date: August 6

text: August 6 – Portugal and the Dutch Republic sign the Treaty of The Hague, whereby the Dutch Republic's South American colony of Nieuw-Holland is sold to Portugal for the equivalent of roughly 63000 kg of gold, and incorporated into Brazil. The territory includes much of what will later become the Brazilian states of Ceará, Maranhão, Paraíba, Pernambuco and Rio Grande do Norte. Among the major Dutch settlements lost are Mauritsstad (Recife), Fort Schoonenborch (Fortaleza), Nieuw-Amsterdam (Natal), and Frederikstadt (João Pessoa).


date: January 6

section: Conflict & Security

text: January 6 – The Fifth Monarchists, led by Thomas Venner, unsuccessfully attempt to seize control of London; George Monck's regiment defeats them.

source_section: Events › January–March


date: February 14

text: February 14 – George Monck’s regiment becomes The Lord General's Regiment of Foot Guards in England (which later becomes the Coldstream Guards).


date: March 23

text: March 23 – General Zheng Chenggong of China, known as "Koxinga" leads an invasion of the island of Taiwan, at the time under the control of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), bringing 25,000 soldiers and sailors on hundreds of boats to claim the territory.


date: April 7

text: April 7 – The siege of Fort Zeelandia, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) headquarters on the Chinese island of Taiwan (near modern Taoyuan City) is started by Koxinga and his invading force from China.

source_section: Events › April–June


date: May 17

text: May 17 – Leaders of the indigenous Taiwanese villages in the plains and mountains of the Dutch-ruled island begin surrendering to the Chinese forces led by Koxinga and agreeing to hunt down and execute Dutch people on the island.


date: June 3

text: June 3 – Pye Min, younger brother of King Pindale Min of Burma, leads a bloody coup d'etat and ascends the throne. Pindale Min and his family (including his primary wife, a son and a grandson) are drowned in the Chindwin River. Pye Min reigns until 1672.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – The innovative Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre opens in London with the first system for interchangeable scenery on a stage in the British Isles, and a production of William Davenant's opera The Siege of Rhodes.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – Polish and Lithuanian forces, led by King Jan II Kazimierz (who is also the Grand Duke of Lithuania) defeat the Russian Army at the Battle of Kushliki.

source_section: Events › October–December


date: December 14

text: December 14 – Prince Murad Bakhsh, younger brother of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, is executed at Gwailor Fort on order of his brother.


date: December 21

text: December 21 – General Wu Sangui of China arrives in Burma with 20,000 troops and demands that the Burmese surrender Yongli, the last of the Ming dynasty rulers of Southern China before the Qing dynasty consolidated its rule. Burma's King Pye Min hands Yongli over to General Wu on January 15, and Yongli is subsequently executed.


date: December 24

text: December 24 – The Indian city of Quilon (now Kollam in the Kerala state), ruled by Portugal since 1498, is captured by the Dutch East India Company.


date: October 31

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: October 31 – Köprülüzade Fazıl Ahmed Pasha is appointed as the new Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire at the request of his late father, the Grand Vizier Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, serving under the Sultan Mehmed IV for 15 years and continuing the Köprülü family dynasty whose members will serve as Viziers until 1711.


date: April 23

section: Religion & Belief

text: April 23 (May 3 N.S.) – King Charles II of England, Scotland, and Ireland is crowned in Westminster Abbey.


date: May 11

text: May 11 – The Indian city and territory of Bombay is ceded by Portugal to England in accordance with the dowry of King Joao IV of Portugal for the marriage of his daughter Catherine to King Charles II of England.


section: Economy & Finance

text: The first modern bank notes are issued in Stockholm, Sweden.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


section: Health & Medicine

text: Great Clearance in China: evacuation of Guangdong is required.


date: January 30

section: Crime & Justice

text: January 30 – The body of Oliver Cromwell is exhumed and subjected to a posthumous execution in London, along with those of John Bradshaw and Henry Ireton.


date: February 7

text: February 7 – Shah Shuja, who was deprived of his claim to the throne of the Mughal Empire by his younger brother Aurangzeb, then fled to Burma, is killed by Indian troops in an attack on his residence at Arakan.


date: May 27

text: May 27 – The Marquess of Argyll, one of the first of the Scottish-born people sentenced to death as a regicide for his role in the conviction and execution of King Charles I of England and Scotland in 1649, is beheaded at the Tolbooth Prison in Edinburgh using the "Scottish Maiden," almost immediately after his conviction of collaboration with the government of Oliver Cromwell. His head is then placed on a spike outside the prison.


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Nicolas Fouquet, the Superintendent of Finances for France, is arrested in Nantes and charged with embezzlement of the state treasury. Spared the death penalty by a jury, Fouquet spends the rest of his life in prison until his death in 1680.

source_section: Events › July–September


date: June 1

section: Culture & Society

text: June 1 – At Edinburgh, the public execution of Presbyterian minister James Guthrie, followed by Captain William Govan, takes place at the Mercat Cross at Parliament Square, days after both have been convicted of treason for their roles in the execution of King Charles I. The heads are severed from the corpses and displayed on spikes in the square.


date: December 16

text: December 16 – Abraham Cowley's comedy The Cutter of Coleman Street premieres at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Playhouse in London as a production of the Duke's Company.


date: February 25

section: Births

text: February 25 – Anne Lennard, Countess of Sussex, English Countess (d. 1721)

source_section: Births


date: April 14

text: April 14 – Sir Thomas Molyneux, 1st Baronet, Irish politician (d. 1733)


date: April 16

text: April 16 – Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, English poet and statesman (d. 1715)


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Georg Joseph Kamel, Jesuit missionary and botanist (d. 1706)


text: April 23 – Issachar Berend Lehmann, German-Jewish banker, Court Jew in Hanover (d. 1730)


date: August 8

text: August 8 – Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg, German aristocrat and general (d. 1747)


date: August 15

text: August 15 – King Sukjong of Joseon (d. 1720)


date: August 22

text: August 22 – Joseph Sheffield, Colonial Rhode Island Attorney General (d. 1706)


date: October 11

text: October 11 – Melchior de Polignac, French diplomat and cardinal (d. 1742)


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Louis, Grand Dauphin, eldest son and heir of Louis XIV of France (d. 1711)


date: November 15

text: November 15 – Christoph von Graffenried, Swiss settler in America (d. 1743)


date: November 28

text: November 28 – Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon, British Governor of New York and New Jersey (d. 1723)


date: December 5

text: December 5 – Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, English statesman (d. 1724)


date: December 18

text: December 18 – Christopher Polhem, Swedish scientist and inventor (d. 1751)


date: February 5

section: Deaths

text: February 5 – The Shunzhi Emperor of the Chinese Qing Dynasty dies, and is succeeded by his 7-year-old son the Kangxi Emperor.


date: February 7

text: February 7 – Shah Shuja, second son of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal (b. 1616)

source_section: Deaths


date: April 4

text: April 4 – Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl of Leven, Scottish soldier(b. c. 1580)


date: April 5

text: April 5 – John Webster, colonial settler and governor of Connecticut (b. 1590)


date: May 27

text: May 27 – Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll, Scottish dissenter (beheaded) (b. 1607)


date: June 6

text: June 6 – Martino Martini, Italian Jesuit missionary (b. 1614)


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Henry Carey, 2nd Earl of Monmouth, English politician (b. 1595)


date: June 21

text: June 21 – Andrea Sacchi, Italian painter of High Baroque Classicism (b. 1599)


date: August 7

text: August 7 – Benedetta Carlini, Italian mystic (b. 1590)


date: October 4

text: October 4 – Jacqueline Pascal, French child prodigy, sister of Blaise Pascal (b. 1625)


date: October 6

text: October 6 – Guru Har Krishan becomes eighth of the ten Sikh gurus, and at age 5 the youngest, following the death of his father Guru Har Rai.


text: November 1 – Philip Prospero, Prince of Asturias, heir apparent to the Spanish throne (b. 1657)


date: November 2

text: November 2 – Daniel Seghers, Flemish Jesuit brother and painter (b. 1590)


date: December 14

text: December 14 – Murad Bakhsh, Mughal prince (b. 1624)


date: May 3

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: May 3 – John Winthrop the Younger, the son of the first governor of Massachusetts, is honored by being made a fellow of the Royal Society, England's new scientific society. Winthrop uses his election to the Society to gain access to the king, who grants him a new charter, uniting the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – The Matthews baronets British nobility title is created.


date: June 23

text: June 23 – Koxinga, who had founded the Kingdom of Tungning on the island of Taiwan a year earlier, names his successor while on his deathbed. He appoints his son, Zheng Jing, whom he had earlier ordered unsuccessfully to be executed, as the new King.


date: September 9

text: September 9 – The Parliament of Scotland passes the Act of Indemnity and Oblivion, an amnesty (with numerous specific exceptions) for most political crimes committed by Scottish citizens during the years between January 1, 1637


date: December 4

text: December 4 – The Purefoy baronets British nobility title is created.


date: January 14

text: January 14 – A Portuguese garrison invades Morocco and kidnaps 35 women and girls, then steals 400 head of cattle. The Moroccans counterattack and kill the garrison's commander, 12 knights and 38 other Portuguese soldiers before the surviving Portuguese are given sanctuary inside the English fortress at Tangier. A brief war ensues between England and Morocco.


date: January 22

text: January 22 – Former Chinese Emperor Yongli, who had surrendered to General Wu Sangui in December, is put on a boat along with his sons and grandsons at Sagaing in Burma (at the time, Burma), leaving under the promise that they will be given safe passage elsewhere in Burma. Instead, the former Emperor is taken back to China and executed on June 1.


date: April 19

text: April 19 – Three of the former members of the English Parliament who had signed the death warrant for Charles I of England in 1649 and then fled into exile in the Netherlands after the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 — Miles Corbet, John Okey and John Barkstead — are hanged after having been extradited, returned to England, and convicted of regicide. Their bodies are then drawn and quartered.


date: April 24

text: April 24 – Chinese warlord Zheng Chenggong sends a message to the Spanish government of the Philippines demanding payment of tribute and threatening to send a fleet of ships to conquer the area. The message reaches the Spanish Governor-General on May 5, and preparations are made to resist the invasion.


date: May 24

text: May 24 – Rioting in the Chinese section of Manila breaks out in the wake of calls to kill non-Christian Chinese residents of the Philippines, and the Spanish Army fires cannons at the rioting crowd. An order follows for non-Christian Chinese Filipinos to leave Manila, and for Christian Filipinos to register with the government. Boats begin transporting the non-Christians back to China


date: June 4

text: June 4 – The "Sangley Massacre" is ordered by Sabiniano Manrique de Lara, the Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines, with the directive for the government to kill all Filipinos of Chinese ancestry — Sangleys — who disobey orders to assemble at Manila for deportation.


date: February 1

text: February 1 – Chinese general Koxinga (Zheng Chenggong) captures the Dutch East India Company's settlement at Fort Zeelandia (now Tainan) on the island of Taiwan after a nine-month siege, ending the company's rule on the island, then establishes the Kingdom of Tungning. In response, the Kangxi Emperor of the mainland Qing dynasty relocates all residents along the southern coast, by 50 miles.


