1668 CE

The Bawdy House Riots of 1668 take place in London when a group of English Dissenters begins attacking brothels, initially as a protest against the harsh enforcement of laws against private worshippers and the lack of enforcement of laws against prostitution. Over a period of three days, rioters who join in the violence destroy brothels in the London districts of Poplar, Moorfields, East Smithfield, St Leonard's, Shoreditch, St Andrew's and Holborn. King Charles II of England signs an agreement with representatives of the English East India Company to lease the Indian city of Bombay (modern-day Mumbai) to the company for a rent of 10 pounds sterling per year, with transfer taking effect on September 21. William Penn imprisoned for nearly 8 months in the Tower of London for writing a pamphlet attacking Trinitarian doctrine.

In the 1660s, the 17th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 23 – The Triple Alliance of 1668 is formed between England, Sweden and the United Provinces of the Netherlands.source
  • 23 January – England signs the Triple Alliance with the Dutch Republic and Sweden.Englandsource
  • February 13 – In Lisbon, a peace treaty is established between Afonso VI of Portugal and Carlos II of Spain, by mediation of Charles II of England, in which the legitimacy of the Portuguese monarch is recognized. Portugal yields Ceuta to Spain.source
  • 13 February – Charles II mediates a peace treaty between Spain and Portugal.Englandsource
  • 13 April – John Dryden becomes Poet Laureate.Englandsource
  • April 24 – The Treaty of Breda, signed in 1667 and ending the Second Anglo-Dutch War, goes into effect worldwide.source
  • April 25 – The Swedish Empire signs a treaty with England and the Dutch Republic to join the Triple Alliance.source
  • April 25 – The Swedish Empire signs a treaty in Westminster to join England and the Dutch Republic in the Triple Alliance, a coalition formed to halt the expansion of Louis XIV of France during the War of DevolutionSwedensource
  • May 2 – The first Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the War of Devolution.source
  • June 4 – Tangier, a city in Morocco that had come under control of the English colonial empire in 1661, is elevated by the English crown to the status of "free city".source
  • September 16 – Jan II Kazimierz Waza abdicates his titles of King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania after a 20-year reign.source
  • November 8 – Iliaș Alexandru steps down as the voivode or elected ruler of Moldavia (now part of Romania and the Republic of Moldova) and is replaced by his predecessor, Gheorghe Duca.source
  • December 28 – Fritz Cronman arrives in Moscow as the Swedish Empire's ambassador to the Russian Empire, accompanied by a staff of 35 people.source
  • December 28 – The Swedish ambassador Fritz Cronman arrives in Moscow to represent the Swedish Empire at the court of the Russian Empire.Swedensource
  • The Forest of Dean is re-established as a royal forest.Englandsource
  • Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery, resigns the office of Lord President of Munster on account of disputes with James Butler, Duke of Ormonde, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.Irelandsource

Conflict & Security

  • March 8 – In the Cretan War, the navy of the Republic of Venice defeats an Ottoman Empire naval force of 12 ships and 2,000 galleys that had attempted to seize a small Venetian galley near the port of Agia Pelagia.source
  • March 22 – Notable Privateer Henry Morgan lands in Cuba to raid and plunder the inland town of Puerto del Príncipe during the latter stages of the Anglo-Spanish War (1654–1660).source
  • March 23 – The Bawdy House Riots of 1668 take place in London when a group of English Dissenters begins attacking brothels, initially as a protest against the harsh enforcement of laws against private worshippers and the lack of enforcement of laws against prostitution. Over a period of three days, rioters who join in the violence destroy brothels in the London districts of Poplar, Moorfields, East Smithfield, St Leonard's, Shoreditch, St Andrew's and Holborn.source
  • April 21 – Henry Brouncker is expelled from the English House of Commons for treason during the 1665 Battle of Lowestoft during the Second Anglo-Dutch War.source
  • 7 May – Queen Catherine miscarries.Englandsource
  • June 18 – Petro Doroshenko is proclaimed by the Russian Empire as the hetman of all of Ukraine, after having previously been granted leadership of the western half. Ivan Briukhovetsky, who had ruled the eastern half and then led an uprising, is executed on the same day.source
  • 27 July – Bombay is granted to the East India Company.Indiasource
  • September 21 – The British East India Company takes over Bombay under a Royal Charter of March 27.source
  • 21 September – The British East India Company takes over Bombay under a Royal Charter of 27 March.Englandsource
  • September 28 – Diego de Salcedo is overthrown from his position as the Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines in a coup d'etat led by Juan Manuel de la Peña Bonifaz. Salcedo and other members of his administration are jailed and then sent into exile from Luzon to the island of Panay, and his fortune is confiscated.source
  • October 5 (September 25 O.S.) – The English blockade of the Moroccan port of Salé begins as HMS Garland and HMS Francis retaliate for raids from the port by the Barbary pirates. The blockade lasts for 10 days.source
  • December 16 – In China, the 1661 edict of the "Great Clearance", the forcible evacuation of the coastal areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangnan, and Shandong in order to fight a rebellion, is rescinded by the Kangxi Emperor after lobbying by Zhou Youde, the Viceroy of Liangguang.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • March 27 – King Charles II of England signs an agreement with representatives of the English East India Company to lease the Indian city of Bombay (modern-day Mumbai) to the company for a rent of 10 pounds sterling per year, with transfer taking effect on September 21.source
  • June 16 – A group of Spanish Jesuit missionaries become the first European settlers to arrive at the island of Guam, founding a mission to convert the Chamorro people of the Mariana Islands to Christianity.source
  • 1 September - The ship 'Constantinople Merchant' reaches the coast of Surat with a royal charter granting the Port and Island of Bombay to the English East India Company.Indiasource
  • October 7 – French Jesuit missionary Jean Pierron arrives at the Mohawk Nation city of Tionondogen (near modern-day Palatine, New York, U.S.) to replace Jacques Frémin in attempting to convert members of the Iroquois tribe to Christianity.source
  • The Qing revoke the trading privileges of the DutchChinasource

