Empress Anna's Ice House
Palace, furniture, cannons and an elephant — all made of ice
In the winter of 1740 a 16-metre house was built of ice on the Neva, with ice furniture, a bed, logs in the fireplace, ice cannons and a life-size ice elephant. For sport the empress held a mock wedding there for Prince Golitsyn, and the couple had to spend the night on an ice bed.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake — 15 years later
- 1756–1763 Seven Years' War — 16 years later
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — 20 years later
Middle East
- 1722 Fall of Isfahan — 18 years earlier
- 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — 7 years later
Asia
- 1755–1758 The Dzungar genocide — 15 years later
- 1757 Battle of Plassey — 17 years later
- 1761 Third Battle of Panipat — 21 years later
Alive at the time
- Johann Sebastian Bach (aged 55)
- Voltaire (aged 46)
- Benjamin Franklin (aged 34)
- Mikhail Lomonosov (aged 29)
- James Cook (aged 12)
- Catherine the Great (aged 11)
- George Washington (aged 8)
- Vitus Bering (aged 59)
- Tokugawa Yoshimune (aged 56)
- Nader Shah (aged 52)