1708
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James Edward Stuart turns 20 June 10 and renews his claims to the English and Scottish thrones (see 1701). He and his supporters embark for Scotland in French ships, but the Royal Navy drives off his little fleet before it can land (see 1715).
Austria annexes the duchy of Mantua, whose territory has been laid waste by various foreign invasions; a succession of dissolute dukes have proved inept in handling the duchy's affairs and have squandered its resources; Gonzaga family rule ends after 380 years, and its final duke, Ferdinand Carlos, dies at Venice July 5.
Ghent and Bruges resume their allegiance to France in early July. Fearing that other cities will follow suit, the duke of Marlborough defeats the French July 11 at the Battle of Oudenarde with help from Eugene of Savoy. He lays siege to Lille for nearly 4 months, and the citadel surrenders in December after 30,000 combatants have lost their lives in the continuing War of the Spanish Succession.
The 5-year-old city of St. Petersburg withstands a siege by Sweden's Karl (Charles) XII, who invades the Ukraine and lays siege to the Russian fortress of Poltava on the Vorskla River 85 miles southwest of Kharkov. Russia's Peter the Great responds with a scorched earth policy, burning crops and destroying anything that might be of value to the invaders. The Cossack hetman Ivan Mazepa brings his 5,000 men to the support of the Swedes in October, but he is unable to inspire a Ukrainian revolt against Russia, and the Russians intercept an auxiliary army carrying supplies to Karl, whose hungry army is stricken with plague (see 1709).
Dahomey's king Akaba dies after a 23-year reign in which Yoruba horsemen from neighboring Oyo have gained control of his realm (see 1698). He is succeeded by Agaja, who will reign until 1732 and conquer some adjacent territories on the Gulf of Guinea coast where Europeans have erected forts to exploit the slave trade on which Dahomey has thrived.
The provincial assembly of New York condemns the administration of the colony's governor, Lord Cornbury, who has used tax revenues for his own purposes and whose arrest of the Presbyterian minister Francis Makemie last year has antagonized many citizens (see 1702). Queen Anne recalls him, but as he is about to board ship in December, his creditors have him arrested and the sheriff puts him in the common jail in Wall Street, where he will continue for nearly a year to affect women's garb (he owes £8,000 to New York merchants and shopkeepers alone). Cornbury's successor, John lord Lovelace, baron of Hurley, arrives at New York in a snowstorm December 18 after a 9-week passage and is so weak from the bitter cold he will not be well enough to take up his duties until spring. "This Coast is so terrible in Winter," he writes home, "[that] I think no Ship ought to be sent hither from England after August."
Canadian Indians and French colonists massacre settlers at Haverhill in the Massachusetts Bay colony.
The 2,400 adult whites in the 45-year-old Carolina colony are outnumbered by 2,900 black slaves and 1,100 Indian slaves (see 1775).
The United East India Company created by a merger of Britain's two rival East India Companies is the strongest European power on the coasts of India. The company ships Indian silks, cottons, indigo (for blue dye), coffee, and saltpetre (for gunpowder) as well as China tea, and it will pay regular dividends of 8 to 10 percent (see 1627).
The Bank of England Act prohibits any other bank with more than six partners from issuing bank notes (see 1694). By keeping the pound sterling strong and paying interest faithfully on its borrowings, the government will enjoy leverage that will enable it to outfinance France or any other sovereign nation, giving it the power to create the largest empire in history (see South Sea Company, 1719; clearing house, 1775).
Japanese samurai mathematician Kowa Seki dies at Edo October 24 at age 66, having developed a theory of determinants earlier (and more general) than those of his German contemporary Gottfried W. Leibniz. He has also been known as Takakazu, and his disciple Takebe will use his discoveries in calculus to develop a Japanese school of mathematics.
Bishop François de Montmorency Laval dies at Quebec May 6 at age 85, having resigned in 1688 after founding the Roman Catholic Church organization and education in New France.
Sikh leader Gobind Singh is killed at Nanded, Maharashtra, October 7 at age 42 by a Pashtun tribesman who takes vengeance for the killing of his father. Last of the 10 personal gurus, Gobind Singh has in his 33-year reign founded what will become the military brotherhood of Sikhs known as the Khalsa, but he has lost all four of his sons in one battle near Ambala (his wife and parents have also been killed in his struggle for religious freedom). Gobind Singh's disciple Banda Singh Bahadur succeeds to the leadership of the sect, but the Sikh guru henceforth will not be a person but rather the Adi Granth, a holy book.
Nonfiction: The Sot Weed Factor, or A Voyage to Maryland by English satirist Ebenezer Cook, 36, expresses disgust at the greedy colonials. Cook has gone to America to buy tobacco.