Religion & Belief

  • January 28 – Lund University is officially inaugurated with great ceremony in Lund Cathedral on the King's name day.Swedensource
  • April 22 – Tenzin Dalai Khan is proclaimed as the new Protector King of Tibet by the 5th Dalai Lama, following the death of Tenzin's father, Dayan Khan.source
  • July 7 – Bishop Isaac Barrow founds the Bishop Barrow Trust with the intention of establishing a university on the Isle of Man; this becomes King William's College.source
  • December 6 – The Order of the Jesuati, founded in 1360 by Giovanni Colombini, is abolished by Pope Clement IX.source
  • December – William Penn imprisoned for nearly 8 months in the Tower of London for writing a pamphlet attacking Trinitarian doctrine.Englandsource
  • c. February – The English Parliament and bishops seek to suppress Thomas Hobbes' treatise Leviathan.source
  • Emperor Yohannes I of Ethiopia convenes a church council in Gondar, which decides to expel all Roman Catholics from the country.source
  • Tianhou Temple (Anping) built in TaiwanChinasource

Economy & Finance

  • September 17 – Riksens Ständers Bank (The Bank of the Estates of the Realm), the oldest central bank in the world, is established in Stockholm to replace the failed Stockholms Banco.Swedensource
  • One of the world's earliest central banks, the Sveriges Riksbank, is founded in Stockholm, Sweden.source
  • The contents of the national treasury totals 14,930,000 taels Emperor of China: Self-Portrait of K'ang-HsiChinasource

Science & Discovery

  • English scientist Isaac Newton builds the first reflecting telescope (Newton's reflector).source
  • Isaac Newton builds the first reflecting telescope (Newton's reflector)Englandsource

Health & Medicine

  • The Imperial Edict banning footbinding is revoked when determined to be unenforceableChinasource
  • The Qing government decreed a prohibition of non-Eight Banner people getting into Northeast China. Han Chinese were banned from settling in this region but the rule was openly violated and Han Chinese became a majority in urban areas by the early 19th century.Chinasource

Crime & Justice

  • July 10 – Henry Morgan's raid on Porto Bello: Welsh privateer Henry Morgan and 450 men under his command plunder the city of Portobello on the Isthmus of Panama and spend 14-days in the attack before withdrawing.source
  • July – The Mora witch trial begins in Dalarna after accusations by a young shepherd girl, Gertrud Svensdotter. This marks the start of the "Great Noise" (Det stora oväsendet), a period of mass witch-hunt hysteria that lasted until 1676.Swedensource
  • George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, probably originates the field sport of organised fox hunting in England with The Bilsdale Hunt in Yorkshire.Englandsource

Disasters & Accidents

  • October 31 – The English ship HMS Providence is wrecked at Tangier on the North African coast.source

Climate & Environment

  • July 25 – The magnitude 8.5 Shandong earthquake kills at least 43,000 people in China's Shandong province.source
  • July 25 — 50,000+ killed in the 8.5 magnitude 1668 Tancheng earthquake in ShandongChinasource
  • August 17 – The magnitude 8.0 North Anatolia earthquake causes 8,000 deaths in northern Anatolia, Ottoman Empire, and is the most powerful earthquake recorded in Turkey.source

