January 17 –
Raphael Levy, a Jewish resident of the city of
Metz in
France, is burned at the stake after being accused of the September 25 abduction and ritual murder of a child who had disappeared from the village of
Glatigny. The prosecutor applies to King
Louis XIV for an order expelling all 95 Jewish families from Metz, but the king refuses.
February 4 – The
Battle of Sinhagad takes place in
India (in the modern-day
Maharashtra state) as the
Maratha Empire army, led by
Tanaji Malusare, leads an assault on the Kondhana Fortress that had been captured by the
Mughal Empire. Tanaji, called "The Lion" by his followers, captures the fortress by guiding the successful scaling of the walls of the fortress with ladders created from rope, but is killed in the battle. The Maratha emperor
Shivaji orders the fortress named
Sinhagad, the
Marathi language words for "Lion's Fort".
March 7 –
Oliver Plunkett, the Roman Catholic
Archbishop of Armagh since 1669, is allowed to return to
Ireland for the first time in more than 22 years, after a new policy of tolerance of Catholicism is enacted in England. Plunkett had departed for Rome in 1647 during the
Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. Later executed in 1681 on charges of plotting an invasion of Ireland, Plunkett is canonized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church in 1975.
March 15 – The first English settlers arrive at the modern-day U.S. state of
South Carolina, at this time the Province of Clarendon carved out of the
Province of Carolina, and construct a settlement at Albemarle Point on the
Ashley River.[1]
March 18 –
Petar Zrinski, the
Viceroy of Croatia within the
Holy Roman Empire, issues a proclamation urging Croatians to rebel against the Habsburg rulers.[2] The uprising fails and Zrinski and his brother-in-law, Krsto Frankopan, are quickly arrested. Both are beheaded in Vienna on April 30, 1671.
March 31 – The British warship
HMS Sapphire is wrecked beyond repair when her captain, John Pearce, orders the ship to be run aground at Sicily while fleeing what he believes to be four Algerian pirate ships, rather than attempting to fight. The ships turn out to have been friendly, and Pearce and his lieutenant, Andrew Logan, are court-martialed for their cowardice and executed on September 17.[3]
April 29 – After more than four months, the
papal conclave to elect a successor to the late
Pope Clement IX selects Cardinal Emilio Albieri with 56 of the 59 votes. Altieri, 79 years old at the time, remains the oldest person ever to be elected pope.[4] He announces that he will take the name of
Pope Clement X in honor of Clement IX, who had made him a cardinal. He serves for six years until his death in 1676 shortly after his 86th birthday.[5]
June 1 – At
Dover, England,
Charles II of England and
Louis XIV of France sign the
Secret Treaty of Dover, ending hostilities between their kingdoms. Louis will give Charles 200,000 pounds annually. In return Charles will relax the laws against Catholics, gradually re-Catholicize England, support French policy against the
Dutch Republic (leading England into the
Third Anglo-Dutch War), and convert to Catholicism himself. The treaty is ratified three days later. The terms will not become public until the early 19th century.[6] Louis is represented in the negotiations by Charles' sister
Princess Henrietta, Duchess of Orléans, who dies suddenly soon after returning to France.
June 9 – Taking advantage of a
monsoon, the Maratha Empire's
Shivaji orders an attack on areas that had been turned over to the Mughal Empire and its emperor
Aurangazeb in 1665. Within 15 days, the cities of Pune, Baramati, Supi and Indapur, along with the
Rohida fort, are recaptured by the Maratha Army.
June 10 – King Louis XIV of France issues an ordinance prohibiting the French colonies in the Americas from trading with any other nation except France.[7]
July 18 (July 8, O.S.) – The
Treaty of Madrid, also known as the Godolphin Treaty, is signed between
England and
Spain to formally end hostilities left over from the
Anglo-Spanish War, in the Caribbean, that ended ten years earlier. For the first time, Spain acknowledges that it is not entitled to all territory in the Americas west of Brazil, as provided by the
1493 line of demarcation decreed by
Pope Alexander VI, and by the
1494Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal. Spain acknowledges that
Jamaica and the
Cayman Islands are English possessions.
August 17 – A joint fleet of warships from England (commanded by Commodore Richard Beach on HMS Hampshire) and from the Dutch Republic (led by Admiral Willem Joseph van Ghent on Spiegel) rescue 250 Christian slaves and then sink six
Algerian pirate ships in a battle in the Mediterranean Sea off of the coast of
Morocco at
Cape Spartel.[9]
August 26 – The Parliament of France enacts a uniform criminal code for the nation with the passage of the
Criminal Ordinance of 1670, which takes effect on January 1. The code remains in force until October 9, 1789, when it is abrogated during the
French Revolution.
mid-
August – Three Spanish frigates from Spanish Florida, sailing from St. Augustine and under the command of Juan Menendez Marques, arrive at
Charleston harbor, preparing to attack the English settlement in South Carolina. The English settlers have been warned in advance by Indians who had found out about the invasion. Because of a storm, and the English preparations for a siege, Captain Menendez abandons the colony without attempting an attack.[10]
September 5 –
William Penn and
William Mead are found not guilty of violating the
Conventicles Act 1670, after a five day jury trial in London. The two had been arrested on August 14 in front of a meeting house
Gracechurch Street after preaching a Quaker sermon outside following a ban on preaching indoors. The defiance by the jury leads to the landmark English decision in
Bushel's Case.
October–December
October 3 – In India,
ChhatrapatiShivaji maharaj, the ruler of the
Maratha Empire, leads an attack on the British settlement at
Surat near
Bombay. British Governor
Gerald Aungier secures the British fortress at Surat and saves the lives and property of British citizens.
October 18 – The
Battle of Kitombo takes place in southwest Africa in
Angola, when colonial soldiers of the
Army of Portugal invade Soyo, an independent
BaKongo kingdom, with the intent of annexing it to Portuguese West Africa.[11] The 400 Portuguese troops, led by João Soares de Almeida, encounter a stiff resistance. Soyo's Estevao da Silva, whose army has the benefit of weapons supplied by the Dutch Republic, is joined in battle by troops from the neighboring
Kingdom of Ngoyo on the other side of the
Congo River. General Soares de Almeida is killed, and most of his troops die or are captured; Soyo's General da Silva is killed in the process of winning the battle. Because of the defeat, Portugal makes no further attempt to conquer Soyo or Ngoyo.
January 1 – The
Criminal Ordinance of 1670, the first attempt at a uniform code of criminal procedure in France, goes into effect after having been passed on August 26, 1670.
March 3 – Pomone, written by
Robert Cambert and considered by modern scholars to be the first
Frenchopera, is given its first performance. Using innovative costumes, and machinery for special stage effects, the premiere performed by the
Académie d'Opéra at the
Salle de la Bouteille theater in Paris is a success.[14]
March 31 – England's
Royal Navy launches its first warship to have a frame reinforced by iron bars rather than an all wooden ship, an innovation by naval architect
Anthony Deane. The state of the art, 102-gun ship is commissioned on January 18, 1672, as the flagship for Admiral
Edward Montagu but is sunk less than five months later in the
Battle of Solebay. Iron-framed ships are not attempted again for almost 50 years.
July 24 –
Awashonks, the female sachem who leads the
Sakonnet Indians in what is now the U.S. state of
Rhode Island, signs a peace agreement with the English leaders of the neighboring
Plymouth Colony (now part of
Massachusetts), along with chiefs Totatomet, Tattacommett and Somagaonet.[18]
August 15 –
Jamaica's Governor
Thomas Lynch offers a general pardon to pirates who are willing to come under Jamaican jurisdiction.[19]
November 9 – The
Duke of York's Theatre is opened in
London by the players of the
Duke's Company, rivals to the "King's Company" at the Theatre Royal, which burns down two months later. The site is now the Dorset Garden Theatre.
December 7 – The first
Seventh Day Baptist church in America is founded with a service on a Saturday at
Newport, Rhode Island, by Stephen Mumford and four Sabbatarians who believed that Christian church services should be held on Saturday, the seventh and last day of the week, in keeping with the commandment of remembering the
Sabbath.[20][21]
January 2 – After the government of
England is unable to pay the nation's debts,
King Charles II decrees the
Stop of the Exchequer, the suspension of payments for one year "upon any warrant, securities or orders, whether registered or not registered therein, and payable within that time, excepting only such payments as shall grow due upon orders on the subsidy, according to the Act of Parliament, and orders and securities upon the fee farm rents, both which are to be proceeded upon as if such a stop had never been made." The money saved by not paying debts is redirected toward the expenses of the upcoming war with the
Dutch Republic, but the effect is for the halt by banks for extending further credit to the Crown. Before the end of the year, the suspension of payments is extended from December 31 to May 31, and then to January 31, 1674.
