1721

Year 1721 (MDCCXXI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1721

January - June

* May 8 - Pope Innocent XIII succeeds Pope Clement XI as the 244th pope.
* April 4 - Robert Walpole becomes the first prime minister of Britain.

July - December

* September 10 - The Treaty of Nystad is signed, ending the Great Northern War.
* November 2 - Peter I is proclaimed Emperor of All the Russias.

Undated

* Johann Sebastian Bach composes the "Brandenburg Concertos".
* Regular postal mail between Long Island and New England is established.cite book |author=Clear, Todd R., Cole, George F., Resig, Michael D.|year=2006 |title=American Corrections Seventh Edition |publisher=Thompson]

Ongoing Events

* Great Northern War (1700-1721)

Births

* January 10 - Johann Philipp Baratier, German scholar (d. 1740)
* February 3 - Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, Prussian general (d. 1773)
* February 21 - John McKinly, American physician and President of Delaware (d. 1796)
* March 19 - Tobias Smollett, Scottish physician and author (d. 1771)
* April 3 - Roger Sherman, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1793)
* April 11 - David Zeisberger, Moravian missionary (d. 1808)
* April 15 - Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, English military leader (d. 1765)
* April 19 - Roger Sherman, signer of the American Declaration of Independence (d. 1803)
* July 9 - Johann Nikolaus Götz, German poet (d. 1781)
* July 14 - John Douglas, Scottish Anglican bishop and man of letters (d. 1807)
* August 4 - Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, English politician (d. 1803)
* August 31 - George Hervey, 2nd Earl of Bristol, British statesman (d. 1775)
* September 14 - Eliphalet Dyer, American statesman and judge (d. 1807)
* October 19 - Joseph de Guignes, French orientalist (d. 1800)
* November 9 - Mark Akenside, English poet and physician (d. 1770)
* November 22 - Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres, Swiss-born cartographer and Canadian statesman (d. 1824)
* December 6 - James Elphinston, Scottish philologist (d. 1809)
* December 6 - Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, French statesman (d. 1794)
* December 27 - François Hemsterhuis, Dutch philosopher (d. 1790)
* December 29 - Marquise de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV of France (d. 1764)

: "See also ."

Deaths

* February 16 - James Craggs the Younger, English politician (b. 1686)
* February 24 - John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, English statesman and poet (b. 1648)
* March 16 - James Craggs the Elder, English politician (b. 1657)
* March 19 - Pope Clement XI (b. 1649)
* April 14 - Michel Chamillart, French statesman (b. 1652)
* July 8 - Elihu Yale, American benefactor of Yale University (b. 1649)
* July 18 - Antoine Watteau, French painter (b. 1684)
* August 3 - Grinling Gibbons, Dutch-born woodcarver (b. 1648)
* August 13 - Jacques Lelong, French bibliographer (b. 1665)
* September 8
**Michael Brokoff, Czech sculptor (b. 1686)
**Henri Arnaud, French pastor and leader of the Waldenses (b. 1641)
* September 11 - Rudolf Jakob Camerarius, German botanist and physician (b. 1665)
* September 18 - Matthew Prior, British poet and diplomat (b. 1664)
* September 20 - Thomas Doggett, Irish actor (b. c. 1670)
* October 11 - Edward Colston, English merchant and philanthropist (b. 1636)
* December 13 - Alexander Selkirk, Scottish sailor (b. 1676)
* December 17 - Richard Lumley, 1st Earl of Scarbrough, English statesman (b. 1650)
* Sultan Abdullah Khan Abdali, Persian Governor of Herat, Shah of Herat (b. 1670)

: "See also ."

Notes