1712

January–March

• January 8 - Total eclipse of the sun visible from
• January 12 - The premiere of the opera Idoménée by André Campra takes place at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris.
• January 16 - A military engineering school is established in Moscow which is to become the A.F. Mozhaysky Military-Space Academy.
• 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.
• February 10 - Huilliche uprising of 1712: Huilliche people in Chile's Chiloé Archipelago rise up against Spanish encomenderos as vengeance for perceived injustices.
• 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.
• March 3 - Scottish Episcopalians Act 1711 comes into effect, leading to incorporation of the Scottish Episcopal Church.
• March 11 - Sweden temporarily adopts the rare February 30, as a day to adjust the Swedish Calendar back to the Julian calendar.
• 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.
• March 30 - Anne, Queen of Great Britain administers the Royal touch for the last time; 300 scrofulous people are touched, the last of whom is Samuel Johnson.

  April –June

• 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.
• April 11 - Great Northern War: the Battle of Fladstrand takes place at sea near Fladstrand, Jylland, between Swedish and Danish forces.
• May 15 - Curuguaty in Paraguay is founded by Juan Gregorio de Bazán y Pedraza on the banks of the Curuguaty River.
• May 19 - Peter the Great moves the capital of Russia from Moscow to Saint Petersburg.
• May 22 - Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor is crowned King of Hungary.
• June 5 - Reus in Catalonia, Spain is given the title of imperial city by Elisabeth Christine, wife of Archduke Charles.
• June 10 - Kurtkulağı Caravanserai in Adana Province, Turkey, is restored and 50 soldiers are appointed to guard it.
• June 11 - Chatham, Barnstable County, Massachusetts is incorporated as a town.
• June 17 - The newly built St Ann's Church, Manchester, England, is consecrated by the Bishop of Chester.

  July–September

• July 8 - The British Royal Navy 50-gun ship HMS Advice is launched at Deptford Dockyard.
• July 20 - Jesus College, Oxford, England, inherits the extensive library of its Principal Jonathan Edwards on his death.
• July 24
• * Battle of Denain: The French defeat a combined Dutch-Austrian force.
• * Battle of Villmergen: The Reformed cantons of Switzerland defeat the Catholic cantons.
• August 1 - The Stamp Act 1712 is passed in the United Kingdom, imposing a tax on publishers, particularly of newspapers.
• 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.
• August 23 - The British Royal Navy 60-gun ship HMS Rippon is launched at Deptford Dockyard.
• September - Composer George Frideric Handel re-locates to London with the permission of his patron, the future King George I of Great Britain.
• September 8 - A severe hurricane buffets Bermuda for eight hours, destroying most of the churches.

  October–December

• October 3 - In Scotland a warrant is issued for the arrest of outlaw Rob Roy MacGregor by Sir James Stewart.
• October 31 - King Philip V of Spain establishes the Biblioteca Nacional de España as the Palace Public Library in Madrid.
• November 4 - The Bandbox Plot aims to kill British Lord Treasurer Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford but is foiled by Jonathan Swift.
• 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.
• December 7 - The charter of Buchach Monastery in Ukraine, founded by Stefan Aleksander Potocki and his wife Joanna née Sieniawska, is signed in Lublin.
• 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.
• December 27 - The premiere of the opera Callirhoé by André Cardinal Destouches takes place at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris.
• December 28 - Total eclipse of the sun visible from

  Date unknown

• 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.
• 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.
• The VOC Zuytdorp is wrecked off the coast of Western Australia.
• John Arbuthnot creates the character of John Bull to represent Britain.
• A translation of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer into Irish, made by John Richardson, is published.

  Births

January–March

• January 1 - Sir Richard Acton, 5th Baronet, English baronet
• January 2 - Marie-Angélique Memmie Le Blanc, French feral child
• January 5
• * Ludwig van Beethoven, Flemish-born German professional singer and music director, grandfather of the well known composer of the same name
• * Hongzhou, Manchu prince of the Qing dynasty
• January 17 - John Stanley, English composer and organist
• January 24
• * Frederick the Great, King of Prussia
• * Charles Moore, 1st Earl of Charleville, Irish peer
• * Georg Friedrich Schmidt, German engraver and designer
• January 26 - James Habersham, merchant and statesman in the British North American colony of Georgia
• January 28 - Tokugawa Ieshige, ninth shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan
• January 29 - Ralph Bigland, English officer of arms
• February 2 - Lydia Taft, American suffragist
• February 12 - Felton Hervey, aristocratic English politician
• February 19 - Arthur Devis, English painter
• February 20 - Sir Cordell Firebrace, 3rd Baronet, English landowner and politician
• February 22 - Péter Bod, Hungarian theologian and historian
• February 26 - Nasir Jung, Nizam of Hyderabad State
• February 28 - Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, French general
• March 4 - Joachim Friedrich Henckel, Prussian surgeon at Charité hospital in Berlin
• March 8 - John Fothergill, British botanist
• March 12
• * Sir Hew Dalrymple, 2nd Baronet, Scottish politician and MP for Haddington Burghs on two occasions
• * Ioan II Mavrocordat, prince of Moldva
• March 14 - Charles-Antoine Jombert, French bookseller and publisher
• March 15 - Lambert Krahe, German history painter and art collector
• March 19
• * Joseph Frye, American general
• * Henry Gervais, Anglican priest in Ireland
• March 22 - Edward Moore, English dramatist
• March 27
• * Claude Bourgelat, French veterinary surgeon
• * Jane Mecom, American correspondent, youngest sister of Benjamin Franklin and one of his closest confidants
• March 28 - Empress Xiaoxianchun, empress consort of Qing dynasty China
• March 31 - Anders Johan von Höpken, Swedish politician

  April–June

• April 8 - Pierre Pouchot, French military engineer officer
• April 23 - Devasahayam Pillai, beatified Indian Catholic
• April 28 - James Hewitt, 1st Viscount Lifford, Lord Chancellor of Ireland
• May 2 - Thomas Bond, American physician and surgeon
• May 5 - Janusz Aleksander Sanguszko, magnate in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
• May 9 - William Pitcairn, Scottish physician and botanist
• May 12 - Charles William Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach
• May 13 - Count Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff, German-Danish statesman
• May 17 - Jean-Baptiste Greppo, French canon and archaeologist
• May 18 - Increase Moseley, American politician
• May 27 - Sir Thomas Cave, 5th Baronet of England
• May 28 - Jacques Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay, French economist
• May 29 - Thomas Dimsdale, English physician, banker
• June 4 - Thomas Cotes, British Royal Navy officer, Commander-in-Chief of the Jamaica Station
• June 7 - Infante Philip of Spain, Spanish infante
• June 11 - Benjamin Ingham, American missionary
• June 14
• * Samuel Blair, Ulster-born American pastor
• * Sayat-Nova, Armenian musician and poet
• June 15 - Andrew Gordon, Scottish Benedictine monk
• June 21 - Luc Urbain de Bouëxic, comte de Guichen, French admiral
• June 22 - Michael Heltzen, Norwegian mining engineer
• June 25 - Exupere Joseph Bertin, French anatomist
• June 26 - Johann Andreas Silbermann, German organ-builder
• June 28 - Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Genevan philosopher