1697

January–March

• January 8 – Thomas Aikenhead is hanged outside Edinburgh, becoming the last person in Great Britain to be executed for blasphemy.
• January 11 – French writer Charles Perrault releases the book Histoires ou contes du temps passé in Paris, a collection of popular fairy tales, including Cinderella, Puss in Boots, Red Riding Hood, The Sleeping Beauty and Bluebeard.
• February 22 – Gerrit de Heere becomes the new Governor of Dutch Ceylon, succeeding Thomas van Rhee and administering the colony for almost six years until his death.
• February 26 – Conquistador Martín de Ursúa y Arizmendi and 114 soldiers arrive at Lake Petén Itzá in what is now Guatemala and begin the Spanish conquest of Guatemala with an attack on the capital of the Itza people there before moving northward to the Yucatan peninsula.
• March 9 – Grand Embassy of Peter the Great: Tsar Peter the Great of Russia sets out to travel in Europe incognito, as Artilleryman Pjotr Mikhailov.
• March 13 – The Spanish conquest of Petén, and of Yucatán, is completed with the fall of Nojpetén, capital of the Itza Maya Kingdom, the last independent Maya state.
• March 22 – Charles II of Spain issues a Royal Cedula extending to the indigenous nobles of the Spanish Crown colonies, as well as to their descendants, the preeminence and honors customarily attributed to the Hidalgos of Castile.
• March 26 – Safavid occupation of Basra: Safavid government troops take control of Basra.

  April–June

• April 5 – Charles XII becomes king of Sweden at age 14 on the death of his father, Charles XI, from stomach cancer.
• April 23 – As Chinese troops from the Manchu Dynasty complete their conquest of Mongolia, Galdan Boshugtu Khan, ruler of the last part of Mongolia to be conquered, the Dzungar Khanate, poisons himself, ending the resistance to conquest.
• May 6 – General Bernard Desjean, Baron de Pointis of France carries out an attack and pillaging of the Spanish South American fort of Cartagena de Indias with 1,200 soldiers and 650 pirate mercenaries. The French attackers overwhelm the city for the next 18 days. The Baron reneges on a contract to share the wealth with the pirates, who will come back to Cartagena a second time and makes a more violent attack.
• May 17 – The 13th century royal Tre Kronor castle in Stockholm burns to the ground, and a large portion of the royal library is destroyed.
• June 2 – Augustus, Elector of Saxony converts to Roman Catholicism in order to be eligible to rule Poland.
• June 10 – The last mass execution for witchcraft in western Europe when the five Paisley witches are hanged and then burned in Scotland.
• June 27 – After becoming a Roman Catholic, Augustus the Strong is elected King Augustus II of Poland.
• June 30 – The earliest reported first-class cricket match takes place in Sussex in England.

  July–September

• July 4 – A Byzantine icon, the "Weeping Madonna of Pócs", arrives in Vienna after a five-month journey following its forced removal from the Hungarian village of Pócs by order of the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I. It has been housed for more than 320 years in St. Stephen's Cathedral.
• July 6 – A major naval battle takes place between the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire with each side having 25 battleships, supplemented by smaller vessels. The Venetian Navy, under the command of Admiral Bartolomeo Contarini, suffers 71 deaths and 163 injuries, and even worse casualties in a second engagement on September 20.
• July 27 – Mahmud Shah II, the Sultan of Johor and Pahang takes on full power upon the death of the regent, the Bendahara Paduka Raja. Mahmud II was only 10 years old when he became the Sultan upon the assassination of his father, Ibrahim Shah in 1685.
• July 28 – The opera Vénus et Adonis, composed by Henri Desmarets with libretto by Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, receives its first performance, premiering at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris.
• August 10 – The Siege of Barcelona ends in Spain after 52 days as Louis Joseph, Duke of Vendôme of France obtains the surrender of Barcelona from the Austrian General, Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt.
• September 5 – During the Nine Years' War, the Battle of Hudson's Bay is fought between English and French ships in Hudson Bay near what is now the Canadian province of Manitoba; The French warship Pélican captures York Factory, a trading post of the English Hudson's Bay Company.
• September 11 – Battle of Zenta: Prince Eugene of Savoy crushes the Ottoman army of Mustafa II, and effectively ends Turkish hopes of recovering lost ground in Hungary.
• September 17 – Amcazade Köprülü Hüseyin Pasha becomes the new Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire in the wake of the disastrous Ottoman defeat at Zenta, replacing Grand Vizier Elmas Mehmed Pasha, who was killed in the battle by his own troops.
• September 20 – The Treaty of Ryswick is signed by France and the Grand Alliance, to end both the Nine Years' War and King William's War. Louis XIV of France recognises William III as King of England & Scotland, and both sides return territories they have taken in battle. In North America, the treaty returns Port-Royal to France.

