* 1656 – Claude de Forbin, French naval commander ( d. 1733 )

* Afonso VI of Portugal-( 1656 – 1683 )

* 1723 – Guillaume Dubois, French cardinal and statesman ( b. 1656 )

* 1656 – Jan van Goyen, Dutch painter ( b. 1596 )

* 1656 – Thomas Fincke, Danish mathematician and physicist ( b. 1561 )

In Provincial Letters ( 1656 – 7 ) he scolded the Jesuits for using casuistic reasoning in confession to placate wealthy Church donors, while punishing poor penitents.

** João IV ( 1640 – 1656 )

** Afonso VI ( 1656 – 1683 )

A historian from Slesvig, Ulrik Petersen ( 1656 – 1735 ), wrote in the late 17th century that the flag hung in Slesvig cathedral till about 1660 until it simply crumbled away, thus ending its more than 400-year-old story.

* 1583 – Jean-Baptiste Morin, French scientist ( d. 1656 )

Further imprisonments came at London in 1654, Launceston in 1656, Lancaster in 1660, Leicester in 1662, Lancaster again and Scarborough in 1664 – 66 and Worcester in 1673 – 75.

* 1574 – Joseph Hall, English bishop and writer ( d. 1656 )

* 1656 – Guru Har Krishan, Indian eighth of the eleven Sikh Gurus ( d. 1664 )

* 1561 – Thomas Fincke, Danish mathematician ( d. 1656 )

* 1656 – Blaise Pascal publishes the first of his Lettres provinciales.

* 1656 – Polish-Lithuanian forces clash with Sweden and its Brandenburg allies in the start of what is to be known as The Battle of Warsaw which ends in a decisive Swedish victory.

* 1596 – Jan van Goyen, Dutch painter ( d. 1656 )

Jan Josephszoon van Goyen (; 13 January 1596 – 27 April 1656 ) was a Dutch landscape painter.

* 1603 – King John IV of Portugal, composer, patron of music and the arts, and musicologist ( d. 1656 )

* 1733 – Claude de Forbin, French naval commander ( b. 1656 )

The 2, 000 Tatar raiders who fought on the Polish side – before their return to Crimea – demolished most townships and caused the death of over 50 % of the population of southern Prussian region ( later Masuria ) within the years 1656 – 1657, taking 3, 400 people into slavery.

* Treaty of Elbing, signed between the Dutch Republic and the Swedish Empire in 1656

In 1656, during the Battle of Prostki, the forces of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth destroyed the allied Swedish and Brandenburg army capturing Prince Bogusław Radziwiłł.

Yet, during the Second Northern War, Charles X Gustav of Sweden invaded Ducal Prussia and dictated the Treaty of Königsberg ( January 1656 ), which made the duchy a Swedish fief.

The city, however, faced numerous invasions, including the siege by the Cossacks led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky in 1648, the leader of the uprising against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth ( 1648 – 1654 ) which resulted in the creation of a Cossack state, and during the Swedish Deluge in 1656.

On July 25, 1656, the town resisted a Swedish attack and was laid waste by the Swedes.

During the Northern Wars in 1655, he declared his support for the Protestant Swedish side, for which Polish partisans burned his house, his manuscripts, and the school's printing press in 1656.

In the 17th century, during the Russo – Swedish War initiated by Alexis of Russia, the Russians captured Daugavpils, renamed the town Borisoglebsk and controlled the region for 11 years, between 1656 and 1667.

Count Bengt Gabrielsson Oxenstierna ( 1623 – 1702 ), Swedish statesman, was the son of Axel Oxenstierna ’ s cousin, Gabriel Bengtsson Oxenstierna ( 1586 – 1656 ).

On account of the Russian – Swedish war, the University of Tartu moved to Tallinn in 1656 and in 1665 it closed down.

Count Gustaf Adolf Levenhaupt ( 1619 – 1656 ) was a Swedish soldier and statesman.

Pursued by Swedish forces to the Prussian capital, Frederick William made peace and allied with Sweden, taking the Duchy of Prussia and Ermland ( Ermeland, Warmia ) as fiefs from Charles X Gustav of Sweden in the Treaty of Königsberg in January 1656.

By late 1656, Swedish troops had been pushed out of most of the Commonwealth.

The Pauline monastery Jasna Góra in Częstochowa successfully resisted a Swedish siege throughout November 1655 to January 1656.

John II Casimir meanwhile took Bromberg ( Bydgoszcz ) and Konitz in Royal Prussia, and from 15 November 1656 until February 1657 stayed in Danzig, where a Swedish siege had to be lifted due to Dutch intervention, just 55 kilometers away from Charles X Gustav's quarters in Elbing.

During the Deluge, Żywiec was plundered and destroyed by Swedish troops in 1656.

In 1656, as a result of The Siege of Konin in 1656 and occupation by Swedish army the town was deteriorated, devastated and damaged.

In 1656 a Russian attack badly damaged the town, and the administrative centre was moved to Narva in neighbouring Swedish Estonia.

The city was occupied by a Swedish army in 1655 during the Second Northern War, replaced by Brandenburgians in 1656 ( the Swedes burned the suburbs when they left ).

In 1656 during the Swedish and German siege of Warsaw a shot hit Sigismund's Tower spire, which caused it to break and destruct as it fell onto the castle's courtyard.

* Siege of Warsaw ( 1656 ) – by Swedish forces during Deluge

In 1656, during the early Second Northern War, the Brandenburgian Hohenzollern first took the Prussian duchy and Ermland ( Ermeland, Warmia ) as Swedish fiefs in the Treaty of Königsberg, before the Swedish king released them from the vassalage and made them absolute sovereigns in these provinces.