Editing 1731

{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2011}}
{{Year dab|1731}}
{{Year nav|1731}}
[[File:Crab Nebula.jpg|thumb|300px|1731: [[John Bevis]] becomes first Earth astronomer to observe the [[Crab Nebula]].]]
{{C18 year in topic}}
{{Year article header|1731}}

== Events ==
<onlyinclude>

=== January&ndash;March ===
* [[January 8]] &ndash; An avalanche from the Skafjell mountain causes a massive wave in the [[Storfjorden (Sunnmøre)|Storfjorden]] [[fjord]] in Norway that sinks all boats that happen to be in the water at the time and kills people on both shores.<ref>[https://www.fjords.com/rock-avalanches-skafjell/ "The Skafjell Rock Avalanche in 1731"], Fjords.com</ref>
* [[February 3]] &ndash; A fire in [[Brussels]] at the [[Coudenberg|Coudenberg Palace]], at this time the home of the ruling Austrian [[Duchy of Brabant|Duchess of Brabant]], destroys the building, including the state records stored therein.<ref>{{cite web | title=History of the palace | website=Coudenberg Palace | url=https://coudenberg.brussels/en/history/history-of-the-palace | access-date=7 May 2023}}</ref>
* [[February 16]] &ndash; In China, the [[Yongzheng Emperor |Emperor Yongzheng]] orders grain to be shipped from [[Hubei]] and [[Guangdong]] to the famine-stricken [[Shangzhou District|Shangzhou region]] of [[Shaanxi]] province.
* [[February 20]] &ndash; [[Louise Hippolyte, Princess of Monaco|Louise Hippolyte]] becomes the second woman to serve as [[Monarchy of Monaco|Princess of Monaco]], the reigning monarch of the [[Principality of Monaco|tiny European principality]], ascending upon the death of her father [[Antonio I, Prince of Monaco|Prince Antonio]].  She reigns only nine months before dying of [[smallpox]] on December 29.
* [[March 16]] &ndash; The [[Treaty of Vienna (1731)|Treaty of Vienna]] is signed between the [[Holy Roman Empire]], [[Great Britain]], the [[Dutch Republic]] and [[Spain]].

=== April&ndash;June ===
* [[April 1]] &ndash; [[Battle of Dabhoi]] in India is fought between Sarsenapati Trimbakrao Dabhade and Bajirao Peshwa.
* [[April 2]] &ndash; The town of [[Raynham, Massachusetts]] in Bristol County is entered as a new town by the governor and court of [[Province of Massachusetts Bay|Massachusetts]], New England, America.
* [[April 9]] &ndash; British trader [[Robert Jenkins (master mariner)|Robert Jenkins]] has his ear cut off after his ship, ''Rebecca'' is boarded by [[Spain|Spanish]] coast guards at [[Havana]] in [[Cuba]].<ref>"List of British Merchant Ships, taken or plundered by the Spaniards", ''The Political State for the Month of April, 1738 of Great Britain'' (April 30, 1738) p322.</ref> The incident becomes the ''[[casus belli]]'' for the [[War of Jenkins' Ear]] in [[1739]].<ref name="Cassell's Chronology">{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Hywel|title=Cassell's Chronology of World History|url=https://archive.org/details/cassellschronolo0000will/page/303|url-access=registration|location=London|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|year=2005|isbn=0-304-35730-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/cassellschronolo0000will/page/303 303]}}</ref>
* [[April 28]] &ndash; A fire at [[White's]] Chocolate House, near St. James's Palace in London, destroys the historic club and the paintings therein, but is kept from spreading by the fast response of firemen.<ref name=Fires>"Fires, Great", in ''The Insurance Cyclopeadia: Being an Historical Treasury of Events and Circumstances Connected with the Origin and Progress of Insurance'', Cornelius Walford, ed. (C. and E. Layton, 1876) p49 </ref>
* [[May 10]] &ndash; The [[Pacific Fleet (Russia)|Pacific Fleet of the Russian Navy]] is established by order of the [[Empress of Russia|Empress]] [[Anna of Russia]], who directs Grigory Skornyakov-Pisarev to assume command over the new fleet and to develop [[Okhotsk]] as a major port.<ref>Hubert Howe Bancroft, ''History of Alaska, 1730-1865'' (A. L. Bancroft & Co., 1886) p45</ref><ref> Orcutt Frost, ''Bering: The Russian Discovery of America'' (Yale University Press, 2003) p67</ref> 
* [[June 4]] &ndash; The English market town of [[Blandford Forum]] is destroyed by fire, with the exception of 26 houses. About one-third of the uninsured losses are paid for by the collection of disaster relief money.<ref name=Fires/>

