1726

• Scottish philosopher James Hutton, founder of the science of geology.
• Polish painter Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki.
• English painter Francis Cotes.
• Austrian composer Josef Starzer.
• Russian rebel leader Yemelyan Ivanovich Pugachev.
• English cabinetmaker George Hepplewhite.
• English prison reformer John Howard.
• English zoologist Thomas Pennant.
• Connecticut signer of the Declaration of Independence Oliver Wolcott.
• Virginia signer of the Declaration of Independence Benjamin Harrison, father of one President and great-grandfather of another.
• English composer Charles Burney.
• French composer Michel-Richard de Lalande.
• Japanese painter Katsugawa Shunsho.

• Italian composer Domenico Zipoli.
• French composer Michel-Richard Delalande.
• English architect John Vanbrugh.
• Elector Maximilian II of Bavaria.
• English poet William Culpeper.
• Italian painter Antonio-Domenico Gabbiani.
• Swiss mathematician Nicholas Bernoulli.
• Spanish painter Acisclo Antonio Palomino y Velasco.

• 16-year-old French King Louis XV appoints Cardinal Fleury to be his chief minister.
• Jonathan Swift's most famous work, Gulliver's Travels, is published (anonymously) for the first time.
• Montevideo is founded on Rio de la Plata.
• The French build Fort Niagara on Lake Ontario.
• Voltaire is thrown in the Bastille for criticizing the Church.
• Stephen Hales discovers a way to measure blood pressure.
• John Harrison invents the first version of his chronometer.

1725 - 1726 - 1727

How They Were Made - 18th Century