1659

January–June

• January 14 - Portuguese Restoration War - Battle of the Lines of Elvas: The Portuguese beat the Spanish.
• January 24 - Pierre Corneille's Oedipe premieres in Paris.
• February 2 - Jan van Riebeeck produces the first South African wine, at the Cape of Good Hope.
• February 11 - The Assault on Copenhagen by Swedish forces is beaten back, with heavy losses.
• February 16 - The first known cheque is written.
• April 22 - Lord Protector Richard Cromwell dissolves the English Parliament.
• May 21 - The Kingdom of France, the Commonwealth of England and the Dutch Republic sign the Concert of The Hague.
• May 25 - Richard Cromwell resigns as English Lord Protector.
• May 31 - The Netherlands, England, and France sign the Treaty of The Hague.
• June 29 - Russo-Polish War - Battle of Konotop: Ivan Vyhovsky, hetman of Ukraine, and his allies defeat the armies of the Tsardom of Russia, led by Aleksey Trubetskoy, in Ukraine.

  July–December

• July - Christiaan Huygens's important work on astronomy, Systema Saturnium, is published.
• July 16 - Princess Henriette Catherine of Nassau marries John George II, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, in Groningen.
• September 30 - Peter Stuyvesant of New Netherland forbids tennis playing during religious services.
• October 12 - The English Rump Parliament dismisses John Lambert, and other generals.
• October 13 - General-major John Lambert drives out the English Rump-government.
• November 7 - Treaty of the Pyrenees: King Louis XIV of France and King Philip IV of Spain agree to French acquisition of the counties of Roussillon and Upper Cerdanya and most of Artois, and formally end their 24-year war.
• November 25 - Dutch forces under Michiel de Ruyter free the Danish city of Nyborg from Swedish conquest.
• December 16 - General Monck demands free parliamentary elections in Scotland.
• December 26 - The Long Parliament reforms occur in Westminster.

  Date unknown

• First British colonists arrive on Saint Helena.
• Spanish Infanta Maria Theresa brings cocoa to Paris.
• Diego Velázquez's portrait of Infanta Maria Theresa is first exhibited.
• Thomas Hobbes publishes De Homine.
• Parisian police raid a monastery, sending monks to prison for eating meat and drinking wine during Lent.
• Drought occurs in India.
• Peter Swink, the first known non-white settler to own land in Massachusetts, and first known African to live in Springfield, Massachusetts, arrives. He holds a seat in the town meetings.

  Births

• January 1 - Margaret Wemyss, 3rd Countess of Wemyss, Scottish noble
• January 4 - James Pierpont, Connecticut Congregationalist minister, a founder of Yale University
• January 11 - Ambrose Browne, English politician
• January 13 - Johann Arnold Nering, German architect
• January 17
• * Takatsukasa Kanehiro, Japanese court noble of the Edo period
• * Antonio Veracini, Italian composer
• January 18 - Damaris Cudworth Masham, English philosopher
• January 21 - Adriaen van der Werff, Dutch painter
• January 28 - Sir Samuel Barnardiston, 2nd Baronet, English politician
• February 1 - Jacob Roggeveen, Dutch Pacific Ocean explorer
• February 14 - Theodore Eustace, Count Palatine of Sulzbach
• February 27 - William Sherard, English botanist
• March 4 - Pierre Lepautre, French sculptor
• March 6 - Salomon Franck, German lawyer, scientist and poet
• March 8 - Isaac de Beausobre, French Protestant pastor
• March 25 - John Asgill, Irish politician
• March 26 - William Wollaston, English philosopher
• April 8 - Christopher Tancred, English politician
• April 14
• * Albrecht of Saxe-Weissenfels, German prince
• * William Delaune, English academic administrator and clergyman
• April 15 - Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt, Swedish general
• April 16 - Jacques le Moyne de Sainte-Hélène, Canadian soldier
• April 29
• * Sophia Elisabet Brenner, Swedish writer
• * Date Tsunamura, Japanese daimyō at the center of the Date Sōdō
• May 4 - John Dunton, English bookseller and author
• June 3 - David Gregory, Scottish mathematician and astronomer
• June 5 - Wolfgang George Frederick von Pfalz-Neuburg, German bishop
• June 7 - Henry Thompson, English politician and landowner
• June 11 - Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Japanese samurai
• June 15 - Claude de Ramezay, Canadian politician
• June 22 - Simon-Pierre Denys de Bonaventure, French officer and governor of Acadia
• June 26 - Sir John Brownlow, 3rd Baronet, English politician
• July 3 - Franz Beer, Austrian architect
• July 6 - Albert Wolfgang, Count of Hohenlohe-Langenburg
• July 8 - Justus van Huysum, Dutch painter
• July 14 - John Hutton, English politician
• July 16 - Anne Wharton, English poet
• July 18 - Hyacinthe Rigaud, French painter
• July 22 - Noadiah Russell, American colonial clergyman, a founder of Yale University
• July 28
• * Asano Tsunanaga, Japanese daimyō, ruler of the Hiroshima Domain
• * Charles Ancillon, French Protestant pastor
• August 1 - Sebastiano Ricci, Italian painter
• August 2 - Andrew Archer, English politician
• August 17 - Robert Challe, French colonialist
• August 20 - Henry Every, English pirate
• September 1 - Domenico Egidio Rossi, Italian architect
• September 5 - Michel Sarrazin, Canadian scientist
• September 10 - Henry Purcell, English composer
• September 12
• * Dirk Maas, Dutch painter
• * Ferdinand Willem, Duke of Württemberg-Neuenstadt, Dutch general and noble
• September 13 - Claud Hamilton, 4th Earl of Abercorn, Scottish and Irish peer
• September 18 - Caleb Banks, English politician
• October 13 - George Verney, 12th Baron Willoughby de Broke, English peer and clergyman
• October 22 - Georg Ernst Stahl, German chemist
• October 28 - Nicholas Brady, English poet and Anglican clergyman
• November 3 - Hui-bin Jang, Korean royal consort
• November 10 - Albert Borgard, Danish artillery and engineer officer
• November 19 - Jacques-Louis de Valon, French poet
• December 2 - John Brereton, 4th Baron Brereton, Irish peer
• December 12 - Francesco Galli Bibiena, Italian architect/designer
• December 18 - Matthieu Petit-Didier, French Benedictine theologian
• December 28 - François Catrou, French historian and Jesuit priest

