Events of 1673

January–June

June 7: First Battle of Schooneveld (by Willem van de Velde the Elder, 1674).

• January 22 – Impostor Mary Carleton is hanged in Newgate prison in England for multiple thefts and returning from penal transportation.

• May 17 – In America, trader Louis Joliet and Jesuit missionary-explorer Jacques Marquette begin exploring the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes.

• June 7 – First Battle of Schooneveld: In a sea battle of the Third Anglo-Dutch War, fought off the Netherlands coast, the Dutch win with the fleet of the United Provinces (commanded by Michiel de Ruyter) against the allied Anglo-French fleet commanded by Prince Rupert of the Rhine.

• June 14 – Second Battle of Schooneveld: The Dutch fleet again defeats the Anglo-French fleet.

• June 17 – French explorers Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet reach the headwaters of the Mississippi River and descend to Arkansas.

July–December

• July 6 – French troops conquer Maastricht.

• July 11 – The Netherlands and Denmark sign a defense treaty.

• July 24 – Edmund Halley enters Queen's College at Oxford, as an undergraduate.

• August 8 – In the American colonies, a Dutch battle fleet of 23 ships demands the surrender of New York City.

• August 9 – Dutch forces under Admiral Cornelis Evertsen de Jonge recapture New York from English (regained by English in following year, 1674).

• August 21 – Battle of Kijkduin: The Dutch United fleet under Michiel de Ruyter defeats the English and French fleet.

• August 30 – Leopold I, Spain, Netherlands and the Lutherans form an anti-French covenant.

• September 12 – Prince Willem III occupies Naarden.

• November 9 – King Charles II of England fires the Earl of Shaftesbury.

• November 11 – Near Chocim (also spelled Khotin) in the Ukraine, Polish and Lithuanian military units under the command of soon-to-be-king Jan Sobieski defeat the Turkish army. In this battle, rockets of Kazimierz Siemienowicz are successfully used.

• November 13 – Dutch troops commanded by Prince Willem III and Raimundo earl Montecuccoli conquer Bonn.

Undated

• France begins its expedition against Ceylon.

• Christopher Wren is knighted.

• Jean-Baptiste Lully writes his first opera, Cadmus et Hermione.

• Chelsea Physic Garden, the second oldest botanic garden in England, is founded by the Society of Apothecaries for the study of medicinal and other plants.

• The Mitsui family's trading and banking house is founded in Japan.

• The Stalactic grotto of Antiparos (Aegean Sea) is discovered.

• Archpriest Petrovich Avvakum writes his Zhitie (Life) as the first Russian autobiography.

• Test Act: Those who refuse to receive the sacrament of the Church of England cannot vote, hold public office, preach, teach, attend the universities and assemble for meetings.

Births

• April 27 – Claude Gillot, French artist (d. 1722)

• July 20 – John Dalrymple, 2nd Earl of Stair, Scottish soldier and diplomat (d. 1747)

• August 8 – John Ker, Scottish spy (d. 1726)

• August 11 – Richard Mead, English physician (d. 1754)

• October 26 – Dimitrie Cantemir, Moldavian linguist and scholar (d. 1723)

• December 30 – Ahmed III, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1736)

• Mir Wais Khan Hotaki, Persian Governor of Kandahar (d. 1715)

Deaths

• February 17 – Molière, French writer and actor (b. 1622)

• March 15 – Salvator Rosa, Italian painter and poet (b. 1615)

• March 20 – Augustyn Kordecki, Polish prior (b. 1603)

• June 18 – Jeanne Mance, French Canadian settler (b. 1606)

• August 17 – Regnier de Graaf, Dutch physician and anatomist (b. 1641)

• August 21 – Henry Grey, 1st Earl of Stamford, English soldier (b. c. 1599)

• October 13 – Kristoffer Gabel, Danish statesman (b. 1617)

• October 17 – Thomas Clifford, 1st Baron Clifford of Chudleigh, English statesman (b. 1630)

• November 10 – Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki (b. 1640)

• December 15 – Margaret Cavendish, English writer (b. 1623)

• December 31 – Oliver St John, English statesman and judge (b. c. 1598)