Explore 236 historical events from 1740–1749.
Johan Tobias Sergel was a Swedish neoclassical sculptor. Sergels torg, the largest square in the centre of Stockholm and near where his workshop stood, is named after him.
Johan Tobias Sergel, Swedish sculptor and illustrator (died 1814)
Johann Heinrich Jung, better known by his assumed name Heinrich Stilling, was a German author. He is often called by both surnames as "Jung-Stilling".
Johann Heinrich Jung, German author and academic (died 1817)
Empress Go-Sakuramachi was the 117th monarch of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. She was named after her father Emperor Sakuramachi, with the word go (後) b…
Empress Go-Sakuramachi of Japan (died 1813)
Thomas Tickell was a minor English poet and man of letters.
Thomas Tickell, English poet and author (born 1685)
Ephraim Chambers was an English writer and encyclopaedist, who is primarily known for producing the Cyclopaedia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. Chambers' Cyclopæd…
Ephraim Chambers, English publisher (born 1680)
Frederick William I, known as the Soldier King, was King in Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg from 1713 until his death in 1740, as well as Prince of Neuchâtel.
Frederick William I of Prussia (born 1688)
Samuel Werenfels was a Swiss theologian. He was a major figure in the move towards a "reasonable orthodoxy" in Swiss Reformed theology.
Samuel Werenfels, Swiss theologian (born 1657)
Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Kent, was a British politician and courtier. None of his sons outlived him, so his new title became extinct on his death. Though the house he built at Wrest…
Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Kent, English politician and courtier (born 1671)
Isabelle de Charrière, also known as Madame de Charrière and in the Netherlands as Belle van Zuylen, was a Dutch and Swiss writer of the Enlightenment who lived the latter half of …
Isabelle de Charrière, Dutch author and poet (died 1805)
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck, was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of the English writer Samuel Johnson, …
James Boswell, Scottish lawyer and author (died 1795)
Major-General Alexander Spotswood was a British army officer, explorer and colonial administrator who served as the governor of Virginia from 1710 to 1722. After an unsatisfactory …
Alexander Spotswood, Moroccan-American colonial and politician, Lieutenant Governor of Virginia (born 1676)
Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet was a British Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1710 to 1740. He served as Secretary at War in 1712 and Chancel…
Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet, English politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (born 1687)
Francis Scobell was an English politician affiliated with the Tories. He was a member of parliament (MP) for Mitchell from 1690 to 1695, Grampound from 16 January 1699 to 1708, S…
Francis Scobell, English politician (born 1664)
Jean-Philippe Baratier was a German scholar. A noted child prodigy of the 18th century, he published eleven works and authored a great quantity of unpublished manuscripts.
Jean-Philippe Baratier, German astronomer and scholar (born 1721)
Charles VI was Holy Roman Emperor and ruler of the Austrian Habsburg monarchy from 1711 until his death, succeeding his elder brother, Joseph I. He unsuccessfully claimed the thron…
Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor (born 1685)
Anna Ioannovna, also russified as Anna Ivanovna and sometimes anglicized as Anne, served as regent of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia from 1711 until 1730 and then ruled as Em…
Anna of Russia (born 1693)
The War of Jenkins' Ear was fought between Great Britain and Spain from 1739 to 1748. Most of the fighting took place in New Granada and the Caribbean Sea, with major operations ov…
War of Jenkins' Ear: Spanish troops stormed the British-held strategically crucial position of Fort Mose in Spanish Flor
The 1740 Batavia massacre was a massacre and pogrom of ethnic Chinese residents of the port city of Batavia in the Dutch East Indies. It was carried out by Dutch soldiers of the Du…
European soldiers and Javanese collaborators started massacring Chinese Indonesians in the port city of Batavia,…
The Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 was an edict issued by Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, on 19 April 1713 to ensure that the Habsburg monarchy, which included the Archduchy of Austria,…
Under the terms of the Pragmatic Sanction, Maria Theresa (pictured) ascended the Habsburg throne.
A massacre and pogrom of ethnic Chinese residents of the port city of Batavia in the Dutch East Indies was carried out by the Dutch East India Company and allied members of other B…
A two-week massacre of ethnic Chinese in Batavia, Dutch East Indies, came to an end with at least 10,000 people killed.