date: March 23

text: March 23 – John Bartram, American botanist (d. 1777)


date: May 13

section: Births

text: May 13 – Marquis of Pombal, Prime Minister of Portugal (d. 1782)

source_section: Births › April–June


date: May 23

text: May 23 – William Parks, 18th-century printer and journalist in England and Colonial America (d. 1750)


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Alexander Cruden, Scottish author of an early concordance to the Bible (d. 1770)


date: June 6

text: June 6 – Alamgir II, the fifteenth Mughal Emperor of India (d. 1759)


date: June 26

text: June 26 – Marie Thérèse Rodet Geoffrin, French salon holder (d. 1777)


date: August 29

text: August 29 – Mastani, daughter of Chhatrasal and Ruhani Bai Begum (d. 1740)

source_section: Births › July–September


date: September 29

text: September 29 – Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, British nobleman and Proprietary Governor of the Province of Maryland (d. 1751)


date: November 18

text: November 18 – Gerrit Braamcamp, successful Roman Catholic distiller (d. 1771)

source_section: Births › October–December


date: December 11

text: December 11 – Sarah Chapone, English legal theorist, pamphleteer, and prolific letter writer (d. 1764)


date: January 3

section: Deaths

text: January 3 – Mattia Preti, Italian Baroque artist who worked in Italy and Malta (b. 1613)

source_section: Deaths › January–March


date: January 27

text: January 27 – Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet, English statesman and essayist (b. 1628)


date: February 6

text: February 6 – Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria, son of Maximilian II Emanuel (b. 1692)


date: March 20

text: March 20 – Erhard Weigel, German mathematician, astronomer and philosopher (b. 1625)


date: March 22

text: March 22 – William Chaloner (b. 1650)


date: March 27

text: March 27 – Edward Stillingfleet, British theologian and scholar (b. 1635)


date: May 22

text: May 22 – James Bertie, 1st Earl of Abingdon, English nobleman (b. 1653)

source_section: Deaths › April–June


date: June 22

text: June 22 – Josiah Child, English Governor of the East India Company (b. 1630)


date: July 2

text: July 2 – Hortense Mancini, favourite Italian niece of Cardinal Mazarin (b. 1646)

source_section: Deaths › July–September


date: July 3

text: July 3 – Johann Just Winckelmann, German writer and historian (b. 1620)


date: August 4

text: August 4 – Maria Sophia of Neuburg, Queen consort of Portugal (b. 1666)


date: October 8

text: October 8 – Mary Beale, English portrait painter (b. 1633)

source_section: Deaths › October–December


date: November 15

text: November 15 – Kosa Pan, Siamese diplomat and minister who led the second Siamese embassy to France sent by King Narai in 1686 (b. 1633)


date: November 29

text: November 29 – Patrick Gordon, general and rear admiral in Russia (b. 1635)


year_label: 17 CE

date: May 26

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: May 26 – Germanicus returns to Rome as a conquering hero; he celebrates a triumph for his victories over the Cherusci, Chatti and other Germanic tribes west of the Elbe.

source_section: Events › 17 AD › Roman Empire


text: Cappadocia (Asia Minor) becomes a Roman province.


text: Lucius Aelius Sejanus becomes Praetorian prefect.


section: Conflict & Security

text: Tacfarinas, Numidian deserter from the Roman army, begins a guerrilla war against the Romans. He leads his own Musulamii tribe and a coalition of Berbers, attacking the Limes Tripolitanus, a fortified zone (limes) of the Roman Empire in Africa.

source_section: Events › 17 AD › Africa


text: Emperor Tiberius sends Germanicus to the east, in order to lead a military campaign against Parthia.


section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, builds the city Tiberias on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, in honor of Tiberius.

source_section: Events › 17 AD › Palestine


section: Climate & Environment

text: An earthquake in Anatolia destroys the city of Sardis and damages several other cities.

source_section: Events › 17 AD › Asia Minor


text: Gaius Julius Hyginus, Roman Latin writer

source_section: Deaths › 17 AD


text: Antiochus III, King of Commagene


text: Lucius Vipstanus Gallus, Roman senator


text: The Suebian tribes of the Marcomanni cross the Danube and invade Northern Italy. The Roman army (20,000 men) is destroyed near Carnuntum in Pannonia.

source_section: Events › By place › Roman Empire


text: The Marcomanni plunder Opitergium (modern Oderzo) and besiege Aquileia. This is the first time hostile forces have entered Italy since 101 BC.


section: Exploration & Expansion

text: The Costoboci cross the Danube (Dacia) and ravage Thrace in the Balkan Peninsula. They reach Eleusina, near Athens, and destroy the temple of the Eleusinian Mysteries.


section: Religion & Belief

text: Emperor Marcus Aurelius writes in Sirmium (Pannonia) his first of 12 books of the Meditations in Koine Greek.


text: The Porta Nigra is built in Augusta Treverorum (modern Trier). (approximate date)


section: Health & Medicine

text: Marcus Aurelius orders humane treatment for Christians and slaves throughout the Roman Empire.


section: Culture & Society

text: An Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius is erected in Rome.


text: Julia Domna, Roman empress consort (d. 217)

source_section: Births


text: Philostratus, Greek sophist (approximate date)


text: Pang De, Chinese military general (d. 219)


text: Herodian, Roman historian and writer (d. 240)


text: Guo Jia, Chinese politician and adviser (d. 207)


text: Vibia Aurelia Sabina, Marcus Aurelius' last surviving child (d. 217)


text: Apuleius, Numidian philosopher and writer (b. AD 124)

source_section: Deaths


text: Ptolemy, Greek mathematician and astronomer (b. AD 100)


text: Alexander of Abonoteichus, Greek mystic (b. AD 105)


text: Junius Rusticus, Roman teacher and politician (b. AD 100)


text: Marcus Cornelius Fronto, Roman grammarian (b. AD 100)


text: An Shigao, Chinese Buddhist missionary (b. AD 148)


text: Demonax, Greek philosopher and writer (b. c. AD 70)


date: March 24

text: March 24 – The Treaty of London is signed between France, England and the Dutch Republic.

source_section: Events › January–March


date: May

text: May – In Rhode Island (American colony), Walter Clarke, three-term former Governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is elected deputy governor for the second time, serving under his brother-in-law Samuel Cranston.

source_section: Events › April–June


date: August 18

text: August 18 (August 7 O.S.) – The Peace of Travendal is concluded between the Swedish Empire, Denmark–Norway and Holstein-Gottorp in Traventhal. On the same day, Augustus II, King of Poland, and Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia, enter the war against Sweden.

source_section: Events › July–September


date: December 28

text: December 28 – Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester, Lord President of the Council in charge of the Privy Council, is appointed to the additional job of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the highest Crown official in charge of administration of Ireland.

source_section: Events › October–December


date: December 30

text: December 30 (December 19, O.S.) – The 4th Parliament of King William III in England is dissolved and new elections are ordered by the King.


date: February 22

text: February 22 (Gregorian), February 12 (Julian) – The Great Northern War begins with a joint invasion of Swedish territory in Germany and Latvia, by Denmark and Poland/Saxony. Sweden has control of the Baltic Sea and holds territory that includes Finland, Estonia, Latvia and parts of northern Germany. To challenge its power, an alliance is formed between Tsar Peter I of Russia, King Frederick IV of Denmark and Augustus II the Strong, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony. Sweden's ruler is the militaristic Charles XII, known as the "Swedish Meteor".


date: April 21

text: April 21 – In India, the siege of the fortress of Sajjangad (located in the Maharashtra state) is begun by an army led by Fateullahakhan. The fortress falls on June 6.


date: July 24

text: July 24 – Charles XII of Sweden counter-attacks his enemies by invading Zealand (Denmark), assisted by an Anglo-Dutch naval squadron under Sir George Rooke, rapidly compelling the Danes to submit to peace.


date: September

text: September – A Russian army invades Swedish Estonia, and besieges the town of Narva.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – The Battle of Jouami' al-Ulama takes place in Algeria with a surprise attack and ambush on the army of Murad III Bey of Tunis by two Algerian defenders, Hadj Mustapha, Dey of Algiers and Ahmed ben Ferhat, Beylik of Constantine.


date: November 18

text: November 18 – Lithuanian Civil War: Battle of Valkininkai – The anti-Sapieha coalition is victorious.


date: November 30

text: November 30 (November 19 O.S.; November 20 Swedish calendar) – Battle of Narva in Estonia: Having led his army of 8,000 on a forced march from Denmark to Estonia, Charles XII of Sweden routs the huge Russian army.


date: February 27

text: February 27 – The island of New Britain is discovered by William Dampier, in the western Pacific.


text: Mission San Xavier del Bac is founded in New Spain near Tucson, as a Spanish Roman Catholic mission. Its location had first been scouted by the Spanish in 1692.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


text: The value of sales of English manufactured products to the Atlantic economy is £3.9 million.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Protestant nations in Western Europe, except England, start using the Gregorian calendar. Catholic nations have been using the Gregorian calendar since its introduction in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – Within a few days of poet John Dryden's death in London (May 1 O.S.), his last written work (The Secular Masque) is performed as part of Vanbrugh's version of The Pilgrim.


date: September 12

text: September 12 – Antioh Cantemir is deposed as the voivode of Moldavia and replaced by his predecessor Constantine Ducas.


date: November 23

text: November 23 – Cardinal Giovanni Francesco Albani, having been ordained as a Roman Catholic priest only two months earlier, is elected by the Papal conclave to succeed Pope Innocent XII, and becomes the 243rd pope, taking the name of Clement XI.


date: December 8

text: December 8 – The formal coronation of Pope Clement XI takes place in Rome.


date: March 1

section: Science & Discovery

text: March 1 (Gregorian) – Protestant Germany and Denmark–Norway adopt the Gregorian calendar.


text: An inventory made for the House of Medici of Florence is the first documentary evidence for a piano, invented by their instrument keeper Bartolomeo Cristofori.


date: April 18

section: Crime & Justice

text: April 18 – Hungarian freedom activist Ferenc Rákóczi is arrested by Austrian authorities and charged with sedition. Imprisoned near Vienna and facing a death sentence, he escapes and later leads the overthrow of the Habsburg control of Hungary.


date: February 3

section: Disasters & Accidents

text: February 3 – The 'Lesser Great Fire' destroys a substantial part of central Edinburgh, Scotland.


date: April

text: April – Fire destroys many buildings in Gondar, the capital of Ethiopia, including two in the palace complex.


