1655

This article is about the year 1655.

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	16th century – 17th century – 18th century
Decades:	1620s  1630s  1640s  – 1650s –  1660s  1670s  1680s
Years:	1652 1653 1654 – 1655 – 1656 1657 1658

1655 by topic:

Arts and Science

Architecture - Art - Literature - Music - Science

Lists of leaders

Colonial governors - State leaders

Birth and death categories

Births - Deaths

Establishments and disestablishments categories

Establishments - Disestablishments

Works category

Works

1655 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1655 MDCLV
Ab urbe condita	2408
Armenian calendar	1104 ԹՎ ՌՃԴ
Assyrian calendar	6405
Bahá'í calendar	−189 – −188
Bengali calendar	1062
Berber calendar	2605
English Regnal year	6 Cha. 2 – 7 Cha. 2 (Interregnum)
Buddhist calendar	2199
Burmese calendar	1017
Byzantine calendar	7163–7164
Chinese calendar	甲午年 (Wood Horse) 4351 or 4291     — to — 乙未年 (Wood Goat) 4352 or 4292
Coptic calendar	1371–1372
Discordian calendar	2821
Ethiopian calendar	1647–1648
Hebrew calendar	5415–5416
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1711–1712
- Shaka Samvat	1577–1578
- Kali Yuga	4756–4757
Holocene calendar	11655
Igbo calendar	655–656
Iranian calendar	1033–1034
Islamic calendar	1065–1066
Japanese calendar	Jōō 4 / Meireki 1 (明暦元年)
Juche calendar	N/A
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 10 days
Korean calendar	3988
Minguo calendar	257 before ROC 民前257年
Thai solar calendar	2198

March 25: Titan discovered (image false color).

Year 1655 (MDCLV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Monday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar.

§Events

§January–June

• January 5 – Emperor Go-Sai ascends the throne of Japan.
• February 16 – Dutch Grand Pensionary advisor Johan de Witt marries Wendela Bicker.
• March 8 – John Castor became the first legally recognized slave in what was to be the United States.
• March 25 – Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is discovered by Christiaan Huygens.
• April 4 – Battle of Porto Farina, Tunis: English admiral Robert Blake's fleet defeats the Barbarian pirates.
• April 7 – Pope Alexander VII, born Fabio Chigi, succeeds Pope Innocent X as the 237th pope.
• April 24 – The massacre of the Waldensians by Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy, memorialized in a poem.
• April 26 – The Dutch West India Company denies Peter Stuyvesant's request to exclude Jews from New Amsterdam (Manhattan).
• April 28 – Admiral Blake severely damages the arsenal of the Bey of Tunis.
• May 10 – English troops land on Jamaica.
• June 13 – Adriana Nooseman-van de Bergh becomes the first actress in Amsterdam theater.

§July–December

• July 20 – The Amsterdam Town Hall (now the Royal Palace) is inaugurated.
• July 27
  • The Jews in New Amsterdam petition for a separate Jewish cemetery.
  • The Netherlands and Brandenburg sign a military treaty.
• July 30 – Dutch troops capture Fort Assahudi Seram.
• July 31 – Russo-Polish War (1654–67): The Russian army enters the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilnius, which it holds for 6 years.
• August 9 – Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell divides England into 11 districts under major-generals.
• August 28 – New Amsterdam and Peter Stuyvesant bar colonial Jews from military service.
• August – The governor of New Netherland, Peter Stuyvesant, attacks the New Sweden (Delaware) colony.
• September 8 – Swedish King Karl X Gustav occupies Warsaw (Poland).
• September 26 – Peter Stuyvesant recaptures Dutch Ft. Casimir and defeats the New Sweden (Delaware) colony.
• October 15 – The Jews of Lublin are massacred.
• October 19 – Swedish King Karl X Gustav occupies Kraków (Poland).
• November 3 – England and France sign military and economic treaties.
• November 24 – English Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell bans Anglicans.
• December 4 – Middelburg, the Netherlands forbids the building of a synagogue.
• December 27 – Second Northern War/the Deluge: Monks at the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa are successful in fending off a month-long siege.

§Date unknown

• The Bibliotheca Thysiana is erected, the only surviving 17th century example in the Netherlands of a building designed as a library.

