Events of 1711

January: North Carolina.

January–June

• January – Cary's Rebellion: The Lords Proprietors appoint Edward Hyde to replace Thomas Cary as the governor of the North Carolina portion of the Province of Carolina. Hyde's policies are deemed hostile to Quaker interests, leading former governor Cary and his Quaker allies to take up arms against the province.

• February 24 – Rinaldo by George Frideric Handel, the first Italian opera written for the London stage, premieres in that city.

• February – French settlers at Fort Louis de la Mobile celebrate Mardi Gras in Mobile (Alabama) by parading a large papier-mache ox head on a cart (the first Mardi Gras parade in America).

• May 27 – Cary's Rebellion: Edward Hyde, Governor of the North Carolina portion of the Province of Carolina, leads a force across the Albemarle Sound to gather additional troops in order to capture former governor Thomas Cary.

• May 29 – Cary's Rebellion: Governor Edward Hyde's forces reach Thomas Cary's plantation and find it deserted. Cary's troops fortify a Colonel Daniels' plantation a few miles away. Hyde's forces march to Colonel Daniels' plantation but do not attack.

• June 1 – Cary's Rebellion: Hyde's forces return to Albemarle after unsuccessfully trying to negotiate Cary's surrender.

• June 30 – Cary's Rebellion: Former governor Thomas Cary, after declaring himself Governor of North Carolina, sails an armed brigantine up the Chowan River to attack Governor Hyde's forces fortified at Colonel Thomas Pollock's plantation. The attack fails and Cary's forces retreat.

July–December

• July – Cary's Rebellion: Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spottswood of Virginia dispatches a company of Royal marines to assist Governor Hyde. After hearing of this, Cary's troops abandon all of their fortifications along the Pamlico River. Cary and many of his supporters are soon caught and sent to England as prisoners, ending Cary's Rebellion.

• September 10 – John Lawson, Christoph von Graffenried, 2 African American slaves and 2 Native Americans leave on an exploration expedition from New Bern, and travel north by canoe up the Neuse River (this event has also been dated September 12, 1711).

• September 14 – Tuscarora natives capture John Lawson, Christoph von Graffenried and their expeditionary party and bring them to Catechna (approximate date).

• September 16 – Tuscarora natives kill John Lawson. Christoph von Graffenried and one African American slave are known to have been set free (approximate date).

• September 22 – Tuscarora War: Tuscarora natives under the command of Chief Hancock raid settlements along the south bank of the Pamlico River within the Province of Carolina (present day North Carolina), killing around 130 people. This action begins the Tuscarora War.

• October 14 – Yostos kills Tewoflos, becoming Emperor of Ethiopia.

Undated

• Alexander Pope publishes An Essay on Criticism.

• John Shore invents the tuning fork.

Ongoing events

• Great Northern War (1700 – 1721).

• Tuscarora War (1711 – 1715).

• War of the Spanish Succession (1702 – 1713).

Births

• January 1 – Franz Freiherr von der Trenck, Austrian soldier (d. 1749)

• February 2 – Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz, Austrian diplomat (d. 1794)

• February 27 – Constantine Mavrocordatos, Prince of Wallachia and Prince of Moldavia (d. 1769)

• April 22 – Eleazar Wheelock, American founder of Dartmouth College (d. 1779)

• April 26 – David Hume, Scottish philosopher (d. 1776)

• May 18 – Rudjer Josip Boscovich, Austrian-born atomic theorist (d. 1787)

• July 22 – Georg Wilhelm Richmann, Russian physicist (d. 1753)

• September 1 – William Boyce, English composer (d. 1779)

• September 1 – Prince William IV of Orange (d. 1751)

• September 6 – Henry Muhlenberg, German-born founder of the U.S. Lutheran Church (d. 1787)

• September 25 – Qianlong Emperor of China (d. 1799)

• October 20 – Timothy Ruggles, American-born Tory politician (d. 1795)

• November 19 – Mikhail Lomonosov, Russian writer and polymath (d. 1765)

• December 25 – Jean Joseph de Mondonville, French composer (d. 1772)

Deaths

• January 6 – Philipp van Almonde, Dutch admiral (b. 1646)

• January 16 – Blessed Joseph Vaz, Apostle of Ceylon (b. 1651)

• March 13 – Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, French poet and critic (b. 1636)

• March 15 – Eusebio Kino, Italian Catholic missionary (b. 1645)

• March 19 – Thomas Ken, English bishop and hymn-writer (b. 1637)

• April 14 – Louis, le Grand Dauphin, son of Louis XIV of France (b. 1661)

• April 17 – Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1678)

• May 2 – Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester, English statesman (b. 1641)

• June 7 – Henry Dodwell, Irish theologian (b. 1641)

• July 6 – James Douglas, 2nd Duke of Queensberry, Scottish politician (b. 1662)

• August 25 – Edward Villiers, 1st Earl of Jersey, English politician (b. c. 1656)

• October 14 – Tewoflos, Emperor of Ethiopia

• November 3 – John Ernest Grabe, German-born Anglican theologian (b. 1666)

• Ki-Khosrow, Persian Governor of Kandahar (b. 1674)