text:
1669

January–March

 * January 2 – Pirate Henry Morgan of Wales holds a meeting of his captains on board his ship, the former Royal Navy frigate Oxford, and an explosion in the ship's gunpowder supply kills 200 of his crew and four of the pirate captains who had attended the summit.
 * January 4 – A 5.7 magnitude earthquake strikes the city of Shamakhi in Iran (now in Azerbaijan) and kills 7,000 people. Fourteen months earlier, an earthquake in Shamakhi killed 80,000 people.
 * February 13 – The first performance of the Ballet de Flore, a joint collaboration of Jean-Baptiste Lully and Isaac de Benserade is given, premiering at the Palais du Louvre in Paris. King Louis XIV finances the performance and even appears in a minor role in the production as a dancer.
 * February 23 – Isaac Newton writes his first description of his new invention, the reflecting telescope.
 * March 11 – Mount Etna erupts, destroying the Sicilian town of Nicolosi.
 * March 28 – Radu Leon is deposed by the Ottoman Sultan as Prince of Wallachia (now part of Romania and is replaced by Antonie Vodă din Popești.

April–June

 * April 9 – Aurangzeb, the Muslim Emperor of the Mughal Empire in India, issues a firman decree for the protection of all Hindu temples and schools in his kingdom.
 * May 1 – the Spanish Armada de Barlovento is defeated by an English Privateer fleet led by Captain Henry Morgan during his raid on Lake Maracaibo.
 * May 19 – The first people executed in Sweden's Mora witch trial are put to death, with seven women and one man beheaded after being convicted of "abduction of children to Satan."
 * May 31 – Samuel Pepys stops writing his diary.
 * June 22 – Roux de Marsilly, accused of plotting the assassination of King Louis XIV of France, is publicly tortured in Paris, France.
 * June 25 – François de Vendôme, Duke of Beaufort, disappears in battle, during the siege of Candia in Crete.

July–September

 * July 13 – Trinh Tac, the warlord who administers the Kingdom of Vietnam, issues an order banning all foreign vessels from entering the harbor at Hanoi, requiring to anchor no closer than the river port at Pho Hien, 35 mi down the Red River from Hanoi.
 * July 16 – A rockfall from the Mönchsberg mountain above Salzburg in Austria kills 230 people as tons of the mountainside fall onto a neighborhood on a street, the Gstättengasse.
 * July 24 – During an attempt by a fleet of French Navy ships to stop the siege of Candia by bombardment of Ottoman positions on the island of Crete, the arsenal of gunpowder on the French flagship, the 56-gun warship Thérèse, catches fire and explodes. Out of 350 crew on the Thérèse, only seven survive. Demoralized, the remaining French commanders halt the bombardment and the fleet withdraws.
 * July 25 – Pieter Bickel, a Lutheran pastor and a mountaineer in Austria, becomes the first person ever to climb to the peak of the tallest of the Southeastern Walsertal Mountains, the 8310 foot Großer Widderstein.
 * July – The Hanseatic League, after 400 years of operation, holds its last official meeting, taking place at the city of Lübeck. At its height, the economic alliance of German cities had 180 members; only nine (Lübeck, Hamburg, Bremen, Danzig, Braunschweig, Cologne, Hildesheim, Osnabrück and Rostock) are represented for the final gathering. The final series of meetings had started on May 29.
 * August 17 – A group of English settlers, led by Joseph West, departs from The Downs on the ship Carolina with instructions to make the first European settlement in the modern-day U.S. state of South Carolina. After a long voyage with stops in Ireland and Barbados, the Carolina settlers arrive at Port Royal on March 17 next.
 * August 24 – "The Man in the Iron Mask", a prisoner identified as "Eustache Dauger", arrives at the French fortress of Pignerol, with Bénigne Dauvergne de Saint-Mars in charge of his incarceration. The identity of the prisoner is kept secret with a mask – actually of velvet – over his face, so legends as to his true identity grow.
 * August 25 – The day after the verdicts at the Mora witch trial in Sweden, 14 women and one man are publicly beheaded after having confessed to various crimes involving the use of "enchanted tools" on behalf of the Devil. Another 47 are convicted and taken away for a later execution.
 * September 6 – Francesco Morosini, capitano generale of the Venetian forces in the siege of Candia, surrenders to the Ottomans.
 * September 23 – Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor grants the status and privileges of a university to the Jesuit Academy in Zagreb, the precursor to the modern University of Zagreb.
 * September 29 – The formal coronation of Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki as King of Poland (and Grand Duke of Lithuania) takes place in Kraków.

October–December

 * October 4 – Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn dies at the age of 63, after completing his final known work Self-Portrait at the Age of 63. Despite his wealth, is buried in an unmarked grave in Amsterdam's Westerkerk.  After 20 years, his remains are removed and destroyed in accordance with church custom.
 * October 6 – Moliere's comedy ballet Monsieur de Pourceaugnac (with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully and choreography by Pierre Beauchamp is performed for the first time, premiering at the Château of Chambord.
 * October 9 – The English ship Nonsuch returns to London with the first products acquired from trade around Canada's Hudson Bay, a cargo of fine furs. The bounty from the Nonsuch expedition attracts investors for the soon-to-be-chartered Hudson's Bay Company.
 * October 15 – The University of Innsbruck is chartered in Austria by Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor. After being reduced to a lesser function on November 29, 1781, it is rechartered in 1826.
 * October 19 – The Parliament of Scotland holds its first new session in six years (although two Conventions of Estates had been held briefly in 1665 and 1667). The session is opened in Edinburgh by Charles II of England in his capacity as King of Scotland.
 * October 29 – Ukrainian Cossack General Mykhailo Khanenko is defeated by Petro Doroshenko at the Battle of Stebliv after attempting to wrest control of Ukraine's territory on the west side of the Dnieper River from Doroshenko.
 * November 28 – In India, the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb learns of a rebellion of Hindu residents of in various parts of the Mathurá where he had given the order for the destruction of non-Muslim temples, with rioting in Mauza' Rewarah, Chandarkah, and Surkhrú. The Emperor's historian, Saqi Mustaid Khan, records Aurangzeb's dispatch of General Hasan 'Ali Khán to attack the rebels, and 300 of them are "sent to perdition" while the Mughals lose "many imperial soldiers". Another 250 surviving rebels are arrested.  Kokilá Ját, leader of the rebels, is among the prisoners put to death a month later.
 * December 8 – The Sultanate of Bima, located on the now-Indonesian island of Sumbawa and ruled by Abu'l-Khair Sirajuddin, surrenders its authority to the Dutch East Indies Company, the VOC.
 * December 9 – Pope Clement IX dies at the age of 69 after a reign of two and a half years.
 * December 13 – Jean Racine's five-act tragic play Britannicus is performed for the first time, premiering at the Hôtel de Bourgogne in Paris. The play continues to be performed more than 350 years later, including a 2011 version translated by Dr. Howard Rubenstein.
 * December 18 – The Battle of Cádiz begins off of the coast of the Spanish city as the English warship HMS Mary Rose encounters seven pirate ships from Algeria. Although none of the ships on either side are sunk, the Algerians are forced to retreat with an unknown number of casualties, and the Mary Rose loses 12 dead and 18 wounded.
 * December 21 – A papal conclave that will last for four months begins in Rome to select a successor to Pope Clement IX, who had died 12 days earlier. At the opening, 54 of the 70 members of the College of Cardinals are present.  At least 21 Cardinals are considered for the papacy before Emilio Altieri is selected on April 29 to become Pope Clement X.

Date unknown

 * Shakushain's revolt breaks out in Hokkaido, Japan.
 * Ottoman units burn the eastern part of Kolárovo.
 * The Chinese Kangxi Emperor allows coastal residents deported in the Great Clearance of 1662 to return home.
 * Famine in Bengal kills 3 million people.
 * Phosphorus is discovered by German alchemist Hennig Brand, the first chemical element to be discovered that was not known since ancient times.
 * Antonio Stradivari makes his first violin in Cremona.
 * Okaya & Co. is founded as Sasaya, a trading company in Nagoya, Japan.
 * The Chinese herbal medicine company Tong Ren Tang (同仁堂) is established in Beijing.
 * Blaise Pascal's Pensées is posthumously published in Paris.
 * Jan Swammerdam publishes his Algemeene Verhandeling van de bloedeloose dierkens, a groundbreaking work in microscopy, as well as entomology.
 * The Orange College of Breda is wound up.
 * Jean Picard begins measurement of 1 degree of Earth's meridian arc in France.

Births

 * January 20 – Susanna Wesley, mother of the John and Charles Wesley, known as mother of Methodism (d. 1742)
 * April 3 – Jean-Baptiste Forqueray, French musician (d. 1722)
 * May 24 – Emerentia von Düben, Swedish royal favorite (d. 1743)
 * May 26 – Sébastien Vaillant, French botanist (d. 1722)
 * July 30 – Eudoxia Lopukhina, first wife of Peter I of Russia (d. 1731)
 * August 27 – Anne Marie d'Orléans, Queen of Sicily and Sardinia (d. 1728)
 * August 29 – John Anstis, English herald (d. 1744)
 * October 19 – Count Wirich Philipp von Daun, Austrian military leader (d. 1741)
 * December 16 – Arnold Boonen, Dutch portrait painter (d. 1729)
 * date unknown
 * Alessio Erardi, Maltese painter (d. 1727)
 * Jiang Tingxi, Chinese painter (d. 1732)
 * Elżbieta Sieniawska, politically influential Polish magnate (d. 1729)
 * probable – Peter King, 1st Baron King, Lord Chancellor of England (d. 1734)

Deaths

 * January 27 – Gaspar de Crayer, Flemish painter (b. 1584)
 * February 3 – Catharina Questiers, Dutch poet (b. 1631)
 * February 13 – Peter Venables, English politician (b. 1604)
 * February 23 – Lieuwe van Aitzema, Dutch historian and statesman (b. 1600)
 * March 10 – John Denham, English poet (b. 1615)
 * March 12 – Cornelis Jan Witsen, Mayor of Amsterdam (b. 1605)
 * March 17 – Willem van der Zaan, Dutch admiral (b. 1621)
 * March 23 – Philipp Buchner, German composer (b. 1614)
 * March 25 – Sir Lionel Tollemache, 3rd Baronet, English baronet (b. 1624)
 * April 4 – Johann Michael Moscherosch, German statesman, satirist (b. 1601)
 * April 5 – Nabeshima Naozumi, Japanese daimyō (b. 1616)
 * April 12 – Abdias Treu, German mathematician and academic (b. 1597)
 * April 22 – Friedrich Wilhelm II, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg (1639–1669) (b. 1603)
 * April 23 – Johannes Canuti Lenaeus, archbishop of Uppsala, Sweden (b. 1573)
 * April 27 – Richard Treat, American city founder (b. 1584)
 * May 1 – Isaac Thornton, English politician (b. 1615)
 * May 14 – Georges de Scudéry, French writer (b. 1601)
 * May 16 – Pietro da Cortona, Italian artist (b. 1596)
 * June 25 – François de Vendôme, Duke of Beaufort, French soldier (b. 1616)
 * July 16 – Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Berkshire, English politician (b. 1587)
 * July 29 – Josias II, Count of Waldeck-Wildungen, major general in Brunswick and co-ruler of Waldeck-Wildungen (b. 1636)
 * August 18 – William Gawdy, English politician (b. 1612)
 * August 28 – Sir William Drake, 1st Baronet, English politician (b. 1606)
 * September 3 – Esteban Manuel de Villegas, Spanish poet (b. 1589)
 * September 10 – Henrietta Maria of France, queen of England, Scotland and Ireland (b. 1609)
 * September 28 – Pierre Le Muet, French architect (b. 1591)
 * October 4 – Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Dutch painter (b. 1606)
 * October 9 – Richard Strode, English politician (b. 1584)
 * October 14 – Antonio Cesti, Italian composer (b. 1623)
 * October 16 – John Trapp, English theologian (b. 1601)
 * October 19
 * Domenico Fiasella, Italian painter (b. 1589)
 * Matthias Sention, Sr., Connecticut settler (b. 1601)
 * October 24 – William Prynne, English Puritan leader (b. 1600)
 * November 3 – Charles Drelincourt, French Protestant divine (b. 1595)
 * November 4 – Johannes Cocceius, Dutch theologian (b. 1603)
 * November 7 – Lebrecht, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, German prince of the House of Ascania (b. 1622)
 * November 10 – Elisabeth Pepys, English wife of Samuel Pepys (b. 1640)
 * December 9 – Pope Clement IX (b. 1600)
 * December 11 – Anna Maria of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, consort of Augustus, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels (b. 1627)
 * December 13 – Thomas Dyke, English politician (b. 1619)
 * December 16 – Nathaniel Fiennes, English politician (b. c. 1608)
 * December 18 – Johann Philipp of Hanau-Lichtenberg, German nobleman (b. 1626)
 * December 25 – George William, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld (b. 1591)
 * December 31 – Bogusław Radziwiłł, Polish-Lithuanian noble (b. 1620)

title: 1669


text:
1715

Events
For dates within Great Britain and the British Empire, as well as in the Russian Empire, the "old style" Julian calendar was used in 1715, and can be converted to the "new style" Gregorian calendar (adopted in the British Empire in 1752 and in Russia in 1923) by adding 11 days.

