February 23: A French and Spanish fleet defeats the British at the Battle of Toulon, clearing the way for a possible French invasion of Britain.
Events
January–March
January 6 – The Royal Navy ship Bacchus engages the Spanish Navy privateer Begona, and sinks it; 90 of the 120 Spanish sailors die, but 30 of the crew are rescued.
March 13 – The British ship Betty capsizes and sinks off of the Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana) near Anomabu. More than 200 people on board die, although there are a few survivors.
May 11 – Russia's treasury begins an effort to reduce the number of copper five-kopeck pieces (20 of which equal a Russian ruble) by declaring that it will buy them back at a ruble for every 20 until August 1, after which kopecks would be redeemed at a ruble for every 25; then at the rate of 33 for a ruble on October 1, and 50 for a ruble on and after August 28, 1746.[3]
June 28 – At the age of 15, Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, the future Empress of Russia, is received into the Russian Orthodox Church after converting from the Lutheran faith. Upon her conversion to the Russian Orthodox religion, she is given the name Yekaterina (Catherine). In 1762, she takes the throne as the Empress Catherine II, later known as Catherine the Great.
July–September
July 8 – The Royal Navy privateer Somerset capsizes and sinks in the Bristol Channel, killing 86 of the 97 crew.
October 4 – In one of the greatest disasters for the Royal Navy, HMS Victory sinks in a storm in the English Channel, killing 1,100 sailors and officers it had been bringing back from Gibraltar to England, including Admiral John Balchen.[8] The wreck will be located 264 years later, in January, 2009.[9]
The Massachusetts General Court, colonial legislature for the Massachusetts Bay Province, approves an incentive for the killing of enemy Indians, authorizing the payment of 100 Massachusetts pounds for the scalping of a Mi'kmaq or Maliseet Indian, and 50 for the scalps of women or children.[12]
December 18 – Queen Maria Theresa of Austria issues a proclamation to rid Bohemia of its Jewish residents, with the Jews to leave Prague over the next two weeks, and then to depart from Bohemia entirely in 1745.[15]
^Instructions, golf club rules and competitions History of Golf accessed 10 Feb 2017 History of golf
^"Banking in the Russian Empire", by Antoine E. Horn, in A History of Banking in All the Leading Nations (Journal of Commerce and Commercial Bulletin, 1896) pp342-343
^Martin Philippson, The Age of the European Balance of Power, translated by John Henry Wright (Lea Brothers & Company, 1905) p267
^"Canso, Battle of (1744)", by John D. Hamilton, in Colonial Wars of North America, 1512-1763: An Encyclopedia, ed. by Alan Gallay (Routledge, 2015) p100
^John T. Alexander, Catherine the Great: Life and Legend (Oxford University Press, 1989) pp27-28
^"Anson, George", by Joseph A. Devine, Jr., in Historical Dictionary of the British Empire, ed. by James S. Olson and Robert Shadle (Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996) p68
^Stewart Gordon, A History of the World in Sixteen Shipwrecks (ForeEdge, University Press of New England, 2015) p.140
