Directory

1662 CE

The Paugussett tribe, granted reservations in the British colony of Connecticut in North America, sell a large amount of tribal land to Captain Joseph Hawley including several towns in Fairfield County: Shelton, Trumbull, Derby and Monroe. Koxinga, who had founded the Kingdom of Tungning on the island of Taiwan a year earlier, names his successor while on his deathbed. He appoints his son, Zheng Jing, whom he had earlier ordered unsuccessfully to be executed, as the new King. The Royal Society, founded by King Charles II of England and Scotland receives an official charter in London.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • May 3 – John Winthrop the Younger, the son of the first governor of Massachusetts, is honored by being made a fellow of the Royal Society, England's new scientific society. Winthrop uses his election to the Society to gain access to the king, who grants him a new charter, uniting the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven.source
  • June 15 – The Matthews baronets British nobility title is created.source
  • June 23 – Koxinga, who had founded the Kingdom of Tungning on the island of Taiwan a year earlier, names his successor while on his deathbed. He appoints his son, Zheng Jing, whom he had earlier ordered unsuccessfully to be executed, as the new King.source
  • September 9 – The Parliament of Scotland passes the Act of Indemnity and Oblivion, an amnesty (with numerous specific exceptions) for most political crimes committed by Scottish citizens during the years between January 1, 1637source
  • December 4 – The Purefoy baronets British nobility title is created.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 14 – A Portuguese garrison invades Morocco and kidnaps 35 women and girls, then steals 400 head of cattle. The Moroccans counterattack and kill the garrison's commander, 12 knights and 38 other Portuguese soldiers before the surviving Portuguese are given sanctuary inside the English fortress at Tangier. A brief war ensues between England and Morocco.source
  • January 22 – Former Chinese Emperor Yongli, who had surrendered to General Wu Sangui in December, is put on a boat along with his sons and grandsons at Sagaing in Burma (at the time, Burma), leaving under the promise that they will be given safe passage elsewhere in Burma. Instead, the former Emperor is taken back to China and executed on June 1.source
  • April 19 – Three of the former members of the English Parliament who had signed the death warrant for Charles I of England in 1649 and then fled into exile in the Netherlands after the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 — Miles Corbet, John Okey and John Barkstead — are hanged after having been extradited, returned to England, and convicted of regicide. Their bodies are then drawn and quartered.source
  • April 24 – Chinese warlord Zheng Chenggong sends a message to the Spanish government of the Philippines demanding payment of tribute and threatening to send a fleet of ships to conquer the area. The message reaches the Spanish Governor-General on May 5, and preparations are made to resist the invasion.source
  • May 24 – Rioting in the Chinese section of Manila breaks out in the wake of calls to kill non-Christian Chinese residents of the Philippines, and the Spanish Army fires cannons at the rioting crowd. An order follows for non-Christian Chinese Filipinos to leave Manila, and for Christian Filipinos to register with the government. Boats begin transporting the non-Christians back to Chinasource
  • June 4 – The "Sangley Massacre" is ordered by Sabiniano Manrique de Lara, the Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines, with the directive for the government to kill all Filipinos of Chinese ancestry — Sangleys — who disobey orders to assemble at Manila for deportation.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • February 1 – Chinese general Koxinga (Zheng Chenggong) captures the Dutch East India Company's settlement at Fort Zeelandia (now Tainan) on the island of Taiwan after a nine-month siege, ending the company's rule on the island, then establishes the Kingdom of Tungning. In response, the Kangxi Emperor of the mainland Qing dynasty relocates all residents along the southern coast, by 50 miles.source
  • March 18 – Carrosses à cinq sols, a short-lived experiment of the first public bus system (horse-drawn wagons holding eight passengers) begins in Paris as the idea of mathematician Blaise Pascal and financed by the Duc de Rouanez, with transportation to and from the Royal Square for the cost of five sous.source
  • April 22 – The Paugussett tribe, granted reservations in the British colony of Connecticut in North America, sell a large amount of tribal land to Captain Joseph Hawley including several towns in Fairfield County: Shelton, Trumbull, Derby and Monroe.source
  • May – The last credible report of a sighting of the dodo bird, now extinct, is made by Volkert Evertsz, a survivor of the shipwreck of the Dutch ship Arnhem, which struck reefs on February 12. The survivors had made their way in a small boat to Ile d'Ambre, an island in the Indian Ocean 200 km northeast of Mauritius. When rescued by the English ship Truroe in May, Evertsz reports that he and his group had survived by eating the local wildlife, including the dodo.source