January–March

 * January 13 – A fire in London, described by some as the worst since the Great Fire of London (1666) almost 50 years earlier, starts on Thames Street when fireworks prematurely explode "in the house of Mr. Walker, an oil man"; more than 100 houses are consumed in the blaze, which continues over to Tower Street before it is controlled.
 * January 22 – Voting begins for the British House of Commons and continues for the next 46 days in different constituencies on different days.
 * February 11 – Tuscarora War: The Tuscarora and their allies sign a peace treaty with the Province of North Carolina, and agree to move to a reservation near Lake Mattamuskeet, effectively ending the Tuscarora War. Large numbers of Tuscarora subsequently move to New York.
 * March 9 – Voting for the British House of Commons concludes, with the liberal Whig Party winning 341 of the 558 seats, and reducing the conservative Tory Party share to 217 seats. Spencer Compton, the Earl of Wilmington, becomes the Speaker of the House of Commons.
 * March 14 – James Stuart, the "Old Pretender" attempting to restore the House of Stuart to control of Great Britain as King James III of England and James VIII of Scotland, meets with Pope Clement XI for the assistance of the Roman Catholic Church in the Jacobite rising.
 * March 27 – Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, flees from Great Britain to France. His part in secret negotiations with France, leading to the Treaty of Utrecht, has cast suspicion on him in the eyes of the Whig government of Britain. He becomes secretary of state to the Pretender, James Edward Stuart.

April–June

 * April 1 – The Battle of Gurdas Nangal begins during the Mughal-Sikh Wars in India, as the Mughal Army begins an eight-month siege of a fortress near Gurdaspur (in what is now the Punjab state), where Sikh General Banda Singh Bahadur and 1,250 of his men have fled. The siege ends on December 7 when the 750 survivors, including Banda Singh, are captured.  By June 1716, most of the Sikh prisoners have been tortured, killed and executed, with Banda Singh dying on June 9.
 * April 15 – In the British colonial Province of South Carolina, the Yamasee Confederation launches an attack on English settlements in disputed territory on Good Friday, launching the two-year long Yamasee War. The day before, agents Thomas Nairne, William Bray and Samuel Warner had participated in peace negotiations with the Yamasee at Pocotaligo. Bray and Warner are killed that day, while Nairne is tortured to death and dies on April 17.
 * April 24 – The Battle of Fehmarn takes place in the Baltic Sea as part of the Great Northern War. Ten warships of Denmark, under the command of Christian Gabel, overwhelm a force of Swedish Navy ships led by Carl Wachtmeister.  By the time the battle ends the next day, five Swedish ships and 1,626 crewmen have been captured, and another 353 killed.  The Danish navy suffers 65 deaths.
 * May 3 – A total solar eclipse is seen across southern England, Sweden and Finland (the last total eclipse visible in London for almost 900 years). English astronomer Edmond Halley (who is using the old style Julian calendar date of April 22) records the first observation noted of the phenomenon of "Baily's beads", in which higher elevations on the moon can be observed obscuring portions of the light moments before and after totality.
 * May 28 – Rioting begins in England on the birthday of King George I as supporters of the Old Pretender, James of the House of Stuart, begin mass protesting against the rule of the House of Hanover, near London in the towns of Smithfield and Highgate, and the Cheapside financial district in London.
 * June 9 – King Philip, ruler of the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of Aragon unifies the two governments into a single state, centralizing rule of a unified Kingdom of Spain.
 * June 22 – Tsar Peter I of Russia witnesses the attempt of 45 Dutch and English ships to enter the small harbor at Saint Petersburg and decides that additional harbors are necessary for Russia to be able import Western goods.
 * June 29 – Britain's Treason Act 1714 takes effect, providing for forfeiture to the British Crown of property owned by any person convicted of treason in the Kingdom. The Act remains in effect until June 24, 1718.

July–September

 * July 20 – Ottoman–Venetian War (1714–18): The fall of Nauplion, the capital of the Venetian "Kingdom of the Morea", seals the fate of the Peloponnese Peninsula, which is soon completely retaken by the Ottomans.
 * July 24 – 1715 Treasure Fleet: A Spanish treasure fleet of 12 ships, under General Don Juan Ubilla, leaves Havana, Cuba for Spain. Seven days later, 11 of them sink in a storm off the coast of Florida (some centuries later, treasure salvage is found from these wrecks).
 * August 31 – Old Dock, Liverpool, England, the world's first enclosed commercial wet dock (Thomas Steers, engineer), opens.
 * September 1 – King Louis XIV of France dies after a reign of 72 years, leaving his throne to his 5 year old great-grandson Louis XV. Philippe d'Orléans, the nephew of Louis XIV, serves as Regent.
 * September 6 – The first major Jacobite rising in Scotland against the rule of King George I of Great Britain breaks out. The Earl of Mar raises the standard of James Edward Stuart, and marches on Edinburgh. James, the son of the deposed King James VII, arrives from France.
 * September 14 – Less than two weeks after King Louis XIV's death, Daniel Voysin de la Noiraye, France's Secretary of State for War since 1709, steps down at the request of the new regent, the Duke of Orleans.

October–December

 * October 2 – During the rebellion in Great Britain by supporters of the Pretender to the Throne, James Stuart, the Jacobites raid the Scottish parish of Burntisland, capture an arsenal of weapons, and begin an occupation of the area on October 9 in the name of Stuart as King James VIII of Scotland.
 * October 11 – William Aislabie resigns as the British East India Company's administrator of Bombay and the company's territories and is replaced at year's end by Charles Boone.
 * October 12
 * William Mackintosh of Borlum, leader of the Jacobite rising against Great Britain, lands with 1,500 men in Scotland after crossing the Firth of Forth from France.
 * Baron Onslow resigns as Great Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer and is replaced by future Prime Minister Robert Walpole.
 * October 28 – The Treaty of Greifswald is signed between Russia and the Electorate of Hanover, with George I of Great Britain and Hanover agreeing to Russia's annexation of Swedish Ingria and Estonia, and Hanover claiming the Bremen-Verden Swedish duchies of Bremen and Verden.
 * November 13 – Jacobite rising in Scotland – Battle of Sheriffmuir: The forces of the Kingdom of Great Britain, led by John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll, halt the Jacobite advance, although the action is inconclusive.
 * November 14 – Battle of Preston: Government forces defeat the Jacobite incursion, at the conclusion of a five-day siege and action.
 * November 15 – The Third Barrier Treaty is signed by Britain, the Holy Roman Empire and the Dutch Republic.
 * November 28 – The application of the Nueva Planta decrees, in Majorca and the other Balearic Islands (formerly under the Crown of Aragon), bring them under the laws of the Crown of Castile.
 * December 22 – James Edward Stuart rejoins Jacobite rebels in Scotland, but fails to rouse his army.

Date unknown

 * Karlsruhe Palace is built, resulting in the town of Karlsruhe growing up around it.
 * The ancient right to evaluate royal decrees publicly, before they are given the force of law by the Parlement of Paris, is restored.
 * Filippo Juvarra starts working on the previously postponed construction of the church of Santa Christina in Turin.
 * Filippo Juvarra starts rebuilding the church of San Filippo Neri, Turin, in which the roof had collapsed, during the siege of Turin, during the War of the Spanish Succession.
 * Coffee is first grown in the French colony of Saint-Domingue.
 * Around this year, a breech loading firearm is made for Philip V of Spain.

