Directory

1670 CE

The Muslim emperor Aurangzeb of the Mughal Empire in India issues an order for the destruction of all Hindu temples and schools in the empire, including the Keshvadeva Temple in Mathura. (July 8, O.S.) – The Treaty of Madrid, also known as the Godolphin Treaty, is signed between England and Spain to formally end hostilities left over from the Anglo-Spanish War, in the Caribbean, that ended ten years earlier. For the first time, Spain acknowledges that it is not entitled to all territory in the Americas west of Brazil, as provided by the 1493 line of demarcation decreed by Pope Alexander VI, and by the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal. Spain acknowledges that Jamaica and the Cayman Islands are English possessions. Louis XIV inaugurates the construction of Les Invalides, a veterans' hospital in Paris.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • June 10 – King Louis XIV of France issues an ordinance prohibiting the French colonies in the Americas from trading with any other nation except France.source
  • July 11 – Representatives of England (led by King Charles II) and Denmark (led by King Christian V) sign a treaty of alliance and commerce, the Treaty of Copenhagen.source
  • July 18 (July 8, O.S.) – The Treaty of Madrid, also known as the Godolphin Treaty, is signed between England and Spain to formally end hostilities left over from the Anglo-Spanish War, in the Caribbean, that ended ten years earlier. For the first time, Spain acknowledges that it is not entitled to all territory in the Americas west of Brazil, as provided by the 1493 line of demarcation decreed by Pope Alexander VI, and by the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal. Spain acknowledges that Jamaica and the Cayman Islands are English possessions.source
  • August 26 – The Parliament of France enacts a uniform criminal code for the nation with the passage of the Criminal Ordinance of 1670, which takes effect on January 1. The code remains in force until October 9, 1789, when it is abrogated during the French Revolution.source

Conflict & Security

  • February 4 – The Battle of Sinhagad takes place in India (in the modern-day Maharashtra state) as the Maratha Empire army, led by Tanaji Malusare, leads an assault on the Kondhana Fortress that had been captured by the Mughal Empire. Tanaji, called "The Lion" by his followers, captures the fortress by guiding the successful scaling of the walls of the fortress with ladders created from rope, but is killed in the battle. The Maratha emperor Shivaji orders the fortress named Sinhagad, the Marathi language words for "Lion's Fort".source
  • March 18 – Petar Zrinski, the Viceroy of Croatia within the Holy Roman Empire, issues a proclamation urging Croatians to rebel against the Habsburg rulers. The uprising fails and Zrinski and his brother-in-law, Krsto Frankopan, are quickly arrested. Both are beheaded in Vienna on April 30, 1671.source
  • June 9 – Taking advantage of a monsoon, the Maratha Empire's Shivaji orders an attack on areas that had been turned over to the Mughal Empire and its emperor Aurangazeb in 1665. Within 15 days, the cities of Pune, Baramati, Supi and Indapur, along with the Rohida fort, are recaptured by the Maratha Army.source
  • October 3 – In India, Chhatrapati Shivaji maharaj, the ruler of the Maratha Empire, leads an attack on the British settlement at Surat near Bombay. British Governor Gerald Aungier secures the British fortress at Surat and saves the lives and property of British citizens.source
  • December 27 – Henry Morgan captures Fort San Lorenzo, on Panama's Caribbean coast.source
  • Stenka Razin begins the rebellion of Cossacks in Russia.source
  • mid-August – Three Spanish frigates from Spanish Florida, sailing from St. Augustine and under the command of Juan Menendez Marques, arrive at Charleston harbor, preparing to attack the English settlement in South Carolina. The English settlers have been warned in advance by Indians who had found out about the invasion. Because of a storm, and the English preparations for a siege, Captain Menendez abandons the colony without attempting an attack.source
  • Niani, capital of the Mali Empire, is sacked by the Bambara people of the emerging Segou Empire.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • March 15 – The first English settlers arrive at the modern-day U.S. state of South Carolina, at this time the Province of Clarendon carved out of the Province of Carolina, and construct a settlement at Albemarle Point on the Ashley River.source
  • May 2 – The Hudson's Bay Company is granted a royal charter in England with the jurisdiction to control administration and commerce in "Rupert's Land", governed for the crown by Rupert, Duke of Cumberland, the cousin of King Charles II. The land is a 1.5 million square mile area of what is now Canada around Hudson Bay. The area controlled covers all of the modern province of Manitoba, most of Saskatchewan, and significant portions of Alberta and Nunavut, as well as parts of what are now Ontario and Quebec, and parts of the U.S. states of Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana.source
  • December 15 – Henry Morgan, a Welsh privateer in English service, recaptures Santa Catalina Island, Colombia.source
  • December 31 – The expedition of John Narborough leaves Corral Bay having surveyed the coast and lost four hostages to the Spanish.source
  • The first French settlers arrive on the Petite Côte of modern-day Senegal.source

