In the Swedish calendar it was a leap year starting on Friday, one day ahead of the Julian and ten days behind the Gregorian calendar. Events January–March January 7 – Partial solar eclipse, Solar Saros 146, is visible in Antarctica. January 25–26 – Apalachee massacre: English colonists from the Province of Carolina, and their native allies, stage a series of brutal raids against a largely pacific population of Apalachee, in Spanish Florida. February 28 – Establishment of the first school open to African-Americans in New York City by Frenchman Elias Neau. February 29 – Raid on Deerfield (Queen Anne's War): French Canadians and Native Americans sack Deerfield, Massachusetts, killing over 50 English colonists. February – In America, Mardi Gras is celebrated with the Masque de la Mobile in the capital of Louisiana (New France), Mobile, Alabama. March 7 – War of the Spanish Succession: Prince Karl of Habsburg, brother of Joseph I, the Holy Roman Emperor and a pretender to the throne of Spain, arrives in Portugal on the English warship HMS Royal Katherine as part of George Rooke's English fleet sailing into Lisbon. March 23 – War of the Spanish Succession: The English Navy ships HMS Kent, HMS Bedford and HMS Antelope intercept two newly-built Spanish warships, Porta Coeli and Santa Teresa off of the coast of Cape Spartel, as the Spaniards attempt to sail into the Strait of Gibraltar. The two Spanish ships are captured after a seven-hour battle and taken toward Lisbon, but the Santa Teresa sinks along the way. April–June April 21 – Battle of Biskupice: The Hungarians (Kurucs) win a costly victory over the Danes. April 24 – The first regular newspaper in the Thirteen Colonies of British North America, The Boston News-Letter, is published. May 19–23 – Vigorous Strombolian activity from Mount Vesuvius, Italy is recorded. May 28 – Battle of Smolenice: Kuruc rebels defeat the Austrian army and its allies. June 2 – Annular solar eclipse is visible from a region of the Southern Ocean between South Africa and Antarctica. June 13 – Battle of Koroncó: Austrians and their allies from Denmark, Prussia, Croatia, Germany and Vojvodina defeat the Kurucs. June 17 – Total lunar eclipse takes place, Saros series 125. July–September July – Daniel Defoe documents the Great Storm of 1703 in England, with eyewitness testimonies, in The Storm. July 12 – Great Northern War – King Charles XII of Sweden forces