date: November 24

text: November 24 – In China, Qing dynasty forces led by Shang Kexi capture the city of Guangzhou from the Southern Ming and then carry out a massacre of the population, killing as many as 70,000 people over 11 days ending on December 5.


date: December 17

section: Conflict & Security

text: December 17 – Castle Cornet in Guernsey, the last stronghold which had supported the King in the Third English Civil War, surrenders.

source_section: Events › October–December


text: The Keian Uprising fails in Japan.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: March 6

section: Religion & Belief

text: March 6 – The town of Kajaani is founded by Count Per Brahe the Younger.

source_section: Events › January–March


text: The Madanmohan-jiu Temple is built at Samta (India), a village in the Howrah district of West Bengal.


date: May 21

section: Economy & Finance

text: May 21 – The Sovereign Military Order of Malta purchases the Caribbean islands of Saint Barthélemy, Saint Christopher, Saint Croix and Saint Martin from the France's Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique. The Order will sell the islands in 1665 to the French West India Company.

source_section: Events › April–June


section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: The first coffee house in England is opened in Oxford, indicative of their increasing popularity in Europe.


date: April 7

section: Health & Medicine

text: April 7 – Shunzhi, Emperor of China, announces in an imperial edict that he will purge corruption from government.


date: October 14

text: October 14 – Laws are passed in Massachusetts, forbidding poor people from adopting excessive styles of dress.


date: March 26

section: Crime & Justice

text: March 26 – The Spanish ship San José, loaded with silver, is pushed south by strong winds; it wrecks on the coast of southern Chile, and its surviving crew is killed by indigenous Cuncos.


date: February 22

section: Climate & Environment

text: February 22 – St. Peter's Flood: A first storm tide in the North Sea strikes the coast of Germany, drowning thousands. The island of Juist is split in half, and the western half of Buise is probably washed away.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – St. Peter's Flood: Another storm tide in the North Sea strikes the Netherlands, flooding Amsterdam.


date: January 1

section: Culture & Society

text: January 1 – Charles II is crowned King of Scots at Scone (his first crowning).


date: April 25

text: April 25 – Thomas Hobbes publishes his magnum opus, the political tract Leviathan, in England.


date: February 2

section: Births

text: February 2 or 1950 – William Phips, first royal governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (d. 1695)

source_section: Births


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Anne Scott, 1st Duchess of Buccleuch, wealthy Scottish peeress (d. 1732)


date: February 25

text: February 25 – Quirinus Kuhlmann, German Baroque poet and mystic (d. 1689)


text: March 4 – John Somers, 1st Baron Somers, Lord Chancellor of England (d. 1716)


date: April 10

text: April 10 – Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus, German mathematician (d. 1708)


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Blessed Joseph Vaz, Apostle of Ceylon (d. 1711)


date: April 30

text: April 30 – Jean-Baptiste de la Salle, French educational reformer (d. 1719)


date: July 12

text: July 12 – Margaret Theresa of Spain (d. 1673)


date: August 6

text: August 6 – François Fénelon, Archbishop of Cambrai, France (d. 1715)


text: August 6 – Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld, Swedish Field Marshal (d. 1722)


date: September 1

text: September 1 – Nataliya Kyrillovna Naryshkina, Tsaritsa of Russia (d. 1694)


date: September 16

text: September 16 – Engelbert Kaempfer, German physician and traveler (d. 1716)


date: September 26

text: September 26 – Francis Daniel Pastorius, German founder of Germantown, Pennsylvania (d. 1720)


date: November 12

text: November 12 – Juana Inés de la Cruz, Mexican nun, writer and poet (d. 1695)


date: January

section: Deaths

text: January – Thomas Greene, Colonial governor of Maryland (b. 1609)

source_section: Deaths


date: February 8

text: February 8 – Richard Newport, 1st Baron Newport, English politician (b. 1587)


date: April 7

text: April 7 – Lennart Torstensson, Swedish Field Marshal, Privy Councillour and Governor-General (b. 1603)


text: April 10 – Sir William Airmine, 1st Baronet, English politician (b. 1593)


date: August 2

text: August 2 – Ercole, Marquis of Baux, member of the House of Grimaldi (b. 1623)


date: August 8

text: August 8 – Countess Amalie Elisabeth of Hanau-Münzenberg, regent of Hesse-Kassel (b. 1602)


date: August 20

text: August 20 – Jeremi Wiśniowiecki, Polish nobleman (b. 1612)


date: September 2

text: September 2 – Kösem Sultan, regent of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1590)


date: September 12

text: September 12 – William Hamilton, 2nd Duke of Hamilton, Scottish nobleman (b. 1616)


date: September 18

text: September 18 – Henriette Marie of the Palatinate, German noble (b. 1626)


date: October 8

text: October 8 – Anna Catherine Constance Vasa, Polish princess, daughter of King Sigismund III Vasa (b. 1619)


date: October 15

text: October 15 – James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby (b. 1607)


date: October 25

text: October 25 – Saint Job of Pochayiv, Ukrainian Orthodox Christian saint (b. 1551)


date: November 26

text: November 26 – Henry Ireton, English Civil War leader (b. 1611)


date: February 4

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: February 4 – At Edinburgh, the parliamentary commissioners of the Commonwealth of England proclaim the Tender of Union to be in force in Scotland, annexing the Scottish nation with the concession that Scotland would have 30 representatives in the parliament of the English Commonwealth.


date: May 18

text: May 18 – Rhode Island passes the first law in North America making slavery illegal.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – Michiel de Ruyter marries the widow Anna van Gelder and plans retirement, but months later becomes a vice-commodore in the First Anglo-Dutch War.


date: May 19

text: May 19 (May 29, New Style) – First Anglo-Dutch War: Battle of Dover – The opening battle is fought off Dover between Lt.-Admiral Maarten Tromp's 42 Dutch ships and 21 English ships divided into two squadrons, one commanded by Robert Blake and the other by Nehemiah Bourne; the result is inconclusive.


date: July 2

text: July 2 – The Battle of the Faubourg St Antoine is fought east of Paris between French Parliamentarians (led by Louis, Grand Condé) against the army of King Louis XIV, commanded by the Viscount of Turenne, with neither side prevailing.

source_section: Events › July–September


date: July 4

text: July 4 – A mob kills 150 people, including judges, in the massacre at the Hôtel de Ville, Paris.


date: July 10

text: July 10 – The First Anglo-Dutch War begins formally as the English Commonwealth declares war against the Dutch Republic.


date: August 26

text: August 26 – First Anglo-Dutch War: Battle of Plymouth – A fleet from the Commonwealth of England attacks an outward-bound convoy of the Dutch Republic, escorted by 23 men-of-war and six fire ships, commanded by Vice-Commodore Michiel de Ruyter; the Dutch escape.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – The Guo Huaiyi Rebellion, a peasant revolt on the island of Taiwan against colonial rule in Dutch Formosa, is suppressed after four days.


text: October 8 – First Anglo-Dutch War: Battle of the Kentish Knock – In a battle fought near the shoal called the Kentish Knock in the North Sea, about 30 km mi from the mouth of the River Thames, the Dutch are forced to withdraw.


date: November 30

text: November 30 – The Netherlands takes control of the English Channel after the Battle of Dungeness ends in a Dutch victory over the English Royal Navy.


date: December 10

text: December 10 – First Anglo-Dutch War: Defeat at the Battle of Dungeness causes the Commonwealth of England to reform its navy.


date: April 6

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: April 6 – Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck establishes a resupply camp for the Dutch East India Company at the Cape of Good Hope in modern-day South Africa, thus founding Cape Town.


date: July 5

text: July 5 – The 1652 Articles of Peace and Friendship are signed between the Province of Maryland and the Conestoga Indians, ceding most of the land around the Chesapeake Bay to the English colonists.


date: February 12

text: February 12 – Oliver Cromwell, England's Lord Protector, announces that his Council of Scotland will regulate church affairs as part of the Terms of Incorporation of Scotland into England, and eliminates Presbyterianism as Scotland's state religion.


date: March 29

section: Science & Discovery

text: March 29 (April 8 New Style) – Total solar eclipse of April 8, 1652 ("Black Monday").


date: July 17

section: Disasters & Accidents

text: July 17 – The "Great Fire of Glasgow" destroys one-third of the Scottish city.


date: October 2

text: October 2 – The Great Fire of Oulu destroys almost all of the houses of the town’s bourgeoisie, the provision warehouses and the drawbridge of Oulu Castle, in the town of Oulu, Finland.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – George Fox preaches to a large crowd on Firbank Fell in England, leading to the establishment of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).


date: January 2

text: January 2 – Sir Gilbert Heathcote, 1st Baronet, Lord Mayor of London (d. 1733)


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Pavao Ritter Vitezović, Croatian historian (d. 1713)


date: January 11

text: January 11 – Eugen Alexander Franz, 1st Prince of Thurn and Taxis, Germany (d. 1714)


date: January 13

text: January 13 – Henry Booth, 1st Earl of Warrington, English politician (d. 1694)


date: February 14

text: February 14 – Camille d'Hostun, duc de Tallard, Marshal of France (d. 1728)


date: March 12

text: March 12 – Johann Heinrich Ernesti, German philosopher, theologian (d. 1729)


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Samuel Sewall, English-born Massachusetts judge (d. 1730)


date: May 7

text: May 7 – Edward Northey (barrister), British barrister and politician (d. 1723)


date: May 27

text: May 27 – Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine, wife to Philippe I, Duke of Orléans (d. 1722)


date: August 15

text: August 15 – John Grubb, American politician (d. 1708)


date: August 31

text: August 31 – Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Montferrat, only child of Duke Charles II (d. 1708)


date: September 8

text: September 8 – Luisa Roldán, Spanish artist (d. 1706)


date: November 4

text: November 4 – Marc-René de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson (1652–1721), French politician (d. 1721)


date: December 9

text: December 9 – Augustus Quirinus Rivinus, German physician and botanist (d. 1723)


date: February 28

text: February 28 – Arcangela Tarabotti, Venetian nun and feminist (b. 1604)


date: April 17

text: April 17 – Henry Howard, 22nd Earl of Arundel, English politician (b. 1608)


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Pietro Della Valle, Italian traveller (b. 1586)


date: May 10

text: May 10 – Jacques-Nompar de Caumont, duc de La Force, Marshal of France (b. 1558)


date: June 3

text: June 3 – Marek Sobieski, Polish noble (szlachcic) (b. 1628)


date: June 18

text: June 18 – John Casimir, Count Palatine of Kleeburg, son of John I (b. 1589)


date: July 25

text: July 25 – Bonaventura Peeters the Elder, Flemish marine painter (b. 1614)


date: August 9

text: August 9 – Frédéric Maurice de La Tour d'Auvergne, prince of the independent principality of Sedan (b. 1605)


date: August 23

text: August 23 – John Byron, 1st Baron Byron, English royalist politician (b. 1600)


date: September 2

text: September 2 – Jusepe de Ribera, Spanish Tenebrist painter and printmaker (b. 1591)


date: October 8

text: October 8 – John Greaves, English mathematician and antiquarian (b. 1602)


date: November 7

text: November 7 – Henry of Nassau-Siegen, German count, officer in the Dutch Army, diplomat for the Dutch Republic (b. 1611)


date: November 21

text: November 21 – Jan Brożek, Polish mathematician, physician, and astronomer (b. 1585)


date: December 23

text: December 23 – John Cotton, founder of Boston, Massachusetts (b. 1585)


date: February 2

text: February 2 – New Amsterdam (now New York City) received municipal rights by a charter from New Netherland Governor Peter Stuyvesant.


