This year's French Academy of Sciences prize is based on a problem on the masting of ships: to calculate the number of masts to use and where in the ship to locate them. Pierre Bouguer gains the award for his paper On the masting of ships; and two other prizes, one for his dissertation On the best method of observing the altitude of stars at sea and the other for his paper On the best method of observing the variation of the compass at sea. The 19-year-old Euler enters for the prize with an essay written in 1726 and published in 1728.
The kilt is invented by Thomas Rawlinson, the English owner of an ironworks, who designs it as a cheap uniform for better maneuverability around machinery. Ian MacDonnel of Glengarry adopts the garment along with his clansmen, and the kilt is worn throughout the Highlands by 1745.
Births
March 19 – Ferdinand Berthoud, Swiss clockmaker and maker of scientific instruments (died 1807)