1717 - Definition and Overview

Events

• January 4 — The Netherlands, Britain & France sign Triple Alliance
• March 2 — Dancer John Weaver performs in the first ballet in Britain shown in Drury Lane The Loves of Mars and Venus
• March 31 - Bishop Benjamin Hoadly, acting on the advice of King George begins the Bangorian Controversy by saying that God favors churches with no government.
• June 24 — Anglo branch of Freemasonry (UGLE (http://www.grand-lodge.org/)) founded in London.
• December 24/25 A desastrous storm flood hits the North Sea coast between the Netherlands and Danmark. Thousands die or loose their housings. (German article on this flood)
• Voltaire is sentenced to Bastille for a year because of his satirical writings
• Spain unites its South American colonies as New Grenada
• Montevideo, Uruguay, founded by Portuguese

Ongoing events

• Great Northern War (1700–1721)

Births

• January 5 — William Wildman Shute Barrington, British statesman
• January 29 — Jeffrey Amherst, British soldier, conqueror of Quebec
• February 19 — David Garrick, actor
• May 13 — Maria Theresa of Austria
• September 24 — Horace Walpole, British writer
• November 16 — Jean le Rond d'Alembert, mathematician and encyclopædist
• December 9 — Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German archaeologist
• December 27 — Pope Pius VI

Deaths

• March 3 — Pierre Allix, French Protestant clergyman
• May 10 — John Hathorne, magistrate