January–March •
January 17 – The
Chair of Saint Peter (
Cathedra Petri, designed by
Bernini) is set above the altar in
St. Peter's Basilica in
Rome. •
January 27 –
Mughal conquest of Chittagong:
Mughal forces of Emperor
Aurangzeb, in alliance with the Portuguese, under
Shaista Khan and his son
Buzurg Umed Khan, expel the
Maghs from the
Bengal port city of
Chittagong, renaming the city as Islamabad. •
February 1 – The joint English and Scottish royal court returns to London as the
Great Plague of London subsides. •
March 11 – The tower of
St. Peter's Church, Riga, collapses, burying eight people in the rubble. • March – The
Tavernier Blue, precursor to the
Hope Diamond, is first recorded, when French gem merchant
Jean-Baptiste Tavernier purchases it from the
Kollur Mine in the
Mughal Empire in uncut form.
April–June •
April 20 – In colonial British North America, "
Articles of Peace and Amity" are signed between the governments of the
Province of Maryland and 12 Eastern Algonquian tribes — the
Piscataways,
Anacostancks,
Doegs,
Mattawomans,
Portobackes,
Chopticos, Mikikiwomans, Manasquesends, Chingwawateicks, Hangemaicks, Sacayos, and Panyayos. •
April 23 – On
Saint Christopher Island more commonly called
St Kitts, a Caribbean Sea island divided between colonies of England and France, a battle near
Sandy Point Town over control of the territory ends with a victory by the French over a numerically-superior English force two days after English Deputy Governor
William Watts of Anguilla had sent an expedition to capture the neighbouring island of
Saint Martin. Governor Watts and the French Governor of Saint-Christophe,
Charles de Sales, are both killed in the battle. •
May 12 – In
India, General
Shivaji Bhonsale of the
Maratha Empire arrives at the
Agra Fort for a meeting with Emperor
Aurangzeb of the
Mughal Empire, as part of the terms of peace under the 1665
Treaty of Purandar. After taking offence at the disrespect shown to him, he gets angry and attempts to leave; he and his son Sambhaji are immediately placed under arrest and imprisoned at the fort. •
May 13 – French theologian
Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy is imprisoned in the
Bastille after his conviction for
heresy in connection with the
Jansenist movement. Sacy uses his two and one-half years of incarceration (which lasts until November 14, 1668), to create the
Bible du Port-Royal, a first
French language rendition of the Bible, finishing a translation of the
Old Testament from the
Vulgate, written in
Latin, that had been started by his brother Antoine, and then beginning work on the
New Testament. •
May 21 • The
Holy Roman Empire, ruled by
Leopold I, repurchases the territory of the
Duchy of Opole and Racibórz (Oppeln und Ratibor), which it had ceded to Poland in 1645, for the sum of 120,000
guldens and consolidates it with Upper Silesia. The territory will be ceded from
Germany to
Poland in 1945 at the end of
World War II. •
Iliaș Alexandru becomes the
ruler of Moldavia, part of modern-day
Romania. •
June 4 –
Molière's comedy of manners
The Misanthrope is premièred at the
Théâtre du Palais-Royal in
Paris by the King's Players with himself in the title role. •
June 6 –
Moulai al-Rashid is let into
Fes by the city's Jews, establishing the power of
Morocco's
Alawi dynasty, which will continue into the 21st century. •
June 14 (June 4
Julian calendar) – The
Four Days' Battle between the
Dutch Republic fleet (84 ships under the command of Admiral
Michiel de Ruyter) and the English Royal Navy (79 ships led by the
Duke of Albemarle) in the
North Sea, one of the longest naval engagements in history, ends with a retreat by the English after having started on June 11. A part of the
Second Anglo-Dutch War, the battle ends with a Dutch victory, but heavy losses are sustained on both sides: the English lose 1,000 men and 10 ships are sunk, while the Dutch lose four ships and 1,550 men. Damaged, but not destroyed, the English fleet sets about repairs and refitting, and meets the Dutch fleet again on July 25 in the
St. James's Day Battle.
July–September •
July 1 – During the
Portuguese Restoration War between Portugal and Spain, the
Battle of the Berlengas ends after four days as a fleet of 15 Spanish warships obtains the surrender of
Fort of São João Baptista. •
July 6 – On 3 Muharram 1077 AH on the Muslim calendar,
Sa'd ibn Zayd, a descendant of
Hasan ibn Ali and of
Muhammad (founder of
Islam) becomes the new
Sharif of Mecca, in modern-day
Saudi Arabia. His ascension to the post follows the death of his father,
Zayd ibn Muhsin, who had been the Sharif since 1631. •
July 13 – The
Battle of Matwy, the bloodiest engagement of
Lubomirski's rebellion, takes place in
Poland at the village of
Matwy.
Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski, who has led the revolt against Poland's
King Jan II Kazimierz, defeats a larger number of troops led by
John III Sobieski of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Poland and Lithuania sustain 4,000 deaths compared to 200 rebel casualties. •
July 31 – The
Agreement of Legonice is signed, with Poland restoring the titles of Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski and Lubomirski's officers, granting amnesty to all the rebels, and King Jan II Kazimierz abandoning further reform plans. •
August 2 (
July 23 Julian calendar) – A hurricane sweeps through the Caribbean Sea near
Guadeloupe five days after Barbados colonial Governor
Francis Willoughby led a force of two Royal Navy frigates, 12 commandeered vessels and over 1,000 men in a battle against French colonies during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. Willoughby and most of his crew die in the sinking of his flagship, HMS
Hope •
August 4 (
July 25 Julian calendar) – In the
St. James's Day Battle of the
Second Anglo-Dutch War, the English Royal Navy, under the command of
Prince Rupert of the Rhine and
George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, defeats the Dutch Republic navy off the
North Foreland of England. The victory comes 6 weeks after the British fleet had sustained a heavy loss in the
Four Days' Battle. The Dutch ships
Sneek and
Tholen are sunk, with the loss of 800 men, while 300 Englishmen die in the sinking of
HMS Resolution. •
August 17 – In
India, General
Shivaji Bhonsale, future ruler of the
Maratha Empire, and his son
Sambhaji escape from house arrest at the
Agra Fort, where they have been held prisoner since May 12. •
August 19 (
August 9 Julian calendar) – Rear Admiral
Robert Holmes leads an English Royal Navy raid on the Dutch island of
Terschelling, destroying 150 merchant ships in the
Vlie estuary over a period of two days, and pillaging the town of
West-Terschelling. The action becomes known as "
Holmes's Bonfire". •
September 2 – The
Great Fire of London begins as a blaze in a bakery owned by
Thomas Farriner on
Pudding Lane, near
London Bridge. Over a period of four days, the fire destroys more than 13,000 buildings (including
Old St Paul's Cathedral), but only six people are known to have died, while at least 80,000 are left destitute and homeless. The events are recorded by
Samuel Pepys in his diary. The resurveying of property is credited with advancing both cartography and the practices of surveying, as well as resulting in the modern definition by
John Ogilby of the
statute mile, as 1,760 yards. •
September 4 – Mughal Emperor
Aurangzeb grants the
French East India Company a royal mandate to trade at the port of
Surat. •
September 6 – The
Cestui Que Vie Act 1666 is passed by the
Parliament of England, to provide for the disposal of the property of missing persons. •
September 16 – The
Apostasy of
Sabbatai Zevi begins in
Istanbul.
October–December •
October 10 – A "day of humiliation and fasting" is held in
London churches a month after the Great Fire of London. •
October 11 – The Sieur de Buat, Captain
Henri de Fleury de Coulan of the Army of the Dutch Republic, is beheaded in public at
The Hague after being convicted of attempting to overthrow Dutch leader
Johan de Witt. •
October 17 – In North America,
a French Army regiment led by
Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy erects crosses in the
Mohawk lands of the eastern
Iroquois Confederacy territory along the
Mohawk River as part of an invasion that started on September 29. During the expedition, Prouville's forces find four abandoned Mohawk villages in the area, located in the modern U.S. state of New York near the village of
Schenectady but never confront any Mohawk defenders, and the French never attempt to enforce their claim. •
October 23 – The most intense tornado on record in English history, an F4 storm on the
Fujita scale or T8 on the
TORRO scale, strikes the county of
Lincolnshire with a path of destruction through the villages of Welbourn, Wellingore, Navenby and Boothby Graffoe, with winds of more than . •
October 26 –
Abbas II, the
Shah of Iran, dies at the age of 34 after a reign of 24 years, without designating a successor. His 18-year old son Sam Mirza is crowned as the new Safavid dynasty emperor six days later. •
October 27 –
Robert Hubert, a Frenchman who has made a false confession to having started the Great Fire of London (despite not arriving in England until two days after the blaze started), is executed based on his statements. •
November 28 – The
Battle of Rullion Green takes place in the
Pentland Hills near
Midlothian in
Scotland as the culmination of the brief 'Pentland Rising' which began on November 15 as a rebellion by the
Covenanters who oppose changes in the
Church of Scotland. At least 2,000 men of the Scottish Royal Army, led by General
Thomas Dalyell, defeat more than 750 Covenanter rebels who have been under the command of
James Wallace of Auchens. •
December 12 – A
sobor (church council) of the
Russian Orthodox Church deposes
Patriarch Nikon of Moscow, but accepts his liturgical reforms. Dissenters from these, known as
Old Believers, continue into the 21st century. •
December 19 –
Lund University is founded in
Lund, Sweden. •
December 22 – The
French Academy of Sciences, founded by
Louis XIV, first meets.
Date unknown •
Isaac Newton uses a prism to split sunlight, as referenced in his alchemical works as
Lux Dei, into the component colours of the
optical spectrum, assisting the understanding of the scientific nature of
light. He also develops differential
calculus simultaneously with Leibniz. 1666 is consequently referred to as his
Annus mirabilis or Newton's "Year of the Morning Star". •
Jean Talon completes a
census of New France, the first
census in
North America. • Dutch artist
Johannes Vermeer paints
The Art of Painting, his largest and most complex work. • The first completed printed
Bible translation into Armenian, ''
(Oskanean Bible''), is published in
Amsterdam, edited by Bishop
Oskan Yerevantsi. == Births ==