date: January 26

text: January 26 – At approximately 9 p.m., the Cascadia earthquake occurs in the Pacific Northwest, with an estimated moment magnitude of 8.7–9.2. This megathrust earthquake ruptures about 1000 km mi of the Cascadia Subduction Zone and causes a tsunami that strikes the coast of Japan approximately 10 hours later.


date: September 13

text: September 13-14 – The Rising-sun hurricane of 1700 strikes the coast of South Carolina, killing 98.


text: Approximate date – Lions become extinct in Libya.


text: January 1 (Julian) (January 11, Gregorian) – The Tsardom of Russia begins numbering its calendar from the birth of Christ (Anno Domini), instead of since the Creation (Anno Mundi).


text: March 1 (Swedish), March 11 (Gregorian), February 29 (Julian) – The Swedish calendar is adopted.


date: March 3

text: March 3 – Shivaji II accedes to the throne of the Maratha Empire as the 4th Chhatrapati after his father Rajaram I's death.


date: March

text: March (early) – William Congreve's comedy The Way of the World is first performed in London.


date: April 15

text: April 15 – The coronation of King Frederick IV of Denmark takes place at Frederiksborg Castle in Copenhagen.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – The Prussian Academy of Sciences is founded, with Gottfried Leibniz as president.


date: September 6

text: September 6 – Edmond Halley returns to England after a voyage of almost one year on HMS Paramour, from which he has observed the Antarctic Convergence, and publishes his findings on terrestrial magnetism in General Chart of the Variation of the Compass.


date: November 15

text: November 15 – Louis XIV of France accepts the Spanish crown on behalf of his grandson Philip of Anjou of the House of Bourbon, who becomes Philip V of Spain (reigning for 44 years – with a short break – to 1746), thus triggering the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714).


text: An English translation of the novel Don Quixote, "translated from the original by many hands and published by Peter Motteux", begins publication in London. While popular among readers, it will eventually come to be known as one of the worst translations of the novel, totally betraying the spirit of Miguel de Cervantes's masterpiece.


date: January 14

text: January 14 – Picander (Christian Friedrich Henrici), German poet and librettist (d. 1764)

source_section: Births › January–March


date: February 8

text: February 8 – Daniel Bernoulli, Dutch-born Swiss mathematician (d. 1782)


text: March 3 – Charles-Joseph Natoire, French painter in the Rococo manner (d. 1777)


date: March 13

text: March 13 – Michel Blavet, French composer and flute virtuoso (d. 1768)


date: April 30

text: April 30 – Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, Swedish nobleman (d. 1739)

source_section: Births › April–June


date: May 12

text: May 12 – Luigi Vanvitelli, Italian architect (d. 1773)


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf, German religious and social reformer (d. 1760)


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Stephen Bayard, 39th Mayor of New York City from 1744 to 1747 (d. 1757)


date: August 17

text: August 17 – Clemens August of Bavaria, Archbishop-Elector of Cologne (d. 1761)

source_section: Births › July–September


date: August 18

text: August 18 – Baji Rao I, general of the Maratha Empire in India (d. 1740)


date: October 10

text: October 10 – Lambert-Sigisbert Adam, French sculptor born in Nancy (d. 1759)

source_section: Births › October–December


date: October 20

text: October 20 – Charlotte Aglaé d'Orléans (d. 1761)


date: November 17

text: November 17 – Frederick William, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, German nobleman (d. 1771)


date: November 19

text: November 19 – Jean-Antoine Nollet, French abbot and physicist (d. 1770)


date: January 12

text: January 12 – Marguerite Bourgeoys, French founder of the Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal, in the colony of New France (b. 1620)


date: January 21

text: January 21 – Henry Somerset, 1st Duke of Beaufort, English politician (b. 1629)


date: March 2

text: March 2 – Jankibai, Empress consort of the Maratha Empire as the first wife of Rajaram Chhatrapati (b. 1675)


date: March 3

text: March 3 – Chhatrapati Rajaram Raje Bhonsale, 3rd Maratha Emperor (b. 1670)


date: July 30

text: July 30 – Prince William, Duke of Gloucester, member of the English royal family (b. 1689)


text: July 30 – Eleven-year-old Prince William, Duke of Gloucester, dies of "a malignant fever" at Windsor Castle, leaving the Protestant succession to the British throne in doubt.


text: August 17 – Thomas-Claude Renart de Fuchsamberg Amblimont, French naval officer, governor general of the French Antilles (b. 1642)


date: August 22

text: August 22 – Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora, Mexican academic (b. 1645)


date: September 7

text: September 7 – William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford, English noble and politician (b. 1616)


date: September 27

text: September 27 – Pope Innocent XII dies at the age of 85 after a tenure of more than nine years. Fabrizio Spada, the Cardinal Secretary of State, assumes administration of the Roman Catholic Church in order to oversee the election of a new Pope.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Charles II, the last Spanish king of the House of Habsburg, dies at the Royal Alcazar of Madrid aged 38, leaving no children; his last will makes Philip of Anjou his heir.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – Edward Cranfield, English colonial official; Governor of New Hampshire (b. circa 1640s)


date: November 25

text: November 25 – Stephanus Van Cortlandt, first native-born mayor of New York City (b. 1643)


date: December 13

text: December 13 – Inoha Seihei, bureaucrat of the Ryukyu Kingdom (b. 1648)


date: January 18

text: January 18 – The electorate of Brandenburg–Prussia becomes the Kingdom of Prussia, as Elector Frederick III is proclaimed King Frederick I. Prussia remains part of the Holy Roman Empire. It consists of Brandenburg, Pomerania and East Prussia. Berlin is the capital.

source_section: Events › January–June


date: February 17

text: February 17 (February 6, 1700 O.S.) – The 5th Parliament of William III in England assembles. Future British Prime Minister Robert Walpole enters the House of Commons for the first time and soon makes his name as a spokesman for Whig policy.


date: April

text: April 20th – Mecklenburg-Strelitz is created as a north German duchy.


date: June 24

text: June 24 – The Act of Settlement 1701 is passed by the Parliament of England, to exclude the Catholic Stuarts from the British monarchy. Under its terms, King William III, childless, will be succeeded by Queen Mary II's sister Princess Anne and her descendants. If Anne should have no descendants, she will be succeeded by Sophia of Hanover and her descendants (hence the Hanoverian Succession in 1714).


date: July 24

text: July 24 – A French emporium named Fort Ponchartrain is founded along the west side of the Detroit River in North America, and later becomes the site of the city of Detroit.


date: August 4

text: August 4 – The Great Peace of Montreal is signed, ending 100 years of war between the Iroquois Confederacy and New France, and its Huron and Algonquian allies. Formerly allied with the English, the treaty assures the Iroquois will be neutral, if France and England ever resume hostilities.


date: November 11

text: November 11 (O.S., November 22 N.S.) – The House of Commons of England is dissolved by King William III and new elections are called for all 531 seats.


date: January 28

text: January 28 – Battle of Dartsedo: The Chinese storm the Tibetan border town of Dartsedo.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – In Japan, the young daimyō Asano Naganori is ordered to commit seppuku (ritual suicide). A group of 47 samurai of his service begin planning to avenge his death.


date: June 9

text: June 9 – Safavid troops retreat from Basra, ending a three-year occupation.


date: July 9

text: July 9 – The Battle of Carpi, the first skirmish in the War of the Spanish Succession, takes place in Italy when French troops under the command of Nicolas Catinat are attacked by Austrian forces led by Prince Eugene of Savoy.


date: July 19

text: July 19 – Crossing of the Düna: Following his victories over Denmark-Norway and Russia in 1700, Charles XII of Sweden escalates the conflict in the Great Northern War by an invasion of Poland. The Swedish defeat the army of Saxony (then in personal union with Poland) at the River Dvina.


date: December 29

text: December 29 (O.S., January 9, 1702 N.S.) – The Battle of Erastfer takes place near what becomes Erastvere in Estonia, as a large Russian force commanded by Boris Sheremetev invades Swedish Livonia and overwhelms a smaller force led by Wolmar Anton von Schlippenbach in the first significant Russian victory in the Great Northern War.


text: English agriculturalist Jethro Tull invents a drill for planting seeds in rows.


date: May 23

text: May 23 – Scottish-born Captain William Kidd, having been imprisoned in Boston Gaol (Massachusetts) and Newgate Prison (London) and convicted by the High Court of Admiralty of piracy and the murder of one of his crew, is hanged at Execution Dock in Wapping (London). His body suffers gibbeting over the River Thames at Tilbury Point; ballads are already spreading the legend that he has left buried treasure in the Americas.


date: October 9

text: October 9 – The Collegiate School of Connecticut (later renamed Yale University) is chartered in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.


date: November 2

text: November 2 – King Philip V of Spain marries for the first time, to 13-year-old Maria Luisa Gabriella of Savoy, who serves as Queen Consort until her death from tuberculosis at the age of 25.


text: The Philharmonic Society (Academia Philharmonicorum) is established in Ljubljana, Slovenia.


text: January 28 – Charles Marie de La Condamine, French mathematician and geographer (d. 1774)


text: January 28 – Thomas Amory, English dissenting tutor and minister and poet from Taunton (d. 1774)


date: February 28

text: February 28 – Jacek Rybiński, Cistercian and the last abbot of the Oliwa monastery (d. 1782)


date: March 14

text: March 14 – Antonio Alcalde Barriga, Spanish Roman Catholic prelate; member from the Order of Preachers; Bishop of Guadalajara (d. 1792)


date: April 27

text: April 27 – Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia, Duke of Savoy and King of Sardinia from 1730 (d. 1773)


date: May 18

text: May 18 – Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond, English aristocrat, philanthropist and cricket patron (d. 1750)


date: June 17

text: June 17 – Edward Antill, colonial plantation owner and winemaker (d. 1770)


date: July 6

text: July 6 – Mary, Countess of Harold, English aristocrat and philanthropist (d. 1785)


text: July 9 – Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, Count of Maurepas, French statesman and Count of Maurepas (d. 1781)


date: August 4

text: August 4 – Thomas Blackwell, Scottish classical scholar (d. 1757)


date: August 9

text: August 9 – Karl Wilhelm von Dieskau, Prussian lieutenant general, general inspector of the artillery (d. 1777)


date: August 21

text: August 21 – George Bowes, English coal proprietor, Member of Parliament (d. 1760)


date: September 22

text: September 22 – Anna Magdalena Bach, accomplished German singer, second wife of Johann Sebastian Bach (d. 1760)


date: October 24

text: October 24 – Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, Canadian military commander (d. 1755)


date: January 27

text: January 27 – James Graham, English born colonial American politician (b. 1650)


date: March 19

text: March 19 – John Egerton, 3rd Earl of Bridgewater, English politician (b. 1646)


date: May 30

text: May 30 – Theophilus Hastings, 7th Earl of Huntingdon, 17th-century English politician and Jacobite (b. 1650)


date: June 2

text: June 2 – Anna Stanisławska, Polish author and poet known for her sole work (b. 1651)


date: June 9

text: June 9 – Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, younger son of Louis XIII of France and his wife (b. 1640)


date: July 7

text: July 7 – William Stoughton, American judge at the Salem witch trials (b. 1631)


date: August 6

text: August 6 – William Hedges, the first governor of the East India Company (b. 1632)


date: August 20

text: August 20 – Sir Charles Sedley, 5th Baronet, English playwright (b. 1639)


date: August 22

text: August 22 – John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath, English royalist statesman (b. 1628)


date: September 15

text: September 15 – Edmé Boursault, French writer (b. 1638)


date: September 16

text: September 16 – Deposed King James II of England (James VII of Scotland) dies in exile, at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye in France. His supporters, the Jacobites, turn to his son James Francis Edward Stuart (later called "The Old Pretender"), whom they recognise as James VIII and III. Louis XIV of France, the Papal States, and Spain also recognise him as the rightful heir.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – Stanislaus Papczyński, Polish priest (b. 1631)