Births

 * January 9 – Robert-François Damiens, French domestic servant, executed for the attempted assassination of Louis XV of France (d. 1757)
 * January 10
 * Christian August Crusius, German philosopher, Protestant theologian (d. 1775)
 * Johan Sparre af Söfdeborg, Swedish general, nobleman (d. 1791)
 * January 12 – Jacques Duphly, French composer (d. 1789)
 * January 23 – Jean-Olivier Briand, French-born Catholic bishop of Quebec (d. 1794)
 * January 24 – Ōkubo Tadaoki, Japanese daimyō (d. 1764)
 * January 25
 * George Hay, British politician (d. 1778)
 * Thomas Walker, distinguished Virginia physician, explorer (d. 1794)
 * January 29 – Georg Christoph Wagenseil, Austrian composer (d. 1777)
 * January 30 – Jean-Baptiste Lestiboudois, French botanist (d. 1804)
 * January 31
 * Giovanni Fagnano, Italian mathematician (d. 1797)
 * John Wayles, American lawyer and planter (d. 1773)
 * February 4 – John Hamilton, British politician (d. 1796)
 * February 5 – Baltazar Adam Krčelić, Croatian historian and theologian (d. 1778)
 * February 11 – Margaret Bentinck, Duchess of Portland, British duchess (d. 1785)
 * February 12 – James Grenville, British Member of Parliament (d. 1783)
 * February 22
 * Charles-Nicolas Cochin, French artist (d. 1790)
 * Jean Georges Lefranc de Pompignan, Roman Catholic archbishop (d. 1790)
 * February 26 – Claude Adrien Helvétius, French philosopher (d. 1771)
 * February 27 – Mateo Aimerich, Spanish philologist (d. 1799)
 * March 4 – James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave of Great Britain (d. 1763)
 * March 7
 * Ewald Christian von Kleist, German poet and officer (d. 1759)
 * Ephraim Williams, English benefactor of Williams College, soldier in the French and Indian War (d. 1755)
 * March 14 – Johan Martin Preisler, German artist (d. 1794)
 * March 18 – John Bushell, first (Massachusetts-born) Canadian printer (d. 1761)
 * March 24 – William Strahan, British politician (d. 1785)
 * March 25 – Mary Frances of the Five Wounds, Italian Franciscan saint (d. 1791)
 * March 28 – Margrave Frederick William of Brandenburg-Schwedt, Prussian major general and titular Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt (d. 1744)
 * March 31 – Johan Samuel Augustin, German-Danish astronomical writer, civil servant (d. 1785)
 * April 3 – William Watson, English scientist (d. 1787)
 * April 9 – Giovanni Carlo Boschi, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 1788)
 * April 11
 * John Alcock, English composer and organist (d. 1806)
 * Jacob Rodrigues Pereira, academic, first teacher of deaf-mutes in France (d. 1780)
 * April 13 – John Martin Mack, American missionary (d. 1784)
 * April 19 – James Nares, English composer of mostly sacred vocal works (d. 1783)
 * April 20
 * James Brudenell, 5th Earl of Cardigan, English noble and politician (d. 1811)
 * Saliha Sultan, daughter of Ottoman Sultan (d. 1778)
 * April 23
 * Johann Friedrich Doles, German composer (d. 1797)
 * John Hicks, Canadian politician (d. 1790)
 * Auguste de Keralio, French nobleman (d. 1805)
 * Carl Tersmeden, Swedish admiral (d. 1797)
 * April 28
 * Carl Fredrik Scheffer, Swedish politician (d. 1786)
 * Franz Sparry, Austrian composer (d. 1767)
 * May 4
 * Richard Graves, English minister (d. 1804)
 * Hieronim Florian Radziwiłł, Polish-Lithuanian noble (d. 1760)
 * May 7 – Charles Roe, English businessman (d. 1781)
 * May 11
 * Johann Gottfried Bernhard Bach, fourth child of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach to reach adulthood (d. 1739)
 * Ignazio Fiorillo, Italian composer (d. 1787)
 * May 12 – Otto William Schwartz, Canadian politician (d. 1785)
 * May 20 – William Whitfield II, American Army officer (d. 1795)
 * May 22 – François-Joachim de Pierre de Bernis, French cardinal and statesman (d. 1794)
 * June 7 – Lodewijk Caspar Valckenaer, Dutch classical scholar (d. 1785)
 * June 12
 * Nicolas Thyrel de Boismont, French abbot (d. 1786)
 * Charles-René Dejordy de Villebon, French-Canadian explorer (d. 1761)
 * June 13 – Anna Wilhelmine of Anhalt-Dessau, German noblewoman (d. 1780)
 * June 15 – John Blennerhassett, Anglo-Irish politician (d. 1763)
 * June 18 – Harry Grey, 4th Earl of Stamford, British earl, politician (d. 1768)
 * June 25 – Joseph Foullon de Doué, French politician and a Controller-General of Finances under Louis XVI (d. 1789)
 * June 29 – Pedro Antonio de Cevallos, Spanish military Governor of Buenos Aires between 1757 and 1766 (d. 1778)
 * July 2 – Samuel Finley, American clergyman and educator (d. 1766)
 * July 4
 * Christian Fürchtegott Gellert, German author (d. 1769)
 * Charles François Hutin, French painter (d. 1776)
 * July 11 – Jean-Joseph Balechou, French artist (d. 1765)
 * July 14 – Caterina Sagredo Barbarigo, Venetian aristocrat and salon holder (d. 1772)
 * July 16 – Charles, Prince of Soubise, Marshal of France (d. 1787)
 * July 17 – Fredericka of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, German noblewoman member of the House of Wettin and by marriage Duchess of Saxe-Weissenfels (d. 1775)
 * July 26 – Jakob van der Schley, Dutch engraver (d. 1779)
 * August 5 – Charlotte Sophie of Aldenburg, German sovereign (d. 1800)
 * August 6 – Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues, French writer (d. 1747)
 * August 18 – Cyrus Trapaud, British Army general (d. 1801)
 * August 25 – Luis González Velázquez, Spanish painter (d. 1763)
 * September 5 – Ignác Raab, Czech artist (d. 1787)
 * September 15 – Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval, French artillery officer and engineer who revolutionized French cannon (d. 1789)
 * September 19
 * Emmanuel-Félicité de Durfort de Duras, Marshal of France, politician (d. 1789)
 * Ferenc Esterházy, Hungarian politician (d. 1785)
 * September 22 – Jean-Étienne Guettard, French scientist (d. 1786)
 * September 25 – Princess Victoria Charlotte of Anhalt-Zeitz-Hoym, Margravine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (d. 1772)
 * September 26 – Lord George Graham, Royal Navy officer and MP (d. 1747)
 * October 1 – Richard Jago, English clergyman poet and minor landscape gardener from Warwickshire (d. 1781)
 * October 2 – Domenico Caracciolo, Italian politician (d. 1789)
 * October 5
 * John Hustler, English Quaker industrialist (d. 1790)
 * Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau, French economist of the Physiocratic school (d. 1789)
 * October 6 – Antoine-Gabriel-François Benoist, soldier in the French army, served in North America (d. 1776)
 * October 16 – Joseph Allegranza, Historian, archaeologist, antiquary (d. 1785)
 * October 23 – Peter II of Russia, Emperor of Russia (d. 1730)
 * October 29 – Aaron Cleveland, American clergyman (d. 1757)
 * November 5
 * John Brown, English divine and author (d. 1766)
 * Felix of Nicosia, Cypriot Catholic saint (d. 1787)
 * Johann Georg Wille, German engraver (d. 1808)
 * November 6 – Heneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Aylesford, Member of the Parliament of Great Britain (d. 1777)
 * November 8 – Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern, Crown Princess of Prussia (d. 1797)
 * November 9 – Edward Bligh, 2nd Earl of Darnley, British noble (d. 1747)
 * November 12 – Kajetan Sołtyk, Polish Catholic priest (d. 1788)
 * November 13 – Dorothea Erxleben, first German female physician (d. 1762)
 * November 16 – Girolamo Abos, Maltese-Italian composer (d. 1760)
 * November 17 – Sir Danvers Osborn, 3rd Baronet, British politician and colonial governor (d. 1753)
 * November 19 – Bertrand Philip, Count of Gronsveld, Dutch diplomat (d. 1772)
 * November 20 – Pierre Charles Le Monnier, French astronomer (d. 1799)
 * November 24 – Anna Nitschmann, German poet (d. 1760)
 * November 26 – Jean-Charles Gervaise de Latouche, French writer (d. 1782)
 * November 27 – Johann Gottlob Leidenfrost, German physician (d. 1794)
 * November 30
 * Johann Philipp Bethmann, German merchant and banker (d. 1793)
 * Johan Jacob Bruun, Danish artist (d. 1789)
 * December 4 – Abraham Drake, New Hampshire politician (d. 1781)
 * December 9 – Joseph Marie Terray, Controller-General of Finances during the reign of Louis XV of France (d. 1778)
 * December 11 – Johann Valentin Tischbein, German painter (d. 1768)
 * December 12 – Gennaro Manna, Italian composer (d. 1779)
 * December 18 – Johan Heinrich Becker, German physician and chemist who settled in Norway (d. 1761)
 * December 21
 * Tommaso Gherardini, Italian painter (d. 1797)
 * Gottlieb Heinrich Totleben, German noble (d. 1773)
 * François-Vincent Toussaint, French writer most famous for Les Mœurs (The Manners) (d. 1772)
 * December 27 – Philippe de Noailles, Marshal of France (d. 1794)
 * December 30 – Thomas Watson, 3rd Earl of Rockingham, British politician (d. 1746)
 * December 31 – Nicolas-Sylvestre Bergier, French Catholic theologian (d. 1790)

Deaths

 * January 7
 * François Fénelon, Archbishop of Cambrai (b. 1651)
 * Mary Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort, British botanist (b. 1630)
 * January 29 – Bernard Lamy, French Oratorian mathematician and theologian (b. 1640)
 * January 27 – Caspar Neumann, German professor and clergyman (b. 1648)
 * February 3 – Gottfried Vopelius, German academic (b. 1645)
 * February 4 – Martín de Ursúa, Spanish conquistador (b. 1653)
 * February 17 – Antoine Galland, French archaeologist (b. 1646)
 * February 19 – Domenico Egidio Rossi, Italian architect (b. 1659)
 * February 21 – Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, Colonial governor of Maryland (b. 1637)
 * February 25 – Pu Songling, Qing Dynasty Chinese writer (b. 1640)
 * March 2 – Cardinal de Bouillon, French Catholic cardinal (b. 1643)
 * March 17 – Gilbert Burnet, Scottish Bishop of Salisbury (b. 1643)
 * March 18 – William Fraser, 12th Lord Saltoun, (b.1654)
 * March 27 – August, Duke of Saxe-Merseburg-Zörbig, German prince (b. 1655)
 * April 6 – Perizonius, Dutch linguist (b. 1651)
 * April 16 – Benedict Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore, Colonial governor of Maryland (b. 1679)
 * May 8 – Marie Mancini, Italian courtier, third of the five Mancini sisters (b. 1639)
 * May 19 – Charles Montagu, English Chancellor of the Exchequer (b. 1661)
 * May 21 – Pierre Magnol, French botanist (b. 1638)
 * May 30 – Roeloff Swartwout, American city founder in New York (b. 1634)
 * June 19 – Nicolas Lemery, French chemist (b. 1645)
 * June 25 – Jean-Baptiste du Casse, French admiral and buccaneer (b. 1646)
 * July 5 – Charles Ancillon, French Huguenot pastor (b. 1659)
 * July 28 – Jakub Kresa, Czech mathematician (b. 1648)
 * July 30 – Nahum Tate, Irish poet (b. 1652)
 * August 21 – Countess Johanna Magdalene of Hanau-Lichtenberg, German countess (b. 1660)
 * September 1
 * François Girardon, French sculptor (b. 1628)
 * King Louis XIV of France (b. 1638)
 * September 24 – Wilhelm Homberg, Dutch alchemist (b. 1652)
 * October 13 – Nicolas Malebranche, French philosopher (b. 1638)
 * October 14 – Thomas Tenison, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1636)
 * October 15 – Humphry Ditton, English mathematician (b. 1675)
 * October 17 – Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen (b. 1655)
 * October 30 – Juliane Louise of East Frisia, Princess of East Frisia (b. 1657)
 * October 31 – Elisha Cooke, Sr., Massachusetts colonial politician and judge (b. 1637)
 * November – Mirwais Hotak, Pashtun emir, and founder of the Hotaki Dynasty (b. 1673)
 * November 24 – Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp, queen consort of King Charles X of Sweden (b. 1636)
 * December 9 – Benedetto Gennari II, Italian painter (b. 1633)
 * December 15 – George Hickes, English minister and scholar (b. 1642)
 * December 28
 * William Carstares, Scottish clergyman (b. 1649)
 * Joanna Koerten, Dutch painter (b. 1650)
 * date unknown – Elizabeth Boutell, British stage actor (b. 1650)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: 1715


text:
1717

January–March

 * January 1 – Count Carl Gyllenborg, the Swedish ambassador to the Kingdom of Great Britain, is arrested in London over a plot to assist the Pretender to the British throne, James Francis Edward Stuart.
 * January 4 (December 24, 1716 Old Style) – The kingdoms of Great Britain, France and the Dutch Republic sign the Triple Alliance, in an attempt to maintain the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), Britain having signed a preliminary alliance with France on November 28 (November 17) 1716.
 * February 1 – The Silent Sejm, in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, marks the beginning of the Russian Empire's increasing influence and control over the Commonwealth.
 * February 6 – Following the treaty between France and Britain, the Pretender James Stuart leaves France, and seeks refuge with Pope Clement XI.
 * February 26–March 6 – What becomes the northeastern United States is paralyzed by a series of blizzards that bury the region.
 * March 2 – Dancer John Weaver performs in the first ballet in Britain, shown at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, The Loves of Mars and Venus.
 * March 31 – Benjamin Hoadly, Bishop of Bangor, brings the Bangorian Controversy within the Church of England into the open by delivering a sermon to, and supposedly at the request of, King George I of Great Britain, on The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ with the text "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36), concluding there is no Biblical justification for church government.

April–June

 * April 26 – The Whydah Gally, flagship of "Black Sam" Bellamy, is wrecked in a storm off Wellfleet, Massachusetts. The Whydah sinks with a reputed $4 1/2$ tons of treasure on board, and all but two of her crew are lost, including Bellamy.
 * May 27 – Spain creates the Viceroyalty of New Granada in South America from the northern section of the Viceroyalty of Peru. The viceroyalty, with a capital at Bogota, later declares independence and splits up into what are now the nations of Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela.
 * June 24 – The Premier Grand Lodge of England, the Modern and first Free-Masonic Grand Lodge (which merges with the Ancient Grand Lodge of England in 1813 to form the United Grand Lodge of England), is founded in London.