date: March 18

text: March 18 – Carrosses à cinq sols, a short-lived experiment of the first public bus system (horse-drawn wagons holding eight passengers) begins in Paris as the idea of mathematician Blaise Pascal and financed by the Duc de Rouanez, with transportation to and from the Royal Square for the cost of five sous.


date: April 22

text: April 22 – The Paugussett tribe, granted reservations in the British colony of Connecticut in North America, sell a large amount of tribal land to Captain Joseph Hawley including several towns in Fairfield County: Shelton, Trumbull, Derby and Monroe.


date: May

text: May – The last credible report of a sighting of the dodo bird, now extinct, is made by Volkert Evertsz, a survivor of the shipwreck of the Dutch ship Arnhem, which struck reefs on February 12. The survivors had made their way in a small boat to Ile d'Ambre, an island in the Indian Ocean 200 km northeast of Mauritius. When rescued by the English ship Truroe in May, Evertsz reports that he and his group had survived by eating the local wildlife, including the dodo.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – The Act of Uniformity 1662, officially "An Act for the uniformity of common prayer and service in the Church, and administration of the sacraments", is given royal assent after being passed by the English Parliament to regulate the form of public prayers, sacraments, and other rites of the Church of England to conform with the newest edition of the Book of Common Prayer, the 1662 prayer book.


date: August 20

text: August 20 – Ignatius Andrew Akijan is installed as the new Patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church for Christians within the Muslim-ruled Ottoman Empire after his appointment is confirmed by the Sultan Mehmed IV.


date: August 24

text: August 24 – The Act of Uniformity goes into effect on St Bartholomew's Day, making mandatory in the Church of England the forms of worship prescribed in the new edition of the Book of Common Prayer the deadline having been set for "every clergyman and every schoolmaster... to express, by August 24, his unfeigned consent to everything contained in the Book of Common Prayer. This is followed by the resignation of over 2,000 clergy who resign "for conscience sake". Those who refuse to take the required oath of conformity to the established church are subject to the Great Ejection from their jobs.


text: May 19 – Royal assent is also given to England's new hearth tax law, with one shilling charged for each stove or fireplace in a building, to be collected on 29 September and on 25 March each year in order to provide the £1,200,000 annual household income for King Charles II. The unpopular tax is abolished in 1689.


date: December 20

text: December 20 – Nicolas Fouquet is banished from France.


date: September 29

section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: September 29 – The first payments under England's hearth tax law, enacted on May 19, become due.


text: Milton, Massachusetts is incorporated as a town.


date: October 19

section: Science & Discovery

text: October 19 – An English Buccaneer force led by Royal Navy commodore Christopher Myngs launches an attack on Santiago de Cuba.


text: c. January – John Graunt, in one of the earliest uses of statistics, publishes statistical information about births and deaths in London.


text: Joan Blaeu publishes Atlas Maior, sive cosmographia Blaviana in Amsterdam (first complete edition, 11 volumes in Latin).


text: Robert Boyle publishes Nova experimenta physico-mechanica in Oxford (2nd edition), setting forth the law bearing his name.


date: May 16

text: May 16 – The hearth tax is introduced in England and Wales.


date: January 23

text: January 23 – János Kemény, Prince of Transylvania for slightly more than a year, is killed during Transylvania's defeat by the Ottoman Empire in a battle at Nagyszőllős, now the city of Vynohradiv in Ukraine. An Ottoman appointee, Michael Apafi, replaces Kemény in September and the status of the principality of Transylvania (now part of Romania) is never regained.


date: October 27

text: October 27 – Charles II of England sells Dunkirk to France, for £400,000 (2.5 million French livres).


date: November

text: November - December – Helen Guthrie is the last person accused during the Forfar witch trials to be executed.


date: February 20

section: Disasters & Accidents

text: February 20 – The survivors of the wreck of the Dutch freighter Arnhem strike reefs but are able to make their way to an uninhabited island, probably the Ile D'Ambre or Ilot Fourneau both islands within the territory of Mauritius. During more than two months while shipwrecked, the survivors kill and eat the local wildlife, including the last surviving dodo. They are rescued by the English ship Truroe in May.


date: February 11

section: Climate & Environment

text: February 11 – A violent storm in the Indian Ocean strikes a fleet of seven ships of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) as they are traveling back to the Dutch Republic from Batavia in the Dutch East Indies (now Jakarta, Indonesia). Three of the freighters— Wapen van Holland, Gekroonde Leeuw and Prins Willem — are lost with all hands. The ships Vogel Phoenix, Maarsseveen and Prinses Royal make their way back to the Netherlands. The other ship, the freighter Arnhem remains afloat and its roughly 80 survivors are able to evacuate in boats to search for land.


text: The last widely accepted sighting of a dodo, now extinct.


date: May 9

text: May 9 – Samuel Pepys witnesses a Punch and Judy show in London (the first on record).


date: May 21

text: May 21 – (May 31 N.S.); Princess Catherine of Braganza, daughter of King João IV of Portugal, marries Charles II of England. As part of the dowry, Portugal cedes Bombay in India, and Tangier in Morocco, to England.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – The Pierce baronets British nobility title is created.


date: July 15

text: July 15 – The Royal Society, founded by King Charles II of England and Scotland receives an official charter in London.


date: November 28

text: November 28 – The English Royal Society holds its first meeting.


date: December 26

text: December 26 – Molière's play, The School for Wives, is given its première in Paris.


text: The Akademie der Bildenden Künste Nürnberg is founded in Germany.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Balaji Vishwanath, Peshwa of the Maratha Empire (d. 1720)


date: January 12

text: January 12 – Samuel Shute, Governor of Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire (d. 1742)


date: February 15

text: February 15 – James Renwick, Scottish minister and Covenanter martyr (d. 1688)


date: April 13

text: April 13 – Princess Eleonore Erdmuthe of Saxe-Eisenach, Electress of Saxony (d. 1696)


date: June 3

text: June 3 – Willem van Mieris, Dutch painter (d. 1747)


date: June 18

text: June 18 – Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Cleveland, illegitimate son of Charles II of England, courtier (d. 1730)


date: August 10

text: August 10 – Charles Boit, Swedish enameller, miniature painter (d. 1727)


date: August 13

text: August 13 – Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, English politician (d. 1748)


date: August 28

text: August 28 – Maria Aurora von Königsmarck, Swedish noblewoman of Brandenburg extraction (d. 1728)


date: September 19

text: September 19 – Jean-Paul Bignon, French priest and man of letters (d. 1743)


date: October 18

text: October 18 – Matthew Henry, English Bible commentator, Presbyterian minister (d. 1714)


date: December 13

text: December 13 – Francesco Bianchini, Italian philosopher and scientist (d. 1729)


date: December 17

text: December 17 – Samuel Wesley, English poet, father of the Wesley brothers (d. 1735)


date: December 18

text: December 18 – James Douglas, 2nd Duke of Queensberry, Scottish politician (d. 1711)


date: January 4

text: January 4 – Dziaddin Mukarram Shah becomes the new Sultan of Kedah, an independent kingdom on the Malay Peninsula, upon the death of his father, Sultan Muhyiddin Mansur.


date: January 10

text: January 10 – At the age of 19, Louis Grimaldi becomes the new Prince of Monaco upon the death of his grandfather, Honoré II.


date: February 9

text: February 9 – Judith Quiney, English daughter of William Shakespeare (b. 1585)


date: February 13

text: February 13 – Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia (b. 1596)


date: April 8

text: April 8 – Birgitte Thott, Danish scholar, writer and translator (b. 1610)


date: April 14

text: April 14 – William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele, English statesman (b. 1582)


date: May 8

text: May 8 – Peter Heylin, English ecclesiastic and author of many polemical works (b. 1599)


date: May 28

text: May 28 – Robert Douglas, Count of Skenninge, Swedish field marshal (b. 1611)


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Zhu Youlang, the 4th and last emperor of the Southern Ming dynasty of China (b. 1623)


date: June 14

text: June 14 – Henry Vane the Younger, British Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1613)


date: June 23

text: June 23 – Koxinga, Chinese military leader (b. 1624)


date: September 3

text: September 3 – William Lenthall, English politician (b. 1591)


date: October 29

text: October 29 – William Pynchon, English colonist and fur trader in North America (b. 1590)


date: November 20

text: November 20 – Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands (b. 1614)


date: January 23

text: January 23 – The Treaty of Ghilajharighat is signed in India between representatives of the Mughal Empire and the independent Ahom Kingdom (in what is now the Assam state), with the Mughals ending their occupation of the Ahom capital of Garhgaon, in return for payment by Ahom in silver and gold for costs of the occupation, and King Sutamla of Ahom sending one of his daughters to be part of the harem of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb.


date: July 8

text: July 8 – King Charles II of England grants John Clarke a Royal Charter for the American colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.


date: July 27

text: July 27 – The English Parliament passes the second Navigation Act, requiring that all goods bound for the American colonies have to be sent in English ships from English ports.


date: November 19

text: November 19 – Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy is appointed by King Louis XIV of Frances as the new Governor General of the French West Indies as the colonies of Saint-Domingue, Saint Martin, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Saint Barthélemy, and Saint Croix are put under a unified rule for the colonies in the Caribbean Sea for the first time since 1651.


date: November 24

text: November 24 – The General Court of Commissioners for Rhode Island and Providence Plantations convenes for the final time, meeting in Newport to formally receive the Rhode Island Royal Charter issued on July 8 by King Charles II.


date: December 27

text: December 27 – Jacob Hustaert becomes the new Governor of Dutch Ceylon.


text: The first Maroon community arises in Suriname.


date: February 10

text: February 10 – The army of the Kingdom of Siam (now Thailand) captures Chiang Mai from the Kingdom of Burma (now Myanmar), using it as a base for launching a larger attack on the Burmese coast in November.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – Emperor Go-Sai's reign ends, and Emperor Reigen ascends to the throne of Japan.


date: April 17

text: April 17 – The Ottoman Empire declares war against Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, beginning the Austro-Turkish War.


date: June 7

text: June 7 – Under the pretext of working out a treaty with Dutch settlers in the colony of New Netherland, the Esopus tribe of the Delaware people enter the fortress at Wiltwijck (now the U.S. city of Kingston, New York) and stage a surprise attack. Unbeknownst to the Wiltwijck residents, another group of Esopus warriors had destroyed the village of Nieu Dorp (now Hurley, New York) earlier in the day. The episode begins the Second Esopus War.


date: June 8

text: June 8 – The Portuguese and some English auxiliaries defeat the Spanish Army in the Battle of Ameixial.


date: July 19

text: July 19 – Acting as intermediaries between the Dutch and Esopus war parties, a group of three Mohawk Indians obtain the release of the first four hostages who had been taken hostage in the Esopus attack on Wildwyck, two women and two children.


date: August 15

text: August 15 – Oratam, leader of the Hackensack tribe of the Lenape nation, meets in New Amsterdam (now New York City) with Weswatewchy, Memshe and Wemessamy, three chiefs of the Monsiyok tribe, to ask for the Hackensacks to supply a cannon to defend their fort, and to confirm that the Monsiyok are not allied with the other major division of the Lenape, the Esopus tribe.


