1706

Events

January–March

• January 26
• * War of Spanish Succession: The uprising by Bavarians against the occupation of the Electorate of Bavaria by Austrian troops ends after 75 days, and ends the plans of Maximilian, the Elector of Bavaria, to bring Bavaria under the rule of the House of Wittelsbach.
• * Great Northern War - Battle of Grodno: A coalition of 34,000 Swedish and Polish troops besieges the then-Lithuanian city in the winter time, and clashes with 41,000 Russian and Saxon troops. After almost three months of fighting that lasts to April 10, Sweden takes control of the city, which is now located in Belarus.
• February 6 - The city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, is incorporated by governor Don Francisco Cuervo y Valdes as La Villa de Alburquerque in the Spanish colonial province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México in New Spain. Governor Cuervo sends a report on April 23 to the Spanish Crown and to New Spain's Governor, Francisco Fernández de la Cueva, 10th Duke of Alburquerque announcing that the new villa, consisting of 35 families and having a population of 252 adults, has been named in honor of the Duke.
• February 13 - Great Northern War - Battle of Fraustadt: Outnumbered more than 4 to 1 in infantry troops, and more than 2 to 1 overall, Swedish troops under the command of General Carl Gustaf Rehnskiöld defeat a larger force of 20,000 Russian and Saxon infantry and cavalry.
• March 21 - Mary Channing, who was pregnant at the time that she was convicted of the murder of her husband, is burned at the stake at Dorset, in front of a crowd of 10,000 onlookers.
• March 27 - Concluding that Emperor Iyasus I of Ethiopia has abdicated by retiring to a monastery, a council of high officials appoint Tekle Haymanot I Emperor of Ethiopia.
• March 31 - The last Courts of the Principality of Catalonia are finished; their dissolution is presided over by King Charles III of Spain.

  April–June

• April 10 - The Battle of Grodno ends with a Swedish victory over Russian troops.
• April 27 - War of the Spanish Succession: After a siege of 14 days, a French and Spanish army fails to take control of Barcelona, which had been captured by Habsburg armies in 1705.
• May 12 - A total eclipse of the Sun takes place and is visible in most of Europe, with a path crossing modern-day Spain, France, Germany, Poland and Russia
• May 23 - War of the Spanish Succession - Battle of Ramillies: English, Dutch, German, Swiss and Scottish troops led by John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, defeat Franco-Bavarian forces in the Low Countries.
• June 9 - Frederick IV of Denmark-Norway sends the first two Protestant missionaries to India, dispatching Lutherans Heinrich Plütcshau and Bartholomeus Ziegenbalg to Denmark-Norway's colony in India, the Dansk Ostindien, based at Tharangambadi in what is now the Tamil Nadu state.
• June 11 - In Tibet, Lha-bzang Khan, khan of the Khoshut, kills the regent and kidnaps the 6th Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, and kills the Lama's regent.
• June 28 - War of the Spanish Succession: Troops dispatched from Portugal capture Madrid and proclaim the Habsburg dynasty's Archduke Charles of Austria to be the King Carlos III of Spain, after the Bourbon ruler, Philip V, has fled.
• June 29 - Flemish Jesuit missionary François Noël is welcomed in China by the Kangxi Emperor at the Forbidden City in Beijing, and discusses the Emperor's disdain over the disapproval of Jesuit accommodation of Confucian rites by the Roman Catholic Church.

  July–September

• July 22 - The Treaty of Union between Scotland and England is agreed upon in London, for ratification by the national legislatures.
• August 4 - War of the Spanish Succession: The Spanish Bourbon armies of King Philip V retake Madrid from the Portuguese and Habsburg Austria troops that had entered the city in June.
• August 18 - King Louis XIV of France makes his last visit to Paris, and gets an update on the construction of the veterans' hospital at the Dome des Invalides, which he had commissioned more than 35 years earlier.
• September 7 - War of the Spanish Succession - Battle of Turin: Forces of Austria and Savoy defeat the French near what is now the Italian city of Torino.

