Directory

1706 CE

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. The Treaty of Union between Scotland and England is agreed upon in London, for ratification by the national legislatures. Twinings founder, Thomas Twining, opens the first known tea room at 216 Strand, London, still open .

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • 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.source
  • March 31 – The last Courts (parliament) of the Principality of Catalonia are finished; their dissolution is presided over by King Philip V of Spain.source
  • July 22 – The Treaty of Union between Scotland and England is agreed upon in London, for ratification by the national legislatures.source
  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • 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.source

Conflict & Security

  • 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.source
  • January 26 – 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.source
  • 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.source
  • April 10 – The Battle of Grodno ends with a Swedish victory over Russian troops.source
  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • October 13 – 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.source
  • 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 Baysource
  • December 14 – Spanish General Alexandre Maître, Marquis de Bay leads the successful capture of Alcántara from Portugalsource

Exploration & Expansion

  • 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.source
  • 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 Russiasource
  • 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.source

Religion & Belief

  • 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.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • October – Twinings founder, Thomas Twining, opens the first known tea room at 216 Strand, London, still open .source

Health & Medicine

  • 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.source

Crime & Justice

  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • 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.source

Culture & Society

  • 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.source

Births

  • January 7 – Johann Heinrich Zedler, German publisher (d. 1751)source
  • March 4 – Lauritz de Thurah, Danish architect and architectural writer (d. 1759)source
  • March 28 – Andrew Oliver, merchant and public official in the province of Massachusetts Bay (d. 1774)source
  • April 18 – William Brattle, Attorney General of province of Massachusetts Bay as well as a physician (d. 1776)source
  • May 20 – Seth Pomeroy, American gunsmith and soldier from Northampton (d. 1777)source
  • June 15 – Johann Joachim Kändler, German sculptor and important modeller of the Meissen porcelain manufactury (d. 1775)source
  • July 3 – Robert Lee, 4th Earl of Lichfield, English politician and peer (d. 1776)source
  • August 4 – Frederick Charles, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön (d. 1761)source
  • August 11 – Princess Marie Auguste of Thurn and Taxis, Regent of Württemberg (d. 1756)source
  • August 16 – Bakht Singh of Marwar, Indian Raja of the Rathore Clan (d. 1752)source
  • September 21 – Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg, second wife of Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia (d. 1735)source
  • October 18 – Baldassare Galuppi, Venetian composer (d. 1785)source
  • November 11 – Frederick William II, Prince of Nassau-Siegen, last Prince of Nassau-Siegen from the Calvinist line (d. 1734)source
  • December 17 – Émilie du Châtelet, French mathematician and physicist (d. 1749)source

Deaths

  • January 29 – Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset, English noble and politician (b. 1638)source
  • February 9 – Petrus van Mastricht, Reformed theologian from Cologne, Germany (b. 1630)source
  • February 27 – John Evelyn, English writer, gardener and diarist (b. 1620)source
  • March 9 – Johann Pachelbel, German composer, organist and teacher (b. 1653)source
  • April 10 – Arthur Chichester, 3rd Earl of Donegall, English general (b. 1666)source
  • April 25 – Thomas Hinckley, last colonial governor of Plymouth Colony (b. 1618)source
  • May 2 – Georg Joseph Kamel, Czech pharmacist, botanist and missionary (b. 1661)source
  • May 26 – Marcantonio Barbarigo, Italian Roman Catholic cardinal and venerable (b. 1640)source
  • July 2 – Kimpa Vita, Kongo Empire guérisseuse and Congolese prophet (b. 1684)source
  • August 6 – Jean-Baptiste du Hamel, French cleric and natural philosopher (b. 1624)source
  • October 13 – Iyasu I, emperor of Ethiopia (b. 1654)source
  • October 27 – Arsenije III Crnojević, Serbian archbishop (b. 1633)source
  • November 9 – Peter Mews, English Royalist theologian and bishop (b. 1619)source
  • November 16 – Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest, Dutch admiral (b. 1642)source