Eighteenth-Century Chronology: 1664

This page in the Eighteenth-Century Chronology is maintained by Jack Lynch. Please send suggestions and corrections to jlynch@andromeda.rutgers.edu.

Literature

Nell Gwyn's acting debut
Sir Robert Howard and John Dryden, The Indian Queen
Molière, Le mariage forcé (The Forced Marriage), Palais-Royal, Paris
George Etherege, The Comical Revenge, or Love in a Tub
John Dryden, The Royal Ladies, Theatre Royal
June: Jean Baptiste Racine, La Thébaïde, ou les frères ennemis (The Thebans, or The Enemy Brothers), Palais-Royal, Paris
July: Pierre Corneille, Othon, Hötel de Bourgogne, Paris

René Descartes, Traité de l'homme et de la formation du foetus, argues that the blood circulates at all times
Plague kills twenty-four thousand in Amsterdam and spreads to Brussels
December: The first reports of the plague in London, as two Frenchmen die in Drury Lane

When Peter Stuyvesant surrenders Nieuw Amsterdam, the British take control; the city is renamed New York, named for James, Duke of York
The English defeat the Dutch and capture Delaware
Charles II grants the land between the Delaware River and the Connecticut River to his brother, the Duke of York; the Duke of York makes a proprietary grant of the area between the Delaware and the Hudson to Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley, founding New Jersey
Maryland requires lifelong servitude from black slaves; New York, New Jersey, the Carolinas, and Virginia follow suit with similar laws

Thomas Browne gives evidence against two English women who are condemned as witches