1717
Events
January–March
- January 1 - Count Carl Gyllenborg, the Swedish ambassador to Great Britain, was arrested in London for a plot to assist the Pretender to the British throne, James Francis Edward Stuart.
- January 4 - The kingdoms of Great Britain, France and the Dutch Republic sign the Triple Alliance, in an attempt to maintain the Treaty of Utrecht, Britain having signed a preliminary alliance with France on November 28 1716.
- February 1 - The Silent Sejm, in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, marks the beginning of the Russian Empire's increasing influence and control over the Commonwealth.
- February 6 - Following the treaty between France and Britain, the Pretender James Stuart leaves France, and seeks refuge with Pope Clement XI.
- February 26-March 6 - What becomes the northeastern United States is paralyzed by a series of blizzards that bury the region.
- March 2 - Dancer John Weaver performs in the first ballet in Britain, shown at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, The Loves of Mars and Venus.
- March 31 - Benjamin Hoadly, Bishop of Bangor, brings the Bangorian Controversy within the Church of England into the open by delivering a sermon to, and supposedly at the request of, King George I of Great Britain, on The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ with the text "My kingdom is not of this world", concluding there is no Biblical justification for church government.
April–June
- April 26 - The Whydah Gally, flagship of English pirate Samuel Bellamy, is wrecked in a storm off Wellfleet, Massachusetts. The Whydah sinks with a reputed tons of treasure on board, and all but two of her crew are lost, including Bellamy.
- May 27 - Spain creates the Viceroyalty of New Granada in South America from the northern section of the Viceroyalty of Peru. The viceroyalty, with a capital at Bogotá, later declares independence and splits up into what become the nations of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela.
- June 24 - The Premier Grand Lodge of England, the Modern and first Free-Masonic Grand Lodge, is founded in London.
July–September
- July 17 - Water Music by George Frederick Handel is first performed, on a Thames barge in London.
- August 17 - The month-long Siege of Belgrade ends, with Prince Eugene of Savoy's Austrian troops capturing the city from the Ottoman Empire.
- August 22 - Spanish troops arrive on the island of Sardinia, at this time a part of the Holy Roman Empire, beginning the conquest of the island, completed by October 30.
- September 5 - King George I of Great Britain issues the "Proclamation for Suppressing of Pirates in the West Indies", an offer of amnesty to pirates, declaring that any pirates who surrender themselves to the government of Britain or one of its overseas territories, on or before September 5, 1718, "shall have Our Gracious Pardon of and for his or their Piracy or Piracies" committed before January 5, 1718. The amnesty is later extended to July 1, 1719.
- September 21 - The first known Druid revival ceremony is held by John Toland at Primrose Hill, in London, at the Autumnal Equinox, to found the Mother Grove, what will later become the Ancient Order of Druids.
- September 29 - Guatemala earthquake: A 7.4 magnitude earthquake strikes Antigua Guatemala, destroying much of the city, and making authorities consider moving the capital of Guatemala to a different location.
October–December
- October 9 - King Philip V of Spain orders the closure of all universities in Catalonia, including the historic Estudi General de Lleida.
- October 16 - Antonio Vivaldi's opera Tieteberga is performed for the first time, premiering at the Teatro San Moisè in Venice
- October 18 - Trial begins in Boston for six pirates who had survived the April 26 wreck of Samuel Bellamy's ships Whydah and the Mary Anne. Five of them are convicted on October 22 of piracy and robbery and hanged on November 15.
- October 30 - The Spanish conquest of Sardinia, at this time part of the Holy Roman Empire, is finished two months after Spanish forces had landed on the island on August 22, as the last Sardinian outpost, Castelsardo, surrenders.
- November 28 - Pirates led by Edward "Blackbeard" Teach and Benjamin Hornigold capture the French slave transport Concorde near island of Saint Vincent the West Indies. Blackbeard renames the vessel Queen Anne's Revenge, adds to its armaments, and makes it his flagship. Hornigold soon accepts a British amnesty for all pirates, and Blackbeard teams up with Stede Bonnet and begins plundering ships approaching North American ports.
- December 9 - King George I of Great Britain banishes his son and daughter-in-law, George, Prince of Wales and Caroline of Ansbach, from the royal household after the Prince threatens the King's personal assistant, the Duke of Newcastle, the royal Lord Chamberlain. The altercation takes place at the baptismal ceremony for the Prince's newborn son, George William.
- December 24-25 - Christmas flood: A disastrous flood hits the North Sea coast, between the Netherlands and Denmark; thousands die or lose their houses.
Date unknown
- The 1717 Omani invasion of Bahrain removes the control of Persia over the Arabian kingdom of Bahrain.
- François-Marie Arouet is sentenced to imprisonment in the Bastille for eleven months, because of a satirical verse against the Régent of France and his infamous daughter Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans, who is hiding an illegitimate pregnancy and soon to give birth; Arouet will emerge with the pseudonym Voltaire and the completed text of his first play, Œdipe.
