1720
* 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 fled
North Carolina as a result of European colonisation
*
Edmond Halley appointed
Astronomer Royal* The
Academia Real da Historia is founded in
Lisbon,
Portugal*
Jonathan Swift begins
Gulliver's Travels*
Emperor Kangxi announced that all western businessmen could only trade in
Guangzhou.
January
*
January 6 - The Committee of Inquiry on the
South Sea Bubble publishes its findings
February
*
February 11 -
Sweden and
Prussia sign the (
2nd Treaty of Stockholm) declaring peace.
*
February 17 -
Spain signs the
Treaty of the Hague, ending the
War of the Quadruple Alliance.
*
February 29 - Queen
Ulrike Eleonora of Sweden resigns.
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
*
November 16 - Pirate
Jack Rackham is brought to trial at St. Jago de la Vega in Jamaica.
December
*
Great Northern War (
1700-
1721)
*
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)
*
January 31 -
Thomas Grey, 2nd Earl of Stamford, English privy councillor
*
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)
*
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)
