1673

January–June

• January 22 - Impostor Mary Carleton is hanged at Newgate Prison in London, for multiple thefts and returning from penal transportation.
• February 10 - Molière's comédie-ballet The Imaginary Invalid premiers in Paris. During the fourth performance, on February 17, the playwright, playing the title rôle, collapses on stage, dying soon after.
• March 29 - Test Act: Roman Catholics and others who refuse to receive the sacrament of the Church of England cannot vote, hold public office, preach, teach, attend the universities or assemble for meetings in England. On June 12, the king's Catholic brother, James, Duke of York, is forced to resign the office of Lord High Admiral because of the Act.
• April 27? - Jean-Baptiste Lully's first opera, Cadmus et Hermione, is premièred in France.
• 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 Republic fleet defeats the allied Anglo-French fleet, commanded by Prince Rupert of the Rhine.
• June 14 - The Dutch fleet again defeats the jointed Anglo-French fleet in the Second Battle of Schooneveld.
• 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 The Queen's College, Oxford, as an undergraduate.
• August 8 - In the American colonies, a Dutch battle fleet of 23 ships demands the surrender of New York.
• August 9 - Dutch forces under Admiral Cornelis Evertsen de Jonge recapture New York from the English; the city is known as New Orange until regained by the English in 1674.
• August 21 - Battle of Texel : The Dutch fleet under Michiel de Ruyter defeats the English and French fleet. This prevents England's Blackheath Army from landing in Zeeland.
• August 30 - Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, Spain, Netherlands and the Lutherans form an anti-French covenant.
• September 12 - William, Prince of Orange occupies Naarden, Netherlands.
• November 9 - King Charles II of England removes Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, from his position as Lord Chancellor.
• November 11 - Battle of Khotyn: 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 Raimondo Montecuccoli and William, Prince of Orange conquer Bonn.
• November 14 - Christopher Wren is knighted in England.
• November 23 - James, Duke of York, marries Mary of Modena; they meet for the first time immediately before the ceremony in Dover.

  Date unknown

• France begins its expedition against Ceylon.
• 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 is discovered.
• Archpriest Petrovich Avvakum writes his Zhitie, as the first Russian autobiography.