- The Tatar invasions in Transylvania devastate many towns, including Cavnic, Sighet and Dej.
- Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, wife of the British ambassador to Istanbul, has her son inoculated.
- The Casa de Contratación is set up in Cádiz.
- Maharaja Pamheiba of Manipur is converted to Hinduism by Shantidas Goswami, and decrees it to be the official religion of his state.
- Most recent rupture of New Zealand's Alpine Fault, with an earthquake estimated to have had a magnitude between 7.8 and 8.1.
- The Charleville musket enters service in France.
- Thomas Fairchild, a nurseryman at Hoxton in the East End of London, becomes the first person to produce a successful scientific plant hybrid, Dianthus Caryophyllus barbatus, known as Fairchild's Mule.
- Murshid Quli Khan declares himself the first Nawab of the Bengal Subah. The Nawabs of Bengal will effectively function as near-sovereign rulers of Bengal while being nominally loyal to the Mughal Empire.
Births
January 2 - Edward Seymour, 9th Duke of Somerset, English nobleman, son of Edward Seymour, 8th Duke of Somerset and Mary Webb January 5 - William Barrington, 2nd Viscount Barrington, English statesman January 18 - Jean-François-Marie de Surville, French trader and navigator January 21 - Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa, Spanish military officer January 23 - Benjamin Beddome, English Baptist minister and hymnist January 28 - Mustafa III, Ottoman Sultan January 29 - Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, British soldier and conqueror of Quebec February 2 - Ernst Gideon Freiherr von Laudon, Austrian field marshal February 3 - Nicholas Cooke, first Governor of Rhode Island c. February 11 - William Williams Pantycelyn, Welsh hymn-writer, a key leader of the 18th century Methodist revival February 17 - Adam Friedrich Oeser, German etcher February 19 - David Garrick, English actor February 27 - Johann David Michaelis, German biblical scholar and teacher April 6 - Luis de Unzaga, American-Spanish governor April - Pieter Barbiers, Dutch artist April 9 - Georg Matthias Monn, Austrian composer April 10 - Isaac de Pinto, Dutch Jew of Portuguese origin, investor and scholar May 8 - Charles Guillaume Le Normant d'Étiolles, French official, husband of Madame de Pompadour May 13 - Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, consort of the Holy Roman Emperor June 5 - Emanuel Mendes da Costa, English botanist June 8 - John Collins, Continental Congressman, third Governor of Rhode Island June 19 - Johann Stamitz, Czech-born composer June 20 - Jacques Saly, French sculptor June 27 - Louis Guillaume Lemonnier, French botanist June 28 - Matthew Stewart, Scottish mathematician July 5 - Peter III of Portugal, consort of Queen Maria I of Portugal August - Sophie de Lafont, Russian educator August 13 - Louis François, Prince of Conti, French nobleman, military leader August 15* Louis Carrogis Carmontelle, French dramatist * John Metcalf, "Blind Jack of Knaresborough", English roadbuilder September 4 - Job Orton, English dissenting minister September 7* Agui, Chinese nobleman, general for the Ch'ing dynasty * Martin Dobrizhoffer, Austrian Jesuit missionary September 22 - Pehr Wilhelm Wargentin, Swedish astronomer September 24 - Horace Walpole, English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and politician September 28 - William Nassau de Zuylestein, 4th Earl of Rochford, British diplomat and statesman October - James Paine, English architect October 5 - Marie-Anne de Mailly-Nesle duchess de Châteauroux, French mistress of King Louis XV October 13 - John Armstrong, American civil engineer, major general in the Revolutionary War October 30 - Jonathan Hornblower, English pioneer of steam power November 13 - Prince George William of Great Britain, member of the British Royal Family November 16 - Jean le Rond d'Alembert, French mathematician and encyclopædist November 17 - Caroline Townshend, 1st Baroness Greenwich, English peeress November 23 - Antoine Guenée, French priest and Christian apologist November 25 - Alexander Sumarokov, Russian poet and playwright December 9 - Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German classical scholar and archaeologist December 16 - Elizabeth Carter, English writer December 25 - George Augustus Eliott, 1st Baron Heathfield, British army officer December 27 - Pope Pius VI, born Count Giovanni Angelo Braschi, Italian pontiff December 28 - Johann Heinrich Gottlob Justi, leading German Kameralist in the 18th century December 29 - Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, French statesman and diplomat date unknown* Giambattista Almici, Italian jurist * Claude Humbert Piarron de Chamousset, French philanthropist * Gottlieb Sigmund Gruner, Swiss cartographer and geologist * Elimelech of Lizhensk, Polish Orthodox Jewish rabbi, one of the great founding rebbes of Hasidic Judaism * Henry Middleton, South Carolina plantation owner, second President of the Continental Congress *Lewis Nicola, Irish-born officer in the American army during the American Revolutionary War * Anne Steele, English Baptist hymn-writer * Molla Panah Vagif, Azerbaijani poet