The Five Mile Act prevents Nonconformist ministers in England from coming closer than five miles to any town where they have ministered

The Great Plague of London causes as many as 7000 deaths in a week and perhaps a total of 100,000 by the end of the year

Isaac Newton spends a creative period in Lincolnshire, at home in Woolsthorpe Manor, apples or no apples

The Great Fire of London rages for four days, destroying 13,200 houses and 81 churches

Michiel de Ruyter sails up the Thames to destroy much of the English fleet at its base in the Medway

Paradise Lost is published, earning its author John Milton just £10

Wood-carver Grinling Gibbons arrives from Holland to begin an immensely successful career in England

The duke of York, heir to the English and Scottish thrones, is secretly received into the Roman Catholic church

Samuel Pepys ends his diary, after only writing it for nine years

Elizabeth Tollemache, now a widow and owner of Ham House, marries the Earl (later Duke) of Lauderdale, member of the Cabal that ruled England under Charles II

Charles II issues a Declaration of Indulgence, suspending the restrictions on Catholics and Nonconformists

Isaac Newton's experiments with the prism demonstrate the link between wavelength and colour in light

Parliament in England passes a Test Act excluding Catholics and Nonconformists from public office

The house, later known as Radnor House, is built, probably by John Hooker.

The house of West Hall is built for let, probably by Thomas Juxon, lord of the manor, to be followed by the house of Brick Farm

Wren completes Monument to commemorate Fire

The Popish Plot, an invented Jesuit conspiracy to kill Charles II, results in the execution of about thirty-five Roman Catholics

Part I of The Pilgrim's Progress, written during John Bunyan's two spells in Bedford Gaol, is published and is immediately popular

The rival political parties in Britain find abusive names for each other - Whigs and Tories

The tower of St Mary's Church is rebuilt in red brick, replacing one of flint and stone

The English clockmaker Thomas Tompion is the first to make successful use of the hairspring in pocket watches

John Bunyan publishes The Life and Death of Mr Badman, an allegory of a misspent life that is akin to a novel

A comet intrigues Edmund Halley, who works out that it has been around before

A private estate on the West Field corner of Hounslow Heath comprising 12 acres of land and a substantial house becomes known as Whitton Park.

James II succeeds to the throne in Britain and immediately introduces pro-Catholic policies