1740

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. [ [http://www.nationaalarchief.nl/amh/detail.aspx?page=dafb&lang=en&id=1897#tab0
] ]
* 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)

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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)

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References