1698

Events

January 4 - Palace of Whitehall in London is destroyed by fire.
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.
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 Romania.
Mombasa and Zanzibar are captured by Oman.
George I of Great Britain becomes Elector of Hanover.