• The soon-to-be King Louis XV of France, great-grandson of Louis XIV.
• German composer Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, son of Johann Sebastian Bach.
• English composer Thomas Arne.
• Italian composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi.
• English mathematician Thomas Simpson.
• American mathematician Thomas Fuller, in Africa.
• Scottish philosopher Thomas Reid.
• French sculptor François Gaspard Adam.
• English author Jane Collier.
• English grammarian Robert Lowth.
• (approx.) French composer André-Joseph Exaudet.
• Italian composer Remigio Cesti.
• Swiss zoologist Abraham Trembley.
• Dancer Marie-Anne de Cupis, in Brussels.

• English poet Lady Mary Chudleigh.
• English actor Thomas Betterton.
• English composer Henry Aldrich.
• English Quaker pamphleteer Anne Docwra.
• Louise La Vallière, former mistress of Louis XIV.
• Italian composer Domenico Freschi.
• Plague kills thousands in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Prussia, Pomerania, and eventually Finland and Sweden. One-third of Stockholm succumbs.

• The War of the Spanish Succession/Queen Anne's War:
• French privateers attempting to conquer Montserrat are beaten back by local residents.
• (July 27) British general James Stanhope is victorious at the Battle of Almenara.
• (August 20) Stanhope captures Zaragoza, but neglects to pursue the defeated army.
• (September 21) Charles finally enters Madrid.
• (October 16) The British capture Port Royal and occupy Acadia.
• (November 9) Bourbon pretender Philip V's new commanding general, Duc Louis-Joseph de Vendôme recaptures Madrid.
• (December 9) Battle of Brihuega: Vendôme forces British general Stanhope to surrender.
• (December 10) Battle of Villaviciosa: Vendôme defeats Austrian general Guido von Starhemberg. The Austrians are penned into Catalonia and Philip's throne is assured.
• French settlers in Louisiana, cut off by the war, avoid starvation only by begging food from local Indians.
• Hungary rebels against its Austrian overlord, but pretender Frantisek Rákóczi is badly defeated and people begin to defect.
• The Great Northern War:
• Swedish King Charles XII, living in Bendery in Moldova, manages to convince Ottoman Sultan Selim III to declare war on Russia.
• Kjoge Bay: A Danish fleet forces several Swedish ships aground.
• Sweden (permanently) captures Hälsingborg from Denmark.
• Tsar Peter the Great launches the first sizeable ships of his Baltic Sea Fleet.
• Peter's army overruns Estonia, and captures Viborg in southern Sweden.
• Sikh forces under Banda Singh Bahadur capture large amounts of Mughal territory near Delhi; eventually,
• Parliamentary elections in Great Britain result in a landslide for the Tories.
• Bishop George Berkely publishes The Principles of Human Knowledge.
• Georg Friedric Händel becomes Kapellmeister for the Elector of Hanover, (eventually be British King George I).
• Parliament passes the Post Office Act, establishing an American postal service controlled by London.
• Peter the Great introduces a dangerous revolutionary practice to the Russian government: the budget.
• Edmund Halley compares stellar positions with those recorded by Claudius Ptolemy.  He deduces that the notion of a "fixed star" is erroneous: stars move across the heavens ("proper motion").
• The first European porcelain factory is founded in Meissen.

1709 - 1710 - 1711

How they Were Made - 18th Century