1688

January–June

• March - William Dampier makes the first recorded visit to Christmas Island.
• March 1 - A great fire devastates Bungay, England.
• April 3 - Francesco Morosini becomes Doge of Venice.
• April 10 - Morean War: The Venetian forces under Francesco Morosini evacuate Athens and Piraeus.
• April 18 - The Germantown Quaker Protest Against Slavery is drafted by four Germantown Quakers.
• April 29 - Friedrich Wilhelm, the Great Elector of Brandenburg-Prussia, dies. Friedrich III becomes Elector of Brandenburg-Prussia until 1701, when he becomes the first King of Prussia, as Friedrich I.
• May 4 - King James II of England orders his Declaration of Indulgence, suspending penal laws against Catholics, to be read from every Anglican pulpit in England. The Church of England and its staunchest supporters, the peers and gentry, are outraged; on June 8 the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Sancroft, is imprisoned in the Tower of London for refusing to proclaim it.
• May 10 - King Narai of Ayutthaya nominates Princess Sudawadi as his successor, with Constantine Phaulkon, Mom Pi and Phetracha acting as joint regents.
• May 17 - The arrest of King Narai of Ayutthaya launches a coup d'état.
• June 5 - Constantine Phaulkon is arrested; he is later beheaded.
• June 10 - The birth of James Francis Edward Stuart, son and heir to James II of England and his Catholic wife Mary of Modena, at St James's Palace in London, increases public disquiet about a Catholic dynasty, particularly when the baby is baptised into the Catholic faith. Rumours about his true maternity swiftly begin to circulate.
• June 24 - French forces under Chevalier de Beauregard abandon their garrison at Mergui, following repeated Siamese attacks; this ultimately leads to their withdrawal from the country.
• June 30 - A high-powered conspiracy of notables invite Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange and Princess Mary to "defend the liberties of England", and depose King James VII and II.

  July–December

• July 13 - The Siege of Negroponte by the Venetians begins.
• August 1 - Phetracha becomes king of Ayutthaya, after a coup d'état.
• September 6 - Great Turkish War: The Habsburg army captures Belgrade.
• October 21 - The Venetians raise the Siege of Negroponte.
• October 27 - King James II of England dismisses his minister Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland.
• November 11 - Glorious Revolution: William III of Orange sets sail a second time from Hellevoetsluis, the Netherlands, to take over England, Scotland and Ireland from King James II of England.
• November 15 - The Glorious Revolution begins: William of Orange lands at Torbay, England with a multinational force of 15,000 mercenaries. He makes no claim to the British Crown, saying only that he has come to save Protestantism and to maintain English liberty, and begins a march on London.
• November 19 - William of Orange captures Exeter, after the magistrates flee the city.
• November 20 - The Wincanton Skirmish between forces loyal to James II led by Patrick Sarsfield and a party of Dutch troops is one of the few armed clashes in England during the Glorious Revolution.
• November 23 - A group of 1,500 Old Believers immolate themselves to avoid capture, when troops of the tsar lay siege to their monastery on Lake Onega.
• November 26 - Hearing that William of Orange has landed in England, Louis XIV declares war on the Netherlands. Perhaps revealingly, he does not attack the Netherlands, but instead strikes at the heart of the Holy Roman Empire, with about 100,000 soldiers. The Nine Years' War begins in Europe and America.
• December 7 - : The shutting of the gates in Derry in a stained glass window of the Guildhall The gates of Derry were shut in front of the Jacobite Earl of Antrim and his "redshanks". This initiated the Siege of Derry which was the first major event in the Williamite War in Ireland.
• December 9 - The Battle of Reading takes place in Reading, Berkshire. It is the only substantial military action in England during the Glorious Revolution and ends in a decisive victory for forces loyal to William of Orange.
• December 11 - Having led his army to Salisbury and been deserted by his troops, James VII and II attempts to flee to France.
• December 18 - William of Orange enters London.

  Date unknown

• The Austrians incite the Chiprovtsi Uprising, against the Ottomans in Bulgaria.
• Edward Lloyd opens the London coffee house that soon becomes a popular meeting place for shipowners, merchants, insurance brokers and underwriters. In time the business association they form will outgrow the coffee house premises, and become Lloyd's of London.
• Neuruppin becomes a Prussian garrison town.
• Johann Weikhard von Valvasor becomes a member of the Royal Society.
• Antonio Verrio begins work on the Heaven Room at Burghley House.
• The earliest known mention of the balalaika is made.