1703 CE

(December 14 of previous year in the Chinese calendar) – Akō incident: In Japan, forty-seven rōnin (independent samurai) assassinate daimyō Kira Yoshinaka, the enemy of their former lord Asano Naganori, at his own mansion as a vengeance; for which they are compelled to commit suicide on March 20. Soldiers at Fort Louis de la Mobile celebrate Mardi Gras in Mobile, starting the tradition for Mobile, Alabama. Hannah Twynnoy, a 24-year-old barmaid in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, becomes the first person to be killed in Great Britain by a tiger. While working at the White Lion Inn, where a group of wild animals is on exhibit, she is mauled after bothering the tiger.

In the 1700s, the 18th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • 1 January – the case of Ashby v White is decided in the Court of Queen's Bench. Concerning the right to vote, it is a leading case in the Constitution of England and English tort law, establishing the principle for every wrong there is a remedy.Englandsource
  • 6 May – the last Parliament of Scotland formed in Edinburgh from the general election held the previous year.Scotlandsource
  • May 26 – Portugal joins the Grand Alliance.source
  • May 27 (May 16 OS) – The city of Saint Petersburg, Russia is founded, following Peter the Great's reconquest of Ingria from Sweden during the Great Northern War.source
  • May 27 - Philippe de Rigaud Vaudreuil becomes Governor General of New France.Canadasource
  • June 15 – Rákóczi's War of Independence: Hungarians rebel under Prince Francis II Rákóczi.source
  • September 7 – War of the Spanish Succession: The town of Breisach is retaken for France by Camille d'Hostun, duc de Tallard.source
  • 7 September – War of the Spanish Succession: The town of Breisach is retaken for France by Camille d'Hostun, duc de Tallard.Francesource
  • November 30 – Isaac Newton is elected president of the Royal Society of London, a position he will hold until his death in 1727.source
  • December 27 – Portugal and England sign the Methuen Treaty, which gives preference to Portuguese wines imported into England.source
  • 27 December – Portugal and England sign the Methuen Treaty which gives preference to Portuguese imported wines over French wines into England, while Portugal will import woollen goods from England. This leads to the increasing popularity of Port wine in Britain.Englandsource
  • December 28 – Ahmed III succeeds the deposed Mustafa II as Ottoman Emperor.source
  • Parliament of Ireland assembles on 21 September, the first under Anne, Queen of Great Britain, and the first for five years.Irelandsource
  • Treason Act (Ireland) 1703, enacted by the Parliament of Ireland, enforces the Protestant line of succession to the British throne.Irelandsource
  • Act of Security 1704 (c.3 (S)), allowing the Parliament to appoint a Protestant successor to the monarch in Scotland. Bill passed in September but royal assent refused by the Lord High Commissioner until 1704.Scotlandsource

