The 1690s decade ran from January 1, 1690, to December 31, 1699.

Events

1690

January-June

• January 6 – Joseph, son of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, becomes King of the Romans.
• 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.
• January 14 – The clarinet is said to have been invented in Nuremberg, Germany.^[1]
• February 3 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony issues the first paper money in North America.
• May 20 – England passes the Act of Grace, forgiving followers of the deposed James II.
• June 14 – King William III of England (William of Orange) lands in Ireland, to confront James II.
• June 8 – Siddi general Yadi Sakat razes the Mazagon Fort in Mumbai.

July-December

• July 10 – Battle of Beachy Head (also known as the Battle of Bévéziers): The Anglo-Dutch navy is defeated by the French, giving rise to fears of a Jacobite invasion of England.^[2]
• July 11 – Battle of the Boyne, north of Dublin: King William III of England (William of Orange) defeats the deposed James II, who returns to exile in France.^[3][4][5] The rebellion in Ireland continues for a further year until the Orange army gains full control.
• 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.
• August 24 – In India, the fort and trading settlement of Sutanuti (which later becomes Calcutta) is founded on the Hooghly River by the English East India Company, following the signing of an Anglo-Moghul treaty.^[4]
• September 25 – The only issue of Publick Occurrences is published in Boston, Massachusetts, before being suppressed by the colonial authorities.
• October 6–12 – Massachusetts Puritans, led by Sir William Phips, besiege the city of Quebec; the siege ends in failure.
• October 8 – Great Turkish War: The Ottomans recapture Belgrade.
• November 17 – Barclays is founded in London, England.
• December – The planet Uranus is first sighted and recorded, by John Flamsteed, who mistakenly catalogues it as the star 34 Tauri.
• December 29 – An earthquake hits Ancona, in the Papal States of Italy.

Date unknown

• Serbian Patriarch Arsenije III Carnojevic leads the first of the two Great Serbian Migrations into the Habsburg Empire, following Ottoman atrocities in Kosovo.
• The Hearth Tax is abolished in Scotland, one year after its abolition in England and Wales.
• 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.
• Giovanni Domenico Cassini observes differential rotation within Jupiter's atmosphere.
• The Barrage Vauban, a defensive work in the city of Strasbourg (in present-day France), is completed.^[6]
• Possible year of the disappearance of the western part of the island of Buise, in St. Peter's Flood.

1691

January–June

• March 5 – Nine Years' War: French troops under Marshal Louis-Francois de Boufflers besiege the Spanish-held town of Mons.
• March 20 – Leisler's Rebellion: A new governor arrives in New York – Jacob Leisler surrenders, after a standoff of several hours.^[7]
• March 29 – The Siege of Mons ends in the city's surrender.
• April 9 – A fire at the Palace of Whitehall in London destroys its Stone Gallery.^[8]
• 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.
• May 16 – Jacob Leisler is hanged for treason.
• June 23 – Ahmed II (1691-1695) succeeds Suleiman II (1687-1691), as Ottoman Emperor.

July–December

• July 12
  • Pope Innocent XII becomes the 242nd pope, succeeding Pope Alexander VIII.
  • 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).
• September 18 – War of the Grand Alliance: English and Dutch forces are defeated by the French in the Battle of Leuze.
• October 3 – The Treaty of Limerick, ending the Williamite War in Ireland and guaranteeing civil rights to Roman Catholics, is signed (It was broken "before the ink was dry", according to a contemporary commentator). The Flight of the Wild Geese (the departure of the Jacobite army) follows.
• October 17 (October 7 Old Style) – 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 unknown

• Michel Rolle invents Rolle's theorem, an essential theorem of mathematics.
• The Khalkha submit to the Manchu invaders, bringing most of modern-day Mongolia under the rule of the Qing Dynasty.

1692

January–June

• February 13 – Massacre of Glencoe: The forces of Robert Campbell slaughter around 40 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.^[9]
• March 1 – The Salem witch trials begin in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony, with the charging of 3 women with witchcraft.
• March 22 – The Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty issues the Edict of Toleration, recognizing all the Roman Catholic Church, not just the Jesuits, and legalizing missions and their conversion of Chinese people.^[10]
• June 1–3 – Nine Years' War - Battle of La Hogue: The Anglo-Dutch fleet gains a decisive naval victory over the French.
• 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.
• 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.
• June 10 – The Salem witch trials' first victim, Bridget Bishop, is hanged for witchcraft.