January 13 –
Pope Clement X issues regulations for the prerequisites of removing
relics of
Roman Catholic saints from sacred cemeteries, requiring advance approval from the
Cardinal Vicar in Rome before the remains of the saint can be allowed for view. The Cardinal Vicar is directed to bar regular persons from viewing remains, and to limit inspection to high prelates and to princes.
January 25 – The
Theatre Royal, located at the time on Bridges Street in London, burns down.[22] A replacement structure is built on Drury Lane in 1674.
February 16 (February 6, 1671 O.S.) –
Isaac Newton sends a paper for publication regarding his experiments on the refraction of light through glass prisms and makes the first identification of the "
primary colors" of
visible light on the
electromagnetic spectrum, reporting that "The Original or primary colours are, Red, Yellow, Green, Blew, and a Violet-purple, together with Orange, Indico, and an indefinite variety of Intermediate gradations."[23]
March 12 –
Action of 12 March 1672, a 2-day naval engagement between an English coastal patrol and a Dutch Smyrna convoy off the south coast of England. The English fleet suffers severe damage while most of the Dutch convoy escapes, although one of the Dutch commanders (De Haaze) is killed and one warship taken as a prize (Klein Hollandia) sinks; the latter will be rediscovered in 2019.[24]
March 16 – At the
Synod of Jerusalem, presided over by
Dositheos II of Jerusalem, the 68 bishops and representatives from the whole of
Eastern Orthodox Christendom close by approving the Orthodox dogma against the challenge of
Protestantism, declaring against "the falsehoods of the adversaries which they have devised against the Eastern Church" and making a goal of "reformation of their innovations and for their return to the catholic and apostolic church in which their forefathers also were."[26]
September 10 –
William III of Orange, Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, dismisses nine of the
regenten who lead cities in the Netherlands, after being granted authority by the States-General.
September 16 – The
Board of Trade is created in England by a merger of the Council of Trade and the Council of Foreign Plantations, both of which had been created by King Charles II in 1660, under the name The Board of Trade and Plantations. The
Earl of Shaftesbury is appointed as the first Lord of Trade, administering the Board until its dissolution in 1676.
October 2 –
Manuel de Cendoya,
Spain's Governor of Florida, breaks ground for the construction of the
Castillo de San Marcos, a masonry fortress designed to protect
St. Augustine.[29] Governor Cendoya follows on November 9 with the ceremonial laying for the first stone for the foundation.
November 24 – Five-year-old
Sikandar Adil Shah is enthroned as the last
Sultan of Bijapur (located in southwestern India in what is now the
Karnataka state) upon the death of his father, the Sultan
Ali Adil Shah II. In 1686, the sultanate of Bijapur is conquered and annexed by the Mughal Empire.
Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp ends her regency of the Swedish Empire after more than 12 years, having exercised power in the name of her minor son,
Charles XI, since the death of her husband
Karl X Gustav in 1660. Hedwig Eleonora had served as the chair of the six-member Regency Council.
An English invasion force captures the Caribbean island of
Tobago from Dutch colonists and destroys the settlement.
December 30 – Troops of the Dutch Republic, under the command of
Carl von Rabenhaupt, are able to reclaim lost territory for the first time in the
Third Anglo-Dutch War, liberating
Coevorden, which had been forced to surrender to France on July 1. The moment, a boost for morale in what is remembered in Dutch history as the Rampjaar (the "Disaster Year"), is later memorialized in a painting by
Pieter Wouwerman, The Storming of Coevorden.
December 28 – In China, General
Wu Sangui begins the
Revolt of the Three Feudatories, a rebellion against the
Ming dynasty by killing the Governor of the
Yunnan province, Zhu Guozhi. Within 10 days, he leads troops on an expedition to take over the neighboring
Guizhou province and by 1676 controls 11 of China's provinces.
Chelsea Physic Garden, the second oldest botanic garden in England, is founded by the Society of Apothecaries, for the study of medicinal and other plants.
The
Mitsui family's trading and banking house is founded in
Japan.
January 7 – In the Chinese Empire, General
Wu Sangui leads troops into the Giuzhou province, and soon takes control of the entire territory without a loss.
January 15 –
The Earl of Arlington, a member of the English House of Commons, is impeached on charges of
popery, but the Commons rejects the motion to remove him from office, 127 votes for and 166 against.
April 10 – In the
Ahom kingdom in what is now the northeastern Indian state of
Assam, Chamaguriya Khamjang Konwar is installed by the Chief Minister, the
Borbarua Debera, as the
figureheadKing of Ahom. He takes the
regnal nameSuhung and makes plans to have Debera killed. On April 30, Debera, having learned of the King's intentions, succeeds in having the royal physician poison Suhung's medicine, and installs another ruler.[35]
April 26 – In the Netherlands, the jurisdiction of
Willem, Prince of Orange,
Stadtholder of
Holland (on the west coast, including Amsterdam and Rotterdam) and
Zeeland (southwest coast, including
Middelburg, Zeeland), increases in the
Dutch Republic as his followers in the inland States of Utrecht (
Utrecht,
Gelderland and
Overijssel) designate him as the hereditary stadtholder. In 1689, he becomes the King of England in addition to his role as the Stadtholder of the Netherlands.
July 4 – A Dutch fleet under
Cornelis TrompCaptures the island of Noirmoutier on the French coast. For nearly three weeks, the Dutch occupied the French island and the Dutch fleet captured many French ships in the meantime. The whole coastline from Brest to Bayonne was in turmoil, and French forces gathered to prevent the Dutch from landing. On 23 July the island of Noirmoutier was however abandoned after the Dutch blew up the castle and demolished the coastal batteries.
July 7 – The
Messina revolt against Spanish rule begins on the island of
Sicily as the Italian residents besiege the palace of the Spanish Captain-General and drive out the Spanish garrison.
July 17 – Two skeletons of children are discovered by workmen repairing a staircase at the
White Tower (Tower of London), and believed at this time to be the remains of the
Princes in the Tower. The urns containing the bones are interred in
1678 in
Westminster Abbey, with an inscription in
Latin that states "Here lie interred the remains of Edward V, King of England, and Richard, Duke of York, whose long desired and much sought after bones, after over a hundred and ninety years, were found interred deep beneath the rubble of the stairs that led up to the Chapel of the White Tower, on the 17 of July in the Year of Our Lord 1674." [38]
September 17 –
Sukjong of the
Joseon Dynasty, age 13, becomes the new Emperor of Korea upon the death of his father, the Emperor
Hyeonjong. Sukjong reigns for more than 45 years until his death on July 12, 1720.
September 27 – French Navy Commander
Jean-Baptiste de Valbelle arrives at Sicily during the
Messina revolt to help the Messinese expel the last Spanish defenders, taking the fort at Faro in the harbor entrance.
The
Battle of Entzheim takes place in
France with 35,000 Holy Roman Empire troops and 22,000 French defenders during the
Franco-Dutch War, with the forces fighting near
Entzheim south of
Strasbourg. While the battle is inconclusive, the outnumbered French win a strategic victory by keeping the Germans from entering French territory.[39] Most of the former battlefield now lies beneath the
Strasbourg International Airport.
A second coronation is held by the Maratha Empire for the
ChhatrapatiShivaji Bhonsle, after the Vedic priest Nischal Puri Goswami decides that the June 18 coronation was "held under inauspicious stars".[40]
October 15 – The
Torsåker witch trials begin in the
Torsåker Parish in
Sweden, with over 100 men and women accused of witchcraft and the abduction of children. On June 1, 1675, the mass beheading of the 71 people convicted takes place at Häxberget, 65 of whom are women.[41][42] The others are two men and four boys.
November 10 – As provided in the Treaty of Westminster of February 19, the Dutch Republic cedes its colony of
New Netherland to England. This includes the colonial capital,
New Orange, which is returned to its English name of
New York. The colonies of
Surinam,
Essequibo and
Berbice remain in Dutch hands.
