* 1721 – Grinling Gibbons, English sculptor and woodcarver ( b. 1648 )

* 1667 – Louise of Mecklenburg-Güstrow ( d. 1721 )

Alexander Selkirk ( 1676 – 13 December 1721 ) was a Scottish sailor who spent four years as a castaway after being marooned on an uninhabited island.

* 1721 – Michel Chamillart, French statesman ( b. 1652 )

* 1665 – Jacques Lelong, French bibliographer ( d. 1721 )

* 1721 – Roger Sherman, American statesman and signer of the U. S. Declaration of Independence ( d. 1793 )

* 1721 – Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, English politician ( d. 1803 )

* 1648 – John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, English statesman and poet ( d. 1721 )

* Pierre Coustant ( 1654 – 1721 )

* Catherine of Siena ( 1707 – 1721 ) Opere, ed.

* 1721 – Richard Lumley, 1st Earl of Scarbrough, English statesman ( b. 1640 )

* 1721 – James Elphinston, British philologist ( d. 1809 )

* 1721 – Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, French statesman ( d. 1794 )

* 1721 – François Hemsterhuis, Dutch philosopher ( d. 1790 )

* 1721 – Alexander Selkirk, Scottish sailor and castaway ( b. 1676 )

Elihu Yale ( April 5, 1649 – July 8, 1721 ) was an American merchant and philanthropist, governor of the East India Company settlement at Madras and a benefactor of the Collegiate School of Connecticut, which in 1718 was named Yale College in his honor.

* 1721 – John McKinly, American physician ( d. 1796 )

* 1721 – Christian Friedrich Heinecken, German child prodigy ( d. 1725 )

* 1721 – John Reid, British army general and composer ( d. 1807 )

Rabbi Yedidiah Tiah Weil ( 1721 – 1805 ), a Prague resident, who described the creation of golems, including those created by Rabbi Avigdor Kara of Prague, did not mention the Maharal, and Rabbi Meir Perels ' biography of the Maharal published in 1718 does not mention a golem.

* 1721 March – Philip V of Spain requested the restitution of Gibraltar to proceed to the renewal of the trade licences of Great Britain with the Spanish possessions in America.

* 1721 1 June – George I sent a letter to Philip V promising " to make use of the first favourable Opportunity to regulate this Article ( the Demand touching the Restitution of Gibraltar ), with the Consent of my Parliament ".

Their purpose was defense from attacks from water and their construction was urged by the Great Northern War of 1700 – 1721.

* 1790 – François Hemsterhuis, Dutch philosopher ( b. 1721 )

On 31 October 1721, Peter I was proclaimed Emperor by the Senate-the title used was Latin " Imperator ", which is a westernizing form equivalent to the traditional Slavic title " Tsar ".

In celebration of his conquests, Peter assumed the title of emperor as well as tsar, and Russian Tsardom officially became the Russian Empire in 1721.

Under Peter the Great, Russia was proclaimed an Empire in 1721 and became recognized as a world power.

** Peter Pelham ( composer ) ( 1721 – 1805 )

At least eight bishops are known ( Le Quien, Oriens christianus, I, 1181 ): Athanasius ( 431 ), Peter ( 680 ), Euthymius ( 787 ) and Ignatius ( 869 ); Theodosius ( 1357 ), Joannicius, who became Patriarch of Constantinople ( 1524 ), Philotheus ( 1564 ) and Joasaph ( 1721 ).

The Duma was discontinued by Peter the Great, who transferred its functions to the Governing Senate in 1721.

* Peter Brooke, son ( 1673 – 1721 ), 1715 – 21 ;

* Provost Church of St Peter and Paul in Rajhrad ( 1721 )

Between 1714 and 1721 Åland was attacked and devastated by Peter the Great's forces ; most of the population fled at that time to Sweden.

* April 28 Peter Pelham, harpsichordist, organist and composer ( b. 1721 )

In 1721, as part of his drive to both westernize the Russian Empire and assert the monarchy's claim that it was the successor to the Byzantine emperors, Peter the Great imported the Latin word directly into Russian and styled himself imperator ( Императоръ ).

He did so at the behest of Tsar Peter the Great, who needed a new iron foundry to manufacture cannons and anchors for the Baltic Fleet at the time of the Great Northern War ( 1700 – 1721 ).

On the occasion of the peace of Nystad ( 1721 ), which terminated the Great Northern War's 21 years of struggle between Russia and Sweden, Bestuzhev designed and had minted a commemorative medal with a panegyrical Latin inscription, which so delighted Peter ( then at Derbent ) that he sent a letter of thanks written with his own hand and his portrait set in brilliants.

* Sir Peter Parker, 1st Baronet ( 1721 – 1811 ), British Admiral and Member of Parliament, friend and patron of Admiral Nelson

In 1721 Peter the Great discontinued use of " tsar " as his main title, and adopted that of imperator ( emperor ), whereupon the title of tsarevich ( and " tsarevna ", retained for life by Ivan V's daughters ) fell into desuetude.

In 1721, the ambassador of France to Russia suggested a marriage between Louis and one of the two unmarried daughters of Peter I of Russia: the Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna ( known for her fluency in French ) or her younger sister, Grand Duchess Yelizaveta Petrovna.

Following the peace settlement of 1721, Duke Charles Frederick fled to the court of Peter the Great of Russia, and for some time the Russians intrigued to restore Charles Frederick to his lands in Schleswig.

Peter abolished this organ in 1721, replacing it with the Governing Senate.

During the Great Northern War ( 1700 – 1721 ) the territory of what is now Leningrad Oblast was returned from Sweden by Russia under Peter the Great, who founded Saint Petersburg amidst the land in 1703, which soon became the capital of the Russian Empire.

Caesaropapism in Russia was taken to a new level in 1721, when Peter the Great abolished the patriarchate and formally made the church a department of his government formally known as the beginning of the Russian Empire.

However, in 1721 Tsar Peter I abolished completely the patriarchate and so the Church effectively became a department of the government, ruled by a Most Holy Synod composed of senior bishops and lay bureaucrats appointed by the Tsar himself.

In the Great Northern War ( 1700 – 1721 ), Czar Peter the Great utterly destroyed Sweden's pretensions to being a regional superpower.

Likewise, Tsar Peter the Great celebrated his 1709 victory over Sweden at the Battle of Poltava and the end of the Great Northern War in 1721.

* Peter Pavel Glavar ( 1721 – 1784 )-priest, beekeeper, writer, and businessman