date: August 1

text: August 1 – The Comet of 1729, possibly the largest comet based on the absolute magnitude, on record, is discovered by Fr. Nicolas Sarrabat, a professor of mathematics at Marseille.


date: June 8

section: Health & Medicine

text: June 8 – The Botanic Gardens of Pamplemousses, one of the most popular tourist attractions on the island republic of Mauritius, are started by Pierre Barmond, who sets aside thousands of acres for the purpose of preservation of the islands flora. The gardens come to occupy 97 square miles or 251 square kilometers.

source_section: Events › April–June


date: February 25

section: Crime & Justice

text: February 25 – James Oglethorpe, a member of the British House of Commons, begins service as the Chairman of the Gaols Committee to investigate the conditions of Britain's jails and prisons after the death in Fleet Prison of his friend, Robert Castell. The Oglethorpe Committee's report propels Oglethorpe to fame and leads to the beginning of British penal reforms.

source_section: Events › January–March


date: May 8

section: Disasters & Accidents

text: May 8 – A fire breaks out inside the fully walled town of Haiger within the Holy Roman Empire (in the modern-day state of Hesse in Germany) and destroys all the buildings.


date: May 12

text: May 12 – Six English pirates, including Mary Critchett, seize control of the sloop John and Elizabeth while being transported to America to complete their criminal sentences. They overpower their captors but are later captured in Chesapeake Bay by HMS Shoreham and hanged in August.


date: July 27

text: July 27 – A fire that breaks out on this day in Constantinople destroys 12,000 houses and kills 7,000 inhabitants.

source_section: Events › July–September


date: January 19

section: Culture & Society

text: January 19 – At the age of 14, Joseph (José), Prince of Brazil, son of King John V of Portugal, is married to the 10-year-old Princess Mariana Victoria of Spain, eldest daughter of King Philip V of Spain. In 1750, the couple become King Joseph I and Queen Consort Mariana Victoria of Spain.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Johann Sebastian Bach's First Köthen Funeral music premieres at St. Jakob, Köthen, in honor of the funeral of his former employer Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen. The next morning, Bach's funeral cantata Klagt, Kinder, klagt es aller Welt, BWV 244a premieres at St. Jakob, marking the same occasion.


date: December 2

text: December 2 – George Frideric Handel's famous opera Lotario is given its first performance, premiering at the King's Theatre in London.

source_section: Events › October–December


text: Jonathan Swift (anonymously) publishes his satire A Modest Proposal.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: January 12

section: Births

text: January 12 – Lazzaro Spallanzani, Italian biologist (d. 1799)

source_section: Births


text: January 12 – Edmund Burke, Irish statesman and philosopher (d. 1797)


date: January 22

text: January 22 – Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, German author and philosopher (d. 1781)


date: February 26

text: February 26 – Anders Chydenius, Finnish economist, liberal politician and Lutheran priest (d. 1803)


date: July 4

text: July 4 – George Leonard, American lawyer, jurist and politician (d. 1819)


date: August 10

text: August 10 – William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe, British general (d. 1814)


date: September 6

text: September 6 – Moses Mendelssohn, German-Jewish philosopher (d. 1786)


date: September 15

text: September 15 – Mikiel'Ang Grima, Maltese surgeon (d. 1798)


date: October 6

text: October 6 – Sarah Crosby, English Methodist preacher, the first female (d. 1804)


date: November 12

text: November 12 – Louis Antoine de Bougainville, French navigator and military commander (d. 1811)


date: November 17

text: November 17 – Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain, Queen consort of Sardinia (d. 1785)


date: November 21

text: November 21 – Josiah Bartlett, second signer of the United States Declaration of Independence (d. 1795)


date: November 22

text: November 22 – Helena Dorothea von Schönberg, German industrialist (d. 1799)


date: November 24

text: November 24 – Alexander Suvorov, Russian general (d. 1800)


date: January 11

section: Deaths

text: January 11 – Thomas of Cori, Italian Friar Minor and preacher (b. 1655)

source_section: Deaths


date: January 30

text: January 30 – Lothar Franz von Schönborn, Archbishop of Mainz (b. 1655)


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Solomon Stoddard, pastor of the Congregationalist Church in Northampton, Massachusetts (b. 1643)


date: March 2

text: March 2 – Francesco Bianchini, Italian philosopher, scientist (b. 1662)


date: March 21

text: March 21 – Elżbieta Sieniawska, politically influential Polish magnate (b. 1669)


date: May 17

text: May 17 – Samuel Clarke, English philosopher (b. 1675)


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Diederik Durven becomes the new Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia) upon the death of Mattheus de Haan.


date: June 27

text: June 27 – Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, French harpsichordist and composer (b. 1665)


date: July 30

text: July 30 – Thomas Tufton, 6th Earl of Thanet, British politician (b. 1644)


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Thomas Newcomen, English inventor (b. 1663)


date: September 3

text: September 3 – Jean Hardouin, French scholar (b. 1646)


date: September 7

text: September 7 – William Burnet, British Governor of New York and New Jersey (b. 1688)


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Johann Heinrich Ernesti, German philosopher, theologian (b. 1652)


date: December

text: December – Doamna Marica Brâncoveanu, princess consort of Wallachia (b. 1661)


section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: Gnaeus Claudius Severus and Tiberius Claudius Pompeianus become Roman Consuls.

source_section: Events › By place › Roman Empire


section: Conflict & Security

text: Given control of the Eastern Empire, Avidius Cassius, the governor of Syria, crushes an insurrection of shepherds known as the Boukoloi.


text: Mi Heng, Chinese writer and musician (d. 198)


text: Maximinus Thrax ("the Thracian"), Roman emperor (d. 238)


text: Donatus of Muenstereifel, Roman soldier and martyr (b. AD 140)


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, retires from his role in the government of Great Britain, leaving Robert Walpole as sole and undisputed leader of the Cabinet (i.e., prime minister). In the new Walpole ministry, Sir William Strickland, 4th Baronet, becomes Secretary at War, and Henry Pelham is Paymaster of the Forces; Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington briefly becomes Lord Privy Seal.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – Mahmud I (d. 1754) succeeds Ahmed III (ruled since 1703) as Ottoman Emperor.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – General Nader Khan of Persia opens the first campaign of the Ottoman–Persian War (1730–1735), guiding the Persian Army from Shiraz and starting the Western Persia Campaign against the Ottoman Empire.


date: March 16

text: March 16 – The establishment by Thomas Cresap of Wright's Ferry under the authority of the Province of Pennsylvania becomes the basis for Cresap's War, a nine-year-long conflict also known as the Maryland-Pennsylvania boundary dispute; the conflict mainly centers in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and York County, Pennsylvania on either bank of the Susquehanna River.


text: August 5 – Prince Frederick of Prussia, the eldest son of King Frederick William and a high-ranking officer, attempts to flee to England after deserting the Prussian Army and is captured along with his fellow officer Hans Hermann von Katte. Katte is executed, and Crown Prince Frederick is imprisoned at Küstrin (modern-day Kostrzyn nad Odrą in Poland) for a year before being forgiven by his father. Prince Frederick later succeeds his father as King and will be remembered as Frederick the Great.


date: August 12

text: August 12 – General Nader Khan of Persia captures Tabriz from the Ottoman Empire, bringing an end to the Western Persia Campaign, the first major action in the Ottoman–Persian War (1730–1735). Tabriz becomes a permanent part of Iran. Nader leaves the city four days later to begin the Herat Campaign of 1731.


date: December 27

text: December 27 – The Dutch East India Company ends an almost 11-year effort of trying to maintain a colony around Delagoa Bay in southern Africa in modern-day Mozambique. The entire population of the settlement, Fort Lydzammheid (near modern-day Maputo) is evacuated by the ships Snuffelaar, Zeepost and Feyenoord and the group returns to Cape Town.


date: February 28

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: February 28 – Vitus Bering returns to the Russian capital of Saint Petersburg after completing the First Kamchatka expedition.


text: June 27 – French explorer Alphonse de Pontevez, commanding the frigate Le Lys, claims an Indian Ocean atoll for France and names it after himself as the Alphonse Atoll. The next day, he claims and names the St. François Atoll.


date: March 12

section: Religion & Belief

text: March 12 – John Glas is deposed from the Church of Scotland; the Glasite sect forms around him.


date: April 8

text: April 8 – Congregation Shearith Israel, the first synagogue in New York City, is dedicated.


date: July 12

text: July 12 – The papal conclave selects Cardinal Lorenzo Corsini over Cardinal Pietro Marcellino Corradini as the successor to Pope Benedict XIII. Corsini becomes Pope Clement XII as the 246th pope.


date: June 19

text: June 19 – At the urging of Sir William Gooch, the Virginia House of Burgesses passes the Virginia Tobacco Inspection Act to regulate the quality of tobacco in Virginia, 46 to 5.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Enslaved woman Sally Basset is put on trial for murder in Bermuda; she will eventually be convicted and burned at the stake.


date: August 4

text: August 4 – Maria Madlener becomes the last person to be executed after the Galgeninsel witch trials in Bavaria, and is beheaded by sword.


date: August 25

text: August 25 – French Protestant Marie Durand is imprisoned in the Tower of Constance at Aigues-Mortes for her defiance of the Roman Catholic government, and is kept captive for the next 38 years. During her incarceration, she continues to resist converting to Catholicism as a condition of release. She is finally set free on April 14, 1768 and lives 8 more years.


date: November 6

text: November 6 – After being convicted of treason for attempting to desert the Prussian Army with Crown Prince Frederick, Hans Hermann von Katte is beheaded at the Küstrin Prison. Frederick's father, King Frederick William, forces the prince to watch the execution.


date: July 8

section: Climate & Environment

text: July 8 – 1730 Valparaíso earthquake: An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 9.1 strikes Valparaíso, in modern-day Chile but at this time in the Viceroyalty of Peru.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – A volcano erupts on Lanzarote, the easternmost of the Canary Islands and threatens the Spanish inhabitants. On Gran Canaria, the regent of the islands reports to Madrid that the flames are visible even from 130 mi away.


date: May 9

text: May 9 (April 28 O.S.) – The coronation of Anna of Russia as Empress of Russia takes place in Saint Petersburg.


date: December 9

text: December 9 – The first documented notice in North America about freemasonry is published in The Pennsylvania Gazette in an article by its publisher, Benjamin Franklin.


date: January 3

text: January 3 – Velu Nachiyar, queen regnant of Sivaganga (d. 1796)


date: March 7

text: March 7 – Louis Auguste Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, last prime minister of the French monarchy (d. 1807)


date: April 16

text: April 16 – Henry Clinton, British general (d. 1795)


date: April 26

text: April 26 – John Moore, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1805)


date: May 13

text: May 13 – Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, Prime Minister of Great Britain (d. 1782)


date: May 28

text: May 28 – Maria Angela Ardinghelli, Italian scientific translator (d. 1825)


date: June 21

text: June 21 – Motoori Norinaga, Japanese philologist, scholar of the kokugaku school (d. 1801)


date: August 1

text: August 1 – Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol, English Anglican prelate (d. 1803)


date: August 27

text: August 27 – Johann Georg Hamann, German philosopher (d. 1788)


date: September 7

text: September 7 – Elisabetta de Gambarini, English composer (d. 1765)


date: September 17

text: September 17 – Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, Prussian army officer (d. 1794)


date: December 14

text: December 14 – James Bruce, Scottish explorer (d. 1794)


date: December 25

text: December 25 – Filippo Mazzei, Italian physician, friend of Thomas Jefferson (d. 1816)


date: December 30

text: December 30 – William Hamilton, British diplomat, antiquary (d. 1803)