December 4 – Father
Jacques Marquette, along with Pierre Poteret and Jacque Poteret, sails southward along the shore of
Lake Michigan, accompanied by nine canoes of Indians from the
Potawatomi tribe, and comes ashore at what is now
Chicago. The three missionaries, the first Europeans to explore the area, camp there for the winter.[43] Marquette notes in his journal "The land bordering it is of now value, except on the prairies," and adds "There are eight to ten quite fine rivers."[44] A historical marker is now erected on the site of the landing.[45] Father Marquette founds a mission (which will in time grow into the city of
Chicago) on the shores of
Lake Michigan, in order to create a Christian ministry to convent native Americans in the
Illinois Confederation.
February 4 – The Italian opera La divisione del mondo, by
Giovanni Legrenzi, is performed for the first time, premiering in Venice at the
Teatro San Luca. The new opera, telling the story of the "division of the world" after the battle between the Gods of Olympus and the Titans, becomes known for its elaborate and expensive sets, machinery, and special effects and is revived 325 years later in the year 2000.
February 11 – French Army Marshal
Louis Victor de Rochechouart, Count of Vivonne, reinforces the rebels in the
Messina revolt with eight additional warships and three fireships to bring to 20 the number of ships that France has against the 15 warships of Spain, and breaks the Spanish blockade that had prevented food from reaching Messina.
February 25 – Netherlands scientist
Christiaan Huygens files drawings of his invention of the
balance spring, the key component to the accuracy of portable clocks and pocket watches, in a letter to the Journal des Sçavants.
March 25 – England's first royal yacht,
HMY Mary, strikes rocks off of the coast of
Anglesey while traveling from
Dublin to
Chester with 74 passengers and crew, and quickly sinks, with the loss of 35 people.[48] The other 39 are able to get to safety. The wreckage is not discovered until almost 300 years later, on July 11, 1971.
April 13 – King
Charles II of England suspends Parliament after just nine weeks when the members refuse to vote additional funding to him.[46]
April 20 – An uprising by the
Chahars in the Chinese Empire region of Inner Mongolia, led by brothers Abunai Khan and Lubuzung Khan with 3,000 followers, is harshly put down by Imperial troops of the Manchu dynasty. Survivors of the battle, part of the
Revolt of the Three Feudatories, are put to death.
May 6 – The
Siege of Ponda, an action by the
Maratha Empire in southern India against the
Sultanate of Bijapur, ends after four weeks when the
Mughal Empire fails to send reinforcements. Most of the defenders are massacred after Emperor
Shivaji's troops storm the fortress in what is now a small city in the Indian state of
Goa.
May 18 – Misirliohlu Ibrahim Pasha becomes the new ruler of
Tripolitania, a province of the Ottoman Empire at the time and now part of the North African nation of
Libya. He reigns for 19 months as the Beylerbey of Tripoli.
May 23 –
Sujinphaa becomes the new figurehead monarch of the
Ahom kingdom in northeastern India, enthroned at the capital at
Garhgaon (now in the Indian state of
Assam), after
Gobar Roja is deposed and executed by order of the nobles who control the nation.
June 1 – The
Torsåker witch trials is concluded in Sweden with the execution of 71 people (65 of them women) executed on the same day at the village of Häxberget. The condemned prisoners are beheaded and their bodies are then burned.[52][53]
June 14 – Colonial authorities of
Rhode Island,
Plymouth, and
Massachusetts attempt a negotiation with
Metacomet (King Philip), leader of the Wampanoags, and seek guarantees of fidelity from the
Nipmuck and
Narragansett tribes. The negotiations end after 11 days, closing on June 25.
June 26 – The Wampanoag warriors begin a three-day assault on English colonial towns in the
Massachusetts Bay Colony in North America, with an assault on the villages of
Rehoboth and
Taunton. At the same time, Massachusetts troops march to Swansea, to join the
Plymouth Colony troops. The warriors elude colonial troops and leave Mount Hope for
Pocasset, Massachusetts. The
Mohegan tribe travels to
Boston, in order to assist the English colonists against the Wampanoags.
September 18 – The Narragansetts sign a treaty with the English in Boston; meanwhile, Massachusetts troops are ambushed near
Northampton, Massachusetts.
September 20 – In England, a fire destroys most of the town of
Northampton. According to a contemporary account, "the market place (which was a very goodly one), the stately church of Allhallows, 2 other parish churches and above three-fourth parts of the whole town was consumed and laid in ashes.".[55]
October 13 – The Massachusetts Council convenes and agrees that all Christian Indians should be ordered to move to
Deer Island.
October 29 –
Gottfried Leibniz makes the first use of the long s (∫) as a symbol of the integral in calculus.
November 2 – Commissioners of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Plymouth Colony (which are later merged into Massachusetts) begin a 10-day discussion on organizing a united force to attack the Narragansett tribe.
Guru Teg Bahadur, ninth of the
Sikh gurus, is executed by Mughal rulers, proclaiming that he prefers death rather than disavowing the right of Hindus to practice their own religion. He is succeeded by
Guru Gobind Singh, who becomes the tenth
Guru.
February 23 – While the Massachusetts Council debates how to handle the Christian Indians they had exiled to
Deer Island on
October 13,
1675, a coalition of Indians led by Metacomet attacks colonial settlements just 16 km (9.9 mi) outside of Boston.
April 2 – Chief
Canonchet of the
Narragansett people is captured by mercenaries of the Pequot, Mohegan and Niantic nations who have been hired by English settlers. He is offered a chance to live if he makes peace with the English, refuses, and is executed the next day in
Stonington, Connecticut.
May 2 –
Mary Rowlandson is ransomed from captivity by Native Americans by a subscription raised by women of Boston.
May 19 – Peskeomskut Massacre: Battle of Turner's Falls – Captain William Turner leads a raid at first light on an encampment consisting mainly of women and children. An estimated 300-400 lives are taken in less than half an hour, first from gunshot directly into the sleeping tents, then by sword and by drowning as the victims try to flee. This incident happens on the west bank of the Connecticut River, just above the falls known as Turner's Falls in Gill, Massachusetts.
May 26 – A fire destroys the town hall and 624 houses in
Southwark, London.[58]
May 31 – The Massachusetts Council finally decides to move the Christian Indians from Deer Island to
Cambridge, Massachusetts (approximate date).
August 2 – Captain Benjamin Church captures Metacomet's wife and son.
August 12 – King Philip (
Metacomet), chief of the
Wampanoags that had waged a war throughout southern
New England that bore his name, is killed by an Indian named Alderman, a soldier led by Captain Benjamin Church.
November 27 – A fire in
Boston, Massachusetts, is accidentally set by a careless and sleepy apprentice, who drops a lighted candle, or leaves it too near some combustible substance; this is the largest fire known at this time in the district. The Rev.
Increase Mather’s church, dwelling and a portion of his personal library are destroyed.[59]
The first arrests are made in the case that will develop into the "
Affair of the Poisons" in France, as
Magdelaine de La Grange and her accused accomplice, Father Nail, are detained on suspicion of poisoning her lover, a Messr. Faurie.[62] While in prison in the Bastille and awaiting trial Mademoiselle La Grange writes letters accusing other persons of carrying out murders by poison as well.
August 28 – During
war between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire, Russian troops led by
Grigory Romodanovsky and Ukrainian Cossacks led by
Ivan Samoylovych arrive at the besieged Ukrainian city of
Chigirin (modern-day Chyhyryn) and inflict heavy casualties on the encamped Turkish and Tatar troops.[64] Ibrahim Pasha, leader of the 45,000 member Ottoman force, retreats the next day and, by the time of the relief of Chigirin on September 5, the Ottoman Army has lost 20,000 men. Ottoman Sultan
Mehmed IV, outraged by the defeat, sends 200,000 troops the following year and destroys the city.
September 17 – Troops from
Denmark invade and capture the Swedish island of
Rügen and drive out the local population. Five months later, on January 18, 1678, Sweden recaptures the island. Nine months later, troops from Denmark and Brandenburg invade for a third time and capture the island again on October 22, 1678. Eight months later, Denmark is given the island back under a
treaty ending the Swedish-Brandenburg War on June 29, but by then, the island of Rügen is in ruins. In modern times, the island becomes a vacation resort in Germany.
