1726 CE

J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Alles nur nach Gottes Willen, BWV 72, concluding his third Christmas season in Leipzig on the Third Sunday after Epiphany. The first large shipment of slaves is brought to New Orleans as the slave ship L'Aurore arrives with 290 black Africans captured in Gambia. During the 90-day voyage from Gorée in Senegal, 60 of the slaves have died. After King Haffon of the West African Kingdom of Whydah (in modern-day Benin) allows Portuguese traders to build the Fort of São João Baptista de Ajudá in the capital at Savi, mercenaries of the Dutch West India Company make a failed attempt to destroy the fort by "throwing two flaming spears over the walls". By 1726, traders from Britain, France, the Netherlands and Portugal are all competing to establish trade with Whydah, which supplies other West Africans to be used as slaves.

In the 1720s, the 18th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

January 26 – The First Treaty of Vienna is signed between Austria, the Holy Roman Empire and Spain, creating the Austro-Spanish Alliance in advance of a war against Great Britain.source
February 8 – The Supreme Privy Council is established in Russia.source
March 31 – France's first ambassador to Russia, Jacques de Campredon, leaves after four years of trying to negotiate a Franco-Russian alliance with Catherine I and a failed attempt to arrange a marriage between King Louis XV and Catherine's daughter Elizabeth.source
May 1 – Voltaire begins his exile in England.source
May – Voltaire begins an exile in England which lasts three years.United Kingdom source
27 June – the Grand Allies, a cartel of coalowning families in the Northumberland and Durham Coalfield, is formed by George and Henry Liddell, George Bowes and Sidney and Edward Wortley.United Kingdom source
September 14 – The Nanfan Treaty of July 19, 1701 between the Iroquois Confederacy and the British Province of New York, is amended by both parties.source
October 1 – Juan Bautista de Orendáin y Azpilicueta is appointed again as Secretary of the Universal Bureau (Secretario del Despacho), the equivalent of the Prime Minister of Spain, after the retirement of José de Grimaldo.source
October 5 – Grigore II Ghica becomes the Prince of Moldavia for the first time after Mihai Racoviță steps aside.source
November - John Verney is appointed a judge in Wales by prime minister Robert Walpole, after switching his political allegiance.Wales source
Muhammad bin Saud becomes head of the House of Saud.source
Charles de la Boische, Marquis de Beauharnois was appointed as Governor of New France.Canada source
Claude-Thomas Dupuy took up his duties as intendant of New France.Canada source

Conflict & Security

February 13 – The Parliament of Negrete (between Mapuche and Spanish authorities in Chile) brings an end to the Mapuche uprising of 1723–26.source
March 2 – In London, a night watchman finds a severed head by the River Thames; it is later recognized to be that of the husband of Catherine Hayes. She and an accomplice are later executed.source
March 10 – China's Yongzheng Emperor issues a special edict instructing his "Vice Minister of Punishments" Huang Bing to interrogate Qin Daoran, who provides the evidence that Yongzheng's brothers Yintang, Yin-ssu and Yin-ti, had conspired to overthrow the Emperor.source
March 29 – The first large shipment of slaves is brought to New Orleans as the slave ship L'Aurore arrives with 290 black Africans captured in Gambia. During the 90-day voyage from Gorée in Senegal, 60 of the slaves have died.source
March 30 – After King Haffon of the West African Kingdom of Whydah (in modern-day Benin) allows Portuguese traders to build the Fort of São João Baptista de Ajudá in the capital at Savi, mercenaries of the Dutch West India Company make a failed attempt to destroy the fort by "throwing two flaming spears over the walls". By 1726, traders from Britain, France, the Netherlands and Portugal are all competing to establish trade with Whydah, which supplies other West Africans to be used as slaves.source
23 June – professional Irish swordsman Andrew Bryan is defeated in a public duel in Edinburgh by 62-year-old Killiecrankie veteran Donald Bane "to the great joy of the Edinburgh citizenry".Scotland source
Late 1726 – Nader Shah recaptures Mashhad.source
The remaining ruins of Liverpool Castle in England are finally demolished.source
The remaining ruins of Liverpool Castle are demolished.United Kingdom source

