1690

January–March

• January 2 – The Ottoman Empire defeats Serbian rebels and Austrian troops in battle at Kaçanik Gorge, prompting more than 30,000 Serb refugees to flee northward from Kosovo, Macedonia and Sandžak to the Austrian Empire.
• January 6 – At the age of 11 years old, Prince Joseph, son of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, is named as "King of the Romans", the next in line to become the Emperor.
• January 7 – The first recorded full peal is rung, at St Sepulchre-without-Newgate in the City of London, marking a new era in change ringing.
• January 13 – Captain Thomas Pound, after being captured with his crew the previous month, is tried in Boston and found guilty of piracy although he is later reprieved.
• January 27
• * The crew of the ship HMS Welfare, commanded by John Strong, become the first European people to land at the Falkland Islands.
• * William Coward is hanged for acts of piracy, following his capture after seizing the ketch Elenor anchored in Boston Harbor the previous year.
• * The Convention Parliament is dissolved in England.
• February 6 – King William III of England calls for new elections for the 512-member House of Commons
• February 8 – The Schenectady massacre takes place in the village of Schenectady in the colony of New York, when 200 Frenchmen, Mohawk and Algonquin warriors kill or capture most of the inhabitants in retaliation for the Lachine massacre.
• February 21 – The opera Orphée by Louis Lully receives its first performance at the Académie Royale de Musique.
• March 10 – An annular solar eclipse is visible across the south of the Pacific Ocean.
• March 20 – The 2nd Parliament of William III and Mary II is assembled in London, split almost equally with 243 Whigs, 241 Tories, and 28 independent members.

  April–June

• April 6 – Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor issues a document inviting Serbians to resettle in Hungary, at this time a part of the Empire.
• April 16 – An estimated 8.0 magnitude earthquake strikes in the Caribbean Sea less than from Barbuda and also affects St. Kitts and Nevis, as well as Antigua.
• April 25 – The Parliament of Scotland passes an Act to abolish episcopy in the presbyterian Church of Scotland. The Anglican Episcopal Church in Scotland continues as a separate denomination, retaining bishops.
• April 27 – Sultan Toloko ibn-Sibori becomes the new Sultan of Ternate, located on the Maluku Islands in the Dutch East Indies after the death of his father, Sultan Sibori Amsterdam.
• May 16 – The Battle of Port Royal takes place in Nova Scotia after an invasion by a militia of 446 soldiers and 226 sailors from the Massachusetts Bay Colony on seven warships. With only 90 French colonial soldiers to defend Port-Royal, Acadian Governor Louis-Alexandre des Friches de Menneval surrenders before the end of the day.
• May 20 – England passes the Act of Grace, forgiving followers of the deposed James II.
• June 8 – Siddi general Yadi Sakat razes the Mazagon Fort in Mumbai.
• June 14 – King William III of England lands in Ireland to confront James II.
• June – An earthquake in Brazil of estimated magnitude 7, with epicenter on the left bank of the Amazon River about 45 km downstream from Manaus, spreads seismic waves through the forest and is felt up to 1000 km away.

  July–September

• July 10 – Battle of Beachy Head: the Anglo-Dutch navy is defeated by the French, giving rise to fears of a Jacobite invasion of England.
• July 11 – Battle of the Boyne in Ireland: King William III of England defeats the deposed James II, who returns to exile in France. The rebellion in Ireland continues for a further year until the Orange army gains full control.
• July 26 – A French landing party raids and burns Teignmouth in Devon, England. However, with the loss of James II's position in Ireland, any plans for a real invasion are soon shelved, and Teignmouth is the last French attack on England.
• August 24 – In India, the fort and trading settlement of Sutanuti is founded on the Hooghly River by the English East India Company, following the signing of an Anglo-Mughal treaty.
• September 25 – The only issue of Publick Occurrences is published in Boston, Massachusetts, before being suppressed by the colonial authorities.

