1725

By place

Asia

• The Terengganu Sultanate is established at Terengganu Darul Iman.

  January–June

• February 8 - Catherine I becomes Empress of Russia, on the death of her husband, Peter the Great.
• February 20 - The first reported case of white men scalping Native Americans takes place in New Hampshire colony.
• March 2 - In London, a night watchman finds a severed head by the River Thames; it is later recognized to be that of the husband of Catherine Hayes. She and an accomplice are later executed.
• March 30 - The second performance of Johann Sebastian Bach's St John Passion, BWV 245, takes place at St. Thomas Church, Leipzig.
• April 30 - Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor and King Philip V of Spain sign the Treaty of Vienna.
• May 12 - The Black Watch is raised as a military company, as part of the pacification of the Scottish Highlands under General George Wade.
• May 21 - The Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky is instituted in Russia by Empress Catherine I.
• May 24 - Jonathan Wild, fraudulent Thief-Taker General, is hanged at Tyburn in London, for actually aiding criminals.
• June 24 - The Grand Lodge of Ireland in Dublin holds its first recorded meeting, making it the second most senior Grand Lodge in world Freemasonry, and the oldest in continuous existence.

  July–December

• September 16 - The Treaty of Hanover is signed between Great Britain, France and Prussia.

  Date unknown

• A fire in Wapping, London, destroys 70 houses.
• In Qing dynasty China, 66 copies of a 5,020 volume-long encyclopedia, the Gujin Tushu Jicheng are printed, necessitating the crafting of 250,000 movable type characters cast in bronze.
• 1725-1730 - Freemasonry is established in France, as an English import.

  Births

• January 25 - Antoine Court de Gébelin, French pastor
• February 4 - Dru Drury, English entomologist
• February 5
• * James Otis, American lawyer, patriot
• * Anna Maria Rückerschöld, Swedish author
• February 15 - Abraham Clark, American signer of the Declaration of Independence
• February 25 - Karl Wilhelm Ramler, German poet
• February 26 - Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot, French steam vehicle pioneer
• March 6 - Henry Benedict Stuart, Italian-born cardinal, Jacobite claimant to the British throne
• March 17 - Lachlan McIntosh, Scottish-born American military and political leader
• March 20 - Abdul Hamid I, Ottoman Sultan
• March 24
• * Samuel Ashe, Governor of North Carolina
• * Thomas Cushing, American Continental Congressman
• March 28 - Andrew Kippis, English non-conformist clergyman, biographer
• April 2 - Giacomo Casanova, Italian adventurer, writer
• April 6 - Pasquale Paoli, Corsican patriot, military leader
• April 23 - Gerard Majella, Italian Catholic lay brother and saint
• April 25 - Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel, British admiral
• May 12 - Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, French soldier, writer
• May 25 - Samuel Ward, American politician
• June 29 - Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina, Duchess of Massa, Italian ruler
• July 1 - Rhoda Delaval, English portrait painter
• July 4
• * Jean-Baptiste Luton Durival, French historian, diplomat and Encyclopédiste
• * Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, French soldier
• July 24 - John Newton, English cleric and hymnist
• August 21 - Jean-Baptiste Greuze, French painter
• August 29 - Charles Townshend, English politician
• September 5 - Jean-Étienne Montucla, French mathematician
• September 12 - Guillaume Le Gentil, French astronomer
• September 16
• * Nicolas Desmarest, French geologist
• * Anna Barbara Gignoux, German industrialist
• September 24 - Arthur Guinness, Irish brewer
• September 29 - Robert Clive, British general, statesman
• October 12 - Étienne Louis Geoffroy, French pharmacist, entomologist
• October 21 - Franz Moritz Graf von Lacy, Austrian field marshal
• December 11 - George Mason, American founding father
• December 18 - Johann Salomo Semler, German historian, Bible commentator
• date unknown - Magdalena Dávalos y Maldonado, Ecuadorian scholar, socialite

  Deaths

• January 6 - Chikamatsu Monzaemon, Japanese dramatist
• January 26 - Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani, Georgian prince
• January 29 - Nuno Álvares Pereira de Melo, 1st Duke of Cadaval, Portuguese nobleman and statesman
• February 7 - Johann Philipp Krieger, German Baroque composer
• February 8 - Emperor Peter I of Russia
• March 2 - José Benito de Churriguera, Spanish architect, sculptor
• March 10 - John Conyers, English politician
• March 30 - René de Froulay de Tessé, French Marshal and diplomat
• April 8 - John Wise, English clergyman
• April 12 - Giovanni Battista Foggini, Italian artist
• April 25 - Paul de Rapin, French historian
• May 22 - Robert Molesworth, 1st Viscount Molesworth, Irish politician
• May 24 - Jonathan Wild, English criminal
• May 31 - Erik Carlsson Sjöblad, Swedish governor, admiral, and baron
• June 29
• * Arai Hakuseki, Japanese poet, politician, and writer
• * Juan Manuel Fernández Pacheco, 8th Duke of Escalona, Spanish aristocrat
• July 11 - Salomon Franck, German lawyer, scientist, poet
• July 17 - Thomas King, English and British soldier, MP for Queenborough, lieutenant-governor of Sheerness
• September 16 - Antoine V de Gramont, French military leader
• October 10
• * Francesco del Giudice, Italian Catholic cardinal
• * Philippe de Rigaud Vaudreuil, Governor-General of New France
• October 11 - Hans Herr, Swiss-born Mennonite bishop
• October 16 - Ralph Thoresby, British historian
• October 24 - Alessandro Scarlatti, Italian composer
• November 20 - William, Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg
• December 7 - Florent Carton Dancourt, French dramatist, actor
• December 10 - Nicolaas Hartsoeker, Dutch mathematician and physicist
• date unknown
• * Giuseppe Mazzuoli, Italian sculptor
• * José Mora, Spanish sculptor
• * Nguyễn Phúc Chu, Vietnamese ruler
• * Petar Blagojević, Serbian peasant, alleged vampire
• * Alicia D'Anvers, English poet
• probable
• * Leendert Hasenbosch, Dutch castaway on Ascension Island
• * Keaweʻīkekahialiʻiokamoku, ruler of Hawaii