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Dutch Captain Martin Kregier and Lieutenant Couwenhoven lead an attack against the Esopus Indians from the right and Lieutenant Stilwil and Ensign Niessen the left wing. In the battle, near what is now Mamakating, New York, Chief Papequanaehen and 14 other Esopus warriors are killed, along with seven civilians; three Dutch soldiers are killed, but 23 Dutch prisoners are rescued.


date: September 13

text: September 13 – After a siege of more than a month, the Hungarian fortress at Érsekújvár (now Nové Zámky in Slovakia) surrenders to the Ottoman Empire. In accordance with the treaty of surrender negotiated by the Hungarian commander, Count Ádám Forgách, the European residents are allowed free passage to Austria, and the Ottoman Grand Vizier, Fazil Ahmed Pasha provides a document certifying that the fort's defenders fought bravely.


text: September 13 – The Gloucester County Conspiracy, the first slave rebellion in British North America, is foiled after one of the plotters, John Birkenhead, reveals the plan of African slaves and English indentured servants to kill their masters. Birkenhead is freed by his master as a reward for betraying the rebels.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – With 2,000 men under his command, Petar Zrinski, the Viceroy of Croatia within the Holy Roman Empire, defeats a much larger force of 8,000 Ottoman soldiers in the Battle at Jurjeve Stijene, near the modern town of Otočac. The Croatians lose 10 soldiers killed; the Ottoman invasion force suffers over 1,500 deaths.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – The Prince Edward Islands in the sub-antarctic Indian Ocean are discovered by Barent Barentszoon Lam, of the Dutch ship Maerseveen, and named Dina (Prince Edward) and Maerseveen (Marion).


date: March 24

text: March 24 – King Charles II of England issues the Charter of Carolina, establishing the Province of Carolina, and dividing it between eight Lords Proprietors.


date: September 8

text: September 8 – Diego de Salcedo becomes the new Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines, replacing Sabiniano Manrique de Lara, who had served for more than 10 years. Salcedo is overthrown in 1668.


text: Publication at Cambridge in the Massachusetts Bay Colony of the "Eliot Indian Bible" (Mamusse Wunneetupanatamwe Up-Biblum God), which becomes the first complete Bible published in the Americas, a translation by English-born Puritan missionary John Eliot of the Geneva Bible, from English into the Massachusett language (Natic or Wômpanâak) variety of the Algonquian languages.


date: January 10

text: January 10 – The Royal African Company is granted a Royal Charter by Charles II of England.


date: May 7

text: May 7 – The King's Theatre, now called "Drury Lane", opens in London.


text: Robert Hooke discovers that cork is made of "tiny little rooms", which he first calls "Cells".


text: Baruch Spinoza publishes Principia philosophiae cartesianae, which is the only book he would publish under his name, in his life.


date: February 8

text: February 8 – English pirates led by Christopher Myngs and Edward Mansvelt carry out the sack of Campeche in Mexico, looting the town during a two week occupation that ends on February 23.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – The Farnley Wood Plot, a conspiracy in the English county of West Yorkshire to overthrow the recently-restored monarchy and to return to the military rule that had been established by the late Oliver Cromwell, fails when only 26 men gather at Farnley. The group is arrested and 21 of the rebels are later executed for treason.


date: February 5

text: February 5 – An earthquake estimated at least 7.3 magnitude strikes Canada's Quebec Province.


date: August 21

text: August 21 – Concerned about the wintry weather, the Parliament of England holds an intercessory fast.


date: August 28

text: August 28 – In an unseasonably cold summer, severe frost hits England.


date: December 12

text: December 12 – The Dutch Republic prohibits practice of the common law custom of jus naufragii, the doctrine that permitted people to seize property that had washed ashore on their land after a shipwreck.


date: November 6

text: November 6 – The Kingdom of Sweden adopts a law creating the flag in use in the nation now, a yellow Nordic cross on a blue background. The original version, used as a state flag and on ships, had three pennants.


text: The Prix de Rome scholarship is established in France for students of the arts.


date: January 19

text: January 19 – Nicholas Trott, colonial magistrate, South Carolina Chief Justice (d. 1740)


date: January 27

text: January 27 – George Byng, 1st Viscount Torrington, English Royal Navy admiral (d. 1733)


date: February 1

text: February 1 – Ignacia del Espíritu Santo, Filipino religious sister (d. 1748)


date: February 4

text: February 4 – Edward Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield, English peer (d. 1716)


date: February 12

text: February 12 – Cotton Mather, American theologian (d. 1728)


date: February 25

text: February 25 – Pierre Antoine Motteux, French-born English dramatist (d. 1718)


date: March 22

text: March 22 – August Hermann Francke, German Lutheran clergyman, philanthropist, Biblical scholar (d. 1727)


date: May 20

text: May 20 – William Bradford, English-born printer in North America (d. 1752)


date: May 28

text: May 28 – António Manoel de Vilhena, Portuguese Grand Master of the Order of Saint John (d. 1736)


date: August 31

text: August 31 – Guillaume Amontons, French scientific instrument inventor and physicist (d. 1705)


date: September 20

text: September 20 – Louis-François Duplessis de Mornay, Catholic bishop of Quebec (d. 1741)


date: October 24

text: October 24 – Stephen Delancey, major colonial New York figure (d. 1741)


date: November 13

text: November 13 – Árni Magnússon, Icelandic scholar and manuscript collector (d. 1730)


date: December 20

text: December 20 – Thomas Wilson, Bishop of Sodor and Man (d. 1755)


date: January 6

text: January 6 – George Goring, 1st Earl of Norwich, English soldier, politician (b. 1585)


date: January 22

text: January 22 – Giancarlo de' Medici, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1611)


date: April 29

text: April 29 – Margaret Yolande of Savoy, duchess consort of Parma (b. 1635)


date: May 11

text: May 11 – Henri II d'Orléans, Duke of Longueville, Prince of France (b. 1595)


date: June 4

text: June 4 – William Juxon, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1582)


date: June 25

text: June 25 – John Bramhall, Archbishop of Armagh, Anglican controversialist (b. 1594)


date: July 2

text: July 2 – Thomas Selle, German baroque composer (b. 1599)


date: September 18

text: September 18 – Joseph of Cupertino, Italian saint (b. 1603)


date: September 27

text: September 27 – Philip, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (b. 1584)


date: October 20

text: October 20 – Raphael Cotoner, Spanish 60th Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (b. 1601)


date: December 17

text: December 17 – Queen Ana Nzinga of the Kingdom of Ndongo and the Kingdom of Matamba, both located in the northern part of what is now the Republic of Angola in Africa, dies after a 39-year reign in Ndongo and 32 years after conquering Matamba. She is succeeded by her sister, Barbara Mukambu Mbandi, who rules for less than three years.


date: December 21

text: December 21 – Thomas Bruce, 1st Earl of Elgin, Scottish nobleman (b. 1599)


date: December 27

text: December 27 – Christine of France, Duchess of Savoy (b. 1606)


date: December 28

text: December 28 – Francesco Maria Grimaldi, Italian mathematician, physicist (b. 1618)


date: February 12

text: February 12 – The Treaty of Pisa is signed between France and the Papal States to bring an end to the Corsican Guard Affair that began on August 20, 1662, when the French ambassador was shot and killed by soldiers in the employ of Pope Alexander VII.


date: February 14

text: February 14 – A peace treaty is signed in Turin in Italy to end the War of the Banished between the Duchy of Savoy and the Waldensians.


date: October 4

text: October 4 – New Netherland is captured by England. The English promptly rename the fledgling city New York, after the Duke of York (later King James II).


date: January 5

text: January 5 – Battle of Surat in India: The Maratha leader, Chhatrapati Shivaji, defeats the Mughal Army Captain Inayat Khan, and sacks Surat.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Guerin Spranger, commander of the Dutch fortress at Cayenne in South America, surrenders without a fight to French commander Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy and 1,200 employees of the Compagnie de la France équinoxiale, giving France control of the territory that becomes the colony of French Guiana.


date: June 5

text: June 5 – The siege of the Croatian fortress at Novi Zrin (located near the village of Donja Dubrava in Croatia near its border with Hungary). After a 32-day defense, the Croatian defenders surrender to troops of the Ottoman Empire.


date: June 24

text: June 24 – The Second Anglo-Dutch War carries over to North America as soldiers of the English Army invade the Dutch colony of New Netherland, promised by King Charles II of England to his brother, the Duke of York.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – Battle of Saint Gotthard: The Ottoman Empire is defeated by a Habsburg army, led by Raimondo Montecuccoli, leading to the Peace of Vasvár.


date: August 11

text: August 11 – Sir John Lisle, a former member of the English House of Commons who had been designated a regicide for his role in signing the death warrant in the execution in 1649 of Charles I of England, is assassinated in a church courtyard in Lausanne in Switzerland. Lisle had gone into exile after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The shooting of Lisle, done on order of King Charles II, is carried out by a team led by royal agent James Cotter.


date: September 8

text: September 8 (August 29 O.S.) – Peter Stuyvesant, Director-General of the Dutch Republic colony of New Netherland, surrenders New Amsterdam to an English naval squadron, commanded by Colonel Richard Nicolls, without bloodshed.


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Surrounded by a Berber army, the French Navy evacuates the presidio of Jijel, a Mediterranean Sea port in what is now the Republic of Algeria, after having captured it from the Algiers Regency on June 12.


date: February 2

text: February 2 – Jesuit missionary Johann Grueber arrives in Rome after a 214-day journey that had started in Beijing, proving that commerce can be had between Europe and Asia by land rather than ship.


date: February 26

text: February 26 – Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy, appointed by King Louis XIV of France as Lieutenant Général of the Americas, departs from the port of La Rochelle with 1,200 men and seven ships to expand France's property in the Caribbean Sea and in South America.


date: November 17

text: November 17 – Latvian colonist Jacob Kettler, Duke of Courland, gives up all of his rights to his African colony at St Andrew's Island in the Gambia River to representatives of King Charles II, in return for keeping possession of the Caribbean island of Tobago.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – Juan Alonso de Cuevas y Dávalos is appointed as the new Roman Catholic Archbishop of Mexico by Pope Alexander VII, to allow Archbishop Mateo de Sagade de Bugueyro to return to Spain. Archbishop Cuevas is installed on November 15 upon his arrival in Mexico City.


text: Austere reforms introduced in the Cistercian La Trappe Abbey in Normandy by Armand de Rancé, origin of the Trappists.


