Editing 1731 (section)

=== October&ndash;December ===
* [[October 23]] &ndash; [[Cotton library#Ashburnham House fire|A fire at Ashburnham House]] in Westminster destroys 114 irreplaceable manuscripts (including a manuscript of [[the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]) and damages 98 others (among them the manuscript of ''[[Beowulf]]''). [[Richard Bentley]], the King's librarian and the House's owner, saves the only copy of the ''[[Codex Alexandrinus]]'', carrying it under one arm as he leaps from a window. Bentley's ten year labor in translating the [[Greek Testament]] is ruined by the blaze. The remaining 844 manuscripts later form the heart of the collections of the [[British Library]].<ref>[http://www.beowulftranslations.net/fire.shtml "The Beowulf manuscript was damaged in a fire in Ashburnham House on October 23, 1731"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723204834/http://www.beowulftranslations.net/fire.shtml |date=2011-07-23}}. Cites ''[[The Gentleman's Magazine]]''.</ref><ref name=Fires/>
* [[November 25]]
**Swiss mathematician [[Leonhard Euler]] announces his use of the irrational number [[e (mathematical constant)|''e'']] (approximately 2.71828) as the [[base of a logarithm|base]] for the concept of the [[natural logarithm]], describing it in a letter to German mathematician [[Christian Goldbach]].
**[[Patrona Halil]], an ethnic Albanian and a [[janissary]] who instigated a mass uprising in 1730 within the [[Ottoman Empire]] that brought [[Mahmud I]] to power as the new Sultan, is strangled to death in Mahmud's presence after the rebellion is suppressed.
* [[December 21]] &ndash; The Maharaja [[Chhatrasal]], monarch of [[Bundelkhand]] in India (part of the modern-day states of [[Uttar Pradesh]] and [[Madhya Pradesh]]) dies at the age of 82. His kingdom is divided into four parts, with one part going to [[Baji Rao I]] of the [[Maratha Confederacy|Marathas]] and the other three going to his three sons: Harde Sah gets the [[Panna State]], Jagat Rai gets the [[Jaitpur State]] and Bharti Chand gets the [[Jaso State]].
* [[December 29]] &ndash; [[Jacques I, Prince of Monaco|Jacques Grimaldi]], the husband of the reigning monarch of [[Monaco]], [[Louise Hippolyte, Princess of Monaco|Louise Hippolyte]], succeeds to the throne after Louise's death from [[smallpox]]. [[Jacques I, Prince of Monaco|Jacques I]] rules until his own death in 1751.