Events January–March January 3 – With the end of latest of the Savoyard–Waldensian wars in the Duchy of Savoy between the Savoyard government and Protestant Italians known as the Waldensians, Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy, carries out the release of 3,847 surviving prisoners and their families, who had forcibly been converted to Catholicism, and permits the group to emigrate to Switzerland. January 8 – Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, is appointed as the last Lord Deputy of Ireland by the English crown, and begins efforts to include more Roman Catholic Irishmen in the administration. Upon the removal of King James II in England and Scotland, the Earl of Tyrconnell loses his job and is replaced by James, who reigns briefly as King of Ireland until William III establishes his rule over the isle. January 27 – In one of the most sensational cases in England in the 17th century, midwife Mary Hobry murders her abusive husband, Denis Hobry, after he beats her up for the last time. Mary then dismembers his body and scatters the remains in a dunghill and in several outhouses (or privies) in the area. Despite a defense of justifiable homicide, Mary is convicted of murder and burned at the stake. February 7 – The Arjeplog blasphemy trial begins for Erik Eskilsson and Amund Thorsson, two practitioners of the Sami religion who had resisted Sweden's efforts at their conversion to Christianity. Eskilsson and Thorsson are acquitted of the charges after agreeing to convert to Christianity. February 11 – In India, troops under the command of Job Charnock of the East India Company, preparing to go to war against the Nawab of Bengal, Shaista Khan of the Mughal empire, destroy his fortresses located at Thana.Lieutenant Colonel D. G. Crawford, A Brief History of the Hughli District (Bengal Secretariat Press, 1902) p. 18 February 12 – The Declaration of Indulgence is issued in Scotland by King James VII as one of the first steps in establishing freedom of religion in the British Isles, eliminating enforcement of criminal penalties against persons who failed to conform with Anglicanism. As King James II of England, he issues a similar declaration on April 4. March 19 – The men under explorer Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle mutiny, while searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River. Pierre Duhaut murders La Salle, near what is now Navasota, Texas.
April–June April 4 – King James II of England issues the Declaration of Indulgence (or Declaration for the Liberty of Conscience), suspending laws against Roman Catholics and nonconformists. April 23 – Ignatius George II becomes Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch (or April 22). April 26 – The Spanish city of Guayaquil (now part of Ecuador) is attacked and looted by English and French pirates under the command of George Hout (English), Pierre Le Picard and Francois Groniet (French)."Intercolonial Friction (1660—1700)", in Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the Western Hemisphere (ABC-CLIO, 2008) p. 308 Of more than 260 pirates, 35 are killed and 46 were wounded; 75 defenders of the city died and more than 100 are wounded. May 6 – Emperor Higashiyama succeeds Emperor Reigen, on the throne of Japan. June 14 – In one of the few actions on land in the Anglo-Siamese War, English sailors on the coast of Mergui in Burma (now Myeik, Myanmar) are massacred by Siamese troops.
July–September July 2 – King James II of England disbands the English parliament July 11 – Isaac Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, known as the Principia, is published by the Royal Society of London. In it, Newton describes his law of universal gravitation, explains the laws of mechanics, and gives a formula for the speed of sound. The writing of Principia Mathematica ushers in a tidal wave of changes in thought, significantly accelerating the Scientific Revolution by providing new and practical intellectual tools, and becomes the foundation of modern physics. July 24 – Morean War: Battle of Patras – The Republic of Venice defeats the Ottomans, which flee in panic, allowing the Venetians to capture the fortresses of Patras, Rio, Antirrio, and Lepanto unopposed. August 12 – Great Turkish War: Battle of Mohács – The Habsburg imperial army, and allies under Charles V, Duke of Lorraine, defeat the Ottoman Turks, and enable Austria to conquer most of Ottoman-occupied Hungary. September 21 – Morean War: The navy of the Republic of Venice raids the Dalmatian coast, and attacks Ottoman Turkish strongholds in Greece. September 22 – The Siege of Golconda, ordered by Emperor Aurangzeb of India's Mughal Empire against the capital of the Golconda sultanate, ends after nine months when a traitor inside the walled city, Sarandaz Khan, opens the first of several entrances into the fortress. The Sultan Abul Hasan Qutb Shah is taken prisoner by General Mir Shahab ud-Din, and Golconda (now part of Hyderabad in the Telangana state). September 26 – Half of the Parthenon is destroyed in Athens after mortar shells are fired by Republic of Venice forces under the command of Francesco Morosini in a battle against the Ottoman Empire for control of the city. The strike ignites a stock of gunpowder that the Ottomans had stored inside the 2,200-year-old temple, which had been completed in 438 BC as a shrine to the goddess Athena. During the fighting September 23 and September 29 for control of the Acropolis in the Morean War, the Temple of Athena Nike is demolished and the Propylaea suffers damage.
October–December October 20 – An estimated 8.7 magnitude earthquake strikes off of the coast of Peru and kills at least 5,000 people, primarily from a tsunami that washes away the city of Pisco and causes severe damage to the Spanish colonial cities of Lima, Callao and Ica."Evaluation of Tsunami Risk from Regional Earthquakes at Pisco, Peru", by Emile A. Okal, José C. Borrero and Costas E. Synolakis, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (2006) pp. 1634-1648 October 31 – The legend of the Charter Oak begins as a successful attempt to hide the 1662 Royal Charter of the British colony (and now a U.S. state) of Connecticut after Edmund Andros, the Governor of the Dominion of New England, makes a mission of attempting to confiscate the founding documents for the seven colonies that make up the new administrative area. After Governor Andros arrives in Hartford and comes to the tavern of Zachariah Sanford to demand the Connecticut Colony charter, Captain Joseph Wadsworth spirits the parchment away from the and hides the Charter in a hollowed out portion of a white oak tree on Wyllys Hyll until Andros is recalled to London."Hiding the Charter: Images of Joseph Wadsworth’s Legendary Action", ConnecticutHistory.org November 5 – An annular solar eclipse is visible from Arabia across the Indian Ocean and across the south of Australia November 8 – Suleiman II succeeds the deposed Mehmed IV, as Ottoman Emperor. December 31 – In response to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, a group of Huguenots set sail from France, and settle in the recently established Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope, where, using their native skills, they establish the first South African vineyards.