December 7 – Father
Louis Hennepin of Belgium, exploring North America, becomes the earliest known European person to discover
Niagara Falls, and the first to report its existence. In his book A New Discovery of a Vast Country in America, published in 1698, Hennepin writes "Betwixt the lakes Ontario and Eire there is a vast prodigious Cadence of water which falls down after a surprising and astonishing manner, inasmuch that the Universe does not afford its parallel."[65]
December 9 – The French Navy, led by
Charles de Courbon de Blénac with a land force of 950 men, lands at the Caribbean island of
Tobago, lays siege to the Dutch fort defending the territory during the
Franco-Dutch War, and destroys the structure when it fires a cannon overlooking the fort, striking the gunpowder arsenal. The explosion kills 250 of the defenders, including Dutch Admiral
Jacob Binckes and 16 officers. Combined with the sinking of four ships of the Netherlands Navy, the victory at Tobago ends Dutch military power in the Antilles.
December 15 – The Siege of Stettin (the modern-day Polish city of
Szczecin but, at this time, a possession of Sweden) ends after almost five months with Sweden's surrender of the city to Prussia's
Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg. The siege, part of the
Scanian War, had begun on June 25.
A
Megalosaurus femur is found in England marking it the first dinosaur fossil found even though they were found for millennia beforehand. But the interest in
Paleontology wouldn’t be for another 140 years.
April 12 – The
Treaty of Casco Bay is signed between officials of the
Province of New York and the
Penobscot tribe and the
Wabanaki Confederacy, bringing an end to further fighting that has happened in the two years since the end of
King Philip's War in the modern-day U.S. state of
Maine. Under the terms of the treaty, English settlers pay rent to the Penobscots and are given back farm land that had been confiscated in the war, while the English settlers agree to respect the Penobscot land rights.[74]
June 10 – French
buccaneerMichel de Grammont arrives at Spanish-held
Venezuela with six pirate ships, 13 smaller craft, and 2,000 men in a daring raid on the South American territory, then leads half of his force inward toward
Maracaibo, which he takes on June 14. During the rest of the month, he and his soldiers march inland as far as
Trujillo. Grammont and his pirates finally depart on December 3.[76]
July 29 –
Muhammad Azam Shah is appointed as the Mughal Governor of Bengal by his father, the Emperor
Aurangzeb, but serves for a little more than a year before being recalled from
Dhaka.[78]
November 11 (November 1 O.S.) – England's House of Commons votes to begin impeachment proceedings against five Roman Catholic members of the House of Lords,
Viscount Stafford, the
Marquess of Powis,
Baron Arundell,
Baron Petre and
Baron Belasyse accused by Protestant members as participating in a "
Popish Plot". Viscount Stafford is convicted and executed, while the other four are imprisoned in the
Tower of London for more than five years.
November 26 – William Staley, an English banker and a Roman Catholic, becomes the first person to be executed in connection with the "
Popish Plot" arrests.[87][88]
February 3 – Moroccan troops from Fez are killed, along with their commander Moussa ben Ahmed ben Youssef, in a battle against rebels in the
Jbel Saghro mountain range, but Moroccan Sultan
Ismail Ibn Sharif is able to negotiate a ceasefire allowing his remaining troops safe passage back home.
February 5 – The
Treaty of Celle is signed between France and Sweden on one side, and the Holy Roman Empire, at the town of
Celle in Saxony (in modern-day Germany). Sweden's sovereignty over
Bremen-Verden is confirmed and Sweden cedes control of
Thedinghausen and
Dörverden to the Germans.
March 12 –
Catherine Deshayes Monvoisin, commonly called "La Voisin" and the suspected killer of over 1,000 people in France by poisoning, is arrested outside of the Church of
Notre-Dame-de-Bonne-Nouvelle in
Paris and imprisoned at
Vincennes for the next 11 months. After her conviction, she is publicly burned at the stake on February 22, 1680.
April–June
April 3 –
Aurangazeb, the
Muslim ruler of the
Mughal Empire in
India, decrees the imposition of the
jizya, an annual tax upon non-Muslims under Mughal jurisdiction, primarily
Hindus. The tax had been abolished by Aurangazeb's great grandfather, Akbar.
April 8 – In the Italian region of
Piedmont, a landslide causes the village of
Bosia to sink into the ground and then get buried, killing 200 inhabitants. The village is then rebuilt at another site and continues to exist.
June 1 –
Battle of Drumclog: A group of 200 Scottish
Covenanters overwhelm a small Scottish Army unit, that had been pursuing them for the murder of Archbishop Sharp. The Covenanters, led by 19-year-old
William Cleland, kill 36 of the Scottish soldiers.
October 18 – A sea battle is fought between England's Royal Navy and the navy of India's
Maratha Empire (under the command of
Mai Nayak Bhandari), with English bombardment driving the Maratha occupation of the island fortress at
Khanderi (off of the western Indian coast south of
Mumbai).
November 27 – A fire in
Boston,
Massachusetts, burns all of the warehouses, 80 houses, and all of the ships in the dockyards.
More than 200 captives on the ship The Crown of London, all Scottish
Covenanters arrested after the battle of Bothwell Bridge, are killed when the ship is wrecked on the
Orkney Islands while transporting the group to exile in North America.[93]
A peace treaty is signed between Ali Bey al-Muradi, Bey of Tunis; his brother whom he had overthrown in 1678,
Muhammad Bey al-Muradi; and their uncle, Muhammad al-Hafsi al-Muradi, the Pasha of Tunis, after mediation by the
Dey of Algiers.
December 16 (December 6 O.S.) –
Oliver Plunkett, the Roman Catholic Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh, is arrested on false charges of plotting to aid a French invasion of the British Isles, the so-called "
Popish Plot". Executed in 1681, Plunkett will be canonized as a Roman Catholic saint almost 300 years later in 1975.
December 26 – In modern-day Indonesia, the
Trunajaya rebellion comes to an end with the surrender of Prince
Panembahan Maduretno to the Sultan
Amangkurat II of Mataram, ruler of the entire island of
Java. While treated with respect as a prisoner of the occupying forces of the
Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC), Panembahan is killed seven days later by Amangkurat after the VOC allows him to attend a ceremonial visit to the sultan's palace.
^"'Shaftesbury's Darling': British Settlement in the Carolinas at the Close of the Seventeenth Century", by Robert M. Weir, in The Oxford History of the British Empire, Volume I: The Origins of Empire (Oxford University Press, 1998) p. 380
^Marcus Tanner, Croatia: A Nation Forged in War (Yale University Press, 2010)
^William Laird Clowes, The Royal Navy, A History from the Earliest Times to 1900 (Sampson, Low, Marston and Compnay Ltd., 1898) pp. 439-440
^Isidore Guët, Origines de la Martinique. Le colonel François de Collart et la Martinique de son temps; colonisation, sièges, révoltes et combats de 1625 à 1720 (Lafoye, 1893) p. 148
^Studi magrebini. Istituto Universitario Orientale. 1989. p. 98.
^"Intercolonial Friction (1660-1700)", in Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the New World, 1492 to the Present, ed. by David Marley (ABC-CLIO, 1998) p. 173
^David Birmingham, Portugal and Africa (Palgrave Macmillan, 1999) p. 61
^Samuel G. Drake, The Book of the Indians, or, Biography and history of the Indians of North America, from its first discovery to the year 1841 (Benjamin B. Mussey, 1845) p. 65
^Clarence H. Haring, The Buccaneers in the West Indies in the XVII Century (E. P. Dutton, 1910) p. 200
^Scott Bryant, The Awakening of the Freewill Baptists: Benjamin Randall and the Founding of an American Religious Tradition (Mercer University Press, 2011) p. 19
^Sanford, Don A. (1992). A Choosing People: The History of Seventh Day Baptists. Nashville: Broadman Press. pp. 127–286.
ISBN0-8054-6055-1.
^Brian Dobbs, Drury Lane: Three Centuries of the Theatre Royal, 1663–1971 (Cassell, 1972) p. 51
^The Acts and Decrees of the Synod of Jerusalem, Sometimes Called the Council of Bethlehem, Holden Under Dositheus, Patriarch of Jerusalem in 1672, translated by J. N. W. B. Robertson (Thomas Baker publishing, 1899) pp. 173-181
^Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 191–192.
ISBN0-7126-5616-2.
^Olaf van Nimwegen, The Dutch Army and the Military Revolutions, 1588-1688 (Boydell Press, 2010) p. 448
^Albert C. Manucy, The Building of Castello de San Marcos (U.S. National Park Service, 2014)
^Hutchings, Victoria (2005). Messrs Hoare, Bankers: a History of the Hoare Banking Dynasty.
^Wace, N. M. (1969). "The discovery, exploitation and settlement of the Tristan da Cunha Islands". Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (South Australian Branch). 10: 11–40.