=== July&ndash;September ===
* [[July 1]] &ndash; [[Benjamin Franklin]] and fellow-subscribers start the [[Library Company of Philadelphia]].
* [[August 15]] &ndash; King [[Frederick William I of Prussia]] forgives his 19-year-old son, [[Frederick the Great|Prince Frederick]], who has been confined since November to the town of [[Küstrin]] (now [[Kostrzyn nad Odrą]] in [[Poland]]) for his 1730 attempt to desert from the Prussian Army.<ref>{{cite book|author=Durant Will and Ariel|title=The Story of Civilization, Volume '''IX''': The Age of Voltaire|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=1965}}</ref> Nine years later, having been politically rehabilitated, Prince Frederick succeeds his father as King and is later remembered as "Frederick the Great".   
* [[August 23]] &ndash; The oldest known sports score in history is recorded in the description of a cricket match at Richmond Green in England, when the team of Thomas Chambers of Middlesex defeats the Duke of Richmond's team by 119 to 79.
* September &ndash; The first successful [[appendectomy]] is performed by English surgeon William Cookesley.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Peter|last=Selley|title=William Cookesley, William Hunter and the first patient to survive removal of the appendix in 1731|journal=Journal of Medical Biography|volume=24|year=2016|issue=2|pages=180–3|doi=10.1177/0967772015591717|pmid=26758584|s2cid=1708483}}</ref>
* [[September 30]] &ndash; The village of [[Barnwell, Cambridgeshire]], England, is "burned down entirely" by a fire.<ref name=Fires/>

=== 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.

=== Date unknown ===
* [[Royal Colony of North Carolina]] Governor [[George Burrington]] asks the [[North Carolina General Assembly]] to pass an act establishing a town on the [[Cape Fear River]], in what is seen as a political move to shift the power away from the powerful Cape Fear plantation class. The town is laid out in [[1733]], and incorporated as [[Wilmington, North Carolina|Wilmington]] in [[1740]].
* [[Laura Bassi]] becomes the first official female university teacher, on being appointed professor of [[anatomy]] at the [[University of Bologna]], at the age of 21.<ref>{{cite web|title=The 18th Century Women Scientists of Bologna|url=http://scienceweek.com/2004/rmps-4.htm|work=ScienceWeek|year=2004|access-date=2011-04-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302045409/http://scienceweek.com/2004/rmps-4.htm|archive-date=March 2, 2012|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref>
* English scientist [[John Bevis]] observes the [[Crab Nebula]] for the first time in the modern era.
* The [[octant (instrument)|octant]] is developed by English mathematician [[John Hadley]] (it will eventually be replaced as a means of determining [[latitude]] by the [[sextant]]).
* The Royal Theatre of [[Mantua]] ([[Italy]]) is built by architect [[Ferdinando Galli Bibiena]].</onlyinclude>
* First deeds for The Queen Inn, [[ Winchester]]. Hops are grown on the land. 

