• 13 January –
Princess Anne returns to court to act as royal hostess. • April – Parliament decides not to renew the
Licensing Order of 1643 requiring press
censorship. • 30 April –
William Congreve's comedy
Love for Love opens the
New Theatre, Lincoln's Inn Fields. • 3 May –
Parliament passes the
Corrupt Practices Act to tackle bribery in
general elections. • 16 May –
Thomas Tenison enthroned as
Archbishop of Canterbury, the first Primate of All England since the
Reformation to be installed in person at
Canterbury Cathedral. • 24 June – a commission of enquiry into the
Massacre of Glencoe reports to Parliament, blaming Sir
John Dalrymple,
Secretary of State over Scotland, and declares that a soldier should refuse to obey a "command against the law of nature". • 1 September •
Nine Years' War:
France surrenders
Namur in the
Spanish Netherlands to forces of the
Grand Alliance led by King
William III of England following the 2-month
Siege of Namur. • 7 September – English
pirate Henry Every in the
Fancy perpetrates one of the most profitable raids in history with the capture of the Grand Mughal ship
Ganj-i-Sawai. In response, Emperor
Aurangzeb threatens to put an end to all English trading in India. • November –
general election results in victory for the
Whigs. • 31 December – the
window tax is imposed.
Undated •
Quakers Act ("An Act that the Solemne Affirmation & Declaration of the People called Quakers shall be accepted instead of an Oath in the usual Forme") permits
Quakers (who conscientiously object to taking an
oath) to substitute an
affirmation in certain legal proceedings. •
Wren Library, Cambridge, the library of
Trinity College, designed by
Christopher Wren, is completed. ==Births==