1675 CE

John Sassamon, an English-educated Native American Christian, dies at Assawampsett Pond, an event which will trigger a year-long war between the English American colonists of New England, and the Algonquian Native American tribes. English merchant Anthony de la Roché, blown off course after rounding Cape Horn eastabout, makes the first discovery of land south of the Antarctic Convergence, landing on South Georgia and (probably) Gough Island. King Charles II of England places the foundation stone of the Royal Greenwich Observatory near London; construction begins.

In the 1670s, the 17th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • April 13 – King Charles II of England suspends Parliament after just nine weeks when the members refuse to vote additional funding to him.source
  • 13 April – Parliament refuses to vote funds for Charles II and is suspended after sitting for just nine weeks.Englandsource
  • April 27 – Lê Hy Tông becomes the new Emperor of Vietnam at the age of 12, after being appointed as a figurehead by the warlord Trịnh Tạc upon the death of Lê Gia Tông.source
  • June 14 – Colonial authorities of Rhode Island, Plymouth, and Massachusetts attempt a negotiation with Metacomet (King Philip), leader of the Wampanoags, and seek guarantees of fidelity from the Nipmuck and Narragansett tribes. The negotiations end after 11 days, closing on June 25.source
  • July 15 – The Narragansett tribe signs a peace treaty with Connecticut.source
  • 27 August – The Strasbourg Agreement, first international agreement to ban use of chemical weaponsFrancesource
  • September 18 – The Narragansetts sign a treaty with the English in Boston; meanwhile, Massachusetts troops are ambushed near Northampton, Massachusetts.source
  • November 2 – Commissioners of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Plymouth Colony (which are later merged into Massachusetts) begin a 10-day discussion on organizing a united force to attack the Narragansett tribe.source
  • The Revolt of the Three Feudatories continuesChinasource
  • Law on the right to draft Romani males to military service.Swedensource

Conflict & Security

  • January 5 – Franco-Dutch War – Battle of Turckheim: The French defeat Austria and Brandenburg.source
  • February 11 – French Army Marshal Louis Victor de Rochechouart, Count of Vivonne, reinforces the rebels in the Messina revolt with eight additional warships and three fireships to bring to 20 the number of ships that France has against the 15 warships of Spain, and breaks the Spanish blockade that had prevented food from reaching Messina.source
  • 25 March – loss of HMY Mary off Anglesey; 35 die.Englandsource
  • April 20 – An uprising by the Chahars in the Chinese Empire region of Inner Mongolia, led by brothers Abunai Khan and Lubuzung Khan with 3,000 followers, is harshly put down by Imperial troops of the Manchu dynasty. Survivors of the battle, part of the Revolt of the Three Feudatories, are put to death.source
  • April to September – Revolt of the papier timbréFrancesource
  • May 6 – The Siege of Ponda, an action by the Maratha Empire in southern India against the Sultanate of Bijapur, ends after four weeks when the Mughal Empire fails to send reinforcements. Most of the defenders are massacred after Emperor Shivaji's troops storm the fortress in what is now a small city in the Indian state of Goa.source
  • May 15 – After an invasion and attempt to take over the German principality of Brandenburg, the army of Sweden makes its first conquest, forcing the surrender of the fortress at Löcknitz.source
  • May 18 – Misirliohlu Ibrahim Pasha becomes the new ruler of Tripolitania, a province of the Ottoman Empire at the time and now part of the North African nation of Libya. He reigns for 19 months as the Beylerbey of Tripoli.source
  • May 23 – Sujinphaa becomes the new figurehead monarch of the Ahom kingdom in northeastern India, enthroned at the capital at Garhgaon (now in the Indian state of Assam), after Gobar Roja is deposed and executed by order of the nobles who control the nation.source
  • June 11 – Armed Wampanoag warriors are reported traveling around Swansea, Massachusetts.source
  • June 18 - Battle of FehrbellinSwedensource
  • June 24 – King Philip's War breaks out, as the Wampanoags attack Swansea.source
  • June 28 – Brandenburg defeats the Swedish Army in the Battle of Fehrbellin.source
  • August 2–4 – The Nipmucks attack Massachusetts troops and besiege Brookfield, Massachusetts.source
  • September 1–2 – While Wampanoags and Nipmucks attack Deerfield, Massachusetts, Captain Samuel Moseley commands Massachusetts troops in an attack on the Pennacook tribe.source
  • September 15 – The Bremen-Verden Campaign of the Northern Wars begins, with the invasion of Amt Wildeshausen by the Münster army, and their advance on Verden via the city of Bremen.source
  • 15 September – The Gyldenløve War starts.Norwaysource
  • October 5 – The Pocomtuc tribe attacks and destroys the English settlement at Springfield, Massachusetts.source
  • December 19 – United colonial forces attack the Narragansetts at the Great Swamp Fight.source
  • Tuhai defeated Wang Fuchen in Pingliang, Gansu, and Wang Qiang fell.Chinasource
  • War between Sweden and the Holy Roman Empire.Swedensource
  • War between Sweden and the Netherlands.Swedensource