date: February 3

text: February 3 – Cardinal Mazarin returns to Paris from exile.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – Oliver Cromwell expels the Rump Parliament in England.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – Barebone's Parliament, named for a prominent Puritan member, Praise-God Barebone, opens its session in London with elected representatives to pass laws for the Commonwealth of England.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg reaffirms the nobility's freedom from taxation, and its unlimited control over the peasants, in return for a grant to him of 530,000 silver Joachimsthalers to be paid in installments over six years.


date: August 8

text: August 8 – The petite post, a system of postage using prepaid labels and post boxes, is inaugurated in Paris by Jean-Jacques Renouard de Villayer for the mailing of letters within the city, an event noted by Madeleine de Scudéry in her manuscript Chroniques du samedi.


date: November 30

text: November 30 – Jacques Dyel du Parquet completes his installment payments, totaling 41,500 French livres, to become the exclusive owner of the Caribbean islands of Martinique, Grenada, Saint Lucia and the Grenadines.


date: November

text: November – John Casor, a servant of African descent in Northampton County of the colony of Virginia, leaves Anthony Johnson's farm, after claiming his contract of indenture had expired, and goes to work for a new employer, Robert Parker. Johnson sues Parker, claiming that Casor is a slave for life, rather than an indentured servant, and the court issues a landmark ruling on March 8, 1655, establishing African-Americans as property.


date: December 12

text: December 12 – The dissolution of Barebone's Parliament is voted by its members after having passed laws for the Commonwealth of England.


text: Stephen Bachiler, a clergyman and early advocate for the separation of church and state returns to England after having spent more than 20 years overseas in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.


date: February 10

text: February 10 – Swiss peasant war of 1653: Peasants from the Entlebuch valley in Switzerland assemble at Heiligkreuz to organize a plan to suspend all tax payments to the authorities in the canton of Lucerne, after having been snubbed at a magisterial meeting in Lucerne. More communities in the canton join in an alliance concluded at Wolhusen on February 26.


date: February

text: February – The Morning Star Rebellion (Morgonstjärneupproret) of peasants breaks out in Sweden's province of Närke, against Queen Christina. It is brutally suppressed by April, and its leader, the self-proclaimed King Olof Mårtensson (who uses a morning star as his scepter) is executed on a breaking wheel on April 6.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – First Anglo-Dutch War: The English navy defeats the Dutch fleet in the Battle of the Gabbard after a two-day fight.


date: June 20

text: June 20 – The Swiss peasant war of 1653 ends after Swiss Army troops under the command of Sebastian Peregrin Zwyer suppress the last rebels in Switzerland's Entlebuch Valley.


date: August 10

text: August 10 – The Battle of Scheveningen, the final naval battle of the First Anglo-Dutch War, ends after three days of fighting off the island of Texel, as the English Navy gains a tactical victory over the Dutch fleet.


date: September 29

text: September 29 – In India, the third and final attempt by the Mughal Empire, to recapture the city of Kandahar from the Safavid Empire, ends in failure after almost six months despite the presence of 70,000 Mughal soldiers under the command of Prince Dara Shukoh.


date: October 11

text: October 11 (October 1 O.S.) – The Zemsky Sobor, the Russian Empire's national assembly, opens its session to declare a war against the Kingdom of Poland.


date: October 20

text: October 20 – The Battle of Bordeaux is fought between French and Spanish warships in the Gironde estuary of France as part of the Franco-Spanish War. The Spanish fleet of 30 warships, under the command of Álvaro de Bazán y Manrique de Lara, Marquis of Santa Cruz, overwhelms the French fleet of César, Duke of Vendôme and captures ten galleys and brigantines, as well as burning four other warships and 15 barges.


date: October 29

text: October 29 – Pierre-Esprit Radisson, a French Canadian teenager who had been captured by a Mohawk raiding party two years earlier and then tortured, escapes captivity in what is now the U.S. state of New York.


date: November 8

text: November 8 – The Battle of Arronches takes place near the town of Arronches on the Portuguese side of the border between Portugal and Spain, with the Portuguese Army outflanking and defeating a larger Spanish force.


date: January 3

text: January 3 – By the Coonan Cross Oath, the Eastern Church in India cuts itself off from colonial Portuguese tutelage.


date: December 7

text: December 7 – The Moti Masjid, an Islamic mosque made completely of white marble and within the walls of the Agra Fort in what is now the city of Agra in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, is dedicated by the Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan, on 16 Muharram 1064.


date: December 16

text: December 16 – The Instrument of Government in England becomes Britain's first written constitution, under which Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland, being advised by a remodelled English Council of State. This is the start of The First Protectorate, bringing an end to the first period of republican government in the country, the Commonwealth of England.


date: January

text: January – The Swiss Peasant War begins after magistrates meeting at Lucerne refuse to hear from a group of peasants who have been financially hurt by the devaluation of the currency issued from Bern.


date: July 8

text: July 8 – John Thurloe becomes Cromwell's head of intelligence.


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Ferdinand IV, already the King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia, is elected King of the Romans by his fellow German monarchs, making him eligible to succeed his father Ferdinand III as Holy Roman Emperor. Ferdinand IV will not live to become Holy Roman Emperor, instead dying from smallpox 14 months after his designation.


text: Marcello Malpighi, an Italian pioneer of microscopical anatomy becomes a doctor of medicine.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – The Great Fire of Marlborough destroys 224 houses and much of the textile businesses in the Wiltshire town which, "at that date was one of considerable importance, and had merchants of affluence and repute."


date: September 13

text: September 13 – A violent storm off the west coast of Scotland sinks the English Navy warship Swan, and the commandeered merchantmen Speedwell and Martha and Margaret, all of which have been anchored off of Mull. Most of the crews had gone ashore, but 23 of the men on the ship Speedwell are killed.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – Erdeni Bumba, the wife and chief consort of China's Shunzhi Emperor, is demoted from being the empress to being a concubine.


date: November 16

text: November 16 – The Krishnanattam, a series of eight dance dramas written by Mana Veda, Zamorin of Calicut in India to tell the epic of the Hindu god Krishna, is completed.


text: The gardens surrounding the Taj Mahal mausoleum are completed at Agra.


date: February 17

text: February 17 – Arcangelo Corelli, Italian composer (d. 1713)


date: March 10

text: March 10 – John Benbow, English Royal Navy Admiral (d. 1702)


date: April 2

text: April 2 – Prince George of Denmark, consort of Anne, Queen of Great Britain (d. 1708)


date: April 6

text: April 6 – Frederick Louis, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck (d. 1728)


date: April 25

text: April 25 – Benedetto Pamphili, Italian cardinal, patron of the arts, composer and librettist (d. 1730)


date: May 21

text: May 21 – Christopher Vane, 1st Baron Barnard, English politician and peer (d. 1723)


date: June 16

text: June 16 – James Bertie, 1st Earl of Abingdon, English nobleman (d. 1699)


date: July 4

text: July 4 – Sir Walter Clarges, 1st Baronet, English politician (d. 1706)


date: July 5

text: July 5 – Thomas Pitt, British Governor of Madras (d. 1726)


date: August 14

text: August 14 – Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle, English statesman (d. 1688)


date: September 1

text: September 1 – Johann Pachelbel, German organist and composer (d. 1706)


date: September 8

text: September 8 – Sir Walter Yonge, 3rd Baronet, English politician (d. 1731)


date: November 14

text: November 14 – Jean-Baptiste de La Croix de Chevrières de Saint-Vallier, Catholic bishop of Quebec (d. 1727)


date: November 26

text: November 26 – Empress Xiaochengren, Chinese Qing Dynasty empress (d. 1674)


date: January 21

text: January 21 – John Digby, 1st Earl of Bristol, English diplomat (b. 1580)


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Diego López Pacheco, 7th Duke of Escalona, Spanish noble (b. 1599)


date: March 14

text: March 14 – A Dutch fleet defeats the English in the Battle of Leghorn in the Mediterranean but the Dutch commander, Johan van Galen, later dies of his wounds.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – Elizabeth Lucretia, Duchess of Cieszyn, Duchess suo jure of Cieszyn (b. 1599)


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Robert Filmer, English writer (b. 1588)


date: June 5

text: June 5 – Federico Baldissera Bartolomeo Cornaro, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1579)


date: July 10

text: July 10 – Gabriel Naudé, French librarian and scholar (b. 1600)


date: July 31

text: July 31 – Thomas Dudley, Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony (b. 1576)


date: September 3

text: September 3 – Claudius Salmasius, French classical scholar (b. 1588)


date: September 14

text: September 14 – Wolfgang Wilhelm, Count Palatine of Neuburg, Duke of Jülich and Berg (b. 1578)


date: October 3

text: October 3 – Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn, Dutch scholar (b. 1612)


date: October 7

text: October 7 – Fausto Poli, Italian Catholic prelate and cardinal (b. 1581)


date: December 21

text: December 21 – Elisabeth of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg, Duchess consort of Pomerania (b. 1580)


date: December 28

text: December 28 – Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, archbishop of Fermo (b. 1592)


date: April 5

text: April 5 – The Treaty of Westminster, ending the First Anglo-Dutch War, is signed.


date: April 11

text: April 11 – A commercial treaty between England and Sweden is signed.


date: April 12

text: April 12 – Oliver Cromwell creates a union between England and Scotland, with Scottish representation in the Parliament of England.


date: June 16

text: June 16 (June 6 Old Style) – Charles X Gustav succeeds his cousin Christina on the Swedish throne. After her abdication on the same day, Christina, now the former reigning queen of a Protestant nation, secretly converts to Catholicism.


text: September 3 – In England, the First Protectorate Parliament assembles.


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria, is crowned. His absolutist style of leadership becomes a benchmark for the rest of Germany.

source_section: Events › October –December


date: December 14

text: December 14 – Jerónimo de Ataíde, Count of Atouguia, becomes Portugal's new Governor-General of Brazil, succeeding João Rodrigues de Vasconcelos e Sousa.


date: January 11

text: January 11 – Arauco War – Battle of Río Bueno in southern Chile: Indigenous Huilliche warriors rout Spanish troops from Fort Nacimiento, who are attempting to cross the Bueno River.


date: January 26

text: January 26 – Portugal recaptures the South American city of Recife from the Netherlands after a siege of more than two years during the Dutch-Portuguese War, bringing an end to Dutch rule of what is now Brazil. The Dutch West India Company has held the city (which they call Mauritsstad) for more than 23 years.


date: February 9

text: February 9 – Spanish troops led by Don Gabriel de Rojas y Figueroa succeed in the capture of Fort Rocher, a pirate-controlled base on the Caribbean island of Tortuga.


date: February 10

text: February 10 – The Battle of Tullich takes place in Aberdeenshire in Scotland during Glencairn's rising, a revolt by Scottish royalists against the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland led by Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell. The battle is indecisive.


date: March 13

text: March 13 – The Treaty of Pereyaslav is concluded in the city of Pereyaslav during a meeting between the Cossacks of the Zaporozhian Host and Tsar Alexey I of Russia following the end to the Khmelnytsky Uprising in Ukraine, which started in 1648 and has resulted in the massacre of many thousands of Jews.


date: July 5

text: July 5 – The Russian Army camps outside Smolensk and the Thirteen Years' War starts between Russia and Poland over Ukraine.


date: July 10

text: July 10 – Peter Vowell and John Gerard are executed in London for plotting to assassinate Oliver Cromwell.


date: August 12

text: August 12 – The Battle of Shklow, one of the first clashes of the Russo-Polish War, takes place at the modern-day Belarusan town of Škłoŭ during a total eclipse of the Sun visible over Eastern Europe. The Russian troops retreat.


date: August 25

text: August 25 – Russia routs the Polish Army in the Battle of Shepeleviche.


date: September 12

text: September 12 – Oliver Cromwell orders the exclusion of 120 members of Parliament who are hostile to him.


