| 1716–1745 | Japan [political events] | Yoshimune, of the Tokugawa house of Kii, succeeds Ienobu as shogun (military ruler) of Japan. |
| 29 May 1724 - 21 February 1730 | Italy [elections] | Pietro Francesco Vincenzo Maria Orsini, eldest son of the Duke of Gravina, is elected Pope Benedict XIII, after the death on 7 March of Pope Innocent XIII. |
| c. 1725–c. 1740 | Spain [sports] | Bullfighting grows in popularity in Spain, with Francisco Romero becoming the first famous matador. |
| 1728 | Ireland [thought and scholarship] | Irish churchman and writer Jonathan Swift publishes A Short View of the State of Ireland. |
| 1728 | Asia, North America [exploration] | Danish navigator Vitus Bering discovers the strait between Siberia and Alaska that now bears his name. |
| 1728 | North America [everyday life] | Heavy drinking is common in the North American colonies. In this year alone 2,124,500 gallons of rum is imported. |
| 1728 | England [literature and language] | The English poet Alexander Pope publishes the satire The Dunciad anonymously. He acknowledges its authorship in 1735. |
| 1728 | UK [opera] | The ballad opera The Beggar's Opera by the English poet and dramatist John Gay is first performed, in Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, London, England. The music is by the German composer Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is first performed in New York City in 1750. |
| 1728 | France [painting] | French artist Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin paints The Rayfish, Cat, and Kitchen Utensils. |
| 1728 | UK [plays] | The comedy The Provoked Husband, left unfinished by the English dramatist and architect John Vanbrugh and completed by the English dramatist Colly Cibber, is first performed, in London, England. |
| 13 February 1728 | America [births and deaths] | Cotton Mather, New England author, educator, and Congregational minister, son of Increase Mather, dies in Boston, Massachusetts (65). |
| 28 October 1728 | England, Canada, Pacific [births and deaths] | James Cook, English naval captain and navigator who explored Canada's coasts and the Pacific, born in Marton-in-Cleveland, Yorkshire, England (–1779). |
| 23 December 1728 | Holy Roman Empire, Prussia [treaties] | The Treaty of Berlin is agreed between the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI and Frederick William of Prussia, by which the emperor recognizes Prussia's claim to the duchies of Berg and Ravenstein in the Holy Roman Empire, while Prussia guarantees the Pragmatic Sanction, accepting the right of the Emperor's daughter, Maria Theresa, to succeed him as ruler of all the Habsburg domains. |
