Cromwell dies after naming his son Richard to succeed him in the office of Lord Protector

Prince Rupert of the Rhine pioneers mezzotint, the first half-tone technique in printing

General George Monck marches south from Scotland to London, to intervene in England's unresolved political crisis

On the first day of the new year Samuel Pepys gets up late, eats the remains of the turkey and begins his diary

Monck, reaching London, dissolves the Long Parliament and convenes a new one

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

The berlin, developed in Berlin, becomes the most successful carriage of the seventeenth century

Sweden wins the province of Skåne from Denmark, thus acquiring an unbroken stretch of Baltic coastline from Göteborg to Riga

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

Italian doctor Marcello Malpighi discovers the capillaries, thus completing the evidence for the circulation of the blood

A banker in Sweden, Johan Palmstruch, issues Europe's first paper currency, on behalf of the Stockholm Banco

Louis XIV establishes a royal dancing academy and soon follows it with a music academy

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

Jean-Baptiste Colbert buys the Gobelin family workshops in Paris and transforms them into a royal factory for Louis XIV

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

Colbert founds East India and West India companies to ensure a supply of raw materials for France's factories

Louis XIV commissions a well-established team of designers to provide him with a spectacular palace and garden at Versailles

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

A new Danish constitution (the Kongeloven or King's Law) makes the monarchy hereditary and grants the king absolute power