1669 Historical Overview
1669 (MDCLXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. It marked the 1669th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 669th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 17th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1660s decade. As of the start of 1669, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
Events
January–March
January 2 – Pirate Henry Morgan of Wales holds a meeting of his captains on board his ship, the former Royal Navy frigate Oxford, where an explosion in the ship’s gunpowder supply kills 200 of his crew and four captains who attended the summit.
January 4 – A 5.7 magnitude earthquake strikes the city of Shamakhi in Iran (now in Azerbaijan) and kills 7,000 people, following an earlier earthquake that killed 80,000.
February 13 – The first performance of the Ballet de Flore, a collaboration of Jean-Baptiste Lully and Isaac de Benserade, is premiered at the Palais du Louvre in Paris, financed by King Louis XIV, who even appears as a dancer.
February 23 – Isaac Newton writes his first description of his new invention, the reflecting telescope.
March 11 – Mount Etna erupts, destroying the Sicilian town of Nicolosi.
March 28 – Radu Leon is deposed by the Ottoman Sultan as Prince of Wallachia and is replaced by Antonie Vodă din Popești.
April–June
April 9 – Aurangzeb, the Muslim Emperor of the Mughal Empire in India, issues a firman decree for the protection of all Hindu temples and schools in his kingdom.
May 1 – The Spanish Armada de Barlovento is defeated by an English privateer fleet led by Captain Henry Morgan during his raid on Lake Maracaibo.
May 19 – The first executions in Sweden’s Mora witch trial occur, with seven women and one man beheaded after being convicted of “abduction of children to Satan.”
May 31 – Samuel Pepys stops writing his diary.
June 22 – Roux de Marsilly, accused of plotting to assassinate King Louis XIV of France, is publicly tortured in Paris.
June 25 – François de Vendôme, Duke of Beaufort, disappears in battle during the siege of Candia in Crete.
July–September
July 13 – Trinh Tac, the warlord governing the Kingdom of Vietnam, issues an order banning all foreign vessels from entering the harbor at Hanoi.
July 16 – A rockfall from the Mönchsberg mountain in Austria kills 230 people.
July 24 – A fire on the French flagship Thérèse results in an explosion, killing nearly the entire crew.
July 25 – Pieter Bickel becomes the first person to climb to the peak of the Großer Widderstein, the tallest of the Southeastern Walsertal Mountains.
July – The Hanseatic League holds its last official meeting after 400 years, with only nine members represented.
August 17 – A group of English settlers, led by Joseph West, departs for the first European settlement in what is now South Carolina.
August 24 – “The Man in the Iron Mask,” identified as Eustache Dauger, arrives at the French fortress of Pignerol.
August 25 – Following the Mora witch trial, more executions are carried out.
September 6 – Francesco Morosini, capitano generale of the Venetian forces, surrenders to the Ottomans.
September 23 – Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, grants university status to the Jesuit Academy in Zagreb.
September 29 – The formal coronation of Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki as King of Poland takes place.
October–December
October 4 – Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn dies; despite his wealth, he is buried in an unmarked grave.
October 6 – Molière’s comedy ballet Monsieur de Pourceaugnac premieres.
October 9 – The English ship Nonsuch returns to London with the first products from trade around Canada’s Hudson Bay.
October 15 – The University of Innsbruck is chartered by Leopold I.
October 19 – The Parliament of Scotland holds its first session in six years.
October 29 – Ukrainian Cossack General Mykhailo Khanenko is defeated at the Battle of Stebliv.
November 28 – Aurangzeb learns of a rebellion among Hindu residents in Mathurá.
December 8 – The Sultanate of Bima surrenders to the Dutch East Indies Company.
December 9 – Pope Clement IX dies at the age of 69.
December 13 – Jean Racine’s play Britannicus premieres in Paris.
December 18 – The Battle of Cádiz begins off the coast of Spain.
December 21 – A papal conclave begins to select a successor to Pope Clement IX.
Date Unknown
- Shakushain’s revolt breaks out in Hokkaido, Japan.
- Ottoman units burn parts of Kolárovo.
- The Kangxi Emperor allows coastal residents, deported in the Great Clearance, to return home.
- A famine in Bengal kills 3 million people.
- Phosphorus is discovered by German alchemist Hennig Brand.
- Antonio Stradivari makes his first violin in Cremona.
- Okaya & Co. is founded as Sasaya, a trading company in Nagoya, Japan.
