date: February 6

text: February 6 – King William III of England calls for new elections for the 512-member House of Commons


date: March 20

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: 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_section: Events › January–March


date: August 24

text: 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_section: Events › July–September


date: December 20

text: 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_section: Events › October–December


date: January 2

section: Conflict & Security

text: 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.


date: February 8

text: 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.


date: May 16

text: 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_section: Events › April–June


date: June 8

text: June 8 – Siddi general Yadi Sakat razes the Mazagon Fort in Mumbai.


date: June 14

text: June 14 – King William III of England (William of Orange) lands in Ireland to confront James II.


date: July 10

text: 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.


date: July 11

text: 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.


date: July 26

text: 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.


date: October 6

text: October 6 – Massachusetts Puritans, led by Sir William Phips, besiege the city of Quebec; the siege ends in failure after six days.


date: October 8

text: October 8 – Great Turkish War: The Ottomans recapture Belgrade.


date: December 10

text: 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.


date: January 27

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: January 27 – The crew of the ship HMS Welfare, commanded by John Strong, become the first European people to land at the Falkland Islands.


text: The Hearth Tax is abolished in Scotland, one year after its abolition in England and Wales.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: January 6

section: Religion & Belief

text: 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.


date: April 25

text: 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.


date: May 20

text: May 20 – England passes the Act of Grace, forgiving followers of the deposed James II.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Lawrence Justinian (1381–1456) and John of Sahagún (c. 1430–79) are canonized by Pope Alexander VIII.


text: Serbian Patriarch Arsenije III Crnojević leads the first of the two Great Serbian Migrations into the Habsburg Empire, following Ottoman atrocities in Kosovo.


date: November 17

section: Economy & Finance

text: 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.


date: January 7

section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: 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.


text: 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.


text: 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.


text: The Barrage Vauban, a defensive work in the city of Strasbourg (in modern-day France), is completed.


date: March 10

section: Science & Discovery

text: March 10 – An annular solar eclipse is visible across the south of the Pacific Ocean.


date: December 13

text: 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.


text: Giovanni Domenico Cassini observes differential rotation within Jupiter's atmosphere.


date: January 13

section: Crime & Justice

text: 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.


text: 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.


date: November 9

text: November 9 – Near South Mimms, England, several highwaymen stop a convoy carrying taxes from the Midlands to London and take £15,000.


date: April 16

section: Climate & Environment

text: 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.


date: June

text: 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.


text: 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.


date: December 4

text: December 4 – A destructive earthquake in the Eastern Alps causes 24 casualties and results in damage in the Villach, Carinthia area.


date: December 29

text: December 29 – An earthquake hits Ancona, in the Papal States of Italy and causes 10 deaths.


text: Possible year of the disappearance of the western part of the island of Buise, in St. Peter's Flood.


date: February 21

section: Culture & Society

text: February 21 – The opera Orphée by Louis Lully receives its first performance at the Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opera).


date: April 6

text: April 6 – Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor issues a document inviting Serbians to resettle in Hungary, at this time a part of the Empire.


date: September 25

text: September 25 – The only issue of Publick Occurrences is published in Boston, Massachusetts, before being suppressed by the colonial authorities.


date: October 21

text: 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.


date: November 7

text: 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).


text: The French dictionary and encyclopaedia Dictionnaire universel, contenant generalement tous les mots françois, compiled by Antoine Furetière, is published posthumously.


text: Dutch polymath Christiaan Huygens publishes his book Treatise on Light. The book is considered a pioneering work of theoretical and mathematical physics.


date: January 1

section: Births

text: January 1 – Susanna Montgomerie, Countess of Eglinton, Scottish literary patron and society hostess (d. 1780)

source_section: Births › January–March


text: January 13 – Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, Spanish musician (d. 1749)


date: February 1

text: February 1 – Francesco Maria Veracini, Italian composer (d. 1768)


date: February 17

text: February 17 – Samuel Phillips, American clergyman (d. 1771)


date: February 26

text: February 26 – Samuel van der Putte, Dutch traveler and explorer (d. 1745)


date: February 28

text: February 28 – Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia, Russian Tsarevich (d. 1718)


date: April 13

text: April 13 – Joachim Wagner, organ builder (d. 1749)

source_section: Births › April–June


date: April 15

text: April 15 – John Wallop, 1st Earl of Portsmouth, English politician and nobleman (d. 1762)


date: April 22

text: April 22 – John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville, British statesman (d. 1763)


date: September 28

text: September 28 – James Murray, 2nd Duke of Atholl, British politician (d. 1764)

source_section: Births › July–September


text: September 28 – Michel Fourmont, French religious servant and professor (d. 1746)


date: October 28

text: October 28 – Peter Tordenskjold, Norwegian sea officer (d. 1720)

source_section: Births › October–December


date: November 13

text: November 13 – Ernst Johann von Biron, Duke of Courland and Semigallia (d. 1772)


date: December 1

text: December 1 – Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, English lawyer, politician, Lord Chancellor (d. 1764)


date: February 22

section: Deaths

text: February 22 – Charles Le Brun, French painter and art theorist (b. 1619)

source_section: Deaths › January–March


text: April 15 – Michael I Apafi, Hungarian Prince of Transylvania (b. 1632)

source_section: Deaths › April–June


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Jacob de Graeff, member of the De Graeff-family from the Dutch Golden Age (b. 1642)


date: April 25

text: April 25 – David Teniers the Younger, Flemish painter (b. 1610)


date: April 27

text: 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.


date: May 12

text: May 12 – John Rushworth, English author of Historical Collections (b. c. 1612)


date: May 21

text: May 21 – John Eliot, Puritan missionary to the American Indians (b. 1604)


date: July 11

text: July 11 – Frederick Schomberg, 1st Duke of Schomberg, Marshal of France (b. 1615)

source_section: Deaths › July–September


date: July 21

text: July 21 – Gregorio Carafa, Calabrian-born 62nd Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (b. 1615)


date: September 2

text: September 2 – Philip William, Elector Palatine, German-born ruler (b. 1615)


date: October 1

text: October 1 – Girolamo Corner, Venetian statesman and military commander (b. 1632)

source_section: Deaths › October–December


date: October 9

text: October 9 – John Maynard, English lawyer and politician; (b. 1604)


date: October 15

text: October 15 – Adam Frans van der Meulen, Flemish painter (b. 1632)


date: October 17

text: October 17 – Margaret Mary Alacoque, Catholic Saint and Mystic (b. 1647)


date: January 23

text: January 23 – Spanish colonial administrator Domingo Terán de los Ríos, most recently the governor of Sonora y Sinaloa on the east side of the Gulf of California, is assigned by the Viceroy of New Spain to administer a new province that governs lands on both sides of the Río Bravo del Norte, "Coahuila y Tejas", and effectively becomes the first Governor of Texas.


date: February 13

text: February 13 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony issues the first paper money in North America, in lieu of coins, two months after a December 20 law authorizing the printing. The oldest known specimen, for 20 Massachusetts shillings bears the date "Feb. 3, 1690" based on the British old style calendar in use at the time.


date: May 6

text: May 6 – The Province of New York establishes the New York Supreme Court as the Supreme Court of Judicature. It is the oldest Supreme Court with general original jurisdiction.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – The Treaty of Limerick, ending the Williamite War in Ireland and guaranteeing civil rights to Roman Catholics, is signed. The Flight of the Wild Geese follows.


text: October 17 (October 7 O.S.) – In New England, the two separate colonies of Massachusetts Bay Colony and Plymouth Colony are united into a single entity by an act of the King and Queen of England.


date: January 6

text: January 6 – King William III of England, who rules Scotland and Ireland as well as being the Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, departs from Margate to tend to the affairs of the Netherlands.


date: January 14

text: January 14 – A fleet of ships carrying 827 Spanish Navy sailors and marines arrives at Manzanillo Bay on the island of Hispaniola in what is now the Dominican Republic and joins 700 Spanish cavalry, then proceeds westward to invade the French side of the island in what is now Haiti.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – Nine Years' War: French troops under Marshal Louis-Francois de Boufflers besiege the Spanish-held town of Mons.


date: March 20

text: March 20 – Leisler's Rebellion: A new governor arrives in New York – Jacob Leisler surrenders, after a standoff of several hours.


date: March 29

text: March 29 – The Siege of Mons ends in the city's surrender.


date: June 23

text: June 23 – Ahmed II (1691–1695) succeeds Suleiman II (1687–1691), as Ottoman Emperor.


date: July 12

text: July 12 – Williamite War in Ireland – Battle of Aughrim: Protestant Williamite forces, led by Godert de Ginkell, decisively defeat Jacobites under the Marquis de St Ruth (who is killed).


date: August 11

text: August 11 – Battle of La Prairie in Canada: An English and Iroquois force come north from Albany, New York to attack Montreal, but are repulsed with significant casualties by the French and their First Nations allies.


date: August 19

text: August 19 – The Battle of Slankamen takes place between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire and allies at Syrmia (now the Serbian province of Vojvodina), and 25,000 Ottomans are killed, including Köprülüzade Fazıl Mustafa Pasha, the Grand Vizier.


date: September 3

text: September 3 – HMS Coronation and HMS Harwich are lost in a storm while making for shelter in Plymouth Sound with 900 killed.


date: September 18

text: September 18 – War of the Grand Alliance: English and Dutch forces are defeated by the French in the Battle of Leuze.


date: December 6

text: December 6 – During the Morean War, Captain Luca Dalla Rocca of Naples betrays Venice by surrendering the fortress of Gramvousa, on the island of Crete to the Ottoman Turks, in return for a large amount of money and sanctuary in Istanbul.


date: December 22

text: December 22 – Patrick Sarsfield and 19,000 troops of the Irish Army who had been supporters of the Jacobite Rebellion leave the country and relocate to France.


text: The Khalkha submit to the Manchu invaders, bringing most of modern-day Mongolia under the rule of the Qing Dynasty.


text: July 12 – Pope Innocent XII becomes the 242nd pope, succeeding Pope Alexander VIII.


date: November 26

text: November 26 – In Limerick, "A Form of Prayer and Thanksgiving to the Almighty God for the Preservation of Their Majesties, the Success of Their Forces in the reducing of Ireland, and for His Majesties Safe Return" is celebrated in all Anglican churches in Britain and Ireland by order of Archbishop Tillotson.


text: HMNB Devonport, currently one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy and the largest naval base in Western Europe, opens.


text: The textile factory Barnängens manufaktur is founded in Stockholm, Sweden.


date: February 28

text: February 28 – An annular solar eclipse is visible across the Philippines, North Borneo and eastern Sumatra.


