1720
1720 in topic: |
Subjects: Archaeology – Architecture – |
Art – Literature (Poetry) – Music – Science |
Countries: |
Leaders: State leaders – Colonial governors |
Category: Establishments – Disestablishments |
Births – Deaths – Works |
Year 1720 (MDCCXX) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Friday [1] of the 11-day slower Julian calendar.
Events of 1720
January–June
- February 11 – Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Stockholm (Great Northern War).
- February 17 – Spain signs the Treaty of The Hague, ending the War of the Quadruple Alliance.
- February 29 – Queen Ulrike Eleonora of Sweden resigns to let her husband Frederick I take over as king of Sweden.
July–December
- July 12 – The Lords Justice of the UK attempt to curb some of the excesses of the stock markets during the South Sea bubble. They dissolved a number of petitions for patents and charters, and abolished more than 80 joint-stock companies of dubious merit. According to Charles MacKay, this had 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, an English company granted a monopoly to trade with South America.
- November 16 – Pirate Jack Rackham is brought to trial at St. Jago de la Vega in Jamaica.
Undated
- The Town on Queen Anne's Creek, North Carolina is renamed Edenton in honor of North Carolina Governor Charles Eden. It is later incorporated in 1722.
- The Tuscarora flee North Carolina as a result of European colonization.
- Edmond Halley is appointed as Astronomer Royal.
- The Academia Real da Historia is founded in Lisbon, Portugal.
- Jonathan Swift begins Gulliver's Travels.
- Emperor Kangxi announces that all western businessmen can only trade in Guangzhou.
- 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.
Ongoing events
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 officer and adventurer (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 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 19 – John Woolman, American Quaker preacher and abolitionist (d. 1772)
- November 1 – Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte, French admiral (d. 1791)
- November 16 – Carlo Antonio Campioni, French-born composer (d. 1788)
- December 14 – Justus Möser, German statesman (d. 1794)
- 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 Germanstown, Pennsylvania (b. 1651)
- 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 statesman (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)
- date unknown - Shahzada Assadullah Khan Abdali, Persian Governor of Herat (b. 1687)
Notes
- ↑ "Calendar in year 1720 (Russia)" (full Julian calendar), webpage: Julian-1720 (Russia used the Julian calendar until 1919).
- ↑ Charles Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (Harriman House Classics 2003),