Major Events
- Jan 4 Netherlands, Great Britain & France sign Triple Alliance
- Jan 5 Prussian King Frederik Willem I buys conscript for nobles
- Jan 14 German mob leader and thief "Sjako" sentenced to death in Amsterdam
- Feb 1 Henri d'Aguesseau's 1st appointment as chancellor of France
- Feb 1 Silent Sejm session of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth parliament marks the end of Augustus II's attempts to create an absolute monarchy and the start of Russia's influence and control over the Commonwealth [1]
- Mar 2 The Loves of Mars and Venus becomes the first ballet performed in England
- Mar 31 A sermon on "The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ" by Benjamin Hoadly, the Bishop of Bangor, provokes the Bangorian Controversy
- Jun 24 1st Free Masons' grand lodge founded in London
- Jul 17 George Frideric Handel's "Water Music" premieres repeatedly on a barge cruising the River Thames in London
- Jul 28 Prussian King Frederik Willhelm I orders compulsory education for 5-12 year olds
- More 1717 Events
1717 in Music
- Jul 17 George Frideric Handel's "Water Music" premieres repeatedly on a barge cruising the River Thames in London
Jean-Baptiste Le Rond d'Alembert
Pius VIMore People Born in 1717
Fun Fact About 1717
English pirate Blackbeard ransacks the merchant sloop "Margaret" and keeps her captain, Henry Bostock prisoner for 8 hours before releasing him. Bostock later provides the first record of Blackbeard's appearance, and the source for his name.
Who Died in 1717
- Mar 3 Pierre Allix, French/British theologist/vicar, dies at about 75
- Mar 8 Abraham Darby I, English ironmaster (1st to smelt iron ore with coke, pivotal figure in Industrial Revolution), dies at about 40
- Mar 19 John Campbell, 1st Earl of Breadalbane and Holland, Scottish royalist
- Apr 3 Jacques Ozanam, French mathematician (b. 1640)
- Apr 5 Jean Jouvenet, French painter (b. 1647)
More 1717 Deaths
Antonio Vivaldi
Johann Sebastian Bach
George I
Peter the Great