1740

Decades: 1690s 1700s 1710s 1720s 1730s - 1740s - 1750s 1760s 1770s 1780s 1790s

Years: 1735 1736 1737 1738 1739 - 1740 - 1741 1742 1743 1744 1745

Events

• Adam Smith enters Balliol College, Oxford
• George Whitefield founds the Bethesda orphanage
• The song Rule Britannia is first performed at Cliveden
• May 31 - Friedrich II comes to power in Prussia upon the death of his father, Friedrich Wilhelm I.
• 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.

Year in topic

• 1740 in literature
• 1740 in science

Births

• June 2 - Marquis de Sade, aristocrat and author
• August 23 - Emperor Ivan VI of Russia
• Juan Andres, Spanish Jesuit
• Empress Go-Sakuramachi of Japan

Deaths

• January 5, Antonio Lotti, composer
• May 31 - Friedrich Wilhelm I, King of Prussia
• October 20 - Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor
• October 28 - Anna Ivanova (Anna I of Russia)

Monarchs/Presidents

• China - Qianlong Emperor of China, Qing Dynasty (reigned from October 18, 1735 to February 9, 1796)
• France - Louis XV King of France (reigned from 1715 to 1774)
• Great Britain - George II King of Great Britain (reigned from June 11, 1727 to October 25, 1760)
• Prussia - Frederick II King of Prussia (reigned from 1740 to 1786)
• Saxony - Frederick Augustus II Elector of Saxony (from 1733 to 1763) (also King of Poland)

Referenced By