Charles II lands at Dover and is given a warm welcome in London four days later

John Bunyan is convicted of unlicensed preaching and spends the next eleven years in Bedford Gaol

The body of Oliver Cromwell is hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn

The Cavalier Parliament begins to pass a series of acts, known as the Clarendon Code, containing punitive measures against Presbyterians

British chemist Robert Boyle defines the inverse relationship between pressure and volume in any gas (subsequently known as Boyle's Law)

The Act of Uniformity demands that Anglican clergy accept all the Thirty-Nine Articles, costing many their livings

An academy of English scientists is given a royal charter by Charles II and becomes the Royal Society

The Conventicle Act restricts worship in England to Anglican churches if more than a few people are present

The first recorded attempt at blood transfusion, at the Royal Society in London, proves that the idea is feasible

The Five Mile Act prevents Nonconformist ministers in England from coming closer than five miles to any town where they have ministered

The Great Plague of London causes as many as 7000 deaths in a week and perhaps a total of 100,000 by the end of the year

Isaac Newton spends a creative period in Lincolnshire, at home in Woolsthorpe Manor, apples or no apples

The Great Fire of London rages for four days, destroying 13,200 houses and 81 churches

Michiel de Ruyter sails up the Thames to destroy much of the English fleet at its base in the Medway

Paradise Lost is published, earning its author John Milton just £10

Wood-carver Grinling Gibbons arrives from Holland to begin an immensely successful career in England

The duke of York, heir to the English and Scottish thrones, is secretly received into the Roman Catholic church

Samuel Pepys ends his diary, after only writing it for nine years

Charles II issues a Declaration of Indulgence, suspending the restrictions on Catholics and Nonconformists

Isaac Newton's experiments with the prism demonstrate the link between wavelength and colour in light

Parliament in England passes a Test Act excluding Catholics and Nonconformists from public office

The Popish Plot, an invented Jesuit conspiracy to kill Charles II, results in the execution of about thirty-five Roman Catholics

Part I of The Pilgrim's Progress, written during John Bunyan's two spells in Bedford Gaol, is published and is immediately popular

The rival political parties in Britain find abusive names for each other - Whigs and Tories

The English clockmaker Thomas Tompion is the first to make successful use of the hairspring in pocket watches