Born in 1692: Died in 1692: Events of 1692:
  • Mexico City suffers famine and food riots in the wake of the previous year's floods.
  • An earthquake plunges Port Royal, Jamaica, a notorious pirate haven, into the Carribean Sea. The Jamaican capital is moved to Kingston.
  • Duke Ernst Augustus of Brunswick-Lüneburg is named an Elector by Holy Roman Emperor. The new electorate, although not ratified by the Diet until 1708, is usually called after its capital city, Hannover.
  • Matsuo Basho completes his journal of a trip into the north of Japan, with attendant haiku poetry, Oku no hosomichi, (The Narrow Road to Oku). He also exchanges letters with Hamada Chinseki and Suganuma Kyokusui about the three attitudes of haiku poetry.  (Fûga Santô no Bun)
  • Saikaku Ihara publishes Worldly Mental Calculations.
  • The first church in the area that will become Baltimore, the Anglican St. Paul's Church, is founded. (St. Paul's Cathedral in London has been under construction since 1675 and will not be completed until 1710).
  • In London, Chelsea Hospital, designed by Christopher Wren, is completed.
  • William Penn is accused of treason, and William III removes him from the proprietorship of Pennsylvania.
  • Governor Sir William Phips arrives in Massachusetts Bay Colony with a new charter, permanently merging that colony with Plymouth Colony, but separating New Hampshire. Inhabitants of Plymouth Colony learn for the first time that the colony no longer exists.
  • Meanwhile, in Salem, the daughter of the new precher Samuel Parris, 9-year-old Betty Parris, begins behaving strangely, going into screaming fits.  A neighbor suggests possession by a witch, and also suggests a particular countermagic.  Having been told one too many voodoo stories by the Parris' Barbadian slave Tituba, Betty claims that the spirit of a neighbor visits her nightly to torment her.  Jealous of the attention that Betty is receiving, her playmates start behaving just as oddly.  Some local magistrates set up an impromptu court in a tavern, and soon everyone in the area accusing their neighbors of witchcraft.  Upon his arrival, Governor Phips is presented with a jail full of accused witches; he sets up a special court to process all of the cases.  This court considers "spectral evidence", or accounts of visits by the disembodied spirits of the accused, as evidence. Not surprisingly, several peeople are convicted, and executed.  Eventually someone names Governor Phips' wife, and he cuts off the proceedings.
  • King William's War/War of the League of Augsburg/Nine Years' War:
    • French soldiers and Abenaki Indians destory York, Maine, then move on to raid Wells, Maine, but the raid fails when the local militia captain, James Converse, and fifteen men hold them off for two days.
    • The English build Fort William Henry near Penmaquid, Maine.
    • The English fleet tries but fails to take Plaisance, Terre-Neuve (Placentia, Newfoundland).
    • William had previously ordered all Scottish Highland clan chiefs to submit to local authority by January 1 of this year. Chief MacIain of Clan Macdonald arrives late, but his submission is accepted. However, Robert Campbell and John Dalrymple arrive in Glen Coe with a regiment of Argyll troops, and billet there for two weeks.  In the middle of the night, they begin killing the inhabitants. Thirty-eight people are killed, including Chief MacIain. (Although there was certainly bad blood between the Campbells and Macdonalds, the feud is only a fig leaf for the real perpetrators: Dalrymple, Secretary of State for Scotland, and his patron William III, upon whose order it happens, and who later appoints Dalrymple Earl of Stair).
    • Marshal Vauban reduces the town of Namur in the Spanish Netherlands.
    • Louis XIV has readied a force in the harbor of La Hogue, with the intention of invading England and putting James II back on the throne.  While Admiral de Tourville waits for reinfircements that will never come, admirals Rooke and Hawke assemble an Anglo-Dutch fleet. De Tourville finally leaves Brest but is caught by Rooke's Fleet.  The first engagement, off Barfleur, sees three French ships of the line sunk.   The others are chased into La Hogue.  French cavalry is sent to fight the fleet (the water is very shallow), but the Jacks pick them off with boat hooks. James watches as Rooke destroys every vessel in the invasion fleet.
    • Anglo-Dutch armies (personally led by William) attack the fortress of Steenkirk by surprise, but garrison there fort fights them off.  According to legend, the elite guards did not have time to arrange their lace properly, and had to fight 'half dressed'. This starts a new fashion in France.

1691 - 1692 - 1693

How They Were Made - 17th Century

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