- Tong Ren Tang, a Chinese herbal medicine company, is established in Beijing.
- Blaise Pascal’s Pensées is posthumously published in Paris.
- Jan Swammerdam publishes a groundbreaking work in microscopy.
- Jean Picard begins measurement of 1 degree of the Earth’s meridian arc in France.
Births
- January 20 – Susanna Wesley, mother of the Wesley brothers (d. 1742)
- April 3 – Jean-Baptiste Forqueray, French musician (d. 1722)
- May 24 – Emerentia von Düben, Swedish royal favorite (d. 1743)
- May 26 – Sébastien Vaillant, French botanist (d. 1722)
- July 30 – Eudoxia Lopukhina, first wife of Peter I of Russia (d. 1731)
- August 27 – Anne Marie d’Orléans, Queen of Sicily and Sardinia (d. 1728)
- August 29 – John Anstis, English herald (d. 1744)
- October 19 – Count Wirich Philipp von Daun, Austrian military leader (d. 1741)
- December 16 – Arnold Boonen, Dutch portrait painter (d. 1729)
- Date Unknown – Alessio Erardi, Maltese painter (d. 1727)
- Date Unknown – Jiang Tingxi, Chinese painter (d. 1732)
Deaths
- January 27 – Gaspar de Crayer, Flemish painter (b. 1584)
- February 3 – Catharina Questiers, Dutch poet (b. 1631)
- February 13 – Peter Venables, English politician (b. 1604)
- February 23 – Lieuwe van Aitzema, Dutch historian (b. 1600)
- March 10 – John Denham, English poet (b. 1615)
- March 12 – Cornelis Jan Witsen, Mayor of Amsterdam (b. 1605)
- March 17 – Willem van der Zaan, Dutch admiral (b. 1621)
- March 23 – Philipp Buchner, German composer (b. 1614)
- March 25 – Sir Lionel Tollemache, 3rd Baronet, English baronet (b. 1624)
- April 4 – Johann Michael Moscherosch, German statesman (b. 1601)
- April 5 – Nabeshima Naozumi, Japanese daimyō (b. 1616)
- April 12 – Abdias Treu, German mathematician (b. 1597)
- April 22 – Friedrich Wilhelm II, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg (b. 1603)
- April 23 – Johannes Canuti Lenaeus, archbishop of Uppsala (b. 1573)
- April 27 – Richard Treat, American city founder (b. 1584)
- May 1 – Isaac Thornton, English politician (b. 1615)
- May 14 – Georges de Scudéry, French writer (b. 1601)
- May 16 – Pietro da Cortona, Italian artist (b. 1596)
- June 25 – François de Vendôme, Duke of Beaufort (b. 1616)
- July 16 – Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Berkshire (b. 1587)
- July 29 – Josias II, Count of Waldeck-Wildungen (b. 1636)
- August 18 – William Gawdy, English politician (b. 1612)
- August 28 – Sir William Drake, 1st Baronet (b. 1606)
- September 3 – Esteban Manuel de Villegas, Spanish poet (b. 1589)
- September 10 – Henrietta Maria of France, queen of England (b. 1609)
- September 28 – Pierre Le Muet, French architect (b. 1591)
- October 4 – Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch painter (b. 1606)
- October 9 – Richard Strode, English politician (b. 1584)
- October 14 – Antonio Cesti, Italian composer (b. 1623)
- October 16 – John Trapp, English theologian (b. 1601)
- October 19 – Domenico Fiasella, Italian painter (b. 1589)
- October 24 – William Prynne, English Puritan leader (b. 1600)
- November 3 – Charles Drelincourt, French Protestant divine (b. 1595)
- November 4 – Johannes Cocceius, Dutch theologian (b. 1603)
- November 7 – Lebrecht, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen (b. 1622)
- November 10 – Elisabeth Pepys, wife of Samuel Pepys (b. 1640)
- December 9 – Pope Clement IX (b. 1600)
- December 11 – Anna Maria of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (b. 1627)
- December 13 – Thomas Dyke, English politician (b. 1619)
- December 16 – Nathaniel Fiennes, English politician (b. c. 1608)
- December 18 – Johann Philipp of Hanau-Lichtenberg (b. 1626)
- December 25 – George William, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld (b. 1591)
- December 31 – Bogusław Radziwiłł, Polish-Lithuanian noble (b. 1620)