1686

January–June

• May 4 - The Municipality of Ilagan is founded in the Philippines.
• May 6 - The Treaty of Perpetual Peace is signed between the Tsardom of Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, recognizing the former's possession of Left-bank Ukraine and the city of Kiev as agreed upon in the earlier Treaty of Andrusovo in 1667. The treaty also brings the Tsardom of Russia into the Great Turkish War on the side of the Holy League of 1684.
• May 14 - Joseph Dudley formally begins his tenure as President of the Council of the newly formed Dominion of New England.

  July–December

• July - The Grand Alliance is founded in response to claims made by Louis XIV of France on the Electorate of the Palatinate in western Germany. It comprises the Holy Roman Empire, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, the electors of Bavaria, Saxony and the Electorate of the Palatinate.
• July 17 - King James II of England appoints four Roman Catholics to the Privy Council of England, in defiance of the Test Acts, which bar Catholics from public office. Suspicions about James's intentions lead to a group of conspirators meeting at Charborough House in Dorset to plan his overthrow and replacement with the Protestant Dutch Stadtholder, William III of Orange-Nassau.
• July 22 - New York City and Albany, New York are granted city charters by the colonial governor.
• September 2 - Great Turkish War: Battle of Buda - Imperial forces of the Holy League of 1684 liberate Buda from Ottoman Turkish rule.
• September 30 - The Ottoman fortress of Sinj in Dalmatia falls to the army of the Republic of Venice.

  Date unknown

• The Swedish Church Law 1686 confirms and describes the rights of the Lutheran Church and confirms Sweden as a Lutheran state: all non-Lutherans are banned from immigration unless they convert to Lutheranism; the Romani people are to be incorporated to the Lutheran Church; the poor care law is regulated; and all parishes are forced by law to teach the children within them to read and write, in order to learn the scripture, which closely eradicates illiteracy in Sweden.
• A hurricane saves Charleston, South Carolina from attack by Spanish vessels.
• English historian and naturalist Robert Plot publishes The Natural History of Staffordshire, a collection of illustrations and texts detailing the history of the county. It is the first document known to mention crop circles and a double sunset.
• The Café Procope, which remains in business in the 21st century, is opened in Paris by Procopio Cutò, as a coffeehouse.

