Timeline April 1655

Events in April 1655 3

• 1655 Blake's fleet destroys the Tunisian corsair fleet at Porto Farina English navy bombards a Barbary pirate base Admiral Robert Blake led an English fleet in an attack on the fortified harbor of Porto Farina in Tunisia, destroying nine corsair warships anchored there. The action was notable as one of the first instances of a fleet defeating shore fortifications by gunfire alone, without landing troops. The raid aimed to curb Barbary piracy against English shipping in the Mediterranean.
• 1655 Fabio Chigi elected Pope Alexander VII Papal conclave chooses a new pontiff Following the death of Innocent X, the College of Cardinals elected Fabio Chigi as pope after an eighty-day conclave. He took the name Alexander VII and went on to patronize Bernini's architectural work in Rome, including the colonnade of St. Peter's Square. His papacy also saw renewed conflict with Jansenism in France.
• 1655 Massacre of the Waldensians in Piedmont Savoyard troops kill Protestant villagers in the Alps Troops of the Duke of Savoy attacked Waldensian Protestant communities in the Piedmontese valleys, killing an estimated 1,700 people in what became known as the Piedmontese Easter. News of the massacre caused outrage across Protestant Europe, and English poet John Milton commemorated the victims in his sonnet On the Late Massacre in Piedmont. Oliver Cromwell's government raised funds and diplomatic protests on behalf of the survivors.