & Finance

  • The Royal Order of Scotland in freemasonry is founded.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • Summer – Upper Priory Cotton Mill is opened in Birmingham, England, as the world's first mechanised cotton mill by Lewis Paul and John Wyatt; although this is not a commercial success, other Paul-Wyatt cotton mills follow.source

Science & Discovery

  • December 25 – Anders Celsius develops his own thermometer scale, Centigrade, the predecessor of the Celsius scale.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • May 14 – HMS Wager, one of the vessels of George Anson's voyage around the world, is wrecked on the coast of Chile, killing most of the crew who have survived scurvy.source

Climate & Environment

  • August 23 – At least 2,000 die along the shores of the Sea of Japan after a volcanic eruption on an island generated the Kampo Tsunami.source

Culture & Society

  • February 14 – Irish-born actor Charles Macklin makes his London stage debut as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, pioneering a psychologically realistic style with Shakespeare's text revived, replacing George Granville's melodramatic adaptation The Jew of Venice. Kitty Clive plays the travesti role of Portia.source
  • June 25 – Maria Theresa of Austria is crowned Queen Regnant of Hungary in Bratislava.source
  • Stemmatographia by Hristofor Zhefarovich, regarded as the first Serbian and Bulgarian secular printed book, is printed in Vienna.source

Births

  • January 27 – Hester Thrale, Welsh diarist (d. 1821)source
  • February 7 – Henry Fuseli, Swiss painter and writer (d. 1825)source
  • March 17 – William Withering, British physician (d. 1799)source
  • March 20 – Jean Antoine Houdon, French sculptor (d. 1828)source
  • April 14 – Emperor Momozono of Japan (d. 1762)source
  • May 13 – Ingeborg Akeleye, Norwegian noble known for her love life (d. 1800)source
  • May 23 – Andrea Luchesi, Italian composer (d. 1801)source
  • June 11 – Joseph Warren, American Patriot, physician (d. 1775)source
  • June 26 – John Langdon, American politician (d. 1819)source
  • September 22 – Peter Simon Pallas, German zoologist (d. 1811)source
  • October 4 – Edmond Malone, Irish scholar (d. 1812)source
  • October 18 – Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, French general, author (d. 1803)source
  • October 24 – Johann August von Starck, German pastor (d. 1816)source
  • November 15 – Johann Kaspar Lavater, Swiss physiognomist (d. 1801)source

Deaths

  • January 15 – Ramon Despuig, Spanish-born 67th Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (b. 1670)source
  • February 21 – Jethro Tull, British agriculturist (b. 1674)source
  • March 31 – Pieter Burmann the Elder, Dutch classical scholar (b. 1668)source
  • May 24 – Lord Augustus FitzRoy, Royal Navy officer during the Battle of Cartagena de Indias (b. 1716)source
  • June 14 – Landgravine Caroline of Hesse-Rotenburg, German noble (b. 1714)source
  • June 18 – François Pourfour du Petit, French anatomist, ophthalmologist and surgeon (b. 1664)source
  • July 3 – Elisabeth Therese of Lorraine, Sardinian queen consort (b. 1711)source
  • August 4 – Andrew Hamilton, American lawyer (b. 1676)source
  • September 7 – Blas de Lezo, Spanish admiral (b. 1689)source
  • October 12 – Joseph Talcott, British Governor of the Connecticut Colony for more than 17 years, since 1724. (b. 1670)source
  • November 18 – Stephen Delancey, major colonial New York figure (b. 1663)source
  • November 24 – Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden (b.1688)source
  • December 19 – Vitus Bering dies during his expedition, east of Siberia.source
  • December 21 – Bernard de Montfaucon, French Benedictine monk (b. 1655)source