July–September

 * July 17 – Water Music by George Frederick Handel is first performed, on a Thames barge in London,
 * August 17 – The month-long Siege of Belgrade ends, with Prince Eugene of Savoy's Austrian troops capturing the city from the Ottoman Empire.
 * August 22 – Spanish troops arrive on the island of Sardinia, at this time a part of the Holy Roman Empire, beginning the conquest of the island, completed by October 30.
 * September 5 – King George I of Great Britain issues the "Proclamation for Suppressing of Pirates in the West Indies", an offer of amnesty to pirates, declaring that any pirates who surrender themselves to the government of Britain or one of its overseas territories, on or before September 5, 1718, "shall have Our Gracious Pardon of and for his or their Piracy or Piracies" committed before January 5, 1718. The amnesty is later extended to July 1, 1719.
 * September 21 – 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 will later become the Ancient Order of Druids.
 * September 29 – Guatemala earthquake: A 7.4 magnitude earthquake strikes Antigua Guatemala, destroying much of the city, and making authorities consider moving the capital of Guatemala to a different location.

October–December

 * October 9 – King Philip V of Spain orders the closure of all universities in Catalonia, including the historic Estudi General de Lleida.
 * October 16 – Antonio Vivaldi's opera Tieteberga is performed for the first time, premiering at the Teatro San Moisè in Venice
 * October 18 – Trial begins in Boston for six pirates who had survived the April 26 wreck of Samuel Bellamy's ships Whydah and the Mary Anne. Five of them (John Brown, Hendrick Quintor, Thomas Baker, Peter Cornelius Hoof and John Shuan) are convicted on October 22 of piracy and robbery and hanged on November 15.
 * October 30 – The Spanish conquest of Sardinia, at this time part of the Holy Roman Empire, is finished two months after Spanish forces had landed on the island on August 22, as the last Sardinian outpost, Castelsardo, surrenders.
 * November 28 – Pirates led by Edward Teach, more popularly referred to as "Blackbeard", and Benjamin Hornigold capture the French slave transport Concorde near island of Saint Vincent the West Indies. Blackbeard renames the vessel Queen Anne's Revenge, adds to its armaments, and makes it his flagship. Hornigold soon accepts a British amnesty for all pirates, and Blackbeard teams up with Stede Bonnet and begins plundering ships approaching North American ports.
 * December 9 (November 29, O.S.) – King George I of Great Britain banishes his son and daughter-in-law, George, Prince of Wales and Caroline of Ansbach, from the royal household after the Prince threatens the King's personal assistant, the Duke of Newcastle, the royal Lord Chamberlain. The altercation takes place at the baptismal ceremony for the Prince's newborn son, George William.
 * December 24–25 – Christmas flood: A disastrous flood hits the North Sea coast, between the Netherlands and Denmark; thousands die or lose their houses.

Date unknown

 * The 1717 Omani invasion of Bahrain removes the control of Persia over the Arabian kingdom ofBahrain..
 * François-Marie Arouet is sentenced to imprisonment in the Bastille for eleven months, because of a satirical verse against the Régent of France and his infamous daughter Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans, who is hiding an illegitimate pregnancy and soon to give birth; Arouet will emerge with the pseudonym Voltaire and the completed text of his first play, Œdipe.
 * The Tatar invasions in Transylvania devastate many towns, including Cavnic, Sighet and Dej.
 * Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, wife of the British ambassador to Istanbul, has her son inoculated.
 * The Casa de Contratación (House of Trade) is set up in Cádiz.
 * Maharaja Pamheiba of Manipur is converted to Hinduism by Shantidas Goswami, and decrees it to be the official religion of his state.
 * Most recent rupture of New Zealand's Alpine Fault, with an earthquake estimated to have had a magnitude between 7.8 and 8.1.
 * The Charleville musket enters service in France.
 * Thomas Fairchild, a nurseryman at Hoxton in the East End of London, becomes the first person to produce a successful scientific plant hybrid, Dianthus Caryophyllus barbatus, known as Fairchild's Mule.
 * Murshid Quli Khan declares himself the first Nawab of the Bengal Subah. The Nawabs of Bengal will effectively function as near-sovereign rulers of Bengal while being nominally loyal to the Mughal Empire.

Births

 * January 2 – Edward Seymour, 9th Duke of Somerset, English nobleman, son of Edward Seymour, 8th Duke of Somerset and Mary Webb (d. 1792)
 * January 5 – William Barrington, 2nd Viscount Barrington, English statesman (d. 1793)
 * January 18 – Jean-François-Marie de Surville, French trader and navigator (d. 1770)
 * January 21 – Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa, Spanish military officer (d. 1779)
 * January 23 – Benjamin Beddome, English Baptist minister and hymnist (d. 1795)
 * January 28 – Mustafa III, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1773)
 * January 29 – Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, British soldier and conqueror of Quebec (d. 1797)
 * February 2 – Ernst Gideon Freiherr von Laudon, Austrian field marshal (d. 1790)
 * February 3 – Nicholas Cooke, first Governor of Rhode Island (d. 1782)
 * c. February 11 – William Williams Pantycelyn, Welsh hymn-writer, a key leader of the 18th century Methodist revival (d. 1791)
 * February 17 – Adam Friedrich Oeser, German etcher (d. 1799)
 * February 19 – David Garrick, English actor (d. 1779)
 * February 27 – Johann David Michaelis, German biblical scholar and teacher (d. 1791)
 * April 6 – Luis de Unzaga, American-Spanish governor (d. 1793)
 * April – Pieter Barbiers, Dutch artist (d. 1780)
 * April 9 – Georg Matthias Monn, Austrian composer (d. 1750)
 * April 10 – Isaac de Pinto, Dutch Jew of Portuguese origin, investor and scholar (d. 1787)
 * May 8 – Charles Guillaume Le Normant d'Étiolles, French official, husband of Madame de Pompadour (d. 1799)
 * May 13 – Maria Theresa of Austria, Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, consort of the Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1780)
 * June 5 – Emanuel Mendes da Costa, English botanist (d. 1791)
 * June 8 – John Collins, Continental Congressman, third Governor of Rhode Island (d. 1795)
 * June 19 – Johann Stamitz, Czech-born composer (d. 1757)
 * June 20 – Jacques Saly, French sculptor (d. 1776)
 * June 27 – Louis Guillaume Lemonnier, French botanist (d. 1799)
 * June 28 – Matthew Stewart, Scottish mathematician (d. 1785)
 * July 5 – Peter III of Portugal, consort of Queen Maria I of Portugal (d. 1786)
 * August – Sophie de Lafont, Russian educator (d. 1797)
 * August 13 – Louis François, Prince of Conti, French nobleman, military leader (d. 1776)
 * August 15
 * Louis Carrogis Carmontelle, French dramatist (d. 1806)
 * John Metcalf, "Blind Jack of Knaresborough", English roadbuilder (d. 1810)
 * September 4 – Job Orton, English dissenting minister (d. 1783)
 * September 7
 * Agui, Chinese nobleman, general for the Ch'ing dynasty (d. 1797)
 * Martin Dobrizhoffer, Austrian Jesuit missionary (d. 1791)
 * September 22 – Pehr Wilhelm Wargentin, Swedish astronomer (d. 1783)
 * September 24 – Horace Walpole, English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and politician (d. 1797)
 * September 28 – William Nassau de Zuylestein, 4th Earl of Rochford, British diplomat and statesman (d. 1781)
 * October – James Paine, English architect (d. 1789)
 * October 5 – Marie-Anne de Mailly-Nesle duchess de Châteauroux, French mistress of King Louis XV of France (d. 1744)
 * October 13 – John Armstrong, American civil engineer, major general in the Revolutionary War (d. 1795)
 * October 30 – Jonathan Hornblower, English pioneer of steam power (d. 1780)
 * November 13 – Prince George William of Great Britain, member of the British Royal Family (d. 1718)
 * November 16 – Jean le Rond d'Alembert, French mathematician and encyclopædist (d. 1783)
 * November 17 – Caroline Townshend, 1st Baroness Greenwich, English peeress (d. 1794)
 * November 23 – Antoine Guenée, French priest and Christian apologist (d. 1803)
 * November 25 – Alexander Sumarokov, Russian poet and playwright (d. 1777)
 * December 9 – Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German classical scholar and archaeologist (d. 1768)
 * December 16 – Elizabeth Carter, English writer (d. 1806)
 * December 25 – George Augustus Eliott, 1st Baron Heathfield, British army officer (d. 1790)
 * December 27 – Pope Pius VI, born Count Giovanni Angelo Braschi, Italian pontiff (d. 1799)
 * December 28 – Johann Heinrich Gottlob Justi, leading German Kameralist in the 18th century (d. 1771)
 * December 29 – Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, French statesman and diplomat (d. 1785)
 * date unknown
 * Giambattista Almici, Italian jurist (d. 1793)
 * Claude Humbert Piarron de Chamousset, French philanthropist (d. 1773)
 * Gottlieb Sigmund Gruner, Swiss cartographer and geologist (d. 1778)
 * Elimelech of Lizhensk, Polish Orthodox Jewish rabbi, one of the great founding rebbes of Hasidic Judaism (d. 1787)
 * Henry Middleton, South Carolina plantation owner, second President of the Continental Congress (d. 1784)
 * Lewis Nicola, Irish-born officer in the American army during the American Revolutionary War (d. 1807)
 * Anne Steele ("Theodosia"), English Baptist hymn-writer (d. 1778)
 * Molla Panah Vagif, Azerbaijani poet (d. 1797)

Deaths

 * January 6 – Lambert Bos, Dutch scholar and critic (b. 1670)
 * January 7 – Empress Xiaohuizhang, second consort of the Qing dynasty Shunzhi Emperor of China (b. 1641)
 * January 13 – Maria Sibylla Merian, German-born Swiss naturalist and scientific illustrator, who studied plants and insects and made detailed paintings of them (b. 1647)
 * January 30 – John Hartstonge, Irish bishop (b. 1654)
 * February 18 – Giovanni Maria Morandi, Italian painter (b. 1622)
 * February 21 – Jan Dobrogost Krasiński, Polish nobleman (szlachcic) (b. 1639)
 * February 23 – Magnus Stenbock, Swedish military officer (b. 1664)
 * March 3 – Pierre Allix, French Protestant clergyman (b. 1641)
 * March 5 – François de Callières, French diplomat, member of the Académie française (b. 1645)
 * March 8 – Abraham Darby I, English ironmaster, first of that name of three generations of a Quaker family that was key to the development of the Industrial Revolution (b. 1678)
 * March 19 – John Campbell, 1st Earl of Breadalbane and Holland, Scottish royalist (b. 1636)
 * April 3 – Jacques Ozanam, French mathematician (b. 1640)
 * April 5 – Jean Jouvenet, French painter (b. 1647)
 * April 11 – Abraham ben Saul Broda, Bohemian Talmudist (b. c. 1640)
 * April 26
 * Samuel Bellamy (Black Sam), English-born pirate (b. 1689)
 * Christian II, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld (b. 1637)
 * John King, pirate (b. c. 1706/9)
 * May 10 – John Hathorne, American magistrate (b. 1641)
 * May 17 – Bon Boullogne, French painter (b. 1649)
 * May 20 – John Trevor, Welsh lawyer and politician, Speaker of the House of Commons of England (b. 1637)
 * June 3 – Fernando de Alencastre, 1st Duke of Linares, Spanish nobleman and military officer (b. c. 1641)
 * June 9 – Jeanne Guyon, French mystic (b. 1648)
 * June 11 – Louis de Carrières, French priest and Bible commentator (b. 1662)
 * June 15 – Fabrizio Spada, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1643)
 * June 23 – John Verney, 1st Viscount Fermanagh, British politician (b. 1640)
 * July 1 – Princess Anna Sophie of Denmark, daughter of King Frederick III of Denmark (b. 1647)
 * July 17 – Juan María de Salvatierra, Milanese Jesuit missionary to the Americas (b. 1648)
 * August – William Cochrane, Scottish MP in the Parliament of Great Britain
 * August 10 – Nicolaes Witsen, Mayor of Amsterdam, Netherlands (b. 1641)
 * August 16 – William Blathwayt, English civil servant and politician (b. 1649)
 * August 30 – William Lloyd, English bishop (b. 1627)
 * September 17 – Robert Cotton, English politician (born 1644)
 * October – Philippe Pastour de Costebelle, French naval officer and Governor of Newfoundland (b. 1661)
 * October 22 – Henry Luttrell, Irish army officer, Jacobite commander (b. c. 1655; shot and mortally wounded in his sedan chair in Dublin)
 * October 26 – Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester, English mistress of James II of England (b. 1657)
 * November 16 – Hester Davenport, English stage actress (b. 1642)
 * November 21 – Jean-Baptiste Santerre, French painter (b. 1650)
 * November 26 – Daniel Purcell, English composer (b. 1664)
 * December 4 – William Hamilton, surgeon in the British East India Company
 * December 5 – Richard Onslow, 1st Baron Onslow, English politician (b. 1654)
 * December 13 – Nicholas Noyes, Massachusetts colonial minister, during the time of the Salem witch trials (b. 1647)
 * December 25 – Robert Shirley, 1st Earl Ferrers, English peer and courtier (b. 1650)
 * date unknown
 * William Diaper, English poet of the Augustan era (b. 1685)
 * William Boyd, 3rd Earl of Kilmarnock, Scottish nobleman
 * Niccolao Manucci, Italian writer and traveller in India (b. 1639)
 * Osei Kofi Tutu I, founder of the Ashanti Confederacy (b. c. 1660; killed in action)
 * Wang Hui, Chinese landscape painter (b. 1632)
 * Jane Wiseman, English actress, poet and playwright (b. c. 1682)

