Despite the arguably greater architectural inventiveness of Borromini and Cortona, Bernini's artistic pre-eminence, particularly during the reigns of popes Urban VIII ( 1623 – 1644 ) and Alexander VII ( 1655 – 1665 ), meant he was able to secure the most important commission in the Rome of his day, St. Peter's Basilica.

In early 1655 he was arrested at Whetstone, Leicestershire and taken to London under armed guard.

He held many college offices, becoming successively lecturer in Greek ( 1651 ), mathematics ( 1653 ), and humanity ( 1655 ), praelector ( 1657 ), junior dean ( 1657 ), and college steward ( 1659 and 1660 ); and according to the habit of the time, he was accustomed to preach in his college chapel and also at Great St Mary's, long before he took holy orders on 23 December 1660.

In 1655 Jamaica was conquered by the English, although the Spanish did not relinquish their claim to the island until 1670.

Spanish Jamaica was subject to many privateer attacks, before the final conquest of the island by the English in 1655.

In 1655 he was appointed hakham of that city.

Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg ( 11 November 1599 – 28 March 1655 ) was a German princess and queen consort of Sweden.

The Mosquito Coast based on Bluefields on the Atlantic was claimed by the United Kingdom as a protectorate from 1655 to 1850.

The invention of the modern piano is credited to Bartolomeo Cristofori ( 1655 – 1731 ) of Padua, Italy, who was employed by Ferdinando de ' Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany, as the Keeper of the Instruments.

Pope Alexander VII ( 13 February 1599 – 22 May 1667 ), born Fabio Chigi, was Pope from 7 April 1655, until his death.

When Innocent X died, Chigi, the candidate favoured by Spain, was elected pope after eighty days in the conclave, on 7 April 1655, taking the name of Alexander VII.

After her abdication the queen came to reside in Rome, where she was confirmed in her baptism by the Pope, in whom she found a generous friend and benefactor, on Christmas Day, 1655.

Pope Innocent X ( 6 May 1574 – 7 January 1655 ), born Giovanni Battista Pamphilj ( or Pamphili ), was Pope from 1644 to 1655.

Pope Innocent XIII ( 13 May 1655 – 7 March 1724 ) was pope from 1721 until his death.

In 1655, he sailed into the Delaware River with a fleet of seven vessels and about 700 men and took possession of the colony of New Sweden, which was renamed " New Amstel.

His father's first cousin, Sir Richard Pepys, was elected MP for Sudbury in 1640, and appointed Baron of the Exchequer on 30 May 1654, and Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, on 25 September 1655.

The biggest revolt was staged in 1655 and is known as the Penruddock uprising, named after one of the leaders of the revolt, John Penruddock.

The revolt was easily put down by forces loyal to the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, and for his part in the rebellion Penruddock was beheaded in May 1655.

Year 1655 ( MDCLV ) was a common year starting on Friday ( link will display the full calendar ) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Monday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar.

New Sweden (, ) was a Swedish colony along the Delaware River on the Mid-Atlantic coast of North America from 1638 to 1655.

The Swedish settlement was incorporated into Dutch New Netherland on September 15, 1655.

Portugal annexed territories in the region which were ruled as a colony from 1655, and Angola was incorporated as an overseas province of Portugal in 1951.

In 1655, Huygens proposed that Saturn was surrounded by a solid ring, " a thin, flat ring, nowhere touching, and inclined to the ecliptic.

The petition was granted, and Indang became full-fledged town in 1655.

Lilburne was granted some lands of the Duke of Hamilton in Scotland in 1655.

In 1655 he and his two sons were granted denizenship as English subjects ( the patent being dated August 17 of that year ); and when the war with Spain broke out in the following year, his property in the Canaries was liable to seizure, as he was a British subject.

In 1655 Cromwell was convinced enough of his guilt to have him removed as governor of Hull and to confiscate the lands granted to him by Parliament in Scotland handing them back to Earl of Leven the owner before they were confiscated by Parliament.

Nevertheless Lawes continued his work as a composer, and the famous collection of his vocal pieces, Ayres and Dialogues for One, Two and Three Voyces, was published in 1653 and followed by two other books under the same title in 1655 and 1658 respectively.

He was appointed Governor of Multan and Kabul on 16 August 1652, and was raised to the title of Shah-e-Buland Iqbal (" King of High Fortune ") on 15 February 1655.

Abele was awarded the title von und zu Lilienberg, Erbherr auf Hacking on 5 November 1655 by Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor.

Alfonso de la Cueva-Benavides y Mendoza-Carrillo, marqués de Bedmar ( first name also spelled Alonso, often used was the title Bedmar ) ( 1572 – August 10, 1655 ) was a Spanish diplomat, bishop and Roman cardinal.

His plays include Jodelet ( 1645 ), Don Japhel d ' Arménie ( 1653 ), L ' Écolier de Salamanque ( 1654 ), Le Marquis ridicule ou la comtesse faite à la hâte ( 1655 ), La Fausse Apparence ( 1657 ), Le Prince corsaire ( 1658 ).

