- Feb 27 Battle at Elmina, Gold Coast: Vice-admiral De Ruyter beats English
Declaration of War
Mar 4 English King Charles II declares war on Netherlands
Event of Interest
May 15 Pope Alexander VII appoints committee to investigate Jansenism
- May 31 Jerusalem's rabbi Sjabtai Tswi proclaims himself Messiah
Great Plague of London
Jun 7 Great Plague of London: Samuel Pepys writes in his diary of houses marked with a red cross in London's Drury Lane, meaning somebody inside is infected with the plague and must be locked in for 40 days or until death
- Jun 12 England installs a municipal government in New York City
- Jun 12 New Amsterdam legally becomes an English colony and renamed New York after English Duke of York
- Jun 13 Battle of Lowestoft, off Suffolk, England: English fleet beats Dutch
- Jun 17 Battle of Viciosa (Monte Claros): English & Portuguese army beat Spain
- Jun 30 The number of deaths in London from the Great Plague during June is recorded as 6,137 people
- Aug 2 Battle of Vågen: English warships attack a Dutch merchant and treasure fleet in neutral Bergen, Norway. English forced to retreat after suffering 421 dead and wounded.
- Aug 2 French expedition against Barbarians in Tunis and Algiers
- Aug 27 "Ye Bare & Ye Cubb" is the first play performed in North America in Acomac, Virginia
- Sep 26 Height of the Great Plague of London as 7,165 people die throughout the previous week
- Oct 5 The University of Kiel is founded.
- Oct 9 Due to the Great Plague of London, the British Parliament meets at the University of Oxford rather than the Palace of Westminster
- Oct 29 Battle of Mbwila [Ambuila]: Portuguese defeat forces of the Kingdom of Kongo and decapitate King Antonio I of Kongo / Nvita a Nkanga
Historic Publication
Nov 1 Robert Hooke's landmark work "Micrographia" with drawings using a microscope and coining the word "cell" is published by the Royal Society
- Nov 7 1st edition of "London Gazette" published as "The Oxford Gazette"
Event of Interest
Dec 4 Jean Racine's "Alexandre le Grand" premieres in Paris