title: 1717


text:
1718

January – March

 * January 7 – In India, Sufi rebel leader Shah Inayat Shaheed from Sindh who had led attacks against the Mughal Empire, is beheaded days after being tricked into meeting with the Mughals to discuss peace.
 * January 17 – Jeremias III reclaims his role as the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, chief leader within the Eastern Orthodox Church, 16 days after the Metropolitan Cyril IV of Pruoza had engineered an election to become the Patriarch.
 * February 14 – The reign of Victor Amadeus over the principality of Anhalt-Bernburg (now within the state of Saxony-Anhalt in northeastern Germany) ends after 61 years and 7 months. He had ascended the throne on September 22, 1656. He is succeeded by his son Karl Frederick.
 * February 21 – Manuel II (Mpanzu a Nimi) becomes the new monarch of the Kingdom of Kongo (located in western Africa at present day Angola) when King Pedro IV (Nusamu a Mvemba) dies after a reign of 22 years. Manuel reigns until 1743.
 * March 12 – Anton Florian becomes the new Prince of Liechtenstein, succeeding Joseph Wenzel
 * March 13 – Daniel Overbeek becomes the new Dutch Governor of Ceylon (now the nation of Sri Lanka), arriving after a 10-month sea voyage from the Netherlands.
 * March 18 – Edward Wortley Montagu, the four-year-old son of the British Ambassador to Turkey, becomes the first British person to be inoculated with the smallpox vaccine, administered by Dr. Charles Maitland at the request of Edward's mother, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.
 * March 20 – The Privy Council of the United Kingdom, at the time the British Government prior to the creation of the officer of Prime Minister, is reorganized, with a reorganized Second Stanhope–Sunderland ministry. Secretary of State for the Northern Department Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland succeeds James Stanhope as the new First Lord of the Treasury, and Stanhope takes Sunderland's job.

April – June

 * April 4 – Great Britain, France and the Dutch Republic agree on the phasing out of the authority of the House of Medici over the semi-independent Grand Duchy of Tuscany by declaring that Gian Gastone de' Medici will be the last of the Medici family to rule the Italian duchy and that Spain's House of Borbón will eventually control the Tuscan monarchy. Don Carlos of Spain, the two-year old son of King Philip V, is designated as the eventual heir, despite the objections of the 75-year old Grand Duke, Cosimo III de' Medici.
 * May 1 – San Antonio is founded by Father Antonio de San Buenaventura y Olivares with the construction of the initial Mission San Antonio de Valero.
 * May 7 – The settlement of New Orleans is founded in New France.
 * May 22 – Sailing the Queen Anne's Revenge English pirate Edward Teach ("Blackbeard") leads 400 sailors in four ships, and blockades the port of Charleston, South Carolina for an entire week, plundering all arriving ships. After their departure, Queen Anne's Revenge and Adventure are both lost at Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina; a week later.  Blackbeard allows Stede Bonnet to command the Revenge (which is renamed the Royal James) once again. Bonnet rescues 25 sailors abandoned by Blackbeard on a sandbar and continues his life of piracy.
 * June 3 – Pirates "Blackbeard" and Stede Bonnet accidentally run aground in the ship Queen Anne's Revenge after sailing into Topsail Inlet in the British colony of North Carolina. Learning of the royal pardon available to all pirates who surrender before September 5, Teach negotiates a settlement with Colonial Governor Charles Eden for a pardon for himself, Bonnet and the rest of his crew in return for the Governor receiving some of the pirates' plunder.
 * June 16 – The Treaty of Baden is signed, ending the Toggenburg War.
 * June 19 – A 7.5 earthquake shakes Tongwei County in China, killing 73,000 people.

July–September

 * July 21 – The Treaty of Passarowitz, ending the Austro-Turkish War, is signed.
 * July 25 – At the behest of Tsar Peter the Great, the construction of Kadriorg Palace, dedicated to his wife Catherine, began in Tallinn.
 * August 11 – Battle of Cape Passaro: a Spanish fleet is defeated by the British Royal Navy under Admiral George Byng, off Capo Passero, Sicily, a prelude to the War of the Quadruple Alliance.
 * September 10 – In France, Armande Félice de La Porte Mazarin and the Vicomtesse de Polignac, both mistresses of the Duc de Richelieu, fight a duel with pistols at the Bois de Boulogne near Paris. Lady Mazarin, who had initiated the duel, is wounded in the shoulder and both survive.  Richelieu, though impressed by the willingness of the ladies to fight over his affections, comments Je ne sacrifierai pas un de mes cheveux, ni à l’une, ni à l’autre ("I will not sacrifice anything, not to one, nor to the other.")
 * September 27 – The Battle of Cape Fear River begins as pirate Stede Bonnet and his crew on the Royal James are confronted in North Carolina by Colonel William Rhett and the ships Henry and Sea Nymph.
 * September – In Tibet, forces of the Tibetan Dzungar Khanate destroys an advancing expedition of the Chinese Imperial Army, under the command of General Erentei, in the Battle of the Salween River.

October –December

 * October 3 – Stede Bonnet and his crew are captured near the mouth of the Cape Fear River and taken to Charleston, South Carolina, where they are tried for piracy. All but four are found guilty and sentenced to death (with 22 hanged on November 8), but Bonnet escapes from prison on October 24.
 * October 31 – The Mughal Emperor of India, Farrukhsiyar, restores the titles and responsibilities of his chief adviser, Mir Jumla III, almost three years after dismissing him.
 * November 11 – Lightning strikes the powder magazine at the Old Fortress, Corfu, causing an explosion that kills a large number of people on the island.
 * November 18 – Voltaire's first play, Oedipus, premières at the Comédie-Française in Paris. This is his first use of the pseudonym.
 * November 22 – Citing violations of the amnesty agreement with Blackbeard, Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood sends a Royal Navy contingent to North Carolina, where they battle Blackbeard and his crew in Ocracoke Inlet. Blackbeard is killed in action, after receiving five musketball wounds and twenty sword lacerations.
 * December 5 – Following the death of Charles XII on November 30, his sister Ulrika Eleonora proclaims herself Queen regnant of Sweden, as the news of her brother's death reaches Stockholm.
 * December 10 – Stede Bonnet is hanged at Charleston, after being recaptured.
 * December 17 – The Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of Great Britain and Dutch Republic join the Kingdom of France in formally declaring war on Spain, launching the War of the Quadruple Alliance.

Date unknown

 * Islamization of Sudan: The Funj warrior aristocracy deposes the reigning mek and places one of their own ranks on the throne of Sennar.
 * The white potato reaches New England from England.
 * Coffee is grown in Surinam (Dutch colony).

Births

 * January 7 – Israel Putnam, American Revolutionary War general (d. 1790)
 * January 29 – Paul Rabaut, French Huguenot pastor (d. 1794)
 * February 17 – Matthew Tilghman, American delegate to the Continental Congress (d. 1790)
 * March 31 – Infanta Mariana Victoria of Spain, queen regent of Portugal (d. 1781)
 * April 4 – Benjamin Kennicott, English churchman and Hebrew scholar (d. 1783)
 * April 7 – Hugh Blair, Scottish preacher and man of letters (d. 1800)
 * April 20 – David Brainerd, American missionary (d. 1747)
 * April 24 – Nathaniel Hone, Irish-born painter (d. 1784)
 * April 26 – Esek Hopkins, American Revolutionary War admiral (d. 1802)
 * April 27 – Thomas Lewis, Irish-born Virginia settler (d. 1790)
 * May 16 – Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician (d. 1799)
 * May 17 – Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness, English diplomat and politician (d. 1778)
 * May 23 – William Hunter, Scottish anatomist (d. 1783)
 * May 30 – Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire, English politician (d. 1793)
 * May 31 – Jacob Christian Schäffer, German inventor, botanist and professor (d. 1790)
 * June 5 – Thomas Chippendale, English furniture maker (d. 1779)
 * June 17 – George Howard, British field marshal (d. 1796)
 * July 5 – Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford, Viceroy of Ireland (d. 1794)
 * July 18 – Saverio Bettinelli, Italian writer (d. 1808)
 * July 31 – John Canton, English physicist (d. 1772)
 * August 11 – Frederick Haldimand, Swiss-born British colonial governor (d. 1791)
 * September 18 – Nikita Ivanovich Panin, Russian statesman (d. 1783)
 * October 19 – Victor-François, 2nd duc de Broglie, Marshal of France (d. 1804)
 * October 2 – Louisa Catharina Harkort, German ironmaster (d. 1795)
 * October 28 – Ignacije Szentmartony, Croatian Jesuit missionary and geographer (d. 1793)
 * November 3 – John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, English statesman (d. 1792)
 * November 28 – Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht, Swedish writer (d. 1763)
 * date unknown
 * István Hatvani, Hungarian mathematician (d. 1786)
 * Salomée Halpir, Lithuanian oculist (year of death unknown)

