1682 CE

Work begins on construction of the Royal Hospital Chelsea for old soldiers in London, England. Work begins on construction of the Royal Hospital Chelsea for old soldiers in London. A comet that will later become known as Comet Halley, is observed from several locations on Earth after reaching magnitude 2 and becoming visible to the naked eye. Arthur Storer sees it from the North American colony of Maryland, while German astronomer Johannes Hevelius measures it from Danzig (now Gdansk in Poland). Edmond Halley successfully predicts that it will return in 1758.

In the 1680s, the 17th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • July 19 – Iyasus succeeds his father Yohannes I as Emperor of Ethiopia.source
  • The official Qing account of the Revolt of the Three Feudatories, entitled P’ing-ting san-ni fang-lüeh, compiled by Ledehun, Han T’an, and others, beginsChinasource
  • Absolute monarchy is established when the Estates acknowledge the right of the monarch to write laws without their participation.Swedensource
  • The Great Reversion of the property of the nobility is placed entirely in the hands of the monarch.Swedensource

Conflict & Security

  • January 21 – The Ottoman Empire army is mobilized in preparation for a war against Austria that culminates with the 1683 Battle of Vienna.source
  • May 7 (April 27 O.S.) – Upon the death of the Tsar Feodor III of Russia, Feodor's younger brother, 15-year-old Ivan is passed over in favor of a half-brother, 10-year-old Peter.source
  • May 11 – The Moscow uprising of 1682 occurs when a mob, outraged by the rejection of Prince Ivan and upset over rumors that Ivan has been strangled, invades the Kremlin and lynches the leading boyars and military commanders. Ivan V and Peter I are named co-rulers of Russia as a result of a compromise between Peter's mother Natalya Naryshkina and Ivan's mother Maria Miloslavskaya and both are crowned a month later.source
  • August 6 – The Ottoman Empire declares war on the Holy Roman Empire and makes plans to attack Vienna.source
  • 20 November – Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, flees to Holland after being accused of planning a coup against King Charles II.Englandsource
  • The Allotment system reorganize the Swedish army system.Swedensource
  • The second Duellplakatet confirms the 1662 ban on duels with even more severity.Swedensource

Exploration & Expansion

  • April 7 – René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, exploring rivers in America, reaches the mouth of the Mississippi River.source
  • October 12 – Sultan Mehmed IV departs Istanbul for Adrianople.source
  • October 19 – Kara Mustafa departs with the Ottoman army to Adrianople.source
  • December 11 – William Penn meets with Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore for the first discussion of the boundary between the colonies of Pennsylvania and Maryland, fixed at 40 degrees north. Recognizing that 40° north would remove Pennsylvania's access to the sea, Penn proposes a purchase of some of Maryland's territory.source
  • December 27 – Colonists from the German electorate of Brandenburg arrive at Akwidaa on the Brandenburger Gold Coast at what is now Ghana and, five days later, begin building a fort at what is now Princes Town.source
  • Celia Fiennes, noblewoman and traveller, begins her journeys across Britain, in a venture that will prove to be her life's work. Her aim is to chronicle the towns, cities and great houses of the country. Her travels continue until at least 1712, and will take her to every county in England, though the main body of her journal is not written until the year 1702.source
  • Celia Fiennes, noblewoman and traveller, begins her journeys across Britain in a venture that will prove to be her life's work. Her aim is to chronicle the towns, cities and great houses of the country. Her travels continue until at least 1712, and will take her to every county in England, though the main body of her journal is not written until 1702.Englandsource

Religion & Belief

  • January 12 – Scottish minister James Renwick, one of the Covenanters resisting the Scottish government's suppression of alternate religious views, publishes the Declaration of Lanark.source
  • February 19 – William Sheridan consecrated Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh in the Church of Ireland.Irelandsource
  • June 25 (June 15 O.S.) – Ivan V and Peter I are crowned as joint Tsars of Russia at the Cathedral of the Dormition in Moscow, with actual power exercised by their older sister, Sophia Alekseyevna for the next seven years.source
  • September 14 – Bishop Gore School is founded in Swansea, Wales.source
  • September 27 – the King baronetcy of Boyle Abbey in the County of Roscommon is created in the Baronetage of Ireland for Robert King.Irelandsource
  • Stavanger stiftamt headquarters was moved to the town of Christianssand and renamed Christianssand stiftamt.Norwaysource

Economy & Finance

  • The theater company Dän Swänska Theatren is formed.Swedensource

Technology & Infrastructure

  • The Richard Wall House, believed to be the longest continuously inhabited residence in the US, is built in Pennsylvania.source
  • Construction of the Canal de la Bruche startedFrancesource
  • Kongsvinger Fortress was built.Norwaysource

Science & Discovery

  • August 23 – A comet that will later become known as Comet Halley, is observed from several locations on Earth after reaching magnitude 2 and becoming visible to the naked eye. Arthur Storer sees it from the North American colony of Maryland, while German astronomer Johannes Hevelius measures it from Danzig (now Gdansk in Poland). Edmond Halley successfully predicts that it will return in 1758.source
  • September – Halley's Comet makes an appearance, and is observed by Edmond Halley himself.Englandsource

Health & Medicine

  • March 11 – Work begins on construction of the Royal Hospital Chelsea for old soldiers in London, England.source
  • 11 March – work begins on construction of the Royal Hospital Chelsea for old soldiers in London.Englandsource

