1721 CE

Pirates John Taylor and Olivier Levasseur capture the 700-ton Portuguese galleon Nossa Senhora do Cabo at Réunion. The total value of treasure on board (from Goa) is estimated as between £100,000 and £875,000, one of the largest pirate hauls ever. (October 22 Old Style) – The Romanov and architect of the Great Northern War Peter I, is proclaimed the first Emperor of All the Russias. This replaces the 174-year-long Tsardom of Russia with the Russian Empire, which will collapse almost 200 years later in 1917. Philip V of Spain signs a Royal Decree in Lerma, transforming the Seminary of Saint Rose of Lima in Caracas into the Universidad Real y Pontificia de Caracas.

In the 1720s, the 18th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

April 4 – Robert Walpole becomes the first Prime Minister of Great Britain (although this is more a term of disparagement at this time).source
4 April – Robert Walpole becomes the first Prime Minister (although this is more a term of disparagement at this time).United Kingdom source
June 24 – an act of the Parliament of Great Britain permits Charles Butler, 1st Earl of Arran, to purchase the Irish estates forfeited by his brother James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde.Ireland source
September 10 (August 23 Old Style) – The Treaty of Nystad is signed, ending the Great Northern War.source
10 September – Great Northern War ends.Norway source
10 September – The Treaty of Nystad is signed, ending the Great Northern War.Sweden source
October 22 – The Kelantan Sultanate is established at Kelantan Darul Naim (modern-day Kelantan Darul Naim, Malaysia).source
Signing of the Treaty of Nystad - final peace treaty of the Great Northern War, officially ending it.Russia source
Maurits Pasques de Chavonnes is promoted from Cape Colony Governor to Justice of India.South Africa source
c. March – Atterbury Plot to restore the Stuart monarchy begins.United Kingdom source

Conflict & Security

25 May - The Battle of Sundsvall during the Russian Pillage of 1719-1721.Sweden source
August 18 – The Sack of Shamakhi occurs, in the Persian Safavid Empire.source
November 2 (October 22 Old Style) – The Romanov and architect of the Great Northern War Peter I, is proclaimed the first Emperor of All the Russias. This replaces the 174-year-long Tsardom of Russia with the Russian Empire, which will collapse almost 200 years later in 1917.source
José de Azlor y Virto de Vera, Marquis of San Miguel de Aguayo and governor of Spanish Texas, establishes the fort of Presidio La Bahía at its original location, on the ruins of the failed French Fort Saint Louis.source
A suggestion box is developed under the eighth shōgun of Japan, Yoshimune Tokugawa.source
800 Acadians take oath of allegiance to the French.Canada source
Battle of Coille Bhan: British Army troops of Colonel Kirk's Regiment under Captain McNeill drive off an attack from the Clan Mackenzie but again fail to collect rents on their estates.Scotland source
Battle of Glen Affric: Men of the Jacobite Clan Mackenzie and Clan Macrae ambush men of the pro-Hanoverian Clan Ross led by William Ross, 6th of Easter Fearn (who is fatally wounded) when he attempts to collect rents (forfeit to the crown) on the Mackenzie estates.Scotland source
There is a high mortality rate at the VOC post in Delagoa, as two-thirds of the 620 men die in six weeks.South Africa source

Exploration & Expansion

2 May – Hans Egede departed with three ships from Bergen to Greenland, starting the Danish-Norwegian colonization of Greenland.Norway source
July 31 – The Spanish expedition led by Coahuila Governor José de Azlor y Virto de Vera, sent to recapture Texas from the French, encounters Neches River the smaller French force of Louis Juchereau de St. Denis, who had led the French expansion westward from the Louisiana territory. Realizing that his forces are badly outnumbered, St. Denis abandons hope of colonizing the east Texas territory and Azlor retakes the area.source
A slave trading operation is established in Rio de Lagoa, where the VOC trade about 25 slaves annually.South Africa source
The first barrel of blue beads arrives at Delagoa Bay for trade.South Africa source
Ivory is withheld until Dutch ships are prepared to leave, as the locals are suspecting a secret bead stash.South Africa source
The VOC sends soldiers aboard the Gouda and Zeelandia to occupy Rio de Lagoa, or Delagoa Bay. At this time, the Tembe chiefdom controlled trade.South Africa source

