1730

January–June

• January 29 - Anna Ivanovna becomes empress, following the death of her cousin, Emperor Peter II.
• March 12 - John Glas is deposed from the Church of Scotland; the Glasite sect forms around him.
• April 8 - Shearith Israel, the first synagogue in New York City, is dedicated.
• 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. 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.
• May - At the urging of Sir William Gooch, the Virginia House of Burgesses passes the Tobacco Inspection Act of 1730 to regulate the quality of Virginian tobacco, and establish inspection warehouses near plantations in the Tidewater region.
• The establishment of Wright's Ferry under the authority of the Province of Pennsylvania triggers 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 banks of the Susquehanna River.

  July–December

• July 8 - An earthquake affects Valparaiso, in the Viceroyalty of Peru.
• July 12 - Pope Clement XII succeeds Pope Benedict XIII, as the 246th pope.
• September 17 - Mahmud I succeeds Ahmed III, as Ottoman Emperor.
• October 22 - Construction of the Ladoga Canal, linking the Neva and Svir Rivers, one of the first major navigable canals constructed in Russia, is completed.

  Births

• January 3 - Velu Nachiyar, queen regnant of Sivaganga
• March 7 - Louis Auguste Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, last prime minister of the French monarchy
• April 16 - Henry Clinton, British general
• April 26 - John Moore, Archbishop of Canterbury
• May 13 - Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• May 28 - Maria Angela Ardinghelli, Italian scientific translator
• June 21 - Motoori Norinaga, Japanese philologist, scholar of the kokugaku school
• June 30 - Lokenath Brahmachari, Indian saint, yogi and mystic
• July 10 - Jean-Baptiste Willermoz, French Freemason
• July 12 - Josiah Wedgwood, English potter, abolitionist
• July 12 - Anna Barbara Reinhart, Swiss mathematician
• July 26 - Charles Messier, French astronomer
• August 1 - Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol, English Anglican prelate
• August 27 - Johann Georg Hamann, German philosopher
• September 17 - Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, Prussian army officer
• November 23 - William Moultrie, American general
• December 14 - James Bruce, Scottish explorer
• December 25 - Philip Mazzei, Italian physician, friend of Thomas Jefferson
• December 30 - William Hamilton, British diplomat, antiquary
• date unknown
• * John Cook, American farmer, President of Delaware
• * Anne Rossignol, African slave trader
• * John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore,
• * White Eyes, Indiginous American leader

  Deaths

• January 1
• * Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham, English politician
• * Samuel Sewall, English-born judge
• January 7 - Árni Magnússon, Icelandic scholar and manuscript collector
• January 18 - Antonio Vallisneri, Italian scientist
• January 29 - Emperor Peter II of Russia
• February 9 - Johann Georg von Eckhart, German historian
• February 12 - Luca Carlevarijs, Italian painter
• February 21 - Pope Benedict XIII
• March 9 - Frances Talbot, Countess of Tyrconnel
• March 20 - Adrienne Lecouvreur, French actress
• March 22 - Benedetto Pamphili, Italian cardinal, patron of the arts, composer and librettist
• March 23 - Charles I, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel
• May 13 - Sir Justinian Isham, 4th Baronet, English baronet and Member of Parliament
• May 30 - Arabella Churchill, English mistress of James II of England
• June 6 - Alain Emmanuel de Coëtlogon, Marshal of France in the reign of Louis XIV and Louis XV
• June 18 Yinxiang, Qing Dynasty prince
• June 19 - Thomas Trevor, 1st Baron Trevor, British Baron
• June 21 - Sarah Basset, Bermudian slave, origin of legend
• June 28 - Joachim Bouvet, French Jesuit active in China
• July 7 - Olivier Levasseur, French pirate
• July 9 - Issachar Berend Lehmann, German-Jewish banker, Court Jew in Hanover
• July 18 - François de Neufville, duc de Villeroy, French soldier
• August 2 - Mathias Steuchius, Swedish archbishop
• August 10 - Sébastien de Brossard, French composer and music theorist
• August 12 - Benedicta Henrietta of the Palatinate, German princess
• August 19 - James Ogilvy, 4th Earl of Findlater
• September 9 - Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Cleveland
• September 10 - Guichard Joseph Duverney, French anatomist
• September 14 - Sophia Elisabet Brenner, Swedish writer
• September 27 - Laurence Eusden, English poet
• October 12 - Frederick IV, King of Denmark and Norway
• October 16 - Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, French explorer
• October 23 - Anne Oldfield, English actress
• November 1 - Luigi Ferdinando Marsili, Italian soldier and naturalist
• November 21 - François de Troy, French portrait artist
• December 31 - Carlo Gimach, Maltese architect, engineer and poet