What Happened in 1697

Major Events

  • Jan 26 Isaac Newton receives Jean Bernoulli's 6 month time-limit problem, solves problem before going to bed that same night
  • Feb 4 Three Dutch East India Company ships anchor at Dirk-Hartogeiland, Australia
  • Mar 10 Tsar Peter the Great of Russia begins a tour of Western Europe
  • Mar 20 Dutch sea captain Willem de Vlamingh returns to Batavia after exploring "South Land" (west coast of Australia)
  • Apr 15 Charles XII succeeds his father, Charles XI, as King of Sweden
  • May 7 Stockholm's medieval royal castle is destroyed by fire, the Codex Gigas (world's largest extant medieval illuminated manuscript) survives by being thrown out a window
  • May 24 English King William III travels through northern Europe
  • Jun 2 August, Elector of Saxony becomes Catholic
  • Jun 27 Polish parliament selects monarch August of Saxony as king
  • Sep 3 King William's War in America ends with Treaty of Ryswick, the peace treaty ending the Nine Years' War between France and the Grand Alliance (reverting to conditions that existed before the war)
  • More 1697 Events

Born in 1697

  • Jan 1 Johann Pfeiffer, German violinist, composer and concert master at court (Bayreuth), born in the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg, Holy Roman Empire (d. 1761)
  • Jan 16 Richard Savage, English poet and playwright (d. 1743) date not proven
  • Jan 30 Johann Joachim Quantz, German royal flautist and composer, born in Oberscheden, Electorate of Hanover, Holy Roman Empire (d. 1773)
  • Feb 17 Louis-Maurice de La Pierre, French composer, born in Versailles, France (d. 1753)
  • Feb 24 Bernard Siegfried Albinus [Weiss], German surgeon and anatomist (1st to link vascular system with the fetus), born in Frankfurt (d. 1770)

More People Born in 1697

Who Died in 1697

  • Jan 1 Filippo Baldinucci, Florentine biographer & art historian, dies at 71
  • Jan 6 Carlo Mannelli, Italian composer, dies at 56
  • Jan 26 Georg Mohr, Danish mathematician (b. 1640)
  • Jan 28 John Fenwick, English conspirator (plotted to assassinate William III), executed by beheading
  • Feb 3 Sjoucke Gabbes, Frisian sailor, dies/buried on Dirk-Hartog Island

More 1697 Deaths


World Leaders in 1697