1638

Events

January–June

• February 28 – The Scottish National Covenant is signed in Edinburgh, Scotland.
• March 3 – Battle of Rheinfelden: A mercenary army under Bernard of Saxe-Weimar, fighting for France, defeats Imperial forces.
• March 5 – Thirty Years' War – The Treaty of Hamburg is signed by France and Sweden.
• March 22 – Anne Hutchinson is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for heresy, and goes to Rhode Island.
• 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.
• April 3 – John Wheelwright is banished from Boston, and founds Exeter, New Hampshire.
• April 15 – Shogunate forces defeat the last remnants of the Shimabara Rebellion, in the fortress of Hara.
• May 13 – Construction begins on the Red Fort in Delhi for Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan who is transferring his capital there from Agra.
• May 23 – The Kandyan Treaty is signed between Singhala King Rajasimha II and the Dutch, to rid Ceylon of the Portuguese.
• June 20 – Eighty Years' War – Battle of Kallo: Spanish troops under Ferdinand of Austria defeat a much larger Dutch force, near Antwerp.
• June 27 – Patriarch Cyril of Constantinople is deposed for high treason, and strangled and thrown into the sea by Janissaries, on Ottoman Sultan Murad IV's command.

  July–December

• September 21 - The Treaty of Hartford is signed, ending the Pequot War between British American colonists and the Pequot.
• 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.
• October 21 - The Great Thunderstorm breaks out in Widecombe-in-the-Moor, England.
• November - The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is summoned to Glasgow, by King Charles I of England.
• December 18 - Cardinal Mazarin becomes the first adviser to French potentate Richelieu, on the death of Leclerc du Tremblay.
• 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.
• December 25 - Capture of Baghdad by the Ottomans under Sultan Murad IV.

  Date unknown

• Scottish Covenanters meet at Muchalls Castle, to compose responses to the Bishops of Aberdeen.
• Pedro Teixeira makes the first ascent of the Amazon River, from its mouth to Quito, Ecuador.
• Dutch merchant Willem Kieft is appointed Director of New Amsterdam, by the Dutch West India Company.
• The Netherlands colonizes Mauritius.
• The Dutch settle in Ceylon.
• The Finnish postal service, now called Suomen Posti, is founded.
• New Haven, the first planned city in America, is founded.
• Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and his sons capture the city of Kandahar, from the Safavids.
• Shipwrecked English buccaneer Peter Wallace, called Ballis by the Spanish, settles near and perhaps gives his name to the Belize River, the first known European settlement in Belize.
• The Beijing Gazette makes an official switch in its production process of newspapers, from woodblock printing to movable type printing.

  Births

January–March

• January 1
• * Antoinette du Ligier de la Garde Deshoulières, French writer
• * Emperor Go-Sai of Japan
• * Nicolas Steno, Danish pioneer in anatomy and geology, bishop
• January 7
• * Filippo Bonanni, Italian Jesuit scholar
• * Marie Elisabeth of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, German noblewoman
• January 8 – Elisabetta Sirani, Italian painter
• January 12 – Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg, Austrian field marshal
• January 20 – Sir William Glynne, 1st Baronet, English politician
• January 21
• * David Elias Heidenreich, German poet, dramatist, librettist and translator
• * Beata Rosenhane, Swedish writer
• February 13 – Frederick, Duke of Mecklenburg-Grabow, German nobleman, titular Duke of Mecklenburg
• February 18 – Ikeda Tsunamasa, Japanese daimyō, ruler of the Okayama Domain
• February 25 – Jørgen Iversen Dyppel, Governor of the Danish West Indies
• February 28 – John Carmichael, 1st Earl of Hyndford, Scottish nobleman
• March 6
• * Henry Capell, 1st Baron Capell of Tewkesbury, First Lord of the British Admiralty
• * Statz Friedrich von Fullen, German-born nobleman, Geheimrat of war for Poland
• March 10 – John Vesey, Irish archbishop
• March 14 – Johann Georg Gichtel, German mystic and religious leader, critic of Lutheranism
• March 15 – Shunzhi Emperor of China
• March 16 – François Crépieul, Jesuit missionary in Canada
• March 28 – Frederik Ruysch, Dutch physician and anatomist

  April–June

• April 2
• * Sir Henry Beaumont, 2nd Baronet, English politician
• * John Covel, English clergyman and scientist, Master of Christ's College
• May 9 – Gregorio Vasquez de Arce y Ceballos, Colombian painter
• May 11 – Guy-Crescent Fagon, French physician and botanist
• May 12 – Pedro Atanasio Bocanegra, Spanish artist
• May 13 – Richard Simon, French Biblical critic
• May 29 – John Manners, 1st Duke of Rutland, English nobleman and politician
• June 2 – Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon, English nobleman
• June 3 – Thomas Smith, English scholar
• June 8 – Pierre Magnol, French botanist
• June 21 – Sir William Roberts, 1st Baronet, English politician
• June 23 – Princess Christine Elisabeth of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg, German noblewoman
• June 27 – Samuel Frisching, Bernese soldier and politician
• June 28 – Louise Marie de La Grange d'Arquien, French noblewoman
• June 29 – Heinrich Meibom, German physicist and scholar

