1676 in England
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 1676 in England: |
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| 1674 1674 in England Events from the year 1674 in the Kingdom of England.-Events:* 19 February - England and the Netherlands sign the Treaty of Westminster ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War... | 1675 1675 in England Events from the year 1675 in the Kingdom of England.-Events:* 4 March - John Flamsteed appointed as "astronomical observator", in effect, the first Astronomer Royal.* 25 March - Loss of HMY Mary off Anglesey.... | 1676 | 1677 1677 in England Events from the year 1677 in the Kingdom of England.-Events:* 16 February - Politicians the Earl of Shaftesbury, Duke of Buckingham, Lord Wharton and the Earl of Salisbury are arrested and sent to the Tower of London.... | 1678 1678 in England Events from the year 1678 in the Kingdom of England.-Events:* 31 May - The Godiva Procession, a commemoration held in honour of Lady Godiva's legendary naked ride on horseback through the streets of Coventry in protest against her husband's treatment of the citizens, begins.* 6 September - Titus... |
Events from the year 1676 in the Kingdom of England
Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...
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Events
- 18 February - Isaac NewtonIsaac NewtonSir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
observes to Robert HookeRobert HookeRobert Hooke FRS was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath.His adult life comprised three distinct periods: as a scientific inquirer lacking money; achieving great wealth and standing through his reputation for hard work and scrupulous honesty following the great fire of 1666, but...
that "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants". - 2 March - First performance of George EtheregeGeorge EtheregeSir George Etherege was an English dramatist. He wrote the plays The Comical Revenge or, Love in a Tub in 1664, She Would if She Could in 1668, and The Man of Mode or, Sir Fopling Flutter in 1676.-Early life:George Etherege was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire, around 1635, to George Etherege and...
's play The Man of ModeThe Man of ModeThe Man of Mode, or, Sir Fopling Flutter is a Restoration comedy by George Etherege, written in 1676 and first performed March 2 of the same year. Gibbons argues that the play "offers the comedy of manners in its most concentrated form"...
. - 26 May - Fire in SouthwarkSouthwarkSouthwark is a district of south London, England, and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Southwark. Situated east of Charing Cross, it forms one of the oldest parts of London and fronts the River Thames to the north...
destroys 625 houses. - September to November - Major influenzaInfluenzaInfluenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae , that affects birds and mammals...
epidemic; the first to be recorded as such. - 11 December - First performance of William WycherleyWilliam WycherleyWilliam Wycherley was an English dramatist of the Restoration period, best known for the plays The Country Wife and The Plain Dealer.-Biography:...
's play The Plain DealerThe Plain Dealer (play)The Plain Dealer is a Restoration comedy by William Wycherley, first performed on 11 December 1676. The play is based on Molière's Le Misanthrope, and is generally considered Wycherley's finest work along with The Country Wife....
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Undated
- Construction begins on Trinity College LibraryWren Library, CambridgeThe Wren Library is the library of Trinity College in Cambridge. It was designed by Christopher Wren in 1676 and completed in 1695.The library is a single large room built over an open colonnade on the ground floor of Nevile's Court...
, designed by Sir Christopher WrenChristopher WrenSir Christopher Wren FRS is one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history.He used to be accorded responsibility for rebuilding 51 churches in the City of London after the Great Fire in 1666, including his masterpiece, St. Paul's Cathedral, on Ludgate Hill, completed in 1710...
. - The Royal Greenwich Observatory in LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, designed by Wren, is completed. - Consecration of the first Greek Orthodox church in England, at Hog Lane, London.
- The first fossilFossilFossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
ised bone of what is now known to be a dinosaurDinosaurDinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
is discovered in England by Robert PlotRobert PlotRobert Plot was an English naturalist, first Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford, and the first keeper of the Ashmolean Museum....
, the femurFemurThe femur , or thigh bone, is the most proximal bone of the leg in tetrapod vertebrates capable of walking or jumping, such as most land mammals, birds, many reptiles such as lizards, and amphibians such as frogs. In vertebrates with four legs such as dogs and horses, the femur is found only in...
of a MegalosaurusMegalosaurusMegalosaurus is a genus of large meat-eating theropod dinosaurs of the Middle Jurassic period of Europe...
from a limestone quarry at Cornwell near Chipping Norton.
Births
- 19 January - John WeldonJohn Weldon (musician)John Weldon was an English composer.Born at Chichester in the south of England, he was educated at Eton, where he was a chorister, and later received musical instruction from Henry Purcell...
, composer (died 17361736 in Great BritainEvents from the year 1736 in Great Britain.-Incumbents:*Monarch - King George II*Prime Minister - Robert Walpole, Whig-Events:* 14 April - Porteous Riots in Edinburgh...
) - baptised 30 January - Charles Fane, 1st Viscount Fane, courtier and landowner (died 17441744 in Great BritainEvents from the year 1744 in Great Britain.-Incumbents:*Monarch - King George II*Prime Minister - Henry Pelham, Whig-Events:* 22 February–23 February - War of the Austrian Succession: British fleet defeated by a Franco-Spanish fleet at the Battle of Toulon.* 27 February - A planned French invasion...
