1652

January–June

• January 8 - Michiel de Ruyter marries the widow Anna van Gelder and plans retirement, but months later becomes a vice-commodore in the First Anglo-Dutch War.
• March 29 - A total solar eclipse occurs on.
• April 6 - Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck establishes a resupply camp for the Dutch East India Company at the Cape of Good Hope in what is now South Africa, thus founding Cape Town.
• May 18 - Rhode Island passes the first law in North America making slavery illegal.
• May 19 - First Anglo-Dutch War: Battle of Goodwin Sands - The opening battle is 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; the result is inconclusive.
• June 13 - George Fox preaches to a large crowd on Firbank Fell in England, leading to the establishment of the Religious Society of Friends.

  July–December

• August 26 - First Anglo-Dutch War: Battle of Plymouth - A fleet from the England attacks an outward-bound convoy of the United Provinces, escorted by 23 men-of-war and six fire ships, commanded by Vice-Commodore Michiel de Ruyter; the Dutch escape.
• September 7-11 - Guo Huaiyi Rebellion: A peasant revolt against colonial rule in Dutch Formosa is suppressed.
• October 8 - First Anglo-Dutch War: Battle of the Kentish Knock - In a battle fought near the shoal called the Kentish Knock in the North Sea, about from the mouth of the River Thames, the Dutch are forced to withdraw.
• December 10 - First Anglo-Dutch War: Defeat at the Battle of Dungeness causes the Commonwealth of England to reform its navy.

  Births

• January 2
• * Sir Gilbert Heathcote, 1st Baronet, Lord Mayor of London
• * Michel Chamillart, French statesman
• January 7 - Pavao Ritter Vitezović, Croatian historian
• January 8 - Wilhelm Homberg, Dutch alchemist
• January 11 - Eugen Alexander Franz, 1st Prince of Thurn and Taxis, Germany
• January 13 - Henry Booth, 1st Earl of Warrington, English politician
• January 16 - Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 2nd Earl of Shaftesbury, English politician
• January 17 - Claude-Guy Hallé, French painter
• February 6 - Francesco Pignatelli, Italian Catholic cardinal
• February 13
• * Anton Domenico Gabbiani, Italian painter
• * August, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck
• February 14 - Camille d'Hostun, duc de Tallard, Marshal of France
• March 1 - Louis de Sabran, British theologian
• March 3 - Thomas Otway, English dramatist
• March 10 - Giacomo Serpotta, Italian artist
• March 12 - Johann Heinrich Ernesti, German philosopher, theologian
• March 14 - Benedicta Henrietta of the Palatinate, German princess
• March 20 - Leon Bazyli Sapieha, Polish-Lithuanian politician
• March 21 - Piers Butler, 3rd Viscount Galmoye, Anglo-Irish nobleman
• March 28 - Samuel Sewall, English-born Massachusetts judge
• April 7 - Pope Clement XII
• April 9
• * Jean Le Fèvre, French astronomer
• * Christian Ulrich I, Duke of Württemberg-Oels
• April 13 - Thomas Ward, English writer
• April 21 - Michel Rolle, French mathematician
• April 25
• * Boris Sheremetev, Russian noble
• * Giovanni Battista Foggini, Italian artist
• April 28 - Magdalena Sibylla of Hesse-Darmstadt, regent and composer
• May 1 - John King, English churchman
• May 2 - Abraham Hinckelmann, German Protestant theologian
• May 7 - Edward Northey, British barrister and politician
• May 11 - Johann Philipp d'Arco, Austrian soldier
• May 14
• * Juliana of Hesse-Eschwege, German noblewoman
• * Johann Philipp Förtsch, German opera composer
• May 20 - Ichijō Kaneteru, Japanese court noble
• May 27 - Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine, wife to Philippe I, Duke of Orléans
• June 1 - Juan Ferreras, Spanish priest
• June 23 - Jan Brokoff, German sculptor
• August 3 - Samuel Western, English politician
• August 15
• * John Grubb, American politician
• * John Wise, American Christian clergyman
• August 26 - Tsarevna Marfa Alekseyevna of Russia
• August 31 - Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Montferrat, only child of Duke Charles II
• September 4
• * Jean Orry, French economist
• * Tokugawa Tsunanari, Japanese daimyō
• September 8 - Luisa Roldán, Spanish artist
• September 10 - Jan Sladký Kozina, Czech revolutionary
• September 12 - Frederick Charles, Duke of Württemberg-Winnental
• October 11 - Nathaniel Higginson, English politician
• October 16
• * Karl, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
• * Jan Mortel, painter from the Northern Netherlands
• October 29 - Jan Wyck, Dutch military painter
• November 1 - William Lowndes, English politician
• November 3 - Louis, Duke of Rohan, French noble
• November 4 - Marc-René de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson, French politician
• November 9 - Marie Anne d'Orléans, French princess
• November 10 - Johann Ernst Glück, German theologian, translator
• December 2 - Karolina of Legnica-Brieg, Silesian noblewoman
• December 9
• * Augustus Quirinus Rivinus, German physician and botanist
• * Robert Rochfort, Irish politician
• December 10 - Frederick, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, German nobleman
• December 20 - Samuel Bradford, English churchman, Whig politician
• December 25 - Archibald Pitcairne, Scottish physician

