1659
Years:
1656 1657 1658 - 1659 - 1660 1661 1662Decades:
1620s 1630s 1640s - 1650s - 1660s 1670s 1680sCenturies:
16th century - 17th century - 18th century 1659 by topic: Science - State leaders - Literature - Music
Events
- May 25 - Richard Cromwell resigns as Lord Protector of England following the restoration of the Long Parliament, beginning a second brief period of the republican government called the Commonwealth.
- November 7 - 24-year war between France and Spain ends with French acquisition of Roussillon and most of Artois under the Treaty of the Pyrenees.
- The Spanish Infanta Maria Theresa brings cocoa to Paris
- Diego Velázquez's portrait of Infanta Maria Theresa is first exhibited
- Thomas Hobbes publishes De Homine
- Parisian police raid a monastery, sending monks to prison for eating meat and drinking wine during Lent
- Drought in India
Science
- Christiaan Huygens - Systema Saturnium
Births
- March 8 - Isaac de Beausobre, French protestant pastor (d. 1738)
- June 3 - David Gregory, Scottish astronomer (d. 1708)
- June 12 - Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Japanese samurai
- July 20 - Hyacinthe Rigaud, French painter (d. 1743)
- July 28 - Charles Ancillon, French protestant pastor (d. 1715)
See also @ 1659 births.
Deaths
- January 16 - Charles Annibal Fabrot, French lawyer (b. 1580)
- February 17 - Abel Servien, French diplomat (b. 1593)
- February 27 - Henry Dunster, first President of Harvard College (b. 1609)
- April 15 - Simon Dach, German poet (b. 1605)
- June 3 - Morgan Llwyd, Welsh Puritan preacher and writer (b. 1619)
- October 8 - Jean de Quen, French Jesuit missionary and historian
- October 31 - John Bradshaw, English judge (b. 1602)
- Abel Tasman, Dutch explorer (b. 1603)
- Willem Drost, Dutch painter and printmaker (b. 1633)
See also @ 1659 deaths.