1640s

• February 9 – Ibrahim I (1640–1648) succeeds Murad IV (1623–1640) as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
• March 8–13 – Siege of Galle: Dutch troops take the strategic fortress at Galle, Sri Lanka from the Portuguese.[1]
• April 13 – The Short Parliament assembles, as King Charles I of England attempts to fund the second of the Bishops' Wars.
• May 5 – The Short Parliament is dissolved.
• May 22 – The Catalan Revolt (Guerra dels Segadors) breaks out in Catalonia.

• July 9 – John Punch, a servant of Virginia planter Hugh Gwyn, is sentenced to a life of servitude after attempting to escape, making him the "first official slave in the English colonies" [2]
• July 15 – The first university of Finland, the Royal Academy of Turku, was inaugurated in Turku.[3][4]
• August 9 – Forty-one Spanish delegates to Japan at Nagasaki are beheaded.
• August 20 – Second Bishops' War: A Scottish Covenanter army invades Northumberland in England.[5]
• August 28 – Second Bishops' War – Battle of Newburn: The Scottish Covenanter army led by Alexander Leslie defeats the English army near Newburn in England.[5]
• September – Sebastien Manrique reaches Dhaka.
• October 26 – The Treaty of Ripon is signed, restoring peace between the Scottish Covenanters and Charles I of England.[5]
• November 3 – The English Long Parliament is summoned;[5] it will not be dissolved for 20 years.
• December 1
  • End of the Iberian Union: A revolution organized by the nobility and bourgeoisie causes John IV of Portugal to be acclaimed as king, thus ending 60 years of personal union of the crowns of Portugal and Spain, and the rule of the House of Habsburg (also called the Philippine Dynasty). The Spanish Habsburgs do not recognize Portugal's new dynasty, the House of Braganza, until the end of the Portuguese Restoration War in 1668.
  • Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg begins to rule.

• The first university in Finland, the Academy of Åbo, is founded in Turku.
• The first book to be printed in North America (the Bay Psalm Book) is published.
• The first known European coffeehouse opens in Venice.[6]

• January 4 – The stratovolcano Mount Parker (Philippines) undergoes a major eruption.
• January 18 – Pau Claris proclaims the Catalan Republic.
• February 16 – King Charles I of England gives his assent to the Triennial Act, reluctantly committing himself to parliamentary sessions of at least fifty days, every three years.[7]

• July 5
  • The Norwegian city of Kristiansand is founded by King Christian IV of Denmark-Norway.
  • In England, the Long Parliament abolishes the Court of Star Chamber.[8]
• July 12 – Portugal and the Dutch Republic sign a Treaty of Offensive and Defensive Alliance at The Hague. The treaty is not respected by both parties, and as a consequence has no effect in the Portuguese colonies (Brazil and Angola) that are under Dutch rule.
• August 10
  • The Treaty of London between England and Scotland, ending the Bishops' Wars, is signed.[9]
  • Charles I of England flees London for the north.
• October 23 – Irish Rebellion of 1641 breaks out: Irish Catholic gentry, chiefly in Ulster, revolt against the English administration and Scottish settlers in Ireland.
• October 24 – The Irish rebel Sir Felim O'Neill of Kinard issues the Proclamation of Dungannon.
• November 4 – Battle of Cape St Vincent: A Dutch fleet, with Michiel de Ruyter as third in command, beats back a Spanish-Dunkirker fleet off the coast of Portugal.
• November 22 – The Long Parliament of England passes the Grand Remonstrance, part of a series of legislation designed to contain Charles I's absolutist tendencies.

• The Dutch found a trading colony on Dejima, near Nagasaki, Japan.
• Portugal is ousted from Malacca by the Dutch.
• Moses Amyraut's De l'elevation de la foy et de l'abaissement de la raison en la creance des mysteres de la religion is published.
• René Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy is originally published.
• The town of Falun, Sweden is given city rights by Queen Kristina.
• English law makes witchcraft a capital crime.
• A massive epidemic breaks out in northern and central China, just three years before the fall of the Ming Dynasty. It races south down along the Grand Canal of China and the densely populated settlements there, from the northern terminus at Beijing, to the fertile Jiangnan region. In some local areas and towns it wipes out 90% of the local populace.

