1728 CE

Disenfranchising Act, an Act of the Parliament of Ireland, one of a series of penal laws, prohibiting all Roman Catholics from voting, receives royal assent. The Royal Bank of Scotland invents the overdraft, allowing Edinburgh merchant William Hogg cash credit (in the amount of £1,000) for his creditors to be paid by the bank until Hogg receives expected revenue to repay the amount owed, plus interest. In India, the Maratha Empire's army invades the Mughal Empire's Malwa province, crossing the Narmada River. On November 29, the two armies clash at the Battle of Amjhira; the Maratha troops, commanded by General Chimaji Appa, overcome the defenders of Malwa (now part of India's Andhra Pradesh state) and Malwa's Governor Girdhar Bahadur is killed.

In the 1720s, the 18th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • June 14 – The Congress of Soissons opens at the French town of Soissons to negotiate a treaty between Great Britain and Spain. The treaty, which is concluded on November 9, 1729, recognizes the Spanish royal family's rule of parts of Italy, and Britain's possession of Gibraltar and Menorca.source
  • June 25 – The Treaty of Kyakhta is signed at the border city of Kyakhta, between Russia and China, by representatives of the Tsar Peter II, and the Emperor Yongzheng.source
  • July 18 – After a reign of only four months, Abdalmalik is deposed as Sultan of Morocco by his half-brother Ahmad ad Dahabi, whom he had deposed on March 13. Abdalmalik is later captured and executed on March 2, 1729.source
  • September 18 – John Deane, a colonial administrator of Britain's British East India Company, returns to Calcutta (Kolkata) after an absence of more than two years, and takes office at Fort William to return to administering the Bengal Presidency, an area now covering the Indian state of West Bengal and the nation of Bangladesh.source
  • December 25 – William Burnet, the British Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay since July 19, is appointed by King George II to be the Governor of the Province of New Hampshire as well, governing both future U.S. states simultaneously until September 7. Up until July, Burnet had been Governor of both New York and New Jersey since 1720.source
  • Late Summer – Voltaire ends his exile in England.source

Conflict & Security

  • February 28 – Battle of Palkhed: Maratha Peshwa Bajirao I defeats the first Nizam of Hyderabad, Nizam-ul-Mulk.source
  • March – Spain ends its siege of Gibraltar.United Kingdomsource
  • 13 May – 3 men and 8 boys from Hirta are retrieved from Stac an Armin where they have been accidentally marooned for about 9 months, the longest recorded period anyone has spent on the sea stack.Scotlandsource
  • November 25 – In India, the Maratha Empire's army invades the Mughal Empire's Malwa province, crossing the Narmada River. On November 29, the two armies clash at the Battle of Amjhira; the Maratha troops, commanded by General Chimaji Appa, overcome the defenders of Malwa (now part of India's Andhra Pradesh state) and Malwa's Governor Girdhar Bahadur is killed.source
  • Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye was appointed commandant of the French posts on the north shore of Lake Superior and stationed at Fort Kaministiquia.Canadasource
  • Probable date at which the brown rat first enters Britain.United Kingdomsource

Exploration & Expansion

  • April 30 – The 82 survivors of the wreckage of the Dutch East India Company frigate Zeewijk arrive in the new ship that they had built, Sloepie, at their original destination of Batavia in the Dutch East Indies (now Jakarta in Indonesia).source
  • July 14 – The First Kamchatka Expedition, led by Vitus Bering and his crew sail northward on the ship Archangel Gabriel from the Kamchatka Peninsula, through the Bering Strait, and round Cape Dezhnev.source
  • 14 July – Vitus Bering begins his first exploration aboard the ship Gabriel and sailed northward from the Kamchatka Peninsula and through the strait that now bears his name.Denmarksource
  • August 16 – Because of advancing Arctic ice, the First Kamchatka Expedition turns around after Vitus Bering concludes (inaccurately) that it had reached the easternmost point of Russia and Asia, and fails to spot the coast of Alaska because of the weather.source
  • September 15 – Persian physician Mohammad Mehdi ibn Ali Naqi completes Zad al-musafirin, his treatise for travelers to Persia on preservation of their health. He notes the date as a postscript in his manual.source
  • Vitus Bering sails through the Bering Strait.Canadasource
  • First larch trees in Scotland planted at Dunkeld.Scotlandsource
  • Main Street North Wales, Pennsylvania, originally an old Indian trail, is laid out as the "Great Road".Walessource

