Maria Theresa has herself crowned Queen of…

Russian maritime fur trading in the northern Pacific begins after the exploration voyages of Bering and Chirikov in 1741 and 1742, which have demonstrated that Asia and North America are not connected but that sea voyages are feasible, and that the region is rich in furs.

Private fur traders, mostly promyshlenniki, launch fur trading expeditions from Kamchatka, at first focusing on nearby islands such as ...

...the Commander Islands.

These maritime expeditions, unlike fur trading ventures in Siberia, require more capital than most promyshlenniki can obtain.

Merchants from cities such as Irkutsk, Tobolsk, and others in European Russia, become the principal investors.

An early trader is Emilian Basov, who trades at Bering Island in 1743, collecting a large number of sea otter, fur seal, and blue arctic fox furs.

Basov mounts four expeditions to Bering Island, which is the largest of the Commander Islands, and nearby Medny Island.

He makes a fortune, inspiring many other traders.

Dresden's  Baroque Frauenkirche has been built between 1726 and 1743, designed by Dresden's city architect, George Bähr, who had not lived to see the completion of his greatest work.

Bähr's distinctive design for the church has captured the new spirit of the Protestant liturgy by placing the altar, pulpit, and baptismal font directly centered in view of the entire congregation.

Famed organ maker Gottfried Silbermann in 1736 had built a three-pedal, forty-three-stop instrument for the church.

The organ was dedicated on November 25 and Johann Sebastian Bach had given a recital on the instrument on 1 December.

The church's most distinctive feature is its unconventional ninety-six meter-high dome, called die Steinerne Glocke or "Stone Bell".

An engineering feat comparable to Michelangelo's dome for St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, the Frauenkirche's twelve thousand-ton sandstone dome stands high, resting on eight slender supports.

Dresden’s first Kirche zu unser liuben Vrouwen had been built in the eleventh century in romanesque style, outside the city walls and surrounded by a grave yard.

The Frauenkirche had been the seat of an archbishop in the Meißen Diocese until the Reformation, when it had become a Protestant church.

This first Frauenkirche had been torn down in 1727 and replaced by a new church due to the need for increased capacity.

The modern Frauenkirche is built by the citizenry as a Lutheran (Protestant) parish church.

Even though Saxony's Prince-elector, Frederick August I, had reconverted to Roman Catholicism to become King of Poland, he had supported the construction so that the Dresden townscape would feature an impressive cupola.

Attempts to ratify the treaty ending the Ottoman-Afsharid War are impeded by Persia's insistence that a small Shiite sect, the Ja'fari, be declared orthodox, and by Ottoman haughtiness in torturing the ambassadors of Nadir Shah.

Nader Shah in 1743 declares war on the Turks and, after demanding the surrender of Baghdad, begins a long march to Constantinople.

However, when he learns that the Ottoman ulema (Muslim legal council) has made respectable a holy war against Persia, ...

The Persian forces occupy Muscat and ...

...he turns east after having captured Kirkuk, ...

..seizing Arbil and ...

...besieging Mosul as a threat to Baghdad.

The covered tureens made by silversmith Thomas Germain are spectacular; a silver tureen by him, stamped for 1733, will be sold at Sotheby New York in November 1996 for US$10,287,500, setting the world's record auction price for a single piece of silver.

He makes a pair of tureens in 1735  for Evelyn Pierrepont, 2nd Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull, to designs by Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier that Henry Hawley has said "represents the apogee of the French rococo". (Henry Hawley, "Meissonnier's Kingston Tureen" Magazine Antiques January 1997.)