January–March •
January 26 •
War of Spanish Succession:
The uprising by Bavarians against the occupation of the
Electorate of Bavaria by
Austrian troops ends after 75 days, and ends the plans of
Maximilian II Emanuel, the
Elector of Bavaria, to bring Bavaria under the rule of the
House of Wittelsbach. •
Great Northern War –
Battle of Grodno: A coalition of 34,000 Swedish and Polish troops besieges the then-Lithuanian city in the winter time, and clashes with 41,000 Russian and Saxon troops. After almost three months of fighting that lasts to
April 10, Sweden takes control of the city, which is now located in
Belarus. •
February 6 – The city of
Albuquerque, New Mexico, is incorporated by governor Don Francisco Cuervo y Valdes as
La Villa de Alburquerque in the Spanish colonial province of
Santa Fe de Nuevo México in
New Spain. Governor Cuervo sends a report on April 23 to the Spanish Crown and to New Spain's Governor,
Francisco Fernández de la Cueva, 10th Duke of Alburquerque announcing that the new villa, consisting of 35 families and having a population of 252 adults, has been named in honor of the Duke. •
February 13 –
Great Northern War –
Battle of Fraustadt: Outnumbered more than 4 to 1 in infantry troops, and more than 2 to 1 overall, Swedish troops under the command of General
Carl Gustaf Rehnskiöld defeat a larger force of 20,000 Russian and Saxon infantry and cavalry. •
March 21 –
Mary Channing, who was pregnant at the time that she was convicted of the murder of her husband, is burned at the stake at
Dorset, in front of a crowd of 10,000 onlookers. •
March 27 – Concluding that Emperor
Iyasus I of Ethiopia has abdicated by retiring to a monastery, a council of high officials appoint
Tekle Haymanot I Emperor of Ethiopia. •
March 31 – The last
Courts (parliament) of the
Principality of Catalonia are finished; their dissolution is presided over by King
Philip V of Spain.
April–June •
April 10 – The
Battle of Grodno ends with a Swedish victory over Russian troops. •
April 27 –
War of the Spanish Succession: After
a siege of 14 days, a French and Spanish army fails to take control of
Barcelona, which had been captured by Habsburg armies in 1705. •
May 12 – A
total eclipse of the Sun takes place and is visible in most of Europe, with a path crossing modern-day Spain, France, Germany, Poland and Russia •
May 23 –
War of the Spanish Succession –
Battle of Ramillies: English, Dutch, German, Swiss and Scottish troops led by
John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, defeat Franco-Bavarian forces in the Low Countries. •
June 9 –
Frederick IV of Denmark-Norway sends the first two Protestant missionaries to India, dispatching Lutherans Heinrich Plütcshau and Bartholomeus Ziegenbalg to
Denmark-Norway's colony in India, the
Dansk Ostindien, based at
Tharangambadi ("Tranquebar") in what is now the
Tamil Nadu state. •
June 11 – In
Tibet,
Lha-bzang Khan, khan of the
Khoshut, kills the regent and kidnaps the
6th Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, and kills the Lama's regent. •
June 28 –
War of the Spanish Succession: Troops dispatched from Portugal capture
Madrid and proclaim the Habsburg dynasty's
Archduke Charles of Austria to be the King Carlos III of Spain, after the Bourbon ruler,
Philip V, has fled. •
June 29 – Flemish Jesuit missionary
François Noël is welcomed in
China by the
Kangxi Emperor at the Forbidden City in
Beijing, and discusses the Emperor's disdain over the
disapproval of Jesuit accommodation of Confucian rites by the Roman Catholic Church.
July–September •
July 22 – The
Treaty of Union between
Scotland and
England is agreed upon in London, for ratification by the national legislatures. •
August 4 –
War of the Spanish Succession: The Spanish Bourbon armies of
King Philip V retake
Madrid from the Portuguese and Habsburg Austria troops that had entered the city in June. •
August 18 – King
Louis XIV of France makes his last visit to
Paris, and gets an update on the construction of the veterans' hospital at the
Dome des Invalides, which he had commissioned more than 35 years earlier. •
September 7 – War of the Spanish Succession –
Battle of Turin: Forces of
Austria and
Savoy defeat the French near what is now the Italian city of Torino.
October–December •
October 13 •
Augustus II, known as August der Starke (Augustus the Strong), Elector of Saxony, having ruled as King of Poland since 1706, signs the
Treaty of Altranstädt (1706), renouncing all claims to the throne to settle his fight with Sweden during the
Great Northern War. •
Iyasu I, Emperor of Ethiopia since 1682, is assassinated on the island of Tana, on orders of his son,
Tekle Haymanot I, who has ruled in Iyasu's place. After being crowned as the new Emperor, Tekle Haymanot is stabbed to death in 1708 on orders of Iyasu's brother,
Tewoflos. •
October –
Twinings founder, Thomas Twining, opens the first known
tea room at 216
Strand, London, still open . •
November 4 – The
Parliament of Scotland votes, 116 to 83, to approve the merger of Scotland with England to form the
Kingdom of Great Britain. •
November 6 – A British attempt to conquer the
Canary Islands fails when a fleet of 12
Royal Navy warships, commanded by
Admiral John Jennings is forced to retreat after
being met by a heavy artillery attack while sailing into Santa Cruz Bay •
November 15 – Five months after having been deposed from his position as the
Dalai Lama,
Tsangyang Gyatso disappears while in exile in
Qinghai and is presumed to have been murdered. •
November 28 – The royal wedding of
Prussia takes place in
Berlin between the 18-year-old
Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm and his bride
Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, the 19-year-old daughter of the future King
George I of Great Britain. •
December 9 –
João V becomes the new
King of Portugal upon the death of his father,
Dom Pedro II, and begins a reign of 43 years. •
December 14 – Spanish General
Alexandre Maître, Marquis de Bay leads the successful capture of
Alcántara from
Portugal •
December 31 –
François Martin, the first Governor General of
French India (now part of India's union territory of
Puducherry), retires after seven years and is replaced by
Pierre Dulivier. == Births ==