Year 1723 (MDCCXXIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1723

January - July

• February 16 - Louis XV of France attains his majority.
• May 23 - The Freemasonry lodge Theodor zum guten Rath is founded in Munich, Bavaria.

July - December

• July - The Russian army, under Matyushkin, captures Baku.
• September 1 - The Treaty of St. Petersburg is signed.
• November 23 - The Province of Carolina incorporates New Bern as Newbern (the town later becomes the capital of North Carolina).

Undated

• The Province of Carolina incorporates Beaufort, North Carolina as the "Port of Beaufort", making it the third incorporated town in the province.
• Christian von Wolff is banned from Prussia on a charge of atheism.

Births

• January 12 - Samuel Langdon, American President of Harvard University (d. 1797)
• February 15 - John Witherspoon, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1794)
• February 17 - Tobias Mayer, German astronomer (d. 1761)
• February 21 - Louis-Pierre Anquetil, French historian (d. 1808)
• February 23 - Richard Price, Welsh philosopher (d. 1791)
• February 24 - John Burgoyne, British general (d. 1792)
• March 22 - Charles Carroll, American lawyer and Continental Congressman (d. 1783)
• March 23 - Agha Mohammad Khan Ghajar, Iranian king (d. 1778)
• March 31 - King Frederick V of Denmark (d. 1766)
• April 20 - Cornelius Harnett, American Continental Congressman (d. 1781)
• April 30 - Mathurin Jacques Brisson, French naturalist (d. 1806)
• June 3 - Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, Italian-born physician and naturalist (d. 1788)
• June 5 - (baptised) Adam Smith, Scottish economist and philosopher (d. 1790)
• June 11 - Johann Georg Palitzsch, German astronomer (d. 1788)
• June 20
  • Adam Ferguson, Scottish philosopher and historian (d. 1816)
  • Theophilus Lindsey, English theologian (died 1808)
• July 1 - Pedro Rodríguez, Conde de Campomanes, Spanish statesman and writer (died 1802)
• July 10 - William Blackstone, English jurist (d. 1780)
• July 11 - Jean-François Marmontel, French historian and writer (d. 1799)
• July 16 - Sir Joshua Reynolds, English painter (d. 1792)
• September 11 - Johann Bernhard Basedow, German educational reformer (d. 1790)
• October 4 - Nikolaus Poda von Neuhaus, German entomologist (d. 1798)
• November 8 - John Byron, English admiral (d. 1786)
• November 30 - William Livingston, American politician and journalist (d. 1790)
• December 22 - Carl Friedrich Abel, German composer (d. 1787)
• December 26 - Friedrich Melchior, baron von Grimm, German writer (d. 1807)

Deaths

• February 25 - Sir Christopher Wren, English architect, astronomer, and mathematician (b. 1632)
• February 26 - Thomas d'Urfey, English writer (b. 1653)
• March 15 - Johann Christian Günther, German poet (b. 1695)
• March 31 - Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon, British Governor of New York and New Jersey (b. 1661)
• April 11 - John Robinson, English diplomat (b. 1650)
• May 11 - Jean Galbert de Campistron, French dramatist (b. 1656)
• July 14 - Claude Fleury, French historian (b. 1640)
• July 26 - Robert Bertie, 1st Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, English statesman (b. 1660)
• August 10 - Guillaume Dubois, French cardinal and statesman (b. 1656)
• August 17 - Joseph Bingham, English scholar (b. 1668)
• August 23 - Increase Mather, American Puritan minister (b. 1639)
• August 26 - Anton van Leeuwenhoek, Dutch scientist (b. 1632)
• October 10 - William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper, Lord Chancellor of England (b. c. 1665)
• October 19 - Godfrey Kneller, German-born artist (b. 1646)
• October 31 - Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1642)
• November 19 - Antoine Nompar de Caumont, French courtier and statesman (b. 1632)
• December 1 - Susanna Centlivre, English dramatist and actress (b. 1669)
• December 2 - Philip II, Duke of Orléans, regent of France (b. 1674)
• December 7 - Jan Santini Aichel, Czech architect (b. 1677)
• December 20 - Augustus Quirinus Rivinus, German physician and botanist (b. 1652)