As a result of wars waged at the time the town was looted on several occasions by the Swedes ( 1655 – 1657 ), the Austrians who fought against them ( 1657 ), by Transylvanian troops of Prince George Rákóczi and by Polish troops as well.

* Prince Franz Eusebius ( 1654 – 1655 )

Prince Janusz Radziwiłł of Trąby ( also known as Janusz the Second or Janusz the Younger, 1612 – 1655 ) was a notable Polish – Lithuanian noble and magnate.

His father, Lord Motobu Chōshin ( Motobu Aji Chōsin ) was a descendant of the sixth son of the Okinawan King, Shō Shitsu ( 1629 – 1668 ), namely Shō Kōshin, also known as Prince Motobu Chōhei ( 1655 – 1687 ).

Innocent XII's pontificate also differed greatly to those of his predecessors because of his leanings towards France instead of Germany ; the first in the 20 years following France's failure to have its candidate elected in 1644 and 1655.

He was plunged at once into the thick of controversy ; for nearly half of Metz was Protestant, and Bossuet's first appearance in print was a refutation of the Huguenot pastor Paul Ferry ( 1655 ), and he frequently engaged in religious controversies with Protestants ( and, less regularly, with Jews ) during his time at Metz.

After the 1655 campaign, Thomas Francis returned to Turin where he died the following January ; the suggestion in Spanheim that he died at the siege of Pavia is not supported-malaria, a common problem in the marshes of the Po valley, carried him off, as it carried off his successor as allied commander-in-chief, Francesco I d ' Este.

After the 1655 campaign, Thomas returned to Turin where he died the following January ; the suggestion in Spanheim that he died at the siege of Pavia is not supported-malaria, a common problem in the marshes of the Po valley, carried him off, as it carried off his successor as allied commander-in-chief, Francesco I d ' Este.

In 1658 a group of Jews fleeing the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal were allowed to settle in Newport ( Jews fleeing Brazil after defending Dutch interests there against the Portuguese were denied the right to stay in then-Dutch New York until governor Peter Stuyvesant finally relented in 1655 ; seeking asylum in Spain and Portugal was not an option ).

Württemberg was a central battlefield of the War ; its population fell by 57 % between 1634 1655, primarily because of death disease, declining birthrates, and the mass migration of terrified peasants.

; 1648 – 1655: The Ukrainian Cossack Bohdan Chmielnicki leads a massacre of Polish gentry and Jewry that leaves an estimated 65, 000 Jews dead and a similar number of gentry.

; 1655: Jews readmitted to England by Oliver Cromwell.

Rupert's presence at the royal court continued to be problematic ; as in 1643, he was regarded by Edward Hyde ( later Earl of Clarendon ) and others as a bellicose figure and an obstacle to peace negotiations ; in 1655 Rupert left for Germany.

He was imprisoned three times: in 1645 for an injudicious preface to his Golden Grove ; again in Chepstow castle, from May to October 1655, on what charge does not appear ; and a third time in the Tower in 1657, because of the indiscretion of his publisher, Richard Royston, who had decorated his Collection of Offices with a print representing Christ in the attitude of prayer.

* c. 1655: Portrait d ’ homme feuilletant un livre, Louvre, Paris ;

* 1655: The Unmerciful Servant-The Wallace Collection, London, England ;

* 1655: Bust of man wearing a large-brimmed hat-( c. 1655 ), National Gallery of Art, Dublin, Ireland ;

In 1655 Monck received a letter from the future Charles II, a copy of which he at once sent to the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, who is said to have written to Monck in 1657: " There be that tell me that there is a certain cunning fellow in Scotland called George Monck, who is said to lye in wait there to introduce Charles Stuart ; I pray you, use your diligence to apprehend him, and send him up to me.

As vice-chancellor he acted with readiness and spirit when a Royalist rising in Wiltshire broke out in 1655 ; his adherence to Cromwell, however, was by no means slavish, for he drew up, at the request of Desborough and Pride, a petition against his receiving the kingship.

The first volume appeared in September, 1654 ; the second in July, 1655 ; the third in July, 1656 ; and the last three in 1657.

Among Walton's works must also be mentioned an Introductio ad lectionem linguarum orientalium ( 1654 ; 2nd ed., 1655 ), meant to prepare the way for the Polyglot.

This was followed in 1655 by the Porta Mosis, extracts from the Arabic commentary of Maimonides on the Mishnah, with translation and very learned notes ; and in 1656 by the annals of Eutychius in Arabic and Latin.

It was actually written in the Spanish Netherlands, where Charles had been residing since March 1656 ; however, at the time of writing, England had been at war with Spain since 1655.

With one of these: an objective diameter of and a focal length, he discovered the brightest of Saturn's satellites ( Titan ) in 1655 ; in 1659, he published his " Systema Saturnium " which, for the first time, gave a true explanation of Saturn's ring — founded on observations made with the same instrument.