1694

May 27: Battle of Torroella.

1694 (MDCXCIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar, the 1694th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 694th year of the 2nd millennium, the 94th year of the 17th century, and the 5th year of the 1690s decade. As of the start of 1694, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

Events[]

January–March[]

• January 16 – Francesco Morosini, the Doge of Venice since 1688, dies after ruling the Republic for more than five years and a few months after an unsuccessful attempt to capture the island of Negropont from the Ottoman Empire during the Morean War.
• January 18 – Sir James Montgomery of Scotland, who had been arrested on January 11 for conspiracy to restore King James to the throne, escapes with the aid of the two persons guarding him and flees to France, arriving in Paris on February 15.
• January 21 (January 11 O.S.) – The Kiev Academy, now the national university of Ukraine, receives official recognition by Ivan V, Tsar of Russia.
• January 28 – Pirro e Demetrio, an opera by Alessandro Scarlatti, is given its first performance, debuting at the Teatro San Bartolomeo in Naples. The opera is adapted in 1708 in London as Pyrrhus and Demetrius and becomes the second most popular opera in 18th century London.
• January 29 – French missionary Jean-Baptiste Labat arrives in the "New World", landing at the Caribbean island of Martinique.
• February 5 – The ship Ridderschap van Holland is lost at sea, departs the Cape of Good Hope (at South Africa) with a crew of 300, with a destination in the Dutch East Indies of Batavia (now Jakarta in Indonesia), normally a voyage of two months. It never arrives and is never seen again.
• February 6 – The colony of Quilombo dos Palmares, created by rebel African slaves in Brazil, is destroyed by the bandeirantes, colonial troops under the command of Domingos Jorge Velho. After a successful attack on its capital, Cerca do Macaco, the last King of Dos Palmares, Zumbi, flees after a reign of more than 13 years, but is later captured and executed on November 20, 1695.
• February 26 – Silvestro Valier is elected as the new Doge of Venice to replace the late Francesco Morosini
• March 1 – The HMS Sussex treasure fleet of thirteen ships is wrecked in the Mediterranean off Gibraltar, with the loss of approximately 1,200 lives.
• March 8 - The Coin House of Brazil is formed by Pedro II from Portugal.

April–June[]

• April 2 – Sheikh Yusuf, exiled by the administrators of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), arrives at the Dutch Cape Colony on the ship De Voetboog, at what is now Cape Town, South Africa, along with two wives, two concubines and 12 children. Resettled by the colonial government at a farm in Zandvliet, the Sheikh introduces Islam to South Africa.
• April 7 – The English Navy's 40-gun warship, HMS Ruby, captures the French privateer Entreprenant in battle. The confiscated ship is renamed HMS Ruby Prize.
• April 12 – The French ship Diligente, commanded by René Duguay-Trouin, covers the escape of a convoy of ships that he is escorting, but then is surrounded and attacked by six Royal Navy ships led by David Mitchell. Most of the Diligente crew is lost in the battle, and Duguay-Trouin is captured.
• April 27 – Frederick Augustus of Wettin, later known as "Augustus the Strong" and the future King of Poland, becomes the new Elector of Saxony upon the death of his 25-year-old older brother, John George IV
• May 27 – Taking advantage of a fog, the French Army, with 24,000 troops, fights the Battle of Torroella against and equally large Spanish Army force on the banks of the Ter River in Spain, near the strategically-important city of Girona during the Nine Years' War. The Spaniards suffer 3,000 casualties, while the French sustain 500.
• June 24 – The Tunisian–Algerian War begins as Algerian troops cross into Tunisia. ^[1]
• June 29 – The Battle of Texel is fought near the Dutch island of Texel, one of the West Frisian Islands. The French Navy force of 8 ships, commanded by Jean Bart, locates and rescues three French ships that had been captured by the Dutch Republic in late May. Bart fights a larger force commanded by Hidde Sjoerds de Vries, who dies of his wounds after being captured.

July–September[]

• July 27 – The Bank of England is founded through Royal charter by the Whig-dominated Parliament of England, following a proposal by Scottish merchant William Paterson to raise capital, by offering safe and steady returns of interest guaranteed by future taxes. A total of £1.2 million is raised for the war effort against Louis XIV of France by the end of the year, to establish the first-ever government debt.
• August 6 – The coronation of Sultan Husayn of the Safavid dynasty as the Shah of Persia (now Iran) takes place in Isfahan, eight days after the death of his father Suleiman I.
• August 24 – The Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, the first official dictionary of the French language, is presented by Jacques de Tourreil and Academy members on behalf of the Académie française to King Louis XIV. ^[2] The King tells the group "Puisque tant d'habiles gens y ont travaillé, je ne doute pas qu'il soit très beau et très utile pour la langue." ("Since so many clever people have worked on it, I have no doubt that it is very beautiful and very useful for the language.") ^[3]
• September 5 – The Great Fire of Warwick breaks out in England and destroys half the town. Donors raise £110,000 toward disaster relief, with Queen Anne contributing £1,000.^[4]

October–December[]