  October–December

• October 6
• *Massachusetts Puritans, led by Sir William Phips, besiege the city of Quebec; the siege ends in failure after six days.
• *An earthquake with strength 5.2 occurs in Caernarfon, Wales, causing tremors that can be felt as far away as London and Dublin.
• October 8 – Great Turkish War: The Ottomans recapture Belgrade.
• October 16 – Lawrence Justinian and John of Sahagún are canonized by Pope Alexander VIII.
• October 21 – The play Amphitryon by John Dryden, based on Molière's 1668 play of the same name, receives its first performance at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.
• November 7 – The opera Énée et Lavinie by the French composer Pascal Collasse receives its first performance at the Académie Royale de Musique.
• November 9 – Near South Mimms, England, several highwaymen stop a convoy carrying taxes from the Midlands to London and take £15,000.
• November 17 – Barclays, which will continue to be active into the 21st century as a multinational bank and lending institution, is founded in London by John Freame and Thomas Gould as Freame & Gould. The bank changes its name in 1736 when James Barclay becomes a partner.
• December 4 – A destructive earthquake in the Eastern Alps causes 24 casualties and results in damage in the Villach, Carinthia area.
• December 10 –Playwright Henry Nevil Payne is tortured for his role in the Montgomery Plot to restore James II to the throne — the last time a political prisoner is legally subjected to torture in Britain.
• December 13 – The planet Uranus is first sighted and recorded, by England's first Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed, who mistakenly catalogs it as a star 34 Tauri.
• December 20 — The General Court of the Province of Massachusetts Bay creates the first authorized paper money issued by any government in the Western World as a substitute for coins. The first money is printed on February 13, 1691 and is dated "Feb. 3, 1690" based on the British old style calendar in use at the time.
• December 29 – An earthquake hits Ancona, in the Papal States of Italy and causes 10 deaths.

  Date unknown

• Serbian Patriarch Arsenije III Carnojevic leads the first of the two Great Serbian Migrations into the Habsburg Empire, following Ottoman atrocities in Kosovo.
• The Hearth Tax is abolished in Scotland, one year after its abolition in England and Wales.
• French physicist Denis Papin, while in Leipzig and having observed the mechanical power of atmospheric pressure on his 'digester', builds a working model of a reciprocating steam engine for pumping water, the first of its kind, though not efficient.
• Dutch polymath Christiaan Huygens publishes his book Treatise on Light. The book is considered a pioneering work of theoretical and mathematical physics.
• Giovanni Domenico Cassini observes differential rotation within Jupiter's atmosphere.
• The construction of Fort Longueuil, a stone fort in Longueuil, in Quebec, Canada, is completed. It is one of the only buildings in Canada that could ever be considered a castle, and out of those buildings it most resembles the castles of Europe.
• The Barrage Vauban, a defensive work in the city of Strasbourg, is completed.
• The French dictionary and encyclopaedia Dictionnaire universel, contenant generalement tous les mots françois, compiled by Antoine Furetière, is published posthumously.
• Possible year of the disappearance of the western part of the island of Buise, in St. Peter's Flood.

  Births

January–March

• March 3 – Gilbert Livingston
• January 1
• * Christian Falster, Danish writer
• * Susanna Montgomerie, Countess of Eglinton, Scottish literary patron and society hostess
• January 10 – William Smelt, British Member of Parliament
• January 13 – Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, Spanish musician
• January 14
• * Lorenzo Fratellini, Italian painter
• * Chrysostomus Hanthaler, Austrian historian
• January 16 – Juan Curiel, Spanish intellectual and politician
• January 17 – Peter Schnitler, Danish/Norwegian jurist and military officer
• January 19 – William Duncombe, British translator
• January 22 – Nicolas Lancret, French painter
• January 24
• * Phineas Bowles, British Army officer
• * James Ward, Anglican priest in Ireland
• January 25 – Jean-Paul de Rome d'Ardène, French botanist, agronomist and priest
• January 28 – Corbet Kynaston, British Member of Parliament
• February 1 – Francesco Maria Veracini, Italian composer
• February 3 – Richard Rawlinson, English minister, antiquarian
• February 5 – Johann Daniel Schumacher, Russian scholar
• February 6
• * Giovanni Battista Maini, Italian artist
• * Kilian Stobæus, Swedish physician
• February 7 – Charles Frederick II, Duke of Württemberg-Oels
• February 9 – Maria Vittoria of Savoy, Italian princess
• February 11 – Sir William Blackett, 2nd Baronet, British politician
• February 14 – Jakob Ernst von Liechtenstein-Kastelkorn, Austrian archbishop
• February 17
• * Marcello Papiniano Cusani, Italian archbishop
• * Samuel Phillips, American clergyman
• February 22 – Daniele Farlati, Italian Jesuit and historian
• February 26 – Samuel van der Putte, Dutch traveler and explorer
• February 28 – Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia, Russian Tsarevich
• March 1
• * Silvio Valenti Gonzaga, Catholic cardinal
• * Victor Amadeus I, Prince of Carignano, Italian nobleman
• March 10 – Johann Jakob Schmauss, German jurist
• March 12 – George Lee, 2nd Earl of Lichfield, British peer
• March 16 – Benjamin Elbel, German theologian
• March 18 – Christian Goldbach, Prussian mathematician
• March 23 – Casimir William of Hesse-Homburg, Prince of Hesse-Homburg
• March 24 – Sangram Singh II, Maharana of Mewar
• March 29 – John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu, British duke