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Johannetta of Sayn-Wittgenstein, German noblewoman (b. 1632)


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Alexander Stuart, 5th Earl of Moray, Scottish nobleman (b. 1634)


text: The Delaware Colony legislature is separated from that of Pennsylvania.


date: February 1

text: February 1 – War of the Spanish Succession – Battle of Cremona: The Duc de Villeroy, commander of the French Army, is taken as a prisoner of war by the Austrian Army.


date: March 24

text: March 24 – Great Northern War: Battle of Darsūniškis – The Swedish army of about 240 men under the command of Alexander Hummerhielm is defeated by the Polish–Saxon army of 6,000 men under Michał Serwacy Wiśniowiecki.


date: April 15

text: April 15 – The British Province of New Jersey, encompassing all of the modern-day U.S. state of New Jersey and portions of New York, is created as proprietary owners in the provinces of East Jersey and West Jersey surrender their rights to the Crown.


date: May 14

text: May 14 (N.S.) – War of the Spanish Succession: War is declared on France by the Grand Alliance (Kingdom of England, Dutch Republic and Holy Roman Empire).


date: May 15

text: May 15 (May 4 O.S.) – King Charles XII of Sweden and his troops walk unopposed into Warsaw after troops capture the city.


text: June 2 – English General John Churchill, later the Duke of Marlborough, takes command of the alliance of English, Dutch and German troops in the War of the Spanish Succession.


date: June 11

text: June 11 – Anglo-Dutch forces skirmish with French forces before the walls of Nijmegen and prevent its fall.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Queen Anne's Captain-General, John Churchill, forces the surrender of Kaiserswerth on the Rhine after a siege that began on April 18.


date: July 19

text: July 19 (July 8 O.S.; July 9 Swedish calendar) – Great Northern War: Battle of Klissow – Charles XII of Sweden decisively defeats the Polish–Lithuanian-Saxon army.


date: July 24

text: July 24 – Camisard hostilities begin in France with the assassination at le Pont-de-Montvert of a local embodiment of royal oppression, François Langlade, the Abbé of Chaila.


date: July 30

text: July 30 (July 19 O.S.; July 20 Swedish calendar) – Great Northern War: Battle of Hummelshof – Russia defeats Sweden.


date: August 11

text: August 11 – Great Northern War: Częstochowa, Poland, is captured by the Swedish army.


date: August 15

text: August 15 – War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Luzzara – Forces of the Holy Roman Empire fail to break through the French-Savoyard position in Lombardy.


date: September 12

text: September 12 – The Siege of Landau (War of the Spanish Succession) ends after 3 months with forces of the Holy Roman Empire capturing the fortress town in the Rhineland-Palatinate from a French garrison.


date: September 25

text: September 25 – General John Churchill forces the surrender of Venlo on the Meuse River.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Cádiz – A month-long Anglo-Dutch amphibious operation under English Admiral Sir George Rooke fails to take the Spanish port.


date: October 7

text: October 7 – Great Northern War: Russian troops besiege the Swedish fortress of Nöteborg, and capture it after 15 days.


date: October 14

text: October 14 – War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Friedlingen – France defeats forces of the Holy Roman Empire.


date: October 18

text: October 18 – Queen Anne's War: Battle of Flint River – Spanish and Apalachee Indian forces fail in their attack against Creek Indians, supported by English traders, in the modern-day U.S. state of Georgia.


date: October 27

text: October 27 – Queen Anne's War in North America: English troops plunder St. Augustine, Spanish Florida.


date: November 10

text: November 10 – Queen Anne's War in North America: The Siege of St. Augustine opens as English forces besiege St. Augustine, Spanish Florida.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – Queen Anne's War: The Siege of St. Augustine in Spanish Florida is lifted.


text: Battle of Vigo Bay – Anglo-Dutch naval forces under English Admiral Sir George Rooke capture the defended Spanish port of Cádiz and take or destroy all the Spanish treasure fleet and escorting French warships there.


text: Churchill forces the surrender of Liège.


date: April 24

text: April 24 – The first two missionaries from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts set sail from England to North America.


date: June 16

text: June 16 – The English East India Company founds a settlement on Pulo Condore (modern-day Côn Sơn Island) off the coast of southern Vietnam as an entrepôt for ships travelling between India and China.


text: July 24 – A total eclipse of the sun is visible on a path crossing the northern Pacific Ocean and Central America.


date: October 28

text: October 28 – Sieur Juchereau, Lieutenant General of Montréal, establishes the first trading post on the Wabash River in order to trade buffalo hides with American Indians. The site of the trading post may be the modern-day location of Vincennes, Indiana.


date: November 22

section: Economy & Finance

text: November 22 – The Dutch East India Company ship Amsterdam (1691) founders en route from Bombay to Basra during a storm with the loss of all hands.


date: January 12

text: January 12 – In North America, ships from Fort Maurepas arrive at Twenty-Seven Mile Bluff to build Fort Louis de la Mobile (future Mobile, Alabama), to become the capital of French Louisiana.


date: January 2

text: January 2 – A total solar eclipse is visible from the southern Pacific Ocean.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – Comet C/1702 H1 is discovered and passes within 0.0435 AU (a little more than four million miles or 6.5 million km) of the Earth.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – Globular cluster Messier 5 (M5, NGC 5904) is discovered by Gottfried Kirch and his wife Maria Margarethe.


date: September 19

text: September 19 – Jupiter occults Neptune.


date: April 3

text: April 3 – The Dutch East India Company ship Merestein strikes rocks and sinks in Saldanha Bay off Jutten Island, Africa with the loss of 101 of the 200 people on board.


date: May 16

text: May 16 – Much of the city of Uppsala, Sweden is destroyed in a fire.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – Over 90% of the city of Bergen, Norway, is destroyed and reduced to ashes in a Great Fire.


date: March 14

text: March 14 – An earthquake in the middle of the Calore valley in Italy, east of Benevento, kills 400 people.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – Volcanic eruption of Changbaishan volcano (also known as Paektu Mountain) on the China/Korea border takes place.


date: March 22

text: March 22 (March 11 Old Style) – The first regular English-language national newspaper, The Daily Courant, begins publication on Fleet Street in the City of London, initially by Elizabeth Mallet; it covers only foreign news.


date: May 6

text: May 6 – Cloudesley Shovell is promoted to full admiral in the English navy.


date: June 25

text: June 25 – The premiere of the opera L'Offendere per amore overo la Telesilla by Johann Joseph Fux takes place in Vienna.


date: July 23

text: July 23 – The first performance of the opera Médus, roi des Mèdes by François Bouvard takes place at the Paris Opera.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – The founding deed of the University of Wrocław is signed by the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I of the House of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia.


date: October 19

text: October 19 – The opera Der Sieg der fruchtbaren Pomona by Reinhard Keiser is premiered at the Hamburg Opera for the birthday of King Frederick IV of Denmark.


date: November 7

text: November 7 – The first performance of the opera Tancrède by André Campra takes place at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris.


date: November 15

text: November 15 – The opera La Clemenza d'Augusto by Johann Joseph Fux is premiered in Vienna.


date: December 14

text: December 14 – John Churchill is created duke of Marlborough.


text: Richard Bentley at Cambridge in England introduces the first written (as opposed to oral) competitive examinations in a Western university.


text: The travel diary Oku no Hosomichi ("Narrow road to the deep north"), a major work of haibun by the Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō and one of the major texts of Japanese literature of the Edo period, is published eight years after Bashō's death.


date: January 13

text: January 13 – Thomas Arthur, comte de Lally, French general of Irish Jacobite ancestry (d. 1766)


date: January 18

text: January 18 – Sava II Petrović-Njegoš, Metropolitan of Cetinje (d. 1782)


date: March 4

text: March 4 – Jack Sheppard, British burglar and escaper (d. 1724)


date: March 19

text: March 19 – Thomas Penn, son of American colonial leader William Penn (d. 1775)


date: April 20

text: April 20 – Zenón de Somodevilla, 1st Marquess of Ensenada, Spanish noble (d. 1781)


date: May 2

text: May 2 – Friedrich Christoph Oetinger, German Lutheran theologian and theosopher (d. 1782)


date: May 21

text: May 21 – John Rous, Royal Navy officer during King George's War and the Seven Years' War (d. 1760)


date: August 26

text: August 26 – George Carpenter, 2nd Baron Carpenter, of England (d. 1749)


date: August 28

text: August 28 – Jean Philippe d'Orléans, illegitimate son of future French regent Philippe d'Orleans (d. 1748)


date: August 31

text: August 31 – Louis-François Roubiliac, French sculptor who worked in England (d. 1762)


date: November 5

text: November 5 – Grégoire Orlyk, Ukrainian-born French Lieutenant General (d. 1759)


text: November 7 – Abhai Singh of Marwar, Raja of Marwar (Jodhpur) Kingdom (r (d. 1749)


date: November 9

text: November 9 – Jacques-Georges Chauffepié, French biographer, Calvinist minister and preacher (d. 1786)


date: December 17

text: December 17 – Robert Knight, 1st Earl of Catherlough, Member of the British Parliament (d. 1772)


date: March 3

text: March 3 (February 20 O.S.) – King William III of England is fatally injured in an accident when he is thrown from his horse, "Sorrel", when it trips on a molehill in Hampton Court Park near London. Already in poor health before the accident, he dies from complications 16 days later at the age of 51.


