1650

Events of 1650

January - June

• April 27 - Battle of Carbisdale: A Royalist army invades mainland Scotland from the Orkney Islands but is defeated by a Covenanter army.
• May - The New Model Army is decimated at the siege of Clonmel.
• June 9 The Harvard Corporation, the more powerful of the two administrative boards of Harvard, is established (the first legal corporation in the Americas).
• June 23 - Claimant King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland arrives in Scotland, the only of the three Kingdoms that has accepted him as ruler.

July - December

• August 23 - Colonel George Monck forms Monck's Regiment of Foot, forerunner of the Coldstream Guards.
• September 3 - Third English Civil War: Battle of Dunbar (1650).

• September 29 - Henry Robinson opens his Office of Addresses and Encounters (the first historically documented dating service) in Threadneedle Street, London.
• November 4 - William III of Orange becomes Prince of the House of Orange the moment of his birth, succeeding his father who had died a few days earlier. He doesn't become stadtholder, so the United Provinces become a true republic.
• December 25 - Thomas Cooper, former Usher of Gresham's School, England, is hanged as a Royalist rebel.

Undated

• The first modern Palio horserace is held in Siena.
• Puritans chop down the original Glastonbury Thorn.
• Captain James Hind makes an abortive attempt to seize power in England.
• Jews are allowed to return to France and England.
• Cafés begin to become popular in Europe.
• Three-wheeled wheelchairs are used in Nuremberg.
• The Age of Discovery ends.
• Ann Greene, who had been hanged for infanticide in Edinburgh, wakes up on an autopsy table; she is pardoned.

• Abyssinia deports Portuguese diplomats and missionaries.
• Einkommende Zeitungen becomes the first German newspaper (cancelled 1918).
• The town of Sharon, Massachusetts is founded.
• Estimation: Istanbul becomes the largest city of the world, taking the lead from Beijing.

Ongoing events

• Fronde civil war in France (1648-1653).

Births

• February 2 - Nell Gwynne, English actress and royal mistress (d. 1687)
• February 5 - Anne-Jules, 2nd duc de Noailles, French general (d. 1708)
• April 20 - William Bedloe, English informer (d. 1680)
• May 26 - John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, British general (d. 1722)
• August 16 - Vincenzo Coronelli, Italian cartographer and encylopedist (d. 1718)
• September 23 - Jeremy Collier, English theatre critic, non-juror bishop and theologian (d. 1726)
• November 14 - King William III of England, Scotland, and Ireland (d. 1702)
• November 7 - John Robinson, English diplomat (d. 1723)

Deaths

• February 11 - René Descartes, French philosopher (b. 1596)
• April 18 - Simonds d'Ewes, English antiquarian and politician (b. 1602)
• April 21 - Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi, Japanese samurai (b. 1607)
• May 21 - James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, Scottish royalist (b. 1612)
• June 18 - Christoph Scheiner, German astronomer (b. 1573 or 1575)
• June 19 - Matthäus Merian, Swiss engraver (b. 1593)
• August 25 - Richard Crashaw, English poet (b. c. 1613)
• October 29 - David Calderwood, Scottish historian (b. 1575)
• November 6 - William II, Prince of Orange (b. 1626)
• November 24 - Manuel Cardoso, Portuguese composer (b. 1566)
• December 31 - Dorgon, Manchu prince (b. 1612)
• date unknown -
• Giambattista Andreini, Italian actor and playwright (b. 1578)
• John Parkinson, English herbalist and botanist (b. 1567)