1703 - Definition and Overview

Events

• February 2 – Earthquake in Aquila, Italy
• February 4 - In Japan the 47 samurai commit seppuku (ritual suicide)
• February 14 - Earthquake in Norcia, Italy
• May 27 – Founding of St Petersburg
• May 26 – Portugal joins Great Alliance
• July 29-31 - Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet
• September 12 – War of the Spanish Succession – Habsburg Archduke Charles proclaimed King of Spain
• November 19 - Unknown masked prisoner dies in Bastille
• November 24 to December 2 - the Great Storm of 1703 ravages southern England and the English Channel, killing thousands
• December 27 - Portugal and England sign the Methuen Treaty which gives preference to Portuguese imported wines into England.

• A Tale of a Tub, first major satire by Jonathan Swift, published
• George Psalmanazar arrives in London
• Isaac Newton becomes the chairman of Royal Society
• Change of emperor of the Ottoman Empire from Mustafa II (1695-1703) to Ahmed III (1703-1730).

Births

• October 5 - Jonathan Edwards, Calvinist preacher
• June 28 - John Wesley, English founder of Methodism (died 1791)

Deaths

• March 3 - Robert Hooke, scientist
• May 16 - Charles Perrault, French author.
• May 26 - Samuel Pepys, English civil servant, famous for his diary
• November 19 - The Man in the Iron Mask, French prisoner of unknown identity.