1679 CE

King Charles II dismisses the Cavalier Parliament after nearly 18 years in an attempt to avoid the impeachment of Lord Danby by the House of Commons. The Orthodox Confession of Faith is drafted up in the Buckinghamshire Assembly and signed by 54 messengers and elders of all Baptist churches in Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, and Oxfordshire, in England. Aurangazeb, the Muslim ruler of the Mughal Empire in India, decrees the imposition of the jizya, an annual tax upon non-Muslims under Mughal jurisdiction, primarily Hindus. The tax had been abolished by Aurangazeb's great grandfather, Akbar.

In the 1670s, the 17th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

January 24 – King Charles II of England dissolves the "Cavalier Parliament", after nearly 18 years.source
24 January – King Charles II dismisses the Cavalier Parliament after nearly 18 years in an attempt to avoid the impeachment of Lord Danby by the House of Commons.England source
February 5 – The Treaty of Celle is signed between France and Sweden on one side, and the Holy Roman Empire, at the town of Celle in Saxony (in modern-day Germany). Sweden's sovereignty over Bremen-Verden is confirmed and Sweden cedes control of Thedinghausen and Dörverden to the Germans.source
March 6 – In England, the "Habeas Corpus Parliament" (or "First Exclusion Parliament") is opened.source
16 March – The institution Chancellor of Norway is abolished, ending a tradition that had lasted for 400 years.Norway source
May 27 – The Parliament of England passes the Habeas Corpus Act, "for the better securing the liberty of the subject" and then adjourns.source
19 June – Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1679)Sweden source
July 12 – In England, the "Habeas Corpus Parliament" (or "First Exclusion Parliament") is dissolved, while in recess, by King Charles II. The King exercises his royal prerogative of dissolution to prevent the parliament from passing a bill that would exclude non-Anglicans from the succession to the English throne, specifically the king's Roman Catholic brother, James, Duke of York, as part of the Exclusion Crisis.source
2 September – The Treaty of Fontainebleau ends hostilities between Denmark-Norway and the Swedish Empire in the Scanian War. Denmark, pressured by France, restores all conquests made during the war to Sweden in turn for a "paltry indemnity".Denmark source
September 18 – The Province of New Hampshire is separated from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.source
26 September – The Peace of Lund end the Scanian War.Denmark source
October 12 – Representatives of the Dutch Republic and the Kingdom of Sweden sign the last of the nine Treaties of Nijmegen, ending the last of the conflicts that began during the Franco-Dutch War.source
December 10 – A peace treaty is signed between Ali Bey al-Muradi, Bey of Tunis; his brother whom he had overthrown in 1678, Muhammad Bey al-Muradi; and their uncle, Muhammad al-Hafsi al-Muradi, the Pasha of Tunis, after mediation by the Dey of Algiers.source
The Dzungar conquest of Altishahr resulted in the Tibetan Buddhist Dzungar Khanate in Dzungaria conquering and subjugating the Genghisid-ruled Chagatai Khanate in Altishahr (the Tarim Basin). It put a final end to the independence of the Chagatai KhanateChina source
The Revolt of the Three Feudatories continuesChina source
Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-LayeFrance source

Conflict & Security

February 19 – Ajit Singh Rathore becomes the new Maharaja of the Jodhpur State a principality in India also known as Marwar, located in the modern-day Rajasthan state.source
June 1 – Battle of Drumclog: A group of 200 Scottish Covenanters overwhelm a small Scottish Army unit, that had been pursuing them for the murder of Archbishop Sharp. The Covenanters, led by 19-year-old William Cleland, kill 36 of the Scottish soldiers.source
June 22 – Battle of Bothwell Bridge in Scotland: Royal forces led by James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth and John Graham of Claverhouse subdue the Scottish Covenanters.source
22 June – Battle of Bothwell Bridge in Scotland: Royal forces led by the Duke of Monmouth and John Graham of Claverhouse subdue the Scottish Covenanters.England source
26 September – The Peace of Lund ends the Gyldenløve War.Norway source
September – Charles II forces the Duke of Monmouth, his illegitimate son, into exile in the Dutch Republic.England source
October 6 – Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb returns control of Bengal to the local Nawab of Murshidabad after removing his son, Prince Qutb-ud-Din Muhammad Azam, from the position of Mughal Governor of Dhaka.source
October 18 – A sea battle is fought between England's Royal Navy and the navy of India's Maratha Empire (under the command of Mai Nayak Bhandari), with English bombardment driving the Maratha occupation of the island fortress at Khanderi (off of the western Indian coast south of Mumbai).source
December 26 – In modern-day Indonesia, the Trunajaya rebellion comes to an end with the surrender of Prince Panembahan Maduretno to the Sultan Amangkurat II of Mataram, ruler of the entire island of Java. While treated with respect as a prisoner of the occupying forces of the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC), Panembahan is killed seven days later by Amangkurat after the VOC allows him to attend a ceremonial visit to the sultan's palace.source
The Tibet–Ladakh–Mughal war (1679–84) begins with the Tibetan invasion of Ladakh.source

