1741-1750 - AND ELSEWHERE WORLDWIDE
HISTORY: Maria Theresa accepts crown of Hungary; England mediates between Prussia and Austria; Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great, becomes Czarina; Maria Theresa crowned at Prague; Robert Clive arrives in Madras as clerk with East India Company.
ARTS: Handel's "Messiah" first performed in Dublin; First playhouse opens in New York.
SCIENCE/GROWTH: Swiss astronomer Anders Celsius invents centigrade thermometer; French explorers reach Rocky Mountains; First settlement in South Dakota; von Kleist invents the capacitor, a fundamental electrical circuit element; Earliest Oddfellows Lodge in England; Population of Europe: approximately 140 million.