date: August 23

text: August 23 – A total solar eclipse is visible across South America, Central America and Mexico.


text: Michel Rolle invents Rolle's theorem, which states that any real-valued differentiable function that attains equal values at two distinct points must have at least one stationary point somewhere between them.


date: January 15

text: January 15 – King Louis XIV of France issues an order specifically prohibiting play of games of chance, specifically naming basset and similar games, on penalty of 1,000 livres for the first offence.


date: March 14

text: March 14 – The Public Security Police Force of Macau is founded.


date: May 6

text: May 6 – The Spanish Inquisition condemns and forcibly baptizes 219 Xuetas in Palma, Majorca. When 37 try to escape the island, they are burned alive at the stake.


date: May 16

text: May 16 – Jacob Leisler is hanged for treason.


date: April 9

section: Disasters & Accidents

text: April 9 – A fire at the Palace of Whitehall in London destroys its Stone Gallery.


date: March 17

text: March 17 – The Athenian Mercury begins twice-weekly publication by The Athenian Society in London.


date: June

text: June – The first performance takes place of the semi-opera King Arthur with a libretto by John Dryden and music by Henry Purcell.


date: August 27

text: August 27 – In Scotland, King William offers the Highland clans a pardon for their part in the Jacobite rising of 1689 if they agree to pledge allegiance to him before New Year's Day.


text: Nimavar school in Isfahan, Iran is built and opens in this era of Suleiman I.


text: The Society for the Reformation of Manners is founded in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets with the aim of suppressing profanity, immorality, and other lewd activities in general, and of brothels and prostitution in particular.


date: January 16

text: January 16 – Peter Scheemakers, Flemish sculptor (d. 1781)


date: February 8

text: February 8 – John Adams Sr., British colonial farmer, minister, father of the U.S. president, John Adams (d. 1761)


date: March 12

text: March 12 – Dionisia de Santa María Mitas Talangpaz, Filipino saint (d. 1732)


date: March 30

text: March 30 – Charles Hamilton, Count of Arran, English collector of manuscripts (d. 1754)


text: April 9 – Johann Matthias Gesner, German classical scholar and schoolmaster (d. 1761)


date: May 27

text: May 27 – James Alexander, American lawyer in colonial New York (d. 1756)


date: June 17

text: June 17 – Giovanni Paolo Panini, Italian painter and architect (d. 1765)


date: July 24

text: July 24 – Harry Powlett, 4th Duke of Bolton, British politician (d. 1759)


date: August 25

text: August 25 – Alessandro Galilei, Italian architect, mathematician (d. 1737)


date: August 28

text: August 28 – Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Holy Roman Empress consort (d. 1750)


date: August 29

text: August 29 – Richard Challoner, English Catholic prelate (d. 1781)


date: September 3

text: September 3 – Antoine-Alexis Perier de Salvert, French naval officer (d. 1757)


date: October 1

text: October 1 – Arthur Onslow, Speaker of the British House of Commons (d. 1768)


date: October 20

text: October 20 – Tsarevna Catherine Ivanovna of Russia, Tsarevna of Russia (d. 1733)


date: January 13

text: January 13 – George Fox, English founder of the Society of Friends (b. 1624)


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Luo Wenzao, First Chinese bishop (b. 1615)


date: May 16

text: May 16 – Jacob Leisler, Leader of the Leisler Rebellion, de facto governor of New York (b. 1640)


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Henry Pollexfen, English politician (b. 1632)


date: June 22

text: June 22 – Suleiman II of the Ottoman Empire, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1687 to 1691 (b. 1642)


date: July 12

text: July 12 – John Hamilton, Irish military officer of Scottish descent (b. 1650)


text: July 12 – Marquis de St Ruth, French (killed at the Battle of Aughrim) (b. 1650)


date: July 26

text: July 26 – Henry Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Newcastle, English politician (b. 1630)


date: August 14

text: August 14 – Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnel, Irish rebel (b. 1630)


date: October 8

text: October 8 – Thomas Barlow, English academic and clergyman, Provost of The Queen's College, Oxford and Bishop of Lincoln (b. 1607)


date: October 10

text: October 10 – Nicholas Gassaway, Colonel, Maryland Provincial Forces (b. 1634)


date: October 25

text: October 25 – George Legge, 1st Baron Dartmouth, English naval commander (b. 1647)


date: December 8

text: December 8 – Richard Baxter, English Puritan church leader, poet, and hymn-writer (b. 1615)


date: December 23

text: December 23 – Katherine Jones, Viscountess Ranelagh, Anglo-Irish scientist (b. 1615)


date: August 12

text: August 12 – The city of Ponce is founded in Puerto Rico.


date: January 24

text: January 24 –King William's War – Candlemas Massacre: At least 75 residents of what is now York, Maine are killed by French soldiers, led by missionary Louis-Pierre Thury, along with a larger force of Abenaki and Penobscot Indians, under the command of Penobscot Chief Madockawando.


date: January 30

text: January 30 – English Army General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, a close adviser to King William III of England, is fired from all of his jobs by the English Secretary of State, the Earl of Nottingham, on orders of Queen Mary II.


date: February 13

text: February 13 – Massacre of Glencoe: The forces of Robert Campbell slaughter around 30 members of the Clan MacDonald of Glencoe in Scotland (from whom they have previously accepted hospitality), for delaying to sign an oath of allegiance to King William III of England.


date: May 29

text: May 29 (May 19 O.S.) – Nine Years' War: Battle of Barfleur – The Anglo-Dutch fleet breaks the French line off the Cotentin Peninsula, foiling the French plan to invade England.


date: June 13

text: June 13–14 (June 3–4 O.S.) – Nine Years' War: Battle of La Hogue – The action begun at Barfleur ends with further destruction of the French fleet.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – The siege of the Belgian city of Namur in the Spanish Netherlands ends as Dutch General Menno van Coehoorn capitulates to King Louis XIV of France after five weeks. The siege, a battle in the ongoing Nine Years War, had begun on May 24.


date: October 21

text: October 21 – In Barbados, a slave revolt is crushed.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – Mohamed bin Hajj Ali Thukkala becomes the new Sultan of the Maldives as Muhammad Ali IV.


date: December 14

text: December 14 – Maratha Empire General Santaji Ghorpade defeats Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb's General Alimardan Khan, captures him and brings him back to fort Jinjee near Madras.


date: September 14

text: September 14 – Diego de Vargas leads Spanish colonists in retaking the city of Santa Fe, after a 12-year exile, following the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.


date: December 5

text: December 5 – John Goldsborough arrives in Madras as the new administrator of the British East India Company.


date: March 22

text: March 22 – The Kangxi Emperor of the Qing dynasty issues the Edict of Toleration, recognizing all the members of the Roman Catholic Church, not just the Jesuits, and legalizing missions and their conversion of Chinese people to the Christian Faith.


date: June 10

text: June 10 – The Salem witch trials' first victim, Bridget Bishop, is hanged for witchcraft.


date: June 22

text: June 22 – Pope Innocent XII issues the papal bull Romanum decet Pontificem, intended to prohibit the office of cardinal-nephew and restrict related sinecures within the Roman Catholic church.


date: October 30

text: October 30 – The King of Spain donates the lands that become the municipalities of San Francisco and Mapulaca in Honduras.


date: December 23

text: December 23 – Nahum Tate is named as the new Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom and serves for 22 years until his death.


date: February 17

text: February 17 – An annular solar eclipse is visible across Russia, western Mongolia, Xinjiang, Iran, Afghanistan and Iran.


date: August 12

text: August 12 – A total solar eclipse is visible in the South Atlantic Ocean.


date: December 24

text: December 24 – The French ship Soleil Royal, a three-decker First Rank ship with 104 guns, is launched at Brest Dockyard.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – The Salem witch trials begin in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony, with the charging of 3 women with witchcraft. Tituba, a slave owned by Samuel Parris, is the first to be arrested, and she implicates Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne, who are arrested later in the day.


date: April 18

text: April 18 – Giles Corey, Mary Warren, Abigail Hobbs and Bridget Bishop, all residents of Salem, Massachusetts, are arrested and charged with the practice of witchcraft.


date: July 5

text: July 5 – Wine shop owner Antoine Savetier and his wife are murdered by thieves in the French city of Lyon, and a peasant named Jacques Aymar-Vernay is called in as a detective to solve the case. Aymar finds one of the perpetrators, Joseph Arnoul, who confesses to the crime and implicates two accomplices who manage to escape. Arnoul is executed by being "broken on the wheel" on August 30.


date: September 19

text: September 19 – Giles Corey is pressed to death in an attempt to coerce a confession from him of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – The last of those convicted of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials are hanged. By the end of September, 14 women and 5 men have been executed by hanging. The remainder of those convicted are all eventually released.


date: September 27

text: September 27 – The trial for sorcery of Anne Palles of Denmark begins, and she gives a long confession of giving her body and soul to Satan. The court finds her guilty on November 2 and sentences her to death.


date: June 7

text: June 7 – Jamaica earthquake: An earthquake and related tsunami destroy Port Royal, capital of Jamaica, and submerge a major part of it; an estimated 2,000 are immediately killed, 2,300 injured, and a probable additional 2,000 die from the diseases which ravage the island in the following months.


date: June 8

text: June 8 – During a famine in Mexico City, an angry mob torches the Viceroy's palace and ignites the archives; most of the documents and some paintings are saved by royal geographer Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora.


date: September 8

text: September 8 – An earthquake in Brabant of scale 5.8 is felt across the Low Countries, Germany and England.


date: May 2

text: May 2 – The first performance of the semi-opera The Fairy-Queen by Henry Purcell, based on William Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream, takes place at the Queen's Theatre, Dorset Garden in London.