Conflict & Security

  • January 30 - The famed Forty-seven Samurai avenge their leader, Asano Naganori out of loyalty by attacking and killing Kira Kozuke no Suke Yoshinaka, despite being ordered not to. (Traditional Japanese Date: Fourteenth Day of the Twelfth Month, 1702)Japansource
  • February 20–March 10 – War of the Spanish Succession: Siege of Kehl – French forces under the command of the Duc de Villars capture the fortress of the Holy Roman Empire at Kehl, opposite Strasbourg on the Rhine.source
  • 20 February – 10 March – War of the Spanish Succession: Siege of Kehl – French forces under the command of the Duc de Villars capture the fortress of the Holy Roman Empire at Kehl, opposite Strasbourg on the Rhine.Francesource
  • March 1 – The Recruiting Act 1703 goes into effect in England, providing for the forcible enlistment of able-bodied but unemployed men into the English Army and Royal Navy in order to fight in Queen Anne's War in North America. The Act expires at the end of February 1704.source
  • 1 March – the Recruiting Act 1703 goes into effect, providing for the forcible enlistment of able-bodied but unemployed men into the Army and Royal Navy in order to fight in Queen Anne's War in North America. The Act expires at the end of February 1704.Englandsource
  • March 19 – The Siege of Guadeloupe begins as an English expeditionary force, led by Christopher Codrington and Hovenden Walker, lands at Basse-Terre and attempts to take over the French-held island. The English fleet departs on May 15 after being unable to capture Guadeloupe.source
  • 19 March - Swedish victory at the Battle of Saločiai.Swedensource
  • 21 April – Battle of Pultusk; Charles XII wins the Battle of Pultusk during the invasion of Poland and Lithuania.Russiasource
  • 21 April - Swedish victory at the Battle of Pułtusk (1703).Swedensource
  • 18 May – War of the Spanish Succession: The Duke of Marlborough captures the cities of Cologne, Bonn, Limbourg, Huy and Guelders.Englandsource
  • June 19 – Bavarian troops, who during the so-called Bavarian Rummel have invaded Tyrol, besiege Kufstein. Fires break out on the outskirts that engulf the town, destroy it and reach the powder store of the supposedly impregnable fortress. The enormous gunpowder supplies explode and Kufstein has to surrender on June 20. This same day the Tyrolese surrender in Wörgl; two days later Rattenberg is captured and Innsbruck is cleared without a fight on June 25.source
  • June 30 – Battle of Ekeren (War of the Spanish Succession): The French surround a smaller Dutch force, which however breaks out and retires to safety.source
  • July 26 – After their victories at the Pontlatzer Bridge and the Brenner Pass, Tyrolese farmers drive out the Bavarian Elector, Maximilian II Emanuel, from North Tyrol and thus prevent the Bavarian Army, which is allied with France, from marching on Vienna during the War of the Spanish Succession. This success, at low cost, is the signal for the rebellion of the Tyrolese against Bavaria, and Elector Maximilian II Emanuel has to flee from Innsbruck. The Bavarian Army withdraws through Seefeld in Tirol back to Bavaria.source
  • August 23 – Edirne event: Sultan Mustafa II of the Ottoman Empire is dethroned.source
  • September 12 – War of the Spanish Succession: Habsburg Archduke Charles is proclaimed King of Spain, but never exercises full rule.source
  • October 11 – Nine Roman Catholic residents of the French village of Sainte-Cécile-d'Andorge are massacred by a mob of more than 800 French Huguenot Protestants, the Camisards. A reprisal against Protestants in the nearby village of Branoux is made less than three weeks later.source
  • October 30 – More than 47 Huguenots in the village of Branoux-les-Taillades are massacred by Roman Catholic vigilantes in reprisal for the October 11 attack on nearby Sainte-Cécile, slightly more than two miles away.source
  • November 15 – War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Speyerbach (in modern-day Germany) – The French defeat a German relief army, allowing the French to take the besieged town of Landau two days later, for which Tallard is made a Marshal of France.source
  • November 15 – Rákóczi's War of Independence: Battle of Zvolen (in modern-day Slovakia) – The Kurucs defeat the Austrians and their allies (Denmark, Hungary and the Serbs).source
  • Peter the Great assaults and captures the island fortress of Nöteborg, renaming it Shlisselburg.Russiasource

Exploration & Expansion

  • September 11 – a privateering expedition comprising the ships St George and Cinque Ports commanded by William Dampier leaves Kinsale for South America.Irelandsource
  • Baptist leader Thomas Griffiths and a small group of followers settle at Welsh Tract, Delaware, where they found the Welsh Tract Baptist church.Walessource

Religion & Belief

  • June 11 – Charles Hickman is consecrated as Church of Ireland Bishop of Derry.Irelandsource
  • Wine Act 1703 (c. 13 (S)), allowing Scots legally to import French wine.Scotlandsource
  • The Charles XII Bible is completed.Swedensource
  • James Owen – Moderation a VirtueWalessource
  • Ellis Wynne – Gweledigaetheu y Bardd CwscWalessource
  • Thomas Baddy – hymns appended to Pasc y ChristionWalessource
  • Pasc y Christion (translation of a work by Thomas Doolittle)Walessource

Economy & Finance

  • April 21 – The Company of Quenching of Fire (i.e., a fire brigade) is founded in Edinburgh, Scotland.source
  • 21 April – the Edinburgh "Company of Quenching of Fire", i.e., a fire brigade, is formed.Scotlandsource

Technology & Infrastructure

  • The Parliament of Ireland investigates the possibility of improving navigation on the rivers Shannon and Barrow and constructing a Newry Canal.Irelandsource

Science & Discovery

  • 14 April – HDMS Elephanten is launched at the Royal Danish Dockyard in Copenhagen.Denmarksource
  • Martin Martin publishes A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland.Scotlandsource

Health & Medicine

  • March 15 – The landmark English court case of Rose v Royal College of Physicians is decided by the Court of Queen's Bench, beginning the end of the monopoly that the Royal College of Physicians has over the practice of medicine.source
  • 15 March – the landmark case of Rose v Royal College of Physicians is decided in the Court of Queen's Bench, beginning the end of the monopoly that the Royal College of Physicians has over the practice of medicine.Englandsource
  • Between 1702 and 1703 – An epidemic of smallpox breaks out in Quebec, in which 2,000-3,000 people die (300-400 in Quebec City).source

