1694

The Bank of England is founded.
The English fleet bombards Dieppe, Le Harve, and Dunkirk.
Triennial Bill providing for new Parliamentary election everything third year is made.
Augustus the Strong, elector of Saxony.
Hussain becomes Shah of Persia.
Died: Queen Mary II of England (Wife of William III)
Born: Voltaire, John Michael Rysbrack
University of Halle is founded.
The salt tax is doubled in England.

1691 - 1692 - 1693 - 1694 - 1695 - 1696 - 1697

On a journey, ill:
my dream goes wandering
over withered fields.

-Basho
 

They are at the end of the gallery; retired to their tea and scandal.

- The Double Dealer
 

Common sense is not really so common.

- Antoine Arnauld

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Born in 1694:

• French moral philosopher Francois Arouet, who wrote under the pseudonym "Voltaire".
• Irish philosopher Francis Hutcheson, foil for Adam Smith.
• French physician and economist François Quesnay.
• English poet James Bramston.
• English nobleman Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, leading proponent of palladian architecture.
• English art historian Jonathan Richardson the Younger.
• French composer Louis Claude d'Aquin.
• French Marquis René Louis de Voyer d'Argenson, inventor of the term "Laissez-faire".
• English merchant and philanthropist Ralph Allen, the Man of Bath, inspiration for Henry Fielding's Squire Allworthy.
• Paul Francis Danei, founder of the Roman Catholic Passionist Order, later canonized as St. Paul of the Cross.
• Praskovia Ivanovna Romanova, fifth daughter of Ivan V. His poor wife...
• Philip Dormer Stanhope, future Earl of Chesterfield
• Scottish general Lord George Murray, leader of two Jacobite victories, the 1745 Battle of Prestonpans and the 1746 battle of Falkirk.
• Japanese poet and painter Yuri.

Died in 1694:

• Queen Mary II of England, of smallpox; her husband William III rules by himself.
• French theologian and Jansenist philosopher Antoine Arnauld.
• German lawyer and moral philosopher Samuel von Pufendorf.
• Italian physician, botanist, and pioneering microscopist Marcello Malpighi.
• Japanese poet Matsuo Basho.
• French sculptor and architect Pierre Puget.
• Austrian composer Johann Jacob Prinner.
• French mathematician Ismael Boulliau.
• French clergyman, astronomer and mathematician Gabriel Mouton.
• Tsarina Natalia Cyrilovna Narishkina, mother of Tsar Peter the Great. Peter takes an interest in actually ruling Russia.
• Japanese painter Hishikawa Moronobu.
• Safavid shah of Iran Sulayman I. Sultan Hosain succeeds him.
• Venetian General Captain Francesco Morosini, briefly Doge of Venice.

Events of 1694:

• William Congreve's play The Double Dealer premeires, with incidental music by Henry Purcell.
• A university is founded in Halle, Brandenburg-Prussia.
• King William's War/the Nine Years' War/War of the Leage of Augsburg continues in Europe and America:
• 250 Abenaki warriors, on the advice of French advisor Sebastien de Villieu, descend on Oyster River Plantation in New Hampshire (now (Durham, NH|Durham]) and kill one-third of the inhabitants, burn all the crops, and kill all the livestock on the plantation.
• William III grants William Patterson a charter for the Bank of England after Patterson makes a substantial contribution to the war effort.  This also allows William to borrow as much as he wants for the war.
• William, by royal proclamation, outlaws privateering without letters of marque. As a consequence, English ships may not fly St. George's Cross or the Union Jack without such letters.
• Bad weather causes poor harvests in France.  Of course, taxes are not reduced, and famine and plague strike the peasantry. The only relief comes when Admiral Jean Bart captures 30 Dutch grain ships after the Battle of Texel.
• The Anglo-Dutch fleet besieges Dunkirk.
• Victor Amadeus, duke of Savoy, captures Casale and Pinerolo from the French.
• The Triennial Act declares that a new English Parliament should meet at least once every three years. Admiral Bart holds them off, and the siege continues until the end of the war.
• The Dutch move one of their political prisoners, Sheikh Yusuf al-taj al Khalwatial-Maqasari, from Ceylon to the Cape Colony.  Because of his presence, Islamic slaves in the Colony refuse to convert to Christianity.
• The Shroud of Turin is moved to the specially-built chapel where it now resides.

1693 - 1694 - 1695

How They Were Made - 17th Century