Exploration & Expansion

January 27 – On its maiden voyage, the Dutch East India Company frigate Aagtekerke departs from the Dutch Cape Colony on the second leg of its journey to the Dutch East Indies across the Indian Ocean and is never seen again. Aagtekerke carried a crew of 200 men.source
December 24 – The settlement of Montevideo is founded by the Spaniards in the Viceroyalty of Peru.source
Thomas-Jacques Taschereau arrived in New France (Canada) as a private secretary to the Intendant of New France, Claude-Thomas Dupuy.Canada source
John Dyer - Grongar Hill (included in Richard Savage’s Miscellaneous Poems and Translations by Several Hands)Wales source

Religion & Belief

12 January - Conventicle Act (Sweden)Sweden source
January 20 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of his cantata Meine Seufzer, meine Tränen (My sighs, my tears), BWV 13, for the second Sunday after Epiphany.source
January 23 (January 12 Old Style) – The Conventicle Act (Konventikelplakatet) is adopted in Sweden, outlawing all non-Lutheran religious meetings outside of church services.source
September 11 – French bishop André-Hercule de Fleury, later Prime Minister for King Louis XV of France, is made a Roman Catholic Cardinal by Pope Benedict XIII.source
September 23 – Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, issues an order limiting the number of Jews who can be legally recognized as legitimate householders.source
September 24 – Permission to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, celebrated on July 17, is extended by Pope Benedict XIII to the entire Roman Catholic Church.source
20 October – dedication of St Martin-in-the-Fields church in London as designed by James Gibbs.United Kingdom source
Moses Williams (ed.) - Repertorium PoeticumWales source

Economy & Finance

June 11 – André-Hercule de Fleury, recalled from exile by King Louis XV of France (his former pupil), forces banishment of Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon, the Prime Minister, and the Duke's mistress Madame de Prie from court. Financier Jean Pâris de Monmartel is also removed from his position as Guard of the Royal Treasury.source

Technology & Infrastructure

c. April/May – General George Wade begins an 11-year construction program on military roads of Scotland.Scotland source

Science & Discovery

October 27 – Rev. Dr. Caleb Threlkeld publishes Synopsis Stirpium Hibernicarum .....Dispositarum sive Commentatio de Plantis Indigenis praesertim Dublinensibus instituta in Dublin, the first flora of Ireland.Ireland source
The Complete Classics Collection of Ancient China, an immense Chinese encyclopedia, is printed using copper-based movable type printing.source
James Thomson begins publication of his poem cycle The Seasons with "Winter".Scotland source
Invention of the gridiron pendulum by John Harrison.United Kingdom source
date unknown - Poet Anna Williams and her father Zachariah move into the London Charterhouse while he experiments in using magnetism in pursuit of the longitude prize.Wales source

Health & Medicine

October–December – Mary Toft from Godalming causes a sensation by purporting to give birth to rabbits.United Kingdom source
A faculty of medicine is formally established at the University of Edinburgh, a predecessor of the University of Edinburgh Medical School. John Rutherford becomes Professor of Practice of Medicine.Scotland source

Crime & Justice

11 January - Thomas Lloyd of Halton becomes High Sheriff of Flintshire.Wales source
9 May – Catherine Hayes, convicted with two lovers for the brutal murder and dismemberment of her husband in London the previous year, becomes the last woman burned to death at the stake in England, at Tyburn (by this date it is usual for the condemned to be strangled before burning, but the process is botched in this case).United Kingdom source
11 July – André-Hercule Cardinal de Fleury, recalled from exile by King Louis XV, banishes Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon, and Madame de Prie from court.France source
August 7 – English-born pirate Nicholas Brown is captured near Xtabi, Jamaica.source
September 6 – An explosion kills all but seven of the 700 passengers and crew on the Portuguese Navy galleon HMFMS Santa Rosa as its cargo of gunpowder blows up. Historians speculate that of the 693 people on the ship, those who weren't killed by the explosion drowned or were killed by sharks as the ship went down off of the coast of Recife.source
Broughton Whitehall of Broughton (Flintshire).Wales source
Humphrey Roberts, Brynneuadd, (Caernarvonshire).Wales source
John Lloyd of Danyrallt (Carmarthenshire).Wales source
Edward Salusbury of Galltfaenan (Denbighshire).Wales source
Richard Wellington of Hay Castle (Brecknockshire).Wales source

Disasters & Accidents

25 June – A fire breaks out in Viborg destroying more than 150 buildings.Denmark source

Climate & Environment

September 16 – An earthquake strikes Sicily and kills 226 people in Palermo.source
November – Mary Toft allegedly gives birth to 16 rabbits in England; the story is later revealed to be a hoax.source

