Editing 1740 (section)

== Events ==
<onlyinclude>
=== January&ndash;March ===
* [[January 8]] &ndash; All 237 crewmen on the [[Dutch East India Company]] ship ''[[Rooswijk]]'' are drowned when the vessel strikes the shoals of [[Goodwin Sands]], off of the coast of England, as it is beginning its second voyage to the Indies. The wreckage is discovered more than 250 years later, in 2004.<ref>Wendy van Duivenvoorde, ''Dutch East India Company Shipbuilding: The Archaeological Study of Batavia and Other Seventeenth-Century VOC Ships'' (Texas A&M University Press, 2015) p145</ref>
* [[February 20]] &ndash; The [[North Carolina General Assembly]] incorporates the town of Newton as [[Wilmington, North Carolina|Wilmington]], [[Royal Colony of North Carolina|North Carolina]], named for [[Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington]] and patron of Royal Governor [[Gabriel Johnston]].
* [[March 16]] &ndash; [[Edward I (Moskito)|King Edward of the Miskito Indians]] signs a treaty making his kingdom, located on the coast of modern-day [[Nicaragua]], a protectorate of Great Britain.<ref>"Mosquito Coast", in ''Historical Dictionary of the British Empire'', ed. by Kenneth J. Panton (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015) p384</ref>
* [[March 25]] &ndash; Construction begins on [[Bethesda Orphanage]] for boys near [[Savannah, Georgia]], founded by [[George Whitefield]].

=== April&ndash;June ===
* [[April 8]] &ndash; [[War of the Austrian Succession]]: The [[Royal Navy]] captures the Spanish ship of the line ''[[HMS Princess (1740)|Princesa]]'' off [[Cape Finisterre]] and takes her into British service.
* [[May 31]] &ndash; [[Frederick II of Prussia|Frederick II]] becomes [[King in Prussia]] upon the death of his father, [[Frederick William I of Prussia|Frederick William I]].
* [[June 1]] &ndash; [[Plantation Act 1740]] or Naturalization Act 1740 of the [[Parliament of Great Britain]] comes into effect providing for Protestant [[Alien (law)|alien]] immigrants (including [[Huguenots]], and also [[Jew]]s) residing in the [[British America|American colonies]] for 7 years to receive British [[nationality]].
* [[June 16]] &ndash; ''[[Pour le Mérite]]'' first awarded in Prussia as a military honour.
* [[June 26]] &ndash; [[War of Jenkins' Ear]]: [[Siege of Fort Mose]] &ndash; A Spanish column of 300 regular troops, free Black militia and Indian auxiliaries storms Britain's strategically crucial position of [[Fort Mose Historic State Park|Fort Mose]], [[Florida]].

=== July&ndash;September ===
* [[July 7]] &ndash; [[Adam Smith]] sets out from Scotland to take up a scholarship at [[Balliol College, Oxford]].<ref>{{cite web|title=On this day in 1740...|url=https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/tax-spending/on-this-day-in-1740|date=2010-07-07|publisher=[[Adam Smith Institute]]|access-date=2019-11-19}}</ref>
* [[July 11]] &ndash; [[Pogrom]]: [[Jews]] are expelled from [[Little Russia]].
* [[August 1]] &ndash; The song ''[[Rule, Britannia!]]'' is first performed at [[Cliveden]], the country home of [[Frederick, Prince of Wales]], in England.<ref name="Cassell's Chronology308">{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Hywel|title=Cassell's Chronology of World History|url=https://archive.org/details/cassellschronolo0000will/page/308|url-access=registration|location=London|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|year=2005|isbn=0-304-35730-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/cassellschronolo0000will/page/308 308]}}</ref>
* [[August 17]] &ndash; [[Pope Benedict XIV]] succeeds [[Pope Clement XII]], as the 247th pope.
* [[September 8]] &ndash; [[Hertford College, Oxford]], England, is founded for the first time.<ref>{{cite book|first=Sidney Graves|last=Hamilton|title=Hertford College|url=https://archive.org/details/hertfordcollege00hamigoog|location=London|publisher=Robinson|year=1903|series=University of Oxford college histories}}</ref>

=== October&ndash;December ===
* [[October 9]]&ndash;[[October 22|22]] &ndash; [[1740 Batavia massacre|Batavia Massacre]]: Troops of the [[Dutch East India Company]] massacre 5,000–10,000 [[Chinese Indonesians]] in [[Jakarta|Batavia]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nationaalarchief.nl/amh/detail.aspx?page=dafb&lang=en&id=1897|title=Image: Bird's eye view of Batavia showing the massacre of the Chinese<!-- Bot generated title -->|access-date=November 12, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090921072106/http://www.nationaalarchief.nl/amh/detail.aspx?page=dafb&lang=en&id=1897#tab0|archive-date=September 21, 2009|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref>
* [[October 20]] &ndash; [[Maria Theresa]] inherits the hereditary dominions of the [[Habsburg monarchy]] (Austria, [[Kingdom of Bohemia|Bohemia]], [[Kingdom of Hungary|Hungary]] and modern-day Belgium) under the terms of the [[Pragmatic Sanction of 1713]] on the death of her father, [[Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles VI]]. Her succession to the [[Holy Roman Empire]] is contested widely because she is a woman, but she will reign for 40 years.
* [[November 6]] &ndash; [[Samuel Richardson]]'s popular and influential [[epistolary novel]], ''[[Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded]]'', is published anonymously in London.
* [[November 14]] &ndash; The [[University of Pennsylvania]] is officially established.
* [[December 16]] &ndash; [[Frederick II of Prussia]] invades the Habsburg possession of [[Silesia]], starting the [[War of the Austrian Succession]].

=== Date unknown ===
* [[Enfield, North Carolina]], is founded.
* Spain begins construction on [[Fort Matanzas]] in the [[Matanzas Inlet]], approximately {{convert|15|mi|km}} south of [[St. Augustine, Florida]].</onlyinclude>
* The fairy-tale [[Beauty and the Beast]] by French novelist [[Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve]] was published.