^Lars Guvå, Ångermanland (Almqvist & Wiksell, 1984) p. 135
^Rättshistoriskt bibliotek ("Legal history library"), Vol. 48 (Institutet för rättshistorisk forskning, 1962)
^Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006.
ISBN0-14-102715-0.
^ "Fires, Great", in The Insurance Cyclopeadia: Being an Historical Treasury of Events and Circumstances Connected with the Origin and Progress of Insurance, Cornelius Walford, ed. (C. and E. Layton, 1876) p30
^Procedure 373 of the Guatemalan Real Audiencia in the General Archive of Indias.
^Walford, Cornelius, ed. (1876). "Fires, Great". The Insurance Cyclopeadia: Being an Historical Treasury of Events and Circumstances Connected with the Origin and Progress of Insurance. C. & E. Layton. p. 43.
^Hubbard, William (1848). A General History of New England, from the discovery to MDCLXXX. Boston: Little, Brown.
^"The Women of the Bastille", anonymous excerpt from Memoires Historiques et Authentiques sur la Bastille (1789), in New Monthly Magazine (April 1864) p. 435
^Olaf van Nimwegen, The Dutch Army and the Military Revolutions, 1588-1688 (Boydell Press, 2010) p. 504
^Grun, Bernard (1991). The Timetables of History: A Horizontal Linkage of People and Events. New York: Simon and Schuster. pp. 308–309.
OL1756160M. Ice cream becomes popular as dessert in Paris.
^Wakeman, Frederic (August 1984). "Romantics, Stoics and Martyrs". Journal of Asian Studies: 631–665. Repr. in Telling Chinese History: A Selection of Essays. University of California Press, 2009. p. 123.
^"Casco, Treaty of", by Jaime Ramon Olivares, in The Encyclopedia of North American Indian Wars, 1607–1890: A Political, Social, and Military History, ed. by Spencer Tucker (ABC-CLIO, 2011) p. 134
^David Marley, Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the Western Hemisphere (ABC-CLIO, 2008) p. 289
^Grendler, Paul F. (3 November 2004).
"Padua after 1509". The Universities of the Italian Renaissance. Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM.
ISBN978-1-4214-0423-3. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
^Valborg Lindgärde (8 March 2018).
"Maria Gustava Gyllenstierna". Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon. Retrieved 2 April 2021.
^Palacios, José Ignacio (2000).
Los compositores aragoneses(PDF) (in Spanish). Zaragoza: Caja de Ahorros de la Inmaculada de Aragón. pp. 61–62.
ISBN84-95306-41-7.
Archived(PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
^Oechslin, Werner (1972).
"BUONAMICI, Francesco". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (in Italian). Vol. 15. Archived from
the original on 23 January 2020.
January 17 –
Raphael Levy, a Jewish resident of the city of
Metz in
France, is burned at the stake after being accused of the September 25 abduction and ritual murder of a child who had disappeared from the village of
Glatigny. The prosecutor applies to King
Louis XIV for an order expelling all 95 Jewish families from Metz, but the king refuses.
February 4 – The
Battle of Sinhagad takes place in
India (in the modern-day
Maharashtra state) as the
Maratha Empire army, led by
Tanaji Malusare, leads an assault on the Kondhana Fortress that had been captured by the
Mughal Empire. Tanaji, called "The Lion" by his followers, captures the fortress by guiding the successful scaling of the walls of the fortress with ladders created from rope, but is killed in the battle. The Maratha emperor
Shivaji orders the fortress named
Sinhagad, the
Marathi language words for "Lion's Fort".
March 7 –
Oliver Plunkett, the Roman Catholic
Archbishop of Armagh since 1669, is allowed to return to
Ireland for the first time in more than 22 years, after a new policy of tolerance of Catholicism is enacted in England. Plunkett had departed for Rome in 1647 during the
Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. Later executed in 1681 on charges of plotting an invasion of Ireland, Plunkett is canonized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church in 1975.
March 15 – The first English settlers arrive at the modern-day U.S. state of
South Carolina, at this time the Province of Clarendon carved out of the
Province of Carolina, and construct a settlement at Albemarle Point on the
Ashley River.[1]
March 18 –
Petar Zrinski, the
Viceroy of Croatia within the
Holy Roman Empire, issues a proclamation urging Croatians to rebel against the Habsburg rulers.[2] The uprising fails and Zrinski and his brother-in-law, Krsto Frankopan, are quickly arrested. Both are beheaded in Vienna on April 30, 1671.
March 31 – The British warship
HMS Sapphire is wrecked beyond repair when her captain, John Pearce, orders the ship to be run aground at Sicily while fleeing what he believes to be four Algerian pirate ships, rather than attempting to fight. The ships turn out to have been friendly, and Pearce and his lieutenant, Andrew Logan, are court-martialed for their cowardice and executed on September 17.[3]
April 29 – After more than four months, the
papal conclave to elect a successor to the late
Pope Clement IX selects Cardinal Emilio Albieri with 56 of the 59 votes. Altieri, 79 years old at the time, remains the oldest person ever to be elected pope.[4] He announces that he will take the name of
Pope Clement X in honor of Clement IX, who had made him a cardinal. He serves for six years until his death in 1676 shortly after his 86th birthday.[5]
June 1 – At
Dover, England,
Charles II of England and
Louis XIV of France sign the
Secret Treaty of Dover, ending hostilities between their kingdoms. Louis will give Charles 200,000 pounds annually. In return Charles will relax the laws against Catholics, gradually re-Catholicize England, support French policy against the
Dutch Republic (leading England into the
Third Anglo-Dutch War), and convert to Catholicism himself. The treaty is ratified three days later. The terms will not become public until the early 19th century.[6] Louis is represented in the negotiations by Charles' sister
Princess Henrietta, Duchess of Orléans, who dies suddenly soon after returning to France.
June 9 – Taking advantage of a
monsoon, the Maratha Empire's
Shivaji orders an attack on areas that had been turned over to the Mughal Empire and its emperor
Aurangazeb in 1665. Within 15 days, the cities of Pune, Baramati, Supi and Indapur, along with the
Rohida fort, are recaptured by the Maratha Army.
June 10 – King Louis XIV of France issues an ordinance prohibiting the French colonies in the Americas from trading with any other nation except France.[7]
July 18 (July 8, O.S.) – The
Treaty of Madrid, also known as the Godolphin Treaty, is signed between
England and
Spain to formally end hostilities left over from the
Anglo-Spanish War, in the Caribbean, that ended ten years earlier. For the first time, Spain acknowledges that it is not entitled to all territory in the Americas west of Brazil, as provided by the
1493 line of demarcation decreed by
Pope Alexander VI, and by the
1494Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal. Spain acknowledges that
Jamaica and the
Cayman Islands are English possessions.
August 17 – A joint fleet of warships from England (commanded by Commodore Richard Beach on HMS Hampshire) and from the Dutch Republic (led by Admiral Willem Joseph van Ghent on Spiegel) rescue 250 Christian slaves and then sink six
Algerian pirate ships in a battle in the Mediterranean Sea off of the coast of
Morocco at
Cape Spartel.[9]
August 26 – The Parliament of France enacts a uniform criminal code for the nation with the passage of the
Criminal Ordinance of 1670, which takes effect on January 1. The code remains in force until October 9, 1789, when it is abrogated during the
French Revolution.
mid-
August – Three Spanish frigates from Spanish Florida, sailing from St. Augustine and under the command of Juan Menendez Marques, arrive at
Charleston harbor, preparing to attack the English settlement in South Carolina. The English settlers have been warned in advance by Indians who had found out about the invasion. Because of a storm, and the English preparations for a siege, Captain Menendez abandons the colony without attempting an attack.[10]
September 5 –
William Penn and
William Mead are found not guilty of violating the
Conventicles Act 1670, after a five day jury trial in London. The two had been arrested on August 14 in front of a meeting house
Gracechurch Street after preaching a Quaker sermon outside following a ban on preaching indoors. The defiance by the jury leads to the landmark English decision in
Bushel's Case.
October–December
October 3 – In India,
ChhatrapatiShivaji maharaj, the ruler of the
Maratha Empire, leads an attack on the British settlement at
Surat near
Bombay. British Governor
Gerald Aungier secures the British fortress at Surat and saves the lives and property of British citizens.
