1639

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Year 1639 (MDCXXXIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Tuesday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar.

Events

January–June

• January 14 – Connecticut's first constitution, the Fundamental Orders, is adopted.
• c. January – The first printing press in British North America is started in Cambridge, Massachusetts by Stephen Daye.
• March 3 – The early settlement of Taunton, Massachusetts is incorporated as a town.
• March 13 – Harvard University is named for clergyman John Harvard.
• April 14 – Swedish forces under Johan Banér inflict a crushing defeat on the Imperial army at the Battle of Chemnitz. This prolongs the Thirty Years' War and allows the Swedes to occupy Pirna and advance into Bohemia.
• May – The first of the Bishops' Wars breaks out between Charles I and Scotland. Charles arrives with his army at Berwick-on-Tweed.
• June – The first battle of the Bishops' Wars is fought by Earl Marischal and the Marquess of Montrose, when they lead a Covenanter army of 9,000 men past Muchalls Castle over the Causey Mounth to fight at the Bridge of Dee.
• June 18 – The Treaty of Berwick is signed by Charles I and the Scots.

July–December

• August 22 – The British East India Company buys a strip of land from the King of the Vijayanagara Empire, Peda Venkata Raya, for the construction of Fort St. George, the first settlement of British India, so founding modern-day Chennai, capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu (celebrated as Madras Day).^[1]
• October 31 – Naval Battle of the Downs: A Republic of the United Provinces fleet decisively defeats a Spanish fleet in English waters.
• December 4 (November 24 O.S.) – Jeremiah Horrocks observes the transit of Venus.

Date unknown

• The Casiquiare canal, a river forming a natural canal between the Amazon River and Orinoco River basins, is first encountered by Europeans.
• The Barbados House of Assembly meets for the first time.
• Russian Cossacks advance over the Urals to the Pacific, to Okhotsk.
• Montreal is first settled.
• Sakoku starts in Japan (approximate date).
  • Dejima became the only official port of trade allowed for Europeans, with the multi-national United East Indies Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie) as the only European party officially allowed. Trading parties from China, India, and so on are still officially allowed; though the United East Indies Company would usually become the broker for those parties.
  • Japanese wives and children of Dutch and British people from Hirado are sent to Batavia (later on renamed as Jakarta by the Japanese around three centuries later) on Dutch ships, the Asian headquarters of the United East Indies Company.^[2]
• Jules Mazarin enters the service of Richelieu.
• Treaty of Zuhab between Ottoman (Turkish) Empire and Safavid Persia. Modern Turkey-Iran and Iraq-Iran border lines.

Births

• January 1 – Consort Donggo, concubine of the Shunzhi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty (d. 1660)
• January 1 – Jacob Knijff, Dutch painter (d. 1681)
• January 1 – Samuel Peterson, early settler of New Sweden, founder of present-day Wilmington (d. 1689)
• January 1 – Sir Thomas Spencer, 3rd Baronet, Member of the English Parliament (d. 1685)
• January 3 – Éléonore Desmier d'Olbreuse, grandmother of George II of Great Britain, great-grandmother of Frederick the Great (d. 1722)
• January 5 – Otto Wilhelm Königsmarck, Swedish military officer from Minden (d. 1688)
• January 16 – John Proby (died 1710), English politician (d. 1710)
• January 17 – Sir Francis Lee, 4th Baronet, Member of the Parliament of England (d. 1667)
• January 19 – Gover Le Buen, Freedom fighter (d. 1712)
• January 19 – Noël Alexandre, French theologian and ecclesiastical historian (d. 1724)
• January 20 – Hungerford Dunch, English politician (d. 1680)
• January 31 – Duke Bernhard of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön, German-Danish General (d. 1676)
• February 4 – Alessandro Melani, Italian composer (d. 1703)
• February 6 – Daniel Georg Morhof, German writer and scholar (d. 1691)
• March 7 – Charles Stewart, 3rd Duke of Richmond (d. 1672)
• March 20 – Ivan Mazepa, Hetman of Ukraine (d. 1709)
• March 30 – Elanor Allerton, Colonist (d. 1674)
• April 3 – Alessandro Stradella, Italian composer (d. 1682)
• April 12 – Martin Lister (d. 1712)
• April 13 – Joan Leonardsz Blasius, Dutch writer (d. 1672)
• April 29 – François Nepveu, writer on ascetical subjects (d. 1708)
• May 8 – Giovanni Battista Gaulli (Il Baciccio), Italian painter of High Baroque (d. 1709)
• May 10 – Peleg Sanford, Rhode Island colonial governor (d. 1701)
• May 19 – Charles Weston, 3rd Earl of Portland, English Earl (d. 1665)
• May 27 – Laura Martinozzi, Duchess consort of Modena (d. 1687)
• June 21 – Increase Mather, American minister (d. 1723)
• July 8 – John Vaughan, 3rd Earl of Carbery, English politician and Irish Earl (d. 1713)
• July 15 – Richard Butler, 1st Earl of Arran (d. 1686)
• August 18 – William Lowther (1639–1705), British politician (d. 1705)
• August 28 – Marie Mancini, third of the five Mancini sisters (d. 1715)
• August 30 – Cornelia van der Veer, Dutch poet (d. 1704)
• September 7 – David Martin (French theologian) (d. 1721)
• September 8 – William Trumbull, English diplomat and politician (d. 1716)
• September 17 – Hans Herr, Swiss-born Mennonite bishop (d. 1725)
• September 21 – Robbert Duval (1639–1732), painter from the Northern Netherlands (d. 1732)
• September 29 – Sir John Seton, 1st Baronet, Nova Scotian Baronet (d. 1686)
• September 29 – Lord William Russell, English politician (d. 1683)
• October 14 – Simon van der Stel, Dutch explorer (d. 1712)
• October 17 – Charles-Claude Genest, French dramatist and playwright (d. 1719)
• November 17 – Eleazer Kimberly (d. 1709)
• November 21 – Fortunatus Hueber, German Franciscan historian and theologian (d. 1706)
• December 3 – Isidoro de Atondo y Antillon (d. 1689)
• December 18 – Gottfried Kirch, German astronomer (d. 1710)
• December 22 – Jean Racine, French dramatist (d. 1699)
• December 28 – Dirk van Bleiswijk, Delft politician and writer (d. 1681)
• December 29 – Muhammad Sultan of Mughal, Mughal Empire emperor (d. 1676)
• date unknown
  • Yair Bacharach, German rabbi (d. 1702)
  • Caspar Netscher, painter (d. 1684)

Deaths

• January – Shackerley Marmion, English dramatist (b. 1603)
• January 20 – Mustafa I, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1592)
• January 23 – Francisco Maldonado da Silva, Peruvian Jewish poet (b. 1592)
• January 24 – Georg Jenatsch, Swiss politician (b. 1596)
• May 21 – Tommaso Campanella, Italian theologian and poet (b. 1568)
• June 1 – Melchior Franck, German composer (b. c. 1579)
• July 18 – Bernard of Saxe-Weimar, German general (b. 1604)
• August 4 – Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, Mexican dramatist (b. c. 1571)
• August 20 – Martin Opitz von Boberfeld, German poet (b. 1597)
• September 20 – Johannes Meursius, Dutch classical scholar (b. 1579)
• October 28 – Stefano Landi, Italian composer (b. 1587)
• November 7 – Thomas Arundell, 1st Baron Arundell of Wardour, English politician (b. c. 1560)
• November 26 – John Spottiswoode, Scottish historian (b. 1565)

References