1674 CE

Shivaji Maharaj is crowned as Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj of the Maratha Empire at Raigad Fort in India. As provided in the Treaty of Westminster of February 19, the Dutch Republic cedes its colony of New Netherland to England. This includes the colonial capital, New Orange, which is returned to its English name of New York. The colonies of Surinam, Essequibo and Berbice remain in Dutch hands. As provided in the Treaty of Westminster of 19 February, the Dutch Republic cedes its colony of New Netherland to England. This includes the colonial capital, New Orange, which is returned to its English name of New York.

In the 1670s, the 17th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 15 – The Earl of Arlington, a member of the English House of Commons, is impeached on charges of popery, but the Commons rejects the motion to remove him from office, 127 votes for and 166 against.source
  • 15 January – The Earl of Arlington is impeached by the House of Commons on charges of popery, but the Commons rejects the motion to remove him from office, 127 votes for and 166 against.Englandsource
  • 9 February (19 February New Style) – England and the Dutch Republic sign the Treaty of Westminster ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War.Englandsource
  • February 19 – England and the Netherlands sign the Treaty of Westminster, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. Its provisions come into effect gradually (see November 10).source
  • April 26 – In the Netherlands, the jurisdiction of Willem, Prince of Orange, Stadtholder of Holland (on the west coast, including Amsterdam and Rotterdam) and Zeeland (southwest coast, including Middelburg, Zeeland), increases in the Dutch Republic as his followers in the inland States of Utrecht (Utrecht, Gelderland and Overijssel) designate him as the hereditary stadtholder. In 1689, he becomes the King of England in addition to his role as the Stadtholder of the Netherlands.source
  • September 17 – Sukjong of the Joseon Dynasty, age 13, becomes the new Emperor of Korea upon the death of his father, the Emperor Hyeonjong. Sukjong reigns for more than 45 years until his death on July 12, 1720.source
  • November 10 – As provided in the Treaty of Westminster of February 19, the Dutch Republic cedes its colony of New Netherland to England. This includes the colonial capital, New Orange, which is returned to its English name of New York. The colonies of Surinam, Essequibo and Berbice remain in Dutch hands.source
  • 10 November – as provided in the Treaty of Westminster of 19 February, the Dutch Republic cedes its colony of New Netherland to England. This includes the colonial capital, New Orange, which is returned to its English name of New York.Englandsource
  • The Revolt of the Three Feudatories continuesChinasource
  • Formal diplomatic relations with China.Denmarksource

Conflict & Security

  • January 7 – In the Chinese Empire, General Wu Sangui leads troops into the Giuzhou province, and soon takes control of the entire territory without a loss.source
  • January — Wu Sangui captures GuizhouChinasource
  • March 14 – Third Anglo-Dutch War: Battle of Ronas Voe – The English Royal Navy captures the Dutch East India Company ship Wapen van Rotterdam in Shetland.source
  • 14 March – Third Anglo-Dutch War: Battle of Ronas Voe – the English Royal Navy captures the Dutch East India Company ship Wapen van Rotterdam in Shetland.Englandsource
  • April 24 – In India, Shivaji Bhonsale, the Chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire, captures the Kenjalgad Fort in what is now the Maharashtra state.source
  • July 7 – The Messina revolt against Spanish rule begins on the island of Sicily as the Italian residents besiege the palace of the Spanish Captain-General and drive out the Spanish garrison.source
  • July 16 – In a major battle in the Third Anglo-Dutch War, a large fleet of 18 warships from the Dutch Republic, along with 15 troop transports, nine storeships and 3,400 soldiers, arrives at the island of Martinique in the Caribbean Sea for the purpose of invasion and capture of Martinique from the French colonists. Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, commander of the Dutch forces, waits for four days before coming ashore. The French defenders, under the direction of the Governor, Antoine André de Sainte-Marthe, take advantage of the situation to block the entrances to the harbor and to reinforce troops. The Dutch invasion force is forced to retreat after sustaining heavy losses.source
  • August 1 – The 1674 derecho causes a catastrophic impact in Western Europe. In the Netherlands, the derecho causes over 1,050 deaths and devastates cities such as Utrecht and Amsterdam.source
  • August 11 – The French army under Prince Louis, Grand Condé fights the Dutch–Spanish–Imperial army under William III of Orange at Seneffe in a very bloody, but inconclusive battle.source
  • August 11 – Battle of Seneffe: The French army under Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé defeats the Dutch–Spanish–Austrian army under William III of Orange.Francesource
  • September 27 – French Navy Commander Jean-Baptiste de Valbelle arrives at Sicily during the Messina revolt to help the Messinese expel the last Spanish defenders, taking the fort at Faro in the harbor entrance.source
  • October 4 – The Battle of Entzheim takes place in France with 35,000 Holy Roman Empire troops and 22,000 French defenders during the Franco-Dutch War, with the forces fighting near Entzheim south of Strasbourg. While the battle is inconclusive, the outnumbered French win a strategic victory by keeping the Germans from entering French territory. Most of the former battlefield now lies beneath the Strasbourg International Airport.source
  • October 27 – The town of Grave surrenders to a Dutch army after a difficult siege.source
  • Zheng Jing, ruler of the Kingdom of Tungning, leads a 150,000 strong army from Taiwan and lands in Fujian to join the rebel forcesChinasource
  • In accordance with the treaty with France, Sweden invades Brandenburg.Swedensource
  • The fortifications of Landskrona by Erik Dahlbergh is completed.Swedensource