  Deaths

• January 19 - Vilem Slavata of Chlum, Czech nobleman
• January 30 - Georges de La Tour, French Baroque painter
• February 7 - Gregorio Allegri, Italian composer
• February 28 - Arcangela Tarabotti, Venetian nun and feminist
• March 12 - Aloysius Gottifredi, Italian Jesuit
• March 17 - Benjamin Bramer, German mathematician
• April 13 - Georges Fournier, French Jesuit mathematician and geographer
• April 17 - Henry Howard, 22nd Earl of Arundel, English politician
• April 19 - Jesper Brochmand, Danish bishop
• April 21 - Pietro Della Valle, Italian traveller
• April 26 - Jean-Pierre Camus, French Catholic bishop
• May 11 - Eva Ment, Dutch culture personality
• May 10
• * Jacques Buteux, French missionary
• * Jacques-Nompar de Caumont, duc de La Force, Marshal of France
• June 3 - Marek Sobieski, Polish noble
• June 9
• * Anna Sophie of Anhalt, German noblewoman
• * Jean Dolbeau, French missionary
• June 18 - John Casimir, Count Palatine of Kleeburg, son of John I
• June 21 - Inigo Jones, English architect
• June 25 - Abraham von Franckenberg, German writer
• July 14 - Otto Heurnius, Dutch physician and philosopher
• July 23 - Johannes Chrysostomus vander Sterre, Dutch abbot, ecclesiastical writer
• July 25 - Bonaventura Peeters the Elder, Flemish marine painter
• July 30 - Charles Amadeus, Duke of Nemours
• August 9 - Frédéric Maurice de La Tour d'Auvergne, prince of the independent principality of Sedan
• August 10 - Jean Gaston, Duke of Valois
• August 14 - Abraham Elzevir, Dutch printer
• August 18 - Florimond de Beaune, French mathematician and jurist
• August 22 - Jacob De la Gardie, Swedish soldier and statesman
• August 23 - John Byron, 1st Baron Byron, English royalist politician
• September 2 - Jusepe de Ribera, Spanish Tenebrist painter and printmaker
• September 6 - Philippe Alegambe, Belgian Jesuit priest and bibliographer
• September 7 - Patrick Young, Scottish librarian
• September 16 - Giulio Roma, Italian Catholic cardinal
• September 17 - Sumitomo Masatomo
• October 8 - John Greaves, English mathematician and antiquarian
• October 11 - Léon Bouthillier, comte de Chavigny, French politician
• October 20 - Antonio Coello, Spanish writer
• October 27 - Henry II, Count of Nassau-Siegen
• November 4 - Jean-Charles della Faille, Belgian mathematician
• November 11 - John Bridgeman, British bishop
• November 21 - Jan Brożek, Polish mathematician, physician, and astronomer
• December 11 - Denis Pétau, French theologian and historian
• December 23 - John Cotton, founder of Boston, Massachusetts
• date unknown
• * Johannes Gysius - Dutch historian
• * Prince Luarsab of Kartli - heir apparent to the throne of the Kingdom of Kartli