1693

January–June

• January 11 - 1693 Sicily earthquake: Mount Etna erupts, causing a devastating earthquake that affects parts of Sicily and Malta.
• February 8 - The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia is granted a Royal charter, from King William III and Queen Mary II of England.
• May 18 - Forces of Louis XIV of France attack Heidelberg, capital of the Electorate of the Palatinate.
• May 22 - Heidelberg is taken by the invading French forces; on May 23 Heidelberg Castle is surrendered, after which the French blow up its towers using mines.
• June 27 - Nine Years' War - Battle of Lagos off Portugal: The French fleet defeats the joint Dutch and English fleet.

  July–December

• July 29 - Nine Years' War - Battle of Landen: William III of England is defeated by the French.
• October 11 - Charleroi falls to French forces.
• October - William Congreve's comedy The Double-Dealer is first performed in London.

  Date unknown

• China concentrates all its foreign trade on Canton; European ships are taken apart and burned, to help keep the lions warm.
• A religious schism takes place in Switzerland, within a group of Swiss and Alsatian Anabaptists led by Jakob Ammann. Those who follow Ammann become the Mennonite Amish sect.
• The Knights of the Apocalypse are formed in Italy.
• The Academia Operosorum Labacensium is established in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
• Financier Richard Hoare relocates Hoare's Bank from Cheapside to Fleet Street in London.
• Italian barber Giovanni Paolo Feminis creates a perfume water called Aqua Admirabilis, earliest known form of eau de Cologne.
• John Locke publishes his influential book Some Thoughts Concerning Education.
• William Penn publishes his proposal for European federation, Essay on the Present and Future Peace of Europe.
• Dimitrie Cantemir presents his Kitâbu 'İlmi'l-Mûsiki alâ Vechi'l-Hurûfât to Sultan Ahmed II, which deals with melodic and rhythmic structure and practice of Ottoman music, and contains the scores for around 350 works composed during and before his own time, in an alphabetical notation system he invented.

  Births

• February 7 - Empress Anna of Russia
• February 24 - James Quin, English actor
• March 5 - Johann Jakob Wettstein, Swiss theologian
• March 7 - Pope Clement XIII
• March 16 - Malhar Rao Holkar, Indian nobleman
• March 24 - John Harrison, English clockmaker
• April 3 - George Edwards, English naturalist
• June 17 - Johann Georg Walch, German theologian
• July 21 - Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• August 8 - Laurent Belissen, French composer
• September 3 - Charles Radclyffe, British politician
• September 21 - Thomas Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury

  Deaths

• January 6 - Mehmed IV, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
• January 7 - Federico Visconti, Cardinal Archbishop of Milan
• January 8 - Marguerite de la Sablière, French salonist and polymath
• January 31 - Ahasuerus Fromanteel, English clockmaker
• February 7 - Paul Pellisson, French writer
• February 9 - William Turner, British politician
• February 11 - John de Brito, Portuguese Jesuit missionary and martyr
• February 13
• * Johann Caspar Kerll, German composer
• * John Rashleigh, English politician
• February 22 - Henrik Horn, Swedish military leader and noble
• March 21 - Walter Chetwynd, English antiquary, politician
• April 4 - Isaac Aboab da Fonseca, Portuguese Sephardic rabbi
• April 5
• * Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier, French writer
• * Christian Scriver, German hymnwriter
• April 9 - Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy, French writer
• April 17 - Rutger von Ascheberg, Courland-born soldier in Swedish service
• April 20 - Claudio Coello, Spanish Baroque painter
• April 30 - George Louis I, Count of Erbach-Erbach
• May 2 - Ernest, Landgrave of Hesse-Rheinfels and later of Hessen-Rheinfels-Rotenburg
• May 3 - Claude de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, French courtier
• May 13 - Thomas Jervoise, English politician
• May 8 - Jan Verkolje, Dutch painter
• May 25 - Madame de La Fayette, French writer
• June 2 - John Wildman, English soldier and politician
• June 3 - Camille de Neufville de Villeroy, Archbishop of Lyon
• June 20 - Juliana of Hesse-Eschwege, German noblewoman
• June 23 - Sir John Wittewrong, 1st Baronet, English parliamentarian
• July 12
• * John Ashby, English admiral
• * Johan Hadorph, Swedish director-general of the Central Board of National Antiquities
• July 26
• * Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark, Queen of Sweden
• * Johann Daniel Major, German professor of theoretical medicine
• August 7 - John George II, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau
• August 27 - Edward Rawson, American settler
• September 12 - Lionel Copley, Colonial governor of Maryland
• September 13 - Flavio Chigi, Italian Catholic cardinal
• September 19 - Johann Weikhard von Valvasor, Slovenian nobleman and polymath
• October 1 - Pedro Abarca, Spanish theologian
• October 9 - Unshō, Japanese Buddhist scriptural commentator
• October 17 - Charles Schomberg, 2nd Duke of Schomberg, English general
• November 9 - Samuel Hales, Connecticut settler and politician
• November 16 - Francis Marsh, Irish bishop
• November 23 - Job Adriaenszoon Berckheyde, Dutch painter
• November 24 - William Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury
• November 30 - Francesco Lorenzo Brancati di Lauria, Italian Catholic cardinal
• December 12 - Countess Palatine Anna Magdalena of Birkenfeld-Bischweiler, Countess of Hanau-Lichtenberg
• December 14 - Giuseppe Felice Tosi, Italian composer
• December 16 - Jacques Rousseau, French painter
• December 22 - Elisabeth Hevelius, Danzig astronomer
• December 29 - Vere Fane, 4th Earl of Westmorland, England
• date unknown - Lars Nilsson, Sami shaman in Sweden