April 23 – On
Saint Christopher Island more commonly called
St Kitts, a Caribbean Sea island divided between colonies of England and France, a battle near
Sandy Point Town over control of the territory ends with a victory by the French over a numerically-superior English force two days after English Deputy Governor
William Watts of Anguilla had sent an expedition to capture the neighbouring island of
Saint Martin. Governor Watts and the French Governor of Saint-Christophe,
Charles de Sales, are both killed in the battle.[3]
May 12 – In
India, General
Shivaji Bhonsale of the
Maratha Empire arrives at the
Agra Fort for a meeting with Emperor
Aurangzeb of the
Mughal Empire, as part of the terms of peace under the 1665
Treaty of Purandar. After taking offence at the disrespect shown to him, he gets angry and attempts to leave; he and his son Sambhaji are immediately placed under arrest and imprisoned at the fort.[4]
May 13 – French theologian
Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy is imprisoned in the
Bastille after his conviction for
heresy in connection with the
Jansenist movement. Sacy uses his two and one-half years of incarceration (which lasts until November 14, 1668), to create the Bible du Port-Royal, a first
French language rendition of the Bible, finishing a translation of the
Old Testament from the
Vulgate, written in
Latin, that had been started by his brother Antoine, and then beginning work on the
New Testament.
June 14 (June 4
Julian calendar) – The
Four Days' Battle between the
Dutch Republic fleet (84 ships under the command of Admiral
Michiel de Ruyter) and the English Royal Navy (79 ships led by the
Duke of Albemarle) in the
North Sea, one of the longest naval engagements in history, ends with a retreat by the English after having started on June 11.[6] A part of the
Second Anglo-Dutch War, the battle ends with a Dutch victory, but heavy losses are sustained on both sides: the English lose 1,000 men and 10 ships are sunk, while the Dutch lose four ships and 1,550 men. Damaged, but not destroyed, the English fleet sets about repairs and refitting, and meets the Dutch fleet again on July 25 in the
St. James's Day Battle.
July 31 – The
Agreement of Legonice is signed, with Poland restoring the titles of Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski and Lubomirski's officers, granting amnesty to all the rebels, and King Jan II Kazimierz abandoning further reform plans.
August 2 (
July 23Julian calendar) – A hurricane sweeps through the Caribbean Sea near
Guadeloupe five days after Barbados colonial Governor
Francis Willoughby led a force of two Royal Navy frigates, 12 commandeered vessels and over 1,000 men in a battle against French colonies during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. Willoughby and most of his crew die in the sinking of his flagship, HMS Hope
September 2 – The
Great Fire of London begins as a blaze in a bakery owned by
Thomas Farriner on
Pudding Lane, near
London Bridge. Over a period of four days, the fire destroys more than 13,000 buildings (including
Old St Paul's Cathedral), but only six people are known to have died,[7] while at least 80,000[8] are left destitute and homeless. The events are recorded by
Samuel Pepys in his diary. The resurveying of property is credited with advancing both cartography and the practices of surveying, as well as resulting in the modern definition by
John Ogilby of the
statute mile, as 1,760 yards.[9]
October 17 – In North America,
a French Army regiment led by
Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy erects crosses in the
Mohawk lands of the eastern
Iroquois Confederacy territory along the
Mohawk River as part of an invasion that started on September 29.[11] During the expedition, Prouville's forces find four abandoned Mohawk villages in the area, located in the modern U.S. state of New York near the village of
Schenectady but never confront any Mohawk defenders, and the French never attempt to enforce their claim.
October 23 – The most intense tornado on record in English history, an F4 storm on the
Fujita scale or T8 on the
TORRO scale, strikes the county of
Lincolnshire with a path of destruction through the villages of Welbourn, Wellingore, Navenby and Boothby Graffoe, with winds of more than 213 miles per hour (343 km/h).[12]
October 26 –
Abbas II, the
Shah of Iran, dies at the age of 34 after a reign of 24 years, without designating a successor.[13] His 18-year old son Sam Mirza is crowned as the new Safavid dynasty emperor six days later.[14]
October 27 –
Robert Hubert, a Frenchman who has made a false confession to having started the Great Fire of London (despite not arriving in England until two days after the blaze started), is executed based on his statements.
Mughal forces of Emperor
Aurangzeb, in alliance with the Portuguese, under
Shaista Khan and his son Buzurg Umed Khan, expel the
Arakans from the
Bengal port city of
Chittagong, renaming the city as Islamabad.
