1702

January–March

• January 2 - A total solar eclipse is visible from the southern Pacific Ocean.
• January 12 - In North America, ships from Fort Maurepas arrive at Twenty-Seven Mile Bluff to build Fort Louis de la Mobile, to become the capital of French Louisiana.
• February 1 - War of the Spanish Succession - Battle of Cremona: The Duc de Villeroy, commander of the French Army, is taken as a prisoner of war by the Austrian Army.
• March 3 - King William III of England is fatally injured in an accident when he is thrown from his horse, "Sorrel", when it trips on a molehill in Hampton Court Park near London. Already in poor health before the accident, he dies from complications 16 days later at the age of 51.
• March 14 - An earthquake in the middle of the Calore valley in Italy, east of Benevento, kills 400 people.
• March 19 - Princess Anne Stuart, daughter of the late King James II and younger sister of his successor, Mary II of England, ascends the English, Scottish and Irish thrones upon William's death. In her first speech to the English Parliament, made three days later, she tells the assembly "As I know my heart to be entirely English, I can very sincerely assure you there is not anything you can expect or desire from me which I shall not be ready to do for the happiness and prosperity of England." Anne is the mother of 17 children by her husband, Prince George of Denmark and Norway, but none will survive childhood, and she will die without an heir, bringing an end to the reign of the House of Stuart and enabling the Hanoverian Succession. After the death of William, the States General of the Netherlands do not appoint a new stadtholder, and so the Dutch Republic becomes a true republic again, starting the Second Stadtholderless Period.
• March 22 - The first regular English-language national newspaper, The Daily Courant, begins publication on Fleet Street in the City of London, initially by Elizabeth Mallet; it covers only foreign news.
• March 24 - Great Northern War: Battle of Darsūniškis - The Swedish army of about 240 men under the command of Alexander Hummerhielm is defeated by the Polish–Saxon army of 6,000 men under Michał Serwacy Wiśniowiecki.

  April–June

• April 3 - The Dutch East India Company ship Merestein strikes rocks and sinks in Saldanha Bay off Jutten Island, Africa with the loss of 101 of the 200 people on board.
• April 14 - Volcanic eruption of Changbaishan volcano on the China/Korea border takes place.
• April 15 - The British Province of New Jersey, encompassing all of the modern-day U.S. state of New Jersey and portions of New York, is created as proprietary owners in the provinces of East Jersey and West Jersey surrender their rights to the Crown.
• April 20 - Comet C/1702 H1 is discovered and passes within 0.0435 AU of the Earth.
• April 24 - The first two missionaries from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts set sail from England to North America.
• May 5 - Globular cluster Messier 5 is discovered by Gottfried Kirch and his wife Maria Margarethe.
• May 6 - Cloudesley Shovell is promoted to full admiral in the English navy.
• May 14 - War of the Spanish Succession: War is declared on France by the Grand Alliance.
• May 15 - King Charles XII of Sweden and his troops walk unopposed into Warsaw after troops capture the city.
• May 16 - Much of the city of Uppsala, Sweden is destroyed in a fire.
• May 19 - Over 90% of the city of Bergen, Norway is destroyed and reduced to ashes in a Great Fire.
• June 2 - English General John Churchill, later the Duke of Marlborough, takes command of the alliance of English, Dutch and German troops in the War of the Spanish Succession.
• June 11 - Anglo-Dutch forces skirmish with French forces before the walls of Nijmegen and prevent its fall.
• June 15 - Queen Anne's Captain-General, John Churchill, forces the surrender of Kaiserswerth on the Rhine after a siege that began on April 18.
• June 16 - The English East India Company founds a settlement on Pulo Condore off the coast of southern Vietnam as an entrepôt for ships travelling between India and China.
• June 25 - The premiere of the opera L'Offendere per amore overo la Telesilla by Johann Joseph Fux takes place in Vienna.

  July–September

• July 19 - Great Northern War: Battle of Klissow - Charles XII of Sweden decisively defeats the Polish–Lithuanian-Saxon army.
• July 23 - The first performance of the opera Médus, roi des Mèdes by François Bouvard takes place at the Paris Opera.
• July 24
• * Camisard hostilities begin in France with the assassination at le Pont-de-Montvert of a local embodiment of royal oppression, François Langlade, the Abbé of Chaila.
• * A total eclipse of the sun is visible on a path crossing the northern Pacific Ocean and Central America.
• July 30 - Great Northern War: Battle of Hummelshof - Russia defeats Sweden.
• August 11 - Great Northern War: Częstochowa, Poland, is captured by the Swedish army.
• August 15 - War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Luzzara - Forces of the Holy Roman Empire fail to break through the French-Savoyard position in Lombardy.
• September 12 - The Siege of Landau ends after 3 months with forces of the Holy Roman Empire capturing the fortress town in the Rhineland-Palatinate from a French garrison.
• September 19 - Jupiter occults Neptune.
• September 25 - General John Churchill forces the surrender of Venlo on the Meuse River.
• September 30 - War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Cádiz - A month-long Anglo-Dutch amphibious operation under English Admiral Sir George Rooke fails to take the Spanish port.

