Events

• Voltaire is sentenced to Bastille for a year because of his satirical writings
• Spain unites its South American colonies as New Grenada
• Montevideo, Uruguay, founded by Portuguese
• A rift between George I of Great Britain and his son the Prince of Wales leads to the latter being thrown out of the royal household

January

• January 4 — The Netherlands, Britain & France sign Triple Alliance

February

• February 1 - Silent Sejm in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Beginning of Russian Empire increasing influence and control over the Commonwealth.
• February 26-March 6 What is now the northeastern United States was paralyzed by a series of blizzards that buried the region.

March

• March 2 — Dancer John Weaver performs in the first ballet in Britain shown in Drury Lane The Loves of Mars and Venus
• March 31 - Bishop Benjamin Hoadly, acting on the advice of King George begins the Bangorian Controversy by saying that God favors churches with no government.

April

• April 26 — The Whydah Gally, flagship of "Black Sam" Bellamy, is wrecked in a storm off Wellfleet, Massachusetts. The Whydah sinks with a reputed four and a half tons of treasure on board, and all but two of her crew are lost, including Bellamy.

May

June

• June 24 — Anglo branch of Freemasonry (UGLE) founded in London.

July

August

September

• September: The first known Druid revival ceremony is held by John Toland at Primrose Hill, in London, at the Autumnal Equinox, to found the Mother Grove, what is later to become the Ancient Order of Druids (AOD).

October

November

• November - Crews on two ships commanded by Benjamin Hornigold and Edward Teach attack and capture the British built French guineyman "Concorde" in the eastern Caribbean. Hornigold soon accepts a British amnesty for all pirates, but Teach rejects it and subsequently becomes known as Blackbeard.

December

• December - Blackbeard teams up with Stede Bonnet but later takes his ship and demotes Bonnett to guest. The "Queen Anne's Revenge" and "Revenge" take several ships as prizes in the Caribbean. Blackbeard eventually adds two more ships to his party and sails north to the North American coast.
• December 24/25 A disastrous flood hits the North Sea coast between the Netherlands and Danmark. Thousands die or lose their houses.

Ongoing events

• Great Northern War (1700–1721)

Births

• January 5 - William Wildman Shute Barrington, British statesman (d. 1793)
• January 28 - Mustafa III, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1774)
• January 29 - Jeffrey Amherst, British soldier and conqueror of Quebec (d. 1797)
• February 2 - Ernst Gideon Freiherr von Laudon, Austrian field marshal (d. 1790)
• February 19 - David Garrick, English actor (d. 1779)
• May 13 - Empress Maria Theresa of Austria (d. 1780)
• June 8 - John Collins, American politician (d. 1795)
• June 20 - Jacques Saly, French sculptor (d. 1776)
• June 27 - Louis Guillaume Lemonnier, French botanist (d. 1799)
• June 30 - Johann Stamitz, Czech-born composer (d. 1757)
• July 5 - Pedro III of Portugal, consort of Queen Maria I of Portugal (d. 1786)
• August 13 - Louis François I, Prince of Conti, French military leader (d. 1776)
• August 15 - Blind Jack, English roadbuilder (d. 1810)
• September 4 - Job Orton, English dissenting minister (d. 1783)
• September 7 - Martin Dobrizhoffer, Austrian Jesuit missionary (d. 1791)
• September 22 - Pehr Wilhelm Wargentin, Swedish astronomer (d. 1783)
• September 24 - Horace Walpole, British writer (d. 1797)
• October 5 - Marie-Anne de Mailly-Nesle duchess de Châteauroux, French mistress of King Louis XV of France (d. 1744)
• November 9 - Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German classical scholar and archaeologist (d. 1768)
• November 16 - Jean le Rond d'Alembert, French mathematician and encyclopædist (d. 1783)
• December 16 - Elizabeth Carter, English writer (d. 1806)
• December 20 - Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, French statesman and diplomat (d. 1787)
• December 27 - Pope Pius VI (d. 1799)

Deaths

• March 3 - Pierre Allix, French protestant clergyman (b. 1641)
• March 19 - John Campbell, 1st Earl of Breadalbane and Holland, Scottish royalist
• April 3 - Jacques Ozanam, French mathematician (b. 1640)
• April 5 - Jean Jouvenet, French painter (b. 1647)
• May 10 - John Hathorne, American magistrate (b. 1641)
• May 20 - John Trevor, English Speaker of the House of Commons (b. 1637)
• June 9 - Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon, French mystic (b. 1648)
• October 6 - Catherine Sedley, English mistress of James II of England
• November 26 - Daniel Purcell, English composer (b. 1664)
• December 5 - Richard Onslow, 1st Baron Onslow, English politician (b. 1654)

1717

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