Deaths

 * January 6
 * Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, Italian writer and jurist (b. 1664)
 * Richard Hoare, English goldsmith and banker (b. 1648)
 * January 7 – Empress Xiaohuizhang, Qing Dynasty empress and consort of the Shunzhi Emperor of China (b. 1641)
 * January 17 – Captain Benjamin Church, Plymouth Colony settler and military officer (b. c. 1639)
 * February 1 – Charles Talbot, 1st Duke of Shrewsbury, English politician (b. 1660)
 * February 5 – Elizabeth Capell, Countess of Essex, British countess (b. 1636)
 * February 17
 * Charlotte Lee, Countess of Lichfield, illegitimate daughter of King Charles II of England (b. 1664)
 * Prince George William of Great Britain, member of the British Royal Family (b. 1717)
 * February 18 – Pierre Antoine Motteux, French-born English dramatist (b. 1663)
 * March 9 – Marko Gerbec, Carniolan physician, scientist (b. 1658)
 * March 13 – Friedrich Nicolaus Bruhns, German organist and composer (b. 1637)
 * March 28 – Thomas Micklethwaite, Lord Commissioner of the Treasury (d. 1678)
 * April 3 – Jacques Ozanam, French mathematician (b. 1640)
 * April 18 – Michael Wening, German engraver (b. 1645)
 * April 21 – Philippe de La Hire, French mathematician and astronomer (b. 1640)
 * April 23 – Sir Edward Blackett, 2nd Baronet, English politician (b. 1649)
 * May 7 – Mary of Modena, queen of James II of England (b. 1658)
 * May 19 – Juan Andrés de Ustariz, Royal Governor of Cuba (b. 1656)
 * May 16 – Jonas Danilssønn Ramus, Norwegian priest and historian (b. 1649)
 * May 24 – Jeremiah Dummer, American silversmith (b. 1643)
 * May 30
 * Arnold Joost van Keppel, 1st Earl of Albemarle, Dutch favorite of William III of England (b. 1670)
 * Bernard Nieuwentyt, Dutch mathematician and philosopher (b. 1654)
 * June 9 – Jonathan Corwin, American judge of the Salem witch trials (b. 1640)
 * June 13 – Louis, Count of Armagnac, French noble (b. 1641)
 * June 17
 * Margherita Maria Farnese, Italian noblewoman (b. 1664)
 * James Tyrrell, English barrister and writer (b. 1642)
 * July 21 – Shabbethai Bass, Polish Rabbi, author of Siftei Chachamim and founder of Jewish bibliography (b. 1641)
 * July 28 – Étienne Baluze, French scholar (b. 1630)
 * July 30 – William Penn, American settler, founder of Pennsylvania (b. 1644)
 * August 2 – Al-Mahdi Muhammad, Yemeni imam (b. 1637)
 * August 4 – René Lepage de Sainte-Claire, lord-founder of Rimouski in eastern Quebec, Canada (b. 1656)
 * September 11 – Domenico Martinelli, Italian architect (b. 1650)
 * September 12 – Louise de Maisonblanche, illegitimate daughter of Louis XIV of France (b. 1676)
 * September 20 – George St Lo, Royal Navy officer and administrator (b. 1655)
 * October 9 – Richard Cumberland, English philosopher (b. 1631)
 * October 19 – Alphonse Henri, Count of Harcourt, French noble (b. 1648)
 * November 3 – Karl, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst (b. 1652)
 * November 22
 * Blackbeard, English pirate (b. 1680)
 * Durgadas Rathore, Indian ruler (b. 1638)
 * c. December – Black Caesar, African pirate (hanged)
 * December 6 – Nicholas Rowe, English poet and dramatist (b. 1674)
 * December 9 – Vincenzo Coronelli, Italian cartographer and encyclopedist (b. 1650)
 * December 11 (November 30 Old Style) – King Charles XII of Sweden (b. 1682)
 * December 10 – Stede Bonnet, Barbadian "gentleman pirate" (b. 1688)
 * December 28 – Jan Brokoff, German sculptor (b. 1652)
 * date unknown – Marie Grubbe, Danish countess (b. 1643)

title: 1718


text:
1719

January–March

 * January 8 – Carolean Death March begins: A catastrophic retreat by a largely-Finnish Swedish-Carolean army under the command of Carl Gustaf Armfeldt across the Tydal mountains in a blizzard kills around 3,700 men and cripples a further 600 for life.
 * January 23 – The Principality of Liechtenstein is created, within the Holy Roman Empire.
 * February 3 (January 23 Old Style) – The Riksdag of the Estates recognizes Ulrika Eleonora's claim to the Swedish throne, after she has agreed to sign a new Swedish constitution. Thus, she is recognized as queen regnant of Sweden.
 * February 20 – The first Treaty of Stockholm is signed.
 * February 28 – Farrukhsiyar, the Mughal Emperor of India since 1713, is deposed by the Sayyid brothers, who install Rafi ud-Darajat in his place. In prison, Farrukhsiyar is strangled by assassins on April 19.
 * March 6 – A serious earthquake (estimated magnitude >7) in El Salvador results in large fractures, liquefaction zones, and a sulphuric gas leak. It destroys houses, churches and monasteries.
 * March 17 – The coronation of Ulrika Eleonora as Queen of Sweden takes place in Stockholm.

April–June

 * April 4 – The French army under James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick invades the Basque provinces of Spain, with 20,000 troops crossing into Navarre.
 * April 19 – In Louisiana (New France), Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville's brother Serigny arrives on a French man-of-war, bringing news that war had been declared between France and Spain (since December 1718).
 * April 25 – Daniel Defoe publishes Robinson Crusoe.
 * April 26 – King Philip V of Spain departs Madrid and leads 15,000 men of the Spanish Army into Navare to fight the French under Berwick.
 * May 14 – In Louisiana (New France), Bienville, from Mobile, captures Pensacola, but Pensacola is later recaptured by the Spanish, and again re-taken by Bienville.
 * May 25 – An earthquake in Turkey damages İzmit and Istanbul, damaging some city walls and ruining mosques and palaces.
 * June 4 – Battle of Ösel Island: A Russian naval force defeats the Swedish fleet.
 * June 18 – Captain John Perry fixes Dagenham Breach.
 * June 10 – Battle of Glen Shiel: British forces defeat the Jacobites and their Spanish allies.
 * June 20 – Battle of Francavilla: The Austrians are defeated by the Spanish.
 * June 30 – French forces under the Duke of Berwick open the Siege of San Sebastian

July–September

 * July 11 – Russia's Baltic Sea fleet is first spotted from the Swedish coast, starting the Russian Pillage of 1719–21 as part of the Great Northern War.
 * July 16 – The Carlsten fortress in Sweden surrenders to a Danish and Norwegian force after a siege of seven days. Colonel Henrich Danckwardt, who surrendered the fortress to Peter Tordenskjold after being away from it while it was still defensible, is beheaded on September 16.
 * August 13 – In the Battle of Stäket, Crown Prince Frederick I of Sweden leads the successful defense of Stockholm from Russian Admiral Fyodor Apraksin's Baltic Fleet during the Russian Pillage.
 * August 19 – Siege of San Sebastian. The Spanish garrison surrenders to the Duke of Berwick.
 * August 20 – Princess Maria Josepha of Austria, at one time the heir presumptive to the throne of Austria's Habsburg Empire, marries Frederick Augustus, Elector of Saxony ten days after renouncing any claim to the Austrian throne.
 * September 3 – The three-story tall Opernhaus am Zwinger, one of the largest opera houses in the world at the time, opens in Dresden by staging Antonio Lotti's Giovi in Argo.
 * September 29 – Muhammad Shah is crowned as the 12th Mughal Emperor of India at Shahjahanabad (now Delhi), 12 days after the death of Shah Jahan II from tuberculosis.

October–December

 * October 11 – Fernando Manuel de Bustillo Bustamante y Rueda, the Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines, is assassinated in a bloody coup d'etat by supporters of the Archbishop of Manila, whom Bustamante had imprisoned.
 * October 14 – The British Army, under the command of Major General George Wade, invades and captures the forts of Vigo on the Atlantic coast of Spain.
 * October 21 – The Red Canal is opened in the Russian capital, Saint Petersburg, after seven years of construction, at a ceremony in the presence of the Tsar Peter the Great.
 * October 28 – Sweden and Denmark-Norway sign an armistice, halting combat in the Great Northern War between them, with final terms agreed to in the Treaty of Frederiksborg on July 3, 1720.
 * November 9 – In a treaty between Sweden and Hanover at the close of the Great Northern War, Sweden cedes the Duchies of Bremen and Verden (in northern Germany) to Hanover.
 * December 22 – Andrew Bradford publishes the American Weekly Mercury, Pennsylvania's first newspaper.

Date unknown

 * Prussia conducts Europe's first systematic census.
 * Miners in Falun, Sweden find the apparently petrified body of Fet-Mats Israelsson (d. 1677), in an unused part of the copper mine.
 * Raine's Foundation School, Bethnal Green (founded by Henry Raine), opens in Wapping, England.
 * James Figg opens one of the first indoor venues for combat sports, adjoining the City of Oxford tavern in Oxford Road, London.

Births

January

 * January 1 – Pierre-François Hugues d'Hancarville, art historian and historian of ideas (d. 1805)
 * January 2
 * Jacques-Alexandre Laffon de Ladebat, French shipbuilder and merchant (d. 1797)
 * Friedrich Christoph von Saldern, German general (d. 1785)
 * January 3
 * Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal, Catholic archbishop (d. 1802)
 * Basil Feilding, 6th Earl of Denbigh, Earl in the Peerage of England (d. 1800)
 * Francisco José Freire, Portuguese historian and philologist (d. 1773)
 * January 6
 * Ivan Ivanovich Belsky, Russian painter (d. 1799)
 * Guillaume de Barrême de Châteaufort, French painter (d. 1775)
 * William Hammond, British hymnist (d. 1783)
 * Ignazio Marabitti, Italian artist (d. 1797)
 * January 10 – Maria Dorothea Wagner, German painter (d. 1792)
 * January 14 – Daniel Nettelbladt, German jurist and philosopher (d. 1791)
 * January 15 – William Fitzwilliam, 3rd Earl Fitzwilliam, British peer (d. 1756)
 * January 17
 * Maria van Antwerpen, soldier (d. 1781)
 * Samuel Enderby, English whale oil merchant who sponsored Arctic exploration (d. 1797)
 * Rajmundo Kunić, Croatian writer (d. 1794)
 * Johann Elias Schlegel, German critic and poet (d. 1749)
 * William Vernon, American merchant (d. 1806)
 * January 22
 * Benjamin Hinman, surveyor, soldier, legislator (d. 1810)
 * Henry Paget, 2nd Earl of Uxbridge, British Earl (d. 1769)
 * January 23 – John Landen, English mathematician (d. 1790)
 * January 25 – Princess Sophia Dorothea of Prussia (d. 1765)
 * January 30 – Magnus Gottfried Lichtwer, German writer (d. 1783)

February

 * February 2 – Edward Coke, Viscount Coke, British politician (d. 1753)
 * February 4 – Ernst Wilhelm von Schlabrendorf, German politician (d. 1769)
 * February 6 – Alberto Pullicino, Maltese painter (d. 1765)
 * February 10 – Clemente Sibiliato, Italian cleric (d. 1795)
 * February 11 – Vasilije Božičković, Eparch of Križevci (d. 1785)
 * February 13
 * Samuel Finney, English miniature-painter (d. 1798)
 * Joseph Liesganig, Austrian astronomer and Jesuit (d. 1799)
 * February 14 – David Doig, writer (d. 1800)
 * February 15
 * Wilhelm Sebastian von Belling, German general (d. 1779)
 * Jean Jacques Flipart, Engraver from France (d. 1782)
 * Crown Prince Hyojang, crown prince of Joseon, son of king Yeongjo of Joseon (d. 1728)
 * February 18 – Ferdinand Christoph Oetinger, German physician (d. 1772)
 * February 19 – Arthur Blennerhassett, Anglo-Irish politician (d. 1799)
 * February 20
 * Joseph Bellamy, American pastor, author and educator (d. 1790)
 * Charles Clarke, English numismatist (d. 1780)
 * February 22 – Joshua Thomas, Historian of Welsh Baptists (d. 1797)
 * February 23 – Moses Mather, American clergyman (d. 1806)
 * February 27 – Alejandro González Velázquez, Spanish architect and painter (d. 1772)