• January 4 – First English Civil War: Charles I attempts to arrest six leading members of the Long Parliament, but they escape.
• March 1 – Georgeana, Massachusetts (now known as York, Maine) becomes the first incorporated city in America.
• March 19 – The citizens of Galway seize an English naval ship, close the town gates, and declare support for Confederate Ireland.
• April 8 – George Spencer is executed by the New Haven Colony, for alleged bestiality.
• May 1 – Honours granted by Charles I, from this date onward, are retrospectively annulled by Parliament.
• May 17 – Ville-Marie (later Montreal) is founded as a permanent settlement.

• July – First English Civil War: Charles I besieges Hull, in an attempt to gain control of its arsenal.
• August 4 – Lord Forbes relieves Forthill, and besieges Galway.
• August 22 – King Charles I raises the royal battle standard over Nottingham Castle, so declaring war on his own Parliament.
• September 2 – Parliament orders the theatres of London closed, effectively ending the era of English Renaissance theatre.
• September 6 – England's Long Parliament suppresses all stage plays in theatres.
• September 7 – Lord Forbes raises his unsuccessful siege of Galway.
• September 8 – Thomas Granger is executed by hanging at Plymouth, Massachusetts, for confessing to numerous acts of bestiality.[10]
• October 23 – First English Civil War – Battle of Edgehill: Royalists and Parliamentarians battle to a draw.
• November 13 – First English Civil War – Battle of Turnham Green: The Royalist forces withdraw in face of the Parliamentarian army, and fail to take London.
• November 24 – Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Van Diemen's Land (later renamed Tasmania).
• First week of December – First English Civil War – Battle of Muster Green: A small Parliamentarian army routes a small Royalist army after fighting on Muster Green, Haywards Heath.
• December 13 – Abel Tasman is the first recorded European to sight New Zealand.

• The Dutch drive Spain from Taiwan.
• The village of Bro (Broo), Sweden is granted city rights for the second time, and takes the name Kristinehamn (literally "Christina's port") after the then Swedish monarch, Queen Christina.
• Rembrandt finishes his painting, The Night Watch.
• The Manchu, under their leader Hong Taiji, raid the Ming Chinese province of Shandong from their base in Manchuria. Two years later Beijing falls to rebels, the Chongzhen Emperor commits suicide, and the Shunzhi Emperor becomes the first Qing Emperor to rule over China proper.
• 1642 Yellow River flood: Some 300,000 people die, when the Ming Dynasty army in China intentionally breaks the dams and dykes of the Yellow River, to break the siege by the large rebel force of Li Zicheng.
• Isaac Aboab da Fonseca is appointed rabbi in Pernambuco, Brazil, thus becoming the first rabbi of the Americas.

• January 21 – Abel Tasman sights the island of Tonga.[11]
• February 6 – Abel Tasman sights the Fiji Islands.[11]
• March 13 – First English Civil War: First Battle of Middlewich – Roundheads (Parliamentarians) rout the Cavaliers (Royalist supporters of King Charles I) at Middlewich in Cheshire.
• March 18 – Irish Confederate Wars: Battle of New Ross – English troops defeat those of Confederate Ireland.
• April 1 – Åmål, Sweden, is granted its city charter.
• April 28 – Francisco de Lucena, former Portuguese Secretary of State, is beheaded after being convicted of treason.
• May 14 – Louis XIV succeeds his father Louis XIII as King of France at age 4. His rule will last until his death at age 77 in 1715, a total of 72 years, which will be the longest reign of any European monarch in recorded history.
• May 19
  • Thirty Years' War: Battle of Rocroi: The French defeat the Spanish at Rocroi, France.
  • The New England Confederation is formed as a military alliance.
• May 20 – Dutch expedition to Valdivia: The Dutch fleet (led by Hendrik Brouwer) is spotted off Carelmapu in Chile, soon afterwards landing nearby and plundering the fort and village.
• June 30 – First English Civil War: Battle of Adwalton Moor – Royalists gain control of Yorkshire.