Crime & Justice

  • March 21 – Jeanne Guyon is freed from the Bastille in Paris after more than seven years imprisonment for heresy.source
  • 21 March – Jeanne Guyon is freed in Paris after more than seven years imprisonment for heresy in the Bastille.Francesource
  • July 29–31 – Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory in London, then imprisoned until mid-November for the crime of seditious libel after publishing his satirical political pamphlet The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702).source
  • October 23 – Hannah Twynnoy, a 24-year-old barmaid in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, becomes the first person to be killed in Great Britain by a tiger. While working at the White Lion Inn, where a group of wild animals is on exhibit, she is mauled after bothering the tiger.source
  • 23 October – Hannah Twynnoy, a 33-year-old barmaid in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, becomes the first person to be killed in Great Britain by a tiger. While working at the White Lion Inn, where a group of wild animals is on exhibit, she is mauled after bothering the tiger.Englandsource
  • French-born imposter George Psalmanazar arrives in London.source
  • The case of Coggs v Bernard is decided in the Court of King's Bench. Concerning the duties of a bailee, it is a landmark case in English contract law and property law.Englandsource
  • 29–31 July – Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory (at Temple Bar, London) as part of his punishment for the crime of seditious libel after publishing his politically satirical pamphlet The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702) (he is released from Newgate Prison in mid-November).Englandsource
  • Sir Robert Doyne is appointed as Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas.Irelandsource

Disasters & Accidents

  • January 9 – The Jamaican town of Port Royal, a center of trade in the Western Hemisphere and at this time the largest city in the Caribbean, is destroyed by a fire. British ships in the harbor are able to rescue much of the merchandise that has been unloaded on the docks, but the inventory in market-places in town is destroyed.source
  • HMS Mary with loss of all but one of the 270 onboard including Rear admiral Basil Beaumont.Englandsource
  • The Eddystone Lighthouse near Plymouth is destroyed in the storm together with its designer Henry Winstanley and 5 others.Englandsource
  • Royal Navy ships wrecked on the Goodwin Sands includeEnglandsource
  • HMS Restoration with loss of all 387 on board.Englandsource

Climate & Environment

  • January 14 – 1703 Apennine earthquakes: The magnitude 6.7 Norcia earthquake affects Central Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). With a death toll of 6,240–9,761, it is the first in a sequence of three destructive events.source
  • January 16 – 1703 Apennine earthquakes: The magnitude 6.2 Montereale earthquake causes damage at Accumoli, Armatrice, Cittareale and Montereale, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe).source
  • February 2 – 1703 Apennine earthquakes: The magnitude 6.7 L'Aquila earthquake affects Central Italy, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). In the final large event (an example of Coulomb stress transfer), damage occurs as far distant as Rome, with landslides, liquefaction, slope failures and at least 2,500 deaths.source
  • December 7–10 (November 26–29 O.S.) – The Great Storm of 1703, an extratropical cyclone, ravages southern England and the English Channel, killing at least 8,000, mostly at sea. The Eddystone Lighthouse off Plymouth is destroyed in the storm together with its designer Henry Winstanley and many buildings on land are damaged.source
  • December 31 - The 1703 Genroku earthquake occurred on 2:00 local time, killing 2,300.Japansource
  • 26–29 November (7–10 December N.S.) – the Great Storm of 1703, an Atlantic hurricane ravages southern England and the English Channel, killing at least 8,000, chiefly at sea.Englandsource

Culture & Society

  • February – Soldiers at Fort Louis de la Mobile celebrate Mardi Gras in Mobile, starting the tradition for Mobile, Alabama.source
  • March 20 (February 4 in the Chinese calendar) – 46 of the forty-seven rōnin of Japan carry out an order of seppuku (ritual suicide) for the killing they committed on January 30. The punishment is given by the shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. The story continues to be dramatized more than 300 years later in Chūshingura theater, novels and film.source
  • 30 March – Catherine Price, sister of Richard Price, marries William Thomas of Cefn Ydfa, Llangynwyd; they would become the parents of Ann Maddocks.Walessource
  • 13 April – Major-General David Colyear, Lord Portmore, is elevated to the style of Earl of Portmore in the Peerage of Scotland.Scotlandsource
  • June – The completed 1703 Icelandic census is presented in the Althing, the first complete census of any country.source
  • 20 July – Sir Roger Mostyn, 3rd Baronet, marries Lady Essex Finch, daughter of the Earl of Nottingham.Walessource
  • July – John Hanbury II marries Bridget Ayscough, the eldest daughter of Sir Edward Ayscough of Stallingbough, Lincolnshire. Sir Edward's only son having died, Bridget inherits a share of his estates and brings a fortune of £10,000 to the marriage.Walessource
  • 28 August – Thomas Windsor, 1st Viscount Windsor, marries Charlotte Herbert, daughter of Philip Herbert, 7th Earl of Pembroke, and widow of John Jeffreys, 2nd Baron JeffreysWalessource
  • 6 September Frederick VI is secretly married to Elisabeth Helene von Vieregg and thereby becomes guilty of bigamy.Denmarksource
  • Frederick IV opens a new opera house in Copenhagen.Denmarksource
  • Queen Anne revives the Order of the Thistle and creates other new titles in the Peerage of Scotland: Duke of Atholl, Duke of Douglas, Earl of Cromartie, Earl of Glasgow, Earl of Hopetoun, Earl of Rosebery, Earl of Stair, Viscount of Garnock, Viscount Mount Stuart and Viscount of Primrose.Scotlandsource

