Directory

1693 CE

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

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • 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.source

Conflict & Security

  • April 28 – The 90-gun English Royal Navy warship HMS Windsor Castle is wrecked beyond repair on the Goodwin Sands.source
  • May 18 – Forces of Louis XIV of France attack Heidelberg, capital of the Electorate of the Palatinate.source
  • 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.source
  • June 27 – Nine Years' War – Battle of Lagos off Portugal: The French fleet defeats the joint Dutch and English fleet.source
  • July 29 – Nine Years' War – Battle of Landen: William III of England is defeated by the French (with Irish Jacobite mercenaries).source
  • 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.source
  • September 10 – France begins the siege of the Spanish Netherlands (now Belgium) fort of Charleroi.source
  • 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.source
  • October 11 – Charleroi falls to French forces.source
  • 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.source
  • November 29 – A fleet of 30 English and Dutch ships captures the French port of Saint-Malosource
  • 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.source
  • The Knights of the Apocalypse are formed in Italy.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • November 21 – The 46-gun Royal Navy frigate HMS Mordaunt founders off of the coast of Cuba.source
  • Financier Richard Hoare relocates Hoare's Bank (founded 1672) from Cheapside to Fleet Street in London.source
  • China concentrates all its foreign trade on Canton; European ships are forbidden to land anywhere else.source

Religion & Belief

  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • 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.source

Science & Discovery

  • January 22 – A total lunar eclipse is visible across North and South America.source
  • July 17 – A total lunar eclipse is visible in New Zealand and across the Pacific Ocean.source
  • 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.source
  • Italian barber Giovanni Paolo Feminis creates a perfume water called Aqua Admirabilis, earliest known form of eau de Cologne.source

Crime & Justice

  • 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.source
  • 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.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • 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.source

Climate & Environment

  • January 11 – The Mount Etna volcano erupts in Italy, causing a devastating earthquake that kills 60,000 people in Sicily and Malta.source
  • October 29 – The Great Storm changes the course of rivers and alters the coastline from Virginia to Long Island in America.source

Culture & Society

  • February 8 – The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia is granted a Royal charter.source
  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • June 5 – The first performance of the opera Didon by French composer Henri Desmarets takes place at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris.source
  • 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.source
  • October – William Congreve's comedy The Double-Dealer is first performed in London.source
  • The Academia Operosorum Labacensium is established in Ljubljana, Slovenia.source
  • William Penn publishes his proposal for European federation, Essay on the Present and Future Peace of Europe.source
  • 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.source
  • John Locke publishes his influential book Some Thoughts Concerning Education.source

Births

  • January 17 – Melchor de Navarrete, Spanish colonial governor of Florida and Mexico (d. 1761)source
  • January 26 – William Robinson, deputy governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (d. 1751)source
  • January 29 – Henry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke, English peer and architect (d. 1750)source
  • March 16 – Malhar Rao Holkar, Indian nobleman (d. 1766)source
  • April 3 – John Harrison, English clockmaker, horologist and inventor of the marine chronometer (d. 1776)source
  • April 3 – George Edwards, English naturalist (d. 1773)source
  • April 16 – Anne Sophie Reventlow, Danish royal consort, Queen of Denmark-Norway (d. 1743)source
  • April 25 – Sir Charles Hotham, 5th Baronet, British diplomat (d. 1738)source
  • June 1 – Alexey Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Russian diplomat, chancellor of the Russian Empire (d. 1768)source
  • September 3 – Charles Radclyffe, Titular 5th Earl of Derwentwater (d. 1746)source
  • September 21 – Thomas Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1768)source
  • October 22 – Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, American planter (d. 1781)source
  • November 22 – Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon, daughter of Louis (d. 1775)source
  • December 29 – Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville, French explorer (d. 1759)source

Deaths

  • January 4 – Thomas Hanford, first minister in Norwalk, Connecticut (b. 1621)source
  • February 4 – John de Britto, Portuguese Jesuit missionary and martyr (b. 1647)source
  • February 11 – John de Brito, Portuguese Jesuit missionary and martyr (b. 1647)source
  • February 13 – Johann Caspar Kerll, German composer and organist (b. 1627)source
  • April 5 – Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier, French writer (b. 1627)source
  • April 17 – Rutger von Ascheberg, Courland-born soldier in Swedish service (b. 1621)source
  • June 4 – John Wildman, English soldier and politician (b. 1621)source
  • July 26 – Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark, Queen consort of Sweden (b. 1656)source
  • July 31 – Willem Kalf, painter from the Northern Netherlands (b. 1619)source
  • August 21 – Patrick Sarsfield, 1st Earl of Lucan, Irish Jacobite peer (b. 1655)source
  • September 19 – Johann Weikhard von Valvasor, Slovenian nobleman and polymath (b. 1641)source
  • November 12 – Maria van Oosterwijck, Dutch Golden Age painter (b. 1623)source
  • November 24 – William Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1617)source
  • December 29 – Vere Fane, 4th Earl of Westmorland, English Earl (b. 1644)source