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Smolensk falls to the Russian Army after almost three months.


date: August 18

text: August 18 – Oliver Cromwell launches the Western Design with the appointment of Admiral William Penn to prepare for a fleet to leave on Christmas Day for an English expedition to the Caribbean to counter Spanish commercial interests, effectively beginning the Anglo-Spanish War (which will last until after the English Restoration in 1660). The fleet leaves Portsmouth in late December.


date: December 11

text: December 11 – Sir William Petty wins the contract from the Commonwealth of England to make a survey of Ireland.


date: December 25

text: December 25 – An English Navy fleet of 17 warships and 20 transports, carrying 325 cannons, 1,145 seamen, and 1,830 troops, under the command of Admiral William Penn departs from Portsmouth to begin Oliver Cromwell's planned surprise attack on Spain's colonies in the New World.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – Cromwell's Act of Grace, officially the Act of Pardon and Grace to the People of Scotland, is proclaimed at the Mercat Cross in Edinburgh.


date: August 22

text: August 22 – Jewish arrival in New Amsterdam: 23 Sephardic Jews arrive as refugees from Brazil and settle in New Amsterdam, forming the nucleus of what will be the second largest urban Jewish community in history, that of New York City, and of Congregation Shearith Israel, the first synagogue in North America.


date: May 8

text: May 8 – Otto von Guericke demonstrates the power of atmospheric pressure and the effectiveness of his vacuum pump, using the Magdeburg hemispheres, before Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, and the Imperial Diet in Regensburg.


date: November 23

text: November 23 – French mathematician, scientist and religious philosopher Blaise Pascal experiences an intense mystical vision that marks him for life.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – The Delft Explosion, in the arsenal, devastates the city in the Netherlands, killing more than 100, among whom is Carel Fabritius (32), the most promising student of Rembrandt.


date: January 6

text: January 6 – In India, Jaswant Singh of Marwar (in the modern-day state of Rajasthan) is elevated to the title of Maharaja by Emperor Shah Jahan.


date: June 3

text: June 3 – Louis XIV of France is crowned at Reims.


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Michiel de Swaen, Flemish poet (d. 1707)


date: January 22

text: January 22 – Richard Blackmore, English physician and writer (d. 1729)


date: March 9

text: March 9 – Robert Leke, 3rd Earl of Scarsdale, English earl, politician (d. 1707)


date: March 12

text: March 12 – Frederick Augustus, Duke of Württemberg-Neuenstadt (d. 1716)


date: April 27

text: April 27 – Charles Blount (deist), English deist and philosopher (d. 1693)


date: June 23

text: June 23 – Richard Onslow, 1st Baron Onslow, English politician (d. 1717)


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Louis Joseph, Duke of Vendôme, French military commander (d. 1712)


date: July 9

text: July 9 – Emperor Reigen of Japan (d. 1732)


date: July 25

text: July 25 – Agostino Steffani, Italian ecclesiastic, diplomat and composer (d. 1728)


text: November 23 – Jan van Kessel the Younger, Flemish painter in Spain (d. 1708)


text: November 23 – George Watson (accountant), a Scottish accountant and the founder of George Watson's College in Edinburgh (d. 1723)


date: December 13

text: December 13 – Robert Livingston the Elder, New York colonial official (d. 1728)


date: December 22

text: December 22 – Edmond Martène, French Benedictine historian and liturgist (d. 1739)


date: December 30

text: December 30 – Archduchess Maria Anna Josepha of Austria, youngest surviving daughter of Ferdinand III (d. 1689)


date: January 10

text: January 10 – Nicholas Culpeper, English botanist (b. 1616)


date: February 6

text: February 6 – Francesco Mochi, Italian early-Baroque sculptor (b. 1580)


date: May 18

text: May 18 – Muhammad Qadiri, Punjabi founder of the Naushahia branch of the Qadri Order (b. 1552)


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Hippolytus Guarinonius, Italian physician and polymath (b. 1571)


date: June 10

text: June 10 – Alessandro Algardi, Italian sculptor and architect (b. 1598)


date: July 23

text: July 23 – Orazio Grassi, Italian Jesuit priest, architect and scientist (b. 1583)


date: August 19

text: August 19 – Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller, Bohemian rabbi and liturgical poet (b. 1579)


date: August 28

text: August 28 – Axel Oxenstierna, Lord High Chancellor of Sweden since 1612 (b. 1583)


date: August 29

text: August 29 – Wouter van Twiller, Director-General of New Netherland from 1633 until 1638 (b. 1606)


date: September 6

text: September 6 – Christian I, Count Palatine of Birkenfeld-Bischweiler (1600–1654) (b. 1598)


date: September 8

text: September 8 – Peter Claver, Spanish Jesuit priest (b. 1580)


date: November 26

text: November 26 – Giambattista Altieri, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1589)


date: November 30

text: November 30 – John Selden, English jurist (b. 1584)


date: December 1

text: December 1 – Jakov Mikalja, Italian linguist and lexicographer (b. 1601)


date: January 5

text: January 5 – Emperor Go-Sai ascends to the throne of Japan.


date: March 8

text: March 8 – John Casor becomes the first legally recognized slave in what will become the United States, as a court in Northampton County in the Colony of Virginia issues its decision in the Casor lawsuit, the first instance of a judicial determination in the Thirteen Colonies holding that a person who has committed no crime could be held in servitude for life.


date: July 20

text: July 20 – The Amsterdam Town Hall (the modern-day Royal Palace) is inaugurated.


date: July 27

text: July 27 – The Jews in New Amsterdam petition for a separate Jewish cemetery.


text: July 27 – The Netherlands and Brandenburg sign a military treaty.


date: August 9

text: August 9 – Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell divides England into 11 districts, under major-generals.


text: August 28 – New Amsterdam and Peter Stuyvesant bar colonial Jews from military service.


date: September 26

text: September 26 – Peter Stuyvesant recaptures the Dutch Fory Casimir, and defeats the New Sweden (Delaware) colony.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – England and France sign military and economic treaties.


date: December 18

text: December 18 – The Whitehall Conference ends with the determination that there is no law preventing Jews from re-entering England after the Edict of Expulsion of 1290.


text: Frederick III of Denmark-Norway gives control of the Faroe Islands to Christoffer Gabel and his son, which will last until 1709.


date: February 14

text: February 14 – The Mapuches launch coordinated attacks against the Spanish in Chile, beginning the Mapuche uprising of 1655.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – Battle of Porto Farina, Tunis: English admiral Robert Blake's fleet defeats the Barbary pirates.


date: April 24

text: April 24 – The Piedmontese Easter Massacre of the Waldensians: Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy slaughters 1,500 men, women and children; this is memorialized in John Milton's sonnet "On the Late Massacre in Piedmont" and apologized for by Pope Francis in 2015.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – Admiral Blake severely damages the arsenal of the Bey of Tunis.


date: May 10

text: May 10–27 – Anglo-Spanish War: Invasion of Jamaica – Forces of the English Protectorate led by William Penn and Robert Venables capture the island of Jamaica from Spain.


date: July 30

text: July 30 – Dutch troops capture Fort Assahudi Seram.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – Russo-Polish War (1654–67): The Russian army enters the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilnius, which it holds for 6 years.


date: August

text: August – The governor of New Netherland, Peter Stuyvesant, attacks the New Sweden (Delaware) colony.


date: September 8

text: September 8 – Swedish King Karl X Gustav occupies Warsaw (Poland).


date: October 19

text: October 19 – Swedish King Karl X Gustav occupies Kraków (Poland).


date: April 7

text: April 7 – Pope Alexander VII (born Fabio Chigi) succeeds Pope Innocent X, as the 237th pope.


date: December 4

text: December 4 – Middelburg, the Netherlands forbids the building of a synagogue.


date: December 27

text: December 27 – Second Northern War/the Deluge: Monks at the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa are successful in fending off a month-long siege.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – The Dutch West India Company denies Peter Stuyvesant's request to exclude Jews from New Amsterdam (Manhattan).


text: Stephan Farffler, a 22-year-old paraplegic watchmaker, builds the world's first self-propelling chair on a three-wheel chassis using a system of cranks and cogwheels. However, the device has the appearance of a hand bike more than a wheelchair since the design includes hand cranks mounted at the front wheel.


date: March 25

text: March 25 – Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is discovered by Christiaan Huygens.


text: 1655 Malta plague outbreak kills 20 people.


date: October 15

text: October 15 – The Jews of Lublin are massacred.


date: February 16

text: February 16 – Dutch Grand Pensionary advisor Johan de Witt marries Wendela Bicker.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Adriana Nooseman-van de Bergh becomes the first actress, in Amsterdam theater.


date: November 24

text: November 24 – English Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell announces measures against the Laudian party, which are enforced starting on January 1.


text: The Bibliotheca Thysiana is erected, the only surviving 17th century example in the Netherlands, of a building designed as a library.


date: January 6

text: January 6 – Eleonor Magdalene of Neuburg, Holy Roman Empress (d. 1720)


text: January 6 – Niccolò Comneno Papadopoli, Italian jurist of religious law and historian (d. 1740)


date: April 19

text: April 19 – George St Lo, Royal Navy officer and administrator (d. 1718)


date: April 25

text: April 25 – John Lowther, 1st Viscount Lonsdale, English politician (d. 1700)


text: April 26 – Ofspring Blackall, Bishop of Exeter (d. 1716)


date: May 4

text: May 4 – Bartolomeo Cristofori, Italian maker of musical instruments, invented the piano (d. 1731)


date: September 9

text: September 9 – James Johnston (secretary of state), diplomat, Secretary of State for Scotland (d. 1737)


date: September 12

text: September 12 – Sébastien de Brossard, French composer and music theorist (d. 1730)


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Ferdinand Kettler, Duke of Courland and Semigallia (d. 1737)


date: November 12

text: November 12 – Francis Nicholson, British Army general, colonial administrator (d. 1727)


date: November 19

text: November 19 – Sir William Robinson, 1st Baronet, British politician (d. 1736)


date: November 20

text: November 20 – Sir Thomas Grosvenor, 3rd Baronet, English politician (d. 1700)


date: December 28

text: December 28 – Charles Cornwallis, 3rd Baron Cornwallis, First Lord of the British Admiralty (d. 1698)


date: December 29

text: December 29 – Lewis Watson, 1st Earl of Rockingham, English politician (d. 1724)


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Pope Innocent X, leader of the Roman Catholic Church and the Papal States, dies after more than 10 years of rule.