Exploration & Expansion

  • July 4 – A Dutch fleet under Cornelis Tromp Captures the island of Noirmoutier on the French coast. For nearly three weeks, the Dutch occupied the French island and the Dutch fleet captured many French ships in the meantime. The whole coastline from Brest to Bayonne was in turmoil, and French forces gathered to prevent the Dutch from landing. On 23 July the island of Noirmoutier was however abandoned after the Dutch blew up the castle and demolished the coastal batteries.source
  • December 4 – Father Jacques Marquette, along with Pierre Poteret and Jacque Poteret, sails southward along the shore of Lake Michigan, accompanied by nine canoes of Indians from the Potawatomi tribe, and comes ashore at what is now Chicago. The three missionaries, the first Europeans to explore the area, camp there for the winter. Marquette notes in his journal "The land bordering it is of now value, except on the prairies," and adds "There are eight to ten quite fine rivers." A historical marker is now erected on the site of the landing. Father Marquette founds a mission (which will in time grow into the city of Chicago) on the shores of Lake Michigan, in order to create a Christian ministry to convent Native Americans in the Illinois Confederation.source

Religion & Belief

  • July 17 – Two skeletons of children are discovered by workmen repairing a staircase at the White Tower (Tower of London), and believed at this time to be the remains of the Princes in the Tower. The urns containing the bones are interred in 1678 in Westminster Abbey, with an inscription in Latin that states "Here lie interred the remains of Edward V, King of England, and Richard, Duke of York, whose long desired and much sought after bones, after over a hundred and ninety years, were found interred deep beneath the rubble of the stairs that led up to the Chapel of the White Tower, on the 17 of July in the Year of Our Lord 1674."source
  • 17 July – two skeletons of children are discovered at the White Tower (Tower of London) and believed at this time to be the remains of the Princes in the Tower. The remains are subsequently buried in Westminster Abbey.Englandsource
  • December 4 – Father Jacques Marquette founds a mission on the shores of Lake Michigan to minister to the Illinois Confederation (which will in time grow into the city of Chicago).Francesource
  • Johan Frederik von Marschalck was elected Chancellor of Norway. He served as the last Chancellor of Norway, until his death in 1679.Norwaysource
  • De jure sveonum et gothorum vetusto by Johan Stiernhöök.Swedensource

Economy & Finance

  • January 2 – The French West India Company is dissolved after less than 10 years.source
  • The first Dutch West India Company is dissolved.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • 26 March – Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, re-opens, having been rebuilt after a fire in 1672.Englandsource

Health & Medicine

  • April 10 – In the Ahom kingdom in what is now the northeastern Indian state of Assam, Chamaguriya Khamjang Konwar is installed by the Chief Minister, the Borbarua Debera, as the figurehead King of Ahom. He takes the regnal name Suhung and makes plans to have Debera killed. On April 30, Debera, having learned of the King's intentions, succeeds in having the royal physician poison Suhung's medicine, and installs another ruler.source
  • May 5 – The Hospital and Free School of King Charles II opens in Dublin.Irelandsource

Crime & Justice

  • October 15 – The Torsåker witch trials begin in the Torsåker Parish in Sweden, with over 100 men and women accused of witchcraft and the abduction of children. On June 1, 1675, the mass beheading of the 71 people convicted takes place at Häxberget, 65 of whom are women. The others are two men and four boys.source
  • Foundation of the eldest auction chamber in Stockholm: Stockholms Auctions- och Adresse Cammare.Swedensource

