Technology & Infrastructure in the 17th century

83 sourced entries, 1603 CE to 1699 CE, oldest first. Also see Technology & Infrastructure across every century or everything else in the 17th century.

• 1603May 19 – The King's Men, a troupe of English professional actors composed primarily of former members of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, is granted its royal patent by King James. The company will give the first performances of many of the plays of William Shakespeare, who is one of the company's 26 principal actors. Named in order of priority on the patent are manager Lawrence Fletcher, Shakespeare, and Richard Burbage.source
• 1604March 22 – Karl IX begins his reign as King of Sweden.source
• 1606April 12 – The first version of the Union Flag is created, to be worn as a national flag by English and Scottish ships.source
• 1608The first cheques are used in the Dutch Republic.source
• 1610Work starts on the Wignacourt Aqueduct, in Malta.source
• 1611Construction begins on Naqsh-e Jahan Square in Isfahan, Persia.source
• 1612September 5 – England's East India Company gets its first warships and establishes the "'Honourable East India Company's Marine'" to protect its freighters. The force develops over the centuries into the Royal Indian Navy and, after India's independence in 1947, the Indian Navy.source
• 1613February 24 – King Anaukpetlun of Burma blockades the Portuguese port at Syriam with 80 warships and 3,000 men, then sets about to tunnel into the city.source
• 1613March 27 – The first English child is born in what will become Canada at Cuper's Cove, Newfoundland to Nicholas Guy.source
• 1613September 29 – The New River is opened, to supply London with drinking water from Hertfordshire.source
• 1614March 15 – Construction begins on the Takada Castle in Japan.source
• 1614March 17 – The States General of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands authorizes an exclusive monopoly for trade in the New World, providing for the winning company to be able to make four voyages to the eastern coast of North America between 40° N and 45° N, encompassing the area that becomes the U.S. state of New Jersey. The New Netherland Company receives the exclusive patent, effective January 1, 1615.source
• 1615John Browne is created the first King's Gunfounder in England.source
• 1616January 12 – The city of Belém, Brazil is founded on the Amazon River delta, by Portuguese captain Francisco Caldeira Castelo Branco, who had previously taken the city of São Luís in Maranhão from the French.source
• 1616November 6 – Captain William Murray is granted a royal patent, giving him the sole privilege of importing tobacco to Scotland for a period of 21 years. Continuing from the reign of Elizabeth I, the creation of grants and patents reaches a new highwater mark from 1614 to 1621, during the reign of James I of England.source
• 1616The first Thai embassy to Japan arrives.source
• 1616Inigo Jones designs the Queen's House at Greenwich, near London.source
• 1616Peter Paul Rubens begins work on classical tapestries, when a contract is signed in Antwerp with cloth dyers Jan Raes and Frans Sweerts in Brussels, and the Genoese merchant Franco Cattaneo.source
• 1616Croatian mathematician Faustus Verantius publishes his book Machinae novae, a book of mechanical and technological inventions, some of which are applicable to the solutions of hydrological problems, and others concern the construction of clepsydras, sundials, mills, presses bridges and boats for widely different uses.source
• 1620November 3 – The Great Patent is granted to Plymouth Colony.source
• 1622First record of bottled spring water in England at Holy Well, Malvern.source
• 1623March 20 – Richard Frethorne begins writing a letter to his parents from Jamestown, Virginia.source
• 1623Wilhelm Schickard devizes a Calculating Clock, an early mechanical calculator.source
• 1624December 24 – Denmark's first postal service is launched by order of King Christian IV.source
• 1627Rock blasting is invented: Black gunpowder is first used in mining, in a mineshaft under Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia.source
• 1629Fort Santo Domingo is built in Formosa by the Spanish East Indies.source
• 1630The central square of Covent Garden in London is laid out, and a market begins to develop there.source
• 1632Construction of the Taj Mahal begins.source
• 1633February 13 – Fire engines are used for the first time in England in order to control and extinguish a fire that breaks out at London Bridge, but not before 43 houses are destroyed.source
• 1635July 31 – The Royal Mail service is made available to the public by Charles I of England.source
• 1638May 13 – Construction begins on the Red Fort in Delhi (India) for Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan who is transferring his capital there from Agra.source
• 1638September 6 – The Finnish mail service, predecessor of Posti Group, is established.source
• 1638The Peking Gazette makes an official switch in its production process of newspapers, from woodblock printing to movable type printing (private newspapers in Ming dynasty China were first mentioned in 1582).source
• 1639March 3 – The early settlement of Taunton, Massachusetts, is incorporated as a town.source
• 1639April – Italian-born Cardinal Mazarin, apostolic nuncio to Paris and adviser to Cardinal Richelieu, is naturalized French by letters patent; in December, he leaves the service of Rome to enter that of King Louis XIII of France.source
• 1639The Casiquiare canal, a river forming a natural channel between the Amazon River and Orinoco River basins, is first encountered by Europeans, an expedition led by Pedro Teixeira and Cristóbal Diatristán de Acuña.source
• 1640The first known European coffeehouse perhaps opens in Venice.source
• 1643April 1 – Åmål, Sweden, is granted its city charter.source