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Petrus Wesseling, German librarian, law librarian and writer (d. 1764)


date: January 27

text: January 27 – Ivan Cherkasov, Russian statesman, privy councillor, and cabinet secretary (d. 1758)


date: February 29

text: February 29 – John Byrom, poet, inventor of a shorthand system (d. 1763)


date: April 8

text: April 8 – Giuseppe Tartini, Italian composer and violinist (d. 1770)


date: May 16

text: May 16 – Dolly Pentreath, last known native speaker of the Cornish language prior to its revival in 1904 (d. 1777)


date: May 18

text: May 18 – (O.S) Joseph Butler, English bishop and philosopher (d. 1752)


date: June 28

text: June 28 – Louisa Maria Stuart, British princess (d. 1712)


date: August 18

text: August 18 – Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon, French politician and prince (d. 1740)


date: October 15

text: October 15 – Alessandro Albani, collector of antiquities, Roman Catholic cardinal (d. 1779)


date: October 25

text: October 25 – Elisabeth Farnese, queen of Philip V of Spain (d. 1766)


date: October 28

text: October 28 – Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria, Electoral Prince of Bavaria (d. 1699)


date: October 30

text: October 30 – Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer, Dutch noble, diplomat and composer (d. 1766)


date: November 8

text: November 8 – Laurentius Blumentrost, Russian court physician and founder and first president of St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (d. 1755)


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Muhammad Hashim Thattvi, Islamic scholar, author, philanthropist, and spiritual leader (d. 1761)


text: January 7 – Fernando de Valenzuela, 1st Marquis of Villasierra, Spanish noble (b. 1636)


date: January 16

text: January 16 – William O'Brien, 2nd Earl of Inchiquin, Irish nobleman (b. 1640)


date: January 23

text: January 23 – John Page, Virginian planter, merchant and politician (b. 1627)


date: January 25

text: January 25 – Shubael Dummer, American Congregational church minister (b. 1636)


date: May 14

text: May 14 – Robert Kirk, Scottish folklorist, Bible translator, Gaelic scholar (b. 1644)


text: May 18 – Elias Ashmole, English antiquarian (b. 1617)


date: June 10

text: June 10 – Bridget Bishop, woman executed for witchcraft during Salem witch trials (b. 1632)


date: July 19

text: July 19 – Rebecca Nurse, convicted of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials (b. 1621)


text: July 19 – Elizabeth Howe, one of the accused in the Salem witch trials (b. 1635)


date: August 19

text: August 19 – John Proctor, convicted of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials (b. 1632)


date: September 19

text: September 19 – Giles Corey, Massachusetts farmer and accused wizard (b. 1611)


date: November 13

text: November 13 – Joseph de la Vega, Jewish Hispano-Dutch merchant, poet, and philanthropist (b. 1650)


date: November 26

text: November 26 – Edmund Ludlow, English politician, soldier and regicide (1617–92) (b. 1617)


date: December 24

text: December 24 – Maria Antonia of Austria, Archduchess of Austria (b. 1669)


date: November 7

text: November 7 – King Charles II of Spain issues a royal edict providing sanctuary in Spanish Florida for escaped slaves from the English colony of South Carolina.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – The 90-gun English Royal Navy warship HMS Windsor Castle is wrecked beyond repair on the Goodwin Sands.


date: May 18

text: May 18 – Forces of Louis XIV of France attack Heidelberg, capital of the Electorate of the Palatinate.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – Heidelberg is taken by the invading French forces; on May 23 Heidelberg Castle is surrendered, after which the French blow up its towers using mines.


date: June 27

text: June 27 – Nine Years' War – Battle of Lagos off Portugal: The French fleet defeats the joint Dutch and English fleet.


date: July 29

text: July 29 – Nine Years' War – Battle of Landen: William III of England is defeated by the French (with Irish Jacobite mercenaries).


date: August 21

text: August 21 – The Indian Ocean port of Pondicherry, capital of French India is captured by a 17-ship fleet from the Netherlands and 1,600 men under the command of Laurens Pit the Younger.


date: September 10

text: September 10 – France begins the siege of the Spanish Netherlands (now Belgium) fort of Charleroi.


date: October 4

text: October 4 – Battle of Marsaglia near Turin in the Duchy of Savoy: A French force under the command of General Nicolas Catinat defeats the Savoyard forces, leaving 10,000 dead or wounded, while sustaining only 1,000 casualties.


date: October 11

text: October 11 – Charleroi falls to French forces.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – General Santaji Ghorpade of the Maratha Empire in India is defeated by General Himmat Khan of the Mughal Empire near Vikramhalli, and retreats. A week later, after regrouping his troops, Santaji defeats Himmat at their next encounter.


date: November 29

text: November 29 – A fleet of 30 English and Dutch ships captures the French port of Saint-Malo


date: December 16

text: December 16 – Diego de Vargas, Spanish colonial governor of Santa Fe de Nuevo México (now the area around the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico), returns to the walled city of Santa Fe and requests the Pueblo people to accept the authority of the colonial government. Negotiations fail and a siege begins on December 29. The Pueblo defenders surrender the next day and the 70 rebels are executed soon after. The 400 civilian women and children are made slaves and distributed to the Spanish colonists.


text: The Knights of the Apocalypse are formed in Italy.


date: November 21

text: November 21 – The 46-gun Royal Navy frigate HMS Mordaunt founders off of the coast of Cuba.


text: Financier Richard Hoare relocates Hoare's Bank (founded 1672) from Cheapside to Fleet Street in London.


text: China concentrates all its foreign trade on Canton; European ships are forbidden to land anywhere else.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – Anne Palles becomes the last accused witch to be executed for witchcraft in Denmark, after having been convicted of using powers of sorcery. King Christian V accepts her plea not to be burned alive, and she is beheaded before her body is set afire.


date: September 14

text: September 14 – King Louis XIV of France sends a letter to Pope Innocent XII announcing the rescission of the Declaration of the Clergy of France issued in 1682.


text: A religious schism takes place in Switzerland, within a group of Swiss and Alsatian Anabaptists led by Jakob Ammann. Those who follow Ammann become the Mennonite Amish sect.


date: January 22

text: January 22 – A total lunar eclipse is visible across North and South America.


date: July 17

text: July 17 – A total lunar eclipse is visible in New Zealand and across the Pacific Ocean.


text: English astronomer Edmond Halley studies records of births and deaths in Breslau (Poland), producing a life table consolidating year of birth and age at death. He uses this to work out the price of life annuities.


text: Italian barber Giovanni Paolo Feminis creates a perfume water called Aqua Admirabilis, earliest known form of eau de Cologne.


date: April

text: April – Tituba, a slave who had been convicted at the Salem witch trials of practicing witchcraft after making a confession, is released from jail in Boston after 13 months when an unknown purchaser pays her jail fees.


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Manuel Afonso Nzinga a Nlenke, ruling as King Manuel I of the Kingdom of Kongo (in present-day northern Angola) is executed on orders of the new king, Álvaro X.


date: December 27

text: December 27 – The new 80-gun English Navy warship HMS Sussex departs Portsmouth on its maiden voyage, escorting a fleet of 48 warships and 166 merchant ships to the Mediterranean Sea. The fleet runs into a storm on February 27, 1694, and on March 1, Sussex and 12 other warships sink, along with a cargo of gold.


date: January 11

text: January 11 – The Mount Etna volcano erupts in Italy, causing a devastating earthquake that kills 60,000 people in Sicily and Malta.


date: October 29

text: October 29 – The Great Storm changes the course of rivers and alters the coastline from Virginia to Long Island in America.


date: February 8

text: February 8 – The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia is granted a Royal charter.


date: February 27

text: February 27 – The publication of the first women's magazine, titled The Ladies' Mercury, takes place in London. It is published by the Athenian Society.


date: March 27

text: March 27 – Bozoklu Mustafa Pasha becomes the new Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, after Sultan Ahmed II appoints him as the successor of Çalık Ali Pasha.


date: April 5

text: April 5 – The Order of Saint Louis, the first medal to be awarded in France to military personnel who are not members of nobility, is created by order of King Louis XIV, and named after his ancestor, King Louis IX.


date: June 5

text: June 5 – The first performance of the opera Didon by French composer Henri Desmarets takes place at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris.


date: September 9

text: September 9 – Francesco Invrea, King of Corsica, begins a two-year term as the Doge of the Republic of Genoa in Italy, succeeding Giovanni Battista Cattaneo Della Volta.


date: October

text: October – William Congreve's comedy The Double-Dealer is first performed in London.


text: The Academia Operosorum Labacensium is established in Ljubljana, Slovenia.


text: William Penn publishes his proposal for European federation, Essay on the Present and Future Peace of Europe.


text: Dimitrie Cantemir presents his Kitâbu 'İlmi'l-Mûsiki alâ Vechi'l-Hurûfât (The Book of the Science of Music through Letters) to Sultan Ahmed II, which deals with melodic and rhythmic structure and practice of Ottoman music, and contains the scores for around 350 works composed during and before his own time, in an alphabetical notation system he invented.


text: John Locke publishes his influential book Some Thoughts Concerning Education.


date: January 17

text: January 17 – Melchor de Navarrete, Spanish colonial governor of Florida and Mexico (d. 1761)


date: January 26

text: January 26 – William Robinson, deputy governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (d. 1751)


date: January 29

text: January 29 – Henry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke, English peer and architect (d. 1750)


date: March 16

text: March 16 – Malhar Rao Holkar, Indian nobleman (d. 1766)


date: April 3

text: April 3 – John Harrison, English clockmaker, horologist and inventor of the marine chronometer (d. 1776)


text: April 3 – George Edwards, English naturalist (d. 1773)


date: April 16

text: April 16 – Anne Sophie Reventlow, Danish royal consort, Queen of Denmark-Norway (d. 1743)


date: April 25

text: April 25 – Sir Charles Hotham, 5th Baronet, British diplomat (d. 1738)


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Alexey Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Russian diplomat, chancellor of the Russian Empire (d. 1768)


date: September 3

text: September 3 – Charles Radclyffe, Titular 5th Earl of Derwentwater (d. 1746)


date: September 21

text: September 21 – Thomas Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1768)


date: October 22

text: October 22 – Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, American planter (d. 1781)


date: November 22

text: November 22 – Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon, daughter of Louis (d. 1775)


date: December 29

text: December 29 – Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville, French explorer (d. 1759)


date: January 4

text: January 4 – Thomas Hanford, first minister in Norwalk, Connecticut (b. 1621)


date: February 4

text: February 4 – John de Britto, Portuguese Jesuit missionary and martyr (b. 1647)


date: February 11

text: February 11 – John de Brito, Portuguese Jesuit missionary and martyr (b. 1647)


date: February 13

text: February 13 – Johann Caspar Kerll, German composer and organist (b. 1627)


date: April 5

text: April 5 – Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier, French writer (b. 1627)


date: April 17

text: April 17 – Rutger von Ascheberg, Courland-born soldier in Swedish service (b. 1621)


date: June 4

text: June 4 – John Wildman, English soldier and politician (b. 1621)


date: July 26

text: July 26 – Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark, Queen consort of Sweden (b. 1656)


date: July 31

text: July 31 – Willem Kalf, painter from the Northern Netherlands (b. 1619)


date: August 21

text: August 21 – Patrick Sarsfield, 1st Earl of Lucan, Irish Jacobite peer (b. 1655)


date: September 19

text: September 19 – Johann Weikhard von Valvasor, Slovenian nobleman and polymath (b. 1641)


date: November 12

text: November 12 – Maria van Oosterwijck, Dutch Golden Age painter (b. 1623)


date: November 24

text: November 24 – William Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1617)


text: December 29 – Vere Fane, 4th Earl of Westmorland, English Earl (b. 1644)


date: February 6

text: February 6 – The colony of Quilombo dos Palmares, created by rebel African slaves in Brazil, is destroyed by the bandeirantes, colonial troops under the command of Domingos Jorge Velho. After a successful attack on its capital, Cerca do Macaco, the last King of Dos Palmares, Zumbi, flees after a reign of more than 13 years, but is later captured and executed.