Births
January–March January 4 – Henry Beekman, politician and landowner from the Thirteen Colonies (d. 1775) January 6 – Cornil Cacheux, French pipe organ maker (d. 1738) January 8 – Bernardo de Rossi, Italian Dominican theologian and historian (d. 1775) January 19 – Sebastián de la Cuadra, 1st Marquess of Villarías, Spanish statesman (d. 1759) January 24 – Sir Banks Jenkinson, 4th Baronet, British lawyer and politician (d. 1738) January 27 – Johann Balthasar Neumann, German architect (d. 1753) January 31 – Cornelis Schrijver, Dutch States Navy officer and diplomat (d. 1768) February 4 – Joseph Effner, German architect (d. 1745) February 6 – Sir Nicholas Carew, 1st Baronet, landowner and Whig politician (d. 1727) February 15 – Philippe Charles de La Fare, a Marshal of France (d. 1752) February 21 – Prince William of Denmark, son of Christian V of Denmark and Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel (d. 1705) February 23 – Gustaf Otto Douglas, Swedish mercenary of Scottish descent (d. 1771) February 24 – Isham Randolph of Dungeness, American planter (d. 1742) March 3 – Peter Stephens, founded present-day Stephens City, Virginia, U.S. (d. 1757) March 7 – Jean Lebeuf, French historian (d. 1760) March 13 John Ashburnham, 1st Earl of Ashburnham, English peer (d. 1737) Giovanni Giacinto Sbaraglia, historian of the Franciscan Order (d. 1764) March 15 Jacques-François de Chambray, French knight of Malta (d. 1756) Elizabeth Churchill, Countess of Bridgewater (d. 1714) Jerzy Ignacy Lubomirski, Polish nobleman (szlachcic) (d. 1753) March 16 Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, queen consort of Frederick William I (d. 1757) Anton Moro, Italian abbot (d. 1764) March 24 – James Parker, American innkeeper and figure of the American Indian Wars (d. 1732) April–June April 5 – William Walmesley, Dean of Lichfield (d. 1730) April 13 – Sigismund Streit, Kingdom of Prussia merchant and art patron in Venice (d. 1775) April 14 Sir Thomas Samwell, 2nd Baronet, British politician (d. 1757) Bhumman Shah, Udasi saint (d. 1762) April 19 – Charles-Philippe de Patin, prominent figure in the Austrian Netherlands (d. 1773) April 30 – Pedro Cebrián, 5th Count of Fuenclara (d. 1752) May 2 – James Compton, 5th Earl of Northampton (d. 1754) May 3 – Peter Bathurst, Salisbury MP (d. 1748) May 8 – Jean Henri Desmercières, French-Danish merchant (d. 1778) May 12 – Johann Heinrich Schulze, German professor and polymath (d. 1744) May 15 – Thomas Prince, New England clergyman (d. 1758) May 25 – Sir Edward Crofton, 3rd Baronet, Anglo-Irish politician (d. 1739) June 6 – Giambattista Pittoni, Venetian painter of the late Baroque or Rococo period (d. 1767) June 7 – Gaetano Berenstadt, Italian alto castrato who is associated with George Frideric Handel (d. 1734) June 13 – Paolo Rolli, Italian Rococo librettist, poet and translator (d. 1765) June 18 – Frederick William II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck (d. 1749) June 24 – Johann Albrecht Bengel, German scholar (d. 1752) June 25 – Elias David Häusser, German-Danish architect working in the Baroque and Rococo styles (d. 1745) July–September July 4 – John Cochrane, 4th Earl of Dundonald, Scottish aristocrat and politician (d. 1720) July 20 – Sir Justinian Isham, 5th Baronet (d. 1772) July 21 – Lars Benzon, landowner, Deputy Director in the General Affairs Commission of the Danish Royal Navy (d. 1742) July 24 – Henry Parsons, English politician (d. 1739) August 1 – Robert Furnese, 2nd Baronet and English Whig politician (d. 1733) August 23 – Mattheus Pinna da Encarnaçao, Brazilian Benedictine writer and theologian (d. 1764) August 27 – Lucius Cary, 6th Viscount Falkland, Scottish peer and Jacobite (d. 1730) September 4 – Isaak Faesch, Swiss merchant (d. 1758) September 7 Herbert Mackworth, Welsh landowner (d. 1765) Durastante Natalucci, Italian historian (d. 1772) September 9 – Jean-Baptiste-Maurice Quinault, French actor and musician (d. 1745) September 17 – Durastante Natalucci, Italian historian who specialized in history of Trevi (d. 1772) September 23 – Fettiplace Bellers, English dramatist and philosophical writer (d. 1742) September 28 – Adam Christopher Knuth, first Count of Knuthenborg (d. 1736) October–December October 4 – Robert Simson, Scottish mathematician (d. 1768) October 5 – Maria Maddalena Martinengo, Italian nun (d. 1737) October 13 – Giorgio Massari, Italian late-Baroque architect from Venice (d. 1766) October 14 – Robert Simson, Scottish mathematician and Professor of Mathematics (d. 1768) October 16 – Henry Frederick of Württemberg-Winnental, German general (d. 1734) October 18 – Charles III Le Moyne, second baron de Longueuil (d. 1755)