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Indian entrepreneur Virji Vora, described in the 17th century by the English East India Company as the richest merchant in the world, suffers the loss of a large portion of his wealth when the Maratha troops of Shivaji plunder his residence at Surat and his business warehouses.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – All grants to the Compagnie des Isles de l'Amerique for development of French-claimed islands in the Caribbean Sea are revoked by King Louis XIV, including the rights to the islands of Martinique and Saint Lucia that had been sold to Marie Bonnard du Parquet prior to her death in 1659.


date: May 28

text: May 28 – King Louis XIV of France establishes the Compagnie des Indes Occidentales by royal decree to replace the recently cancelled Compagnie des Isles de l'Amerique.


date: June 9

text: June 9 – Kronenbourg Brewery (Brasseries Kronenbourg) is founded in Strasbourg.


date: August 27

text: August 27 – The French East India Company (Compagnie des Indes Orientales) is founded.


date: December 3

text: December 3 – The English warships HMS Nonsuch and HMS Phoenix are wrecked in a storm at Gibraltar.


date: March 19

text: March 19 – Polish astronomer Jan Heweliusz becomes the first native of Poland to be inducted into England's Royal Society.


date: May 9

text: May 9 – Robert Hooke discovers Jupiter's Great Red Spot.


date: November 6

text: November 6 – The oldest hospital in India, the Government General Hospital, is opened at Madras by the English East India Company for the treatment of ill soldiers.


date: September 23

text: September 23 – The French Navy ship Tigre sinks off of the coast of the island of Sardinia, with the loss of 64 men. Another 58 of the crew are rescued.


date: December 20

text: December 20 – All but 3 members of the over 200-person crew of the Dutch ship Kennemerland are killed when the trade ship sinks in a storm near the Out Skerries islands off of the coast of Scotland.


date: May 12

text: May 12 – The original version of Tartuffe, a comedy by French playwright and actor Molière, is given its first performance, staged at the Palace of Versailles


date: June 3

text: June 3 – In the city of Mantua in Italy, the world's oldest continuously published private newspaper, Gazzetta di Mantova, publishes its first-known issue. The newspaper would celebrate its 350th anniversary in 2014.


date: October 28

text: October 28 – The "Duke of York and Albany's maritime regiment of foot" is formed in London and serves as a precursor to the Royal Marines of the United Kingdom.


text: John Evelyn's Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees and the Propagation of Timber is published in London, in book form.


date: January 15

text: January 15 – Jean Meslier, French Catholic priest, later discovered to have promoted atheism (d. 1729)


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, Italian writer and jurist (d. 1718)


date: February 26

text: February 26 – Nicolas Fatio de Duillier, Swiss mathematician (d. 1753)


date: March 17

text: March 17 – Georg Österreich, German composer and music collector (d. 1735)


date: April 5

text: April 5 – Élisabeth Thérèse de Lorraine, French noblewoman, Princess of Epinoy by marriage (d. 1748)


date: April 30

text: April 30 – François Louis, Prince of Conti, French general (d. 1709)


date: May 30

text: May 30 – Giulio Alberoni, Italian cardinal and statesman (d. 1754)


text: June 3 – Rachel Ruysch, painter from the Northern Netherlands (d. 1750)


date: July 3

text: July 3 – James Stanley, 10th Earl of Derby, English politician (d. 1736)


date: August 12

text: August 12 – Magnus Stenbock, Swedish noble (d. 1717)


date: August 20

text: August 20 – János Pálffy, Hungarian field marshal, Palatine (d. 1751)


date: August 24

text: August 24 – Willem Adriaan van der Stel, Dutch colonial administrator (d. 1733)


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Louis Antoine de Pardaillan de Gondrin, French duke (d. 1736)


text: September 5 – Charlotte Lee, Countess of Lichfield, illegitimate daughter of King Charles II of England (d. 1718)


date: January 27

text: January 27 – Archduke Charles Joseph of Austria, Roman Catholic bishop (b. 1649)


date: January 30

text: January 30 – Cornelis de Graeff, Dutch mayor (b. 1599)


date: February 16

text: February 16 – Sir John Trelawny, 1st Baronet, British baronet (b. 1592)


date: March 16

text: March 16 – Ivan Vyhovsky, Ukrainian Cossack leader


date: March 30

text: March 30 – Guru Har Krishan, 8th Guru of Sikhism (b. 1656)


date: March 31

text: March 31 – Charlotte Stanley, Countess of Derby, English defender of Latham House (b. 1599)


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Michiel Sweerts, Flemish painter (b. 1618)


date: June 22

text: June 22 – Katherine Philips, Anglo-Welsh poet (b. 1631)


date: July 16

text: July 16 – Andreas Gryphius, German writer (b. 1616)


text: August 24 – Maria Cunitz, Silesian astronomer (b. 1610)


date: August 27

text: August 27 – Francisco de Zurbarán, Spanish painter (b. 1598)


date: October 31

text: October 31 – William Frederick, Prince of Nassau-Dietz, Dutch stadtholder (b. 1613)


date: November 18

text: November 18 – Miklós Zrínyi, Croatian and Hungarian military leader, statesman (b. 1620)


date: December 15

text: December 15 – Dietrich Reinkingk, German lawyer and politician (b. 1590)


date: June 11

text: June 11 – Shivaji, leader of the Bhonsale clan of the Marathas in India, signs the Treaty of Purandar with the Mughal Empire, giving up 23 of the 35 forts under his control, agreeing to pay reparations to the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, and sending his son to stay as a hostage at Agra.


date: June 12

text: June 12 – England installs a municipal government in New York City (the former Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam).


date: June 30

text: June 30 – King Charles II of England issues a second charter for the Province of Carolina, which clarifies and expands the borders of the Lords Proprietors' tracts.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – Charles II of Spain becomes king while not yet four years old.


date: February 21

text: February 21 – In India, Shivaji Bhonsale of the Maratha Empire captures the English East India Company's trading post at Sadashivgad (in the modern-day Indian state of Karnataka).


date: March 4

text: March 4 – The Second Anglo-Dutch War begins.


date: June 13

text: June 13 (June 3 O.S.) – Second Anglo-Dutch War – Battle of Lowestoft: The English Navy, under James Stuart, Duke of York, is victorious against the Dutch.


date: June 17

text: June 17 – Battle of Montes Claros between Spanish and a combined Anglo-Portuguese force ends with a decisive Portuguese victory.


date: August 2

text: August 2 – The Dutch fleet defeats the English in the Battle of Vågen off Norway in the Second Anglo-Dutch War.


date: October 29

text: October 29 – Battle of Mbwila: Portuguese forces defeat and kill King António I of Kongo.


date: July 9

text: July 9 – The colonization of the south Indian Ocean island Réunion begins, with Louis XIV's East India Company (Compagnie des Indes Orientales) sending 20 permanent settlers, under the command of Etienne Regnault, from the French ship Taureau.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – Pierre de Beausse, an envoy of France's King Louis XIV, formally claims possession of the African island of Madagascar on behalf of the French East India Company after landing on the coast in the 32-gun frigate Saint-Paul.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – A new legal code is approved for the Dutch and English towns of New York, guaranteeing all Protestants the right to continue their religious observances unhindered.


date: March 16

text: March 16 – Bucharest allows Jews to settle in the city, in exchange for an annual tax of 16 guilders.


date: October 21

text: October 21 – Louis XIV and Jean-Baptiste Colbert found the Manufacture royale des glaces of Saint Gobain, which is the oldest French company of the CAC 40, with 350 years in 2015.


date: January 5

text: January 5 – The Journal des sçavans begins publication as the first scientific journal in France.


date: March 6

text: March 6 – The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London begins publication in England, the first scientific journal in English and the oldest to be continuously published.


date: April 12

text: April 12 – The burial of Margaret Porteous is recorded; hers is the first known death during the Great Plague of London. This last major outbreak of Bubonic plague in the British Isles has possibly been introduced from the Netherlands. Two-thirds of Londoners leave the city, but over 68,000 die. The plague spreads to Derbyshire.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – King Charles II of England leaves London with his entourage, fleeing the Great Plague. He moves his court to Salisbury, then Oxford.


date: August 8

text: August 8 – The Great Plague forces the closure of the University of Cambridge, where Isaac Newton is a student. Newton retires to his home in Lincolnshire for safety, and stays there for two years. During this time alone, Newton will make groundbreaking discoveries in mathematics, calculus, mechanics and optics, and lay the foundations for his books Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica and Optiks.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – Great fire of Newport, Shropshire, England.


date: February 15

text: February 15 – Molière's comedy Dom Juan ou le Festin de pierre, based on the Spanish legend of the womanizer Don Juan Tenorio and Tirso de Molina's Spanish play El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra, premieres in Paris at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal.


date: August 27

text: August 27 – Ye Bare & Ye Cubbe, the first play in English in the American colonies, is given its first performance. The presentation takes place at Cowles Tavern in Pungoteague, Virginia. The event is documented in 1958 in a historical marker with the heading "The Bear and the Cub" which says "This first play recorded in the United States was presented August 27, 1665. The Accomack County Court at Pungoteague heard charges against three men 'for acting a play,' ordered inspection of costumes and script, but found the men 'not guilty.'"


date: September 22

text: September 22 – Molière's L'Amour médecin is first presented, before Louis XIV, at the Palace of Versailles, with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully.


date: September

text: September – Robert Hooke's Micrographia is published in London, first applying the term 'cell' to plant tissue, which he discovered first in cork, then in living organisms, using a microscope.


date: October 5

text: October 5 – Kiel University is founded in the Duchy of Holstein.


date: November 7

text: November 7 – The London Gazette is first published as The Oxford Gazette.


date: December 10

text: December 10 – The Royal Netherlands Marine Corps is founded by Michiel de Ruyter.


text: Joan Blaeu completes publication of his Atlas Maior (Theatrum Orbis Terrarum) in Amsterdam.


date: February 6

text: February 6 – Anne, Queen of Great Britain (d. 1714)


date: February 12

text: February 12 – Rudolf Jakob Camerarius, German botanist and physician (d. 1721)


date: March 4

text: March 4 – Philip Christoph von Königsmarck, Swedish soldier (d. 1694)


date: March 17

text: March 17 – Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, French harpsichordist and composer (d. 1729)


date: April 19

text: April 19 – Jacques Lelong, French bibliographer (d. 1721)


date: April 29

text: April 29 – James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde, Irish statesman and soldier (d. 1745)


date: June 4

text: June 4 – Zacharie Robutel de La Noue, Canadian soldier (d. 1733)


date: July 2

text: July 2 – Samuel Penhallow, English-born American colonist, historian (d. 1726)


date: August 21

text: August 21 – Giacomo F. Maraldi, French-Italian astronomer (d. 1729)


text: August 27 – John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol, English politician (d. 1751)


date: December 25

text: December 25 – Lady Grizel Baillie, Scottish songwriter (d. 1746)


date: December 28

text: December 28 – George FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Northumberland, English general (d. 1716)


text: date unknown – Ingeborg i Mjärhult, Swedish soothsayer (d. 1749)


date: January 12

text: January 12 – Pierre de Fermat, French mathematician (b. 1607)


date: January 29

text: January 29 – Jeanne des Anges, French Ursuline nun in Loudun (b. 1602)


date: January 31

text: January 31 – Johannes Clauberg, German theologian and philosopher (b. 1622)


date: March 1

text: March 1 – Thomas Wentworth, 5th Baron Wentworth, English baron and politician (b. 1612)


date: March 11

text: March 11 – Clemente Tabone, Maltese landowner and militia member (b. c. 1575)