  Deaths

• January 2 - Richard Pepys, English politician
• January 15 - Juliana of Hesse-Darmstadt, Countess of East Frisia
• January 16 - Charles Annibal Fabrot, French lawyer
• February - Willem Drost, Dutch painter and printmaker
• February 4 - Francis Osborne, English writer
• February 11 - Guillaume Colletet, French writer
• February 12 - Duchess Magdalene Sibylle of Prussia, Electress of Saxony
• February 15 - John Arrowsmith, English theologian and academic
• February 17 - Abel Servien, French diplomat
• February 27 - Henry Dunster, first President of Harvard College
• March 9 - Peter Bulkley, English and later American Puritan
• March 29 - Juan Bautista de Lezana, Spanish theologian
• April 15 - Simon Dach, German poet
• May 6 - Anne Eleonore of Hesse-Darmstadt, Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg by marriage
• May 20 - Étienne de Courcelles, French scholar
• May 29 - Robert Rich, 3rd Earl of Warwick
• June 3 - Morgan Llwyd, Welsh Puritan preacher and writer
• June 6 - Nadira Banu Begum, Mughal princess
• June 21 - Afonso Mendes, Patriarch of Ethiopia
• June 23 - Hyojong of Joseon, 17th king of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea
• July - Giulia Tofana, Italian poisoner
• August 7 - Jonathan Brewster, American settler
• August 10
• * Eleonora Ramirez di Montalvo, Italian educator
• * Frederick III, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp
• August 30
• * Alexander Lindsay, 1st Earl of Balcarres, Scottish politician and noble
• * Dara Shikoh, Indian prince
• September 8 - Frederick V, Margrave of Baden-Durlach
• September 27 - Andreas Tscherning, German poet
• September 30 - Giovanni Pesaro, Doge of Venice
• October 1 - Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, Spanish politician, clergyman
• October 8
• * Jean de Quen, French Jesuit missionary and historian
• * Robert Cholmondeley, 1st Earl of Leinster, English politician
• October 10 - Abel Tasman, Dutch explorer
• October 27 - Giovanni Francesco Busenello, Italian librettist
• October 31 - John Bradshaw, English judge
• November 6 - Jérôme le Royer de la Dauversière, French nobleman, founder of Montreal and an order of nursing Sisters
• November 7 - Jens Bjelke, Norwegian noble
• November 10 - Afzal Khan, Indian commander of the Bijapur Adilshahi forces
• December 5 - Fra Bonaventura Bisi, Italian painter
• December 31
• * János Apáczai Csere, Hungarian mathematician
• * Alain de Solminihac, French bishop and beatified person