Events

• First performance of Racine's tragedy, Phèdre
• Sarah Churchill marries John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
• Battle of Cassel, Philippe I of Orléans defeats William of Orange
• Mary II of England marries William of Orange
• English Statute of frauds is passed into law
• Battle of Landskrona
• Elias Ashmole gifts the collection that begins the Ashmolean Museum to Oxford University
• Francis Aungier is made the first Earl of Longford
• Michel le Tellier becomes chancellor of France
• Sir John Chardin returns to Europe from his travels in Persia
• Second London Baptist Confession written, published in 1689
• Charles II of England makes Henry Purcell court musician.
• Jules Hardouin-Mansart begins la place Vendôme in Paris (completed in 1698).
• Antoni van Leeuwenhoek observes spermatozoa under the microscope.
• The Swedes defeat the Danes, at Rostock and at Landström .
• Population of Paris first exceeds 500,000
• Ice cream becomes popular.

Births

• February 8 - Jacques Cassini, French astronomer (died 1756)
• October 20 - Stanislaus I of Poland

Deaths

• February 21 - Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher
• Isaac Barrow, English mathematician
• Fabian von Fersen, Swedish soldier
• August - Matthew Locke, composer
• Gilbert Sheldon, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1598)
• Duke William Louis of Württemberg
• Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton
• Mathieu Le Nain , French painter