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Jean-Joseph Surin, French Jesuit writer (b. 1600)


date: May 24

text: May 24 – Mary of Jesus of Ágreda, Franciscan abbess and spiritual writer (b. 1602)


date: June 6

text: June 6 – George Christian, Prince of East Frisia, prince of Ostfriesland (b. 1634)


date: July 11

text: July 11 – Kenelm Digby, English privateer (b. 1603)


date: July 18

text: July 18 – Stefan Czarniecki, Polish general (b. 1599)


date: August 28

text: August 28 – Elisabetta Sirani, Italian painter (b. 1638)


date: November 19

text: November 19 – Nicolas Poussin, French painter (b. 1594)


date: December 2

text: December 2 – Maria Angela Astorch, Spanish Roman Catholic religious figure, mystic and blessed (b. 1592)


text: December 2 – Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet, French socialite (b. 1588)


date: April 20

text: April 20 – In colonial British North America, "Articles of Peace and Amity" are signed between the governments of the Province of Maryland and 12 Eastern Algonquian tribes — the Piscataways, Anacostancks, Doegs, Mattawomans, Portobackes, Chopticos, Mikikiwomans, Manasquesends, Chingwawateicks, Hangemaicks, Sacayos, and Panyayos.


date: May 12

text: May 12 – In India, General Shivaji Bhonsale of the Maratha Empire arrives at the Agra Fort for a meeting with Emperor Aurangzeb of the Mughal Empire, as part of the terms of peace under the 1665 Treaty of Purandar. After taking offence at the disrespect shown to him, he gets angry and attempts to leave; he and his son Sambhaji are immediately placed under arrest and imprisoned at the fort.


date: May 21

text: May 21 – The Holy Roman Empire, ruled by Leopold I, repurchases the territory of the Duchy of Opole and Racibórz (Oppeln und Ratibor), which it had ceded to Poland in 1645, for the sum of 120,000 guldens and consolidates it with Upper Silesia. The territory will be ceded from Germany to Poland in 1945 at the end of World War II.


text: May 21 – Iliaș Alexandru becomes the ruler of Moldavia, part of modern-day Romania.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – The Agreement of Legonice is signed, with Poland restoring the titles of Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski and Lubomirski's officers, granting amnesty to all the rebels, and King Jan II Kazimierz abandoning further reform plans.


text: Jean Talon completes a census of New France, the first census in North America.


date: January 27

text: January 27 – Mughal conquest of Chittagong: Mughal forces of Emperor Aurangzeb, in alliance with the Portuguese, under Shaista Khan and his son Buzurg Umed Khan, expel the Maghs from the Bengal port city of Chittagong, renaming the city as Islamabad.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – During the Portuguese Restoration War between Portugal and Spain, the Battle of the Berlengas ends after four days as a fleet of 15 Spanish warships obtains the surrender of Fort of São João Baptista.


date: July 13

text: July 13 – The Battle of Matwy, the bloodiest engagement of Lubomirski's rebellion, takes place in Poland at the village of Matwy. Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski, who has led the revolt against Poland's King Jan II Kazimierz, defeats a larger number of troops led by John III Sobieski of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Poland and Lithuania sustain 4,000 deaths compared to 200 rebel casualties.


date: August 4

text: August 4 (July 25 Julian calendar) – In the St. James's Day Battle of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the English Royal Navy, under the command of Prince Rupert of the Rhine and George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, defeats the Dutch Republic navy off the North Foreland of England. The victory comes 6 weeks after the British fleet had sustained a heavy loss in the Four Days' Battle. The Dutch ships Sneek and Tholen are sunk, with the loss of 800 men, while 300 Englishmen die in the sinking of HMS Resolution.


date: August 17

text: August 17 – In India, General Shivaji Bhonsale, future ruler of the Maratha Empire, and his son Sambhaji escape from house arrest at the Agra Fort, where they have been held prisoner since May 12.


date: September 16

text: September 16 – The Apostasy of Sabbatai Zevi begins in Istanbul.


date: October 11

text: October 11 – The Sieur de Buat, Captain Henri de Fleury de Coulan of the Army of the Dutch Republic, is beheaded in public at The Hague after being convicted of attempting to overthrow Dutch leader Johan de Witt.


date: October 17

text: October 17 – In North America, a French Army regiment led by Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy erects crosses in the Mohawk lands of the eastern Iroquois Confederacy territory along the Mohawk River as part of an invasion that started on September 29. During the expedition, Prouville's forces find four abandoned Mohawk villages in the area, located in the modern U.S. state of New York near the village of Schenectady but never confront any Mohawk defenders, and the French never attempt to enforce their claim.


date: November 28

text: November 28 – The Battle of Rullion Green takes place in the Pentland Hills near Midlothian in Scotland as the culmination of the brief 'Pentland Rising' which began on November 15 as a rebellion by the Covenanters who oppose changes in the Church of Scotland. At least 2,000 men of the Scottish Royal Army, led by General Thomas Dalyell, defeat more than 750 Covenanter rebels who have been under the command of James Wallace of Auchens.


date: March

text: March – The Tavernier Blue, precursor to the Hope Diamond, is first recorded, when French gem merchant Jean-Baptiste Tavernier purchases it from the Kollur Mine in the Mughal Empire in uncut form.


date: April 23

text: April 23 – On Saint Christopher Island more commonly called St Kitts, a Caribbean Sea island divided between colonies of England and France, a battle near Sandy Point Town over control of the territory ends with a victory by the French over a numerically-superior English force two days after English Deputy Governor William Watts of Anguilla had sent an expedition to capture the neighbouring island of Saint Martin. Governor Watts and the French Governor of Saint-Christophe, Charles de Sales, are both killed in the battle.


date: September 4

text: September 4 – Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb grants the French East India Company a royal mandate to trade at the port of Surat.


date: January 17

text: January 17 – The Chair of Saint Peter (Cathedra Petri, designed by Bernini) is set above the altar in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.


date: May 13

text: May 13 – French theologian Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy is imprisoned in the Bastille after his conviction for heresy in connection with the Jansenist movement. Sacy uses his two and one-half years of incarceration (which lasts until November 14, 1668), to create the Bible du Port-Royal, a first French language rendition of the Bible, finishing a translation of the Old Testament from the Vulgate, written in Latin, that had been started by his brother Antoine, and then beginning work on the New Testament.


date: June 6

text: June 6 – Moulai al-Rashid is let into Fes by the city's Jews, establishing the power of Morocco's Alawi dynasty, which will continue into the 21st century.


date: October 10

text: October 10 – A "day of humiliation and fasting" is held in London churches a month after the Great Fire of London.


date: December 12

text: December 12 – A sobor (church council) of the Russian Orthodox Church deposes Patriarch Nikon of Moscow, but accepts his liturgical reforms. Dissenters from these, known as Old Believers, continue into the 21st century.


text: The first completed printed Bible translation into Armenian, Astuacašunč hnoc' ew noroc' ktakaranac (Oskanean Bible), is published in Amsterdam, edited by Bishop Oskan Yerevantsi.


text: Isaac Newton uses a prism to split sunlight, as referenced in his alchemical works as Lux Dei, into the component colours of the optical spectrum, assisting the understanding of the scientific nature of light. He also develops differential calculus simultaneously with Leibniz. 1666 is consequently referred to as his Annus mirabilis or Newton's "Year of the Morning Star".


date: February 1

text: February 1 – The joint English and Scottish royal court returns to London as the Great Plague of London subsides.


date: August 19

text: August 19 (August 9 Julian calendar) – Rear Admiral Robert Holmes leads an English Royal Navy raid on the Dutch island of Terschelling, destroying 150 merchant ships in the Vlie estuary over a period of two days, and pillaging the town of West-Terschelling. The action becomes known as "Holmes's Bonfire".


date: September 6

text: September 6 – The Cestui Que Vie Act 1666 is passed by the Parliament of England, to provide for the disposal of the property of missing persons.


date: October 27

text: October 27 – Robert Hubert, a Frenchman who has made a false confession to having started the Great Fire of London (despite not arriving in England until two days after the blaze started), is executed based on his statements.


text: Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer paints The Art of Painting, his largest and most complex work.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – The tower of St. Peter's Church, Riga, collapses, burying eight people in the rubble.


date: August 2

text: August 2 (July 23 Julian calendar) – A hurricane sweeps through the Caribbean Sea near Guadeloupe five days after Barbados colonial Governor Francis Willoughby led a force of two Royal Navy frigates, 12 commandeered vessels and over 1,000 men in a battle against French colonies during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. Willoughby and most of his crew die in the sinking of his flagship, HMS Hope


date: October 23

text: October 23 – The most intense tornado on record in English history, an F4 storm on the Fujita scale or T8 on the TORRO scale, strikes the county of Lincolnshire with a path of destruction through the villages of Welbourn, Wellingore, Navenby and Boothby Graffoe, with winds of more than 213 mph.


date: June 4

text: June 4 – Molière's comedy of manners The Misanthrope is premièred at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris by the King's Players with himself in the title role.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – Lund University is founded in Lund, Sweden.


date: December 22

text: December 22 – The French Academy of Sciences, founded by Louis XIV, first meets.


text: February 1 – Marie Thérèse de Bourbon, Princess of Conti and titular queen of Poland (d. 1732)


date: February 9

text: February 9 – George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney, British soldier (d. 1737)


date: March 15

text: March 15 – George Bähr, German architect (d. 1738)


date: May 14

text: May 14 – Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia (d. 1732)


date: July 10

text: July 10 – John Ernest Grabe, German-born Anglican theologian (d. 1711)


date: July 23

text: July 23 – Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield (d. 1732)


date: August 4

text: August 4 – Maria Sophia of Neuburg, Queen consort of Portugal (d. 1699)


date: August 13

text: August 13 – William Wotton, English scholar (d. 1727)


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Gottfried Arnold, German church historian (d. 1714)


text: September 6 – Tsar Ivan V of Russia (d. 1696)


date: November 12

text: November 12 – Mary Astell, English writer (d. 1731)


text: December 22 – Guru Gobind Singh, 10th Guru of Sikhism, social reformist, poet, and revolutionary (d. 1708)


text: Arthur Chichester, 3rd Earl of Donegall (d. 1706)


text: Mary Pix, English author (d. 1709)


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Anne of Austria, queen of Louis XIII and regent of France (b. 1601)


date: February 12

text: February 12 – Mildmay Fane, 2nd Earl of Westmorland, English politician (b. 1602)


date: February 26

text: February 26 – Armand de Bourbon, Prince of Conti, Frondeur (b. 1629)


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Luisa de Guzmán, Duchess of Braganza and Queen consort of Portugal (b. 1613)


date: March 1

text: March 1 – Ecaterina Cercheza, Princess consort of Moldavia (b. 1620)


date: May 13

text: May 13 – Pier Francesco Mola, Italian painter of the High Baroque (b. 1612)


date: June 28

text: June 28 – Sir Gervase Clifton, 1st Baronet, English politician (b. 1587)


date: July 6

text: July 6 – On 3 Muharram 1077 AH on the Muslim calendar, Sa'd ibn Zayd, a descendant of Hasan ibn Ali and of Muhammad (founder of Islam) becomes the new Sharif of Mecca, in modern-day Saudi Arabia. His ascension to the post follows the death of his father, Zayd ibn Muhsin, who had been the Sharif since 1631.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – Camillo Francesco Maria Pamphili, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1622)


date: August 6

text: August 6 – Tjerk Hiddes de Vries, Frisian naval hero and commander (of wounds received in the St. James's Day Battle) (b. 1622)


date: September 2

text: September 2 – The Great Fire of London begins as a blaze in a bakery owned by Thomas Farriner on Pudding Lane, near London Bridge. Over a period of four days, the fire destroys more than 13,000 buildings (including Old St Paul's Cathedral), but only six people are known to have died, while at least 80,000 are left destitute and homeless. The events are recorded by Samuel Pepys in his diary. The resurveying of property is credited with advancing both cartography and the practices of surveying, as well as resulting in the modern definition by John Ogilby of the statute mile, as 1,760 yards.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – Augustus the Younger, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (b. 1579)


date: October 26

text: October 26 – Abbas II, the Shah of Iran, dies at the age of 34 after a reign of 24 years, without designating a successor. His 18-year old son Sam Mirza is crowned as the new Safavid dynasty emperor six days later.


