, Munich, Germany
January–March •
January 6 – In
India,
Jaswant Singh of Marwar (in the modern-day state of
Rajasthan) is elevated to the title of Maharaja by Emperor
Shah Jahan. •
January 11 –
Arauco War –
Battle of Río Bueno in southern
Chile: Indigenous
Huilliche warriors rout Spanish troops from
Fort Nacimiento, who are attempting to cross the
Bueno River. •
January 26 –
Portugal recaptures the South American city of
Recife from the Netherlands after a siege of more than two years during the
Dutch-Portuguese War, bringing an end to Dutch rule of what is now
Brazil. The
Dutch West India Company has held the city (which they call Mauritsstad) for more than 23 years. •
February 9 – Spanish troops led by Don Gabriel de Rojas y Figueroa succeed in the
capture of Fort Rocher, a pirate-controlled base on the Caribbean island of
Tortuga. •
February 10 – The
Battle of Tullich takes place in
Aberdeenshire in
Scotland during
Glencairn's rising, a revolt by Scottish royalists against the
Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland led by Lord Protector
Oliver Cromwell. The battle is indecisive. •
March 13 – The
Treaty of Pereyaslav is concluded in the city of Pereyaslav during a meeting between the
Cossacks of the
Zaporozhian Host and
Tsar Alexey I of Russia following the end to the
Khmelnytsky Uprising in Ukraine, which started in
1648 and has resulted in the massacre of many thousands of Jews.
April–June •
April 5 – The
Treaty of Westminster, ending the
First Anglo-Dutch War, is signed. •
April 11 – A
commercial treaty between
England and
Sweden is signed. •
June 3 –
Louis XIV of France is crowned at
Reims. •
June 16 (June 6
Old Style) –
Charles X Gustav succeeds his cousin
Christina on the Swedish throne. After her abdication on the same day, Christina, now the former reigning queen of a
Protestant nation, secretly converts to
Catholicism.
July–September •
July 5 – The Russian Army camps outside
Smolensk and the
Thirteen Years' War starts between Russia and Poland over
Ukraine. •
July 10 •
Peter Vowell and
John Gerard are executed in London for plotting to assassinate
Oliver Cromwell. • Don Pantaleon, brother of the Portuguese ambassador to England, is executed after the death of an innocent man following a fracas at the exchange in
Exeter. •
August 12 – The
Battle of Shklow, one of the first clashes of the
Russo-Polish War, takes place at the modern-day Belarusan town of
Škłoŭ during a
total eclipse of the Sun visible over Eastern Europe. The Russian troops retreat. •
August 18 –
Oliver Cromwell launches the
Western Design with the appointment of Admiral William Penn to prepare for a fleet to leave on Christmas Day for an English expedition to the Caribbean to counter Spanish commercial interests, effectively beginning the
Anglo-Spanish War (which will last until after the
English Restoration in
1660). The fleet leaves
Portsmouth in late December. •
August 22 –
Jewish arrival in New Amsterdam: 23
Sephardic Jews arrive as refugees from Brazil and settle in
New Amsterdam, forming the nucleus of what will be the second largest urban Jewish community in history, that of New York City, and of
Congregation Shearith Israel, the first
synagogue in
North America. •
August 25 – Russia routs the Polish Army in the
Battle of Shepeleviche. •
September 3 – In England, the
First Protectorate Parliament assembles. •
September 23 –
Smolensk falls to the Russian Army after almost three months.
October –December •
October 12 – The
Delft Explosion, in the arsenal, devastates the city in the Netherlands, killing more than 100, among whom is
Carel Fabritius (32), the most promising student of
Rembrandt. •
October 31 –
Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria, is crowned. His
absolutist style of leadership becomes a benchmark for the rest of Germany. •
November 23 – French mathematician, scientist and religious philosopher
Blaise Pascal experiences an intense mystical vision that marks him for life. •
December 11 – Sir
William Petty wins the contract from the
Commonwealth of England to make a survey of
Ireland. •
December 14 –
Jerónimo de Ataíde, Count of Atouguia, becomes Portugal's new
Governor-General of Brazil, succeeding
João Rodrigues de Vasconcelos e Sousa. •
December 25 – An English Navy fleet of 17 warships and 20 transports, carrying 325 cannons, 1,145 seamen, and 1,830 troops, under the command of Admiral
William Penn departs from Portsmouth to begin
Oliver Cromwell's planned
surprise attack on Spain's colonies in the New World. == Births ==