  October–December

• October 13
• *Augustus II, known as August der Starke, Elector of Saxony, having ruled as King of Poland since 1706, signs the Treaty of Altranstädt, renouncing all claims to the throne to settle his fight with Sweden during the Great Northern War.
• *Iyasu I, Emperor of Ethiopia since 1682, is assassinated on the island of Tana, on orders of his son, Tekle Haymanot I, who has ruled in Iyasu's place. After being crowned as the new Emperor, Tekle Haymanot is stabbed to death in 1708 on orders of Iyasu's brother, Tewoflos.
• October - Twinings founder, Thomas Twining, opens the first known tea room at 216 Strand, London, still open.
• November 4 - The Parliament of Scotland votes, 116 to 83, to approve the merger of Scotland with England to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.
• November 6 - A British attempt to conquer the Canary Islands fails when a fleet of 12 Royal Navy warships, commanded by Admiral John Jennings is forced to retreat after being met by a heavy artillery attack while sailing into Santa Cruz Bay
• November 15 - Five months after having been deposed from his position as the Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso disappears while in exile in Qinghai and is presumed to have been murdered.
• November 28 - The royal wedding of Prussia takes place in Berlin between the 18-year-old Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm and his bride Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, the 19-year-old daughter of the future King George I of Great Britain.
• December 9 - João V becomes the new King of Portugal upon the death of his father, Dom Pedro II, and begins a reign of 43 years.
• December 14 - Spanish General Alexandre Maître, Marquis de Bay leads the successful capture of Alcántara from Portugal
• December 31 - François Martin, the first Governor General of French India, retires after seven years and is replaced by Pierre Dulivier.

  Births

January–March

• January 1
• * Henry Howard, 10th Earl of Suffolk
• * Nils Wallerius, Swedish physicist
• January 3 - Johann Caspar Füssli, Swiss portrait painter and writer
• January 7 - Johann Heinrich Zedler, German publisher
• January 17
• * Benjamin Franklin, American inventor and Founding Father
• * George Michael Moser, Swiss artist and enameller
• * Richard Penn Sr., proprietary and titular governor of Pennsylvania and the counties of New Castle County
• January 20 - Frederick Charles Augustus, Count of Lippe
• January 26 - John Elder, American colonial pastor
• January 28 - Shubal Stearns, American colonial evangelist and preacher during the Great Awakening
• February 2 - Claude-Godefroy Coquart, Jesuit priest who probably arrived in Quebec in 1739
• February 8 - Luis de Córdova y Córdova, Spanish admiral
• February 11 - Nils Rosén von Rosenstein, Swedish physician
• February 12 - Johann Joseph Christian, German Baroque sculptor and woodcarver
• February 17 - Robert Hampden-Trevor, 1st Viscount Hampden, British diplomat at The Hague and then joint Postmaster General
• February 19 - John Hornyold, English Catholic bishop
• February 20 - Phineas Stevens, distinguished officer noted for his defense of the Fort at Number 4 during a siege in April 1747
• February 26 - Jan Antonín Vocásek, Czech Baroque painter
• February 28 - Philippe-François Bart, French naval officer who was Governor of Saint-Domingue during the Seven Years' War
• March 1 - Sébastien Bigot de Morogues, French soldier, a sailor and military naval tactician
• March 4 - Lauritz de Thurah, Danish architect and architectural writer
• March 6 - Sir George Pocock, British admiral
• March 7 - Johann Leonhard Dober, one of the two first missionaries of the Moravian Brethren in the West Indies in 1732
• March 12 - Johan Pasch, Swedish painter
• March 13 - Johann Christoph Heilbronner, German mathematical historian
• March 14 - Siegmund Jakob Baumgarten, German Protestant theologian
• March 23 - Anna Maria Barbara Abesch, Swiss reverse glass painter and the daughter of Johann Peter Abesch
• March 26 - Mather Byles, American clergyman active in British North America
• March 28 - Andrew Oliver, merchant and public official in the province of Massachusetts Bay
• March 30 - Tommaso Struzzieri, Roman Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Todi

  April–June

• April 2 - Johann Joseph Würth, Austrian silversmith of the late baroque period
• April 6 - Louis de Cahusac, French playwright and librettist
• April 18 - William Brattle, Attorney General of province of Massachusetts Bay as well as a physician
• April 24 - Giovanni Battista Martini, Italian musician
• April 29 - Pierre-Antoine Gourgaud, French actor
• April 30 - Philipp Jakob Straub, Austrian sculptor
• May 12 - François Boissier de Sauvages de Lacroix, French physician and botanist who was a native of Alès
• May 17 - Andreas Felix von Oefele, German historian and librarian
• May 20 - Seth Pomeroy, American gunsmith and soldier from Northampton
• May 22 - Samuel Troilius, Archbishop of Uppsala in the Church of Sweden
• June 10 - John Dollond, English optician
• June 15 - Johann Joachim Kändler, German sculptor and important modeller of the Meissen porcelain manufactury