Events

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January–March

• January 5 Emperor Go-Sai ascends to the throne of Japan.

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

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

• February 16 Dutch Grand Pensionary advisor Johan de Witt marries Wendela Bicker.

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

• March 25 Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is discovered by Christiaan Huygens.

April–June

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

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

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

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

• April 28 Admiral Blake severely damages the arsenal of the Bey of Tunis.

• May 1027 Anglo-Spanish War: Invasion of Jamaica Forces of the English Protectorate led by William Penn and Robert Venables capture the island of Jamaica from Spain.

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

July–September

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

July 27

• The Jews in New Amsterdam petition for a separate Jewish cemetery.

• The Netherlands and Brandenburg sign a military treaty.

• July 30 Dutch troops capture Fort Assahudi Seram.

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

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

• August 28 New Amsterdam and Peter Stuyvesant bar colonial Jews from military service.

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

• September 8 Swedish King Karl X Gustav occupies Warsaw (Poland).

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

October –December

• October 15 The Jews of Lublin are massacred.

• October 19 Swedish King Karl X Gustav occupies Kraków (Poland).

• November 3 England and France sign military and economic treaties.

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

• December 4 Middelburg, the Netherlands forbids the building of a synagogue.

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

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

Date unknown

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

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

• 1655 Malta plague outbreak kills 20 people.

• Frederick III of Denmark-Norway gives control of the Faroe Islands to Christoffer Gabel and his son, which will last until 1709.</onlyinclude>

Births

• January 1 Christian Thomasius, German jurist (d. 1728)

• January 5 John Coney (silversmith), early American silversmith/goldsmith (d. 1722)

January 6

• Niccolò Comneno Papadopoli, Italian jurist of religious law and historian (d. 1740)

• Eleonor Magdalene of Neuburg, Holy Roman Empress (d. 1720)

January 11

• Charles Sergison, English politician (d. 1732)

• Henry Howard, 7th Duke of Norfolk, England (d. 1701)

• January 13 Bernard de Montfaucon, French Benedictine monk (d. 1741)

• January 19 Nalan Xingde, Chinese poet (d. 1685)

• January 21 Antonio Molinari, Italian painter (d. 1704)

• January 25 Cornelius Anckarstjerna, Dutch-born Swedish admiral (d. 1714)

• January 27 Henri de Nesmond, French churchman (d. 1727)

• February 2 William "Tangier" Smith, Moroccan mayor (d. 1705)

• February 7 Jean-François Regnard, French comic poet (d. 1709)

• February 14 Jacques-Nicolas Colbert, French churchman (d. 1707)

• February 15 August, Duke of Saxe-Merseburg-Zörbig, German prince (d. 1715)

• February 16 Charles, Electoral Prince of Brandenburg, German prince (d. 1674)

• February 25 Carel de Moor, Dutch painter (d. 1738)

• February 28 Johann Beer, Austrian composer (d. 1700)

• March 4 Fra Galgario, Italian painter (d. 1743)

• March 6 Frederik Krag, Danish nobleman and senior civil servant (d. 1728)

March 23

• Richard Hill of Hawkstone, English statesman (d. 1727)

• Sir Richard Myddelton, 3rd Baronet, English politician (d. 1716)

• April 8 Louis William, Margrave of Baden-Baden, Germany (d. 1707)

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

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

April 26

• Rinaldo d'Este (1655–1737), Duke of Modena (d. 1737)

• Ofspring Blackall, Bishop of Exeter (d. 1716)

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

• May 13 Pope Innocent XIII (d. 1724)

• May 31 Jacques Eléonor Rouxel de Grancey, Marshal of France (d. 1725)

• June 4 Thomas of Cori, Italian Friar Minor and preacher (d. 1729)

• June 11 Antonio Cifrondi, Italian painter (d. 1730)

• June 12 Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen (d. 1715)

• July 7 Christoph Dientzenhofer, German architect (d. 1722)

• July 20 Ford Grey, 1st Earl of Tankerville, England (d. 1701)

• August 2 Sir John Hotham, 3rd Baronet, English politician (d. 1691)

• August 13 Johann Christoph Denner, German musical instrument maker, invented the clarinet (d. 1707)

• August 16 Frederick Christian, Count of Schaumburg-Lippe (d. 1728)

• August 18 James Collett, English-born merchant who settled in Norway (d. 1727)

• August 22 Joseph Robineau de Villebon, governor of Acadia (d. 1700)