Crime & Justice

  • August 25 – Following the Bideford witch trial, three women (probably) become the penultimate known to be hanged for witchcraft in England, at Exeter.source
  • 25 August – following the Bideford witch trial, three women become (probably) the penultimate known to be hanged for witchcraft in England, at Exeter.Englandsource
  • 20 September – The Duke of Monmouth is arrested in Stafford for riotous behaviour.Englandsource
  • Fyratijo små wijsor by Skogekär Bergbo.Swedensource

Disasters & Accidents

  • February 5 – In Japan, on the 28th day of the 12th month in the year Tenna 1, a major fire sweeps through Edo (now Tokyo).source
  • 6 May – while on passage from Portsmouth to Scotland, HMS Gloucester runs aground on a sandbank off the Norfolk coast and sinks. The Duke of York (the future King James II) and John Churchill (the future 1st Duke of Marlborough) are among those saved but at least 120 drown.Englandsource
  • June 8 – The English trading freighter Johanna is wrecked off of the coast of South Africa with the loss of 10 of her 114 crew, becoming the first of Britain's East India Company fleet to be lost.source
  • 19 November – fire at Wapping makes 1,500 homeless.Englandsource
  • November 22 – Nearly 1,000 houses in Wapping, London are destroyed in a fire.source

Climate & Environment

  • August 12 – Vesuvius begins a period of volcanic activity lasting for 10 days.source

Culture & Society

  • January 7 – The Republic of Genoa forbids the unauthorized printing of newspapers and all handwritten newssheets; the ban is lifted after three months.source
  • January 24 – The first public theater in Brussels, the Opéra du Quai au Foin, is opened.source
  • February 9 – Thomas Otway's classic play Venice Preserv'd or A Plot Discover'd is given its first performance, premiering at the Duke's Theatre.source
  • February 21 – the Eaton Baronetcy of Dunmoylin, County Limerick is created in the Baronetage of Ireland for Simon Eaton.Irelandsource
  • April 9 – At the mouth of the Mississippi River, near modern Venice, Louisiana, Robert de La Salle buries an engraved plate and a cross, claiming the territory as La Louisiane for France.source
  • May 6 – Louis XIV of France moves his court to Versailles.source
  • June 17 – The Indonesian city of Bandar Lampung is founded on the island of Sumatra.source
  • July 24 – the office of Third Serjeant-at-law at the Irish Bar is created, the first holder being John Lyndon.Irelandsource
  • October 27 – The city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is founded by William Penn.source
  • The French theater company La troupe du Roi de Danemark is opened as the theater of the royal court and the first and only permanent theater in Denmark for forty years onward.Denmarksource
  • Lund University is reopened after the war.Swedensource

Births

  • January 26 – Benjamin Lay, English vegetarian, abolitionist, and activist (died 1759)source
  • February 25 – Giovanni Battista Morgagni, Italian anatomist (died 1771)source
  • April 16 – John Hadley, English inventor (died 1744)source
  • May 17 – Bartholomew Roberts, a.k.a. Black Bart, Welsh pirate (died 1722)source
  • June 17 – King Charles XII of Sweden (died 1718)source
  • 17 June - Charles XII of Sweden, monarch (died 1718)Swedensource
  • July 10 – Roger Cotes, English mathematician (died 1716)source
  • 10 July – Roger Cotes, mathematician (died 1716)Englandsource
  • August 16 – Louis, duc de Bourgogne, heir to the throne of France (died 1712)source
  • 13 September – Jacob Kærup, theologian (died 1751)Denmarksource
  • 13 September – Thomas von Westen, priest and missionary (died 1727).Norwaysource
  • October 29 – Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix, French historian (died 1761)source
  • date unknown – Margareta Capsia, Finnish artist (died 1759)source

Deaths

  • February 15 – Gu Yanwu, Chinese philologist and geographer (born 1613)source
  • February 25 – Alessandro Stradella, Italian composer (born 1639)source
  • March 14 – Jacob Isaakszoon van Ruisdael, Dutch painter (born c. 1628)source
  • April 3 – Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Spanish painter (born 1618)source
  • April 27 – Hŏ Mok, Korean politician, poet and scholar (born 1595)source
  • 21 May - Reinhold von Hoven, military officer (born c. 1610)Norwaysource
  • 23 May – Abraham Wuchters, painter and engraver (born 1608)Denmarksource
  • July 12 – Jean Picard, French astronomer (born 1620)source
  • July 19 – Yohannes I, Emperor of Ethiopia (born c. 1640)source
  • August 24 – John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale (born 1616)source
  • September 8 – Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz, Spanish writer (born 1606)source
  • September 16 – Yamazaki Ansai, Japanese philosopher (born 1619)source
  • October 19 – Sir Thomas Browne, English author, physician and philosopher (born 1605)source
  • 19 November – Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Royalist commander in the English Civil War (born 1619)Englandsource
  • November 23 – Claude Lorrain, Lorraine-born landscape painter (born c. 1600)source
  • November 29 – Prince Rupert of the Rhine, German soldier, Royalist commander in the English Civil War (born 1619)source
  • December 18 – Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham, English politician (born 1621)source
  • The Tibetan desi (regent) Sangye Gyatso concealed the death of the 5th Dalai Lama in 1682, and only informed the emperor in 1697Chinasource