Peter I arrived in Germany and made an exchange: 55 Russian giant soldiers, 210 cm tall, for Friedrich Wilhelm’s Amber Cabinet. The Prussian king had been searching for such strongmen all over Europe and immediately agreed to the deal. The room was delivered to Petersburg with every precaution.
In a letter dated January 19, Tsar Peter informed his son Alexei that if the tsarevich did not mend his ways, he would treat him “like a villain.” Then Alexei Petrovich, supported by the sympathy of A. Kikin, F. Dubrovsky, and the valet Ivan Bolshoi, fled with Euphrosyne via Danzig to Vienna, where he appeared before Chancellor Schoenborn on November 10. Having secured the patronage of Emperor Charles VI (who was his brother-in-law), Alexei Petrovich went on to Tyrol, where he stayed at Ehrenberg Castle on December 7.
In May, shipbuilder K. Plotnitsky built the boat “Vostok” in Okhotsk, which became the first—and until 1727 the only—Russian warship in the Pacific Ocean. From July 1716 to May 1717, this vessel, as part of an expedition led by the Cossack commander of fifty K. Sokolov and N. Treska, sailed to the Bolsheretsk stockade, then the capital of Kamchatka. From that time, regular military-transport and expedition voyages from Okhotsk to Kamchatka began.
December 1 — Etienne Maurice Falconet was born, a sculptor, creator of the “Bronze Horseman.”
June 4 — African slaves were brought to Louisiana for the first time.
In France, the Scotsman John Law (1671–1729) founded a private bank.
The last burning of “witches” in England.