1703

• French mathematician Antoine Deparcieux.
• American evangelist Jonathan Edwards.
• English evangelist John Wesley, founder of Methodism.
• English novelist Henry Brooke.
• English footman and poet Robert Dodsley.
• (approx.)  German composer Johann Friederich Lampe.
• English actor Theophilus Cibber.

• Italian mathematician Vincenzo Viviani.
• English mathematician John Wallis.
• English bureaucrat and diarist Samuel Pepys.
• English scientist Robert Hooke, great antagonist of Isaac Newton.
• French organist and composer Nicolas de Grigny, an early inspiration for Johann Sebastian Bach.
• French author Charles Perrault.
• French painter François Boucher.
• Dutch painter Gottfried Schalken.
• French Charles de Saint-Denis Saint-Evrémond, social guru of England.
• English dramatist John Crowne.
• Dutch soldier and crony of King William III Godert de Ginkel, earl of Athlone.
• German composer Johann Christoph Bach.
• 11,000 Austrians at Hochstadt, 8000 English in the Great Storm.
• John Churchill (the younger), only son of the Duke of Marlborough, from smallpox.
• Islamic Sufi theologian Shah Waliullah, in Delhi.

• The Great Northern War rages around the Baltic Sea:
• (March 19) Swedish general Lewenhaupt defeats the Russians at Saladen
• (April 21) Swedish King Charles XII seizes the entire Saxon supply train, and separates the Saxon cavalry from the infantry at the Battle of Pulutsk.
• (May 16) Russian tsar Peter the Great impresses his grand vision on the Earth.  He builds a builds a citadel (the Peter and Paul Fortress) on an island at the mouth of the Neva River, on land he has just conquered from Sweden, fills in the surrounding marshland, and begins to build his new city of St. Petersburg.
• Charles surrounds beseiges the Saxons at Thorn on the Vistula River.
• (October 14) Thorn surrenders after 5 months. Charles effectively controls Poland now.
• The War of the Spanish Succession (aka Queen Anne's War) sees some changes in allegiance, as well as some actual fighting for the first time:
• The Allies declare 18-year old Austrian Archduke Charles to be king of Spain.
• Prince Eugene of Savoy is appointed to the Austrian Imperial war council.
• Prince Frantisek Rákóczi of Transylvania begins a revolt against Hapsburg rule in Hungary.
• Savoy (aka Piedmont) switches sides to the Allies.  Louis XIV sends an army and overruns Piedmont.
• John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, captures important French strongholds in The Netherlands.
• (May) The Duke of Marlborough captures Bonn from the French.
• (July 26) Tyrol militia drives the Bavarian army out of Innsbruck.
• (August 10) French soldiers and Abenaki Indian allies hack the settlers of Wells, Massachussetts (now Maine) to death.
• (September 30) The French army soundly defeats the Austrian army at the Battle of Hochstadt. An assault on Vienna is put off as the French generals quarrel amongst themselves.
• (April) The Great Storm knocks down trees all over southern England and destroys many ships, inclusing 15 of the Royal Navy].
• (December 27) England and Portugal sign the Methuen Treaty; England will import wine and Portugal will import woolen goods.
• The Scottish Parliament passes an act saying that a Stuart will inherit the throne of Scotland] upon Queen Anne's death.  The English Parliament passes a retaliatory act banning the importation of all Scottish goods until they accept the Hanoverian succession.
• The "Three Lower Counties" (territory Pennsylvania wrested from Maryland during the "Glorious Revolution") are made into the separate colony of Delaware.
• Georg Friedrich Händel is hired as a harpsichordist and violinist for the Hamburg Opera.
• Isaac Newton is elected President of the Royal Society.
• Daniel Foe has an eventful year:
• He is thrown into Newgate Prison discovered to have written a politically embarrassing pamphlet the previous year.
• He writes his poem Hymn to the Pillory in prison and reads it aloud to the spectators while in said punishment device.
• His brick factory goes bankrupt.
• He is released after he signs on with the Tory Earl of Oxford to be a secret agent and government propagandist.
• He changes his surname to "Defoe".
• Mughal Emperor Aurangazeb captures Pune from the Maratha Empire. His armies also lay sieige to the Sikh stronghold of Andapur.
• The Qing emperor builds his summer palace, now known as "The Mountain Resort", near Chengde in Hebei Province.

1702 - 1703 - 1704

How they Were Made - 18th Century