The Emirate of Diriyah, the first Saudi state, is founded
The Emirate of Diriyah was established in the year 1744 when Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and Prince Muhammad bin Saud formed an alliance to unify the many states of the Arabian Peninsula.
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Pu Songling completes Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, one of the great pieces of Chinese literature
Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio or Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio is a collection of Classical Chinese stories by Pu Songling comprising close to five hundred “marvel tales” in the zhiguai and chuanqi styles which serve to implicitly criticise societal issues then.
Hans Egede founds Greenland’s capital Godthåb, now known as Nuuk
In 1728, a royal expedition under Major Claus Paarss arrived with four supply ships and moved the Kangeq colony to the mainland opposite, establishing a fort named Godt-Haab (“Good Hope”), the future Godthåb.
Bruno Mauricio de Zabala founds the modern-day city of Montevideo
The city was established in 1724 by a Spanish soldier, Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst the Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region. Montevideo is now the capital and largest city of Uruguay.
Jacob Roggeveen of The Netherlands becomes the first European to visit several South Pacific islands
Jacob Roggeveen was a Dutch explorer who was sent to find Terra Australis, but instead became the first European to visit Easter Island, Bora Bora, Maupiti of the Society Islands, and Samoa.
The Dutch found what is now Georgetown, Guyana
Georgetown is now the country’s capital and largest urban center. It is situated on the Atlantic Ocean coast at the mouth of the Demerara River and it was nicknamed the “Garden City of the Caribbean.”
United Kingdom formally comes together as a unified sovereign state
“What began as a hostile merger would end in a full partnership in the most powerful going concern in the world… it was one of the most astonishing transformations in European history.”
Edmond Halley predicts the return of the world’s most famous comet
Edmond Halley, in his 1705 Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets, used Newton’s new laws to calculate the gravitational effects of Jupiter and Saturn on cometary orbits.
Bartolomeo Cristofori invents the piano
The piano is an acoustic, stringed musical instrument invented in Italy by Bartolomeo Cristofori around the year 1700 (the exact year is uncertain), in which the strings are struck by hammers.
The Ladies’ Mercury, the first known periodical specifically for women, is published in London
The Ladies Mercury was a weekly publication promising to respond to “all the most nice and curious questions concerning love, marriage, behaviour, dress and humour of the female sex, whether virgins, wives, or widows.”