Directory

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.

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
  • 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 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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

Religion & Belief

  • 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
  • November 21 – The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is summoned to Glasgow, by King Charles I.source

Economy & Finance

  • March 28 – Dutch merchant Willem Kieft is appointed Director of New Netherland by the Dutch East India Company to succeed Wouter van Twiller.source

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

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

  • 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

Births

  • January 1 – Nicolas Steno, Danish pioneer in anatomy and geology, bishop (d. 1686)source
  • January 8 – Elisabetta Sirani, Italian painter (d. 1665)source
  • February 25 – Jørgen Iversen Dyppel, Governor of the Danish West Indies (d. 1683)source
  • May 13 – Richard Simon, French Biblical critic (d. 1712)source
  • May 29 – John Manners, 1st Duke of Rutland, English nobleman and politician (d. 1711)source
  • June 2 – Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon, English nobleman (d. 1709)source
  • July 20 – Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve, leading Norwegian general during the Scanian War (d. 1704)source
  • August 6 – Nicolas Malebranche, French philosopher (d. 1715)source
  • August 15 – Pieter de Graeff, Dutch politician and noble (d. 1707)source
  • September 10 – Maria Theresa of Spain, queen consort of Louis XIV of France (d. 1683)source
  • September 21 – Philippe de Courcillon, French officer and author (d. 1720)source
  • October 17 – John Charles, Count Palatine of Gelnhausen (1654–1704) (d. 1704)source
  • November 25 – Catherine of Braganza, Portuguese princess, queen consort of Charles II of England (d. 1705)source
  • December 24 – Tomás de la Cerda, 3rd Marquis of la Laguna, Spanish nobleman (d. 1692)source

Deaths

  • February 26 – Claude Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac, French mathematician (b. 1581)source
  • May 6 – Cornelius Jansen, French bishop and religious reformer (b. 1585)source
  • August 3 – Philipp Moritz, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg, German noble (b. 1605)source
  • 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 (b. 1607)source
  • September 24 – Georg Friedrich, Margrave of Baden-Durlach (1604–1622) (b. 1573)source
  • September – Christoph Besold, German jurist (b. 1577)source
  • October 6 – Jacob Dircksz de Graeff, Dutch mayor (b. 1579)source
  • October 23 – John Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Eisenach, German duke (b. 1566)source
  • November 16 – Edward Cecil, 1st Viscount Wimbledon, English noble (b. 1572)source
  • November 27 – Denis of the Nativity, French sailor and cartographer (b. 1600)source
  • December 8 – Ivan Gundulić, Croatian poet (b. 1589)source
  • December 13 – Catherine of Sweden, Countess Palatine of Kleeburg (b. 1584)source
  • December 18 – Cardinal Mazarin becomes the first adviser to French potentate Richelieu, on the death of Leclerc du Tremblay.source