date: March 8

text: March 8 – The Casa da Moeda do Brasil is formed by Peter II of Portugal.


date: July 27

text: July 27 – The Bank of England is founded through Royal charter by the Whig-dominated Parliament of England, following a proposal by Scottish merchant William Paterson to raise capital, by offering safe and steady returns of interest guaranteed by future taxes. A total of £1.2 million is raised for the war effort against Louis XIV of France by the end of the year, to establish the first-ever government debt.


date: December 3

text: December 3 – The Parliament of England passes the Triennial Act 1694, requiring general elections every three years.


date: January 18

text: January 18 – Sir James Montgomery of Scotland, who had been arrested on January 11 for conspiracy to restore King James to the throne, escapes and flees to France.


date: April 7

text: April 7 – The British Royal Navy's 40-gun warship HMS Ruby captures the French privateer Entreprenant in battle. The confiscated ship is renamed HMS Ruby Prize.


date: April 12

text: April 12 – The French ship Diligente, commanded by René Duguay-Trouin, covers the escape of a convoy of ships that he is escorting, but then is surrounded and attacked by six Royal Navy ships led by David Mitchell. Most of the Diligente crew is lost in the battle, and Duguay-Trouin is captured.


date: May 27

text: May 27 – Taking advantage of a fog, the French Army, with 24,000 troops, fights the Battle of Torroella against an equally large Spanish Army force on the banks of the Ter in Spain, near the city of Girona during the Nine Years' War. The Spaniards suffer 3,000 casualties, while the French sustain 500.


date: June 24

text: June 24 – The Tunisian–Algerian War begins as Algerian troops cross into Tunisia.


date: October 23

text: October 23 – British/American colonial forces, led by Sir William Phips, fail to seize Quebec from the French.


text: November 12 – The Army of Algeria captures Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, after a siege of three months, bringing an end to the Tunisian–Algerian War. Mohamed Bey El Mouradi, the Bey of Tunis, flees southward while Prince Muhammad ben Cheker of Tunisia becomes the new Dey on behalf of the Dey of Algiers, Hadj Ahmed.


text: The Lao empire of Lan Xang unofficially ends.


date: February 5

text: February 5 – The ship Ridderschap van Holland is lost at sea, having departed the Cape of Good Hope with a crew of 300, with a destination of Batavia (modern-day Jakarta in Indonesia), normally a voyage of two months. It never arrives and is never seen again.


date: April 2

text: April 2 – Sheikh Yusuf, exiled by the administrators of the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia), arrives at the Dutch Cape Colony on the ship De Voetboog, at what later becomes Cape Town, South Africa, along with two wives, two concubines and twelve children. Resettled by the colonial government at a farm in Zandvliet, the Sheikh introduces Islam to South Africa.


text: Rascians establish the settlement which will become Novi Sad on the Danube.


date: February 26

text: February 26 – Silvestro Valier is elected as the new Doge of Venice to replace the late Francesco Morosini


date: December 6

text: December 6 – Thomas Tenison is appointed Archbishop of Canterbury.


text: The Parker Tavern is built in Reading, Massachusetts.


date: January 29

text: January 29 – French missionary Jean-Baptiste Labat arrives in the New World, landing at the Caribbean island of Martinique.


date: June 22

text: June 22 – An annular solar eclipse is visible across North America and the Atlantic Ocean.


date: December 16

text: December 16 – A total solar eclipse is visible across South America.


date: October 25

section: Health & Medicine

text: October 25 – Queen Mary II of England founds the Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – British flagship (carrying gold coin) and twelve other ships are wrecked in a storm in the Mediterranean off Gibraltar with the loss of approximately 1,200 lives.


date: September 5

text: September 5 – The Great Fire of Warwick breaks out in England and destroys half the town. Donors raise £110,000 toward disaster relief, with Queen Anne contributing £1,000.


date: April 13

text: April 13 – The largest volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius since 1631 takes place, with lava flows towards both San Giorgio a Cremano and Torre del Greco, after explosions in the crater that began April 5. Around April 20, ash falls are experienced as far away as Calabria.


date: September 8

text: September 8 – The 1694 Irpinia–Basilicata earthquake causes widespread severe damage and over 6,000 deaths in the Kingdom of Naples.


date: September 27

text: September 27 – A hurricane hits Carlisle Bay, Barbados, sinking 27 British ships and resulting in 3,000 casualties.


date: October 19

text: October 19 – A major windstorm begins and continues for several days, spreading the Culbin Sands over a large area of farmland in the Scottish Highlands in the County of Moray and burying the now-abandoned village of Culbin.


date: January 21

text: January 21 (January 11 O.S.) – The Kiev Academy, predecessor of the national university of Ukraine, receives official recognition by Tsar Ivan V of Russia.


date: January 28

text: January 28 – Pirro e Demetrio, an opera by Alessandro Scarlatti, is given its first performance, debuting at the Teatro San Bartolomeo in Naples. The opera is adapted in 1708 in London as Pyrrhus and Demetrius and becomes the second most popular opera in 18th century London.


date: August 24

text: August 24 – The Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, the first official dictionary of the French language, is presented by Jacques de Tourreil and Academy members on behalf of the Académie française to King Louis XIV.


date: February 21

text: February 21 – Richard Waldron, Colonial New Hampshire businessman and politician (d. 1753)


date: April 3

text: April 3 – George Edwards, English naturalist and ornithologist (d. 1773)


date: April 25

text: April 25 – Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, English architect (d. 1753)


date: July 11

text: July 11 – Charles-Antoine Coypel, French painter, art commentator, and playwright (d. 1752)


date: July 16

text: July 16 – Marcus Beresford, 1st Earl of Tyrone, Irish politician (d. 1763)


date: August 8

text: August 8 – Francis Hutcheson, Scottish philosopher (d. 1746)


date: August 10

text: August 10 – John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower, British politician (d. 1754)


date: September 9

text: September 9 – John Vanderbank, British artist (d. 1739)


date: September 22

text: September 22 – Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, British statesman and man of letters (d. 1773)


date: November 5

text: November 5 – Ricardo Wall, Irish-born soldier, diplomat and minister in the Spanish service (d. 1777)


date: November 12

text: November 12 – Augustine Washington, British-American planter, slave owner, and the father of George Washington (d. 1743)


date: November 29

text: November 29 – Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, German prince and ruler of the principality of Anhalt-Köthen (d. 1728)


date: December 2

text: December 2 – William Shirley, British governor of Massachusetts and then of the Bahamas (d. 1771)


date: December 22

text: December 22 – Hermann Samuel Reimarus, German philosopher and writer (d. 1768)


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, English aristocrat and soldier (b. c. 1618)


date: April 16

text: April 16 – Claire-Clémence de Maillé-Brézé, French noblewoman (b. 1628)


date: June 29

text: June 29 – The Battle of Texel is fought near the Dutch island of Texel, one of the West Frisian Islands. The French Navy force of 8 ships, commanded by Jean Bart, locates and rescues three French ships that had been captured by the Dutch Republic in late May. Bart fights a larger force commanded by Hidde Sjoerds de Vries, who dies of his wounds after being captured.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Justin McCarthy, Viscount Mountcashel, General in the Williamite War in Ireland (b. 1638)


date: July 25

text: July 25 – Robert Fleming the elder, Scottish Presbyterian Minister, died 1694 (b. 1630)


date: July 29

text: July 29 – Suleiman I of Persia, Shah of Persia from 1666 to 1694 (b. 1647)


date: August 6

text: August 6 – The coronation of Sultan Husayn of the Safavid dynasty as the Shah of Persia takes place in Isfahan, eight days after the death of his father Suleiman I.


text: August 8 – Antoine Arnauld, French theologian, philosopher, mathematician (b. 1612)


date: August 30

text: August 30 – Louis de Crevant, Duke of Humières, Marshal of France (b. 1628)


date: November 22

text: November 22 – John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1630)


text: November 29 – Marcello Malpighi, Italian physician (b. 1628)


text: December 2 – Pierre Puget, French painter, sculptor, architect and engineer (b. 1620)


date: December 4

text: December 4 – Bernardin Gigault de Bellefonds, Marshal of France (b. 1630)


date: December 28

text: December 28 – Henry Arundell, 3rd Baron Arundell of Wardour, English Baron (b. 1607)


date: March 14

text: March 14 – Paul Foley is elected as the new Speaker of the House after the expulsion of John Trevor.


date: April 17

text: April 17 – The House of Commons of England decides not to renew the Licensing Order of 1643, and states its reasoning, beginning with "Because it revives, and re-enacts, a Law which in no-wise answered the End for which it was made". The lifting of censorship creates a more open society, and an explosion of print results. Within 30 years, the number of printing houses in England increases from 20 to 103.


date: October 11

text: October 11 – King William III of England dissolves Parliament in the wake of a scandal involving former Speaker of the House of Commons John Trevor and other Tory MPs.


text: November 22 – The new Parliament, with 513 members of the House of Commons is opened by King William III. Commons is composed of 257 Whigs (who hold a majority of one), 203 Tories and 53 members of other parties or independents.


date: January 14

text: January 14 (January 4 O.S.) – The Royal Navy warship HMS Nonsuch is captured near England's Isles of Scilly by the 48-gun French privateer Le Francois. Nonsuch is then sold to the French Navy and renamed Le Sans Pareil.


date: January 27

text: January 27 – A flotilla of six Royal Navy warships under the command of Commodore James Killegrew aboard HMS Plymouth captures two French warships, the Content and the Trident, the day after the French ships had mistaken the English fleet to be a group of merchant ships to attack.


date: March 10

text: March 10 – Almost all French Army soldiers in a column of 1,300 troops, commanded by Brigadier General Urbain Le Clerc de Juigné, are killed or captured in the Battle of Sant Esteve d'en Bas against a smaller Spanish Empire force led by Ramon de Sala i Saçala during the War of the Grand Alliance.


