1654 - Definition and Overview

Events

• April 5 - Signing of the Treaty of Westminster, ending the First Anglo-Dutch War.
• June 3 - Louis XIV of France crowned at Rheims
• June 6 - Charles X succedes his cousin Christina to the Swedish throne. After her abdication on June 5, Christina now the former reigning queen of a Protestant nation, secretly converts to Catholicism.
• September 3 - In the English Parliament, the republican party question Cromwell's pre-eminence
• September 12 - Oliver Cromwell orders the exclusion of the members of Parliament who are hostile to him
• October 12 - Carel Fabritius, the most promising student of Rembrandt, dies aged 32 in an explosion at the arsenal at Delft
• October 31 - Ferdinand Maria, elector of Bavaria is crowned. His absolutistic style of leadership becomes a benchmark for the rest of Germany
• November 23 - French mathematician, scientist, and religious philosopher Blaise Pascal experiences an intense mystical vision that marks him for life.
• Twenty-three Jewish refugees from Brazil settle in New Amsterdam, forming the nucleus of what would be the largest urban Jewish community in history, the Jewish community of New York City.
• The Ukrainian Bogdan Chmielnicki renounces Ukrainian independence and swears allegiance to Tsar Alexis of Russia
• The Russian Army seizes Smolensk, and war starts between Russia and Poland over Ukraine
• Otto von Guericke proves the existence of atmospheric pressure

Births

• May 4 - Emperor Kangxi of China
• Emperor Reigen of Japan

Deaths

• August 31 - Olaus Wormius, Danish physician and antiquary.
• October 12 - Carel Fabritius, artist
• October 30 - Emperor Go-Komyo of Japan
• November 30 - John Selden, English jurist
• Samuel Scheidt, German composer