April 8 – George Farquhar's Restoration comedy The Recruiting Officer is performed for the first time, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in London.^[1]
April/May – Philosopher Samuel Clarke attacks the views of Henry Dodwell on the immortality of the soul.^[2]
September 13 – Daniel Defoe leaves England for Edinburgh, Scotland, where he acts as a government agent to promote ratification of the Treaty of Union.^[3]
unknown date – The first translation of the New Testament into the Upper Sorbian language, made by pastor Michał Frencel who dies this year, is published by his son Abraham in Zittau.^[4]

New books[edit]

Anonymous – The Arabian Nights' Entertainments (serial, the first English translation of One Thousand and One Nights, taken from the first French translation)
Samuel Clarke – A Discourse Concerning the Unchangeable Obligations of Natural Religion
Stephen Clay – An Epistle from the Elector of Bavaria to the French King
Daniel Defoe
- An Essay at Removing National Prejudices Against a Union with Scotland
- A True Relation of the Apparition of one Mrs. Veal (attrib)
John Dennis – Essay on the Operas after the Italian Manner
White Kennett – The History of England from the Commencement of the Reign of Charles I to the End of William III
John Locke – Posthumous Works of Mr John Locke
Simon Ockley – Introductio ad linguas orientates
Jonathan Swift – Baucis and Philemon
Matthew Tindal – The Rights of the Christian Church Asserted
Ned Ward – The London Spy

Richard Blackmore – An Advice to the Poets: a poem occasioned by the wonderful success of Her Majesty's arms, under the conduct of the Duke of Marlborough in Flanders
William Congreve – A Pindarique Ode.... The Conduct of the Duke of Marlborough
Daniel Defoe
- Caledonia
- A Hymn to Peace
- Jure Divino (ondivine right)
- The Vision (on national union)
John Dennis – The Battle of Ramillia
Mihai Iștvanovici – Stihuri politice (Political Verse)
John Philips – Cerealia: An imitation of Milton
Matthew Prior – The Squirrel
Thomas Tickell – Oxford
Isaac Watts – Horae Lyricae^[5]

Births[edit]

January 17 – Benjamin Franklin, American polymath and politician (died 1790)
February 10 – Benjamin Hoadly, English physician and dramatist (died 1757)
November 8 – Johann Ulrich von Cramer, German philosopher and jurist (died 1772)
December 17 – Émilie du Châtelet, French writer and translator (died 1749)

January 21 – Adrien Baillet, French critic (born 1649)
February 27 – John Evelyn, English diarist (born 1620)
August 6 – Jean-Baptiste du Hamel, French natural philosopher (born 1624)
December 8 – Abraham Nicolas Amelot de la Houssaye, French historian (born 1634)
December 28 – Pierre Bayle, French encyclopedist and philosopher (born 1647)^[6]
unknown dates
- John Phillips, English satirist (born 1631)^[7]
- Rahman Baba, Indian Pashto poet (born 1632)
- Guillaume Vandive, French printer and bookseller (born 1680)

^ Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.

^ Wigelsworth, Jeffrey (19 July 2013). Deism in Enlightenment England: Theology, politics, and Newtonian public science. Manchester University Press. p. 190. ISBN 978-1-84779-730-8. Archived from the original on 11 August 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2022.

^ Novak, Maximillian E. (2003). Daniel Defoe: Master of Fictions: His Life and Ideas. Oxford University Press. p. 289. ISBN 978-0-19-926154-3. Archived from the original on 2020-08-11. Retrieved 2022-04-27.

^ Corbett, Greville; Comrie, Bernard (September 2003). The Slavonic Languages. Routledge. p. 596. ISBN 978-1-136-86137-6. Archived from the original on 2020-07-24. Retrieved 2022-04-27.

^ Rivers, Isabel (2004). "Watts, Isaac (1674–1748)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/28888. Archived from the original on 2022-04-27. Retrieved 2011-12-09. (subscription or UK public library membership required)

^ Lee, Sidney (1896). "Phillips, John (1631-1706)" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 45. London: Smith, Elder & Co.