date: April 27

text: April 27 – Russo-Turkish War (1686–1700): Russia begins the Azov campaigns (1695–96) against the Ottoman Empire, with 31,000 troops departing to the Ottoman fortress at Azov on the Don River.


date: June 24

text: June 24 – The Commission of Enquiry into the Massacre of Glencoe in Scotland in 1692 reports to the Parliament of England, blaming Sir John Dalrymple, Secretary of State over Scotland, and declares that a soldier should refuse to obey a "command against the law of nature".


date: July 12

text: July 12 – The Siege of Namur begins in the Spanish Netherlands (now Belgium).


date: July 15

text: July 15 – The siege of the Ottoman fortress at Azaq by the Russian Army begins, but is unsuccessful and is discontinued after October 2 (September 22 O.S.).


date: August 10

text: August 10 – A naval skirmish occurs between English and Swedish ships in the Strait of Dover


date: August 13

text: August 13–15 – Nine Years' War: Brussels is bombarded by French troops.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – Nine Years' War: France surrenders Namur, Spanish Netherlands to forces of the Grand Alliance, led by King William III of England, Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, following the 2-month Siege of Namur.


date: September 7

text: September 7 – English pirate Henry Every perpetrates one of the most profitable raids in history, with the capture of the Grand Mughal ship Ganj-i-Sawai. In response, Emperor Aurangzeb threatens to put an end to all English trading in India.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – The 48-gun English Navy ship HMS Berkeley Castle is captured by the French Navy.


date: December 6

text: December 6 – A total eclipse of the sun is visible across the Middle East and western Asia.


text: After 23 years of construction, Spain completes Castillo de San Marcos to protect St. Augustine, Florida, from foreign threats.


text: A naval skirmish occurs between English and Swedish ships en-route to Portugal.


date: February 6

text: February 6 – Mustafa II (1664 – 1703) succeeds his uncle, Ahmed II as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.


date: April 22

text: April 22 – Sürmeli Ali Pasha is fired from his position as Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, after coming into a disagreement with the new Sultan, Mustafa II. Sürmeli is initially sent into exile, but executed on the Sultan's orders on May 29.


date: July 17

text: July 17 – The Bank of Scotland is founded.


text: In Amsterdam, the bank Wed. Jean Deutz & Sn. floats the first sovereign bonds on the local market. The scheme is designed to fund a 1.5 million guilder loan to the Holy Roman Emperor. From this date on, European leaders commonly take advantage of the low interest rates available in the Dutch Republic, and borrow several hundred millions on the Dutch capital market.


date: August 8

text: August 8 – The Wren Building is started in Williamsburg, Virginia (completed in 1700).


text: After many years of construction, the Potala Palace in Lhasa is completed.


date: June 11

text: June 11 – An annular eclipse of the sun is visible across South America.


date: September 24

text: September 24 – All but eight of the remaining 305 crew of the Royal Navy ship are killed when the ship founders in the Florida Keys. According to the ship's logbook, an epidemic of yellow fever began on August 1 and had killed 45 people before the hurricane struck, and left all but seven crew members too ill to walk.


text: A £2 fine is imposed for swearing in England.


date: March 7

text: March 7 – John Trevor, Speaker of the English House of Commons, is expelled from the House by vote of the members, after being found guilty of accepting a bribe of 1000 pounds sterling from the City of London Corporation.


date: March 26

text: March 26 – John Hungerford is expelled from the English House of Commons when members vote to find him guilty of accepting a bribe in return for using his committee chairmanship to promote the pending Orphans Bill.


date: December 31

text: December 31 – A window tax is imposed in England. Some windows are bricked up to avoid it.


text: English manufacturers call for an embargo on Indian cloth, and silk weavers picket the House of Commons of England.


text: Johanne Nielsdatter is executed for witchcraft, the last such confirmed execution in Norway.


date: January 24

text: January 24 – Milan's Court Theater is destroyed in a fire.


date: May 18

text: May 18 – The 7.8 magnitude Linfen earthquake in Shanxi Province, Qing Dynasty kills over 50,000 people.


text: A large unidentified tropical volcanic eruption causes colder temperatures, crop failure, food shortage and mortality in north-western Europe.


text: The Great Famine of 1695–1697 begins as the Great Famine of Estonia (1695–97) in Swedish Estonia and spreads across Finland, Latvia, Norway and Sweden, while the "seven ill years" of famine in Scotland are ongoing.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – The funeral of Queen Mary II of England takes place, accompanied by music written for the occasion by Henry Purcell.


date: January 6

text: January 6 – Giuseppe Sammartini, Italian composer and oboist (d. 1750)


date: February 2

text: February 2 – Christoph Sauer, German-American printer and publisher (d. 1757)


text: February 2 – William Borlase, English antiquarian, geologist and naturalist (d. 1772)


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Françoise de Graffigny, French writer (d. 1758)


date: March 10

text: March 10 – Adrien Manglard, French painter and engraver (d. 1760)


date: March 16

text: March 16 – William Greene, Governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (d. 1758)


date: June 6

text: June 6 – Adriaan Valckenier, Dutch Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (1737-1741) (d. 1751)


text: July 17 – Alexander Moncrieff, Scottish minister of the Secession church (d. 1761)


date: August 10

text: August 10 – Samuel Sandys, 1st Baron Sandys, British politician (d. 1770)


date: August 20

text: August 20 – Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans, French princess (d. 1719)


date: September 3

text: September 3 – Pietro Locatelli, Italian Baroque composer and violinist (d. 1764)


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Carl Gustaf Tessin, Swedish count, politician and art collector (d. 1770)


date: September 15

text: September 15 – Michel Lullin de Chateauvieux, Genevan agronomist (d. 1781)


date: December 22

text: December 22 – Rebecca Kellogg Ashley, captive of Native Americans (d. 1757)


date: January 4

text: January 4 – François-Henri de Montmorency, duc de Luxembourg, Marshal of France (b. 1628)


date: January 7

text: January 7 (December 28, 1694 O.S.) – The United Kingdom's last joint monarchy, the reign of husband-and-wife King William III and Queen Mary II comes to an end with the death of Queen Mary, at the age of 32. Princess Mary had been installed as the monarch along with her husband and cousin, Willem Hendrik von Oranje, Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, in 1689 after King James II was deposed by Willem during the "Glorious Revolution".


date: February 18

text: February 18 – Sir William Phips, First royal governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (b. 1651)


date: April 5

text: April 5 – George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax, English writer and statesman (b. 1633)


date: April 13

text: April 13 – Jean de La Fontaine, French poet, fabulist and writer (b. 1621)


date: April 17

text: April 17 – Juana Inés de la Cruz, Mexican nun, writer, philosopher, composer and poet (b. 1648)


date: April 23

text: April 23 – Henry Vaughan, Welsh author, physician and metaphysical poet (b. 1621)


date: June 11

text: June 11 – André Félibien, French architect (b. 1619)


text: August 20 – Giuseppe Francesco Borri, Italian alchemist, prophet and doctor (b. 1627)


date: November 20

text: November 20 – Zumbi, Brazilian leader of a runaway slave colony (b. 1655)


date: November 22

text: November 22 – Francis Nurse, husband of Rebecca Nurse, (accused during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692), (b. 1618)


date: November 28

text: November 28 – Anthony Wood, English antiquarian (b. 1632)


date: November 29

text: November 29 – James Dalrymple, 1st Viscount Stair, Scottish lawyer and statesman (b. 1619)


date: December 8

text: December 8 – Barthélemy d'Herbelot de Molainville, French orientalist (b. 1625)


date: January 21

text: January 21 – The Recoinage Act, passed by the Parliament of England to pull counterfeit silver coins out of circulation, becomes law.


date: August 29

text: August 29 – King Louis XIV of France and Victor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, sign the Treaty of Turin, ending Savoy's involvement in the Nine Years' War.


date: September 8

text: September 8 – The Parliament of Scotland passes the Education Act 1696, providing for locally funded, Church-supervised schools to be established in every parish in Scotland.


date: October 20

text: October 20 – The Imperial Russian Navy is founded on the recommendation of Tsar Peter the Great and approval by the Russian Duma.


text: William Penn offers an elaborate plan for intercolonial cooperation largely in trade, defense, and criminal matters.


text: Polish replaces Ruthenian as an official language of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.


date: February 15

text: February 15 – A plot to ambush and assassinate King William III of England in order to restore King James and the House of Stuart to the throne is foiled when the king cancels his usual plan to return from a hunting trip by way of the road between Turnham Green and Brentford. The king's guard is alerted by the Earl of Portland, William Bentinck, who had been approached on February 13 by Sir Thomas Prendergast.


date: February 23

text: February 23 – A royal proclamation is issued to arrest suspected Jacobite conspirators who had plotted the assassination of King William III, including gunman Robert Charnock and organizers George Barclay, and Sir John Fenwick. Barclay eludes capture, but Charnock and Fenwick are executed.


date: March 7

text: March 7 – King William III of England departs from the Netherlands.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – Spanish missionaries in the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México in North America first learn of plans for a revolt among the Pueblo Indians and send warnings to the governor, asking for Spanish troops. The uprising begins on June 4.


date: March 16

text: March 16 – The Dutch bombard Givet during the Nine Years' War.


text: April 23 – Russo-Turkish War (1686–1700): Russia begins the second of the Azov campaigns (1695–96).


date: June 4

text: June 4 – A second Pueblo Revolt occurs in Santa Fe de Nuevo México. The Tiwas of Taos and Picuris, the Tewas of San Ildefonso and Nambe, the Tanos of Jemez and San Cristobal, and the Keres of Santo Domingo and Cochiti attack during the full moon and kill 21 Spanish civilians and five priests.


date: June 12

text: June 12 – China's Kangxi Emperor leads troops in the Battle of Jao Modo, about 37 mi from the modern Mongolian capital, Ulan Bator, and defeats 5,000 Mongolian troops of the Dzungar Khanate under the command of Galdan Boshugtu Khan.


date: June 17

text: June 17 – Seven French ships attack five Dutch ships escorting a convoy of 112 merchant ships in the Battle of Dogger Bank.


date: July 18

text: July 18 – Azov campaign: The Russian fleet occupies Azov at the mouth of the river Don.


date: August 22

text: August 22 – Forces of the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire clash near Andros.


date: October 7

text: October 7 – The Convention of Vigevano is signed, bringing a general ceasefire in Italy and an end to the Nine Years' War between France and the remaining members of the Grand Alliance.


date: November 25

text: November 25 – In England, the House of Commons approves the bill of attainder to convict Sir John Fenwick of high treason for plotting to lead the assassination of and coup d'état against King William III, on its third and final reading, voting 187 to 161 in favor of conviction. The measure then moves to the House of Lords.


