Editing 1703 (section)

== Events ==
<onlyinclude>[[File:Great Storm 1703 Goodwin Sands engraving.PNG|thumb|right|300px|[[December 7]]: The [[Great Storm of 1703]] strikes Britain (November 26 by the calendar in use locally)]]
=== January&ndash;March ===
* [[January 9]] &ndash; The [[Jamaica]]n town of [[Port Royal]], a center of trade in the [[Western Hemisphere]] and at this time the largest city in the [[Caribbean]], is destroyed by a fire. British ships in the harbor are able to rescue much of the merchandise that has been unloaded on the docks, but the inventory in market-places in town is destroyed.<ref name=Fires>"Fires, Great", in ''The Insurance Cyclopeadia: Being an Historical Treasury of Events and Circumstances Connected with the Origin and Progress of Insurance'', Cornelius Walford, ed. (C. and E. Layton, 1876) p47</ref>
* [[January 14]] &ndash; [[1703 Apennine earthquakes]]: The magnitude 6.7 Norcia earthquake affects [[Central Italy]] with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). With a death toll of 6,240–9,761, it is the first in a sequence of three destructive events.
* [[January 16]] &ndash; [[1703 Apennine earthquakes]]: The magnitude 6.2 Montereale earthquake causes damage at Accumoli, Armatrice, Cittareale and Montereale, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (''Severe'').
* [[January 30]] ([[December 14]] of previous year in the [[Chinese calendar]]) &ndash; Akō incident: In Japan, [[forty-seven rōnin|forty-seven ''rōnin'']] (independent [[samurai]]) assassinate ''[[daimyō]]'' [[Kira Yoshinaka]], the enemy of their former lord [[Asano Naganori]], at his own mansion as a vengeance; for which they are compelled to commit suicide on March 20.
* [[February 2]] &ndash; [[1703 Apennine earthquakes]]: The magnitude 6.7 L'Aquila earthquake affects Central Italy, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). In the final large event (an example of [[Coulomb stress transfer]]), damage occurs as far distant as Rome, with landslides, liquefaction, slope failures and at least 2,500 deaths.
* [[February 20]]–[[March 10]] &ndash; [[War of the Spanish Succession]]: [[Siege of Kehl (1703)|Siege of Kehl]] &ndash; French forces under the command of the [[Claude Louis Hector de Villars|Duc de Villars]] capture the fortress of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] at [[Kehl]], opposite [[Strasbourg]] on the [[Rhine]].
* [[February]] &ndash; Soldiers at [[Fort Louis de la Mobile]] celebrate [[Mardi Gras in Mobile]], starting the tradition for [[Mobile, Alabama]].
* [[March 1]] &ndash; The [[Recruiting Act 1703]] goes into effect in England, providing for the forcible enlistment of able-bodied but unemployed men into the English Army and Royal Navy in order to fight in [[Queen Anne's War]] in [[North America]]. The Act expires at the end of February 1704. 
* [[March 15]] &ndash; The landmark English court case of ''[[Rose v Royal College of Physicians]]'' is decided by the [[Court of Queen's Bench (England)|Court of Queen's Bench]], beginning the end of the monopoly that the [[Royal College of Physicians]] has over the practice of medicine.
* [[March 19]] &ndash; The [[Siege of Guadeloupe]] begins as an English expeditionary force, led by [[Christopher Codrington]] and [[Hovenden Walker]], lands at [[Basse-Terre]] and attempts to take over the French-held island. The English fleet departs on May 15 after being unable to capture Guadeloupe.<ref>{{cite book|chapter=High Tide of Empire (1700-1777)|title=Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the New World, 1492 to the Present|first=David|last=Marley|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=1998|page=225}}</ref>
* [[March 20]] ([[February 4]] in the Chinese calendar) &ndash; 46 of the [[forty-seven rōnin|forty-seven ''rōnin'']] of Japan carry out an order of ''[[seppuku]]'' (ritual suicide) for the killing they committed on January 30. The punishment is given by the [[Tokugawa shogunate|shogun]] [[Tokugawa Tsunayoshi]]. The story continues to be dramatized more than 300 years later in ''[[Chūshingura]]'' theater, novels and film. 
* [[March 21]] &ndash; [[Jeanne Guyon]] is freed from the [[Bastille]] in [[Paris]] after more than seven years imprisonment for heresy.

=== April&ndash;June ===
* [[April 21]] &ndash; The ''Company of Quenching of Fire'' (i.e., a [[fire brigade]]) is founded in [[Edinburgh]], Scotland.
* [[May 26]] &ndash; Portugal joins the [[Grand Alliance (League of Augsburg)|Grand Alliance]].
* [[May 27]] (May 16 [[Old Style and New Style dates|OS]]) &ndash; The city of [[Saint Petersburg]],  Russia is founded, following [[Peter the Great]]'s reconquest of [[Ingria]] from [[Sweden]] during the [[Great Northern War]].
* [[June 15]] &ndash; [[Rákóczi's War of Independence]]: Hungarians rebel under Prince [[Francis II Rákóczi]].
* [[June 19]] &ndash; Bavarian troops, who during the so-called [[Bavarian Rummel]] have invaded [[County of Tyrol|Tyrol]], besiege [[Kufstein]]. Fires break out on the outskirts that engulf the town, destroy it and reach the powder store of the supposedly impregnable [[Kufstein Fortress|fortress]]. The enormous gunpowder supplies explode and Kufstein has to surrender on [[June 20]]. This same day the Tyrolese surrender in [[Wörgl]]; two days later [[Rattenberg (Tirol)|Rattenberg]] is captured and [[Innsbruck]] is cleared without a fight on [[June 25]].
* [[June 30]] &ndash; [[Battle of Ekeren]] (War of the Spanish Succession): The French surround a smaller Dutch force, which however breaks out and retires to safety.
* [[June]] &ndash; The completed [[1703 Icelandic census]] is presented in the [[Althing]], the first complete [[census]] of any country.

