1656

This article is about the year 1656.

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	16th century – 17th century – 18th century
Decades:	1620s  1630s  1640s  – 1650s –  1660s  1670s  1680s
Years:	1653 1654 1655 – 1656 – 1657 1658 1659

1656 by topic:

Arts and Science

Architecture - Art - Literature - Music - Science

Lists of leaders

Colonial governors - State leaders

Birth and death categories

Births - Deaths

Establishments and disestablishments categories

Establishments - Disestablishments

Works category

Works

1656 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1656 MDCLVI
Ab urbe condita	2409
Armenian calendar	1105 ԹՎ ՌՃԵ
Assyrian calendar	6406
Bengali calendar	1063
Berber calendar	2606
English Regnal year	7 Cha. 2 – 8 Cha. 2 (Interregnum)
Buddhist calendar	2200
Burmese calendar	1018
Byzantine calendar	7164–7165
Chinese calendar	乙未年 (Wood Goat) 4352 or 4292     — to — 丙申年 (Fire Monkey) 4353 or 4293
Coptic calendar	1372–1373
Discordian calendar	2822
Ethiopian calendar	1648–1649
Hebrew calendar	5416–5417
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1712–1713
- Shaka Samvat	1578–1579
- Kali Yuga	4757–4758
Holocene calendar	11656
Igbo calendar	656–657
Iranian calendar	1034–1035
Islamic calendar	1066–1067
Japanese calendar	Meireki 2 (明暦２年)
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 10 days
Korean calendar	3989
Minguo calendar	256 before ROC 民前256年
Thai solar calendar	2198–2199

1656 (MDCLVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (dominical letter BA) of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Tuesday (dominical letter FE) of the Julian calendar, the 1656th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 656th year of the 2nd millennium, the 56th year of the 17th century, and the 7th year of the 1650s decade. Note that the Julian day for 1656 is 10 calendar days difference, which continued to be used from 1582 until the complete conversion of the Gregorian calendar was entirely done in 1929.

Events

January–June

• January 17 – Treaty of Königsberg is signed, establishing an alliance between Charles X Gustav of Sweden and Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg.
• January 24 – The first Jewish doctor in the Thirteen Colonies of America, Jacob Lumbrozo, arrives in Maryland.
• April 1 – Lwów Oath: John II Casimir Vasa, King of Poland, crowns the Black Madonna of Częstochowa as Queen and Protector of Poland in the cathedral of Lwów after the miraculous saving of the Jasna Góra Monastery during the Deluge, an event which changed the course of the Second Northern War.
• April 2 – Treaty of Brussels, is signed creating an alliance between Philip IV of Spain and the exiled Royalists of the British Isles led by Charles II
• April 28 – The ship Vergulde Draeck is wrecked off Ledge Point, Western Australia after it departs the Cape of Good Hope; rescue missions fail to find survivors.
• May 12 – The Dutch capture the city of Colombo in Sri Lanka, marking the start of Dutch Ceylon.

July–December

• July – In an attempt to rescue survivors of the Vergulde Draeck, a search party is sent ashore, in Goede Hoop's boat, which smashes against rocks and sinks: 8 sailors drown; 3 more disappear ashore.
• July 27 – Writ of Excommunication against Baruch Spinoza.
• July 28–30 – Battle of Warsaw: Led by King Charles X Gustav of Sweden, the armies of the Swedish Empire and the Margraviate of Brandenburg defeat the forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth near Warsaw.
• September 15 – Köprülü Mehmed Pasha becomes Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.
• December – The pendulum clock is invented by Christiaan Huygens.
• December 20 – Treaty of Labiau is signed between Charles X Gustav of Sweden and Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg.

Undated

• The Stockholm Banco, the first bank to issue banknotes, is founded.
• The only English fifty shilling coin is minted.
• Konoike Zen'amon (son of Konoike Shinroku) founds a baking and money-changing business in Osaka.
• Adams' Grammar School at Newport, Shropshire, England is founded by William Adams.
• Physician Samuel Stockhausen of the metal mining town of Goslar in Lower Saxony publishes his Libellus de lithargyrii fumo noxio morbifico, ejusque metallico frequentiori morbo vulgò dicto die Hütten Katze oder Hütten Rauch ("Treatise on the Noxious Fumes of Litharge, Diseases caused by them and Miners' Asthma"), a pioneering study of occupational disease.