Disasters & Accidents

Culture & Society

  • January 19 – The tragic opera Alceste, by Jean-Baptiste Lully, is performed for the first time, presented by the Paris Opera company at the Theatre du Palais-Royal in Paris.source
  • May 21 – John III Sobieski is elected by the nobility, as King of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (to 1696).source
  • June 6 – Shivaji Maharaj is crowned as Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj of the Maratha Empire at Raigad Fort in India.source
  • June 12 – The British East India Company arranges a commercial treaty with the Maratha Empire after Henry Oxenden, the company's deputy governor, meets Emperor Shivaji for his recent coronation.source
  • 12 June – the British East India Company arranges a commercial treaty with the Maratha Empire after Henry Oxenden, the company's deputy governor, meets Emperor Shivaji at his recent coronation.Englandsource
  • October 4 – A second coronation is held by the Maratha Empire for the Chhatrapati Shivaji Bhonsle, after the Vedic priest Nischal Puri Goswami decides that the June 18 coronation was "held under inauspicious stars".source
  • Lorenzo Magalotti publishes his book about his travel in Sweden, Sverige under år 1674.Swedensource
  • Gustav Düben publishes his composition of the poem of Samuel Columbus, Odæ Sveticæ.Swedensource
  • The building of the Swedish House of Lords in Stockholm is completed.Swedensource

Births

  • January 12 – Alexis Simon Belle, French portrait painter (died 1734)source
  • January 15 – Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon, French writer (died 1762)source
  • January 24 – Thomas Tanner, English bishop and antiquarian (died 1735)source
  • 8 February – Henry Sacheverell, churchman and politician (died 1724)Englandsource
  • March – Jethro Tull, English agriculturist (died 1741)source
  • 14 April - Magnus Julius De la Gardie, general and politician (died 1641)Swedensource
  • June 3 – Matthias Buchinger, German artist (died 1740)source
  • July 12 – Abigail Williams, American accuser in the Salem witch trials (died 1765)source
  • July 17 – Isaac Watts, English hymnist (died 1748)source
  • August 2 – Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, regent of France (died 1723)source
  • August 16 – Catharine Trotter Cockburn, English novelist, dramatist and philosopher (died 1749)source
  • August 19 – František Maxmilián Kaňka, Czech architect (died 1766)source
  • 5 December – Iver Rosenkrantz, statesman and landowner (died 1745)Denmarksource
  • December 25 – Thomas Halyburton, Scottish theologian (died 1712)source
  • Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington, Prime Minister of Great Britain (died 1743)source
  • Jeremiah Clarke, English baroque composer (suicide 1707)source
  • Yunreng (6 June 1674 – 27 January 1725), born Yinreng, a Manchu prince of the Qing dynasty. He was the second among the Kangxi Emperor's sons to survive into adulthood and was designated as Crown Prince for two terms between 1675 and 1712 before being deposedChinasource

Deaths

  • 5 January - Ebba Brahe, landowner and the love interest of Gustavus Adolphus (born 1596)Swedensource
  • 13 February – Jean de Labadie, pianist (born 1610)Denmarksource
  • March 15 – Edward Digges, English barrister and colonist, Colonial Governor of Virginia (born 1620)source
  • March 19 – Queen Inseon, Korean royal consort (born 1619)source
  • March 23 – Henry Cromwell, 4th son of Oliver Cromwell and Elizabeth Bourchier (born 1628)source
  • April 18 – John Graunt, English demographer (born 1620)source
  • June 25 – Mauritia Eleonora of Portugal, Princess of Portugal and countess consort of Nassau-Siegen (born 1609)source
  • July 29 – Eva Krotoa, Khoi translator and interpreter (born 1643)source
  • August 8 – Maeda Toshitsugu, Japanese daimyō of the early Edo period (born 1617)source
  • September 12 – Nicolaes Tulp, Dutch anatomist and politician (born 1593)source
  • September 17 – Hyeonjong of Joseon, 18th monarch of the Korean Joseon Dynasty (born 1641)source
  • September 27 – Robert Arnauld d'Andilly, French writer (born 1589)source
  • October 2 – George Frederick of Nassau-Siegen, officer in the Dutch Army (born 1606)source
  • 12 October – Finn-Kirsten was executed by burning at the stake. She was the last person to be executed for witchcraft in Trøndelag.Norwaysource
  • October 15 – Robert Herrick, English poet (born 1591)source
  • November 8 – John Milton, English Puritan poet (born 1608)source
  • December 9 – Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English statesman and historian (born 1609)source
  • Geng Jingzhong declares a rebellion in Fujian, forces Fujian Governor General Fan Chengmo to commit suicideChinasource