Editing 1721 (section)

== Events ==
<onlyinclude>
=== January–March ===
* [[January 6]] &ndash; The Committee of Inquiry on the collapse of the [[South Sea Company]] in [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]] publishes its findings.
* [[February 5]] &ndash; [[James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope|James Stanhope]], chief minister of Great Britain, dies a day after collapsing while vigorously defending his government's conduct over the "South Sea Bubble" in Parliament.
* [[March 24]] &ndash; [[Johann Sebastian Bach]]'s ''[[Brandenburg concertos]]'' are completed, and dedicated to [[Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt]].

=== April–June ===
* [[April 4]] &ndash; [[Robert Walpole]] becomes the first [[Prime Minister of Great Britain]] (although this is more a term of disparagement at this time).<ref>{{cite web|title=Sir Robert Walpole|url=http://www.number10.gov.uk/history-and-tour/sir-robert-walpole/|work=10|publisher=HM Government|access-date=2011-11-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111101195959/http://www.number10.gov.uk/history-and-tour/sir-robert-walpole/|archive-date=November 1, 2011|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref>
* [[April 21]] &ndash; The deadliest [[1721 Boston smallpox outbreak|outbreak of smallpox]] in the history of [[Boston]] begins when the British ship HMS ''Sea Horse'' arrives in Boston Harbor with a crew of sailors who had survived a smallpox epidemic.  One of the ''Seahorse'' crew who had cleared quarantine develops symptoms the next day and infects other people in a lodging house.  Over the next 10 months, 5,759 cases of smallpox are recorded in Boston and 844 people die of the disease.
* [[April 26]] &ndash; [[Pirate]]s [[John Taylor (pirate)|John Taylor]] and [[Olivier Levasseur]] capture the 700-ton [[Portugal|Portuguese]] [[galleon]] ''Nossa Senhora do Cabo'' at [[Réunion]]. The total value of treasure on board (from [[Portuguese Goa State|Goa]]) is estimated as between £100,000 and £875,000, one of the largest pirate hauls ever.  <ref>Frank Sherry, ''Raiders and Rebels: The Golden Age of Piracy'' (Quill, 1986) p15 </ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Black Bart Roberts: The Greatest Pirate of Them All|last=Breverton|first=Terry|author-link=Terry Breverton|year=2004|publisher=Pelican Publishing|location=Gretna, LA|isbn=1-58980-233-0|page=57}}</ref> 
* [[May 8]] &ndash; [[Pope Innocent XIII]] succeeds [[Pope Clement XI]], as the 244th [[pope]].
* [[June 26]] &ndash; Dr. Zabdiel Boylston of the [[Harvard University]] School of Medicine begins the first public inoculation campaign in order to slow the [[1721 Boston smallpox outbreak|smallpox epidemic]] in Boston, giving a vaccine to his own son, and then to his slave and the slave's infant son.  <ref>"The Boston Inoculation Controversy of 1721-1722: An Incident in the History of Race", by Margo Minardi, ''The William and Mary Quarterly'' (January 2004)</ref>

=== July &ndash;September ===
* [[July 31]] &ndash; The Spanish expedition led by Coahuila Governor [[José de Azlor y Virto de Vera]], sent to recapture Texas from the French, encounters [[Neches River]] the smaller French force of [[Louis Juchereau de St. Denis]], who had led the French expansion westward from the Louisiana territory.  Realizing that his forces are badly outnumbered, St. Denis abandons hope of colonizing the east Texas territory and Azlor retakes the area.  <ref>John L. Kessell, ''Spain in the Southwest: A Narrative History of Colonial New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and California'' (University of Oklahoma Press, 2013) p217</ref>
* [[August 18]] &ndash; The [[Sack of Shamakhi (1721)|Sack of Shamakhi]] occurs, in the Persian [[Safavid Empire]].
* [[September 10]] (August 23 [[Old Style]]) &ndash; The [[Treaty of Nystad]] is signed, ending the [[Great Northern War]].

=== October &ndash;December ===
* [[October 22]] &ndash; The [[Kelantan Sultanate]] is established at Kelantan Darul Naim (modern-day Kelantan Darul Naim, Malaysia).
* [[November 2]]  (October 22 [[Old Style]]) &ndash; The [[Romanov]] and architect of the Great Northern War [[Peter the Great|Peter I]], is proclaimed the first Emperor of [[All-Russian nation|All the Russias]]. This replaces the 174-year-long [[Tsardom of Russia]] with the [[Russian Empire]], which will collapse almost 200 years later in [[1917]]).
* [[December 22]] &ndash; [[Philip V of Spain]] signs  a Royal Decree in [[:es:Lerma (Burgos)|Lerma]], transforming the Seminary of Saint Rose of Lima in [[Caracas]] into the ''[[Central University of Venezuela|Universidad Real y Pontificia de Caracas]]''.

=== Date unknown ===
* [[José de Azlor y Virto de Vera]], Marquis of San Miguel de Aguayo and governor of [[Spanish Texas]], establishes the fort of [[Presidio La Bahía]] at its original location, on the ruins of the failed French [[Fort Saint Louis (Texas)|Fort Saint Louis]].
* Regular mail service between [[London]] and [[New England]] is established.<ref name="Clear">{{cite book|author1=Clear, Todd R.|author2=Cole, George F.|author3=Resig, Michael D.|year=2006|title=American Corrections|edition=7th|publisher=Thompson}}</ref>
* A [[suggestion box]] is developed under the eighth ''[[shōgun]]'' of [[Japan]], [[Yoshimune Tokugawa]].</onlyinclude>