Events in History
- Jan 11 Mt Etna in Sicily erupts with estimated 7.4 magnitude, most power Italian earthquake, killing around about 60,000
- Feb 8 William & Mary College is chartered in Williamsburg in the Dominion and Colony of Virginia (second in North America)
- Feb 13 College of William & Mary opens in Williamsburg, Virginia
Event of Interest
Apr 1 Cotton Mather's four-day-old son dies, and witchcraft is blamed
Cotton Mather
- Jun 27 1st sea battle of Lagos: a French fleet under Anne Hilarion de Tourville defeated an Anglo-Dutch fleet under George Rooke
- Jun 27 1st women's magazine "Ladies' Mercury" published (London)
- Jul 4 Battle at Boussu-lez-Walcourt: French-English vs Dutch army
- Jul 8 NYC authorizes 1st police uniforms in American colonies
- Jul 25 Ignacio de Maya founds the Real Santiago de las Sabinas, now known as Sabinas Hidalgo, Nuevo León, México
- Jul 29 War of the Grand Alliance: Battle of Landen/Neerwinden - France wins Pyrrhic victory over Allied forces in the Netherlands
- Aug 4 Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Pérignon's invention of Champagne
- Oct 4 Battle of Marsaglia: Piedmontese troops are defeated by the French.
- Oct 5 Haarlem people's revolution due to food shortages
Birthdays in History
- Jan 28 Anna "Ivanovna", tsarina of Russia (1730-40) (2/7 NS)
- Feb 4 George Lillo, bourgeois English dramatist (London Merchant)
- Feb 7 Anna Ivanova Romanova, Empress of Russia (1730-40) [NS]
- Mar 5 Johann Jakob Wettstein, Swiss theologian (d. 1754)
- Mar 7 Clement XIII [Carlo Rezzonico], Pope (1758-69), born in Venice (d. 1769)
- Mar 24 John Harrison, British clockmaker (d. 1776)
- Apr 3 George Edwards, English naturalist and ornithologist (father of British ornithology), born in Stratford, Essex, England (d. 1773)
- Apr 16 Anne Sophie Reventlow, Queen of Denmark and Norway (1721-30), born in Clausholm Castle, Denmark (d. 1743)
- Jun 17 Johann Georg Walch, German theologian (d. 1775)
Thomas Pelham-Holles
Jul 21 Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, British Prime Minister (Whig: 1757-62), born in London (d. 1768)
Thomas Pelham-Holles
- Sep 3 Charles Radclyffe, British politician (d. 1746)
Deaths in History
- Jan 6 Mehmed IV, sultan (Turkey), dies at 51
- Feb 7 Paul Pellisson, French writer, dies at 68
- Apr 5 Anne M L of Orleans, duchess (Grande Mademoiselle), dies at 65
- Apr 9 Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy, French writer (b. 1618)
- May 3 Claude de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, French courtier (b. 1607)
- May 25 Marie-Madeleine Pioche de la Vergne, comtesse de la Fayette, French writer (b. 1634)
- Jun 2 John Wildman, English soldier and politician
- Jul 12 John Ashby, English admiral
- Jul 13 Hendrik Trajectinus, Count of Solms, Dutch lieutenant-general (b. 1636)
- Jul 31 Willem Calf, Rotterdams still life painter, dies at 73
- Sep 14 Aert Jansz van Nes, [Young boer Jaep], lt-admiral, dies at 67
- Sep 19 Janez Vajkard Valvasor, Slovenian polymath (b. 1641)
- Oct 1 Pedro Abarca, Spanish theologian (b. 1619)
- Oct 26 Coenraad van Beuningen, mayor of Amsterdam/diplomat, dies at 71
- Nov 24 William Sancroft, 79th Archbishop of Canterbury, dies at 76
- Dec 13 Dodoftei, Romanian metropolitan of Moldavia/writer (Saint Lives), dies
- Dec 13 Willem Van de Velde, Dutch the Old, seascape painter, dies at about 82