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Year 1639 (MDCXXXIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar).

[edit] Events of 1639

[edit] January - June

• January 14 - Connecticut's first constitution, the Fundamental Orders, is adopted.
• March 3 - The early settlement of Taunton, Massachusetts is incorporated as a town.
• March 13 - Harvard University is named for clergyman John Harvard.
• May - The first of the Bishops' Wars breaks out between Charles I and Scotland. Charles arrives with his army at Berwick-on-Tweed.
• June - The first battle of the Bishops' Wars is fought by Earl Marischal and the Marquess of Montrose, when they lead a Covenanter army of 9,000 men past Muchalls Castle over the Causey Mounth to fight at the Bridge of Dee.
• June 18 - The Treaty of Berwick is signed by Charles I and the Scots.

[edit] July - December

• October 31 - Naval Battle of the Downs: A Republic of the United Provinces fleet decisively defeats a Spanish fleet in English waters.
• November 24 - Jeremiah Horrocks observes the transit of Venus.

[edit] Undated

• Fort St George, the first settlement of British India, is founded at Madras. ^[1]
• 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 the Urals to the Pacific, to Okhotsk.
• Montreal is first settled.
• Sakoku (closed country policy) starts in Japan (approximate date).

[edit] Births

• February 6 - Daniel Georg Morhof, German writer and scholar (d. 1691)
• March 7 - Charles Stewart, 3rd Duke of Richmond (d. 1672)
• May 8 - Giovanni Battista Gaulli (Il Baciccio), Italian painter of High Baroque
• June 21 - Increase Mather, American minister (d. 1723)
• September 17 - Hans Herr, Swiss-born Mennonite bishop (d. 1725)
• September 29 - Lord William Russell, English politician (d. 1683)
• December 22 - Jean Racine, French dramatist (d. 1699)
• date unknown
  • Yair Bacharach, German rabbi (d. 1702)
  • Caspar Netscher, painter (d. 1684)

See also Category:1639 births.

[edit] Deaths

• January 20 - Mustafa I, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1592)
• January 23 - Francisco Maldonado de Silva, Peruvian Jewish poet (b. 1592)
• January 24 - Georg Jenatsch, Swiss politician (b. 1596)
• May 21 - Tommaso Campanella, Italian theologian and poet (b. 1568)
• June 1 - Melchior Franck, German composer (b. c.1579)
• July 18 - Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, German general (b. 1604)
• August 4 - Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, Mexican dramatist (b. c. 1571)
• August 20 - Martin Opitz von Boberfeld, German poet (b. 1597)
• September 20 - Johannes Meursius, Dutch classical scholar (b. 1579)
• October 28 - Stefano Landi, Italian composer (b. 1587)
• November 7 - Thomas Arundell, 1st Baron Arundell of Wardour, English politician (b. c.1560)
• November 26 - John Spottiswoode, Scottish historian (b. 1565)

See also Category:1639 deaths.

[edit] References

1. ^ Roberts, J: "History of the World.". Penguin, 1994.