Directory

1667 CE

24 – The raid on the Medway in England is carried out when a fleet from the Dutch Republic under Admiral Michiel de Ruyter takes Sheerness fort, sails up the River Medway, raids Chatham Dockyard, and tows away the royal flagship The Royal Charles. The Siege of Lille, at this time part of the Spanish Netherlands (modern-day Belgium) begins and becomes the only major engagement of the "War of Devolution" between France and Spain. The Spanish Army surrenders after 16 days. In India, Assam troops led by General Lachit Borphukan, dispatched by King Supangmung, captures the Mughal Empire city of Guwahati after a victory in battle at Itakhuli.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • February 6 (January 27 O.S.) – The Treaty of Andrusovo is signed during the Russo-Polish War. Poland cedes eastern Ukraine, including Kiev and Smolensk, to Russia, ending Poland's status as a major Central European power.source
  • July 31 – Second Anglo-Dutch War – The Treaty of Breda ends the war by England against the Dutch Republic, France and Denmark and Norway. In the Americas, the Dutch retain control of Surinam, the English retain New Netherland and the French Acadia.source
  • August 24 – The Treaty of Breda goes into effect after having been signed on July 31, bringing an end to hostilities between England and its three opponents.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 11 – Aurangzeb, monarch of the Mughal Empire, orders the removal of Rao Karan Singh as Maharaja of the Bikaner State (part of the modern-day Rajasthan state of India) because of Karan's dereliction of duty in battle.source
  • February 5 – In the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the English Royal Navy warship HMS Saint Patrick is captured less than nine months after being launched, when it fights a battle off the coast of England and North Foreland, Kent. Captain Robert Saunders and 8 of his crew are killed while fighting the Dutch ships Delft and Shakerlo. The Dutch Navy renames the ship the Zwanenburg.source
  • February 25 – During the Second Anglo-Dutch War, a Dutch Navy force commanded by Admiral Abraham Crijnssen arrives at the English colony of Surinam in South America and sails up the Suriname River to Fort Willoughby (later Fort Zeelandia at Paramaribo). Bombardment of the fort begins the next day, and its commander, William Byam surrenders, effectively giving control of Surinam to the Dutch Republic. The cession is confirmed with the signing of the Peace of Breda on July 31.source
  • April 29–May 1 – Second Anglo-Dutch War: A Dutch flotilla under Admiral van Ghent enters the Firth of Forth in Scotland and bombards Burntisland.source
  • May 24 – After King Philip IV of Spain reneges on payment of a large dowry to King Louis XIV of France, promised to Louis as a gift for Louis' marriage to Philip's daughter Princess Maria Theresa, the War of Devolution begins between France and Spain. The French Army invades the Spanish Netherlands (modern-day Belgium), entering Flanders and Franche-Comté. By the time the war ends on May 2, 1668, parts of the Spanish Netherlands are ceded to France.source
  • June 19–24 – The raid on the Medway in England is carried out when a fleet from the Dutch Republic under Admiral Michiel de Ruyter takes Sheerness fort, sails up the River Medway, raids Chatham Dockyard, and tows away the royal flagship The Royal Charles.source
  • June 26 – Louis XIV of France conquers Tournai.source
  • August 5 – The province of Holland in the Dutch Republic passes the "Perpetual Edict" declaring that it will no longer acknowledge the authority of the republic's Stadtholder, and other provinces soon follow suit.source
  • August 10 – The Siege of Lille, at this time part of the Spanish Netherlands (modern-day Belgium) begins and becomes the only major engagement of the "War of Devolution" between France and Spain. The Spanish Army surrenders after 16 days.source
  • August 15 – The League of the Rhine is dissolved by agreement of its members, nine years and one day after its formation as a military alliance between German kingdoms in the western part of the Holy Roman Empire.source
  • November 2 – In India, Assam troops led by General Lachit Borphukan, dispatched by King Supangmung, captures the Mughal Empire city of Guwahati after a victory in battle at Itakhuli.source
  • December 19 – Emperor Aurangzeb, ruler of the Mughal Empire in India, orders a massive counterattack on Assam's Ahom kingdom after learning that Mughal troops had captured Guwahati. Aurangzeb appoints Raja Ram Singh to command a force of 36,000 infantry, 18,000 cavalry, 2,000 archers and 40 ships to conquer Ahom. The war lasts until the defeat of the Mughals by the smaller Ahom force in March 1671.source
  • The first military campaign of Stenka Razin is conducted in Russia.source
  • The French army uses grenadiers.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • March 27 – In North America (Canada), explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle is released from the Society of Jesus (Jesuits).source
  • After Shivaji's escape, hostilities between the Marathas and the Mughals ebb, with Mughal sardar Jaswant Singh acting as intermediary between Shivaji and Aurangzeb for new peace proposals.source

Religion & Belief

  • February 27 (February 17 O.S.) – Joasaphus II is elected by the Council of Bishops as the new Patriarch of Moscow, leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, after conservative clerics depose Patriarch Nikon for his reformation of the Church.source
  • June 20 – Giulio Rospigliosi is elected by the College of Cardinals to succeed the late Pope Alexander VII, after receiving 61 of the 64 votes of the cardinals present. He takes the regnal name Pope Clement IX, becoming the 238th head of the Roman Catholic Church.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • August 18 – In an effort to prevent narrow streets from being blocked from all light by tall buildings, the city of Paris enacts its first building code limiting the height of new construction. Buildings may be no taller than eight toise – 15.6 m – tall. In 1783, rules are implemented to consider the width of the street.source