) - 14 June - Sir John Rogers, 2nd BaronetSir John Rogers, 2nd BaronetSir John Rogers, 2nd Baronet was an English lawyer and politician.Baptised at St Andrew's, Plymouth, he was the only son of Sir John Rogers, 1st Baronet and his wife Mary Vincent, daughter of Spencer Vincent. In 1710, he succeeded his father as baronet...
, lawyer and politician (died 17441744 in Great BritainEvents from the year 1744 in Great Britain.-Incumbents:*Monarch - King George II*Prime Minister - Henry Pelham, Whig-Events:* 22 February–23 February - War of the Austrian Succession: British fleet defeated by a Franco-Spanish fleet at the Battle of Toulon.* 27 February - A planned French invasion...
) - 21 June (Old StyleOld Style and New Style datesOld Style and New Style are used in English language historical studies either to indicate that the start of the Julian year has been adjusted to start on 1 January even though documents written at the time use a different start of year ; or to indicate that a date conforms to the Julian...
) - Anthony CollinsAnthony CollinsAnthony Collins , was an English philosopher, and a proponent of deism.-Life and Writings:...
, philosopher (died 17291729 in Great BritainEvents from the year 1729 in Great Britain.-Incumbents:*Monarch - King George II*Prime Minister - Robert Walpole, Whig-Events:* 1 May - A tornado destroys buildings in Sussex and Kent....
) - 26 August - Robert WalpoleRobert WalpoleRobert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, KG, KB, PC , known before 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British statesman who is generally regarded as having been the first Prime Minister of Great Britain....
, first Prime Minister of the United KingdomPrime Minister of the United KingdomThe Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
(died 17451745 in Great BritainEvents from the year 1745 in Great Britain.-Incumbents:*Monarch - King George II*Prime Minister - Henry Pelham, Whig-Events:* 30 April–11 May - War of the Austrian Succession: British forces defeated at the Battle of Fontenoy....
) - 14 November - Benjamin HoadlyBenjamin HoadlyBenjamin Hoadly was an English clergyman, who was successively Bishop of Bangor, Hereford, Salisbury, and Winchester. He is best known as the initiator of the Bangorian Controversy.-Life:...
, clergy (died 17611761 in Great BritainEvents from the year 1761 in Great Britain.-Incumbents:*Monarch - King George III*Prime Minister - Duke of Newcastle, Tory-Events:* 16 January - In India, general Sir Eyre Coote captures Pondicherry from the French....
) - 29 November - Sir Henry Bunbury, 3rd BaronetSir Henry Bunbury, 3rd BaronetSir Henry Bunbury, 3rd Baronet was a British Tory politician and baronet.-Background:He was the son of Sir Henry Bunbury, 2nd Baronet and his wife Mary Eyton, daughter of Sir Kendrick Eyton. In 1687, aged only eleven, he succeeded his father as baronet...
, politician (died 17331733 in Great BritainEvents from the year 1733 in Great Britain.-Incumbents:*Monarch - George II of the United Kingdom*Prime Minister - Robert Walpole, Whig-Events:* 23 January - First performance of George Frideric Handel's opera Orlando in London....
) - 30 December - John PhilipsJohn PhilipsJohn Philips was an 18th century English poet.- Early life and education :Philips was born at Bampton, Oxfordshire, the son of Rev. Stephen Philips, later archdeacon of Salop, and his wife Mary Wood. He was at first taught by his father and then went to Winchester College...
, poet (died 17091709 in Great BritainEvents from the year 1709 in Great Britain.-Events:* January to March - Unusually cold weather brings floating ice into the North Sea....
)
Deaths
- 22 March - Lady Anne CliffordLady Anne CliffordLady Anne Clifford, 14th Baroness de Clifford was the only surviving child of George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland by his wife Lady Margaret Russell, daughter of Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford...
, (born 1590) - 10 September - Gerrard WinstanleyGerrard WinstanleyGerrard Winstanley was an English Protestant religious reformer and political activist during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell...
, religious reformer (born 1609) - 11 October - Anthony TerillAnthony TerillAnthony Terill was an English Catholic theologian and Jesuit.His mother was Catholic but his father was Protestant. In his fifteenth year, he was converted to Catholicism and left England, taking the alias Terill . He studied for about three years at the English College of St...
, theologian (born 1623) - 25 December -
- Matthew HaleMatthew Hale (jurist)Sir Matthew Hale SL was an influential English barrister, judge and jurist most noted for his treatise Historia Placitorum Coronæ, or The History of the Pleas of the Crown. Born to a barrister and his wife, who had both died by the time he was 5, Hale was raised by his father's relative, a strict...
, Lord Chief Justice(born 1609) - William Cavendish, 1st Duke of NewcastleWilliam Cavendish, 1st Duke of NewcastleWilliam Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne KG KB PC was an English polymath and aristocrat, having been a poet, equestrian, playwright, swordsman, politician, architect, diplomat and soldier...
, soldier, politician, and writer (born 1592)
- Matthew Hale
- Henry Stubbe, writer and scholar (born 1632)
- William SamwellWilliam Samwell (architect)William Samwell was an English architect. He was born in Dean's Yard, Westminster, to Anthony Samwell, son of Sir William Samwell, Auditor of the Exchequer to Queen Elizabeth I....
, architect (born 1628)