January–March •
January 1 –
Charles II is crowned
King of Scots at
Scone (
his first crowning). •
January 24 –
Parliament of Boroa in Chile: Spanish and
Mapuche authorities meet at
Boroa, renewing the fragile peace established at the parliaments of Quillín, in
1641 and
1647. •
February 22 –
St. Peter's Flood: A first storm tide in the
North Sea strikes the coast of
Germany, drowning thousands. The island of
Juist is split in half, and the western half of
Buise is probably washed away. •
March 4 –
St. Peter's Flood: Another storm tide in the North Sea strikes the
Netherlands, flooding
Amsterdam. •
March 6 – The town of
Kajaani is founded by Count
Per Brahe the Younger. •
March 15 – Prince Aisin Gioro Fulin attains the age of 13 and becomes the
Shunzhi Emperor of China, which had been governed by a regency since the death of his father
Hong Taiji in 1643. •
March 26 – The Spanish ship
San José,
loaded with silver, is pushed south by strong winds;
it wrecks on the coast of southern Chile, and its surviving crew is killed by indigenous
Cuncos.
April–June •
April 7 –
Shunzhi, Emperor of China, announces in an imperial edict that he will purge corruption from government. •
April 25 –
Thomas Hobbes publishes his magnum opus, the political tract
Leviathan, in England. •
May 12 – General
Marcin Kalinowski of
Poland wins the
Battle of Kopychyntsi against
Zaporozhian Cossacks forces under the command of Asand Demka during the
Khmelnytsky Uprising in what is now
Ukraine. •
May 21 – The
Sovereign Military Order of Malta purchases the Caribbean islands of
Saint Barthélemy,
Saint Christopher,
Saint Croix and
Saint Martin from the France's
Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique. The Order will sell the islands in 1665 to the
French West India Company. •
June 17 –
Franco-Spanish War (1635-1659); A squadron of Spanish
galleys under
John of Austria the Younger capture the French galleon Lion Couronné off
Formentera,
Balearic Islands, Spain. •
June 30 – After three days of fighting in the
Battle of Berestechko in
Ukraine, one of the biggest land battles of the 17th century, with some 205,000 troops in the field, the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Army defeats the
Zaporozhian Cossacks.
July–September •
July 20 – At the
Battle of Inverkeithing in
Scotland, the English
Parliamentarian New Model Army, under Major-General
John Lambert, defeats a Scottish
Covenanter army acting on behalf of Charles II, led by Sir John Brown of Fordell. •
August 13 – The troops of King Charles II of Scotland force the retreat of English Commonwealth troops at the
Battle of Warrington Bridge, the last victory of Scotland over England in battle. •
August 28 • The "Onfall of
Alyth takes place in the Scottish town of the same name when most of the members of Scotland's governing body, the Committee of States, are betrayed to English invaders. The
Earl of Leven, the
Earl of Crawford, the
Earl Marischal,
Lord Nairne and other prominent people are captured and imprisoned in the
Tower of London. • The
Battle of Upton is fought at
Upton-upon-Severn in England, where Scottish invaders commanded by Major General
Edward Massey are defeated by the English Parliamentarians led by
John Lambert. The retreat of the Scots clears the way for the successful English attack at Worcester. •
September 1 – The
siege of Dundee ends with the English Parliamentarian army, under
General Monck, decisively defeating Covenanters in the last battle of the
Wars of the Three Kingdoms in Scotland. •
September 2 –
Kösem Sultan is assassinated by her daughter-in-law,
Turhan Sultan. •
September 3 –
Charles II of England is defeated in the
Battle of Worcester, the last major battle of the
English Civil War, and forced to flee.
October–December •
October 14 – Laws are passed in
Massachusetts, forbidding poor people from adopting excessive styles of dress. •
October 16 –
Prince Charles of the House of Stuart
escapes from England to find refuge in France. •
October – An English diplomatic team, headed by
Oliver St John, goes to
The Hague to negotiate an alliance between the
Commonwealth of England and the
Dutch Republic. •
November 3 – The
Manx Rebellion of 1651 comes to an end as
the Countess of Derby surrenders the
Isle of Man to the forces of Oliver Cromwell in return for a guarantee of safe passage for herself, her family and her servants, off of the island. •
November 24 – In China,
Qing dynasty forces led by
Shang Kexi capture the city of
Guangzhou from the
Southern Ming and then carry out a massacre of the population, killing as many as 70,000 people over 11 days ending on December 5. •
December 17 – Castle Cornet in
Guernsey, the last stronghold which had supported the King in the
Third English Civil War, surrenders.
Date unknown • The
Keian Uprising fails in
Japan. • The first
coffee house in England is opened in
Oxford, indicative of their increasing popularity in Europe. • The Madanmohan-jiu Temple is built at
Samta (India), a village in the
Howrah district of
West Bengal. == Births ==