October 18 – The
Battle of Kitombo takes place in southwest Africa in
Angola, when colonial soldiers of the
Army of Portugal invade Soyo, an independent
BaKongo kingdom, with the intent of annexing it to Portuguese West Africa.[11] The 400 Portuguese troops, led by João Soares de Almeida, encounter a stiff resistance. Soyo's Estevao da Silva, whose army has the benefit of weapons supplied by the Dutch Republic, is joined in battle by troops from the neighboring
Kingdom of Ngoyo on the other side of the
Congo River. General Soares de Almeida is killed, and most of his troops die or are captured; Soyo's General da Silva is killed in the process of winning the battle. Because of the defeat, Portugal makes no further attempt to conquer Soyo or Ngoyo.
January 1 – The
Criminal Ordinance of 1670, the first attempt at a uniform code of criminal procedure in France, goes into effect after having been passed on August 26, 1670.
March 3 – Pomone, written by
Robert Cambert and considered by modern scholars to be the first
Frenchopera, is given its first performance. Using innovative costumes, and machinery for special stage effects, the premiere performed by the
Académie d'Opéra at the
Salle de la Bouteille theater in Paris is a success.[14]
March 31 – England's
Royal Navy launches its first warship to have a frame reinforced by iron bars rather than an all wooden ship, an innovation by naval architect
Anthony Deane. The state of the art, 102-gun ship is commissioned on January 18, 1672, as the flagship for Admiral
Edward Montagu but is sunk less than five months later in the
Battle of Solebay. Iron-framed ships are not attempted again for almost 50 years.
July 24 –
Awashonks, the female sachem who leads the
Sakonnet Indians in what is now the U.S. state of
Rhode Island, signs a peace agreement with the English leaders of the neighboring
Plymouth Colony (now part of
Massachusetts), along with chiefs Totatomet, Tattacommett and Somagaonet.[18]
August 15 –
Jamaica's Governor
Thomas Lynch offers a general pardon to pirates who are willing to come under Jamaican jurisdiction.[19]
November 9 – The
Duke of York's Theatre is opened in
London by the players of the
Duke's Company, rivals to the "King's Company" at the Theatre Royal, which burns down two months later. The site is now the Dorset Garden Theatre.
December 7 – The first
Seventh Day Baptist church in America is founded with a service on a Saturday at
Newport, Rhode Island, by Stephen Mumford and four Sabbatarians who believed that Christian church services should be held on Saturday, the seventh and last day of the week, in keeping with the commandment of remembering the
Sabbath.[20][21]
January 2 – After the government of
England is unable to pay the nation's debts,
King Charles II decrees the
Stop of the Exchequer, the suspension of payments for one year "upon any warrant, securities or orders, whether registered or not registered therein, and payable within that time, excepting only such payments as shall grow due upon orders on the subsidy, according to the Act of Parliament, and orders and securities upon the fee farm rents, both which are to be proceeded upon as if such a stop had never been made." The money saved by not paying debts is redirected toward the expenses of the upcoming war with the
Dutch Republic, but the effect is for the halt by banks for extending further credit to the Crown. Before the end of the year, the suspension of payments is extended from December 31 to May 31, and then to January 31, 1674.
January 13 –
Pope Clement X issues regulations for the prerequisites of removing
relics of
Roman Catholic saints from sacred cemeteries, requiring advance approval from the
Cardinal Vicar in Rome before the remains of the saint can be allowed for view. The Cardinal Vicar is directed to bar regular persons from viewing remains, and to limit inspection to high prelates and to princes.
January 25 – The
Theatre Royal, located at the time on Bridges Street in London, burns down.[22] A replacement structure is built on Drury Lane in 1674.
February 16 (February 6, 1671 O.S.) –
Isaac Newton sends a paper for publication regarding his experiments on the refraction of light through glass prisms and makes the first identification of the "
primary colors" of
visible light on the
electromagnetic spectrum, reporting that "The Original or primary colours are, Red, Yellow, Green, Blew, and a Violet-purple, together with Orange, Indico, and an indefinite variety of Intermediate gradations."[23]
March 12 –
Action of 12 March 1672, a 2-day naval engagement between an English coastal patrol and a Dutch Smyrna convoy off the south coast of England. The English fleet suffers severe damage while most of the Dutch convoy escapes, although one of the Dutch commanders (De Haaze) is killed and one warship taken as a prize (Klein Hollandia) sinks; the latter will be rediscovered in 2019.[24]
March 16 – At the
Synod of Jerusalem, presided over by
Dositheos II of Jerusalem, the 68 bishops and representatives from the whole of
Eastern Orthodox Christendom close by approving the Orthodox dogma against the challenge of
Protestantism, declaring against "the falsehoods of the adversaries which they have devised against the Eastern Church" and making a goal of "reformation of their innovations and for their return to the catholic and apostolic church in which their forefathers also were."[26]
September 10 –
William III of Orange, Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, dismisses nine of the
regenten who lead cities in the Netherlands, after being granted authority by the States-General.
September 16 – The
Board of Trade is created in England by a merger of the Council of Trade and the Council of Foreign Plantations, both of which had been created by King Charles II in 1660, under the name The Board of Trade and Plantations. The
Earl of Shaftesbury is appointed as the first Lord of Trade, administering the Board until its dissolution in 1676.
October 2 –
Manuel de Cendoya,
Spain's Governor of Florida, breaks ground for the construction of the
Castillo de San Marcos, a masonry fortress designed to protect
St. Augustine.[29] Governor Cendoya follows on November 9 with the ceremonial laying for the first stone for the foundation.
November 24 – Five-year-old
Sikandar Adil Shah is enthroned as the last
Sultan of Bijapur (located in southwestern India in what is now the
Karnataka state) upon the death of his father, the Sultan
Ali Adil Shah II. In 1686, the sultanate of Bijapur is conquered and annexed by the Mughal Empire.
Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp ends her regency of the Swedish Empire after more than 12 years, having exercised power in the name of her minor son,
Charles XI, since the death of her husband
Karl X Gustav in 1660. Hedwig Eleonora had served as the chair of the six-member Regency Council.
An English invasion force captures the Caribbean island of
Tobago from Dutch colonists and destroys the settlement.
December 30 – Troops of the Dutch Republic, under the command of
Carl von Rabenhaupt, are able to reclaim lost territory for the first time in the
Third Anglo-Dutch War, liberating
Coevorden, which had been forced to surrender to France on July 1. The moment, a boost for morale in what is remembered in Dutch history as the Rampjaar (the "Disaster Year"), is later memorialized in a painting by
Pieter Wouwerman, The Storming of Coevorden.
December 28 – In China, General
Wu Sangui begins the
Revolt of the Three Feudatories, a rebellion against the
Ming dynasty by killing the Governor of the
Yunnan province, Zhu Guozhi. Within 10 days, he leads troops on an expedition to take over the neighboring
Guizhou province and by 1676 controls 11 of China's provinces.
Chelsea Physic Garden, the second oldest botanic garden in England, is founded by the Society of Apothecaries, for the study of medicinal and other plants.
The
Mitsui family's trading and banking house is founded in
Japan.
January 7 – In the Chinese Empire, General
Wu Sangui leads troops into the Giuzhou province, and soon takes control of the entire territory without a loss.
January 15 –
The Earl of Arlington, a member of the English House of Commons, is impeached on charges of
popery, but the Commons rejects the motion to remove him from office, 127 votes for and 166 against.
April 10 – In the
Ahom kingdom in what is now the northeastern Indian state of
Assam, Chamaguriya Khamjang Konwar is installed by the Chief Minister, the
Borbarua Debera, as the
figureheadKing of Ahom. He takes the
regnal nameSuhung and makes plans to have Debera killed. On April 30, Debera, having learned of the King's intentions, succeeds in having the royal physician poison Suhung's medicine, and installs another ruler.[35]
April 26 – In the Netherlands, the jurisdiction of
Willem, Prince of Orange,
Stadtholder of
Holland (on the west coast, including Amsterdam and Rotterdam) and
Zeeland (southwest coast, including
Middelburg, Zeeland), increases in the
Dutch Republic as his followers in the inland States of Utrecht (
Utrecht,
Gelderland and
Overijssel) designate him as the hereditary stadtholder. In 1689, he becomes the King of England in addition to his role as the Stadtholder of the Netherlands.
July 4 – A Dutch fleet under
Cornelis TrompCaptures the island of Noirmoutier on the French coast. For nearly three weeks, the Dutch occupied the French island and the Dutch fleet captured many French ships in the meantime. The whole coastline from Brest to Bayonne was in turmoil, and French forces gathered to prevent the Dutch from landing. On 23 July the island of Noirmoutier was however abandoned after the Dutch blew up the castle and demolished the coastal batteries.
