Events

• April 6 - Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck establishes a resupply camp for the Dutch East India Company at the Cape of Good Hope, and founded Cape Town.
• May 18 - Rhode Island passes the first law in North America making slavery illegal.
• May 29 - First Anglo-Dutch War opening battle fought off Dover between Lt.-Admiral Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp's 42 Dutch ships and 21 English ships divided into two squadrons, one commanded by Robert Blake and the other by Nehemiah Bourne .

Ongoing events

• Fronde civil war in France (1648-1653)

Births

• April 7 - Pope Clement XII
• April 21 - Michel Rolle, mathematician (d. 1719)

Deaths

• June 21 - Inigo Jones, architect (b. 1573)