1725 CE

J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Liebster Immanuel, Herzog der Frommen, BWV 123, a chorale cantata for Epiphany. James Macrae, a former captain of a freighter for the British East India Company, is hired by the Company to administer the Madras Presidency (at this time, the "Presidency of Fort St. George"), and begins major reforms. The area administered is most of Southern India, including what is now the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, parts the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha and the union territory of Lakshadweep. The second performance of Johann Sebastian Bach's St John Passion, BWV 245 (including 5 movements from his Weimarer Passion), takes place at St. Thomas Church, Leipzig.

In the 1720s, the 18th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

January 15 – James Macrae, a former captain of a freighter for the British East India Company, is hired by the Company to administer the Madras Presidency (at this time, the "Presidency of Fort St. George"), and begins major reforms. The area administered is most of Southern India, including what is now the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, parts the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha and the union territory of Lakshadweep.source
January 25 – The Spanish corsair Amaro Pargo receives the title of Hidalgo (nobleman).source
April 30 – Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor and King Philip V of Spain sign the Treaty of Vienna.source
July 8 – Mattheus de Haan becomes the new Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia), governing until his death on June 1, 1729 in Batavia (modern Jakarta).source
August – John Ker, 1st Duke of Roxburghe, resigns as Secretary of State for Scotland; the post remains vacant until 1742.Scotland source
3 September – Treaty of Hanover signed between Great Britain, France and Prussia.United Kingdom source
September 16 – The Treaty of Hanover is signed between Great Britain, France and Prussia.source
16 September – The Treaty of Hanover is signed between Great Britain, France and Prussia.France source
November 5 – The fourth and final treaty of the 1725 Peace of Vienna is signed to create an alliance between Austria and Spain.source
December 12 – Johan Willem Ripperda of the Netherlands, the former Dutch Ambassador to Spain, arrives in Madrid and claims that King Philip V has appointed him as the new Prime Minister. The bluff is successful and he is granted authority by the King's advisers, but after four months, he is forced to resign.source
December 15 – A treaty is signed by chiefs of four member tribes of the Wabanaki Confederacy (the Abenaki, Pequawket, Mi'kmaq, Maliseet) and representatives of three British provinces in North America (Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire and Nova Scotia) and their allies, the Mohawk nation, bringing an end to Dummer's War, named for acting Massachusetts Bay Governor William Dummer.source
1725–1730 - Freemasonry is established in France as an English import.France source
James Anderson of Stobcross House feues out land near Glasgow for weavers cottages; the area is named Anderson Town in his honour, later becoming Anderston.Scotland source

Conflict & Security

7 April - George Cholmondeley, 2nd Earl of Cholmondeley, succeeds his late brother as Lord Lieutenant of North Wales.Wales source
May 12 – The Black Watch is raised as a military company, as part of the pacification of the Scottish Highlands under General George Wade.source
12 May – the Black Watch is raised as a military company as part of the pacification of the Highlands under General George Wade.Scotland source
12 May – the Black Watch is raised as a military company as part of the pacification of the Scottish Highlands under General George Wade.United Kingdom source
22 June – malt riots in Glasgow against higher taxes on Scottish malt used in the production of distilled beverages. Wade's troops enter the city.Scotland source
20 November – the horse-post from Edinburgh to London vanishes after passing through Berwick-upon-Tweed; horse and rider are thought to have perished on tidal sands near Lindisfarne.United Kingdom source
A second Disarming Act is passed as part of the pacification of the Highlands.Scotland source

Exploration & Expansion

October 23 – Russia dispatches 1,500 troops and 120 civilians to Russia's border with China, on a mission to survey the boundaries in order to make a treaty with the Chinese Empire. Serbian adventurer Sava Vladislavich leads a group of cartographers to prepare maps in advance of traveling on to Beijing.source
Claude-Thomas Dupuy was appointed intendant of New France.Canada source
Peter the Great sends Vitus Bering to explore the North Pacific.Canada source
1725-1729 - First Arctic expedition of Vitas Bering.Canada source
Poet James Thomson moves to London.Scotland source
Young sailor Erik Persson Ångerman is abducted and enslaved by corsairs in Algiers on May 10th. His wife appeals to King Frederick I to gather money to buy his freedom. The king grants her request.Sweden source

