1685 in the British Empire

Bengkulu (, ), historically known as Bencoolen, is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the southwest coast of Sumatra. It was formed on 18 November 1968 by separating out the area of the historic Bencoolen Residency from the province of South Sumatra under Law No. 9 of 1967 and was finalized by Government Regulation No. 20 of 1968. Spread over 20,181.53 km2, its land area is comparable to the European country of Slovenia or the U.S. state of Massachusetts or Ivanovo Oblast and it is bordered by the provinces of West Sumatra to the north, Jambi to the northeast, Lampung to the southe