date: November 30

text: November 30 – Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville captures and destroys St. John's, Newfoundland after a three-day siege.


date: December 7

text: December 7 – Connecticut Route 108, one of Connecticut's oldest highways is laid-out to Trumbull.


date: May 31

text: May 31 – John Salomonsz is elected chief of Sint Eustatius in the Caribbean Netherlands.


date: November 12

text: November 12 – Hand in Hand Fire & Life Insurance Society, as predecessor to Aviva, is founded in England.


text: Window tax was introduced in England and Wales and remained in force until 1851.


text: The Bank of Scotland becomes the first bank in Europe to successfully issue paper currency.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – On Canada's Hudson Bay, the English Navy recaptures the York Factory from France, three years after the French had captured it, and renamed the site "Fort Bourbon".


text: Abington, Pennsylvania, is settled.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – A partial solar eclipse is visible in western Canada and Greenland.


date: May 16

text: May 16 – A total lunar eclipse is visible in western Europe and Africa.


date: November 9

text: November 9 – A total lunar eclipse is visible in North and South America.


date: March 18

text: March 18 – Robert Charnock, who had been arrested for the Jacobite plot to kill King William is hanged at the Tower of London.


date: December 23

text: December 23 – By a vote of 66 to 60, the English House of Lords approves the bill of attainder for the conviction of Sir John Fenwick for high treason. Fenwick is beheaded on January 28, 1697.


date: December 24

text: December 24 – The Inquisition in Portugal carries out the sentence of burning at the stake against several Marrano Jews in Évora.


date: January 27

text: January 27 – In England, the ship (formerly Sovereign of the Seas) catches fire and burns at Chatham, after 57 years of service.


date: April

text: April – A fire destroys the Gra Bet (Left Quarter) of Gondar, the capital of Ethiopia. The fire starts "in the house of a prostitute" and destroys many buildings, including the churches of St. George, Takla Haymanot and Iyasu.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – England's Royal Navy scuttles and deliberately sinks its 32-gun battleship HMS Sapphire in Bay Bulls Harbour in Newfoundland, rather than let it be captured by the French Navy following a disastrous battle.


text: The Great Famine of 1695–1697 wipes out almost a third of the population of Finland, while the Great Famine of Estonia (1695–97) takes out a fifth of the population of Estonia; and the "seven ill years" of famine in Scotland are ongoing.


date: January 31

text: January 31 – In the Netherlands, undertakers revolt after funeral reforms in Amsterdam.


date: January

text: January – Colley Cibber's play Love's Last Shift is first performed in London.


date: August 13

text: August 13 – The Dutch state of Drenthe makes William III of Orange its Stadtholder.


date: November 21

text: November 21 – John Vanbrugh's play The Relapse is first performed in London.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – Jean-François Regnard's verse comedy Le Joueur ("The Gamester") premieres in Paris.


text: A New Theory of the Earth, a book by William Whiston, is published and is well received by intellectuals of the day.


text: Edward Lloyd probably begins publication of Lloyd's News, a predecessor of Lloyd's List, in London.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Italian painter (d. 1770)


text: May 16 – Countess Palatine Franziska Christine of Sulzbach, Abess of Thorn and Abbess of Essen (d. 1776)


date: June 11

text: June 11 – James Francis Edward Keith, Scottish soldier and Prussian field marshal (d. 1758)


date: July 27

text: July 27 – Samuel Whittemore, American farmer and oldest known colonial combatant of the American Revolution (d. 1793)


date: July 31

text: July 31 – Dumont de Montigny, French colonial officer, farmer, and author (d. 1760)


date: August 9

text: August 9 – Joseph Wenzel I, Prince of Liechtenstein, Austrian marshall (d. 1772)


date: September 17

text: September 17 – Eunice Kanenstenhawi Williams, Native American captive (d. 1785)


date: September 27

text: September 27 – Alphonsus Liguori, Italian founder of the Redemptorist Order (d. 1787)


date: October 2

text: October 2 – Ann Smith Franklin, American colonial newspaper printer and publisher (d. 1763)


date: October 13

text: October 13 – John Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey, English courtier, political writer and memoirist (d. 1743)


date: October 14

text: October 14 – Samuel Johnson, President of Columbia University (d. 1772)


date: October 28

text: October 28 – Maurice de Saxe, Marshal General of France (d. 1750)


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Giulia Crostarosa, Italian catholic nun and foundress (d. 1755)


date: November 2

text: November 2 – Conrad Weiser, Pennsylvania's interpreter and emissary to the Native Americans (d. 1760)


date: February 19

text: February 19 – Giovanni Pietro Bellori, Italian painter and biographer (b. 1613)


date: February

text: February – Ahom King Supaatphaa or Gadadhar Singha


date: April 10

text: April 10 – Springett Penn, Member of the Penn family (b. 1674)


date: April 17

text: April 17 – Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné, French writer (b. 1626)


date: May 16

text: May 16 – Mariana of Austria, Queen consort of Spain (b. 1634)


date: June 2

text: June 2 – William Herbert, 1st Marquess of Powis, English marquess (b. 1626)


date: June 10

text: June 10 – Charles de Courbon de Blénac, French colonial administrator (b. 1622)


date: June 17

text: June 17 – The throne of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth becomes vacant with the death of Jan Sobieski, prompting a competition between Friedrich Augustus, Elector of Saxony and Prince François Louis of France to compete under the commonwealth's "Golden Liberty" system for an elective monarchy of the new king by the nobility. Jerzy Albrecht Denhoff, the Grand Chancellor, remains the head of the Polish-Lithuanian government during the vacancy of the ceremonial throne.


date: June 24

text: June 24 – Philip Henry, English Nonconformist clergyman and diarist (b. 1631)


date: July 11

text: July 11 – William Godolphin, English diplomat for Charles II and Member of Parliament (b. 1635)


date: September 9

text: September 9 – Princess Eleonore Erdmuthe of Saxe-Eisenach, Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach and Electress of Saxony (b. 1662)


date: September 21

text: September 21 – Charles de Montsaulnin, Comte de Montal, 17th century French military officer and noble (b. 1619)


date: October 22

text: October 22 – James Ramsay, Minister of the Church of Scotland, Bishop of Dunblane, Bishop of Ross (b. 1624)


date: December 28

text: December 28 – Miguel de Molinos, Spanish priest, apostle of Quietism (b. 1628)


date: February 22

text: February 22 – Gerrit de Heere becomes the new Governor of Dutch Ceylon, succeeding Thomas van Rhee and administering the colony for almost six years until his death.


date: March 22

text: March 22 – Charles II of Spain issues a Royal Cedula extending to the indigenous nobles of the Spanish Crown colonies, as well as to their descendants, the preeminence and honors customarily attributed to the Hidalgos of Castile.


date: September 20

text: September 20 – The Treaty of Ryswick is signed by France and the Grand Alliance, to end both the Nine Years' War and King William's War. Louis XIV of France recognises William III as King of England & Scotland, and both sides return territories they have taken in battle. In North America, the treaty returns Port-Royal (Acadia) to France.


text: The Parliament of England passes the Trade with Africa Act 1697 (An Act to settle the Trade to Africa), which end the Royal African Company's monopoly on all English trade with Africa.


text: The Manchus of the Qing dynasty conquer Outer Mongolia.


date: February 26

text: February 26 – Conquistador Martín de Ursúa y Arizmendi and 114 soldiers arrive at Lake Petén Itzá in what is now Guatemala and begin the Spanish conquest of Guatemala with an attack on the capital of the Itza people there before moving northward to the Yucatan peninsula.


date: March 13

text: March 13 – The Spanish conquest of Petén, and of Yucatán, is completed with the fall of Nojpetén, capital of the Itza Maya Kingdom, the last independent Maya state.


date: March 26

text: March 26 – Safavid occupation of Basra: Safavid government troops take control of Basra.


date: April 23

text: April 23 – As Chinese troops from the Manchu Dynasty (ruled by the Kangxi Emperor) complete their conquest of Mongolia, Galdan Boshugtu Khan, ruler of the last part of Mongolia to be conquered, the Dzungar Khanate, poisons himself, ending the resistance to conquest.


date: May 6

text: May 6 – General Bernard Desjean, Baron de Pointis of France carries out an attack and pillaging of the Spanish South American fort of Cartagena de Indias (now in Colombia) with 1,200 soldiers and 650 pirate mercenaries. The French attackers overwhelm the city for the next 18 days. The Baron reneges on a contract to share the wealth with the pirates, who will come back to Cartagena a second time and makes a more violent attack.


date: July 6

text: July 6 – A major naval battle takes place between the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire with each side having 25 battleships, supplemented by smaller vessels. The Venetian Navy, under the command of Admiral Bartolomeo Contarini, suffers 71 deaths and 163 injuries, and even worse casualties in a second engagement on September 20.


date: August 10

text: August 10 – The Siege of Barcelona ends in Spain after 52 days as Louis Joseph, Duke of Vendôme of France obtains the surrender of Barcelona from the Austrian General, Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt.


date: September 5

text: September 5 (August 25 O.S.) – During the Nine Years' War, the Battle of Hudson's Bay is fought between English and French ships in Hudson Bay near what is now the Canadian province of Manitoba; The French warship Pélican captures York Factory, a trading post of the English Hudson's Bay Company.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – Battle of Zenta: Prince Eugene of Savoy crushes the Ottoman army of Mustafa II, and effectively ends Turkish hopes of recovering lost ground in Hungary.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – Amcazade Köprülü Hüseyin Pasha becomes the new Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire in the wake of the disastrous Ottoman defeat at Zenta, replacing Grand Vizier Elmas Mehmed Pasha, who was killed in the battle by his own troops.


date: October 30

text: October 30 – The Nine Years' War, between France and the Grand Alliance comes to an end with the signing of the last pacts of the Peace of Ryswick in the Dutch city of Rijswijk as Leopold I of Austria accedes two days before a deadline that had been set by the other members of the Grand Alliance. The areas of the Duchy of Lorraine (Lotharingen), Freiburg im Breisgau, and Vieux-Brisach (Breisach) are returned by France to Leopold's control.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – Grand Embassy of Peter the Great: Tsar Peter the Great of Russia sets out to travel in Europe incognito, as Artilleryman Pjotr Mikhailov.


text: Heinrich Escher, Mayor of Zürich, introduces chocolate to Switzerland from Brussels.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – Thomas Aikenhead is hanged outside Edinburgh, becoming the last person in Great Britain to be executed for blasphemy.