  July–September

• July 10 – David Teniers III, Flemish painter
• July 11 – Olympia Mancini, French courtier
• July 15 – Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani, Italian composer
• July 20 – Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve, leading Norwegian general during the Scanian War
• July 25 – Cristobal of Saint Catherine, Spanish Catholic priest
• August 3 – William Louis, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen
• August 6 – Nicolas Malebranche, French philosopher
• August 7 – John Tufton, 4th Earl of Thanet, English politician
• August 13 – Durgadas Rathore, Indian ruler
• August 15 – Pieter de Graeff, Dutch politician and noble
• August 22 – Georg Christoph Eimmart, German engraver
• September 5 – King Louis XIV of France, King of France from 1643 until his death
• September 10 – Maria Theresa of Spain, French queen, married to Louis XIV of France
• September 19 – Isaac Milles, English minister
• September 20 – Antonio Gherardi, Italian painter
• September 21 – Philippe de Courcillon, French officer and author
• September 30 – Maximilian Philipp Hieronymus, Duke of Bavaria-Leuchtenberg, German nobleman

  October–December

• October 7 – Miguel Jerónimo de Molina, Spanish prelate, Bishop of Malta, then of Lleida in Catalonia
• October 14 – Bernhard II, Duke of Saxe-Jena, German noble
• October 17 – John Charles, Count Palatine of Gelnhausen
• October 21 – Lucia Wijbrants, Dutch artist
• October 31 – Meindert Hobbema, Dutch painter
• November 4 – Nuno Álvares Pereira de Melo, 1st Duke of Cadaval, Portuguese nobleman and statesman
• November 8 – Anton van Dale, Dutch minister
• November 22 – Christoph Cellarius, German classical scholar
• November 25 – Catherine of Braganza, English queen, married to Charles II of England
• November 30 – Joachim Feller, German professor at the University of Leipzig
• December 17 – Anna Sophia II, Abbess of Quedlinburg, Abbesses of Quedlinburg
• December 24 – Tomás de la Cerda, 3rd Marquis of la Laguna, Spanish nobleman
• December 25 – Michel Bégon, French ancien regime official

  Date unknown

• Hannah Allen, British writer

  Deaths

• January 21 – Ignazio Donati, Italian composer
• January 27 – Gonzalo de Céspedes y Meneses, Spanish novelist
• February 26 – Claude Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac, French mathematician
• March 2 – William Spring of Pakenham, Member of Parliament
• March 22 – Johann, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
• April 1 – Henry Ley, 2nd Earl of Marlborough, English politician
• April 7 – Shimazu Tadatsune, Japanese ruler of Satsuma
• April 13 – Henri, Duke of Rohan, French Huguenot leader
• April 19 – Jeremias Drexel, Jesuit writer and professor of rhetoric
• April 26 – Margareta Brahe, Swedish political activist
• May 6
• * Cornelius Jansen, French bishop and religious reformer
• * Gaj Singh of Marwar, Raja of Marwar Kingdom
• May 9 – Frederick I, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg
• May 27 – Pietro Paolo Floriani, Italian architect
• June 25 – Juan Pérez de Montalbán, Spanish writer
• July 27 – John VIII, Count of Nassau-Siegen
• July 31 – Sibylla Schwarz, German poet
• August 3 – Philipp Moritz, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg, German noble
• August 10 – Anton Henry, Count of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
• August 12 – Baltasar Marradas, Spanish count
• August 13 – Carolus Mulerius, Dutch Hispanist
• August 27 – John Hoskins, English poet
• September – Christoph Besold, German jurist
• September 5 – Dorothea of Hanau-Münzenberg, German noblewoman
• September 14 – John Harvard, American clergyman
• September 24 – Georg Friedrich, Margrave of Baden-Durlach
• October 6 – Jacob Dircksz de Graeff, Dutch mayor
• October 4 – Francis Hyacinth, Duke of Savoy
• October 8 – Raja Wodeyar II, King of Mysore
• October 14 – Gabriello Chiabrera, Italian poet
• October 23 – John Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Eisenach, German duke
• October 28 – Robert Petre, 3rd Baron Petre, English baron
• November 9 – Johann Heinrich Alsted, German theologian
• November 11 – Cornelis Corneliszoon van Haarlem, Dutch painter
• November 16 – Edward Cecil, 1st Viscount Wimbledon
• November 19 – Lelio Biscia, Italian Catholic cardinal
• November 27
• * Redemptus of the Cross, Portuguese Carmelite lay brother and martyr
• * Denis of the Nativity, French sailor and cartographer
• December 8 – Ivan Gundulić, Croatian poet
• December 13 – Catherine of Sweden, Countess Palatine of Kleeburg
• December 17 – François Leclerc du Tremblay
• December 23 – Barbara Longhi, Italian painter