March

 * March 1 – Daniel Thurston, American army officer (d. 1805)
 * March 4 – George Pigot, 1st Baron Pigot, British governor of Madras (d. 1777)
 * March 6
 * João Carlos de Bragança, 2nd Duke of Lafões, Portuguese politician (d. 1806)
 * March 10 – Pierre-Paul Lemercier de La Rivière de Saint-Médard, French economist (d. 1801)
 * March 13 – John Griffin, 4th Baron Howard de Walden, British nobleman and soldier (d. 1797)
 * March 16 – Prince Georg Ludwig of Holstein-Gottorp, Prussian lieutenant-general, Imperial Russian field marshal (d. 1763)
 * March 17 – Gabriel Podoski, Catholic archbishop (d. 1777)
 * March 23 – Anna Catharina Bischoff, Lady (or mummy) of the Barfüsser Church (d. 1787)
 * March 26 – Lubbert Jan van Eck, Dutch noble (d. 1765)
 * March 29 – John Hawkins, English author and music historian (d. 1789)
 * March 30 – John Wentworth, American jurist, soldier, leader of the American Revolution in New Hampshire (d. 1781)

April

 * April 2
 * Vincenzo Legrenzo Ciampi, Italian composer (d. 1762)
 * Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim, German poet (d. 1803)
 * April 3
 * Daniel Dupuy, American silversmith (d. 1807)
 * Thomas Grenville, Royal Navy officer killed in action in the War of the Austrian Succession (d. 1747)
 * April 4 – Mary Draper, American revolutionary character (d. 1810)
 * April 5
 * Reza Qoli Mirza Afshar, prince of Persia (d. 1747)
 * Axel von Fersen the Elder, lantmarskalk or marshal of the diet (d. 1794)
 * April 8 – Edmund Pery, 1st Viscount Pery, Irish politician, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons (d. 1806)
 * April 9 – Sir Edward Blackett, 4th Baronet, British politician and barrister (d. 1804)
 * April 11 – Jakob Friedrich Heusinger, German classical philologist (d. 1778)
 * April 13 – John Breynton, Welsh missionary and minister (d. 1799)
 * April 16
 * Mathieu-Antoine Bouchaud, French economist and professor (d. 1804)
 * Tsugaru Nobuaki, Japanese Daimyo (d. 1744)
 * April 17
 * Friedrich Hensing, German physician (d. 1745)
 * Pierre-Thomas-Nicolas Hurtaut, French writer (d. 1791)
 * Christian Gottfried Krause, German composer (d. 1770)
 * April 19 – William Banks, British politician (d. 1761)
 * April 22 – Jacques Rochette de La Morlière, French writer (d. 1785)
 * April 24 – Giuseppe Marc'Antonio Baretti, Italian-born English literary critic and author (d. 1789)
 * April 28 – Sir Edward Turner, 2nd Baronet, British politician (d. 1766)

May

 * May 5 – Andrew Meikle, Scottish engineer (d. 1811)
 * May 6 – Jean Baptiste Christy de La Pallière, French Navy officer (d. 1787)
 * May 8 – Nicholas Dias Abeysinghe, ceylonese Dutch colonial administrator (d. 1794)
 * May 17 – Bjarni Pálsson, Icelandic doctor (d. 1779)
 * May 19
 * Johann von Fries, counsellor, director of the imperial silk factories, industrialist, banker (d. 1785)
 * Charlotte of Monaco, Monegasque princess and nun (d. 1790)
 * Matthew Patten, American judge (d. 1795)
 * May 20 – Roger Newdigate, English politician, antiquities collector (d. 1806)
 * May 22
 * Charles Howard, Viscount Morpeth, British politician (d. 1741)
 * Julia von Mengden, Russian noble (d. 1787)
 * Matsudaira Nobunao, daimyo of the middle Edo period; 2nd lord of Hamamatsu, later 1st lord of Yoshida (d. 1768)
 * May 24 – Eyre Massey, 1st Baron Clarina, Irish Baron (d. 1804)
 * May 27 – Henri-Joseph Dulaurens, French writer (d. 1793)
 * May 29 – Lorenzo De Caro, Italian painter (d. 1777)
 * May 31 – Robert Rutherfurd, Scottish merchant, Baron of the Russian Empire (d. 1794)

June

 * June 2 – Michel-Jean Sedaine, French dramatist and librettist (d. 1797)
 * June 3 – Louis Paul Abeille, economist (d. 1807)
 * June 5 – Domenico Orsini d'Aragona, Italian cardinal (d. 1789)
 * June 10
 * Michael Gottlieb Agnethler, German botanist and numismatist (d. 1752)
 * Francisco Mariano Nipho, Spanish writer (d. 1803)
 * June 11 – François-Charles de Velbrück, Roman Catholic bishop (d. 1784)
 * June 17 – Joshua Parry, Welsh nonconformist minister and writer (d. 1776)
 * June 19 – Sir Thomas Clavering, 7th Baronet, British politician (d. 1794)
 * June 28 – Étienne François, duc de Choiseul, French general, diplomat, statesman (d. 1785)

July

 * July 2 – Josip Šišković, Hapsburg military officer (d. 1783)
 * July 7
 * William de Grey, 1st Baron Walsingham, British lawyer, judge, politician (d. 1781)
 * Johann Karl von Herberstein, Austrian bishop (d. 1787)
 * July 11 – Giuseppe Toaldo, Italian physicist (d. 1797)
 * July 16
 * William Walond Sr., English composer and organist (d. 1768)
 * Gerrit Zegelaar, Dutch painter (d. 1794)
 * July 23 – Frances Boscawen, English literary hostess; (d. 1805)
 * July 25 – Chevalier de Johnstone, Jacobite Army officer (d. 1800)
 * July 26 – Elizabeth Pakenham, 1st Countess of Longford, English noblewoman (d. 1794)
 * July 29 – William Innes, British Member of Parliament (d. 1795)

August

 * August 4 – Johann Gottlob Lehmann, German and Russian mineralogist (d. 1767)
 * August 5 – Robert Glynn, British doctor (d. 1800)
 * August 7
 * Francisco Fabián y Fuero, Roman Catholic archbishop (d. 1801)
 * Jabez Huntington, American businessman 1719–1786 (d. 1786)
 * August 10 – Philip Thicknesse, author (d. 1792)
 * August 11 – George Selwyn, British politician (d. 1791)
 * August 13 – Itakura Katsuzumi, Japanese samurai (d. 1769)
 * August 18 – Bernard Ward, 1st Viscount Bangor, Irish politician and peer (d. 1781)
 * August 19 – Charles-François de Broglie, marquis de Ruffec, French soldier, diplomat (d. 1781)
 * August 20
 * James Bonner, American colonel (d. 1782)
 * Christian Mayer, Czech-German astronomer (d. 1783)
 * August 23 – Pierre Poivre, French horticulturalist (d. 1786)
 * August 25
 * Louis-Alexandre de Cessart, French engineer (d. 1806)
 * Charles-Amédée-Philippe van Loo, French painter (d. 1795)
 * August 26 – Carlo Sebastiano Berardi, Italian jurist (d. 1768)

September

 * September 3 – Ferdinand Zellbell the Younger, Swedish composer (d. 1780)
 * September 6 – Somerset Hamilton Butler, 1st Earl of Carrick (d. 1754)
 * September 11 – Tanuma Okitsugu, Japanese government official (d. 1788)
 * September 13 – Étienne Ficquet, engraver (d. 1794)
 * September 15 – Friedrich Christian Meuschen, German zoologist (d. 1811)
 * September 17
 * Edward Kimber, British writer (d. 1769)
 * James Smith, signatory to the United States Declaration of Independence (d. 1806)
 * September 21
 * Larcum Kendall, British watchmaker (d. 1790)
 * Johann Friedrich Mayer, agriculturalist (d. 1798)
 * September 24 – Florian Baucke, Jesuit missionary (d. 1780)
 * September 27 – Abraham Gotthelf Kästner, German mathematician (d. 1800)
 * September 30 – François Poulletier de la Salle, chemist and medical doctor (d. 1788)

October

 * October 1 – John Bligh, 3rd Earl of Darnley, British politician (d. 1781)
 * October 3 – Paul Henry Ourry, British Member of Parliament (d. 1783)
 * October 7 – Jacques Cazotte, French writer (d. 1792)
 * October 9 – Georg Mathias Fuchs, German painter in Denmark (d. 1797)
 * October 10 – Francis Greville, 1st Earl of Warwick, English Earl (d. 1773)
 * October 12 – Ignaz Franz, German priest, hymnwriter (d. 1790)
 * October 13 – Josef Ignaz Mildorfer, Austrian painter (d. 1775)
 * October 14 – John Holker, English Jacobite soldier, industrialist and commercial spy (d. 1786)
 * October 18 – Charles Bulkley, British minister (d. 1797)
 * October 20 – Gottfried Achenwall, German philosopher, historian, economist, jurist, statistician (d. 1772)
 * October 23 – Peter Fenger, Danish merchant (d. 1774)
 * October 24
 * Jakob Gadolin, Finnish bishop (d. 1802)
 * Pierre Sigorgne, French physicist (d. 1809)
 * October 25 – Edward Townshend, Anglican dean of Norwich (d. 1765)
 * October 26
 * Sir William Codrington, 2nd Baronet, British Member of Parliament (d. 1792)
 * Hyacinthe Gaëtan de Lannion, French politician (d. 1762)
 * October 30 – Lazzaro Opizio Pallavicino, Italian priest (d. 1785)

November

 * November 6 – Louis-Antoine Caraccioli, French writer, poet and historian (d. 1803)
 * November 9 – Domenico Lorenzo Ponziani, Italian chess player (d. 1796)
 * November 14
 * Leopold Mozart, German/Austrian composer, father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (d. 1787)
 * Franz Ludwig Wind, Swiss sculptor (d. 1789)
 * November 17
 * Marie Marguerite Bihéron, Medical illustrator (d. 1795)
 * Francis Home, Scottish physician (d. 1813)
 * November 22 – Johann Friedrich Reiffenstein, German artist (d. 1793)
 * November 23
 * Spranger Barry, British actor (d. 1777)
 * Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf, German publisher and typographer (d. 1794)
 * Philip Wenman, 6th Viscount Wenman, Irish Viscount (d. 1760)
 * November 30 – Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Princess of Wales (d. 1772)

December

 * December 8 – Andrés Marcos Burriel, historian (d. 1762)
 * December 13 – Thomas Gillespie, North Carolina planter (d. 1797)
 * December 15 – Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt (d. 1790)
 * December 18 – William Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Harrington, British Army general (d. 1779)
 * December 25 – George Campbell, figure of the Scottish Enlightenment (d. 1796)
 * December 26 – Salvatore Maria di Blasi, Italian priest (d. 1814)
 * December 27 – John Phillips, American academic (d. 1795)
 * December 28 – Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, French diplomat (d. 1787)

 * date unknown
 * William Bradford, American revolutionary and printer (d. 1791)
 * Dominic Serres, French-born painter (d. 1793)
 * Thomas Sheridan, Irish actor (d. 1788)
 * Thomas Elfe, furniture craftsman in Charleston, South Carolina (d. 1775)

Deaths

January

 * January 27 – William Munroe, Scottish soldier (b. 1625)
 * January 3 – Jacob Toorenvliet, Dutch painter (b. 1640)
 * January 5
 * Carlo Berlingeri, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Santa Severina (b. 1639)
 * Thomas Hay, 7th Earl of Kinnoull, Scottish peer and Conservative politician (b. 1660)
 * Philibert Vigier, French sculptor (b. 1636)
 * January 6 – Richard Hoare, banker, founder of C. Hoare & Co. (b. 1648)
 * January 11 – Mizoguchi Shigemoto, Japanese daimyō (b. 1680)
 * January 16 – Petar Kanavelić, Venetian writer (b. 1637)
 * January 17 – Sophie Amalie Moth, royal mistress of King Christian V of Denmark (b. 1654)
 * January 18 – Samuel Garth, British writer (b. 1661)
 * January 19 – Joachim Tielke, German musical instrument maker (b. 1641)
 * January 22
 * William Paterson, Scottish trader and banker (b. 1658)
 * James Winstanley, English Member of Parliament (b. 1667)
 * January 26 – Tikhon Streshnev, Russian noble (b. 1644)
 * January 27 – Ferdinando d'Adda, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1650)

