istoryworld
All Events
Alexander Selkirk, the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe, is discovered on a Pacific island where he has survived alone for nearly five years
Abraham Darby at Coalbrookdale discovers the use of coke in the smelting of pig iron
In a friendly keyboard contest in Rome between Handel and Domenico Scarlatti, the result is a draw – Handel being the winner on the organ and Scarlatti on the harpsichord
Sir Godfrey Kneller buys and demolishes an earlier house and builds a new house, Whitton Hall, which is later known as Kneller Hall, on the site.
Thomas Newcomen creates a piston steam engine, with the steam condensed in the cylinder by a jet of cold water
Christopher Wren's new domed St Paul's cathedral is completed in London
Machines are thrown out of the window of a Spitalfields factory, in an early protest against industrialization
The Byerley Turk, Darley Arabian and Godolphin Arabian, ancestors of all thoroughbred racehorses, are imported into England
25-year-old George Berkeley attacks Locke in his Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge
James Johnston, Secretary of State for Scotland, commissions John James to design his new house, to become known later as Orleans House.
Handel's success in London with his opera Rinaldo prompts him to settle in Britain
Alexander Pope's Rape of the Lock introduces a delicate vein of mock-heroic in English poetry
The tsar formally marries Catherine, his mistress for nearly ten years (though they may have married secretly five years earlier)
The violinist Archangelo Corelli composes his Christmas Concerto, the best known of his influential group of twelve Concerti Grossi
Nave and chancel of St Mary's Church collapse leaving only the fifteenth-century tower, itself the survivor of an earlier building.
The emperor Charles VI issues a Pragmatic Sanction, declaring that the remaining Habsburg empire can be inherited through the female line
The treaties signed in Utrecht bring to an end the War of the Spanish Succession
Edward Proger dies in Bushy House at the age of 96
The Diana or Arethusa Fountain, decorated with bronze sculptures by Hubert Le Sueur, is placed in the centre of the round pond in Bushy Park
In the aftermath of the War of the Spanish Succession, the Spanish Netherlands are transferred to Austria
Strasbourg and Alsace are ceded to Louis XIV and become part of France
Cosmas Damian Asam begins work on a highly theatrical creation, the Benedictine Abbey of Weltenburg (1714-1735), joined by his younger brother Egid Quirin from 1721
Fahrenheit perfects the mercury thermometer and decides on a 180-degree interval between the freezing and boiling points of water
On the death of Queen Anne, the Act of Settlement delivers the British crown to the elector of Hanover, as George I
The British government offers a massive £20,000 prize for a chronometer capable of keeping accurate time at sea
