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Maximilian II Emanuel, elector of Bavaria, dies at his native Munich February 26 at age 63. Known as the Blue Prince Elector because he always wore blue, he returned to the city in 1715 and organized the Wittelsbach House Union 2 years ago to coordinate anti-Hapsburg actions in German affairs.
France's Louis XV dismisses his regent Louis-Henri, 7th prince de Condé, in June and exiles him to Chantilly, where he will engage in scientific studies until his death in 1740. The king makes Bishop André Hercule de Fleury, now 73, a cardinal and appoints him virtual prime minister July 12; Fleury will hold power until his death in 1743, giving France peace, economic growth, and an upsurge of religious revivalism comparable to Britain's Methodism (see Wesley, 1729).
Sophia Dorothea of Celle dies November 13 after falling ill of a fever in which she has raved about her ex-husband's cruelty and wickedness (see 1694). Dominated as he is by his mistress Ehrengarde Melusina, duchess of Kendal, Britain's George I does not allow the queen's name or that of her mother even to be inscribed on their coffins.
The former Persian shah Hussein I dies at Isfahan at age 58 (approximate) (see 1725). The new shah Ashraf defeats an Ottoman army, but he is, like his predecessor, a puppet of the Afghans (see 1727).
Montevideo is founded by Spanish conquistadors at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata.
The University of Salamanca appoints local mathematician-almanac writer Diego de Torres Villaroel, 33, professor of mathematics. Son of a local bookseller, he ran away from home and school as a boy, earned a living as a dancer, musician, bullfighter, poet, lock picker, and patent medicine seller, returned home, and found a book on solid geometry that changed his life.
Edinburgh's Town Council strengthens its law regulating midwives and appoints Dr. Joseph Gibson professor of midwifery, the first such appointment in the British Isles.
Bishop Jeremy Collier dies at London April 26 at age 75.
Frankfurt-am-Main relieves its Jews of their centuries-old obligation to display special insignia on their outer garments (see 1349). The Stattigkeit has required men to wear two concentric rings, women to wear striped veils; Jews are still forbidden to leave the city's ghetto after dark, on Sundays, or during any Christian holiday. They may enter the rest of the city only on business. They may not have Christian servants, no more than 500 Jewish families may live in the city, only 12 Jewish weddings per year are permitted in order to keep the Jewish population from growing, and no couple may marry until the groom is at least 25. No other German city has such harsh laws, and although not all the rules are strictly enforced, Jews are commonly humiliated in Frankfurt's streets.
Fiction: Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World by "English sea-captain Lemuel Gulliver" (Jonathan Swift) is a satire on cant and sham in England's courts, in her political parties, and among her statesmen. Swift receives £200 for his story of Gulliver's travels in Lilliput and Brobdingnag; it is the only payment he will ever receive for any of his writings.
Poetry: Winter by English poet James Thomson, 25; "Grongar Hill" by Welsh-born poet John Dyer, 27, who writes, "A little rule, a little sway,/ A sunbeam on a winter's day./ Is all the proud and mighty have/ Between the cradle and the grave."
London painter-engraver William Hogarth, 28, gains notice with illustrations for a new edition of Hudibras by the 17th-century poet Samuel Butler.
Opera: Faustina Bordoni makes her London debut 5/5 singing the role of Rossane in the Handel opera Alessandro with Francesca Cuzzoni.
Ballet: Brussels-born dancer Marie (-Anne Cupis de) Camargo, 16, makes her debut at the Paris Opéra 5/5 in J.-F. (Jean-Féry) Rebel's Les caractères de la danse, written to display the talents of the dancers in the Académie Royale, especially Mme. François Prévost, now 46, who will come to resent the success of La Camargo.
London's St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church is completed to designs by James Gibbs.
Architect (and former playwright) Sir John Vanbrugh dies at London March 26 at age 62.
A character in Gulliver's Travels gives "it for his opinion that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together."
Japan's population reaches an estimated 26.5 million.
German settlers begin moving from the Pennsylvania colony into the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
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