date: October 29

text: October 29 – Edmund Calamy the Elder, English Presbyterian leader (b. 1600)


date: February 6

text: February 6 (January 27 O.S.) – The Treaty of Andrusovo is signed during the Russo-Polish War. Poland cedes eastern Ukraine, including Kiev and Smolensk, to Russia, ending Poland's status as a major Central European power.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – Second Anglo-Dutch War – The Treaty of Breda ends the war by England against the Dutch Republic, France and Denmark and Norway. In the Americas, the Dutch retain control of Surinam, the English retain New Netherland and the French Acadia.


date: August 24

text: August 24 – The Treaty of Breda goes into effect after having been signed on July 31, bringing an end to hostilities between England and its three opponents.


date: January 11

text: January 11 – Aurangzeb, monarch of the Mughal Empire, orders the removal of Rao Karan Singh as Maharaja of the Bikaner State (part of the modern-day Rajasthan state of India) because of Karan's dereliction of duty in battle.


date: February 5

text: February 5 – In the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the English Royal Navy warship HMS Saint Patrick is captured less than nine months after being launched, when it fights a battle off the coast of England and North Foreland, Kent. Captain Robert Saunders and 8 of his crew are killed while fighting the Dutch ships Delft and Shakerlo. The Dutch Navy renames the ship the Zwanenburg.


date: February 25

text: February 25 – During the Second Anglo-Dutch War, a Dutch Navy force commanded by Admiral Abraham Crijnssen arrives at the English colony of Surinam in South America and sails up the Suriname River to Fort Willoughby (later Fort Zeelandia at Paramaribo). Bombardment of the fort begins the next day, and its commander, William Byam surrenders, effectively giving control of Surinam to the Dutch Republic. The cession is confirmed with the signing of the Peace of Breda on July 31.


date: April 29

text: April 29–May 1 – Second Anglo-Dutch War: A Dutch flotilla under Admiral van Ghent enters the Firth of Forth in Scotland and bombards Burntisland.


date: May 24

text: May 24 – After King Philip IV of Spain reneges on payment of a large dowry to King Louis XIV of France, promised to Louis as a gift for Louis' marriage to Philip's daughter Princess Maria Theresa, the War of Devolution begins between France and Spain. The French Army invades the Spanish Netherlands (modern-day Belgium), entering Flanders and Franche-Comté. By the time the war ends on May 2, 1668, parts of the Spanish Netherlands are ceded to France.


date: June 19

text: June 19–24 – The raid on the Medway in England is carried out when a fleet from the Dutch Republic under Admiral Michiel de Ruyter takes Sheerness fort, sails up the River Medway, raids Chatham Dockyard, and tows away the royal flagship The Royal Charles.


date: June 26

text: June 26 – Louis XIV of France conquers Tournai.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – The province of Holland in the Dutch Republic passes the "Perpetual Edict" declaring that it will no longer acknowledge the authority of the republic's Stadtholder, and other provinces soon follow suit.


date: August 10

text: August 10 – The Siege of Lille, at this time part of the Spanish Netherlands (modern-day Belgium) begins and becomes the only major engagement of the "War of Devolution" between France and Spain. The Spanish Army surrenders after 16 days.


date: August 15

text: August 15 – The League of the Rhine is dissolved by agreement of its members, nine years and one day after its formation as a military alliance between German kingdoms in the western part of the Holy Roman Empire.


date: November 2

text: November 2 – In India, Assam troops led by General Lachit Borphukan, dispatched by King Supangmung, captures the Mughal Empire city of Guwahati after a victory in battle at Itakhuli.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – Emperor Aurangzeb, ruler of the Mughal Empire in India, orders a massive counterattack on Assam's Ahom kingdom after learning that Mughal troops had captured Guwahati. Aurangzeb appoints Raja Ram Singh to command a force of 36,000 infantry, 18,000 cavalry, 2,000 archers and 40 ships to conquer Ahom. The war lasts until the defeat of the Mughals by the smaller Ahom force in March 1671.


text: The first military campaign of Stenka Razin is conducted in Russia.


text: The French army uses grenadiers.


date: March 27

text: March 27 – In North America (Canada), explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle is released from the Society of Jesus (Jesuits).


text: After Shivaji's escape, hostilities between the Marathas and the Mughals ebb, with Mughal sardar Jaswant Singh acting as intermediary between Shivaji and Aurangzeb for new peace proposals.


date: February 27

text: February 27 (February 17 O.S.) – Joasaphus II is elected by the Council of Bishops as the new Patriarch of Moscow, leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, after conservative clerics depose Patriarch Nikon for his reformation of the Church.


date: June 20

text: June 20 – Giulio Rospigliosi is elected by the College of Cardinals to succeed the late Pope Alexander VII, after receiving 61 of the 64 votes of the cardinals present. He takes the regnal name Pope Clement IX, becoming the 238th head of the Roman Catholic Church.


date: August 18

text: August 18 – In an effort to prevent narrow streets from being blocked from all light by tall buildings, the city of Paris enacts its first building code limiting the height of new construction. Buildings may be no taller than eight toise – 15.6 m – tall. In 1783, rules are implemented to consider the width of the street.


text: Isaac Newton has investigated and written on optics, acoustics, the infinitesimal calculus, mechanism and thermodynamics. The works will be published only years later.


text: Robert Hooke demonstrates that the alteration of the blood in the lungs is essential for respiration.


date: February 8

text: February 8 – The first part of the Rebuilding of London Act 1666, following the destruction by the Great Fire of London of 1666, goes into effect as royal assent is given to the Fire of London Disputes Act 1666, which establishes the Fire Court. The Court, sitting at Clifford's Inn near Fleet Street, hears cases starting on February 27 and continuing until the end of 1668.


date: January 19

text: January 19 – The town of Anzonico in Switzerland is destroyed by an avalanche.


date: April 6

text: April 6 – The 1667 Dubrovnik earthquake in the Republic of Ragusa (part of modern-day Croatia) kills as many as 5,000 people, roughly one sixth of the population, and levels most of the buildings in Dubrovnik.


date: September 6

text: September 6 – The "Dreadful Hurricane of 1667" ravages southeast Virginia, bringing 12 days of rain, blowing down plantation homes and stripping fields of crops.


date: November 25

text: November 25 – A devastating earthquake rocks Caucasia and kills 80,000 people.


date: January 27

text: January 27 – The 2,000 seat Opernhaus am Taschenberg, a theater in Dresden (capital of the Electorate of Saxony) opens with its first production, Pietro Ziani's opera Il teseo.


date: February 22

text: February 22 – The Lejonkulan ("lion's den") opens at Stockholm in Sweden as the first permanent theater in Scandinavia, with the performance of Jean Magnon's Orontes en Satira.


date: March

text: March – Louis XIV of France abolishes the livre parisis (Paris pound), in favor of the much more widely used livre tournois (Tours pound). He also designates Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie as the first chief of "police" of Paris.


date: April 27

text: April 27 – The blind, impoverished, 58-year-old John Milton seals a contract for publication of Paradise Lost with London printer Samuel Simmons, for an initial payment of £5. The first edition is published in October and sells out in eighteen months.


date: June 27

text: June 27 – George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, one of the five members of the Cabal ministry in England (Lords Chudleigh, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley and Lauderdale), turns himself in after a warrant for his arrest is issued on February 25 on charges of treason (including the casting of the horoscope of King Charles II). He is held in the Tower of London for four years before being released on July 17, 1671.


date: August 15

text: August 15 – John Dryden's comedy Sir Martin Mar-all, or The Feign'd Innocence is given its first performance, presented by the players of the King's Theatre in London.


date: April 29

text: April 29 – John Arbuthnot, English physician and writer (d. 1735)


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Abraham de Moivre, French mathematician (d. 1754)


date: June 18

text: June 18 – Ivan Trubetskoy, Russian field marshal (d. 1750)


date: July 2

text: July 2 – Pietro Ottoboni, Italian cardinal (d. 1740)


date: July 27

text: July 27 – Johann Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (d. 1748)


date: August 11

text: August 11 – Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, last of the Medicis of Italy (d. 1743)


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Giovanni Girolamo Saccheri, Italian mathematician (d. 1733)


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Asano Naganori, Japanese warlord (d. 1701)


date: November 2

text: November 2 – James Sobieski, Crown Prince of Poland (d. 1737)


date: November 5

text: November 5 – Christoph Ludwig Agricola, German painter (d. 1719)


date: November 30

text: November 30 – Jonathan Swift, Irish writer (d. 1745)


date: December 9

text: December 9 – William Whiston, English mathematician (d. 1752)


date: December 25

text: December 25 – Ehrengard Melusine von der Schulenburg, Duchess of Kendal and Munster (d. 1743)


text: Susanna Centlivre, English actress and playwright (d. 1723)


date: April 10

text: April 10 – Jan Marek Marci, Bohemian physician and scientist (b. 1595)


date: April 25

text: April 25 – Peter of Saint Joseph Betancur, Spanish saint and missionary to Guatemala (b. 1626)


date: May 2

text: May 2 – George Wither, English writer (b. 1588)


date: May 7

text: May 7 – Johann Jakob Froberger, German composer (b. 1616)


date: May 8

text: May 8 – Prince Prithviraj Singh, eldest son of the Maharaja Jaswant Singh of the Kingdom of Marwar (within India's Mughal Empire, part of the modern-day Rajasthan state) dies painfully at the age of 14, supposedly after putting on a khalat (a ceremonial robe) given to him by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. According to the folklore of Marwar, the khalat was actually a garment infused with poison that penetrated the skin.


date: May 16

text: May 16 – Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton, English statesman (b. 1607)


date: June 5

text: June 5 – Francesco Sforza Pallavicino, Italian cardinal and historian (b. 1607)


text: June 5 – Grégoire de Saint-Vincent, Flemish Jesuit and mathematician (b. 1584)


date: June 15

text: June 15 – The first human blood transfusion is administered by Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys. He transfuses the blood of a sheep to a 15-year-old boy. (Though this operation is a success, a later patient dies from the procedure and Denys is accused of murder).


date: June 18

text: June 18 – Countess Louise Henriette of Nassau, Electress Consort of Brandenburg (b. 1627)


date: July 28

text: July 28 – Abraham Cowley, English poet (b. 1618)


date: August 3

text: August 3 – Francesco Borromini, Swiss sculptor and architect (b. 1599)


date: August 13

text: August 13 – Jeremy Taylor, Irish clergyman and writer (b. 1613)


date: October 18

text: October 18 – Yohannes I becomes king of Ethiopia, following the death of his father Negus Fasilides.