Exploration & Expansion

August 7 – The brigantine Le Griffon, commissioned by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, is towed to the southern end of the Niagara River, to become the first ship to sail the upper Great Lakes of North America.source
December 3 – French explorers René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (commonly called "La Salle") and Henri de Tonti set off from their fort near Niagara Falls in North America on the first European expedition to explore the upper Mississippi River.source
French explorer Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut, explores the Saint Louis River; the city of Duluth, Minnesota, will take its name from him.source
Atlantica (Atland eller Manheim in Swedish) by Olaus Rudbeck, where he purported to prove that Sweden was Atlantis, the cradle of civilization, and Swedish the original language of Adam from which Latin and Hebrew had evolved.Sweden source

Religion & Belief

January 30 – The Orthodox Confession of Faith is drafted up in the Buckinghamshire Assembly and signed by 54 messengers and elders of all Baptist churches in Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, and Oxfordshire, in England.source
April 3 – Aurangazeb, the Muslim ruler of the Mughal Empire in India, decrees the imposition of the jizya, an annual tax upon non-Muslims under Mughal jurisdiction, primarily Hindus. The tax had been abolished by Aurangazeb's great grandfather, Akbar.source
16 September (O.S.) / 26 September – The Peace of Lund ends the Scanian War between Denmark-Norway and the Swedish Empire.Sweden source
October 4 – Bil'arab bin Sultan becomes the new Imam of Oman upon the death of his father, Sultan bin Saif.source
17 November – The Green Ribbon Club, a predecessor of the Whigs, organises a procession to burn an effigy of the Pope in London.England source
December 16 (December 6 O.S.) – Oliver Plunkett, the Roman Catholic Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh, is arrested on false charges of plotting to aid a French invasion of the British Isles, the so-called "Popish Plot". Executed in 1681, Plunkett will be canonized as a Roman Catholic saint almost 300 years later in 1975.source
Building of the Ganden Sumtseling Monastery, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery near Zhongdian at elevation 3,380 metres (11,090 ft) in Yunnan provinceChina source
Undated – Bristol Baptist College, the world's first Baptist College, is founded by local merchant Edward Terrill.England source
Lismore Cathedral (Church of Ireland) abandoned until 1749.Ireland source

Technology & Infrastructure

Malpas Tunnel on the Canal du Midi in Hérault, France, Europe's first navigable canal tunnel, is excavated by Pierre-Paul Riquet (169 m, concrete lined).source
Approximate date – first bagnio opens in London.England source

Science & Discovery

A special examination for admission into the Hanlin Academy is held, the Emperor chooses as the topic a rhyme-prose (fu) on the xuanzhi and yuheng, instruments that were then thought to be part of the astronomical system used by the ancient sage-kings to chart the skiesChina source

Health & Medicine

15 May – Exclusion Crisis: The supporters of Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, introduce an Exclusion Bill into the House of Commons with the aim of excluding the king's brother, the Catholic James, Duke of York, from the succession to the English throne.England source

Crime & Justice

March 12 – Catherine Deshayes Monvoisin, commonly called "La Voisin" and the suspected killer of over 1,000 people in France by poisoning, is arrested outside of the Church of Notre-Dame-de-Bonne-Nouvelle in Paris and imprisoned at Vincennes for the next 11 months. After her conviction, she is publicly burned at the stake on February 22, 1680.source

Disasters & Accidents

April 8 – In the Italian region of Piedmont, a landslide causes the village of Bosia to sink into the ground and then get buried, killing 200 inhabitants. The village is then rebuilt at another site and continues to exist.source
August – The mining town of Røros was destroyed by Swedish troops..Norway source
November 27 – A fire in Boston, Massachusetts, burns all of the warehouses, 80 houses, and all of the ships in the dockyards.source
December – Anne Løset was tried for alleged sorcery, convicted and executed by burning at Rovde.Norway source

