1658 Building Tay Mahal India is completed
Events
- 1651: English Civil War ends with the Parliamentarian victory at the Battle of Worcester.
- 1655–1661: The Northern Wars cement Sweden‘s rise as a Great Power.
- 1658: After his father Shah Jahan completes the Taj Mahal, his son Aurangzeb deposes him as ruler of the Mughal Empire.
- Oliver Cromwell‘s troops sweep through Ireland and bombard the Kiltinan Castle in County Tipperary.
- William II, Prince of Orange, stadtholder of Holland, attempts to conquer the rest of the Netherlands and attempts a coup d’état against the Dutch Republic.
- William III of Orange becomes Prince of the House of Orange at the moment of his birth, succeeding his father, who had died a few days earlier. He does not become stadtholder, so the United Provinces becomes a true republic.
- The first modern Palio di Siena horserace is held in Italy.
- Three-wheeled wheelchairs are invented in Nuremberg by watchmaker Stephan Farffler.
- Einkommende Zeitungen becomes the first German daily newspaper
- Istanbul becomes the largest city of the world, taking the lead from Beijing
- Rhode Island passes the first law in North America making slavery illegal
- First Anglo-Dutch War: Battle of Dover – The opening battle is fought off Dover between Lt.-Admiral Maarten Tromp‘s 42 Dutch ships and 21 English ships divided into two squadrons, one commanded by Robert Blake and the other by Nehemiah Bourne; the result is inconclusive.
- The First Anglo-Dutch War begins formally as the English Commonwealth declares war against the Dutch Republic.
- New Amsterdam (now New York City) received municipal rights by a charter from New Netherland Governor Peter Stuyvesant.
- The Instrument of Government in England becomes Britain’s first written constitution, under which Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland,[27][28] being advised by a remodelled English Council of State. This is the start of The First Protectorate, bringing an end to the first period of republican government in the country, the Commonwealth of England.
- Saturn‘s largest moon, Titan, is discovered by Christiaan Huygens
- In an attempt to find survivors of the Vergulde Draeck, a search party is sent ashore by the rescue ship Goede Hoop; eleven men from two search parties while in the forests around the wreckage site. No trace of the Vergulde Draeck will be found for more than three centuries, until its wreckage is discovered by skin divers on April 13, 1963.
- The pendulum clock is invented by Christiaan Huygens, so accurate that it only loses 10 seconds per day. Huygens will mention the date in a letter to Ismail Boulliau a year later.
- The Stockholm Banco, the first bank to issue banknotes, is founded in Stockholm, Sweden.
- The only English fifty shilling coin is minted.
- England’s first chocolate house is opened in London and introduction of tea in England while coffee is introduced to France
- Jan van Riebeeck produces the first South African wine, at the Cape of Good Hope
- Christiaan Huygens‘s important work on astronomy, Systema Saturnium, is published
- Peter Stuyvesant of New Netherland forbids tennis playing during religious services, marking the first mention of tennis in what will become the United States.
Music
- Francesco Cavalli – Orimonte
- Melchior Franck – Der 133. Psalm Davids (Siehe wie fein und lieblich) for five voices (Coburg: Johann Eyrich), published posthumously
- Samuel Scheidt – Tabulatur-Buch
- Heinrich Schütz – Symphoniae sacrae, part 3
Literature
- Thomas Hobbes publishes his magnum opus, the political tract Leviathan, in England
- Andreas Gryphius‘ drama Katharina von Georgien is published in Breslau.
- Thomas Middleton‘s tragedy Women Beware Women (c. 1623–24) is published posthumously in London.