• July 1 – The Westminster Assembly of theologians ("divines") and parliamentarians is convened at Westminster Abbey with the aim of restructuring the Church of England.
• July 5 – First English Civil War: Battle of Lansdowne – Royalists gain a pyrrhic victory over the Parliamentarians near Bath, Somerset.
• July 13 – First English Civil War: Battle of Roundway Down – Henry Wilmot, newly created Baron Wilmot, commanding Royalist cavalry, wins a crushing victory over Parliamentarian Sir William Waller.[12]
• August 24 – Dutch expedition to Valdivia: A Dutch fleet establishes a new colony in the ruins of Valdivia in southern Chile.
• September 20 – First English Civil War: First Battle of Newbury – Strategic Parliamentarian victory over Royalist forces led personally by the king.[13]
• October 8 – The Shunzhi Emperor of China is crowned, aged 5, 17 days after the death of his father, having been chosen to succeed by the Deliberative Council of Princes and Ministers.
• October 28 – Dutch expedition to Valdivia: The Dutch end their occupation of Valdivia in Chile.
• November 14 – Empress Meishō abdicates and Emperor Go-Kōmyō accedes to the throne of Japan.
• November 24 – Thirty Years' War: Battle of Tuttlingen: France is defeated by forces of the Holy Roman Empire.
• December 13 – First English Civil War: Parliamentary victory at the Battle of Alton in Hampshire.
• December 25 – Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean is sighted and named by Captain William Mynors of the British East India Company ship Royal Mary.[14]
• December 28 – Dutch expedition to Valdivia: The failed Dutch expedition arrives back at Recife in Dutch Brazil.

• Baden-Baden is pillaged by the French.
• An Calbhach mac Aedh Ó Conchobhair Donn, The Ó Conchubhair Donn, Chief of the Name of the Clan Ó Conchubhair, is popularly inaugurated as the last King of Connacht in Ireland.
• Evangelista Torricelli invents the mercury barometer.
• Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, places the first Mount Royal Cross atop Mount Royal above Montreal.
• Jean Bolland publishes the first two volumes of the Acta Sanctorum (in Antwerp). This is the beginning of the Bollandists' work.
• Miyamoto Musashi begins to dictate The Book of Five Rings (Go Rin No Sho) to his student; he will complete it in 1654, just before his death.
• Roger Williams, co-founder of Rhode Island, publishes A Key into the Language of America.

• January 22 – The Royalist Oxford Parliament is first assembled by King Charles I of England.[15]
• January 26 – First English Civil War – Battle of Nantwich: The Parliamentarians defeat the Royalists, allowing them to end the 6-week Siege of Nantwich in Cheshire, England.[16]
• February–August – Explorer Abel Tasman's second expedition, for the Dutch East India Company, maps the north coast of Australia.
• January 30 – Battle of Ochmatów: Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth forces under hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski secure a substantial victory over the horde of Crimean Tatars, under Tugay Bey.
• February 5 – The first livestock branding law in America is passed in Connecticut.[17]
• March – Matthew Hopkins begins his career as a witch-hunter in the eastern counties of England.
• March 24 – In England, Roger Williams is granted an official grant for his Rhode Island Colony, allowing the establishment of a general assembly.
• April 25 – A popular Chinese rebellion led by Li Zicheng sacks Beijing, prompting Chongzhen, the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, to commit suicide.
• May 6 – Johan Mauritius resigns as Governor of Brazil.[17]
• May 25 – Ming general Wu Sangui forms an alliance with the invading Manchus, and opens the gates of the Great Wall of China at Shanhaiguan Pass, letting the Manchus through, towards the capital Beijing.
• May 26 – Battle of Montijo: The Kingdom of Portugal is victorious over Habsburg Spain, in the first major action between the two nations during the Portuguese Restoration War.
• May 27 – Battle of Shanhai Pass: The Manchu Qing Dynasty and Wu Sangui gain a decisive victory, over Li Zicheng's Shun Dynasty.
• June 3 – Li Zicheng proclaims himself emperor of China.
• June 6 – The invading Qing army, with the help of Ming general Wu Sangui, captures Beijing, China. This marks the beginning of Manchu rule over China proper.

• July 1 – Torstenson War – Battle of Colberger Heide: The Dano-Norwegian and Swedish fleets fight a naval battle off the coast of Schleswig - Holstein. The battle was indecisive but was a minor success for the Dano-Norwegian fleet.
• July 2 – English Civil War – Battle of Marston Moor: The Parliamentarians crush the Royalists, ending Charles I's hold on the north of England.[18]
• September 1 – English Civil War – Battle of Tippermuir: Montrose defeats Lord Elcho's Covenanters, reviving the Royalist cause in Scotland.
• September 2 – English Civil War – Second Battle of Lostwithiel: Charles I and the Royalists gain their last major victory.[19]
• September 15 – Pope Innocent X succeeds Pope Urban VIII, becoming the 236th pope.[20]
• October 1 – The Jews of Mogilev, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, are attacked during Tashlikh.
• November – The Castle of Elvas in Portugal resists a 9-day siege by the Spanish during the Portuguese Restoration War.
• November 8 – The Shunzhi Emperor, the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, is enthroned in Beijing after the collapse of the Ming dynasty as the first Qing emperor to rule over China.
• November 23
  • Battle of Jüterbog: Sweden's forces defeat those of the Holy Roman Empire.
  • Areopagitica, by John Milton, is published in England.
• December – Plague breaks out in Edinburgh.
• December 18 (December 8 Old Style) – As Christina comes of age, she is made ruling queen of Sweden.

