Directory

1708 CE

HMS Falmouth, a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line built at Woolwich Dockyard for the British Royal Navy, is launched. (O.S.); September 29 (Swedish calendar); October 9 (N.S.) – Great Northern War: Battle of Lesnaya – Peter the Great of Russia defeats the forces of the Swedish Empire. Deborah Churchill, British pickpocket and prostitute, is executed before a large crowd for being an accomplice to murder.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • July 1 – Tewoflos becomes Emperor of Ethiopia.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 1 – Charles XII of Sweden invades Russia, by crossing the frozen Vistula River with 40,000 men.source
  • January 7 – Bashkir rebels besiege Yelabuga.source
  • January 12 – Shahu I becomes the fifth Chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire in the Indian subcontinent.source
  • March 11 – Anne, Queen of Great Britain, withholds Royal Assent from the Scottish Militia Bill, the last time a British monarch vetoes legislation.source
  • July 11 – War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Oudenarde – Allied forces under the command of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, defeat the French in the Spanish Netherlands.source
  • August 3 – In the Battle of Trenčín, 8,000 soldiers of the Imperial Army of the Habsburgs are victorious over the 15,000 Hungarian Kuruc forces of Francis II Rákóczi.source
  • August 18 – War of the Spanish Succession: Menorca is captured by British forces.source
  • August 29 – A French-Native American attack in Haverhill, Massachusetts kills 16 settlers.source
  • September 28 (O.S.); September 29 (Swedish calendar); October 9 (N.S.) – Great Northern War: Battle of Lesnaya – Peter the Great of Russia defeats the forces of the Swedish Empire.source
  • October 12 – War of the Spanish Succession: Dutch, British and Austrian forces capture Lille after a two-month siege, although the citadel continues to hold out for another six weeks.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • March 23 – James Francis Edward Stuart, Jacobite pretender to the throne of Great Britain, unsuccessfully tries to land from a French fleet in the Firth of Forth in Scotland.source

Religion & Belief

  • October 26 – Topping out of new St Paul's Cathedral in London.source

Economy & Finance

  • The Company of Merchants of London Trading (with consent of the Parliament of Great Britain) merges with the East Indies, and the more recently established English Company Trading to the East Indies, to form the United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies, known as the Honourable East India Company.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • February 26 – HMS Falmouth, a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line built at Woolwich Dockyard for the British Royal Navy, is launched.source
  • Calcareous hard-paste porcelain is produced for the first time in Europe, at Dresden, Saxony, by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus, and developed after his death (October) by Johann Friedrich Böttger.source

Science & Discovery

  • Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico delivers his inaugural lecture to the University of Naples, which will be published in 1709 as his first book, De Nostri Temporis Studiorum Ratione (On the Order of the Scholarly Disciplines of Our Times).source

Crime & Justice

  • December 17 – Deborah Churchill, British pickpocket and prostitute, is executed before a large crowd for being an accomplice to murder.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • April 28 – The Great Hoei fire breaks out in Kyoto, Japan, destroying the Imperial Palace and a large portion of the old capital.source
  • June 8 – War of the Spanish Succession: Wager's Action, a naval confrontation, takes place between a British squadron under Charles Wager and the Spanish treasure fleet off Cartagena in the Caribbean Sea. Spanish galleon San José explodes and sinks with the loss of almost all her 600 crew and an estimated 8.8 million ounces troy weight in gold; her wreck is located in 2015.source
  • Fearful of a Swedish attack, the Russians blow up the city of Tartu, Estonia.source
  • The Russians burn the city of Porvoo, Finland (at the time part of Sweden).source

Culture & Society

  • April 8 – Easter Sunday: The first performance of George Frideric Handel's oratorio La resurrezione takes place in Rome.source
  • April 9 – Ottoman princess Emine Sultan, daughter of Sultan Mustafa II, marries Grand Vizier Çorlulu Ali Pasha.source
  • August 23 – Meidingu Pamheiba is crowned King of Manipur.source
  • August – The future Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor weds Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.source
  • December 14 – The première of Electre by Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon takes place in Paris.source
  • Johann Sebastian Bach is appointed as chamber musician and organist, at the court in Weimar.source

Births

  • January 3 – Johannes Van Rensselaer, member of the prominent colonial Van Rensselaer family (d. 1783)source
  • January 15 – Giovanni Salvemini, Italian mathematician and astronomer (d. 1791)source
  • January 25 – Pompeo Batoni, Italian painter (d. 1787)source
  • February 29 – Peter Jefferson, father of US President Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) (d. 1757)source
  • March 31 – Jean Chastel, farmer and inn-keeper from the province of Gévaudan in France (d. 1790)source
  • April 18 – James Cholmondeley, British Army officer and Member of Parliament between 1731 and 1747 (d. 1775)source
  • May 29 – Henry Bilson-Legge, English statesman and three times as Chancellor of the Exchequer (d. 1764)source
  • July 8 – Claude-Henri de Fusée de Voisenon, French playwright and writer (d. 1775)source
  • September 4 – Jean-Baptiste Nicolas Roch de Ramezay, officer of the marines, colonial administrator for New France (d. 1777)source
  • October 9 – Louis César de La Baume Le Blanc, French nobleman, bibliophile and military man (d. 1780)source
  • October 16 – Albrecht von Haller, Swiss anatomist and physiologist (d. 1777)source
  • December 2 – Theodorick Bland of Cawsons, clerk of the court of Prince George County, Virginia (d. 1784)source
  • December 8 – Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, Welsh diplomat, writer and satirist (d. 1759)source
  • December 16 – Robert Livingston, third and final Lord of Livingston Manor (d. 1790)source

Deaths

  • April 20 – Damaris Cudworth Masham, English philosopher (b. 1659)source
  • May 6 – François de Laval, first bishop of New France (b. 1623)source
  • May 11 – Jules Hardouin-Mansart, French Baroque architect (b. 1646)source
  • June 5 – Ignatius George II, Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch (b. 1648)source
  • June 28 – Melchor Liñán y Cisneros, Spanish Catholic archbishop (b. 1629)source
  • July 5 – Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Montferrat, only child of Duke Charles II (b. 1652)source
  • September 19 – Francis Newport, 1st Earl of Bradford, English politician (b. 1620)source
  • October 7 – Guru Gobind Singh, 10th Guru Sahib of Sikhism, social reformist, poet and revolutionary (b. 1666)source
  • October 11 – Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus, German mathematician (b. 1651)source
  • October 21 – Christian Weise, German writer, dramatist, poet, pedagogue and librarian (b. 1642)source
  • October 28 – Prince George of Denmark, consort of Anne, Queen of Great Britain (b. 1653)source
  • November 3 – Countess Henriette Catherine of Nassau, daughter of Frederick Henry (b. 1637)source
  • December 16 – Juan Ortega y Montañés, Spanish Catholic bishop, colonial administrator in Guatemala and New Spain (b. 1627)source
  • December 16 – Nicolas Pasquin, early pioneer in New France (now Quebec) (b. 1648)source