January–March •
January 1 – Count
Carl Gyllenborg, the
Swedish ambassador to
Great Britain, was arrested in
London for 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,
April–June •
April 26 – The
Whydah Gally, flagship of English pirate
Samuel Bellamy, is wrecked in a storm off
Wellfleet, Massachusetts. The
Whydah sinks with a reputed 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
Bogotá, later declares independence and splits up into what become 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 "Blackbeard" Teach 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 of Bahrain. • 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 ==