Year 1704

1704 (MDCCIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar, the 1704th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 704th year of the 2nd millennium, the 4th year of the 18th century, and the 5th year of the 1700s decade. As of the start of 1704, the Gregorian calendar was 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

In the Swedish calendar it was a leap year starting on Friday, one day ahead of the Julian and ten days behind the Gregorian calendar.

Events

January–June

• January 25–26 – Apalachee massacre: English colonists from the Province of Carolina, and their native allies, stage a series of brutal raids against a largely pacific population of Apalachee, in Spanish Florida.
• February 29 – Raid on Deerfield (Queen Anne’s War): French Canadians and Native Americans sack Deerfield, Massachusetts, killing over 50 English colonists.
• February – In America, Mardi Gras is celebrated with the Masque de la Mobile in the capital of Louisiana (New France), Mobile, Alabama.
• April 21 – Battle of Biskupice: The Hungarians (Kurucs) win a costly victory over the Danes.
• April 24 – The first regular newspaper in the Thirteen Colonies of British North America, The Boston News-Letter, is published.
• May 28 – Battle of Smolenice: Kuruc rebels defeat the Austrian army and its allies.
• June 13 – Battle of Koroncó: Austrians and their allies from Denmark, Prussia, Croatia, Germany and Vojvodina defeat the Kurucs.

July–December

• July – Daniel Defoe documents the Great Storm of 1703 in England, with eyewitness testimonies, in The Storm.
• July 12 – Great Northern War – King Charles XII of Sweden forces the election of his ally Stanisław Leszczyński as King of Poland, in place of Augustus II the Strong.
• August 3 (July 23 Old Style) – War of the Spanish Succession – Gibraltar is captured from Spain, by English and Dutch forces under Sir George Rooke.
• August 7 – Battle of Orford Ness.
• August 13 (August 2 OS) – War of the Spanish Succession – Battle of Blenheim: Allied troops under John Churchill, Earl of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy defeat the Franco-Bavarian army.
• August 24 (August 13 OS) – War of the Spanish Succession – French and English fleets clash off Málaga, causing heavy casualties on both sides, but without sinking any ships.
• September – War of the Spanish Succession – The Twelfth Siege of Gibraltar by French and Spanish troops begins.
• December 6 – Battle of Chamkaur: During the Mughal-Sikh Wars, an outnumbered Sikh Khalsa defeats a Mughal army.

Date unknown

• Great Northern War: Russian troops under Tsar Peter the Great capture Tartu and Narva.
• The Sultanate of Brunei cedes its north-east territories to the Sultanate of Sulu.
• The lower three counties of the Province of Pennsylvania become the colony of Delaware.
• An earthquake strikes Gondar, Ethiopia.
• A Tale of a Tub, the first major satire by Jonathan Swift (written 1694–1697), is published in London, running through three editions this year.
• Isaac Newton publishes his Opticks.
• The Students’ Monument is built in Aiud, Romania.
• Chinese Rites controversy: Rome decrees that Roman ceremonial practice in Latin (not in Chinese) is to be the law for Chinese missions.
• Thomas Darley purchases the bay Arabian horse Darley Arabian in Aleppo, Syria, and ships him to stud in England, where he becomes the most important foundation sire of all modern thoroughbred racing bloodstock.

Births

January–March

• January 1
  • Soame Jenyns, English writer and Member of Parliament (d. 1787)
  • Thomas Newton, English cleric (d. 1782)
• January 6 – Michael Becher, Bristol-born English slave trader and merchant (d. 1758)
• January 16 – Finnur Jónsson, Icelandic pastor, Bishop of Skálholt from 1754 to 1785 (d. 1789)
• January 28 – Louis, Hereditary Prince of Lorraine (d. 1711)
• January 29 – Francesco Appiani, Italian painter of the late-Baroque period (d. 1792)
• February 4 – Anna Susanne von der Osten, Danish courtier and philanthropist (d. 1773)
• February 5 – Anne Christine of Sulzbach, Princess of Piedmont (d. 1722)
• February 6 – John Mercer, colonial American lawyer (d. 1768)
• February 12
  • Charles Pinot Duclos, French writer (d. 1772)
  • Jan Schreuder, 30th Governor of Zeylan during the Dutch period in Ceylon (d. 1764)
• February 15
  • Aloysius Bellecius, Jesuit ascetic author (d. 1757)
  • Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, French sculptor who worked in both the rococo and neoclassical style (d. 1778)
• February 17
  • Marie-Madeleine Hachard, French letter writer and abbess of the Ursuline order (d. 1760)
  • Józef Pułaski (d. 1769)
  • Prince John August of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, German prince (d. 1767)
• February 24 – Johann Hieronymus Kniphof, German physician and botanist (d. 1763)
• February 28
  • Louis Godin, French astronomer and member of the French Academy of Sciences (d. 1760)
  • Hans Hermann von Katte, Lieutenant of the Prussian Army (d. 1730)
• February 29 – Phillips Payson, American Congregationalist minister for the town of Walpole (d. 1778)
• March 6 – John Ward, 1st Viscount Dudley and Ward (d. 1774)
• March 10 – Josias Lyndon, governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (d. 1778)
• March 17 – Lord Charles Cavendish (d. 1783)
• March 21 – Alexander Ferdinand, 3rd Prince of Thurn and Taxis (d. 1773)

