Explore 67 historical events from 1720–1729.
Mathurin Jacques Brisson was a French zoologist and natural philosopher.
Mathurin Jacques Brisson, French zoologist and philosopher (died 1806)
Giovanni Antonio Scopoli was an Italian medical doctor and naturalist. His biographer Otto Guglia named him the "first anational European" and the "Linnaeus of the Austrian Empire"…
Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, Italian physician, geologist, and botanist (died 1788)
Johann Georg Palitzsch – 21 February 1788 in Prohlis) was a German astronomer who became famous for recovering Comet 1P/Halley on Christmas Day, 1758. The periodic nature of this c…
Johann Georg Palitzsch, German astronomer (died 1788)
Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, they refer to the change from the Julian calendar to the Gr…
(O
Adam Smith was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the field of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by many as the "fathe…
Adam Smith, Scottish philosopher and economist (died 1790)
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the or…
Johann Sebastian Bach (pictured) assumed the office of Thomaskantor in Leipzig, presenting the cantata Die Elenden solle
Lieutenant-General James FitzGerald, 1st Duke of Leinster, PC (Ire), styled Lord Offaly until 1743 and known as The Earl of Kildare between 1743 and 1761 and as The Marquess of Kil…
James FitzGerald, 1st Duke of Leinster, Irish soldier and politician (died 1773)
Robert Beverley Jr. was a historian of early colonial Virginia, as well as a planter and politician.
Robert Beverley, Jr
Sébastien Vaillant was a French botanist who was born at Vigny in present-day Val d'Oise.
Sébastien Vaillant, French botanist and mycologist (born 1669)
Johann Kuhnau was a German polymath, known primarily as a composer today. He was also active as a novelist, translator, lawyer, and music theorist, and was able to combine these ac…
Johann Kuhnau, German organist and composer (born 1660)
General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1st Prince of Mindelheim, 1st Count of Nellenburg, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire was a British army officer and statesman. From a…
John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire (born 1650)
The 1721 Tabriz earthquake occurred on April 26, with an epicenter near the city of Tabriz, Iran. It leveled some three-quarters of the city, including many prominent mosques and s…
A massive earthquake devastates the Iranian city of Tabriz
The Papal States, officially the State of the Church, were a conglomeration of territories on the Italian peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope from 756 to 1870. Th…
In the Papal States, Cardinal Michelangelo dei Conti is elected Pope, and takes the name Innocent XIII
Roger Sherman was an early American politician, lawyer, and a Founding Father of the United States. Representing Connecticut, he is the only person to sign all four great state pap…
Roger Sherman, American lawyer and politician (died 1793)
Maria Barbara Carillo was burned at the stake for heresy during the Spanish Inquisition. She was executed at the age of 95 or 96 and is the oldest person known to have been execute…
Maria Barbara Carillo, victim of the Spanish Inquisition (born1625)
Elijah ben Solomon Zalman,, also known as the Vilna Gaon, was a Lithuanian Jewish talmudist, halakhist, kabbalist, and the foremost leader of misnagdic (non-hasidic) Jewry of the p…
Vilna Gaon, Lithuanian rabbi and author (died 1797)
William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, styled Lord Cavendish before 1729, and Marquess of Hartington between 1729 and 1755, was a British Whig statesman and nobleman who was br…
William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1764)
Maximilian Hell was an astronomer and ordained Jesuit priest from the Kingdom of Hungary. The lunar crater Hell is named after him.
Maximilian Hell, Hungarian priest and astronomer (died 1792)
Anthony Hamilton PC (Ire), also known as Antoine and comte d'Hamilton, was a soldier and a writer. As a Catholic of Irish and Scottish ancestry, his parents brought him to France i…
Antoine Hamilton, Irish-French soldier and author (born 1646)