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The 1630s

590 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 17th century. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

1630 CE71 entries

  • July 6 – Swedish intervention in the Thirty Years' War begins when King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, leading an army of 13,000 on the Protestant side, makes landfall at Peenemünde, Pomerania.
  • July 9 – Thirty Years' War: Stettin is taken by Swedish forces.
  • August 25 – Sinhalese–Portuguese War: In the Battle of Randeniwela on the island of Sri Lanka, King Senarat of Kandy leads more than 35,000 troops in killing most of an attack force led by Portuguese Ceylon governor Constantino de Sá de Noronha.

1631 CE61 entries

  • May 18 – In Dorchester, Boston, John Winthrop takes the oath of office, and becomes the first Governor of Massachusetts.
  • August 29 – (1 Safar 1041 A.H.) Abd Allah ibn Hasan, Emir of Mecca, abdicates in favor of two successors, his son Muhammad ibn Abd Allah and his great-nephew Zayd ibn Muhsin.
  • September 17 – Thirty Years' War – Battle of Breitenfeld: Tilly's Holy Roman Imperial army is decisively defeated by Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden, shattering the imperial army of the Holy Roman Empire, and marking the first significant victory for the Protestants in the war.

1632 CE59 entries

  • June 20 – Charles I of England issues a charter for the colony of Maryland (named in honor of Henrietta Maria), under the control of Lord Baltimore.
  • June 25 – Fasilides, Emperor of Ethiopia in succession to his father Susenyos, declares the state religion of the country again to be Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, and confiscates the lands of the Jesuit missionaries, relegating them to Fremona.
  • November 8 – Wladyslaw IV Waza is elected king of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, after Sigismund III Vasa's death.

1633 CE59 entries

  • June 18 – Charles I is crowned King of Scots at St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh, according to Anglican rite in his first visit to Scotland since early childhood, although he has been Scottish monarch since 1625.
  • July 7 – the Dutch East India Company fleet, led by Hans Putmans, attacks its ally Zheng Zhilong's base by surprise, near Xiamen.
  • October 22 – Battle of Liaoluo Bay: A large Ming dynasty fleet under Zheng Zhilong defeats a Dutch East India Company fleet at the island of Quemoy.

1634 CE58 entries

  • March 4 – Belgian scientist Jan Baptist van Helmont is interrogated by the Spanish Inquisition and put under house arrest for his experiments into plant growth.
  • July 4 – The city of Trois-Rivières is founded in New France, in what is the modern-day Canadian province of Quebec.
  • August (prob.) – Jean Nicolet becomes the first European to set foot in what becomes the U.S. state of Wisconsin. He is in search of a water-route to the Pacific, when he lands at Green Bay of Lake Michigan.

1635 CE53 entries

  • April 13 – Druze warlord Fakhr-al-Din II is executed in Constantinople.
  • July 31 – The Royal Mail service is made available to the public by Charles I of England.
  • October 9 – Rhode Island founder Roger Williams is banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony as a religious dissident, after speaking out against punishments for religious offenses, and giving away Native American land.

1636 CE57 entries

  • March 5 (February 24 Old Style) – King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway gives an order, that all beggars that are able to work must be sent to Brinholmen, to build ships or to work as galley rowers.
  • August 25 (August 15 Old Style) – The covenant of the Town of Dedham, Massachusetts Bay Colony is first signed.
  • December 23 (December 13 Old Style) – The Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians. This organization is recognized today as the founding of the United States National Guard.

1637 CE55 entries

  • May – Chinese encyclopedist Song Yingxing publishes his Tiangong Kaiwu ("Exploitation of the Works of Nature"), considered one of the most valuable encyclopedias of classical China.
  • July 23 – Introduction of a new Scottish Prayer Book is met with widespread demonstrations, notably that of Jenny Geddes at St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh, who is said to have thrown a stool at the Dean's head.
  • December 17 – The Shimabara Rebellion erupts in Japan, when 30,000 peasants in the heavily Catholic area of northern Kyūshū revolt.

1638 CE62 entries

  • March 22 – Anne Hutchinson is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for heresy and goes to Rhode Island.
  • April 3 – Preacher John Wheelwright is banished from Boston and founds Exeter, New Hampshire.
  • 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.

1639 CE55 entries

  • April 14 – In the Battle of Chemnitz, Swedish forces under Johan Banér inflict a crushing defeat on the army of the Holy Roman Empire, prolonging the Thirty Years' War and allowing the Swedes to occupy Pirna and advance into Bohemia.
  • April – Italian-born Cardinal Mazarin, apostolic nuncio to Paris and adviser to Cardinal Richelieu, is naturalized French by letters patent; in December, he leaves the service of Rome to enter that of King Louis XIII of France.
  • September 3 – The alliance of cantons in Switzerland known as the Three Leagues or Raetia agrees with Spain to bring Italy's Valtellina area back into the alliance, on the condition that the Catholic faith of the natives be respected.