1652

Events 
 April 6 – Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck establishes a resupply camp for the Dutch East India Company at the Cape of Good Hope, and founded Cape Town.
 May 18 – Rhode Island passes the first law in North America making slavery illegal.
 May 29 – First Anglo-Dutch War opening battle fought off Dover between Lt.-Admiral Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp's 42 Dutch ships and 21 English ships divided into two squadrons, one commanded by Robert Blake and the other by Nehemiah Bourne.
 Births 
 March 3 – Thomas Otway, English dramatist (d. 1685)
 March 28 – Samuel Sewall, English-born judge (d. 1730)
 April 7 – Pope Clement XII (d. 1740)
 April 21 – Michel Rolle, French mathematician (d. 1719)
 December 9 – Augustus Quirinus Rivinus, German physician and botanist (d. 1723)
 December 25 – Archibald Pitcairne, Scottish physician (d. 1713)

 Deaths 
February 7 – Gregorio Allegri, Italian composer (born 1582)
June 21 – Inigo Jones, English architect (born 1573)
July 30 – Charles Amédée de Savoie, 6th Duc de Nemours, French soldier (born 1624)
August 22 – Jacob De la Gardie, Swedish soldier and statesman (bborn 1583)
August 23 – John Byron, 1st Baron Byron, English royalist politician (born 1600)
October 8 – John Greaves, English mathematician and antiquarian (born 1602)
October 20 – Antonio Coello, Spanish writer (born 1611)
November 4 – Jean-Charles de la Faille, Belgian mathematician (born 1597)
December 11 – Denis Petau, French theologian and historian (born 1583)
November 21 – Jan Brożek, Polish mathematician, physician, and astronomer (born 1585)
December 23 – John Cotton, founder of Boston, Massachusetts (born 1585)