1624

January–June

• January 14 – After 90 years of Ottoman occupation, the Safavid empire recaptures Baghdad.
• January 24 – Alfonso Mendez, appointed by Pope Gregory XV as Prelate of Ethiopia, arrives at Massawa from Goa.
• May 8 – A Dutch fleet captures Bahia, Brazil from the Spanish.
• June – The first Dutch settlers arrive in New Netherland; they disembark at Governor's Island.
• June 10 – Treaty of Compiègne, signed between France and the Netherlands

July–December

• August – The Siege of Breda begins, and will continue for 10 months.
• August 12 – Cardinal Richelieu is appointed by Louis XIII of France to be his first minister.
• October (start) – A Tuscan/Papal/Neapolitan force defeats the Algerians near Sardinia (details).

Undated

• Martin Luther's German translation of the Bible is publicly burned by order of the Pope.
• The Netherlands establishes a trading colony at Tainan on Taiwan.
• The Virginia Land Company's charter is revoked and Virginia becomes a crown colony.
• Oslo is destroyed by fire: when rebuilt by Christian IV, it will be renamed Christiania.
• Jakob Bartsch records the constellation Camelopardalis around the north star.
• The Palace of Versailles is first built by Louis XIII, as a hunting lodge.
• The Japanese Shogun expels the Spanish from the land and severs trade with the Philippines.
• Mail service begins in Denmark.
• The University of Saint Francis Xavier is founded in Bolivia.
• Cornelius Drebbel first discovers gases.
• Henry Briggs publishes Arithmetica Logarithmica.
• The French Parliament passes a decree forbidding criticism of Aristotle on pain of death.^[1]
• Queen Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba starts to rule.
• The Latymer School and Latymer Upper School in London are founded by the bequest of Edward Latymer.
• The city of Dunfermline is destroyed by fire, but The Abbey, The Palace, the The Abbot House and many other buildings survive.
• Frans Hals produces the painting now known as the Laughing Cavalier.

Births

• January 9 – Meishō, empress of Japan (d. 1696)
• January 15 – Rombout Verhulst, Dutch sculptor (d. 1698)
• January 31 – Arnold Geulincx, Flemish philosopher (d. 1669)
• June 15 – Hiob Ludolf, German orientalist (d. 1704)
• July – George Fox, English founder of the Quakers (d. 1691)
• August 22 – Jean Renaud de Segrais, French writer (d. 1701)
• August 25 – Père François de La Chaise, French churchman (d. 1709)
• September 10 – Thomas Sydenham, English physician (d. 1689)
• October 30 – Paul Pellisson, French author (d. 1693)
• date unknown – Koxinga, Chinese military leader (d. 1662)

Deaths

• February 12 – George Heriot, Scottish goldsmith and philanthropist (b. 1563)
• February 13 – Stephen Gosson, English satirist (b. 1554)
• February 17 – Juan de Mariana, Spanish historian (b. 1536)
• July – Alonso Fajardo y Tenza, governor of the Philippines
• November 10 – Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, English patron of the theater (b. 1573)
• November 17 – Jakob Böhme, German mystic (b. 1575)
• December 5 – Gaspard Bauhin, Swiss botanist (b. 1560)
• December 14 – Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, English statesman (b. 1536)
• December 26 – Simon Marius, German astronomer (b. 1573)
• date unknown
  • Francesco Andreini, Italian actor (b. c. 1548)
  • Shlomyah ben Pinhas, Samaritan High Priest; last of the Phineas bloodline

References