Births

• January 1 – William Fleetwood, Anglican bishop (d. 1723)
• January 2 – Paolo Panelli (painter), Italian painter (d. 1759)
• January 14 – Johanna Magdalena of Saxe-Altenburg, Duchess (d. 1686)
• January 15 – John Ashburnham, 1st Baron Ashburnham, English politician (d. 1710)
• January 29 – Samuel Andrew, Congregational clergyman and educator (d. 1738)
• February 2 – Charles Churchill (British Army general) (d. 1714)
• February 9 – Rose Venerini, Saint and educational pioneer (d. 1728)
• February 10 – Ferdinand de Marsin (d. 1706)
• February 16 – Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount of Falkland, English politician (d. 1694)
• March 1 – Maria Angela Caterina d'Este (d. 1722)
• March 2 – Jan Frans van Douven, Dutch painter (d. 1727)
• March 11 – Marie Elisabeth of Hesse-Darmstadt, Duchess (d. 1715)
• March 13 – Hachisuka Tsunamichi, Daimyo who ruled the Tokushima Domain (d. 1678)
• March 26 – Nicolaas Hartsoeker, Dutch mathematician and physicist (d. 1725)
• March 30 – Nicolas de Largillière, Painter (d. 1746)
• March 31 – Giovanni Battista Bussi (1656–1726), Catholic cardinal (d. 1726)
• March 31 – Juan Andrés de Ustariz, Royal Governor of Cuba (d. 1718)
• April 7 – William Molyneux, Irish politician (d. 1698)
• April 9 – Francesco Trevisani, Italian painter (d. 1746)
• April 10 – René Lepage de Sainte-Claire, lord-founder of Rimouski in eastern Quebec, Canada (d. 1718)
• April 12 – Benoît de Maillet, French diplomat and natural historian (d. 1738)
• April 23 – Anton Egon, Prince of Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg, Governor of the Electorate of Saxony (d. 1716)
• May 2 – Sir Richard Levinge, 1st Baronet, British politician (d. 1724)
• May 4 – John Louis I, Prince of Anhalt-Dornburg (d. 1704)
• May 8 – Sir John Mainwaring, 2nd Baronet, Member of the Parliament of England (d. 1702)
• May 23 – Rebecca Rawson, heroine of the 1849 book Leaves from Margaret Smith's Journal (d. 1692)
• May 28 – Anton Florian, Prince of Liechtenstein (d. 1721)
• May 31 – Marin Marais, French composer and viol player (d. 1728)
• June 5 – Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, French botanist (d. 1708)
• June 17 – Paul Thymich, German poet (d. 1694)
• July 1 – Polykarp Leyser III, German Lutheran theologian (d. 1725)
• July 4 – John Leake, Royal Navy admiral (d. 1720)
• July 5 – John Hamilton, 2nd Lord Belhaven and Stenton, Scottish politician (d. 1708)
• July 7 – Guru Har Krishan, Eighth Guru of Sikhism (d. 1664)
• July 15 – Massimiliano Soldani Benzi, Italian artist (d. 1740)
• July 15 – Gerard Langbaine, English dramatic biographer and critic (d. 1692)
• July 16 – George Ashby (MP), British politician (d. 1728)
• July 18 – Joachim Bouvet, French Jesuit active in China (d. 1730)
• July 20 – Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, Austrian architect (d. 1723)
• August 6 – Claude de Forbin, French naval commander (d. 1733)
• August 12 – Claude de Visdelou, French missionary (d. 1737)
• August 16 – Christian Knaut, German physician (d. 1716)
• August 18 – Ferdinando Galli-Bibiena, Italian painter (d. 1743)
• September 6 – Guillaume Dubois, French cardinal and statesman (d. 1723)
• September 7 – Robert Molesworth, 1st Viscount Molesworth, Irish politician (d. 1725)
• September 9 – Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer, German organist and composer (d. 1746)
• September 9 – Thomas Hewet, English landowner and architect (d. 1726)
• September 11 – Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark, Swedish queen (d. 1693)
• September 14 – Thomas Baker, English antiquarian (d. 1746)
• September 26 – William des Bouverie, British aristocrat and merchant (d. 1717)
• October 2 – Hendrik Carré, Dutch painter (d. 1721)
• October 20 – Nicolas de Largillière, French painter (d. 1746)
• November 3 – Georg Reutter, German composer and organist (d. 1738)
• November 8 – Edmond Halley, English scientist (d. 1742)
• November 18 – Jacques de Tourreil, French lawyer (d. 1714)
• November 20 – Eleonore Charlotte of Württemberg-Montbéliard, Duchess (d. 1743)
• November 23 – Jacob de Heusch, Dutch painter (d. 1701)
• December 2 – Joshua Oldfield, English presbyterian divine (d. 1729)
• December 11 – Johann Michael Rottmayr, Austrian painter (d. 1730)
• date unknown
  • Patrick Abercromby, Scottish physician and antiquarian (d. c. 1716)
  • Maria Oriana Galli-Bibiena, Italian painter (d. 1749)
  • Kateri Tekakwitha, a Native American beatified in the Roman Catholic Church (d. 1680)

Deaths

• January 3 – Mathieu Molé, French statesman (b. 1584)
• March 21 – James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland (b. 1581)
• April 24 – Thomas Fincke, Danish mathematician and physicist (b. 1561)
• April 27 – Jan van Goyen, Dutch painter (b. 1596)
• June 9 – Thomas Tomkins, Welsh composer (b. 1572)
• July 2 – François-Marie, comte de Broglie, Italian-born French commander (b. 1611)
• August 11 – Ottavio Piccolomini, Austrian-Italian field marshal (b. 1599)
• September 8 – Joseph Hall, English bishop and writer (b. 1574)
• October – Stephen Bachiler, English clergyman (b. c. 1561)
• October 3 – Myles Standish, Mayflower colonist (b. c.1584)
• October 8 – John George I, Elector of Saxony (b. 1585)
• November 6 – King John IV of Portugal (b. 1603)
• December 27 – Andrew White, Apostle of Maryland (b. 1579)