• The opera Ormindo is first performed in Venice (music by Francesco Cavalli, and libretto by Giovanni Faustini).
• Sigismund's Column is erected in Warsaw, to commemorate King Sigismund III Vasa, who moved the capital of Poland from Kraków to Warsaw in 1596.
• Philosopher René Descartes publishes Principia Philosophiae (Principles of Philosophy).
• During the English Civil War, Prince Rupert and his men take Liverpool Castle, which is later reclaimed by Sir John Moore.
• Opchanacanough leads the Powhatan Indians in an unsuccessful uprising against the English at Jamestown. This is the last such Indian rebellion in the region.
• A Spanish officer is murdered in St. Dominic's Church, Macau during mass, by colonists loyal to Portugal, during the Portuguese Restoration War.
• The West India Company displays greater interest in profit than in colonization.

• January 3 – The Long Parliament adopts the Directory for Public Worship in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, replacing the Book of Common Prayer (1559). Holy Days (other than Sundays) are not to be observed.
• January 10 – Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud is executed for treason on Tower Hill, London.[21]
• January 14 – English Civil War: Fairfax is appointed Commander-in-Chief.
• January 29 – English Civil War: Armistice talks open at Uxbridge.
• February 2 – Battle of Inverlochy: The Covenanters are defeated by Montrose.[22]
• February 15 – English Civil War: The New Model Army is officially founded.
• February 28 – English Civil War: Uxbridge armistice talks fail.
• March 4 – English Civil War: Prince Rupert leaves Oxford for Bristol.
• March 5 – Thirty Years' War – Battle of Jankau: The armies of Sweden decisively defeat the forces of the Holy Roman Empire, in one of the bloodiest battles of the war, in southern Bohemia, some 50 kilometres (31 mi) southeast of Prague.
• March 31 – Fearing the spread of the Black Death (plague), Edinburgh Town Council prohibits all gatherings except weddings and funerals.
• April 3 – The House of Lords passes the Self-denying Ordinance, requiring members of the Parliament of England to resign commissions in the armed services.
• April 10 – Because of the plague, the Edinburgh town council orders that the college graduation ceremony should be moved forward, so that students can leave the city (on November 19, teaching resumes in Linlithgow).
• April 23 (St George's Day) – English Civil War: One hundred and fifty Irish soldiers bound for service with King Charles I of England are captured at sea by Parliamentarians and killed at Pembroke in Wales.
• May 2 – Thirty Years' War – Battle of Herbsthausen (or Mergentheim): The Bavarian army, led by Franz von Mercy, catches French forces led by Marshal Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne unawares, and heavily defeats them.
• May 9 – Battle of Auldearn: Scottish Covenanters are defeated by Montrose.[23]
• June 1 – English Civil War: Prince Rupert's army sacks Leicester.
• June 10 – English Civil War: Oliver Cromwell is confirmed as the Lieutenant-General of the Cavalry.
• June 14 – English Civil War – Battle of Naseby: 12,000 Royalist forces are beaten by 15,000 Parliamentarian soldiers.[24]
• June 28 – English Civil War: The Royalists lose Carlisle.