text: March 4 – Ignatius Gregory Peter VI Shahbaddin, Patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church from 1678 to 1702 (b. c. 1641)


text: April 20 – Anna Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury, English countess (b. 1642)


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Zeb-un-Nissa, Mughal princess and poet, imprisoned by her father for the last 20 years of her life (b. 1638)


date: June 2

text: June 2 – John Moore, Member of Parliament for the City of London (b. 1620)


date: June 20

text: June 20 – John Leyburn, English Roman Catholic bishop, Vicar Apostolic of England (b. 1615)


date: August 1

text: August 1 – Sir William Courtenay, 1st Baronet, English politician (b. 1628)


date: August 14

text: August 14 – Louis Thomas, Count of Soissons and Prince of Savoy (b. 1657)


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland, English statesman (b. 1641)


date: October 15

text: October 15 – Frances Stewart, Duchess of Richmond, famous for refusing to become a mistress of Charles II of England (b. 1647)


date: October 17

text: October 17 – Walrad, Prince of Nassau-Usingen, German prince and founder of the line of Nassau-Usingen (b. 1636)


date: October 22

text: October 22 – Guy Aldonce de Durfort de Lorges, French noble and soldier (b. 1630)


date: November 4

text: November 4 – John Benbow, English officer in the Royal Navy (b. 1653)


date: December 8

text: December 8 – Philippe, Chevalier de Lorraine, French nobleman and member of the House of Guise (b. 1643)


text: May 26 – Portugal joins the Grand Alliance.


date: May 27

text: 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.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Rákóczi's War of Independence: Hungarians rebel under Prince Francis II Rákóczi.


date: September 7

text: September 7 – War of the Spanish Succession: The town of Breisach is retaken for France by Camille d'Hostun, duc de Tallard.


date: November 30

text: November 30 – Isaac Newton is elected president of the Royal Society of London, a position he will hold until his death in 1727.


date: December 27

text: December 27 – Portugal and England sign the Methuen Treaty, which gives preference to Portuguese wines imported into England.


date: December 28

text: December 28 – Ahmed III succeeds the deposed Mustafa II as Ottoman Emperor.


date: January 30

text: 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.


date: February 20

text: 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.


date: March 1

text: 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.


date: March 19

text: 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.


date: June 19

text: 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.


date: June 30

text: 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.


date: July 26

text: 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.


date: August 23

text: August 23 – Edirne event: Sultan Mustafa II of the Ottoman Empire is dethroned.


date: September 12

text: September 12 – War of the Spanish Succession: Habsburg Archduke Charles is proclaimed King of Spain, but never exercises full rule.


date: October 11

text: 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.


date: October 30

text: 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.


date: November 15

text: 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.


text: 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).


date: April 21

text: April 21 – The Company of Quenching of Fire (i.e., a fire brigade) is founded in Edinburgh, Scotland.


date: March 15

text: 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.


text: 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).


date: March 21

text: March 21 – Jeanne Guyon is freed from the Bastille in Paris after more than seven years imprisonment for heresy.


date: July 29

text: 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).


date: October 23

text: 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.


text: French-born imposter George Psalmanazar arrives in London.


date: January 9

text: 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.


date: January 14

text: 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.


date: January 16

text: 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).


date: February 2

text: 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.


date: December 7

text: 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.


date: February

text: February – Soldiers at Fort Louis de la Mobile celebrate Mardi Gras in Mobile, starting the tradition for Mobile, Alabama.


date: March 20

text: 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.


date: June

text: June – The completed 1703 Icelandic census is presented in the Althing, the first complete census of any country.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Heinrich Sigismund von der Heyde, Prussian army commander (d. 1765)


date: January 2

text: January 2 – George Cholmondeley, 3rd Earl of Cholmondeley, English politician (d. 1770)


date: January 15

text: January 15 – Henriette Louise de Bourbon, French princess by birth, member of the House of Bourbon (d. 1772)


date: January 22

text: January 22 – Antoine Walsh, Irish-French slave trader and Jacobite (d. 1763)


date: February 13

text: February 13 – Robert Dodsley, English bookseller, poet, playwright and miscellaneous writer (d. 1764)


date: May 14

text: May 14 – David Brearly, delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention (d. 1785)


date: June 10

text: June 10 – Walter Butler, 16th Earl of Ormonde, Irish landowner (d. 1783)


date: August 4

text: August 4 – Louis, Duke of Orléans, member of the royal family of France (d. 1752)


date: September 29

text: September 29 – François Boucher, French painter (d. 1770)


date: October 5

text: October 5 – Jonathan Edwards, North American revivalist preacher (d. 1758)


date: October 30

text: October 30 – James Hill, Scottish surgeon, advocate of curative excision for cancer (d. 1776)


date: November 27

text: November 27 – James De Lancey, colonial governor of the province of New York (d. 1760)


date: December 2

text: December 2 – Ferdinand Konščak, Croatian Jesuit missionary, explorer and cartographer (d. 1759)


text: Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Saudi Sunni scholar, theologian, preacher, activist, and religious leader (d. 1792)

source_section: Births › Date unknown


date: January 16

text: January 16 – Erik Dahlbergh, Swedish count, army officer, architect and official (b. 1625)

source_section: Deaths › January


date: February 5

text: February 5 – Phetracha, king of Ayutthaya (b. 1632)

source_section: Deaths › February


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Godert de Ginkel, 1st Earl of Athlone, Dutch general in the service of England (b. 1644)


date: February 18

text: February 18 – Ilona Zrínyi, Princess Consort of Transylvania, Croatian noblewoman (b. 1643)


date: March 5

text: March 5 – Gabrielle Suchon, French philosopher (b. 1632)

source_section: Deaths › March


date: March 9

text: March 9 – Alexander Chalmers Polish-Scottish merchant, jurist, and politician, mayor of Old Warsaw (b. 1645)


date: March 12

text: March 12 – Aubrey de Vere, 20th Earl of Oxford, Royalist during the English Civil War (b. 1627)


date: May 16

text: May 16 – Charles Perrault, French author (b. 1628)

source_section: Deaths › May


date: May 28

text: May 28 – Benjamin Fletcher, Governor of the province of New York (b. 1640)


date: September 9

text: September 9 – Charles de Saint-Évremond, French soldier, hedonist, essayist and literary critic (b. 1613)

source_section: Deaths › September


date: September 22

text: September 22 – Vincenzo Viviani, Italian mathematician and scientist (b. 1622)


date: November 8

text: November 8 – John Wallis, English mathematician (b. 1616)

source_section: Deaths › November


date: November 19

text: November 19 – The so-called Man in the Iron Mask dies in the Bastille. He is buried under the name of "Marchioly".


text: November 19 – Man in the Iron Mask, prisoner, among the most famous in French history (b. 1640)


date: October 24

text: October 24 – A peace treaty is signed between Prince Ferenc Rákóczi of Transylvania, and representatives of the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I at Schemnitz (now Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia)


text: The lower three counties of the Province of Pennsylvania become the colony of Delaware.


date: January 25

text: January 25–26 – Apalachee massacre: English colonists from the Province of Carolina, and their native allies, stage a series of brutal raids against a largely pacific population of Apalachee, in Spanish Florida.

source_section: Events › January–March


date: March 7

text: March 7 – War of the Spanish Succession: Prince Karl of Habsburg, brother of Joseph I, the Holy Roman Emperor and a pretender to the throne of Spain, arrives in Portugal on the English warship HMS Royal Katherine as part of George Rooke's English fleet sailing into Lisbon.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Battle of Biskupice: The Hungarians (Kurucs) win a costly victory over the Danes.

source_section: Events › April–June


text: May 28 – Battle of Smolenice: Kuruc rebels defeat the Austrian army and its allies.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Battle of Koroncó: Austrians and their allies from Denmark, Prussia, Croatia, Germany and Vojvodina defeat the Kurucs.


date: July 12

text: July 12 – Great Northern War – King Charles XII of Sweden forces the election of his ally Stanisław Leszczyński as King of Poland, in place of Augustus II the Strong.

source_section: Events › July–September


date: August 3

text: August 3 (July 23 Old Style) – War of the Spanish Succession – Gibraltar is captured from Spain, by English and Dutch forces under Sir George Rooke.


date: August 7

text: August 7 – Battle of Orford Ness.


date: August 13

text: August 13 (August 2 OS) – War of the Spanish Succession – Battle of Blenheim: Allied troops under John Churchill, Earl of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy defeat the Franco-Bavarian army.


date: August 24

text: August 24 (August 13 OS) – War of the Spanish Succession – The French and Anglo-Dutch fleets clash off Málaga, causing heavy casualties on both sides, but without sinking any ships.


date: September 8

text: September 8 – War of the Spanish Succession – The Twelfth Siege of Gibraltar by French and Spanish troops begins.


date: September 12

text: September 12 – War of the Spanish Succession: The siege of the French-held German town of Landau, by Holy Roman Empire troops under the command of Ludwig Wilhelm von Baden-Baden begins and lasts for more than ten weeks before the French surrender on November 23. During the siege, the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I visits the area in a newly-developed vehicle, a convertible horse-drawn carriage that has a removable roof. The style of vehicle itself is later called a "landau".


date: October 28

text: October 28 – Great Northern War: The Battle of Poniec takes place as King Charles XII leads Swedish troops in pursuit of the Saxon Army commanded by General Johann von der Schulenburg. The Swedes are forced to retreat despite surrounding the Saxons, and Schulenburg's troops escape.

source_section: Events › October–December


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Twelfth Siege of Gibraltar: A Spanish Bourbon special forces battalion, guided by Simon Susarte, scales the steepest side of the Rock of Gibraltar in an attempt to surprise the British defenders, and kills the English sentries who have been manning the lookout. The attack is foiled the next day when a drummer boy, who was bringing food to the sentries, spots the invaders and raises the alarm.


date: December 6

text: December 6 – Battle of Chamkaur: During the Mughal-Sikh Wars, an outnumbered Sikh Khalsa defeats a Mughal army.


text: The Sultanate of Brunei cedes its north-east territories to the Sultanate of Sulu.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


text: Thomas Darley purchases the bay Arabian horse Darley Arabian in Aleppo, Syria, and ships him to stud in England, where he becomes the most important foundation sire of all modern thoroughbred racing bloodstock.


text: Great Northern War: Russian troops under Tsar Peter the Great capture Tartu and Narva.


date: February 29

text: February 29 – Raid on Deerfield (Queen Anne's War): French Canadians and Native Americans sack Deerfield, Massachusetts, killing over 50 English colonists.


