1730 CE
The establishment by Thomas Cresap of Wright's Ferry under the authority of the Province of Pennsylvania becomes the basis for Cresap's War, a nine-year-long conflict also known as the Maryland-Pennsylvania boundary dispute; the conflict mainly centers in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and York County, Pennsylvania on either bank of the Susquehanna River. A volcano erupts on Lanzarote, the easternmost of the Canary Islands and threatens the Spanish inhabitants. On Gran Canaria, the regent of the islands reports to Madrid that the flames are visible even from 130 mi away. The first documented notice in North America about freemasonry is published in The Pennsylvania Gazette in an article by its publisher, Benjamin Franklin.
Geopolitics & Diplomacy
- May 15 – Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, retires from his role in the government of Great Britain, leaving Robert Walpole as sole and undisputed leader of the Cabinet (i.e., prime minister). In the new Walpole ministry, Sir William Strickland, 4th Baronet, becomes Secretary at War, and Henry Pelham is Paymaster of the Forces; Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington briefly becomes Lord Privy Seal.source
- September 17 – Mahmud I (d. 1754) succeeds Ahmed III (ruled since 1703) as Ottoman Emperor.source
Conflict & Security
- March 9 – General Nader Khan of Persia opens the first campaign of the Ottoman–Persian War (1730–1735), guiding the Persian Army from Shiraz and starting the Western Persia Campaign against the Ottoman Empire.source
- March 16 – The establishment by Thomas Cresap of Wright's Ferry under the authority of the Province of Pennsylvania becomes the basis for Cresap's War, a nine-year-long conflict also known as the Maryland-Pennsylvania boundary dispute; the conflict mainly centers in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and York County, Pennsylvania on either bank of the Susquehanna River.source
- August 5 – Prince Frederick of Prussia, the eldest son of King Frederick William and a high-ranking officer, attempts to flee to England after deserting the Prussian Army and is captured along with his fellow officer Hans Hermann von Katte. Katte is executed, and Crown Prince Frederick is imprisoned at Küstrin (modern-day Kostrzyn nad Odrą in Poland) for a year before being forgiven by his father. Prince Frederick later succeeds his father as King and will be remembered as Frederick the Great.source
- August 12 – General Nader Khan of Persia captures Tabriz from the Ottoman Empire, bringing an end to the Western Persia Campaign, the first major action in the Ottoman–Persian War (1730–1735). Tabriz becomes a permanent part of Iran. Nader leaves the city four days later to begin the Herat Campaign of 1731.source
- December 27 – The Dutch East India Company ends an almost 11-year effort of trying to maintain a colony around Delagoa Bay in southern Africa in modern-day Mozambique. The entire population of the settlement, Fort Lydzammheid (near modern-day Maputo) is evacuated by the ships Snuffelaar, Zeepost and Feyenoord and the group returns to Cape Town.source
Exploration & Expansion
- February 28 – Vitus Bering returns to the Russian capital of Saint Petersburg after completing the First Kamchatka expedition.source
- June 27 – French explorer Alphonse de Pontevez, commanding the frigate Le Lys, claims an Indian Ocean atoll for France and names it after himself as the Alphonse Atoll. The next day, he claims and names the St. François Atoll.source
Religion & Belief
- March 12 – John Glas is deposed from the Church of Scotland; the Glasite sect forms around him.source
- April 8 – Congregation Shearith Israel, the first synagogue in New York City, is dedicated.source
- July 12 – The papal conclave selects Cardinal Lorenzo Corsini over Cardinal Pietro Marcellino Corradini as the successor to Pope Benedict XIII. Corsini becomes Pope Clement XII as the 246th pope.source
Health & Medicine
- June 19 – At the urging of Sir William Gooch, the Virginia House of Burgesses passes the Virginia Tobacco Inspection Act to regulate the quality of tobacco in Virginia, 46 to 5.source
Crime & Justice
