* 1671 – Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, French poet ( d. 1741 )

* 1741 – Karl Friedrich Bahrdt, German theologian ( d. 1792 )

* 1741 – Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse, French navy officer and explorer ( d. 1788 )

* 1668 – Magnus Julius De la Gardie, Swedish general ( d. 1741 )

* 1741 – Emperor Momozono of Japan ( d. 1762 )

* 1741 – Samuel Chase, American justice of the Supreme Court ( d. 1811 )

* 1741 – War of the Austrian Succession: Prussia defeats Austria in the Battle of Mollwitz.

* Bernard de Montfaucon ( 1655 – 1741 )

* Armand Joseph Dubernad ( 1741 – 1799 ), financial trader, consul general of the Holy Roman Empire, deputy, mayor and cofounder of the first Jacobin Club of Brittany.

Empress Maria Theresa of Austria was supported by the Croatians in the War of Austrian Succession of 1741 – 1748 and subsequently made significant contributions to Croatian matters.

* 1666 – Francesco Scarlatti, Italian composer and musician ( d. c. 1741 )

* 1741 – Princess Elizabeth of Great Britain ( d. 1759 )

* 1741 – Henri-Joseph Rigel, German-born composer ( d. 1799 )

After visiting Latin School in Kamenz ( from 1737 onwards ) and the Fürstenschule St. Afra in Meissen ( from 1741 onwards ) he studied theology and medicine in Leipzig ( 1746 – 1748 ).

Peter I was succeeded by his second wife ( Catherine I, 1725 – 1728 ) who was merely a figure-head for a powerful group of high officials, then by his minor grandson ( Peter II, 1728 – 1730 ), then by his niece, Anna, daughter of Tsar Ivan V. In 1741 Elizabeth, daughter of Peter, seized the throne, assisted by the Preobrazhensky Regiment.

* Irish Famine ( 1740 – 1741 )

Robert Temple quotes an account from Zhang Yan's Zhongdou xinshu ( 種痘新書 ), or New book on smallpox inoculation, written in 1741 during the Qing Dynasty ( 1644 – 1912 ), which shows how the Chinese process had become refined up until that point:

* 1741 – Maria Theresa of Austria is crowned Queen of Hungary.

* 1661 – Charles Rollin, French historian ( d. 1741 )

* 1672 – Anna Maria Franziska of Saxe-Lauenburg ( d. 1741 )

* 1816 – Giovanni Paisiello, Italian composer ( b. 1741 )

* 1741 – Hester Thrale, Welsh diarist ( d. 1821 )

* 1741 – François-Hippolyte Barthélémon, French violinist and composer ( d. 1808 )

* Nicolas Chamfort ( 6 April 1741 – 13 April 1794 ), writer

* April 13-Nicolas Chamfort, epigrammatist ( born 1741 ; suicide )

The process of Innocent's beatification was introduced in 1741 by Benedict XIV and continued by Clement XI and Clement XII ; but French influence and the accusation of Jansenism caused it to be suspended in 1744.

* 1676 – Élisabeth Charlotte d ' Orléans, French wife of Leopold, Duke of Lorraine ( d. 1741 )

Vocal cords, a term commonly used to refer to the vocal folds, was coined by the French anatomist Antoine Ferrein in 1741.

* January 30 – Charles Rollin, French historian ( d. 1741 )

* July 15 – Jean Antoine Houdon, French sculptor ( b. 1741 )

* January 4 – Benedetto, Duke of Chablais, Italian general in the French Revolution ( b. 1741 )

* September 5 – Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, French general and author ( b. 1741 )

* October 9 – Pigneau de Behaine, the French priest who helped to establish the Nguyen dynasty ( b. 1741 )

* April 6 – Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, French poet ( d. 1741 )

Over twenty editions were issued between 1703 and 1741, including editions in French, English, Dutch and German.

The French in the meantime had stormed Prague on 26 November 1741, Francis Stephen, husband of Maria Theresa, who commanded the Austrians in Bohemia, moving too slowly to save the fortress.

He was followed, but when the British force came in sight of him Navarro had been joined by a French squadron under Claude-Elisée de La Bruyère de Court ( December 1741 ).

Jean-Antoine Houdon () ( 20 March 1741 – 15 July 1828 ) was a French neoclassical sculptor.

Notable Hogarth engravings in the 1740s includeThe Enraged Musician ( 1741 ), the six prints of Marriage à-la-mode ( 1745 ; executed by French artists under Hogarth's inspection ), and The Stage Coach or The Country Inn Yard ( 1747 ).

In 1741, Jacques de Vaucanson, a French inventor who designed and built automated mechanical toys, was appointed inspector of silk factories.

Abbé Augustin Barruel ( October 2, 1741 – October 5, 1820 ) was a French Jesuit priest.

* Anne-César, Chevalier de la Luzerne ( 1741 – 1791 ), the French ambassador to the Second Continental Congress and the Congress of the Confederation from 1779 to 1784

His major writings are the treatises Von dem Wunderbaren in der Poesie ( 1740 ; this and following years link to corresponding " in poetry " articles ) and Kritische Betrachtungen über die poetischen Gemählde der Dichter ( 1741 ), in which he pleaded for the freedom of the imagination from the restriction imposed upon it by French pseudo-classicism.

During the brief regency of Anna Leopoldovna ( October 1740-December 1741 ) Osterman stood at the height of his power, and the French ambassador, Marquis de La Chetardie, reported to his court that " it is not too much to say that he is tsar of all Russia " Osterman's foreign policy was based upon the Austrian alliance.

The most obvious method of rendering the Russian alliance unserviceable to the queen of Hungary was by implicating Russia in hostilities with her ancient rival, Sweden, and this was brought about, by French influence and French money, when in August 1741 the Swedish government, on the most frivolous pretexts, declared war against Russia.