1637

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1637 (MDCXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday (dominical letter D) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Sunday (dominical letter A) of the Julian calendar, the 1637th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 637th year of the 2nd millennium, the 37th year of the 17th century, and the 8th year of the 1630s decade. Note that the Julian day for 1637 is 10 calendar days difference, which continued to be used from 1582 until the complete conversion of the Gregorian calendar was entirely done in 1929.

Events

January–June

• January – Pierre Corneille's tragicomedy Le Cid is first performed, in Paris.
• February 3 – Tulip mania collapses in the Dutch Republic.
• February 15 – Ferdinand III becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
• February 18 – Eighty Years' War: Battle off Lizard Point: Off the coast of Cornwall, England, a Spanish fleet intercepts an Anglo-Dutch merchant convoy of 44 vessels escorted by 6 warships, destroying or capturing 20 of them.
• April 10 – Plymouth Colony grants the "tenn menn of Saugust" a new settlement on Cape Cod, later named Sandwich, Massachusetts.
• April 30 – King Charles I of England issues a proclamation attempting to stem emigration to the North American colonies.^[1]
• May 26 – Pequot War: A band of English settlers under Captain John Mason, and their Narragansett and Mohegan allies, set fire to a fortified village of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe near the Mystic River in what is later known as the Mystic massacre. Between 400 and 700 people, mostly women, children and old men, are killed.
• 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.
• June 27 – The first English venture to China is attempted by captain John Weddell, who sails into port in Macau and Canton during the late Ming dynasty with six ships. The voyages are for trade, which is dominated here by the Portuguese (at this time combined with the power of Spain). He brings 38,421 pairs of eyeglasses, perhaps the first recorded European-made eyeglasses to enter China.^[2]

July–December

• July 23 – After a court battle, King Charles I of England hands over title to the North American colony of Massachusetts to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, one of the founders of Plymouth Council for New England.
• October 13 – English Royal Navy first-rate ship of the line HMS Sovereign of the Seas is launched at Woolwich Dockyard at a cost of £65,586, adorned from stern to bow with gilded carvings after a design by Anthony van Dyck.
• December 17 – The Shimabara Rebellion erupts in Japan when 30,000 peasants in the heavily Catholic area of northern Kyūshū revolt.

Date unknown

• Second Manchu invasion of Korea: The Joseon court reluctantly submits to the Manchu's demands of vassalhood while continuing to pledge loyalty to the Chinese Ming dynasty.
• Pierre de Fermat makes a notation, in a document margin, claiming to have proof of what would become known as Fermat's Last Theorem.
• René Descartes promotes intellectual rigour in his Discourse on the Method and introduces the Cartesian coordinate system in its appendix La Géométrie (published in Leiden).^[3]
• France places a few missionaries in the Ivory Coast, a country it will rule more than 200 years later.
• The first opera house, Teatro San Cassiano, opens in Venice.
• Scottish army officer Robert Monro publishes Monro, His Expedition With the Worthy Scots Regiment Called Mac-Keys in London, the first military history in English.
• Elizabeth Poole becomes the first woman to have founded a town (Taunton, Massachusetts) in the Americas.
• The Blessed Virgin is proclaimed Queen of Genoa.