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Damat Hasan Pasha, Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, is removed from office by Ottoman Sultan Ahmed III, and replaced by Kalaylikoz Ahmed Pasha.


date: November 26

text: November 26 – The inauguration of the newly built Kastelskirken takes place in Copenhagen, Denmark.


text: Chinese Rites controversy: Rome decrees that Roman ceremonial practice in Latin (not in Chinese) is to be the law for Chinese missions.


text: Nerchinsky Zavod is founded in the Nerchinsko-Zavodsky District of Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia by Greek mining engineers.


date: January 7

text: January 7 – A partial solar eclipse, Solar Saros 146, is visible in Antarctica.


date: May 19

text: May 19–23 – Vigorous Strombolian activity from Mount Vesuvius, Italy is recorded.


date: June 2

text: June 2 – Annular solar eclipse is visible from a region of the Southern Ocean between South Africa and Antarctica.


date: June 17

text: June 17 – Total lunar eclipse takes place, Saros series 125.


date: November 27

text: November 27 – Annular solar eclipse is visible through Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, eastern China, Myanmar and northern Philippines.


date: December 25

text: December 25 – The fall of the meteorite of Barcelona is seen and heard over distances up to hundreds of kilometres and is interpreted as a divine sign.


text: Giancomo Miraldi observes Martian polar ice caps as "white spots" at the Martian poles.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – War of the Spanish Succession: The English Navy ships HMS Kent, HMS Bedford and HMS Antelope intercept two newly-built Spanish warships, Porta Coeli and Santa Teresa off of the coast of Cape Spartel, as the Spaniards attempt to sail into the Strait of Gibraltar. The two Spanish ships are captured after a seven-hour battle and taken toward Lisbon, but the Santa Teresa sinks along the way.


date: July

text: July – Daniel Defoe documents the Great Storm of 1703 in England, with eyewitness testimonies, in The Storm.


text: An earthquake strikes Gondar, Ethiopia.


text: Tenerife's earliest recorded volcanic eruption takes place from three fissure emission centres: Siete Fuentes, Fasnia and Arafo.


date: February 28

text: February 28 – Establishment of the first school open to African-Americans in New York City by Frenchman Elias Neau.


date: February

text: February – In America, Mardi Gras is celebrated with the Masque de la Mobile in the capital of Louisiana (New France), Mobile, Alabama.


date: April 24

text: April 24 – The first regular newspaper in the Thirteen Colonies of British North America, The Boston News-Letter, is published.


text: The Students' Monument is built in Aiud, Romania.


text: Isaac Newton publishes his Opticks. He also predicts that the world will end in 2060.


text: A Tale of a Tub, the first major satire by Jonathan Swift (written 1694–1697), is published in London, running through three editions this year.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Soame Jenyns, English writer and Member of Parliament (d. 1787)

source_section: Births › January–March


text: February 28 – Hans Hermann von Katte, Lieutenant of the Prussian Army (d. 1730)


date: March 21

text: March 21 – Alexander Ferdinand, 3rd Prince of Thurn and Taxis (d. 1773)


date: April 1

text: April 1 – Amalie von Wallmoden, Countess of Yarmouth, principal mistress of King George II from the mid-1730s (d. 1765)

source_section: Births › April–June


text: June 17 – John Kay, inventor of the flying shuttle (d. 1780)


date: June 24

text: June 24 – Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens, French writer (d. 1771)


date: July 15

text: July 15 – August Gottlieb Spangenberg, German theologian and minister (d. 1792)

source_section: Births › July–September


date: August 26

text: August 26 – Marie-Anne Barbel, French-Canadian Businesswomen who lived in New France (d. 1793)


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Maurice Quentin de La Tour, French Rococo portraitist, working primarily with pastels (d. 1788)


date: September 7

text: September 7 – John Hope, 2nd Earl of Hopetoun, son of Charles Hope (d. 1781)


date: September 12

text: September 12 – Stephen Fox-Strangways, 1st Earl of Ilchester (d. 1776)


date: October 29

text: October 29 – John Byng, British admiral (d. 1757)

source_section: Births › October–December


date: November 6

text: November 6 – Willem Bentinck van Rhoon, Dutch nobleman and politician (d. 1774)


date: December 14

text: December 14 – Jacob von Eggers, Military engineer (d. 1773)


date: February 21

text: February 21 – John Charles, Count Palatine of Gelnhausen, German prince, ancestor of the cadet branch of the royal family of Bavaria (b. 1638)

source_section: Deaths › January–March


date: February 24

text: February 24 – Marc-Antoine Charpentier, French composer (b. 1643)


date: April 8

text: April 8 – Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney, English politician and army officer (b. 1641)

source_section: Deaths › April–June


date: April 10

text: April 10 – Wilhelm Egon von Fürstenberg, Bishop of Strassburg (b. 1629)


date: April 12

text: April 12 – Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, French bishop and theologian (b. 1627)


date: April 17

text: April 17 – Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve, leading Norwegian general during the Scanian War (b. 1638)


date: May 3

text: May 3 – Estephan El Douaihy, Lebanese Maronite Patriarch, historian (b. 1630)


text: May 3 – Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Austrian composer (b. 1644)


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Anna Eriksdotter becomes the last person to be executed for Witchcraft in Sweden. (b. 1624)


date: July 18

text: July 18 – Benjamin Keach, English Particular Baptist preacher (b. 1640)

source_section: Deaths › July–September


date: July 20

text: July 20 – Peregrine White, first English child born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (b. 1620)


date: November 16

text: November 16 – Chikka Devaraja, fourteenth maharaja of the Kingdom of Mysore from 1673 to 1704 (b. 1645)

source_section: Deaths › October–December


date: December 5

text: December 5 – Louis Hennepin, Roman Catholic priest, missionary of the Franciscan Recollet Order (French (b. 1626)


date: December 11

text: December 11 – Roger L'Estrange, English pamphleteer, author (b. 1616)


date: March 14

text: March 14 – Queen Anne gives royal assent to the Parliament of England's Alien Act 1705, setting a deadline of December 25, 1705, for Scotland's parliament to authorize negotiations for a Treaty of Union with England to create the Kingdom of Great Britain and threatening that unless Scotland agrees to negotiate terms for union and accepts the Hanoverian succession by December 25, there would be a ban on the import of all Scottish staple products into England and Scots would also lose the privileges of Englishmen under English law – thus endangering rights to any property they held in England.


date: April 5

text: April 5 – Anne, Queen of England dissolves the English House of Commons that had been elected in 1702, and orders new elections.


date: May 7

text: May 7 – 1705 English general election: Voting begins for 110 constituencies of the 513-member House of Commons of England (including Wales)


date: June 6

text: June 6 – Voting ends in the English general election, with the Tories retaining their majority in the House of Commons but losing 38 seats, while the Whigs gain 49 seats. The balance in the 513 seats is 260 for the Tories, 233 for the Whigs, 20 for other candidates.


date: June 20

text: June 20 – The Pact of Genoa is signed by representatives of England and the Spanish Principality of Catalonia as a military alliance providing for English troops to be stationed in Catalonia as part of the War of Spanish Succession.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – José de Grimaldo, the Marquis of Grimaldo, becomes the head of government of Spain after being appointed by King Philip V as the Secretary of the Universal Bureau.


date: July 14

text: July 14 – The newly-elected 2nd Parliament of Queen Anne in England, last to serve before the union with Scotland that produces Great Britain, is opened by the Queen.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – First Javanese War of Succession: On the island of Java in the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia), Pakubuwono I becomes the new Sultan of Martaram, capturing Kartosuro and deposing Sultan Amangkurat III.


date: September 20

text: September 20 – Francis II Rákóczi is proclaimed as the ruler of Hungary by independence activists in Szécsény who are opposed to the rule of the Habsburg successor to Leopold I, the Holy Roman emperor Joseph I.


date: November 28

text: November 28 – The Treaty of Warsaw is concluded between the Swedish Empire and the faction of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth loyal to Stanisław Leszczyński during the Great Northern War.


date: November

text: November – In Williamsburg, capital of the Colony of Virginia in America, construction of the Capitol Building is completed.


date: December 21

text: December 21 – The Sophia Naturalization Act is passed by the Parliament of England, which naturalizes Sophia of Hanover (next in succession to the British throne) and the Protestant "issue of her body" as British subjects.


date: February 7

text: February 7 – Twelfth siege of Gibraltar: Marshal René de Froulay de Tessé of the French Army supplements the Spanish forces of the Marquis of Villadarias and seizes control of a strategic fortress, the Round Tower, but the forces retreat after a counterattack kills 200 of their number in the retaking of the Tower.


date: February 26

text: February 26 – Twelfth siege of Gibraltar: A French Navy fleet of 18 warships, commanded by Admiral Desjean, the Baron de Pointis arrives in the Bay of Gibraltar to aid the French and Spanish attempt to retake Gibraltar from England.


date: March 31

text: March 31 (March 20 O.S.) – The Twelfth siege of Gibraltar ends as a fleet of warships from the navies of England, Portugal and the Netherlands, commanded by English Admiral John Leake, arrives at the Bay of Gibraltar with 35 warships and English and Portuguese troops. In the battle that follows, five of the French Navy's ships are sunk and Admiral Desjean is seriously wounded, forcing the French and Spanish to retreat.


date: July 18

text: July 18 – War of the Spanish Succession: The Battle of Elixheim is fought near the city of Tienen (in modern-day Belgium). A troop of soldiers under the command of England's Duke of Marlborough kills 3,000 French troops under the command of the Duc de Valleroy and forces the retreat of the others, breaking the "Lines of Brabant". Because his soldiers have marched all night and then fought the battle over a full day, Marlborough is unable to send them in pursuit of Villeroy's troops.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – Great Northern War: At the Battle of Gemauerthof, fought in modern-day Latvia, Swedish forces under the command of General Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt overwhelm a much larger force of Russian troops commanded by Count Boris Sheremetev, killing 2,000 Russians and wounding as many as 3,000.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – The Battle of Warsaw is fought near Warsaw, Poland, in the Great Northern War.


date: August 31

text: August 31–September 5 – War of the Spanish Succession: The Siege of Zoutleeuw is carried out by the alliance of Dutch, English, Scottish and Holy Roman Empire troops against the French-held fortress of Zoutleeuw (in modern-day Belgium).


date: November 15

text: November 15 – Battle of Zsibó: The Austrian-Danish forces defeat the Kurucs (Hungarians).


date: December 13

text: December 13 – In the Battle of Saint Gotthard, the Hungarian army is victorious.


date: December 25

text: December 25 – In Munich, capital of Bavaria, 1,100 militiamen from the Oberland are killed during the Sendlinger Mordweihnacht after a failed attempt to break through several gates and capture a depot to seize better weaponry; many men are slaughtered by German federal infantry and Hungarian Hussars, despite their capitulation to Austrian officers.


