* 1708 – Georg Reutter II, Austrian composer ( d. 1772 )

* 1623 – Fran &# 231 ; ois de Laval, French bishop ( d. 1708 )

* 1646 – Jules Hardouin Mansart, French architect ( d. 1708 )

* 1328 – The House of Gonzaga seizes power in the Duchy of Mantua, and will rule until 1708.

* 1653 – Prince George of Denmark, prince consort of Anne of England ( d. 1708 )

This became the dominant form in the Restoration, when composers such as Henry Purcell ( 1659 – 1695 ) and John Blow ( 1649 – 1708 ) wrote elaborate examples for the Chapel Royal with orchestral accompaniment.

* 1708 – Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor ( d. 1765 )

* 1666 – Guru Gobind Singh, Sikh guru ( d. 1708 )

Under King Agaja ( ruled 1708 – 1732 ), the kingdom conquered Allada, where the ruling family originated.

* 1650 – Anne-Jules, French general ( d. 1708 )

* 1708 – Egidio Duni, Italian composer ( d. 1775 )

The first child of Augustine Washington ( 1694 – 1743 ) and his second wife, Mary Ball Washington ( 1708 – 1789 ), George Washington was born on their Pope's Creek Estate near present-day Colonial Beach in Westmoreland County, Virginia.

Around 1707 – 1708 he entered the service of Duke Johann Wilhelm of Saxe-Eisenach, becoming Konzertmeister on 24 December 1708 and Secretary and Kapellmeister in August 1709.

King Agadja ( 1708 – 1740 ) attempted to end the slave trade by keeping the slaves on plantations producing palm oil, but the European profits on slaves and Dahomey's dependency on firearms were too great.

* 1681 – Hedvig Sophia of Sweden ( d. 1708 )

* 1659 – David Gregory, Scottish astronomer ( d. 1708 )

* 1708 – Anna Petrovna of Russia ( d. 1728 )

* 1708 – Adolf Friedrich II of Mecklenburg-Strelitz ( b. 1658 )

* 1708 – Queen Anne withholds Royal Assent from the Scottish Militia Bill, the last time a British monarch vetoes legislation.

* 1708 – James Francis Edward Stuart lands at the Firth of Forth.

From 1708 – 1711, approximately 50 percent of the inhabitants of the newly rebuilt villages died from the Black Death.

According to William Derham, during the severe winters of 1703 and 1708 the ice cover permeated as far as the Danish straits, parts of the Gulf of Bothnia and Gulf of Finland, in addition to coastal fringes in more southerly locations such as the Gulf of Riga.

In the Restoration, Sir William Davenant produced a spectacular " operatic " adaptation of Macbeth, " with all the singing and dancing in it " and special effects like " flyings for the witches " ( John Downes, Roscius Anglicanus, 1708 ).

One of the most common manifestations of stanzaic form in poetry in English ( and in other Western European languages ) is represented in texts for church hymns, such as the first three stanzas ( of nine ) from a poem by Isaac Watts ( from 1719 ) cited immediately below ( in this case, each stanza is to be sung to the same hymn tune, composed earlier by William Croft in 1708 ):

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham PC ( 15 November 1708 – 11 May 1778 ), called William Pitt the Elder by historians, was a British Whig statesman who led Britain during the Seven Years ' War ( known as the French and Indian War in the United States ).

William Pitt was born at Golden Square, Westminster on 15 November 1708.

* Mr. William Pitt ( 1708 – 1735 )

" Pitt, William, first earl of Chatham the elder ( 1708 – 1778 )", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 ; online edn, May 2009 accessed 28 May 2012

* May 11 – William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom ( b. 1708 )

During the Rococo era Portraiture was an important component of painting in all countries, but especially in Great Britain, where the leaders were William Hogarth ( 1697 – 1764 ), in a blunt realist style, and Francis Hayman ( 1708 – 1776 ), Angelica Kauffman who was Swiss, ( 1741 – 1807 ), Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds ( 1723 – 1792 ), in more flattering styles influenced by Antony Van Dyck ( 1599 – 1641 ).

* Sir William Williams, 2nd Baronet, of Gray's Inn ( c. 1665 – 1740 ), Welsh politician, Member of Parliament ( MP ) for Denbigh, 1708 – 1710

In 1708 the corporation recognised the potential for profit from horse racing and that local Clifton landowner, Sir William Robinson, had offered his land on Clifton and Rawcliffe Ings as a course, donated £ 15 a year towards a plate.

After possibly six months as a captain in the regiment guard in 1708, on 11 February 1709 he joined the Regiment on foot in Anhalt-Zerbst ( No. 8 ) which later changed its name to the Grenadier's Regiment King Frederick William IV of Prussia.

* William Beveridge ( bishop ) ( 1637 – 1708 ), English Bishop of St Asaph

William Stukeley, antiquarian, attended Corpus Christi College in 1708.

* William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham ( 1708 – 1778 ), Prime Minister of Great Britain 1766 – 1768 ; often known as William Pitt the Elder

The song was first recorded by William King in his Useful Transactions in Philosophy in 1708 – 9.

The Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, contains an allegorical painting by James Thornhill, Peace and Liberty Triumphing Over Tyranny ( 1708 – 1716 ) in which William and Mary accept an olive branch from Peace.

* G. P. R. James, Letters Illustrative of the Reign of William III from 1696 to 1708 addressed to the Duke of Shrewsbury by James Vernon, 3 vols.

* William Sutherland, 17th Earl of Sutherland ( 1708 – 1750 ) ( changed his surname from Gordon to Sutherland )

* William Cochrane, 5th Earl of Dundonald ( 1708 – 1725 )

* Sir William Luckyn, 3rd Baronet ( died c. 1708 )

The friendship of Sir William Cowper secured for him the office of private chaplain, a prebend in Rochester Cathedral ( 1708 ), and the rectory of the united London parishes of St Mildred, Bread Street and St Margaret Moses, as well as other preferments.