July–December

• July 22 – Kingston, Jamaica is founded after an earthqauke destroys Port Royal
• September 8 – An earthquake in Brabant of scale 5.8 is felt across the Low Countries, Germany and England.^[11]
• September 14 – Diego de Vargas leads Spanish colonists in retaking the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico, after a 12-year exile, following the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.
• Salem witch trials:
  • September 19 – Giles Corey is pressed to death, in an attempt to coerce a confession from him of witchcraft. By the end of September, 14 women and 5 men have been hanged.
  • September 22 – The last of those convicted of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials are hanged; the remainder of those convicted are all eventually released.

1693

January–June

• January 11 – 1693 Sicily earthquake: Mount Etna erupts, causing a devastating earthquake that affects parts of Sicily and Malta.
• February 8 – The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia is granted a Royal charter.
• May 18 – Forces of Louis XIV of France attack Heidelberg, capital of the Electorate of the Palatinate.
• 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.
• June 27 – Nine Years' War – Battle of Lagos off Portugal: The French fleet defeats the joint Dutch and English fleet.

July–December

• July 29 – Nine Years' War – Battle of Landen: William III of England is defeated by the French (with Irish Jacobite mercenaries).
• October 11 – Charleroi falls to French forces.
• October – William Congreve's comedy The Double-Dealer is first performed in London.^[12][13]

Date unknown

• China concentrates all its foreign trade on Canton; European ships are taken apart and burned, to help keep the lions warm.
• 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.^[14]
• The Knights of the Apocalypse are formed in Italy.
• The Academia Operosorum Labacensium is established in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
• Financier Richard Hoare relocates Hoare's Bank (founded 1672) from Cheapside to Fleet Street in London.
• Italian barber Giovanni Paolo Feminis creates a perfume water called Aqua Admirabilis, earliest known form of eau de Cologne.^[15]
• John Locke publishes his influential book Some Thoughts Concerning Education.^[16]
• William Penn publishes his proposal for European federation, Essay on the Present and Future Peace of Europe.^[13]
• Dimitrie Cantemir presents his Kitâbu '?lmi'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.

1694

January–June

• February 5 – The ship Ridderschap van Holland is lost at sea, after it departs the Cape of Good Hope, but does not arrive at Batavia.
• February 6 – The colony of Quilombo dos Palmares, Brazil, is destroyed.
• March 1 – The HMS Sussex treasure fleet of thirteen ships is wrecked in the Mediterranean off Gibraltar, with the loss of approximately 1,200 lives.
• May 27 – Battle of Torroella: The French Navy defeats Spain.

July–December

• 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.
• 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.^[17]
• Autumn – A major windstorm spreads the Culbin Sands over a large area of farmland, in Scotland.
• October 23 – British/American colonial forces, led by Sir William Phips, fail to seize Quebec from the French.
• October 25 – Queen Mary II of England founds the Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich.^[18]
• December – Thomas Tenison is appointed Archbishop of Canterbury.
• December 3 – The Parliament of England passes the Triennial Act, requiring general elections every three years.^[19]
• December 28 – Queen Mary II of England dies of smallpox aged 32, leaving her husband King William III to rule alone but without an heir. Since he is also without a royal hostess, Mary's sister Princess Anne is summoned back to court (having been banished after an unseemly row with the queen), as his official heiress.

Date unknown

• The Lao empire of Lan Xang unofficially ends.
• The notorious voyage of the English slave ship Hannibal (part of the Atlantic slave trade out of Benin) ends with the death of nearly half of the 692 slaves aboard.
• Rascians establish the settlement which will become Novi Sad on the Danube.
• The Académie française publishes the first complete edition of its Dictionnaire in Paris.

1695

January–June

• February 6 – Mustafa II (1695-1703) succeeds Ahmed II as Ottoman Emperor.
• April – The Parliament of England decides not to renew the Licensing Order of 1643 requiring press censorship.^[13]
• Spring – Russo-Turkish War (1686-1700): Russia begins the Azov campaigns (1695-96) against the Ottoman Empire.
• 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".

July–December

• July 12 – The Siege of Namur begins.
• July 17 – The Bank of Scotland is founded.
• August 8 – The Wren Building is started in Williamsburg, Virginia (completed in 1700).
• August 13–15 – Nine Years' War: Brussels is bombarded by French troops.
• September 1 – Nine Years' War: France surrenders Namur, Spanish Netherlands to forces of the Grand Alliance, led by King William III of England, following the 2-month Siege of Namur.^[20]
• 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.
• December 31 – A window tax is imposed in England.^[20] Some windows are bricked up to avoid it.

