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England's Charles II compels the City of London to surrender its charter under a writ of quo warranto. Various aldermen and officers are ejected and replaced by royal nominees. Municipal charters throughout England are revoked to give the Tories control over appointment of municipal officers, and some of the defeated Whigs conspire to assassinate the king. Former lord chancellor Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st earl of Shaftesbury, has opposed a Roman Catholic succession in England but dies at Amsterdam January 21 at age 61 (see Poetry, 1681). The Rye House plot is uncovered in June along with a similar conspiracy; Lord William Russell, 43, is sent to the Tower June 26 as are Arthur Capel, 51, 1st earl of Essex, and Algernon Sidney, 51. Russell is executed July 21 at Lincoln's Inn Fields after trial and conviction on the testimony of a perjured witness; Essex is discovered in his chamber July 30 with his throat slit, possibly by his own hand; and Sidney is beheaded December 7. The king's illegitimate son James Scott, 34, duke of Monmouth, is subpoenaed to give evidence at the trial of John Hampden, 27, who has been arrested for alleged complicity in the Rye House plot. Partisans of the duke advance his claims to the crown, but the execution of Sidney dampens their hopes, and the duke flees to Holland.
Louis XIV's chief minister Jean Baptiste Colbert dies at Paris September 6 at age 64, having created government monopolies and introduced other means of intervention to stabilize the economy, policies that will continue into the 21st century. He leaves fine estates throughout the country, but the French Navy without a champion at court. The navy will soon begin to decline. The king's wars and extravagances have undone most of what Colbert accomplished by way of fiscal reform, and his oppressive taxes have embittered the French people.
Spain declares war on France, and Spain's Carlos II is joined by the emperor Leopold in the League of The Hague, which joins the Dutch-Swedish alliance against Louis XIV (see 1681; 1684).
Portugal's dissolute king Afonso VI dies in virtual captivity at Sintra in the Azores September 12 at age 40 and is succeeded by his brother, now 35, who has served as regent since 1667 and will reign as Pedro II until his death in 1706.
Poland's Jan III Sobieski concludes a treaty with the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I against the Ottoman Turks April 1, each signatory pledging himself to support the other should the Turks lay siege to one of their capitals (the Polish king has failed to gain support from France and ignores the Treaty of Jaworów that he signed with the French in 1675). The grand vizier Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa lays siege to Vienna July 17 with 31,000 Ottoman troops. Jan III Sobieski rushes to the support of Leopold I with 25,000 troops to relieve the 16,000-man Viennese garrison. Charles of Lorraine, 40, arrives with his own army, and the Polish king takes command of an allied army of some 76,000 Austrian, Polish, Saxon, and Bavarian troops. They find themselves facing about 107,000 Turks, not counting the 31,000 men in the siege lines, but the 21-year-old elector of Bavaria Maximilian II Emanuel helps the allies gain a decisive victory September 12 at the Battle of Kahlenberg and lift the siege after 58 days, losing about 2,000 killed and wounded. Ottoman losses total about 10,000 killed and wounded; Kara Mustafa is beheaded at Belgrade December 25 at age 49 by order of Mehmed IV, and his head is delivered to the sultan on a silver platter. He is succeeded as grand vizier by Fazl Mustapha Köprülü.
China's Qing (Ching) dynasty forces conquer Taiwan (Formosa) from its Ming defenders, the emperor Kangxi annexes the island, and it will remain part of China until 1895. The remnants of the Ming dynasty lose their last territorial possession.
Colonist Roger Williams dies at Providence in the Rhode Island colony January 27 (or March 15) at age 79 (approximate).
Colonist William Penn signs the Great Treaty of Shackamaxon with Delaware chiefs, which permits Penn to purchase territories that will become southeastern Pennsylvania.
The first English shipwreck on Africa's East Coast strands sailors in Natal. Two more English wrecks and one Dutch wreck in the next few years will contribute to exploration of the region, at least one man will be trampled to death by an elephant, and some will report having met a man who survived a Portuguese wreck 42 years earlier and married an amapondo woman.
Chemist-adventurer Johann Joachim Becher dies in England in October at age 49 (year and age approximate).
Swiss anatomist Johann Conrad Brunner, 30, removes a dog's pancreas and notes that the animal develops an inordinate thirst, thus pioneering a knowledge of diabetes (see Willis, 1674; Cawley, 1788).
Anton van Leeuwenhoek invents an improved microscope and finds living organisms in the calculus scraped off his teeth, pioneering the germ theory of disease (see 1675; Fracostoro, 1546).
English physician Thomas Sydenham, 59, gives an accurate description of gout, having suffered from it for 34 years (see Garrod, 1859).
