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The 1670s

974 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 17th century. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

1670 CE103 entries

  • January 27 – The Muslim emperor Aurangzeb of the Mughal Empire in India issues an order for the destruction of all Hindu temples and schools in the empire, including the Keshvadeva Temple in Mathura.
  • 8 July O.S. – by the Treaty of Madrid (Godolphin treaty), Spain recognises Jamaica and the Cayman Islands as English possessions.
  • July 18 (July 8, O.S.) – The Treaty of Madrid, also known as the Godolphin Treaty, is signed between England and Spain to formally end hostilities left over from the Anglo-Spanish War, in the Caribbean, that ended ten years earlier. For the first time, Spain acknowledges that it is not entitled to all territory in the Americas west of Brazil, as provided by the 1493 line of demarcation decreed by Pope Alexander VI, and by the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal. Spain acknowledges that Jamaica and the Cayman Islands are English possessions.

1671 CE96 entries

  • March 15 – A tornado kills more than 600 people in the city of Cádiz in Spain.
  • 31 March – The Royal Navy launches 102-gun HMS Royal James at Portsmouth Royal Dockyard, its first warship to have a frame reinforced by iron bars rather than an all wooden ship, an innovation by naval architect Anthony Deane.
  • March – In the Battle of Saraighat in India, fought in mid-March, General Lachit Borphukan of the Ahom kingdom, located in what is now the Indian state of Assam defeats a larger force of Mughal Empire troops on the outskirts of what is now Guwahati.

1672 CE104 entries

  • March 15 – Charles II of England issues the Royal Declaration of Indulgence, suspending execution of Penal Laws against Protestant nonconformists and Roman Catholics in his realms; this will be withdrawn the following year under pressure from the Parliament of England.
  • 15 March – King Charles II issues the Royal Declaration of Indulgence, suspending execution of Penal Laws against Protestant nonconformists and Roman Catholics in his realms.
  • December 23 – French astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini discovers Rhea, a previously-unknown satellite of the planet Saturn. Rhea is the second-largest overall, and the third moon of Saturn to be discovered by Earth astronomers, Titan having been found by Christiaan Huygens on March 25, 1655 and Iapetus by Cassini on October 25, 1671.

1673 CE95 entries

  • March 29 – Test Act: Roman Catholics and others who refuse to receive the sacrament of the Church of England cannot vote, hold public office, preach, teach, attend the universities or assemble for meetings in England. On June 12, the king's Catholic brother, James, Duke of York, is forced to resign the office of Lord High Admiral because of the Act.
  • 29 March – the Test Act is passed, preventing Roman Catholics from holding public office.
  • May 17 – In America, trader Louis Joliet and Jesuit missionary-explorer Jacques Marquette begin exploring the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes.

1674 CE85 entries

  • June 6 – Shivaji Maharaj is crowned as Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj of the Maratha Empire at Raigad Fort in India.
  • 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.
  • 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.

1675 CE106 entries

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • August 10 – King Charles II of England places the foundation stone of the Royal Greenwich Observatory near London; construction begins.

1676 CE108 entries

  • January – Six months into King Philip's War, Metacomet (King Philip), leader of the Algonquian tribe known as the Wampanoag, travels westward to the Mohawk nation, seeking an alliance with the Mohawks against the English colonists of New England; his efforts in creating such an alliance are a failure.
  • June – Bacon's Rebellion begins in the Virginia Colony. On July 30, Nathaniel Bacon and his followers issue the Declaration of the People of Virginia.
  • November 16 – A prison is founded on Nantucket Island, in the English colony of Massachusetts.

1677 CE102 entries

  • 16 April – Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Act, placing the power to judge heresy and similar offences with the ecclesiastical courts, whose power of punishment is limited to excommunication, thus abolishing capital punishment (burning at the stake) in such cases.
  • May 29 – The Treaty of Middle Plantation establishes peace between the Virginia colonists and the local Indians.
  • August 14 – William of Orange, the leader of the Dutch Republic, is forced to end the siege of the Spanish Netherlands (modern-day Belgium) city of Charleroi after six days.

1678 CE87 entries

  • February 18 – The first part of English nonconformist preacher John Bunyan's Christian allegory The Pilgrim's Progress is published in London.
  • December 1 – The Test Act provides that members of both the House of Lords and House of Commons of England must swear an anti-Catholic oath, before taking office.
  • 3 December – the Test Act provides that members of both the House of Lords and House of Commons must swear an anti-Catholic oath before taking office.

1679 CE88 entries

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.