1696
Events
January–June
- January -
- * Great Recoinage of 1696: The Parliament of England passes the Recoinage Act.
- * Colley Cibber's play Love's Last Shift is first performed in London.
- January 27 - In England, the ship HMS Royal Sovereign catches fire and burns at Chatham, after 57 years of service.
- January 29 - Peter the Great becomes sole tsar of Russia, upon the death of Tsar Ivan V.
- January 31 - In the Netherlands, undertakers revolt after funeral reforms in Amsterdam.
- March - The Second Pueblo Revolt occurs.
- March 7 - King William III of England departs from the Netherlands.
- April - Fire destroys the Gra Bet of Gondar, the capital of Ethiopia.
- May 31 - John Salomonsz is elected chief of Sint Eustatius, in the Caribbean Netherlands.
July–December
- July 18 - The fleet of Tsar Peter The Great occupies Azov at the mouth of the Don River.
- July 29 - King Louis XIV of France and Victor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, sign a peace treaty.
- August 13 - The Dutch state of Drenthe makes William III of Orange its Stadtholder.
- August 22 - Forces of the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire clash near Andros.
- November - Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville captures and destroys St. John's, Newfoundland.
- November 21 - John Vanbrugh's play The Relapse, or Virtue in Danger is first performed in London.
- December 7 - Connecticut Route 108, one of Connecticut's oldest highways is laid-out to Trumbull.
- December 19 - Jean-Francois Regnard's "Le Joueur" premieres in Paris.
- December 24 - The Inquisition burns a number of Marrano Jews in Évora, Portugal.
Date unknown
- Polish replaces Ruthenian, as an official language of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
- A famine wipes out almost a third of the population of Finland, and a fifth of the population of Estonia.
- Abington, Pennsylvania, is settled.
- William Penn offers an elaborate plan for intercolonial cooperation largely in trade, defense, and criminal matters.
- Edward Lloyd probably begins publication of Lloyd's News, a predecessor of Lloyd's List, in London.
Births
- January 5 - Giuseppe Galli-Bibiena, Italian architect, painter
- March 5 - Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Italian painter
- March 27 - Antoine Court, French Huguenot minister
- April 2 - Francesca Cuzzoni, Italian operatic soprano
- June 11 - Francis Edward James Keith, Scottish soldier and Prussian field marshal
- June 27 - William Pepperrell, English colonial soldier
- July 14 - William Oldys, English antiquarian and bibliographer
- July 24 - Benning Wentworth, colonial governor of New Hampshire
- August 2 - Mahmud I, Ottoman Sultan
- August 12 - Maurice Greene, English composer
- September 27 - Alphonsus Liguori, Italian founder of the Redemptorist Order
- October 10 - Chen Hongmou, Chinese scholar and philosopher
- October 13 - John Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey, English statesman and writer
- November 2 - Conrad Weiser, Pennsylvania's ambassador to the Iroquois Confederacy
- December 22 - James Oglethorpe, English general and founder of the state of Georgia as a colony
- date unknown
- * Christine Kirch, German astronomer
- * Carlo Zimech, Maltese priest and painter
Deaths
- January 11 - Charles Albanel, French missionary explorer in Canada
- February - Ahom King Supaatphaa or Gadadhar Singha
- February 4 - Philip Wharton, 4th Baron Wharton, English soldier
- February 8 - Tsar Ivan V of Russia
- February 19 - Giovanni Pietro Bellori, Italian art historian
- March 14 - Jean Domat, French jurist
- March 16 - Louis Laneau, French bishop active in the kingdom of Siam
- March 17 - Élisabeth Marguerite d'Orléans, French noble
- March 18 - Robert Charnock, English conspirator
- March 25 - Henry Casimir II, Prince of Nassau-Dietz, Stadholder of Friesland and Groningen
- April 17 - Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné, French writer
- April 27 - Simon Foucher, French polemicist
- April 30 - Robert Plot, British naturalist
- May 10 - Jean de La Bruyère, French writer
- May 16 - Mariana of Austria, queen consort of Spain
- May 26 - Countess Albertine Agnes of Nassau, Regent of Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe
- May 28 - William Gregory, English politician and judge
- May 30 - Henry Capell, 1st Baron Capell, First Lord of the British Admiralty
- May 31 - Heinrich Schwemmer, German music teacher and composer
- June - Greta Duréel, Swedish noblewoman and bank fraud
- June 17 - John III Sobieski, King of Poland
- June 24 - Philip Henry, English minister
- July 11 - William Godolphin, English politician
- August 2 - Robert Campbell of Glenlyon, Scottish military commander at the Massacre of Glencoe
- September 4 - Celestino Sfondrati, Italian Catholic cardinal
- September 9 - Princess Eleonore Erdmuthe of Saxe-Eisenach, Electress of Saxony
- September 13 - Caleb Banks, English politician
- September 24 - Sir Ralph Verney, 1st Baronet, of Middle Claydon, English Baronet
- November 26 - Gregório de Matos, Brazilian poet and lawyer
- December 4 - Meishō, empress of Japan
- December 8 - Charles Porter, English-born judge
- December 12 - John Hampden, English politician
- December 13 - Georg Matthäus Vischer, Austrian cartographer
- December 29 - Miguel de Molinos, Spanish mystic
- date unknown - Daibhidh Ó Duibhgheannáin
