1737

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1737 (MDCCXXXVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (dominical letter F) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Saturday (dominical letter B) of the Julian calendar, the 1737th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 737th year of the 2nd millennium, the 37th year of the 18th century, and the 8th year of the 1730s decade. As of the start of 1737, the Gregorian calendar was 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1918.

Events

January–June

• May 28 – The planet Venus passes in front of Mercury. The event is witnessed during the evening hours by the amateur astronomer John Bevis at the Royal Greenwich Observatory. As of 2006, it is still the only such planet/planet occultation that has been directly observed.
• June 21 – In Britain the Theatrical Licensing Act requires plays to be submitted to the Lord Chamberlain for censorship.
• June 30 – Russo-Turkish War, 1735-1739: Russian forces under Field Marshal Munnich storm the Ottoman fortress of Ochakov and take prisoner 4,000 Turks.

July–December

• July – Austria enters the Russo-Turkish War.
• September 1 – The oldest existing English language newspaper in the world, The News Letter, is founded in Belfast, Ireland.
• September 20 – Runner Edward Marshall completes his journey in the Walking Purchase, forcing the cession of 1,200,000 acres (4,900 km²) of Lenape-Delaware tribal land to the Pennsylvania Colony.
• October – The first national stage in Sweden opens when the play Den svenska sprätthöken is performed in the native language, by the first native actors, on the stage of Bollhuset in Stockholm.
• October 7 – A tropical cyclone strikes Bengal, India killing approximately 300,000.
• October 16 – An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 9.3 occurs off the shore of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. Tsunamis up to 60m (200 ft) high followed in the Pacific ocean.^[1]
• November 4 – The Teatro di San Carlo, the oldest working opera house in Europe, is inaugurated in Naples, Italy.

Date unknown

• Benjamin Franklin creates the Philadelphia Police Force – the first city-paid force.
• The Georg August University of Göttingen is founded.
• The direct male line of the Medici family becomes extinct with the death of Gian Gastone de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.
• Richmond, Virginia is founded.
• Our Lady of Guadalupe is designated the patron saint of Mexico City.
• Lancaster County Prison, Lancaster, Pennsylvania is first constructed in response to the seven violent years preceding of the ongoing Cresap's War in the Maryland-Pennsylvania boundary dispute and war.

Births

• January 4 – Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau, French chemist and politician (d. 1816)
• January 23 – John Hancock, American politician and revolutionary (d. 1793)
• January 29 – Thomas Paine, British-born American patriot and pamphleteer (d. 1809)
• March 23 – Arthur St. Clair, American soldier and politician (d. 1818)
• April 27 – Edward Gibbon, English historian and politician (d. 1794)
• May 2 – William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1805)
• June 20 – Tokugawa Ieharu, Japanese shogun (d. 1786)
• August 5 – Johann Friedrich Struensee, Danish royal physician (d. 1772)
• August 14 – Charles Hutton, English mathematician (d. 1823)
• August 29 – John Hunter, second governor of New South Wales (d. 1821)
• September 9 – Luigi Galvani, Italian physician and physicist (d. 1798)
• September 14 – Michael Haydn, Austrian composer (d. 1806)
• September 15 – Miklós Küzmics, Hungarian Slovenes writer, Catholic priest (d. 1804)
• September 19 – Charles Carroll of Carrollton, only Roman Catholic signer of the American Declaration of Independence (d. 1832)
• December 26 – Prince Josias of Coburg, Austrian general (d. 1815)
• date unknown – Frances Abington, English actress (d. 1815)

Deaths

• January 24 – William Wake, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1657)
• January 29 – George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney, British soldier (b. 1666)
• February 14 – Charles Talbot, 1st Baron Talbot of Hensol, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1685)
• March 16 – Benjamin Wadsworth, American President of Harvard University (b. 1670)
• May 4 – Eustace Budgell, English writer (b. 1686)
• May 10 – Emperor Nakamikado of Japan (b. 1702)
• July 9 – Gian Gastone de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1671)
• September 7 – John Hickman, convicted forger (b. 1693)
• September 27 – John Sidney, 6th Earl of Leicester, English privy councillor (b. 1680)
• November 20 – Caroline of Ansbach, queen of George II of Great Britain (b. 1683)
• December 11 – John Strype, English historian and biographer (b. 1643)
• December 18 – Antonio Stradivari, Italian luthier (b. 1644)
• December 19 – James Sobieski, Crown Prince of Poland (b. 1667)
• December 27 – William Bowyer, English printer (b. 1663)

References

• The Annual Catalogue – List of History, Divinity, Law, Poetry, Plays, Novels, Painting, Architecture, and all other Sciences books published in London in 1737