Religion & Belief

3 April – The funeral of Queen Louise takes place at Roskilde Cathedral.Denmark source
May 8 – Pope Innocent XIII succeeds Pope Clement XI, as the 244th pope.source
The title Baron Bessborough, of Bessborough, Piltown in the County of Kilkenny, is created in the Peerage of Ireland in favour of William Ponsonby.Ireland source
Robert Wodrow publishes The History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland.Scotland source

Economy & Finance

The French theater company of the royal court, La troupe du Roi de Danemark is dissolved.Denmark source
National income - ₹8,303 millionIndia source
The Bergen Greenland Company was founded.Norway source

Technology & Infrastructure

Regular mail service between London and New England is established.source
Nazarbaug Palace, a Gaekwad palace built in Vadodara, Gujarat stateIndia source

Science & Discovery

John Prichard Prys – Difyrwch CrefyddolWales source

Health & Medicine

April 21 – The deadliest outbreak of smallpox in the history of Boston begins when the British ship HMS Sea Horse arrives in Boston Harbor with a crew of sailors who had survived a smallpox epidemic. One of the Seahorse crew who had cleared quarantine develops symptoms the next day and infects other people in a lodging house. Over the next 10 months, 5,759 cases of smallpox are recorded in Boston and 844 people die of the disease.source
April – October, the Attingal Outbreak took placeIndia source
May – Prince William, the youngest child of the Prince and Princess of Wales, is taken ill with suspected smallpox; it turns out to be a false alarm, but inoculation becomes popular among aristocratic families as well as the royal family.Wales source
June 26 – Dr. Zabdiel Boylston of the Harvard University School of Medicine begins the first public inoculation campaign in order to slow the smallpox epidemic in Boston, giving a vaccine to his own son, and then to his slave and the slave's infant son.source
Chandos Chair of Medicine and Anatomy established at the University of St Andrews.Scotland source
Thomas Guy founds Guy's Hospital in London.United Kingdom source
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu introduces smallpox inoculation to Britain: the Princess of Wales is persuaded to test the treatment and the procedure becomes fashionable.United Kingdom source

Crime & Justice

9 March – John Aislabie imprisoned in the Tower of London, found guilty of corruption for his part in the collapse of the South Sea Company as Chancellor of the Exchequer.United Kingdom source
April 26 – Pirates John Taylor and Olivier Levasseur capture the 700-ton Portuguese galleon Nossa Senhora do Cabo at Réunion. The total value of treasure on board (from Goa) is estimated as between £100,000 and £875,000, one of the largest pirate hauls ever.source

Disasters & Accidents

January 6 – The Committee of Inquiry on the collapse of the South Sea Company in Great Britain publishes its findings.source
6 January – The Committee of Inquiry on the collapse of the South Sea Company publishes its findings.United Kingdom source
15 April - A great fire in Gothenburg.Sweden source
May to June - Hudiksvall, Härnösand, Piteå, Sundsvall, Söderhamn and Umeå are burned by the Russians during the Russian Pillage of 1719-1721, but Gävle is successfully defended.Sweden source

Climate & Environment

13 and 14 November, the 1721 Madras cyclone struck Madras (now Chennai)India source
Drought severely affects South East African gardening efforts, with temperatures too high and no consistent rainy season.South Africa source
Elephant herds disappeared from the Delagoa region, affecting the VOC ivory trade.South Africa source