Religion & Belief

  • 4 February - Thomas Sherlock is consecrated Bishop of Bangor.Walessource
  • April 14 – Saint Serapion of Algiers, the first Mercedarian (of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy) is canonized by Pope Benedict XIII.source
  • May 6 – Disenfranchising Act, an Act of the Parliament of Ireland, one of a series of penal laws, prohibiting all Roman Catholics from voting, receives royal assent.Irelandsource
  • May 16 – Saint Margaret of Cortona, the patron saint of the falsely accused, homeless people and mental illness sufferers, is canonized.source
  • May 25 – Pope Gregory VII (Hildebrand of Sovana), who served as pontiff from 1073 to 1085, is canonized as a Roman Catholic saint.source
  • 14 June – Congress of Soissons begins in an effort to end the Anglo-Spanish War.United Kingdomsource
  • August - Richard Smalbroke, Bishop of St Davids, commends the treatise on the authority of Scripture by Faustus Socinus, with the result that the work is translated into English and published in 1731 with a dedication to the Queen, Caroline of Ansbach.Walessource
  • First publication of Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie's The Historie and Chronicles of Scotland, 1436–1565, written about 1575 in the Scots language.Scotlandsource
  • John Roderick, Grammadeg CymraegWalessource

Technology & Infrastructure

Science & Discovery

  • March 14 – Jean-Jacques Rousseau leaves Geneva for the first time.source
  • September – Astronomer James Bradley uses stellar aberration (first observed in 1725) to calculate the speed of light.United Kingdomsource
  • English astronomer James Bradley uses stellar aberration (first observed in 1725) to calculate the speed of light, and observes nutation of the Earth's axis.source
  • James Bradley observes nutation of the Earth's axis.United Kingdomsource

Health & Medicine

  • April 29 – John Essington, a member of the British House of Commons, is expelled from Commons after a successful petition to have him unseated. Essington, deep in debt, dies in Newgate Prison less than year later.source
  • 31 May – The Royal Bank of Scotland extends the first overdraft (to Edinburgh merchant William Hogg for £1,000).Scotlandsource

Crime & Justice

  • May 31 – The Royal Bank of Scotland invents the overdraft, allowing Edinburgh merchant William Hogg cash credit (in the amount of £1,000) for his creditors to be paid by the bank until Hogg receives expected revenue to repay the amount owed, plus interest.source
  • Richard Lewis, Muscipula, a translation of Edward Holdsworth's Latin satire on the WelshWalessource
  • The Coronet of Frederick, Prince of Wales, is made, probably by royal goldsmith Samuel Shales, at a cost of £140 5/- (one hundred and forty pounds and five shillings)Walessource

Disasters & Accidents

  • October 20–23 – The Copenhagen Fire of 1728 (the largest in the Danish city's history) burns.source
  • 20 October – The Copenhagen Fire of 1728 breaks out.Denmarksource

Culture & Society

  • January 5 – The Real y Pontificia Universidad de San Gerónimo de la Habana, the oldest university in Cuba, is founded in Havana.source
  • January 9 – The coronation of Peter II as the Tsar of the Russian Empire takes place in Moscow.source
  • 10 January – The Provoked Husband a comedy based on an unfinished John Vanbrugh play completed by Colley Cibber premieres at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. It appears to be the hit of the theatre season until eclipsed by The Beggars Opera a few weeks later.United Kingdomsource
  • January 29 – The Beggar's Opera, the most popular theatrical production of the 18th century, is performed for the first time. The premiere takes place at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre in London. Written by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch, the ballad opera is a satire of Italian opera.source
  • 29 January – The first performance of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre. A major success it leads to a theatre boom and is followed by a number of other ballad operas imitating its style.United Kingdomsource
  • July 17 – At the age of 8, Prince Teruhito, son of Emperor Nakamikado, is named as the Crown Prince of Japan. Teruhito becomes the Emperor Sakuramachi at age 15, upon his father's death.source
  • August 29 – The City of Nuuk is founded in Greenland, as Fort Godt-Haab, by royal governor Claus Paarss.source
  • A new town hall is built in Viborg next to Viborg Cathedral. The building now houses the Skovgaard MuseumDenmarksource
  • The Lille Grønnegade Theatre in Copenhagen, the first public theater in Denmark, is closed.Denmarksource
  • Matthew Dubourg becomes Master and Composer of State Music of Dublin.Irelandsource
  • Watkin Williams-Wynn, the future 3rd Baronet, is mayor of Oswestry.Walessource
  • The traditional Welsh folk tune, "The Ash Grove", or something very similar, is featured in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera.Walessource
  • Poet John Morgan becomes vicar of Matching, Essex, which leads to his commonly being known as John Morgan Matchin.Walessource

