Born in 1706:

• American printer, inventor, diplomat, statesman, and wit Benjamin Franklin.
• Hindu sage Thayumanavar.
• Italian composer Baldassare Galuppi.
• English engraver and typographer John Baskerville.
• English physician and playwright Benjamin Hoadly.
• German sculptor Johann Joachim Kändler.
• Italian mathematician and clergyman Giovanni Battista Martini.
• (possibly) Swiss composer Henricus Albicastro.
• English historian George Ballard.
• British optician John Dollond.
• Japanese painter Yanagisawa Kien.

• German composer Johann Pachelbel.
• French philosopher Pierre Bayle.
• English highwayman Dick Turpin.
• English diarist John Evelyn.
• French explorer Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur de Iberville, governor of Louisiana, of Yellow Fever in Havana.
• English poet and satirist John Phillips.
• German physician Caspar Schamberger.
• Portugese King Pedro II.  His seventeen-year-old son João V succeeds him,

• Cotton Mather writes The Negro Christianized, a "religious" rationalization for slavery.
• Thomas Twining opens the first London coffeehouse to specialize in tea.
• Thomas Newcomen invents a steam engine to pump water out of deep mines.
• Albuquerque is founded on the upper Rio Grande.
• In Salem, Massachusetts, Ann Putnam, one of the original girls whose hysterical behavior led to the hanging of several women as witches, expresses a measure of remorse for her actions.
• Calcutta has two streets and about 10,000 people.
• The War of the Spanish Succession (aka Queen Anne's War) sees fighting in the Spanish Netherlands, Spain, Italy, and the Caribbean:
• (January 12) A pro-Bourbon army is defeated at San Mateo and takes it out on the surrounding countryside.
• (January 24) The Comte de Chavegnac attempts to take Nevis from the British but has to withdraw.  He returns with Pierre de Iberville commanding a land force and occupies it and St. Kitts.  The carry 2,500 slaves as booty off to Martinique but can't control the island because of the resistance of the other slaves. The islands are so badly damaged, they will never recover their supremacy in sugar production.
• (February 7) The Hapsburg pretender, Austrian archduke Charles, enters Madrid.
• (April) A French fleet attempting to take Barcelona is forced to retreat.
• (May 23) Allied British, Dutch, and Danish armies led by John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough defeat the French at the Battle of Ramillies, allowing them to occupy Ghent, Antwerp, and Bruges.
• (June-July) Allied forces capture Ostend from the French after a siege.
• (July 10) Charles flees Madrid and Bourbon pretender Philip V enters.
• (August 22) Another siege wins Menin for the Allies.
• (September 7) Prince Eugene of Savoy breaks the French siege of Turin and drives the French out of Italy.
• (September 21) Aeth
• The Great Northern War sees fighting in Poland and Saxony.
• (February 13) The Swedish army, led by General Rehnskiöld defeats a Russian-Saxon army at the Battle of Fraustadt (in West Prussia).  Swedish troops kill Russian prisoners after the battle.
• The Russians break out of the siege of Grodno (in present-day Belarus), escaping but leaving 15,000 dead behind them.

Swedish King Karl XII, invades Saxony.
• (September 24) Charles forces Augustus, Elector of Saxony, to sign a  treaty renouncing his right to the Polish throne in favor of Charles' puppet, Stanislaus Leszczynski.
• (October 19) News of the treaty does not reach everyone: A Russian-Saxon-Polish army defeats one of Charles's generals at Kalisz.
• George Farquhar's play The Recruiting Officer debuts on Drury Lane.

1705 - 1706 - 1707

How they Were Made - 18th Century