1666 in England

Events from the year 1666 in England. This is the first year to be designated as an Annus mirabilis, in John Dryden's 1667 poem so titled, celebrating England's failure to be beaten either by fire or by the Dutch.

Incumbents

• Monarch - King Charles II

Events

• 1 February - Royal court returns to London after the Great Plague of London.
• 1 June–4 June Second Anglo-Dutch War : Inconclusive Four Days Battle, one of the longest naval engagements in history.
• 25 July - Second Anglo-Dutch War: English fleet beats Dutch under Michiel de Ruyter at St. James's Day Battle.
• 2 September - Great Fire of London: A large fire breaks out in London in the house of Charles II's baker on Pudding Lane near London Bridge. The fire burns for three days destroying 10,000 buildings including St. Paul's Cathedral, but only 16 people are known to have died.
• 5 September - Great Fire of London ends. Destruction of overcrowded houses ends Great Plague of London.

Undated

• Isaac Newton develops differential calculus.
• Newton uses a prism to split sunlight into its spectrum of colours, which leads to a greater understanding of the nature of light.

Publications

• Thomas Hobbes' work De principiis et ratiocinatione geometrarum.

Births

• 13 August - William Wotton, scholar (died 1727)
• December -...... ...
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