Year 1717 (MDCCXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar). [edit] Events of 1717 [edit] January–June - January 4 – The Netherlands, Britain & France sign the Triple Alliance.
- 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 26–March 6 – What is now 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 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.
- April 26 – The Whydah Gally, flagship of "Black Sam" Bellamy, is wrecked in a storm off Wellfleet, Massachusetts. The Whydah sinks with a reputed four and a half tons of treasure on board, and all but 2 of her crew are lost, including Bellamy.
- June 24 – The Premier Grand Lodge of England, the 'Modern' and first Free-Masonic Grand Lodge (which later merges with the Ancient Grand Lodge of England in 1813 to form the United Grand Lodge of England), is founded in London, England.
[edit] July–December [edit] Undated [edit] Ongoing events [edit] Births - January 2 – Edward Seymour, 9th Duke of Somerset, son of Edward Seymour, 8th Duke of Somerset and Mary Webb (d. 1792)
- January 5 – William Barrington, 2nd Viscount Barrington, British statesman (d. 1793)
- January 21 – Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa, Spanish military officer (d. 1779)
- January 23 – Benjamin Beddome, English Baptist minister and hymnist (d. 1795)
- January 28 – Mustafa III, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1774)
- January 29 – Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, British soldier and conqueror of Quebec (died 1797)
- February 2 – Ernst Gideon Freiherr von Laudon, Austrian field marshal (d. 1790)
- February 17 – Adam Friedrich Oeser, German etcher (d. 1799)
- February 19 – David Garrick, English actor (d. 1779)
- February 27 – Johann David Michaelis, German biblical scholar and teacher (d. 1791)
- April – Pieter Barbiers, Dutch artist (d. 1780)
- April 9 – Georg Matthias Monn, Austrian composer (d. 1750)
- May 8 – Charles-Guillaume Le Normant d'Étiolles, husband of Madame de Pompadour (d. 1799)
- May 13 – Maria Theresa of Austria, Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, married with the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (d. 1780)
- June 5 – Emanuel Mendez da Costa, English botanist (d. 1791)
- June 8 – John Collins, American politician (d. 1795)
- June 19 – Johann Stamitz, Czech-born composer (d. 1757)
- June 20 – Jacques Saly, French sculptor (d. 1776)
- June 27 – Louis Guillaume Lemonnier, French botanist (d. 1799)
- July 5 – Peter III of Portugal, consort of Queen Maria I of Portugal (d. 1786)
- August 13 – Louis François I de Bourbon, prince de Conti, French military leader (d. 1776)
- August 15
- September 4 – Job Orton, English dissenting minister (d. 1783)
- September 7
- September 22 – Pehr Wilhelm Wargentin, Swedish astronomer (d. 1783)
- September 24 – Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford, British writer (died 1797)
- September 28 – William Nassau de Zuylestein, 4th Earl of Rochford, British diplomat and statesman (d. 1781)
- October 5 – Marie-Anne de Mailly-Nesle duchess de Châteauroux, French mistress of King Louis XV of France (d. 1744)
- October 13 – John Armstrong, American civil engineer and soldier who served as a major general in the Revolutionary War (d. 1795)
- October 30 – Jonathan Hornblower, English pioneer of steam power (d. 1780)
- November 13 – Prince George William of Great Britain, member of the British Royal Family (d. 1718)
- November 16 – Jean le Rond d'Alembert, French mathematician and encyclopædist (d. 1783)
- November 17 – Caroline Townshend, 1st Baroness Greenwich, British peeress (d. 1794)
- November 25 – Alexander Sumarokov, Russian poet and playwright (d. 1777)
- December 9 – Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German classical scholar and archaeologist (d. 1768)
- December 16 – Elizabeth Carter, English writer (d. 1806)