- June 1 – Enslaved woman Sally Basset is put on trial for murder in Bermuda; she will eventually be convicted and burned at the stake.source
- August 4 – Maria Madlener becomes the last person to be executed after the Galgeninsel witch trials in Bavaria, and is beheaded by sword.source
- August 25 – French Protestant Marie Durand is imprisoned in the Tower of Constance at Aigues-Mortes for her defiance of the Roman Catholic government, and is kept captive for the next 38 years. During her incarceration, she continues to resist converting to Catholicism as a condition of release. She is finally set free on April 14, 1768 and lives 8 more years.source
- November 6 – After being convicted of treason for attempting to desert the Prussian Army with Crown Prince Frederick, Hans Hermann von Katte is beheaded at the Küstrin Prison. Frederick's father, King Frederick William, forces the prince to watch the execution.source
Climate & Environment
- July 8 – 1730 Valparaíso earthquake: An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 9.1 strikes Valparaíso, in modern-day Chile but at this time in the Viceroyalty of Peru.source
- September 1 – A volcano erupts on Lanzarote, the easternmost of the Canary Islands and threatens the Spanish inhabitants. On Gran Canaria, the regent of the islands reports to Madrid that the flames are visible even from 130 mi away.source
Culture & Society
Births
- January 3 – Velu Nachiyar, queen regnant of Sivaganga (d. 1796)source
- March 7 – Louis Auguste Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, last prime minister of the French monarchy (d. 1807)source
- April 16 – Henry Clinton, British general (d. 1795)source
- April 26 – John Moore, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1805)source
- May 13 – Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, Prime Minister of Great Britain (d. 1782)source
- May 28 – Maria Angela Ardinghelli, Italian scientific translator (d. 1825)source
- June 21 – Motoori Norinaga, Japanese philologist, scholar of the kokugaku school (d. 1801)source
- August 1 – Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol, English Anglican prelate (d. 1803)source
- August 27 – Johann Georg Hamann, German philosopher (d. 1788)source
- September 7 – Elisabetta de Gambarini, English composer (d. 1765)source
- September 17 – Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, Prussian army officer (d. 1794)source
- December 14 – James Bruce, Scottish explorer (d. 1794)source
- December 25 – Filippo Mazzei, Italian physician, friend of Thomas Jefferson (d. 1816)source
- December 30 – William Hamilton, British diplomat, antiquary (d. 1803)source
Deaths
- January 7 – Árni Magnússon, Icelandic scholar and manuscript collector (b. 1663)source
- February 26 (February 15 O.S.) – Anna of Russia (Anna Ioannovna) becomes reigning Empress of Russia following the death of her cousin Emperor Peter II.source
- March 5 – The 1730 papal conclave to elect a new Pope for the Roman Catholic church begins with 30 Cardinals, 12 days after the death of Pope Benedict XIII. By the time his successor is elected on July 12, there are 56 Cardinals.source
- March 22 – Benedetto Pamphili, Italian cardinal, patron of the arts, composer and librettist (b. 1653)source
- March 23 – Charles I, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel) (b. 1654)source
- May 13 – Sir Justinian Isham, 4th Baronet, English landowner and Member of Parliament (b. 1658)source
- May 30 – Arabella Churchill, English mistress of James II of England (b. 1648)source
- June 6 – Alain Emmanuel de Coëtlogon, Marshal of France in the reign of Louis XIV and Louis XV (b. 1646)source
- July 9 – Issachar Berend Lehmann, German-Jewish banker, Court Jew in Hanover (b. 1661)source
- August 10 – Sébastien de Brossard, French composer and music theorist (b. 1655)source
- August 19 – James Ogilvy, 4th Earl of Findlater, Scottish politician (b. 1664)source
- October 16 – Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, French explorer (b. 1658)source
- November 1 – Luigi Ferdinando Marsili, Italian soldier and naturalist (b. 1658)source
- December 31 – Carlo Gimach, Maltese architect, engineer and poet (b. 1651)source