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Árni Magnússon, Icelandic scholar and manuscript collector (b. 1663)


date: February 26

text: February 26 (February 15 O.S.) – Anna of Russia (Anna Ioannovna) becomes reigning Empress of Russia following the death of her cousin Emperor Peter II.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – The 1730 papal conclave to elect a new Pope for the Roman Catholic church begins with 30 Cardinals, 12 days after the death of Pope Benedict XIII. By the time his successor is elected on July 12, there are 56 Cardinals.


date: March 22

text: March 22 – Benedetto Pamphili, Italian cardinal, patron of the arts, composer and librettist (b. 1653)


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Charles I, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel) (b. 1654)


text: May 13 – Sir Justinian Isham, 4th Baronet, English landowner and Member of Parliament (b. 1658)


date: May 30

text: May 30 – Arabella Churchill, English mistress of James II of England (b. 1648)


date: June 6

text: June 6 – Alain Emmanuel de Coëtlogon, Marshal of France in the reign of Louis XIV and Louis XV (b. 1646)


date: July 9

text: July 9 – Issachar Berend Lehmann, German-Jewish banker, Court Jew in Hanover (b. 1661)


date: August 10

text: August 10 – Sébastien de Brossard, French composer and music theorist (b. 1655)


date: August 19

text: August 19 – James Ogilvy, 4th Earl of Findlater, Scottish politician (b. 1664)


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, French explorer (b. 1658)


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Luigi Ferdinando Marsili, Italian soldier and naturalist (b. 1658)


date: December 31

text: December 31 – Carlo Gimach, Maltese architect, engineer and poet (b. 1651)


date: March 16

text: March 16 – The Treaty of Vienna is signed between the Holy Roman Empire, Great Britain, the Dutch Republic and Spain.


date: August 15

text: August 15 – King Frederick William I of Prussia forgives his 19-year-old son, Prince Frederick, who has been confined since November to the town of Küstrin (now Kostrzyn nad Odrą in Poland) for his 1730 attempt to desert from the Prussian Army. Nine years later, having been politically rehabilitated, Prince Frederick succeeds his father as King and is later remembered as "Frederick the Great".


text: Royal Colony of North Carolina Governor George Burrington asks the North Carolina General Assembly to pass an act establishing a town on the Cape Fear River, in what is seen as a political move to shift the power away from the powerful Cape Fear plantation class. The town is laid out in 1733, and incorporated as Wilmington in 1740.


date: April 9

text: April 9 – British trader Robert Jenkins has his ear cut off after his ship, Rebecca is boarded by Spanish coast guards at Havana in Cuba. The incident becomes the casus belli for the War of Jenkins' Ear in 1739.


date: November 25

text: November 25 – Patrona Halil, an ethnic Albanian and a janissary who instigated a mass uprising in 1730 within the Ottoman Empire that brought Mahmud I to power as the new Sultan, is strangled to death in Mahmud's presence after the rebellion is suppressed.


date: May 10

text: May 10 – The Pacific Fleet of the Russian Navy is established by order of the Empress Anna of Russia, who directs Grigory Skornyakov-Pisarev to assume command over the new fleet and to develop Okhotsk as a major port.


section: Science & Discovery

text: November 25 – Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler announces his use of the irrational number e (approximately 2.71828) as the base for the concept of the natural logarithm, describing it in a letter to German mathematician Christian Goldbach.


date: September

text: September – The first successful appendectomy is performed by English surgeon William Cookesley.


date: December 29

text: December 29 – Jacques Grimaldi, the husband of the reigning monarch of Monaco, Louise Hippolyte, succeeds to the throne after Louise's death from smallpox. Jacques I rules until his own death in 1751.


text: Laura Bassi becomes the first official female university teacher, on being appointed professor of anatomy at the University of Bologna, at the age of 21.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – An avalanche from the Skafjell mountain causes a massive wave in the Storfjorden fjord in Norway that sinks all boats that happen to be in the water at the time and kills people on both shores.


date: February 3

text: February 3 – A fire in Brussels at the Coudenberg Palace, at this time the home of the ruling Austrian Duchess of Brabant, destroys the building, including the state records stored therein.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – A fire at White's Chocolate House, near St. James's Palace in London, destroys the historic club and the paintings therein, but is kept from spreading by the fast response of firemen.


date: June 4

text: June 4 – The English market town of Blandford Forum is destroyed by fire, with the exception of 26 houses. About one-third of the uninsured losses are paid for by the collection of disaster relief money.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – The village of Barnwell, Cambridgeshire, England, is "burned down entirely" by a fire.


date: October 23

text: October 23 – A fire at Ashburnham House in Westminster destroys 114 irreplaceable manuscripts (including a manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle) and damages 98 others (among them the manuscript of Beowulf). Richard Bentley, the King's librarian and the House's owner, saves the only copy of the Codex Alexandrinus, carrying it under one arm as he leaps from a window. Bentley's ten year labor in translating the Greek Testament is ruined by the blaze. The remaining 844 manuscripts later form the heart of the collections of the British Library.


date: August 23

text: August 23 – The oldest known sports score in history is recorded in the description of a cricket match at Richmond Green in England, when the team of Thomas Chambers of Middlesex defeats the Duke of Richmond's team by 119 to 79.


date: February

text: February – Charles Churchill, English poet (d. 1764)


date: March 19

text: March 19 – Gabriela Silang, Filipino rebel leader and heroine (d. 1763)


date: April 8

text: April 8 – William Williams, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence (d. 1811)


date: May 8

text: May 8 – Beilby Porteus, Bishop of London and abolitionist (d. 1809)


date: June 2

text: June 2 – Dorothea Biehl, Danish writer (d. 1788)


date: July 16

text: July 16 – Samuel Huntington, Patriot in the American Revolution and politician (d. 1796)


date: August

text: August – Henry Constantine Jennings, English gambler and collector (d. 1819)


date: October 10

text: October 10 – Henry Cavendish, English scientist (d. 1810)


date: November 9

text: November 9 – Benjamin Banneker, African-American astronomer, surveyor of the District of Columbia (d. 1806)


date: November 15

text: November 15 – William Cowper, English poet (d. 1800)


date: December 8

text: December 8 – František Xaver Dušek, Czech composer (d. 1799)


date: December 12

text: December 12 – Erasmus Darwin, English scientist and grandfather of Charles Darwin (d. 1802)


date: December 28

text: December 28 – José de Viera y Clavijo, Spanish writer


text: Nikephoros Theotokis, Greek scholar and theologian (d. 1800)


date: January 27

text: January 27 – Bartolomeo Cristofori, Italian maker of musical instruments (b. 1655)


date: February 10

text: February 10 – George Carpenter, 1st Baron Carpenter, British Army general (b. 1657)


date: February 15

text: February 15 – Mary of Jesus de León y Delgado, Spanish Dominican lay sister and mystic (b. 1643)


date: February 20

text: February 20 – Louise Hippolyte becomes the second woman to serve as Princess of Monaco, the reigning monarch of the tiny European principality, ascending upon the death of her father Prince Antonio. She reigns only nine months before dying of smallpox on December 29.


date: February 22

text: February 22 – Frederik Ruysch, Dutch physician and anatomist (b. 1638)


date: February

text: February – Thomas Hancorne, Welsh clergyman and theologian (b. 1642)


date: March 5

text: March 5 – Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi, Sufi academic (b. 1641)


date: May 1

text: May 1 – Johann Ludwig Bach, German composer (b. 1677)


date: May 11

text: May 11 – Mary Astell, English feminist writer (b. 1666)


date: May 17

text: May 17 – Samuel Bradford, English churchman, Whig politician (b. 1652)


date: August 27

text: August 27 – Eudoxia Lopukhina, Russian Tsarina, divorced spouse of Peter the Great of Russia (b. 1669)


date: December 17

text: December 17 – George Lockhart, Scottish writer, spy and politician, killed in duel (b. 1673)


date: December 21

text: December 21 – The Maharaja Chhatrasal, monarch of Bundelkhand in India (part of the modern-day states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh) dies at the age of 82. His kingdom is divided into four parts, with one part going to Baji Rao I of the Marathas and the other three going to his three sons: Harde Sah gets the Panna State, Jagat Rai gets the Jaitpur State and Bharti Chand gets the Jaso State.


date: December 26

text: December 26 – Antoine Houdar de la Motte, French writer (b. 1672)


date: January 21

text: January 21 – Russia and Persia sign the Treaty of Riascha at Resht. Based on the terms of the agreement, Russia will no longer establish claims over Persian territories.


date: February 25

text: February 25 – John Stackhouse is appointed by the British East India Company as the new President of the Bengal Presidency and serves for seven years.


date: March 19

text: March 19 – Chamaraja Wodeyar VII becomes the new Maharaja of the Kingdom of Mysore in Southern India, now the state of Karnataka and parts of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.


date: March 30

text: March 30 – MPs John Birch and Denis Bond are expelled from the House of Commons of Great Britain after using their positions on the Commission for Forfeited Lands to make fraudulent sales.


date: May 10

text: May 10 – Representatives of the heirs of William Penn and of Lord Baltimore, the respective owners of most of the land in the Province of Pennsylvania and the Province of Maryland set out the boundary between the two future U.S. states after a survey determines that Philadelphia is located on the Maryland side of the border. The dispute eventually leads to a lawsuit and the eventual survey by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon to determine the Mason–Dixon line.


date: May 13

text: May 13 – Rebels in Corsica agree to allow the Republic of Genoa to resume its administration of the island in return for amnesty and promised reforms.


date: May 28

text: May 28 – Dirck van Cloon becomes the new Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).


date: June 9

text: June 9 – James Oglethorpe is granted a royal charter for the colony of Georgia.


date: September 13

text: September 13 – The Treaty of the Three Black Eagles or the Treaty of Berlin, a secret treaty between the Austrian Empire, the Russian Empire and Prussia against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.


date: December 5

text: December 5 – 139 members of the Parlement of Paris, exiled by order of King Louis XV, secure their recall.