- December 20 – Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, French statesman and diplomat (d. 1785)
- December 25 – George Augustus Eliott, 1st Baron Heathfield (d. 1790)
- December 27 – Pope Pius VI (d. 1799)
- December 28 – Johann Heinrich Gottlob Justi, leading German Kameralist in the 18th century (d. 1771)
- date unknown
- Giambattista Almici, Italian jurist (d. 1793)
- Claude Humbert Piarron de Chamousset, French philanthropist (d. 1773)
- Nicholas Cooke, first Governor of Rhode Island (d. 1782)
- Jean-François-Marie de Surville, French trader and navigator (d. 1770)
- Gottlieb Sigmund Gruner, cartographer and geologist (d. 1778)
- Antoine Guenée, French priest and Christian apologist (d. 1803)
- Elimelech of Lizhensk, Orthodox Jewish Rabbi and one of the great Hassidic Rebbes of the past (d. 1577)
- Henry Middleton, second President of the Continental Congress (d. 1784)
- James Paine, English architect (d. 1789)
- Isaac de Pinto, Dutch Jew of Portuguese origin (d. 1787)
- Anne Steele, hymn-writer (d. 1778)
- Matthew Stewart, Scottish mathematician born in Rothesay (d. 1785)
- Molla Panah Vagif, Azerbaijani poet (d. 1797)
- William Williams Pantycelyn, one of the key leaders of the 18th century Welsh Methodist revival (d. 1791)
[edit] Deaths - January 13 – Maria Sibylla Merian, naturalist and scientific illustrator who studied plants and insects and made detailed paintings about them (b. 1647)
- February 23 – Magnus Stenbock, Swedish military officer (b. 1664)
- March 3 – Pierre Allix, French Protestant clergyman (b. 1641)
- March 5 – François de Callières, member of the Académie française (b. 1645)
- March 8 – Abraham Darby I, first of that name of three generations of an English Quaker family that was key to the development of the Industrial Revolution (b. 1678)
- March 19 – John Campbell, 1st Earl of Breadalbane and Holland, Scottish royalist (b. 1636)
- April 3 – Jacques Ozanam, French mathematician (b. 1640)
- April 5 – Jean Jouvenet, French painter (b. 1647)
- April 11 – Abraham ben Saul Broda, Bohemian Talmudist
- April 26 – John King, 18th century pirate
- May 10 – John Hathorne, American magistrate (b. 1641)
- May 20 – John Trevor, English Speaker of the House of Commons (b. 1637)
- June 3 – Fernando de Alencastre Noroña y Silva, duque de Linares, Spanish nobleman and military officer
- June 9 – Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon, French mystic (b. 1648)
- July 17 – Juan María de Salvatierra, Catholic missionary to the Americas (b. 1648)
- August
- August 30 – William Lloyd (b. 1627)
- September 17 – Robert Cotton, English politician (born 1644)
- October – Philippe de Pastour de Costebelle, naval officer and Governor of Newfoundland (b. 1661)
- October 22 – Henry Luttrell (Colonel), British colonel (shot and mortally wounded in his sedan chair in Dublin)
- October 26 – Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester, English mistress of James II of England (b. 1657)
- November 21 – Jean-Baptiste Santerre, French painter (b. 1650)
- November 26 – Daniel Purcell, English composer (b. 1664)
- December 4 – William Hamilton, surgeon in the British East India Company
- December 5 – Richard Onslow, 1st Baron Onslow, English politician (b. 1654)
- date unknown
- Jane Wiseman, English actress, poet and playwright (b. c. 1682)
- Lambert Bos, Dutch scholar and critic (b. 1670)
- William Diaper, English poet of the Augustan era (b. 1685)
- Wang Hui, Chinese landscape painter (b. 1632)
- Osei Kofi Tutu I, founder of the Ashanti Confederacy
- William Boyd, 3rd Earl of Kilmarnock, Scottish nobleman
- Jan Dobrogost Krasiński, Polish nobleman (szlachcic)
- Niccolao Manucci, Italian writer and traveller (b. 1639)
- Empress XiaoHui, second Consort of the Qing Dynasty Shun Zhi Emperor of China (b. 1641)
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