1677

• English playwright George Farquhar.
• English poet John Hughes.
• French mathematician Joseph Privat de Molières.
• Italian composer Antonio Maria Bononcini.
• Italian composer Pietro Alfianello Gnocchi.
• British politician Sir Thomas Hanmer.
• French sculptor Guillaume Coustou.
• French composer Jean-Baptiste Morin.
• English physiologist Stephen Hales.
• Scottish Presbyterian preacher Thomas Boston.
• Stanislaw Leszczynski, nominal king of Poland 1704-1709, and later 1733-1735 (during the doomed War of the Polish Succession), and later yet, Duke of Lorraine and Bar.

 

• Dutch-born Jewish apostate and later deist rationalist philosopher Baruch Spinoza.
• Virginia settler William Claiborne, who caused a lot of trouble for the Calverts after finding his Kent Island holdings suddenly in Maryland.
• English composer Matthew Locke.
• English political philosopher James Harrington.
• English physician and pioneer of the Royal Society Francis Glisson.
• Bohemian engraver Wenceslaus Hollar.
• French-born lexicographer (of English!) François du Jon, aka Francis Junius.
• French engraver Gabriel Pérelle.
• French painter Mathieu Le Nain.
• Flemish painter Wallerant Vaillant.
• French composer Robert Cambert.
• Italian composer Maurizio Cazzati.
• Italian composer Giovanni Battista Chinelli.
• Italian composer Antonio Maria Abbatini.
• Italian composer Orazio Tarditi.
• Dutch painter Aert van der Neer.
• Itaian painter Evaristo Baschenis.
• Chinese painter Wang Jian.
• Gilbert Sheldon, Archbishop of Canterbury.
• Jan van Riebeeck, founder of Cape Town.
• English mathematician Isaac Barrow, former holder of Cambridge's Lucasian Chair.
• Sir William Berkeley, former governor of Virginia, see below.
• Susuhunan Amangkurat I, king of Mataram in central Java, see below.

• Spinoza's Ethics and tractatus politicus appear after his death.
• Nathaniel Lee's play The Rival Queens appears.
• Jean Racine's play Phèdre appears.
• The Triumphant Widow, a play by William Newcastle, late Duke of Cavendish, appears.
• Benjamin Keach writes a catechism clarifying the beliefs of Baptists.
• Elias Ashmole gives his collection to Oxford University.  LAter, the Ashmolean Museum is formed around this collection.
• Massachussetts, victorious againt Wampanoag King Philip the previous year, restricts Indians to four settlements, and sells captured Wampanoag children off into slavery.
• Charles II relieves Virginia governor William Berkeley of his post for allowing Bacon's Rebellion to happen the previous year. Berkeley sails home to Enagland and dies in disgrace.
• The University of Innsbrück is founded.
• Scanian War, Denmark and Brandenburg versus Sweden:
• Denmark captures Jamtland at the beginning of the year
• (July 1) The Danish navy, led by Admiral Niels Juel, defeats the Swedes at Køge Bay.
• (July 4) Helsingborg falls to Danish King Kristian V's siege.
• (July 13) The Danes are defeated outside Landskrona. They still hold the fortress, but are stretched a bit thin and abandon Jamtland.  Sweden re-occupies Jamtland.
• King Karl XI confiscates Knutstorp, the birthplace of Tycho Brahe, from Tycho's grandnephew Steen Brahe the Younger.
• Brandenburg armies take Stralsund and now hold all Pomerania except for Stettin which they are beseiging.
• (Culpeper's Rebellion) George Eastchurch has convinced someone at court make him governor of Albemarle colony in place of John Jenkins. He appoints Thomas Miller 'acting governor' and sends him back across the Atlantic. Miller arrives in Albemarle, elbows Jenkins aside, and raises tobacco taxes, sparking widespread unrest. John Culpeper and George Durant seize Miller, throw him in jail and confiscate the tobacco tax revenue.
• Russia invades the Ukraine, sparking a war with The Ottoman Empire.
• The Dutch Vereenigte Oostindische Compagnie makes a treaty with Mataram king Amangkurat, getting more territory around their Batavia enclave in exchange for military assistance against Trunajaya of Madura. Although Trunajaya is pushed out of Surabaya, he loots Plered, Amangkurat's palace near Jogjarkarta.  Amangkurat flees northward to seek VOC Assistance but dies along the way.  His son, nominally king Susuhunan Amangkurat II is now a client of the Dutch.
• Louis XIV is also busy fighting The Netherlands, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire, trying to take the Spanish Netherlands.
• (March 17) Louis leads the army that captures Valenciennes.
• (April 5) Louis takes Cambric.
• (April 10-11) Phillipe d'Orleans defeats William of ORange at Mont Cassel, and France now holds a large portion of Flanders.
• (November 16th) French armies capture Freiburg, a Hapsburg possession on the upper Rhine.  Vauban begins levelling the city's suburbs to build fortifications.
• According to legend, Sikh Guru Gobind Singh celebrates his wedding by hitting the sacred spear Karpa Barchha on the ground, miraculously creating three springs, helping to ease a local drought.

1676 - 1677 - 1678

How They Were Made - 17th Century