Births

  • 5 January – James Hamilton, 5th Duke of Hamilton (died 1743)Scotlandsource
  • February 5 – Gilbert Tennent, Irish-born religious leader (died 1764)source
  • February 13 – Robert Dodsley, English bookseller, poet, playwright and miscellaneous writer (died 1764)source
  • March 10 – Peter Warren, British Royal Navy officer (died 1752)source
  • June 6 - Louis de la Corne, Chevalier de la Corne, explorer (died 1761).Canadasource
  • June 10 – Walter Butler, 16th Earl of Ormonde, Irish landowner (died 1783)source
  • June 26 – Thomas Clap, first president of Yale University (died 1767)source
  • June 28 – John Wesley, English founder of Methodism and anti-slavery activist (died 1791)source
  • July 17 – Thomas Hancock, merchant in colonial Boston (died 1764)source
  • August 4 – Louis, Duke of Orléans, member of the royal family of France (died 1752)source
  • September 29 – François Boucher, French painter (died 1770)source
  • 29 September – Baltzer Fleischer, civil servant and county governor (died 1767).Norwaysource
  • October 5 – Jonathan Edwards, North American revivalist preacher (died 1758)source
  • October 30 – James Hill, Scottish surgeon, advocate of curative excision for cancer (died 1776)source
  • November 26 – Theophilus Cibber, English actor and writer (died 1758)source
  • November 27 – James De Lancey, colonial governor of the province of New York (died 1760)source
  • Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Saudi Sunni scholar, theologian, preacher, activist, and religious leader (died 1792)source
  • probable – Henry Herbert, 1st Earl of Powis (died 1772)Walessource

Deaths

  • January 30 (December 14 of previous year in the Chinese calendar) – Akō incident: In Japan, forty-seven rōnin (independent samurai) assassinate daimyō Kira Yoshinaka, the enemy of their former lord Asano Naganori, at his own mansion as a vengeance; for which they are compelled to commit suicide on March 20.source
  • February 5 – Phetracha, king of Ayutthaya (born 1632)source
  • February 11 – Godert de Ginkel, 1st Earl of Athlone, Dutch general in the service of England (born 1644)source
  • March 3 – Robert Hooke, English natural philosopher, architect and polymath (born 1635)source
  • March 5 – Gabrielle Suchon, French philosopher (born 1632)source
  • March 12 – Aubrey de Vere, 20th Earl of Oxford, Royalist during the English Civil War (born 1627)source
  • 6 May – John Murray, 1st Marquess of Atholl (born 1631)Scotlandsource
  • 10 May – Edward Jones, Bishop of St Asaph, 62Walessource
  • May 16 – Charles Perrault, French author (born 1628)source
  • May 26 – Samuel Pepys, English diarist and administrator (born 1633)source
  • May 26 - Louis-Hector de Callière, Governor General of New France, dies in office.Canadasource
  • September 9 – Charles de Saint-Évremond, French soldier, hedonist, essayist and literary critic (born 1613)source
  • October 14 – Thomas Kingo, Danish bishop, poet, hymn-writer (born 1634)source
  • 14 October — Thomas Kingo, bishop, poet and hymn-writer (born 1634)Denmarksource
  • November 8 – John Wallis, English mathematician (born 1616)source
  • November 19 – The so-called Man in the Iron Mask dies in the Bastille. He is buried under the name of "Marchioly".source
  • November 19 – Man in the Iron Mask, prisoner, among the most famous in French history (born 1640)source
  • December 29 – Mustafa II, 22nd Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (born 1664)source