1690 - Definition and Overview

Events

• Giovanni Domenico Cassini observes differential rotation within Jupiter's atmosphere.
• January 6 - Joseph, son of Emperor Leopold I becomes King of the Romans
• January 14 - The clarinet is invented in Nuremberg, Germany
• May 20 - England passes Act of Grace, forgiving followers of James II
• July 1 - The Battle of the Boyne, in Ireland
• Earliest recorded sighting of the planet Uranus, by John Flamsteed, who mistakenly catalogued it as the star 34 Tauri
• October 6-12--Massachusetts Puritans led by Sir William Phips besiege the city of Quebec. The siege ends in failure.

Births

• February 1 - Francesco Maria Veracini, composer
• March 18 - Christian Goldbach (Prussian mathematician)
• November 29 - Christian Augustus of Anhalt-Zerbst, father of Catherine II of Russia (d. 1747)

Deaths

• 1 July - George Walker Defender of Derry