Religion & Belief

  • March 7 – Oliver Plunkett, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh since 1669, is allowed to return to Ireland for the first time in more than 22 years, after a new policy of tolerance of Catholicism is enacted in England. Plunkett had departed for Rome in 1647 during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. Executed in 1681 on false charges of plotting an invasion of Ireland, Plunkett is canonized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church in 1975.source
  • April 18 – King Christian V of Denmark fires Christoffer Gabel, who had been the corrupt chief adviser to King Frederick III, and replaces him with Peder Griffenfeld.source
  • April 29 – After more than four months, the papal conclave to elect a successor to the late Pope Clement IX selects Cardinal Emilio Altieri with 56 of the 59 votes. Altieri, 79 years old at the time, remains the oldest person ever to be elected pope. He announces that he will take the name of Pope Clement X in honor of Clement IX, who had made him a cardinal. He serves for six years until his death in 1676 shortly after his 86th birthday.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • June 15 – The first stone of Fort Ricasoli is laid down in Malta.source

Health & Medicine

  • November 24 – Louis XIV inaugurates the construction of Les Invalides, a veterans' hospital in Paris.source

Crime & Justice

  • January 17 – Raphael Levy, a Jewish resident of the city of Metz in France, is burned at the stake after being accused of the September 25 abduction and ritual murder of a child who had disappeared from the village of Glatigny. The prosecutor applies to King Louis XIV for an order expelling all 95 Jewish families from Metz, but the king refuses.source
  • September 5 – William Penn and William Mead are found not guilty of violating the Conventicles Act 1670, after a five day jury trial in London. The two had been arrested on August 14 in front of a meeting house Gracechurch Street after preaching a Quaker sermon outside following a ban on preaching indoors. The defiance by the jury leads to the landmark English decision in Bushel's Case.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • January 27 – The Muslim emperor Aurangzeb of the Mughal Empire in India issues an order for the destruction of all Hindu temples and schools in the empire, including the Keshvadeva Temple in Mathura.source
  • March 31 – The British warship HMS Sapphire is wrecked beyond repair when her captain, John Pearce, orders the ship to be run aground at Sicily while fleeing what he believes to be four Algerian pirate ships, rather than attempting to fight. The ships turn out to have been friendly, and Pearce and his lieutenant, Andrew Logan, are court-martialed for their cowardice and executed on September 17.source
  • August 17 – A joint fleet of warships from England (commanded by Commodore Richard Beach on HMS Hampshire) and from the Dutch Republic (led by Admiral Willem Joseph van Ghent on Spiegel) rescue 250 Christian slaves and then sink six Algerian pirate ships in a battle in the Mediterranean Sea off of the coast of Morocco at Cape Spartel.source

Culture & Society

  • February 27 – The royal wedding in Poland, between King Michal Wisniowiecki (who is also the Grand Duke of Lithuania) and Eleonore of Austria (daughter of the late Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor), with ceremonies taking place at the Denhoff Palace in Kruszyna.source
  • October 14 – Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, a five-act comedy and ballet authored by Molière, is given its first performance, presented before King Louis XIV at the Château de Chambord. Public performances begin on November 23 at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris.source

Births

  • January 24 – William Congreve, English playwright (d. 1729)source
  • February 25 – Maria Margarethe Kirch, German astronomer (d. 1720)source
  • February 28 – Benjamin Wadsworth, American president of Harvard University (d. 1737)source
  • May 8 – Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St Albans, English soldier (d. 1726)source
  • May 12 – King Frederick Augustus I of Poland (d. 1733)source
  • June 22 – Eva von Buttlar, German mystic sectarian (d. 1721)source
  • July 18 – Giovanni Bononcini, Italian composer (d. 1747)source
  • July 19 – Richard Leveridge, English bass player and composer (d. 1758)source
  • August 21 – James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick, French military commander (d. 1734)source
  • November 15 – Bernard Mandeville, Dutch-born economic philosopher (d. 1733)source
  • December 4 – John Aislabie, English politician, director of the South Sea Company (d. 1742)source
  • date unknown – Sultan Abdullah Khan Abdali, Persian Governor of Herat, Shah of Herat (d. 1721)source

Deaths

  • January 3 – George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, English soldier (b. 1608)source
  • January 6 – Sir Gilbert Gerard, 1st Baronet of Harrow on the Hill, English politician (b. 1587)source
  • January 6 – Charles of Sezze, Italian Franciscan friar and saint (b. 1613)source
  • January 21 – Claude Duval, French-born highwayman (b. 1643)source
  • February 17 – Elizabeth Barnard, granddaughter of William Shakespeare (b. 1608)source
  • March 1 – Giovanna Maria Bonomo, beatified Italian Catholic nun (b. 1606)source
  • April – Ahom King Swargadeo Chakradhwaj Singha or Supangmung of Assam, Indiasource
  • May 19 – Ferdinando Ughelli, Italian Cistercian monk, church historian (b. 1595)source
  • May 23 – Cosimo III de' Medici becomes the Grand Duke of Tuscany, at the time an independent nation in Italy, upon the death of his father Ferdinando de' Medici.source
  • May 31 – Josceline Percy, 11th Earl of Northumberland, English noble (b. 1644)source
  • June 12 – Hasanuddin of Gowa, 16th Ruler of the Sultanate of Gowa (b. 1631)source
  • June 30 – Henrietta, Duchess of Orléans, English and French princess (b. 1644)source
  • August 10 – Richard Ottley, English politician (b. 1626)source
  • November 15 – Comenius, Czech writer (b. 1592)source