Isaac Newton uses a prism to split sunlight, as referenced in his alchemical works as
Lux Dei, into the component colours of the
optical spectrum, assisting the understanding of the scientific nature of
light. He also develops differential
calculus simultaneously with Leibniz. His discoveries this year lead to it being referred to as his Annus mirabilis or Newton's "Year of the Morning Star".
^Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 190–191.
ISBN0-7126-5616-2.
^W. Earle Lockerby, "Le serment d'allégeance, le service militaire, les déportations et les Acadiens: opinions de France et de Québec aux 17e et 18e siècles", Acadiensis (March 2008)
^Stewart Gordon, The Marathas, 1600–1818 (Cambridge University Press, 1993) p. 78
^Gregory Mole, Privileging Commerce: The Compagnie des Indes and the politics of trade in old Regime France (doctoral dissertation, Carolina Digital Repository, 2016) p. 35
^Jack Verney, The Good Regiment (McGill-Queen's University Press, 1991)
^H. R. Roemer, "The Safavid period", in The Cambridge History of Iran (Cambridge University Press, 1986), p. 301
^ The Muslim World: A Historical Survey, Part III: The Last Great Muslim Empires (E. J. Brill, 1969) p. 210
^Clericuzio, Antonio (2000). Elements, principles, and corpuscles: a study of atomism and chemistry in the seventeenth century. Dordrecht; Boston: Kluwer Academic. p. 179.
ISBN9780792367826.
^Gressor, Megan (2005). All for love: great love affairs, great stories. Millers Point, NSW: Pier 9. p. 31.
ISBN9781740455961.
^Krämer, Gode (1991). Mythos und bürgerliche Welt: Gemälde und Zeichnungen der Haberstock-Stiftung (in German). München: Klinkhardt & Biermann. p. 82.
ISBN9783781403161.
^Guercino, FirstName (1991). Drawings by Guercino from British collections: with an appendix describing the drawings by Guercino, his school and his followers in the British Museum. London, Rome: British Museum Press in association with Leonardo-De Luca Editori. p. 14.
ISBN9788878133440.
April 23 – On
Saint Christopher Island more commonly called
St Kitts, a Caribbean Sea island divided between colonies of England and France, a battle near
Sandy Point Town over control of the territory ends with a victory by the French over a numerically-superior English force two days after English Deputy Governor
William Watts of Anguilla had sent an expedition to capture the neighbouring island of
Saint Martin. Governor Watts and the French Governor of Saint-Christophe,
Charles de Sales, are both killed in the battle.[3]
May 12 – In
India, General
Shivaji Bhonsale of the
Maratha Empire arrives at the
Agra Fort for a meeting with Emperor
Aurangzeb of the
Mughal Empire, as part of the terms of peace under the 1665
Treaty of Purandar. After taking offence at the disrespect shown to him, he gets angry and attempts to leave; he and his son Sambhaji are immediately placed under arrest and imprisoned at the fort.[4]
May 13 – French theologian
Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy is imprisoned in the
Bastille after his conviction for
heresy in connection with the
Jansenist movement. Sacy uses his two and one-half years of incarceration (which lasts until November 14, 1668), to create the Bible du Port-Royal, a first
French language rendition of the Bible, finishing a translation of the
Old Testament from the
Vulgate, written in
Latin, that had been started by his brother Antoine, and then beginning work on the
New Testament.
June 14 (June 4
Julian calendar) – The
Four Days' Battle between the
Dutch Republic fleet (84 ships under the command of Admiral
Michiel de Ruyter) and the English Royal Navy (79 ships led by the
Duke of Albemarle) in the
North Sea, one of the longest naval engagements in history, ends with a retreat by the English after having started on June 11.[6] A part of the
Second Anglo-Dutch War, the battle ends with a Dutch victory, but heavy losses are sustained on both sides: the English lose 1,000 men and 10 ships are sunk, while the Dutch lose four ships and 1,550 men. Damaged, but not destroyed, the English fleet sets about repairs and refitting, and meets the Dutch fleet again on July 25 in the
St. James's Day Battle.
July 31 – The
Agreement of Legonice is signed, with Poland restoring the titles of Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski and Lubomirski's officers, granting amnesty to all the rebels, and King Jan II Kazimierz abandoning further reform plans.
