History
1656
General
Population: 554 Million*
- Entertainment: Writers include Jean Chapelain (poem), Abraham Cowley (poems), John Ford (posthumous), John Bunyan (religious work),
Marchamont Needham (political states), Blaise Pascal (Jesuits)
Art includes Velazquez (family of Philip IV), Vermeer "The Procuress", Rembrandt declared bankrupt – his possessions are put up for sale
Music includes Matthew Locke "Siege of Rhodes"
- Medicine: Thomas Wharton describes anatomy of glands
- Religion: Baruch Spinoza excommunicated fom Amsterdam synagogue
- Technology: Christian Huygens builds clock pendulum
- Deaths: Artist Jan van Goyen, General Octavio Piccolomini, King John IV of Portugal
Americas
- Jamaica: English forces under Penn and Venables take Jamaica from Spain
Europe
- General: Treaty of Konigsberg and Alliance of Marienberg
England and Spain at war to 1659
Battle of Warsaw – Swedish victory under Charles X – Russia Denmark and HRE declare war on Sweden
- England: Second Protectorate Parliament
Manasseh Ben Israel replies to attacks on Cromwell's readmission of Jews
London opera house opened
- France: Andre Le Notre designs gardens in France
Regiment of grenadier guards formed
Hopital general in Paris opens – combines hospital poorhouse and factory
- German States: Swedes cede Prussia to the "Great Elector"
- Holland: Dutch take Colombo from Portuguese
- Italian States: Plague and famine in Rome - started from infected military transport
Academy of Painting in Rome founded
Venetians rout Ottoman Turks off Dardanelles
Bernini creates Piazza of St. Peter's in Rome
- Portugal: Death of King John IV of Portugal – son Alfonso VI rules
- Switzerland: First Villmergen War between Protestant and Catholic cantons
Middle East
- Ottoman Empire: Albanian Mohammed Kiuprili becomes grand vizier to Sultan Mohammed IV of Turkey