Years: 1636 1637 1638 - 1639 - 1640 1641 1642

Decades: 1600s 1610s 1620s - 1630s - 1640s 1650s 1660s

Centuries: 16th century - 17th century - 18th century 1639 in literature 1639 in science

Events

• January 14 - Connecticut's first constitution, the "Fundamental Orders," is adopted.
• March 13 - Harvard University is named for a clergyman named John Harvard.
• November 24 - Jeremiah Horrocks observes the transit of Venus.
• Charles I starts the first of the Bishops Wars against Scotland.
• 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.
• The first printing press in North America is started in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• Russian Cossacks advance over Urals to Pacific, to Okhotsk.

Births

• Yair Bacharach - German rabbi
• December 22 - Jean Racine

Deaths