Culture & Society

January 1 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Herr Gott, dich loben wir, BWV 16, his church cantata for New Year's Day to a libretto by Georg Christian Lehms.source
January 27 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Alles nur nach Gottes Willen, BWV 72, concluding his third Christmas season in Leipzig on the Third Sunday after Epiphany.source
25 May – Britain's first circulating library is opened in Edinburgh by poet and bookseller Allan Ramsay.Scotland source
26 July - Prince Frederick, son of the Prince of Wales, is created Baron Snowdon by his grandfather, King George I of Great Britain.Wales source
September 8 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Geist und Seele wird verwirret, BWV 35, a solo cantata for alto voice.source
October 26 – Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels is published in LondonIreland source
26 October - Women are formally allowed employment at the Kungliga Hovkapellet, the first officially employed females being Judith Fischer and Sophia Schröder.Sweden source
October 27 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56, one of the few works he calls a cantata.source
November 8 (October 28 Old Style) – Jonathan Swift's satirical novel Gulliver's Travels is first published (anonymously) in London; it sells out within a week.source
Morgan Morgan of Llanrumney (Glamorgan).Wales source

Births

January 17 – Hugh Mercer, brigadier general in the American Continental Army, and a close friend to George Washington (died 1777)source
February 7 – Margaret Fownes-Luttrell, British painter (died 1766)source
March 8 – Richard Howe, British admiral (died 1799)source
April 5 – Benjamin Harrison V, signer of the American Declaration of Independence (died 1791)source
April 8 – Lewis Morris, American landowner and developer, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence (died 1798)source
10 April - Lucia Pytter, philanthropist (died 1825)Norway source
April 12 – Charles Burney, English music historian (died 1814)source
June 3 O.S. – James Hutton, Scottish geologist (died 1797)source
June 14 O.S. – Thomas Pennant, Welsh naturalist (died 1798)source
14 June – Thomas Pennant, naturalist (died 1798)United Kingdom source
June 20 – Louise Henriette of Bourbon, Duchess of Orléans, mother of Philippe Égalité (died 1759)source
June 24 : Robert Monckton, army officer and colonial administrator (died 1782)Canada source
30 July - William Jones of Nayland, clergyman and author (died 1800)Wales source
August 2 – Lê Quý Đôn, Vietnamese philosopher, poet, encyclopedist and government official (died 1784)source
August 7 – James Bowdoin, American Revolutionary leader, politician (died 1790)source
September 1 – François-André Danican Philidor, French composer, chess player (died 1795)source
September 2 – John Howard (prison reformer), English philanthropist (died 1790)source
December 4 – Lord Stirling, American brigadier-general during the American Revolutionary War (died 1783)source

Deaths

January 12 – Hercule-Louis Turinetti, marquis of Prié (born 1658)source
January 19 – Giovanni Battista Tolomei, Italian Jesuit priest, theologian and cardinal (born 1653)source
January 25 – Guillaume Delisle, French cartographer (born 1675)source
25 January - Rowland Gwynne, politician, 67Wales source
February 26 – Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria (born 1662)source
March 5 – Evelyn Pierrepont, 1st Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull, English politician (born c. 1665)source
March 13 – Alexander Pendarves, British politician (born 1662)source
March 26 – John Vanbrugh, English architect and dramatist (born 1664)source
26 March – John Vanbrugh, architect and dramatist (born 1664)United Kingdom source
April 26 – Jeremy Collier, English theatre critic, non-juror bishop and theologian (born 1650)source
April 28 – Thomas Pitt, British Governor of Madras (born 1653)source
May 10 – Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St Albans, English soldier (born 1670)source
July 3 – Galeazzo Marescotti, Italian Catholic cardinal (born 1627)source
July 27 : Étienne de Carheil, missionary.Canada source
September 22 – Aixinjueluo Yuntang, born Aixinjueluo Yintang, Qing prince (born 1683)source
November 20 – Callinicus, Metropolitan of Heraclea dies suddenly only one day after being elected the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, the highest office in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Callinicus is said to have paid a record fee to the Ottoman Sultan to guarantee his appointment.source
November 23 – Sophia Dorothea of Celle, queen consort of George I of Great Britain (born 1666)source
20 December – Jens Juel-Vind, landowner (born 1694)Denmark source