April–June

• April 1 – Amalie von Wallmoden, Countess of Yarmouth, principal mistress of King George II from the mid-1730s (d. 1765)
• April 4 – Andreas Brünniche, Danish portrait painter (d. 1769)
• April 7 – Guillaume-François Berthier, Jesuit professor and writer (d. 1782)
• April 10 – Benjamin Heath, English classical scholar (d. 1766)
• April 13 – Francis North, 1st Earl of Guilford (d. 1790)
• April 17
  • Paolo Girolamo Besozzi, Italian oboe virtuoso and bassoonist (d. 1778)
  • Jean-Baptiste Chermanne, architect and businessman active in the Southern Netherlands and the Principality of Liège (d. 1770)
• April 21 – Gabriel Manigault, American merchant (d. 1781)
• April 29 – Arthur Denny, Irish politician (d. 1742)
• April 30 – Jean Adam, Scottish poet from the labouring classes (d. 1765)
• May 6 – Fath Muhammad, general of Mysore and the father of Hyder Ali (d. 1725)
• May 7 – Carl Heinrich Graun, German composer and tenor (d. 1759)
• May 8 – Gaspare Testone, Italian painter and architect (d. 1801)
• May 10 – Jacques Dumont le Romain, French history and portrait painter (d. 1781)
• June 1 – Johann Baptist Straub (d. 1784)
• June 4 – Benjamin Huntsman, English inventor and manufacturer of cast or crucible steel (d. 1776)
• June 11 – Carlos Seixas, Portuguese composer (d. 1742)
• June 16 – Edward Ward, 9th Baron Dudley (d. 1731)
• June 17 – John Kay, inventor of the flying shuttle (d. 1780)
• June 22 – John Taylor, English classical scholar (d. 1766)
• June 24
  • Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d’Argens, French writer (d. 1771)
  • John Ward, English actor and theatre manager (d. 1773)
• June 29 – Azad Bilgrami, scholar of Arabic (d. 1786)

July–September

• July 4 – Michel de Sallaberry (d. 1768)
• July 15 – August Gottlieb Spangenberg, German theologian and minister (d. 1792)
• July 31 – Gabriel Cramer, Swiss mathematician (d. 1752)
• August 3
  • Catherine-Nicole Lemaure, French operatic soprano (d. 1786)
  • Benjamin Shoemaker, colonial Pennsylvania Quaker (d. 1767)
• August 5 – William Allen, wealthy merchant (d. 1780)
• August 11 – Karl August von Bergen (d. 1759)
• August 12 – Countess Caroline of Nassau-Saarbrücken (d. 1774)
• August 13 – Alexis Fontaine des Bertins, French mathematician (d. 1771)
• August 21 – Johann Georg, Chevalier de Saxe (d. 1774)
• August 26
  • Marie-Anne Barbel, French-Canadian Businesswomen who lived in New France (d. 1793)
  • Guy Michel de Durfort, French general and nobleman (d. 1773)
  • Pierre L’Enfant, painter (d. 1787)
• September 3 – Joseph de Jussieu, French botanist and explorer (d. 1779)
• September 5 – Maurice Quentin de La Tour, French Rococo portraitist, working primarily with pastels (d. 1788)
• September 7 – John Hope, 2nd Earl of Hopetoun, son of Charles Hope (d. 1781)
• September 12 – Stephen Fox-Strangways, 1st Earl of Ilchester (d. 1776)
• September 20 – Isaac Basire, engraver, first in a family line of prolific and well-respected engravers (d. 1768)
• September 22 – Jacques de Lafontaine de Belcour, French entrepreneur with business ventures in New France (now Quebec) (d. 1765)
• September 24 – Karl August, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont (d. 1763)
• September 26 – William French, Anglican priest (d. 1785)
• September 29 – Johann Friedrich Cartheuser, German physician and naturalist (d. 1777)

