1659

Centuries: 16th century - 17th century - 18th century

Decades: 1600s 1610s 1620s 1860s 1640s - 1650s - 1660s 1670s 1680s 1690s 1700s

Years: 1654 1655 1656 1657 1658 - 1659 - 1660 1661 1662 1663 1664

• May 25 - Richard Cromwell resigns as Lord Protector of England following the restoration of the Long Parliament, beginning a second brief period of the republican government called the Commonwealth.
• 24-year war between France and Spain ends with French acquisition of Roussillon and most of Artois under the Treaty of the Pyrenees[?] (November 7).

• The Spanish Infanta Maria Theresa[?] brings cocoa to Paris
• Diego Velazquez'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

Births

• July 28- Charles Ancillon, French Huguenot
• Henry Purcell

Deaths

• Abel Tasman, Dutch explorer