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Year 1656 (MDCLVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1656

January–June

• January 17 – Treaty of Königsberg is signed, establishing alliance between Charles X Gustav of Sweden and Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg.
• April 1 – King Jan Kazimierz crowns Our Lady of Częstochowa (the Black Madonna) as Queen and Protector of Poland in the cathedral of Lwów after the miraculous saving of the monastery of Jasna Góra during The Deluge, an event which actually changed the course of the war.
• April 28 – The ship Vergulde Draeck is wrecked off Ledge Point, Western Australia after it departs the Cape of Good Hope; rescue missions fail to find survivors.

July–December

• July – In an attempt to rescue survivors of the Vergulde Draeck, a search party is sent ashore, in Goede Hoop's boat, which smashes against rocks and sinks: 8 sailors drown; 3 more disappear ashore.
• December – The pendulum clock is invented by Christiaan Huygens.
• December 20 – Treaty of Labiau is signed between Charles X Gustav of Sweden and Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg.

Undated

• Mehmed Köprülü becomes Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.
• Jews are readmitted to England by Oliver Cromwell.
• The Stockholm Banco, the first bank to issue banknotes, is founded.
• The only Fifty Shilling British coin is minted.
• Adams' Grammar School in Shropshire, England is founded by William Adams.
• The Dutch capture the city of Colombo in Sri Lanka.
• Konoike Zen'amon (son of Konoike Shinroku) founds a baking and money-changing business in Osaka.
• Samuel Stockhausen publishes his “Treatise on the Noxious Fumes of Litharge, Diseases caused by them and Miners’ Asthma”

Ongoing events

• The Deluge (1648–1667)

Births

• April 10 – René Lepage de Sainte-Claire, lord-founder of Rimouski in eastern Quebec, Canada.
• May 31 – Marin Marais, French composer and viol player (d. 1728)
• June 5 – Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, French botanist (d. 1708)
• July 7 – Guru Har Krishan, Eighth Guru of Sikhism (d. 1664)
• August 6 – Claude de Forbin, French naval commander (d. 1733)
• September 6 – Guillaume Dubois, French cardinal and statesman (d. 1723)
• September 14 – Thomas Baker, English antiquarian (d. 1746)
• October 20 – Nicolas de Largillière, French painter (d. 1746)
• November 8 – Edmond Halley, English scientist (d. 1742)
• date unknown
  • Patrick Abercromby, Scottish physician and antiquarian (d. c. 1716)
  • Maria Oriana Galli-Bibiena, Italian painter (d. 1749)
  • Kateri Tekakwitha, a Native American beatified in the Roman Catholic Church (d. 1680)

See also Category:1656 births.

Deaths

• January 3 – Mathieu Molé, French statesman (b. 1584)
• March 21 – James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland (b. 1581)
• April 24 – Thomas Fincke, Danish mathematician and physicist (b. 1561)
• April 27 – Jan van Goyen, Dutch painter (b. 1596)
• June 9 – Thomas Tomkins, Welsh composer (b. 1572)
• July 2 – François-Marie, comte de Broglie, Italian-born French commander (b. 1611)
• August 11 – Prince Octavio Piccolomini, Duke of Amalfi, Austrian field marshal (b. 1599)
• September 8 – Joseph Hall (English Bishop and satirist), English bishop and writer (b. 1574)
• October – Stephen Bachiler, English clergyman (b. c. 1561)
• October 3 – Myles Standish, Mayflower colonist (b. c.1584)
• October 8 – John George I, Elector of Saxony (b. 1585)
• November 6 – King John IV of Portugal (b. 1603)
• December 27 – Andrew White, Apostle of Maryland (b. 1579)

See also Category:1656 deaths.

From Wikiquote