1669

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( 1660s: )     1669
Phosphorus is discovered by German alchemist Hennig Brand, the first chemical element to be discovered that was not known since ancient times.
Year 1669

Events

January–June

• March 11 – Mount Etna erupts, destroying the Sicilian town of Nicolosi.
• May 31 – Samuel Pepys stops writing his diary.
• June 22 – Roux de Marsilly, accused of plotting the assassination of King Louis XIV of France, is publicly tortured in Paris, France.
• June 25 – François de Vendôme, Duke of Beaufort, disappears in battle, during the siege of Candia in Crete.

July–December

• July – The Hanseatic League, after 400 years of operation, holds its last official meeting in Lübeck.
• September 6 – Francesco Morosini, capitano generale of the Venetian forces in the siege of Candia, surrenders to the Ottomans.
• September 23 – Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor grants the status and privileges of a university to the Jesuit Academy in Zagreb, the precursor to the modern University of Zagreb.

Date unknown

• Shakushain's revolt breaks out in Hokkaido, Japan.
• Mughal emperor Aurangzeb destroys several Hindu temples (e.g. Kashi Vishwanath and Kesava Deo), imposes the jizya tax, leading to Hindu rebellion.
• Ottoman units burn the eastern part of Kolárovo.
• The Chinese Kangxi Emperor allows coastal residents deported in the Great Clearance of 1662 to return home.
• Famine in Bengal kills 3 million people.
• Phosphorus is discovered by German alchemist Hennig Brand, the first chemical element to be discovered that was not known since ancient times.
• Antonio Stradivari makes his first violin in Cremona.
• Okaya & Co. is founded as Sasaya, a trading company in Nagoya, Japan.
• The Chinese herbal medicine company Tong Ren Tang (同仁堂) is established in Beijing.
• Blaise Pascal's Pensées is posthumously published in Paris.
• Jan Swammerdam publishes his Algemeene Verhandeling van de bloedeloose dierkens, a groundbreaking work in microscopy, as well as entomology.
• The Orange College of Breda is wound up.
• Jean Picard begins measurement of 1 degree of Earth's meridian arc in France.

Births

• January 20 – Susanna Wesley, mother of the John and Charles Wesley, known as mother of Methodism (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)<
  • Jiang Tingxi, Chinese painter (d. 1732)
  • Elżbieta Sieniawska, politically influential Polish magnate (d. 1729)
• probable – Peter King, 1st Baron King, Lord Chancellor of England (d. 1734)

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 and statesman (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, satirist (b. 1601)
• April 5 – Nabeshima Naozumi, Japanese daimyō (b. 1616)
• April 12 – Abdias Treu, German mathematician and academic (b. 1597)
• April 22 – Friedrich Wilhelm II, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg (1639–1669) (b. 1603)
• April 23 – Johannes Canuti Lenaeus, archbishop of Uppsala, Sweden (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, French soldier (b. 1616)
• July 16 – Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Berkshire, English politician (b. 1587)
• July 29 – Josias II, Count of Waldeck-Wildungen, major general in Brunswick and co-ruler of Waldeck-Wildungen (b. 1636)
• August 18 – William Gawdy, English politician (b. 1612)
• August 28 – Sir William Drake, 1st Baronet, English politician (b. 1606)
• September 3 – Esteban Manuel de Villegas, Spanish poet (b. 1589)
• September 10 – Henrietta Maria of France, queen of Charles I of England (b. 1609)
• September 28 – Pierre Le Muet, French architect (b. 1591)
• October 4 – Rembrandt Harmenszoon 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)
  • Matthias Sention, Sr., Connecticut settler (b. 1601)
• 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, German prince of the House of Ascania (b. 1622)
• November 10 – Elisabeth Pepys, English wife of Samuel Pepys (b. 1640)
• December 9 – Pope Clement IX (b. 1600)
• December 11 – Anna Maria of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, consort of Augustus, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels (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, German nobleman (b. 1626)
• December 25 – George William, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld (b. 1591)
• December 31 – Bogusław Radziwiłł, Polish-Lithuanian noble (b. 1620)

 

New Groups

Group	Image	Type	Description
University of Innsbruck		Public	Third largest university in Austria
University of Zagreb			The focal institution of higher education in Croatia, educating most of the members of the Croatian intelligentsia.

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