March 1 » Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba are brought before local magistrates in Salem Village, Massachusetts, beginning what would become known as the Salem witch trials.
June 2 » Bridget Bishop is the first person to be tried for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts; she was found guilty and later hanged.
June 7 » Port Royal, Jamaica, is hit by a catastrophic earthquake; in just three minutes, 1,600 people are killed and 3,000 are seriously injured.
June 10 » Salem witch trials: Bridget Bishop is hanged at Gallows Hill near Salem, Massachusetts, for "certaine Detestable Arts called Witchcraft and Sorceries".
August 19 » Salem witch trials: In Salem, Province of Massachusetts Bay, five people, one woman and four men, including a clergyman, are executed after being convicted of witchcraft.
October 12 » The Salem witch trials are ended by a letter from the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Province.
Day of marriage February 21, 1717
The temperature on February 21, 1717 was about 3.0 °C. Source: KNMI
January 4 » The Netherlands, Great Britain, and France sign the Triple Alliance in an attempt to maintain the Treaty of Utrecht; Britain having signed a preliminary alliance with France on November 28 (November 17, 1716).
March 2 » The Loves of Mars and Venus is the first ballet performed in England.
March 31 » A sermon on "The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ" by Benjamin Hoadly, the Bishop of Bangor, preached in the presence of King George I of Great Britain, provokes the Bangorian Controversy.
July 17 » King George I of Great Britain sails down the River Thames with a barge of 50 musicians, where George Frideric Handel's Water Music is premiered.
August 17 » Austro-Turkish War of 1716–18: The month-long Siege of Belgrade ends with Prince Eugene of Savoy's Austrian troops capturing the city from the Ottoman Empire.
August 22 » Spanish troops land on Sardinia.
Day of burial March 27, 1757
The temperature on March 27, 1757 was about 7.0 °C. Wind direction mainly south by west. Weather type: geheel betrokken. Source: KNMI
January 5 » Louis XV of France survives an assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, the last person to be executed in France by drawing and quartering, the traditional and gruesome form of capital punishment used for regicides.
January 16 » Forces of the Maratha Empire defeat a 5,000-strong army of the Durrani Empire in the Battle of Narela.
June 18 » Battle of Kolín between Prussian forces under Frederick the Great and an Austrian army under the command of Field Marshal Count Leopold Joseph von Daun in the Seven Years' War.
November 5 » Seven Years' War: Frederick the Great defeats the allied armies of France and the Holy Roman Empire at the Battle of Rossbach.
December 5 » Seven Years' War: Battle of Leuthen: Frederick II of Prussia leads Prussian forces to a decisive victory over Austrian forces under Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine.
December 31 » Empress Elizabeth I of Russia issues her ukase incorporating Königsberg into Russia.
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: Coos van Spijk, "Family tree of Spijk and her many ancestors", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/van-spijk-stamboom/I65232.php : accessed January 27, 2026), "Gerrit Machielsz van der Plas (-1757)".
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