  October–December

• October 7 – The opera Issé, composed by André Cardinal Destouches with libretto by Antoine Houdar de la Motte, premieres at the Palace of Fontainebleau in France.
• October 16 – The Norwegian Code, promulgated by King Christian V of Denmark-Norway in 1687, is amended to provide for torture of condemned criminals in certain capital offenses in Norway, with permission for burning with hot irons, or cutting off the prisoner's right hand while the prisoner is being transported for decapitation.
• October 19 – Misión Loreto, the first Roman Catholic mission on Mexico's Baja California Peninsula, is founded by Spanish missionary Juan María de Salvatierra.
• October 24 – The first opéra-ballet, combining elements of both mediums of entertainment, is performed as L'Europe galante makes its debut at the Salle du Palais-Royal in Paris. Composed by André Campra, with libretto by Antoine Houdar de la Motte, the opera and ballet is conducted by Marin Marais.
• October 30 – The Nine Years' War, between France and the Grand Alliance comes to an end with the signing of the last pacts of the Peace of Ryswick in the Dutch city of Rijswijk as Leopold I of Austria accedes two days before a deadline that had been set by the other members of the Grand Alliance. The areas of the Duchy of Lorraine, Freiburg im Breisgau, and Vieux-Brisach are returned by France to Leopold's control.
• November 24 – The elaborate burial of the late King Charles XI of Sweden takes place more than seven months after his April 5 death, with interment at the Riddarholmen Church on the island of Riddarholmen near Stockholm.
• November 30 – Prince Eugene of Savoy, a field marshal within the Holy Roman Empire, purchases a large tract of land in Vienna for construction of the Belvedere Palace.
• December 2 – The first service is held in St Paul's Cathedral since rebuilding work after the Great Fire of London began.
• December 7 – Louis, Duke of Burgundy, and Marie Adélaïde of Savoy marry in the royal chapel at the Palace of Versailles in France.
• December 8 – Tsangyang Gyatso is installed in Tibet as the 6th Dalai Lama in a ceremony at Lhasa, filling a vacancy that had existed since 1682.
• December 11 – A ball in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles is held to celebrate the Duke of Burgundy and Marie Adélaïde's wedding.
• December 14 – The coronation ceremony takes place for King Charles XII of Sweden.

  Date unknown

• The Manchus of the Qing dynasty conquer Outer Mongolia.
• The Parliament of England passes the Trade with Africa Act 1697, which end the Royal African Company's monopoly on all English trade with Africa.
• William Dampier's A New Voyage Round the World is published in England.
• Christopher Polhem starts Sweden's first technical school.
• Heinrich Escher, Mayor of Zürich, introduces chocolate to Switzerland from Brussels.
• Martin Mere, England's largest lake, is drained by sir Thomas Fleetwood for farmland.
• The use of "litters" increases in Europe.

  Ongoing

• Great Famine of 1695–1697 in Scandinavia.
• Great Famine of Estonia.
• "Seven ill years" of famine in Scotland.

  Births

January–March

• January 1 – Johann Pfeiffer, German violinist
• January 7
• * Wilhelm August von der Osten, Danish civil servant
• * Robert Wallace, minister of the Church of Scotland, writer on population
• January 9 – Gabriel Hanger, 1st Baron Coleraine, English politician
• January 11 – William Capell, 3rd Earl of Essex, English courtier and diplomat
• January 13 – Paul-François de Galluccio, marquis de L'Hôpital, French nobleman and ambassador to Russia
• January 16 – Jules, Prince of Soubise, French nobleman and Prince of Soubise
• January 17 – Franz Neumayr, German Jesuit preacher
• January 19 – Thérèse de Couagne, capitalist and slave owner who played an active role in the economy of New France
• January 22 – Antoine-Martin Chaumont de La Galaizière, French nobleman
• January 23 – Joseph François Dupleix, Governor-General of French India and rival of Robert Clive
• January 26 – Sir Hugh Acland, 6th Baronet, British landowner, politician and MP
• January 30 – Johann Joachim Quantz, German flautist and composer
• February 1 – Josse Boutmy, composer, organist and harpsichordist of the Austrian Netherlands
• February 4 – James Franklin, American colonial author
• February 5 – William Smellie, Scottish obstetrician and medical instructor
• February 9 – Sir James Johnstone, 3rd Baronet, Scottish baronet and politician
• February 13 – Knud Leem, Norwegian priest and linguist
• February 15 – Vito Maria Amico, Italian monk
• February 24 – Bernhard Siegfried Albinus, German anatomist
• February 26
• * Giuseppe Pedretti, Italian painter
• * Edward Thompson, prominent Yorkshire politician
• February 28
• * Caio Domenico Gallo, Italian historian
• * Agustín de Montiano y Luyando, Spanish dramatist whose work is linked to Neoclassicism
• March 6 – Jacques Deschamps, French theologian and priest
• March 9 – Friederike Caroline Neuber, German actress and theatre director
• March 12 – Joseph Leblanc dit Le Maigre, Acadian farmer and trader
• March 20 – József Dravecz, Slovene Roman Catholic priest
• March 21 – Christian Gottlieb Priber, German immigrant with legal training who emigrated to the British Colonies of North America
• March 24
• * Louis Constantin de Rohan, French prelate of the House of Rohan
• * Yunli, Manchu prince of the Qing dynasty
• March 30
• * Faustina Bordoni, Italian mezzo-soprano
• * Jan Baptist Xavery, Flemish sculptor principally active in the Dutch Republic