1737

Born in 1737:

• English historian Edward Gibbon.
• American journalist and pamphleteer Thomas Paine¹, in Thetford, Norfolk.
• Austrian composer Johann Michael Haydn.
• Italian anatomist Luigi Galvani.
• Maryland landowner and statesman Charles Carroll of Carrollton.
• Massachusetts lawyer and statesman John Hancock.
• Japanese actor Matsumoto Koshiro IV.
• Scottish geographer Alexander Dalrymple.

Died in 1737:

• Italian violin maker Antonio Stradivari.

Events of 1737:

• In reaction to politically irreverent plays the previous year, Parliament passes a Licensing Act censoring plays and limiting the number of theaters in London to two.
• Italian veterinarian Guillermo Rosellini build an amazing mechanical pig that does almost...ummm.... everything a real pig does.
• A strong earthquake topple chimneys in New York City.
• English astronomer John Bevis watches the only recorded occultation of one planet (Mercury) by another (Venus).

1736 - 1737 - 1738

How They Were Made - 18th Century

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¹Since Great Britain and its American colonies had not yet adopted the Gregorian Calendar, this event is often reported as having happened in 1736.