1698
| Years: 1695 1696 1697 - 1698 - 1699 1700 1701 | |
| Decades: 1660s 1670s 1680s - 1690s - 1700s 1710s 1720s | |
| Centuries: 16th century - 17th century - 18th century 1698 in literature 1698 in music List of state leaders in 1698 | |
Events
- January 4 - Palace of Whitehall in London is destroyed by fire.
- June 19 - Volcano of Carguarazon erupts in the Andes and causes a rain of fish
- August 25 – Peter the Great arrives back to Moscow - general Gordon has already crushed the streltsy rebellion - 341 rebels sentenced to be decapitated. Tradition holds that tsar Peter decapitated some of them himself
- September 5 - In an effort to move his people away from Asiatic customs, Tsar Peter I of Russia imposes a tax on beards; All men except priests and peasants, are required to pay a tax of one hundred rubles a year and the commoners had to pay one kopek each
- Whigs sponsor Captain Kidd of New York as a privateer against French shipping
- Darien Scheme - First Scottish settlers leave for an ill-fated colony in Panama
- Isaac Newton calculates the speed of sound
- Tani Jinzan, astronomer and calendar scholar, observes a fire destroy Tosa (now Kochi) in Japan at the same time as a Leonid Meteor storm, taking it as evidence to reinforce belief in the "Theory of Areas".
- Thomas Savery patents an early steam engine.
- A congress begins in Sremski Karlovci to discuss a treaty between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy League.
- Humphrey Hody is appointed regius professor of Greek at Oxford.
- Bucharest becomes capital of Wallachia (now part of Romania).
- Mombasa and Zanzibar are captured by Oman.
- George Louis (who would in 1714 become King George I of Great Britain) becomes Elector of Hanover.
Births
- February - Colin Maclaurin, Scottish mathematician
- May 8 - Henry Baker, English naturalist
- July 17 - Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, French mathematician
- William Warburton, English critic
- William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire
- Johann Jakob Bodmer, Swiss author
- Metastasio, Italian poet
- Vaclav Prokop Divis, Czech theologian
Deaths
- 23 January - Ernst August, Duke of Brunswick, in Lüneburg
- Nicholas Barbon, English economist
- Louis de Buade de Frontenac, Governor of New France
af:1698 ast:1698 bg:1698 ca:1698 cy:1698 da:1698 de:1698 et:1698 el:1698 es:1698 eo:1698 eu:1698 fr:1698 hr:1698 it:1698 hu:1698 nl:1698 no:1698 pl:1698 pt:1698 ro:1698 ru:1698 sl:1698 sr:1698 fi:1698 sv:1698 tr:1698 uk:1698 zh:1698年