Year 1666 (MDCLXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). Often called Annus Mirabilis, the year 1666 is mentioned in the poem Annus Mirabilis. This year also saw a great advance in mathematics and physics by Isaac Newton. The year is also known for having all the Roman numerals, used only once, in order from biggest to smallest value.

Events of 1666

January - June

• June 11-June 14 - Second Anglo-Dutch War - Four Days Battle: The Dutch fleet defeats England.

January 17 - Chair of St. Peter set above the Altar at Cathedra Petri, Vatican City.

Source: http://www.saintpetersbasilica.org/Altars/Cathedra/Cathedra.htm

July - December

• August 5 - St. James's Day Battle: An English fleet defeats the Dutch under Michiel de Ruyter.
• August 9 - Rear Admiral Robert Holmes leads a raid on the Dutch island of Terschelling, destroying 150 merchant ships in the Vlie estuary, and pillaging the town of West-Terschelling, an act later referred to as Holmes's Bonfire.
• September 2 - Great Fire of London: A large fire breaks out in London in the house of Charles II's baker on Pudding Lane near London Bridge. The fire burns for 3 days, destroying 10,000 buildings including St. Paul's Cathedral, but only 16 people are known to have died. People claim that it is the Devil's deed, for 1666 contains 666.
• September 5 - The Great Fire of London ends.

Undated

• Sir Isaac Newton uses a prism to split sunlight into its component colors, which helps us understand the nature of light more comprehensively (see optical spectrum).
• Lund University is founded in Lund, Sweden.
• Jean Talon completes a census of New France, the first census in North America.
• Louis XIV founds the French Academy of Sciences.
• The Russian Orthodox Church holds a sobor (church council) which deposes Patriarch Nikon, but accepts his liturgical reforms. Dissenters from his reforms, known as Old Believers, continue to this day.

Births

• February 9 - George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney, British soldier (d. 1737)
• March 15 - George Bähr, German architect (d. 1738)
• May 14 - Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia (d. 1732)
• July 10 - John Ernest Grabe, German-born Anglican theologian (d. 1711)
• August 13 - William Wotton, English scholar (d. 1727)
• September 6 - Tsar Ivan V of Russia (d. 1696)
• December 26 - Guru Gobind Singh, Punjabi scholar, theologian, social reformist, poet, head of a faith, representative of an ethnicity and a military head (d. 1708)
• date unknown
  • Arthur Chichester, 3rd Earl of Donegall (d. 1706)
  • Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield (d. 1732)

See also Category: 1666 births.

Deaths

• January 20 - Anne of Austria, queen of Louis XIII of France and regent (b. 1601)
• January 22 - Shah Jahan, Mughal Emperor of India (b. 1592)
• January 24 - Johann Andreas Herbst, German composer (b. 1588)
• February 24 - Nicholas Lanier, English composer (b. 1588)
• June 14 - Tierck Hiddes de Vries, Frisian naval hero and commander (b. 1622)
• June 16 - Sir Richard Fanshawe, British diplomat and translator (b. 1608)

Tierck Hiddes

• June 30 - Alexander Brome, English poet (b. 1620)
• July 5 - Albert VI of Bavaria (b. 1584)
• August 15 - Johann Adam Schall von Bell, German Jesuit missionary (b. 1591)
• August 26 - Frans Hals, Dutch painter (b. 1580)
• October 29 - Edmund Calamy the Elder, English Presbyterian leader (b. 1600)
• October 29 - James Shirley, English dramatist (b. 1596)
• December 9 - Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (Guercino), Italian painter (b. 1591)
• date unknown
  • Philip Fruytiers, Flemish painter (b. 1627)
  • James Howell, British writer (b. c. 1594)
  • Song Yingxing, Chinese encyclopedist (b. 1587)

See also Category: 1666 deaths.