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg, German princess and queen consort of Sweden (b. 1599)


date: April 14

text: April 14 – Johann Erasmus Kindermann, German composer and organist (b. 1616)


date: April 29

text: April 29 – Cornelis Schut, Flemish painter, draughtsman and engraver (b. 1597)


date: May 8

text: May 8 – Edward Winslow, American Pilgrim leader (b. 1596)


date: June 27

text: June 27 – Eleonora Gonzaga, Holy Roman Empress, married to Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1598)


date: July 28

text: July 28 – Cyrano de Bergerac, French soldier and writer (b. 1619)


date: August 10

text: August 10 – Alfonso de la Cueva, 1st Marquis of Bedmar, Spanish cardinal and diplomat (b. 1572)


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, Italian physician, mathematician and music theorist (b. 1591)


date: October 24

text: October 24 – Pierre Gassendi, French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist (b. 1592)


date: November 6

text: November 6 – Maximilian, Prince of Dietrichstein, German prince (b. 1596)


date: November 23

text: November 23 – Elizabeth Wriothesley, Countess of Southampton (b. 1572)


date: December 17

text: December 17 – Ukita Hideie, Japanese daimyō (b. 1573)


date: December 31

text: December 31 – Sir John Wray, 2nd Baronet, English politician (b. 1586)


date: January 17

text: January 17 – The Treaty of Königsberg is signed, establishing an alliance between Charles X Gustav of Sweden and Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg.


date: April 2

text: April 2 – The Treaty of Brussels is signed, creating an alliance between Philip IV of Spain and the exiled Royalists of the British Isles, led by Charles II.


date: June 29

text: June 29 – The Treaty of Marienburg is signed by representatives of Sweden and of Brandenburg and Prussia to create a military alliance during the Second Northern War. King Karl X Gustav signs for Sweden and the Elector Friedrich Wilhelm signs for Brandenburg and Prussia.


date: August 27

text: August 27 – The Treaty of Butre is signed in West Africa by representatives of the Dutch West India Company and of the Ahanta Kingdom and allows the Netherlands to have a protectorate over the Dutch Gold Coast. The area is now part of the Republic of Ghana.


date: November 20

text: November 20 – The Treaty of Labiau is signed, between Charles X Gustav of Sweden and Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – A treaty of alliance is signed between the Holy Roman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.


date: December 6

text: December 6 – The Treaty of Radnot is signed between Sweden, the Electorate of Brandenburg, Transylvania (now Romania), and two rebels groups within Poland on how to divide the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the event of a victory in the Second Northern War.


date: January 5

text: January 5 – The First War of Villmergen, a civil war in the Confederation of Switzerland pitting its Protestant and Roman Catholic cantons against each other, breaks out but is resolved by March 7. The Lutheran cantons of the larger cities of Zurich, Bern and Schaffhausen battle against seven Catholic cantons of Lucerne, Schwyz, Uri, Zug, Baden Unterwalden (now Obwalden and Nidwalden) and St. Gallen.


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Reinforced by soldiers dispatched by the Viceroy of Peru, Spanish Chilean troops defeat the indigenous Mapuche warriors in a battle at San Fabián de Conuco in what is now central Chile, turning the tide in the Spanish colonists favor in the Mapuche uprising after more than a year.


date: February 18

text: February 18 (February 8 O.S.) – Battle of Golab: Swedish Empire troops led by King Carl X Gustav defeat troops of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth commanded by General Stefan Czarniecki in the first major engagement of the Swedish Deluge.


date: February 26

text: February 26 – A rebellion of Turkish soldiers, leading to the "Çınar incident", takes place after a palace guard for Ottoman Sultan Mehmet IV turns away a representative group who had come for payment for their services during the war in Crete. The rebellion ends with the mass killing 30 men identified by the rebels as being responsible for the non-payment.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – The "Çınar incident", named for the Turkish word for the sycamore tree takes place after Ottoman Sultan Mehmet IV declines the request of soldiers to have 30 named government officials put to death. When Mehmet agrees only to dismiss the people from office, the rebels seek out the men on the list and publicly hang most of them from the cinar trees.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – Zurnazen Mustafa Pasha is appointed as the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire after persuading Mehmet IV to rescind the February 28 selection of Gazi Hüseyin Pasha. Zurnazen Mustafa's rule lasts only four hours and he is sent into exile the same day.


date: March 15

text: March 15 – Battle of Jaroslaw: Almost a month after their defeat by Sweden at the Battle of Golab, Polish and Lithuanian troops commanded by Stefan Czarniecki defeat King Karl X Gustav's Swedish Army.


date: May 12

text: May 12 – The Dutch capture the city of Colombo, Sri Lanka, marking the start of Netherlands colonial rule of Dutch Ceylon.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – Poland's capital, Warsaw, is recaptured by Poland's John II Casimir Vasa 11 months after the capital had fallen on July 25, 1655 to Sweden.


date: June 27

text: June 27 – The Navy of the Ottoman Empire suffers a major defeat after two days of fighting against the navies of the Republic of Venice and of Malta in the Battle of the Dardanelles, one of the Turkish straits that connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Out of 98 Ottoman Turkish ships under the command of Kenan Pasha, 82 are either captured or destroyed. Venice loses only three of its ships, but its commander, Admiral Lorenzo Marcello, is killed by a direct cannon hit to his flagship.


date: July 30

text: July 30 – After a battle of three days, Swedish and Brandenburger troops led by King Charles X Gustav of Sweden, defeat the forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, near Warsaw and recapture the recently liberated capital.


date: August 9

text: August 9 – King Sanpet's uncle, Prince Si Suthammaracha, stages a coup d'etat and becomes the new King of Ayutthaya, now Thailand. Suthammaracha appoints another nephew, Prince Narai, as his chief minister and former King Sanpet is executed two days later on August 11. Suthammaracha's reign lasts less than three months.


date: August 14

text: August 14 – In one of the first battles of the Russo-Swedish War, Russian troops capture the Swedish-controlled city of Kokenhusen in Swedish Livonia (Latvia). Tsar Alexis, ruler of the Russian Empire and the leader of the Russian troops in battle, renames Kokenhausen "Tsarevich-Dmitriev" in honor of his late first-born son. Russia holds the city for more than 30 years before it is ceded back to Sweden. Kokenhusen is now the Latvian town of Koknese.


date: October 26

text: October 26 – King Si Suthammaracha of Ayutthaya (now Thailand) is overthrown in a coup d'etat by his nephew and former ally, Prince Narai, 11 weeks after having staged a coup to seize the throne. Narai is crowned as King Ramathibodi III.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – The Truce of Vilna is signed between Russia and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In addition to agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in their ongoing war, Tsar Alexis of Russia agrees to help defend the commonwealth against Sweden's invasion in return for Tsar Alexis being named heir to the thrones of Poland and Lithuania by King John II Casimir Vasa.


date: June 16

text: June 16 – After a 41-day voyage, the seven-member team dispatched from the Vergulde Draeck reaches Batavia and alerts Dutch East India Company officials that the ship was wrecked on April 28. Two rescue ships, the Goede Hoop and the Witte Valck are sent to rescue the men marooned in Western Australia. By the time the Goede Hoop arrives, the crew find no sign of the wreckage of the Vergulde Draeck.


date: July 18

text: July 18 – In an attempt to find survivors of the Vergulde Draeck, a search party is sent ashore by the rescue ship Goede Hoop; eleven men from two search parties while in the forests around the wreckage site. No trace of the Vergulde Draeck will be found for more than three centuries, until its wreckage is discovered by skin divers on April 13, 1963.


date: March 7

text: March 7 – The First War of Villmergen in the Confederation of Switzerland ends with a peace agreement, mediated by France and the Duchy of Savoy, between the Protestant and Roman Catholic cantons.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Roman Catholic Pope Alexander VII issues a decree ending the Chinese Rites controversy between Jesuit missionaries (who tolerate the rites as compatible with Catholicism) and Dominican and Franciscan missionaries (who consider the Chinese rituals incompatible). The Pope rules that practices ""favorable to Chinese customs", including Confucianism and ancestor worship, can be accepted as compatible with Catholic rites.


date: April 1

text: April 1 – John II Casimir Vasa, King of Poland, crowns the Black Madonna of Częstochowa as Queen and Protector of Poland in the cathedral of Lwów, after the miraculous saving of the Jasna Góra Monastery during the Deluge, an event which changed the course of the Second Northern War. The King swears a vow, the Lwów Oath, pledging to protect Poland's people from being conquered again.


date: July 27

text: July 27 – A Writ of Excommunication is issued against Baruch Spinoza.


date: March 3

text: March 3 – Fyodor Baykov, the Russian Empire's first envoy to China, is admitted to the Forbidden City within Beijing, after being sent by Tsar Alexis to negotiate a trade agreement with the Emperor Shunzi.


date: December 17

text: December 17 – King Frederick III of Denmark and Norway decrees that loan repayments and payments of interest to lenders will be made on two specific days, May 29 and June 11, each one nicknamed the Fandens fødselsdag or "Devil's Birthday",


text: The Stockholm Banco, the first bank to issue banknotes, is founded in Stockholm, Sweden.

source_section: Events › Undated


text: Konoike Zen'amon (son of Konoike Shinroku) founds a baking and money-changing business in Osaka, Japan.


date: December 25

text: December 25 – The pendulum clock is invented by Christiaan Huygens, so accurate that it only loses 10 seconds per day. Huygens will mention the date in a letter to Ismail Boulliau a year later.


date: January 24

text: January 24 – The first Jewish doctor in the Thirteen Colonies of America, Jacob Lumbrozo, arrives in Maryland.


date: December 16

text: December 16 – English Quaker James Nayler is convicted of blasphemy but spared the death penalty.


text: The only English fifty shilling coin is minted.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – The Dutch East India Company ship Vergulde Draeck, with 193 crew aboard and a valuable cargo is wrecked off Ledge Point, Western Australia, with the loss of 118 members. Another 75 make it to shore, with limited provisions. The ship had been bound from the Cape of Good Hope to Batavia in the Dutch East Indies (now Jakarta in Indonesia).


date: May 7

text: May 7 – Nine days after the wreck of the Vergulde Draeck, a steersman and six crew members are dispatched to Batavia to get help. The other 68 survivors remain at Ledge Point and await rescue but are not seen again.


date: February 23

text: February 23 – London's Lord Mayor Christopher Packe suggests to Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector and chief executive of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, that the monarchy should be restored with Cromwell as its King. Cromwell declines to become King Oliver, but his right to name his successor becomes effective on May 25, 1657 with the commencement of the Humble Petition and Advice.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Bertuccio Valier is elected as the new Doge of the Venetian Republic in Venice.


date: September 15

text: September 15 – Köprülü Mehmed Pasha becomes Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.