• July 2 – English Civil War – Battle of Alford – Alford, Aberdeenshire.
• July 10 – English Civil War – Battle of Langport: Cromwell wins in Somerset.[24]
• July 21 – Qing Dynasty regent Dorgon issues an edict ordering all Han Chinese men to shave their forehead, and braid the rest of their hair into a queue, identical to those of the Manchus.
• July 23 – Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich of Russia comes to the throne.
• August 23 (August 13 Old Style) – The Treaty of Brömsebro is signed between Sweden and Denmark–Norway, ending the Torstenson War and ceding Jemtland, Herjedalen, Gotland and Ösel (Saaremaa) to Sweden, which also holds the province of Halland for a period of 30 years, as a guarantee.
• September 10 – English Civil War: Prince Rupert surrenders Bristol.
• September 13 – Battle of Philiphaugh: The Covenanters defeat Montrose at Selkirk.[24]
• September 24 – English Civil War – Battle of Rowton Heath: Parliamentarians defeat the Royalist cavalry.
• October 8–14 – English Civil War: The Third siege of Basing House by Oliver Cromwell results in its destruction.
• October 8 – Jeanne Mance founds the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, the first hospital in North America.
• October 11 – English Civil War: Re-fortification of Bourne Castle in Lincolnshire against a threatened Royalist attack begins.
• November 20 The Colegio de Santo Tomas is elevated by Pope Innocent X into the University of Santo Tomas, in his brief In Supreminenti. It has the oldest extant University Charter in the Philippines, as well as the whole of Asia.

• Bamana forces from Ségou invade the Mali heartland, destroying the Mali Empire after its 400 years as a unified state.
• The Stolberg-Wernigerode branch of the family of the counts of Stolberg and Wernigerode is founded in Germany.
• The Solar cycle enters the 70-year Maunder Minimum, during which sunspots will be rare.[25]
• Wallpaper begins to replace tapestries, as a wall decoration.
• The Roxbury Latin School is founded.

• February 16 – The Battle of Torrington in the south west of England, the last major battle of the First English Civil War, gives a decisive Parliamentary victory over the Royalists.[26]
• February 28 – Roger Scott is tried in Massachusetts for sleeping in church.
• March 2 – The future Charles II of England escapes from Cornwall into exile across the English Channel.
• March 6 – Joseph Jenkes obtains the first colonial machine patent, in Massachusetts.
• March 15 – Start of the Battles of La Naval de Manila, a series of five naval battles fought between the Dutch Republic and Spain in the waters of the Philippines.
• April 27 – King Charles I of England flees from Oxford (where he has been overwintering) in disguise and begins his journey to the Scottish army camp near Newark.
• May 5 – King Charles I of England surrenders his forces to a Scottish army at Southwell, Nottinghamshire.[27]
• May 6 – American colonial poet Anne Bradstreet becomes a founding mother of Andover Parish (modern-day North Andover), Massachusetts.
• May 30 – Eighty Years' War: Habsburg Spain and the Dutch Republic sign a temporary cease-fire.
• June 20 – Third Siege of Oxford concludes with signing of the surrender of the Royalist garrison at Oxford to General Thomas Fairfax's Parliamentary New Model Army; on the 24th of June the main force marches out, ending the First English Civil War.[27][28]

• July – The populist political movement called the Levellers appears in England.
• July 12 – Lightning strikes the gunpowder tower of the castle of Bredevoort in the Netherlands, causing an explosion that destroys parts of the castle and the town, killing Lord Haersolte of Bredevoort and his family, as well as others. Only one son, Anthonie, who is not home that day, survives.[29]
• July 30 – Commissioners of the Parliament of England and Scottish Covenanters meeting in Newcastle upon Tyne set out the Heads of Proposals ("Newcastle Propositions") demanding that King Charles I gives up control of the army and place restrictions on Catholics, as the basis for a constitutional settlement.[27]
• August – The Westminster Assembly of Divines, meeting in London, begins to draw up the Westminster Confession of Faith; the draft is printed and sent to the Parliament of England in December.
• August 19 – First English Civil War: Raglan Castle in Wales surrenders to General Fairfax after a 2-month siege; it is later destroyed.[30]
• September 16 – The new Orange College of Breda opens at Breda in the Dutch Republic.
• October – Anglican episcopacy formally abolished.[31]
• October 10 – France takes Dunkirk from the Spanish Netherlands for the first time.
• October 28 – The first Protestant church assembly for natives (the Waban) is held in Massachusetts.
• November 4 – Massachusetts Bay Colony enacts the death penalty for denying Biblical inspiration.
• December 7 – Countess Louise Henriette of Nassau marries Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, on her 19th birthday at The Hague.
• December 21 – Global temperatures begin to decline, as part of the Little Ice Age.