Religion & Belief

May 15 – Bach leads the first performance of his cantata Ich bin ein guter Hirt, BWV 85, about Jesus as the Good Shepherd.source
18 May – the Order of the Bath is founded by King George I.United Kingdom source
June 24 – The Grand Lodge of Ireland in Dublin holds its first recorded meeting, making it the second most senior Grand Lodge in world Freemasonry, and the oldest in continuous existence.source
June 24 – first recorded meeting of the Grand Lodge of Ireland in Dublin, making it the second most senior Grand Lodge in world Freemasonry, and the oldest in continuous existence.Ireland source
1 October – The County of Scheel is established by Christen Skeel from the manors of Sostrup, Skærvad, Ørbækgaard, Steensmark, Debildhede, Skiern and Karmark.Denmark source
In Qing dynasty China, 66 copies of a 5,020 volume-long encyclopedia, the Complete Classics Collection of Ancient China are printed, necessitating the crafting of 250,000 movable type characters cast in bronze.source
The Terengganu Sultanate is established at Terengganu Darul Iman (in modern Malaysia).source
Allan Ramsay publishes The Gentle Shepherd: A Scots pastoral comedy.Scotland source
Swedish count and politician Carl Gustaf Tessin is appointed ambassador to Vienna and becomes prominent in the Riksdag of the Estates.Sweden source
Alexander Pope produces an English language translation of Homer's Odyssey.United Kingdom source
Matthew Maddox becomes organist of St David's Cathedral.Wales source
William Lewis & Evan Pryce - Maddeuant i'r EdifairiolWales source

Economy & Finance

June 23 – The Malt tax riots begin in Scotland in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, after the price of beer and scotch whisky increases. Earlier in the year, the British government extended the taxes in England on malted grain to brewers and distilleries in Scotland. The rioting then spreads throughout Scottish counties.source
Freemasonry is established in France, as an English import.source

Technology & Infrastructure

The construction of the Oslo Ladegård is complete.Norway source
One of the earliest examples of a steam pump in Scotland is installed for draining coal mines at Edmonstone in Midlothian.Scotland source
Mining of minerals at Strontian begins.Scotland source

Science & Discovery

25 April – HDMS Slesvig is launched at Nyholm in Copenhagen.Denmark source
November 26 – British astronomers James Bradley and Samuel Molyneux set up a telescope in Molyneux's private observatory to begin their observations of stellar parallax of the star Gamma Draconis. The observations, which start on December 3, lead to Bradley's pioneering discovery of the aberration of light.source
Silvanus Bevan is elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on the recommendation of Sir Isaac Newton.Wales source

Health & Medicine

January – In Japan, the policy of the Gonin Gumi organizing groups of every five households in a town into units collectively responsible for the good behavior of everyone in the unit, goes into effect as the register of units is completed by the Tokugawa shogunate.source
February 20 – The first reported case of white men scalping Native Americans takes place in New Hampshire colony.source
Public bath houses are banned to prevent the spread of syphilis.Sweden source
The new building of the Danviken Hospital is completed.Sweden source

Crime & Justice

2 March – in London, a night watchman finds a severed head by the Thames; it is later recognized to be that of the husband of Catherine Hayes. She and an accomplice are executed the following year.United Kingdom source
May 24 – Jonathan Wild, fraudulent 'Thief-Taker General', is hanged at Tyburn in London, for actually aiding criminals.source
24 May – Jonathan Wild, fraudulent "Thief Taker General", is hanged in Tyburn, for actually aiding criminals.United Kingdom source
October 19 – Joan Paul Schaghen is appointed by the Dutch East India Company to serve as the Governor of Ceylon after the death of Johannes Hertenberg.source

Disasters & Accidents

August 27 – At least 216 people die in the sinking of the Chameau, a ship of the French Navy, after the vessel is driven by a storm into rocks off of the coast of Nova Scotia. Reportedly, 180 bodies wash ashore near Louisbourg. The ship's cargo, which included a fortune in gold and silver coins, is discovered 240 years later in 1965.source
August 27 - French ship Chameau sank near Louisbourg.Canada source
A fire in Wapping, London, destroys 70 houses.source
A fire in Wapping, England destroys 70 houses.United Kingdom source

