Years: 1640 1641 1642 - 1643 - 1644 1645 1646

Decades: 1610s 1620s 1630s - 1640s - 1650s 1660s 1670s

Centuries: 16th century - 17th century - 18th century

Contents

1 Events 2 Ongoing events 3 Births 4 Deaths

Events

• January 21 - Abel Tasman discovers Tonga
• February 6 - Abel Tasman discovers the Fiji islands.
• May 14 - Four year-old Louis XIV becomes King of France upon the death of his father, Louis XIII.
• May 19 - Battle of Rocroi: French victory over the Spanish at Rocroi, France.
• July 13 - English Civil War: Battle of Roundway Down - In England, Lord Henry Wilmot, Earl of Rochester , commanding the Royalist forces, wins a crushing victory over the Parliamentarian Sir William Waller.
• Austro-Bavarian army defeats French at Duttlingen .
• The Royalist forces supporting Charles I in the English Civil War win the Battle of Adwalton Moor and gain control of Yorkshire.
• End of the reign of Empress Meisho of Japan
• Emperor Go-Komyo ascends to the throne of Japan
• Evangelista Torricelli invents the mercury barometer
• New England Confederation is formed
• Battle of Tüttlingen fought
• Baden-Baden pillaged by the French
• John Colgan published the first two volumes of the Acta Sanctorum
• Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve places the first cross atop Mount Royal
• Åmål is granted its city charter
• Miyamoto Musashi dictates The Book of Five Rings (Go Rin No Sho) to his student, completing it in 1654 just before his death
• Hong Taiji, Emperor of the Qing Dynasty of the Manchu dies and is succeeded by his five year-old son, the later Shunzhi Emperor of China.

Ongoing events

• English Civil War (1642-1649)

Births

• January 4 - Sir Isaac Newton.
• August 21 - Future King Alphonso VI of Portugal.
• Future Ottoman sultan Ahmed II

Deaths

• March 1 - Girolamo Frescobaldi, Italian keyboard composer (b. 1583)
• May 14 - Louis XIII of France (b. 1601)
• November 29, Claudio Monteverdi, Italian composer
• Herman Wrangel, Swedish soldier and politician
• Hong Taiji, Emperor of the Qing Dynasty of the Manchu