"Ay, now the plot thickens very much upon us."
- George Villiers, The Rehearsal
Born in 1672:
Died in 1672:
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Peter Stuyvesant, former ruler of Nieuw Nederland.
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Japanese mathematician Yoshida Mitsuyoshi.
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Japanese calligrapher and painter Obaku Dokuryu.
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German composer Heinrich Schütz.
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English miniature painter Samuel Cooper.
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French missionary and historian of French Canada, Marie Guyard.
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New England poet Anne Bradstreet.
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Flemish painter Lucas Uden.
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Dutch painter Abraham van den Tempel.
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Chinese bureaucrat Zhou Lianggong, patron of many important
Chinese painters.
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Ranadhira Kanteerava Narasaraja, Wodeyar of
Mysore, succeeded by Chikkadevaraja.
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English Admiral Edward Montagu, first Earl of Sandwich, killed
in the Battle of Sole Bay.
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Dutch mathematician and statesman Johan de Witt, chief minister
of the Netherlands, and his brother Cornelius De Witt, killed
during a riot, see below.
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Jan II Casimir, former king of Poland.
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hundreds of thousands from plague in Italy and France.
Events of 1672:
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Moliere's play Les Femmes savantes appears.
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William Wycherley's plays The Gentleman Dancing Master
and Love in a Wood appear.
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George Villers' play The Rehearsal appears.
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John Dryden's play Marriage a la Mode appears.
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Hannah Wolley's compendium of all things domestic, The Ladies
Delight, is published.
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A fire destroys Drury Lane Theatre.
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Isaac Newton publishes several articles on light and colour. In
one of them, he suggests that light is composed of "corpuscles".
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Jean Richer discovers that a pendulum's period varies with latitude;
from this, Newton deduces that the Earth has an equatorial bulge.
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Giovanni Domenico Cassini discovers a new satellite of Saturn, Rhea.
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In Japan, the very first Shirone Kite Festival is held.
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The Scottish Court of Justiciary is established.
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Charles II issues an Act of Indulgence suspending the Penal Laws,
angering Parliament, which will retaliate the following year.
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Parliament grants the Royal Africa Company a monopoly on the African
slave trade.
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French merchants establish a base at Pondicherry in India.
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(Third Dutch War) Louis XIV of France and Charles II of England
gang up on The Netherlands.
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Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz suggests a campaign in Egypt but Louis
is not diverted.
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Louis personally commands the army of invasion, The Duke of York's
fleet harasses Dutch shipping.
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Chief minister Johan de Witt's entreaties for peace are spurned.
Dutch citizens blame De Witt for their military weakness. De Witt's brother
Cornelius is arrested and put to torture in The Hague. De Witt resigns
and William of Orange becomes stadtholder of The United
Netherlands; thus ends the Era of Liberty.
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When Johan visits his brother in prison, a mob breaks into the prision
and tears them to pieces; their limbs are hung from lampposts.
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In December, the Dutch open dikes and flood the countryside. Unfortunately
a frost gives firm-enough footing for the French to threaten Amsterdam.
A thaw nearly traps the French army, however.
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Dutch Admiral Michiel de Ruyter engages the combined Anglo-French fleet
at their anchorage at Sole Bay. the Duke of York is forced
to transfer his flag twice. A tactical draw, it breaks the English
stranglehold on the seas, preventing Dutch ports from being attacked.
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Polish general Jan Sobieski defeats a Cossack-Tatar
army in the Ukraine. Ottoman sultan Mehmet
IV responds by sending and army of 300,000 into the Ukraine, capturing
Kamenets-Podolsky and the rest of Podolia from the Poles.
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In Narnaul, a fight between a Mughal foot soldier and a farmer belonging
to the Satnami sect turns into a full-blown revolt. Mughal
Emperor Aurangzeb sends an army of 10,000 into Narnaul, which annihilates
the Satnami.
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A Spanish missionary and his assistant on Guam are killed by Chief Mata'pang,
triggering retaliation by the Spanish, and Guam is rocked by war until
there are too few Chamoru left to continue fighting.
- King Phra Narai of Siam expels French missionaries and solders from his country.
1671 - 1672 - 1673
How They Were Made - 17th Century