Editing 1740 (section)

=== 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]].