The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's second university museum (after the establishment of the Kunstmuseum Basel in 1661 by the University of Basel in Switzerland) and Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of Oxford in 1677.
The present building was built between 1841 and 1845. The museum reopened in 2009 after a major redevelopment. In November 2011, new galleries focusing on Egypt and Nubia were unveiled. In May 2016, the museum opened new galleries of 19th-century art.
1683May, 24
The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, opens as the world's first university museum.
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Events on 1683
- 16Jul
Battle of Penghu
Manchu Qing dynasty naval forces under traitorous commander Shi Lang defeat the Kingdom of Tungning in the Battle of Penghu near the Pescadores Islands. - 12Sep
Battle of Vienna
Austro-Ottoman War: Battle of Vienna: Several European armies join forces to defeat the Ottoman Empire. - 3Oct
Battle of Penghu
The Qing dynasty naval commander Shi Lang reaches Taiwan (under the Kingdom of Tungning) to receive the formal surrender of Zheng Keshuang and Liu Guoxuan after the Battle of Penghu. - 6Oct
Germantown, Philadelphia
German immigrant families found Germantown in the colony of Pennsylvania, marking the first major immigration of German people to America.