1690 CE

War of the Grand Alliance: Battle of Beachy Head: French naval victory over the English and Dutch. In India, the fort and trading settlement of Sutanuti is founded on the Hooghly River by the English East India Company, following the signing of an Anglo-Mughal treaty. In India, Sutanuti – which later becomes Kolkata – is founded by Job Charnock of the English East India Company.

In the 1690s, the 17th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 27 – The Convention Parliament is dissolved in England.source
  • February 6 – King William III of England calls for new elections for the 512-member House of Commonssource
  • March 20 – The 2nd Parliament of William III and Mary II is assembled in London, split almost equally with 243 Whigs, 241 Tories, and 28 independent members.source
  • March – London, Quo Warranto Judgment Reversed Act 1689 ("An Act for Reversing the Judgment in a Quo Warranto against the City of London and for Restoreing the City of London to its antient Rights and Privileges") passed by Parliament.Englandsource
  • 9 April – Christian V approves the creation of Nyholm as a new home for Royal Dockyard.Denmarksource
  • August 24 – In India, the fort and trading settlement of Sutanuti is founded on the Hooghly River by the English East India Company, following the signing of an Anglo-Mughal treaty.source
  • December 20 (December 10, 1690 O.S.) — The General Court of the Province of Massachusetts Bay creates the first authorized paper money issued by any government in the Western World as a substitute for coins. The first money is printed on February 13, 1691 (N.S.) and is dated "Feb. 3, 1690" based on the British old style calendar in use at the time.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 2 – The Ottoman Empire defeats Serbian rebels and Austrian troops in battle at Kaçanik Gorge, prompting more than 30,000 Serb refugees to flee northward from Kosovo, Macedonia and Sandžak to the Austrian Empire.source
  • February 8 – The Schenectady massacre takes place in the village of Schenectady in the colony of New York, when 200 Frenchmen, Mohawk and Algonquin warriors kill or capture most of the inhabitants in retaliation for the Lachine massacre.source
  • May 16 – The Battle of Port Royal takes place in Nova Scotia after an invasion by a militia of 446 soldiers and 226 sailors from the Massachusetts Bay Colony on seven warships. With only 90 French colonial soldiers to defend Port-Royal, Acadian Governor Louis-Alexandre des Friches de Menneval surrenders before the end of the day.source
  • June 8 – Siddi general Yadi Sakat razes the Mazagon Fort in Mumbai.source
  • June 14 – King William III of England (William of Orange) lands in Ireland to confront James II.source
  • 14 June – King William III of England (William of Orange) lands at Carrickfergus in Ulster and marches south to take Dublin.Irelandsource
  • 24 June – Riots between sailors and soldiers break out in Copenhagen on Saint John's Eve.Denmarksource
  • 30 June – War of the Grand Alliance: Battle of Beachy Head: French naval victory over the English and Dutch.Englandsource
  • 1 July (O.S.) – Battle of the Boyne in Ireland: William III defeats the deposed James II who returns to exile in France.Englandsource
  • 1 July (O.S.) – Battle of the Boyne: William III defeats the deposed James II of England, who returns to exile in France from Kinsale.Irelandsource
  • July 10 (June 30 O.S.) – Battle of Beachy Head: the Anglo-Dutch navy is defeated by the French, giving rise to fears of a Jacobite invasion of England.source
  • 10 July – Battle of Beachy HeadFrancesource
  • July 11 (July 1 O.S.) – Battle of the Boyne in Ireland: King William III of England (William of Orange) defeats the deposed James II, who returns to exile in France. The rebellion in Ireland continues for a further year until the Orange army gains full control.source
  • July 26 – A French landing party raids and burns Teignmouth in Devon, England. However, with the loss of James II's position in Ireland, any plans for a real invasion are soon shelved, and Teignmouth is the last French attack on England.source
  • October 6 – Massachusetts Puritans, led by Sir William Phips, besiege the city of Quebec; the siege ends in failure after six days.source
  • October 8 – Great Turkish War: The Ottomans recapture Belgrade.source
  • December 10 –Playwright Henry Nevil Payne is tortured for his role in the Montgomery Plot to restore James II to the throne — the last time a political prisoner is legally subjected to torture in Britain.source
  • The emperor also sent his eldest son Yunti, Prince Xun as an assistant to Fuquan, and was himself preparing to join the forces in the field, when he was stricken by illness. The result was victory for Galdan, who held off the imperial forces at Ulan-Butung.Chinasource
  • Kangxi commissioned his own two half-brothers, Fuquan, Prince Yu and Changning, Prince Gong, as the commanding generals, dispatching Fuquan with an army north through the pass at Gubeikou, and Changning with a second force through the Xifengkou pass.Chinasource