date: January 31

text: January 31 – The Hester, a British 28-gun sailing ship with a crew of 70, is lost in Persia.


text: With the interest paid from daimyō loans, the Konoike buy a tract of ponds and swampland, turn the land into rice paddies, and settle 480 households numbering perhaps 2,880 peasants on the land.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – Joseph I succeeds his father Leopold I as Holy Roman Emperor.


date: July 15

text: July 15 – Al-Husayn I ibn Ali becomes the first Bey of Tunis, founding the Husainid dynasty that rules Tunisia until the abolition of the monarchy in 1957.


date: October 4

text: October 4 (N.S.) – Stanisław Leszczyński is crowned Stanisław I of Poland.


text: Construction begins on Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire designed by John Vanbrugh for the Duke of Marlborough and partly funded by the Crown. It is completed in 1724.


text: Taichung City, Taiwan is founded as the village of Dadun.


date: July 20

text: July 20 – The planet Mercury transits Jupiter, as seen by astronomers from Earth. The event happens again on October 4, 1708, but will not be seen again from Earth until October 27, 2088


date: November 16

text: November 16 – An annular solar eclipse is visible in the southern Atlantic Ocean.


text: Edmond Halley publicly predicts the periodicity of Halley's Comet and computes its expected path of return in 1758.


date: December 26

text: December 26 – Fateh Singh and Zorawar Singh, sons of Guru Gobind Singh, are murdered by Wazir Khan for refusing to convert to Islam, and become hallowed martyrs in Sikhism.


text: The Shogunate confiscates the property of a merchant in Osaka "for conduct unbecoming a member of the commercial class". The government seizes 50 pairs of gold screens, 360 carpets, several mansions, 48 granaries and warehouses scattered around the country, and hundreds of thousands of gold pieces.


text: c. October 3 – 31 people are killed in a colliery explosion at the Stony Flatt pit in Gateshead on Tyneside in England.


date: August 16

text: August 16–18 – In an Atlantic tropical cyclone across Cuba and Florida, four ships are lost and there are many casualties.


date: November 24

text: November 24 – An earthquake is recorded in Syria, northeast of Damascus.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – George Frideric Handel's first opera, Almira, is premiered in Hamburg.


date: February 25

text: February 25 – George Frideric Handel's opera Nero premieres in Hamburg.


date: March 8

text: March 8 – The Province of Carolina incorporates the town of Bath, making it the first incorporated town in modern-day North Carolina. The town becomes the political center and de facto capital of the northern portion of the Province of Carolina until Edenton is incorporated in 1722.


date: April 9

text: April 9 – The Queen's Theatre is opened in London by John Vanbrugh and William Congreve, serving as an opera house, premiering with Gli amori di ergasto ("The Loves of Ergasto"), an Italian language opera by German composer Jakob "Giacomo" Greber. A theatre remains in operation on this site for more than 300 years, becoming Her Majesty's Theatre.


date: April 16

text: April 16 – Queen Anne of England honours Isaac Newton with the title of Knight Bachelor at Trinity College, Cambridge.


date: September 24

text: September 24 (O.S.) – Stanisław Leszczyński is crowned as King of Poland.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – The Dublin Gazette in Ireland publishes its first edition.


date: November 23

text: November 23 – The premiere of the play Ulysses by Nicholas Rowe takes place in London, starring Thomas Betterton.


date: December 29

text: December 29 – The premiere of the play Idoménée by Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon takes place in Paris.


text: January 8 – Jacques-François Blondel, French architect and teacher (d. 1774)


date: January 24

text: January 24 – Farinelli, Italian castrato (d. 1782)


date: February 3

text: February 3 – John Robinson, politician, landowner in the British colony of Virginia (d. 1766)


date: February 13

text: February 13 – Franciszka Urszula Radziwiłłowa, Polish writer and playwright (d. 1753)


date: February 21

text: February 21 – Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, British Royal Navy admiral (d. 1781)


date: March 2

text: March 2 – William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, Scottish judge and politician (d. 1793)


date: March 9

text: March 9 – Tommaso Temanza, Italian architect and author of the Neoclassic period (d. 1789)


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Jean-Pierre Aulneau, Jesuit missionary priest, briefly active in New France (d. 1736)


date: May 5

text: May 5 – John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun, Scottish nobleman and army officer (d. 1782)


date: August 15

text: August 15 – Joseph Wanton, merchant, governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (d. 1780)


date: September 21

text: September 21 (bapt.) – Dick Turpin, English thief and highwayman (hanged 1739)


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, English statesman (d. 1774)


date: October 23

text: October 23 – Maximilian Ulysses Browne, Austrian military officer (d. 1757)


date: November 30

text: November 30 – Jonathan Parsons, Christian New England clergyman during the late colonial period, supporter of the American Revolution (d. 1776)


date: January 12

text: January 12 – Luca Giordano, Italian artist (b. 1634)


date: January 17

text: January 17 – John Ray, English naturalist (b. 1627)


date: January 21

text: January 21 – Claude-François Ménestrier, French heraldist, Jesuit, courtier (b. 1631)


date: February 1

text: February 1 – Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, first Queen consort in Prussia as wife of King Frederick I (b. 1668)


date: February 5

text: February 5 – Philipp Spener, German Christian theologian known as the Father of Pietism (b. 1635)


date: August 13

text: August 13 – Françoise-Marguerite de Sévigné, French aristocrat (b. 1646)


date: August 16

text: August 16 – Jacob Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (b. 1654)


date: September 13

text: September 13 – Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt, Field Marshal in the Austrian army (b. 1669)


date: October 9

text: October 9 – Johann Christoph Wagenseil, German Christian Hebraist (b. 1633)


date: October 11

text: October 11 – Guillaume Amontons, French physicist and instrument maker (b. 1663)


date: November 10

text: November 10 – Justine Siegemund, German midwife (b. 1636)


date: December 12

text: December 12 – John Easton, political leader in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (b. 1624)


date: December 26

text: December 26 – Fateh Singh, fourth and youngest son of Guru Gobind Singh (b. 1697)


date: December 31

text: December 31 – Catherine of Braganza, widowed queen consort of Charles II of England and regent of Portugal (b. 1638)


date: March 27

text: March 27 – Concluding that Emperor Iyasus I of Ethiopia has abdicated by retiring to a monastery, a council of high officials appoint Tekle Haymanot I Emperor of Ethiopia.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – The last Courts (parliament) of the Principality of Catalonia are finished; their dissolution is presided over by King Philip V of Spain.


date: July 22

text: July 22 – The Treaty of Union between Scotland and England is agreed upon in London, for ratification by the national legislatures.


date: October 13

text: October 13 – Augustus II, known as August der Starke (Augustus the Strong), Elector of Saxony, having ruled as King of Poland since 1706, signs the Treaty of Altranstädt (1706), renouncing all claims to the throne to settle his fight with Sweden during the Great Northern War.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – The Parliament of Scotland votes, 116 to 83, to approve the merger of Scotland with England to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.


text: December 31 – François Martin, the first Governor General of French India (now part of India's union territory of Puducherry), retires after seven years and is replaced by Pierre Dulivier.


date: January 26

text: January 26 – War of Spanish Succession: The uprising by Bavarians against the occupation of the Electorate of Bavaria by Austrian troops ends after 75 days, and ends the plans of Maximilian II Emanuel, the Elector of Bavaria, to bring Bavaria under the rule of the House of Wittelsbach.


text: January 26 – Great Northern War – Battle of Grodno: A coalition of 34,000 Swedish and Polish troops besieges the then-Lithuanian city in the winter time, and clashes with 41,000 Russian and Saxon troops. After almost three months of fighting that lasts to April 10, Sweden takes control of the city, which is now located in Belarus.


date: February 13

text: February 13 – Great Northern War – Battle of Fraustadt: Outnumbered more than 4 to 1 in infantry troops, and more than 2 to 1 overall, Swedish troops under the command of General Carl Gustaf Rehnskiöld defeat a larger force of 20,000 Russian and Saxon infantry and cavalry.


date: April 10

text: April 10 – The Battle of Grodno ends with a Swedish victory over Russian troops.


date: April 27

text: April 27 – War of the Spanish Succession: After a siege of 14 days, a French and Spanish army fails to take control of Barcelona, which had been captured by Habsburg armies in 1705.


date: May 23

text: May 23 – War of the Spanish Succession – Battle of Ramillies: English, Dutch, German, Swiss and Scottish troops led by John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, defeat Franco-Bavarian forces in the Low Countries.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – War of the Spanish Succession: Troops dispatched from Portugal capture Madrid and proclaim the Habsburg dynasty's Archduke Charles of Austria to be the King Carlos III of Spain, after the Bourbon ruler, Philip V, has fled.


date: August 4

text: August 4 – War of the Spanish Succession: The Spanish Bourbon armies of King Philip V retake Madrid from the Portuguese and Habsburg Austria troops that had entered the city in June.


date: September 7

text: September 7 – War of the Spanish Succession – Battle of Turin: Forces of Austria and Savoy defeat the French near what is now the Italian city of Torino.


text: October 13 – Iyasu I, Emperor of Ethiopia since 1682, is assassinated on the island of Tana, on orders of his son, Tekle Haymanot I, who has ruled in Iyasu's place. After being crowned as the new Emperor, Tekle Haymanot is stabbed to death in 1708 on orders of Iyasu's brother, Tewoflos.


date: November 6

text: November 6 – A British attempt to conquer the Canary Islands fails when a fleet of 12 Royal Navy warships, commanded by Admiral John Jennings is forced to retreat after being met by a heavy artillery attack while sailing into Santa Cruz Bay


date: December 14

text: December 14 – Spanish General Alexandre Maître, Marquis de Bay leads the successful capture of Alcántara from Portugal


date: February 6

text: February 6 – The city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, is incorporated by governor Don Francisco Cuervo y Valdes as La Villa de Alburquerque in the Spanish colonial province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México in New Spain. Governor Cuervo sends a report on April 23 to the Spanish Crown and to New Spain's Governor, Francisco Fernández de la Cueva, 10th Duke of Alburquerque announcing that the new villa, consisting of 35 families and having a population of 252 adults, has been named in honor of the Duke.


date: May 12

text: May 12 – A total eclipse of the Sun takes place and is visible in most of Europe, with a path crossing modern-day Spain, France, Germany, Poland and Russia


date: June 9

text: June 9 – Frederick IV of Denmark-Norway sends the first two Protestant missionaries to India, dispatching Lutherans Heinrich Plütcshau and Bartholomeus Ziegenbalg to Denmark-Norway's colony in India, the Dansk Ostindien, based at Tharangambadi ("Tranquebar") in what is now the Tamil Nadu state.


date: June 29

text: June 29 – Flemish Jesuit missionary François Noël is welcomed in China by the Kangxi Emperor at the Forbidden City in Beijing, and discusses the Emperor's disdain over the disapproval of Jesuit accommodation of Confucian rites by the Roman Catholic Church.


date: October

text: October – Twinings founder, Thomas Twining, opens the first known tea room at 216 Strand, London, still open .


date: August 18

text: August 18 – King Louis XIV of France makes his last visit to Paris, and gets an update on the construction of the veterans' hospital at the Dome des Invalides, which he had commissioned more than 35 years earlier.


date: March 21

text: March 21 – Mary Channing, who was pregnant at the time that she was convicted of the murder of her husband, is burned at the stake at Dorset, in front of a crowd of 10,000 onlookers.


date: June 11

text: June 11 – In Tibet, Lha-bzang Khan, khan of the Khoshut, kills the regent and kidnaps the 6th Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, and kills the Lama's regent.


date: November 15

text: November 15 – Five months after having been deposed from his position as the Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso disappears while in exile in Qinghai and is presumed to have been murdered.


date: November 28

text: November 28 – The royal wedding of Prussia takes place in Berlin between the 18-year-old Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm and his bride Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, the 19-year-old daughter of the future King George I of Great Britain.


