January–March •
January 7 –
Polish-Swedish War:
Battle of Wallhof in
Latvia –
Gustavus Adolphus, King of
Sweden, defeats a Polish army. •
January 9 –
Peter Minuit sails from
Texel Island for America's
New Netherland colony, with two ships of Dutch emigrants. •
February 2 – King
Charles I of England is crowned, but without his wife,
Henrietta Maria, who declines to participate in a non-Catholic ceremony. •
February 5 – The
Huguenot rebels and the French government sign the
Treaty of Paris, ending the second
Huguenot rebellion. •
February 10 –
Battle of Ningyuan: In
Xingcheng in
China, after an 8-day battle,
Ming dynasty commander
Yuan Chonghuan defeats the much larger force of
Manchu leader
Nurhaci, who dies soon after and is succeeded by
Huang Taiji. •
February 11 – Emperor
Susenyos of Ethiopia and Patriarch
Afonso Mendes declare the primacy of the Roman See over the
Ethiopian Church, and
Roman Catholicism the state religion of
Ethiopia. •
March 5 – The
Treaty of Monzón is signed between France and Spain to end the
Valtellina War and the
First Genoese-Savoyard War. •
March 7 –
Ambrósio I Nimi a Nkanga becomes the new monarch of
Kongo (in what is now
Angola) after the overthrow of
Garcia I Mvemba a Nkanga, restoring the Kwilu dynasty to power. •
March 15 – Portugal declares war on
Queen Nzinga of the
Kingdom of Ndongo, located in what is now Angola. • A
dam failure causes the sudden
flooding of the mining city of Potosí in present-day Bolivia leading to the death of thousands and the massive release of toxic
mercury into the environment.
April–June •
April 25 –
Thirty Years' War:
Battle of Dessau Bridge –
Albrecht von Wallenstein defeats
Ernst von Mansfelds army. •
May 4 – Peter Minuit becomes director-general of
New Netherland, for the
Dutch West India Company. •
May 24 –
Peter Minuit buys
Manhattan from a
Native American tribe (
Lenape or
Shinnecock) for trade goods, valued at 60
guilders (
$1,143 U.S. dollars as of 2020). •
May 30 –
Wanggongchang Explosion in
Beijing, China: a gunpowder factory explosion destroys part of the city and kills 20,000 people. •
June 15 – King
Charles I of England dissolves the English
Parliament. •
June 20 – Nine Jesuit Christian missionaries, six of them Japanese and three from Spain, are executed in Japan, followed by eight Japanese converts to Christianity on July 12. •
June 28 – A
7.0 magnitude earthquake strikes
Lingqiu County, in
China, killing 5,200 residents.
July–September •
July 4 – The Ottoman Army halts its attempt to retake
Baghdad from the Persians, after having lost it in 1624. •
July 27 –
George II becomes the new Landgrave of
Hesse-Darmstadt upon the death of his father,
Louis V. •
August 1 –
Eighty Years' War:
Ernst Casimir of Nassau-Dietz retakes
Oldenzaal, forcing Spain to withdraw from
Overijssel. •
August 27 –
Thirty Years' War:
Battle of Lutter –
Tilly defeats King
Christian IV of Denmark's army. •
September 30 –
Nurhaci, chief of the
Jurchens and founder of the
Qing dynasty, dies and is succeeded by his son
Hong Taiji.
October–December •
November 6 (
O.S.) – The ship
Arms of Amsterdam arrives in
Europe from
New Netherland (left
September 23) with the news: "They have purchased the Island Manhattes [
Manhattan] from the Indians for the value of 60 guilders." •
November 18 – The new
St Peter's Basilica in the
Vatican is consecrated, on the 1,300th anniversary of the previous church in
326. •
December 1 –
Pasha Muhammad ibn Farukh, tyrannical Governor of
Jerusalem, is forced out. •
December 20 –
Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor and
Transylvanian monarch
Bethlen Gabor sign the
Peace of Pressburg.
Date unknown •
1626 influenza pandemic begins in Asia, then spreads into Europe, Africa, North America, and South America. • Establishment of the coastal settlement of
Salem, Massachusetts. == Births ==