1652

Year 1652 (MDCLII) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1652

January - June

* January 8 - Michiel de Ruyter marries the widow Anna van Gelder and plans retirement, but months later becomes a vice-commodore in the First Anglo-Dutch War.
* April 6 - Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck establishes a resupply camp for the Dutch East India Company at the Cape of Good Hope, and founds Cape Town.
* May 18 - Rhode Island passes the first law in North America making slavery illegal.
* May 29 - First Anglo-Dutch War: The opening battle is fought off Dover, between Lt.-Admiral Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp's 42 Dutch ships and 21 English ships divided into 2 squadrons, one commanded by Robert Blake and the other by Nehemiah Bourne.

July - December

* August 26 - First Anglo-Dutch War - Battle of Plymouth: A fleet from the Commonwealth of England attacks an outward-bound convoy of the United Provinces, escorted by 23 men-of-war and 6 fire ships commanded by Vice-Commodore Michiel de Ruyter.
* October 8 - First Anglo-Dutch War - Battle of the Kentish Knock: The battle is fought near the shoal called the Kentish Knock in the North Sea, about 30 km from the mouth of the River Thames.

Ongoing events

* Fronde civil war in France (1648-1653)

Births

* March 3 - Thomas Otway, English dramatist (d. 1685)
* March 28 - Samuel Sewall, English-born judge (d. 1730)
* April 7 - Pope Clement XII (d. 1740)
* April 21 - Michel Rolle, French mathematician (d. 1719)
* December 9 - Augustus Quirinus Rivinus, German physician and botanist (d. 1723)
* December 25 - Archibald Pitcairne, Scottish physician (d. 1713)

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Deaths

* February 7 - Gregorio Allegri, Italian composer (b. 1582)
* June 21 - Inigo Jones, English architect (b. 1573)
* July 30 - Charles Amédée de Savoie, 6th Duc de Nemours, French soldier (b. 1624)
* August 22 - Jacob De la Gardie, Swedish soldier and statesman (b. 1583)
* August 23 - John Byron, 1st Baron Byron, English royalist politician (b. 1600)
* October 8 - John Greaves, English mathematician and antiquarian (b. 1602)
* October 20 - Antonio Coello, Spanish writer (b. 1611)
* November 4 - Jean-Charles de la Faille, Belgian mathematician (b. 1597)
* December 11 - Denis Petau, French theologian and historian (b. 1583)
* November 21 - Jan Brożek, Polish mathematician, physician, and astronomer (b. 1585)
* December 23 - John Cotton, founder of Boston, Massachusetts (b. 1585)

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