date: June 2

text: June 2 – Augustus, Elector of Saxony converts to Roman Catholicism in order to be eligible to rule Poland.


date: June 27

text: June 27 – After becoming a Roman Catholic, Augustus the Strong is elected King Augustus II of Poland.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – A Byzantine icon, the "Weeping Madonna of Pócs", arrives in Vienna after a five-month journey following its forced removal from the Hungarian village of Pócs by order of the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I. It has been housed for more than 320 years in St. Stephen's Cathedral.


date: October 19

text: October 19 – Misión Loreto, the first Roman Catholic mission on Mexico's Baja California Peninsula, is founded by Spanish missionary Juan María de Salvatierra.


date: December 2

text: December 2 – The first service is held in St Paul's Cathedral since rebuilding work after the Great Fire of London began.


date: December 8

text: December 8 – Tsangyang Gyatso is installed in Tibet as the 6th Dalai Lama in a ceremony at Lhasa, filling a vacancy that had existed since 1682.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – The earliest reported first-class cricket match takes place in Sussex in England.


text: Christopher Polhem starts Sweden's first technical school.


date: January 11

text: January 11 – French writer Charles Perrault releases the book Histoires ou contes du temps passé (literally "Tales of Past Times", known in England as "Mother Goose tales") in Paris, a collection of popular fairy tales, including Cinderella, Puss in Boots, Red Riding Hood, The Sleeping Beauty and Bluebeard.


date: June 10

text: June 10 – The last mass execution for witchcraft in western Europe when the five Paisley witches are hanged and then burned in Scotland.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – The Norwegian Code, promulgated by King Christian V of Denmark-Norway in 1687, is amended to provide for torture of condemned criminals in certain capital offenses in Norway, with permission for burning with hot irons, or cutting off the prisoner's right hand while the prisoner is being transported for decapitation.


date: May 17

text: May 17 (May 7 Old Style) – The 13th century royal Tre Kronor ("Three Crowns") castle in Stockholm burns to the ground, and a large portion of the royal library is destroyed.


text: Martin Mere, England's largest lake, is drained by sir Thomas Fleetwood for farmland.


text: Great Famine of Estonia (1695–97).

source_section: Events › Ongoing


text: Great Famine of 1695–1697 in Scandinavia.


text: "Seven ill years" of famine in Scotland.


date: July 28

text: July 28 – The opera Vénus et Adonis, composed by Henri Desmarets with libretto by Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, receives its first performance, premiering at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris.


date: October 7

text: October 7 – The opera Issé, composed by André Cardinal Destouches with libretto by Antoine Houdar de la Motte, premieres at the Palace of Fontainebleau in France.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – The first opéra-ballet, combining elements of both mediums of entertainment, is performed as L'Europe galante makes its debut at the Salle du Palais-Royal in Paris. Composed by André Campra, with libretto by Antoine Houdar de la Motte, the opera and ballet is conducted by Marin Marais.


date: November 24

text: November 24 – The elaborate burial of the late King Charles XI of Sweden takes place more than seven months after his April 5 death, with interment at the Riddarholmen Church on the island of Riddarholmen near Stockholm.


date: November 30

text: November 30 – Prince Eugene of Savoy, a field marshal within the Holy Roman Empire, purchases a large tract of land in Vienna for construction of the Belvedere Palace.


date: December 7

text: December 7 – Louis, Duke of Burgundy, and Marie Adélaïde of Savoy marry in the royal chapel at the Palace of Versailles in France.


date: December 11

text: December 11 – A ball in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles is held to celebrate the Duke of Burgundy and Marie Adélaïde's wedding.


date: December 14

text: December 14 – The coronation ceremony takes place for King Charles XII of Sweden.


text: The use of "litters" (wheelless transports that carried by four servants) increases in Europe.


text: William Dampier's A New Voyage Round the World is published in England.


date: January 23

text: January 23 – Joseph François Dupleix, Governor-General of French India and rival of Robert Clive (d. 1763)


date: January 30

text: January 30 – Johann Joachim Quantz, German flautist and composer (d. 1773)


date: February 5

text: February 5 – William Smellie, Scottish obstetrician and medical instructor (d. 1763)


date: March 9

text: March 9 – Friederike Caroline Neuber, German actress and theatre director (d. 1760)


date: March 30

text: March 30 – Jan Baptist Xavery, Flemish sculptor principally active in the Dutch Republic (d. 1742)


date: June 4

text: June 4 – Jacob Emden, German rabbi and talmudist who championed Orthodox Judaism (d. 1776)


date: August 30

text: August 30 – Henry Flitcroft, major English architect in the second generation of Palladianism (d. 1769)


date: September 19

text: September 19 – Alexander Monro, Scottish surgeon and anatomist (d. 1767)


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Marie Anne de Bourbon, Superintendent of the Household to the French queen Marie Leszczyńska (d. 1741)


date: October 18

text: October 18 – Canaletto, Italian painter from the Republic of Venice (d. 1768)


date: October 26

text: October 26 – John Peter Zenger, German printer and journalist in New York City (d. 1746)


date: November 10

text: November 10 – William Hogarth, English artist (d. 1764)


date: November 25

text: November 25 – Gerhard Tersteegen, German Reformed religious writer and hymnist (d. 1769)


text: December 7 – Peter August, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck (d. 1775)


date: January 28

text: January 28 – John Fenwick, English conspirator (b. c. 1645)


date: March 1

text: March 1 – Francesco Redi, Italian physician (b. 1626)


date: March 12

text: March 12 – Gaspar de la Cerda, 8th Count of Galve, viceroy of New Spain (b. 1653)


date: March 27

text: March 27 – Simon Bradstreet, English colonial magistrate (b. 1604)


date: May 8

text: May 8 – Sir Richard Temple, 3rd Baronet, English Member of Parliament (b. 1634)


date: May 24

text: May 24 – Johann Adolf I, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels, German duke (b. 1649)


date: June 7

text: June 7 – John Aubrey, English writer and antiquarian (b. 1626)


date: June 19

text: June 19 – Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough, English diplomat (b. 1621)


date: July 13

text: July 13 – James Draper, early settler of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (b. 1618)


date: July 24

text: July 24 – William Digges, politician in the Colony of Virginia, councillor in the Province of Maryland (b. 1651)


date: July 27

text: July 27 – Mahmud Shah II, the Sultan of Johor and Pahang (now part of Malaysia) takes on full power upon the death of the regent, the Bendahara Paduka Raja. Mahmud II was only 10 years old when he became the Sultan upon the assassination of his father, Ibrahim Shah in 1685.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Jean-Baptiste de Santeul, French poet who wrote in Latin (b. 1630)


date: August 11

text: August 11 – John Hay, 1st Marquess of Tweeddale, Scottish judge (b. 1625)


date: December 31

text: December 31 – Lucas Faydherbe, Belgian sculptor and architect (b. 1617)


date: January 1

text: January 1 – The Abenaki tribe and Massachusetts colonists sign a treaty, ending the conflict in New England.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – The English House of Commons is dissolved and new elections are held between July 19 and August 10 for a parliament to be summoned on August 24.


date: August 24

text: August 24 – King William III opens the newly elected House of Commons at Westminster.


date: October 11

text: October 11 – The Treaty of the Hague is signed between the Dutch Republic, England and France.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – The Spanish king Carlos names his grandson Jozef Ferdinand as his heir.


date: December 9

text: December 9 – Francis Nicholson becomes the new British colonial governor of Virginia, succeeding Sir Edmund Andros.


text: Samuel Cranston becomes the governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.


date: February 17

text: February 17 – The Maratha Empire fort at Gingee falls after a siege of almost nine years by the Mughal Empire as King Rajaram escapes to safety. General Swarup Singh Bundela, who led the scaling of the fortress walls and Gingee's capture, is rewarded by Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb with command of the area.


date: June 22

text: June 22 – The executions of 57 leaders of the Streltsy uprising begin and continue until June 28.


date: August 25

text: August 25 – Peter the Great arrives back in Moscow; General Patrick Gordon has already crushed the Streltsy Uprising, with 341 rebels sentenced to be decapitated.


date: September 8

text: September 8 – The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth defeats the Tatars in the Battle of Podhajce, the last battle between the Ottoman Empire and the Polish and Lithuanians.


date: December 8

text: December 8 – King William III of England issues a proclamation of "our most gracious pardon unto all such pirates in the East Indies, viz., all eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, who shall surrender themselves for piracies or robberies committed by them upon sea or land" before April 30, 1699, to Captain Thomas Warren, but specifically "excepting Henry Every, alias Bridgman, and William Kidd.


date: December 12

text: December 12 – Mombasa (referred to at the time as Fort Jesus, and now part of Kenya) falls under control of the Emirate of Oman, with Imam Sa'if ibn Sultan as the first Omani Governor.


text: Bucharest becomes the capital of Wallachia (part of modern-day Romania).


text: In Africa, Zanzibar is captured by Oman.


date: June 24

text: June 24 – The Trade with Africa Act 1697 goes into effect in English overseas possessions, ending the monopoly of the Royal African Company (RAC) on the triangular trade by opening it to any English merchants who pay a 10 percent fee to the RAC.


date: July 14

text: July 14 – Darien scheme: The first Scottish settlers leave for an ill-fated colony in Panama.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – Iberville and Bienville sail from Brest to the Gulf of Mexico, to defend the southern borders of New France.


date: November 2

text: November 2 – The Darien scheme Scottish settlers land in Panama and establish their ill-fated colony; 80% of them would die within the first year.


text: The Whigs sponsor Captain Kidd of New York as a privateer against French shipping.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – The Banishment Act of 1697 goes into effect for Roman Catholic church officials in Ireland, having been the deadline for all "popish archbishops, bishops, vicars general, deans, jesuits, monks, friars, and other regular popish clergy" to have reported to Irish ports for deportation. Re-entry to Ireland after May 4, 1698, is a criminal offense with a penalty of 12 months imprisonment and expulsion, while a second re-entry is punishable by death as treason.


date: November 16

text: November 16 – A congress begins in Sremski Karlovci to discuss a treaty between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy League.


text: English Bishop Jeremy Collier publishes his pamphlet A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage, accusing several contemporary playwrights of undermining public morality in their popular comedies by using profanity, blasphemy and indecency.


date: September 5

text: September 5 – A charter is granted by King William III of England to the new East India Company of England, called "the New Company" or "the English Company" to break the monopoly that has existed in India since 1689 with the existing British East India Company.


text: Shepherd Neame Brewery founded.


date: July 2

text: July 2 – Thomas Savery patents the first steam engine.