Exploration & Expansion

  • January 27 – The crew of the ship HMS Welfare, commanded by John Strong, become the first European people to land at the Falkland Islands.source
  • April 27 – Sultan Toloko ibn-Sibori becomes the new Sultan of Ternate, located on the Maluku Islands in the Dutch East Indies after the death of his father, Sultan Sibori Amsterdam.source
  • 29 June – Williamites reach the River Boyne.Irelandsource
  • The Hearth Tax is abolished in Scotland, one year after its abolition in England and Wales.source
  • By 1690, Galdan Boshugtu Khan of the Dzungars had moved down the Kerulen River into Rehe and was potentially in a position to threaten Beijing itselfChinasource

Religion & Belief

  • January 6 – At the age of 11 years old, Prince Joseph, son of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, is named as "King of the Romans", the next in line to become the Emperor.source
  • April 25 – The Parliament of Scotland passes an Act to abolish episcopy in the presbyterian Church of Scotland. The Anglican Episcopal Church in Scotland continues as a separate denomination, retaining bishops.source
  • May 20 – England passes the Act of Grace, forgiving followers of the deposed James II.source
  • 20 May – The Act of Grace passed, forgiving followers of the deposed James II.Englandsource
  • 17 July – William III issues the Declaration of Finglas offering a pardon to ordinary Jacobites but not their leaders.Irelandsource
  • October 16 – Lawrence Justinian (1381–1456) and John of Sahagún (c. 1430–79) are canonized by Pope Alexander VIII.source
  • Serbian Patriarch Arsenije III Crnojević leads the first of the two Great Serbian Migrations into the Habsburg Empire, following Ottoman atrocities in Kosovo.source

Economy & Finance

  • 24 August – In India, Sutanuti – which later becomes Kolkata – is founded by Job Charnock of the English East India Company.Englandsource
  • November 17 – Barclays, which will continue to be active into the 21st century as a multinational bank and lending institution, is founded in London by John Freame and Thomas Gould as Freame & Gould. The bank changes its name in 1736 when James Barclay becomes a partner.source
  • Quakers John Freame and Thomas Gould form a partnership as bankers in the City of London, origin of Barclays.Englandsource

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January 7 – The first recorded full peal is rung, at St Sepulchre-without-Newgate in the City of London, marking a new era in change ringing.source
  • 7 January – The first recorded full peal is rung, at St Sepulchre-without-Newgate in the City of London, marking a new era in change ringing.Englandsource
  • French physicist Denis Papin, while in Leipzig and having observed the mechanical power of atmospheric pressure on his 'digester', builds a working model of a reciprocating steam engine for pumping water, the first of its kind, though not efficient.source
  • The construction of Fort Longueuil, a stone fort in Longueuil, in Quebec, Canada, is completed. It is one of the only buildings in Canada that could ever be considered a castle (fortified residence for a noble), and out of those buildings it most resembles the castles of Europe.source
  • The Barrage Vauban, a defensive work in the city of Strasbourg (in modern-day France), is completed.source
  • Kallebobro, the predecessor of Langebro, is completed in Copenhagen.Denmarksource
  • Probable date – Planting of Hampton Court Maze.Englandsource

Science & Discovery

  • March 10 – An annular solar eclipse is visible across the south of the Pacific Ocean.source
  • December 13 – The planet Uranus is first sighted and recorded, by England's first Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed, who mistakenly catalogs it as a star 34 Tauri.source
  • December – Earliest recorded sighting of the planet Uranus, by John Flamsteed, who mistakenly catalogues it as the star 34 Tauri.Englandsource
  • Giovanni Domenico Cassini observes differential rotation within Jupiter's atmosphere.source

Crime & Justice

  • January 13 – Captain Thomas Pound, after being captured with his crew the previous month, is tried in Boston and found guilty of piracy although he is later reprieved.source
  • January 27 – William Coward is hanged for acts of piracy, following his capture after seizing the ketch Elenor anchored in Boston Harbor the previous year.source
  • November 9 – Near South Mimms, England, several highwaymen stop a convoy carrying taxes from the Midlands to London and take £15,000.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • 10 October – Shipwreck off Jæren. Among the deaths were Danish nobleman Laurids Lindenov and his wife.Norwaysource

