1697 - Definition and Overview

Events

• September 20 - The Treaty of Ryswick
• December 2 – St Paul's Cathedral opened in London

• Peter the Great travels in Europe officially incognito as "artilleryman Pjotr Mikhailov"
• Use of palanquins increases in Europe
• Christopher Polhem starts Sweden's first technical school.
• The royal castle "Tre Kronor" in Stockholm burns to the ground. A large portion of the royal library is destroyed.
• Karl XII of Sweden is crowned king at the age of 15.
• Tayassal, capital of the Peten Itza Maya, the last independent Mesoamerican state, is conquered by Spain
• The Manchu Empire conquers western Mongolia

Births

• March 9 - Friederike Caroline Neuber, actress (+ 1760)
• August 6 - Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor
• October 7 - Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canale), Italian artist
• November 10 - William Hogarth, English artist

Deaths

• Karl XI of Sweden dies of stomach cancer.
• March 1 - Francesco Redi, physician, refuted abiogenesis (b. 1626)
• January 8 - Thomas Aikenhead hanged for blasphemy, near Edinburgh, Scotland.