• September 2 Andries Pels, Dutch banker (d. 1731)

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

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

• September 14 Éléonor Marie du Maine du Bourg, French nobleman and general (d. 1739)

• September 21 Roger Cave, English politician (d. 1703)

• September 29 Johann Ferdinand of Auersperg, Duke of Münsterberg (d. 1705)

• September 30 Charles III, Prince of Guéméné, French nobleman (d. 1727)

• October 4 Lothar Franz von Schönborn, Archbishop of Mainz (d. 1729)

• October 12 Richard Neville (the younger), English politician (d. 1717)

• October 25 Fabio Brulart de Sillery, French churchman (d. 1714)

• November 1 Ferdinand Kettler, Duke of Courland and Semigallia (d. 1737)

• November 6 Daniel Lascelles (1655–1734), English Member of Parliament (d. 1734)

November 12

• Eustache Restout, French painter (d. 1743)

• Francis Nicholson, British Army general, colonial administrator (d. 1727)

• November 16 Alessandro Gherardini, Italian painter (d. 1726)

• November 18 Walter Norborne, English politician (d. 1684)

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

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

• November 24 King Charles XI of Sweden (d. 1697)

• December 9 Isaac van Hoornbeek, Grand Pensionary of Holland (d. 1727)

• December 10 Sir William Forester, British politician (d. 1718)

• December 13 John Evelyn the Younger, English translator (d. 1699)

• December 14 Philip, Landgrave of Hesse-Philippsthal, son of William VI (d. 1721)

• December 27 Abstrupus Danby, English politician (d. 1727)

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

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

• date unknown Zumbi, runaway slave in Brazil (d. 1695)

Deaths

• January 6 Louis Philip, Count Palatine of Simmern-Kaiserslautern, Prince of Paltinate (b. 1602)

• January 7 Pope Innocent X (b. 1574)

• February 15 Pier Luigi Carafa, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1581)

• February 21 John X of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp, Prince-Bishop of Lübeck (1634–1655) (b. 1606)

• February 25 Daniel Heinsius, Flemish scholar (b. 1580)

• February 27 Francesco Molin, Doge of Venice (b. 1575)

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

• March 30 James Stewart, 1st Duke of Richmond (b. 1612)

• April 6 David Blondel, French Protestant clergyman (b. 1591)

• April 14 Johann Erasmus Kindermann, German composer and organist (b. 1616)

• April 29 Cornelis Schut, Flemish painter, draughtsman and engraver (b. 1597)

• April 30 Eustache Le Sueur, French painter (b. 1617)

• May 5 Richard Harrison, English politician (b. 1583)

• May 8 Edward Winslow, American Pilgrim leader (b. 1596)

• May 30 Christian, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (b. 1581)

• June 26 Margaret of Savoy, Vicereine of Portugal (b. 1589)

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

• June 30 Jacobus Boonen, Dutch Catholic archbishop (b. 1573)

• July 15 Girolamo Rainaldi, Italian architect (b. 1570)

July 28

• Cyrano de Bergerac, French soldier and writer (b. 1619)

• Suzuki Shōsan, Japanese samurai (b. 1579)

• July 30 Sigmund Theophil Staden, important early German composer (b. 1607)

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

• September 7 François Tristan l'Hermite, French dramatist (b. 1601)

• September 24 Frederick, Landgrave of Hesse-Eschwege (b. 1617)

• October 13 Tobie Matthew, English Member of Parliament (b. 1577)

• October 14 Arnold Möller, German calligrapher (b. 1581)

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

• October 18 Joachim Lütkemann, German theologian (b. 1608)

• October 24 Pierre Gassendi, French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist (b. 1592)

• November 3 Paulus Aertsz van Ravesteyn, Dutch printer (born c. 1586)

• November 6 Maximilian, Prince of Dietrichstein, German prince (b. 1596)

• November 16 Giuseppe Marcinò, Italian priest, member of the Order of Friars Minor (b. 1589)

• November 23 Elizabeth Wriothesley, Countess of Southampton (b. 1572)

• November 28 John Oglander, English politicians (b. 1585)

• December 17 Ukita Hideie, Japanese daimyō (b. 1573)

• December 20 Gregers Krabbe, Danish noble (b. 1594)

• December 22 Tsugaru Nobuyoshi, Japanese daimyō (b. 1619)

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

• date unknown Kocc Barma Fall, Senegambian philosopher (b. 1586)

References