text: Physician Samuel Stockhausen of the metal mining town of Goslar, Lower Saxony publishes his Libellus de lithargyrii fumo noxio morbifico, ejusque metallico frequentiori morbo vulgò dicto die Hütten Katze oder Hütten Rauch ("Treatise on the Noxious Fumes of Litharge, Diseases caused by them and Miners' Asthma"), a pioneering study of occupational disease.


text: Adams' Grammar School at Newport, Shropshire, England is founded by William Adams.


date: January 2

text: January 2 – Paolo Panelli, Italian painter (d. 1759)


date: February 2

text: February 2 – Charles Churchill, English Army general and politician (d. 1714)


date: February 9

text: February 9 – Rose Venerini, Italian saint, educational pioneer (d. 1728)


date: March 26

text: March 26 – Nicolaas Hartsoeker, Dutch mathematician and physicist (d. 1725)


date: April 10

text: April 10 – René Lepage de Sainte-Claire, lord-founder of Rimouski in eastern Quebec, Canada (d. 1718)


date: April 12

text: April 12 – Benoît de Maillet, French diplomat and natural historian (d. 1738)


date: April 17

text: April 17 – William Molyneux, Irish politician, philosopher and writer (d. 1698)


date: April 23

text: April 23 – Anton Egon, Prince of Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg, Governor of the Electorate of Saxony (d. 1716)


date: May 2

text: May 2 – Sir Richard Levinge, 1st Baronet, Anglo-Irish politician and judge (d. 1724)


date: July 4

text: July 4 – John Leake, English Royal Navy admiral (d. 1720)


date: July 20

text: July 20 – Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, Austrian architect (d. 1723)


date: September 6

text: September 6 – Guillaume Dubois, French cardinal and statesman (d. 1723)


date: September 7

text: September 7 – Robert Molesworth, 1st Viscount Molesworth, Irish politician (d. 1725)


date: September 11

text: September 11 – Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark, Swedish queen consort (d. 1693)


date: January 22

text: January 22 – Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano (b. 1596)


date: March 19

text: March 19 – Georg Calixtus, German Lutheran theologian who looked to reconcile all Christendom (b. 1586)


date: March 21

text: March 21 – James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland (b. 1581)


date: April 27

text: April 27 – Gerard van Honthorst, Dutch painter (b. 1592)


date: May 17

text: May 17 – In elections by the nobility of Venice for the Leader of the Venetian Republic, Francesco Cornaro defeats Bertuccio Valier. Cornaro dies less than three weeks later, on June 5.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – Maximilian van der Sandt, Dutch theologian (b. 1578)


date: July 6

text: July 6 – Giacinto Anzalone, Italian composer, conductor, and director of the Conservatorio della Pietà dei Turchini in Naples (b. 1606)


date: August 8

text: August 8 – In the Ayutthaya Kingdom, comprising most of the territory now occupied by Thailand, King Prasat Thong dies after a reign of more than 25 years. His eldest son, Prince Chao Fa Chai, is crowned as King Sanpet VI but Prasat's brother plots the new king's overthrow.


date: August 11

text: August 11 – Ottavio Piccolomini, Austrian-Italian field marshal (b. 1599)


date: September 8

text: September 8 – Joseph Hall, English bishop and writer (b. 1574)


date: October 3

text: October 3 – Myles Standish, Mayflower colonist (b. c. 1584)


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Juan Alonso y Ocón, Spanish Catholic prelate, Archbishop of La Plata o Charcas (b. 1597)


date: November 4

text: November 4 – Ali Adil Shah II becomes the new Sultan of Bijapur (located in what is now India's Karnataka state) upon the death of his father, Mohammed Adil Shah.


date: November 6

text: November 6 – At the age of 13, Prince Afonso, Duke of Braganza becomes the new King of Portugal upon the death of his father, King João IV. Because of his age and a mental disability King Afonso VI's authority is exercised instead by his mother, Queen Luisa, as Regent.


date: January 29

text: January 29 – Rule of the Major-Generals (regional military government) in England is abolished.


date: February 4

text: February 4 – Resettlement of the Jews in England: Oliver Cromwell gives Antonio Fernandez Carvajal the assurance of the right of Jews to remain in England.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Anglo-Spanish War (1654–60): By the Treaty of Paris, France and England form an alliance against Spain; England will receive Dunkirk.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – The Jews of New Amsterdam (later New York City) are granted freedom of religion, as full citizens.


date: July 13

text: July 13 – Following his refusal to take the oath of allegiance to Oliver Cromwell, English army leader John Lambert is ordered to resign his commissions.


date: September 19

text: September 19 – Brandenburg and Poland sign the Treaty of Wehlau.


date: September 24

text: September 24 – The first autopsy and coroner's jury verdict in the Colony of Maryland are recorded.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – Treaty of Raalte: William III, Prince of Orange is no longer stadtholder of Overijssel.


text: November 6 – Brandenburg and Poland sign the Treaty of Bromberg.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – Miles Sindercombe and his group of disaffected Levellers are betrayed in their attempt to assassinate Oliver Cromwell by blowing up the Palace of Whitehall in London and are arrested.


text: April 20 – Anglo-Spanish War – Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife: English Admiral Robert Blake attempts to seize a Spanish treasure fleet.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – King Frederick III of Denmark signs a manifesto, de facto declaring war on Sweden.


text: October 3 – French troops occupy Mardyck.


date: August 20

text: August 20 – The ship Les Armes d'Amsterdam arrives at Quebec, New France. Among the passengers is Michel Mathieu Brunet dit Lestang (1638–1708), colonist, explorer and co-discoverer of modern-day Green Bay, Wisconsin, and ancestor of the Brunet, Lestang and Carisse families of North America.


date: May 8

text: May 8 – Lord Protector Cromwell confirms his refusal of the crown of England, preferring the title "Lord Protector".


text: June 1 – The first eleven Quaker settlers arrive in New Amsterdam (later New York City), and are allowed to practice their faith.


text: England's first chocolate house is opened in London and introduction of tea in England while coffee is introduced to France.


date: December 27

text: December 27 – The Flushing Remonstrance is signed in New Amsterdam, at the site of the future (1862) Flushing Town Hall in New York City.


text: Christiaan Huygens writes the first book to be published on probability theory, De ratiociniis in ludo aleae ("On Reasoning in Games of Chance").


date: September

text: September – Shah Jahan becomes ill, allowing his son to take control of the Mughal Empire.


date: November 10

text: November 10 – Christina, former Queen regnant of Sweden, has Gian Rinaldo Monaldeschi killed in her presence, at the Palace of Fontainebleau.


date: March 2

text: March 2 – The Great Fire of Meireki in Edo, Japan, destroys most of the city and damages Edo Castle, killing an estimated 100,000 people.


date: February 23

text: February 23 – In England, the Humble Petition and Advice offers Lord Protector Cromwell the crown.


text: Thomas Middleton's tragedy Women Beware Women (c. 1623–24) is published posthumously in London.


text: The Accademia del Cimento is founded in Florence, Italy.


text: Andreas Gryphius' drama Katharina von Georgien is published in Breslau.


date: January 17

text: January 17 – Pieter van Bloemen, Flemish painter (d. 1720)


date: February 10

text: February 10 – George Carpenter, 1st Baron Carpenter, English Army general (d. 1731)


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle, French scientist and man of letters (d. 1757)


date: March 19

text: March 19 – Jean Leclerc, Swiss theologian and biblical scholar (d. 1736)


date: June 17

text: June 17 – Louis Ellies Dupin, French ecclesiastical historian (d. 1719)


date: July 8

text: July 8 – Abraham de Peyster, New Amsterdam/New York politician (d. 1728)


date: August 18

text: August 18 – Ferdinando Galli-Bibiena, Italian architect and painter (d. 1743)


date: September 14

text: September 14 – Sir Charles Blois, 1st Baronet, English politician (d. 1738)


date: September 17

text: September 17 – Pieter Schuyler, acting governor of the province of New York and army colonel (d. 1724)


date: October 4

text: October 4 – Francesco Solimena, Italian painter (d. 1747)


date: November 28

text: November 28 – Philip Prospero, Prince of Asturias, heir apparent to the Spanish throne (d. 1661)


date: December 15

text: December 15 – Louis Thomas, Count of Soissons, Count of Soissons and Prince of Savoy (d. 1702)


date: December 23

text: December 23 – Josiah Franklin, English-born American businessman, father of Benjamin Franklin (d. 1745)


text: December 23 – Hannah Duston, Massachusetts Puritan mother of 8, taken captive during King William's War (d. 1736)


date: March

text: March – Edward Hopkins, colonial Connecticut politician (b. 1600)


date: April 2

text: April 2 – Jean-Jacques Olier, French Catholic priest (b. 1608)


date: April

text: April ? – Richard Lovelace, English Cavalier poet (b. 1617)


date: May 9

text: May 9 – William Bradford, Governor of Plymouth Colony (b. 1590)


date: May 10

text: May 10 – Gustav Horn, Count of Pori, Swedish soldier and politician (b. 1592)


date: August 6

text: August 6 – Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Ukrainian Cossack Hetman (b. c. 1595)


date: August 14

text: August 14 – Giovanni Paolo Lascaris, Italian 57th Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (b. 1560)


date: August 19

text: August 19 – Frans Snyders, Flemish painter (b. 1579)


date: August 29

text: August 29 – John Lilburne, English dissenter (b. c. 1614)


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Joachim Jungius, German mathematician and philosopher (b. 1587)


date: September 27

text: September 27 – Olimpia Maidalchini, politically active Roman noble (b. 1591)


text: October 4 – Prince Maurice of Savoy, Catholic cardinal and Prince of Savoy (b. 1593)


date: November 18

text: November 18 – Luke Wadding, Irish Franciscan friar and historian (b. 1588)


date: November 20

text: November 20 – Sir Hugh Cholmeley, 1st Baronet, English politician (b. 1600)


date: February 5

text: February 5 – Prince Muhi al-Din Muhammad, one of the sons of India's Mughal, Emperor Shah Jahan, proclaims himself Emperor after Jahan names Muhi's older brother, Dara Shikoh, as regent, and departs from Aurangabad with troops.


date: March 8

text: March 8 (February 26 OS) – The peace between Sweden and Denmark-Norway is concluded in Roskilde by the Treaty of Roskilde, under which Denmark is forced to cede significant territory. This leads to Sweden reaching its territorial height during its time as a great power.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – After Shah Jahan completes the Taj Mahal, his son Aurangzeb deposes him as ruler of the Mughal Empire.


text: August 14 – The League of the Rhine (Rheinische Allianz) is formed by 50 German princes whose cities are on the Rhine river.


date: December 20

text: December 20 – Representatives of the Russian Empire and the Swedish Empire sign the Treaty of Valiesar at the Valiesar Estate near Narva, part of modern-day Estonia. In return for ceasing hostilities between the two empires in the Second Northern War, Russia is allowed to keep captured territories in Livonia (part of modern-day Latvia) for a term of three years.


date: January 30

text: January 30 – The "March Across the Belts" (Tåget över Bält), Sweden's use of winter weather to send troops across the waters of the Danish Straits at a time when winter has turned them to ice, begins. Within 17 days, Sweden's King Karl X Gustav leads troops across the ice belts to capture six of Denmark's islands as Swedish territory.


