Year 1740 (MDCCXL) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of PAGENAME

January - June

• 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.
• May 31 - Friedrich II comes to power in Prussia upon the death of his father, Friedrich Wilhelm I.

July - December

• August 17 - Pope Benedict XIV succeeds Pope Clement XII as the 247th pope.
• October 9 - The Dutch East India Company massacres 5,000?10,000 Chinese inhabitants of Batavia.^[1]
• October 20 - Maria Theresia of Austria inherits the Habsburg hereditary dominions (Austria, Bohemia, Hungary and present-day Belgium). However, her succession to the Holy Roman Empire is contested widely because she is a woman.
• December 16 - Friedrich II of Prussia invades the Habsburg possession of Silesia, starting the War of the Austrian Succession.

Undated

• By an act of the Parliament of Great Britain, alien immigrants (including Huguenots and Jews) in the colonies receive British nationality.
• Enfield, North Carolina is founded.
• Adam Smith enters Balliol College, Oxford.
• George Whitefield founds the Bethesda Orphanage.
• The song Rule Britannia is first performed at Cliveden.
• Hertford College, Oxford, is founded.
• University of Pennsylvania is founded.
• Spain begins construction on Fort Matanzas in the Matanzas Inlet, approximately 15 miles south of St. Augustine, Florida.
• Annual British iron production reaches 17,000 tons.

Births

• February 4 - Carl Michael Bellman, Swedish poet and composer (d. 1795)
• February 16 - Giambattista Bodoni, Italian publisher and engraver (d. 1813)
• March - Johann van Beethoven, German musician and father of Ludwig van Beethoven (d. 1792)
• May 7 - Nikolai Arkharov, Russian police chief (d. 1814)
• June 2 - Marquis de Sade, French author (d. 1814)
• June 6 - Victor Maitre, French aristocrat (d. 1796)
• August 14 - Pope Pius VII (d. 1823)
• August 23 - Emperor Ivan VI of Russia (d. 1764)
• September 29 - Empress Go-Sakuramachi of Japan (d. 1813)
• October 29 - James Boswell, Scottish author (d. 1795)
• date unknown
  • Juan Andrés, Spanish Jesuit (d. 1817)
  • Johann Jacob Schweppe, inventor and founder of the Schweppes Company (d. 1821)

See also Category: 1740 births.

Deaths

• January 5 - Antonio Lotti, Italian composer (b. 1667)
• January 27 - Louis Henri, Duc de Bourbon, Prime Minister of France (b. 1692)
• February 6 - Pope Clement XII (b. 1652)
• March 23 - Olof Rudbeck the Younger, Swedish scientist and explorer (b. 1660)
• April 23 - Thomas Tickell, English writer (b. 1685)
• May 31 - Frederick William I, King in Prussia (b. 1688)
• June 1 - Samuel Werenfels, Swiss theologian (b. 1657)
• June 6 - Alexander Spotswood, British governor of Virginia Colony (b. 1676)
• June 17 - William Wyndham, English politician (b. 1687)
• October 5 - Johann Philipp Baratier, German scholar (b. 1721)
• October 20 - Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1685)
• October 28 - Anna, Empress of Russia (b. 1693)
• December 20 - Richard Boyle, 2nd Viscount Shannon, British military officer and statesman (b. 1675)

See also Category: 1740 deaths.

References

1. ↑ image: Bird's eye view of Batavia showing the massacre of the Chinese