1708

In the Swedish calendar it was a leap year starting on Wednesday, one day ahead of the Julian and ten days behind the Gregorian calendar.

Events

January–June

January 1 - Charles XII of Sweden invades Russia, by crossing the frozen Vistula River with 40,000 men.
January 7 – Bashkir rebels besiege Yelabuga.
January 12 - Shahu I becomes the fifth Chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire in the Indian subcontinent.
February 26 - HMS Falmouth, a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line built at Woolwich Dockyard for the British Royal Navy, is launched.
March 11 - Anne, Queen of Great Britain, withholds Royal Assent from the Scottish Militia Bill, the last time a British monarch vetoes legislation.
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.
April 8 - Easter Sunday: The first performance of George Frideric Handel's oratorio La resurrezione takes place in Rome.
April 9 - Ottoman princess Emine Sultan, daughter of Sultan Mustafa II, marries Grand Vizier Çorlulu Ali Pasha.
April 28 - The Great Hoei fire breaks out in Kyoto, Japan, destroying the Imperial Palace and a large portion of the old capital.
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.

July–December

July 1 - Tewoflos becomes Emperor of Ethiopia.
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.
August - The future Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor weds Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.
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.
August 18 - War of the Spanish Succession: Menorca is captured by British forces.
August 23 - Meidingu Pamheiba is crowned King of Manipur.
August 29 - A French-Native American attack in Haverhill, Massachusetts kills 16 settlers.
September 28 ; September 29 ; October 9 - Great Northern War: Battle of Lesnaya - Peter the Great of Russia defeats the forces of the Swedish Empire.
October 12 - War of the Spanish Succession: British forces capture Lille after a two-month siege, although the citadel continues to hold out for another six weeks.
October 26 - Topping out of new St Paul's Cathedral in London.
December 14 - The première of Electre by Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon takes place in Paris.
December 17 - Deborah Churchill, British pickpocket and prostitute, is executed before a large crowd for being an accomplice to murder.

Date unknown

Fearful of a Swedish attack, the Russians blow up the city of Tartu, Estonia.
The Russians burn the city of Porvoo, Finland.
One third of the population of Masuria dies of the plague.
Johann Sebastian Bach is appointed as chamber musician and organist, at the court in Weimar.
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.
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 by Johann Friedrich Böttger.
The Company of Merchants of London Trading 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.

Births

January–March

January 1 - Anton Wilhelm Plaz, German physician and botanist
January 3 - Johannes Van Rensselaer, member of the prominent colonial Van Rensselaer family
January 10 - Donat Nonnotte, French painter who specialized in portraiture
January 14 - Charles Armand René de La Trémoille, French soldier and president of the States of Brittany
January 15 - Giovanni Salvemini, Italian mathematician and astronomer
January 17 - Henry Brydges, 2nd Duke of Chandos
January 23 - Luigi Crespi, Italian painter
January 25 - Pompeo Batoni, Italian painter
January 26 - William Hayes, composer
January 27
* Robert Marsham, English naturalist considered to be the founding father of phenology
* Jean-François-Joseph de Rochechouart, French Roman Catholic Cardinal
January 30 - Georg Dionysius Ehret, botanist and entomologist known for his botanical illustrations
February 3 - Johann Michael Hartung, German organ builder and public figure from Dürkheim
February 8 - Václav Jan Kopřiva, Bohemian composer and organist
February 11 - Egidio Duni, Italian composer who studied in Naples and worked in Italy
February 15
* Alexander Hume-Campbell, Scottish lawyer and politician
* Hugh Hume-Campbell, 3rd Earl of Marchmont, Scottish politician
February 19 - Scrope Berdmore, English clergyman
February 23 - Chauncy Townsend, City of London merchant and a Member of Parliament in the Parliament of Great Britain
February 25 - Felix Benda, Bohemian composer and organist
February 29
* Louis Charles du Chaffault de Besné, French naval commander
* Peter Jefferson, father of US President Thomas Jefferson
March 5
* Susanna Boylston, prominent early-American socialite
* Moritz Franz Kasimir von Wobersnow, Prussian major general of infantry and a general adjutant of Frederick the Great
March 8 - John Campbell, Scottish author
March 15 - John Hulse, British Anglican priest
March 17 - Johanna Magdalene of Saxe-Weissenfels, Duchess consort of Courland
March 22 - Ernst Henrich Berling, German-Danish book printer and publisher
March 26 - Robert Rochfort, 1st Earl of Belvedere
March 31 - Jean Chastel, farmer and inn-keeper from the province of Gévaudan in France

Deaths

January 31 - Friedrich Seyler, Swiss theologian
March 5 - William Beveridge, English Bishop of St. Asaph
March 15 - William Walsh, English/British politician
March 19 - Samuel Rodigast, German poet, hymnwriter
April 5 - Christian Heinrich, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth-Kulmbach, German prince
April 17 - Jacques Gravier, French Jesuit missionary in the New World
April 20 - Damaris Cudworth Masham, English philosopher
April 23 - Christian Augustus, Count Palatine of Sulzbach
May 6 - François de Laval, first bishop of New France
May 11 - Jules Hardouin-Mansart, French Baroque architect
May 12 - Adolphus Frederick II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
June 5 - Ignatius George II, Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch
June 21 - John Hamilton, 2nd Lord Belhaven and Stenton, Scottish politician
June 28 - Melchor Liñán y Cisneros, Spanish Catholic archbishop
June 30 - Emperor Tekle Haymanot I of Ethiopia
July 5 - Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Montferrat, only child of Duke Charles II
July 10 - James Kendall, English soldier, politician
July 21 - Conrad von Reventlow, Danish statesman and the first Grand Chancellor of Denmark
August 1 - Edward Tyson, British scientist
September 6 - Sir John Morden, 1st Baronet, English merchant and philanthropist
September 19 - Francis Newport, 1st Earl of Bradford, English politician
September 29 - Sir James Oxenden, 2nd Baronet, English politician
October 1 - John Blow, British composer
October 2 - Anne Jules de Noailles, French general
October 7 - Guru Gobind Singh, 10th Guru Sahib of Sikhism, social reformist, poet and revolutionary
October 9 - Olympia Mancini, French courtier
October 10 - David Gregory, Scottish astronomer
October 11 - Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus, German mathematician
October 21 - Christian Weise, German writer, dramatist, poet, pedagogue and librarian
October 22
* Cesare Pronti, Italian painter
* Hermann Witsius, Dutch theologian
October 24 - Seki Kōwa, Japanese mathematician
October 28 - Prince George of Denmark, consort of Anne, Queen of Great Britain
October 31 - Nathaniel Higginson, English politician
November 3 - Countess Henriette Catherine of Nassau, daughter of Frederick Henry
November 10 - David Makeléer, Swedish politician
November 13 - Charles, Count of Marsan, French noble
November 16 - Alexander Edward, Scottish landscape architect
November 17 - Ludolf Bakhuizen, Dutch painter
December 16
* Juan Ortega y Montañés, Spanish Catholic bishop, colonial administrator in Guatemala and New Spain
* Nicolas Pasquin, early pioneer in New France
December 22 - Hedvig Sophia of Sweden, Swedish princess
December 28 - Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, French botanist date unknown
* Anna Maria Clodt, Swedish courtier
* Joaquim Juncosa, Carthusian monk and Baroque painter

1708

Events

January&ndash;June

July&ndash;December

Date unknown

Births

January&ndash;March

April&ndash;June

July&ndash;September

October&ndash;December

Deaths

January–June

July–December

January–March

April–June

July–September

October–December