1690

• English pirate Mary Read.
• German mathematician Christian Goldbach.
• Italian composer Leonardo Vinci (no relation to the Renaissance man).
• French painter Nicolas Lancret.
• English poet Martha Sansom.
• English poet and burlesque writer Henry Carey.
• Italian composer Filippo Amadei.
• Italian composer Francesco Maria Veracini.
• Italian composer Francesco Barsanti.
• (approx). English poet Mary Collier.
• Alexis Petrovich Romanov, heir of Tsar Peter the Great.
• English musician and composer William Babell.
• Scottish composer William McGibbon.
• German composer Gottlieb Muffat.
• British politician John Carteret, later the 1st Earl of Granville.
• Chinese physician Ye Tianshi.

• Scottish Quaker philosopher Robert Barclay.
• Dutch mathematician Jan Jansz de Jonge Stampioen.
• Dutch painter Abraham Van Beyeren.
• Scottish painter William Gouw Ferguson.
• French painter Charles Lebrun.
• Cossack hetman Ivan Samoylovych, in exile in Tobolsk.
• Spanish painter Juan de Valdés Leal.
• Flemish painter Adam Frans van der Meulen.
• Flemish painter David Teniers (the younger).
• Muhyiddin, Sultan of Brunei; his son Nasruddin succeeds him.

• Johann Hevelius publishes his star atlas Uranographia.
• Christiaan Huygens publishes his Traité de la Lumicre (Treatise on Light).
• John Locke publishes
• Two Treatises of Government, advocating the limitation of the powers of monarchy, and introduces the concept of social contract.
• An Essay concerning Human Understanding.
• Denis Papin develops a steam engine.
• The first paper mill in North America opens in Germantown, ]Pennsylvania] (now inside Philadelphia).
• The Ottoman Empire recaptures Belgrade from the Austrians who had taken it two years previously.  Since the local Sebs had supported the Hapsburg takeover, tens of thousands flee into Hungary.
• The English East India Company builds a fort in Bengal, the site of modern Calcutta.
• War of the League of Augsburg/Nine Years' War:
• Former King James II is in Ireland with an army.  William III (June 14 (25)) leads an army into Ireland defeats the Jacobite at the (July 1 (12)) Battle of the Boyne.  Although not a particularly resounding victory, William captures Dublin and James flees to France (July 4 (15)), never to return.  William lays siege to Limerick but returns to England on (September 5 (16)) to prepare an army to capture the Spanish Netherlands from Louis XIV's occupying forces, leaving general Godert de Ginkel in command.  The Duke of Marlborough captures Cork and Kinsale for William, and things are looking grim for the Jacobites.
• (June 30 (July 10)) The French fleet under de Tourville forces the Anglo-Dutch fleet under the Earl of Torrington to withdraw from Beachy Head in Sussex.  However, de Tourville fails to pursue his advantage, withdrawing instead back to France.
• English governor Codrington captures St. Kitts from the French; All of the Irish settlers are expelled to Montserrat.
• Spain and Savoy join the alliance against France.
• Alonso de Leon leads a Spanish expedition into east Texas and locates the remains of Fort St. Louis, which had been built during la Salle's ill-fated expedition.
• The war spreads to North America, where it becomes known as King William's War:
• The Iroqouis and Mohawk ally themselves with William.
• (February) French soldiers and Indians led by he the Comte de Frontenac burn Schenectady and massacre its citizens.
• Sir William Phips outfits a New England fleet of 7 ships paid for by donations from Boston merchants (Massachusetts also issues paper money for the first time).   This fleet arrives off Port Royal, Nova Scotia which immediately surrenders.
• Phips then attempts to capture Quebec but he cannot take the city, and withdraws.
• Factions for and against militia-commander-turned-governor Jacob Leisler battle it out in the streets of New York.

1689 - 1690 - 1691

How They Were Made - 17th Century