Painting: The Departing Regiment by Flemish rococo painter (Jean) Antoine Watteau, 23.
Theater: Electra (Elèctre) by Prosper Jolyot, sieur de Crébillon, 12/14 at the Comédie-Française, Paris.
German organist Johann Sebastian Bach, 23, becomes court organist at the duke of Weimar's castle, where he will be made court concertmeister in 1714. Born in Eisenach and orphaned before age 10, Bach had become a virtuosic organist by 1702 and traveled in the fall of 1705 from Arnstadt to Lübeck for the annual performance of the Abendmusiken concerto by the late Danish organist-composer Dietrich Buxtehude, who had great influence on young Bach.
Composer John Blow dies at London October 1 at age 59.
Saxon alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger at Meissen, 14 miles northwest of Dresden, discovers a formula for making hard-paste porcelain of the kind imported from China, a combination of brown stone made pliable with kaolin (see 1705; 1709).
1701 1702 1703 1704 1705 1706 1707 1708 1709 1710
Houghton Mifflin Guide to Science & Technology:
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In the year 1708
Materials
Johann F. Böttger [b. Schleiz (Germany), February 4, 1682, d. 1719], a chemist working for Augustus the Strong of Saxony, and Count Ehrenfried von Tschirnhaus, rediscover how to make true hard-paste porcelain from kaolin, a process that had been kept secret in the Orient. See also 1616 Materials.
Medicine & healthInstitutiones medicae by Hermann Boerhaave [b. Voorhout (Netherlands), December 31, 1668, d. Leiden, Holland, September 23, 1738] explains his theory of inflammation. The book combines mechanical views of physiology with the idea that physiological processes are chemical fermentations. See also 1704 Medicine & health.
ToolsChristopher Polhem develops machine tools for the production of cogwheels. See also 1697 Tools.
Nonfiction
- John Oldmixon (1673-1742): British Empire in America. The English historian supplies the first study of the British settlements on the American coast as a unified political entity.
Poetry, Fiction, and Drama
- Ebenezer Cook (fl. 1708): "The Sot-Weed Factor." The Maryland poet's most famous work is a satirical poem treating the experiences of an agent of a British tobacco merchant in Maryland. Its range (and tone) is indicated by its subtitle: "The Laws, Government, Courts, and Constitution of the Country; and also the Buildings, Feasts, Frolics, Entertainments, and Drunken Humours of the Inhabitants of that Part of America."
Sermons and Religious Writing
- Cotton Mather: The Way of Truth, Laid out.... Mather's catechism for children is written in a style that is "rendered now a little more easy and proper for children of the smallest capacity."
- Solomon Stoddard: "The Inexcusableness of Neglecting the Worship of God: Under a Pretence of Being in an Unconverted Condition." In this sermon Stoddard forcefully opposes excesses in daily life.
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This article is about the year 1708.
| Millennium: | 2nd millennium |
|---|---|
| Centuries: | 17th century – 18th century – 19th century |
| Decades: | 1670s 1680s 1690s – 1700s – 1710s 1720s 1730s |
| Years: | 1705 1706 1707 – 1708 – 1709 1710 1711 |
| 1708 by topic: | |
| Arts and Sciences | |
| Archaeology – Architecture – Art – Literature (Poetry) – Music – Science | |
| Countries | |
| Canada – England – Great Britain – | |
| Lists of leaders | |
| Colonial governors – State leaders | |
| Birth and death categories | |
| Births – Deaths | |
| Establishments and disestablishments categories | |
| Establishments – Disestablishments | |
| Works category | |
| Works | |
| Gregorian calendar | 1708 MDCCVIII |
| Ab urbe condita | 2461 |
| Armenian calendar | 1157 ԹՎ ՌՃԾԷ |
| Assyrian calendar | 6458 |
| Bahá'í calendar | -136–-135 |
| Bengali calendar | 1115 |
| Berber calendar | 2658 |
| British Regnal year | 6 Ann. 1 – 7 Ann. 1 |
| Buddhist calendar | 2252 |
| Burmese calendar | 1070 |
| Byzantine calendar | 7216–7217 |
| Chinese calendar | 丁亥年十二月初九日 (4344/4404-12-9) — to —
戊子年十一月二十日(4345/4405-11-20) |
| Coptic calendar | 1424–1425 |
| Ethiopian calendar | 1700–1701 |
| Hebrew calendar | 5468–5469 |
| Hindu calendars | |
| - Vikram Samvat | 1764–1765 |
| - Shaka Samvat | 1630–1631 |
| - Kali Yuga | 4809–4810 |
| Holocene calendar | 11708 |
| Iranian calendar | 1086–1087 |
| Islamic calendar | 1119–1120 |
| Japanese calendar | Hōei 5 (宝永5年) |
| Korean calendar | 4041 |
| Minguo calendar | 204 before ROC 民前204年 |
| Thai solar calendar | 2251 |
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 1708 |
Year 1708 (MDCCVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Thursday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar. In the Swedish calendar it was a leap year starting on Wednesday, one day ahead of the Julian and ten days behind the Gregorian calendar.
