Some significant events in science and technology occurred in the year 1663.
Astronomy Scottish mathematician James Gregory publishes Optica Promota, describing theoretically the Gregorian telescope.
Exploration March 4 – The Prince Edward Islands in the sub-antarctic Indian Ocean are discovered by Barent Barentszoon Lam of the Dutch ship Maerseveen and named Dina (Prince Edward) and Maerseveen (Marion).Leupe, Pieter Arend Leupe (1868). "De eilanden Dina en Maerseveen in den Zuider Atlantischen Oceaan" in: Verhandelingen en berigten betrekkelijk het zeewezen, de zeevaartkunde, de hydrographie, de koloniën en de daarmede in verband staande wetenschappen, Deel 28, Afd. 2, [no.] 9 (Amsterdam) pp. 242–253.
Mathematics The first book about games of chance, Girolamo Cardano's Liber de ludo aleae ("On Casting the Die"), written in the 1560s, is published.
Meteorology October 7 – Robert Hooke presents his "Method for making a history of the weather" to the Royal Society of London.
Technology The earliest known surviving clock with an anchor escapement is made by William Clement in England.The clock is in the Irish Museum of Time.
Publications Robert Boyle publishes Considerations touching the Usefulness of Experimental Natural Philosophy (first part).
Births August 31 – Guillaume Amontons, French scientific instrument inventor and physicist (died 1705)
Deaths December 28 – Francesco Maria Grimaldi, Italian physicist (born 1618)
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