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Johann Heinrich Zedler, German publisher (d. 1751)


date: March 4

text: March 4 – Lauritz de Thurah, Danish architect and architectural writer (d. 1759)


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Andrew Oliver, merchant and public official in the province of Massachusetts Bay (d. 1774)


date: April 18

text: April 18 – William Brattle, Attorney General of province of Massachusetts Bay as well as a physician (d. 1776)


date: May 20

text: May 20 – Seth Pomeroy, American gunsmith and soldier from Northampton (d. 1777)


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Johann Joachim Kändler, German sculptor and important modeller of the Meissen porcelain manufactury (d. 1775)


date: July 3

text: July 3 – Robert Lee, 4th Earl of Lichfield, English politician and peer (d. 1776)


date: August 4

text: August 4 – Frederick Charles, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön (d. 1761)


date: August 11

text: August 11 – Princess Marie Auguste of Thurn and Taxis, Regent of Württemberg (d. 1756)


date: August 16

text: August 16 – Bakht Singh of Marwar, Indian Raja of the Rathore Clan (d. 1752)


date: September 21

text: September 21 – Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg, second wife of Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia (d. 1735)


date: October 18

text: October 18 – Baldassare Galuppi, Venetian composer (d. 1785)


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Frederick William II, Prince of Nassau-Siegen, last Prince of Nassau-Siegen from the Calvinist line (d. 1734)


date: December 17

text: December 17 – Émilie du Châtelet, French mathematician and physicist (d. 1749)


date: January 29

text: January 29 – Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset, English noble and politician (b. 1638)

source_section: Deaths › January


date: February 9

text: February 9 – Petrus van Mastricht, Reformed theologian from Cologne, Germany (b. 1630)

source_section: Deaths › February


date: February 27

text: February 27 – John Evelyn, English writer, gardener and diarist (b. 1620)


date: March 9

text: March 9 – Johann Pachelbel, German composer, organist and teacher (b. 1653)

source_section: Deaths › March


date: April 10

text: April 10 – Arthur Chichester, 3rd Earl of Donegall, English general (b. 1666)

source_section: Deaths › April


date: April 25

text: April 25 – Thomas Hinckley, last colonial governor of Plymouth Colony (b. 1618)


date: May 2

text: May 2 – Georg Joseph Kamel, Czech pharmacist, botanist and missionary (b. 1661)

source_section: Deaths › May


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Marcantonio Barbarigo, Italian Roman Catholic cardinal and venerable (b. 1640)


date: July 2

text: July 2 – Kimpa Vita, Kongo Empire guérisseuse and Congolese prophet (b. 1684)

source_section: Deaths › July


date: August 6

text: August 6 – Jean-Baptiste du Hamel, French cleric and natural philosopher (b. 1624)

source_section: Deaths › August


date: October 13

text: October 13 – Iyasu I, emperor of Ethiopia (b. 1654)

source_section: Deaths › October


date: October 27

text: October 27 – Arsenije III Crnojević, Serbian archbishop (b. 1633)


date: November 9

text: November 9 – Peter Mews, English Royalist theologian and bishop (b. 1619)

source_section: Deaths › November


date: November 16

text: November 16 – Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest, Dutch admiral (b. 1642)


date: January 16

text: January 16 – The Treaty (or Act) of Union, of the two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, is ratified by the Parliament of Scotland by a vote of 110 to 68.

source_section: Events › January–March


date: February 15

text: February 15 – As part of the process of the unification of Scotland and England as Great Britain, Scotland selects 16 members to sit in the House of Lords at the Palace of Westminster.


date: March 19

text: March 19 – The Act of Union with Scotland is ratified by the Parliament of England; the Parliament of Scotland is adjourned for the last time on May 1, 1707.


date: May 12

text: May 12 (May 1 Old Style) – The new sovereign state of Great Britain comes into being, as a result of the Acts of Union, which combine the Kingdoms of Scotland and England into a single united Kingdom of Great Britain, and merge the Parliaments of England and Scotland, to form the Parliament of Great Britain.

source_section: Events › April–June


date: June 13

text: June 13 – On Francis II Rákóczi's recommendation, and with Count Miklos Bercsényi's support, a meeting of the Hungarian independence activists, held at the village of Ónod declares the deposing of the House of Habsburg (and Joseph I, King of Hungary) from the Hungarian throne.


date: September 14

text: September 14 – Vincenzo Durazzo is elected to a 2-year term as the new Doge of the Republic of Genoa (including the island of Corsica), succeeding the outgoing Doge, Domenico Maria De Mari.

source_section: Events › July– September


date: October 23

text: October 23 – The Parliament of the Kingdom of Great Britain first meets in London.

source_section: Events › October– December


text: The English Parliament establishes the first turnpike trusts, which place a length of road under the control of trustees, drawn from local landowners and traders. The trusts borrow capital for road maintenance against the security of tolls, and this arrangement becomes the common method of road maintenance for the next 150 years.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: February 4

text: February 4 – Great Northern War: Eighteen months after losing the Battle of Warsaw, while leading a cavalry charge for Saxony against the army of Sweden, General Otto von Paykull of Swedish Livonia is beheaded outside of Stockholm, following his conviction for treason.


date: April 25

text: April 25 (April 14 Old Style) – War of the Spanish Succession – Battle of Almansa: The Bourbon army of Spain and France (with Irish mercenaries) under the French-born Englishman James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick, soundly defeats the allied forces of Portugal, England, and the Dutch Republic led by the French-born Huguenot (in English service) Henri de Massue, Earl of Galway. Following this, Philip V of Spain promulgates the first Nueva Planta decrees, bringing the Kingdoms of Valencia and Aragon under the laws of the Crown of Castile.


date: May 8

text: May 8 – The siege of Játiva within the Spanish kingdom of Valencia begins as 9,000 Castilian and French troops, at the direction of King Philip V attack Játiva, defended by troops of the Kingdom of Aragon. Játiva (modern Xàtiva) falls on June 6.


date: June 6

text: June 6 – The soldiers and officers defending the Aragonese city of Játiva are massacred after a larger force of Castilian troops breaks through the walls at the end of a 30-day siege. The rest of the town's residents are deported, and most of the dwellings are burned, with the area being renamed "San Felipe".


date: June 8

text: June 8 – Less than three months after proclaiming himself to be the new Emperor of India, Muhammad Azam Shah and his three sons are killed in a battle by his troops led by his half-brother Muhammad Mu'azzam


date: July 29

text: July 29–August 21 – War of the Spanish Succession – Battle of Toulon: The Allies are obliged to withdraw, but the French fleet is effectively put out of action.


date: August 27

text: August 27 – Charles XII of Sweden launches his campaign to conquer Russia, marching to the east from Altranstädt with 60,000 coalition troops. Another 16,000 soldiers are waiting on the outskirts of Riga, guarding the Swedish supply lines.


date: September 18

text: September 18–October 4 – War of the Spanish Succession: The Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, led by troops under the command of Alexandre Maître, begins and lasts for 16 days. On the final day, General Maitre begins the attack that takes the fortress within 45 minutes.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – War of the Spanish Succession: the conquest by Austrian troops, of the Italian peninsula city state of Gaeta, is accomplished after a three-month siege led by General Wirich Philipp von Daun.


date: November 30

text: November 30 – War of the Spanish Succession: The Siege of Pensacola ends, with the Spanish successfully defending their fort.


date: December 28

text: December 28 – Charles XII of Sweden and his coalition of troops begin crossing the first line of defense of the Russian Empire, the Vistula River, in their attempt to conquer Russia.


text: Battle of Yuraktau, the event that leads to the strengthening of the Bashkir rebellion of 1704–1711.


text: The Lao empire of Lan Xang officially ends, and splits into the kingdoms of Vientiane, Luang Prabang, and Champasak.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – John V is crowned King of Portugal and the Algarves in Lisbon.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – Yeshe Gyatso is installed as the new Dalai Lama by his father, Lha-bzang Khan, who has recently deposed the 6th Dalai Lama. Though the justification is that the 21-year-old Yeshe was the true reincarnation of the 5th Dalai Lama, Yeshe receives no recognition from Buddhists in Tibet or Mongolia and the 7th Dalai Lama is installed in 1710.


text: A fortress is founded on the future site of Ust-Abakanskoye (modern Abakan).


text: Hacienda Juriquilla is built in Querétaro, Mexico.


date: October 22

text: October 22 – Scilly naval disaster: Four British Royal Navy ships run aground in the Isles of Scilly, because of faulty navigation. Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell and at least 1,450 sailors all drown.


date: May 23

text: May 23 – The volcanic eruption in the Santorini caldera begins.


date: October 28

text: October 28 – The Hōei earthquake (the most powerful in Japan until 2011) strikes, with an estimated local magnitude of 8.6 and kills at least 5,000 people.


date: December 16

text: December 16 – The last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji begins in Japan.


date: June 19

text: June 19 – The coronation of Muhammad Mu'azzam as the new Emperor of India, Bahadur Shah I, takes place in Delhi


date: December 24

text: December 24 – The first British Governor of Gibraltar, directly appointed by Queen Anne, Roger Elliott, takes up his residence in the Convent of the Franciscan Friars.


