Directory

1702 CE

In North America, ships from Fort Maurepas arrive at Twenty-Seven Mile Bluff to build Fort Louis de la Mobile (future Mobile, Alabama), to become the capital of French Louisiana. General John Churchill forces the surrender of Venlo on the Meuse River. Queen Anne's War: Battle of Flint River – Spanish and Apalachee Indian forces fail in their attack against Creek Indians, supported by English traders, in the modern-day U.S. state of Georgia.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • The Delaware Colony legislature is separated from that of Pennsylvania.source

Conflict & Security

  • February 1 – War of the Spanish Succession – Battle of Cremona: The Duc de Villeroy, commander of the French Army, is taken as a prisoner of war by the Austrian Army.source
  • March 24 – Great Northern War: Battle of Darsūniškis – The Swedish army of about 240 men under the command of Alexander Hummerhielm is defeated by the Polish–Saxon army of 6,000 men under Michał Serwacy Wiśniowiecki.source
  • April 15 – The British Province of New Jersey, encompassing all of the modern-day U.S. state of New Jersey and portions of New York, is created as proprietary owners in the provinces of East Jersey and West Jersey surrender their rights to the Crown.source
  • May 14 (N.S.) – War of the Spanish Succession: War is declared on France by the Grand Alliance (Kingdom of England, Dutch Republic and Holy Roman Empire).source
  • May 15 (May 4 O.S.) – King Charles XII of Sweden and his troops walk unopposed into Warsaw after troops capture the city.source
  • June 2 – English General John Churchill, later the Duke of Marlborough, takes command of the alliance of English, Dutch and German troops in the War of the Spanish Succession.source
  • June 11 – Anglo-Dutch forces skirmish with French forces before the walls of Nijmegen and prevent its fall.source
  • June 15 – Queen Anne's Captain-General, John Churchill, forces the surrender of Kaiserswerth on the Rhine after a siege that began on April 18.source
  • July 19 (July 8 O.S.; July 9 Swedish calendar) – Great Northern War: Battle of Klissow – Charles XII of Sweden decisively defeats the Polish–Lithuanian-Saxon army.source
  • July 24 – Camisard hostilities begin in France with the assassination at le Pont-de-Montvert of a local embodiment of royal oppression, François Langlade, the Abbé of Chaila.source
  • July 30 (July 19 O.S.; July 20 Swedish calendar) – Great Northern War: Battle of Hummelshof – Russia defeats Sweden.source
  • August 11 – Great Northern War: Częstochowa, Poland, is captured by the Swedish army.source
  • August 15 – War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Luzzara – Forces of the Holy Roman Empire fail to break through the French-Savoyard position in Lombardy.source
  • September 12 – The Siege of Landau (War of the Spanish Succession) ends after 3 months with forces of the Holy Roman Empire capturing the fortress town in the Rhineland-Palatinate from a French garrison.source
  • September 25 – General John Churchill forces the surrender of Venlo on the Meuse River.source
  • September 30 – War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Cádiz – A month-long Anglo-Dutch amphibious operation under English Admiral Sir George Rooke fails to take the Spanish port.source
  • October 7 – Great Northern War: Russian troops besiege the Swedish fortress of Nöteborg, and capture it after 15 days.source
  • October 14 – War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Friedlingen – France defeats forces of the Holy Roman Empire.source
  • October 18 – Queen Anne's War: Battle of Flint River – Spanish and Apalachee Indian forces fail in their attack against Creek Indians, supported by English traders, in the modern-day U.S. state of Georgia.source
  • October 27 – Queen Anne's War in North America: English troops plunder St. Augustine, Spanish Florida.source
  • November 10 – Queen Anne's War in North America: The Siege of St. Augustine opens as English forces besiege St. Augustine, Spanish Florida.source
  • December 30 – Queen Anne's War: The Siege of St. Augustine in Spanish Florida is lifted.source
  • Battle of Vigo Bay – Anglo-Dutch naval forces under English Admiral Sir George Rooke capture the defended Spanish port of Cádiz and take or destroy all the Spanish treasure fleet and escorting French warships there.source
  • Churchill forces the surrender of Liège.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • April 24 – The first two missionaries from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts set sail from England to North America.source
  • June 16 – The English East India Company founds a settlement on Pulo Condore (modern-day Côn Sơn Island) off the coast of southern Vietnam as an entrepôt for ships travelling between India and China.source
  • July 24 – A total eclipse of the sun is visible on a path crossing the northern Pacific Ocean and Central America.source
  • October 28 – Sieur Juchereau, Lieutenant General of Montréal, establishes the first trading post on the Wabash River in order to trade buffalo hides with American Indians. The site of the trading post may be the modern-day location of Vincennes, Indiana.source

Economy & Finance

  • November 22 – The Dutch East India Company ship Amsterdam (1691) founders en route from Bombay to Basra during a storm with the loss of all hands.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January 12 – In North America, ships from Fort Maurepas arrive at Twenty-Seven Mile Bluff to build Fort Louis de la Mobile (future Mobile, Alabama), to become the capital of French Louisiana.source