July 7 – The
Messina revolt against Spanish rule begins on the island of
Sicily as the Italian residents besiege the palace of the Spanish Captain-General and drive out the Spanish garrison.
July 17 – Two skeletons of children are discovered by workmen repairing a staircase at the
White Tower (Tower of London), and believed at this time to be the remains of the
Princes in the Tower. The urns containing the bones are interred in
1678 in
Westminster Abbey, with an inscription in
Latin that states "Here lie interred the remains of Edward V, King of England, and Richard, Duke of York, whose long desired and much sought after bones, after over a hundred and ninety years, were found interred deep beneath the rubble of the stairs that led up to the Chapel of the White Tower, on the 17 of July in the Year of Our Lord 1674." [38]
September 17 –
Sukjong of the
Joseon Dynasty, age 13, becomes the new Emperor of Korea upon the death of his father, the Emperor
Hyeonjong. Sukjong reigns for more than 45 years until his death on July 12, 1720.
September 27 – French Navy Commander
Jean-Baptiste de Valbelle arrives at Sicily during the
Messina revolt to help the Messinese expel the last Spanish defenders, taking the fort at Faro in the harbor entrance.
The
Battle of Entzheim takes place in
France with 35,000 Holy Roman Empire troops and 22,000 French defenders during the
Franco-Dutch War, with the forces fighting near
Entzheim south of
Strasbourg. While the battle is inconclusive, the outnumbered French win a strategic victory by keeping the Germans from entering French territory.[39] Most of the former battlefield now lies beneath the
Strasbourg International Airport.
A second coronation is held by the Maratha Empire for the
ChhatrapatiShivaji Bhonsle, after the Vedic priest Nischal Puri Goswami decides that the June 18 coronation was "held under inauspicious stars".[40]
October 15 – The
Torsåker witch trials begin in the
Torsåker Parish in
Sweden, with over 100 men and women accused of witchcraft and the abduction of children. On June 1, 1675, the mass beheading of the 71 people convicted takes place at Häxberget, 65 of whom are women.[41][42] The others are two men and four boys.
November 10 – As provided in the Treaty of Westminster of February 19, the Dutch Republic cedes its colony of
New Netherland to England. This includes the colonial capital,
New Orange, which is returned to its English name of
New York. The colonies of
Surinam,
Essequibo and
Berbice remain in Dutch hands.
December 4 – Father
Jacques Marquette, along with Pierre Poteret and Jacque Poteret, sails southward along the shore of
Lake Michigan, accompanied by nine canoes of Indians from the
Potawatomi tribe, and comes ashore at what is now
Chicago. The three missionaries, the first Europeans to explore the area, camp there for the winter.[43] Marquette notes in his journal "The land bordering it is of now value, except on the prairies," and adds "There are eight to ten quite fine rivers."[44] A historical marker is now erected on the site of the landing.[45] Father Marquette founds a mission (which will in time grow into the city of
Chicago) on the shores of
Lake Michigan, in order to create a Christian ministry to convent native Americans in the
Illinois Confederation.
February 4 – The Italian opera La divisione del mondo, by
Giovanni Legrenzi, is performed for the first time, premiering in Venice at the
Teatro San Luca. The new opera, telling the story of the "division of the world" after the battle between the Gods of Olympus and the Titans, becomes known for its elaborate and expensive sets, machinery, and special effects and is revived 325 years later in the year 2000.
February 11 – French Army Marshal
Louis Victor de Rochechouart, Count of Vivonne, reinforces the rebels in the
Messina revolt with eight additional warships and three fireships to bring to 20 the number of ships that France has against the 15 warships of Spain, and breaks the Spanish blockade that had prevented food from reaching Messina.
February 25 – Netherlands scientist
Christiaan Huygens files drawings of his invention of the
balance spring, the key component to the accuracy of portable clocks and pocket watches, in a letter to the Journal des Sçavants.
March 25 – England's first royal yacht,
HMY Mary, strikes rocks off of the coast of
Anglesey while traveling from
Dublin to
Chester with 74 passengers and crew, and quickly sinks, with the loss of 35 people.[48] The other 39 are able to get to safety. The wreckage is not discovered until almost 300 years later, on July 11, 1971.
April 13 – King
Charles II of England suspends Parliament after just nine weeks when the members refuse to vote additional funding to him.[46]
April 20 – An uprising by the
Chahars in the Chinese Empire region of Inner Mongolia, led by brothers Abunai Khan and Lubuzung Khan with 3,000 followers, is harshly put down by Imperial troops of the Manchu dynasty. Survivors of the battle, part of the
Revolt of the Three Feudatories, are put to death.
May 6 – The
Siege of Ponda, an action by the
Maratha Empire in southern India against the
Sultanate of Bijapur, ends after four weeks when the
Mughal Empire fails to send reinforcements. Most of the defenders are massacred after Emperor
Shivaji's troops storm the fortress in what is now a small city in the Indian state of
Goa.
May 18 – Misirliohlu Ibrahim Pasha becomes the new ruler of
Tripolitania, a province of the Ottoman Empire at the time and now part of the North African nation of
Libya. He reigns for 19 months as the Beylerbey of Tripoli.
May 23 –
Sujinphaa becomes the new figurehead monarch of the
Ahom kingdom in northeastern India, enthroned at the capital at
Garhgaon (now in the Indian state of
Assam), after
Gobar Roja is deposed and executed by order of the nobles who control the nation.
June 1 – The
Torsåker witch trials is concluded in Sweden with the execution of 71 people (65 of them women) executed on the same day at the village of Häxberget. The condemned prisoners are beheaded and their bodies are then burned.[52][53]
June 14 – Colonial authorities of
Rhode Island,
Plymouth, and
Massachusetts attempt a negotiation with
Metacomet (King Philip), leader of the Wampanoags, and seek guarantees of fidelity from the
Nipmuck and
Narragansett tribes. The negotiations end after 11 days, closing on June 25.
June 26 – The Wampanoag warriors begin a three-day assault on English colonial towns in the
Massachusetts Bay Colony in North America, with an assault on the villages of
Rehoboth and
Taunton. At the same time, Massachusetts troops march to Swansea, to join the
Plymouth Colony troops. The warriors elude colonial troops and leave Mount Hope for
Pocasset, Massachusetts. The
Mohegan tribe travels to
Boston, in order to assist the English colonists against the Wampanoags.
September 18 – The Narragansetts sign a treaty with the English in Boston; meanwhile, Massachusetts troops are ambushed near
Northampton, Massachusetts.
September 20 – In England, a fire destroys most of the town of
Northampton. According to a contemporary account, "the market place (which was a very goodly one), the stately church of Allhallows, 2 other parish churches and above three-fourth parts of the whole town was consumed and laid in ashes.".[55]
October 13 – The Massachusetts Council convenes and agrees that all Christian Indians should be ordered to move to
Deer Island.
October 29 –
Gottfried Leibniz makes the first use of the long s (∫) as a symbol of the integral in calculus.
November 2 – Commissioners of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Plymouth Colony (which are later merged into Massachusetts) begin a 10-day discussion on organizing a united force to attack the Narragansett tribe.
Guru Teg Bahadur, ninth of the
Sikh gurus, is executed by Mughal rulers, proclaiming that he prefers death rather than disavowing the right of Hindus to practice their own religion. He is succeeded by
Guru Gobind Singh, who becomes the tenth
Guru.
February 23 – While the Massachusetts Council debates how to handle the Christian Indians they had exiled to
Deer Island on
October 13,
1675, a coalition of Indians led by Metacomet attacks colonial settlements just 16 km (9.9 mi) outside of Boston.
April 2 – Chief
Canonchet of the
Narragansett people is captured by mercenaries of the Pequot, Mohegan and Niantic nations who have been hired by English settlers. He is offered a chance to live if he makes peace with the English, refuses, and is executed the next day in
Stonington, Connecticut.
May 2 –
Mary Rowlandson is ransomed from captivity by Native Americans by a subscription raised by women of Boston.
May 19 – Peskeomskut Massacre: Battle of Turner's Falls – Captain William Turner leads a raid at first light on an encampment consisting mainly of women and children. An estimated 300-400 lives are taken in less than half an hour, first from gunshot directly into the sleeping tents, then by sword and by drowning as the victims try to flee. This incident happens on the west bank of the Connecticut River, just above the falls known as Turner's Falls in Gill, Massachusetts.