• January 7 – The Westminster Assembly begins debating the biblical proof texts, to support the new Confession of Faith.[32]
• January 16 – Citizens of Dublin declare their support for Rinuccini, and refuse to support the army of the Marquis of Ormond.[33]
• March 14 – Thirty Years' War: Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden sign the Truce of Ulm.
• April 3 – In England, a letter from the Agitators of the New Model Army, protesting delay of pay, is read in the House of Commons.
• May 13 – The 1647 Santiago earthquake rattles Chile.
• May 24 – The Marquis of Argyll and David Leslie join forces to defeat Alasdair MacColla, at Rhunahoarine Point in Kintyre. MacColla flees to Ireland; his followers are massacred.[34]

• July 7 – Masaniello launches rebellion in Naples against Spanish rule.
• August
  • The New Model Army marches to London.
  • Peter Stuyvesant is appointed Director of New Amsterdam, by the Dutch West India Company.
• August 8 – Battle of Dungan's Hill: Irish forces are defeated by English Parliamentary forces.
• August 22 – Battle of Triebl: Imperial forces defeat the Swedes in a surprise attack in Bohemia.
• October 28 – The Putney Debates begin.
• November 13 – Battle of Knocknanuss: An Irish confederate force is destroyed by the army of Parliament; Alasdair MacColla is killed.
• November 15 – Henry of Guise lands in Naples, to become the leader of the Neapolitan Republic.
• December 28 – King Charles of England promises a church reform. This agreement leads to the Second English Civil War.

• England's Puritan rulers ban Christmas.
• Johann von Werth tries to take his troops over the Austrian border, but they refuse.
• Aberystwyth Castle is razed to the ground, by Parliamentarian troops.
• The word Geysir is first used in Iceland, by Bishop Sveinson.[35]
• Dutch artist Salomon van Ruysdael completes the oil painting, The Crossing at Nijmegen (70 × 89 cm).[36]

• January – The Khmelnytsky Uprising in Ukraine, at this time part of the Republic of Both Nations (Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth), begins.
• January 17 – England's Long Parliament passes the Vote of No Addresses, breaking off negotiations with King Charles I, and thereby setting the scene for the second phase of the English Civil War.
• January 30 – The Dutch and the Spanish sign the Peace of Münster, ending the Eighty Years' War. The Spanish Empire recognizes the Dutch Republic of United Netherlands as a sovereign state (governed by the House of Orange-Nassau and the States General), which was previously a province of the Spanish Empire (ratified May 15).
• March 31 – A major earthquake strikes Van in Ottoman Armenia.[37]
• April 19 – First Battle of Guararapes: The Portuguese army defeats the Dutch army, in the north of Brazil.
• June–September – Semyon Dezhnyov makes the first recorded voyage through the Bering Strait, between Asia and North America.[38]
• June 1 – The Roundheads defeat the Cavaliers at the Battle of Maidstone in the Second English Civil War.

• July 16–19 – Thirty Years' War – Battle of Prague: The west bank of Prague (including Prague Castle) is occupied and looted by Swedish armies.
• August
  • Arabs besiege the Portuguese in Muscat.
  • The First Fronde, the Fronde Parlementaire, an insurrection, begins in France.
  • The Cambridge Platform, a new, localized system of Christian church governance, is agreed upon and written down in New England.
• August 8 – Mehmed IV (1648–1687) succeeds Ibrahim I (1640–1648), as Ottoman Emperor.
• August 20 – Battle of Lens: The French under the Prince of Condé defeat the Spaniards.
• September 12 – Battle of Stirling in Scotland: "Engagers" achieve victory over the Kirk Party.
• October 24 – Signing of the Treaties of Münster and Osnabrück conclude the Peace of Westphalia, ending the Thirty Years' War. Rulers of the Imperial States can personally convert to Protestant, Catholic or Calvinist. Ecclesiastical property is restored to the status of 1624, with the minorities of each of the three recognized faiths granted toleration of worship, and there is general recognition of exclusive sovereignty, including that of the Dutch Republic and Switzerland. France and Sweden gain territory, and the latter is granted an indemnity. However, France remains at war with Spain until 1659.
• October 31 – A treaty is signed between the Arabs and the Portuguese. The terms include a provision that the Portuguese should build fortresses at Kuriyat, Dibba Al-Hisn (Sharjah) and Muttrah (Oman).[39]
• November 11 – France and the Netherlands agree to divide the Caribbean island of Saint Martin between them.
• December 11 – "Pride's Purge" in England: Elements of the New Model Army, under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell invade London and expel a majority of the Long Parliament, resulting in the creation of the Rump Parliament.