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Herat Campaign: General Nader Shah of Persia (now Iran) suppresses the rebellion by Zulfiqar Khan in the city of Herat in what is now Afghanistan.


date: April 16

text: April 16 – After his disastrous attempt to fight the Ottoman Empire, Shah Tahmasp II is removed from the throne of Iran by one of his generals, Nader Khan, who later proclaims himself the King of Persia in Tahmasp's place as Nader Shah.


date: July 2

text: July 2 – Spain completes the conquest of the Algerian cities of Oran and Mers El Kébir in the Oran Province, after a 17-day siege.


date: August 16

text: August 16 – The Order of Malta under the command of Jacques-François de Chambray defeats a convoy of the Ottoman Empire and frees 14 Christian slaves, following the naval battle of Damietta.


date: October 7

text: October 7 – French Army Lieutenant General Florent-Jean de Vallière is tasked by King Louis XV to improve France's method of forging cannons.


date: February 9

text: February 9 – The Swedish East India Company begins its profitable first expedition to China, departing Gothenburg on the ship Friedericus Rex Sueciae under the command of Colin Campbell.


date: March 3

text: March 3 – English Captain Charles Gough rediscovers Gough Island in the South Atlantic.


date: April 12

text: April 12 – King Christian VI of Denmark-Norway signs the charter for the new Danish Asia Company (Dansk Asiatisk Kompagni), granting it a 40-year monopoly on Denmark-Norway's trade in Asia, leading to the creation of Danish India and cities of Trankebar (now Tharangambadi in Tamil Nadu), Frederiknagore (now Serampore in West Bengal) and the Frederiksøerne Islands (now the Nicobar Islands).


date: August 21

text: August 21 – Mikhail Gvozdev in the Sviatoi Gavriil makes the first known crossing of the Bering Strait, from Cape Dezhnev to Cape Prince of Wales in Alaska, marking the first time that Europeans have reached the northwest coast of North America.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Russia approves the second Kamchatka expedition of Danish-born Russian cartographer Vitus Bering, and the Admiralty orders him to sail east and try to claim uncharted lands in North America.


text: This year's General Assembly of the Church of Scotland gives rise to the First Secession of 1733.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – Benjamin Franklin, in the Pennsylvania Gazette, first advertises the publication of Poor Richard's Almanack, purportedly written by "Richard Saunders", a pen name used by Franklin. The book goes on sale on December 28. The annual publication will continue until 1758.


text: Herman Boerhaave publishes the authorized edition of his Elementa chemiae, recognised as the first text on chemistry.


text: The world's first lightship is moored at the Nore, in the Thames Estuary of England.


date: September 16

text: September 16 – A military warehouse explosion kills up to two-thirds of the population of Campo Maior, Portugal.


text: September 16 – The magnitude 5.8 Montreal earthquake occurs in Quebec (New France).


date: November 29

text: November 29 – The magnitude 6.6 Irpinia earthquake causes deaths in the former Kingdom of Naples.


date: February 14

text: February 14 – Henry Fielding's comedy The Modern Husband premieres at the Royal Theatre on Drury Lane in London.


date: December 7

text: December 7 – The original Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, London (the modern-day Royal Opera House) is opened.


text: The Portsmouth Grammar School is founded in England under the will of Dr. William Smith, a physician and former Mayor of Portsmouth, by Christ Church, Oxford.


date: January 24

text: January 24 – Pierre de Beaumarchais, French writer (d. 1799)


date: February 6

text: February 6 – Charles Lee, general of the Continental Army (d. 1782)


date: February

text: February – Charles Churchill, English poet (d. 1764)


date: March 1

text: March 1 – William Cushing, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1810)


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Adélaïde of France, Princess of France and Duchess of Louvois (d. 1800)


date: April 5

text: April 5 – Jean-Honoré Fragonard, French painter (d. 1806)


date: April 8

text: April 8 – David Rittenhouse, American astronomer, inventor, mathematician, surveyor, scientific instrument craftsman and public official (d. 1796)


date: April 17

text: April 17 – John Blair Jr., American politician and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1800)


date: June 21

text: June 21 – Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, German composer (d. 1795)


date: September 30

text: September 30 – Jacques Necker, French politician (d. 1804)


date: November 4

text: November 4 – Thomas Johnson, American politician and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1819)


date: November 9

text: November 9 – Jeanne Julie Éléonore de Lespinasse, French salon holder (d. 1776)


date: November 13

text: November 13 – John Dickinson, Governor of Delaware and Pennsylvania (d. 1808)


date: December 23

text: December 23 – Richard Arkwright, English inventor (d. 1792)


text: February 6 – Anne Scott, 1st Duchess of Buccleuch, wealthy Scottish peeress (b. 1651)


date: February 7

text: February 7 – William Hiseland, English (later British) soldier, reputed supercentenarian (b. 1620)


date: February 17

text: February 17 – Louis Marchand, French organist and harpsichordist (b. 1669)


date: February 22

text: February 22 – Francis Atterbury, English bishop and man of letters (b. 1663)


text: February 22 – Marie Thérèse de Bourbon, Princess of Conti and titular queen of Poland (b. 1666)


date: February 28

text: February 28 – André Charles Boulle, French cabinet-maker (b. 1642)


date: March 20

text: March 20 – Johann Ernst Hanxleden, German philologist (b. 1681)


date: May 20

text: May 20 – Thomas Boston, Scottish church leader (b. 1676)


date: July 15

text: July 15 – Woodes Rogers, English privateer and first Royal Governor of the Bahamas (b. c. 1679)


date: September 24

text: September 24 – Emperor Reigen of Japan (b. 1654)


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Dionisia de Santa María Mitas Talangpaz, Filipino saint (b. 1691)


date: November 20

text: November 20 – Daniel d'Auger de Subercase, French naval officer, governor of Newfoundland (b. 1661)


date: November 21

text: November 21 – Jan Jansen Bleecker, Mayor of Albany, New York (b. 1641)


date: December 4

text: December 4 – John Gay, English poet and dramatist (b. 1685)


date: April 6

text: April 6 – Royal Colony of North Carolina Commissioners John Watson, Joshua Grainger, Michael Higgins and James Wimble begin selling lots for the town of New Carthage (which is later renamed and is now Wilmington, North Carolina), on the east side of the Cape Fear River.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – The canton system is first introduced in Prussia.


date: May 17

text: May 17 – The Molasses Act receives royal assent and begins to go into effect on June 24.


date: May 29

text: May 29 – The right of Canadians to keep Indian slaves is upheld at Quebec.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – The Danish West India Company buys the island of Saint Croix from France for 750,000 livres.


date: July 30

text: July 30 – The first Freemasons lodge, the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, opens in what will become the United States of America.


date: August 19

text: August 19 – In Warsaw as Stanislas Leszczynski appears to be on the verge of being elected King of Poland, Russia, Austria and Saxony sign Löwenwolde's Treaty (named for Russian diplomat Karl Gustav von Löwenwolde), pledging to go to war to place Frederick Augustus, son of the late King Augustus II, on the throne.


date: September 12

text: September 12 – Stanislas Leszczynski, who had been King of Poland from 1704 to 1709 until being driven from the throne by King Augustus II, is returned to office by the vote of the Sejm. Russia and Austria protest the election, since King Stanislaus is backed by France and Sweden.


date: September 26

text: September 26 – The Treaty of Turin is signed in Turin as a secret agreement between King Louis XV of France and King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia.


date: November 23

text: November 23 – The 1733 slave insurrection on St. John begins: Slaves from Akwamu rebel against their owners in the Danish West Indies.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – Unsuccessful in capturing Baghdad from the Ottoman Empire, Persia's ruler Nader Shah signs the Treaty of Baghdad with the Ottoman Governor, Ahmad Khan Pasha, with the Turks and the Iranians agreeing to restore the boundary between the two empires to the lines before the 1732 Ottoman invasion of Iran.


date: October 5

text: October 5 – The election of Augustus III, to succeed his father as King of Poland, sparks the War of the Polish Succession.


date: October 10

text: October 10 – France declares war on Austria and Saxony.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – The Battle of Kirkuk starts which will lead to the defeat of the Ottoman army under general Topal Osman Pasha.


date: February 12

text: February 12 – British colonist James Oglethorpe founds Savannah, Georgia.


date: March 21

text: March 21 – The Molasses Act is passed by British House of Commons, which reinforces the negative opinions of the British by American colonists. The Act then goes to the House of Lords, which consents to it on May 4 and it receives royal assent on May 17.


date: March 25

text: March 25 – English replaces Latin and Law French as the official language of English and Scottish courts following the enforcement of the Proceedings in Courts of Justice Act 1730.


date: April 6

section: Economy & Finance

text: April 6 – After British Prime Minister Robert Walpole's proposed excise tax bill results in rioting over the imposition of additional taxes and the use of government agents to collect them, Walpole informs the House of Commons that he will withdraw the legislation.


date: May 26

section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: May 26 – The introduction of John Kay's Flying Shuttle which revolutionized the textile industry and marked the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.


date: December 25

text: December 25 – The Molasses Act goes into full effect.


date: July 15

text: July 15 – A hurricane off of the coast of the Florida Keys wrecks at least 17 Spanish ships.


date: January 27

text: January 27 – George Frideric Handel's classic opera, Orlando is performed for the first time, making its debut at the King's Theatre in London.


date: June 12

text: June 12 – At Schloss Salzdahlum, Prince Frederick of Prussia, the 21-year-old heir to the throne reluctantly marries Duchess Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Bevern in order to avoid prosecution for desertion from the Prussian Army and to be guaranteed the throne. Despite the unhappy marriage Frederick and Elisabeth later reign as King and Queen Consort of Prussia.


date: January 22

text: January 22 – Philip Carteret, Jersey-born British naval officer and circumnavigator (d. 1796)


date: January 24

text: January 24 – Benjamin Lincoln, major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and politician (d. 1810)


date: March 13

text: March 13 – Joseph Priestley, English scientist and minister (d. 1804)


date: May 4

text: May 4 – Jean-Charles de Borda, French mathematician, physicist, political scientist, and sailor (d. 1799)


date: July 27

text: July 27 – Jeremiah Dixon, English surveyor and astronomer (d. 1779)


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Christoph Martin Wieland, German poet and writer (d. 1813)


date: September 18

text: September 18 – George Read, American lawyer and signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1798)


date: October 14

text: October 14 – François Sébastien Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfayt, Austrian field marshal (d. 1798)


date: October 15

text: October 15 – Lisa Eriksdotter, Finnish visionary


date: November 16

text: November 16 – Siraj ud-Daulah, the last independent ruler of Bengal of undivided India (d. 1757)


date: November 20

text: November 20 – Philip Schuyler, general in the American Revolution, United States Senator from New York, father of Angelica Schuyler Church and Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton (d. 1804)


text: undated – Johanna Löfblad, Swedish actor and singer (d. 1811)


date: January 13

text: January 13 – Borommarachathirat V becomes King of Siam (now Thailand) upon the death of King Sanphet IX.


date: January 17

text: January 17 – George Byng, 1st Viscount Torrington, English Royal Navy admiral (b. 1663)


date: January 21

text: January 21 – Bernard Mandeville, Dutch-born English economic philosopher (b. 1670)


date: January 25

text: January 25 – Gilbert Heathcote, Mayor of London (b. 1652)


date: February 16

text: February 16 – Ulrika Eleonora Stålhammar, Swedish officer (b. 1683)


date: April 14

text: April 14 – Ippolito Desideri, Italian tibetologist (b. 1684)


date: April 19

text: April 19 – Elizabeth Hamilton, Countess of Orkney, mistress of William III of England (b. 1657)


date: April 30

text: April 30 – Rodrigo Anes de Sá Almeida e Meneses, 1st Marquis of Abrantes, Portuguese diplomat (b. 1676)


date: June 23

text: June 23 – Johann Jakob Scheuchzer, Swiss scholar (b. 1672)


date: July 12

text: July 12 – Anne-Thérèse de Marguenat de Courcelles, French salon holder (b. 1647)


date: September 12

text: September 12 – François Couperin, French composer (b. 1668)


date: October 19

text: October 19 – Sir Thomas Molyneux, 1st Baronet, Irish politician (b. 1661)


date: October 25

text: October 25 – Giovanni Girolamo Saccheri, Italian mathematician (b. 1667)


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Willem Adriaan van der Stel, Dutch colonial administrator (b. 1664)


text: February 16 – The Ostend Company, established in 1722 in the Austrian Netherlands (modern-day Belgium) to compete for trade in the West Indies (the Caribbean islands) and the East Indies (south and southeast Asia), ceases business as part of the agreement by Austria in the Second Treaty of Vienna.

source_section: Events › January– March


date: May 27

text: May 27 – French and Swiss troops suppress the slave insurrection in the Danish West Indies on the island of Saint John (part of the modern-day U.S. Virgin Islands) after six months and restore control of the plantations to the Danish owners.


date: June 6

text: June 6 – With the conclusion of the British general election (voting having begun in some constituencies on April 22), the Whigs, led by Prime Minister Robert Walpole, lose 85 seats but retain their majority.


