– Iberville and Bienville sail from Brest to the Gulf of Mexico, to defend the southern borders of New France. November 2 – The Darien scheme Scottish settlers land in Panama and establish their ill-fated colony; 80% of them would die within the first year. November 14 – The first Eddystone Lighthouse, built off Plymouth, England, is illuminated. November 14 – The Spanish king Carlos names his grandson Jozef Ferdinand as his heir. November 16 – A congress begins in Sremski Karlovci to discuss a treaty between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy League. November – Tani Jinzan, astronomer and calendar scholar, observes a fire destroy Tosa (now Kōchi) in Japan at the same time as a Leonid meteor shower, taking it as evidence to reinforce belief in the "Theory of Areas". December 8 – King William III of England issues a proclamation of "our most gracious pardon unto all such pirates in the East Indies, viz., all eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, who shall surrender themselves for piracies or robberies committed by them upon sea or land" before April 30, 1699 to Captain Thomas Warren, but specifically "excepting Henry Every, alias Bridgman, and William Kidd. December 9 – Francis Nicholson becomes the new British colonial governor of Virginia, succeeding Sir Edmund Andros. December 12 – Mombasa (referred to at the time as Fort Jesus, and now part of Kenya) falls under control of the Emirate of Oman, with Imam Sa'if ibn Sultan as the first Omani Governor. Date unknown Bucharest becomes the capital of Wallachia (part of modern-day Romania). In Africa, Zanzibar is captured by Oman. The Whigs sponsor Captain Kidd of New York as a privateer against French shipping. Humphrey Hody is appointed regius professor of Greek at Oxford. Ukraine suffers a great famine. Births January–March January 1 Archibald Spencer, businessman (d. 1760) Leonardo VII Tocco, Italian noble, the Prince of Montemiletto and the titular Prince of Achaea (d. 1776) January 3 – Metastasio, (b. Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi), Italian poet and opera librettist (d. 1782) January 7 – Thomas Southwell, 2nd Baron Southwell, Irish peer, politician and freemason (d. 1766) January 21 – Auguste Louise of Württemberg-Oels, Duchess of Württemberg-Oels by birth and by marriage Duchess of Saxe-Weissenfels-Barby (d. 1739) February 4 – Heinrich August de la Motte Fouqué, Prussian Lieutenant general and General der Infanterie and a confidant of King Frederick the Great (d.