1698 CE
English engineer Thomas Savery obtains a patent for a steam pump. In an effort to move his people away from Asiatic customs, Tsar Peter I of Russia imposes a beard tax. 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".
Geopolitics & Diplomacy
- January 1 – The Abenaki tribe and Massachusetts colonists sign a treaty, ending the conflict in New England.source
- 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.source
- August 24 – King William III opens the newly elected House of Commons at Westminster.source
- October 11 – The Treaty of the Hague is signed between the Dutch Republic, England and France.source
- November 14 – The Spanish king Carlos names his grandson Jozef Ferdinand as his heir.source
- December 9 – Francis Nicholson becomes the new British colonial governor of Virginia, succeeding Sir Edmund Andros.source
- Samuel Cranston becomes the governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.source
Conflict & Security
- 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.source
- June 22 – The executions of 57 leaders of the Streltsy uprising begin and continue until June 28.source
- 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.source
- 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.source
- 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.source
- 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.source
- Bucharest becomes the capital of Wallachia (part of modern-day Romania).source
- In Africa, Zanzibar is captured by Oman.source
Exploration & Expansion
- 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.source
- July 14 – Darien scheme: The first Scottish settlers leave for an ill-fated colony in Panama.source
- October 24 – Iberville and Bienville sail from Brest to the Gulf of Mexico, to defend the southern borders of New France.source
- 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.source
- The Whigs sponsor Captain Kidd of New York as a privateer against French shipping.source
Religion & Belief
- 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.source
- November 16 – A congress begins in Sremski Karlovci to discuss a treaty between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy League.source
- 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.source
Economy & Finance
- 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.source
- Shepherd Neame Brewery founded.source
Technology & Infrastructure
Science & Discovery
- April 10 – A total solar eclipse is visible in Central America.source
- May 17 – The British Royal Navy ship HMS Hastings, a 32-gun fifth rate, is launched.source
- 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".source
- Humphrey Hody is appointed regius professor of Greek at Oxford.source
Health & Medicine
- September 5 – In an effort to move his people away from Asiatic customs, Tsar Peter I of Russia imposes a beard tax.source
Crime & Justice
- 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.source
Disasters & Accidents
- January 4 – The Palace of Whitehall in London, England is destroyed by fire.source
- 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.source
Climate & Environment
Culture & Society
- 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.source
- 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.source
- Cinderella is made as a folktalesource
Births
- January 3 – Metastasio, (b. Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi), Italian poet and opera librettist (d. 1782)source
- 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)source
- February 16 – Pierre Bouguer, French mathematician, geophysicist, geodesist, and astronomer (d. 1758)source
- February 23 – Thomas Bladen, colonial governor in North America and British MP (d. 1780)source
- March 26 – Václav Prokop Diviš, Czech priest, scientist and inventor (d. 1765)source
- May 10 – Cuthbert Ellison, British Army officer and MP for Shaftesbury (d. 1785)source
- June 19 – Weliwita Sri Saranankara Thero, Last Sangharaja of Sri Lanka (d. 1778)source
- July 17 – Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, French mathematician (d. 1759)source
- September 26 – William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire, British nobleman, Whig politician and MP (d. 1755)source
- October 23 – Ange-Jacques Gabriel, principal architect of King Louis XV of France (d. 1782)source
- November 4 – Caleb Fleming, English dissenting minister and Polemicist (d. 1779)source
- November 22 – Pierre de Rigaud, marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnial, Canadian-born colonial governor of French Canada in North America (d. 1778)source
- December 21 – Philip Wharton, 1st Duke of Wharton, powerful Jacobite politician (d. 1731)source
- December 24 – William Warburton, English critic and Bishop of Gloucester (d. 1779)source
Deaths
- January 15 – Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Burlington, Anglo-Irish nobleman, Lord High Treasurer of Ireland, Cavalier (b. 1612)source
- January 17 – Moyse Charas, apothecary in France during the reign of Louis XIV (b. 1619)source
- January 22 – Frederick Casimir Kettler, Duke of Courland and Semigallia (b. 1650)source
- 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.source
- March 6 – Philip Sidney, 3rd Earl of Leicester, English politician (b. 1619)source
- March 16 – Leonora Christina Ulfeldt, Danish countess (b. 1621)source
- April 6 – Mechtilde of the Blessed Sacrament, French nun (b. 1614)source
- 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.source
- June 5 – Elizabeth Maitland, Duchess of Lauderdale, influential British noblewoman (b. 1626)source
- June 11 – Balthasar Bekker, Dutch minister and author of philosophical and theological works (b. 1634)source
- June 29 – Paluzzo Paluzzi Altieri degli Albertoni, Italian Catholic Cardinal and Cardinal-Nephew to Pope Clement X (b. 1623)source
- July 13 – Charles Somerset, Marquess of Worcester, English nobleman and politician (b. 1660)source
- November 28 – Louis de Buade de Frontenac, Governor of New France (b. 1622)source
- December 1 – Ferdinand Joseph, Prince of Dietrichstein, German prince (b. 1636)source