The first arrests are made in the case that will develop into the "Affair of the Poisons" in France, asMagdelaine de La Grange and her accused accomplice, Father Nail, are detained on suspicion of poisoning her lover, a Messr. Faurie.[1] While in prison in the Bastille and awaiting trial Mademoiselle La Grange writes letters accusing other persons of carrying out murders by poison as well.
August 28 – Duringwar between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire, Russian troops led byGrigory Romodanovsky and Ukrainian Cossacks led byIvan Samoylovych arrive at the besieged Ukrainian city ofChigirin (modern-day Chyhyryn) and inflict heavy casualties on the encamped Turkish and Tatar troops.[3] Ibrahim Pasha, leader of the 45,000 member Ottoman force, retreats the next day and, by the time of the relief of Chigirin on September 5, the Ottoman Army has lost 20,000 men. Ottoman SultanMehmed IV, outraged by the defeat, sends 200,000 troops the following year and destroys the city.
September 17 – Troops fromDenmark invade and capture the Swedish island ofRügen and drive out the local population. Five months later, on January 18, 1678, Sweden recaptures the island. Nine months later, troops from Denmark and Brandenburg invade for a third time and capture the island again on October 22, 1678. Eight months later, Denmark is given the island back under atreaty ending the Swedish-Brandenburg War on June 29, but by then, the island of Rügen is in ruins. In modern times, the island becomes a vacation resort in Germany.
December 7 – FatherLouis Hennepin of Belgium, exploring North America, becomes the earliest known European person to discoverNiagara Falls, and the first to report its existence. In his bookA New Discovery of a Vast Country in America, published in 1698, Hennepin writes "Betwixt the lakes Ontario and Eire there is a vast prodigious Cadence of water which falls down after a surprising and astonishing manner, inasmuch that the Universe does not afford its parallel."[4]
December 9 – The French Navy, led byCharles de Courbon de Blénac with a land force of 950 men, lands at the Caribbean island ofTobago, lays siege to the Dutch fort defending the territory during theFranco-Dutch War, and destroys the structure when it fires a cannon overlooking the fort, striking the gunpowder arsenal. The explosion kills 250 of the defenders, including Dutch AdmiralJacob Binckes and 16 officers. Combined with the sinking of four ships of the Netherlands Navy, the victory at Tobago ends Dutch military power in the Antilles.
December 15 – The Siege of Stettin (the modern-day Polish city ofSzczecin but, at this time, a possession of Sweden) ends after almost five months with Sweden's surrender of the city to Prussia'sFrederick William, Elector of Brandenburg. The siege, part of theScanian War, had begun on June 25.
Robert Plot publishesThe Natural History of Oxford-shire, Being an Essay Toward the Natural History of England, in which he describes the fossilised femur of a human giant, now known to be from thedinosaurMegalosaurus.
^"The Women of the Bastille", anonymous excerpt fromMemoires Historiques et Authentiques sur la Bastille (1789), inNew Monthly Magazine (April 1864) p. 435
^Olaf van Nimwegen,The Dutch Army and the Military Revolutions, 1588-1688 (Boydell Press, 2010) p. 504
^Grun, Bernard (1991).The Timetables of History: A Horizontal Linkage of People and Events. New York: Simon and Schuster. pp. 308–309.OL1756160M.Ice cream becomes popular as dessert in Paris.
^Oechslin, Werner (1972)."BUONAMICI, Francesco".Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (in Italian). Vol. 15. Archived fromthe original on January 23, 2020.
