Events

• 16 April - The London premiere of Alcina by George Frideric Handel, his first the first Italian opera for the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden.
• August 4 - Freedom of the press: New York Weekly Journal writer John Peter Zenger is acquitted of seditious libel against the royal governor of New York, on the basis that what he published was true.
• October - War of the Polish Succession concludes a preliminary peace, ratified in 1738
• Battle of Trepani in the War of the Polish Succession
• French make peace with the Austro-Hungarian Empire (until 1740)
• Ship building industry begins in Mumbai
• Carolus Linnaeus publishes his System of Nature
• End of the reign of Emperor Nakamikado of Japan
• Emperor Sakuramachi ascends to the throne of Japan
• Euler-Maclaurin formula developed
• George Hadley correctly explains global circulation for the first time
• King's Highway (Charleston to Boston) is completed
• Etienne Fourmont writes Réflexions critiques sur les histoires des anciens peuples
• The Qianlong Emperor succeeds Yongzheng and begins a 60-year-long reign of the Qing Dynasty.
• Construction begins on the Chemin du roy between Quebec and Montreal
• William Hogarth Publishes "A Rakes Progress"
• Edmund Curll tries to publish "Mr Pope's Literary Correspondence" The stock of which is subsequently seized
• Augusta, Georgia is founded

Births

• January 1 - Paul Revere, American silversmith and patriot
• January 8 - John Carroll First Roman Catholic Archbishop in the U.S.
• February 28 - Alexandre-Théophile Vandermonde French musician and chemist
• April 13 - Isaac Low, New York delegate to the Continental Congress
• May 1 - Lorenzo Hervás y Panduro Spanish Jesuit and philologist
• September 5 - Johann Christian Bach, German composer, son of Johann Sebastian Bach (d. 1782)
• October 1 - Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Grafton (d. 1811)
• October 9 - Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick
• October 21 - Richard Gough English antiquary
• October 30 - John Adams, 2nd President of the United States
• November 10 - Granville Sharp English abolitionist
• December 29 - Thomas Banks, English sculptor and artist
• December 31 - Jean de Crévecoeur, French-American writer (d. 1813)
• John Julius Angerstein English merchant and insurer (d. 1822)
• Charles Joseph, Prince de Ligne (d. 1814)
• Étienne Clavière French financier and politician (d. 1793)
• James Keir geologist, chemist, and industrialist (d. 1820)

Deaths

• Thomas Hamilton, 6th Earl of Haddington
• James Lyon, 7th Earl of Kinghorne
• Charles Stuart, 6th Earl of Moray
• Edmund Sheffield, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Normanby
• Yongzheng Emperor of China
• January 12 - John Eccles British composer
• January 18 - Maria Clementina Sobieski Polish princess
• February 27 - John Arbuthnot, British physician and author
• June 10 - Thomas Hearne, British antiquary
• September 27 - Peter Artedi Swedish naturalist, known as the "Father of Icthyology"
• December 14 - Thomas Tanner (bishop) British antiquary and prelate