Events of 1654

January–June

• April 5 – The Treaty of Westminster, ending the First Anglo-Dutch War, is signed.

• May 8 – The Magdeburg hemispheres are demonstrated: Otto von Guericke proves the existence of atmospheric pressure in front of the Imperial Diet.

• June 3 – Louis XIV of France is crowned at Rheims.

• June 6 – Charles X succeeds his cousin Christina on the Swedish throne. After her abdication on the same day, Christina, now the former reigning queen of a Protestant nation, secretly converts to Catholicism.

July–December

• July – The Russian Army seizes Smolensk, and Thirteen Years War starts between Russia and Poland over Ukraine.

• July 10 – Peter Vowell and John Gerard are executed for plotting to assassinate Oliver Cromwell.

• September 3 – In the Rump Parliament, the republican party questions Cromwell's pre-eminence.

• September 7 – Twenty-three Jewish refugees from Brazil settle in New Amsterdam, forming the nucleus of what would be the largest urban Jewish community in history, the Jewish community of New York City.

• September 12 – Oliver Cromwell orders the exclusion of the members of Parliament who are hostile to him.

• October 12 – Carel Fabritius, the most promising student of Rembrandt, dies aged 32 in an explosion at the arsenal at Delft. The Delft Explosion devastates the city in the Netherlands, killing more than 100.

• October 31 – Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria is crowned. His absolutist style of leadership becomes a benchmark for the rest of Germany.

• November 23 – French mathematician, scientist, and religious philosopher Blaise Pascal experiences an intense mystical vision that marks him for life.

Undated

• The Treaty of Pereyaslav is concluded in the city of Pereyaslav during the meeting between the Cossacks of the Zaporozhian Host and Tsar Alexey I of Russia, following the end to the Khmelnytsky Uprising in Ukraine, which had started in 1648 and which had resulted in the massacre estimated 100,000 Jews.

Births

• January 10 – Joshua Barnes, English scholar (d. 1712)

• January 22 – Richard Blackmore, English physician and writer (d. 1729)

• March 16 – Andreas Acoluthus, German orientalist (d. 1704)

• May 4 – Emperor Kangxi of China (d. 1722)

• June 23 – Richard Onslow, 1st Baron Onslow, English politician (d. 1717)

• July 9 – Emperor Reigen of Japan (d. 1732)

• November 23 – George Watson (accountant), a Scottish accountant and the founder of George Watson's College in Edinburgh, first of many successful bankers in Edinburgh

• December 27 – Jakob Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician and scientist (d. 1705)

Deaths

• January 17 – Paulus Potter, Dutch painter (b. 1625)

• February 18 – Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, French writer (b. 1594)

• March 24 – Samuel Scheidt, German composer (b. 1587)

• June 10 – Alessandro Algardi, Italian sculptor and architect (b. 1598)

• July 9 – Ferdinand IV of Germany (b. 1633)

• August 28 – Axel Oxenstierna, Lord High Chancellor of Sweden (b. 1583)

• August 31 – Ole Worm, Danish physician and antiquary (b. 1588)

• September 7 – Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller, Bohemian rabbi and liturgical poet (b. 1579)

• October 12 – Carel Fabritius, Dutch artist (b. 1622)

• October 30 – Emperor Go-Komyo of Japan (b. 1633)

• November 30 – John Selden, English jurist (b. 1584)

• December 5 – Jean François Sarrazin, French writer

• *undated

• An Calbhach mac Aodha O Conchobhair Donn, last inaugurated King of Connacht (inaugurated 1643)