Directory

1664 CE

Battle of Surat in India: The Maratha leader, Chhatrapati Shivaji, defeats the Mughal Army Captain Inayat Khan, and sacks Surat. A peace treaty is signed in Turin in Italy to end the War of the Banished between the Duchy of Savoy and the Waldensians. The "Duke of York and Albany's maritime regiment of foot" is formed in London and serves as a precursor to the Royal Marines of the United Kingdom.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • February 12 – The Treaty of Pisa is signed between France and the Papal States to bring an end to the Corsican Guard Affair that began on August 20, 1662, when the French ambassador was shot and killed by soldiers in the employ of Pope Alexander VII.source
  • February 14 – A peace treaty is signed in Turin in Italy to end the War of the Banished between the Duchy of Savoy and the Waldensians.source
  • October 4 – New Netherland is captured by England. The English promptly rename the fledgling city New York, after the Duke of York (later King James II).source

Conflict & Security

  • January 5 – Battle of Surat in India: The Maratha leader, Chhatrapati Shivaji, defeats the Mughal Army Captain Inayat Khan, and sacks Surat.source
  • May 15 – Guerin Spranger, commander of the Dutch fortress at Cayenne in South America, surrenders without a fight to French commander Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy and 1,200 employees of the Compagnie de la France équinoxiale, giving France control of the territory that becomes the colony of French Guiana.source
  • June 5 – The siege of the Croatian fortress at Novi Zrin (located near the village of Donja Dubrava in Croatia near its border with Hungary). After a 32-day defense, the Croatian defenders surrender to troops of the Ottoman Empire.source
  • June 24 – The Second Anglo-Dutch War carries over to North America as soldiers of the English Army invade the Dutch colony of New Netherland, promised by King Charles II of England to his brother, the Duke of York.source
  • August 1 – Battle of Saint Gotthard: The Ottoman Empire is defeated by a Habsburg army, led by Raimondo Montecuccoli, leading to the Peace of Vasvár.source
  • August 11 – Sir John Lisle, a former member of the English House of Commons who had been designated a regicide for his role in signing the death warrant in the execution in 1649 of Charles I of England, is assassinated in a church courtyard in Lausanne in Switzerland. Lisle had gone into exile after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The shooting of Lisle, done on order of King Charles II, is carried out by a team led by royal agent James Cotter.source
  • September 8 (August 29 O.S.) – Peter Stuyvesant, Director-General of the Dutch Republic colony of New Netherland, surrenders New Amsterdam to an English naval squadron, commanded by Colonel Richard Nicolls, without bloodshed.source
  • October 31 – Surrounded by a Berber army, the French Navy evacuates the presidio of Jijel, a Mediterranean Sea port in what is now the Republic of Algeria, after having captured it from the Algiers Regency on June 12.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • February 2 – Jesuit missionary Johann Grueber arrives in Rome after a 214-day journey that had started in Beijing, proving that commerce can be had between Europe and Asia by land rather than ship.source
  • February 26 – Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy, appointed by King Louis XIV of France as Lieutenant Général of the Americas, departs from the port of La Rochelle with 1,200 men and seven ships to expand France's property in the Caribbean Sea and in South America.source
  • November 17 – Latvian colonist Jacob Kettler, Duke of Courland, gives up all of his rights to his African colony at St Andrew's Island in the Gambia River to representatives of King Charles II, in return for keeping possession of the Caribbean island of Tobago.source

Religion & Belief

  • April 28 – Juan Alonso de Cuevas y Dávalos is appointed as the new Roman Catholic Archbishop of Mexico by Pope Alexander VII, to allow Archbishop Mateo de Sagade de Bugueyro to return to Spain. Archbishop Cuevas is installed on November 15 upon his arrival in Mexico City.source
  • Austere reforms introduced in the Cistercian La Trappe Abbey in Normandy by Armand de Rancé, origin of the Trappists.source

Economy & Finance

  • January 7 – Indian entrepreneur Virji Vora, described in the 17th century by the English East India Company as the richest merchant in the world, suffers the loss of a large portion of his wealth when the Maratha troops of Shivaji plunder his residence at Surat and his business warehouses.source
  • April 14 – All grants to the Compagnie des Isles de l'Amerique for development of French-claimed islands in the Caribbean Sea are revoked by King Louis XIV, including the rights to the islands of Martinique and Saint Lucia that had been sold to Marie Bonnard du Parquet prior to her death in 1659.source
  • May 28 – King Louis XIV of France establishes the Compagnie des Indes Occidentales by royal decree to replace the recently cancelled Compagnie des Isles de l'Amerique.source
  • June 9 – Kronenbourg Brewery (Brasseries Kronenbourg) is founded in Strasbourg.source
  • August 27 – The French East India Company (Compagnie des Indes Orientales) is founded.source
  • December 3 – The English warships HMS Nonsuch and HMS Phoenix are wrecked in a storm at Gibraltar.source

