History
1681
General
Population: 602 Million*
- Entertainment: Writers include Dryden (satire), Jacques Benigne Bossuet (history), Jean Mabillon (historical analysis),
- Deaths: Artist Gerard Terborch, Author Calderon,
Europe
- General: Defensive alliances between Brandenburg and France and Brandenburg and Sweden
Canal du Midi joins Bay of Biscay and Mediterranean
- England: Sir Christopher Wren creates Tom Tower at Oxford – he is elected president of the Royal Society
First checks in England
Founding of the Chelsea Hospital in London for wounded and discharged soldiers
Whigs reintroduce Exclusion Bill – Charles II dissolves Parliament
- France: Female professional dancers for first time in Paris Opera
France annexes Strasbourg
- German States: European congress meets ar Frankfurt
- Russia: Academy of Sciences in Moscow founded
Treaty of Radzin – Russia gains most of Turkish Ukraine
- Scotland: James Dalrymple of Stair writes about law in Scotland
East
- Pennsylvania: King gives William Penn a charter in lieu of a debt owed to his late father - Royal Charter granted
South
- Louisiana: Sieur La Salle of France explores Mississippi River, founds Louisiana