== Births ==
* [[January 3]] &ndash; [[Angelo Emo]], Venetian admiral and statesman (d. [[1792]])
* [[February]] &ndash; [[Charles Churchill (satirist)|Charles Churchill]], English poet (d. [[1764]])
* [[March 19]] &ndash; [[Gabriela Silang]], Filipino rebel leader and heroine (d. [[1763]]) 
* [[April 8]] &ndash; [[William Williams (Connecticut politician)|William Williams]], signer of the [[United States Declaration of Independence]] (d. [[1811]])
* [[May 8]] &ndash; [[Beilby Porteus]], Bishop of London and abolitionist (d. [[1809]])
* [[June 2]] &ndash; [[Dorothea Biehl]], Danish writer (d. [[1788]])
* [[July 16]] &ndash; [[Samuel Huntington (Connecticut politician)|Samuel Huntington]], [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriot]] in the [[American Revolution]] and politician (d. [[1796]])
* [[August]] &ndash; [[Henry Constantine Jennings]], English gambler and collector (d. [[1819]])
[[File:Cavendish Henry signature.jpg|thumb|right|110px|[[Henry Cavendish]]]]
* [[October 10]] &ndash; [[Henry Cavendish]], English scientist (d. [[1810]])
* [[November 9]] &ndash; [[Benjamin Banneker]], [[African-American]] astronomer, surveyor of the District of Columbia (d. [[1806]])
* [[November 15]] &ndash; [[William Cowper]], English poet (d. [[1800]])
* [[December 8]] &ndash; [[František Xaver Dušek]], Czech composer (d. [[1799]])
* [[December 12]] &ndash; [[Erasmus Darwin]], English scientist and grandfather of [[Charles Darwin]] (d. [[1802]])
* [[December 28]] &ndash; [[José de Viera y Clavijo]], Spanish writer
* [[Nikephoros Theotokis]], Greek scholar and theologian (d. [[1800]])

== Deaths ==
* [[January 6]] &ndash; [[Étienne François Geoffroy]], French chemist (b. [[1672]])
* [[January 20]] &ndash; [[Antonio Farnese, Duke of Parma]] (b. [[1679]])
* [[January 23]] &ndash; [[Anna Lohe]], Swedish banker (b. [[1654]])
[[File:BartolomeoCristofori.jpg|thumb|right|110px|[[Bartolomeo Cristofori]]]]
* [[January 27]] &ndash; [[Bartolomeo Cristofori]], Italian maker of musical instruments (b. [[1655]])
* [[February]] &ndash; [[Thomas Hancorne (1642 – 1731)|Thomas Hancorne]], Welsh clergyman and theologian (b. [[1642]])
* [[February 10]] &ndash; [[George Carpenter, 1st Baron Carpenter]], British Army general (b. [[1657]])
* [[February 15]] &ndash; [[Mary of Jesus de León y Delgado]], Spanish Dominican lay sister and mystic (b. [[1643]])
* [[February 22]] &ndash; [[Frederik Ruysch]], Dutch physician and anatomist (b. [[1638]])
* [[March 5]] &ndash; [[Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi]], Sufi academic (b. [[1641]])
* [[March 6]] &ndash; [[Johann Melchior Dinglinger]], German goldsmith (b. [[1664]])
* [[March 8]] &ndash; [[Ferdinand Brokoff]], Czech sculptor (b. [[1688]])
* [[March 9]] &ndash; [[Frances Talbot, Countess of Tyrconnell]], English-born courtier and vicereine of Ireland (b. c. [[1649]])
* [[March 12]] &ndash; [[Ernest August, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg]] (b. [[1660]])
* [[March 23]] &ndash; [[Augustus William, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg]] (b. [[1662]])
* [[April 24]] &ndash; [[Daniel Defoe]], English writer (b. c. [[1660]])
* [[April 28]] 
** [[Johann Theodor Jablonski]], German lexicographer (b. [[1654]])
** [[James Olmsted]], Connecticut politician (b. [[1645]])
* [[May 1]] &ndash; [[Johann Ludwig Bach]], German composer (b. [[1677]])
* [[May 11]] &ndash; [[Mary Astell]], English feminist writer (b. [[1666]])
* [[May 17]] &ndash; [[Samuel Bradford]], English churchman, Whig politician (b. [[1652]])
* [[June 20]] &ndash; [[Ned Ward]], English writer, [[publican]] (b. [[1667]])
* [[July 18]] &ndash; [[Sir Walter Yonge, 3rd Baronet]], English politician (b. [[1653]])
* [[August 27]] &ndash; [[Eudoxia Lopukhina]], Russian Tsarina, divorced spouse of [[Peter the Great]] of Russia (b. [[1669]])
* [[December 17]] &ndash; [[George Lockhart (politician)|George Lockhart]], Scottish writer, spy and politician, killed in duel (b. [[1673]])
* [[December 20]] &ndash; [[Chhatrasal]], Maharaja of Madhya Pradesh (b. [[1649]])
* [[December 26]] &ndash; [[Antoine Houdar de la Motte]], French writer (b. [[1672]])
* [[December 29]] &ndash; [[Brook Taylor]], English mathematician (b. [[1685]])

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

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