Climate & Environment

April 10 – A total eclipse of the Sun takes place over North America, with its peak over the region occupied by the Lakota Sioux people in modern-day South Dakota.source
June 4 – A 6.4 magnitude earthquake in Armenia strikes near Yerevan, at the time part of the Persian Empire.source
September 2 – The 8.0 Mw magnitude Sanhe-Pinggu earthquake devastates Beijing and Hebei in China.source
1679 Sanhe-Pinggu earthquake, a major quake that struck the Zhili (Greater Beijing) region in Qing China on the morning of September 2, 1679. It is the largest recorded surface rupture event to have occurred in the North China PlainChina source

Culture & Society

27 November – The Duke of Monmouth returns (without royal permission) from exile and is greeted in London by widespread celebration from those who consider him a potential Protestant heir to the throne.England source

Births

January 24 – Christian Wolff, German philosopher (died 1754)source
7 March – Carl Gyllenborg, politician and writer (died 1744)Sweden source
March 18 – Matthew Decker, English merchant and writer (died 1749)source
18 March – Matthew Decker, merchant and writer (died 1749)England source
March 29 – Benedict Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore, colonial governor of Maryland (died 1715)source
May 29 – Antonio Farnese, Duke of Parma (died 1731)source
August 16 – Catharine Trotter Cockburn, English novelist, dramatist, philosopher (died 1749)source
August 22 – Pierre Guérin de Tencin, French cardinal (died 1758)source
October 13 – Princess Magdalena Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst, Duchess of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (died 1740)source
October 16 – Jan Dismas Zelenka, Bohemian composer (died 1745)source
October 18 – Ann Putnam, Jr., American accuser in the Salem witch trials (died 1716)source
10 November – Christian Carl Gabel, vice admiral, Chief Secretary of War and Director of the Dano-Norwegian Navy and Holmen Naval Base (died 1748)Denmark source
November 11 – Firmin Abauzit, French scientist (died 1767)source
November 15 — Arcadio Huang (born Xinghua, modern Putian, in Fujian, 1679–1716), a Chinese Christian convert, brought to Paris by the Missions étrangères. He took a pioneering role in the teaching of the Chinese language in France around 1715China source
Francesco Zerafa, Maltese architect (died 1758)source
George Psalmanazar, French-born imposter and essayist (died 1763)source
James Erskine, Lord Grange, Scottish judge (died 1754)source

Deaths

February 3 – Moroccan troops from Fez are killed, along with their commander Moussa ben Ahmed ben Youssef, in a battle against rebels in the Jbel Saghro mountain range, but Moroccan Sultan Ismail Ibn Sharif is able to negotiate a ceasefire allowing his remaining troops safe passage back home.source
February 5 – Joost van den Vondel, Dutch dramatist and poet (born 1587)source
February 18 – Lady Anne Finch Conway, English philosopher (born 1631)source
March 16 – John Leverett, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (born 1616)source
16 March – Johan Frederik von Marschalck, the last Chancellor of Norway (born 1618).Norway source
March 27 – Abraham Mignon, Dutch golden age painter (born 1640)source
April – Thomas Notley, Colonial governor of Maryland (born 1632)source
May 3 – James Sharp, the Church of Scotland's Archbishop of St Andrews, is assassinated at Magus Muir in Fife, when his coach is ambushed by a group of nine of the Scottish Covenanters. Only two of the assassins, David Hackston and Andrew Guillan, are captured.source
May 9 – Miguel Mañara, was the main founder of the Hospital de la Caridad in Seville (born 1627)source
2 June – Hannah Ayscough, mother of Isaac Newton (born 1623)England source
August – Catherine Lepère, French midwife (born 1601)source
November – Lisbetha Olsdotter, female soldier and cross dresser (year of birth unknown)Sweden source
December 4 – Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher (born 1588)source
December 10 – Francesco Barberini, Italian Catholic cardinal (born 1597)source
December 10 – More than 200 captives on the ship The Crown of London, all Scottish Covenanters arrested after the battle of Bothwell Bridge, are killed when the ship is wrecked on the Orkney Islands while transporting the group to exile in North America.source
December 20 – John Maurice, Prince of Nassau-Siegen (born 1604)source
28 December – Peder Winstrup, clergy (born 1605)Denmark source
December 31 – Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Italian physiologist and physicist (born 1608)source