the Duke of Newcastle, the royal Lord Chamberlain. The altercation takes place at the baptismal ceremony for the Prince's newborn son, George William. December 24–25 – Christmas flood: A disastrous flood hits the North Sea coast, between the Netherlands and Denmark; thousands die or lose their houses. Date unknown 1717 Omani invasion of Bahrain. François-Marie Arouet is sentenced to imprisonment in the Bastille for eleven months, because of a satirical verse against the Régent of France and his infamous daughter Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans, who is hiding an illegitimate pregnancy and soon to give birth; Arouet will emerge with the pseudonym Voltaire and the completed text of his first play, Œdipe. The Tatar invasions in Transylvania devastate many towns, including Cavnic, Sighet and Dej. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, wife of the British ambassador to Istanbul, has her son inoculated. The Casa de Contratación (House of Trade) is set up in Cádiz. Maharaja Pamheiba of Manipur is converted to Hinduism by Shantidas Goswami, and decrees it to be the official religion of his state. Most recent rupture of New Zealand's Alpine Fault, with an earthquake estimated to have had a magnitude between 7.8 and 8.1. The Charleville musket enters service in France. Thomas Fairchild, a nurseryman at Hoxton in the East End of London, becomes the first person to produce a successful scientific plant hybrid, Dianthus Caryophyllus barbatus, known as Fairchild's Mule. Murshid Quli Khan declares himself the first Nawab of the Bengal Subah. The Nawabs of Bengal will effectively function as near-sovereign rulers of Bengal while being nominally loyal to the Mughal Empire. Births January 2 – Edward Seymour, 9th Duke of Somerset, English nobleman, son of Edward Seymour, 8th Duke of Somerset and Mary Webb (d. 1792) January 5 – William Barrington, 2nd Viscount Barrington, English statesman (d. 1793) January 18 – Jean-François-Marie de Surville, French trader and navigator (d. 1770) January 21 – Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa, Spanish military officer (d. 1779) January 23 – Benjamin Beddome, English Baptist minister and hymnist (d. 1795) January 28 – Mustafa III, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1773) January 29 – Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, British soldier and conqueror of Quebec (d. 1797) February 2 – Ernst Gideon Freiherr von Laudon, Austrian field marshal (d. 1790) February 3 – Nicholas Cooke, first Governor of Rhode Island (d. 1782) c. February 11 – William Williams Pantycelyn, Welsh hymn-writer, a key leader