* 1717 – Spanish troops land on Sardinia.

* 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 )

* 1717 – Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, French statesman and diplomat ( d. 1787 )

* 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.

Philip quickly revived Spanish ambition ; taking advantage of the power vacuum caused by Louis XIV's death in 1715, Philip announced he would claim the French crown if the infant Louis XV died and attempted to reclaim Spanish territory in Italy, precipitating the War of the Quadruple Alliance in 1717.

* December 8 – Marie-Anne de Mailly-Nesle duchess de Châteauroux, French mistress of King Louis XV ( b. 1717 )

In keeping with French royal tradition that princes should be put in the care of men when they reached their seventh birthdays, Louis was separated from his governess, Madame de Ventadour, in February 1717, and placed in the care of the Duke of Villeroi, who had been designated as his governor in Louis XIV's will of August 1714 and whose secretary was the young Pierre-François Godard de Beauchamps.

In 1717 Louis Lemery noticed, as Schmidt had, that small scraps of non-conducting material were first attracted to tourmaline, but then repelled by it once they contacted the stone.

In August 1717, King Louis XV accepted the offer of Scottish financier John Law to create a joint stock company to manage colonial growth.

Under the Régence Villeroy was governor of the child King Louis XV and held several other high posts between 1717 and 1722, when he fell in disgrace for plotting against Philippe II of Orléans, the regent for Louis XV, and was sent to be governor of Lyon, virtually in exile.

* 1717 – 1771: Louis de Bourbon-Condé

Louis XIV of France created several additional tax systems, including the " capitation " ( begun in 1695 ) which touched every person including nobles and the clergy ( although exemption could be bought for a large one-time sum ) and the " dixième " ( 1710 – 1717, restarted in 1733 ), which was a true tax on income and on property value and was meant to support the military.

Up until 1717, the Illinois Country was governed by the French province of Canada, but by order of King Louis XV, the Illinois Country was annexed to the French province of Louisiana, with the northern border being the Illinois River.

It was originally governed from French Canada, but by order of King Louis XV on September 27, 1717, the Illinois Country was annexed to the French province of Louisiana, with the northern border being the Illinois River.

After many attempts to sell it to various European royals, including Louis XIV of France, Pitt and his sons went with the diamond to Calais in 1717.

Louis François de Bourbon, Prince of Conti ( 13 August 1717 – 2 August 1776 ) was a French nobleman, who was the Prince of Conti from 1727 to his death, following his father Louis Armand II.

Above the fireplace there is an oil painting of Louis of Bourbon dating from 1717.

Opposition to Philip's ambitions led France ( where Louis XIV's nephew, the Duke of Orléans, served as regent ), Great Britain, and the Dutch Republic, to join together in the Triple Alliance on 4 January 1717.

Marie Anne de Mailly-Nesle, duchesse de Châteauroux ( 5 October 1717 – 8 December 1744 ) was the youngest and prettiest of the five famous de Nesle sisters, four of whom would become the mistress of King Louis XV of France.

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

A collection of " letters " in 1721 would more likely evoke the recent tradition of essentially polemical and political periodicals, such as Lettres historiques ( 1692 – 1728 ), the Jesuits ’ famous Lettres édifiantes et curieuses ( 1703 – 1776 ), not to mention Mme Dunoyer ’ s Lettres historiques et galantes of ( 1707 – 1717 ) which, in the form of a correspondence between two women, provide a chronicle of the end of the reign of Louis XIV and the beginning of the Regency.

In 1717, Prince Louis Rudolph, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel allowed him to buy landed property there, a privilege otherwise denied to Jews.

To finance these projects, Louis created several additional tax systems, including the " capitation " ( begun in 1695 ) which taxed every person including nobles and the clergy, though exemption could be bought for a large one-time sum, and the " dixième " ( 1710 – 1717, restarted in 1733 ), which was a true tax on income and on property value and was meant to support the military.

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