History
1678
General
Population: 596 Million*
- Entertainment: Writerss include Samuel Butler, Corneille (tragedy), Marie Madeleine de La Fayette, Dryden (tragedy), Jean de la Fontaine (fables),
John Bunyan The Pilgrim's Progress, Ralph Cudworth (religious philosophy),
Art includes Muyrill "The Immaculate Conception"
- Medicine: Thomas Thatcher writes medical treatise about smallpox and measles in Americas
- Science: Giovanni Ceva states geometrical theorem on nature of concurrency
Christian Huygens records discovery of polarization of light
- Deaths: Artist Jacob Jordaens, Poet Andrew Marvell
Americas
- Canada: Henry Kelsey travels to W Canada for furs for England
Asia
- India: End of Sikh uprising
Europe
- General: Peace of Nijmegen (Nimwegen) between France and Dutch and France and Spain over Flanders territory
Outbreak of war between Russia and Sweden
- England: Imaginary "Popish Plot" to overthrow Charles II of England invented by Titus Oates – several innocent Catholics killed – Roman Catholics barred from both houses of Parliament
Thomas Britton the music patron introduces concerts into London
Import of French goods to England prohibited
- France: French army captures Ghent and Ypres
- German States: "Great Elector" takes Stralsund from the Swedes
First German opera house in Hamburg
- Holland: First chrysanthemums arrive in Holland from Japan
- Holy Roman Empire: Hungarian rebellion against Hapsburgs under Emeric Tokolyi
East
- General: Smallpox outbreak in New England
Midwest
- General: Robert de La Salle explores the Great Lakes