date: April 15

text: April 15 – In India, the Battle of Dharmat is fought in the modern-day state of Madhya Pradesh between rival claimants to the throne of the Mughal Empire. Prince Muhi al-Din Muhammad, the son of the Emperor Shah Jahan, leads 30,000 men in a triumph over 22,000 troops led by Jaswant Singh of Marwar and Ratan Singh Rathore. Despite heavy losses, with more than 11,000 casualties, Prince Muhi, who has adopted the name Aurangzeb, continues toward Samugarh and Agra and captures the throne at the end of July.


date: May 29

text: May 29 – Aurangzeb wins the Battle of Samugarh as Indian Mughal regent Dara Shikoh makes a last effort to defend the Mughal capital Agra.


date: June 14

text: June 14 – Anglo-Spanish War (1654–1660) and Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659): In the Battle of the Dunes, a Spanish force attempting to lift a siege of Dunkirk is defeated by the French and English. England is then given Dunkirk, for its assistance in the victory.


date: June 25

text: June 25–27 – In the Battle of Rio Nuevo, part of the Anglo-Spanish War, a Spanish invasion force fails to recapture Jamaica from the English.


date: July 2

text: July 2 – The Siege of Toruń begins in Poland as troops of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and of Austria seek to recapture the city of Toruń from a garrison of the Swedish Army. Within six months, the Swedish occupiers surrender.


date: July

text: July – Šarhūda's Manchu fleet annihilates Onufriy Stepanov's Russian flotilla, on the Amur River.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Just six months after winning territory from Denmark-Norway in war and subsequent treaty, Sweden's King Charles X Gustav declares a second war against Denmark. By August 11, the King's troops have surrounded Denmark's capital, Copenhagen, while the Swedish Navy blocks the harbor to prevent the city from being resupplied, and begins bombardment.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – Portuguese Restoration War: In the Battle of Vilanova, a Spanish army, having crossed the Minho, defeats the Portuguese.


date: October 7

text: October 7 – The Netherlands enters the Dano-Swedish War to come to the rescue of Denmark, sending a 45-ship fleet from Vlie.


date: October 29

text: October 29 – The 45-ship fleet of the Netherlands arrives at Denmark and begins its counterattack on Sweden's army and navy with three squadrons.


date: November 8

text: November 8 (October 29 old style) – The Battle of the Sound takes place between the navies of the Dutch Republic (with 41 warships) and of Sweden (with 45) at the Øresund, a strait between Denmark and Sweden's newly-acquired territory, the former Danish island of Scania. The Dutch Republic is successful at breaking the Swedish Navy's blockade of Copenhagen, and Sweden is forced to retreat, bringing an end to the attempted conquest of Denmark.


date: December 11

text: December 11 – Abaza Hasan Pasha, an Ottoman provincial governor who is attempting to depose the Grand Vizier, wins a battle at the Turkish city of Ilgin, defeating loyalist forces led by Murtaza Pasha. The victory is the last for the rebels. Two months later (February 16, 1659) Abaza Hasan is assassinated after being invited to peace negotiations by the loyalists.


date: December 25

text: December 25 – Polish and Danish forces defeat a Swedish Army in the Battle of Kolding in Denmark.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – The Siege of Toruń ends almost six months after it started, with Poland recapturing the city from Sweden.


text: Portuguese traders are expelled from Ceylon by Dutch invaders.


date: February 6

text: February 6 – Swedish troops of Charles X Gustav of Sweden cross The Great Belt in Denmark, over frozen sea.


text: The Dutch in the Cape Colony start to import slaves from India and South-East Asia (later from Madagascar).


date: June 3

text: June 3 – Pope Alexander VII appoints François de Laval vicar apostolic of New France.


date: July 18

text: July 18 – Prince Leopold of the House of Habsburg, son of the late Ferdinand III, is elected as the new Holy Roman Emperor.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial and The Garden of Cyrus are published by Thomas Browne in England.


date: November 6

text: November 6 – The Mexican Inquisition carries out the execution, by public burning, of 14 men convicted of homosexuality, while another 109 arrested are either released or given less harsh sentences.


date: April 16

text: April 16 – In Skåneland, a region recently ceded by Denmark to the Swedish Empire, representatives of the nobility of the provinces of Blekinge, Halland and Scania gather at the Scanian city of Malmö to swear their allegiance to King Charles X Gustav of Sweden.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – The coronation of Leopold I takes place in Frankfurt.


date: February 18

text: February 18 – Charles-Irénée Castel de Saint-Pierre, French writer (d. 1743)


date: March 5

text: March 5 – Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, French explorer (d. 1730)


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Jean-Baptiste Santerre, French painter (d. 1717)


date: April 11

text: April 11 – James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton, Scottish peer (d. 1712)


date: April 22

text: April 22 – Giuseppe Torelli, Italian violist, violinist, pedagogue and composer (d. 1709)


date: May 30

text: May 30 – Sir Henry Furnese, 1st Baronet, English merchant and politician (d. 1712)


date: July 10

text: July 10 – Luigi Ferdinando Marsili, Italian soldier and naturalist (d. 1730)


date: July 17

text: July 17 – Diogo de Mendonça Corte-Real, Portuguese politician (d. 1736)


date: July 25

text: July 25 – Archibald Campbell, 1st Duke of Argyll, Scottish privy councillor (d. 1703)


date: August 11

text: August 11 – Sir Justinian Isham, 4th Baronet, English baronet and Member of Parliament (d. 1730)


date: September 24

text: September 24 – Sir Robert Anstruther, 1st Baronet, Scottish politician (d. 1737)


date: October 2

text: October 2 – Nicholas Roosevelt (1658–1742), Dutch-American politician (d. 1742)


date: October 19

text: October 19 – Adolphus Frederick II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (d. 1704)


date: November 4

text: November 4 – Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani, Georgian prince, writer, monk and author (d. 1725)


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Theophilus Eaton, English-born Connecticut colonist (b. 1590)


date: January 13

text: January 13 – Edward Sexby, English Puritan soldier (b. 1616)


text: January 13 – Edward Sexby, who had plotted against Oliver Cromwell, dies in the Tower of London.


date: February 19

text: February 19 – Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester (b. 1612)


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Adolf Frederick I, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1592–1628 and again 1631–1658) (b. 1588)


date: April 19

text: April 19 – Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick, English colonial administrator and admiral (b. 1587)


text: April 19 – Kirsten Munk, second wife of Christian IV of Denmark (b. 1598)


date: May 20

text: May 20 – Bartholomew Holzhauser, German priest, visionary and writer of prophecies (b. 1613)


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Gundakar, Prince of Liechtenstein, court official in Vienna (b. 1580)


date: October 14

text: October 14 – Francesco I d'Este, Duke of Modena, Italian noble (b. 1610)


date: October 23

text: October 23 – Thomas Pride, Parliamentarian general in the English Civil War


date: November 8

text: November 8 – Witte de With, Dutch naval officer (b. 1599)


date: December 6

text: December 6 – Baltasar Gracián y Morales, Spanish writer (b. 1601)


date: December 20

text: December 20 – Jean Jannon, French typefounder (b. 1580)


date: January 27

text: January 27 – The third and final session of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland is opened by Lord Protector Richard Cromwell, with Chaloner Chute as the Speaker of the House of Commons, with 567 members. "Cromwell's Other House", which replaces the House of Lords during the last years of the Protectorate, opens on the same day, with Richard Cromwell as its speaker.


date: May 21

text: May 21 – The Kingdom of France, the Commonwealth of England and the Dutch Republic sign the Concert of The Hague, agreeing a common stance on the Second Northern War.


date: August 27

text: August 27 – Portuguese Jesuits led by António Vieira sign the Treaty of the Mapuá with various indigenous peoples on the Marajó Archipelago at the mouth of the Amazon River.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – The English Rump Parliament dismisses John Lambert, and other generals.


date: October 13

text: October 13 – General-major John Lambert drives out the English Rump-government.


date: November 7

text: November 7 – The Treaty of the Pyrenees is signed by representatives of Kings Louis XIV of France and Philip IV of Spain. Spain agrees to French acquisition of the counties of Roussillon and Upper Cerdanya (Principality of Catalonia) and most of Artois, formally ending the 24-year-long Franco-Spanish War.


date: December 16

text: December 16 – General George Monck demands free parliamentary elections in Scotland and resolves to overthrow the military government that has ruled the British Isles since 1648.


date: December 26

text: December 26 – The Long Parliament reforms occur in Westminster.


date: January 14

text: January 14 – In the Battle of the Lines of Elvas, fought near the small city of Elvas in Portugal during the Portuguese Restoration War, the Spanish Army under the command of Luis Méndez de Haro suffers heavy casualties, with over 11,000 of its nearly 16,000 soldiers killed, wounded or taken prisoner; the smaller Portuguese force of 10,500 troops, commanded by André de Albuquerque Ribafria (who is killed in the battle) suffers less than 900 casualties.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – The Assault on Copenhagen by Swedish forces is beaten back, with heavy losses.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – Prince Dara Shikoh, who had been the heir apparent to the throne of the Mughal Empire in India until the overthrow of his father, Shah Jahan, makes a stand near Ajmer to fight the armies sent by Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, but loses and is forced to flee.


date: April 22

text: April 22 – Under pressure from the English Army in London, which has assembled troops outside of Westminster, Richard Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland, dissolves the Third Protectorate Parliament, the last for the Commonwealth.


date: May 6

text: May 6 – English Army General Hezekiah Haynes, joined by officers Charles Fleetwood, John Lambert, James Berry, Robert Lilburne, Thomas Kelsey, William Goffe and William Packer, presents the manifesto A Declaration of the Officers of the Army, advocating that Lord Protector Cromwell step down after restoring the "Rump Parliament" to administer England. Cromwell restores the parliament rule the next day and decides to step down.


date: June 29

text: June 29 – In the Battle of Konotop, fought near the Ukrainian city of Konotop during the Russo-Polish War, Polish Cossack hetman Ivan Vyhovsky and his allies defeat the armies of the Tsardom of Russia, led by Aleksey Trubetskoy.


date: August 3

text: August 3 – Booth's Uprising, led by George Booth, begins in the city of Chester as 3,000 royalists attempt a revolt against the military government of England. English Army troops begin marching on August 5 to suppress the rebellion.


date: August 7

text: August 7 – As Booth's Uprising spreads to Liverpool, Thomas Myddelton, Randolph Egerton and fellow royalists take control of the town of Wrexham in Wales and proclaim Charles II to be King.


date: August 15

text: August 15 – Two English warships block the entrance to the River Dee to prevent supplies from reaching Booth's rebels in Chester, while Major General John Lambert of the English Army advances into Cheshire at Nantwich.


date: August 19

text: August 19 – At the Battle of Winnington Bridge, the Protectorate Army of 5,000 troops, dispatched by Parliament and under the command of Major General Lambert, routs the 4,000 anti-government rebels commanded by George Booth of England and Edward Broughton of Wales. Lambert and his forces, exhausted from their rapid march and the battle, elect not to pursue the fleeing rebels and less than 30 rebels are killed.


date: August 30

text: August 30 – Poland's army of over 12,000 troops under the command of Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski and Krzysztof Grodzicki, takes back the city of Grudziądz, which has been under Sweden's control since the end of 1655, after a siege of seven days. Much of the town is left in ruins after a fire and bombardment from Polish cannons.