August 2 (
July 23Julian calendar) – A hurricane sweeps through the Caribbean Sea near
Guadeloupe five days after Barbados colonial Governor
Francis Willoughby led a force of two Royal Navy frigates, 12 commandeered vessels and over 1,000 men in a battle against French colonies during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. Willoughby and most of his crew die in the sinking of his flagship, HMS Hope
September 2 – The
Great Fire of London begins as a blaze in a bakery owned by
Thomas Farriner on
Pudding Lane, near
London Bridge. Over a period of four days, the fire destroys more than 13,000 buildings (including
Old St Paul's Cathedral), but only six people are known to have died,[7] while at least 80,000[8] are left destitute and homeless. The events are recorded by
Samuel Pepys in his diary. The resurveying of property is credited with advancing both cartography and the practices of surveying, as well as resulting in the modern definition by
John Ogilby of the
statute mile, as 1,760 yards.[9]
October 17 – In North America,
a French Army regiment led by
Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy erects crosses in the
Mohawk lands of the eastern
Iroquois Confederacy territory along the
Mohawk River as part of an invasion that started on September 29.[11] During the expedition, Prouville's forces find four abandoned Mohawk villages in the area, located in the modern U.S. state of New York near the village of
Schenectady but never confront any Mohawk defenders, and the French never attempt to enforce their claim.
October 23 – The most intense tornado on record in English history, an F4 storm on the
Fujita scale or T8 on the
TORRO scale, strikes the county of
Lincolnshire with a path of destruction through the villages of Welbourn, Wellingore, Navenby and Boothby Graffoe, with winds of more than 213 miles per hour (343 km/h).[12]
October 26 –
Abbas II, the
Shah of Iran, dies at the age of 34 after a reign of 24 years, without designating a successor.[13] His 18-year old son Sam Mirza is crowned as the new Safavid dynasty emperor six days later.[14]
October 27 –
Robert Hubert, a Frenchman who has made a false confession to having started the Great Fire of London (despite not arriving in England until two days after the blaze started), is executed based on his statements.
Mughal forces of Emperor
Aurangzeb, in alliance with the Portuguese, under
Shaista Khan and his son Buzurg Umed Khan, expel the
Arakans from the
Bengal port city of
Chittagong, renaming the city as Islamabad.
Isaac Newton uses a prism to split sunlight, as referenced in his alchemical works as
Lux Dei, into the component colours of the
optical spectrum, assisting the understanding of the scientific nature of
light. He also develops differential
calculus simultaneously with Leibniz. His discoveries this year lead to it being referred to as his Annus mirabilis or Newton's "Year of the Morning Star".
^Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 190–191.
ISBN0-7126-5616-2.
^W. Earle Lockerby, "Le serment d'allégeance, le service militaire, les déportations et les Acadiens: opinions de France et de Québec aux 17e et 18e siècles", Acadiensis (March 2008)
^Stewart Gordon, The Marathas, 1600–1818 (Cambridge University Press, 1993) p. 78
^Gregory Mole, Privileging Commerce: The Compagnie des Indes and the politics of trade in old Regime France (doctoral dissertation, Carolina Digital Repository, 2016) p. 35
^Jack Verney, The Good Regiment (McGill-Queen's University Press, 1991)
^H. R. Roemer, "The Safavid period", in The Cambridge History of Iran (Cambridge University Press, 1986), p. 301
^ The Muslim World: A Historical Survey, Part III: The Last Great Muslim Empires (E. J. Brill, 1969) p. 210
^Clericuzio, Antonio (2000). Elements, principles, and corpuscles: a study of atomism and chemistry in the seventeenth century. Dordrecht; Boston: Kluwer Academic. p. 179.
ISBN9780792367826.
^Gressor, Megan (2005). All for love: great love affairs, great stories. Millers Point, NSW: Pier 9. p. 31.
ISBN9781740455961.
^Krämer, Gode (1991). Mythos und bürgerliche Welt: Gemälde und Zeichnungen der Haberstock-Stiftung (in German). München: Klinkhardt & Biermann. p. 82.
ISBN9783781403161.
^Guercino, FirstName (1991). Drawings by Guercino from British collections: with an appendix describing the drawings by Guercino, his school and his followers in the British Museum. London, Rome: British Museum Press in association with Leonardo-De Luca Editori. p. 14.
ISBN9788878133440.