| 1607–1700 | North America, UK [food and drink] | Fruits introduced to the North American colonies from England include apples, which adapt well in New England, and peaches, which grow easily in Virginia and other warmer regions. Native vegetables like pumpkins, squash, and beans are favoured over European vegetables. |
| 1640–1700 | North America [literature and language] | Literacy rates in the colonies, particularly in New England, are high relative to those in the Old World. Shipton, New England has a 95% literacy rate; males in Virginia have a literacy rate between 54% and 60%. |
| 1667–1685 | France [law and government] | A substantial reform of French law takes place with the introduction of a new Civil Code, the Code Louis, in 1667. It is followed by the Criminal Code in 1670, the Maritime Code in 1672, the Commercial Code in 1673, and the Code Noir in 1685, which caters for slaves in the colonies. It remains the basis of French law until the Code Napoléon is introduced in 1804. |
| 1678 | England, America [literature and language] | The English-born American poet Anne Bradstreet publishes Several Poems Compiled with Great Variety of Wit and Learning, the first American edition of her poems (an unauthorized edition appeared in London, England, in 1650). |
| 1678 | France [literature and language] | The French writer Marie-Madeleine (Madame) de La Fayette anonymously publishes the novel La Princesse de Clèves/The Princess of Clèves, a landmark in the development of the French novel. |
| 1678 | North America [medicine] | British colonist Thomas Thatcher publishes A Brief Rule... in Small Pocks or Measles, the first medical publication in North America. |
| 1678 | Netherlands [physics] | Dutch physicist and astronomer Christiaan Huygens records his discovery of the polarization of light in his Traité de la lumière/Treatise on Light. |
| 1678 | England [physics] | The English physicist Robert Hooke discovers the law now named after him – that the extension of an elastic material such as a spring is in proportion to the force exerted on it. |
| 4 March 1678 | Venice [births and deaths] | Antonio Vivaldi, important Italian composer during the baroque period, born in Venice, Italy (–1741). |
| 10 August 1678 | France, United Netherlands [treaties] | The first of the Peace Treaties of Nijmegen is signed by France and the United Netherlands. Under its terms, France restores Maastricht and other conquests to the United Netherlands and the unfavourable tariff erected against the Dutch by the French chief finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert in 1667 is cancelled. The treaty is ratified by the Dutch on 17 September. |
| 17 September 1678 | Spanish Netherlands, France, Spain [treaties] | The second Peace Treaty of Nijmegen is signed by the French and the Spanish. By its terms, Spain cedes Franche-Comté and exchanges some of her fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands with France. These include St Omer, Aire, Ypres, Valenciennes, Cambrai, and Mauberge. |
| October 1678 | Hungary, Ottoman Empire, Habsburg Monarchy [revolution] | Count Imre Thököly emerges as leader of another Hungarian rebellion against Habsburg rule when he launches a series of attacks on mining towns in northern Hungary. By 1680 he occupies nearly all the counties in northern and western Hungary. |