date: September 20

text: September 20 – War between Dutch settlers and the native Lenape Indians, of the Esopus tribe, in modern-day Ulster County, New York, in the U.S., as a group of Dutch settlers from the village of Wiltwijck, New Netherland fires their guns at a group of Esopus men who have been sitting around a campfire. For the next ten months, the Esopus warriors, commanded by Chief Papequanaehen, fight a war with the Dutch that is finally settled with a peace treaty on July 15, 1660.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – The Ottoman-ruled island of Kizilhisar (called Castelrosso by Italy and in modern times the island of Kastellorizo in Greece) is captured from the Ottoman Empire by the navy of the Republic of Venice after nearly 150 years of Ottoman rule that had started in 1512.


date: November 25

text: November 25 – Dutch forces under Michiel de Ruyter free the Danish city of Nyborg from Swedish conquest that had taken place earlier in the year.


date: February 2

text: February 2 – Jan van Riebeeck produces the first South African wine, at the Cape of Good Hope.


text: First British colonists arrive on Saint Helena.


text: Spanish Infanta Maria Theresa brings cocoa to Paris.


date: February 16

text: February 16 – The first known cheque (400 pounds) is written.


text: Parisian police raid a monastery, sending monks to prison for eating meat and drinking wine during Lent.


date: March 28

text: March 28 – The Danish Africa Company (Dansk afrikanske kompagni) is chartered to Hendrik Carloff for the purpose of capturing Africa slaves from the area around Denmark's colony on the Danish Gold Coast for use in the West Indies.


date: July

text: July – Christiaan Huygens's important work on astronomy, Systema Saturnium, is published.


text: Thomas Hobbes publishes De Homine.


date: January 31

text: January 31 – Giovanna De Grandis is arrested in Rome and charged with trafficking the lethal Aqua Tofana poison. On February 2, she implicates the mastermind of the poisoners, Gironima Spana, starting the case of the Spana Prosecution that eventually leads to the arrest and trial of 40 people.


date: June 10

text: June 10 – Dara Shikoh, at one time the heir apparent for the Mughal Empire, is betrayed by an Afghan chieftain, Junaid Khan Barozai, who had initially given him refuge from pursuit from the new emperor, Aurangzeb. Turned over to Aurangzeb's men, Dara Shikoh is killed on August 30.


date: July 5

text: July 5 – Five women are executed by hanging at Rome after being convicted of murder in the Spana Prosecution by distributing the powerful Aqua Tofana poison, sold primarily to women wishing to get rid of their husbands. Put to death on the same day are Gironima Spana, Giovanna De Grandis, Maria Spinola, Graziosa Farina and Laura Crispoldi, in the public square at the Campo de' Fiori.


date: January 24

text: January 24 – Pierre Corneille's Oedipe premieres in Paris.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – In exile in the Netherlands while plotting the restoration of the monarchy to England, Scotland and Ireland, Charles, son of the late King Charles I appoints seven royalists (including six from the "Sealed Knot" group) to a "Great Trust and Commission" to make plans for a post-restoration government. The Great Trust is led by Charles's trusted advisor, Edward Hyde.


date: July 16

text: July 16 – Princess Henriette Catherine of Nassau marries John George II, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, in Groningen.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – Peter Stuyvesant of New Netherland forbids tennis playing during religious services, marking the first mention of tennis in what will become the United States.


text: Diego Velázquez's portrait of Infanta Maria Theresa is first exhibited.


text: Peter Swink, the first known non-white settler to own land in Massachusetts, and first known African to live in Springfield, Massachusetts, arrives. He holds a seat in the town meetings.


date: January 4

text: January 4 – James Pierpont, Connecticut Congregationalist minister, a founder of Yale University (d. 1714)


date: January 18

text: January 18 – Damaris Cudworth Masham, English philosopher (d. 1708)


date: April 29

text: April 29 – Date Tsunamura, Japanese daimyō at the center of the Date Sōdō (d. 1719)


date: June 3

text: June 3 – David Gregory, Scottish mathematician and astronomer (d. 1708)


date: July 18

text: July 18 – Hyacinthe Rigaud, French painter (d. 1743)


date: August 1

text: August 1 – Sebastiano Ricci, Italian painter (d. 1734)


date: August 20

text: August 20 – Henry Every, English pirate (d. after 1696)


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Michel Sarrazin, Canadian scientist (d. 1734)


date: September 12

text: September 12 – Ferdinand Willem, Duke of Württemberg-Neuenstadt, Dutch general and noble (d. 1701)


date: September 13

text: September 13 – Claud Hamilton, 4th Earl of Abercorn, Scottish and Irish peer (k. in action 1691)


date: October 22

text: October 22 – Georg Ernst Stahl, German chemist (d. 1734)


date: November 3

text: November 3 – Hui-bin Jang, Korean royal consort (d. 1701)


date: November 10

text: November 10 – Albert Borgard, Danish artillery and engineer officer (d. 1751)


date: December 12

text: December 12 – Francesco Galli Bibiena, Italian architect/designer (d. 1739)


date: January 15

text: January 15 – Juliana of Hesse-Darmstadt, Countess of East Frisia (b. 1606)


date: February 15

text: February 15 – John Arrowsmith, English theologian and academic (b. 1602)


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Henry Dunster, first president of Harvard College (b. 1609)


date: June 23

text: June 23 – Hyojong of Joseon, 17th king of the Joseon dynasty of Korea (1649-1659) (b. 1619)


date: July 5

text: July 5 – Gironima Spana, Italian poisoner and central figure of the Spana Prosecution (executed) (b. 1615)


date: July 31

text: July 31 – Dodda Kempadevaraja (Devaraja Wodeyar I) becomes the new maharaja of the Kingdom of Mysore (part of modern-day India's Karnataka state) upon the death of his cousin, Kanthirava Narasaraja I. He is crowned on August 19.


date: August 30

text: August 30 – Dara Shikoh, Indian prince (b. 1615)


date: September 8

text: September 8 – Frederick V, Margrave of Baden-Durlach (1622–1659) (b. 1594)


date: October 1

text: October 1 – Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, Spanish politician, clergyman (b. 1600)


date: October 8

text: October 8 – Jean de Quen, French Jesuit missionary and historian (b. c. 1603)


date: October 31

text: October 31 – John Bradshaw, English judge (b. 1602)


date: November 6

text: November 6 – Jérôme le Royer de la Dauversière, French nobleman, founder of Montreal and an order of nursing Sisters (b. 1597)


text: November 10 – Afzal Khan, Indian commander of the Bijapur Adilshahi forces


date: December 31

text: December 31 – Alain de Solminihac, French bishop and beatified person (b. 1593)


text: Dacia is invaded by barbarians.

source_section: Events › By place › Roman Empire


text: King Chogo of Baekje succeeds to the throne of Baekje, in the Korean peninsula.

source_section: Events › By place › Asia


text: End of the war with Parthia: The Parthians leave Armenia and eastern Mesopotamia, which both become Roman protectorates.


text: The Lombards invade Pannonia (modern Hungary). They are quickly dispatched by the Roman Army.


text: Emperor Marcus Aurelius appoints his sons Commodus and Marcus Annius Verus as co-rulers (Caesar), while he and Lucius Verus travel to Germany.


text: A Roman envoy arrives by sea in Rinan commandery, in southern China (central Vietnam). He travels to the Chinese capital Luoyang, and is greeted by Emperor Huan of the Han dynasty.


text: Alypius succeeds Laurence as Patriarch of Constantinople.

source_section: Events › By topic › Religion


text: Pope Soter succeeds Pope Anicetus as the twelfth pope of Rome.


text: A plague (possibly small pox) comes from the East and spreads throughout the Roman Empire, lasting for roughly twenty years.


text: Scholars who have denounced eunuchs are arrested, killed or banished from the capital and official life in Han dynasty China. This is the first of the Disasters of the Partisan Prohibitions, which end in 184.


text: Conflict erupts on the Danube frontier between Rome and the Germanic tribe of the Marcomanni.


text: Taishi Ci (or Ziyi), Chinese general (d. 206)


text: Ma Rong, Chinese poet and politician (b. AD 79)


text: Celadion, patriarch of Alexandria


date: January 1

text: January 1 – At daybreak, English Army Colonel George Monck, with two brigades of troops from his Scottish occupational force, fords the River Tweed at Coldstream in Scotland to cross the Anglo-Scottish border at Northumberland, with a mission of advancing toward London to end military rule of England by General John Lambert and to accomplish the English Restoration, the return of the monarchy to England. By the end of the day, he and his soldiers have gone 15 mi through knee-deep snow to Wooler while the advance guard of cavalry had covered 50 mi to reach Morpeth.


date: January 6

text: January 6 – The Rump Parliament passes a resolution requesting Colonel Monck to come to London "as speedily as he could", followed by a resolution of approval on January 12 and a vote of thanks and annual payment of 1,000 pounds sterling for his lifetime on January 16.


date: February 26

text: February 26 – The Rump Parliament, under pressure from General Monck, votes to call back all of the surviving members of the group of 231 MPs who had been removed from the House of Commons in 1648 so that the Long Parliament can be reassembled long enough for a full Parliament to approve elections for a new legislative body.


text: February 27 – John Thurloe is reinstated as England's Secretary of State, having been deprived of his offices late in the previous year.


date: March 16

text: March 16 – The Long Parliament, after having been reassembled for the first time in more than 11 years, votes for its own dissolution and calls for new elections for what will become the Convention Parliament to make the return from republic to monarchy.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – The Declaration of Breda, signed by Charles Stuart, son of the late King Charles I of England, promises amnesty, freedom of conscience, and army back pay, in return for support for the English Restoration. The Declaration is read to the new parliament on May 1.


date: April 25

text: April 25 – The Convention Parliament, a new House of Commons for England, freely elected with no requirement for candidates to swear loyalty to the Commonwealth of England, assembles in London to work out the restoration of the monarchy.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – The Convention Parliament votes to welcome the Declaration of Breda and unanimously approves a resolution for England declaring that "according to the ancient and fundamental laws of this kingdom, the Government is, and ought to be, by Kings, Lords and Commons."


date: May 3

text: May 3 – In the Treaty of Oliva, peace is made between the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Habsburgs and Brandenburg-Prussia.


date: May 8

text: May 8 – In exile in the Netherlands, Prince Charles Stuart receives word that the Parliament of England has declared his elevation to the throne as King Charles II of England.


date: May 14

text: May 14 – The Irish Parliament declares Charles to be King of Ireland.


date: May 27

text: May 27 – The Treaty of Copenhagen is signed, marking the conclusion of the Second Northern War. Sweden returns Trøndelag to Norway, and Bornholm to Denmark.


text: May 27 – William Morice takes office as the first Secretary of State for the Northern Department in Great Britain, with responsibility for conducting foreign relations with the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Poland, Russia, and the Holy Roman Empire. Relations with France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, the Italian states, and the Ottoman Empire are assigned to the Secretary of State for the Southern Department. The position will eventually evolve into the office of the Foreign Secretary.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Mary Dyer is hanged for defying a law banning Quakers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.