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Abdu'llah bin Ismail as-Samin is deposed after a 15-year reign as Sultan of Morocco.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – The Dzików Confederation is created in Poland.


text: Creation of the Kanem–Bornu Empire after Kanem is taken over by the Sultan of Bornu.

source_section: Events › Undated


date: May 25

text: May 25 – Spanish forces under the command of José Carrillo de Albornoz, 1st Duke of Montemar, defeat the Austrian forces, completing the conquest of the Kingdom of Naples at the Battle of Bitonto.


date: June 17

text: June 17 – French troops take Philippsburg, but the Duke of Berwick is killed.


date: July 18

text: July 18 – War of the Polish Succession: The Siege of Philippsburg (an Austrian fortress near Karlsruhe, Germany) by the French Army ends after eight weeks as its Austrian defenders surrender.


date: August 6

text: August 6 – The armies of Spain and France, led by the Duke of Parma (and future King Charles III of Spain) storm the city of Gaeta in Naples, ending a four-month siege (War of the Polish Succession).


date: October 23

text: October 23 – Jamaica's Governor John Ayscough declares martial law to fight the slave rebellion that began in 1733, then drafts 600 men into the colonial army to march into the Blue Mountains. (→ First Maroon War)


date: January 8

text: January 8 – Salzburgers, Lutherans who were expelled by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Salzburg, Austria, in October 1731, set sail for the British Colony of Georgia in America.


date: March 12

text: March 12 – Salzburgers arrive at the mouth of the Savannah River in the British Colony of Georgia.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – War of the Polish Succession: Russian troops take Gdańsk (German: Danzig), which had been besieged since February 1734, after the failure of a French expedition to relieve the city.


text: Anton Wilhelm Amo becomes the first African to receive a doctorate in Europe and begins teaching at the University of Halle.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – In Montreal, New France, a black slave known by the French name of Marie-Joseph Angélique is tortured then hanged by the French authorities for allegedly setting a fire that destroyed part of the city.


date: December 24

text: December 24 – A fire destroys the Royal Alcázar of Madrid, the residence of the Spanish royal family, along with more than 400 valuable paintings, 100 sculptures and thousands of documents.


date: April 25

text: April 25 – Easter occurs on the latest possible date (the next time is in 1886).


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Prince Charles of Spain (later King Charles III) becomes the new King of Naples and Sicily, five days after his arrival in Naples.


date: January 16

text: January 16 – John A. Treutlen, Governor of Georgia (d. 1782)


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Robert Morris, Founding Father of the United States (d. 1806)


date: February 15

text: February 15 – William Stacy, American Revolutionary War officer (d. 1802)


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Thomas Conway, American Revolutionary War general (d. 1800)


date: March 19

text: March 19 – Thomas McKean, American lawyer, signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1817)


date: April 17

text: April 17 – Taksin, King of Thailand (d. 1782)


date: April

text: April – Elsa Beata Bunge, Swedish botanist (d. 1819)


date: May 23

text: May 23 – Franz Mesmer, Austrian physician (d. 1815)


date: August 10

text: August 10 – Naungdawgyi, Burmese king (d. 1763)


date: August 24

text: August 24 – Benjamin Church, first Surgeon General of the United States Army (d. 1763)


date: September 3

text: September 3 – Joseph Wright, British painter (d. 1797)


date: September 17

text: September 17 – Elizabeth Canning, English maidservant and kidnappee (d. 1773)


date: October 7

text: October 7 – Sir Ralph Abercromby, British general (d. 1801)


date: December 31

text: December 31 – Francisco Manoel de Nascimento, Portuguese poet (d. 1819)


date: February 9

text: February 9 – Diego de Astorga y Céspedes, Spanish Catholic cardinal (b. 1663)


date: April 25

text: April 25 – Johann Konrad Dippel, German alchemist (b. 1673)


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Sebastiano Ricci, Italian painter (b. 1659)


date: May 24

text: May 24 – Georg Ernst Stahl, German physician and chemist (b. 1660)


date: June 12

text: June 12 – James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick, illegitimate son of James II of England and French military commander (b. 1670)


date: June 21

text: June 21 – Marie-Joseph Angélique, African slave


date: July 22

text: July 22 – Peter King, 1st Baron King, Lord Chancellor of England (b. c. 1669)


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Simon Henry Adolph, Count of Lippe-Detmold, ruler of the county of Lippe (b. 1694)


date: November 14

text: November 14 – Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth, French-born mistress of Charles II of England (b. 1649)


date: November 21

text: November 21 – Alexis Simon Belle, French portrait painter (b. 1674)


date: November 23

text: November 23 – Eugene Jean, Count of Soissons, Prince of Savoy (b. 1714)


date: December 5

text: December 5 – Peter Tillemans, Flemish painter (b. c. 1684)


date: December 8

text: December 8 – James Figg, English prizefighter


date: December 28

text: December 28 – Rob Roy MacGregor, Scottish clan chief (b. 1671)


date: March 10

text: March 10 – The Russian Empire and Persia sign the Treaty of Ganja, with Russia ceding territories in the Caucasus mountains to Persia, and the two rivals forming a defensive alliance against the Ottoman Empire.


date: April 13

text: April 13 – Emperor Sakuramachi accedes to the throne of Japan.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – Sir Robert Walpole, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, becomes the first British premier to move into London's 10 Downing Street.


date: October 18

text: October 18 – In China, Qianlong succeeds his father, Yongzheng, as Emperor and begins a 60-year-long reign within the Qing dynasty.

source_section: Events › October –December


date: September 4

text: September 4 – Al-Husayn I ibn Ali, the first Bey of Tunis (modern-day Tunisia) is defeated at the Battle of Smindja by Abu l-Hasan Ali I with the help of Ibrahim ben Ramdan, the Dey of Algiers.


text: Russo-Turkish War, 1735-1739: Russian forces fail to occupy the Crimea, due to rasputitsa.


date: October 14

text: October 14 – John Wesley and his brother Charles set sail from England for Savannah in the Province of Georgia in British America; on the voyage they first encounter members of the Moravian Church.


date: January 2

text: January 2 – Alexander Pope's poem Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot is published in London.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – At the age of 8 years old, Prince Luis of Spain becomes the youngest Roman Catholic Cardinal in history, after being named by Pope Clement XII.


date: September 14

text: September 14 – The Kingdom of France approves the issue of "card money" in the total amount of 200,000 livres to serve as currency in its Louisiana territory in America.


text: The King's Highway (Charleston to Boston) is completed.


text: Quebec: Construction begins on the Chemin du roy between Quebec and Montreal.


text: Probable date – Founded by Jehan-Jacques Blancpain in Villeret, Switzerland, Blancpain becomes the first registered watch brand in the world.


text: A shipbuilding industry begins in Mumbai.


text: Leonhard Euler solves the Basel problem, first posed by Pietro Mengoli in 1644, and the Seven Bridges of Königsberg problem.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – George Hadley publishes the first explanation of the trade winds.


text: Cobalt is discovered and isolated by Georg Brandt, the first metal element found since ancient times.


date: November 30

text: November 30 – The Netherlands becomes the first government to announce a prohibition against citizens joining the Freemasons.


date: December 6

text: December 6 – The second successful appendectomy is performed by naturalised British surgeon Claudius Aymand at St George's Hospital in London (the first was in 1731).


date: August 16

text: August 16 (August 5 old style) – John Peter Zenger of The New York Weekly Journal becomes a symbol of freedom of the press when he is acquitted of seditious libel against William Cosby, the British Governor of the Province of New York. A jury concludes that what Zenger published was true.


date: February 3

text: February 3 – All 256 people on board the Dutch East India Company ships Vliegenthart and Anna Catherina die when the two ships sink in a gale off of the Netherlands coast. The wreckage of Vliegenthart remains undiscovered until 1981.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – George Frideric Handel's opera Ariodante is premièred at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London.


date: February 14

text: February 14 – The Order of St. Anna is established in Russia, in honor of the daughter of Peter the Great.


date: April 16

text: April 16 – Alcina, George Frideric Handel's Italian opera, premieres at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London.


date: June 25

text: June 25 – In Great Britain, the Engraving Copyright Act 1734, the first of a series of copyright protection laws, takes effect after being given royal assent by King George II.


date: November 25

text: November 25 – The largest bell in the world, the 22 foot diameter Tsar Kolokol, is successfully cast in Moscow within the Kremlin.


text: Linnaeus publishes his Systema Naturae.


text: January 8 – John Carroll first Roman Catholic Archbishop in the U.S. (d. 1815)


date: January 9

text: January 9 – John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent, British Royal Navy admiral (d. 1823)


date: January 27

text: January 27 – Étienne Clavière, French financier and politician (d. 1793)


date: February 13

text: February 13 – Crown Prince Sado of Joseon (d. 1762)


date: March 29

text: March 29 – Johann Karl August Musäus German author (d. 1787)


date: May 23

text: May 23 – Charles Joseph, Prince de Ligne, (d. 1814)


date: June 26

text: June 26 – Joseph Ducreux, French noble, portrait painter, pastelist, miniaturist and engraver (d. 1802)


date: August 7

text: August 7 - Claudine Picardet, French chemist, mineralogist, meteorologist and scientific translator (d. 1820)


date: September 6

text: September 6 – John Joseph Merlin, born Jean-Joseph Merlin, Liège-born clock- and musical-instrument-maker and inventor (d. 1803)


date: September 20

text: September 20 – James Keir, Scottish geologist, chemist and industrialist (d. 1820)


