Events of 1724

January–June

• January 14 – King Philip V of Spain abdicates the throne.

• January 28 – The Saint Petersburg State University is established.

• February 20 – The premiere of Giulio Cesare, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, takes place in London.

• May 29 – Pope Benedict XIII, born Pierro Orsini, succeeds Pope Innocent XIII as the 245th pope.

Blenheim Palace completed.

• June 23 – Treaty of Constantinople is signed, partitioning Persia between the Ottoman Empire and Russia.

July–December

• July 27 – Wild Peter of Hanover is captured near Helpensen in Hanover.

• November 11 – Joseph Blake (alias Blueskin), highwayman, is hanged in London.

• November 16

• *Jack Sheppard is hanged in London.

• *Willem Mons, lover of Catherine I of Russia, is executed and his head preserved in alcohol.

Undated

• China expels foreign missionaries.

• Blenheim Palace construction is completed. It is presented as a gift to the Duke of Marlborough for his involvement in the Battle of Blenheim in 1704.

• Catherine I is officially named czarina by her husband, Peter the Great, in Russia.

• The Austrian Netherlands agree to the Pragmatic Sanction.

• Mahmud of Afghanistan goes insane.

• Longman, the oldest publishing house in England, is founded.

Births

• January 24 – Frances Brooke, English writer (d. 1789)

• February 16 – Christopher Gadsden, American statesman

• February 28 – George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend, British field marshal (d. 1807)

• February 29 – Eva Marie Veigel, ballet dancer known as La Violette (d. 1822)

• April 12 – Lyman Hall, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1790)

• April 22 – Immanuel Kant, German philosopher (d. 1804)

• April 29 – John Michell, English scientist and geologist (d. 1793)

• May 7 – Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser, Alsatian-born Austrian general (d. 1797)

• May 19 – Augustus Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol, British admiral and politician (d. 1779)

• June 8 – John Smeaton, English civil engineer (d. 1792)

• July 2 – Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, German poet (d. 1803)

• July 10 – Eva Ekeblad, Swedish scientist (d.1786)

• July 31 – Noël François de Wailly, French lexicographer (d. 1801)

• August 23 – Abraham Yates, American Continental Congressman (d. 1796)

• August 25 – George Stubbs, English painter (d. 1806)

• August 27 – John Joachim Zubly, Swiss-born Continental Congressman (d. 1781)

• September 3 – Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester, British soldier and Governor of Quebec (d. 1808)

• October 31 – Christopher Anstey, English writer (d. 1805)

• December 12 – Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood, British admiral (d. 1816)

• December 13 – Franz Aepinus, German scientist (d. 1802)

• December 18 – Louise of Great Britain, queen of Frederick V of Denmark (d. 1751)

• December 24 – Johann Conrad Ammann, Swiss physician and naturalist (d. 1811)

• December 30 – Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée, French painter (d. 1805)

Deaths

• February 12 – Elkanah Settle, English writer (b. 1648)

• March 7 – Pope Innocent XIII (b. 1655)

• March 15 – Marie Jeanne of Savoy-Nemours, Regent of Savoy (b. 1644)

• March 19 – Lewis Watson, 1st Earl of Rockingham, politician (b. 1655)

• May 3 – John Leverett the Younger, American President of Harvard (b. 1662)

• May 21 – Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, English statesman (b. 1661)

• June 15 – Henry Sacheverell, English churchman and politician (b. 1674)

• October 2 – François-Timoléon de Choisy, French writer (b. 1644)

• October 29 – William Wollaston, English philosophical writer (b. 1659)

• November 11 – Joseph "Blueskin" Blake, English highwayman (executed) (b. c. 1700)

• November 16 – Jack Sheppard, English criminal (executed) (b. 1702)

• November 18 – Bartolomeu de Gusmão, Portuguese naturalist (b. 1685)

• November 24 – Ernst Ludwig I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen (b. 1672)

• December 27 – Thomas Guy, English philanthropist (b. 1644)