| |
Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1653 | - 1653: Commonwealth registers start
- 1653: Under the Act of Settlement Cromwell's opponents stripped of land
- 1653: Provincial probate courts abolished – probates granted only in London
- 20 Apr 1653: Cromwell dissolves the Rump Parliament
- 16 Dec 1653: Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England,
Scotland and Ireland
|
| 2 | 1657 | - 1657: Post Office established by Act of Parliament [others say 1660]
- 1657: A few Jews permitted to settle in England
|
| 3 | 1658 | - 1658: Richard Cromwell (son of Oliver) Lord Protector (-1660)
- 3 Sep 1658: Death of Oliver Cromwell
|
| 4 | 1659 | - 1659: Start of national meteorological Temperature records in the UK
- 6 Feb 1659: Date of first known bank cheque to be drawn
|
| 5 | 1660 | - 1660: Commonwealth registers ended, Parish Registers resumed
- 1660: Provincial Probate Courts re-established
- 1660: Clarendon code restricts Puritans' religious freedom
- 1660: Composition of light discovered by Newton
- 1660: Honourable East India Company founded by British
- 1 Jan 1660: Samuel Pepys starts his diary
- 29 May 1660: Restoration of British monarchy (Charles II) – 'Oak Apple Day' – theatres
reopened
- 17 Oct 1660: Ten Regicides are executed at Charing Cross or Tyburn
- 28 Nov 1660: Twelve men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir
Robert Moray decide to found what is later known as the Royal Society
- 8 Dec 1660: First actress plays in London (Margaret Hughes as Desdemona)
|
| 6 | 1661 | - 1661: Restoration of Episcopacy in Scotland
- 1661: Board of Trade founded in London
- 1661: Hand-struck postage stamps first used
- 1661: Corporation Act prevents non-Anglicans from holding municipal office
- 30 Jan 1661: Oliver Cromwell formally 'executed', having been dead for over two years!
|
| 7 | 1662 | - 1662: 'Hearth Tax' introduced – until 1689 (1690 in Scotland)
- 1662: Poor Relief Act or "Act of Settlement" – gave JPs the power to return any wandering
poor to the parish of origin (repealed 1834)
- 1662: Tea introduced to Britain
- 24 Aug 1662: Act of Uniformity – Acceptance of Book of Common Prayer required – About
2,000 vicars and rectors driven from their parishes as nonconformists (Presbyterians and
Independents) – Persecution of all non-conformists – Presbyterianism dis-established –
Episcopalian Church of England restored
|
| 8 | 1664 | - 29 May 1664: Oak Apple Day – the birthday of Charles II and the day when he entered
London at the Restoration; commanded by Act of Parliament in 1664 to be observed as a day
of thanksgiving. A special service (expunged in 1859) was inserted in the Book of Common
Prayer and people wore sprigs of oak with gilded oak-apples on that day.
- 27 Aug 1664: Nieuw Amsterdam becomes New York as 300 English soldiers under Col.
Mathias Nicolls take the town from the Dutch under orders from Charles II. The town is
renamed after the King's brother James, Duke of York
|
| 9 | 1665 | - 1665: Great Plague of London (July-October) kills over 60,000
- 1665: Five-mile Act restricts non-conformist ministers in Britain
- 7 Nov 1665: The "London Gazette" first published – one of the official journals of record of the
United Kingdom government, and the oldest continuously published newspaper in the
United Kingdom
|
| 10 | 1666 | - 1666: Use of semaphore signalling pioneered by Lord Worcester
- 1666: Newton formulated Laws of Gravity
- 2 Sep 1666: Great Fire of London, after a drought beginning 27 June (2-6 Sep)
|
| 11 | 1668 | - 1668: British East India Company obtains control of Bombay
- 1668: Newton constructs reflecting telescope
|
| 12 | 1669 | - 31 May 1669: Last entry in Pepys's diary
|
| 13 | 1670 | - 26 May 1670: King Charles II and King Louis XIV of France sign the Secret Treaty of Dover
|
| 14 | 1671 | - 9 May 1671: Thomas Blood caught stealing the Crown Jewels
|
| 15 | 1672 | - 1672: High Court of Justiciary established in Scotland
- 1672: War with Holland (to 1674) – British Army increased to 10,000 men
|
| 16 | 1673 | - 1673: First Test Act deprives British Catholics and Non-conformists of Public Office
|
| 17 | 1674 | - 10 Nov 1674: Treaty of Westminster – Netherlands cedes New Netherlands (on the eastern
coast of North America) to Britain
|
| 18 | 1675 | - 1675: Beginning of Whig party under Shaftsbury
- 1675: Rebuilding of St Paul's started by Wren (completed 1710)
- 4 Mar 1675: John Flamsteed appointed first Astronomer Royal of England
