Born in 1643:
Died in 1643:
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Italian composer Girolamo Frescobaldi.
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Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi.
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Italian composer Marco da Gagliano.
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Japanese decorative painter Nonomura Sotatsu.
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Flemish scultor François Duquesnoy, aka Il Flamingo.
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Swiss Jesuit mathematician (of Jewish descent) Paul Guldin.
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Anne Hutchinson, who attempted to reform Puritanism.
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French mathematician (of Basque descent) Pierre Hérigone.
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Hundreds of thousands in the English Civil War, the Thirty Years'
War, and the chaos in China. Among them:
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John Pym, Parliamentary nemesis of King Charles.
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Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork.
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Dutch settler of Nieuw Nederland Kiliaen Van Rensselaer,
first patroon of Rensselaerswyck in the upper Hudson
River valley.
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Louis XIII, King of France. His four-year-old son Louis
XIV succeeds him, with Anne of Austria as regent. Of course, Cardinal
Jules Mazarin controls all, behind the scenes.
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Qing (Manchu) ruler Huang Taiji (Abahai). His four-year-old
son Shi Zu succeeds with uncle Dorgon as regent.
Events of 1643:
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Francesco Cavalli's opera Egisto appears.
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Sir Thomas Browne's Religio Medici appears.
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Pierre Corneille's play Polyeucte appears.
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Girolamo Cardano's autobiography De vita propria liber appears.
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Abel Tasman is the first European to visit Fiji and Tonga.
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The Taj Mahal is completed and Mughal Emperor
Shah Jahan's dead wife Mummtaz Mahal is finally interred there.
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Vasily Poyarkov's Cossacks explore the Amur River.
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Across the Amur, the Manchus are busy raiding south into
China. Abahai has already captured the Ming fotress of Jinzhou
in present-day Liaoning, but the gateway mountain pass into China, Shanhaiguan, is blocked by general Wu Sangui. The Ming army sent relieve Jinzhou is destroyed piecemeal, 50,000 at the battle of Songshan alone.
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Chinese rebel Li Zicheng defeats the last Ming army between himself
and Beijing, led by Sun Chuanting.
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English Civil War. The Cavaliers make large advances against the Roundheads but are checked at critical points:
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Parliament lays he first excise taxes to finance its struggles
with King Charles I.
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(February) Royalists make large gains in the Midlands, taking Newark,
Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Tamworth, Lichfield, Stafford and Stratford-on-Avon.
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(March 4) Lord Brooke is killed but the Roundheads re-take Lichfield, when
the Cavaliers holed up in a fortified Lichfield Cathedral surrender.
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(March) Sir Thomas Fairfax is badly defeated by Lord Goring while covering
the retreat of his father, Lord Ferdinando Fairfax, Leeds.
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Roundhead Major General Thomas Ballard fails to take Newark
from dug-in Royalists under Sir John Henderson. Ballard loses his command.
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(April) Charles's brother Prince Rupert, now in charge of Royalist forces,
takes Birmingham. He then lays siege to Lichfield. In
an ironic echo of their victory in March, the Roundheads hole up in the
cathedral, surrendering only after Rupert blows a hole in it with a mine.
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(June 30) Royalists takes control of the West Riding of Yorkshire, forcing
the Fairfaxes to retreat to Hull.
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July 13 The Rondheads lose all of their cannon at Roundaway Down in Wiltshire;
Charles has little opposition in the West Country.
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(July 26) Prince Rupert takes Bristol after four days of siege.
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(July) The Marquis of Newcastle takes Gainsborough, scattering
the Roundhead army.
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(August 10-September 5) King Charles ignores Prince Rupert's advice and
decides to besiege Gloucester rather than storm it. Many Londoners
take heart at the slowing of the Royalist tide, drive the Cavaliers from
London, and raise several regiments under the Earl of Essex to relieve
Gloucester; Charles has to withdraw.
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(September) Prince Rupert attacks Essex's army at Aldbourne Chase] near
Swindon, stalling Essex's march back to London long enough for the Royalist
army to occupt Newbury, blocking his route.
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(September 20) The First Battle of Newbury is a tactical Royalist
victory, but it is such a bloody affair that Charles decides to withdraw.
Essex exploits Charles's mistake and marches on to Reading. While
attacking Essex's rearguard, Prince Rupert has a close shave when a pistol
aimed at him misfires. Essex arrives in London on September 28.
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(September 25) Parliament makes a Solemn League and Covenant with
Scottish Presbyterians, gaining crucial military support from Scottish
Covenanters. To fulfill the covenant, Parliament calls the Westminster
Assembly, setting it the task of making the Church of England Calvinist.
The covenant, architect, John Pym, succumbs to cancer in December.
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The Marquis of Newcastle decides to lay siege to Hull rather than
pursue the Parliamentarian army. It is a rather lethargic siege, allowing
Oliver Cromwell to enter and leave the city. Hunger and desertion
make the siege ineffective.
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(October 11) Roundhead cavalry under Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell
and Thomas Fairfax routs Royalist cavalry under William Saville at
Winceby, breaking the siege of Hull, and Lincolnshire is under
Parliamentary control.
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While the English are spilling each other's blood, a 25-year-old religious bloodbath on the Continent continues:
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(January) At the Queen's urging, Spanish king Philip IV dismisses
his prime minister and best adviser, Gaspar de Guzmán y Pimental,
Conde-Duque de Olivares.
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(May 14) Shortly before Louis XIII dies, he claims to have a vision of
a great victory by his nephew, Louis, duc d'Enghien.
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(May 19) The Spanish army attempts to take advantage of Louis XIII's death
by invading from Flanders, but the old king's prophecy comes true, as
the French under Enghien crush the Spanish army at the Battle of Rocroi,
securing the throne for Louis XIV, knocking Spain out of the war, ending
Spanish military supremacy forever.
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(July 11) The Congress of Westphalia officially opens after a
year of delay. The French delegates don't show up, being busy intriguing
against each other, as well as negotiating an alliance with the Netherlands.
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(Septenber 2) Swedish chancellor Axel Oxenstierna decides that Danish
King Christian IV is too much of a threat. He orders General Torstensson
to break off his siege of Brno, with draw all forces from Germany, and
send them all into Denmark.
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(November 24) de Guébriant, commander of the Armee d'Allemagne,
captures Rothwell from the Bavarians, but dies of wounds suffered during
the battle. The mercenary left in charge is unable to stop a combined
Imperial-Bavarian attack at Tuttlingen, and the French are badly defeated.
Henri Turenne is transferred from the Italian front to put the shattered
army back together again.
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(December 22) the Swedes overrun Jutland.
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The French make the first settlement in their Guiana colony
at Cayenne.
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English King Charles I grants a patent organizing the 'Providence
Plantations' around Narragansett Bay into a new colony.
1642 - 1643 - 1644
How They Were Made - 17th Century
1In the old calendar, Newton was born December 25, 1642.
In today's caldendar this adjusts to January 4, 1643.