* 1679 – The brigantine Le Griffon, commissioned by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, is towed to the south-eastern end of the Niagara River, to become the first ship to sail the upper Great Lakes of North America.

French examples from the same period include the memoirs of Cardinal de Retz ( 1614 – 1679 ) and the Duc de Saint-Simon 2001 / 2010.

* 1621 – Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery, English soldier, statesman, and dramatist ( d. 1679 )

This idea was already rejected as untenable by John Calvin ( 1509 – 1564 ), and by the time of Thomas Hobbes ( 1588 – 1679 ) it was recognised that the book must have been written much later than the period it depicted.

Other notable 17th-century outbreaks were the Italian Plague ( 1629 – 1631 ); the Great Plague of Seville ( 1647 – 1652 ); the Great Plague of London ( 1665 – 1666 ); and the Great Plague of Vienna ( 1679 ).

The first significant argument against dualism came from Thomas Hobbes's ( 1588 – 1679 ) materialist critique of the human person.

* 1679 – Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher ( b. 1588 )

Notable late-classical deists include Peter Annet ( 1693 – 1769 ), Thomas Chubb ( 1679 – 1747 ), Thomas Morgan (?– 1743 ), and Conyers Middleton ( 1683 – 1750 ).

* 1631 – Anne Conway, Viscountess Conway, English philosopher ( d. 1679 )

* William Gordon, 2nd Earl of Aberdeen ( 1679 – 1745 )

* 1679 – Georg Friedrich Kauffmann, composer and organist from southern Germany ( d. 1735 )

* 1621 – Johannes Schefferus, Alsatian humanist ( d. 1679 )

Firmin Abauzit ( 1679 – 1767 ) was a French scholar who worked on physics, theology and philosophy, and served as librarian in Geneva ( Switzerland ) during his final 40 years.

* William Gordon, 2nd Earl of Aberdeen ( 1679 – 30 March 1746 )

Christian Wolff ( 1679 – 1754 ) was the pioneer as a writer who expounded the Enlightenment to German readers ; he legitimized German as a philosophic language.

* 1595 – Antonio Maria Abbatini, Italian composer ( d. 1679 )

* 1679 – Europeans first visit Minnesota and see headwaters of Mississippi in an expedition led by Daniel Greysolon de Du Luth.

* 1679 – The Scottish Covenanters defeat John Graham of Claverhouse at the Battle of Drumclog.

* 1679 – King Charles II of England dissolves the Cavalier Parliament.

* April 26 – Domenico Sarro, Italian composer ( born 1679 )

* Giovanni Domenico Cassini, engraved map, 1679 ( reprinted in 1787 ).

* January 28 – Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Italian physiologist and physicist ( d. 1679 )

* January 28-Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Italian scientist ( died 1679 )

Giovanni Alfonso Borelli ( 28 January 1608, Naples-31 December 1679, Rome ) was a Renaissance Italian physiologist, biomechanist, physicist, and mathematician.

* Sermões ( Sermons ) ( 15 vols., Lisbon, 1679 – 1748 ); there are many subsequent editions, but none complete ; translations exist in Spanish, Italian, German and French, which have gone through several editions

There are many editions of the Life of the Archbishop, and it appeared in French ( Paris, 1663, 1679 and 1825 ), in Italian ( 1727 – 1728 ), in Spanish ( Madrid, 1645 and 1727 ) and in English ( London, 1890 ).

Such was Louis Bourguet ( 1678 – 1743 ), who, besides his geological works, founded two periodicals which in different ways did much to stimulate the intellectual life of the Suisse Romande ; these were the Bibliothèque italique ( 1729 – 1734 ), which aimed at making more widely known the results of Italian research, and the Mercure suisse which, first issued in 1732, lasted till 1784, under different names ( rom 1738 onwards the literary section bore the name of Journée helvetique ), and secured contributions from most of the leading writers of the Suisse Romande of the day, such as Firmin Abauzit ( 1679 – 1767 ), Abraham Ruchat ( 1678 – 1750 ), and others.

* 1679 – Jan Dismas Zelenka, Czech Baroque composer ( d. 1745 )

* Pietro Filippo Scarlatti ( 1679 – 1750 ), Baroque composer, organist and choirmaster, son of Alessandro Scarlatti

* André Danican Philidor ( André I, " l ' aîné ") ( c. 1652 – 1730 ), son of Jean, composer of the Marche française ( Marche royale ) ( 1679 )

* March 7 – Pietro Castrucci, violinist and composer ( born 1679 )

* February 22 – Pietro Filippo Scarlatti, organist, choirmaster and composer ( born 1679 )

* December 23 – Jan Dismas Zelenka, composer ( born 1679 )

* March 24 – Georg Friedrich Kaufmann, organist and composer ( born 1679 )

Jan Dismas Zelenka ( 16 October 1679 – 23 December 1745 ), baptised Jan Lukáš Zelenka and previously also known as Johann Dismas Zelenka, was the most important Czech Baroque composer, whose music was notably daring with outstanding harmonic invention and mastery of counterpoint.

* Georg Friedrich Kaufmann ( 1679 – 1735 ), Baroque composer from Thuringia ( now in southern Germany )

* 1679 – Christian Wolff, German philosopher ( d. 1754 )

* 1602 – Jacques de Billy, French mathematician ( d. 1679 )

* 1587 – Joost van den Vondel, Dutch poet ( d. 1679 )

* 1636 – Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria ( d. 1679 )

* 1679 – Christian Vater, German organ and harpsichord builder ( d. 1756 )

* October 31 – Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria ( d. 1679 )

* June 17 – John Maurice of Nassau, count of Nassau-Siegen ( d. 1679 )

** William Goffe, English parliamentarian ( d. 1679 )

* May 16 – Archibald Primrose, Lord Carrington, Scottish judge ( d. 1679 )

** John Leverett, colonial magistrate ( d. 1679 )

* August 28 – Anne Genevieve of Bourbon-Condé ( d. 1679 )

* February 2 – Johannes Schefferus, Alsatian-born humanist ( d. 1679 )

* April 25 – Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery, British soldier, statesman, and dramatist ( d. 1679 )

** Don John of Austria the Younger, soldier ( d. 1679 )

* April 5 – Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher ( d. 1679 )

* December 14 – Lady Anne Finch Conway, English philosopher ( d. 1679 )

* April 5 – Thomas Hobbes, English Philosopher ( d. 1679 )