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England makes peace with France in April and with Spain in November, but the Thirty Years' War continues to embroil much of the rest of Europe.
Sweden's Gustav II Adolf lands on the Pomeranian Coast in July to aid the oppressed Protestants, restore the dukes of Mecklenburg to whom he is related, and resist the extortion and cruelty of Wallenstein's army (see 1629). He brings artillery that includes 80 field guns—far more than the imperial forces that oppose him (see 1631).
The emperor Ferdinand dismisses Wallenstein August 13.
The diet of Segesovar votes November 26 to elect György Rákóczi, 39, to succeed the late Bethlen Gábor (Gabriel Bethlen) as prince of Transylvania. Youngest son of the late Zsigmond Rákóczi, who reigned from 1607 to 1608, György was one of Gábor's leading lieutenants and will reign until his death in 1648 as György Rákóczi I, championing Protestantism against the Catholic Hapsburgs (see 1644).
The Ottoman sultan Murad IV defeats a Persian army and captures Hamadan, ancient capital of Media, as he retakes territory conquered by the late shah Abbas I. Murad massacres Hamadan's populace and sacks the city for 6 days, even cutting down its trees.
Vietnam breaks in two as the Nguyen family in the south and the Trinh in the north find it impossible to reconcile their differences (see 1527). Their rivalry escalated into open warfare 10 years ago, and the Nguyen build two walls across the plain of Dong Hai to the jungle (latitude 18° North); intermittent hostilities will continue until 1673, when both families will accept the de facto division, and the north will be sealed off until late in the next century, although the Trinh will continue to expand their territorial base into the Mekong River delta and along the southern coast (date approximate; see Tay Son brothers, 1771).
Puritan lawyer John Winthrop arrives at what soon will be called Salem June 12 aboard the Bay Company's flagship Arabella, having written on shipboard a sermon in which he said in part, "Wee must Consider that wee shall be as a Citty upon a Hill, the eies of all people are uppon us; soe that if wee shall deale falsely with our god in this worke wee have undertaken and soe cause him to withdrawe his present help from us, wee shall be made a story and a byword through the world, wee shall open the mouthes of enemeies to speake evill of the wayes of god and all professours for God sake." (see 1629). Other members of the party include Sir Richard Saltonstall, who has come with his five sons and two young daughters and will remain in the colony until next year (the daughters will fall ill and Saltsonstall will return to England with them and two of his sons). Winthrop assumes office as governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony, replacing John Endecott; attracted by reports of the abundance to be found in New England, his 1,000 settlers soon find that the stories have been exaggerated. He uses his own funds to keep many alive, but 200 die in the winter, and 200 more will return home to England next spring.
Boston, Massachusetts, is founded September 17 by Governor Winthrop on the Shawmut Peninsula (the settlement of Trimontaine has changed its name to Boston September 7 and become the colony's capital; the settlement of Shawmut has changed its name to Boston September 16). Dorchester, Roxbury, Watertown, Mystic, and Lynn are also established as the Massachusetts Bay colony receives more settlers.
Portsmouth is established by John Mason in what will become the New Hampshire colony (see 1629; 1635).
Agents of Amsterdam diamond and pearl merchant Kiliaen van Rensselaer, 45, buy a tract of land for him on the west bank of the Hudson River. They give the Indians "certain quantities of duffels, axes, knives and wampum" for a territory 24 miles north and south of Fort Orange, and 12 miles back on either side of the river. Van Rensselaer's nephew Arendt van Corlaer (or van Curler), 30, makes a settlement at what will be called Rensselaerwyck, where he has jurisdiction over nearly 1,000 square miles and will make his patroonship far more prosperous than Nieuw Amsterdam (see 1642).
Peru's Cerro de Pasco mine opens 14,000 feet high in the Andes. The mine will yield gold, silver, copper, zinc, and antimony, become South America's largest lead producer, and be the world's largest producer of bismuth.
Mathematician Henry Briggs dies at Oxford January 26 at age 68; astronomer Johannes Kepler at Regensburg November 15 at age 58.
Bubonic plague kills 500,000 Venetians, hastening the decline of Venice as a great commercial center.
Repeated epidemics in the decade ahead will reduce America's Huron tribe to a third of its estimated 30,000 population.
Vietnamese authorities expel Jesuit missionary Alexandre de Rhodes, now 39, whose proselytizing has raised fears that Christian teachings may undermine the sovereign, whose power is based on Confucianism (see 1619). De Rhodes will estimate that he has converted some 6,700 Vietnamese to Roman Catholicism (see politics, 1820; Nonfiction, 1653).
English authorities suppress Mary Ward's schools for girls, but she will continue to operate them, defying persecution (see 1619; 1631).
Nonfiction: The English Gentleman by former London lawyer-turned-poet Richard Brathwaite (or Brathwayte), 42, who has become a Westmorland country gentleman and written a book on social conduct.
Poet-polemicist Théodore-Agrippa d'Aubigné dies in exile at Geneva April 29 at age 78, leaving much of his work to be published posthumously.
Painting: The Triumphs of Flora by Nicolas Poussin for his patron Cardinal Omodei; The Vision of Blessed Alonso Rodriguez by Francisco de Zurburán; The Forge of Vulcan and Joseph's Bloody Coat Brought to Jacob by Diego Velázquez; Samson and Delilah, Christ on the Cross, and Philippe Le Roy, Seigneur de Ravels by Anthony Van Dyck; Standing Cavalier, Carousing Couple, Violinist with a Skull, and The Rommel-Pot Player by Judith Leyster; At the Greengrocer and Basket of Fruit with a Bunch of Asparagus by French painter Louise Mouillon, 20.
Theater: Mélite, or The False Letters (Mélite, ou les fausses lettres) by Rouen-born playwright Pierre Corneille, 23, in January or February at the Berthault Tennis Court, Paris, with the 36-year-old, Thiers-born actor Montdory (Guillaume des Gilberts), who has established a playhouse in the tennis court with help from his associate Charles Le Noir.
Actor John Heminge dies at London October 10 at age 74, having helped publish the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays in 1623.
The Palais de Luxembourg is completed at Paris for the queen mother Marie de' Medici after 15 years' work; it was designed by French architect Salmon de Brosse to resemble the Florentine Pitti Palace, where she grew up.
Francis Higginson of the Massachusetts Bay colony writes that the colony's offshore waters are so full of lobster that he is "soon cloyed with them, they were so great, and fat, and luscious." Lobster will for centuries be regarded as food for the poor.
Lemonade (citron pressé) is invented at Paris as sugar imported from the French West Indies drops in price.
Kikkoman soy sauce is introduced 25 miles upriver from Edo at Noda, where the Mogi and Takanoshi families also develop miso (bean paste) to serve the growing community of Edo (see politics, 1590). They adopt the name Kikko (tortoise shell) Man (10,000) because the tortoise is thought to live for 10,000 years, and many have a hexagon pattern on their shells that will be the Kikkoman trademark. Eight branches of the Mogi family will merge their companies in 1917 to create an enterprise that will continue into the 21st century and become the world's largest producer of soy sauce products (see Takanoshi, 1661).
A "Great Migration" begins that will bring at least 16,000 people (and possibly 20,000) to the Massachusetts Bay colony in the next 10 years, most of them English Puritans.
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