date: January 23

text: January 23 – The Triple Alliance of 1668 is formed between England, Sweden and the United Provinces of the Netherlands.


date: February 13

text: February 13 – In Lisbon, a peace treaty is established between Afonso VI of Portugal and Carlos II of Spain, by mediation of Charles II of England, in which the legitimacy of the Portuguese monarch is recognized. Portugal yields Ceuta to Spain.


date: April 24

text: April 24 – The Treaty of Breda, signed in 1667 and ending the Second Anglo-Dutch War, goes into effect worldwide.


text: April 25 – The Swedish Empire signs a treaty with England and the Dutch Republic to join the Triple Alliance.


text: May 2 – The first Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the War of Devolution.


date: June 4

text: June 4 – Tangier, a city in Morocco that had come under control of the English colonial empire in 1661, is elevated by the English crown to the status of "free city".


date: September 16

text: September 16 – Jan II Kazimierz Waza abdicates his titles of King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania after a 20-year reign.


date: November 8

text: November 8 – Iliaș Alexandru steps down as the voivode or elected ruler of Moldavia (now part of Romania and the Republic of Moldova) and is replaced by his predecessor, Gheorghe Duca.

source_section: Events › October –December


date: December 28

text: December 28 – Fritz Cronman arrives in Moscow as the Swedish Empire's ambassador to the Russian Empire, accompanied by a staff of 35 people.


date: March 8

text: March 8 – In the Cretan War, the navy of the Republic of Venice defeats an Ottoman Empire naval force of 12 ships and 2,000 galleys that had attempted to seize a small Venetian galley near the port of Agia Pelagia.


date: March 22

text: March 22 – Notable Privateer Henry Morgan lands in Cuba to raid and plunder the inland town of Puerto del Príncipe during the latter stages of the Anglo-Spanish War (1654–1660).


date: March 23

text: March 23 – The Bawdy House Riots of 1668 take place in London when a group of English Dissenters begins attacking brothels, initially as a protest against the harsh enforcement of laws against private worshippers and the lack of enforcement of laws against prostitution. Over a period of three days, rioters who join in the violence destroy brothels in the London districts of Poplar, Moorfields, East Smithfield, St Leonard's, Shoreditch, St Andrew's and Holborn.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Henry Brouncker is expelled from the English House of Commons for treason during the 1665 Battle of Lowestoft during the Second Anglo-Dutch War.


text: June 18 – Petro Doroshenko is proclaimed by the Russian Empire as the hetman of all of Ukraine, after having previously been granted leadership of the western half. Ivan Briukhovetsky, who had ruled the eastern half and then led an uprising, is executed on the same day.


date: September 21

text: September 21 – The British East India Company takes over Bombay under a Royal Charter of March 27.


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Diego de Salcedo is overthrown from his position as the Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines in a coup d'etat led by Juan Manuel de la Peña Bonifaz. Salcedo and other members of his administration are jailed and then sent into exile from Luzon to the island of Panay, and his fortune is confiscated.


date: October 5

text: October 5 (September 25 O.S.) – The English blockade of the Moroccan port of Salé begins as and HMS Francis retaliate for raids from the port by the Barbary pirates. The blockade lasts for 10 days.


date: December 16

text: December 16 – In China, the 1661 edict of the "Great Clearance", the forcible evacuation of the coastal areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangnan, and Shandong in order to fight a rebellion, is rescinded by the Kangxi Emperor after lobbying by Zhou Youde, the Viceroy of Liangguang.


date: March 27

text: March 27 – King Charles II of England signs an agreement with representatives of the English East India Company to lease the Indian city of Bombay (modern-day Mumbai) to the company for a rent of 10 pounds sterling per year, with transfer taking effect on September 21.


date: June 16

text: June 16 – A group of Spanish Jesuit missionaries become the first European settlers to arrive at the island of Guam, founding a mission to convert the Chamorro people of the Mariana Islands to Christianity.


date: October 7

text: October 7 – French Jesuit missionary Jean Pierron arrives at the Mohawk Nation city of Tionondogen (near modern-day Palatine, New York, U.S.) to replace Jacques Frémin in attempting to convert members of the Iroquois tribe to Christianity.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Bishop Isaac Barrow founds the Bishop Barrow Trust with the intention of establishing a university on the Isle of Man; this becomes King William's College.


date: December 6

text: December 6 – The Order of the Jesuati, founded in 1360 by Giovanni Colombini, is abolished by Pope Clement IX.


text: c. February – The English Parliament and bishops seek to suppress Thomas Hobbes' treatise Leviathan.


text: Emperor Yohannes I of Ethiopia convenes a church council in Gondar, which decides to expel all Roman Catholics from the country.


text: One of the world's earliest central banks, the Sveriges Riksbank, is founded in Stockholm, Sweden.


text: English scientist Isaac Newton builds the first reflecting telescope (Newton's reflector).


date: July 10

text: July 10 – Henry Morgan's raid on Porto Bello: Welsh privateer Henry Morgan and 450 men under his command plunder the city of Portobello on the Isthmus of Panama and spend 14-days in the attack before withdrawing.


date: October 31

text: October 31 – The English ship HMS Providence is wrecked at Tangier on the North African coast.


date: July 25

text: July 25 – The magnitude 8.5 Shandong earthquake kills at least 43,000 people in China's Shandong province.


date: August 17

text: August 17 – The magnitude 8.0 North Anatolia earthquake causes 8,000 deaths in northern Anatolia, Ottoman Empire, and is the most powerful earthquake recorded in Turkey.


date: May 18

text: May 18 – Charles Sedley's comedy The Mulberry-Garden premieres at the Theatre Royal in London.


date: June 12

text: June 12 – John Dryden's play An Evening's Love, or The Mock Astrologer premieres at the Theatre Royal in London in a performance by the King's Company players for King Charles and Queen Catherine.


date: September 9

text: September 9 – Molière's comedy The Miser (L'Avare) is first performed, in Paris.


date: May 8

text: May 8 – Alain-René Lesage, French writer (d. 1747)


date: June 23

text: June 23 – Giambattista Vico, Italian philosopher and historian (d. 1744)


date: July 21

text: July 21 – Frederick Heinrich of Saxe-Zeitz-Pegau-Neustadt (d. 1713)


date: September 8

text: September 8 – Giorgio Baglivi, Armenian doctor and writer (d. 1707)


date: October 18

text: October 18 – John George IV, Elector of Saxony (d. 1694)


date: October 30

text: October 30 – Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, sister of King George I of Great Britain (d. 1705)


date: November 10

text: November 10 – Louis III, Prince of Condé (d. 1710)


text: November 10 – François Couperin, French composer (d. 1733)


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Johann Albert Fabricius, German scholar (d. 1736)


date: November 27

text: November 27 – Henri François d'Aguesseau, Chancellor of France (d. 1751)


date: November 30

text: November 30 – William August, Duke of Saxe-Eisenach (d. 1671)


date: December 11

text: December 11 – Apostolo Zeno, Italian poet and journalist (d. 1750)


date: December 31

text: December 31 – Herman Boerhaave, Dutch humanist and physician (d. 1738)


text: date unknown – Stokkseyrar-Dísa, Icelandic Galdrmistress (d. 1728)


date: January 6

text: January 6 – Magdalene Sibylle of Saxony, Crown Princess of Denmark (b. 1617)


date: April 12

text: April 12 – Alexander Daniell, sole proprietor of the Manor of Alverton, Cornwall (b. 1599)


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Jan Boeckhorst, Flemish painter (b. c. 1604)


date: April 22

text: April 22 – Tenzin Dalai Khan is proclaimed as the new Protector King of Tibet by the 5th Dalai Lama, following the death of Tenzin's father, Dayan Khan.


text: May 8 – Catherine of St. Augustine, French nun and nurse of New France (b. 1632)


date: May 21

text: May 21 – Christoph Delphicus zu Dohna, Prussian-born Swedish soldier, diplomat (b. 1628)


date: August 9

text: August 9 – Jakob Balde, German Latinist (b. 1604)


date: August 23

text: August 23 – Artus Quellinus the Elder, Flemish sculptor (b. 1609)


date: September 19

text: September 19 – Sir William Waller, English Civil War general (b. c. 1635)


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Zacharias Wagenaer, secretary, painter, then merchant and administrator (Dutch East-India Company) (b. 1614)


date: October 13

text: October 13 – Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland, English military leader (b. 1602)


date: November 17

text: November 17 – Joseph Alleine, English non-conformist preacher (b. 1634)


date: December 3

text: December 3 – William Cecil, 2nd Earl of Salisbury, English earl (b. 1591)


date: December 14

text: December 14 – Charles Berkeley, 2nd Viscount Fitzhardinge, English politician (b. 1599)


date: July

text: July – The Hanseatic League, after 400 years of operation, holds its last official meeting, taking place at the city of Lübeck. At its height, the economic alliance of German cities had 180 members; only nine (Lübeck, Hamburg, Bremen, Danzig, Braunschweig, Cologne, Hildesheim, Osnabrück and Rostock) are represented for the final gathering. The final series of meetings had started on May 29.


date: October 19

text: October 19 – The Parliament of Scotland holds its first new session in six years (although two Conventions of Estates had been held briefly in 1665 and 1667). The session is opened in Edinburgh by Charles II of England in his capacity as King of Scotland.


text: The Chinese Kangxi Emperor allows coastal residents deported in the Great Clearance of 1662 to return home.