• In India, building of the Red Fort in Shahjahanabad is completed.
• The epic poem Padmavati is written by Alaol.[40]
• Sabbatai Zevi declares himself the Messiah at Smyrna.
• George Fox founds the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in England.[41]
• The Dutch artist Rembrandt produces the works Rembrandt drawing at a window and Beggars at the Door.[42][43]
• Giacomo Carissimi composes Historia di Jephte, one of the first significant Latin oratorios.[44]

• January 4 – English Civil War: The Rump Parliament passes an ordinance to set up a High Court of Justice, to try Charles I for high treason.
• January 20 – Charles I of England goes on trial, for treason and other "high crimes".
• January 27 – King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland is found guilty of high treason in a public session. He is beheaded three days later, outside the Banqueting Hall in the Palace of Whitehall, London.
• January 30
  • Following the execution of King Charles I, the Commonwealth of England, a republican form of government, replaces the monarchy as the form of government of England, and later of Scotland and Ireland. Members of the Long Parliament serve as government.
  • Charles, Prince of Wales becomes King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland. At the time, none of the three kingdoms recognize him as ruler.[45]
• February 5 – In Edinburgh, Scotland claimant King Charles II of England is declared King in his absence. Scotland is the first of the three Kingdoms to recognize his claim to the throne.[45]
• March 11 – The rebel Frondeurs and the French government sign the Peace of Rueil.
• March 15 – The city of Lappeenranta (Swedish: Villmanstrand) is founded by Queen Christina of Sweden.[46][47]
• March 16 – An over 1,000 strong war party of Haudenosaunee invade and burn the Huron mission villages of St. Ignace and St. Louis in present-day Simcoe County, Ontario, killing about 300 people.
• March 19 – The House of Commons of England passes an act abolishing the House of Lords, declaring that it is "useless and dangerous to the people of England".[48]
• March – French colonists from Martinique land in a lagoon and found Fort Annunciation on Grenada but soon abandon this fort to cross the lagoon and found Fort Royal which eventually becomes St. George's, Grenada[49]
• March – Robert Blake is promoted to become a General at Sea of the English fleet.[50]
• Apr 21 – The Maryland Toleration Act is passed in the American colony, allowing all freedom of worship.
• By May 1 – The Wendat burn 15 of their own villages, to prevent their stores from being taken by the Haudenosaunee. Almost all the remaining people (approximately 10,000) become refugees, on a path that eventually brings them to Wendake.
• May 17 – The Banbury mutiny in England ends – leaders of the Leveller mutineers in the New Model Army are hanged.
• May 19 – An act declaring England to be a Commonwealth is passed by the Rump Parliament.
• May 22 – October – Robert Blake blockades Prince Rupert's fleet in Kinsale, Ireland.
• June 1 – Russian Tsar Alexis throws English merchants out of Moscow.
• June 1 – Sumuroy Revolt (1649–50) begins in Northern Samar. Agustin Sumuroy, a Waray, and some of his followers revolt over the polo y servicio (forced labor system).

• August – The Diggers abandon their last major colony at St. George's Hill, Weybridge, England.
• August 8 – Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh completes Book VIII of Leabhar na nGenealach, in Galway, within days of an outbreak of the plague.
• August 17 – Treaty of Zboriv was signed during the period of Tach V'Tat.
• August 15 – Oliver Cromwell lands in Dublin, to begin the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.
• September 2 – The Italian city of Castro is completely destroyed by the forces of Pope Innocent X, ending the Wars of Castro.
• September 3–11 – Siege of Drogheda in Ireland: The New Model Army massacres the Irish Catholic Confederation garrison.
• September 30 – last of the Swedish troops vacate Prague.
• October 2–11 – Sack of Wexford in Ireland: The New Model Army massacres the Irish Catholic Confederation garrison.

• The town of Kristinestad, named after Queen Christina of Sweden, is founded in Ostrobothnia by Count Per Brahe the Younger.[51]
• Mughal–Safavid War (1649–53) begins.
• Dutch ousted from São Tomé.
• Qing armies reconquer Jiangxi during Manchu conquest of China.
• Serfdom in Russia: Sobornoye Ulozhenie (Соборное уложение, "Code of Law") in the Tsardom of Russia gives serfs to estates.
• Dutch artist Frans Hals paints a portrait of René Descartes.[52]

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