1640

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1640 (MDCXL) was a leap year starting on Sunday (dominical letter AG) of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Wednesday (dominical letter ED) of the Julian calendar, the 1640th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 640th year of the 2nd millennium, the 40th year of the 17th century, and the 1st year of the 1640s decade. Note that the Julian day for 1640 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

• February 9 – Ibrahim I (1640–1648) succeeds Murad IV (1623–1640) as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
• March 8–13 – Siege of Galle: Dutch troops take the strategic fortress at Galle on Sri Lanka from the Portuguese.
• April 13 – The Short Parliament assembles as King Charles I of England attempts to fund the second of the Bishops' Wars.
• May 5 – The Short Parliament is dispersed.
• May 22 – Catalan Revolt (Guerra dels Segadors) breaks out in Catalonia.

July–December

• August 9 – Forty-one Spanish delegates to Japan at Nagasaki are beheaded.
• August 20 – Second Bishops' War: A Scottish Covenanter army invades Northumberland in England.^[1]
• August 28 – Second Bishops' War: Battle of Newburn – The Scottish Covenanter army led by Alexander Leslie defeats the English army near Newburn in England.^[1]
• October 26 – The Treaty of Ripon is signed, restoring peace between the Scottish Covenanters and Charles I of England.^[1]
• November 3 – The English Long Parliament is summoned.^[1]
• December 1
  • End of the Iberian Union: A revolution organized by the nobility and bourgeoisie causes John IV of Portugal to be acclaimed as king, thus ending 60 years of personal union of the crowns of Portugal and Spain, and the rule of the House of Habsburg (also called the Philippine Dynasty). The Spanish Habsburgs do not recognize Portugal's new dynasty, the House of Braganza, until the end of the Portuguese Restoration War in 1668.
  • Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg starts to rule.

Date unknown

• The first university in Finland, the Academy of Åbo, is founded in Turku.
• The first book (the Bay Psalm Book) to be printed in North America is published.
• The first known European coffeehouse opens in Venice.^[2]