Climate & Environment

  • April 16 – An estimated 8.0 magnitude earthquake strikes in the Caribbean Sea less than 10 mi from Barbuda and also affects St. Kitts and Nevis, as well as Antigua.source
  • June – An earthquake in Brazil of estimated magnitude 7, with epicenter on the left bank of the Amazon River about 45 km downstream from Manaus, spreads seismic waves through the forest and is felt up to 1000 km away.source
  • October 6 – An earthquake with strength 5.2 occurs in Caernarfon, Wales, causing tremors that can be felt as far away as London and Dublin.source
  • 7 October – an earthquake with its epicentre at Caernarfon is felt in Dublin.Irelandsource
  • December 4 – A destructive earthquake in the Eastern Alps causes 24 casualties and results in damage in the Villach, Carinthia area.source
  • December 29 – An earthquake hits Ancona, in the Papal States of Italy and causes 10 deaths.source
  • Possible year of the disappearance of the western part of the island of Buise, in St. Peter's Flood.source

Culture & Society

  • February 21 – The opera Orphée by Louis Lully receives its first performance at the Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opera).source
  • April 6 – Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor issues a document inviting Serbians to resettle in Hungary, at this time a part of the Empire.source
  • September 25 – The only issue of Publick Occurrences is published in Boston, Massachusetts, before being suppressed by the colonial authorities.source
  • October 21 – The play Amphitryon by John Dryden, based on Molière's 1668 play of the same name, receives its first performance at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.source
  • November 7 – The opera Énée et Lavinie (Aeneas and Lavinia) by the French composer Pascal Collasse receives its first performance at the Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opera).source
  • The French dictionary and encyclopaedia Dictionnaire universel, contenant generalement tous les mots françois, compiled by Antoine Furetière, is published posthumously.source
  • Dutch polymath Christiaan Huygens publishes his book Treatise on Light. The book is considered a pioneering work of theoretical and mathematical physics.source

Births

  • January 1 – Susanna Montgomerie, Countess of Eglinton, Scottish literary patron and society hostess (died 1780)source
  • 1 January – Christian Falster, poet and philologist (died 1752)Denmarksource
  • January 13 – Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, Spanish musician (died 1749)source
  • February 1 – Francesco Maria Veracini, Italian composer (died 1768)source
  • February 17 – Samuel Phillips, American clergyman (died 1771)source
  • February 17 – Marcello Papiniano Cusani, Italian archbishop (died 1766)source
  • February 28 – Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia, Russian Tsarevich (died 1718)source
  • March 3 – Gilbert Livingston (died 1746)source
  • March 12 – George Lee, 2nd Earl of Lichfield, British peer (died 1743)source
  • March 18 – Christian Goldbach, Prussian mathematician (died 1764)source
  • 9 April - Johan Henrik Scheffel, artist (died 1781)Swedensource
  • April 13 – Joachim Wagner, organ builder (died 1749)source
  • April 22 – John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville, British statesman (died 1763)source
  • 22 April – John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville, statesman (died 1763)Englandsource
  • October 28 – Peter Tordenskjold, Norwegian sea officer (died 1720)source
  • 28 October – Peter Tordenskjold, nobleman and naval flag officer (d.1720).Norwaysource
  • December 1 – Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, English lawyer, politician, Lord Chancellor (died 1764)source
  • December 22 – Meidingu Pamheiba, King of Manipur (died 1751)source

Deaths

  • February 14 – John Berry, Royal Navy officer (born 1635)source
  • February 22 – Charles Le Brun, French painter and art theorist (born 1619)source
  • February 23 – Elizabeth Walker, English pharmacist (born 1623)source
  • March – Bendix Grodtschilling, artist (born c. 1620)Denmarksource
  • April 15 – Michael I Apafi, Hungarian Prince of Transylvania (born 1632)source
  • April 18 – Charles V, Duke of Lorraine, Austrian-born general of the Holy Roman Empire (born 1643)source
  • April 21 – Jacob de Graeff, member of the De Graeff-family from the Dutch Golden Age (born 1642)source
  • April 25 – David Teniers the Younger, Flemish painter (born 1610)source
  • May 21 – John Eliot, Puritan missionary to the American Indians (born 1604)source
  • 21 May – John Eliot, Puritan missionary to Native Americans, died in Massachusetts Bay Colony (born 1604)Englandsource
  • May 27 – Giovanni Legrenzi, Italian composer (born 1626)source
  • July 11 – Frederick Schomberg, 1st Duke of Schomberg, Marshal of France (born 1615)source
  • October 3 – Robert Barclay, Scottish Quaker apologist (born 1648)source
  • October 9 – John Maynard, English lawyer and politician; (born 1604)source
  • 10 October – Laurids Lindenov, amtmann of Bergenhus amt (born in the 1640s).Norwaysource
  • October 15 – Adam Frans van der Meulen, Flemish painter (born 1632)source
  • October 17 – Margaret Mary Alacoque, Catholic Saint and Mystic (born 1647)source
  • Francesco di Maria, painter (born 1623)Italysource