1638 CE

Anne Hutchinson is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for heresy and goes to Rhode Island. Preacher John Wheelwright is banished from Boston and founds Exeter, New Hampshire. John Spofford arrives in Boston Harbor, on the ship John of London, and is one of the first people to establish Rowely, Essex County, Massachusetts.

In the 1630s, the 17th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • February 28 – The Scottish National Covenant is signed in Edinburgh, Scotland, in opposition to changes to the Church of Scotland proposed by King Charles I.source
  • March 5 – Thirty Years' War: The Treaty of Hamburg is signed by France and Sweden, providing the latter with funds.source
  • March 5 – Thirty Years' War: The Treaty of Hamburg is signed between France and Sweden by Cardinal Richelieu of France and representatives of Queen Christina of Sweden.Francesource
  • March 5 – Thirty Years' War – The Treaty of Hamburg is signed by France and Sweden.Swedensource
  • April 25 – Settlement of what will become New Haven, Connecticut begins.source
  • May 23 – The Kandyan Treaty is signed between Singhala King Rajasimha II and the Dutch, to rid Ceylon of the Portuguese.source
  • September 21 – The Treaty of Hartford is signed, ending the Pequot War between British American colonists and the Pequot.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 4 – A fleet of 80 Spanish ships led by Governor-General Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera attacks the Sultanate of Sulu in the Philippines by beginning an invasion of Jolo island, but Sultan Muwallil Wasit I puts up a stiff resistance.source
  • January 4 – A naval battle takes place in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Goa in South India, as a Netherlands fleet commanded by Admiral Adam Westerwolt decimates the Portuguese fleet.source
  • January 8 – Shimabara Rebellion: The siege of Shimabara Castle ends after 27 days in Japan's Tokugawa shogunate (part of modern-day Nagasaki prefecture) as the rebel peasants flee reinforcements sent by the shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu.source
  • January 22 – The Shimabara and Amakusa rebels, having joined up after fleeing the shogun's troops, begin the defense of Hara Castle in modern-day Minamishimabara in the Nagasaki prefecture. The siege lasts more than 11 weeks before the peasants are massacred.source
  • March 3 – Thirty Years' War: Battle of Rheinfelden – A mercenary army under Bernard of Saxe-Weimar, fighting for France, defeats forces of the Holy Roman Empire.source
  • March 3 – Battle of Rheinfelden: A mercenary army under Bernard of Saxe-Weimar, fighting for France, defeats Imperial forces.Francesource
  • March 22 – Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and his sons capture the city of Kandahar from the Safavids.source
  • April 15 – Shogunate forces defeat the last remnants of the Shimabara Rebellion, in the fortress of Hara. In the aftermath, suppression of Christianity is strictly enforced, Portuguese traders are expelled and Japan enters more than two centuries of isolationism.source
  • April 15 - the Shimabara Rebellion is put down.Japansource
  • 24 May – French forces invest St OmerBelgiumsource
  • June 20 – Eighty Years' War: Battle of Kallo – Spanish troops under Ferdinand of Austria defeat a much larger Dutch force, near Antwerp.source
  • July 16 – Thirty Years' War: The siege of Saint-Omer ends after almost two months as the French-held Flemish city falls after being besieged by Spanish and German troops.source
  • 16 July – Siege of Saint-Omer liftedBelgiumsource
  • July 28 – Thirty Years' War: Swedish Army Field Marshal Johan Banér begins a destructive campaign against the Duchy of Pomerania, held by the Holy Roman Empire.source
  • August 22 – Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659): The Battle of Getaria is fought between the navies of France and Spain, with the French sinking all 17 Spanish Navy ships and killing 2,000 Spanish sailors and officers.source
  • 26 August – Dutch siege of Geldern liftedBelgiumsource
  • December 25 – Capture of Baghdad by the Ottomans under Sultan Murad IV.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • March 29 – Settlers from Sweden arrive on the ships Kalmar Nyckel and Fogel Grip to establish the settlement of New Sweden in Delaware, beginning the Swedish colonization of the Americas.source
  • April 3 – Preacher John Wheelwright is banished from Boston and founds Exeter, New Hampshire.source
  • April 14 – The Netherlands colonizes Mauritius, with colonists from the ship Dragon going ashore after sighting it the day before, an event chronicled by British traveler Peter Mundy.source
  • August 15 – The Portuguese expedition led by Pedro Teixeira completes the first ascent of the Amazon River, crossing the Quijos River and arriving at Quito in Ecuador soon after (the same trip had been made in the opposite direction, in 1541).source
  • September – John Spofford arrives in Boston Harbor, on the ship John of London, and is one of the first people to establish Rowely, Essex County, Massachusetts.source
  • Abraham Wuchters moves to Denmark and created a portrait of Christian IV.Denmarksource

Religion & Belief

  • 13 January – proclamation enforcing the monopoly on tobacco held by the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir Thomas Wentworth.Irelandsource
  • 18 April – flogging of John Lilburne for refusing to swear an oath when brought before the court of Star Chamber for distributing Puritan publications.Englandsource
  • June 27 – Patriarch Cyril of Constantinople is deposed for high treason, strangled and thrown into the sea by Janissaries, on Ottoman Sultan Murad IV's command.source
  • July 20 – Scottish Covenanters meet at Muchalls Castle to compose a response to the 14 demands of the Bishops of Aberdeen.source
  • 16 September – Jesuit College in Brussels stages Conversio S. AugustiniBelgiumsource
  • November 21 – The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is summoned to Glasgow, by King Charles I.source
  • December 18 – Cardinal Mazarin becomes the first adviser to French potentate Richelieu, on the death of Leclerc du Tremblay.source
  • December 18 – Cardinal Mazarin becomes premier adviser to Cardinal Richelieu on the death of François Leclerc du Tremblay (Père Joseph).Francesource
  • Jesper Brochmand is installed as Bishop of Zealand.Denmarksource
  • Henrik Werner completes the Orebygård altarpiece.Denmarksource
  • Peder Winstrup is installed as Bishop of Lund.Denmarksource

