Directory

1687 CE

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. 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. 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.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • May 6 – Emperor Higashiyama succeeds Emperor Reigen, on the throne of Japan.source
  • July 2 – King James II of England disbands the English parliamentsource
  • November 8 – Suleiman II succeeds the deposed Mehmed IV, as Ottoman Emperor.source

Conflict & Security

  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • September 21 – Morean War: The navy of the Republic of Venice raids the Dalmatian coast, and attacks Ottoman Turkish strongholds in Greece.source
  • 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).source

Exploration & Expansion

  • 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.source

Religion & Belief

  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • April 23 – Ignatius George II becomes Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch (or April 22).source

Science & Discovery

  • November 5 – An annular solar eclipse is visible from Arabia across the Indian Ocean and across the south of Australiasource

Crime & Justice

  • 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.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • 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.source

Climate & Environment

  • October 20 – An estimated 8.7 magnitude earthquake strikes 50 km 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.source

Culture & Society

  • 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.source

Births

  • January 4 – Henry Beekman, politician and landowner from the Thirteen Colonies (d. 1775)source
  • January 19 – Sebastián de la Cuadra, 1st Marquess of Villarías, Spanish statesman (d. 1759)source
  • January 31 – Cornelis Schrijver, Dutch States Navy officer and diplomat (d. 1768)source
  • March 16 – Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, queen consort of Frederick William I (d. 1757)source
  • April 19 – Charles-Philippe de Patin, prominent figure in the Austrian Netherlands (d. 1773)source
  • June 6 – Giambattista Pittoni, Venetian painter of the late Baroque or Rococo period (d. 1767)source
  • June 13 – Paolo Rolli, Italian Rococo librettist, poet and translator (d. 1765)source
  • June 18 – Frederick William II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck (d. 1749)source
  • October 14 – Robert Simson, Scottish mathematician and Professor of Mathematics (d. 1768)source
  • October 24 – Queen Inwon, wife and fourth queen consort of Yi Sun, King Sukjong, the 19th Joseon monarch (d. 1757)source
  • November 7 – William Stukeley, English archaeologist (d. 1765)source
  • November 23 – Henry Bull, colonial attorney and politician in Rhode Island (d. 1774)source
  • December 5 – Francesco Geminiani, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1762)source
  • December 28 – John Bligh, 1st Earl of Darnley, Irish peer born of an English family (d. 1728)source

Deaths

  • January 5 – Tada Kasuke, farmer executed for appeal against taxes (b. 1639)source
  • January 31 – Francisco Varo, Spanish Dominican friar and linguist (b. 1627)source
  • February 26 – Francesco Lana de Terzi, Italian physicist and mathematician (b. 1631)source
  • March 28 – Constantijn Huygens, Dutch writer, poet and composer (b. 1596)source
  • April 16 – George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, English statesman and poet (b. 1628)source
  • September 1 – Henry More, English philosopher (b. 1614)source
  • September 12 – John Alden, Mayflower passenger and New World colonist (b. 1598)source
  • October 17 – Frederick Coyett, Swedish noble and Dutch colonial administrator (b. 1615)source
  • October 21 – Edmund Waller, English poet and politician (b. 1606)source
  • October 24 – Maria Euphrosyne of Zweibrücken, Swedish princess (b. 1625)source
  • November 14 – Nell Gwyn, English actress, a mistress of Charles II of England (b. 1650)source
  • December 16 – Sir William Petty, English scientist, philosopher, statistician, economist (b. 1623)source
  • December 21 – Elizabeth Tilley, English pilgrim settler in North America who was one of the original passengers of the Mayflower (b. 1607)source
  • date unknown – Josias Fendall, Colonial governor of Maryland (b. c. 1628)source