"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders
of giants."
- Isaac Newton to Robert Hooke, 1676
Born in 1676:
Died in 1676:
Events of 1676:
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Sir George Etherege's play The Man of Mode appears.
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Thomas Shadwell's play The Virtuoso appears. A satire of
science, its main character Gimcrack will become a word for
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William Wyncherly]'s play The Plain Dealer appears.
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Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz visits Sir Isaac Newton
in London. Newton proponents claim he developed a sudden interest
in 'fluxions' about this time.
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Construction begins on buildings designed by Christopher Wren for the
recently-established Royal Greenwich Observatory.
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Louis XIV:
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forbids French settlers in Quebec from trading with the Indians.
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continues to fight the Third Dutch War against The Netherlands,
Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire. Nominally a crusade against the Protestant
Dutch, it is really for possession of the Spanish Netherlands, was well
as other Hapsburg territories north of France.
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The French fleet, led by Abraham Duquesne has an indecisive battle with
the Dutch (led by Admiral Ruyter) near Stromboli. Soon after,
Duquesne is more successful in a battle east of Sicily (off Etna).
Ruyter is wounded in the leg; he is killed after a botched attempt at amputation.
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Louis moves the capital of Franche-Comté to Besançon;
the area is now permanently part of France.
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Jan Sobieski, elected by Polish nobles in 1674, is crowned King
of Poland. An Orttoman army of 200,000 invades
the Ukraine (a Polish possession at the time), but Sobieski defeats them
at Zorawno, following up on 1675's victory
at Lvov. Poland is given two-thirds of the Ukraine at the peace treaty
that follows. The treaty also allows Turkey to wage war against (Orthodox)
Russia.
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The uprising of Wampanoag and Narraganset led by
Wampanoag King Philip (the son of Massasoit)
comes to its awful conclusion. Several Massachuetts settlements are
raided and leveled, but Massachusetts militia break the rebel army in
a battle at Hadley. King Philip flees into a swamp,
where he is hunted down and killed by Benjamin Church. Massasoit's
kindness to the Pilgrims is repaid by his grandson being sold into slavery.
The Massachusetts legislature then decrees a day of Thanksgiving for
the victory.
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In Virginia, a political struggle over how to best steal land from the
Indians develops into Bacon's Rebellion.
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The previous year, a cycle of colonists' theft and Indian raids has colonists
in a froth. Their anger causes them to make retaliatory attacks on
the wrong Indians, and call peace meetings they later turn into bloodbaths.
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Governor Sir William Berkeley is having no success trying to calm things
down. In particular, his nephew Nathaniel Bacon has imprisoned
Appomattox Indians on trumped-up charges.
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(March) Berkeley calls a Long Assembly which declares war on all
"bad" Indians, turning Virginia into an armed camp.
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Taxes are raised to pay for all of the fortifications, turning popular
opinion against the government.
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Bacon's faction begins raiding Indian villages against Berkeley's orders.
Berkeley leads a force to Henrico to arrest Bacon but he flees.
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Bacon tries to get a pardon for his nephew if he will turn himself in,
but the House of Burgesses will have none of it.
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Eventually, Berkeley has to flee to the Eastern Shore, and Bacon declares
the Virginia government illegitimate, and sets up a military regime, declaring
himself 'Generall by Consent of the People'. In the process of fortifying
Jamestown, he burns it to the ground.
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(October) Bacon dies of conditions caused by poor personal hygiene.
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Berkeley comes back, regains control, and hangs all of the rebel leaders.
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The Scanian War:
http://www.nps.gov/colo/Jthanout/BacRebel.html
1675 - 1676 - 1677
How They Were Made - 17th Century
