1678

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Year '1678' ('MDCLXXVIII') was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar).

Contents

Events of 1678

January - June

July - December

Undated

Births

Deaths

Events of 1678

January - June

★ January 27 - The first fire engine company in what would become the United States went into service.

★ February 18 - John Bunyan publishes his novel, ''The Pilgrim's Progress''

★ May 11 - French admiral d'Estrees runs his whole fleet aground in Curaçao

July - December

★ August 10 - Treaty of Nijmegen ends the Dutch War.

★ September 6 - Titus Oates begins to present allegations of the "Popish Plot", a Catholic conspiracy to assassinate king Charles II of England

★ October 17 - British magistrate Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey is found murdered in Primrose Hill, London. Titus Oates claims it as a proof of his allegations.

Undated

★ About 1200 Irish families sail from Barbados to Virginia and the Carolinas.

★ The first chrysanthemums in Europe.

★ In Ireland, the Diocese of Kildare is united with Leighlin to form the 'Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin'

★ French buccaneer Michel de Grammont leads six pirate ships and 700 men on in a daring raid on Spanish-held Venezuela, reaching inland as far as Trujillo, Venezuela.

Births

★ March 4 - Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer (died 1741)

★ March 7 - Filippo Juvara, Italian architect (died 1736)

★ May 16 - Andreas Silbermann, organ builder (died 1734)

★ July 26 - Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1711)

★ September 16 - Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, English statesman and philosopher (died 1751)

★ September 29 - Adrien-Maurice, 3rd duc de Noailles, French soldier (died 1766)

★ October 10 - John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll, Scottish soldier (died 1743)

★ November 26 - Jean Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan, French geophysicist (died 1771)

★ December 8 - Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole of Wolterton, English diplomat (died 1757)

★ December 13 - Yongzheng Emperor of China (died 1735)

★ December 14 - Daniel Neal, English historian (died 1743)

★ December 30 - William Croft, English composer (died 1727)

★ ''date unknown'' - George Farquhar, Irish dramatist (died 1707)
: ''See also .''

Deaths

★ January 29 - Jeronimo Lobo, Portuguese Jesuit missionary (born 1593)

★ May 4 or May 14 - Anna Maria van Schurman, Dutch poet and scholar (born 1607)

★ August 5 - Juan García de Zéspedes, Mexican musician and composer (born 1619)

★ August 16 - Andrew Marvell, English writer (born 1621)

★ August 28 - John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton, English soldier (born 1602)

★ October 12 - Edmund Berry Godfrey, English magistrate (born 1621)

★ October 18 - Jacob Jordaens, Flemish painter (born 1593)

★ October 19 - Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten, Dutch painter (born c. 1627)

★ November 1 - William Coddington, first Governor of Rhode Island (born 1601)
: ''See also .''