Events January–March January 13 – Lanesborough, Massachusetts is created as a township. February 13 – Sir Robert Walpole, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, popularizes the term "the balance of power" in a speech in Parliament. February 14 – Irish-born actor Charles Macklin makes his London stage debut as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, pioneering a psychologically realistic style with Shakespeare's text revived, replacing George Granville's melodramatic adaptation The Jew of Venice. March 9 – Prussian troops bring down the Austrian fortress of Glogau (modern-day Głogów in Poland). March 13 – The British Royal Navy takes 180 warships, frigates and transport vessels, led by Admiral Edward Vernon, to threaten Cartagena, Colombia, with more than 27,000 crew against the 3,600 defenders. April–June April 6 – The New York Slave Insurrection, a plot to set fire to New York City, is discovered. April 10 – An Austrian army is defeated by Prussian troops of Frederick the Great in the Battle of Mollwitz. May 4 – Vitus Bering sets out from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to map the coasts of Siberia and Alaska. May 9 – War of Jenkins' Ear: Battle of Cartagena de Indias – Spain's defenders in New Grenada, under the command of General Blas de Lezo, defeat Edward Vernon's Royal Navy force, leading to a British retreat to Jamaica. May 14 – HMS Wager, one of the vessels of George Anson's voyage around the world, is wrecked on the coast of Chile, killing most of the crew who have survived scurvy. May 15 – Nader Shah, Emperor of Persia, narrowly escapes an assassination attempt. May 21 – King George II of Great Britain orders the British Army to prepare for an invasion of Prussia to defend his Electorate of Hanover. June 11 – 1741 British general election, begun on April 30, concludes with Prime Minister Robert Walpole's Whigs retaining their majority in the House of Commons but losing 44 seats to candidates who have defected to the new Patriot Whigs to oppose his policies. June 25 – Maria Theresa of Austria is crowned Queen Regnant of Hungary in Bratislava. July–September July 8 – Jonathan Edwards repeats his Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God sermon at Enfield, Connecticut. July 15 – Alexei Chirikov sights land in Southeast Alaska, and sends some men aboard his ship ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to