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1811)


date: October 9

text: October 9 – Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick (d. 1806)


date: October 30

text: October 30 – John Adams, second president of the United States (d. 1826)


date: November 10

text: November 10 – Granville Sharp, English abolitionist (d. 1813)


date: January 13

text: January 13 – Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg, Queen consort of Sardinia (b. 1706)


date: January 18

text: January 18 – Maria Clementina Sobieska, Polish noble (b. 1702)


date: February 27

text: February 27 – John Arbuthnot, British physician and author (b. 1667)


date: March 11

text: March 11 – Abraham Patras becomes the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia) upon the death of Dirck van Cloon.


date: April 5

text: April 5 – William Derham, English minister and writer (b. 1657)


date: April 25

text: April 25 – Samuel Wesley, English poet, religious leader (b. 1662)


date: June 10

text: June 10 – Thomas Hearne, British antiquarian (b. 1678)


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Lê Thuần Tông, Emperor of Đại Việt since 1732, dies at the age of 36 and is succeeded by Lê Ý Tông.


date: July 18

text: July 18 – Johann Krieger, German composer and organist (b. 1651)


date: July 29

text: July 29 – Sophia Louise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Prussian queen consort (b. 1685)


date: August 30

text: August 30 – Edward Harley, English politician (b. 1664)


date: October 26

text: October 26 – Margareta von Ascheberg, Swedish land owner, countess and acting regiment colonel (b. 1671)


date: November 14

text: November 14 – Frederick William, Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen (b. 1663)


date: December 14

text: December 14 – Thomas Tanner, English bishop, antiquarian (b. 1674)


date: January 23

text: January 23 – The Civil Code of 1734 is passed in Sweden.


date: January 26

text: January 26 – Stanisław Leszczyński abdicates the throne of Poland, ending his second reign.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – German adventurer Theodor Stephan Freiherr von Neuhoff is crowned King Theodore of Corsica, 25 days after his arrival on Corsica on March 20. His reign ends on November 5 when he flees the island.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – King Theodore of Corsica flees the island after a reign of seven months and the kingdom reverts to Genoese control.


text: Neustrelitz becomes the capital of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Battle of Ackia: British and Chickasaw Native Americans defeat French troops.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Russo-Turkish War (1735–39): Russian forces under Peter Lacy storm the Ottoman fortress of Azov.


date: June 19

text: June 19 – A French Academy of Sciences expedition, led by Pierre Louis Maupertuis, with Anders Celsius, begins work on measuring a meridian arc in Torne Valley, Finland.


date: November 13

text: November 13 – Word of the discovery of silver, south of what is now the U.S.-Mexican border, reaches Sonora Governor Juan Bautista Anza and soon leads to prospectors coming to Nogales to find more silver. Late in October, a Yaqui Indian prospector, Antonio Siraumea, had discovered large slabs of silver ("Las planchas de plata"), and at the Estancia Arizona, a ranch owned by Captain Bernardo de Urrea. The region, and later the U.S. territory, and state of Arizona are named for Urrea's ranch.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – The Lebanese Council of 1736 begins, a major turning point in the reform of the Maronite Church. In the following three days, the assembled Maronite and Latin clergy presided by Yusuf ibn Siman as-Simani discuss various reforms and elaborate rules and canons.


date: December 26

text: December 26 – Andrew Michael Ramsay gives an oration, in which he relates the heritage and internationalism of Freemasonry to that of the Crusades.


text: Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab writes the Kitab at-tawhidt, marking the beginning of Wahhabism.


text: The Belgrade Fortress is completed.


text: One of the earliest records of use of a bathing machine is made at Scarborough, England.


date: June 8

text: June 8 – Leonhard Euler writes to James Stirling describing the Euler–Maclaurin formula, providing a disconnection between integrals and sums.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – French scientist Charles Marie de La Condamine and a team of surveyors begin the first measurements at the Equator to determine the exact meridian arc measurement of distance between points separated by one degree of longitude in order to make a precise calculation of the Earth's circumference. The initial measurements of this French Geodesic Mission to the Equator, made in what is now Ecuador, last until November 3. The same year the French Geodesic Mission to Lapland took place. Both confirm Isaac Newton's prediction that the Figure of the Earth is flattened at the poles.


text: Charles Marie de La Condamine, with François Fresneau Gataudière, makes the first scientific observations of rubber, in Ecuador.


text: Leonhard Euler produces the first published proof of Fermat's "little theorem".


text: Sir Isaac Newton's Method of Fluxions (1671), describing his method of differential calculus, is first published (posthumously) and Thomas Bayes publishes a defense of its logical foundations (anonymously).


date: March 31

text: March 31 – Bellevue Hospital is founded in New York.


date: September 29

text: September 29 – The Gin Act 1736 goes into effect, placing a steep tax on the sale of gin and license requirements for its sale, with the intent of reducing consumption of the liquor in Britain. Widely ignored, the Act is repealed in 1743.


text: The Haidamakas raid the shtetl of Pavoloch, killing 35.


text: April 14 – The Porteous Riots erupt in Edinburgh (Scotland), after the execution of smuggler Andrew Wilson, when town guard Captain John Porteous orders his men to fire at the crowd. Porteous is arrested later.


date: June 24

text: June 24 – Witchcraft Act 1735 (9 Geo. 2. c. 5) in Great Britain comes into effect, criminalizing claimants accusing people of practising witchcraft or of possessing magical powers, intended to end legal witch trials in the early modern period in the country.


date: September 7

text: September 7 – An Edinburgh crowd drags John Porteous out of his cell in Tolbooth Prison, and lynches him.


date: April 19

text: April 19 – A fire in Stony Stratford, England, consumes 53 houses.


date: August 12

text: August 12 – A fire in Saint Petersburg, capital of the Russian Empire, destroys 2,000 buildings, the city's post office, and several palaces.


date: December 7

text: December 7 – Benjamin Franklin builds the first volunteer fire company in Philadelphia.


date: January 12

text: January 12 – George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney, becomes the Second Field Marshal of Great Britain.


date: February 12

text: February 12 – Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor marries Maria Theresa of Austria, ruler of the Habsburg Empire at the Augustinian Church in Vienna.


date: March 8

text: March 8 – Nader Shah, founder of the Afsharid dynasty, is crowned Shah of Iran on a date selected by court astrologers.


date: April

text: April – The Genbun era begins in Japan. The era of Kyōhō Reforms ends.


date: May 8

text: May 8 – Frederick, Prince of Wales, marries Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – King George II of Great Britain departs for Europe as part of his duties as Elector of Hanover; his wife, Caroline, Queen Consort rules on his behalf as the Regent for the last time until his return on January 14, 1736.


date: January 25

text: January 25 – Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Italian-born mathematician (d. 1813)


date: February 3

text: February 3 – Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, Austrian musician (d. 1809)


date: February 29

text: February 29 – Ann Lee, English-born American religious leader (d. 1784)


date: March 20

text: March 20 – Rama I, First King of Siam (d. 1809)


date: May 29

text: May 29 – Patrick Henry, American patriot (d. 1799)


date: June 3

text: June 3 – Sir John Acton, 6th Baronet, Prime Minister of Naples (d. 1811)


date: June 14

text: June 14 – Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, French physicist (d. 1806)


date: June 21

text: June 21 – Enoch Poor, American general (d. 1780)


date: June 25

text: June 25 – John Horne Tooke, English politician, philologist (d. 1812)


date: July

text: July – Juan Bautista de Anza, Governor of the Spanish Province of New Mexico (d. 1788)


date: August 9

text: August 9 – Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé (d. 1818)


date: September 15

text: September 15 – Jean Sylvain Bailly, French astronomer (d. 1793)


date: September 16

text: September 16 – Carter Braxton, signer of the American Declaration of Independence (d. 1797)


date: October 27

text: October 27 – James Macpherson, Scottish poet (d. 1796)


date: January 8

text: January 8 – Jean Leclerc (theologian), Swiss theologian and biblical scholar (b. 1657)


date: January 31

text: January 31 – Filippo Juvarra, Italian architect (b. 1678)


date: February 1

text: February 1 – James Stanley, 10th Earl of Derby, English politician (b. 1664)


date: February 7

text: February 7 – Stephen Gray, English dyer, astronomer, and scientist (b. 1666)


date: March 16

text: March 16 – Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Italian composer (b. 1710)


date: March 25

text: March 25 – Nicholas Hawksmoor, British architect (b. c. 1661)


date: April 30

text: April 30 – Johann Albert Fabricius, German scholar and bibliographer (b. 1668)


date: June 6

text: June 6 – Jean Baptiste de La Vérendrye, explorer of New France, eldest son of Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye (b. 1713)


text: September 16 – Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, German physicist and inventor (b. 1686)


date: September 26

text: September 26 – Louise Diane d'Orléans, youngest child of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (b. 1716)


date: November 2

text: November 2 – Louis Antoine de Pardaillan de Gondrin, French duke (b. 1664)


date: December 10

text: December 10 – António Manoel de Vilhena, Portuguese 66th Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (b. 1663)


date: December 12

text: December 12 (burial) – Antonina Houbraken, Dutch draughtswoman (b. 1686)


date: December 22

text: December 22 – Sir William Robinson, 1st Baronet, British politician (b. 1655)


date: January 5

text: January 5 – Spain and the Holy Roman Empire sign instruments of cession at Pontremoli in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in Italy, with the Empire receiving control of Tuscany and the Grand Duchy of Parma and Piacenza, in return for Don Carlos of Spain being recognized as King of Naples and King of Sicily.


date: January 9

text: January 9 – The Empires of Austria and Russia enter into a secret military alliance that leads to Austria's disastrous entry into the Russo-Turkish War.


date: January 18

text: January 18 – In Manila, a peace treaty is signed between Spain's Governor-General of the Philippines, Fernándo Valdés y Tamon, and the Sultan Azim ud-Din I of Sulu, recognizing Azim's authority over the islands of the Sulu Archipelago.


date: February 20

text: February 20 – France's Foreign Minister, Germain Louis Chauvelin, is dismissed by King Louis XV's Chief Minister, Cardinal André-Hercule de Fleury


date: December

text: December – John Wesley leaves Savannah, Georgia, and returns to England.


text: March 16 – In Paris, representatives of Spain and Portugal sign an armistice bringing an end to the Spanish–Portuguese War over the area now occupied by the nation of Uruguay and the area now occupied by the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. The news does not reach the fighting parties until five months later.


date: March 28

text: March 28 – The Battle of Delhi takes place between the Maratha Empire and the Mughals.


date: April 22

text: April 22 – In Afghanistan, Persian shah Nader Shah begins the 11-month Siege of Kandahar against the Pashtun Emir of Afghanistan, Hussain Hotak. The surviving Afghanis surrender on March 24, 1738.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – Russo-Turkish War, 1735-1739: Russian forces under Field Marshal Munnich storm the Ottoman fortress of Ochakov, and take prisoner 4,000 Turks.


date: July 12

text: July 12 – Austria enters the Russo-Turkish War as an ally of Russia against the Ottoman Empire.


date: August 4

text: August 4 – Austria's army is defeated by the Ottoman Army and Bosnian defenders in the Battle of Banja Luka.


date: December 24

text: December 24 – General Baji Rao I of the Maratha Empire in India defeats the armies of the rulers of Hyderabad, Oudh, Bhopal and Jaipur in the Battle of Bhopal.