date: July 25

text: July 25 – English engineer Thomas Savery obtains a patent for a steam pump.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – The first Eddystone Lighthouse, built off Plymouth, England, is illuminated.


date: April 10

text: April 10 – A total solar eclipse is visible in Central America.


date: May 17

text: May 17 – The British Royal Navy ship HMS Hastings, a 32-gun fifth rate, is launched.


date: November

text: November – Tani Jinzan, astronomer and calendar scholar, observes a fire destroy Tosa (now Kōchi) in Japan at the same time as a Leonid meteor shower, taking it as evidence to reinforce belief in the "Theory of Areas".


text: Humphrey Hody is appointed regius professor of Greek at Oxford.


text: September 5 – In an effort to move his people away from Asiatic customs, Tsar Peter I of Russia imposes a beard tax.


date: January 30

text: January 30 – William Kidd, who initially seized foreign ships under authority as a privateer for the British Empire before becoming a pirate, becomes an outlaw and uses his ship, the Adventure Galley, to capture an Indian ship, the valuable Quedagh Merchant, near India.


date: January 4

text: January 4 – The Palace of Whitehall in London, England is destroyed by fire.


date: April 1

text: April 1 – Scottish pirate William Kidd and his crew arrive at Île Sainte-Marie off of the coast of Madagascar in Kidd's Adventure Galley bringing with them the cargo of the captured ships Quedagh Merchant and Rouparelle. Upon arrival, all but 13 of Kidd's crew desert to work for another pirate, Robert Culliford. The Adventure Galley, which is leaking and falling apart, sinks and the Rouparelle is sunk by the deserters. Kidd and his 13 henchmen depart on Quedah Merchant.


date: June 20

text: June 20 – An earthquake of magnitude 7.2–7.9 damages an extended region around Ambato, Ecuador, including the Tungurahua, Cotopaxi and Chimborazo provinces. Ambato and Latacunga are completely destroyed and several thousand casualties are reported.


text: Ukraine suffers a great famine.


date: March 8

text: March 8 – The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, the oldest Anglican mission organization in the world, is founded by English clergyman Thomas Bray and four other people at Lincoln's Inn in London, along with Sir Humphrey Mackworth, Maynard Colchester, Lord Guilford and John Hooke.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – John Churchill, Earl of Marlborough is reinstated in the English Army, with readmission to the Privy Council by King William III. On July 26, he is selected as one of the Lords Justice.


text: Cinderella is made as a folktale


date: January 3

text: January 3 – Metastasio, (b. Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi), Italian poet and opera librettist (d. 1782)


date: February 4

text: February 4 – Heinrich August de la Motte Fouqué, Prussian Lieutenant general and General der Infanterie and a confidant of King Frederick the Great (d. 1774)


date: February 16

text: February 16 – Pierre Bouguer, French mathematician, geophysicist, geodesist, and astronomer (d. 1758)


date: February 23

text: February 23 – Thomas Bladen, colonial governor in North America and British MP (d. 1780)


date: March 26

text: March 26 – Václav Prokop Diviš, Czech priest, scientist and inventor (d. 1765)


date: May 10

text: May 10 – Cuthbert Ellison, British Army officer and MP for Shaftesbury (d. 1785)


date: June 19

text: June 19 – Weliwita Sri Saranankara Thero, Last Sangharaja of Sri Lanka (d. 1778)


date: July 17

text: July 17 – Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, French mathematician (d. 1759)


date: September 26

text: September 26 – William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire, British nobleman, Whig politician and MP (d. 1755)


date: October 23

text: October 23 – Ange-Jacques Gabriel, principal architect of King Louis XV of France (d. 1782)


date: November 4

text: November 4 – Caleb Fleming, English dissenting minister and Polemicist (d. 1779)


date: November 22

text: November 22 – Pierre de Rigaud, marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnial, Canadian-born colonial governor of French Canada in North America (d. 1778)


date: December 21

text: December 21 – Philip Wharton, 1st Duke of Wharton, powerful Jacobite politician (d. 1731)


date: December 24

text: December 24 – William Warburton, English critic and Bishop of Gloucester (d. 1779)


date: January 15

text: January 15 – Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Burlington, Anglo-Irish nobleman, Lord High Treasurer of Ireland, Cavalier (b. 1612)


date: January 17

text: January 17 – Moyse Charas, apothecary in France during the reign of Louis XIV (b. 1619)


date: January 22

text: January 22 – Frederick Casimir Kettler, Duke of Courland and Semigallia (b. 1650)


date: January 23

text: January 23 – George Louis becomes Elector of Hanover upon the death of his father, Ernest Augustus. Because the widow of Ernest Augustus, George's mother Sophia, was heiress presumptive as the cousin of Anne, Queen of Great Britain, and Anne's closest eligible heir, George will become King of Great Britain.


date: March 6

text: March 6 – Philip Sidney, 3rd Earl of Leicester, English politician (b. 1619)


date: March 16

text: March 16 – Leonora Christina Ulfeldt, Danish countess (b. 1621)


date: April 6

text: April 6 – Mechtilde of the Blessed Sacrament, French nun (b. 1614)


date: May 4

text: May 4 – At the imperial capital at Inwa, Sanay Min of the Toungoo dynasty becomes the new King of Burma upon the death of his father, Minye Kyawhtin.


date: June 5

text: June 5 – Elizabeth Maitland, Duchess of Lauderdale, influential British noblewoman (b. 1626)


date: June 11

text: June 11 – Balthasar Bekker, Dutch minister and author of philosophical and theological works (b. 1634)


date: June 29

text: June 29 – Paluzzo Paluzzi Altieri degli Albertoni, Italian Catholic Cardinal and Cardinal-Nephew to Pope Clement X (b. 1623)


date: July 13

text: July 13 – Charles Somerset, Marquess of Worcester, English nobleman and politician (b. 1660)


date: November 28

text: November 28 – Louis de Buade de Frontenac, Governor of New France (b. 1622)


date: December 1

text: December 1 – Ferdinand Joseph, Prince of Dietrichstein, German prince (b. 1636)


date: January 26

text: January 26 – The Republic of Venice, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Holy Roman Empire sign the Treaty of Karlowitz with the Ottoman Empire, marking an end to the major phase of the Ottoman–Habsburg wars. The treaty marks a major geopolitical shift, as the Ottoman Empire subsequently abandons its expansionism and adopts a defensive posture while the Habsburg monarchy expands its influence.


date: May 1

text: May 1 (O.S.) – A series of five student orations at the College of William & Mary precipitate the Colony of Virginia's capital moving from Jamestown to Middle Plantation, resulting in the establishment of Williamsburg.


text: June 11 – England, France and the Dutch Republic agree on the terms of the Treaty of London (1700) (Second Partition Treaty) for Spain.


date: October

text: October – An edict by King Louis XIV establishes an office of police magistrate in almost every village in France, with the title of lieutenant general de police created.


date: November 22

text: November 22 – The Treaty of Preobrazhenskoye, negotiated by Johann Patkul, is signed at a palace of the Tsar of Russia Peter the Great, and representatives of Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony to provide for the partition of Swedish Empire between Saxony, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Kingdoms of Denmark-Norway and the Russian Empire. The attack on Sweden, which takes place on February 22, starts the Great Northern War.


date: January 20

text: January 20 – The Parliament of England (under Tory dominance) limits the size of the country's standing army to 7,000 'native born' men; hence, King William III's Dutch Blue Guards cannot serve in the line. By an Act of February 1, it also requires disbandment of foreign troops in Ireland.


date: February 4

text: February 4 – A group of 350 rebels in the Streltsy Uprising are executed in Moscow.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – Jews are expelled from Lübeck, Germany.


text: May 1 – Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville founds the first European settlement in the Mississippi River Valley, at Fort Maurepas (Ocean Springs, Mississippi).


date: July 26

text: July 26 – William Dampier's expedition to New Holland (Australia), in HMS Roebuck, reaches Dirk Hartog Island, at the mouth of what he calls Shark Bay in Western Australia, and he begins producing the first known detailed record of Australian flora and fauna.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – The Liverpool Merchant, the first slave ship to depart from the Port of Liverpool, sets sail for West Africa where it embarks hundreds of African slaves and sails for Barbados, arriving there on September 18, 1700 with 220 slaves on board.


date: April 13

text: April 13 – The 10th Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Singh, creates the Khalsa at Anandpur Sahib.


date: June 14

text: June 14 – Thomas Savery demonstrates his first steam pump to the Royal Society of London.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – A total solar eclipse is visible across the southern Indian Ocean.


date: September 23

text: September 23 – A total solar eclipse is visible in the northern hemisphere across Europe, the Middle East and north India.


date: July 6

text: July 6 – Scottish-born pirate captain William Kidd is arrested and imprisoned in Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay, after being tricked by his former patron New York Governor Richard Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont.


date: January 5

text: January 5 – A violent earthquake damages the city of Batavia on the Indonesian island of Java, killing at least 28 people.


date: December 10

text: December 10 – A major ice storm shuts down the city of Boston for a week and freezing rain brings down many tree branches and causes severe damage to orchards.


date: March 2

text: March 2 – The Edinburgh Gazette is first published in Scotland.


date: March 26

text: March 26 – The first performance of Amadis de Grèce, an opera by French composer André Cardinal Destouches, takes place at the Académie Royale de Musique, Paris.


date: May 10

text: May 10 – Billingsgate Fish Market in London is sanctioned as a permanent institution by an Act of Parliament, with the provision "that after the tenth of May, 1699, Billingsgate Market should be, every day in the week except Sunday, a free and open market for all sorts of fish, and that it should be lawful for any person to buy or sell any sort of fish without disturbance."


date: October 11

text: October 11 – The opera Marthésie, première reine des Amazones (Marthesia, First Queen of the Amazons), composed by André Cardinal Destouches, is performed for the first time, premiering at Fontainebleau near Paris.


date: December 3

text: December 3 – Baron Jacob Hop is appointed as the treasurer-general of The Hague.


date: December 20

text: December 20 – Peter the Great orders the Russian New Year changed, from September 1 (the start of the Byzantine year) to January 1.


date: January 11

text: January 11 – Friedrich Wilhelm Quirin von Forcade de Biaix, Royal Prussian Lieutenant General (d. 1765)


date: February 2

text: February 2 – Hugh MacDonald, Roman Catholic bishop, Vicar Apostolic of the Highland District of Scotland 1731–1773 (d. 1773)


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Bertrand-François Mahé de La Bourdonnais, French naval officer and colonial administrator (d. 1753)


date: February 17

text: February 17 – Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, painter and architect in Prussia (d. 1753)