Events of 1650

April 27: Battle of Carbisdale.

January–June

• April 27 – Battle of Carbisdale: A Royalist army invades mainland Scotland from the Orkney Islands but is defeated by a Covenanter army.

• May – The New Model Army is decimated at the siege of Clonmel.

• June 9 The Harvard Corporation, the more powerful of the two administrative boards of Harvard, is established (the first legal corporation in the Americas).

• June 23 – Claimant King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland arrives in Scotland, the only of the three Kingdoms that has accepted him as ruler.

July–December

• August 23 – Colonel George Monck forms Monck's Regiment of Foot, forerunner of the Coldstream Guards.

• September 3 – Third English Civil War: Battle of Dunbar (1650).

Palio horseraces.

Wheelchair.

• September 29 – Henry Robinson opens his Office of Addresses and Encounters (the first historically documented dating service) in Threadneedle Street, London.

• November 4 – William III of Orange becomes Prince of the House of Orange the moment of his birth, succeeding his father who had died a few days earlier. He doesn't become stadtholder, so the United Provinces become a true republic.

• December 25 – Thomas Cooper, former Usher of Gresham's School, England, is hanged as a Royalist rebel.

Undated

• The first modern Palio horserace is held in Siena.

• Puritans chop down the original Glastonbury Thorn.

• Captain James Hind makes an abortive attempt to seize power in England.

• Jews are allowed to return to France and England.

• Cafés begin to become popular in Europe.

• Three-wheeled wheelchairs are used in Nuremberg.

• The Age of Discovery ends.

• Ann Greene, who had been hanged for infanticide in Edinburgh, wakes up on an autopsy table; she is pardoned.

Istanbul.

• Abyssinia deports Portuguese diplomats and missionaries.

• Einkommende Zeitungen becomes the first German newspaper (cancelled 1918).

• The town of Sharon, Massachusetts is founded.

• Estimation: Istanbul becomes the largest city of the world, taking the lead from Beijing.

Ongoing events

• Fronde civil war in France (1648–1653).

• Khmelnytsky Uprising in Ukraine (1648–1654)

Births

• February 2 – Nell Gwynne, English actress and royal mistress (d. 1687)

• February 5 – Anne-Jules, 2nd duc de Noailles, French general (d. 1708)

• April 20 – William Bedloe, English informer (d. 1680)

• May 26 – John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, British general (d. 1722)

• August 16 – Vincenzo Coronelli, Italian cartographer and encylopedist (d. 1718)

• September 23 – Jeremy Collier, English theatre critic, non-juror bishop and theologian (d. 1726)

• November 14 – King William III of England, Scotland, and Ireland (d. 1702)

• November 7 – John Robinson, English diplomat (d. 1723)

Deaths

• February 11 – René Descartes, French philosopher (b. 1596)

• April 18 – Simonds d'Ewes, English antiquarian and politician (b. 1602)

• April 21 – Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi, Japanese samurai (b. 1607)

• May 21 – James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, Scottish royalist (b. 1612)

• June 18 – Christoph Scheiner, German astronomer (b. 1573 or 1575)

• June 19 – Matthäus Merian, Swiss engraver (b. 1593)

• August 25 – Richard Crashaw, English poet (b. c. 1613)

• October 29 – David Calderwood, Scottish historian (b. 1575)

• November 6 – William II, Prince of Orange (b. 1626)

• November 24 – Manuel Cardoso, Portuguese composer (b. 1566)

• December 31 – Dorgon, Manchu prince (b. 1612)

• date unknown -

• *Giambattista Andreini, Italian actor and playwright (b. 1578)

• *John Parkinson, English herbalist and botanist (b. 1567)