January–March •
January 7 – A partial
solar eclipse,
Solar Saros 146, is visible in
Antarctica. •
January 25–
26 –
Apalachee massacre: English colonists from the
Province of Carolina, and their native allies, stage a series of brutal raids against a largely pacific population of
Apalachee, in
Spanish Florida. •
February 28 – Establishment of the first school open to African-Americans in
New York City by Frenchman
Elias Neau. •
February 29 –
Raid on Deerfield (
Queen Anne's War):
French Canadians and
Native Americans sack
Deerfield, Massachusetts, killing over 50 English colonists. •
February – In America,
Mardi Gras is celebrated with the
Masque de la Mobile in the capital of
Louisiana (New France),
Mobile, Alabama. •
March 7 –
War of the Spanish Succession:
Prince Karl of Habsburg, brother of Joseph I, the Holy Roman Emperor and a pretender to the throne of
Spain, arrives in Portugal on the English warship
HMS Royal Katherine as part of
George Rooke's English fleet sailing into
Lisbon. •
March 23 –
War of the Spanish Succession: The English Navy ships HMS
Kent, HMS
Bedford and HMS
Antelope intercept two newly-built Spanish warships,
Porta Coeli and
Santa Teresa off of the coast of
Cape Spartel, as the Spaniards attempt to sail into the
Strait of Gibraltar. The two Spanish ships are captured after a seven-hour battle and taken toward
Lisbon, but the
Santa Teresa sinks along the way.
April–June •
April 21 –
Battle of Biskupice: The
Hungarians (
Kurucs) win a costly victory over the
Danes. •
April 24 – The first regular
newspaper in the
Thirteen Colonies of
British North America,
The Boston News-Letter, is published. •
May 19–
23 – Vigorous
Strombolian activity from
Mount Vesuvius, Italy is recorded. •
May 28 –
Battle of Smolenice:
Kuruc rebels defeat the Austrian army and its allies. •
June 2 – Annular
solar eclipse is visible from a region of the
Southern Ocean between
South Africa and
Antarctica. •
June 13 –
Battle of Koroncó: Austrians and their allies from Denmark,
Prussia,
Croatia, Germany and
Vojvodina defeat the Kurucs. •
June 17 – Total
lunar eclipse takes place, Saros series 125.
July–September •
July –
Daniel Defoe documents the
Great Storm of 1703 in England, with eyewitness testimonies, in
The Storm. •
July 12 –
Great Northern War – King
Charles XII of Sweden forces the election of his ally
Stanisław Leszczyński as
King of Poland, in place of
Augustus II the Strong. •
August 3 (July 23
Old Style) –
War of the Spanish Succession –
Gibraltar is captured from Spain, by
English and
Dutch forces under
Sir George Rooke. •
August 7 –
Battle of Orford Ness. •
August 13 (August 2 OS) – War of the Spanish Succession –
Battle of Blenheim: Allied troops under
John Churchill, Earl of Marlborough and
Prince Eugene of Savoy defeat the
Franco-
Bavarian army. •
August 24 (August 13 OS) – War of the Spanish Succession – The French and Anglo-Dutch fleets
clash off Málaga, causing heavy casualties on both sides, but without sinking any ships. •
September 8 – War of the Spanish Succession – The
Twelfth Siege of Gibraltar by French and Spanish troops begins. •
September 12 –
War of the Spanish Succession: The siege of the French-held German town of
Landau, by Holy Roman Empire troops under the command of
Ludwig Wilhelm von Baden-Baden begins and lasts for more than ten weeks before the French surrender on
November 23. During the siege, the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I visits the area in a newly-developed vehicle, a
convertible horse-drawn carriage that has a removable roof. The style of vehicle itself is later called a "
landau". •
September 28 –
Damat Hasan Pasha,
Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, is removed from office by Ottoman Sultan
Ahmed III, and replaced by Kalaylikoz Ahmed Pasha.
October–December •
October 24 – A peace treaty is signed between Prince
Ferenc Rákóczi of
Transylvania, and representatives of the Holy Roman Emperor,
Leopold I at Schemnitz (now the Slovakian town of
Banská Štiavnica) •
October 28 –
Great Northern War: The
Battle of Poniec takes place as King Charles XII leads Swedish troops in pursuit of the Saxon Army commanded by General
Johann von der Schulenburg. The Swedes are forced to retreat despite surrounding the Saxons, and Schulenburg's troops escape. •
November 11 –
Twelfth Siege of Gibraltar: A Spanish Bourbon special forces battalion, guided by Simon Susarte, scales the steepest side of the
Rock of Gibraltar in an attempt to surprise the British defenders, and kills the English sentries who have been manning the lookout. The attack is foiled the next day when a drummer boy, who was bringing food to the sentries, spots the invaders and raises the alarm. •
November 26 – The inauguration of the newly built
Kastelskirken takes place in
Copenhagen,
Denmark. •
November 27 – Annular
solar eclipse is visible through
Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, eastern
China,
Myanmar and northern
Philippines. •
December 6 –
Battle of Chamkaur: During the Mughal-Sikh Wars, an outnumbered Sikh Khalsa defeats a Mughal army. •
December 25 – The fall of the
meteorite of
Barcelona is seen and heard over distances up to hundreds of kilometres and is interpreted as a divine sign.
Date unknown •
Great Northern War: Russian troops under Tsar
Peter the Great capture
Tartu and
Narva. • The
Sultanate of Brunei cedes its north-east territories to the
Sultanate of Sulu. • The lower three counties of the
Province of Pennsylvania become the colony of
Delaware. • An
earthquake strikes
Gondar,
Ethiopia. •
Tenerife's earliest recorded volcanic eruption takes place from three fissure emission centres: Siete Fuentes,
Fasnia and
Arafo. •
A Tale of a Tub, the first major satire by
Jonathan Swift (written 1694–1697), is published in London, running through three editions this year. •
Isaac Newton publishes his
Opticks. He also predicts that the world will end in 2060. • The Students' Monument is built in
Aiud,
Romania. •
Chinese Rites controversy: Rome decrees that Roman ceremonial practice in
Latin (not in Chinese) is to be the law for Chinese missions. •
Nerchinsky Zavod is founded in the
Nerchinsko-Zavodsky District of
Zabaykalsky Krai,
Russia by Greek mining engineers. •
Thomas Darley purchases the bay
Arabian horse Darley Arabian in
Aleppo,
Syria, and ships him to stud in England, where he becomes the most important
foundation sire of all modern
thoroughbred racing bloodstock. • Giancomo Miraldi observes
Martian polar ice caps as "white spots" at the Martian poles. == Births ==