History
1709
General
Population: 660 Million*
- Entertainment: Writers include Alain Rene Lesage (comedy), Alexander Pope, First issue of Steele and Addison's "The Tatler",
John Strype (reformation)
Music includes "For he's a jolly good fellow" becomes popular after battle of Malplaquet – possibly first after Marlborough
Invention of the pianoforte by Bartolomeo Cristofori the harpsichord maker
- Exploration: Rescue of Alexander Selkirk the shipwrecked "Robinson Crusoe"
- Science: George Berkeley writes theory of vision
- Technology: Abraham Darby devises blast furnace
De Lana "vacuum balloon" tested
- Deaths: Shogun Tsunayoshi, Artist Meindert Hobberma, Satirist Abraham a Sancta Clara, King Stanislas I of Poland
Asia
- Japan: Death of Japanese shogun Tsunayoshi - Ienobe becomes Shogun
Europe
- General: Peter the Great defeats Charles XII of Sweden at Battle of Poltava
Marlborough ("The Butcher") and Prince Eugene take Tournai – defeat French at Malplaquet and conquer Mons
- France: Battle of Malplaquet – French defeated with heavy allied losses
Famine
- Great Britain: Japanese magnolias introduced
Postage rates in England regulated by milage
England negotiates first peaceful transfer of power
First Copyright Act
Blast furnace iron production
- Italian States: Italian Johann Maria Farina produces eau-de-cologne in Cologne
Piano invented
- Netherlands: Peace negotiations at The Hague
- Poland: Death of King Stanislas I
- Russia: First Russian prisoners sent to Siberia
Russia becomes European power defeating Sweden
- Sweden: King Charles flees
Middle East
- Afghanistan: Ghilzai people under Mir Vais defeat Persian army – Afghans rebel against Safavid (Persian) rule and assert independence
General
- Migration: 14,000 inhabitants of the Palatinate emigrate to N America – eventually 5 million by end of 1800s