Exploration & Expansion

  • April – English merchant Anthony de la Roché, blown off course after rounding Cape Horn eastabout, makes the first discovery of land south of the Antarctic Convergence, landing on South Georgia and (probably) Gough Island.source
  • June 26 – The Wampanoag warriors begin a three-day assault on English colonial towns in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in North America, with an assault on the villages of Rehoboth and Taunton. At the same time, Massachusetts troops march to Swansea, to join the Plymouth Colony troops. The warriors elude colonial troops and leave Mount Hope for Pocasset, Massachusetts. The Mohegan tribe travels to Boston, in order to assist the English colonists against the Wampanoags.source
  • July 16–24 – An envoy from Massachusetts attempts to negotiate with the Nipmuck tribe.source
  • September 12 – English colonists abandon Deerfield, Squakeag, and Brookfield due to a coalition of Indian attacks.source
  • December 11 – Antonio de Vea expedition enters San Rafael Lake in western Patagonia.source

Religion & Belief

  • June 21 – Reconstruction of St Paul's Cathedral begins in London under the direction of Christopher Wren, to replace the portion destroyed by the Great Fire of London nine years earlier.source
  • 21 June – reconstruction of St Paul's Cathedral in London under Christopher Wren begins to replace that destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666.Englandsource
  • August 13 – The Massachusetts Council orders that Christian Indians are to be confined to designated praying towns.source
  • October 13 – The Massachusetts Council convenes and agrees that all Christian Indians should be ordered to move to Deer Island.source

Technology & Infrastructure

Science & Discovery

  • February 25 – Netherlands scientist Christiaan Huygens files drawings of his invention of the balance spring, the key component to the accuracy of portable clocks and pocket watches, in a letter to the Journal des Sçavants.source
  • March 4 – John Flamsteed is appointed by King Charles II as England's "astronomical observator", in effect, becoming the first Astronomer Royal.source
  • 4 March – John Flamsteed appointed as "astronomical observator", in effect, the first Astronomer Royal.Englandsource
  • August 10 – King Charles II of England places the foundation stone of the Royal Greenwich Observatory near London; construction begins.source
  • 10 August – King Charles places the foundation stone of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich near London.Englandsource
  • October 29 – Gottfried Leibniz makes the first use of the long s (∫) as a symbol of the integral in calculus.source
  • November 11 – Gottfried Leibniz makes the earliest known use of infinitesimal calculus in the breaking down of a function.source
  • Antonie van Leeuwenhoek begins to use a microscope for observing human tissues and liquids.source
  • Giovanni Cassini discovers the Cassini Division in the rings of Saturn.source

Health & Medicine

  • September 22 – King Charles II of England orders the setting up of a commission to determine the cases of Connacht transplanters.Irelandsource
  • December 24 – 1675–1676 Malta plague epidemic begins.source
  • December – King Charles issues a "Proclamation for the suppression of Coffee Houses" due to the political activity which is occurring in the newly popular establishments; it is quickly rescinded.Englandsource
  • Bethlem Hospital, London, moves to new buildings in Moorfields, designed by Robert Hooke.Englandsource

Crime & Justice

  • June 1 – The Torsåker witch trials is concluded in Sweden with the execution of 71 people (65 of them women) executed on the same day at the village of Häxberget. The condemned prisoners are beheaded and their bodies are then burned.source
  • Chahar prince Abunai and his brother Lubuzung revolt against the Qing in 1675 along with 3,000 Chahar Mongol followers. On April 20, 1675, Qing forces defeat the Chahar and kill Abunai and all his followers. Their title was abolished, all Chahar Mongol royal males were executed even if they were born to Manchu Qing princesses, and all Chahar Mongol royal females were sold into slavery except the Manchu Qing princesses. The Chahar Mongols were then put under the direct control of the Qing Emperor unlike the other Inner Mongol leagues which maintained their autonomy.Chinasource

Disasters & Accidents

  • March 25 – England's first royal yacht, HMY Mary, strikes rocks off of the coast of Anglesey while traveling from Dublin to Chester with 74 passengers and crew, and quickly sinks, with the loss of 35 people. The other 39 are able to get to safety. The wreckage is not discovered until almost 300 years later, on July 11, 1971.source
  • September 20 – In England, a fire destroys most of the town of Northampton. According to a contemporary account, "the market place (which was a very goodly one), the stately church of Allhallows, 2 other parish churches and above three-fourth parts of the whole town was consumed and laid in ashes.".source

