1731
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The Holy Roman Emperor Karl VI signs a second Treaty of Vienna March 16. He is 45, has no male offspring, and has decreed in a Pragmatic Sanction that if he should die without a male heir the empire shall devolve upon his daughters (the eldest, Maria Theresa, is now 14) and to their heirs by the law of primogeniture. If his daughters should die without heirs, the empire shall go to the heirs of his late brother Josef, who died in 1711. Britain recognizes this Pragmatic Sanction in the treaty, and the Dutch agree (see 1732).
Parma and Piacenza pass to the son of Spain's Felipe (Philip) V as the head of the Farnese family, Antonio Farnese, dies without male issue at age 52. Felipe's son Carlos has taken Elizabeth Farnese as his second wife, and Spain's recognition of the Pragmatic Sanction aids the succession of Carlos to the Italian duchies.
Russia's Anna Ivanovna rewards the country's vice chancellor Andrei Ivanovich Osterman for helping her retain her autocratic powers when she became empress last year. She makes him her "first cabinet minister" and a count.
Persia's Shah Tahmasp II takes the field against his country's Ottoman invaders. He lays siege to Erevin and to Kars but falls back to defeat a Turkish army at Arijan near Hamada, taking heavy losses (see 1727). He makes peace with Constantinople, ceding large areas, but his brother-in-law Nadir Kuli denounces the peace treaty, threatens expulsion and death to all Shiites who refuse to fight, marches to Isfahan, seizes Tahmasp, locks him up at Khorasan, and sets his infant son on the throne as Abbas III while he runs the country himself (see 1733; Herat, 1732).
Louisiana becomes a French royal province once again upon the surrender of the charter of John Law's Compagnie d'Occident (see 1716; 1720; 1763).
French novitiate Catherine Cadière, 22, goes on trial at Aix after bringing charges of seduction against Father Jean-Baptist Girard, 50, who heads the Third Order of St. Theresa, and being countercharged with accusations of witchcraft. The trial will last a year, Cadière's lawyers will produce 10 other secular devotees and nuns who claim that Father Girard seduced them, he will call her a fraud and say that she invented the visions and ecstasies that she claims to have experienced, half the judges will vote to burn him, half will vote to hang her, they will wind up sending her to her mother and him to the ecclesiastical courts, and both will live out their days without further ado.
Trois-Rivières-born French fur trader Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, 46, sieur de la Vérendrye, begins expeditions into western Canada, looking for a great river that native tribesmen have told him might lead to the "western sea." Having joined the French army at age 12, he was wounded at the Battle of Malplaquet in 1709 and taken prisoner, returned to his native land after being freed, and 5 years ago became a trader at Lake Nipigon north of Lake Superior (see Lake of the Woods, 1732).
Welsh colonist Morgan Morgan establishes the first permanent settlement in western Virginia on Mill Creek (see energy [coal], 1742).
The Ostend East India Company set up to rival Dutch and British companies is ended by the Treaty of Vienna.
The octant, or reflecting quadrant, invented by English mathematician-mechanic John Hadley, 49, advances navigation by enabling a mariner to determine his latitude at noon or at night (see Davis, 1594). Thomas Godfrey in the Pennsylvania colony also invents an improved mariner's quadrant. Both instruments employ two mirrors—one fixed, the other movable. They bring the image of the sun (or a fixed star) into coincidence with the horizon, enable the mariner to determine the correct time in his location, and with practice can be used to determine a ship's north-south position within a few hundred meters. Hadley's instrument has an arc that measures one-fourth of a circle, a graduated scale is inscribed around its edge, its sliding vernier scale has minute subdivisions to facilitate measurement of the angle between the horizon and some fixed star at night, or between the horizon and the sun at noon. A Royal Navy vessel will test the quadrant next year by order of the Admiralty, and its readings will be so accurate that the navy will adopt Hadley's device, but while navigators have been able to determine their latitude for centuries, it is not yet possible for them to determine their longitude (see chronometer, 1736; sextant, 1757).
Chemist Etienne-François Geoffroy dies at his native Paris January 6 at age 58.
A French Royal Academy of Surgery is founded under the direction of Jean-Louis Petit, who will invent the screw tourniquet and develop a procedure for mastoidectomy. France forbids barbers to practice surgery; elsewhere in the world they continue to double as surgeons.
Gentleman's Magazine begins monthly publication at London under the direction of publisher Edward Cave and is initially filled with essays and articles taken from books, pamphlets, and other publications. It will begin late in this decade or shortly afterward to print parliamentary reports and original writing, continuing until 1914 (see Poetry [Johnson], 1749).
Fiction: Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Provost, whose work is condemned by French authorities. The story of an aristocrat who gives up everything in his passion for a demimondaine will be the basis of romantic novels, plays, and operas in the next century.
Daniel Defoe dies at his native London April 26 at age 70 after a career in which he has virtually founded British journalism. He is buried in Bunfield Hills.
The Library Company founded by Benjamin Franklin July 1 is the first circulating library in North America. Franklin begins by having members of his Philadelphia discussion group, the Junto, pool their books for borrowing; he then obtains 50 subscribers at 40 shillings each and sends to England for 100 books. Organized by Franklin 4 years ago, the Junto or Leather Apron club, provides a venue for exchanging business information and holds debates on issues of morals, politics, and natural philosophy; its members require books to obtain the information they need for their discussions.
Painting: A Harlot's Progress and The Conquest of Mexico (The Indian Emperor) by William Hogarth, who two years ago eloped with Jane Thornhill and fights now for a copyright act that will prevent pirating of his work (see 1735).
Theater: Tom Thumb by Henry Fielding 3/24 at London's Little Theatre in the Haymarket (see 1730); The London Merchant, or The History of George Barnwell by English playwright George Lillo, 38, 6/22 at London's Drury Lane Theatre. Lillo's play is the first serious prose drama whose chief figures are not of the nobility.
Harpsichord maker Bartolomeo Cristofori dies at Florence January 27 at age 76, having pioneered the pianoforte that will come to replace the harpsichord.
Opera: Poro 2/2 at London's Haymarket Theatre, with music by George Frideric Handel. Italian soprano Anna Maria Strata del Po sings the role of Cleofide.
London's No. 10 Downing Street is completed in Westminster to provide a residence for the British prime minister Sir Robert Walpole.
Porcelain factories multiply in Europe as demand grows for china plates and cups.
German knife maker Johann Peter Henckels at Solingen in Westphalia registers a twin (zwilling) trademark in June that will gain recognition as one of the world's oldest trademark. The trademark will go through five redesigns by 1969 and J. A. Henckels kitchenware made with a proprietary Friodur process will continue into the 21st century.
Half a pint of rum in two equal tots (shots) becomes the official daily ration for all hands in the British Royal Navy (see 1655; Vernon, 1740).
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