Births

• January 5 – Paolo Lorenzani, Italian composer (d. 1713)
• January 8 – Elisabeth Dorothea of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, German princess (d. 1709)
• January 10 – Élie Benoist, French Protestant minister (d. 1728)
• January 11 – Sir Robert Burdett, 3rd Baronet, English politician (d. 1716)
• January 17 – Jonathan Singletary Dunham, prominent early American settler of Woodbridge Township (d. 1724)
• January 25 – William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire, English soldier and statesman (d. 1707)
• January 31 – Samuel Willard, American theologian (d. 1707)
• February 6 – William Campion (1640–1702), English politician (d. 1702)
• February 13 – Richard Edgcumbe, English politician (d. 1688)
• February 14 – Countess Palatine Anna Magdalena of Birkenfeld-Bischweiler (d. 1693)
• February 17 – Olivier Morel de La Durantaye, French military officer (d. 1716)
• February 24 – Michiel ten Hove, Grand Pensionary of Holland (d. 1689)
• February 29 – Elisabeth Charlotte, Countess of Holzappel (d. 1707)
• February 29 – Benjamin Keach, English Particular Baptist preacher (d. 1704)
• March 18 – Philippe de La Hire, French mathematician and astronomer (d. 1719)
• March 30 – John Trenchard, English statesman (d. 1695)
• April 1 – Georg Mohr, Danish mathematician (d. 1697)
• April 6 – Thomas Lloyd (lieutenant governor) of provincial Pennsylvania, Quaker preacher (d. 1694)
• April 7 – Ludmilla Elisabeth of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, German noblewoman and hymn poet (d. 1672)
• April 18 – Étienne Chauvin, French Protestant divine (d. 1725)
• April 22 – Mariana Alcoforado, Portuguese nun (d. 1723)
• April 23 – Wolfgang William Romer, Dutch military engineer (d. 1713)
• April 26 – Frederick, Count of Nassau-Weilburg (1655-1675) (d. 1675)
• April 30 – Nicolas Letourneux, French preacher and ascetical writer (d. 1686)
• May 7 – Maria Theresa van Thielen, Flemish Barouque painter (d. 1706)
• May 31 – Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki, King of Poland (d. 1673)
• June 5 – Pu Songling, Qing dynasty Chinese writer (d. 1715)
• June 9 – Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1705)
• June 15 – Bernard Lamy, French Oratorian mathematician and theologian (d. 1715)
• June 16 – Jacques Ozanam, French mathematician (d. 1718)
• June 19 – Thomas Widdrington (died 1660), English politician (d. 1660)
• June 21 – Abraham Mignon, Dutch painter (d. 1679)
• June 29 – Elizabeth Stanhope, Countess of Chesterfield (d. 1665)
• July 8 – Henry Stuart, Duke of Gloucester, son of Charles I (d. 1660)
• July 20 – Johannes Bohn, German physician (d. 1718)
• August 2 – Gérard Audran, French engraver (d. 1703)
• August 8 – Amalia Catharina, German poet and musician (d. 1697)
• September 7 – Johann Jacob Schütz, German lawyer (d. 1690)
• September 8 – Jérôme de Gonnelieu, French Jesuit theologian (d. 1715)
• September 21 – Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, younger brother of King Louis XIV of France (d. 1701)
• September 23 – Date Tsunamune, daimyo of Sendai han (d. 1711)
• September 29 – Antoine Coysevox, French sculptor (d. 1720)
• October 11 – Louis Henry, Count Palatine of Simmern-Kaiserslautern (d. 1674)
• October 12 – Sir Roger Twisden, 2nd Baronet, British Baronet (d. 1703)
• October 18 – William Stanley (1640–1670), Member of Parliament (d. 1670)
• October 20 – Gérard Edelinck, Flemish engraver (d. 1707)
• October 20 – Pieter Cornelisz van Slingelandt, Dutch Golden Age painter (d. 1691)
• October 23 – Elisabeth Pepys, English wife of Samuel (d. 1669)
• October 28 – Streynsham Master, English colonial administrator (d. 1724)
• November 1 – Francisco de Benavides, Spanish viceroy (d. 1716)
• November 4 – Carlo Mannelli, Italian violinist, castrato and composer (d. 1697)
• November 5 – John Verney, 1st Viscount Fermanagh (d. 1717)
• November 14 – Jonathan Corwin, American judge of the Salem witch trials (d. 1718)
• November 15 – Nicolaus Adam Strungk, German composer and violinist (d. 1700)
• November 18 – George Hooper, Bishop of St Asaph, Bishop of Bath and Wells (d. 1727)
• November 25 – Juan Domingo de Zuñiga y Fonseca, Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands (d. 1716)
• November 27 – Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland (d. 1709)
• November 28 – Willem de Vlamingh, Flemish sea captain
• December 1 – Ercole Antonio Mattioli, Italian politician (d. 1694)
• December 6 – Claude Fleury, French historian (d. 1723)
• December 13 – Robert Plot, English naturalist (d. 1696)
• December 14 (probable date) – Aphra Behn, English author (d. 1689)
• December 20 – Pierre Cureau de La Chambre, French churchman (d. 1693)
• December 22 – Inaba Masamichi, Japanese Daimyo (d. 1716)
• December 25 – Julius Micrander, Swedish professor (d. 1702)
• December 29 – William Feilding, 3rd Earl of Denbigh (d. 1685)

Deaths

Peter Paul Rubens

• January 14 – Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry, English lawyer and judge (b. 1578)
• January 25 – Robert Burton, English scholar (b. 1577)
• February 9 – Murad IV, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1612)
• March 17 – Philip Massinger, English dramatist (b. 1583)
• April – Uriel da Costa, Portuguese philosopher (suicide) (b. 1585)
• April 10 – Agostino Agazzari, Italian composer (b. 1578)
• May 30 – Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish painter (b. 1577)
• June 3 - Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk, English politician (b. 1584)
• September 30 – Charles, Duke of Guise (b. 1571)
• October 20 – John Ball, English Puritan clergyman (b. 1585)
• December 30 – John Francis Regis, French saint (b. 1597)
• date unknown – Bombogor, Evenk Chief
• possible – John Ford, English dramatist (b. 1586)

In fiction

• The play Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand takes place in this year.

References