1736 CE

Leonhard Euler writes to James Stirling describing the Euler–Maclaurin formula, providing a disconnection between integrals and sums. An Edinburgh crowd drags John Porteous out of his cell in Tolbooth Prison, and lynches him. Benjamin Franklin builds the first volunteer fire company in Philadelphia.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

January 23 – The Civil Code of 1734 is passed in Sweden.source
January 26 – Stanisław Leszczyński abdicates the throne of Poland, ending his second reign.source
April 14 – German adventurer Theodor Stephan Freiherr von Neuhoff is crowned King Theodore of Corsica, 25 days after his arrival on Corsica on March 20. His reign ends on November 5 when he flees the island.source
November 5 – King Theodore of Corsica flees the island after a reign of seven months and the kingdom reverts to Genoese control.source
Neustrelitz becomes the capital of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.source

Conflict & Security

May 26 – Battle of Ackia: British and Chickasaw Native Americans defeat French troops.source
July 1 – Russo-Turkish War (1735–39): Russian forces under Peter Lacy storm the Ottoman fortress of Azov.source

Exploration & Expansion

June 19 – A French Academy of Sciences expedition, led by Pierre Louis Maupertuis, with Anders Celsius, begins work on measuring a meridian arc in Torne Valley, Finland.source
November 13 – Word of the discovery of silver, south of what is now the U.S.-Mexican border, reaches Sonora Governor Juan Bautista Anza and soon leads to prospectors coming to Nogales to find more silver. Late in October, a Yaqui Indian prospector, Antonio Siraumea, had discovered large slabs of silver ("Las planchas de plata"), and at the Estancia Arizona, a ranch owned by Captain Bernardo de Urrea. The region, and later the U.S. territory, and state of Arizona are named for Urrea's ranch.source

Religion & Belief

September 30 – The Lebanese Council of 1736 begins, a major turning point in the reform of the Maronite Church. In the following three days, the assembled Maronite and Latin clergy presided by Yusuf ibn Siman as-Simani discuss various reforms and elaborate rules and canons.source
December 26 – Andrew Michael Ramsay gives an oration, in which he relates the heritage and internationalism of Freemasonry to that of the Crusades.source
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab writes the Kitab at-tawhidt, marking the beginning of Wahhabism.source

Technology & Infrastructure

The Belgrade Fortress is completed.source
One of the earliest records of use of a bathing machine is made at Scarborough, England.source

Science & Discovery

June 8 – Leonhard Euler writes to James Stirling describing the Euler–Maclaurin formula, providing a disconnection between integrals and sums.source
October 3 – French scientist Charles Marie de La Condamine and a team of surveyors begin the first measurements at the Equator to determine the exact meridian arc measurement of distance between points separated by one degree of longitude in order to make a precise calculation of the Earth's circumference. The initial measurements of this French Geodesic Mission to the Equator, made in what is now Ecuador, last until November 3. The same year the French Geodesic Mission to Lapland took place. Both confirm Isaac Newton's prediction that the Figure of the Earth is flattened at the poles.source
Charles Marie de La Condamine, with François Fresneau Gataudière, makes the first scientific observations of rubber, in Ecuador.source
Leonhard Euler produces the first published proof of Fermat's "little theorem".source
Sir Isaac Newton's Method of Fluxions (1671), describing his method of differential calculus, is first published (posthumously) and Thomas Bayes publishes a defense of its logical foundations (anonymously).source

Health & Medicine

March 31 – Bellevue Hospital is founded in New York.source
September 29 – The Gin Act 1736 goes into effect, placing a steep tax on the sale of gin and license requirements for its sale, with the intent of reducing consumption of the liquor in Britain. Widely ignored, the Act is repealed in 1743.source
The Haidamakas raid the shtetl of Pavoloch, killing 35.source

Crime & Justice

April 14 – The Porteous Riots erupt in Edinburgh (Scotland), after the execution of smuggler Andrew Wilson, when town guard Captain John Porteous orders his men to fire at the crowd. Porteous is arrested later.source
June 24 – Witchcraft Act 1735 (9 Geo. 2. c. 5) in Great Britain comes into effect, criminalizing claimants accusing people of practising witchcraft or of possessing magical powers, intended to end legal witch trials in the early modern period in the country.source
September 7 – An Edinburgh crowd drags John Porteous out of his cell in Tolbooth Prison, and lynches him.source

Disasters & Accidents

April 19 – A fire in Stony Stratford, England, consumes 53 houses.source
August 12 – A fire in Saint Petersburg, capital of the Russian Empire, destroys 2,000 buildings, the city's post office, and several palaces.source
December 7 – Benjamin Franklin builds the first volunteer fire company in Philadelphia.source

Culture & Society

January 12 – George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney, becomes the Second Field Marshal of Great Britain.source
February 12 – Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor marries Maria Theresa of Austria, ruler of the Habsburg Empire at the Augustinian Church in Vienna.source
March 8 – Nader Shah, founder of the Afsharid dynasty, is crowned Shah of Iran on a date selected by court astrologers.source
April – The Genbun era begins in Japan. The era of Kyōhō Reforms ends.source
May 8 – Frederick, Prince of Wales, marries Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha.source
May 22 – King George II of Great Britain departs for Europe as part of his duties as Elector of Hanover; his wife, Caroline, Queen Consort rules on his behalf as the Regent for the last time until his return on January 14, 1736.source

Births

January 25 – Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Italian-born mathematician (d. 1813)source
February 3 – Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, Austrian musician (d. 1809)source
February 29 – Ann Lee, English-born American religious leader (d. 1784)source
March 20 – Rama I, First King of Siam (d. 1809)source
May 29 – Patrick Henry, American patriot (d. 1799)source
June 3 – Sir John Acton, 6th Baronet, Prime Minister of Naples (d. 1811)source
June 14 – Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, French physicist (d. 1806)source
June 21 – Enoch Poor, American general (d. 1780)source
June 25 – John Horne Tooke, English politician, philologist (d. 1812)source
July – Juan Bautista de Anza, Governor of the Spanish Province of New Mexico (d. 1788)source
August 9 – Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé (d. 1818)source
September 15 – Jean Sylvain Bailly, French astronomer (d. 1793)source
September 16 – Carter Braxton, signer of the American Declaration of Independence (d. 1797)source
October 27 – James Macpherson, Scottish poet (d. 1796)source

Deaths

January 8 – Jean Leclerc (theologian), Swiss theologian and biblical scholar (b. 1657)source
January 31 – Filippo Juvarra, Italian architect (b. 1678)source
February 1 – James Stanley, 10th Earl of Derby, English politician (b. 1664)source
February 7 – Stephen Gray, English dyer, astronomer, and scientist (b. 1666)source
March 16 – Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Italian composer (b. 1710)source
March 25 – Nicholas Hawksmoor, British architect (b. c. 1661)source
April 30 – Johann Albert Fabricius, German scholar and bibliographer (b. 1668)source
June 6 – Jean Baptiste de La Vérendrye, explorer of New France, eldest son of Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye (b. 1713)source
September 16 – Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, German physicist and inventor (b. 1686)source
September 26 – Louise Diane d'Orléans, youngest child of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (b. 1716)source
November 2 – Louis Antoine de Pardaillan de Gondrin, French duke (b. 1664)source
December 10 – António Manoel de Vilhena, Portuguese 66th Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (b. 1663)source
December 12 (burial) – Antonina Houbraken, Dutch draughtswoman (b. 1686)source
December 22 – Sir William Robinson, 1st Baronet, British politician (b. 1655)source