1726
Events
January–March
- January 1 - J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Herr Gott, dich loben wir, BWV 16, his church cantata for New Year's Day to a libretto by Georg Christian Lehms.
- January 20 - J. S. Bach leads the first performance of his cantata Meine Seufzer, meine Tränen, BWV 13, BWV 13, for the second Sunday after Epiphany.
- January 27 - J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Alles nur nach Gottes Willen, BWV 72, concluding his third Christmas season in Leipzig on the Third Sunday after Epiphany.
- January 23 - The Conventicle Act is adopted in Sweden, outlawing all non-Lutheran religious meetings outside of church services.
- January 26 - The First Treaty of Vienna is signed between Austria, the Holy Roman Empire and Spain (1700-1810)|Spain], creating the Austro-Spanish Alliance in advance of a war against Great Britain.
- January 27 - On its maiden voyage, the Dutch East India Company frigate Aagtekerke departs from the Dutch Cape Colony on the second leg of its journey to the Dutch East Indies across the Indian Ocean and is never seen again. Aagtekerke carried a crew of 200 men.
- February 8 - The Supreme Privy Council is established in Russia.
- February 13 - The Parliament of Negrete brings an end to the Mapuche uprising of 1723–26.
- March 2 - In London, a night watchman finds a severed head by the River Thames; it is later recognized to be that of the husband of Catherine Hayes. She and an accomplice are later executed.
- March 10 - China's Yongzheng Emperor issues a special edict instructing his "Vice Minister of Punishments" Huang Bing to interrogate Qin Daoran, who provides the evidence that Yongzheng's brothers Yintang, Yin-ssu and Yin-ti, had conspired to overthrow the Emperor.
- March 29 - The first large shipment of slaves is brought to New Orleans as the slave ship L'Aurore arrives with 290 black Africans captured in Gambia. During the 90-day voyage from Gorée in Senegal, 60 of the slaves have died.
- March 30 - After King Haffon of the West African Kingdom of Whydah allows Portuguese traders to build the Fort of São João Baptista de Ajudá in the capital at Savi, mercenaries of the Dutch West India Company make a failed attempt to destroy the fort by "throwing two flaming spears over the walls". By 1726, traders from Britain, France, the Netherlands and Portugal are all competing to establish trade with Whydah, which supplies other West Africans to be used as slaves.
- March 31 - France's first ambassador to Russia, Jacques de Campredon, leaves after four years of trying to negotiate a Franco-Russian alliance with Catherine I and a failed attempt to arrange a marriage between King Louis XV and Catherine's daughter Elizabeth.
April–June
July–September
- August 7 - English-born pirate Nicholas Brown is captured near Xtabi, Jamaica.
- September 6 - An explosion kills all but seven of the 700 passengers and crew on the Portuguese Navy galleon HMFMS Santa Rosa as its cargo of gunpowder blows up. Historians speculate that of the 693 people on the ship, those who weren't killed by the explosion drowned or were killed by sharks as the ship went down off of the coast of Recife.
- September 11 - French bishop André-Hercule de Fleury, later Prime Minister for King Louis XV of France, is made a Roman Catholic Cardinal by Pope Benedict XIII.
- September 14 - The Nanfan Treaty of July 19, 1701 between the Iroquois Confederacy and the British Province of New York, is amended by both parties.
- September 16 - An earthquake strikes Sicily and kills 226 people in Palermo.
- September 23 - Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, issues an order limiting the number of Jews who can be legally recognized as legitimate householders.
- September 24 - Permission to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, celebrated on July 17, is extended by Pope Benedict XIII to the entire Roman Catholic Church.
October–December
Date unknown
Births
- January 14 - Jacques-Donatien Le Ray, French supporter of the American Revolution
- January 17 - Hugh Mercer, brigadier general in the American Continental Army, and a close friend to George Washington
- February 4 - Jean-Jacques Blaise d'Abbadie, Director-general of the Colony of Louisiana
- February 7 - Margaret Fownes-Luttrell, British painter
- March 8 - Richard Howe, British admiral
- April 5 - Benjamin Harrison V, signer of the American Declaration of Independence
- April 8 - Lewis Morris, American landowner and developer, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence
- April 12 - Charles Burney, English music historian
- April 20 - Joseph de Ferraris, Austrian cartographer of the Austrian Netherlands
- June 3 O.S. - James Hutton, Scottish geologist
- June 14 O.S. - Thomas Pennant, Welsh naturalist
- June 20 - Louise Henriette of Bourbon, Duchess of Orléans, mother of Philippe Égalité
- June 25 - Lady Anne Monson, English botanist
- July 1 - Acharya Bhikshu, Jain saint
- July 30 - William Jones (1726–1800), British clergyman, author
- August 7 - James Bowdoin, American Revolutionary leader, politician
- August 9 - Francesco Cetti, Italian Jesuit scientist
- August 2 - Lê Quý Đôn, Vietnamese philosopher, poet, encyclopedist and government official
- September 1 - François-André Danican Philidor, French composer, chess player
- September 2 - John Howard (prison reformer), English philanthropist
- September 26 - John H. D. Anderson, Scottish scientist
- September 26 - Angelo Maria Bandini, Italian librarian
- October 16 - Daniel Chodowiecki, Polish painter
- December 4 - Lord Stirling, American brigadier-general during the American Revolutionary War date unknown
- * Cyprian Howe, American colonel in the American Revolutionary War
- * Katsukawa Shunshō, Japanese woodblock artist
- * Jedediah Strutt, English businessman
Deaths
- January 2 - Domenico Zipoli, Tuscan-born composer and Jesuit missionary
- January 12 - Hercule-Louis Turinetti, marquis of Prié
- January 19
- * Franz Beer, Austrian architect
- * Giovanni Battista Tolomei, Italian Jesuit priest, theologian and cardinal
- January 25 - Guillaume Delisle, French cartographer
- February 18 - Jacques Carrey, French painter
- February 26 - Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria
- March 5 - Evelyn Pierrepont, 1st Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull, English politician
- March 6 - Henrietta Catharina, Baroness von Gersdorff, German noblewoman; poet
- March 13 - Alexander Pendarves, British politician
- March 14 - Chhatrapati Shivaji Raje Bhonsale 2nd, 5th Maratha Emperor
- March 26 - John Vanbrugh, English architect and dramatist
- April 26 - Jeremy Collier, English theatre critic, non-juror bishop and theologian
- April 28 - Thomas Pitt, British Governor of Madras
- May 10 - Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St Albans, English soldier
- June 18 - Michel Richard Delalande, French organist, composer
- July 3 - Galeazzo Marescotti, Italian Catholic cardinal
- July 8 - John Ker, Scottish spy
- July 22 - Hugh Drysdale, British Colonial Governor of Virginia
- July 31 - Nicolaus II Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician
- September 22 - Aixinjueluo Yuntang, born Aixinjueluo Yintang, Qing prince
- October 29 - Jean Boivin the Younger, French writer
- November 22 - Anton Domenico Gabbiani, Italian painter
- November 23 - Sophia Dorothea of Celle, queen consort of George I of Great Britain
- December 2 - Samuel Penhallow, American colonist, historian