1674
Shivaji Crowned Chhatrapati
In an elaborate Hindu ceremony at Raigad Fort, the Maratha warrior Shivaji was crowned Chhatrapati, paramount king, of an independent Hindu state carved out of the western Deccan. He had fought the Mughals for two decades. The Maratha Confederacy he founded would outlast and eventually supplant the Mughal empire, becoming the dominant power in the Indian subcontinent by the eighteenth century.
Third Anglo-Dutch War Ends
The Treaty of Westminster ended the Third Anglo-Dutch War with a return to the status quo. The Dutch conclusively retained New Netherland but ceded it back to England at the treaty in exchange for Suriname. New York became permanently English. Anglo-Dutch hostility would soon yield to dynastic alliance, and within fifteen years a Dutch prince would sit on the English throne.
Father Marquette Founds Mission at Chicago
The Jesuit missionary Jacques Marquette, returning from his exploration of the Mississippi, established a mission among the Illinois people near the mouth of the Chicago River. He preached through the winter in a bark chapel, weakened by dysentery, and died the following spring. The site he blessed would one day anchor a continent's interior.
Jaunpur Earthquake Devastates North India
A powerful earthquake struck the Mughal province of Jaunpur in the Gangetic plain, toppling minarets, cracking fortress walls, and burying entire villages under alluvial mud. Contemporary chroniclers recorded fissures swallowing livestock and the Ganges running backward for hours. The disaster strained Aurangzeb's already overtaxed treasury and deepened rural misery across the heartland.