1717

Events

• January 4 — The Netherlands, Britain & France sign Triple Alliance
• March 2 — Dancer John Weaver performs in the first ballet in Britain shown in Drury Lane The Loves of Mars and Venus
• March 31 - Bishop Benjamin Hoadly, acting on the advice of King George begins the Bangorian Controversy by saying that God favors churches with no government.
• June 24 — Anglo branch of Freemasonry (UGLE) founded in London.
• December 24/25 A desastrous storm flood hits the North Sea coast between the Netherlands and Danmark. Thousands die or loose their housings. (German article on this flood )
• Voltaire is sentenced to Bastille for a year because of his satirical writings
• Spain unites its South American colonies as New Grenada
• Montevideo, Uruguay, founded by Portuguese

Ongoing events

• Great Northern War (1700–1721)

Births

• January 5 - William Wildman Shute Barrington, British statesman
• January 29 - Jeffrey Amherst, British soldier, conqueror of Quebec
• February 19 - David Garrick, actor
• May 13 - Maria Theresa of Austria
• August 15 - Blind Jack of Knaresborough, England, violinist and road builder
• September 24 - Horace Walpole, British writer (d. 1797)
• November 16 - Jean le Rond d'Alembert, mathematician and encyclopædist
• December 9 - Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German archaeologist
• December 27 - Pope Pius VI

Deaths

• March 3 — Pierre Allix, French Protestant clergyman
• May 10 — John Hathorne, magistrate