Events

• February 8 - Catherine I became empress of Russia
• February 20 - The first reported case of white men scalping Native Americans takes place in New Hampshire colony.
• March 2 – In London, night watchman finds a severed head by the Thames; it is later recognized to be that of the husband of Catherine Hayes . She and one accomplice are later executed
• Black Watch founded in Scotland
• Jonathan Wild, fraudulent "thief-taker general of Great Britain and Ireland" is hanged for aiding criminals

Births

• February 5 - James Otis, American lawyer and patriot (d. 1783)
• February 6 - Abraham Clark, American founding father
• March 11 - Henry Benedict Stuart, pretender to the British throne
• April 2 - Casanova, adventurer and writer (d. 1798)
• July 24 - John Newton cleric, songwriter
• December 11 - George Mason, American founding father
• Abd al-Hamid I, Ottoman sultan

Deaths

• February 8 - Tsar Peter I of Russia
• June 29 - Arai Hakuseki, Japanese Confucianist, poet, politician, and writer
• October 24 - Alessandro Scarlatti, Italian composer
• December 7 - Florent Carton Dancourt, French dramatist and actor (born 1661)
• Jose Mora, Spanish sculptor (born 1638)