February

 * February 6 – Köprülüzade Numan Pasha, Ottoman Grand Vizier (b. 1670)
 * February 12 – Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt, Swedish general (b. 1659)
 * February 14 – Carl Philipp, Reichsgraf von Wylich und Lottum, Prussian field Marshal (b. 1650)
 * February 15 – Bernardino Belluzzi, Roman Catholic prelate, Bishop of Camerino (b. 1642)
 * February 19
 * Georg Heinrich von Görtz, German politician (b. 1668)
 * Ryer Jacobse Schermerhorn, merchant (b. 1652)
 * February 22 – Pakubuwono I of Mataram, Sultan of Mataram (b. 1648)
 * February 23 – Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg, German Lutheran clergy (b. 1682)
 * February 25 – Giovanni Maria Casini, Italian composer (b. 1652)
 * February 27 – Johann Ernst, Count of Nassau-Weilburg (b. 1664)
 * February 28 – Boris Sheremetev, Russian noble (b. 1652)

March

 * March 1 – Richard Ingoldesby, British Army officer, lieutenant governor of New York and New Jersey (b. 1617)
 * March 3 – Jacques-Louis de Valon, French poet (b. 1659)
 * March 7
 * Thomas Butler, 6th Viscount Ikerrin, Irish viscount (b. 1683)
 * Heinrich Bernhard Ruppius, German botanist (b. 1688)
 * Steven Jacobsz Vennekool, Dutch architect (b. 1660)
 * March 9 – Peeter van Bredael, Flemish painter (b. 1629)
 * March 10 – Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond, French architect (b. 1679)
 * March 12 – Giuseppe Antonio Torricelli, Italian artist (b. 1659)
 * March 13 – Johann Friedrich Böttger, Saxon alchemist (b. 1682)
 * March 14 – Mary Hamilton, executed Russian lady-in-waiting (b. 1684)
 * March 17 – Isaac de Larrey, French historian (b. 1638)
 * March 19
 * Isaac Addington, functionary of the colonial government of Massachusetts (b. 1645)
 * Giambattista Spínola Jr., Roman Catholic cardinal (b. 1646)

April

 * April 4 – Thomas Powys, English politician and judge; (b. 1649)
 * April 5 – Edward Colston, politician (b. 1670)
 * April 7 – Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, French priest, education reformer, saint in the Catholic Church (b. 1651)
 * April 14 – Giovanni Tommaso Rovetta, Roman Catholic prelate, Bishop of Hvar (b. 1632)
 * April 15 – Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon, mistress and later secret wife of King Louis XIV of France (b. 1635)
 * April 16 – Ketevan of Kakheti, princess (batonishvili) of eastern Georgia (b. 1648)
 * April 19
 * Gabriel-Philippe de La Hire, French scientist (b. 1677)
 * Peter Petrovich, Russian Tsarevich, heir to the Russian throne from February 1718 to his death in 1719 (b. 1715)
 * April 21
 * Sir Thomas Cave, 3rd Baronet, British politician (b. 1681)
 * Philippe de La Hire, French mathematician and astronomer (b. 1640)
 * April 24 – Hyacinthe Robillard d'Avrigny, Jesuit (b. 1675)
 * April 27 – Laurentius Christophori Hornæus, Swedish witch hunter (b. 1645)
 * April 28 – Farrukhsiyar, Mughal Emperor (b. 1685)

May

 * May 3 – Pierre Le Gros the Younger, sculptor from France (b. 1666)
 * May 5 – Prince Yeollyeong, Korean prince (b. 1699)
 * May 7 – Sebastiano Bombelli, Italian painter (b. 1635)
 * May 13
 * Richard Dyott, English politician; (b. 1667)
 * John Lenton, English composer, violinist, and singer (b. 1657)
 * May 21 – Pierre Poiret, French philosopher and mystic (b. 1646)
 * May 23
 * Gerhard Treschow, Norwegian businessman (b. 1659)
 * Lucia Wijbrants, Dutch artist (b. 1638)
 * May 27 – Thomas Newport, 1st Baron Torrington, British politician and baron (b. 1655)
 * May 29
 * Joseph de Jouvancy, French historian (b. 1643)
 * Sir Alexander Seton, 1st Baronet, Scottish baronet (b. 1639)
 * Abraham Trommius, Dutch theologian (b. 1633)
 * May 31 – Edmund Dunch, English politician (b. 1657)

June

 * June 2 – Charles Le Goux de La Berchère, French prelate (b. 1647)
 * June 5 – Jean-Baptiste Delaveyne, French monk, priest and religious founder (b. 1653)
 * June 6
 * Louis Ellies Dupin, French historian and theologian (b. 1657)
 * Rafi ud-Darajat, 10th Mughal Emperor (b. 1699)
 * June 7 – John Addenbrooke, English doctor and benefactor (b. 1680)
 * June 17
 * Fitzherbert Adams, Academic administrator, clergyman, and benefactor (b. 1651)
 * Joseph Addison, English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (b. 1672)
 * June 19
 * Howell Davis, Welsh pirate (b. 1690)
 * Thomas Meredyth, Irish soldier and politician (b. 1660)
 * June 20 – Willem Kerricx, Flemish sculptor (b. 1652)
 * June 21
 * Jules Louis Bolé, marquis de Chamlay, French diplomat (b. 1650)
 * Domingo de Valencia, Roman Catholic prelate, Bishop of Nueva Caceres (b. 1647)
 * June 23 – Christopher Wandesford, 2nd Viscount Castlecomer, Member of Parliament (b. 1684)
 * June 26 – Frederick William I, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck (b. 1682)

July

 * July 5 – Samuel Schotten, German rabbi (b. 1644)
 * July 16
 * James Keill, Scottish physician, philosopher, medical writer and translator (b. 1673)
 * Johann Ulrich Kraus, Illustrator, engraver and publisher (b. 1655)
 * Meinhardt Schomberg, 3rd Duke of Schomberg, English general (b. 1641)
 * July 17 – Elinor James, British pamphleteer (b. 1644)
 * July 19 – Anna Katharina Block, German Baroque (b. 1642)
 * July 21
 * Robert Clicquot, French pipeorgan builder (b. 1645)
 * Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans, French princess (b. 1695)
 * July 22
 * Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Aylesford, English lawyer and politician (b. 1649)
 * Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole, Italian painter and engraver (b. 1654)
 * July 27 – Cornelis de Graeff II., Lords of Purmerland and Ilpendam (b. 1671)
 * July 28 – Arp Schnitger, German organ builder (b. 1648)
 * July 30 – Giambattista Felice Zappi, poet from Italy (b. 1667)

August

 * August 2 – Karol Stanisław Radziwiłł, Polish prince (b. 1669)
 * August 3 – Johann Philipp von Greifenclau zu Vollraths, Prince-Bishop of Wurzburg (b. 1652)
 * August 5 – Date Tsunamura, Japanese daimyō at the center of the Date Sōdō (b. 1659)
 * August 7 – Richard Farington, English politician (b. 1644)
 * August 8 – Christoph Ludwig Agricola, German painter (b. 1667)
 * August 9 – Charles Middleton, 2nd Earl of Middleton, English and Scottish politician (b. 1649)
 * August 11 – Leonard Goffiné, German Catholic priest and writer (b. 1648)
 * August 14 – Alexander Grant, Scottish army officer (b. 1674)
 * August 18 – Heinrich von Cocceji, German scholar (b. 1644)
 * August 19 – Carl Hildebrand von Canstein, German theologian, jurist and writer (b. 1667)
 * August 30 – Daniel Cronström, Swedish architect (b. 1655)

September

 * September 7 – John Harris, English writer, scientist, Anglican priest (b. 1666)
 * September 8 – Carlo Cignani, Italian painter (b. 1628)
 * September 16 – Henrich Danckwardt, Swedish military personnel (b. 1670)
 * September 18
 * Shah Jahan II, Mughal emperor (b. 1696)
 * Johannes Jacobus Rau, German physician (b. 1668)
 * September 19
 * Frans Anneessens, leader of a Brussels guild, decapitated for involvement in uprisings (b. 1660)
 * Jan Weenix, Dutch painter (b. 1642)
 * September 21 – Johann Heinrich Acker, German historian (b. 1647)
 * September 22
 * Magdalena Sibylla of Holstein-Gottorp, Duchess of Holstein-Gottorp (b. 1631)
 * Hans Schack, 2nd Count of Schackenborg, Danish nobleman (b. 1676)
 * September 25 – Michel Félibien, French historian and writer (b. 1665)
 * September 27 – George Smalridge, English Bishop of Bristol (b. 1662)
 * September 29 – Jean Orry, French economist (b. 1652)

October

 * October 1 – Margaret Hughes, British actress (b. 1630)
 * October 3 – Johann Gregor Thalnitscher, Carniolan lawyer, scholar of ancient inscriptions, chronicler, historian (b. 1655)
 * October 7 – Pierre Remond de Montmort, French mathematician (b. 1678)
 * October 9 – Charles Louis Bretagne de La Trémoille, French noble (b. 1683)
 * October 11
 * Samuel Jones, English Dissenter and tutor (b. 1681)
 * Fernando Manuel de Bustillo Bustamante y Rueda, Spanish Field Marshal (b. 1663)
 * October 14 – Arnold Houbraken, painter from the Northern Netherlands (b. 1660)
 * October 15 – Jan Mortel, painter from the Northern Netherlands (b. 1652)
 * October 25 – Catharina Wallenstedt, Swedish writer and courtier (b. 1627)
 * October 26 – Laurens van der Meulen, Flemish sculptor (b. 1643)
 * October 27 – François Baert, Belgian hagiographer (b. 1651)
 * October 28
 * Jean Baptiste Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes, French-Canadian explorer and soldier (b. 1668)
 * Martinus Nellius, Dutch Golden Age painter (b. 1621)

November

 * November 2 – Georg Johann Mattarnovi, German architect (b. 1677)
 * November 3 – Jan Claesz Rietschoof, Dutch Golden Age painter (b. 1652)
 * November 8 – Michel Rolle, French mathematician (b. 1652)
 * November 9 – Oley Douglas, British Member of Parliament (b. 1684)
 * November 19 – Charles-Claude Genest, French dramatist and playwright (b. 1639)
 * November 22 – William Talman, British architect; (b. 1650)
 * November 23 – John Mavrocordatos, Phanariote Prince (b. 1684)
 * November 26 – John Hudson, English classical scholar (b. 1662)
 * November 30 – Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Japanese samurai (b. 1659)

December

 * December 2 – Pasquier Quesnel, French Jansenist theologian (b. 1634)
 * December 3 – Adriaen Frans Boudewijns, Flemish painter and engraver (b. 1644)
 * December 8 – Ulrik Christian Gyldenløve, Count of Samsø, Danish nobleman and admiral (b. 1678)
 * December 9 – Charles Oliphant, British physician (b. 1666)
 * December 11
 * Chatan Chōai, sessei of Ryukyu (b. 1650)
 * Stefano Cupilli, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Split (b. 1659)
 * December 15 – Mitford Crowe, English politician (b. 1669)
 * December 24 – William O'Brien, 3rd Earl of Inchiquin, Irish Earl (b. 1662)
 * December 28 – Jacob Bobart the Younger, English botanist (b. 1641)
 * December 29 – Philip of Spain, Spanish Royal infante (b. 1712)
 * December 30 – Lord James Murray, British politician (b. 1663)
 * December 31 – John Flamsteed, English astronomer and the first Astronomer Royal (b. 1646)

 * date unknown
 * Robert Clicquot, French organ builder (b. 1645)
 * Benjamin Hornigold, English pirate (b. 1680)
 * André Raison, French composer and organist (b. 1650)
 * Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt, Swedish general (b. 1659)

title: 1719