1670 – 1680s

Events in the 1670s 8

• 1608 – 1674 John Milton English poet Milton wrote Paradise Lost, an epic poem about the fall of man and moral freedom.
• 1622 – 1673 Moliere French playwright Moliere wrote satirical comedies that exposed hypocrisy in French society and shaped modern theatre.
• 1632 – 1675 Johannes Vermeer Dutch Golden Age · Netherlands Johannes Vermeer (October 31, 1632 – December 15, 1675) was a Dutch painter who captured intimate domestic scenes with extraordinary luminosity. Girl with a Pearl Earring is among the most reproduced paintings in the world.
• 1632 – 1677 Baruch Spinoza Rationalist philosopher Baruch (Benedictus) de Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, born and lived in the Dutch Republic. One of the three great Continental rationalists alongside Descartes and Leibniz, he developed a monist metaphysics identifying God with Nature, and earned his living grinding optical lenses.
• 1674 – 1818 Maratha Empire The Hindu power that broke Mughal supremacy Founded by the warrior-king Shivaji, the Maratha confederacy rose to challenge and then eclipse the declining Mughals, dominating much of India in the 18th century. Their power was checked by defeat at the Third Battle of Panipat (1761) and finally broken by the British in 1818.
• 1675 – 1676 Römer measures the speed of light Light travels at finite speed — first measurement In 1675-1676, Danish astronomer Ole Rømer observed that the timing of Jupiter's moon Io eclipses varied depending on Earth's distance from Jupiter. He correctly deduced that light travels at finite speed and estimated it at approximately 220,000 km/s — within 25% of the correct value of 299,792 km/s. This was the first demonstration that light has a measurable, finite speed.
• 1676 Boyle's law and the birth of chemistry The relationship between gas pressure and volume Robert Boyle's work in the 1660s-70s, including his law (pressure and volume of a gas are inversely proportional at constant temperature), helped transform alchemy into chemistry. He defined the chemical element, insisted on experiment over theory, and demonstrated the role of air in combustion, sound, and respiration. His book The Sceptical Chymist (1661) is considered the founding document of modern chemistry.
• 1678 – 1741 Antonio Vivaldi Baroque violin virtuoso Italian Baroque composer and violinist, best known for The Four Seasons. He wrote over 500 concertos and shaped the concerto form.