date: July

text: July – Richard Cromwell, the last Lord Protector of England during its years as a republic, leaves the British Isles quietly and goes into exile in France, taking on an alias as "John Clarke".


date: September 1

text: September 1 – Grigore I Ghica becomes the new Prince of Wallachia (now in Romania)


date: October 13

text: October 13 – The Rigsraad (High Council) of Denmark is abolished and Denmark-Norway becomes an absolute monarchy as King Frederik III is recognized by the nobility as being entitled to have his throne passed to his descendants by hereditary monarchy.


date: December 29

text: December 29 – The Convention Parliament is dissolved by King Charles II and elections are called for what will be called the Cavalier Parliament.


text: January 1 – At the same time, rebels within the New Model Army under the command of Colonel Thomas Fairfax take control of York and await the arrival of Monck's troops.


date: January 11

text: January 11 – Colonel Monck and Colonel Fairfax rendezvous at York and then prepare to proceed southward toward London. gathering deserters from Lambert's army along the way.


date: January 16

text: January 16 – With 4,000 infantry and 1,800 cavalry ("an army sufficient to overawe, without exciting suspicion"), Colonel Monck marches southward toward Nottingham, with a final destination of London. Colonel Thomas Morgan is dispatched back to Scotland with two regiments of cavalry to reinforce troops there.


date: February 3

text: February 3 – General George Monck, at the head of his troops, enters London on horseback, accompanied by his principal officers and the commissioners of the Rump Parliament. Bells ring as they pass but the crowds in the streets are unenthusiastic and the troops are "astonished at meeting with so different a reception to that which they had received elsewhere during their march.".


date: May 21

text: May 21 – The Desormeaux caravan and 300 Iroquois die in explosion at Long Sault.


date: May 25

text: May 25 – King Charles II lands at Dover.


date: July 13

text: July 13 – (Ashadh Vadya 1 of Shaka 1582) The Battle of Pavan Khind takes place in India when a 600-member contingent of the Maratha Empire army, commanded by Baji Prabhu Deshpande, works to rescue Maratha General Shivaji, who had escaped the night before from the fort of Panhala, which was under siege by the Adilshah Sultanate. The Bijapur Sultanate, commanded by Siddi Masud with a force of 10,000 men, loses 5,000 in a fight against a vastly outnumbered contingent of Adilshah.


date: September 14

text: September 14 – The 13-day long Battle of Lyubar begins at Liubar (now in Ukraine) during the Russo-Polish War between soldiers of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth against Russia and ends with a victory by Poland.


date: December 15

text: December 15 – Andres Malong, a native chieftain of the town of Binalatongan (now San Carlos) in the Philippines, leads a successful revolt against the Spanish colonial administrators to liberate Pangasinan. He is proclaimed the King of Pangasinan, but the rebellion is suppressed on January 17, 1661, and Pangasinan is reconquered by February.


text: The Expulsion of the Carib indigenous people from Martinique is carried out by French occupying forces.


text: A permanent standing army is established in Prussia.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – The war in the West Indies between the indigenous Carib people, and the French Jesuits and English people who have colonized the islands, is ended with a treaty signed at Basse-Terre at Guadeloupe at the residence of the French Governor, Charles Houël du Petit Pré.


date: May 23

text: May 23 – With the way cleared for his return to England, King Charles II ends his exile at the Hague in the Netherlands and departs from Scheveningen harbor on the English ship Naseby, renamed for the occasion HMS Royal Charles , as part of a fleet of English warships brought by Admiral Edward Montagu. On commemorative memorabilia in the Netherlands, the date of Charles's departure is listed as June 2, 1660, the date on the Gregorian calendar used in continental Europe but not in England.


date: January 31

text: January 31 – The Rump Parliament confirms the promotion of Colonel George Monck to the rank of General and he receives the commission of rank while at St Albans.


date: August 19

text: August 19 – Dr Edward Stanley preaches a sermon in the nave of Winchester Cathedral, to commemorate the return of the Chapter, following the English Restoration.


date: September 16

text: September 16 – Juan Francisco Leiva y de la Cerda arrives in Mexico City as the new Viceroy of New Spain.


date: December 18

text: December 18 – The Company of the Royal Adventurers into Africa, planned by Prince James, brother of King Charles II to capture persons along the coast of West Africa for resale as slaves, receives its charter. Prince James, later King James II, had started asking for investors (at 250 pounds sterling per share) starting on October 3, 1660.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – The office of Secretary of State for the Southern Department begins operations in the Kingdom of Great Britain, with responsibility for the colonies of British America in what will later become Canada and the United States, as well as for Ireland and for the Channel Islands. Sir Edward Nicholas, a former British Secretary of State, takes office as the first Southern Department secretary.


date: September 25

text: September 25 – Samuel Pepys has his first cup of tea (an event recorded in his diary).


date: March 3

text: March 3 – General John Lambert, who had attempted to stop the Restoration, is arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London. He escapes on April 9 but is recaptured on April 24. Though spared the death penalty for treason in 1662, he remains incarcerated on the island of Guernsey for the rest of his life until his death at age 64 on March 1, 1684.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – John Thurloe is arrested for high treason, for his support of Oliver Cromwell's regime.


date: June 29

text: June 29 – John Thurloe is released from custody.


date: August 29

text: August 29 – The Indemnity and Oblivion Act, officially "An Act of Free and General Pardon, Indemnity, and Oblivion" is given royal assent. as a general pardon for everyone who had committed crimes during the English Civil War and Interregnum (with the exception of certain crimes such as murder, piracy, buggery, rape and witchcraft, and people named in the act such as those involved in the regicide of Charles I). It also said that no action was to be taken against those involved at any later time, and that the Interregnum was to be legally forgotten.


date: July 24

text: July 24 – The Great Fire of 1660 begins in Constantinople, capital of the Ottoman Empire (now Istanbul in Turkey), and destroys two-thirds of the city over two consecutive days, consuming 280,000 buildings and killing 40,000 people.


text: Blaise Pascal's Lettres provinciales, a defense of the Jansenist Antoine Arnauld, is ordered to be shredded and burned by King Louis XIV of France.


date: April 2

text: April 2 – The Merces baronets, a British nobility title is created.


date: May 29

text: May 29 – King Charles II of England arrives in London and assumes the throne, marking the beginning of the English Restoration.


date: November 28

text: November 28 – At Gresham College in London, twelve men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir Robert Moray meet after a lecture by Wren, and decide to found "a College for the Promoting of Physico-Mathematicall Experimentall Learning" (later known as the Royal Society).


date: December 8

text: December 8 – The first English actress appears on the professional stage in England in a non-singing role, as Desdemona in Othello at Vere Street Theatre in London, following the reopening of the theatres (various opinions have been advanced that the actress was Margaret Hughes, Anne Marshall or Katherine Corey). Historian Elizabeth Howe notes, however, that both William Davenant and Thomas Killigrew had women in their acting companies before 1660, and that Anne Marshall might be just one of the first rather than the actual first.


text: Hopkins School is founded in New Haven, Connecticut.


date: February 19

text: February 19 – Friedrich Hoffmann, German physician and chemist (d. 1742)


date: March 24

text: March 24 – Filippo Antonio Gualterio, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 1728)


date: April 6

text: April 6 – Johann Kuhnau, German composer, organist and harpsichordist (d. 1722)


date: April 16

text: April 16 – Hans Sloane, British physician (d. 1753)


date: May 2

text: May 2 – Alessandro Scarlatti, Italian composer (d. 1725)


date: June 5

text: June 5 – Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, British aristocrat (d. 1744)


date: June 17

text: June 17 – Jan van Mieris, Dutch painter (d. 1690)


text: July 24 – Charles Talbot, 1st Duke of Shrewsbury, English politician (d. 1718)


date: October 20

text: October 20 – Robert Bertie, 1st Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, English statesman (d.1723)


date: October 21

text: October 21 – Georg Ernst Stahl, German physician and chemist (d. 1734)


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Francesco Maria de' Medici, Duke of Rovere and Montefeltro, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 1711)


text: November 28 – Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria, Dauphine of France (d. 1690)


date: December 18

text: December 18 – Countess Johanna Magdalene of Hanau-Lichtenberg, German countess (d. 1715)


date: December 25

text: December 25 – Charles Somerset, Marquess of Worcester, English politician (d. 1698)


date: February 6

text: February 6 – Martin de Redin, Spanish 58th Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (b. 1579)


date: February 13

text: February 13 – Charles XI becomes king of Sweden at the age of five, upon the death of his father, Charles X Gustavus.


text: February 13 – King Charles X Gustav of Sweden (b. 1622)


date: March 15

text: March 15 – Louise de Marillac, French co-founder of the Daughters of Charity (b. 1591)


date: March

text: March – Philip Skippon, English soldier (b. c. 1600)


date: May 21

text: May 21 – Adam Dollard des Ormeaux, iconic figure in the history of New France (b. 1635)


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Mary Dyer, English Quaker (hanged) (b. c. 1611)


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Lady Katherine Ferrers, English aristocrat and heiress (b. 1634)


date: June 30

text: June 30 – William Oughtred, English mathematician (b. 1575)


date: September 13

text: September 13 – Henry Stuart, Duke of Gloucester, son of Charles I (b. 1640)


date: September 27

text: September 27 – Vincent de Paul, French saint (b. 1580)


date: October 13

text: October 13 to October 19 – Ten of the 57 "regicides" who signed the death warrant of Charles I of England in 1649 are executed over a period of one week, mostly at Charing Cross by being hanged, drawn and quartered, a process which includes being disemboweled (in some cases before they have died) and then and burned. The first to die is Thomas Harrison, a leader of the Fifth Monarchists. He is followed by John Carew (October 15); John Cook and Hugh Peter (October 16); (Adrian Scrope, John Moore, Gregory Clement and Thomas Scot) (October 17); and Daniel Axtell and Francis Hacker (October 19).


date: November 5

text: November 5 – Alexandre de Rhodes, French Jesuit missionary (b. 1591)


date: December 24

text: December 24 – Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange (b. 1631)


date: January 29

text: January 29 – The Rokeby baronets, a British nobility title is created.


date: May 8

text: May 8 – The "Cavalier Parliament", the longest serving Parliament in British history, is opened following the first parliamentary elections since the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The first session of the House of Commons and the House of Lords lasts until June 30 and then reopens on November 20. The Cavalier Parliament continues meeting, without new elections, until being dissolved on January 24, 1679.


date: June 14

text: June 14 – General Zheng Chenggong of China takes control of most of the island of Taiwan from the Dutch East India Company and proclaims the Kingdom of Tungning, with himself as the ruler.


date: June 23

text: June 23 – The "Marriage Treaty" is signed between representatives of King Charles II of England and King João IV of Portugal, providing a military alliance between the two kingdoms and a marriage between Charles of the House of Stuart and João's daughter Catherine of the House of Braganza on May 21, 1662. The treaty also sets the transfer of Portuguese territory in India (at Bombay) and in North Africa (Tangier) to England as well as military aid from England to Portugal.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – The war between the empires of Russia and Sweden is ended with the signing of the Treaty of Cardis in what is now the Estonian city of Kärde. Russia returns those portions of Livonia and Ingria that it had taken earlier from Sweden.