§Births

• January 1 – Christian Thomasius, German jurist (d. 1728)
• January 5 – John Coney (silversmith), early American silversmith/goldsmith (d. 1722)
• January 6
  • Niccolò Comneno Papadopoli, Italian jurist of religious law and historian (d. 1740)
  • Eleonor Magdalene of Neuburg, Holy Roman Empress (d. 1720)
  • Antonio Molinari, Italian painter (d. 1704)
• January 11
  • Charles Sergison, English politician (d. 1732)
  • Henry Howard, 7th Duke of Norfolk (d. 1701)
• January 13 – Bernard de Montfaucon, French Benedictine monk (d. 1741)
• January 19 – Nalan Xingde, poet (d. 1685)
• January 25 – Cornelius Anckarstjerna, admiral (d. 1714)
• January 27 – Henri de Nesmond, French churchman (d. 1727)
• February 2 – William "Tangier" Smith, Moroccan mayor (d. 1705)
• February 7 – Jean-François Regnard (d. 1709)
• February 14 – Jacques-Nicolas Colbert, French churchman (d. 1707)
• February 15 – August, Duke of Saxe-Merseburg-Zörbig, German prince (d. 1715)
• February 16 – Charles, Electoral Prince of Brandenburg, German prince (d. 1674)
• February 25 – Carel de Moor, Dutch painter (d. 1738)
• February 28 – Johann Beer, Austrian composer (d. 1700)
• March 4 – Fra Galgario, Italian painter (d. 1743)
• March 6 – Frederik Krag, Danish nobleman and senior civil servant (d. 1728)
• March 23
  • Richard Hill of Hawkstone (d. 1727)
  • Sir Richard Myddelton, 3rd Baronet, English politician (d. 1716)
• April 8 – Louis William, Margrave of Baden-Baden (d. 1707)
• April 19 – George St Lo, Royal Navy officer and administrator (d. 1718)
• April 25 – John Lowther, 1st Viscount Lonsdale, English politician (d. 1700)
• April 26
  • Rinaldo d'Este (1655–1737), Duke of Modena (d. 1737)
  • Ofspring Blackall, Bishop of Exeter (d. 1716)
• May 4 – Bartolomeo Cristofori, Italian maker of musical instruments (d. 1731)
• May 13 – Pope Innocent XIII (d. 1724)
• May 31 – Jacques Eléonor Rouxel de Grancey, Marshal of France (d. 1725)
• June 4 – Thomas of Cori, Italian Friar Minor and preacher (d. 1729)
• June 11 – Antonio Cifrondi, Italian painter (d. 1730)
• June 12 – Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen (d. 1715)
• July 7 – Christoph Dientzenhofer, Architect (d. 1722)
• July 20 – Ford Grey, 1st Earl of Tankerville, British Earl (d. 1701)
• August 2 – Sir John Hotham, 3rd Baronet, English politician (d. 1691)
• August 13 – Johann Christoph Denner (d. 1707)
• August 16 – Frederick Christian, Count of Schaumburg-Lippe (d. 1728)
• August 18 – James Collett, English-born merchant who settled in Norway (d. 1727)
• August 22 – Joseph Robineau de Villebon (d. 1700)
• September 2 – Andries Pels, Dutch banker (d. 1731)
• September 9 – James Johnston (Secretary of State), diplomat, Secretary of State for Scotland (d. 1737)
• September 12 – Sébastien de Brossard, French composer and music theorist (d. 1730)
• September 14 – Éléonor Marie du Maine du Bourg, French nobleman and general (d. 1739)
• September 21 – Roger Cave, English politician (d. 1703)
• September 29 – Johann Ferdinand of Auersperg, Duke of Münsterberg (d. 1705)
• September 30 – Charles III, Prince of Guéméné, French nobleman (d. 1727)
• October 4 – Lothar Franz von Schönborn, Archbishop of Mainz (d. 1729)
• October 12 – Richard Neville (the younger), English politician (d. 1717)
• October 25 – Fabio Brulart de Sillery, French churchman (d. 1714)
• November 1 – Ferdinand Kettler (d. 1737)
• November 6 – Daniel Lascelles (1655–1734), Member of the Parliament of England (d. 1734)
• November 12
  • Eustache Restout, French painter (d. 1743)
  • Francis Nicholson, British Army general, colonial administrator (d. 1727)
• November 16 – Alessandro Gherardini, Italian painter (d. 1726)
• November 18 – Walter Norborne (died 1684), English politician (d. 1684)
• November 19 – Sir William Robinson, 1st Baronet, British politician (d. 1736)
• November 20 – Sir Thomas Grosvenor, 3rd Baronet, English politician (d. 1700)
• November 24 – King Charles XI of Sweden (d. 1697)
• December 9 – Isaac van Hoornbeek, Grand Pensionary of Holland (d. 1727)
• December 10 – Sir William Forester, British politician (d. 1718)
• December 13 – John Evelyn the Younger, English translator (d. 1699)
• December 14 – Philip, Landgrave of Hesse-Philippsthal, son of William VI (d. 1721)
• December 27 – Abstrupus Danby, English politician (d. 1727)
• December 28 – Charles Cornwallis, 3rd Baron Cornwallis, First Lord of the British Admiralty (d. 1698)
• December 29 – Lewis Watson, 1st Earl of Rockingham, English politician (d. 1724)
• date unknown – Zumbi, runaway slave in Brazil (d. 1695)

§Deaths

• January 5 – Pope Innocent X (b. 1574)
• January 12 – Pierre de Fermat, French mathematician and lawyer (b. 1601)
• February 25 – Daniel Heinsius, Flemish scholar (b. 1580)
• April 6 – David Blondel, French Protestant clergyman (b. 1591)
• April 30 – Eustache Le Sueur, French painter (b. 1617)
• June 27 – Eleonore Gonzaga, wife of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1598)
• July 15 – Girolamo Rainaldi, Italian architect (b. 1570)
• July 28
  • Cyrano de Bergerac, French soldier and writer (b. 1619)
  • Suzuki Shōsan, Japanese Samurai (b. 1579)
• August 10 – Alfonso de la Cueva, marqués de Bedmar, Spanish cardinal and diplomat (b. 1572)
• September 7 – François Tristan l'Hermite, French dramatist (b. 1601)
• October 16 – Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, Italian physician, mathematician, and music theorist (b. 1591)
• October 24 – Pierre Gassendi, French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist (b. 1592)
• December 17 – Ukita Hideie, Japanese daimyo (b. 1573)