=== July&ndash;September ===
* [[July 26]] &ndash; After their victories at the Pontlatzer Bridge and the [[Brenner Pass]], Tyrolese farmers drive out the Bavarian Elector, [[Maximilian II Emanuel]], from North Tyrol and thus prevent the Bavarian Army, which is allied with France, from marching on Vienna during the War of the Spanish Succession. This success, at low cost, is the signal for the rebellion of the Tyrolese against Bavaria, and Elector Maximilian II Emanuel has to flee from Innsbruck. The Bavarian Army withdraws through [[Seefeld in Tirol]] back to Bavaria.
* [[July 29]]–[[July 31|31]] &ndash; [[Daniel Defoe]] is placed in a [[pillory]] in London, then imprisoned until mid-November for the crime of [[seditious libel]] after publishing his [[satirical]] political [[pamphlet]] ''[[The Shortest Way with the Dissenters]]'' (1702).
* [[August 23]] &ndash; [[Edirne event]]: Sultan [[Mustafa II]] of the [[Ottoman Empire]] is dethroned.
* [[September 7]] &ndash; [[War of the Spanish Succession]]: The town of [[Breisach]] is retaken for France by [[Camille d'Hostun, duc de Tallard]].
* [[September 12]] &ndash; [[War of the Spanish Succession]]: [[Habsburg]] Archduke [[Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles]] is proclaimed King of Spain, but never exercises full rule.

=== October&ndash;December ===
* [[October 11]] &ndash; Nine Roman Catholic residents of the French village of [[Sainte-Cécile-d'Andorge]] are massacred by a mob of more than 800 French Huguenot Protestants, the [[Camisards]]. A reprisal against Protestants in the nearby village of Branoux is made less than three weeks later.
* [[October 23]] &ndash; [[Hannah Twynnoy]], a 24-year-old barmaid in [[Malmesbury]], [[Wiltshire]], becomes the first person to be killed in [[Great Britain]] by a [[tiger]]. While working at the White Lion Inn, where a group of wild animals is on exhibit, she is mauled after bothering the tiger.
* [[October 30]] &ndash; More than 47 [[Huguenots]] in the village of [[Branoux-les-Taillades]] are massacred by Roman Catholic vigilantes in reprisal for the October 11 attack on nearby Sainte-Cécile, slightly more than two miles away.
* [[November 15]]
** [[War of the Spanish Succession]]: [[Battle of Speyerbach]] (in modern-day Germany) &ndash; The French defeat a German relief army, allowing the French to take the besieged town of [[Landau]] two days later, for which Tallard is made a Marshal of France.
** [[Rákóczi's War of Independence]]: [[Battle of Zvolen (1703)|Battle of Zvolen]] (in modern-day [[Slovakia]]) &ndash; The [[Kuruc]]s defeat the Austrians and their allies ([[Denmark]], [[Hungary]] and the [[Serbs]]).
* [[November 19]] &ndash; The so-called [[Man in the Iron Mask]] dies in the [[Bastille]]. He is buried under the name of "Marchioly".
* [[November 30]] &ndash; [[Isaac Newton]] is elected president of the [[Royal Society]] of London, a position he will hold until his death in [[1727]].
* [[December 7]]–[[December 10|10]] (November 26–29 [[Old Style and New Style dates|O.S.]]) &ndash; The [[Great Storm of 1703]], an [[extratropical cyclone]], ravages southern England and the [[English Channel]], killing at least 8,000, mostly at sea. The [[Eddystone Lighthouse]] off [[Plymouth]] is destroyed in the storm together with its designer [[Henry Winstanley]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/icons-timeline/1700-1750|title=Icons, a portrait of England 1700-1750|access-date=2018-07-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070817164123/http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/icons-timeline/1700-1750|archive-date=2007-08-17}}</ref> and many buildings on land are damaged.
* [[December 27]] &ndash; Portugal and England sign the [[Methuen Treaty]], which gives preference to Portuguese wines imported into England.
* [[December 28]] &ndash; [[Ahmed III]] succeeds the deposed [[Mustafa II]] as [[Ottoman Emperor]].

=== Date unknown ===
* French-born imposter [[George Psalmanazar]] arrives in London.
* Between 1702 and 1703 – An epidemic of [[smallpox]] breaks out in [[Quebec]], in which 2,000-3,000 people die (300-400 in [[Quebec City]]).<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Lessard|first1=Rénald|title=L'Épidémie de variole de 1702-1703|journal=Cap-aux-Diamants: La revue d'histoire du Québec|date=1995|volume=42|page=51|language=fr}}</ref></onlyinclude>