  Births

• January 8 - William Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach
• January 9 - Andrew Michael Ramsay, Scottish writer
• January 12 - Adam Christian Thebesius, German anatomist
• January 17 - Archibald Bower, Scottish historian
• January 23 - Moritz Georg Weidmann, German bookseller
• January 31 - Hans Egede, Dano-Norwegian Lutheran missionary who launched mission efforts to Greenland
• February 1 - Suzanne Henriette of Lorraine, French noblewoman, Duchess of Mantua and Montferrat
• February 2 - John Eames, English academic
• February 10 - Jan Frederik Gronovius, Dutch botanist notable as a patron of Linnaeus
• February 11 - William Bowles, British politician
• February 13 - John Churchill, Marquess of Blandford, British noble
• February 14 - Harry Pulteney, British politician
• February 16 - Eleonore of Löwenstein-Wertheim, German countess
• March 17 - Jean-Baptiste Oudry, French painter
• March 22 - James Hamilton, 7th Earl of Abercorn
• March 27 - Johann Jakob Quandt, Lutheran theologian, translated the Bible into Lithuanian
• April 1 - Jan Frans van Bredael, Flemish painter
• April 8 - Stefano Felice Ficatelli, Italian painter of the late Baroque period
• April 9 - James Craggs the Younger, English politician
• April 17 - François Victor Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, French nobleman
• April 19 - Vasily Tatishchev, Russian statesman, ethnographer
• April 28 - Michael Brokoff, Czech sculptor
• April 29 - Peregrine Bertie, 2nd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven
• May 19 - Samuel-Jacques Bernard, French billionaire
• May 24 - Gabriel Fahrenheit, German physicist, inventor of the Fahrenheit temperature scale
• May 25 - William Steuart
• May 30 - Antonina Houbraken, Dutch artist
• June 5
• * Edward Howard, 9th Duke of Norfolk, British peer
• * Ignatius of Santhià, Italian Catholic priest
• June 6 - John Reading, Colonial Governor of New Jersey
• June 7
• * Adolphus Frederick III, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
• * Armand de La Richardie, French missionary
• June 9 - Andrei Osterman, Russian statesman
• June 24 - Domenico Montagnana, Italian luthier
• June 29 - Pietro Paolo Troisi, Maltese artist
• July 3 - Edward Watson, Viscount Sondes, Member of the Parliament of Great Britain
• July 5 - Jan Macaré, interim Dutch governor of Ceylon
• July 6 - Antoine de Jussieu, French naturalist
• July 9 - Philip Livingston, American politician
• July 25 - William Hardres, British politician
• July 27 - Mary Butterworth, American colonial counterfeiter
• July 31 - Charles, Duke of Berry, grandson of Louis XIV of France
• July 31 - Benedetto Marcello, Italian composer
• August 3 - Gervais Baudoin, Canadian physician
• August 10 - Georg Christian, Fürst von Lobkowitz, Austrian field marshal
• August 12
• * John Balguy, English divine and philosopher
• * Bendix Grodtschilling the Youngest, Danish painter
• August 17 - Nicola Porpora, Neapolitan composer of Baroque operas and teacher of singing
• August 18 - Peter von Bemmel, German artist
• August 19
• * Eustace Budgell, English writer and politician
• * Nicola Porpora, Italian composer
• August 22 - Albert Schultens, Dutch philologist
• August 27 - Agostino Cornacchini, Italian sculptor and painter of the Rococo period
• August 29 - Aloysius Centurione, Italian Jesuit
• September 5 - Antoine Touron, French historian
• September 29 - Cosmas Damian Asam, German painter and architect during the late Baroque period
• September 30 - John Alexander
• October 13 - Sir John Baird, 2nd Baronet, British politician
• October 15 - Allan Ramsay, Scottish poet
• October 17 - Jacques Hardion, French historian
• October 17 ? - John Machin, English mathematician
• October 19 - Peter van der Bosch, Jesuit hagiographer
• October 30 - Charles Jean-Baptiste Fleuriau, French politician
• October 31 - Senesino, Italian singer
• November 1
• * Colin Campbell, Scottish businessman
• * Axel Löwen, Swedish duke
• November 13 - Eleonora Luisa Gonzaga, Tuscan princess
• November 15 - Claude Louis d'Espinchal, marquis de Massiac, French politician
• November 16 - Yinxiang, Manchu prince of the Qing Dynasty
• November 23 - Ignácio Barbosa-Machado, Portuguese historian
• November 30 - Richard Lumley, 2nd Earl of Scarbrough
• December 8 - John Dawnay, British politician
• December 15 - Jean-Joseph Fiocco, Flemish composer
• December 25 - Giovanni Battista Somis, Italian violinist and composer
• date unknown -
• * William Law, English cleric
• * Netawatwees, Indiginous American leader
• approximate date - Queen Nanny of the Maroons, Jamaican national heroine

  Deaths

• January 10 - Ana de los Angeles Monteagudo, Peruvian nun
• January 17 - Carlo Dolci, Italian painter
• January 19 - Simon Digby, 4th Baron Digby, English politician
• January 21 - François Blondel, French architect
• January 22 - Duchess Johanna Magdalena of Saxe-Altenburg
• January 31 - Jean Mairet, French dramatist
• February 6 - Dorothy White, English Quaker and writer
• February 10 - William Dugdale, English antiquarian
• February 21 - Sibylle Christine of Anhalt-Dessau, Princess of Anhalt-Dessau
• March 17 - Elisabeth Marie, Duchess of Oels, Regent of Oels
• March 22 - John Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach
• March 26 - Charlotte, Landgravine of Hesse-Kassel, German noble
• April 6 - Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey, English royalist statesman
• April 15 - Joseph Bridger, Colonial Governor of Virginia
• April 19 - Antonio de Solís y Ribadeneyra, Spanish writer
• April 23 - Henrietta Wentworth, 6th Baroness Wentworth of England
• April 26 - Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie, Swedish statesman and military man
• May 21 - Otto von Guericke, German physicist and inventor of the Magdeburg Hemispheres
• May 29 - Ove Juul, Governor-General of Norway
• May 31 - Nicholas Barré, French Minim friar, priest and founder
• June 23 - William Coventry, English statesman
• July 10 - John Fell, English churchman
• July 16 - John Pearson, English theologian
• August 3 - Anna Margaret of Hesse-Homburg, Duchess consort of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Wiesenburg
• August 13 - Louis Maimbourg, French-born historian
• September 19 - John George I, Duke of Saxe-Eisenach, German duke
• October 26 - John Egerton, 2nd Earl of Bridgewater, English politician
• November 1 - William Duckett, English politician
• November 25 - Nicolas Steno, Danish pioneer in anatomy and geology, bishop
• November 28 - Nicolas Letourneux, French preacher, ascetical writer
• December 6 - Eleonora Gonzaga, Queen consort of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor
• December 11 - Louis, Grand Condé, French general
• December 12 - Charles de Noyelle, French Jesuit Superior General
• December 24 - Philip Packer, British barrister and architect