• October 19 – A major windstorm begins and continues for several days, spreading the Culbin Sands over a large area of farmland in the Scottish Highlands in the County of Moray and burying the now-abandoned village of Culbin. ^[5]
• October 23 – British/American colonial forces, led by Sir William Phips, fail to seize Quebec from the French.
• October 25 – Queen Mary II of England founds the Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich.^[6]
• November 12 – The Army of Algeria captures Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, after a siege of three months, bringing an end to the Tunisian–Algerian War after a little more than four months. Mohamed Bey El Mouradi, the Bey of Tunis, flees southward while Prince Muhammad ben Cheker of Tunisia becomes the new Dey on behalf of the Dey of Algiers, Hadj Ahmed. ^[7]
• December 3 – The Parliament of England passes the Triennial Act, requiring general elections every three years.^[8]
• December 6 – Thomas Tenison is appointed Archbishop of Canterbury.
• December 28 – Queen Mary II of England dies of smallpox aged 32, leaving her husband King William III to rule alone but without an heir. Since he is also without a royal hostess, Mary's sister Princess Anne is summoned back to court (having been banished after an unseemly row with the queen), as his official heiress.

Date unknown[]

• The Lao empire of Lan Xang unofficially ends.
• The notorious voyage of the English slave ship Hannibal (part of the Atlantic slave trade out of Benin) ends with the death of nearly half of the 692 slaves aboard.
• Rascians establish the settlement which will become Novi Sad on the Danube.

Births[]

Voltaire

• April 25 – Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, English architect (d. 1753)
• May 11 – Princess Maria Theresia of Liechtenstein (d. 1772)
• June 4 – François Quesnay, French economist (d. 1774)
• June 26 – Georg Brandt, Swedish chemist and mineralogist (d. 1768)
• June 27 – John Michael Rysbrack, Flemish sculptor (d. 1770)
• July 4 – Louis-Claude Daquin, French composer (d. 1772)
• August 5 – Leonardo Leo, Italian composer (d. 1744)
• August 8 – Francis Hutcheson, Irish philosopher (d. 1746)
• August 26 – Elisha Williams, American rector of Yale College (d. 1755)
• September 22 – Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, English statesman and man of letters (d. 1773)
• September 25 – Henry Pelham, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1754)
• October 26 – Johan Helmich Roman, Swedish composer (d. 1758)
• November 16 – Isabella Simons, banker in the Austrian Netherlands (d. 1756)
• November 21 – Voltaire, French philosopher (d. 1778)
• November 28 – Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen (d. 1728)
• December 22 – Hermann Samuel Reimarus, German philosopher and writer (d. 1768)
• August 25 – , infamous Ryhillian.

Deaths[]

Mary II of England

• January 2 – Henry Booth, 1st Earl of Warrington, English politician (b. 1651)
• February 6 – Dandara, Brazilian warrior (b. ??)
• January 7 – Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, English aristocrat and soldier (b. c.1618)
• January 10 – Andrew Balfour, Scottish doctor (b. 1630)
• January 16 – Francesco Morosini, Doge of Venice from 1688 to 1694 (b. 1619)
• January 19 – François Marie, Prince of Lillebonne, French nobleman and member of the House of Lorraine (b. 1624)
• February 1 – John Louis of Elderen, Bishop of Liege (b. 1620)
• February 4 – Natalya Naryshkina, Tsaritsa of Russia (b. 1651)
• February 17 – Antoinette du Ligier de la Garde Deshoulières, French writer (b. 1638)
• February 26 – Charles Scarborough, English physician, mathematician (b. 1615)
• March 5 – Vittoria della Rovere, Italian noble (b. 1622)
• March 12 – John Conant, English theologian, clergyman, and academic administrator (b. 1608)
• April 8 – Nicolás de Villacis, Spanish painter (b. 1616)
• April 12 – John Swinfen, English politician (b. 1613)
• April 16 – Claire-Clémence de Maillé-Brézé, French noblewoman (b. 1628)
• April 27 – John George IV, Elector of Saxony (b. 1668)
• May 24 – Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount of Falkland, English politician (b. 1656)
• June 2 – Gaspar Téllez-Girón, 5th Duke de Osuna, Spanish duke (b. 1625)
• June 17 – Philip Howard, English Catholic Cardinal (b. 1629)
• July 12 – Juan de Santiago y León Garabito, Spanish Catholic prelate, Bishop of Guadalajara and Bishop of Puerto Rico (b. 1641)
• August 8 – Antoine Arnauld, French philosopher and mathematician (b. 1612)
• August 22
  • Maria Sofia De la Gardie, Swedish countess and industrialist (b. 1627)
  • Bernard of Offida, Italian saint (b. 1604)
• September 10 – Thomas Lloyd, Quaker preacher of provincial Pennsylvania (b. 1640)
• October 15 – Samuel von Pufendorf, German jurist (b. 1632)
• November 22 – John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1630)
• November 25 – Ismaël Bullialdus, French astronomer (b. 1605)
• November 28 – Matsuo Bashō, Japanese poet (b. 1644)
• November 29 – Marcello Malpighi, Italian physician (b. 1628)
• December 2 – Pierre Puget, French artist (b. 1622)
• December 5 – William Beecher, English politician (b. 1628)
• December 7 – Tiberio Fiorilli, Italian-born actor (b. 1608)
• December 9 – Paolo Segneri, Italian Jesuit (b. 1624)
• December 11 – Ranuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma from 1646 until his death (b. 1630)
• December 20 – Erasmus Finx, German polymath (b. 1627)
• December 28 – Queen Mary II of England, Scotland and Ireland (b. 1662)^[9]
• date unknown – Hafız Post, Turkish musician

References[]