1688

Year 1688 (MDCLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Sunday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1688

February 18 - Germantown Quaker Protest Against Slavery drafted by four Germantown Quakers.
March - William Dampier makes first recorded visit to Christmas Island.
April 29 - Frederick I of Prussia becomes Kurfürst (Elector) of Brandenburg.
June 30 - A high-powered conspiracy of notables, the "Immortal Seven", invite William and Mary to depose James II of England.

July - Phetracha stages a coup d'état and becomes king of Ayutthaya.
October 27 - King James II of England fires minister Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland
November 5 - The Glorious Revolution begins: William of Orange lands at Brixham but James II of England is prevented from meeting him in battle because many of his officers and men desert to the other side.
November 9 - William of Orange captures Exeter after the magistrates flee the city.
November 23 - A group of 1500 Old Believers immolated themselves to avoid capture when troops of the tsar laid siege to their monastery on Lake Onega.
November 26 - Hearing that William of Orange has landed in England, Louis XIV declares war on the Netherlands. Perhaps revealingly, he does not attack the Netherlands but instead strikes at the heart of the Holy Roman Empire with about 100,000 soldiers. The Nine Years' War begins in Europe and America.
December 11 - After a series of defeats King James II of England flees England for France.

January 18 - Lionel Cranfield Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (died 1765)
January 29 - Emanuel Swedenborg Swedish scientist, philosopher, and theologian (died 1772)
February 2 - Queen Ulrike Eleonora of Sweden (died 1741)
February 4 - Pierre de Marivaux, French playwright (died 1763)
March - William Burnet, British colonial administrator (died 1729)
April 4 - Joseph-Nicolas Delisle, French astronomer (died 1768)
April 15 - Johann Friedrich Fasch, German composer (died 1758)
May 22 - Alexander Pope, English poet (died 1744)
June 10 - James Francis Edward Stuart, "The Old Pretender" (died 1766)
July 19 - Giuseppe Castiglione, Italian missionary to China (died 1766)
August 14 - King Frederick William I of Prussia (died 1740)
September 12 - Ferdinand Brokoff, Czech sculptor (died 1731)
October 17 - Domenico Zipoli, Italian composer (died 1726)
October 22 - Nadir Shah of Persia (died 1747)
Date Unknown - Charles Rivington, English publisher (died 1742)

See also Category: 1688 births.

See also Category: 1688 deaths.