date: February 25

text: February 25 – Carlo Goldoni, Italian playwright (d. 1793)

source_section: Births › January–March


date: March 7

text: March 7 – Stephen Hopkins, governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (d. 1785)


date: March 8

text: March 8 – William Irby, 1st Baron Boston, British peer and Member of Parliament (d. 1775)


date: April 10

text: April 10 – Sir John Pringle, 1st Baronet, Scottish physician (d. 1782)

source_section: Births › April–June


date: July 23

text: July 23 – Edward Bentham, Oxford based theologian who in 1763 (d. 1776)

source_section: Births › July–September


date: August 4

text: August 4 – Johann August Ernesti, German Rationalist theologian and philologist (d. 1781)


date: August 7

text: August 7 – Carl Günther Ludovici, German philosopher, lexicographer and economist (d. 1778)


date: August 24

text: August 24 – Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, English Methodist leader (d. 1791)


date: September 5

text: September 5 – John Forbes, British general (d. 1759)


date: September 7

text: September 7 – Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, French scientist (d. 1788)


date: September 22

text: September 22 – John Rattray, Edinburgh surgeon who served as surgeon to Prince Charles Edward Stuart (d. 1771)


date: November 23

text: November 23 – Anna Karolina Orzelska, adventuress and Polish szlachcianka (noblewoman) (d. 1769)

source_section: Births › October–December


date: December 11

text: December 11 – Paul von Werner, chief of the Prussian Hussar Regiment No. 6 (d. 1785)


date: December 18

text: December 18 – Charles Wesley, English Methodist leader, brother of John Wesley (d. 1788)


date: January 8

text: January 8 – John Dalrymple, 1st Earl of Stair, Scottish politician (b. 1648)

source_section: Deaths


date: January 10

text: January 10 – Philibert, comte de Gramont, French writer (b. 1621)


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Leopold Karl von Kollonitsch, Hungarian Catholic cardinal (b. 1631)


date: January 22

text: January 22 – Richard Towneley, English mathematician and astronomer from Towneley near Burnley (b. 1629)


date: March 30

text: March 30 – Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, French noble and military engineer noted for designing fortifications (b. 1633)


date: April 29

text: April 29 – George Farquhar, Irish dramatist (b. 1677)


date: May 9

text: May 9 – Dieterich Buxtehude, German composer (b. c. 1637)


date: May 27

text: May 27 – Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Marquise de Montespan, mistress of King Louis XIV of France (b. 1641)


date: June 4

text: June 4 – On the island later known as Sri Lanka, Narendra Sinha becomes the monarch of most of the area as the new Kandyan king, succeeding to the throne upon the death of his father, King Vimaladharmasuriya II. Narendra Sinha reigns for almost 32 years until his death on May 13, 1739.


date: August 18

text: August 18 – William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire, English soldier, statesman (b. 1640)


date: September 21

text: September 21 – Wilhelmus Beekman, Dutch politician (b. 1623)


date: October 22

text: October 22 – Sir Cloudesley Shovell, British admiral, drowned (b. 1650)


date: December 1

text: December 1 – Jeremiah Clarke, English composer and organist, suicide (b. 1674)


date: December 27

text: December 27 – Robert Leke, 3rd Earl of Scarsdale, English earl, politician (b. 1654)


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Tewoflos becomes Emperor of Ethiopia.

source_section: Events › July–December


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Charles XII of Sweden invades Russia, by crossing the frozen Vistula River with 40,000 men.

source_section: Events › January–June


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Bashkir rebels besiege Yelabuga.


date: January 12

text: January 12 – Shahu I becomes the fifth Chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire in the Indian subcontinent.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – Anne, Queen of Great Britain, withholds Royal Assent from the Scottish Militia Bill, the last time a British monarch vetoes legislation.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Oudenarde – Allied forces under the command of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, defeat the French in the Spanish Netherlands.


date: August 3

text: August 3 – In the Battle of Trenčín, 8,000 soldiers of the Imperial Army of the Habsburgs are victorious over the 15,000 Hungarian Kuruc forces of Francis II Rákóczi.


text: August 18 – War of the Spanish Succession: Menorca is captured by British forces.


date: August 29

text: August 29 – A French-Native American attack in Haverhill, Massachusetts kills 16 settlers.


date: September 28

text: September 28 (O.S.); September 29 (Swedish calendar); October 9 (N.S.) – Great Northern War: Battle of Lesnaya – Peter the Great of Russia defeats the forces of the Swedish Empire.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – War of the Spanish Succession: Dutch, British and Austrian forces capture Lille after a two-month siege, although the citadel continues to hold out for another six weeks.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – James Francis Edward Stuart, Jacobite pretender to the throne of Great Britain, unsuccessfully tries to land from a French fleet in the Firth of Forth in Scotland.


date: October 26

text: October 26 – Topping out of new St Paul's Cathedral in London.


text: The Company of Merchants of London Trading (with consent of the Parliament of Great Britain) merges with the East Indies, and the more recently established English Company Trading to the East Indies, to form the United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies, known as the Honourable East India Company.


date: February 26

text: February 26 – HMS Falmouth, a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line built at Woolwich Dockyard for the British Royal Navy, is launched.


text: Calcareous hard-paste porcelain is produced for the first time in Europe, at Dresden, Saxony, by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus, and developed after his death (October) by Johann Friedrich Böttger.


text: Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico delivers his inaugural lecture to the University of Naples, which will be published in 1709 as his first book, De Nostri Temporis Studiorum Ratione (On the Order of the Scholarly Disciplines of Our Times).


date: December 17

text: December 17 – Deborah Churchill, British pickpocket and prostitute, is executed before a large crowd for being an accomplice to murder.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – The Great Hoei fire breaks out in Kyoto, Japan, destroying the Imperial Palace and a large portion of the old capital.


date: June 8

text: June 8 – War of the Spanish Succession: Wager's Action, a naval confrontation, takes place between a British squadron under Charles Wager and the Spanish treasure fleet off Cartagena in the Caribbean Sea. Spanish galleon San José explodes and sinks with the loss of almost all her 600 crew and an estimated 8.8 million ounces troy weight in gold; her wreck is located in 2015.


text: Fearful of a Swedish attack, the Russians blow up the city of Tartu, Estonia.


text: The Russians burn the city of Porvoo, Finland (at the time part of Sweden).


date: April 8

text: April 8 – Easter Sunday: The first performance of George Frideric Handel's oratorio La resurrezione takes place in Rome.


date: April 9

text: April 9 – Ottoman princess Emine Sultan, daughter of Sultan Mustafa II, marries Grand Vizier Çorlulu Ali Pasha.


date: August 23

text: August 23 – Meidingu Pamheiba is crowned King of Manipur.


date: August

text: August – The future Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor weds Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.


date: December 14

text: December 14 – The première of Electre by Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon takes place in Paris.


text: Johann Sebastian Bach is appointed as chamber musician and organist, at the court in Weimar.


date: January 3

text: January 3 – Johannes Van Rensselaer, member of the prominent colonial Van Rensselaer family (d. 1783)


date: January 15

text: January 15 – Giovanni Salvemini, Italian mathematician and astronomer (d. 1791)


date: January 25

text: January 25 – Pompeo Batoni, Italian painter (d. 1787)


date: February 29

text: February 29 – Peter Jefferson, father of US President Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) (d. 1757)


date: March 31

text: March 31 – Jean Chastel, farmer and inn-keeper from the province of Gévaudan in France (d. 1790)


date: April 18

text: April 18 – James Cholmondeley, British Army officer and Member of Parliament between 1731 and 1747 (d. 1775)


date: May 29

text: May 29 – Henry Bilson-Legge, English statesman and three times as Chancellor of the Exchequer (d. 1764)


date: July 8

text: July 8 – Claude-Henri de Fusée de Voisenon, French playwright and writer (d. 1775)


date: September 4

text: September 4 – Jean-Baptiste Nicolas Roch de Ramezay, officer of the marines, colonial administrator for New France (d. 1777)


date: October 9

text: October 9 – Louis César de La Baume Le Blanc, French nobleman, bibliophile and military man (d. 1780)


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Albrecht von Haller, Swiss anatomist and physiologist (d. 1777)


date: December 2

text: December 2 – Theodorick Bland of Cawsons, clerk of the court of Prince George County, Virginia (d. 1784)


date: December 8

text: December 8 – Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, Welsh diplomat, writer and satirist (d. 1759)


date: December 16

text: December 16 – Robert Livingston, third and final Lord of Livingston Manor (d. 1790)


date: April 20

text: April 20 – Damaris Cudworth Masham, English philosopher (b. 1659)


date: May 6

text: May 6 – François de Laval, first bishop of New France (b. 1623)


date: May 11

text: May 11 – Jules Hardouin-Mansart, French Baroque architect (b. 1646)


date: June 5

text: June 5 – Ignatius George II, Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch (b. 1648)


date: June 28

text: June 28 – Melchor Liñán y Cisneros, Spanish Catholic archbishop (b. 1629)


date: July 5

text: July 5 – Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Montferrat, only child of Duke Charles II (b. 1652)


date: September 19

text: September 19 – Francis Newport, 1st Earl of Bradford, English politician (b. 1620)


date: October 7

text: October 7 – Guru Gobind Singh, 10th Guru Sahib of Sikhism, social reformist, poet and revolutionary (b. 1666)


date: October 11

text: October 11 – Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus, German mathematician (b. 1651)


date: October 21

text: October 21 – Christian Weise, German writer, dramatist, poet, pedagogue and librarian (b. 1642)


date: October 28

text: October 28 – Prince George of Denmark, consort of Anne, Queen of Great Britain (b. 1653)


date: November 3

text: November 3 – Countess Henriette Catherine of Nassau, daughter of Frederick Henry (b. 1637)


text: December 16 – Juan Ortega y Montañés, Spanish Catholic bishop, colonial administrator in Guatemala and New Spain (b. 1627)


text: December 16 – Nicolas Pasquin, early pioneer in New France (now Quebec) (b. 1648)


date: April 13

text: April 13 – The Raudot Ordinance of 1709 becomes law in the French colony of New France, legalizing slavery.


text: June 28 – A treaty is signed in Dresden to re-establish an alliance between the Kingdoms of Denmark–Norway and the Electorate of Saxony, on behalf of King Frederik IV of Denmark–Norway and Saxony's King Augustus II.


date: July 27

text: July 27 – Japan's Emperor Higashiyama abdicates after a reign of 23 years that began in 1687, and is succeeded by his son Yoshihito, who is enthroned as the Emperor Nakamikado.


date: December 25

text: December 25 – From London, ten ships leave for the New York Colony carrying over 4,000 people.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Battle of St. John's: The French capture St. John's, the capital of the British colony of Newfoundland.