Events
January–June
- March 11 – Queen Anne withholds Royal Assent from the Scottish Militia Bill, the last time a British monarch vetoes legislation.
- March 23 – James Francis Edward Stuart unsuccessfully tries to land at the Firth of Forth.
July–December
- July 1 – Tewoflos becomes Emperor of Ethiopia.
- July 11 – War of the Spanish Succession: allied victory under the command of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, against the French at the Battle of Oudenarde.[1]
- August – The future Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor weds Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.
- August 18 – War of the Spanish Succession: Capture of Minorca by British forces.[1]
- August 23 – Meidingu Pamheiba is crowned King of Manipur.
- August 29 – A native American attack in Haverhill, Massachusetts kills 16 settlers.
- September 28 – Battle of Lesnaya: Peter the Great defeats the Swedes.
- October 12 – War of the Spanish Succession: British forces capture Lille after a two-month siege, although the citadel continues to hold out for another six weeks.[2]
- October 20 – Completion of the construction of St Paul's Cathedral in London.[3]
Date unknown
- Kandahar is conquered by Mir Wais.
- One third of the population of Masuria dies of the plague.
- Johann Sebastian Bach is appointed as chamber musician and organist at the court in Weimar, Germany.
- Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico delivers his inaugural lecture to the University of Naples, published as his first book, On the Study Methods of Our Time, in 1709.
- Fearful of a Swedish attack, the Russians blow up the city of Tartu in Estonia.
- Merger (with consent of the Parliament of Great Britain) of the Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies and the more recently established English Company Trading to the East Indies to form the United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies, known as the Honourable East India Company.[4]
Births
- January 25 – Pompeo Batoni, Italian painter (d. 1787)
- April 23 – Friedrich von Hagedorn, German poet (d. 1754)
- October 16 – Albrecht von Haller, Swiss anatomist and physiologist (d. 1777)
- October 22 – Frederic Louis Norden, Danish explorer (d. 1742)
- November 15 – William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1778)
- December 8 – Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1765)
- date unknown
- Richard Dawes, British classical scholar (d. 1766)
- John Hulse, Anglican priest (d. 1790)
Deaths
- May 6 – François de Laval, first bishop of New France (b. 1623)
- May 11 – Jules Hardouin Mansart, French architect (b. 1646)
- May 12 – Adolf Friedrich II of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (b. 1658)
- June 30 – Emperor Tekle Haymanot I of Ethiopia (stabbed to death) (b. 1706)
- September 6 – John Morden, English merchant and philanthropist (b. 1623)
- October 1 – John Blow, British composer (b. 1649)
- October 2 – Anne-Jules, 2nd duc de Noailles, French general (b. 1650)
- October 7 – Guru Gobind Singh, 10th Guru Sahib of Sikhism, Founder and Chief General of the Khalsa Army, social reformist, poet, and revolutionary (b. 1666)
- October 10 – David Gregory, Scottish astronomer (b. 1659)
- October 11 – Ehrenfried Walter von Tschirnhaus, German mathematician (b. 1651)
- October 22 – Hermann Witsius, Dutch theologian (b. 1636)
- October 24 – Seki Kowa, Japanese mathematician (b. c. 1640)
- October 28 – Prince George of Denmark, consort of Anne of Great Britain (b. 1653)
- November 17 – Ludolf Backhuysen, Dutch painter (b. 1631)
- December 22 – Hedwig Sophia, duchess of Holstein-Gottorp, Swedish writer (b. 1681)
- December 28 – Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, French botanist (b. 1656)
References
- ^ a b Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 292. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
- ^ Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 205–206. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
- ^ "Stamps celebrate St Paul's with Wren epitaph". Evening Standard. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23484259-details/Stamps+celebrate+St+Paul's+with+Wren+epitaph/article.do. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
- ^ Landow, George P. (2010). "The British East India Company — the Company that Owned a Nation (or Two)". The Victorian Web. http://victorianweb.org/history/empire/india/eic.html. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
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Gale World Chronology
People's Chronology. Copyright © 2005 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Houghton Mifflin Guide to Science & Technology
History of Science and Technology, edited by Bryan Bunch and Alexander Hellemans. Copyright © 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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The Chronology of American Literature, edited by Daniel S. Burt. Copyright © 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
