1650 - Definition and Overview

Events

• June 23 - Claimant King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland arrives in Scotland, the only of the three Kingdoms that has accepted him as ruler.
• August 23 - Colonel George Monck forms Monck's Regiment of Foot, forerunner of Coldstream Guards
• November 4 - William III of Orange becomes Prince of the House of Orange the moment of his birth, succeeding his father who had died a few days earlier.
• Puritans chop down the original Glastonbury Tor
• Captain James Hind makes an abortive attempt to seize power in England
• Jews allowed to return to France and England
• Cafés begin to become popular in Europe
• Three-wheeled wheelchairs used in Nuremberg
• Ann Greene, who had been hanged for infanticide in Edinburgh, wakes up in an autopsy table – she is pardoned
• Abyssinia deports Portuguese diplomats and missionaries
• Einkommende Zeitungen – first German newspaper (cancelled 1918)

Ongoing events

• Fronde civil war in France (1648-1653)

Births

• February 2 - Nell Gwynne, actress, royal mistress (+ 1687).
• May 26 - John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (+ 1722)
• November 4 - Prince William III of Orange, later Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht and King William III of England, Scotland and Ireland.

Deaths

• February 11 - René Descartes, philosopher.