1678

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1678 (MDCLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (dominical letter B) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Tuesday (dominical letter F) of the Julian calendar, the 1678th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 678th year of the 2nd millennium, the 78th year of the 17th century, and the 9th year of the 1670s decade. As of the start of 1678, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1918.

Events

January–June

• January 27 – The first fire engine company in what will become the United States goes into service.
• February 18 – The first part of English nonconformist preacher John Bunyan's Christian allegory The Pilgrim's Progress is published in London.
• May 11 – French admiral Jean d'Estrees runs his whole fleet aground in Curaçao.
• June – French buccaneer Michel de Grammont leads 6 pirate ships and 700 men in a daring raid on Spanish-held Venezuela, reaching inland as far as Trujillo, Venezuela.
• June 25 – Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia becomes the first woman to be awarded a university degree, a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Padua.

July–December

• August 10 – The Treaties of Nijmegen end the Franco-Dutch War. The County of Burgundy is ceded to the Kingdom of France.
• September 6 – Titus Oates begins to present allegations of the Popish Plot, a supposed Roman Catholic conspiracy to assassinate king Charles II of England. Oates applies the term Tory to those who disbelieve his allegations.
• October 17 – English magistrate Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey is found murdered in Primrose Hill, London. Titus Oates claims it as a proof of his allegations.
• December 3 – Test Act provides that members of both the House of Lords and House of Commons of England must swear an anti-Catholic oath before taking office.

Date unknown

• Rebellion breaks out in southern China.
• About 1,200 Irish families sail from Barbados to Virginia and the Carolinas.
• In Ireland, the vacant Bishopric of Leighlin is given to the Bishop of Kildare to form the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin.
• The first chrysanthemums are planted in Europe.

Births

Antonio Vivaldi

• March 4 – Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer (d. 1741)
• March 7 – Filippo Juvara, Italian architect (d. 1736)
• April 14 – Abraham Darby I, one of the fathers of the Industrial Revolution (d. 1717)
• May 16 – Andreas Silbermann, organ builder (d. 1734)
• July 26 – Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1711)
• September 16 – Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, English statesman and philosopher (d. 1751)
• September 29 – Adrien-Maurice, 3rd duc de Noailles, French soldier (d. 1766)
• October 10 – John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll, Scottish soldier (d. 1743)
• October 16 – Anna Waser, Swiss painter (d. 1714)
• November 26 – Jean Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan, French geophysicist (d. 1771)
• December 8 – Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole of Wolterton, English diplomat (d. 1757)
• December 13 – Yongzheng Emperor of China (d. 1735)
• December 14 – Daniel Neal, English historian (d. 1743)
• December 30 – William Croft, English composer (d. 1727)
• date unknown
  • George Farquhar, Irish dramatist (d. 1707)
  • Maria Faxell, Swedish vicar's wife and war heroine (d. 1738)
  • Joachim Ludwig Schultheiss von Unfriedt, German architect (d. 1753)
  • Pierre Fauchard, French physician and author considered "The father of modern dentistry" (d. 1761)
  • John Senex, British geographer (d. 1740)^[1]

Deaths

• January 23 Sir William Curtius FRS, German magistrate, English baronet; official resident of the English Crown in the Holy Roman Empire, b. (1599).
• January 29 – Jeronimo Lobo, Portuguese Jesuit missionary (b. 1593)
• May 4 or May 14 – Anna Maria van Schurman, Dutch poet and scholar (b. 1607)
• May 18 – Miyamoto Iori, Japanese samurai (b. 1612)
• August 5 – Juan García de Zéspedes, Mexican musician and composer (b. 1619)
• August 16 – Andrew Marvell, English writer (b. 1621)
• August 17 – Guillaume Herincx, Flemish theologian and Bishop of Ypres (b. 1621)
• August 28 – John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton, English soldier (b. 1602)
• September 8 – Pietro della Vecchia, Italian painter (b. 1603)
• October 12 – Edmund Berry Godfrey, English magistrate (b. 1621)
• October 18 – Jacob Jordaens, Flemish painter (b. 1593)
• October 19 – Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten, Dutch painter (b. c. 1627)
• November 1 – William Coddington, first Governor of Rhode Island (b. 1601)

References