"Thus ends this year of public wonder and mischief to this
nation - and therefore generally wished by all people to have an end."
-Samuel Pepys, December 31
Born in 1666:
Died in 1666:
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German physicist and mathematician Gaspar Schott.
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Dutch painter Frans Hals.
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Dutch painter Johannes de Haes.
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Dutch painter Jan Abrahamsz Beerstraten.
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Italian physicist Giovanni Battista Baliani.
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Italian painter Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, better known as Il
Gurercino.
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Italian painter Pier Francesco Mola.
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Italian composer Massimiliano Neri.
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English composer Nicholas Lanier.
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English poet Alexander Broome.
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English alchemist and magician Thomas Vaughan.
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English privateer captain Christopher Myngs, killed during the
August 4 battle.
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Anne of Austria, consort of Louis XIII, the last person exerting
any control over Louis XIV.
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English poet, playwright, and composer Mildmay Fane, second
Earl of Westmoreland.
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English playwright James Shirley, from exposure after the Great
Fire.
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Former Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, imprisoned since
1658 by his son Aurangzeb. He is buried beside his wife at the
Taj Mahal.
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Abbas II, Shahanshah of Persia. He is succeeded
by his son Suleiman I.
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Tens of thousands from the plague in England (see below).
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100 Covenanters, executed after Rullion Green.
Events of 1666:
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Three plays by Molière appear: Le Misanthrope,
Le
Médecin malgré lui, and Mélicerte.
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Louis XIV, at the impetus of his minister Colbert, charters the Academie
des Sciences in PAris. One early member is Christiaan Huygens
who plans to solve the problem of longitude using a pendulum clock.
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Tekisai Nakamura's encyclopedia Kinmô Zui appears.
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Isaac Newton misses the fire, having fled home to Woolsthorpe,
Lincolnshire to escape the plague, but he makes good use of his time:
He lays the foundations of calculus as well as his theories of gravitation
and optics.
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Antonio Stradivari opens his violin-making shop in Cremona.
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John Eliot publishes The Indian Grammar, a codification
of the Wampanoag language.
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A census finds 3215 people living in New France. This
is the first known modern census, counting everyone and collecting
demographic data for administrative purposes.
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(September 2-6) As legend has it, a baker in Pudding Lane in London
forgets to turn off his oven. Soon the bakery goes up in flames. The fire
spreads throughout the city. The Great Fire burns
for four days and destroys 1 1/2 square miles of London, most of the
city at the time. The official death toll is 16, and 80,000 people
are made homeless, but as most of the rats in the city were also killed,
the Black Death, which had been ravaging London since the previous
year, is checked.
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Charles II has been replacing Scottish Presbyterian ministers loyal
to the 1638 National Covenant, who are unhappy with Charles's attempt
to make the Church of Scotland like the Church of England. Skirmishes
between locals in Galloway turn into a march on Edinburgh. The
revolt is crushed by Sir Thomas Dalyell at the (November 13) Battle of
Rullion Green in the Pentland Hills.
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Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, annexes Magdeburg.
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England has been at war with the Netherlands since 1664.
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Louis declares war against England. Although this is the limit of
France's involvement, rumors of French fleets sailing here and there make
the strategic situation difficult for the English.
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In June, Michiel de Ruyter defeats Admiral George Monck (now Duke of
Albemarle) and Prince Rupert in a four-day naval battle
off North Foreland.
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A month later in the North Sea, Monck beats de Ruyter after Admiral Tromp
fails to meet up with him.
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Sir Robert Holmes destroys the Dutch merchant fleet in the Vlie off of
Texel. However, the fire draws all attention away from the campaign,
and Monck anchors the entire fleet in the Medway estuary.
- In Poland, Lubomirski rebels surprise and destroy the army of King Jan II Kazimierz (led by Field Hetman Jan Sobieski) at the Batle of Matwy.
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Newark founded in East Jersey.
1665 - 1666 - 1667
How They Were Made - 17th Century