1660 - Definition and Overview

Events

• January 1 - colonel George Monck with his regiment crosses from Scotland to England at the village of Coldstream and begins advance towards London in support of English Restoration
• February 2 – George Monck and his regiment arrive in London
• February 23 - Charles XI becomes king of Sweden.
• February 27 – John Thurloe reinstated as England's secretary of State for a short time
• March 16 - The Long Parliament disbands
• May 8 - The Parliament of England declares Prince Charles Stuart King Charles II of England
• May 15 - John Thurloe arrested for high treason after English Restoration
• May 23 - King Charles II of England reaches the shores of his Kingdom. On May 29 he arrives in London and assumes the throne, marking the beginning of the English Restoration
• May 25 – Charles II of England crowned
• June 29 - John Thurloe released
• November 28 - At Gresham College, 12 men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir Robert Moray meet after a lecture by Wren and decide to found "a College for the Promoting of Physico-Mathematicall Experimentall Learning}" (later known as the Royal Society).
• Theaters opened again in England – Margaret Hughes debuts as the first female actor as Desdemona in Othello
• Blaise Pascal's The Provincial Letters, a defense of the Jansenist Antoine Arnauld, was ordered shredded and burned by King Louis XIV of France.
• Sweden recovers its southern provinces from Denmark.

Births

• January - Pierre Helyot, French historian
• February 19 - Friedrich Hoffmann, physician and chemist (+ 1742)
• April 16 - Hans Sloane, British physician
• May 2 - Alessandro Scarlatti, Italian composer (+ 1725)
• May 28 - George I, King of Great Britain (+ 1727)
• September - Daniel Defoe, British writer (Robinson Crusoë)
• December 4 - André Campra, French composer
• Andreas Schlueter, Polish sculptor and architect

Deaths

• February 23 - Charles X of Sweden
• August 6 - Diego Velásquez - Spanish painter
• October 14 - Thomas Harrison, British soldier