• 1646March 6 – Joseph Jenkes obtains the first colonial machine patent, in Massachusetts.source
• 1648In India, building of the Red Fort in Shahjahanabad is completed.source
• 1650English highwayman and Captain James Hind campaigns for the Royalist cause (according to his own account).source
• 1651The first coffee house in England is opened in Oxford, indicative of their increasing popularity in Europe.source
• 1653July 8 – John Thurloe becomes Cromwell's head of intelligence.source
• 1654May 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.source
• 1655April 26 – The Dutch West India Company denies Peter Stuyvesant's request to exclude Jews from New Amsterdam (Manhattan).source
• 1655Stephan 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.source
• 1657December 27 – The Flushing Remonstrance is signed in New Amsterdam, at the site of the future (1862) Flushing Town Hall in New York City.source
• 1660June 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.source
• 1660September 25 – Samuel Pepys has his first cup of tea (an event recorded in his diary).source
• 1662September 29 – The first payments under England's hearth tax law, enacted on May 19, become due.source
• 1662Milton, Massachusetts is incorporated as a town.source
• 1663May 7 – The King's Theatre, now called "Drury Lane", opens in London.source
• 1667August 18 – In an effort to prevent narrow streets from being blocked from all light by tall buildings, the city of Paris enacts its first building code limiting the height of new construction. Buildings may be no taller than eight toise – 15.6 m – tall. In 1783, rules are implemented to consider the width of the street.source
• 1670June 15 – The first stone of Fort Ricasoli is laid down in Malta.source
• 1672January 25 – The Theatre Royal, located at the time on Bridges Street in London, burns down. A replacement structure is built on Drury Lane in 1674.source
• 1673October 3 – Kintai Bridge is officially completed in Iwakuni, Suō Province (modern-day Yamaguchi Prefecture), Japan.source
• 1676The first coffeehouse in North America opens in Boston.source
• 1677Ice cream becomes popular in Paris.source
• 1678January 27 – The first fire engine company in North America goes into service in Boston.source
• 1679Malpas Tunnel on the Canal du Midi in Hérault, France, Europe's first navigable canal tunnel, is excavated by Pierre-Paul Riquet (169 m ft, concrete lined).source
• 1680March 27 – The London Penny Post delivery service begins operations after being created by Robert Murray and William Dockwra, with a policy of delivering letters to any part of London or its suburbs for the price of one English penny.source
• 1681May 15 – The Canal du Midi in France is opened officially, as the Canal Royal de Languedoc.source
• 1682The Richard Wall House, believed to be the longest continuously inhabited residence in the US, is built in Pennsylvania.source
• 1683December – The River Thames in England freezes, allowing a frost fair to be held.source
• 1684January 15 (January 5 O.S.) – To demonstrate that the River Thames, frozen solid during the Great Frost that started in December, is safe to walk upon, "a Coach and six horses drove over the Thames for a wager" and within three days "whole streets of Booths are built on the Thames and thousands of people are continually walking thereon." Sir Richard Newdigate, 2nd Baronet, records the events in his diary.source
• 1685September 29 – The first organised street lighting is introduced by the city of London in England, as Edward Hemming begins carrying out his contract to be paid for lighting an oil lamp "at every tenth house on main streets between 6 PM and midnight between September 29 and March 25" on nights in the autumn and winter without adequate moonlight.source
• 1690January 7 – The first recorded full peal is rung, at St Sepulchre-without-Newgate in the City of London, marking a new era in change ringing.source
• 1690French physicist Denis Papin, while in Leipzig and having observed the mechanical power of atmospheric pressure on his 'digester', builds a working model of a reciprocating steam engine for pumping water, the first of its kind, though not efficient.source
• 1690The construction of Fort Longueuil, a stone fort in Longueuil, in Quebec, Canada, is completed. It is one of the only buildings in Canada that could ever be considered a castle (fortified residence for a noble), and out of those buildings it most resembles the castles of Europe.source
• 1690The Barrage Vauban, a defensive work in the city of Strasbourg (in modern-day France), is completed.source
• 1691HMNB Devonport, currently one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy and the largest naval base in Western Europe, opens.source
• 1691The textile factory Barnängens manufaktur is founded in Stockholm, Sweden.source
• 1694The Parker Tavern is built in Reading, Massachusetts.source
• 1695August 8 – The Wren Building is started in Williamsburg, Virginia (completed in 1700).source
• 1695After many years of construction, the Potala Palace in Lhasa is completed.source
• 1696September 17 – On Canada's Hudson Bay, the English Navy recaptures the York Factory from France, three years after the French had captured it, and renamed the site "Fort Bourbon".source
• 1696Abington, Pennsylvania, is settled.source
• 1697June 30 – The earliest reported first-class cricket match takes place in Sussex in England.source
• 1697Christopher Polhem starts Sweden's first technical school.source
• 1698July 2 – Thomas Savery patents the first steam engine.source
• 1698July 25 – English engineer Thomas Savery obtains a patent for a steam pump.source
• 1698November 14 – The first Eddystone Lighthouse, built off Plymouth, England, is illuminated.source
• 1699June 14 – Thomas Savery demonstrates his first steam pump to the Royal Society of London.source