  October–December

• October 1 - The founding deed of the University of Wrocław is signed by the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I of the House of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia.
• October 7 - Great Northern War: Russian troops besiege the Swedish fortress of Nöteborg, and capture it after 15 days.
• October 14 - War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Friedlingen - France defeats forces of the Holy Roman Empire.
• October 18 - Queen Anne's War: Battle of Flint River - Spanish and Apalachee Indian forces fail in their attack against Creek Indians, supported by English traders, in the modern-day U.S. state of Georgia.
• October 19 - The opera Der Sieg der fruchtbaren Pomona by Reinhard Keiser is premiered at the Hamburg Opera for the birthday of King Frederick IV of Denmark.
• October 23 - War of the Spanish Succession:
• *Battle of Vigo Bay - Anglo-Dutch naval forces under English Admiral Sir George Rooke capture the defended Spanish port of Cádiz and take or destroy all the Spanish treasure fleet and escorting French warships there.
• *Churchill forces the surrender of Liège.
• October 27 - Queen Anne's War in North America: English troops plunder St. Augustine, Spanish Florida.
• October 28 - Sieur Juchereau, Lieutenant General of Montréal, establishes the first trading post on the Wabash River in order to trade buffalo hides with American Indians. The site of the trading post may be the modern-day location of Vincennes, Indiana.
• November 7 - The first performance of the opera Tancrède by André Campra takes place at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris.
• November 10 - Queen Anne's War in North America: The Siege of St. Augustine opens as English forces besiege St. Augustine, Spanish Florida.
• November 15 - The opera La Clemenza d'Augusto by Johann Joseph Fux is premiered in Vienna.
• November 22 - The Dutch East India Company ship Amsterdam founders en route from Bombay to Basra during a storm with the loss of all hands.
• December 14 - John Churchill is created duke of Marlborough.
• December 30 - Queen Anne's War: The Siege of St. Augustine in Spanish Florida is lifted.

  Date unknown

• The travel diary Oku no Hosomichi, a major work of haibun by the Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō and one of the major texts of Japanese literature of the Edo period, is published eight years after Bashō's death.
• The Delaware Colony legislature is separated from that of Pennsylvania.
• Richard Bentley at Cambridge in England introduces the first written competitive examinations in a Western university.

  Births

January–March

• January 2 - Nabeshima Naotsune, Japanese daimyō
• January 6
• * Johann Adam von Ickstatt, German educator and director of the University of Ingolstadt
• * José de Nebra, Spanish composer
• January 10 - Johannes Zick, German fresco painter
• January 12
• * Jacques Aved, French painter and Rococo portraitist
• * Józef Andrzej Załuski, Polish Catholic priest
• January 13 - Thomas Arthur, comte de Lally, French general of Irish Jacobite ancestry
• January 14 - Emperor Nakamikado, of Japan
• January 18 - Sava II Petrović-Njegoš, Metropolitan of Cetinje
• January 24 - Frederica Henriette of Anhalt-Bernburg, member of the House of Ascania by birth and Princess of Anhalt-Köthen by marriage
• January 26 - Johann Caspar Scheuchzer, Swiss naturalist
• January 31 - Alan Brodrick, 2nd Viscount Midleton, English cricketer
• February 3
• * Michael Adelbulner, German mathematician
• * Giovanni Battista Vaccarini, Italian architect
• February 6 - Giovanni Carmine Pellerano, Italian Catholic prelate, member of the Knights Hospitaller
• February 7 - Carl August Thielo, Danish composer
• February 10
• * Jean-Pierre Guignon, Franco-Italian composer and violinist
• * Carlo Marchionni, Italian architect
• February 12 - Robert Hale, Massachusetts physician, soldier
• February 26 - Rasmus Paludan, Norwegian theologian and priest
• February 27
• * Enrichetta d'Este, Duchess of Parma
• * Johann Valentin Görner, German composer
• March 2
• * Henrietta Maria of Brandenburg-Schwedt, granddaughter of the "Great Elector" Frederick William
• * Charles Stourton, 15th Baron Stourton, son of Charles Stourton
• March 4 - Jack Sheppard, British burglar and escaper
• March 13 - Burkat Shudi, English harpsichord maker of Swiss origin
• March 19 - Thomas Penn, son of American colonial leader William Penn
• March 21 - Bento de Moura Portugal
• March 22 - Matthias de Visch, Flemish painter of history paintings and portraits
• March 25 - Pieter Teyler van der Hulst, wealthy Dutch Mennonite merchant and banker
• March 27 - Johann Ernst Eberlin, German composer and organist
• March 28 - Ignacio de Luzán, Spanish critic and poet
• March 29 - Cesare Sportelli, Italian Roman Catholic Redemptorist lawyer
• March 31 - Barthélemy-Christophe Fagan, French playwright