Religion & Belief

  • May 19 – The Act of Uniformity 1662, officially "An Act for the uniformity of common prayer and service in the Church, and administration of the sacraments", is given royal assent after being passed by the English Parliament to regulate the form of public prayers, sacraments, and other rites of the Church of England to conform with the newest edition of the Book of Common Prayer, the 1662 prayer book.source
  • August 20 – Ignatius Andrew Akijan is installed as the new Patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church for Christians within the Muslim-ruled Ottoman Empire after his appointment is confirmed by the Sultan Mehmed IV.source
  • August 24 – The Act of Uniformity goes into effect on St Bartholomew's Day, making mandatory in the Church of England the forms of worship prescribed in the new edition of the Book of Common Prayer the deadline having been set for "every clergyman and every schoolmaster... to express, by August 24, his unfeigned consent to everything contained in the Book of Common Prayer. This is followed by the resignation of over 2,000 clergy who resign "for conscience sake". Those who refuse to take the required oath of conformity to the established church are subject to the Great Ejection from their jobs.source

Economy & Finance

  • May 19 – Royal assent is also given to England's new hearth tax law, with one shilling charged for each stove or fireplace in a building, to be collected on 29 September and on 25 March each year in order to provide the £1,200,000 annual household income for King Charles II. The unpopular tax is abolished in 1689.source
  • December 20 – Nicolas Fouquet is banished from France.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • September 29 – The first payments under England's hearth tax law, enacted on May 19, become due.source
  • Milton, Massachusetts is incorporated as a town.source

Science & Discovery

  • October 19 – An English Buccaneer force led by Royal Navy commodore Christopher Myngs launches an attack on Santiago de Cuba.source
  • c. January – John Graunt, in one of the earliest uses of statistics, publishes statistical information about births and deaths in London.source
  • Joan Blaeu publishes Atlas Maior, sive cosmographia Blaviana in Amsterdam (first complete edition, 11 volumes in Latin).source
  • Robert Boyle publishes Nova experimenta physico-mechanica in Oxford (2nd edition), setting forth the law bearing his name.source

Health & Medicine

  • May 16 – The hearth tax is introduced in England and Wales.source

Crime & Justice

  • January 23 – János Kemény, Prince of Transylvania for slightly more than a year, is killed during Transylvania's defeat by the Ottoman Empire in a battle at Nagyszőllős, now the city of Vynohradiv in Ukraine. An Ottoman appointee, Michael Apafi, replaces Kemény in September and the status of the principality of Transylvania (now part of Romania) is never regained.source
  • October 27 – Charles II of England sells Dunkirk to France, for £400,000 (2.5 million French livres).source
  • November - December – Helen Guthrie is the last person accused during the Forfar witch trials to be executed.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • February 20 – The survivors of the wreck of the Dutch freighter Arnhem strike reefs but are able to make their way to an uninhabited island, probably the Ile D'Ambre or Ilot Fourneau both islands within the territory of Mauritius. During more than two months while shipwrecked, the survivors kill and eat the local wildlife, including the last surviving dodo. They are rescued by the English ship Truroe in May.source

