Historical
1641: France - Rene Descartes publishes Meditationes de prima philosophia Meditations on First Philosophy
1641: Ireland - The Irish Rebellion
1641: Japan - The Tokugawa Shogunate Institutes Sakoku, foreigners are expelled and no one is allowed to enter or leave Japan
1642-1649: England - Civil War in England, Charles I is beheaded by Cromwell
1642: England - Isaac Newton is born
1642: Neatherlands, New Zealand - Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman achieves the first recorded European sighting of New Zealand
1644-1674: Mauritania - The Mauritanian Thirty-Year War
1644: China - The Manchu conquer China ending the Ming Dynasty, the subsequent Qing Dynasty rules until 1912
1644: Italy - Giovanni Battista Pamphili is elected Pope Innocent X at the Papal conclave of 1644
1645-1669: Turkey, Italy - Ottoman war with Venice, the Ottomans Invade Crete and capture Canea
1645: Japan - The death of Miyamoto Musashi, legendary Japanese Samurai warrior of natural causes
1647-1652: Spain - The Great Plague of Seville
1647: Turkey - Seven-year-old Mehmed IV becomes Ottoman sultan
1648-1653: France - Fronde civil war in France
1648-1667: Poland, Lithuania - The Deluge wars leave Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in ruins
1648-1669: Turkey, Italy - The Ottomans capture Crete from the Venetians after the Siege of Candia
1648: Spain, Italy - The Peace of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years War and the Eighty Years War and marks the ends of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire as major European powers
1649-1653: Ireland - The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
1650: United States - An estimated 40,000 people are living in the American Colonies
1652: England, Netherlands - Anglo-Dutch Wars begin
1652: South Africa - Cape Town founded by the Dutch East India Company in South Africa
1654-1661: Turkey, Albania - Mehmed Koprulu is Grand Vizier
1655-1661: Sweden - The Northern Wars cement the rise of Sweden as a Great Power
1658: India - After his father Shah Jahan completes the Taj Mahal, his son Aurangzeb deposes him as ruler of the Mughal Empire
1660: England - Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge founded
1660: England - The Commonwealth of England ends and the monarchy is brought back during the English Restoration
1661: China - The reign of the Kangxi Emperor of China begins
1661: India - Mehmed Koprulu dies and is succeeded by his son Ahmed
1662: France - Jacques Aymar-Vernay, who later reintroduced Dowsing into popular use in Europe, is born
1663: France - France takes full political and military control over Its colonial possessions in New France, microscope of Hooke discovers cells
1663: Turkey, Austria-Hungary - Ottoman war against Habsburg Hungary
1664: England - Forestry book by John Evelyn called Sylva is published in England
1664: Hungary, Turkey - Battle of St. Gotthard (first of two), count Raimondo Montecuccoli defeats the Ottomans, the Peace of Vasvar is Intended to keep the peace for twenty years
1664: United States - British troops capture New Amsterdam and rename It New York
1665: England - The Great Plague of London (aka. Bubonic Plague, Black Death) kills 70,000 people
1665: Portugal, Congo - Portugal defeats the Kongo Empire
1666: England - The Great Fire of London burns most of the city
1667-1668: France, Netherlands - The War of Devolutionm France Invades the Netherlands, the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1668) brings this to a halt
1667-1699: Turkey - The Great Turkish War halts the expansion of the Ottoman Empire into Europe
1668: Spain, Portugal - Peace Treaty of Lisbon between Spain and Portugal recognizes Portugal as Independent country
1669: Turkey, Crete - The Ottomans capture Crete
1670: Canada - The Hudson Bay Company is founded in Canada
1672-1673: Turkey, Ukraine - Ottoman campaign to help the Ukrainian Cossacks, John Sobieski defeats the Ottomans at the second battle of Khotyn (1673)
1672-1676: Poland, Turkey - Polish-Ottoman War
1672-1678: France, Netherlands - Franco-Dutch War
1672: Belgium - Lynching of Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis de Witt in the Hague, William III of Orange takes power
1672: Netherlands, France, England, Germany - Rampjaar in the Netherlands, combined attack by France, England and two German states on the Republic of the United Provinces
1674: England - The Treaty of Westminster ends the war between England and the Republic of the United Provinces
1674: India - Maratha Empire founded in India by Shivaji
1676-1681: Russia, Turkey - Russia and the Ottoman Empire fight the second (of ten) Russo-Turkish Wars, Turkish victory
1676: Poland, Turkey - The Treaty of Zurawno brings Polish-Ottoman hostilities to a halt
1676: Turkey - Kara Mustafa becomes Grand Vizier
1678: Netherlands, France - The Treaty of Nijmegen ends the hostilities between the Netherlands and France
1680: United States, Spain - The Pueblo Revolt drives the Spanish out of New Mexico until 1692
1681: Hungary - The Pasha of Buda supports rebellion led by Imre Thokoly in Hungary
1682-1683: Turkey - The Ottomans make camp at Adrianople
1682: Russia - Peter the Great becomes joint ruler of Russia (sole tsar in 1696)
1682: Turkey - Sultan Mehmed IV, advised by Kara Mustafa, decides to disregard the existing peace treaty with Leopold I, due to expire in 1684
1682: United States - La Salle explores the length of the Mississippi River and claims Louisiana for France
1683: Austria - A Habsburg council of war is held in Vienna
1683: Austria - The Battle of Vienna finishes the hegemony of the Ottoman Empire in southeastern Europe
1683: China - China conquers the Kingdom of Tungning and annexes Taiwan
1685: France - Edict of Fontainebleau outlaws Protestantism in France, King Charles II dies
1686-1700: Turkey, Russia - The Russo-Turkish War (third of ten), Russia wins
1687: England - Isaac Newton publishes Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica
1688-1689: Netherlands, England - The Glorious Revolution starts with the Dutch Republic Invading England, England becomes a constitutional monarchy
1688-1691: Ireland - The War of the Two Kings in Ireland
1688-1697: France - The Grand Alliance sought to stop French expansion during the Nine Years War
1688: England - The Siege of Derry
1689: England, Ireland, Scotland - William ascends to the throne over England, Scotland, and Ireland
1689: England - John Locke publishes his first work called Letter Concerning Toleration
1689: Russia, China - The Treaty of Nerchinsk established a border between Russia and China
1689: Scotland, England - Battle of Killiecrankie is fought between Jacobite and Williamite forces in Highland Perthshire
1690: Ireland - The Battle of the Boyne in Ireland
1691: United States - Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Plymouth Colony merge. This is in response to an attempt started in 1685 by King James II attempts to establish control over the colonies
1692: United States - Salem witch trials in Massachusetts. Over twenty people are hung for being witches.
1693-1694: France - Famine in France kills two million
1694: England - Mary II of England dies
1694: England - The Bank of England is established
1696-1697: Finland - Famine in Finland wipes out almost a third of the population