Explore 148 historical events from 1720–1729.
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 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
Shamakhi is a city in Azerbaijan and the administrative centre of the Shamakhi District. The city's estimated population as of 2010 was 31,704. It is famous for its traditional dan…
The city of Shamakhi in Safavid Shirvan is sacked.
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
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)
Johann Nikolaus Götz was a German poet from Worms.
Johann Nikolaus Götz, German poet and author (died 1781)
John Douglas was a Scottish scholar and Anglican bishop.
John Douglas, Scottish bishop and scholar (died 1807)
Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, KG PC, known as Viscount Trentham from 1746 to 1754 and as The Earl Gower from 1754 to 1786, was a British Whig politician from t…
Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, English politician, Lord President of the Council (died 1803)
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)
Jean-Antoine Watteau was a French painter and draughtsman whose brief career spurred the revival of interest in colour and movement, as seen in the tradition of Correggio and Ruben…
Jean-Antoine Watteau, French painter (born 1684)
Grinling Gibbons was an Anglo-Dutch sculptor and wood carver known for his work in England, including Windsor Castle, the Royal Hospital Chelsea and Hampton Court Palace, St Paul's…
Grinling Gibbons, Dutch-English sculptor and woodcarver (born 1648)
Jacques Lelong was a French bibliographer born in Paris. He joined the Knights of Malta at the age of ten, but later joined the Oratorians.
Jacques Lelong, French priest and author (born 1665)
Elihu Yale was a British colonial administrator. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Yale lived in America only as a child, and spent the rest of his life in England, Wales, and India. …
Elihu Yale, American-English merchant and philanthropist (born 1649)
The Villasur expedition of 1720 was a Spanish military expedition intended to check New France's growing influence on the North American Great Plains, led by Lieutenant-General Ped…
The Spanish military Villasur expedition is defeated by Pawnee and Otoe warriors near present-day Columbus, Nebraska.
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)
Gilbert White was a "parson-naturalist", a pioneering English naturalist, ecologist, and ornithologist. He is best known for his Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne.
Gilbert White, English ornithologist and ecologist (died 1793)
Baron Carl Fredrik Pechlin was a Swedish politician and demagogue.
Carl Fredrik Pechlin, Swedish general and politician (died 1796)
Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers was an English nobleman, notable for being the last peer to be hanged, following his conviction for murdering his steward.
Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers, English politician (died 1760)
Bernard de Bury or Buri was a French musician and court composer of the late Baroque era.
Bernard de Bury, French harpsichord player and composer (died 1785)
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)
Guillaume Amfrye de Chaulieu, French poet and wit, was born at Fontenay, Province of Normandy.
Guillaume Amfrye de Chaulieu, French poet and author (born 1639)