The collected works of Thomas Sydenham are published at Amsterdam and include writings that have appeared since 1666. "Among the remedies which it has pleased Almighty God to give man to relieve his sufferings, none is so universal and so efficacious as opium," Sydenham wrote in 1680. Opiates will remain the mainstay of treating severe pain from many illnesses for more than 3 centuries and one popular opiate will be Sydenham's drops (see morphine, 1803). Iron filings steeped in Rhenish wine relieve iron-deficiency anemia (chlorosis), Sydenham has written. Returning to the 5th century B.C. principles of Hippocrates, Sydenham has built a large and lucrative practice on the premise that the cause of all diseases resides in nature and that diseases tend to cure themselves. He uses diet, discreet bloodletting, Sydenham's drops, cinchona bark (see 1642), and vegetable simples; he gives clear clinical descriptions of malaria, hysteria, scarlatina, smallpox, and St. Vitus's dance (Sydenham's chorea); and he advises horseback riding for tuberculosis, cooling measures for smallpox, fresh air for sickrooms.
The Ashmolean Museum that opens at Oxford is the world's first public museum created to present natural phenomena and human achievements. The late royal gardener John Tradescant died in 1662, deeding his collection of stuffed birds (including a dodo) and fish, weapons, and other treasures to fellow collector Elias Ashmole, now 66, and Ashmole donated it to Oxford University in 1677 on condition that a separate building be erected to house it. Architect Thomas Wood has designed the structure, which will remain the center of scientific studies at Oxford for 150 years.
Nonfiction: Dialogues des Morts by French man of letters Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle, 26, is an attack on authoritarianism; L'Idée d'un système général de la nature by French historian, philosopher, and political writer Henri de Boulainvilliers, 24, reflects the young man's knowledge of classical works plus those of Spinoza and other contemporary writers.
Painting: Sir Charles Cotterell by Godfrey Kneller.
Philadelphia colonist Thomas Holme and other members of the Society of Friends lay out the city with a grid pattern employed earlier in the design of some Spanish colonial towns.
Copenhagen's Charlottenborg Palace is completed in Dutch Baroque style for Count Ulrik F. Byldenlove, illegitimate son of Frederik III. Eleven years in the building, it will be taken over by the dowager queen Charlotte Amalie in 1700 and 54 years later will become the Danish Royal Academy of Arts.
Christopher Wren designs London's Piccadilly Circus and St. James's Place.
Architect-priest-mathematician-theologian Guarino Guarini dies at Milan March 6 at age 59.
Wild boars become extinct in Britain.
France's Louis XIV hears cries of hungry beggars outside the palace at Versailles and sends an order to his aged controller of finance Jean Baptiste Colbert: "The suffering troubles me greatly. We must do everything we can to relieve the people. I wish this to be done at once." But little in fact is done.
The Viennese lose thousands to starvation in the 58-day siege by the Ottoman Turks. Survivors sustain themselves by eating cats, donkeys, and everything else edible.
Most of Vienna's bakers have their bakeries in cellars beneath their shops and work at night in order to have fresh bread for delivery in the morning; they hear digging and hammering sounds, realize that the Turks are trying to tunnel beneath the city's walls, sound the alarm, and create the crescent-shaped kipfel (or kipfl) roll to celebrate the victory (see 1529). Some historians will say the bakers produced the kipfel in anticipation of a Turkish victory (see Buda, 1686; Marie Antoinette, 1770).
The first coffeehouse in central Europe is opened at Vienna by Polish interpreter (and triple agent) Franz Georg Kolschitzky (or Franciszek Jerzy Kulczycki—his name can be spelled several different ways), who has been rewarded for smuggling the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I's call for help to the duke of Lorraine. Kolschitzky has tasted coffee in his sallies among the 300,000-man Ottoman siege force and obtained several bags of the roasted beans after the Turks retreat. His establishment Haus zur Blauenflasche (the House at the Sign of the Blue Bottle) is near St. Stephan's Cathedral at 6 Dongasse but enjoys little success with the Turkish brew until Kolschitzky strains off the sandy sediment, adds milk, and sweetens the drink with honey (which soon will be replaced with sugar, and cinnamon will be added to create cappuccino). By some accounts it is Kolschitzky who persuades local baker Peter Wendler to turn his round rolls into crescents, or kipfels, to celebrate the defeat of the Turks, and he will be said to have obtained jelly doughnuts from a local street vendor (see 1700).
German Mennonites arrive at Philadelphia October 6 aboard the Concord and buy 47,000 acres 6 miles to the north. Invited by Penn and led by lawyer Franz Daniel Pastorius, 30, who arrived in August, their "Germantown" is America's first German settlement. More Germans will come to America than any other nationality group except Anglo-Scots-Irish (see 1586; 1682; 1710; 1882).
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