1650

Year 1650 (MDCL) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar, or a common year starting on Tuesday ( [http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/index.html?year=1650&country=20 Julian-1650] ) of the 10-day slower Julian calendar.

Events of 1650

January - June

* April 27 - Battle of Carbisdale: A Royalist army invades mainland Scotland from the Orkney Islands but is defeated by a Covenanter army.
* May - The New Model Army is decimated at the siege of Clonmel.
* June 9 The Harvard Corporation, the more powerful of the two administrative boards of Harvard, is established (the first legal corporation in the Americas).
* June 23 - Claimant King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland arrives in Scotland, the only of the three Kingdoms that has accepted him as ruler.

July - December

* August 23 - Colonel George Monck forms "Monck's Regiment of Foot", forerunner of the Coldstream Guards.
* September 3 - Third English Civil War: Battle of Dunbar (1650).

* September 29 - Henry Robinson opens his "Office of Addresses and Encounters" (the first historically documented dating service) in Threadneedle Street, London.
* November 4 - William III of Orange becomes Prince of the House of Orange the moment of his birth, succeeding his father who had died a few days earlier. He doesn't become stadtholder, so the United Provinces become a true republic.
* December 25 - Thomas Cooper, former Usher of Gresham's School, England, is hanged as a Royalist rebel.

Undated

* The first modern Palio horserace is held in Siena.
* Puritans chop down the original Glastonbury Thorn.
* Captain James Hind makes an abortive attempt to seize power in England.
* Jews are allowed to return to France and England.
* Cafés begin to become popular in Europe.
* Three-wheeled wheelchairs are used in Nuremberg.
* The Age of Discovery ends.
* Ann Greene, who had been hanged for infanticide in Edinburgh, wakes up on an autopsy table; she is pardoned.

* Abyssinia deports Portuguese diplomats and missionaries.
* "Einkommende Zeitungen" becomes the first German newspaper (cancelled 1918).
* The town of Sharon, Massachusetts is founded.
* Estimation: Istanbul becomes the largest city of the world, taking the lead from Beijing. [http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa011201a.htm]

Ongoing events

* Fronde civil war in France (1648-1653).

Births

* February 2 - Nell Gwynne, English actress and royal mistress (d. 1687)
* February 5 - Anne-Jules, 2nd duc de Noailles, French general (d. 1708)
* April 20 - William Bedloe, English informer (d. 1680)
* May 26 - John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, British general (d. 1722)
* August 16 - Vincenzo Coronelli, Italian cartographer and encylopedist (d. 1718)
* September 23 - Jeremy Collier, English theatre critic, non-juror bishop and theologian (d. 1726)
* November 14 - King William III of England, Scotland, and Ireland (d. 1702)
* November 7 - John Robinson, English diplomat (d. 1723)

Deaths

* February 11 - René Descartes, French philosopher (b. 1596)
* April 18 - Simonds d'Ewes, English antiquarian and politician (b. 1602)
*April 21 - Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi, Japanese samurai (b. 1607)
* May 21 - James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, Scottish royalist (b. 1612)
* June 18 - Christoph Scheiner, German astronomer (b. 1573 or 1575)
* June 19 - Matthäus Merian, Swiss engraver (b. 1593)
* August 25 - Richard Crashaw, English poet (b. c. 1613)
* October 29 - David Calderwood, Scottish historian (b. 1575)
* November 6 - William II, Prince of Orange (b. 1626)
* November 24 - Manuel Cardoso, Portuguese composer (b. 1566)
* December 31 - Dorgon, Manchu prince (b. 1612)
*"date unknown" -
**Giambattista Andreini, Italian actor and playwright (b. 1578)
**John Parkinson, English herbalist and botanist (b. 1567)