Events and Index

EVENTS 1650-1679

1651 - Charles II flees to France (start of the Interregnum)
1653 - Oliver Cromwell declared Lord Protector
1653 - appointment of Parish Registers to record births, marriages, and burials
1656 - invention of pendulum clock
1657 - General Post Office (GPO) founded
1660 - Charles II restored to the throne (end of the Interregnum)
1660 - large-scale destruction of records created 1653-1660
1660 - some marriages and baptisms from 1653-1660 repeated
1661 - offices of state restricted to members of the Church of England
1664 - banning of Nonconformist worship in gatherings of more than 5 people
1665 - Five Mile Act barred Nonconformist ministers from major towns
1665 - plague ravages London's population
1666 - Great Fire of London
1669 - tea first imported from India by the East India Company
1675 - Greenwich Observatory founded by Charles II
1678 - catholics barred from parliament