Science & Discovery

  • January 2 – A total solar eclipse is visible from the southern Pacific Ocean.source
  • April 20 – Comet C/1702 H1 is discovered and passes within 0.0435 AU (a little more than four million miles or 6.5 million km) of the Earth.source
  • May 5 – Globular cluster Messier 5 (M5, NGC 5904) is discovered by Gottfried Kirch and his wife Maria Margarethe.source
  • September 19 – Jupiter occults Neptune.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • April 3 – The Dutch East India Company ship Merestein strikes rocks and sinks in Saldanha Bay off Jutten Island, Africa with the loss of 101 of the 200 people on board.source
  • May 16 – Much of the city of Uppsala, Sweden is destroyed in a fire.source
  • May 19 – Over 90% of the city of Bergen, Norway, is destroyed and reduced to ashes in a Great Fire.source

Climate & Environment

  • March 14 – An earthquake in the middle of the Calore valley in Italy, east of Benevento, kills 400 people.source
  • April 14 – Volcanic eruption of Changbaishan volcano (also known as Paektu Mountain) on the China/Korea border takes place.source

Culture & Society

  • March 22 (March 11 Old Style) – The first regular English-language national newspaper, The Daily Courant, begins publication on Fleet Street in the City of London, initially by Elizabeth Mallet; it covers only foreign news.source
  • May 6 – Cloudesley Shovell is promoted to full admiral in the English navy.source
  • June 25 – The premiere of the opera L'Offendere per amore overo la Telesilla by Johann Joseph Fux takes place in Vienna.source
  • July 23 – The first performance of the opera Médus, roi des Mèdes by François Bouvard takes place at the Paris Opera.source
  • October 1 – The founding deed of the University of Wrocław is signed by the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I of the House of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia.source
  • October 19 – The opera Der Sieg der fruchtbaren Pomona by Reinhard Keiser is premiered at the Hamburg Opera for the birthday of King Frederick IV of Denmark.source
  • November 7 – The first performance of the opera Tancrède by André Campra takes place at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris.source
  • November 15 – The opera La Clemenza d'Augusto by Johann Joseph Fux is premiered in Vienna.source
  • December 14 – John Churchill is created duke of Marlborough.source
  • Richard Bentley at Cambridge in England introduces the first written (as opposed to oral) competitive examinations in a Western university.source
  • The travel diary Oku no Hosomichi ("Narrow road to the deep north"), a major work of haibun by the Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō and one of the major texts of Japanese literature of the Edo period, is published eight years after Bashō's death.source

Births

  • January 13 – Thomas Arthur, comte de Lally, French general of Irish Jacobite ancestry (d. 1766)source
  • January 18 – Sava II Petrović-Njegoš, Metropolitan of Cetinje (d. 1782)source
  • March 4 – Jack Sheppard, British burglar and escaper (d. 1724)source
  • March 19 – Thomas Penn, son of American colonial leader William Penn (d. 1775)source
  • April 20 – Zenón de Somodevilla, 1st Marquess of Ensenada, Spanish noble (d. 1781)source
  • May 2 – Friedrich Christoph Oetinger, German Lutheran theologian and theosopher (d. 1782)source
  • May 21 – John Rous, Royal Navy officer during King George's War and the Seven Years' War (d. 1760)source
  • August 26 – George Carpenter, 2nd Baron Carpenter, of England (d. 1749)source
  • August 28 – Jean Philippe d'Orléans, illegitimate son of future French regent Philippe d'Orleans (d. 1748)source
  • August 31 – Louis-François Roubiliac, French sculptor who worked in England (d. 1762)source
  • November 5 – Grégoire Orlyk, Ukrainian-born French Lieutenant General (d. 1759)source
  • November 7 – Abhai Singh of Marwar, Raja of Marwar (Jodhpur) Kingdom (r (d. 1749)source
  • November 9 – Jacques-Georges Chauffepié, French biographer, Calvinist minister and preacher (d. 1786)source
  • December 17 – Robert Knight, 1st Earl of Catherlough, Member of the British Parliament (d. 1772)source

Deaths

  • March 3 (February 20 O.S.) – King William III of England is fatally injured in an accident when he is thrown from his horse, "Sorrel", when it trips on a molehill in Hampton Court Park near London. Already in poor health before the accident, he dies from complications 16 days later at the age of 51.source
  • March 4 – Ignatius Gregory Peter VI Shahbaddin, Patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church from 1678 to 1702 (b. c. 1641)source
  • April 20 – Anna Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury, English countess (b. 1642)source
  • May 26 – Zeb-un-Nissa, Mughal princess and poet, imprisoned by her father for the last 20 years of her life (b. 1638)source
  • June 2 – John Moore, Member of Parliament for the City of London (b. 1620)source
  • June 20 – John Leyburn, English Roman Catholic bishop, Vicar Apostolic of England (b. 1615)source
  • August 1 – Sir William Courtenay, 1st Baronet, English politician (b. 1628)source
  • August 14 – Louis Thomas, Count of Soissons and Prince of Savoy (b. 1657)source
  • September 28 – Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland, English statesman (b. 1641)source
  • October 15 – Frances Stewart, Duchess of Richmond, famous for refusing to become a mistress of Charles II of England (b. 1647)source
  • October 17 – Walrad, Prince of Nassau-Usingen, German prince and founder of the line of Nassau-Usingen (b. 1636)source
  • October 22 – Guy Aldonce de Durfort de Lorges, French noble and soldier (b. 1630)source
  • November 4 – John Benbow, English officer in the Royal Navy (b. 1653)source
  • December 8 – Philippe, Chevalier de Lorraine, French nobleman and member of the House of Guise (b. 1643)source