1712

Events

• Treaty of Aargau signed between Catholic and Protestants. Introduced Protestant faith in Switzerland.
• Thomas Newcomen builds the first piston-operated steam engine at Tipton, Staffordshire, UK.

Ongoing events

• Great Northern War (1700-1721)
• War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713)

Births

• January 24 - Frederick the Great, Prussian king
• June 28 - Jean-Jacques Rousseau, French philosopher

Deaths

• July 1 - William King, English poet
• July 12 - Richard Cromwell, formerly Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.
• September 14 - Giovanni Domenico Cassini, Italian-French astronomer and engineer (born 1625)