Date unknown

• English manufacturers call for an embargo on Indian cloth, and silk weavers picket the House of Commons of England.
• A £2 fine is imposed for swearing in England.
• After 23 years of construction, Spain completes Castillo de San Marcos to protect St. Augustine, Florida, from foreign threats.
• After many years of construction, the Potala Palace in Lhasa is completed.
• Gold is discovered in Brazil.
• Johanne Nielsdatter is executed for witchcraft, the last such confirmed execution in Norway.
• 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.^[21]
• 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.

1696

January–June

• January
  • Great Recoinage of 1696: The Parliament of England passes the Recoinage Act.
  • Colley Cibber's play Love's Last Shift is first performed in London.
• January 27 – In England, the ship HMS Royal Sovereign (formerly HMS Sovereign of the Seas, 1638) catches fire and burns at Chatham, after 57 years of service.
• January 29 (O.S.) – Peter the Great becomes sole tsar of Russia upon the death of his half-brother and co-ruler Tsar Ivan V.
• January 31 – In the Netherlands, undertakers revolt after funeral reforms in Amsterdam.
• February 15 – A Jacobite assassination plot against King William III of England is foiled.^[22]
• March – A second Pueblo Revolt occurs in Santa Fe de Nuevo México.^[23]
• March 7 – King William III of England departs from the Netherlands.
• April – Fire destroys the Gra Bet (Left Quarter) of Gondar, the capital of Ethiopia.
• April 23 – Russo-Turkish War (1686-1700): Russian begins the second of the Azov campaigns (1695-96).
• May 31 – John Salomonsz is elected chief of Sint Eustatius in the Caribbean Netherlands.

July–December

• July 18 – Azov campaign: The Russian fleet occupies Azov at the mouth of the river Don.
• July 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.
• August 13 – The Dutch state of Drenthe makes William III of Orange its Stadtholder.
• August 22 – Forces of the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire clash near Andros.
• November – Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville captures and destroys St. John's, Newfoundland.^[24]
• November 21 – John Vanbrugh's play The Relapse, or Virtue in Danger is first performed in London.
• December 7 – Connecticut Route 108, one of Connecticut's oldest highways is laid-out to Trumbull.
• December 19 – Jean-François Regnard's verse comedy Le Joueur ("The Gamester") premieres in Paris.
• December 24 – The Inquisition burns a number of Marrano Jews in Évora, Portugal.

Date unknown

• 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.
• Polish replaces Ruthenian as an official language of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
• Abington, Pennsylvania, is settled.
• William Penn offers an elaborate plan for intercolonial cooperation largely in trade, defense, and criminal matters.
• Edward Lloyd (coffeehouse owner) probably begins publication of Lloyd's News, a predecessor of Lloyd's List, in London.

1697

January–June

• January – French writer Charles Perrault publishes Histoires ou contes du temps passé ("Mother Goose tales") in Paris, a collection of popular fairy tales, including Cinderella, Puss in Boots, Red Riding Hood, The Sleeping Beauty and Bluebeard.
• January 8 – Scottish student Thomas Aikenhead is hanged outside Edinburgh, becoming the last person in Great Britain to be executed for blasphemy.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• March 26 – Safavid occupation of Basra: Safavid government troops take control of Basra.
• April 5 – Charles XII, the Swedish Meteor, becomes king of Sweden at age 14 on the death of his father, Charles XI.
• May 17 (May 7 Old Style) – The 13th century royal Tre Kronor ("Three Crowns") castle in Stockholm burns to the ground. A large portion of the royal library is destroyed.
• June 1 – Augustus II the Strong is elected king of Poland.
• June 10 – The last mass execution for witchcraft in western Europe when five Paisley witches are hanged and then burned in Scotland.
• June 30 – The earliest known first-class cricket match takes place in Sussex, England.

July–December

• September 5 – Nine Years' War: Battle of Hudson's Bay – The French warship Pélican captures York Factory, a trading post of the English Hudson's Bay Company in modern-day Manitoba (Canada).
• 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.
• 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. The conflict having been inconclusive, the treaty is proposed because the combatants have exhausted their national treasuries. 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. In practice, the treaty is little more than a truce; it does not resolve any of the fundamental colonial problems, and the peace lasts only five years.
• October – The 6th Dalai Lama is installed.
• December 2 – First service (to celebrate the Treaty of Ryswick) held in St Paul's Cathedral since rebuilding work after the Great Fire of London began.^[25]
• December 7 – Louis, Duke of Burgundy, and Marie Adélaïde of Savoy marry in the royal chapel at the Palace of Versailles in France.
• 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.
• December 14 – Charles XII of Sweden is crowned king.