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Radu Leon is deposed by the Ottoman Sultan as Prince of Wallachia


date: May 1

text: May 1 – the Spanish Armada de Barlovento is defeated by an English Privateer fleet led by Captain Henry Morgan during his raid on Lake Maracaibo.


date: June 22

text: June 22 – Roux de Marsilly, accused of plotting the assassination of King Louis XIV, is publicly tortured in Paris, France.


date: June 25

text: June 25 – François de Vendôme, Duke of Beaufort, disappears in battle, during the siege of Candia in Crete.


date: July 13

text: July 13 – Trịnh Tạc, the warlord who administers the Kingdom of Vietnam, issues an order banning all foreign vessels from entering the harbor at Hanoi, requiring to anchor no closer than the river port at Pho Hien, 35 mi down the Red River from Hanoi.


date: July 24

text: July 24 – During an attempt by a fleet of French Navy ships to stop the siege of Candia by bombardment of Ottoman positions on the island of Crete, the arsenal of gunpowder on the French flagship, the 56-gun warship Thérèse, catches fire and explodes. Out of 350 crew on the Thérèse, only seven survive. Demoralized, the remaining French commanders halt the bombardment and the fleet withdraws.


date: August 24

text: August 24 – "The Man in the Iron Mask", a prisoner identified as "Eustache Dauger", arrives at the French fortress of Pignerol, with Bénigne Dauvergne de Saint-Mars in charge of his incarceration. The identity of the prisoner is kept secret with a mask – actually of velvet – over his face, so legends as to his true identity grow.


date: September 6

text: September 6 – Francesco Morosini, capitano generale of the Venetian forces in the siege of Candia, surrenders to the Ottomans.


date: October 29

text: October 29 – Ukrainian Cossack General Mykhailo Khanenko is defeated by Petro Doroshenko at the Battle of Stebliv after attempting to wrest control of Ukraine's territory on the west side of the Dnieper River from Doroshenko.


date: November 28

text: November 28 – In India, the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb learns of a rebellion of Hindu residents of in various parts of the Mathurá where he had given the order for the destruction of non-Muslim temples, with rioting in Mauza' Rewarah, Chandarkah, and Surkhrú. The Emperor's historian, Saqi Mustaid Khan, records Aurangzeb's dispatch of General Hasan 'Ali Khán to attack the rebels, and 300 of them are "sent to perdition" while the Mughals lose "many imperial soldiers". Another 250 surviving rebels are arrested. Kokilá Ját, leader of the rebels, is among the prisoners put to death a month later.


date: December 8

text: December 8 – The Sultanate of Bima, located on the now-Indonesian island of Sumbawa and ruled by Abu'l-Khair Sirajuddin, surrenders its authority to the Dutch East Indies Company, the VOC.


date: December 18

text: December 18 – The Battle of Cádiz begins off of the coast of the Spanish city as the English warship HMS Mary Rose encounters seven pirate ships from Algeria. Although none of the ships on either side are sunk, the Algerians are forced to retreat with an unknown number of casualties, and the Mary Rose loses 12 dead and 18 wounded.


text: Shakushain's revolt breaks out in Hokkaido, Japan.


text: The Orange College of Breda is wound up.


date: July 25

text: July 25 – Pieter Bickel, a Lutheran pastor and a mountaineer in Austria, becomes the first person to climb to the peak of the tallest of the Southeastern Walsertal Mountains, the 8310 foot Großer Widderstein.


date: August 17

text: August 17 – A group of English settlers, led by Joseph West, departs from The Downs on the ship Carolina with instructions to make the first European settlement in the modern-day U.S. state of South Carolina. After a long voyage with stops in Ireland and Barbados, the Carolina settlers arrive at Port Royal on March 17 next.


date: October 9

text: October 9 – The English ship Nonsuch returns to London with the first products acquired from trade around Canada's Hudson Bay, a cargo of fine furs. The bounty from the Nonsuch expedition attracts investors for the soon-to-be-chartered Hudson's Bay Company.


date: April 9

text: April 9 – Aurangzeb, the Muslim Emperor of the Mughal Empire in India, issues a firman decree for the protection of all Hindu temples and schools in his kingdom.


text: Okaya & Co. is founded as Sasaya, a trading company in Nagoya, Japan.


date: February 23

text: February 23 – Isaac Newton writes his first description of his new invention, the reflecting telescope.


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Samuel Pepys stops writing his diary.


text: Blaise Pascal's Pensées is posthumously published in Paris.


text: Phosphorus is discovered by German alchemist Hennig Brand, the first chemical element to be discovered that was not known since ancient times.


text: Jean Picard begins measurement of 1 degree of Earth's meridian arc in France.


text: The Chinese herbal medicine company Tong Ren Tang (同仁堂) is established in Beijing.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – The first people executed in Sweden's Mora witch trial are put to death, with seven women and one man beheaded after being convicted of "abduction of children to Satan."


date: August 25

text: August 25 – The day after the verdicts at the Mora witch trial in Sweden, 14 women and one man are publicly beheaded after having confessed to various crimes involving the use of "enchanted tools" on behalf of the Devil. Another 47 are convicted and taken away for a later execution.


date: October 6

text: October 6 – Molière's comedy ballet Monsieur de Pourceaugnac


date: January 2

text: January 2 – Pirate Henry Morgan of Wales holds a meeting of his captains on board his ship, the former Royal Navy frigate Oxford, and an explosion in the ship's gunpowder supply kills 200 of his crew and four of the pirate captains who had attended the summit.


date: July 16

text: July 16 – A rockfall from the Mönchsberg mountain above Salzburg in Austria kills 230 people as tons of the mountainside fall onto a neighborhood on a street, the Gstättengasse.


text: Ottoman units burn the eastern part of Kolárovo.


date: January 4

text: January 4 – A 5.7 magnitude earthquake strikes the city of Shamakhi in Iran (now in Azerbaijan) and kills 7,000 people. Fourteen months earlier, an earthquake in Shamakhi killed 80,000 people.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – Mount Etna erupts, destroying the Sicilian town of Nicolosi.


text: Famine in Bengal kills 3 million people.


date: February 13

text: February 13 – The first performance of the Ballet de Flore, a joint collaboration of Jean-Baptiste Lully and Isaac de Benserade is given, premiering at the Palais du Louvre in Paris. King Louis XIV finances the performance and even appears in a minor role in the production as a dancer.


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor grants the status and privileges of a university to the Jesuit Academy in Zagreb, the precursor to the modern University of Zagreb.


date: September 29

text: September 29 – The formal coronation of Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki as King of Poland (and Grand Duke of Lithuania) takes place in Kraków.


date: October 15

text: October 15 – The University of Innsbruck is chartered in Austria by Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor. After being reduced to a lesser function on November 29, 1781, it is rechartered in 1826.


date: December 13

text: December 13 – Jean Racine's five-act tragic play Britannicus is performed for the first time, premiering at the Hôtel de Bourgogne in Paris. The play continues to be performed more than 350 years later, including a 2011 version translated by Dr. Howard Rubenstein.


text: Antonio Stradivari makes his first violin in Cremona.


text: Jan Swammerdam publishes his Algemeene Verhandeling van de bloedeloose dierkens, a groundbreaking work in microscopy, as well as entomology.


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Susanna Wesley, mother of the John and Charles Wesley, known as mother of Methodism (d. 1742)


date: April 3

text: April 3 – Jean-Baptiste Forqueray, French musician (d. 1722)


date: May 24

text: May 24 – Emerentia von Düben, Swedish royal favorite (d. 1743)


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Sébastien Vaillant, French botanist (d. 1722)


date: July 30

text: July 30 – Eudoxia Lopukhina, first wife of Peter the Great of Russia (d. 1731)


date: August 27

text: August 27 – Anne Marie d'Orléans, Queen of Sicily and Sardinia (d. 1728)


date: August 29

text: August 29 – John Anstis, English herald (d. 1744)


date: October 19

text: October 19 – Count Wirich Philipp von Daun, Austrian military leader (d. 1741)


date: December 16

text: December 16 – Arnold Boonen, Dutch portrait painter (d. 1729)


text: Alessio Erardi, Maltese painter (d. 1727)


text: Elżbieta Sieniawska, politically influential Polish magnate (d. 1729)


text: Jiang Tingxi, Chinese painter (d. 1732)


text: probable – Peter King, 1st Baron King, Lord Chancellor of England (d. 1734)


date: March 25

text: March 25 – Sir Lionel Tollemache, 3rd Baronet, English baronet (b. 1624)


date: April 4

text: April 4 – Johann Michael Moscherosch, German statesman, satirist (b. 1601)


date: May 16

text: May 16 – Pietro da Cortona, Italian artist (b. 1596)


date: June 25

text: June 25 – François de Vendôme, Duke of Beaufort, French soldier (b. 1616)


date: July 16

text: July 16 – Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Berkshire, English politician (b. 1587)


date: July 29

text: July 29 – Josias II, Count of Waldeck-Wildungen, major general in Brunswick and co-ruler of Waldeck-Wildungen (b. 1636)


date: September 10

text: September 10 – Henrietta Maria of France, queen of England, Scotland and Ireland (b. 1609)


date: October 4

text: October 4 – Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Dutch painter (b. 1606)


text: October 4 – Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn dies at the age of 63, after completing his final known work Self-Portrait at the Age of 63. Despite his wealth, is buried in an unmarked grave in Amsterdam's Westerkerk. After 20 years, his remains are removed and destroyed in accordance with church custom.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – William Prynne, English Puritan leader (b. 1600)


date: December 11

text: December 11 – Anna Maria of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, consort of Augustus, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels (b. 1627)


text: December 16 – Nathaniel Fiennes, English politician (b. c. 1608)


date: December 18

text: December 18 – Johann Philipp of Hanau-Lichtenberg, German nobleman (b. 1626)


date: December 25

text: December 25 – George William, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld (b. 1591)


text: Lucius Aurelius Verus Augustus and Marcus Ummidius Quadratus Annianus become Roman Consuls.

source_section: Events › By place › Roman Empire


text: The Marcomanni tribe wages war against the Romans at Aquileia. They destroy aqueducts and irrigation conduits. Marcus Aurelius repels the invaders, ending the Pax Romana (Roman Peace) that has kept the Roman Empire free of conflict since the days of Emperor Augustus.


text: The Vandals (Astingi and Lacringi) and the Sarmatian Iazyges invade Dacia. To counter them, Legio V Macedonica, returning from the Parthian War, moves its headquarters from Troesmis in Moesia Inferior to Potaissa in Dacia Porolissensis.


text: King Chogo of Baekje wages war against Silla in the Korean peninsula.

source_section: Events › By place › Asia


text: The Germans devastate the Balkans and ransack the sanctuary of Eleusis, near Athens.


text: Change of era name from Yanxi to Yongkang of the Chinese Han dynasty.


text: Zhang Yi (or Junsi), Chinese official (d. 230)


text: Wang Fu, Chinese philosopher (b. AD 82)


text: Abercius, bishop of Hieropolis (approximate date)


text: Anicetus, pope of Rome (approximate date)


date: June 10

text: June 10 – King Louis XIV of France issues an ordinance prohibiting the French colonies in the Americas from trading with any other nation except France.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – Representatives of England (led by King Charles II) and Denmark (led by King Christian V) sign a treaty of alliance and commerce, the Treaty of Copenhagen.


date: July 18

text: 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.


date: August 26

text: August 26 – The Parliament of France enacts a uniform criminal code for the nation with the passage of the Criminal Ordinance of 1670, which takes effect on January 1. The code remains in force until October 9, 1789, when it is abrogated during the French Revolution.


date: February 4

text: February 4 – The Battle of Sinhagad takes place in India (in the modern-day Maharashtra state) as the Maratha Empire army, led by Tanaji Malusare, leads an assault on the Kondhana Fortress that had been captured by the Mughal Empire. Tanaji, called "The Lion" by his followers, captures the fortress by guiding the successful scaling of the walls of the fortress with ladders created from rope, but is killed in the battle. The Maratha emperor Shivaji orders the fortress named Sinhagad, the Marathi language words for "Lion's Fort".


date: March 18

text: March 18 – Petar Zrinski, the Viceroy of Croatia within the Holy Roman Empire, issues a proclamation urging Croatians to rebel against the Habsburg rulers. The uprising fails and Zrinski and his brother-in-law, Krsto Frankopan, are quickly arrested. Both are beheaded in Vienna on April 30, 1671.


date: June 9

text: June 9 – Taking advantage of a monsoon, the Maratha Empire's Shivaji orders an attack on areas that had been turned over to the Mughal Empire and its emperor Aurangazeb in 1665. Within 15 days, the cities of Pune, Baramati, Supi and Indapur, along with the Rohida fort, are recaptured by the Maratha Army.