History
1653
General
Population: 550 Million*
- Culture: Blaise Pascal joins the Jansenists at Port-Royal
- Entertainment: Writers include Molière L'Etourdi (comedy), "London Polyglot Bible" edited by Brian Walton – 10 languages
Art includes Peter Lely "Oliver Cromwell", Jacob van Ruisdael "Schloss Bentheim", Gerard Terborch "The Dispatch", Jan van Goyen "View of the Rhine"
Music includes Matthew Locke "Cupid and Death", Lully made director of "les petits-violins du roi",
- Medicine: German surgeon's writings on surgical instruments and procedures published posthumously
- Religion: James Naylor the English Quaker thought by some to be new messiah
- Sports: Izaal Walton writes about angling
- Deaths: Artist Simon de Vlieger, Physician Theophraste Renaudot,
Asia
- China: Pirate leader Zheng Cheng-gong takes Xiamen
- India: Taj Mahal completed
Europe
- General: English defeat Dutch off Portland – North Foreland and Texel
- England: Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell in Britain
Chetham's Library in Manchester founded
"Rump" Parliament threatens to become oligarchy
Cromwell declares kings must follow laws but he doesn't
- France: End of The Frondes – revolts against Mazarin's rule
First letter boxes and postage stamps in Paris
- German States: "Great Elector" abolishes the estates and establishes standing army
- Italian States: Ferdinand IV becomes King of the Romans
Francesco Borromini creates S. Agnese in Rome
- Switzerland: Peasants' revolt in Bern under Nikolaus Leunberg
East
- New Amsterdam: Dutch construct a wooden stockade across lower Manhattan for protection – later this paved street would be called Wall Street
South
- North Carolina: Established as self-governing