← 1730 1750 →

Who was alive in 1740?

712 well-known people were alive in 1740, including George Washington, Johann Sebastian Bach, Voltaire. Here are the 80 most notable:

• George Washington (1732–1799) — Founding Father and first U.S. president; soldier and slave owner (1732–1799)
• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) — German composer (1685–1750)
• Voltaire (1694–1778) — French writer, historian and philosopher (1694–1778)
• Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) — German philosopher (1724-1804)
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) — Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer (1712-1778)
• Adam Smith (1723–1790) — Scottish moral philosopher and political economist (1723–1790)
• Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) — American polymath and statesman (1706–1790)
• Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) — Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist (1707–1778)
• Leonhard Euler (1707–1783) — Swiss mathematician, physicist, and engineer (1707–1783)
• John Adams (1735–1826) — Founding Father, U.S. president from 1797 to 1801 (1735–1826)
• James Cook (1728–1779) — British explorer, cartographer and naval officer (1728–1779)
• Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741) — Italian composer and violinist (1678-1741)
• Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) — Anglo-Irish satirist and essayist (1667–1745)
• James Watt (1736–1819) — British engineer (1736–1819)
• David Hume (1711–1776) — Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian (1711-1776)
• Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) — Austrian composer (1732–1809)
• George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) — German-British Baroque composer (1685–1759)
• Montesquieu (1689–1755) — French philosopher (1689–1755)
• Catherine II of Russia (1729–1796) — eighth Emperor of Russia, called the Great, r. 1762–1796 (lived 1729-1796)
• Denis Diderot (1713–1784) — French Enlightenment philosopher writer and encyclopædist (1713–1784)
• Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) — English writer and lexicographer (1709–1784)
• Thomas Paine (1737–1809) — American Founding Father, philosopher, and political activist (1737–1809)
• Frederick II of Prussia (1712–1786) — King of Prussia from 1740 to 1786 (1712-1786)
• Alexander Pope (1688–1744) — English poet (1688–1744)
• Edmund Burke (1729–1797) — Anglo-Irish statesman, political theorist and conservative philosopher (1729–1797)
• Jean Le Rond d'Alembert (1717–1783) — French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher and music theorist (1717-1783)
• William Herschel (1738–1822) — German-born British astronomer and composer (1738–1822)
• Mikhail Lomonosov (1711–1765) — Russian polymath (1711-1765)
• George Berkeley (1685–1753) — Irish idealist philosopher and Anglican bishop (1685–1753)
• George III of Great Britain (1738–1820) — King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1760 to 1820 (1738–1820)
• Louis XV of France (1710–1774) — King of France and of Navarre from 1715 to 1774 (1710–1774)
• Maria Theresa of Austria (1717–1780) — ruler of the Habsburg Dominions (1717-1780)
• Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781) — German writer, philosopher, publicist, and art critic (1729-1781)
• Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) — French nobleman, revolutionary politician, philosopher and writer of erotic works
• Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) — Venetian adventurer and writer (1725–1798)
• Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736–1813) — Mathematician and astronomer (1736–1813)
• Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) — English historian and politician (1737–1794)
• Charles-Augustin de Coulomb (1736–1806) — French physicist (1736-1806)
• Edmond Halley (1656–1742) — English astronomer, mathematician, geophysicist, meteorologist and physicist (1656–1742)
• Anders Celsius (1701–1744) — Swedish astronomer, physicist, and naturalist (1701-1744)
• Isabelle de Charrière (1740–1805) — Dutch French-language writer and composer (1740-1805)
• Carlo Goldoni (1707–1793) — Italian playwright (1707-1793)
• Pierre-Augustin de Beaumarchais (1732–1799) — French playwright, diplomat and polymath (1732–1799)
• Benedict XIV (1675–1758) — pope of the Catholic Church from 1740 to 1758
• Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) — English chemist, theologian, educator, and political theorist (1733–1804)
• Robert Walpole (1676–1745) — British statesman and art collector, 1st Earl of Orford (1676–1745)
• Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707–1788) — French natural historian (1707-1788)
• Pius VI (1717–1799) — Pope of the Catholic Church from 1775 to 1799
• Alexander Suvorov (1730–1800) — Russian marshal (1730–1800)
• Henry Cavendish (1731–1810) — English natural philosopher, and scientist (1731–1810)
• George II of Great Britain (1683–1760) — King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1727 to 1760
• Daniel Bernoulli (1700–1782) — Swiss mathematician and physicist (1700-1782)
• Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) — Swedish 18th century scientist and theologian (1688-1772)
• Clement XII (1652–1740) — pope of the Catholic Church from 1730 to 1740
• Elizabeth I of Russia (1709–1762) — The sixth Emperor of Russia (1741–1762)
• Peter III of Russia (1728–1762) — The seventh Emperor of Russia (1762)
• Vitus Bering (1681–1741) — Danish-born Russian explorer (1681-1741)
• Clement XIII (1693–1769) — pope of the Catholic Church from 1758 to 1769
• William Hogarth (1697–1764) — English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist (1697-1764)
• Baron d'Holbach (1723–1789) — German-born French philosopher (1723–1789)
• Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774) — Anglo-Irish writer, poet, and physician (d. 1774)
• Henry Fielding (1707–1754) — English novelist and dramatist (1707–1754)
• Christoph Willibald von Gluck (1714–1787) — opera composer (1714–1787)
• Giambattista Vico (1668–1744) — Italian philosopher, rhetorician, historian and jurist
• Philip V of Spain (1683–1746) — King of Spain from 1700 to 1746 (1683–1746)
• Nader Shah (1688–1747) — Shah of Iran (r. 1736–47) and founder of the Afsharid dynasty
• Clement XIV (1705–1774) — pope of the Catholic Church from 1769 to 1774
• Luigi Galvani (1737–1798) — Italian physician, physicist, and philosopher
• Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor (1685–1740) — 18th century Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor
• Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718–1799) — Italian mathematician and philanthropist (1718–1799)
• Charles Messier (1730–1817) — 18th- and 19th-century French astronomer
• Anna I of Russia (1693–1740) — The fourth Emperor of Russia (1730–1740)
• John Wesley (1703–1791) — founder of the Methodist movement (1703-1791)
• Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) — Anglo-Irish novelist and Anglican cleric (1713–1768)
• Claude Adrien Helvétius (1715–1771) — French philosopher; (1715-1771)
• Charles III of Spain (1716–1788) — King of Spain from 1759 to 1788
• Johann Bernoulli (1667–1748) — Swiss mathematician (1667-1748)
• Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767) — German composer
• Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788) — German composer (1714–1788)
• Ahmed Shahe Durrani (1722–1772) — founder of the Afghan Durrani Empire (r. 1747–1772)

See who was alive and where on the interactive globe →

Explore the full timeline of 24,643 well-known lives →