1678

Year 1678 (MDCLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1678

January - June

* January 27 - The first fire engine company in what will become the United States goes into service.
* February 18 - John Bunyan publishes his novel, "The Pilgrim's Progress".
* May 11 - French admiral d'Estrees runs his whole fleet aground in Curaçao.
* June - French buccaneer Michel de Grammont leads 6 pirate ships and 700 men in a daring raid on Spanish-held Venezuela, reaching inland as far as Trujillo, Venezuela.

July - December

* August 10 - The Treaties of Nijmegen end the Dutch War.
* September 6 - Titus Oates begins to present allegations of the "Popish Plot", a Catholic conspiracy to assassinate king Charles II of England.
* October 17 - British magistrate Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey is found murdered in Primrose Hill, London. Titus Oates claims it as a proof of his allegations.

Undated

* About 1,200 Irish families sail from Barbados to Virginia and the Carolinas.
* The first chrysanthemums are planted in Europe.
* In Ireland, the Diocese of Kildare is united with Leighlin to form the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin.
* Rebellion breaks out in Southern China.

Births

* March 4 - Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer (d. 1741)
* March 7 - Filippo Juvara, Italian architect (d. 1736)
* May 16 - Andreas Silbermann, organ builder (d. 1734)
* July 26 - Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1711)
* September 16 - Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, English statesman and philosopher (d. 1751)
* September 29 - Adrien-Maurice, 3rd duc de Noailles, French soldier (d. 1766)
* October 10 - John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll, Scottish soldier (d. 1743)
* November 26 - Jean Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan, French geophysicist (d. 1771)
* December 8 - Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole of Wolterton, English diplomat (d. 1757)
* December 13 - Yongzheng Emperor of China (d. 1735)
* December 14 - Daniel Neal, English historian (d. 1743)
* December 30 - William Croft, English composer (d. 1727)
*"date unknown" - George Farquhar, Irish dramatist (d. 1707)

Deaths

* January 29 - Jeronimo Lobo, Portuguese Jesuit missionary (b. 1593)
* May 4 or May 14 - Anna Maria van Schurman, Dutch poet and scholar (b. 1607)
* May 18 - Miyamoto Iori, Japanese samurai (b. 1612)
* August 5 - Juan García de Zéspedes, Mexican musician and composer (b. 1619)
* August 16 - Andrew Marvell, English writer (b. 1621)
* August 17 - Guillaume Herincx, Flemish theologian and Bishop of Ypres (b. 1621)
* August 28 - John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton, English soldier (b. 1602)
* September 8 - Pietro della Vecchia, Italian painter (b. 1603)
* October 12 - Edmund Berry Godfrey, English magistrate (b. 1621)
* October 18 - Jacob Jordaens, Flemish painter (b. 1593)
* October 19 - Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten, Dutch painter (b. c. 1627)
* November 1 - William Coddington, first Governor of Rhode Island (b. 1601)