Economy & Finance

Technology & Infrastructure

  • May 13 – Construction begins on the Red Fort in Delhi (India) for Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan who is transferring his capital there from Agra.source
  • September 6 – The Finnish mail service, predecessor of Posti Group, is established.source
  • The Peking Gazette makes an official switch in its production process of newspapers, from woodblock printing to movable type printing (private newspapers in Ming dynasty China were first mentioned in 1582).source

Science & Discovery

  • December 21 – The full moon is in total eclipse from 1:12 to 2:47 UT, and the solstice occurs later in the day, at 16:05 UT.source

Health & Medicine

  • March 22 – Anne Hutchinson is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for heresy and goes to Rhode Island.source

Crime & Justice

  • 12 June – trial of John Hampden for non-payment of ship money concludes: a narrow majority of judges find the tax to be legal.Englandsource

Disasters & Accidents

  • October 21 – The Great Thunderstorm in Widecombe-in-the-Moor, England: probable ball lightning strikes the parish church, killing 4 and injuring about 60.source
  • Shipwrecked English buccaneer Peter Wallace, called Balis by the Spanish, settles near and perhaps gives his name to the Belize River, the first known European settlement in Belize.source

Culture & Society

  • 1 January – James Shirley's comedy The Royal Master is premiered at the Werburgh Street Theatre, Dublin.Irelandsource
  • November 24 – New Haven, the first planned city in America, is founded when local Indians make a deed of Quinnipiac to Theophilus Eaton and other English settlers.source
  • John Milton's elegy "Lycidas" is published.Englandsource
  • The Queen's House at Greenwich, designed by Inigo Jones in 1616 as the first major example of classical architecture in the country, is completed for Henrietta Maria.Englandsource

Births

  • January 1 – Nicolas Steno, Danish pioneer in anatomy and geology, bishop (died 1686)source
  • January 1 – Emperor Go-Sai of Japan (died 1685)source
  • 1 January – Nicolas Steno, scientist (died 1686)Denmarksource
  • January 1 - Emperor Go-Sai (died 1685)Japansource
  • January 7 – Filippo Bonanni, Italian Jesuit scholar (died 1723)source
  • January 8 – Elisabetta Sirani, Italian painter (died 1665)source
  • 6 February – Philips Erard van der Noot, bishop (died 1730)Belgiumsource
  • March 15 – Shunzhi Emperor of China (died 1661)source
  • March 28 – Frederik Ruysch, Dutch physician and anatomist (died 1731)source
  • May 13 – Richard Simon, French Biblical critic (died 1712)source
  • July 20 – Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve, leading Norwegian general during the Scanian War (died 1704)source
  • August 6 – Nicolas Malebranche, French philosopher (died 1715)source
  • August 15 – Pieter de Graeff, Dutch politician and noble (died 1707)source
  • September 5 – Louis XIV, King of France from 1643 until his death (died 1715)source
  • September 10 – Maria Theresa of Spain, queen consort of Louis XIV of France (died 1683)source
  • October 31 – Meindert Hobbema, Dutch painter (died 1709)source
  • November 25 – Catherine of Braganza, Portuguese princess, queen consort of Charles II of England (died 1705)source
  • Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve, Governor-general of Norway during the reign of Frederik III, and Christian V from 1664 to 1699 (died 1704).Norwaysource

Deaths

  • April 13 – Henri, Duke of Rohan, French Huguenot leader (born 1579)source
  • 26 April – Margareta Brahe, courtier (born 1559)Swedensource
  • May 6 – Gaj Singh of Marwar, Raja of Marwar Kingdom (born 1595)source
  • August 3 – Philipp Moritz, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg, German noble (born 1605)source
  • 5 August – Peter Minuit (born 1580/85), governor of New NetherlandBelgiumsource
  • August 27 – Tayyar Mehmed Pasha becomes the new Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire after Bayram Pasha dies while fighting in Baghdad.source
  • September 14 – John Harvard, American clergyman (born 1607)source
  • September 24 – Georg Friedrich, Margrave of Baden-Durlach (1604–1622) (born 1573)source
  • September – Christoph Besold, German jurist (born 1577)source
  • October 6 – Jacob Dircksz de Graeff, Dutch mayor (born 1579)source
  • October 14 – Gabriello Chiabrera, Italian poet (born 1552)source
  • 21 October – The Great Thunderstorm at Widecombe-in-the-Moor in Devon: 4 are killed and around 60 injured when probable ball lightning strikes the parish church.Englandsource
  • November 9 – Johann Heinrich Alsted, German theologian (born 1588)source
  • November 16 – Edward Cecil, 1st Viscount Wimbledon, English noble (born 1572)source
  • December 8 – Ivan Gundulić, Croatian poet (born 1589)source
  • December 13 – Catherine of Sweden, Countess Palatine of Kleeburg (born 1584)source
  • December 23 – Barbara Longhi, Italian painter (born 1552)source
  • Hans Poulsen Resen, clergy (born 1561)Denmarksource