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.
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.[2]
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.
April 10 – A total solar eclipse is visible in central America.[3]
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.
May 17 – The British Royal Navy ship
HMS Hastings, a 32-gun fifth rate, is launched.
June 20 –
An earthquake of magnitude 7.2–7.9 damages an extended region around
Ambato, Ecuador, including the Tungurahua, Cotopaxi and Chimborazo provinces. Ambato and Latacunga are completely destroyed and several thousand casualties are reported.[4]
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.[5]
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.[7]
November – Tani Jinzan,
astronomer and
calendar scholar, observes a fire destroy Tosa (now
Kōchi) in Japan at the same time as a
Leonidmeteor shower, taking it as evidence to reinforce belief in the "Theory of Areas".
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.[12]
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.
^"Fires, Great", in The Insurance Cyclopeadia: Being an Historical Treasury of Events and Circumstances Connected with the Origin and Progress of Insurance, Cornelius Walford, ed. (C. and E. Layton, 1876) p48
^"Gingee I 1689—1698 Mughal—Maratha Wars", in Dictionary of Battles and Sieges, ed. by Tony Jacques (Greenwood Press, 2007) p. 395
^C. T. Atkinson, Marlborough and the Rise of the British Army (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1921) p. 150
^V. I. Buganov, Moscow uprisings of the late 17th century (Nauka, 1969) p.399
^
abMembers of Parliament Return to Two Orders of the Honourable the House of Commons. Parliaments of England, 1213-1702 (House of Commons, 1878) pp. 589-595
^"Charters Granted to the Second East India Company", in A Collection of Charters and Statutes Relating to the East India Company (Eyre and Strahan, 1817) p. vii
^Arthur M. Harris, "Pirate Tales from the Law" (Little, Brown and Company, 1923) pp. 47-48
^R. A. Brock, Virginia and Virginians: Eminent Virginians (Clearfield Press, 1888) p.10
^Lund, Emil Ferdinand Svitzer (1897).
"Leonora Christina, Grevinde Ulfeld". Danske malede portraetter: en beskrivende katalog (in Danish). Vol. 2. Copenhagen: Gyldendal. pp. 193–203.
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.
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.[2]
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.
April 10 – A total solar eclipse is visible in central America.[3]
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.
May 17 – The British Royal Navy ship
HMS Hastings, a 32-gun fifth rate, is launched.
June 20 –
An earthquake of magnitude 7.2–7.9 damages an extended region around
Ambato, Ecuador, including the Tungurahua, Cotopaxi and Chimborazo provinces. Ambato and Latacunga are completely destroyed and several thousand casualties are reported.[4]
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.[5]
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.[7]
November – Tani Jinzan,
astronomer and
calendar scholar, observes a fire destroy Tosa (now
Kōchi) in Japan at the same time as a
Leonidmeteor shower, taking it as evidence to reinforce belief in the "Theory of Areas".
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.[12]
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.
^"Fires, Great", in The Insurance Cyclopeadia: Being an Historical Treasury of Events and Circumstances Connected with the Origin and Progress of Insurance, Cornelius Walford, ed. (C. and E. Layton, 1876) p48
^"Gingee I 1689—1698 Mughal—Maratha Wars", in Dictionary of Battles and Sieges, ed. by Tony Jacques (Greenwood Press, 2007) p. 395
^C. T. Atkinson, Marlborough and the Rise of the British Army (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1921) p. 150
^V. I. Buganov, Moscow uprisings of the late 17th century (Nauka, 1969) p.399
^
abMembers of Parliament Return to Two Orders of the Honourable the House of Commons. Parliaments of England, 1213-1702 (House of Commons, 1878) pp. 589-595
^"Charters Granted to the Second East India Company", in A Collection of Charters and Statutes Relating to the East India Company (Eyre and Strahan, 1817) p. vii
^Arthur M. Harris, "Pirate Tales from the Law" (Little, Brown and Company, 1923) pp. 47-48
^R. A. Brock, Virginia and Virginians: Eminent Virginians (Clearfield Press, 1888) p.10
^Lund, Emil Ferdinand Svitzer (1897).
"Leonora Christina, Grevinde Ulfeld". Danske malede portraetter: en beskrivende katalog (in Danish). Vol. 2. Copenhagen: Gyldendal. pp. 193–203.