Culture & Society

  • February 4 – The Italian opera La divisione del mondo, by Giovanni Legrenzi, is performed for the first time, premiering in Venice at the Teatro San Luca. The new opera, telling the story of the "division of the world" after the battle between the Gods of Olympus and the Titans, becomes known for its elaborate and expensive sets, machinery, and special effects and is revived 325 years later in the year 2000.source
  • February 27 – Matthew Locke's "semi-opera" Psyche premieres at the Duke's Theatre in London.source
  • 27 February – Matthew Locke's "semi-opera" Psyche premieres at the Duke's Theatre in London.Englandsource
  • March 30 – The guild organisation Maîtresses couturières is founded in Paris.source
  • 30 March – The guild organisation Maîtresses couturières is founded in Paris.Francesource
  • 22 June – The Royal Danish Academy of Surgery is founded as a replacement for the old Theatrum Anatomico-chirurgicum.Denmarksource
  • 20 September – the Great Fire of Northampton occurs in the county town.Englandsource
  • Kangxi's son Yunreng named Crown PrinceChinasource
  • The Green Ribbon Club founded; the earliest political club, based in Fleet Street.Englandsource
  • The King retracts the Court leet of the nobility.Swedensource
  • The King is engaged to Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark.Swedensource

Births

  • January 16 – Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, French writer (died 1755)source
  • January 27 – Erik Benzelius the Younger, Swedish priest (died 1743)source
  • February 28 – Guillaume Delisle, French cartographer (died 1726)source
  • 25 March – Prince Christian of Denmark (died 1695 in Germany)Denmarksource
  • March 31 – Pope Benedict XIV (died 1758)source
  • May 29 – Humphry Ditton, English mathematician (died 1715)source
  • June 1 – Francesco Scipione, marchese di Maffei, Italian archaeologist (died 1755)source
  • July 5 – Mary Walcott, American accuser at the Salem witch trialssource
  • July 14 – Claude Alexandre de Bonneval, French soldier (died 1747)source
  • September 2 – William Somervile, English poet (died 1742)source
  • September 3 – Paul Dudley, Attorney-General of Massachusetts (died 1751)source
  • September 27 – Dorothea Krag, Danish General Postmaster and noble (died 1754)source
  • October 11 – Samuel Clarke, English philosopher (died 1729)source
  • October 21 – Emperor Higashiyama of Japan (died 1710)source
  • October 21 - Emperor Higashiyama (died 1710)Japansource
  • October 24 – Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham, English soldier and politician (died 1749)source
  • 2 December - Johan Abraham Lillie, officer in the Great Northern War, served with distinction in the battles of Helsingborg and Battle of Gadebusch. Was ennobled for his defence of New Älvsborg Fortress against Peter Tordenskjold.Swedensource
  • Cille Gad, poet and culture personality (d.1711).Norwaysource

Deaths

  • January 29 – John Sassamon, an English-educated Native American Christian, dies at Assawampsett Pond, an event which will trigger a year-long war between the English American colonists of New England, and the Algonquian Native American tribes.source
  • February 6 – Nicolò Sagredo is elected as the new Doge of Venice and leader of the Venetian Republic, replacing Domenico II Contarini, who had died 10 days earlier.source
  • February 9 – Gerhard Douw, Dutch painter (born 1613)source
  • April 12 – Richard Bennett, British Colonial Governor of Virginia (born 1609)source
  • May 18 – Father Jacques Marquette, French missionary and explorer (born 1636)source
  • June 8 – John Sassamon's alleged murderers are executed at Plymouth, Massachusetts.source
  • June - 71 people are executed in the Torsåker witch trials, the biggest witch trial in the history of the country.Swedensource
  • July 27 – Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne, Marshal of France (born 1611)source
  • July 28 – Bulstrode Whitelocke, English lawyer (born 1605)source
  • 29 August – Joachim Irgens von Westervickm businessman and landowner (born 1611 in Germany)Denmarksource
  • November 1 – Guru Tegh Bahadur, 9th Sikh Guru (born 1621)source
  • November 11 – Thomas Willis, English doctor who played an important part in the history of anatomy (born 1621)source
  • November 11 – Guru Teg Bahadur, ninth of the Sikh gurus, is executed by Mughal rulers, proclaiming that he prefers death rather than disavowing the right of Hindus to practice their own religion. He is succeeded by Guru Gobind Singh, who becomes the tenth Guru.source
  • 15 November – Preben von Ahnen, civil servant and landowner (born 1606).Norwaysource
  • November 30 – Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, colonial Governor of Maryland (born 1605)source
  • November – Feodosia Morozova, Russian religious dissident martyr (born 1632)source
  • December 15 (bur.) – Johannes Vermeer, Dutch painter (born 1632)source
  • Mishan (米思翰; 1633–1675), served as the Minister of Revenue from 1669 to 1675, Grandfather of Empress Xiaoxianchun, consort to the Qianlong EmperorChinasource