1720

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1720 (MDCCXX) was a leap year starting on Monday (dominical letter GF) of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Friday (dominical letter CB) of the Julian calendar, the 1720th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 720th year of the 2nd millennium, the 20th year of the 18th century, and the 1st year of the 1720s decade. As of the start of 1720, the Gregorian calendar was 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1918.

Events

January–June

• February 11 – Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Stockholm (Great Northern War).
• February 17 – Treaty of The Hague signed between Spain, Britain, France, Austria and the Dutch Republic, ending the War of the Quadruple Alliance.^[1]
• February 29 – Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden resigns to let her husband Frederick I take over as king of Sweden. She had desired a joint rule, in a similar manner to William and Mary in Britain, but as the Swedish Riksdag of the Estates refuses this, she abdicates in her husband's favour instead.
• March 24 – The Riksdag of the Estates elects Frederick I new King of Sweden.
• April – "South Sea Bubble" in England: A scheme for the South Sea Company to take over most of the unconsolidated national debt of Britain massively inflated share prices.

July–December

• July 12 – The Lords Justice in Great Britain attempt to curb some of the excesses of the stock markets during the "South Sea Bubble". They dissolve a number of petitions for patents and charters, and abolish more than 80 joint-stock companies of dubious merit, but this has little effect on the creation of "Bubbles", ephemeral joint-stock companies created during the hysteria of the times.^[2]
• September – "South Sea Bubble": The English stock market crashes with dropping prices for stock in the South Sea Company.
• November 16 – Pirate "Calico Jack" Rackham is brought to trial at Spanish Town in Jamaica; he is hanged at Port Royal two days later.

Date unknown

• Tuscarora people leave North Carolina as a result of European colonization.
• The Town on Queen Anne's Creek, North Carolina is renamed Edenton in honor of North Carolina Governor Charles Eden; it is incorporated in 1722.
• The Kangxi Emperor announces that all western businessmen in China can trade only in Guangzhou.
• Edmond Halley is appointed as Astronomer Royal for England.
• The Academia Real da Historia is founded in Lisbon, Portugal.
• Jonathan Swift begins Gulliver's Travels.
• Il teatro alla moda, a satirical pamphlet by Benedetto Marcello, is published anonymously in Venice.
• The first yacht club in the world, the Royal Cork Yacht Club, is founded in Ireland.

Births

• January 4 – Johann Friedrich Agricola, German composer (d. 1774)
• January 13 – Richard Hurd, English bishop and writer (d. 1808)
• January 27 – Samuel Foote, English dramatist and actor (d. 1777)
• January 30 – Charles De Geer, Swedish industrialist and entomologist (d. 1778)
• February 8 – Emperor Sakuramachi of Japan (d. 1750)
• March 9 – Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, English politician (d. 1790)
• March 13 – Charles Bonnet, Swiss naturalist and writer (d. 1793)
• March 22 – Nicolas-Henri Jardin, French architect (d. 1799)
• April 23 – Vilna Gaon, Lithuanian rabbi (d. 1797)
• May 11 – Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Münchhausen, German nobleman and storyteller (d. 1797)
• May 15 – Maximilian Hell, Slovakian astronomer (d. 1792)
• July 18 – Gilbert White, English naturalist and cleric (d. 1793)
• August 8 – Carl Fredrik Pechlin, Swedish politician (d. 1796)
• August 12 – Konrad Ekhof, German actor (d. 1778)
• August 18 – Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers, English murderer (d. 1760)
• August 23 – Sybilla Masters, American inventor.
• August 30 – Samuel Whitbread, English brewer and politician (d. 1796)
• October 3 – Johann Peter Uz, German poet (d. 1796)
• October 4 – Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Italian artist (d. 1778)
• October 8 – Jonathan Mayhew, American minister and patriot (d. 1766)
• October 8 – Geneviève Thiroux d'Arconville, French novelist, translator and chemist (d. 1805)
• October 19 – John Woolman, American Quaker preacher and abolitionist (d. 1772)
• November 1 – Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte, French admiral (d. 1791)
• November 8 – Madeleine de Puisieux, French writer and active feminist (d. 1798)
• November 16 – Carlo Antonio Campioni, French-born composer (d. 1788)
• December 14 – Justus Möser, German statesman (d. 1794)
• December 24 – Anna Maria Mozart (née Pertl; d. 1778), wife of Leopold Mozart and mother of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Maria Anna Mozart
• December 26 – Gian Francesco Albani, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 1803)
• December 31 – Charles Edward Stuart, pretender to the British throne (d. 1788)

Deaths

• January – Francis Daniel Pastorius, founder of Germantown, Pennsylvania (b. 1651)
• January 10 – Ramon Perellos, 64th Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (b. 1637)
• January 31 – Thomas Grey, 2nd Earl of Stamford, English privy councilor (b. c. 1645)
• February 27 – Samuel Parris, English-born Puritan minister (b. 1653)
• April 2 – Joseph Dudley, colonial Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1647)
• April 21 – Antoine Hamilton, French writer (b. 1646)
• June 27 – Guillaume Amfrye de Chaulieu, French poet (b. 1639)
• August 3
  • Anthonie Heinsius, Dutch politician (b. 1641)
  • Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, English poet (b. 1661)
• August 9 – Simon Ockley, English orientalist (b. 1678)
• August 17 – Anne Lefèvre, French scholar (b. 1654)
• September 3 – Henri de Massue, Marquis de Ruvigny, 1st Viscount Galway, French soldier and diplomat (b. 1648)
• October 10 – Antoine Coysevox, French sculptor (b. 1640)
• November 17 – John Rackham, English pirate, also known as Calico Jack
• November 20 – Peder Tordenskjold, Norwegian naval hero (b. 1691)
• December 29 – Maria Margarethe Kirch, German astronomer (b. 1670)
• date unknown – Shahzada Assadullah Khan Abdali, Persian Governor of Herat (b. 1687)

References