1680 – 1690s

Events in the 1680s 11

• 1632 – 1687 Jean-Baptiste Lully French Baroque opera composer Italian-born French composer who dominated French music under Louis XIV, establishing the French opera tradition and the modern orchestra.
• 1665 – 1683 Van Leeuwenhoek discovers microorganisms Animalcules — the first living bacteria and protozoa seen Between 1665 and 1683, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek of Delft ground lenses of extraordinary quality and used them to discover a previously invisible world. He was the first to observe bacteria (in dental scrapings, 1683), protozoa, sperm cells, red blood cells, and the capillaries connecting arteries and veins that Harvey had predicted. He corresponded with the Royal Society for fifty years, describing over 200 different microorganisms.
• 1666 – 1687 Newton — gravity, light and calculus Principia Mathematica: the laws governing the universe Between 1666 and 1687, Isaac Newton formulated the law of universal gravitation, the three laws of motion, the corpuscular theory of light (showing white light is a spectrum of colours), and co-invented calculus (independently of Leibniz). His Principia Mathematica (1687) unified terrestrial and celestial mechanics, explaining both falling apples and planetary orbits with a single mathematical framework. It is the most influential scientific book ever written.
• 1680 – 2035 The Combustion Engine Three centuries of controlled explosions The internal combustion engine began as a thought experiment about gunpowder and became the machine that reorganised the planet. From Huygens' unbuilt piston to Otto's four strokes, from Benz's three-wheeler to the assembly line, it made distance cheap and cities sprawl. It also put a century of carbon into the atmosphere. This timeline follows the engine from curiosity to ubiquity to obsolescence.
• 1681 – 1767 Georg Philipp Telemann Prolific German Baroque composer The most prolific composer in history, writing over 3,000 works. Highly celebrated in his time, his reputation was later overshadowed by Bach.
• 1683 – 1764 Jean-Philippe Rameau French Baroque composer & theorist The dominant figure of French Baroque music and opera. His treatise on harmony laid the foundations of modern Western music theory.
• 1683 Second siege of Vienna -- the turning point The Ottoman siege of Vienna (July-September 1683) is the high-water mark of Ottoman expansion in Europe and the beginning of the long retreat. Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha leads an army of 140,000 to Vienna's walls; the city holds under Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg. On 12 September 1683, a relief army under Jan III Sobieski of Poland and Charles of Lorraine descends from the Kahlenberg heights and destroys the Ottoman army in one of the most decisive cavalry charges in history. Kara Mustafa is strangled on the sultan's orders. The retreat from Vienna never reverses.
• 1685 – 1759 George Frideric Handel Baroque opera & oratorio composer German-British Baroque composer best known for Messiah, Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks. A master of Italian opera and English oratorio.
• 1685 – 1750 Johann Sebastian Bach Baroque master Widely regarded as one of the greatest composers in history. His works — including the Brandenburg Concertos, St Matthew Passion and The Well-Tempered Clavier — define the Baroque era.
• 1686 – 1768 Domenico Scarlatti Baroque keyboard innovator Italian composer who wrote over 550 keyboard sonatas that pushed the boundaries of technique and anticipated the Classical style.
• 1687 Leibniz — calculus and binary numbers The mathematics of change and the foundation of computing Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz independently developed calculus (publishing in 1684, before Newton) using the notation — dy/dx and the integral sign ∫ — still used today. He also developed the binary number system (1679), demonstrating that all numbers can be expressed with only 0 and 1. The binary system is the foundation of all modern digital computing.