Date unknown

• The Manchus of the Qing dynasty conquer Outer Mongolia.
• The British government passes the Trade with Africa Act 1697 (An Act to settle the Trade to Africa), confirming the Royal African Company's loss of monopoly on the Atlantic slave trade.
• Christopher Polhem starts Sweden's first technical school.
• Heinrich Escher, Mayor of Zürich, introduces chocolate to Switzerland from Brussels.^[26]
• The use of litters increases in Europe.

1698

January–June

• January 1 – The Abenaki tribe and the Massachusetts colonists sign a treaty, ending the conflict in New England.
• January 4 – The Palace of Whitehall in London, England is destroyed by fire.^[27]
• January 23 – George Louis (who in 1714 will become King George I of Great Britain) becomes Elector of Hanover.

July–December

• July 14 – Darien scheme: The first Scottish settlers leave for an ill-fated colony in Panama.
• July 25 – English engineer Thomas Savery obtains a patent for a steam pump.^[28]
• 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 (tradition holds that tsar Peter decapitated some of them himself).
• September 5 – In an effort to move his people away from Asiatic customs, Tsar Peter I of Russia imposes a tax on beards: all men except priests and peasants are required to pay a tax of either 100 or 60 rubles a year, depending upon status; peasants are required to pay two half kopecks each time they enter a city.
• October 11 – Treaty of the Hague signed between the Dutch Republic, England and France.^[29]
• October 24 – Iberville and Bienville sail from Brest to the Gulf of Mexico, to defend the southern borders of New France; they will eventually found three capitals of Louisiana (New France), as the future American cities of Mobile, Biloxi & New Orleans.^[30]
• November – Tani Jinzan, astronomer and calendar scholar, observes a fire destroy Tosa (now K?chi) in Japan at the same time as a Leonid meteor shower, taking it as evidence to reinforce belief in the "Theory of Areas".
• November 14 – The first Eddystone Lighthouse, built off Plymouth, England, is illuminated.^[31]
• November 16 – A congress begins in Sremski Karlovci to discuss a treaty between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy League.

Date unknown

• Bucharest becomes the capital of Wallachia (part of modern-day Romania).
• In Africa, Mombasa and Zanzibar are captured by Oman.
• The Whigs sponsor Captain Kidd of New York as a privateer against French shipping.
• Humphrey Hody is appointed regius professor of Greek at Oxford.
• John Churchill, Earl of Marlborough is reinstated in the English army after a period in disgrace.
• Since the establishment of its presidencies in 1689, the British East India Company has been under constant pressure from traders who are not members of the company, and are not licensed by the Crown to trade. Under a parliamentary ruling in favour of free trade, these private newcomers are able to set up a new company, called the New Company or English Company.

1699

January–June

• January 19 – The Parliament of England (under Tory dominance) limits the size of the country's standing army to 7,000 'native born' men;^[32] 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.^[33]
• 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 Ottoman Turks cede to Austria all their former territories in Transylvania, Slavonia, Croatia and the whole of Hungary, except for the Banat of Temeswar. The Peloponnese and Dalmatia are ceded to Venice. Large parts of the Ukraine are ceded to Poland. 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.
• February 4 – 350 rebellious Streltsy are executed in Moscow.
• March 2 – The Edinburgh Gazette is first published in Scotland.
• March 4 – Jews are expelled from Lübeck, Germany.^[34]
• April 13 – The 10th Sikh Master, Guru Gobind Singh, creates the Khalsa at Anandpur Sahib.
• May 1 – Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville founds the first European settlement in the Mississippi River Valley, at Fort Maurepas (Ocean Springs, Mississippi).
• June 11 – England, France and the Dutch Republic agree on the terms of the Treaty of London (1700) (Second Partition Treaty) for Spain.^[35]
• June 14 – Thomas Savery demonstrates his first steam pump to the Royal Society of London.

July–December

• July 6 – Pirate Captain William Kidd is arrested and imprisoned in Boston, Massachusetts.
• 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.^[36]
• August 25 – Christian V, King of Denmark-Norway since 1670, dies and is succeeded by his son, Frederick IV (to 1730).
• September 22
  • Citizens of Rotterdam, Netherlands strike over the high price of butter.
  • The Treaty of Preobrazhenskoye calls for the partition of the Swedish Empire, between the Tsardom of Russia, Kingdom of Denmark-Norway, Electorate of Saxony and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
• December 3 – Baron Jacob Hop is appointed as the treasurer-general of The Hague.
• December 20 – Peter the Great orders the Russian New Year changed, from 1 September to 1 January.

Date unknown

• Billingsgate Fish Market in London is sanctioned as a permanent institution, by an Act of Parliament.

References