of North Carolina Governor George Burrington asks the North Carolina General Assembly to pass an act establishing a town on the Cape Fear River, in what is seen as a political move to shift the power away from the powerful Cape Fear plantation class. The town is laid out in 1733, and incorporated as Wilmington in 1740. Laura Bassi becomes the first official female university teacher, on being appointed professor of anatomy at the University of Bologna, at the age of 21. English scientist John Bevis observes the Crab Nebula for the first time in the modern era. The octant is developed by English mathematician John Hadley (it will eventually be replaced as a means of determining latitude by the sextant). The Royal Theatre of Mantua (Italy) is built by architect Ferdinando Galli Bibiena. Births January 3 – Angelo Emo, Venetian admiral and statesman (d. 1792) February – Charles Churchill, English poet (d. 1764) March 19 – Gabriela Silang, Filipino rebel leader and heroine (d. 1763) April 8 – William Williams, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence (d. 1811) May 8 – Beilby Porteus, Bishop of London and abolitionist (d. 1809) June 2 – Dorothea Biehl, Danish writer (d. 1788) July 16 – Samuel Huntington, Patriot in the American Revolution and politician (d. 1796) August – Henry Constantine Jennings, English gambler and collector (d. 1819) October 10 – Henry Cavendish, English scientist (d. 1810) November 9 – Benjamin Banneker, African-American astronomer, surveyor of the District of Columbia (d. 1806) November 15 – William Cowper, English poet (d. 1800) December 8 – František Xaver Dušek, Czech composer (d. 1799) December 12 – Erasmus Darwin, English scientist and grandfather of Charles Darwin (d. 1802) December 28 – José de Viera y Clavijo, Spanish writer Nikephoros Theotokis, Greek scholar and theologian (d. 1800) Deaths January 6 – Étienne François Geoffroy, French chemist (b. 1672) January 20 – Antonio Farnese, Duke of Parma (b. 1679) January 23 – Anna Lohe, Swedish banker (b. 1654) January 27 – Bartolomeo Cristofori, Italian maker of musical instruments (b. 1655) February 10 – George Carpenter, 1st Baron Carpenter, British Army general (b. 1657) February 15 – Mary of Jesus de León y Delgado, Spanish Dominican lay sister and mystic (b. 1643) February 22 – Frederik Ruysch, Dutch physician and anatomist (b. 1638) March 5 – Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi, Sufi academic (b. 1641) March 6 – Johann