1672

Year 1672 (MDCLXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Monday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1672

January - June

* March - The Synod of Jerusalem brings together bishops and representatives from the whole of Eastern Orthodox Christendom to discuss Orthodox dogma against the challenge of Protestantism.
* March 12 - England, France, Münster and Cologne begin their invasion of the United Provinces. 1672 becomes known as ´het rampjaar´ (the disaster year) in the Netherlands.
* March 15 - Charles II of England issues the Royal Declaration of Indulgence.
* May 2 - John Maitland becomes Duke of Lauderdale and Earl of March.
* June 12 - French forces under king Louis XIV cross the Rhine into the Netherlands.
* June 28 - William III of Orange is appointed Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht.

July - December

* August 20 - Johan de Witt, Grand Pensionary of Holland, is slaughtered by a mob in The Hague.
* October - Spain begins construction on the masonry fort that will become Castillo de San Marcos, to protect St. Augustine, Florida.

Ongoing

*Polish-Ottoman War (1672–1676)

Births

* January 4 - Hugh Boulter, Irish Archbishop of Armagh (d. 1742)
* January 15 - Antoine Houdar de la Motte, French writer (d. 1731)
* February 13 - Étienne François Geoffroy, French chemist (d. 1731)
* February 26 - Antoine Augustine Calmet, French theologian (d. 1757)
* May 1 - Joseph Addison, English politician and writer (d. 1719)
* June 9 - Emperor Peter I of Russia (d. 1725)
* June 11 - Francesco Antonio Bonporti, Italian priest and composer (d. 1749)
* August 2 - Johann Jakob Scheuchzer, Swiss scholar (d. 1733)
* September 8 - Nicolas de Grigny, French organist and composer (d. 1703)
* October 11 - Pylyp Orlyk, Ukrainian Zaporozhian Cossack starshina, diplomat (d. 1742)
* October 21 - Ludovico Antonio Muratori, Italian historian and scholar (d. 1750)

Deaths

* January 15 - John Cosin, English clergyman (b. 1594)
* February 19 - Charles Chauncy, English-born president of Harvard College (b. 1592)
* March - Archibald Armstrong, court jester to James I of England and Charles I of England (year of birth unknown)
* April 22 - Georg Stiernhielm, Swedish poet (b. 1598)
* May 5 - Samuel Cooper, English painter (b. 1609)
* May 8 - Jean-Armand du Peyrer, Comte de Tréville and French Officer (b. 1598)
* May 11 - Charles Seton, 2nd Earl of Dunfermline, English royalist (b. 1615)
* May 28 - John Trevor, English politician (b. 1626)
* June 27 - Roger Twysden, English antiquarian and royalist (b. 1597)
* July 3 - Francis Willughby, English biologist (b. 1635)
* August 20 - Johan de Witt, Dutch politician (b. 1625)
* August 20 - Cornelis de Witt, Dutch politician (b. 1623)
* September 12 - Tanneguy Lefebvre, French classical scholar (b. 1615)
* September 16 - Anne Bradstreet, American colonial writer (b. c. 1612)
* October 24 - John Webb, English architect (b. 1611)
* November 6 - Heinrich Schütz, German composer (b. 1585)
* November 19 - John Wilkins, English Bishop of Chester (b. 1614)
* December 6 - King John II Casimir of Poland (b. 1609)
* December 7 - Richard Bellingham, Massachusetts colonial magistrate (b. 1592)
*"date unknown" - Denis Gaultier, French lutenist and composer (b. 1603)