- 10 Aug 1675: Building of Royal Greenwich Observatory started
|
| 19 | 1676 | - 1676: Compton Census, named after its initiator Henry Compton, Bishop of London, was
intended to discover the number of Anglican conformists, Roman Catholic recusants and
Protestant dissenters in England and Wales from enquiries made in individual parishes
|
| 20 | 1677 | - 1677: Lee's "Collection of Names of Merchants in London" published
|
| 21 | 1678 | - 1678: Extension of Test Act to peers
|
| 22 | 1679 | - 1679: Tories first so named
- 27 May 1679: Habeas Corpus Act becomes law in England – (later repealed from time to
time)
|
| 23 | 1680 | - 1680: William Dockwra(y) begins his London Penny Post
- 1680: Dodo becomes extinct in Mauritius through over-hunting
|
| 24 | 1681 | - 1681: Second Test Act (against non-conformists) passed by Westminster Parliament
- 1681: Oil lighting first used in London streets
|
| 25 | 1682 | - 1682: Pennsylvania founded by William Penn
- 1682: Library of Advocates founded in Edinburgh – later National Library of Scotland
- 1682: Halley observes the comet which bears his name
|
| 26 | 1683 | - 1683: Wild boar become extinct in Britain
- 6 Jun 1683: Ashmolean Museum opened at Oxford – first museum in Britain
|
| 27 | 1685 | - 1685: James the Second (1685-1689, died 1701) – Monmouth rebellion and battle of
Sedgemoor – British Army raised to 20,000 men
- 1685: Earl of Argyll's Invasion of Scotland
- 1685: Judge Jeffreys and the Bloody Assizes – 320 executed, 800 transported
|
| 28 | 1686 | - 1686: Release of all prisoners held for their religious beliefs
|
| 29 | 1687 | - 4 Apr 1687: James II issues the Declaration of Indulgence, suspending laws against Catholics
and non-conformists
- 5 Jul 1687: Newton published his "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica" – written
in Latin
|
| 30 | 1688 | - 1688: British Army raised to 40,000
- 1688: Bill of Rights limits the powers of the monarchy over parliament
- 1688: Hearth Tax abolished
- 1688: Mutiny Act
- Feb 1688: Edward Lloyd's Coffee House opens – later became Lloyd's of London
- Nov 1688: The Glorious Revolution: James II abdicates
- 5 Nov 1688: William of Orange lands at Torbay
- Dec 1688: Siege of Londonderry (began Dec 1688; ended 28 Jul 1689)
|
| 31 | 1689 | - 1689: Devonport naval dockyard established
- 13 Feb 1689: William III and Mary II, daughter of James II, jointly take the throne (only William, however, has regal power)
- 12 Mar 1689: Deposed James VII & II flees to Ireland – defeated at the Battle of the Boyne (1
Jul 1690)
- 24 May 1689: Toleration Act passed for Protestant non-conformists
- 27 Jul 1689: Battle of Killiecrankie in Scotland – Jacobites defeated Government troops but
at high cost
- 16 Dec 1689: Bill of Rights passed by Parliament, ending King's divine right to raise taxes or
wage war
|
| 32 | 1690 | - 20 May 1690: England passes Act of Grace, forgiving Roman Catholic followers of James II
|
| 33 | 1692 | - 1692: Land Tax introduced – originally designed as an annual tax on personal estate, public
offices and land. For practical purposes, however, assessors tended to avoid assessing items of
wealth other than landed property so that it became known as the Land Tax.
- 1692: French intention to invade England came to nothing
- 13 Feb 1692: The massacre of Glencoe – Clan Campbell sides with King William and
murders members of Clan McDonald
|
| 34 | 1693 | - 4 Aug 1693: Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Pierre Pérignon 's invention of Champagne
|
| 35 | 1694 | - 1694: National Debt came into effect in England
- 1694: Stamp Duties introduced into Britain from Holland
- 1694: Mary II death leaves William III as sole ruler
- 1694: Triennial Act, new Parliamentary elections every three years
- 1694: Scotland: Poll Tax imposed on all over sixteen, except the destitute and insane (-1699)
- 27 Jul 1694: Bank of England founded by William Paterson (a Scot)
|
| 36 | 1695 | - 1695: Freedom of Press in England granted
- 1695: Bank of Scotland founded
- 1695: Act of Parliament imposes a fine on all who fail to inform the parish minister of the
birth of a child (repealed 1706)
- 1695: Start of "Dissenters" lists in parish registers – children born but not christened in the
parish church – some were named "Papist" and others "Protestants"
|
| 37 | 1697 | - 2 Dec 1697: Official opening of St Paul's Cathedral
|
1653 - 1697 (44 years)
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