text: Benjamin Franklin creates the Philadelphia Police Force – the first city-paid force.


text: Lancaster County Prison, Lancaster, Pennsylvania is first constructed, in response to the seven preceding violent years of the ongoing Cresap's War in the Maryland-Pennsylvania boundary dispute and war.


date: August 15

text: August 15 – The Portuguese frigate Nossa Senhora da Boa Viagem arrives at Maldonado (now in Uruguay) as Captain Duarte Pereira brings the news that the Spanish–Portuguese War ended by an agreement signed on March 16.


date: September 20

text: September 20 – Runner Edward Marshall completes his journey in the Walking Purchase, forcing the cession of 1200000 acre km2 of Lenape-Delaware tribal land to the Province of Pennsylvania.


date: April 5

text: April 5 – French Jesuit priest Jean-François Régis is canonized as Saint Regis by the Roman Catholic Church under the reign of Pope Clement XII.


text: Our Lady of Guadalupe is designated the patron saint of Mexico City.


date: February 27

text: February 27 – French scientists Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau and Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon publish the first study correlating past weather conditions with an examination of tree rings.


date: May 28

text: May 28 – The planet Venus passes in front of Mercury. The event is witnessed during the evening hours, by the amateur astronomer John Bevis, at the Royal Greenwich Observatory. As of 2006, it is still the only such planet/planet occultation that has been directly observed.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – In Britain, the Theatrical Licensing Act requires plays to be submitted to the Lord Chamberlain for censorship.


date: July 17

text: July 17 – The British ship Catherine founders in a storm off of Nova Scotia's Cape Sable Island during its voyage from Ireland to Boston, killing 98 of the 201 people on board.


date: October 7

text: October 7 – At least 300,000 people are killed when a tropical cyclone strikes the Bay of Bengal in India and modern-day Bangladesh. The storm sends 12 m high waves over the Sundarbans delta, and overflows the Hooghly River.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 9.3 occurs off the shore of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. Tsunamis up to 60 m ft high follow in the Pacific ocean.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – The oldest existing English language newspaper in the world, The News Letter, is founded in Belfast, Ireland.


date: October 11

text: October 11 – The first national stage in Sweden opens, when Carl Gyllenborg's play Den svenska sprätthöken is performed in the Swedish language, by the first native actors, on the stage of Bollhuset in Stockholm.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – The Teatro di San Carlo, the oldest working opera house in Europe, is inaugurated in Naples, Italy.


text: The Georg August University of Göttingen in Lower Saxony is opened to students.


date: January 4

text: January 4 – Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau, French chemist, politician (d. 1816)


date: January 23

text: January 23 – John Hancock, American politician and revolutionary (d. 1793)


date: January 29

text: January 29 – Thomas Paine, British-born American patriot and pamphleteer (d. 1809)


date: March 14

text: March 14 – Ioan Nicolidi of Pindus, Aromanian physician and noble (d. 1828)


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Arthur St. Clair, American soldier and politician (d. 1818)


date: April 27

text: April 27 – Edward Gibbon, English historian and politician (d. 1794)


date: May 2

text: May 2 – William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne, Prime Minister of Great Britain (d. 1805)


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Johann Friedrich Struensee, Danish royal physician (d. 1772)


date: August 29

text: August 29 – John Hunter, second governor of New South Wales (d. 1821)


date: September 9

text: September 9 – Luigi Galvani, Italian physician and physicist (d. 1798)


date: September 14

text: September 14 – Michael Haydn, Austrian composer (d. 1806)


date: September 15

text: September 15 – Miklós Küzmics, Hungarian Slovenes writer, Catholic priest (d. 1804)


date: September 19

text: September 19 – Charles Carroll of Carrollton, only Roman Catholic signer of the American Declaration of Independence (d. 1832)


date: December 26

text: December 26 – Prince Josias of Coburg, Austrian general (d. 1815)


date: January 24

text: January 24 – William Wake, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1657)


text: January 29 – George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney, British soldier (b. 1666)


date: February 14

text: February 14 – Charles Talbot, 1st Baron Talbot of Hensol, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1685)


date: March 12

text: March 12 – Charles Alexander, Duke of Württemberg, regent of the Kingdom of Serbia (1720–1733) (b. 1684)


date: March 16

text: March 16 – Benjamin Wadsworth, American President of Harvard University (b. 1670)


date: March 26

text: March 26 – Vakhtang VI, king of the Kingdom of Kartli under the Bagrationi dynasty (b. 1675)


date: May 3

text: May 3 – James Johnston (secretary of state), diplomat, Secretary of State for Scotland (b. 1655)


date: July 9

text: July 9 – Gian Gastone de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1671)


text: July 9 – The direct male line of the Medici family becomes extinct, with the death of Gian Gastone de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.


date: November 20

text: November 20 – Caroline of Ansbach, queen of George II of Great Britain (b. 1683)


date: December 11

text: December 11 – John Strype, English historian and biographer (b. 1643)


date: December 18

text: December 18 – Antonio Stradivari, Italian luthier (b. 1644)


date: December 19

text: December 19 – James Sobieski, Crown Prince of Poland (b. 1667)


date: December 21

text: December 21 – Alessandro Galilei, Italian architect, mathematician (b. 1691)


date: November 18

text: November 18 – The Treaty of Vienna is ratified, ending the War of the Polish Succession. Under the terms of the treaty, Stanisław Leszczyński receives Lorraine in exchange for renouncing the Polish throne.


text: Rémy Martin is granted exclusive permission by King Louis XV to plant new vineyards, for impressing him with the quality of his cognac.


date: January 7

text: January 7 – After the Maratha Empire of India wins the Battle of Bhopal over the Jaipur State, Jaipur cedes the Malwa territory to the Maratha in a treaty signed at Doraha.


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Mariner Robert Jenkins presents a pickled ear, which he claims was cut off by a Spanish captain in the Caribbean in 1731, to the Parliament of Great Britain, which votes, 257 to 209, for war against Spain, leading to the War of Jenkins' Ear the following year.


date: May 25

text: May 25 – The military phase of Cresap's War between the British North American Provinces of Maryland and Pennsylvania is ended when King George II of Great Britain negotiates a cease-fire.


date: July 10

text: July 10 – Thomas Pellow of Cornwall finally escapes captivity, 23 years after having been captured by Barbary pirates and held as a slave in Morocco. He arrives in British territory when the ship he is on sails into Gibraltar Bay on July 21, and later recounts his story in the book The Adventures of Thomas Pellow, of Penryn, Mariner: Three and Twenty Years in Captivity Among the Moors.


date: October 22

text: October 22 – The excavation of Herculaneum, a Roman city buried by Vesuvius in AD 79, begins near the Italian city of Resina on orders from King Charles III of Spain to his engineer, Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre.


text: China's Qing government announces that all western businessmen have to use the Cohong in Guangzhou to trade.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – Pope Clement XII issues the papal bull In eminenti apostolatus, prohibiting Roman Catholics from being members of Masonic societies.


date: June 27

text: June 27 – The Spanish Empire's Council of the Indies votes, 6 to 4, to re-establish the Viceroyalty of New Granada, incorporating modern-day Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Panama. King Philip V issues the order on August 20, 1738.


date: September 18

text: September 18 – Samuel Johnson composes his first solemn prayer (published 1785).


date: February 20

text: February 20 – The Swedish Levant Company is founded.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Jacques de Vaucanson stages the first demonstration of an early automaton, The Flute Player at the Hotel de Longueville in Paris, and continues to display it until March 30.


date: June 24

text: June 24 – British inventor Lewis Paul receives a patent for roller cotton-spinning machinery.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – English metallurgist William Champion is granted a patent for his process of extracting zinc from other materials in a furnace.


text: Black Forest clockmaker Franz Ketterer produces one of the earliest cuckoo clocks.


text: Pierre Louis Maupertuis publishes Sur la figure de la terre, which confirms Newton's view that the earth is an oblate spheroid, slightly flattened at the poles.


date: August 10

text: August 10 – Russo-Turkish War (1735–1739): The Russian army begins its attempt to cross the Dniester River and fails after three weeks; it is later decimated by plague.


date: February 4

text: February 4 – Court Jew Joseph Süß Oppenheimer is executed in Württemberg.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – At least 664 African slaves drown when the Dutch West Indies Company slave ship Leusden capsizes and sinks in the Maroni River during its arrival in Surinam. The Dutch crew escapes, and leaves the slaves locked below decks to die.


date: December 27

text: December 27 – After setting off from Rotterdam in August with 240 immigrants to America, the British ship Princess Augusta is wrecked near Block Island off of the coast of the colony of Rhode Island. During the voyage, 200 passengers and seven crew die from illness spread by contaminated water. Another 20 die after the crew leaves and rows to shore. The wreck later becomes the subject of the legend of the "Palatine Light" ghost ship and of John Greenleaf Whittier's 1867 poem "The Palatine".


date: January 3

text: January 3 – George Frideric Handel's opera Faramondo is given its first performance.


date: April 15

text: April 15 – Serse, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, premieres in London.


date: April 18

text: April 18 – Spain's Royal Academy of History (Real Academia de la Historia) is established by decree of King Philip V of Spain.


date: May 4

text: May 4 – The Imperial Theatrical School, in modern times known as Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, is founded under the reign of Empress Anna. It is the first ballet school in Russia and second in the world.


date: May 24

text: May 24 – John Wesley, newly returned from America, experiences a spiritual rebirth at a Moravian Church meeting in Aldersgate, in the City of London, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day (his younger brother Charles had a similar experience three days earlier).


text: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, having completed a law degree, is hired as a court musician by Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia, the future Frederick the Great (Bach will remain in Frederick's service until 1768).


date: January 21

text: January 21 – Ethan Allen, American patriot (d. 1789)


date: February 6

text: February 6 – Pierre-Joseph Desault, French anatomist and surgeon (d. 1795)


date: April 14

text: April 14 – William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1809)


date: May 27

text: May 27 – Nathaniel Gorham, American politician (d. 1796)


date: May 28

text: May 28 – Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, French physician (d. 1814)


date: July 3

text: July 3 – John Singleton Copley, American painter (d. 1815)


date: July 20

text: July 20 – Darejan Dadiani, Georgian queen consort (d. 1807)


date: August 28

text: August 28 – Etteilla, French occult cartomancer (d. 1791)


date: September 25

text: September 25 – Nicholas Van Dyke, American lawyer and President of Delaware (d. 1789)


date: October 10

text: October 10 – Benjamin West, American painter (d. 1820)


date: October 11

text: October 11 – Arthur Phillip, British admiral and Governor of New South Wales (d. 1814)


date: October 18

text: October 18 – Andrei Bolotov, Russian agriculturalist and memoirist (d. 1833)


date: October 29

text: October 29 – Charles Spalding, Scottish inventor and underwater diver (d. 1783)


date: December 31

text: December 31 – Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, British general (d. 1805)


date: January 6

text: January 6 – Franz Xaver Murschhauser, German composer and theorist (b. 1663)


date: January 24

text: January 24 – Samuel Andrew, American Congregational clergyman, educator (b. 1656)


date: January 30

text: January 30 – Benoît de Maillet, French diplomat and natural historian (b. 1656)


date: February 9

text: February 9 – Béatrice Hiéronyme de Lorraine, Abbess of Remiremont (b. 1662)


date: February 15

text: February 15 – Matthias Braun, Czech sculptor (b. 1684)