Science & Discovery

  • March 19 – Polish astronomer Jan Heweliusz becomes the first native of Poland to be inducted into England's Royal Society.source
  • May 9 – Robert Hooke discovers Jupiter's Great Red Spot.source

Health & Medicine

  • November 6 – The oldest hospital in India, the Government General Hospital, is opened at Madras by the English East India Company for the treatment of ill soldiers.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • September 23 – The French Navy ship Tigre sinks off of the coast of the island of Sardinia, with the loss of 64 men. Another 58 of the crew are rescued.source
  • December 20 – All but 3 members of the over 200-person crew of the Dutch ship Kennemerland are killed when the trade ship sinks in a storm near the Out Skerries islands off of the coast of Scotland.source

Culture & Society

  • May 12 – The original version of Tartuffe, a comedy by French playwright and actor Molière, is given its first performance, staged at the Palace of Versaillessource
  • June 3 – In the city of Mantua in Italy, the world's oldest continuously published private newspaper, Gazzetta di Mantova, publishes its first-known issue. The newspaper would celebrate its 350th anniversary in 2014.source
  • October 28 – The "Duke of York and Albany's maritime regiment of foot" is formed in London and serves as a precursor to the Royal Marines of the United Kingdom.source
  • John Evelyn's Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees and the Propagation of Timber is published in London, in book form.source

Births

  • January 15 – Jean Meslier, French Catholic priest, later discovered to have promoted atheism (d. 1729)source
  • January 20 – Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, Italian writer and jurist (d. 1718)source
  • February 26 – Nicolas Fatio de Duillier, Swiss mathematician (d. 1753)source
  • March 17 – Georg Österreich, German composer and music collector (d. 1735)source
  • April 5 – Élisabeth Thérèse de Lorraine, French noblewoman, Princess of Epinoy by marriage (d. 1748)source
  • April 30 – François Louis, Prince of Conti, French general (d. 1709)source
  • May 30 – Giulio Alberoni, Italian cardinal and statesman (d. 1754)source
  • June 3 – Rachel Ruysch, painter from the Northern Netherlands (d. 1750)source
  • July 3 – James Stanley, 10th Earl of Derby, English politician (d. 1736)source
  • August 12 – Magnus Stenbock, Swedish noble (d. 1717)source
  • August 20 – János Pálffy, Hungarian field marshal, Palatine (d. 1751)source
  • August 24 – Willem Adriaan van der Stel, Dutch colonial administrator (d. 1733)source
  • September 5 – Louis Antoine de Pardaillan de Gondrin, French duke (d. 1736)source
  • September 5 – Charlotte Lee, Countess of Lichfield, illegitimate daughter of King Charles II of England (d. 1718)source

Deaths

  • January 27 – Archduke Charles Joseph of Austria, Roman Catholic bishop (b. 1649)source
  • January 30 – Cornelis de Graeff, Dutch mayor (b. 1599)source
  • February 16 – Sir John Trelawny, 1st Baronet, British baronet (b. 1592)source
  • March 16 – Ivan Vyhovsky, Ukrainian Cossack leadersource
  • March 30 – Guru Har Krishan, 8th Guru of Sikhism (b. 1656)source
  • March 31 – Charlotte Stanley, Countess of Derby, English defender of Latham House (b. 1599)source
  • June 1 – Michiel Sweerts, Flemish painter (b. 1618)source
  • June 22 – Katherine Philips, Anglo-Welsh poet (b. 1631)source
  • July 16 – Andreas Gryphius, German writer (b. 1616)source
  • August 24 – Maria Cunitz, Silesian astronomer (b. 1610)source
  • August 27 – Francisco de Zurbarán, Spanish painter (b. 1598)source
  • October 31 – William Frederick, Prince of Nassau-Dietz, Dutch stadtholder (b. 1613)source
  • November 18 – Miklós Zrínyi, Croatian and Hungarian military leader, statesman (b. 1620)source
  • December 15 – Dietrich Reinkingk, German lawyer and politician (b. 1590)source