New York Colony carrying over 4,000 people. December 26 – The first performance of the opera Agrippina by George Frideric Handel takes place at the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo in Venice. Date unknown Herculaneum, an ancient town in Ercolano, Campania, Italy and buried under volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, is discovered by accident when attempts to drill a well for a monastery encountered marble and other materials. The first modern edition of William Shakespeare's plays is published in London, edited by Nicholas Rowe. The first piano is exhibited in Florence by its inventor Bartolomeo di Francesco Cristofori (1655-1731), who named it "gravicembalo col piano e forte", a name which was subsequently shortened to "pianoforte" and then "piano". A collapsible umbrella is introduced in Paris. Trinity School is founded as the charity school of Trinity Church, in New York City. The second Eddystone Lighthouse, erected off the south west coast of England by John Rudyerd, is completed. De Nostri Temporis Studiorum Ratione (On the Study Methods of Our Times) is published by Neapolitan philosopher Giambattista Vico. Priceless medieval altarpieces, created by Tyrolese sculptor Michael Pacher, are destroyed. Basil Lazarus III becomes Syriac Orthodox Maphrian of the East. Births January–March January 2 – Teresia Constantia Phillips, British autobiographer (d. 1765) January 13 – Mollie Sneden, operator of a ferry service at Palisades, New York in the United States (d. 1810) January 17 Giovanni Ottavio Bufalini, Italian cardinal (d. 1782) George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton (d. 1773) Margaret Rolle, 15th Baroness Clinton (d. 1781) January 24 – Dom Bédos de Celles, Benedictine monk and master pipe organ builder (d. 1779) February 7 – Charles de Brosses French writer (d. 1777) February 9 – George Venables-Vernon, 1st Baron Vernon, British politician (d. 1780) February 11 – William Courtenay, 1st Viscount Courtenay (d. 1762) February 12 – Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg, French physician (d. 1799) February 16 – Henrika Juliana von Liewen, Swedish political salonnière (d. 1779) February 24 – Jacques de Vaucanson, French inventor of mechanical automata (d. 1782) February 27 – Timothy Woodbridge American missionary, deacon, schoolteacher, judge, Superintendent of Indian Affairs (d. 1774) March 1 – William Bentinck, 2nd Duke of Portland (d. 1762) March 10 James Bentham, English clergyman (d. 1794) Georg Wilhelm Steller, German botanist (d. 1746) March 14 – Sten Carl Bielke, scientist and member of the Swedish parliament (d. 1753) March 17