Directory

1712 CE

Sweden finally made the switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in 1753. This year had 367 days.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • May 19 – Peter the Great moves the capital of Russia from Moscow to Saint Petersburg.source
  • August 1 – The Stamp Act 1712 is passed in the United Kingdom, imposing a tax on publishers, particularly of newspapers.source
  • August 11 – The Peace of Aarau is signed by Catholics and Protestants, ending the Toggenburg War and establishing Protestant dominance in Switzerland, while preserving the rights of Catholics.source
  • After many years of settlement, the Town on Queen Anne's Creek is established as a courthouse for Chowan County, North Carolina. The town is renamed Edenton in 1720, and incorporated in 1722.source
  • John Arbuthnot creates the character of John Bull to represent Britain.source

Conflict & Security

  • February 10 – Huilliche uprising of 1712: Huilliche people in Chile's Chiloé Archipelago rise up against Spanish encomenderos as vengeance for perceived injustices.source
  • April 6–7 – New York Slave Revolt of 1712: An insurrection in New York City results in nine whites being killed, and 21 slaves and other blacks being convicted and executed.source
  • April 11 – Great Northern War: the Battle of Fladstrand takes place at sea near Fladstrand, Jylland, between Swedish and Danish forces.source
  • July 24 – Battle of Denain: The French defeat a combined Dutch-Austrian force.source
  • July 24 – Battle of Villmergen: The Reformed cantons of Switzerland defeat the Catholic cantons.source
  • December 20 – Great Northern War: the Battle of Gadebusch is Sweden's final great victory in the war, preventing the loss of the city of Stralsund to Danish and Saxon forces.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • May 15 – Curuguaty in Paraguay is founded by Juan Gregorio de Bazán y Pedraza on the banks of the Curuguaty River.source
  • The VOC Zuytdorp is wrecked off the coast of Western Australia.source
  • Early March – Start of the Cassard expedition, a sea voyage by French Navy captain Jacques Cassard during which he ransacks Santiago in the Cape Verde Islands and pillages Montserrat, Antigua, Surinam, Berbice, Essequibo, St. Eustatius and Curaçao, returning to France with loot worth over nine million francs.source

Religion & Belief

  • January 26 – The Old Pummerin, a 18,161 kg bell newly installed in the Stephansdom, St. Stephen's Cathedral, in Vienna, is rung for the first time to mark the entry of Charles VI to Vienna from Frankfurt after his coronation as Emperor. It takes a quarter-hour for 16 men pulling on the bell rope to swing the heavy bell back-and-forth enough for the clapper to strike; the resulting forces endanger the tower so the architect orders that in future the bell be rung only by pulling its clapper.source
  • March 3 – Scottish Episcopalians Act 1711 comes into effect, leading to incorporation of the Scottish Episcopal Church.source
  • May 22 – Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor is crowned King of Hungary.source
  • June 17 – The newly built St Ann's Church, Manchester, England, is consecrated by the Bishop of Chester.source
  • December 7 – The charter of Buchach Monastery in Ukraine, founded by Stefan Aleksander Potocki and his wife Joanna née Sieniawska, is signed in Lublin.source

Economy & Finance

  • June 11 – Chatham, Barnstable County, Massachusetts is incorporated as a town.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • July 8 – The British Royal Navy 50-gun ship HMS Advice is launched at Deptford Dockyard.source
  • The first known working Newcomen steam engine is built by Thomas Newcomen with John Calley, to pump water out of mines in the Black Country of England, the first device to make practical use of the power of steam to produce mechanical work.source

Science & Discovery

  • January 8 – Total eclipse of the sun visible fromsource
  • August 23 – The British Royal Navy 60-gun ship HMS Rippon is launched at Deptford Dockyard.source
  • December 28 – Total eclipse of the sun visible fromsource

Health & Medicine

  • March 30 – Anne, Queen of Great Britain administers the Royal touch (a ritual with the intent to cure illness) for the last time; 300 scrofulous people are touched, the last of whom is Samuel Johnson.source

Crime & Justice

  • June 10 – Kurtkulağı Caravanserai in Adana Province, Turkey, is restored and 50 soldiers are appointed to guard it.source
  • October 3 – In Scotland a warrant is issued for the arrest of outlaw Rob Roy MacGregor by Advocate Sir James Stewart.source
  • November 4 – The Bandbox Plot aims to kill British Lord Treasurer Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford but is foiled by Jonathan Swift (author of Gulliver’s Travels).source