May 26 – A fire destroys the town hall and 624 houses in
Southwark, London.[58]
May 31 – The Massachusetts Council finally decides to move the Christian Indians from Deer Island to
Cambridge, Massachusetts (approximate date).
August 2 – Captain Benjamin Church captures Metacomet's wife and son.
August 12 – King Philip (
Metacomet), chief of the
Wampanoags that had waged a war throughout southern
New England that bore his name, is killed by an Indian named Alderman, a soldier led by Captain Benjamin Church.
November 27 – A fire in
Boston, Massachusetts, is accidentally set by a careless and sleepy apprentice, who drops a lighted candle, or leaves it too near some combustible substance; this is the largest fire known at this time in the district. The Rev.
Increase Mather’s church, dwelling and a portion of his personal library are destroyed.[59]
The first arrests are made in the case that will develop into the "
Affair of the Poisons" in France, as
Magdelaine de La Grange and her accused accomplice, Father Nail, are detained on suspicion of poisoning her lover, a Messr. Faurie.[62] While in prison in the Bastille and awaiting trial Mademoiselle La Grange writes letters accusing other persons of carrying out murders by poison as well.
August 28 – During
war between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire, Russian troops led by
Grigory Romodanovsky and Ukrainian Cossacks led by
Ivan Samoylovych arrive at the besieged Ukrainian city of
Chigirin (modern-day Chyhyryn) and inflict heavy casualties on the encamped Turkish and Tatar troops.[64] Ibrahim Pasha, leader of the 45,000 member Ottoman force, retreats the next day and, by the time of the relief of Chigirin on September 5, the Ottoman Army has lost 20,000 men. Ottoman Sultan
Mehmed IV, outraged by the defeat, sends 200,000 troops the following year and destroys the city.
September 17 – Troops from
Denmark invade and capture the Swedish island of
Rügen and drive out the local population. Five months later, on January 18, 1678, Sweden recaptures the island. Nine months later, troops from Denmark and Brandenburg invade for a third time and capture the island again on October 22, 1678. Eight months later, Denmark is given the island back under a
treaty ending the Swedish-Brandenburg War on June 29, but by then, the island of Rügen is in ruins. In modern times, the island becomes a vacation resort in Germany.
December 7 – Father
Louis Hennepin of Belgium, exploring North America, becomes the earliest known European person to discover
Niagara Falls, and the first to report its existence. In his book A New Discovery of a Vast Country in America, published in 1698, Hennepin writes "Betwixt the lakes Ontario and Eire there is a vast prodigious Cadence of water which falls down after a surprising and astonishing manner, inasmuch that the Universe does not afford its parallel."[65]
December 9 – The French Navy, led by
Charles de Courbon de Blénac with a land force of 950 men, lands at the Caribbean island of
Tobago, lays siege to the Dutch fort defending the territory during the
Franco-Dutch War, and destroys the structure when it fires a cannon overlooking the fort, striking the gunpowder arsenal. The explosion kills 250 of the defenders, including Dutch Admiral
Jacob Binckes and 16 officers. Combined with the sinking of four ships of the Netherlands Navy, the victory at Tobago ends Dutch military power in the Antilles.
December 15 – The Siege of Stettin (the modern-day Polish city of
Szczecin but, at this time, a possession of Sweden) ends after almost five months with Sweden's surrender of the city to Prussia's
Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg. The siege, part of the
Scanian War, had begun on June 25.
A
Megalosaurus femur is found in England marking it the first dinosaur fossil found even though they were found for millennia beforehand. But the interest in
Paleontology wouldn’t be for another 140 years.
April 12 – The
Treaty of Casco Bay is signed between officials of the
Province of New York and the
Penobscot tribe and the
Wabanaki Confederacy, bringing an end to further fighting that has happened in the two years since the end of
King Philip's War in the modern-day U.S. state of
Maine. Under the terms of the treaty, English settlers pay rent to the Penobscots and are given back farm land that had been confiscated in the war, while the English settlers agree to respect the Penobscot land rights.[74]
June 10 – French
buccaneerMichel de Grammont arrives at Spanish-held
Venezuela with six pirate ships, 13 smaller craft, and 2,000 men in a daring raid on the South American territory, then leads half of his force inward toward
Maracaibo, which he takes on June 14. During the rest of the month, he and his soldiers march inland as far as
Trujillo. Grammont and his pirates finally depart on December 3.[76]
July 29 –
Muhammad Azam Shah is appointed as the Mughal Governor of Bengal by his father, the Emperor
Aurangzeb, but serves for a little more than a year before being recalled from
Dhaka.[78]
November 11 (November 1 O.S.) – England's House of Commons votes to begin impeachment proceedings against five Roman Catholic members of the House of Lords,
Viscount Stafford, the
Marquess of Powis,
Baron Arundell,
Baron Petre and
Baron Belasyse accused by Protestant members as participating in a "
Popish Plot". Viscount Stafford is convicted and executed, while the other four are imprisoned in the
Tower of London for more than five years.
November 26 – William Staley, an English banker and a Roman Catholic, becomes the first person to be executed in connection with the "
Popish Plot" arrests.[87][88]
February 3 – Moroccan troops from Fez are killed, along with their commander Moussa ben Ahmed ben Youssef, in a battle against rebels in the
Jbel Saghro mountain range, but Moroccan Sultan
Ismail Ibn Sharif is able to negotiate a ceasefire allowing his remaining troops safe passage back home.
February 5 – The
Treaty of Celle is signed between France and Sweden on one side, and the Holy Roman Empire, at the town of
Celle in Saxony (in modern-day Germany). Sweden's sovereignty over
Bremen-Verden is confirmed and Sweden cedes control of
Thedinghausen and
Dörverden to the Germans.
March 12 –
Catherine Deshayes Monvoisin, commonly called "La Voisin" and the suspected killer of over 1,000 people in France by poisoning, is arrested outside of the Church of
Notre-Dame-de-Bonne-Nouvelle in
Paris and imprisoned at
Vincennes for the next 11 months. After her conviction, she is publicly burned at the stake on February 22, 1680.
April–June
April 3 –
Aurangazeb, the
Muslim ruler of the
Mughal Empire in
India, decrees the imposition of the
jizya, an annual tax upon non-Muslims under Mughal jurisdiction, primarily
Hindus. The tax had been abolished by Aurangazeb's great grandfather, Akbar.
April 8 – In the Italian region of
Piedmont, a landslide causes the village of
Bosia to sink into the ground and then get buried, killing 200 inhabitants. The village is then rebuilt at another site and continues to exist.
June 1 –
Battle of Drumclog: A group of 200 Scottish
Covenanters overwhelm a small Scottish Army unit, that had been pursuing them for the murder of Archbishop Sharp. The Covenanters, led by 19-year-old
William Cleland, kill 36 of the Scottish soldiers.
October 18 – A sea battle is fought between England's Royal Navy and the navy of India's
Maratha Empire (under the command of
Mai Nayak Bhandari), with English bombardment driving the Maratha occupation of the island fortress at
Khanderi (off of the western Indian coast south of
Mumbai).
November 27 – A fire in
Boston,
Massachusetts, burns all of the warehouses, 80 houses, and all of the ships in the dockyards.
More than 200 captives on the ship The Crown of London, all Scottish
Covenanters arrested after the battle of Bothwell Bridge, are killed when the ship is wrecked on the
Orkney Islands while transporting the group to exile in North America.[93]
A peace treaty is signed between Ali Bey al-Muradi, Bey of Tunis; his brother whom he had overthrown in 1678,
Muhammad Bey al-Muradi; and their uncle, Muhammad al-Hafsi al-Muradi, the Pasha of Tunis, after mediation by the
Dey of Algiers.
December 16 (December 6 O.S.) –
Oliver Plunkett, the Roman Catholic Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh, is arrested on false charges of plotting to aid a French invasion of the British Isles, the so-called "
Popish Plot". Executed in 1681, Plunkett will be canonized as a Roman Catholic saint almost 300 years later in 1975.
December 26 – In modern-day Indonesia, the
Trunajaya rebellion comes to an end with the surrender of Prince
Panembahan Maduretno to the Sultan
Amangkurat II of Mataram, ruler of the entire island of
Java. While treated with respect as a prisoner of the occupying forces of the
Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC), Panembahan is killed seven days later by Amangkurat after the VOC allows him to attend a ceremonial visit to the sultan's palace.
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