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Henry Grove, English nonconformist minister (b. 1684)


date: March 16

text: March 16 – George Bähr, German architect (b. 1666)


date: March 25

text: March 25 – Turlough O'Carolan, Irish harper and composer (b. 1670)


date: April 9

text: April 9 – Sir Charles Blois, 1st Baronet, English politician (b. 1657)


date: May 1

text: May 1 – Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle, English statesman (b. c. 1669)


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Sir John Chesshyre, English lawyer (b. 1662)


date: June 21

text: June 21 – Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, English politician (b. 1674)


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Herman Boerhaave, Dutch humanist, physician (b. 1668)


date: December 22

text: December 22 – Constantia Jones, English prostitute (executed) (b. c. 1708)


date: July 12

text: July 12 – The British East India Company signs a treaty with the Maratha Empire to gain the right of free trade within the territory.


date: August 20

text: August 20 – The Viceroyalty of New Granada, incorporating modern-day Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela is re-established by the royal cedula of King Philip V of Spain, 16 years after it had been dissolved, and adds the territory of Panama as well.


date: September 18

text: September 18 – The Treaty of Belgrade brings the Austro-Russian–Turkish War (1735–39) to an end.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – The Treaty of Niš is signed.


text: Ecuador, part of Real Audiencia of Quito, becomes a part of New Granada, instead of Peru.


date: February 24

text: February 24 – Battle of Karnal: The army of Iranian ruler Nader Shah defeats the forces of the Mughal emperor of India, Muhammad Shah.


date: March 20

text: March 20 – Nader Shah occupies Delhi, India and sacks the city, stealing the jewels of the Peacock Throne, including the Koh-i-Noor.


date: July 22

text: July 22 – The Ottoman Empire retakes Belgrade from Austria's Habsburg monarchy after winning the Battle of Grocka.


date: September 9

text: September 9 – The Stono Rebellion, a slave rebellion, erupts near Charleston, South Carolina.


date: October 23

text: October 23 – War of Jenkins' Ear: Great Britain declares war on Spain.


date: November 20

text: November 20–22 – War of Jenkins' Ear – Battle of Porto Bello: British marine forces capture the Panamanian silver-exporting town of Portobelo from the Spanish.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Bouvet Island is discovered by French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier, in the South Atlantic Ocean.


date: May 12

text: May 12 – John Wesley lays the foundation stone of the New Room, Bristol in England, the world's first Methodist meeting house.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – The town of Utuado, Puerto Rico was founded by Sebastian de Morfi.


date: July 9

text: July 9 – The first group purporting to represent an all-England cricket team, consisting of 11 players from various parts of England, comes to Kent and loses to the renowned Kent team, led by Lord John Sackville.


date: October 17

text: October 17 – The Foundling Hospital is created in London by royal charter.


date: April 7

text: April 7 – English highwayman Dick Turpin is executed by hanging for horse theft.


date: January 3

text: January 3 – A 7.6 earthquake shakes the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in China killing 50,000 people.


text: 84,000 farmers revolt in the province of Iwaki in Japan.


text: A Plinian eruption of Mount Tarumae volcano occurs in Japan.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – (June 2 Old Style); The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is founded in Stockholm, Sweden.


text: The first Bible in Estonian is published.


date: January 25

text: January 25 – Charles François Dumouriez, French general (d. 1823)


date: February 15

text: February 15 – Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart, French architect (d. 1813)


date: March 16

text: March 16 – George Clymer, American politician and Founding Father (d. 1813)


date: March 19

text: March 19 – Charles-François Lebrun, duc de Plaisance, Third Consul of France (d. 1824)


date: August 31

text: August 31 – Johann Augustus Eberhard, German theologian, philosopher (d. 1809)


date: September 12

text: September 12 – Mary Bosanquet Fletcher, Methodist preacher and philanthropist (d. 1816)


date: October 11

text: October 11 – Grigory Potemkin, Russian military leader, statesman, nobleman and favourite of Catherine the Great (d. 1791)


date: November 2

text: November 2 – Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Austrian composer (d. 1799)


date: November 8

text: November 8 – Henrik Gabriel Porthan, Finnish professor and historian (d. 1804)


date: November 20

text: November 20 – Jean-François de La Harpe, French critic (d. 1803)


date: December 14

text: December 14 – Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, French politician (d. 1817)


text: Samuel Mason, Revolutionary War soldier, early American outlaw (d. 1803)


text: Antonio Cachia, Maltese architect, engineer and archaeologist (d. 1813)


text: Paul François Ignace de Barlatier de Mas, French naval captain (d. 1807)


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Francesco Galli Bibiena, Italian architect/designer (b. 1659)


text: April 7 – Dick Turpin, English highwayman (hanged) (b. 1705)


date: April 19

text: April 19 – Nicholas Saunderson, English scientist and mathematician (b. 1682)


date: May 10

text: May 10 – Cosmas Damian Asam, German painter and architect during the late Baroque period (b. 1686)


date: June 18

text: June 18 – Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, Swedish nobleman (b. 1700)


date: June 20

text: June 20 – Edmond Martène, French Benedictine historian and liturgist (b. 1654)


date: July 24

text: July 24 – Benedetto Marcello, Italian composer (b. 1686)


date: September 8

text: September 8 – Yuri Troubetzkoy, Governor of Belgorod (b. 1668)


date: September 19

text: September 19 – Anne Marie Louise de La Tour d'Auvergne, French princess (b. 1722)


date: October 6

text: October 6 – Françoise Charlotte d'Aubigné, French noble (b. 1684)


date: October 18

text: October 18 – Antônio José da Silva, Brazilian-born dramatist (b. 1705)


date: November 14

text: November 14 – Juan de Galavís, Spanish Catholic archbishop (b. 1683)


date: November 16

text: November 16 – Harry Grey, 3rd Earl of Stamford, English peer (b. 1685)


date: December 30

text: December 30– Months of unseasonably cold weather begin in Ireland, precipitating the Irish Famine of 1740, known as Bliain an Áir ("The Year of Slaughter"). A January 5 dispatch from Dublin to the Stamford Mercury says "Since last Wednesday we have had the most violent cold Weather that was ever known in this Kingdom; hard Frost began that evening, which has continued ever since with a very stormy Wind at South-East." At least 13% of Ireland's population dies of starvation in the year that follows.


text: Reign in India of Yajnashri Satakarni, Satavahana king of the Andhra. He extends his empire from the center to the north of India.

source_section: Events › By place › Asia


text: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is written, in Greek, while on military campaigns in Pannonia (approximate date).

source_section: Events › By topic › Art and Science


text: Marcus Aurelius officially confers the title Fulminata ("Thundering") to the Legio XII Fulminata.


text: Pope Eleuterus succeeds Pope Soter as the thirteenth pope (approximate date).

source_section: Events › By topic › Religion


text: Empress Faustina the Younger accompanies her husband, Marcus Aurelius, on various military campaigns and enjoys the love of the Roman soldiers. Aurelius gives her the title of Mater Castrorum ("Mother of the Camp").


text: Tuoba Liwei, Chinese leader of the Tuoba clan (d. 277)


text: Zhuge Jin, Chinese general and politician (d. 241)


text: Jia Kui, Chinese general and politician (d. 228)


text: Gao Rou, Chinese general and politician (d. 263)


text: Tiberius Julius Eupator, Roman client king


text: Soter (or Sorterius), bishop of Rome (approximate date)


date: March 16

text: March 16 – King Edward of the Miskito Indians signs a treaty making his kingdom, located on the coast of modern-day Nicaragua, a protectorate of Great Britain.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Plantation Act 1740 or Naturalization Act 1740 of the Parliament of Great Britain comes into effect providing for Protestant alien immigrants (including Huguenots, and also Jews) residing in the American colonies for 7 years to receive British nationality.


date: April 8

text: April 8 – War of the Austrian Succession: The Royal Navy captures the Spanish ship of the line Princesa off Cape Finisterre and takes her into British service.


date: June 26

text: June 26 – War of Jenkins' Ear: Siege of Fort Mose – A Spanish column of 300 regular troops, free Black militia and Indian auxiliaries storms Britain's strategically crucial position of Fort Mose, Florida.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – Pogrom: Jews are expelled from Little Russia.


date: October 9

text: October 9–22 – Batavia Massacre: Troops of the Dutch East India Company massacre at least 10,000 Chinese Indonesians in Batavia.


date: December 16

text: December 16 – Frederick II of Prussia invades the Habsburg possession of Silesia, starting the War of the Austrian Succession.


date: August 17

text: August 17 – Pope Benedict XIV succeeds Pope Clement XII, as the 247th pope.


text: The fairy-tale Beauty and the Beast by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve was published.


date: March 25

text: March 25 – Construction begins on Bethesda Orphanage for boys near Savannah, Georgia, founded by George Whitefield.


text: Spain begins construction on Fort Matanzas in the Matanzas Inlet, approximately 15 mi km south of St. Augustine, Florida.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – All 237 crewmen on the Dutch East India Company ship Rooswijk are drowned when the vessel strikes the shoals of Goodwin Sands, off of the coast of England, as it is beginning its second voyage to the Indies. The wreckage is discovered more than 250 years later, in 2004.


date: February 20

text: February 20 – The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates the town of Newton as Wilmington, North Carolina, named for Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington and patron of Royal Governor Gabriel Johnston.


date: June 16

text: June 16 – Pour le Mérite first awarded in Prussia as a military honour.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Adam Smith sets out from Scotland to take up a scholarship at Balliol College, Oxford.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – The song Rule, Britannia! is first performed at Cliveden, the country home of Frederick, Prince of Wales, in England.


date: September 8

text: September 8 – Hertford College, Oxford, England, is founded for the first time.


date: November 6

text: November 6 – Samuel Richardson's popular and influential epistolary novel, Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded, is published anonymously in London.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – The University of Pennsylvania is officially established.


text: Enfield, North Carolina, is founded.


date: February 4

text: February 4 – Carl Michael Bellman, Swedish poet, composer (d. 1795)


date: February 16

text: February 16 – Giambattista Bodoni, Italian publisher and engraver (d. 1813)


date: February 17

text: February 17 – John Sullivan, American General in the American Revolutionary War, delegate in the Continental Congress (d. 1795)


date: March

text: March – Johann van Beethoven, German musician, father of Ludwig van Beethoven (d. 1792)


date: April 7

text: April 7 – Haym Salomon, Polish-Jewish American financier of the American Revolution (d. 1785)


date: April 14

text: April 14 – Anna Strong, Patriot spy during the American Revolutionary War (d. 1812)


date: June 2

text: June 2 – Marquis de Sade, French author, for whom sadism is named (d. 1814)


date: June 24

text: June 24 – Juan Ignacio Molina, Spanish-Chilean Jesuit priest, naturalist, historian, translator, geographer, botanist, ornithologist and linguist (d. 1829)


date: June 27

text: June 27 – James Woodforde, English clergyman and diarist (d. 1803)


date: July 27

text: July 27 – Jeanne Baret, French explorer (d. 1807)


