1709

July 8: Great Northern War: Peter the Great drives Swedish forces out of Russia permanently in the decisive Battle of Poltava

Template:C18 year in topic Template:Year article header In the Swedish calendar it was a common year starting on Friday, one day ahead of the Julian and ten days behind the Gregorian calendar.

Events

January–March

January 1 – Battle of St. John's: The French capture St. John's, the capital of the British colony of Newfoundland.
January 6 – Western Europe's Great Frost of 1709, the coldest period in 500 years, begins during the night, lasting three months, with its effects felt for the entire year.<ref name="newscientist">Pain, Stephanie. "1709: The year that Europe froze." New Scientist, 7 February 2009.</ref> In France, the Atlantic coast and Seine River freeze, crops fail, and 24,000 Parisians die. Floating ice enters the North Sea.
January 10 – Abraham Darby I successfully produces cast iron using coke fuel at his Coalbrookdale blast furnace in Shropshire, England.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Cassell's Chronology292">Template:Cite book</ref>
February 1 or 2 – During his first voyage, Captain Woodes Rogers encounters marooned privateer Alexander Selkirk, and rescues him after four years living on one of the Juan Fernández Islands, inspiring Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe.<ref name="Pocket On This Day">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> After sacking Guayaquil, he and Selkirk will visit the Galápagos Islands.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
February 19 – Tokugawa Ienobu becomes the sixth shōgun of the Tokugawa dynasty of Japan, after the death of the shōgun Tsunayoshi, who had been head of government since 1680.
February – In America, Mardi Gras is celebrated one more time with Masque de la Mobile in the capital of French Louisiana, Mobile, Alabama, before Mobile is moved 27 miles (43 km) down the Mobile River to Mobile Bay in 1711.
March 28 – Johann Friedrich Böttger reports the first production of hard-paste porcelain in Europe, at Dresden.

April–June

April 13 – The Raudot Ordinance of 1709 becomes law in the French colony of New France, legalizing slavery.
April 21 – Mirwais Hotak takes control of Kandahar (in Afghanistan) by murdering the Persian governor, Gurgin Khan, known also as George XI.
May 6 – The first influx into Britain of poor refugee families of German Palatines from the Rhenish Palatinate arrives in England.<ref>John Tribbeko and George Ruperti, Lists of Germans from the Palatinate Who Came to England in 1709 (Clearfield, 1965) p.5</ref> Most of them are Protestants en route to the New World colonies.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
June 17 – Trịnh Cương becomes the new king of northern Vietnam (Đàng Ngoài) upon the death of his grandfather, Trịnh Căn, and begins a 20-year reign until his death on December 20, 1729
June 26 – The Battle of Fort Albany, an attack by 100 French colonial volunteers and Cree natives on the British Hudson's Bay Company outpost at Fort Albany on Hudson Bay. John Fullartine, commander of the post, leads a successful defense of the fort and 18 of the attackers are killed and then retreat. The site is now part of a Cree First Nation reserve in the Canadian province of Ontario.
June 28 – A treaty is signed in Dresden to re-establish an alliance between the Kingdoms of Denmark-Norway and the Electorate of Saxony, on behalf of King Frederik IV of Denmark-Norway and Saxony's King Augustus II.

July–December

July 8 (June 27 Old Style; June 28 in the Swedish calendar) – Great Northern War: Battle of Poltava in the Cossack Hetmanate (Ukraine) – Peter the Great leads forces of the Tsardom of Russia to a decisive victory over Swedish forces under Charles XII, ending the Swedish invasion of Russia and effectively ending Sweden's role as a major power in Europe.
July 9 – Christopher Slaughterford of London is executed in Guildford for the murder of Jane Young, his fiancée. He is the first person in modern England executed for murder based exclusively on circumstantial evidence, and he maintains his innocence to the last.
July 13 – Production of Eau de Cologne is begun by perfumier Johann Maria Farina in Germany, founding Johann Maria Farina gegenüber dem Jülichs-Platz.
July 26 – Reinhard Keiser's opera Desiderius, König der Langobarden is premiered in Hamburg.<ref name="Griffel2018">Template:Cite book</ref>
July 27 – Japan's Emperor Higashiyama abdicates after a reign of 23 years that began in 1687, and is succeeded by his son Yoshihito, who is enthroned as the Emperor Nakamikado.
July 30 – War of the Spanish Succession: Tournai is captured by John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy.<ref name="Cassell's Chronology292"/>
August 8 – The hot air balloon of Bartolomeu de Gusmão flies in Portugal.
August 28 – Pamheiba is crowned King of Manipur.
September 11 (August 31 Old Style) – War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Malplaquet – Troops of the Dutch Republic, Habsburg monarchy, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Prussia, led by the Duke of Marlborough, drive the French from the field, but suffer twice as many casualties.<ref name="Cassell's Chronology292"/>
October 9 – War of the Spanish Succession: The British army captures Mons.<ref name=CBH207208>Template:Cite book</ref>
October 12 – Chihuahua City in Mexico is founded.
October 14 – The Chinese region of Ningxia is shaken by a 7.5 earthquake killing more than 2,000 people.
December 25 – From London, ten ships leave for the New York Colony carrying over 4,000 people.
December 26 – The first performance of the opera Agrippina by George Frideric Handel takes place at the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo in Venice.<ref>Dean, Winton; and J. Merrill Knapp (1995), Handel's Operas, 1704–1726 (Revised edition). p. 128. Clarendon Press, Oxford. Template:ISBN.</ref>

Date unknown

Herculaneum, an ancient town in Ercolano, Campania, Italy and buried under volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, is discovered by accident when attempts to drill a well for a monastery encountered marble and other materials.
The first modern edition of William Shakespeare's plays is published in London, edited by Nicholas Rowe.
The first piano is exhibited in Florence by its inventor Bartolomeo Cristofori, who names it "gravicembalo col piano e forte", a name which is subsequently shortened to "pianoforte" and then "piano".
A collapsible umbrella is introduced in Paris.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Trinity School is founded as the charity school of Trinity Church, in New York City.
The second Eddystone Lighthouse, erected off the south west coast of England by John Rudyerd, is completed.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
De Nostri Temporis Studiorum Ratione (On the Study Methods of Our Times) is published by Neapolitan philosopher Giambattista Vico.
Priceless medieval altarpieces, created by Tyrolese sculptor Michael Pacher, are destroyed.
Basil Lazarus III becomes Syriac Orthodox Maphrian of the East.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>