1683

Events in 1683 3

• 1665 – 1683 Van Leeuwenhoek discovers microorganisms Animalcules — the first living bacteria and protozoa seen Between 1665 and 1683, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek of Delft ground lenses of extraordinary quality and used them to discover a previously invisible world. He was the first to observe bacteria (in dental scrapings, 1683), protozoa, sperm cells, red blood cells, and the capillaries connecting arteries and veins that Harvey had predicted. He corresponded with the Royal Society for fifty years, describing over 200 different microorganisms.
• 1683 – 1764 Jean-Philippe Rameau French Baroque composer & theorist The dominant figure of French Baroque music and opera. His treatise on harmony laid the foundations of modern Western music theory.
• 1683 Second siege of Vienna -- the turning point The Ottoman siege of Vienna (July-September 1683) is the high-water mark of Ottoman expansion in Europe and the beginning of the long retreat. Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha leads an army of 140,000 to Vienna's walls; the city holds under Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg. On 12 September 1683, a relief army under Jan III Sobieski of Poland and Charles of Lorraine descends from the Kahlenberg heights and destroys the Ottoman army in one of the most decisive cavalry charges in history. Kara Mustafa is strangled on the sultan's orders. The retreat from Vienna never reverses.