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The War of the Polish Succession begins in Europe following the death of Augustus II at Warsaw February 1 at age 62. Austria and Russia demand the election of the king's only legitimate son Friedrich Augustus, 36, elector of Saxony, but France's Louis XV persuades the Polish nobility to restore his father-in-law Stanislaw Leszczynski to the throne (see 1725). A large Russian army invades Poland and obliges Stanislaw to flee to Danzig. France declares war on the Holy Roman Empire October 10 and gains support from Spain and Sardinia. Russian forces lay siege to Danzig beginning in October, and Louis XV sends a French expeditionary force to relieve the Baltic city and rescue Stanislaw (see 1734).
French forces occupy Lorraine (see 1738).
Former French naval officer Claude de Forbin dies at Saint-Marcel March 4 at age 76.
A Persian army under Nadir Kuli lays siege to Baghdad but is surrounded at Kirkuk near Shimar (see Herat, 1732). The troops flee in disorder 200 miles to Hamadan, but in 3 months Nadir has rebuilt his strength and wins a victory (see 1736).
Smugglers evade Britain's new Molasses Act, in some cases carrying African slaves to French and Spanish colonies, trading them for sugar and molasses, and selling the cargo to New England distillers for the capital they need to buy more African slaves (see 1698).
Savannah, Georgia, is founded by James E. Oglethorpe, who arrives with a charter from George II for lands between the Altamah and Savannah rivers and settles at the mouth of the latter with 120 men, women, and children (see 1732). Creek native Mary Musgrove, 33, serves as Oglethorpe's principal interpreter and his trusted emissary in his dealings with the Indians. (Her father took her to South Carolina as a child to be educated, she was baptized into the Church of England and given the name Mary, and at age 16 married white trader John Musgrove in Alabama.) Related to leading chiefs of the Creek Nation, Mary will lend her support to the British in their struggles against the Spanish and, later, the French (see 1742).
The Molasses Act passed by Parliament to tax British colonists imposes heavy duties on the molasses, sugar, and rum imported from non-British West Indian islands and thus effectively raises the price of the rum that Americans consume at the rate of 3 Imperial gallons (3.75 American gallons) per year for every man, woman, and child.
The Spanish plate fleet laden with silver and gold from South America founders in the shallow reefs off the Florida Keys and is wrecked.
The flying shuttle invented by English weaver John Kay, 29, revolutionizes the hand loom, halves labor costs, and prepares the way for further developments that will speed the industrialization of Britain's cottage industry in textiles (see spinning machine, 1738).
Haemostaticks by Stephen Hales reveals his findings on blood circulation (see science, 1727; Harvey, 1628). The first person to measure blood pressure quantitatively, Hales has tied tubes into the arteries and veins of living animals, allowed the blood to rise up the tubes, measured pressure and circulation rates, measured the capacity of the heart's left ventricle, the output of the heart per minute, and the speed and resistance to flow of blood in the vessels, and estimated the actual velocity of the blood in the veins, arteries, and capillary vessels. He shows that capillaries are capable of dilating and constricting.
The design of the obstetrical forceps invented by Peter Chamberlen before the middle of the last century and guarded as a family secret is finally made public, although forceps of other designs have been available to male practitioners of midwifery (but not female) for some time. Using the forceps makes it possible not only to shorten labor but also to deliver live infants in cases where without them either the mother, or child, or both would have died.
Poetry: Essay on Man by Alexander Pope contains lines and couplets that will become familiar in most English households: "Hope springs eternal in the human breast;/ Man never is, but always to be blest."
Painting: Southwark Fair by William Hogarth, who sketches convicted murderess Sarah Malcolm at Newgate Prison. She is hanged 2 days later and Hogarth's engravings enjoy a large sale, but most of the engravings are pirated works that earn nothing for their creator (see copyright law, 1735).
Theater: The Death of Caesar (La mort de César) by Voltaire; The Wiles of Love (L'Heureux stratagème) by Pierre de Marivaux 6/6 at the Théâtre Italien, Paris; Gustave Wasa by Alexis Piron at the Comédie-Française, Paris.
Opera: The Servant Mistress (La Serva Padrone) 8/28 at the Bartholomeo Opera House in Naples, with music by Italian composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (né Iesi), 23, who establishes the comic opera form that will continue for nearly a century; Hippolyte et Aricie 10/1 at the Paris Opéra, with Marie Camargo, music by J. P. Rameau to a libretto derived from the 1677 Racine tragedy Phèdre. La Camargo is the first dancer to remove the heels from her ballet slippers and shorten the skirts of her costumes above the instep (her close-fitting drawers will evolve into "tights"); while this is considered immodest it allows greater freedom of leg movement and permits her to create the entrechat, cabriole, and other innovations; Achilles at London's Covent Garden with a libretto by John Gay; Rosamund at London's Drury Lane Theatre, with music by English composer Thomas (Augustine) Arne, 23.
Oratorio: Deborah 3/17 at the King's Theatre, London, with Anna Maria Strata del Po, music by George Frideric Handel.
First performances: Mass in B minor (Kyrie and Gloria) by Johann Sebastian Bach 4/21 at Leipzig.
Composer François Couperin dies at his native Paris September 12 at age 64.
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