* 1717 – Spanish troops land on Sardinia.

* 1717 – Louis François, Prince of Conti ( d. 1776 )

* 1797 – Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, English military commander ( b. 1717 )

* 1717 – Blind Jack, English road builder ( d. 1810 )

* 1647 – Maria Sibylla Merian, German botanist ( d. 1717 )

* 1713 – With no living male heirs, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to ensure that Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would be inherited by his daughter, Maria Theresa of Austria ( not actually born until 1717 ).

* John Armstrong ( 1717 – 1795 ), born in Fermanagh, United States Congressman

* 1717 – Elizabeth Carter, English writer ( d. 1806 )

* 1717 – Pope Pius VI ( d. 1799 )

* 1717 – Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German art historian ( d. 1768 )

* 1783 – Pehr Wilhelm Wargentin, Swedish astronomer ( b. 1717 )

He met the influential early neoclassical painter Raphael Mengs ( 1728 – 1779 ), and through Mengs was introduced to the pathbreaking theories of art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann ( 1717 – 1768 ).

* 1717 – David Garrick, British actor ( d. 1779 )

* 1806 – Elizabeth Carter, English writer ( b. 1717 )

* 1717 – Ernst Gideon Freiherr von Laudon, Austrian field marshal ( d. 1790 )

By the 17th century, Osei Kofi Tutu I ( c. 1695 – 1717 ), with help of Okomfo Anokye, unified what became the Ashante into a confederation with the Golden Stool as a symbol of their unity and spirit.

Henry Middleton ( 1717 – June 13, 1784 ) was a plantation owner and public official from South Carolina.

Henry Middleton was born in 1717 near Charleston, South Carolina to Arthur Middleton ( 1681 – 1737 ) and Susan Amory, on the family plantation, " The Oaks ".

* 1717 – The Premier Grand Lodge of England, the first Masonic Grand Lodge in the world ( now the United Grand Lodge of England ), is founded in London, England.

* 1717 – Peter III of Portugal ( d. 1786 )

* 1717 – John Collins, American politician ( d. 1795 )

* 1768 – Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German scholar and archaeologist ( b. 1717 )

* 1717 – The Netherlands, Great Britain, and France sign the Triple Alliance.

** Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, French statesman and diplomat ( b. 1717 )

The second but eldest surviving child of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI and Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Archduchess Maria Theresa was born early in the morning of 13 May 1717, at the Hofburg Palace, Vienna, shortly after the death of her elder brother, Archduke Leopold, and was baptised on that same evening.

After it was assigned to Emperor Charles VI in 1714, Philip V of Spain briefly recovered the island in 1717, but in 1720 the European powers assigned Sicily to Charles VI and Sardinia to the House of Savoy, so Vittorio Amedeo II became the King of Sardinia.

Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes ( 20 December 1717 – 13 February 1787 ) was a French statesman and diplomat.

Although the coin is now known as the " five guinea " piece, during the 17th and 18th centuries it was also known as a five pound piece, as during the reign of Charles II a guinea was worth twenty shillings — until its value was fixed at twenty-one shillings by a Royal Proclamation in 1717 the value fluctuated rather in the way that bullion coins do today.

* Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland: 12 April 1717 – 2 March 1718

Charles died unmarried in 1717, when the title devolved on his sister, Mary.

* Charles Hay, 13th Earl of Erroll ( d. 1717 )

Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester, Countess of Portmore ( 21 December 1657 – 26 October 1717 ), daughter of Sir Charles Sedley, 5th Baronet, was the mistress of King James VII and II both before and after he came to the thrones.

* Françoise Adélaide de Noailles ( 1704 – 1776 ) married Charles de Lorraine in 1717, son of Louis de Lorraine and had no issue ; divorced in 1721 ;

He had previously ( 1717 ), in an historical tract on the war with Charles XII, in which Peter himself collaborated, epitomized, in a high panegyric style, some of the greatest exploits of the tsar-regenerator.

The title was occasionally conferred as a sign of distinction ; thus Samson Wertheimer received in 1717 from Emperor Charles VI.

In 1717, in consequence of a quarrel with his nephew Louis Pierre, son of Louis Roger, Charles sold his collection to the king.

* Charles Frederick Gottlieb ( Count of Castell-Remlingen ) ( 1709 – 1717 ) and ...

* Antoine Charles Marie ( 16 December 1717 – 4 February 1718 ), Marquiss des Baux and Count of Matignon.

In early 1717 a few emissaries from Charles Town went to the Lower Creek territory, and a few Creek went to Charles Town, tentatively starting the process that would lead to peace.

Charlotte married Louis Charles de Lévis, Duke of Ventadour and governor of the Limousin ( 1647 – 1717 ), on 14 March 1671 in Paris.

In 1717, the ministry erected a fort on the eastern border of the Louisiana Colony in North America and named it Fort Toulouse in honor of the comte.