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Empress Go-Sakuramachi of Japan (d. 1813)


date: September 25

text: September 25 – Hercules Mulligan, tailor and spy during the American Revolutionary War (d. 1825)


date: October 29

text: October 29 – James Boswell, Scottish author (d. 1795)


date: December

text: December – Elisabeth Olin, Swedish opera singer (d. 1828)


date: January 5

text: January 5 – Antonio Lotti, Italian composer (b. 1667)


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Niccolò Comneno Papadopoli, Italian jurist of religious law and historian (b. 1655)


date: January 21

text: January 21 – Nicholas Trott, colonial magistrate, South Carolina Chief Justice (b. 1663)


date: January 27

text: January 27 – Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon, Prime Minister of France (b. 1692)


date: January

text: January – Louise Élisabeth de Joybert, politically active Canadian governors' wife (b. 1673)


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Olof Rudbeck the Younger, Swedish scientist and explorer (b. 1660)


date: April 28

text: April 28 – Bajirao I, Great Maratha warrior and Prime Minister of Marartha Empire (b.1700)


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Frederick II becomes King in Prussia upon the death of his father, Frederick William I.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Samuel Werenfels, Swiss theologian (b. 1657)


date: June 6

text: June 6 – Alexander Spotswood, British governor of Virginia Colony (b. 1676)


date: June 17

text: June 17 – Theophilus of Corte, Italian Roman Catholic priest, preacher and missionary, canonized (b. 1676)


text: June 17 – William Wyndham, English politician (b. 1687)


date: October 11

text: October 11 – Princess Magdalena Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst, Duchess of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (b. 1679)


date: December 20

text: December 20 – Richard Boyle, 2nd Viscount Shannon, British military officer and statesman (b. 1675)


date: January 13

text: January 13 – Lanesborough, Massachusetts is created as a township.


date: February 13

text: February 13 – Sir Robert Walpole, the prime minister of Great Britain, popularizes the term "the balance of power" in a speech in Parliament.


date: June 11

text: June 11 – 1741 British general election, begun on April 30, concludes with Prime Minister Robert Walpole's Whigs retaining their majority in the House of Commons but losing 44 seats to candidates who have defected to the new Patriot Whigs to oppose his policies.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – George II, as Elector of Hanover, signs the Neustadt Protocol with France, but fails to inform his British government until after his return from Germany.


date: December 7

text: December 7 – War of the Austrian Succession: Charles Albert of Bavaria has himself proclaimed King of Bohemia.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – War of the Austrian Succession: Prussian troops bring down the Austrian fortress of Glogau (modern-day Głogów in Poland).


date: March 13

text: March 13 – The British Royal Navy takes 180 warships, frigates and transport vessels, led by Admiral Edward Vernon, to threaten Cartagena, Colombia, with more than 27,000 crew against the 3,600 defenders.


date: April 6

text: April 6 – The New York Slave Insurrection, a plot to set fire to New York City, is discovered.


date: April 10

text: April 10 – War of the Austrian Succession: An Austrian army is defeated by Prussian troops of Frederick the Great in the Battle of Mollwitz.


date: May 9

text: May 9 – War of Jenkins' Ear: Battle of Cartagena de Indias – Spain's defenders in New Grenada, under the command of General Blas de Lezo, defeat Edward Vernon's Royal Navy force, leading to a British retreat to Jamaica.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Nader Shah, Emperor of Persia, narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.


date: May 21

text: May 21 – War of the Austrian Succession: King George II of Great Britain orders the British Army to prepare for an invasion of Prussia to defend his Electorate of Hanover.


date: August 4

text: August 4–5 – War of Jenkins' Ear: Invasion of Cuba – British Admiral Edward Vernon captures Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, which he renames Cumberland Bay, but which his forces are forced to abandon on December 9.


date: August 10

text: August 10 – Raja Marthanda Varma of Travancore defeats the Dutch East India Company in the Battle of Colachel, ending the Dutch colonial rule in India and marking the first "major" defeat of a European colonial military power in India.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – War of the Austrian Succession: Linz falls to the Bavarian Army.


date: November 25

text: November 25–26 – War of the Austrian Succession: Franco-Bavarian troops commanded by Maurice of Saxony storm in Battle of Prague city Prague.


date: December 6

text: December 6 (November 25, O.S.) – Elizabeth of Russia becomes czarina after a palace coup.


date: May 4

text: May 4 – Vitus Bering sets out from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to map the coasts of Siberia and Alaska.


date: July 15

text: July 15 – Alexei Chirikov sights land in Southeast Alaska, and sends some men aboard his ship ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska.


text: December 7 – Aleksei Chirikov of Russia presents the first written description of the northwest coast of North America.


date: January 13

text: January 13 – Conventicle Act of 1741 is introduced in Denmark-Norway.


date: July 8

text: July 8 – Jonathan Edwards repeats his Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God sermon at Enfield, Connecticut.


text: The Royal Order of Scotland in freemasonry is founded.


text: Summer – Upper Priory Cotton Mill is opened in Birmingham, England, as the world's first mechanised cotton mill by Lewis Paul and John Wyatt; although this is not a commercial success, other Paul-Wyatt cotton mills follow.


date: December 25

text: December 25 – Anders Celsius develops his own thermometer scale, Centigrade, the predecessor of the Celsius scale.


date: May 14

text: May 14 – HMS Wager, one of the vessels of George Anson's voyage around the world, is wrecked on the coast of Chile, killing most of the crew who have survived scurvy.


date: August 23

text: August 23 – At least 2,000 die along the shores of the Sea of Japan after a volcanic eruption on an island generated the Kampo Tsunami.


date: February 14

text: February 14 – Irish-born actor Charles Macklin makes his London stage debut as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, pioneering a psychologically realistic style with Shakespeare's text revived, replacing George Granville's melodramatic adaptation The Jew of Venice. Kitty Clive plays the travesti role of Portia.


date: June 25

text: June 25 – Maria Theresa of Austria is crowned Queen Regnant of Hungary in Bratislava.


text: Stemmatographia by Hristofor Zhefarovich, regarded as the first Serbian and Bulgarian secular printed book, is printed in Vienna.


date: January 27

text: January 27 – Hester Thrale, Welsh diarist (d. 1821)


date: February 7

text: February 7 – Henry Fuseli, Swiss painter and writer (d. 1825)


date: March 17

text: March 17 – William Withering, British physician (d. 1799)


date: March 20

text: March 20 – Jean Antoine Houdon, French sculptor (d. 1828)


date: April 14

text: April 14 – Emperor Momozono of Japan (d. 1762)


date: May 13

text: May 13 – Ingeborg Akeleye, Norwegian noble known for her love life (d. 1800)


date: May 23

text: May 23 – Andrea Luchesi, Italian composer (d. 1801)


date: June 11

text: June 11 – Joseph Warren, American Patriot, physician (d. 1775)


date: June 26

text: June 26 – John Langdon, American politician (d. 1819)


date: September 22

text: September 22 – Peter Simon Pallas, German zoologist (d. 1811)


date: October 4

text: October 4 – Edmond Malone, Irish scholar (d. 1812)


date: October 18

text: October 18 – Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, French general, author (d. 1803)


date: October 24

text: October 24 – Johann August von Starck, German pastor (d. 1816)


date: November 15

text: November 15 – Johann Kaspar Lavater, Swiss physiognomist (d. 1801)


date: January 15

text: January 15 – Ramon Despuig, Spanish-born 67th Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (b. 1670)


date: February 21

text: February 21 – Jethro Tull, British agriculturist (b. 1674)


date: March 31

text: March 31 – Pieter Burmann the Elder, Dutch classical scholar (b. 1668)


date: May 24

text: May 24 – Lord Augustus FitzRoy, Royal Navy officer during the Battle of Cartagena de Indias (b. 1716)


date: June 14

text: June 14 – Landgravine Caroline of Hesse-Rotenburg, German noble (b. 1714)


date: June 18

text: June 18 – François Pourfour du Petit, French anatomist, ophthalmologist and surgeon (b. 1664)


date: July 3

text: July 3 – Elisabeth Therese of Lorraine, Sardinian queen consort (b. 1711)


date: August 4

text: August 4 – Andrew Hamilton, American lawyer (b. 1676)


date: September 7

text: September 7 – Blas de Lezo, Spanish admiral (b. 1689)


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Joseph Talcott, British Governor of the Connecticut Colony for more than 17 years, since 1724. (b. 1670)


date: November 18

text: November 18 – Stephen Delancey, major colonial New York figure (b. 1663)


date: November 24

text: November 24 – Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden (b.1688)


date: December 19

text: December 19 – Vitus Bering dies during his expedition, east of Siberia.


date: December 21

text: December 21 – Bernard de Montfaucon, French Benedictine monk (b. 1655)


date: January 9

text: January 9 – Robert Walpole is made Earl of Orford, and resigns as First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer, effectively ending his period as Prime Minister of Great Britain. On his formally relinquishing office five days later, he will have served 20 years and 314 days as Prime Minister, the longest single term ever, and also longer than the accumulated terms of any other British Prime Minister.


date: January 28

text: January 28? – The House of Commons of Great Britain votes on the alleged rigging of the Chippenham by-election. It becomes a motion of no confidence, which leads to the resignation of Robert Walpole.


date: February 16

text: February 16 – Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain.


date: March 15

text: March 15 – Denmark-Norway concludes a treaty of friendship with France, a day after the expiration of its 1739 treaty with Great Britain.


text: March 15 – The Verendrye brothers take possession of South Dakota in the name of the King of France.


date: October 5

text: October 5 – Pennsylvania's Colonial Governor George Thomas bars citizens from settling in Lancaster County, or west of the Blue Mountains.


text: October 5 – Pedro Cebrian y Agustin, Count of Fuenclara, arrives at Veracruz to become the new Spanish Viceroy of New Spain.


text: The Afghan tribes unite as a monarchy.


date: February 15

text: February 15— First Silesian War, part of War of the Austrian Succession: Troops of the Kingdom of Prussia, Saxony and France, under the command of Prince Dietrich of Anhalt-Dessau, capture the Moravian town of Iglau (now Jihlava). At this point, the Saxons and French declare that their obligations to Prussia have ceased.


date: May 17

text: May 17 – Battle of Chotusitz: Frederick the Great's army defeats the Austrians.

source_section: Events › April –June


date: May 24

text: May 24 – War of the Austrian Succession – Battle of Sahay: French forces defeat the Austrians.


date: May

text: May – In Peru, Juan Santos takes the name Atahualpa II, and begins an ill-fated rebellion against Spanish rule. Father Domingo Garcia sends the first report of the rebellion to his superiors on June 2.


date: June 11

text: June 11 – Peace of Breslau: Austria cedes Silesia to Prussia.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – War of Jenkins' Ear: Battle of Bloody Marsh – British troops repel those of Spain (under Montiano), in the Province of Georgia.