Disasters & Accidents

  • March 15 – HMS Dragon, a 38-gun fourth rate frigate of the British Royal Navy, is wrecked on Les Casquets rocks to the west of Alderney.source

Climate & Environment

  • September 8 – A severe hurricane buffets Bermuda for eight hours, destroying most of the churches.source

Culture & Society

  • January 12 – The premiere of the opera Idoménée by André Campra takes place at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris.source
  • January 16 – A military engineering school is established in Moscow which is to become the A.F. Mozhaysky Military-Space Academy.source
  • March 11 (February 30 Swedish Style, February 29 on the Julian calendar) – Sweden temporarily adopts the rare February 30, as a day to adjust the Swedish Calendar back to the Julian calendar.source
  • June 5 – Reus in Catalonia, Spain is given the title of imperial city by Elisabeth Christine, wife of Archduke Charles.source
  • July 20 – Jesus College, Oxford, England, inherits the extensive library of its Principal Jonathan Edwards on his death.source
  • September – Composer George Frideric Handel re-locates to London with the permission of his patron, the future King George I of Great Britain.source
  • October 31 – King Philip V of Spain establishes the Biblioteca Nacional de España as the Palace Public Library (Biblioteca Pública de Palacio) in Madrid.source
  • November 22 – The first performance of George Frideric Handel's opera Il pastor fido takes place at the Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket, London.source
  • December 27 – The premiere of the opera Callirhoé by André Cardinal Destouches takes place at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris.source
  • A translation of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer into Irish, made by John Richardson (1664–1747), is published.source

Births

  • January 2 – Marie-Angélique Memmie Le Blanc, French feral child (d. 1775)source
  • January 5 – Ludwig van Beethoven the Elder, Flemish-born German professional singer and music director, grandfather of the well known composer of the same name (d. 1773)source
  • February 28 – Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, French general (d. 1759)source
  • March 28 – Empress Xiaoxianchun, empress consort of Qing dynasty China (d. 1748)source
  • April 23 – Devasahayam Pillai, beatified Indian Catholic (d. 1752)source
  • May 13 – Count Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff, German-Danish statesman (d. 1772)source
  • July 12 – Sir Francis Bernard, 1st Baronet, British Colonial governor of New Jersey and Massachusetts Bay (d. 1779)source
  • August 12 – Jonas Hanway, English traveller and philanthropist (d. 1786)source
  • October 24 – Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp, German duchess (d. 1760)source
  • October 30 – Giovanni Pietro Francesco Agius de Soldanis, Maltese linguist, historian and cleric (d. 1770)source
  • November 24 – Charles-Michel de l'Épée, French priest and educator of the deaf (d. 1789)source
  • December 9 – Alexander Murray of Elibank, Scottish Jacobite intriguer, fourth son of Alexander Murray (d. 1778)source
  • December 12 – Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine, Lorraine-born Austrian general and soldier (d. 1780)source
  • December 31 – Peter Boehler, German-English Moravian bishop and missionary (d. 1775)source

Deaths

  • January 5 – Richard Jones, 1st Earl of Ranelagh, Irish politician (b. 1641)source
  • February 2 – Martin Lister, English naturalist, physician (b. c. 1638)source
  • February 12 – Marie Adélaïde of Savoy, wife of Louis, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1685)source
  • March 2 – Lorenzo Magalotti, Italian philosopher (b. 1637)source
  • March 28 – Jan van der Heyden, Dutch painter (b. 1637)source
  • March 30 – Johann Friedrich Mayer, German Lutheran theologian (b. 1650)source
  • May 20 – Christian Ernst, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1655–1712) (b. 1644)source
  • June 11 – Louis Joseph, Duke of Vendôme, French military commander (b. 1654)source
  • June 24 – Simon van der Stel, last Commander and first Governor of the Cape Colony (b. 1639)source
  • July 26 – Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds, English statesman (b. 1631)source
  • August 18 – Richard Savage, 4th Earl Rivers, English soldier (b. c. 1660)source
  • September 15 – Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin, English politician (b. c.1645)source
  • November 5 – Charles Honoré d'Albert, duc de Luynes, French noble (b. 1646)source
  • November 15 – James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton, Scottish peer (b. 1658)source