Events

• January 31 - The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Dock Hospital
• April 9 - The Scottish Jacobite Lord Lovat was beheaded by axe on Tower Hill, London, for high treason; he was the last man to be executed in this way in Britain
• May 14 - First battle of Cape Finisterre in the War of the Austrian Succession
• July 2 - Battle of Lawfeld
• October 25 - Second battle of Cape Finisterre in the War of the Austrian Succession
• November 9 – Rioters in Amsterdam demand governmental reform
• December 16 – Canter of Coltbrigg – 13th and 14th Dragoons flee Jacobites of Charles Edward Stuart

• Emperor Momozono ascends to the throne of Japan, succeeding Emperor Sakuramachi
• Kandahar taken from Nadir Shah by Ahmad Shah Durrani, and becomes the first capital of the newly-independent Afghanistan
• Thomas Herring appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
• James Lind discovers that citrus fruits prevent scurvy
• Wearing of the kilt banned in Scotland by the Dress Act
• Samuel Johnson begins work on A Dictionary of the English Language

Ongoing events

• War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748)

Births

• January 15 - John Aikin, English doctor and writer (died 1822)
• January 19 - Johann Elert Bode, German astronomer (died 1826)
• January 26 - Samuel Parr, English schoolmaster (died 1825)
• May 5 - Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1792)
• July 6 - John Paul Jones, American naval captain (died 1792)
• October 8 - Jean-François Rewbell, French politician (died 1807)
• December 12 - Anna Seward, English writer (died 1809)
• François Tourte, French musical instrument maker (died 1835)

Deaths

• January 16 - Barthold Heinrich Brockes, German poet (b. 1680)
• March 16 - Christian Augustus of Anhalt-Zerbst, father of Catherine II of Russia (b. 1690)
• April 2 - Johann Jacob Dillenius, German botanist (b. 1684)
• April 9 - Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat (born c.1667)
• May 31 - Andrei Osterman, Russian statesman (b. 1686)
• June - Nadir Shah, Persian leader (b, 1688)
• June 19 - Giovanni Bononcini, Italian composer
• October 10 - John Potter, Archbishop of Canterbury (born c.1674)
• November 17 - Alain-René Le Sage, French novelist and playwright (born 1668)