1679
*
January 24 - King
Charles II of England disbands
Parliament*
June 22 - the
Duke of Monmouth subdues an insurrection of
Scottish Covenanters at
Birthwell Bridge*
August 7 - The brigantine
Le Griffon, which was commissioned by
René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, is towed to the southern end of the
Niagara River, to become the first ship to sail the upper
Great Lakes.
*
Battle of Bothwell Bridge*
Habeas Corpus Act 1679 passed in
England.
*
European explorers discover
Niagara Falls.
*
Whig Parliament elected in
England*A fire in
Boston, Massachusetts, burns all of the warehouses, 80 houses, and all of the ships in the dockyards.
*
January 24 -
Christian Wolff, German philosopher (d.
1754)
*
March 18 -
Matthew Decker, English merchant and writer (d.
1749)
*
August 22 -
Pierre Guérin de Tencin, French cardinal (d.
1758)
*
October 16 -
Jan Dismas Zelenka, Bohemian composer (d.
1745)
*
October 18 -
Ann Putnam, Jr., American accuser in the Salem witch trials (d.
1716)
*
Firmin Abauzit, French scientist (d.
1767)
*
January 1 -
Jan Steen, Dutch painter
*
March 16 -
John Leverett, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (b.
1616)
*
March 26 -
Johannes Schefferus, Alsatian-born humanist (b.
1621)
*
May 3 -
James Sharp, English archbishop (assassinated) (b.
1613)
*
May 26 -
Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria (b.
1636)
*
June 15 -
Guillaume Courtois, French painter (b.
1628)
*
July 11 -
William Chamberlayne, English poet (b.
1619)
*
August 6 -
John Snell, English royalist (b.
1629)
*
August 24 -
Jean François Paul de Gondi, cardinal de Retz, French churchman and agitator (b.
1614)
*
September 17 -
John of Austria the Younger, Spanish general (b.
1629)
*
October 12 -
William Gurnall, English writer (b.
1617)
*
October 26 -
Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery, British soldier, statesman, and dramatist (b.
1621)
*
December 4 -
Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher (b.
1588)
*
December 31 -
Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Italian physiologist and physicist (b.
1608)
*
Lady Anne Finch Conway, English philosopher (b.
1631)
