Directory

1636 CE

(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 15 Old Style) – The covenant of the Town of Dedham, Massachusetts Bay Colony is first signed. (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.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 1 – Anthony van Diemen takes office as Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), and will serve until his death in 1645.source
  • February 26 – Nimi a Lukeni a Nzenze a Ntumba is installed as King Alvaro VI of Kongo, in the area now occupied by the African nation of Angola, and rules until his death on February 22, 1641.source
  • June 20 – Roger Williams and other Puritan settlers become founders of the colony of Providence Plantations, which later joins neighbouring territory to become the colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. The area today is the U.S. state of Rhode Island.source
  • July 10 – The Senate of the Venetian Republic votes, 82 to 4, in favor of renewing the charter of Jewish merchants to sell within the city, after a delay of almost six months.source
  • August 25 (August 15 Old Style) – The covenant of the Town of Dedham, Massachusetts Bay Colony is first signed.source
  • 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.source
  • Manchus occupy the Liaoning region in north China, select Shenyang (Mukden) as their capital, and proclaim the new Qing dynasty (pure).source
  • The first American ancestor of John Adams, Henry Adams, emigrates to Massachusetts.source

Conflict & Security

  • February 21 – Al Walid ben Zidan, Sultan of Morocco, is assassinated by French renegades.source
  • April 30 – Eighty Years' War: The nine-month Siege of Schenkenschans ends, when forces of the Dutch Republic recapture the strategically important fort from the Spanish.source
  • June 22 – The Battle of Tornavento is fought in north-west Italy in the course of the Thirty Years' War, as France and Savoy respond to an attack by Spain. While the battle is a stalemate, the city of Castano Primo is heavily damaged.source
  • July 20 – The Pequot War begins in New England when John Oldham and several of his crew are killed when his ship is attacked and robbed, apparently by allies of the Narragansett Indians at Block Island.source
  • August 15 – The Spanish capture Corbie, France.source
  • October 4 (September 24 Old Style) – Thirty Years' War – Battle of Wittstock: A Swedish-allied army defeats a combined Imperial-Saxon army.source
  • November 14 – French recapture Corbie from the Spanishsource
  • The shōgun forbids Japanese to travel abroad, and those abroad from returning home.source
  • Thirty Years' War: French intervention starts.source
  • Emperor Fasilides founds the city of Gondar, which becomes the capital of Ethiopia for the next two centuries.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • 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.source
  • May 14 – William Pynchon and his men establish the settlement of Agawam Plantation (now Springfield, Massachusetts) in territory controlled by the Agawam people, a subset of the Algonquian peoples, and negotiate for its purchase for Britain's Connecticut Colony. The Agawams deed the land to Connecticut on July 15, and the area is later deeded by Connecticut to the Massachusetts Bay Colony.source

Religion & Belief

  • November 5 – English theologian Henry Burton preaches two sermons on Guy Fawkes Day, heavily critical of the Anglican bishops, and is soon summoned before the Star Chamber.source
  • Establishment of Kohra (estate) by Babu Himmat Sah.source
  • The first synagogue of the New World, Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue, is founded in Recife by the Dutch.source

Culture & Society

  • January 18 – The Duke's Mistress, the last play by James Shirley, is given its first performance.source
  • March 13 (March 3 Old Style) – A "great charter" to the University of Oxford establishes the Oxford University Press, as the second of the privileged presses in England.source
  • March 26 – Utrecht University is founded in the Dutch Republic.source
  • July 30 – In France, Cardinal Richelieu persuades King Louis XIII to issue an ordonnance excusing the French nobility from military service if they pay a tax which allows the hiring of paid cavalry.source
  • September 18 (September 8 Old Style) – A vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony establishes New College (Harvard University), as the first college founded in the United States.source
  • October 28 – Harvard University was founded.source

Births

  • January 8 – Fernando de Valenzuela, 1st Marquis of Villasierra, Spanish noble (d. 1692)source
  • January 20 – Count Maximilian I, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (d. 1689)source
  • February 16 – Shubael Dummer, American Congregational church minister (d. 1692)source
  • May 17 – Edward Colman, English Catholic courtier under Charles II (d. 1678)source
  • June 21 – Godefroy Maurice de La Tour d'Auvergne, Duke of Bouillon, French noble (d. 1721)source
  • July 31 – Josias II, Count of Waldeck-Wildungen, major general in Brunswick and co-ruler of Waldeck-Wildungen (d. 1669)source
  • August 25 – Louis Victor de Rochechouart de Mortemart, French military man, brother of Madame de Montespan (d. 1688)source
  • September 25 – Ferdinand Joseph, Prince of Dietrichstein, German prince (d. 1698)source
  • September 28 – Sophia Dorothea of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, Prussian royal consort (d. 1689)source
  • October 23 – Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp, queen consort of King Charles X Gustav of Sweden (d. 1715)source
  • October 31 – Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria, Wittelsbach ruler of Bavaria and an elector of the Holy Roman Empire (d. 1679)source
  • November 1 – Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, French poet and critic (d. 1711)source
  • November 2 – Edward Colston, Bristol-born English slave trader (d. 1721)source
  • November 6 – Princess Catherine Beatrice of Savoy, daughter of the Duke of Savoy (d. 1637)source

Deaths

  • January 26 – Jean Hotman, Marquis de Villers-St-Paul, French diplomat (b. 1552)source
  • February 13 – Barbara Sophie of Brandenburg, duchess consort and later regent of Württemberg (b. 1584)source
  • February 22 – Santorio Santorio, Italian physician (b. 1561)source
  • April 18 – Julius Caesar, English judge (b. c.1557)source
  • June 9 – Antoine de Paule, French-born 56th Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (b. c.1551)source
  • June 21 – Justus de Harduwijn, Dutch Catholic priest and poet (b. 1582)source
  • July – Elijah Loans, rabbi and kabbalist (b. 1555)source
  • August 25 – Bhai Gurdas, Sikh religious figure (b. 1551)source
  • September 19 – Franz von Dietrichstein, German Catholic bishop (b. 1570)source
  • October 1 – Augustus the Elder, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Lutheran Bishop of Ratzeburg (b. 1568)source
  • October 19 – Hugh Hamersley, Lord Mayor of London, England (1627–1628) (b. 1565)source
  • December 10 – Randal MacDonnell, 1st Earl of Antrim, Irish leadersource
  • December 19 – William Spencer, 2nd Baron Spencer of Wormleighton, British baron (b. 1591)source
  • December 27 – Iskandar Muda, Sultan of Aceh (b. 1583)source