1738

This article is about the year 1738. For the Cognac, see Rémy Martin. For the song lyric, see Trap Queen.

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	17th century 18th century 19th century
Decades:	1710s 1720s 1730s 1740s 1750s
Years:	1735 1736 1737 1738 1739 1740 1741

1738 in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	1738 MDCCXXXVIII
Ab urbe condita	2491
Armenian calendar	1187 ԹՎ ՌՃՁԷ
Assyrian calendar	6488
Balinese saka calendar	1659–1660
Bengali calendar	1145
Berber calendar	2688
British Regnal year	11 Geo. 2 – 12 Geo. 2
Buddhist calendar	2282
Burmese calendar	1100
Byzantine calendar	7246–7247
Chinese calendar	丁巳年 (Fire Snake) 4435 or 4228     — to — 戊午年 (Earth Horse) 4436 or 4229
Coptic calendar	1454–1455
Discordian calendar	2904
Ethiopian calendar	1730–1731
Hebrew calendar	5498–5499
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1794–1795
- Shaka Samvat	1659–1660
- Kali Yuga	4838–4839
Holocene calendar	11738
Igbo calendar	738–739
Iranian calendar	1116–1117
Islamic calendar	1150–1151
Japanese calendar	Genbun 3 (元文３年)
Javanese calendar	1662–1663
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 11 days
Korean calendar	4071
Minguo calendar	174 before ROC 民前174年
Nanakshahi calendar	270
Thai solar calendar	2280–2281
Tibetan calendar	阴火蛇年 (female Fire-Snake) 1864 or 1483 or 711     — to — 阳土马年 (male Earth-Horse) 1865 or 1484 or 712

February 4: Joseph Süß Oppenheimer is executed in Württemberg.

1738 (MDCCXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar, the 1738th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 738th year of the 2nd millennium, the 38th year of the 18th century, and the 9th year of the 1730s decade. As of the start of 1738, the Gregorian calendar was 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

Events

January–June

• February 4 – Court Jew Joseph Süß Oppenheimer is executed in Württemberg.
• March/April – Battle of the Dindar River: Emperor Iyasu II of Ethiopia is defeated by the Funj.
• April 15 – Serse, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, premieres in London.
• May 24 – John Wesley experiences a spiritual rebirth at a Moravian Church meeting in Aldersgate, in the City of London, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day (his younger brother Charles had a similar experience three days earlier).
• May 25 – The military phase of Cresap's War between the British North American Provinces of Maryland and Pennsylvania is ended when King George II of Great Britain negotiates a cease-fire.

July–December

• September 18 – Samuel Johnson composes his first solemn prayer (published 1785).
• November 18 – The Treaty of Vienna is ratified, ending the War of the Polish Succession. Under the terms of the treaty, Stanisław Leszczyński receives Lorraine, in exchange for renouncing the Polish throne.
• Specific date unknown: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, having completed a law degree, is hired as a court musician by Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia, the future Frederick the Great (Bach will remain in Frederick's service until 1768).

Date unknown

• Russo–Turkish War (1735–1739): The Russian army fails to cross the Dniester. They are decimated by plague.
• China's Qing government announces that all western businessmen have to use the Cohong in Guangzhou to trade.
• The excavation of Herculaneum, a Roman city buried by Vesuvius in AD 79, begins.
• Pierre Louis Maupertuis publishes Sur la figure de la terre, which confirms Newton's view that the earth is an oblate spheroid, slightly flattened at the poles.
• Jacques de Vaucanson presents the world's first automaton, The Flute Player (1737), to the French Academy of Sciences.
• Black Forest clockmaker Franz Ketterer produces one of the earliest cuckoo clocks.
• Holy Royal Arch is founded.
• Rémy Martin is granted exclusive permission by King Louis XV of France to plant new vineyards, for impressing him with the quality of his cognac.

Births

• January 21 – Ethan Allen, American patriot (d. 1789)
• February 6 – Pierre-Joseph Desault, French anatomist and surgeon (d. 1795)
• April 12 – Padre Francisco Garcés, Spanish missionary (d. 1781)
• April 14 – William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1809)
• May 27 – Nathaniel Gorham, American politician (d. 1796)
• May 28 – Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, French physician (d. 1814)
• June 4 – King George III of the United Kingdom (d. 1820)
• July 3 – John Singleton Copley, American painter (d. 1815)
• July 20 – Darejan Dadiani, Georgian queen consort (d. 1807)
• July 22 – Anne d'Yves, writer, participant in the Brabant Revolution (d. 1814)
• September 25 – Nicholas Van Dyke, American lawyer and President of Delaware (d. 1789)
• October 11 – Arthur Phillip, British admiral and Governor of New South Wales (d. 1814)
• October 18 – Andrei Bolotov, Russian agriculturalist and memoirist (d. 1833)

William Herschel

• November 15 – William Herschel, German-born astronomer (d. 1822)
• December 31 – Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, British general (d. 1805)
• date unknown
  • Etteilla, French occult cartomancer (d. 1791)

Deaths

• January 6 – Franz Xaver Murschhauser, German composer and theorist (b. 1663)
• January 24 – Samuel Andrew, American Congregational clergyman, educator (b. 1656)
• January 27 – Marie Wulf, Danish pietist leader (b. 1685)
• January 30 – Benoît de Maillet, French diplomat and natural historian (b. 1656)
• February 9 – Béatrice Hiéronyme de Lorraine, Abbess of Remiremont (b. 1662)
• February 15 – Matthias Braun, Czech sculptor (b. 1684)
• February 27 – Henry Grove, English nonconformist minister (b. 1684)
• March 16 – George Bähr, German architect (b. 1666)
• March 25 – Turlough O'Carolan, Irish harper and composer (b. 1670)
• April 9 – Sir Charles Blois, 1st Baronet, English politician (b. 1657)
• May 1 – Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle, English statesman (b. c. 1669)
• May 15 – Sir John Chesshyre, English lawyer (b. 1662)
• June 5 – Isaac de Beausobre, French Protestant pastor (b. 1659)
• June 21 – Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, English politician (b. 1674)
• July 8 – Jean-Pierre Nicéron, French encyclopedist (b. 1685)
• July 28 – Heinrich, Duke of Saxe-Merseburg (b. 1661)

Herman Boerhaave

• September 23 – Herman Boerhaave, Dutch humanist, physician (b. 1668)
• December 22 – Constantia Jones, English prostitute (executed) (b. c. 1708)