Culture & Society

  • April (traditional date) – Actress Nell Gwyn becomes the King's mistress.Englandsource
  • May 18 – Charles Sedley's comedy The Mulberry-Garden premieres at the Theatre Royal in London.source
  • May – The King's former mistress, Barbara Castlemaine, leaves the Court and is pensioned.Englandsource
  • June 12 – John Dryden's play An Evening's Love, or The Mock Astrologer premieres at the Theatre Royal in London in a performance by the King's Company players for King Charles and Queen Catherine.source
  • September 9 – Molière's comedy The Miser (L'Avare) is first performed, in Paris.source
  • 1668 or 1669 – James, Duke of York, the heir to the throne, secretly takes Eucharist in the Roman Catholic Church.Englandsource
  • Richard Duckworth's Tintinnalogia, or, the Art of Ringing, the first work on change ringing, is compiled and published complete by Fabian Stedman in London.Englandsource

Births

  • May 8 – Alain-René Lesage, French writer (died 1747)source
  • June 23 – Giambattista Vico, Italian philosopher and historian (died 1744)source
  • July 21 – Frederick Heinrich of Saxe-Zeitz-Pegau-Neustadt (died 1713)source
  • September 2 – Margareta von Ascheberg, Swedish noblewoman and land owner (died 1753).Swedensource
  • September 8 – Giorgio Baglivi, Armenian doctor and writer (died 1707)source
  • 13 October – Frederik Christian Adeler, Supreme Court justice, county governor and landowner (died 1726)Denmarksource
  • October 18 – John George IV, Elector of Saxony (died 1694)source
  • October 30 – Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, sister of King George I of Great Britain (died 1705)source
  • November 10 – Louis III, Prince of Condé (died 1710)source
  • November 10 – François Couperin, French composer (died 1733)source
  • November 11 – Johann Albert Fabricius, German scholar (died 1736)source
  • November 27 – Henri François d'Aguesseau, Chancellor of France (died 1751)source
  • November 30 – William August, Duke of Saxe-Eisenach (died 1671)source
  • December 11 – Apostolo Zeno, Italian poet and journalist (died 1750)source
  • December 31 – Herman Boerhaave, Dutch humanist and physician (died 1738)source
  • December (baptised) – Sarah Fyge Egerton, poet (died 1723)Englandsource
  • date unknown – Stokkseyrar-Dísa, Icelandic Galdrmistress (died 1728)source
  • Imperial Noble Consort Quehui (1668 – 24 April 1743), of the Manchu Bordered Yellow Banner Tunggiya clan, was a consort of the Kangxi EmperorChinasource

Deaths

  • January 6 – Luis de Benavides Carrillo, Marquis of Caracena (born 1608)source
  • 17 January – George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, fights a duel with Francis Talbot, 11th Earl of Shrewsbury (with whose wife he was having an affair) in which the latter is fatally wounded and a second is killed.Englandsource
  • February 21 – John Thurloe, English Puritan spy (born 1616)source
  • April 21 – Jan Boeckhorst, Flemish painter (born c. 1604)source
  • May 1 – Frans Luycx, Flemish painter (born 1604)source
  • May 8 – Catherine of St. Augustine, French nun and nurse of New France (born 1632)source
  • May 21 – Christoph Delphicus zu Dohna, Prussian-born Swedish soldier, diplomat (born 1628)source
  • June 20 – Heinrich Roth, German Sanskrit scholar (born 1620)source
  • 26 July - Hans Svane, statesman (born 1606)Denmarksource
  • August 23 – Artus Quellinus the Elder, Flemish sculptor (born 1609)source
  • September 16 – Jan Miense Molenaer, Dutch painter (born 1610)source
  • September 19 – Sir William Waller, English Civil War general (born c. 1635)source
  • October 12 – Zacharias Wagenaer, secretary, painter, then merchant and administrator (Dutch East-India Company) (born 1614)source
  • October 13 – Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland, English military leader (born 1602)source
  • November 17 – Joseph Alleine, English non-conformist preacher (born 1634)source
  • December 3 – William Cecil, 2nd Earl of Salisbury, English earl (born 1591)source
  • Fang Weiyi (1585-1668, 方維儀) a Chinese poet, calligrapher, painter and literature historianChinasource
  • Johan Palmstruch, founder of Stockholms Banco (born 1611).Swedensource