16 July โ Taking into account the devaluation of copper money and the crisis in settlement operations, the guardians of King Charles X granted the Stockholm Bank a monopoly on issuing banknotes. The first European banknotes were issued. The Swedish banknote had different denominations and possessed all the distinctive features of a note familiar even today: a serial number, a signature guaranteeing its redemption, and security measures against counterfeiting. The introduction of banknotes was successful thanks to government support and moderate issuance.
1 July โ the Treaty of Cardis was signed between Russia and Sweden. As a result, Russia returned to Sweden all previously conquered Baltic towns (Kokenhausen, Dorpat, Marienburg, Anzla, Neuhausen, Syrensk), โwith everything that had been taken in these towns,โ and, in addition, undertook to leave in these towns 10,000 barrels of rye and 5,000 barrels of flour. The Russians received the right to maintain trading yards in Stockholm, Riga, Reval, and Narva, and the Swedes โ in Moscow, Novgorod, Pskov, and Pereyaslavl. Russian envoys could freely pass through Swedish territory if they were traveling to friendly peoples; Swedish envoys had the same rights within Russia. Prisoners were to be returned home; the parties undertook to hand over deserters to one another.
In the spring of 1661 the host sent Stepan Timofeyevich Razin to the Kalmyks to persuade them to serve the Moscow tsar and to support the Don Cossacks against the Crimean khan. In the autumn of the same year Stepan went on pilgrimage to the Solovetsky Monastery and on the way visited Moscow.
1 November โ Tsarโs mentor Boris Morozov died unexpectedly, and his brother inherited all his enormous wealth, but himself died a couple of months later after overeating at the tsarโs feast. The only heir to the largest fortune in Russia was the young Ivan, but everything was managed by the widow, Feodosiya Prokopyevna.
9 June โ Fyodor Alexeyevich, Russian tsar, son of Alexey Mikhailovich, was born.
5 June โ Isaac Newton was enrolled as a student at Trinity College, Cambridge.
23 April โ Charles II of England was solemnly anointed and crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury in Westminster Abbey.
15โ17 May โ Henry Bishop first used a postmark to record the route and time (duration) of the delivery of letters. It was a simple circular stamp 13 mm in diameter, divided by one horizontal line into two halves: on one, the month was indicated by two Latin letters; on the other, the day of dispatch (day of the month) by Arabic numerals.
9 March โ the all-powerful Cardinal Mazarin died in France. That day many wept, even those who all their lives had anathematized the deceased and smeared him with mud. Everyone understood what a great legacy this man had left behind.
6 November โ a long-awaited heir appeared in the Spanish royal family. Four of his brothers had died in childhood. Soon the father-king would also pass away. Before turning four, Charles II would receive the crown of Spain. At the age of four the king still could not speak; until the age of eight he could not walk. Epilepsy, diarrhea, vomiting, problems with skeletal development, mental problems, impotence, and a whole bouquet of other illnesses fell to the lot of the young monarch.
6 August โ the Treaty of The Hague was signed, under which the Netherlands renounced its claims to the territory of Brazil, and Portugal ceded to the Dutch its rights to Ceylon and the Spice Islands, additionally paying 63 tons of gold.
In Poland, in the Warsaw area, of 467 settlements 46 were completely destroyed; of 101 folwarks in Masovia 13 were completely devastated; in 27 all buildings were burned down, in 20 all livestock was exterminated. In Eastern Pomerania, one third of the villages ceased to exist; another third lost half of their population. Podolia and Red Ruthenia lost 53โ58% of peasant households.
In 1661 the famous Qing military commander Zheng Chenggong, at the head of a naval armada, crossed the Taiwan Strait and won a complete victory over the Dutch, who had colonized Taiwan for 38 years.