1688

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1688 (MDCLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (dominical letter DC) of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Sunday (dominical letter AG) of the Julian calendar, the 1688th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 688th year of the 2nd millennium, the 88th year of the 17th century, and the 9th year of the 1680s decade. As of the start of 1688, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1918.

Events

January–June

• March – William Dampier makes the first recorded visit to Christmas Island.
• March 1 – Great fire devastates Bungay in England.
• April 3 – Francesco Morosini becomes Doge of Venice.
• April 18 (Julian calendar) – The Germantown Quaker Protest Against Slavery is drafted by four Germantown Quakers.
• April 29 – Death of Friedrich Wilhelm, the "Great Elector" of Brandenburg-Prussia. Friedrich III becomes Elector of Brandenburg-Prussia until 1701, when he becomes the first King of Prussia as Friedrich I.
• May 4 – King James II of England orders his Declaration of Indulgence, suspending penal laws against Catholics, to be read from every Anglican pulpit in England. The Church of England and its staunchest supporters, the peers and gentry, are outraged; on June 8 the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Sancroft, is imprisoned in the Tower of London for refusing to proclaim it.
• June 10 – The birth of James Francis Edward Stuart (later known as the "Old Pretender", d.1766), son and heir to James II of England and his Catholic wife Mary of Modena, at St James's Palace in London, increases public disquiet about a Catholic dynasty, particularly when the baby is baptised into the Catholic faith. Rumours about his true maternity swiftly begin to circulate.
• June 30 – A high-powered conspiracy of notables (the Immortal Seven) invite Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange and Princess Mary to "defend the liberties of England" and depose King James VII and II.

July–December

• July 13 – Beginning of the Siege of Negroponte by the Venetians.
• July – Phetracha stages a coup d'état and becomes king of Ayutthaya.
• September 6 – Habsburg army captures Belgrade during Great Turkish War.
• October 21 – The Venetians raise the Siege of Negroponte.
• October 27 – King James II of England dismisses his minister Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland.
• November 11 (November 1 OS) – The Glorious Revolution: William III of Orange sets sail a second time from Hellevoetsluis in the Netherlands to take over England, Scotland and Ireland from King James II of England before the Glorious Revolution.
• November 15 (November 5 OS) – The Glorious Revolution begins: William of Orange lands at Torbay in Britain with a multinational force of 15,000 mercenaries. He makes no claim to the British Crown, saying only that he has come to save Protestantism and to maintain English liberty, and begins a march on London.
• November 19 (November 9 OS) – William of Orange captures Exeter after the magistrates flee the city.
• November 23 – A group of 1,500 Old Believers immolate themselves to avoid capture when troops of the tsar lay siege to their monastery on Lake Onega.
• November 26 – Hearing that William of Orange has landed in England, Louis XIV declares war on the Netherlands. Perhaps revealingly, he does not attack the Netherlands but instead strikes at the heart of the Holy Roman Empire with about 100,000 soldiers. The Nine Years' War begins in Europe and America.
• December 11 – Having led his army to Salisbury and been deserted by his troops, James VII and II attempts to flee to France.
• December 18 – William of Orange enters London.

Date unknown

• The Austrians incite Chiprovtsi Uprising against the Ottomans in Bulgaria.
• Edward Lloyd opens the London coffee house that soon becomes a popular meeting place for shipowners, merchants, insurance brokers and underwriters. In time the business association they form will outgrow the coffee house premises and become Lloyd's of London.
• Neuruppin becomes a Prussian garrison town.
• Johann Weikhard von Valvasor becomes a member of the Royal Society.
• Antonio Verrio begins work on the Heaven Room at Burghley House.
• Earliest known mention of the balalaika.

Births

• January 18 – Lionel Cranfield Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (d. 1765)
• January 29 – Emanuel Swedenborg Swedish scientist, philosopher, and theologian (d. 1772)
• February 2 – Queen Ulrike Eleonora of Sweden (d. 1741)
• February 4 – Pierre de Marivaux, French playwright (d. 1763)
• March – William Burnet, British colonial administrator (d. 1729)
• April 4 – Joseph-Nicolas Delisle, French astronomer (d. 1768)
• April 15 – Johann Friedrich Fasch, German composer (d. 1758)
• May 21 – Alexander Pope, English poet (d. 1744)
• June 10 – James Francis Edward Stuart, The Old Pretender, Italian-born claimant to the English and Scottish throne (d. 1766)
• July 19 – Giuseppe Castiglione, Italian missionary to China (d. 1766)
• August 14 – King Frederick William I of Prussia (d. 1740)
• September 12 – Ferdinand Brokoff, Czech sculptor (d. 1731)
• October 17 – Domenico Zipoli, Italian composer (d. 1726)
• October 22 – Nader Shah of Persia (d. 1747)
• November 15 (bapt.) – Charles Rivington, English publisher (d. 1742)

Deaths

• January 7 – James Howard, 3rd Earl of Suffolk
• January 28 – Ferdinand Verbiest, Flemish Jesuit missionary in China (b. 1623)
• February 2 – Abraham Duquesne, French naval officer (b. 1610)
• March 20 – Maria of Orange-Nassau, Dutch princess (b. 1642)
• April 29 – Friedrich Wilhelm I of Brandenburg (b. 1620)
• May 14 – Antoine Furetière, French writer (b. 1619)
• June 5 – Constantine Phaulkon, Greek adventurer (b. 1667)
• June 26 – Ralph Cudworth, English philosopher (b. 1617)
• July 11 – Narai of Thailand (b. 1639)
• July 21 – James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, Irish statesman (b. 1610)
• August 25 – Henry Morgan, Welsh privateer and Governor of Jamaica (b. c. 1635)
• August 31 – John Bunyan, English writer (b. 1628)
• September 2 – Robert Viner, Lord Mayor of London (b. 1631)
• October 6 – Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle, English statesman (b. 1653)
• October 23 – Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange, French philologist (b. 1610)
• November 26 – Philippe Quinault, French dramatist (b. 1635)
• December 15 – Gaspar Fagel, Dutch statesman (b. 1634)
• December 15 – Louis Victor de Rochechouart de Mortemart, French military man, brother of Madame de Montespan (b. 1636)

References