Births

  • January 9 – Thomas Warton, English poet (died 1790)source
  • February 3 – Charles Rainsford, British general (died 1809)source
  • February 21 – Emperor Peter III of Russia, husband of Catherine the Great (died 1762)source
  • February 25 – John Wood, the Younger, English architect (died 1782)source
  • March 28 – Anton Raphael Mengs, German-Bohemian painter (died 1779)source
  • April 16 – Joseph Black, Scottish physicist and chemist (died 1799)source
  • August 26 – Johann Heinrich Lambert, Swiss mathematician, physicist and astronomer (died 1777)source
  • August 28 – John Stark, American Revolutionary War general (died 1822)source
  • September 3 – Matthew Boulton, English manufacturer, lifelong key partner of James Watt (died 1809)source
  • 6 September – Christian Braunmann Tullin, businessman and poet (died 1765).Norwaysource
  • September 14 – Mercy Otis Warren, American playwright (died 1814)source
  • October 5 – Chevalière d'Éon, French diplomat, spy, soldier and trans individual (died 1810)source
  • October 7 – Caesar Rodney, American lawyer and signer of the Declaration of Independence (died 1784)source
  • October 27 – James Cook, British naval commander and explorer (died 1779)source
  • 27 October (O.S.) – James Cook, naval captain and explorer (died 1779)United Kingdomsource
  • November 7 - James Cook killed by Hawaiian natives, cutting short his search for Northwest Passage. (died 1779)Canadasource
  • November 10 – Oliver Goldsmith, Irish writer (died 1774)source
  • John "Iron-Mad" Wilkinson, English industrialist, owner of Bersham Ironworks and Brymbo Hall (died 1808)Walessource

Deaths

  • February 12 – Agostino Steffani, Italian diplomat, composer (born 1654)source
  • February 13 – Cotton Mather, New England Puritan minister (born 1663)source
  • February 20 - J Raudot, Intendant of New France (born 1638)Canadasource
  • March 4 – Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna of Russia, eldest daughter of Peter the Great (born 1708)source
  • March 18 – George Stanhope, Dean of Canterbury (born 1660)source
  • 3 April – James Anderson, Scottish lawyer, antiquary and historian (born 1662)United Kingdomsource
  • May 7 – Rose Venerini, Italian saint, educational pioneer (born 1656)source
  • July 23 – At the conclusion of the Szeged witch trials in the city of the same name in Hungary, six men and six women are burned at the stake on the island of Boszorkány Sziget (Hungarian for "Witch Island").source
  • August 3 – Abraham de Peyster, United States politician (born 1657)source
  • August 15 – Marin Marais, French viol player and composer (born 1656)source
  • August 26 – Anne Marie d'Orléans, Queen consort of Sicily and Sardinia (born 1669)source
  • 13 September - William Gambold, grammarian, 56Walessource
  • October 1 – Robert Livingston the Elder, New York colonial official (born 1654)source
  • October 15 – Bernard de la Monnoye, French lawyer (born 1641)source
  • November 10 – Fyodor Apraksin, Russian admiral (born 1661)source
  • November 19 – Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, German prince (born 1694)source
  • November 22 – Joseph Boyse, Presbyterian minister (born 1660)source
  • Jørgen Otto Brockenhuus, military officer (born 1664).Norwaysource