Culture & Society

January 1 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of his chorale cantata Jesu, nun sei gepreiset, BWV 41, which features the trumpet fanfares from the beginning also in the end.source
January 6 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Liebster Immanuel, Herzog der Frommen, BWV 123, a chorale cantata for Epiphany.source
January 20 – James Figg hosts the first recorded international boxing match, fought between English livestock drover Bob Whitaker and Venetian gondolier Alberto di Carni in London.source
February 2 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of his chorale cantata Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin, BWV 125, based on Luther's paraphrase of the Nunc dimittis.source
February 8 – (January 28 Old Style) Catherine I becomes Empress of Russia on the death of her husband, Peter the Great.source
February 23 – J. S. Bach leads his Tafel-Music Shepherd Cantata for the birthday of Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels.source
March 25 – Bach's chorale cantata Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BWV 1, is first performed on the Feast of the Annunciation, coinciding with Palm Sunday.source
March 30 – The second performance of Johann Sebastian Bach's St John Passion, BWV 245 (including 5 movements from his Weimarer Passion), takes place at St. Thomas Church, Leipzig.source
April 1 – J. S. Bach's later Easter Oratorio in its first version is performed at the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig on Easter Sunday.source
April 2 – J. S. Bach's cantata Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden, BWV 6, is first performed in Leipzig on Easter Monday.source
4 May - Ann Thomas (the "Maid of Cefn Ydfa") marries Anthony Maddocks.Wales source
May 21 – On the day of the grand wedding of her daughter Anna to the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, Empress Catherine I of Russia creates the Order of Saint Alexander Nevskysource
July 15 – Sir Richard Everard becomes the 4th Governor of North Carolina.source
August 15 – The civil marriage of King Louis XV of France and Princess Maria Leszczyńska of Poland is held at Strasbourg. The King is not present, and his cousin, the Duke of Orléans, serves as his proxy.source
August 19 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren, BWV 137, a cantata setting the unchanged text of Neander's hymn.source
September 5 – The day after they meet for the first time, the wedding ceremony of King Louis and Marie takes place in Fontainebleau, making her the Queen Consort of France. Their marriage lasts for almost 43 years until her death in 1768.source
November 8 – The first newspaper in the Province of New York, the New-York Gazette, is introduced by William Bradford as a weekly publication.source
November 22 – Chief Chicagou of the Mitchigamea tribe, and chiefs of five other tribes of the Illini Confederation, are received as guests of King Louis XV in Paris. Chicagou pledges the Illini's support of the French presence in North America.source
December 25 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of the Christmas cantata Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, BWV 110, making laughter audible in singing.source
The Four Seasons, a set of violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi, is published.source
Gradus ad Parnassum, a seminal work on counterpoint, laying out rules of constructing music, is published by Johann Joseph Fux.source
William Thomson compiles Orpheus Caledonius: or a Collection of the Best Scotch Songs.Scotland source
Barony of Calton, including Calton Hill, purchased by the city of Edinburgh.Scotland source
Sir John Philipps, 6th Baronet, marries Elizabeth Shepherd.Wales source

Births

11 February – Johan Frederik Classen, industrialist and philanthropist (died 1792).Norway source
March 6 – Henry Benedict Stuart, Italian-born cardinal, Jacobite claimant to the British throne (died 1807)source
March 17 – Lachlan McIntosh, Scottish-born American military and political leader (died 1806)source
March 20 – Abdul Hamid I, Ottoman Sultan (died 1789)source
March 24 – Thomas Cushing, American Continental Congressman (died 1788)source
28 March - William Morgan (of Tredegar, younger), politician (died 1763)Wales source
April 2 – Giacomo Casanova, Italian adventurer, writer (died 1798)source
April 6 – Pasquale Paoli, Corsican patriot, military leader (died 1807)source
April 25 – Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel, British admiral (died 1786)source
May 12 – Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, French soldier, writer (died 1785)source
July 24 – John Newton, English cleric and hymnist (died 1807)source
August 29 – Charles Townshend, English politician (died 1767)source
September 24 – Arthur Guinness, Irish brewer (died 1803)source
September 29 – Robert Clive, British general, statesman (died 1774)source
29 September – Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, general and statesman (died 1774)United Kingdom source
December 11 – George Mason, American founding father (died 1792)source
December 23 – Ahmad Shah Bahadur, 14th Mughal Emperor (died 1775)source
Juan José Pérez Hernández, naval officer and explorer (died 1775)Canada source

Deaths

January 6 – Chikamatsu Monzaemon, Japanese dramatist (born 1653)source
January 6 - Chikamatsu Monzaemon, playwright (born 1653)Japan source
February 7 – Johann Philipp Krieger, German Baroque composer (born 1649)source
February 8 – Emperor Peter I of Russia (born 1672)source
8 March – The Dutch merchant ship Akerendam sinks near the island of Runde during its maiden voyage, the entire ship's crew of 200 people dies in the sinking.Norway source
March 30 – René de Froulay de Tessé, French Marshal and diplomat (born 1648)source
April 12 – Giovanni Battista Foggini, Italian artist (born 1652)source
April 25 – Paul de Rapin, French historian (born 1661)source
May 22 – Robert Molesworth, 1st Viscount Molesworth, Irish politician (born 1656)source
May 24 – Jonathan Wild, English criminal (born 1682)source
24 May – Jonathan Wild, criminal (born 1682)United Kingdom source
June 29 – Arai Hakuseki, Japanese poet, politician, and writer (born 1657)source
July 17 – Thomas King, English and British soldier, MP for Queenborough, lieutenant-governor of Sheerness (born before 1660?)source
October 10 – Francesco del Giudice, Italian Catholic cardinal (born 1647)source
October 16 – Ralph Thoresby, British historian (born 1658)source
October 24 – Alessandro Scarlatti, Italian composer (born 1660)source
29 November - William Jones, 49, Principal of Jesus College, Oxford.Wales source
December 10 – Nicolaas Hartsoeker, Dutch mathematician and physicist (born 1656)source