For dates within Great Britain and the
British Empire, as well as in the
Russian Empire, the "old style"
Julian calendar was used in 1715, and can be converted to the "new style"
Gregorian calendar (adopted in the British Empire in 1752 and in Russia in 1923) by adding 11 days.
January–March
January 13 – A fire in London, described by some as the worst since the
Great Fire of London (1666) almost 50 years earlier, starts on
Thames Street when fireworks prematurely explode "in the house of Mr. Walker, an oil man"; more than 100 houses are consumed in the blaze, which continues over to
Tower Street before it is controlled.[1]
February 11 –
Tuscarora War: The Tuscarora and their allies sign a peace treaty with the
Province of North Carolina, and agree to move to a reservation near
Lake Mattamuskeet, effectively ending the Tuscarora War. Large numbers of Tuscarora subsequently move to New York.
March 14 –
James Stuart, the "Old Pretender" attempting to restore the House of Stuart to control of Great Britain as King James III of England and James VIII of Scotland, meets with Pope Clement XI for the assistance of the Roman Catholic Church in the
Jacobite rising.
April 1 – The
Battle of Gurdas Nangal begins during the
Mughal-Sikh Wars in
India, as the Mughal Army begins an eight-month siege of a fortress near
Gurdaspur (in what is now the Punjab state), where Sikh General
Banda Singh Bahadur and 1,250 of his men have fled. The siege ends on December 7 when the 750 survivors, including Banda Singh, are captured. By June 1716, most of the Sikh prisoners have been tortured, killed and executed, with Banda Singh dying on June 9.
April 15 – In the British colonial
Province of South Carolina, the
Yamasee Confederation launches an attack on English settlements in disputed territory on
Good Friday, launching the two-year long
Yamasee War. The day before, agents
Thomas Nairne, William Bray and Samuel Warner had participated in peace negotiations with the Yamasee at
Pocotaligo. [3] Bray and Warner are killed that day, while Nairne is tortured to death and dies on April 17.
April 24 – The
Battle of Fehmarn takes place in the
Baltic Sea as part of the
Great Northern War. Ten warships of Denmark, under the command of Christian Gabel, overwhelm a force of Swedish Navy ships led by Carl Wachtmeister. By the time the battle ends the next day, five Swedish ships and 1,626 crewmen have been captured, and another 353 killed. The Danish navy suffers 65 deaths. [4]
May 3 – A total
solar eclipse is seen across southern England,
Sweden and Finland (the last total eclipse visible in London for almost 900 years). English astronomer
Edmond Halley (who is using the old style Julian calendar date of April 22) records the first observation noted of the phenomenon of "
Baily's beads", in which higher elevations on the moon can be observed obscuring portions of the light moments before and after totality.
May 28 –
Rioting begins in England on the birthday of King George I as supporters of the Old Pretender, James of the House of Stuart, begin mass protesting against the rule of the House of Hanover, near
London in the towns of
Smithfield and
Highgate, and the
Cheapside financial district in London.
June 22 – Tsar
Peter I of Russia witnesses the attempt of 45 Dutch and English ships to enter the small harbor at
Saint Petersburg and decides that additional harbors are necessary for Russia to be able import Western goods.
June 29 – Britain's
Treason Act 1714 takes effect, providing for forfeiture to the British Crown of property owned by any person convicted of treason in the Kingdom. The Act remains in effect until June 24, 1718.
July 24 –
1715 Treasure Fleet: A
Spanish treasure fleet of 12 ships, under General Don Juan Ubilla, leaves
Havana,
Cuba for Spain. Seven days later, 11 of them sink in a storm off the coast of
Florida (some centuries later, treasure salvage is found from these wrecks).
October 2 – During the
rebellion in Great Britain by supporters of the Pretender to the Throne,
James Stuart, the Jacobites raid the Scottish parish of
Burntisland, capture an arsenal of weapons, and begin an occupation of the area on October 9 in the name of Stuart as King James VIII of Scotland.
October 28 – The
Treaty of Greifswald is signed between Russia and the Electorate of Hanover, with George I of Great Britain and Hanover agreeing to Russia's annexation of
Swedish Ingria and
Estonia, and Hanover claiming the
Bremen-Verden Swedish duchies of Bremen and Verden.
^"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) p48-49
^"Liverpool: The docks". A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 4. British History Online. 1911. pp. 41–43. Archived from
the original on May 25, 2011. Retrieved March 24, 2008.