Climate & Environment

  • February 11 – A violent storm in the Indian Ocean strikes a fleet of seven ships of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) as they are traveling back to the Dutch Republic from Batavia in the Dutch East Indies (now Jakarta, Indonesia). Three of the freighters— Wapen van Holland, Gekroonde Leeuw and Prins Willem — are lost with all hands. The ships Vogel Phoenix, Maarsseveen and Prinses Royal make their way back to the Netherlands. The other ship, the freighter Arnhem remains afloat and its roughly 80 survivors are able to evacuate in boats to search for land.source
  • The last widely accepted sighting of a dodo, now extinct.source

Culture & Society

  • May 9 – Samuel Pepys witnesses a Punch and Judy show in London (the first on record).source
  • May 21 – (May 31 N.S.); Princess Catherine of Braganza, daughter of King João IV of Portugal, marries Charles II of England. As part of the dowry, Portugal cedes Bombay in India, and Tangier in Morocco, to England.source
  • June 21 – The Pierce baronets British nobility title is created.source
  • July 15 – The Royal Society, founded by King Charles II of England and Scotland receives an official charter in London.source
  • November 28 – The English Royal Society holds its first meeting.source
  • December 26 – Molière's play, The School for Wives, is given its première in Paris.source
  • The Akademie der Bildenden Künste Nürnberg is founded in Germany.source

Births

  • January 1 – Balaji Vishwanath, Peshwa of the Maratha Empire (d. 1720)source
  • January 12 – Samuel Shute, Governor of Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire (d. 1742)source
  • February 15 – James Renwick, Scottish minister and Covenanter martyr (d. 1688)source
  • April 13 – Princess Eleonore Erdmuthe of Saxe-Eisenach, Electress of Saxony (d. 1696)source
  • June 3 – Willem van Mieris, Dutch painter (d. 1747)source
  • June 18 – Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Cleveland, illegitimate son of Charles II of England, courtier (d. 1730)source
  • August 10 – Charles Boit, Swedish enameller, miniature painter (d. 1727)source
  • August 13 – Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, English politician (d. 1748)source
  • August 28 – Maria Aurora von Königsmarck, Swedish noblewoman of Brandenburg extraction (d. 1728)source
  • September 19 – Jean-Paul Bignon, French priest and man of letters (d. 1743)source
  • October 18 – Matthew Henry, English Bible commentator, Presbyterian minister (d. 1714)source
  • December 13 – Francesco Bianchini, Italian philosopher and scientist (d. 1729)source
  • December 17 – Samuel Wesley, English poet, father of the Wesley brothers (d. 1735)source
  • December 18 – James Douglas, 2nd Duke of Queensberry, Scottish politician (d. 1711)source

Deaths

  • January 4 – Dziaddin Mukarram Shah becomes the new Sultan of Kedah, an independent kingdom on the Malay Peninsula, upon the death of his father, Sultan Muhyiddin Mansur.source
  • January 10 – At the age of 19, Louis Grimaldi becomes the new Prince of Monaco upon the death of his grandfather, Honoré II.source
  • February 9 – Judith Quiney, English daughter of William Shakespeare (b. 1585)source
  • February 13 – Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia (b. 1596)source
  • April 8 – Birgitte Thott, Danish scholar, writer and translator (b. 1610)source
  • April 14 – William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele, English statesman (b. 1582)source
  • May 8 – Peter Heylin, English ecclesiastic and author of many polemical works (b. 1599)source
  • May 28 – Robert Douglas, Count of Skenninge, Swedish field marshal (b. 1611)source
  • June 1 – Zhu Youlang, the 4th and last emperor of the Southern Ming dynasty of China (b. 1623)source
  • June 14 – Henry Vane the Younger, British Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1613)source
  • June 23 – Koxinga, Chinese military leader (b. 1624)source
  • September 3 – William Lenthall, English politician (b. 1591)source
  • October 29 – William Pynchon, English colonist and fur trader in North America (b. 1590)source
  • November 20 – Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands (b. 1614)source