Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Spaceopoly The Countdown to locking thread...

1700 - Louis XIV accepts the Spanish crown on behalf of his grandson Philip of Anjou, who becomes Philip V of Spain (to 1746), thus triggering the War of the Spanish Succession in 1701.

1699 - Peter I "the Great" changes New Year's to January 1st, instead of September 1st, perhaps reasoning that the winter chill will be a good excuse to drink lots and lots of vodka.

1698 - Steam engine technology advances after an improved water pumping device is patented by English engineer Thomas Savery.

1697 - The earliest known first-class cricket match took place in Sussex.

1696 - Peter the Great becomes sole tsar of Russia, upon the death of Tsar Ivan V.

1695 - A window tax is imposed in England, causing many shopkeepers to brick up their windows to avoid it.

1694 -- Princess Anne of England is summoned back to court to serve as hostess following the death of her sister, Queen Mary II. Mary's death has left her husband, William III, as sole ruler, sans heir. This paves the way for Anne to become queen eight years later.

Anne had previously been banished after an "unseemly row" with the queen (Wikipedia).

I think it's safe to say that Wikipedia is the source for a lot of these, if not most.

1693 - The College of William and Mary is chartered.

1692 - The Salem Witch Trials lead to hanging of 19 men and women between June and September.

I use Brainy History for a lot of my posts. But often, I google the year and the country whose history I'm interested in.

1691 - Prey Nokor, an area in the Khmer Empire, is occupied by the Vietnamese. Prey Nokor would eventually become Saigon.

Prey Nokor was an important seaport, and its loss rapidly accelerated the weakening of the Khmer Empire by cutting of access to the South China Sea.

1690 - The clarinet is invented in Nuremberg, Germany.

1689 - William III and Mary II are crowned as King and Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Ireland does not recognise them yet, while the Estates of Scotland declare King James VII of Scotland deposed.

1688 - Aurangzeb of the Mogul Empire conquers the last remaining free sultanates of India. His empire now stretches over the entire subcontinent of Afghanistan.

However, he overextends his empire, and after his death in 1707, none of his successors would be able to hold on to power for more than a few years.

1687 - Isaac Newton publishes Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, ushering in a tidal wave of changes in thought that would significantly accelerate the already ongoing scientific revolution by giving it tools that produced technologically valuable results, which had theretofore been otherwise unobtainable.

Yes, but I like to cite a source when I quote it directly.

IB - Thanks for the link to Brainy History. It lists a few things Wikipedia does not, such as:

1686 - Fictional date of Robinson Crusoe's rescue from his island, after being shipwrecked for 28 years.

1685 - Of all the executions and battles of the year, I was most intrigued by Adam Baldridge discovering a pirate base in Madagascar. I am perhaps 5, but now going to go learn a surely awesome historical story.

1684 - The Congregation of the Religious of the Virgin Mary (not particularly grammatically correct huh?), a community of vowed religious women, is founded in Manila. The group still administers schools in the Philippines, and also in California and Hawaii.

1683 - The River Thames freezes, allowing a frost fair to be held.

1682 - Louis XIV of France moves his court to Versailles.

1681 - Amangkurat II recaptures the throne and capital of the Sultanate of Mataram from Trujanaya with help from the Dutch. This would come at a heavy price - Dutch involvement in Javanese politics.

1680 - The first documented tornado in America kills a servant at Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1679 - European explorers discover Niagara Falls.

1678 - Elena Cornaro Piscopia becomes the first woman to receive a university degree when the doctorate of philosophy is conferred upon her at the University of Padua.

1677 - Lots of goings on in Paris. Michel le Tellier becomes Chancelor of France, Jules Hardouin-Mansart begins la place Vendôme, the population first exceeds 500,000, and for some reason Wikipedia mentions that in this year "ice cream becomes popular in Paris." Who knew?

1676 - – Providence, Rhode Island is attacked and destroyed by the Indians.