1712. Lord Bolingbroke stated in parliament, that in the great contest, called "the glorious wars of Queen Anne," the duke of Marlborough had not lost a single battle, and yet the French had carried their point, the succession to the Spanish monarchy, the pretended cause for so great an enterprise. Dean Swift called this statement "a due donation for all fools day."
1720. John Leake, an English admiral, died. He fought against the far famed Van Tromp, but the battle at La Hogue most distinguished him.
1729. The grand jubilee began at Rome.
1732. John Burchard Mencke, a learned German author, died at Leipsic, where he had conducted the Acta Eruditorum 25 years, a valuable work begun by his father in 1682, and which established a correspondence with the learned men of Europe.
1764. An annular eclipse of the sun was observed at London.
1764. At Monmouth assizes a girl, aged 18, was burned for murdering her mistress. This was among the last punishments by burning in England.
1775. Col. Daniel Boone, the Kentucky pioneer, began to erect the fort of Boonsborough, at a salt lick, 60 yards from the Kentucky river.
1779. John Langhorne, an English poet and divine, died. Besides poems, sermons and miscellanies, by which he is favorably known, the translation of Plutarch in common use bears his name.
1789. First meeting of congress under the federal constitution.
1794. The British under Sir John Jervis took the island of St. Helena.