Science & Discovery

  • Isaac Newton has investigated and written on optics, acoustics, the infinitesimal calculus, mechanism and thermodynamics. The works will be published only years later.source

Health & Medicine

  • Robert Hooke demonstrates that the alteration of the blood in the lungs is essential for respiration.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • February 8 – The first part of the Rebuilding of London Act 1666, following the destruction by the Great Fire of London of 1666, goes into effect as royal assent is given to the Fire of London Disputes Act 1666, which establishes the Fire Court. The Court, sitting at Clifford's Inn near Fleet Street, hears cases starting on February 27 and continuing until the end of 1668.source

Climate & Environment

  • January 19 – The town of Anzonico in Switzerland is destroyed by an avalanche.source
  • April 6 – The 1667 Dubrovnik earthquake in the Republic of Ragusa (part of modern-day Croatia) kills as many as 5,000 people, roughly one sixth of the population, and levels most of the buildings in Dubrovnik.source
  • September 6 – The "Dreadful Hurricane of 1667" ravages southeast Virginia, bringing 12 days of rain, blowing down plantation homes and stripping fields of crops.source
  • November 25 – A devastating earthquake rocks Caucasia and kills 80,000 people.source

Culture & Society

  • January 27 – The 2,000 seat Opernhaus am Taschenberg, a theater in Dresden (capital of the Electorate of Saxony) opens with its first production, Pietro Ziani's opera Il teseo.source
  • February 22 – The Lejonkulan ("lion's den") opens at Stockholm in Sweden as the first permanent theater in Scandinavia, with the performance of Jean Magnon's Orontes en Satira.source
  • March – Louis XIV of France abolishes the livre parisis (Paris pound), in favor of the much more widely used livre tournois (Tours pound). He also designates Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie as the first chief of "police" of Paris.source
  • April 27 – The blind, impoverished, 58-year-old John Milton seals a contract for publication of Paradise Lost with London printer Samuel Simmons, for an initial payment of £5. The first edition is published in October and sells out in eighteen months.source
  • June 27 – George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, one of the five members of the Cabal ministry in England (Lords Chudleigh, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley and Lauderdale), turns himself in after a warrant for his arrest is issued on February 25 on charges of treason (including the casting of the horoscope of King Charles II). He is held in the Tower of London for four years before being released on July 17, 1671.source
  • August 15 – John Dryden's comedy Sir Martin Mar-all, or The Feign'd Innocence is given its first performance, presented by the players of the King's Theatre in London.source

Births

  • April 29 – John Arbuthnot, English physician and writer (d. 1735)source
  • May 26 – Abraham de Moivre, French mathematician (d. 1754)source
  • June 18 – Ivan Trubetskoy, Russian field marshal (d. 1750)source
  • July 2 – Pietro Ottoboni, Italian cardinal (d. 1740)source
  • July 27 – Johann Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (d. 1748)source
  • August 11 – Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, last of the Medicis of Italy (d. 1743)source
  • September 5 – Giovanni Girolamo Saccheri, Italian mathematician (d. 1733)source
  • September 28 – Asano Naganori, Japanese warlord (d. 1701)source
  • November 2 – James Sobieski, Crown Prince of Poland (d. 1737)source
  • November 5 – Christoph Ludwig Agricola, German painter (d. 1719)source
  • November 30 – Jonathan Swift, Irish writer (d. 1745)source
  • December 9 – William Whiston, English mathematician (d. 1752)source
  • December 25 – Ehrengard Melusine von der Schulenburg, Duchess of Kendal and Munster (d. 1743)source
  • Susanna Centlivre, English actress and playwright (d. 1723)source

Deaths

  • April 10 – Jan Marek Marci, Bohemian physician and scientist (b. 1595)source
  • April 25 – Peter of Saint Joseph Betancur, Spanish saint and missionary to Guatemala (b. 1626)source
  • May 2 – George Wither, English writer (b. 1588)source
  • May 7 – Johann Jakob Froberger, German composer (b. 1616)source
  • May 8 – Prince Prithviraj Singh, eldest son of the Maharaja Jaswant Singh of the Kingdom of Marwar (within India's Mughal Empire, part of the modern-day Rajasthan state) dies painfully at the age of 14, supposedly after putting on a khalat (a ceremonial robe) given to him by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. According to the folklore of Marwar, the khalat was actually a garment infused with poison that penetrated the skin.source
  • May 16 – Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton, English statesman (b. 1607)source
  • June 5 – Francesco Sforza Pallavicino, Italian cardinal and historian (b. 1607)source
  • June 5 – Grégoire de Saint-Vincent, Flemish Jesuit and mathematician (b. 1584)source
  • June 15 – The first human blood transfusion is administered by Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys. He transfuses the blood of a sheep to a 15-year-old boy. (Though this operation is a success, a later patient dies from the procedure and Denys is accused of murder).source
  • June 18 – Countess Louise Henriette of Nassau, Electress Consort of Brandenburg (b. 1627)source
  • July 28 – Abraham Cowley, English poet (b. 1618)source
  • August 3 – Francesco Borromini, Swiss sculptor and architect (b. 1599)source
  • August 13 – Jeremy Taylor, Irish clergyman and writer (b. 1613)source
  • October 18 – Yohannes I becomes king of Ethiopia, following the death of his father Negus Fasilides.source