Births

• January 1 – Emperor Go-Sai of Japan (d. 1685)
• February 10
  • William Paget, 6th Baron Paget, English diplomat (d. 1713)
  • Countess Henriette Catherine of Nassau, daughter of Frederick Henry (d. 1708)
• February 12 – Jan Swammerdam, Dutch scientist (d. 1680)
• February 13 – Denis Granville (d. 1703)
• February 21 – William Beveridge, English Bishop of St Asaph (d. 1708)
• March 1 – Thomas Watson (bishop of St David's) (d. 1717)
• March 2 – Sir Stephen Lennard, 2nd Baronet, English politician (d. 1709)
• March 5 – Jan van der Heyden, Dutch painter (d. 1712)
• March 14 – Fitz-John Winthrop, Governor of the Connecticut Colony (d. 1707)
• March 17 – Anne of England (1637–1640), daughter of King Charles I (d. 1640)
• March 30 – Samuel Pitiscus, Dutch classical scholar (d. 1727)
• April 6 – Sir William Whitmore, 2nd Baronet, English politician (d. 1699)
• April 16
  • Johan Vibe, Norwegian noble (d. 1710)
  • Jean-Jacques Clérion, French artist (d. 1714)
• April 19 – Mateo Cerezo, Spanish artist (d. 1666)
• May 13 – Giacinto Cestoni, Italian naturalist (d. 1718)
• May 22 – John Kyrle, British philanthropist (d. 1724)
• May 31 – Louis Laneau, French Bishop active in the kingdom of Siam (d. 1696)
• June 1 – Jacques Marquette, French Jesuit missionary and explorer (d. 1675)
• June 11 – Tamura Muneyoshi, Daimyo who ruled the Iwanuma Domain (d. 1678)
• June 21 – Asano Tsunaakira, Lord of Hiroshima Domain (d. 1673)
• June 22
  • Christian II, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld (d. 1717)
  • Takatsukasa Fusasuke, Japanese court noble (d. 1700)
  • Joseph Werner, Swiss painter (d. 1710)
• June 25 – Christophe Veyrier, sculptor (d. 1689)
• July 24 – Nathaniel Fairfax, English divine and physician (d. 1690)
• August 16 – Countess Emilie Juliane of Barby-Mühlingen, German noblewoman and hymn author (d. 1706)
• August 19 – Roemer Vlacq (1637-1703), Dutch naval commander (d. 1703)
• August 20 – Cornelis van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck, First governor of Suriname (d. 1688)
• August 23 – Francis Turner (bishop), British bishop (d. 1700)
• August 27 – Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, Governor of the Province of Maryland (d. 1715)
• September 1 – Nicolas Catinat, Marshal of France under Louis XIV (d. 1712)
• September 16 – Elisha Cooke, Sr., Massachusetts colonial politician and judge (d. 1715)
• September 26 – Sébastien Leclerc (1637–1714), French painter (d. 1714)
• October 6 – George Gordon, 1st Earl of Aberdeen (d. 1720)
• October 13 – Paul Fugger von Kirchberg und Weißenhorn, German politician (d. 1701)
• October 22 – Francis North, 1st Baron Guilford (d. 1685)
• October 24 – Lorenzo Magalotti, Italian philosopher (d. 1712)
• October 27 – Al-Mahdi Muhammad, Yemeni imam (d. 1718)
• November 4 – Juan Francisco de la Cerda, 8th Duke of Medinaceli (d. 1691)
• November 23 – Paul Mezger, Austrian Benedictine theologian and academic (d. 1702)
• November 25 – Armand de Gramont, Comte de Guiche, French nobleman (d. 1673)
• November 30 – Louis-Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont, French historian (d. 1698)
• December 6 – Edmund Andros, English governor in North America (d. 1714)
• December 7
  • Bernardo Pasquini, Italian composer (d. 1710)
  • William Neile, English mathematician and founder member of the Royal Society (d. 1670)
• December 10 – Jacques-René de Brisay de Denonville, Marquis de Denonville (d. 1710)
• December 19 – Sir William Leman, 2nd Baronet, English politician (d. 1701)
• December 24 – Pierre Jurieu, French Protestant leader (d. 1713)
• December 27 – Petar Kanavelić, Croatian writer (d. 1719)
• December 30 – William Cave, English divine (d. 1713)

Deaths

• February 15 – Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1578)
• March 19 – Péter Pázmány, Hungarian cardinal and statesman (b. 1570)
• April 30 – Niwa Nagashige, Japanese warlord (b. 1571)
• May 19 – Isaac Beeckman, Dutch scientist and philosopher (b. 1588)
• June 24 – Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, French astronomer (b. 1580)
• August 6 – Ben Jonson, English writer (b. 1572)
• August 14 – Gabriello Chiabrera, Italian poet (b. 1552)
• August 17 – Johann Gerhard, German Lutheran leader (b. 1582)
• September 8 – Robert Fludd, English mystic (b. 1574)
• September 27 – Lorenzo Ruiz, Filipino saint (b. c.1600)
• December 4 – Nicholas Ferrar, English trader (b. 1592)
• December 27 – Vincenzo Giustiniani, banker (b. 1564)

References