History
1658
General
Population: 557 Million*
- Culture: English physician Sir Thomas Browne advocates cremation
- Entertainment: Writers include John Dryden (Cromwell poem), William Rowley (tragicomedy), Georg Stiernhielm (Hercules poem), Sir William Dugdale (history of St. Paul's Cathedral),
James Harrington (government), Edward Phillips World of Words, John Milton begins Paradise Lost
Art includes Pieter de Hooch "Courtyard of a House in Delft", Peter Lely "The Family of the Earl of Carnarvon", Adriaen van de Velde "Farm with a Dead Tree"
Music includes JOhann Caspar von Kerll (opera),
- Medicine: French phusician Sylvius de la Boe advances medicine in Leiden
Jan Swammerdam first observes blood corpuscles
- Science: J.R. Glauber writes "De natura salium"
Manticore appears in zoology book
- Technology: Robert Hooke invents the balance spring for watches
- Deaths: Oliver Cromwell (malaria), Emperor Ferdinand III, Poet Richard Lovelace
Americas
- Canada: First bishop in Quebec
Asia
- China: Jesuit missionary Martini publishes that Chinese history predates the flood estimated at 2300 BC
- India: Aurangzeb imprisons his father Shah Jahan and succeeds him as Mogul Emperor
Europe
- General: Treaty of Roskilde between Sweden and Denmark ends first war
Battle of the Dunes – England and France defeat Spain – England gains Dunkirk
- Denmark: Charles X begins Second Northern War – siege of Copenhagen
- England: Cromwell dissolves parliament - End of Cromwell's protectorate in Britain as he dies - succeeded as Lord Protector by son Richard
- France: Societe des missions strangers founded in Paris
- German States: Formation of Rheinish League under French protectorate
- Holy Roman Empire: Leopold I elected HRE after father Ferdinand III dies
- Italian States: Bernini creates church at Castel Gandolfo
- Sweden: Charles X begins Second Northern War – siege of Copenhagen
Financier Johann Palmstruck devises first bank note issues by state bank