Culture & Society

January 3 - The Love Suicides at Amijima (Shinjūten no Amijima) is performed for the first time at the Takemoto Theater. (Traditional Japanese Date: Sixth Day of the Twelfth Month, 1720)Japan source
11 January – Printer Isaac Carter marries Ann Lewis at Cenarth.Wales source
March 24 – Johann Sebastian Bach's Brandenburg concertos are completed, and dedicated to Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt.source
1 August – The King orders a large sale of church property in Norway.Norway source
7 August – The wedding of Crown Prince Christian and Sophie Magdalene of Brandenburg-Kulmbach takes place at Pretzsch Castle in Saxony.Denmark source
21 December – Niels Tygesen Knag was ennobled, and given the noble family name Knagenhjelm.Norway source
December 22 – Philip V of Spain signs a Royal Decree in Lerma, transforming the Seminary of Saint Rose of Lima in Caracas into the Universidad Real y Pontificia de Caracas.source
30 December – Bridget Vaughan marries Arthur Bevan, a barrister.Wales source
December - Cricket was first played in India for Recreational purpose by English sailors in Cambay (now Khambhat), Gujarat.India source
The first theater performance is presented at the Bollhuset for fifteen years, since the theater is opened again after the war.Sweden source

Births

21 January – James Murray, military officer and colonial administrator (died 1794)Scotland source
February 3 – Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, Prussian general (died 1773)source
February 21 – John McKinly, American physician, President of Delaware (died 1796)source
March 8 – Elizabeth Pierrepont, Duchess of Kingston-upon-Hull, English noble (died 1788)source
March 9 – Countess Palatine Caroline of Zweibrücken (died 1774)source
March 19 – Tobias Smollett, Scottish physician and author (died 1771)source
6 April – Frederick Christian I, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, duke (died 1804)Denmark source
April 14 – John Hanson, President of the Continental Congress of America (died 1783)source
April 15 – Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, English military leader (died 1765)source
15 April – Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, military leader (died 1765)United Kingdom source
April 19 – Roger Sherman, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence (died 1793)source
June 19 – Johann de Kalb, Bavarian-French military officer who served as a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War (died 1780)source
August 4 – Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, English politician (died 1803)source
September 10 – Peyton Randolph, 1st and 3rd President of the Continental Congress (died 1775)source
November 9 – Mark Akenside, English poet and physician (died 1770)source
30 November – John Egerton, bishop of Bangor (died 1787)Wales source
December 6 – Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, French statesman (died 1794)source
December 29 – Madame de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV of France (died 1764)source

Deaths

January 26 – Pierre Daniel Huet, French churchman and scholar (born 1630)source
February 5 – James Stanhope, chief minister of Great Britain, dies a day after collapsing while vigorously defending his government's conduct over the "South Sea Bubble" in Parliament.source
February 5 –James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope, English chief minister (born 1673)source
15 February – Tørres Christensen, merchant, ship owner, land owner (born 1664).Norway source
February 24 – John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, English statesman and poet (born 1648)source
March 19 – Pope Clement XI (born 1649)source
April – Mary Read, English-born piratesource
July 8 – Elihu Yale, American benefactor of Yale University (born 1649)source
8 July – Elihu Yale, East India merchant and educationist (born 1649 in Massachusetts)United Kingdom source
July 18 – Jean-Antoine Watteau, French painter (born 1684)source
28 July – Sir Edward Williams, MP, 61Wales source
August 3 – Grinling Gibbons, Dutch-born woodcarver (born 1648)source
September 17 – Marguerite Louise d'Orléans, French princess (born 1645)source
September 18 – Matthew Prior, British poet and diplomat (born 1664)source
October 11 – Edward Colston, English merchant, philanthropist (born 1636)source
December 13 – Alexander Selkirk, Scottish-born sailor (original "Robinson Crusoe"), of yellow fever (born 1676)source
date unknown – Sultan Abdullah Khan Abdali, Persian Governor, Shah of Herat (born 1670)source
Nicolaus Laubscher, founder of Oranjezicht, dies.South Africa source