October–December

• October 29 – John Byng, British admiral (d. 1757)
• November 1
  • Erland Broman, Swedish official and noble (d. 1757)
  • Paul Daniel Longolius, German encyclopedist (d. 1779)
• November 5
  • Benjamin Goldthwait, British army officer in King George’s War and the French and Indian War (d. 1761)
  • Samuel Pegge, English antiquary and clergyman (d. 1796)
• November 6 – Willem Bentinck van Rhoon, Dutch nobleman and politician (d. 1774)
• November 7 – Charles Gautier de Vinfrais, French officer of the Royal venery (d. 1797)
• November 11 – Adriaan van Royen, Dutch botanist (d. 1779)
• November 13 – Charles Hamilton, MP (d. 1786)
• November 16 – Giacopo Belgrado (d. 1789)
• November 19
  • James Gabriel Montresor, British military engineer (d. 1776)
  • Richard Pococke (d. 1765)
• November 28 – Jacob Mossel (d. 1761)
• December 8 – Anton de Haen, Austrian physician of Dutch ancestry (d. 1776)
• December 12
  • Peter Kemble, American politician from the colonial period, President of the New Jersey Provincial Council from 1745 to 1776 (d. 1789)
  • Sir Edward Knatchbull, 7th Baronet (d. 1789)
• December 26 – Lord George Beauclerk, British Army officer (d. 1768)
• December 29 – Martha Daniell Logan, American botanist (d. 1779)
• December 31 – Carl Gotthelf Gerlach, German organist (d. 1761)

Deaths

• January 4 – Giambattista Spinola, Italo-Spanish Catholic cardinal (b. 1615)
• January 8 – Lorenzo Bellini, Italian physician, anatomist (b. 1643)
• January 26 – Rudolph Augustus, Duke of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (b. 1627)
• February 2 – Guillaume François Antoine, Marquis de l’Hôpital, French mathematician (b. 1661)
• February 23
  • Georg Muffat, German composer (b. 1645)
  • Henry Noris, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1631)
• February 21 – John Charles, Count Palatine of Gelnhausen (1654–1704) (b. 1638)
• February 23 – Steven Blankaart, Dutch entomologist (b. 1650)
• February 24 – Marc-Antoine Charpentier, French composer (b. 1643)
• February 25 – Isabella Leonarda, Italian composer (d. 1620)
• March 1 – Joseph Parrocel, French Baroque painter (b. 1646)
• March 16 – Deane Winthrop, 6th son of Governor John Winthrop (b. 1623)

• March 17 – Menno van Coehoorn, Dutch military engineer (b. 1641)
• April 5 – Christian Ulrich I, Duke of Württemberg-Oels (b. 1652)
• April 8 – Hiob Ludolf, German orientalist (b. 1624)
• April 8 – Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney, English statesman (b. 1641)
• April 10 – Wilhelm Egon von Fürstenberg, Bishop of Strassburg (b. 1629)
• April 12 – Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, French bishop and writer (b. 1627)
• April 14 – Thomas Fitch, Connecticut settler (b. 1612)
• April 15 – Johannes Hudde, Dutch mathematician and mayor of Amsterdam (b. 1628)
• April 17 – Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve, leading Norwegian general during the Scanian War (b. 1638)
• April 20 – Agnes Block, Dutch horticulturalist (b. 1629)
• May 3 – Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Austrian composer (b. 1644)
• May 13 – Louis Bourdaloue, French Jesuit preacher (b. 1632)
• May 18 – David van der Plas, Dutch painter (b. 1647)
• June 18 – Tom Brown, English satirist (b. 1662)
• June 30 – John Quelch, English pirate (b. 1666)
• July 2 – John Adolphus, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön, German duke (b. 1634)
• July 3 – Sofia Alekseyevna of Russia, regent (b. 1657)
• July 7 – Pierre-Charles Le Sueur, French fur trader and explorer (b. c. 1657)
• July 18 – Benjamin Keach, English Particular Baptist preacher (b. 1640)
• July 20 – Peregrine White, first English child born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (b. 1620)
• July 22 – Selim I Giray, Crimean khan
• August 2 – Estephan El Douaihy, Lebanese Maronite Patriarch, historian (d. 1704)
• August 14 – Roland Laporte, French Protestant leader (b. 1675)
• August 19 – Jane Leade, English Christian mystic (b. 1624)
• September 6 – Francesco Provenzale, Italian Baroque composer and teacher (b. 1624)
• September 21 – Maria Antonia Scalera Stellini, Italian poet (b. 1634)
• October 2 – Carlo Barberini, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1630)

• October 28
  • John Locke, English philosopher (b. 1632)
  • Goodwin Wharton, British politician (b. 1653)
• October 30 – Princess Frederica Amalia of Denmark, daughter of King Frederick III of Denmark (b. 1649)
• November 1 – John Louis I, Prince of Anhalt-Dornburg (b. 1656)
• November 4 – Andreas Acoluthus, German orientalist (b. 1654)
• November 20 – Charles Plumier, French botanist (b. 1646)
• December 1 – Joan Huydecoper II, Dutch mayor (b. 1625)
• December 5 – Louis Hennepin, Roman Catholic priest, missionary of the Franciscan Recollet Order (French (b. 1626)
• December 11 – Roger L’Estrange, English pamphleteer, author (b. 1616)
• December 22 – Paolo Boccone, Italian botanist from Sicily (b. 1633)