1720

Summary

1720 (MDCCXX) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar, the 1720th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 720th year of the 2nd millennium, the 20th year of the 18th century, and the 1st year of the 1720s decade. As of the start of 1720, the Gregorian calendar was 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

Millennium: 2nd millennium
Centuries:
Decades:
Years:
September 30: The British stock market crashes with the collapse of the South Sea Company.
1720 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar1720
MDCCXX
Ab urbe condita2473
Armenian calendar1169
ԹՎ ՌՃԿԹ
Assyrian calendar6470
Balinese saka calendar1641–1642
Bengali calendar1127
Berber calendar2670
British Regnal yearGeo. 1 – 7 Geo. 1
Buddhist calendar2264
Burmese calendar1082
Byzantine calendar7228–7229
Chinese calendar己亥年 (Earth Pig)
4417 or 4210
    — to —
庚子年 (Metal Rat)
4418 or 4211
Coptic calendar1436–1437
Discordian calendar2886
Ethiopian calendar1712–1713
Hebrew calendar5480–5481
Hindu calendars
 - Vikram Samvat1776–1777
 - Shaka Samvat1641–1642
 - Kali Yuga4820–4821
Holocene calendar11720
Igbo calendar720–721
Iranian calendar1098–1099
Islamic calendar1132–1133
Japanese calendarKyōhō 5
(享保5年)
Javanese calendar1644–1645
Julian calendarGregorian minus 11 days
Korean calendar4053
Minguo calendar192 before ROC
民前192年
Nanakshahi calendar252
Thai solar calendar2262–2263
Tibetan calendar阴土猪年
(female Earth-Pig)
1846 or 1465 or 693
    — to —
阳金鼠年
(male Iron-Rat)
1847 or 1466 or 694
February 24: Battle of Nassau

Events edit

January–March edit

April–June edit

  • April 4 – The Riksdag of the Estates elects Frederick I new King of Sweden.
  • April 17Bajirao I appointed as the Peshwa of the Maratha Empire by Chhatrapati Shahu succeeding his father Peshwa Balaji Vishwanath.
  • May 3 – The coronation of King Frederick I of Sweden takes place in Stockholm, six weeks after his rule began.
  • May 20 – The Treaty of The Hague, signed between Spain and the Quadruple Alliance (Britain, France, the Netherlands and Austria) on February 17, goes into effect. Spain renounces its claims to the Italian possessions of the French throne, and Austria and the Duchy of Savoy trade Sicily for Sardinia.
  • May 25 – The British privateer Speedwell, captained by George Shelvocke, is wrecked on the uninhabited island of Más a Tierra, the same island where Alexander Selkirk was marooned for five years; the island off of the coast of Chile is later called Robinson Crusoe Island. The crew is marooned for five months but is able to build a boat from timbers salvaged from the wreck, and is able to escape the island on October 6.
  • June 1 – British silversmiths are once again allowed to use sterling silver after 24 years of being limited to a higher quality (but softer) Britannia silver.
  • June 11 – The British Parliament approves the Bubble Act (officially the Royal Exchange and London Assurance Corporation Act 1719), prohibiting the formation of joint-stock companies without prior approval by royal charter.
  • June 19 – At Burhanpur (in the modern-day Indian state of Madhya Pradesh), the Nizam-ul-Mulk of Hyderabad survives an attempted ambush by Mughal Empire forces dispatched by the Sayyid brothers (Syed Abdullah Khan and Syed Husain Ali Khan Barha) and goes on to establish a rival state in southern India.
  • June 25 – The "South Sea Bubble", the phenomenal growth of the South Sea Company, reaches its peak as South Sea stock is priced at £1,060 a share. By the end of September, as panic sales are made, the price falls to £150.

July–September edit

  • July 12 – Under the authority of the Bubble Act, the Lords Justices in Great Britain attempt to curb some of the excesses of the stock markets during the "South Sea Bubble". They dissolve a number of petitions for patents and charters, and abolish more than 80 joint-stock companies of dubious merit, but this has little effect on the creation of "Bubbles", ephemeral joint-stock companies created during the hysteria of the times.[2]
  • July 14 – (July 3 O.S.) The Treaty of Frederiksborg is signed between Denmark and Sweden, ending the Great Northern War.
  • July 27 – The Battle of Grengam takes place in the Ledsund strait between the island communities of Föglö and Lemland. It is the last major naval battle in the Great Northern War taking place in the Åland Islands, marking the end of Russian and Swedish offensive naval operations in Baltic waters.
  • August 14 – The Spanish Villasur expedition, which set out on June 16 from New Mexico, with the intention of checking French influence on the Great Plains of North America, ends in failure, as it is ambushed by a Pawnee and Otoe force.
  • September 30 – "South Sea Bubble": The English stock market crashes, with dropping prices for stock in the South Sea Company.[3]

October–December edit

Date unknown edit

Births edit

 
Charles Edward Stuart
  • "date unknown" – Jane Gomeldon, English writer, poet and adventurer (d. 1779)
  • "date unknown" – Sheikh Lamech, Persian banker and accountant (d. 1813)
  • "date unknown" – Madame de Beaumer, French editor and writer (d. 1766)

Deaths edit

 
Joseph Dudley
 
John Rackham

References edit

  1. ^ Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 297–298. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
  2. ^ MacKay, Charles (2003). Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Harriman House Classics.
  3. ^ "Commerce", in A Cyclopedia of Commerce and Commercial Navigation, Volume 1, ed. by J. Smith Homans, (Harper & Brothers, 1859) p391